Tip Choosing a coursebook doc

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Choosing a coursebook 
 
 
Introduction 
Choosing a coursebook is one of the most important selections 
which teachers can make. Teachers cannot influence their working 
lives in many ways. You cannot choose your teaching hours, your 
holiday periods, the classes you teach, the learners who are in 
those classes, or the classrooms you use, but you can choose your 
coursebook. 
You select a coursebook for your learners and for yourself, so you 
first need to analyse your learners’ needs and your own needs. 
W
HAT DO YOU WANT FROM A COURSEBOOK
? 
Teachers want different things from their coursebooks and they use 
them in different ways. Some teachers want a coursebook to 
provide everything. They want the teacher’s book to tell us what to 
do, in which sequence to do each activity and how to assess the 
progress which our learners have made.
However, some teachers do not want the coursebook to control 
their lives. They want to be able to plan their own lessons or even 
their own syllabus. They want the coursebook to be a library of 
materials from which they can choose to be used in the ways they 
choose. 
W
HAT CAN A GOOD COURSEBOOK GIVE THE TEACHER
? 
A good coursebook can help a teacher by providing: 
•
a clearly thought out programme which is appropriately 
sequenced and structured to include progressive revision; 
•
a wider range of materials than an individual teacher may be 
able to collect; 
•
security; 
•
economy of preparation time; 
•
a source of practical ideas; 
•
work that the learners can do on their own so that the teacher 
does not need to be centre stage all the time; 
•
a basis for homework if this is required; 
•
a basis for discussion and comparison with other teachers.