Aspects of the Reading

Advantages and limitations of commercial textbooks

* Provide structure and a syllabus for a program. *They help standardize instruction.
*They maintain quality.
*They provide a variety of learning resources.
* They are efficient.
*They can provide effective language models and input.
* They can train teachers. If teachers have limited teaching experience, a textbook together with the teacherís manual can serve as a medium of initial teacher training.
*They are visually appealing. Commercial textbooks usually have high standards

Potential negative effects

*They may contain inauthentic language: Textbooks sometimes present inauthentic language since texts, dialogs and other aspects.
*They may distort content.
*They may not reflect studentsí needs.

*They can deskill teachers. If teachers use textbooks as the primary source of their teaching leaving the textbook and teacherís manual to make the major instructional decisions.

*They are expensive Commercial textbooks may represent a financial burden for students in many parts of the world.

Criteria for textbook evaluation

They must correspond to the needs of the student, coinciding with the objectives of the language learning program.
* They should choose textbooks that help equip students to use language effectively for your fines.
* They must take into account the needs of students as apprentices and must facilitate
their learning processes.
* They must have a clear role as support for learning. Like teachers. However, the textbook will also discuss evaluator's concerns. A teacher can look at a book in terms of its usability The teacher is mainly interested in whether the book works easily in its class can be used flexibly and can be easily adapted or otherwise not establish the content being analyzed, questions specific to that situation should be generated around the main problems
involved in the evaluation and selection of textbooks.

Information is needed on the following topics:

*The role of the textbook in the program.Will it be used with small classes or large ones? *The teachers in the program.How experienced are the teachers in the program and what is their level of
training? *The learners in the program
.
Is each student required to buy a book?

Different ways of adapting textbooks

Commercial textbooks can seldom be used without some form of adaptation to
make them more suitable for the particular context in which they will be used.

Variety of forms

*Modifying content. *Reorganizing content a teacher may decide to reorganize the syllabus of the book, and arrange the Units. *Addressing omissions. *Modifying tasks-Exercises and activities may need to be changed to give them an additional focus. *Extending tasks
*Adding or deleting content