Evaluation of English language teaching coursebook materials

Jeremy Hammer's book entitled the Practice of English Language Teaching is an excellent course book that can be used in the teaching of the English language. Unlike many books in the field, Hammer's book is written to be used by both the language learner and, more importantly, the language teacher. Thus, it serves as a guide of how to use its contents and lesson plans in the most effective way. To accomplish this, the book clearly outlines its objectives, is written in a clear and easy to understand style, its chapters are well organized, and it provides the language teacher with adequate explanations and guidance.

This book is best used for the beginning English language development teacher as that is who Hammer wrote the book for. Any English language teacher with considerable experience will most likely not find this text useful and should instead look at Mr. Hammer's intermediate level book, Just Right. More so, this text is not aimed only at the beginning English language teacher, but also those who are currently in the process of studying to become an English language teacher. Thus, this book is highly recommended to be used in the course of studying the methods of teaching the English language and as a resource or guide for the first years of teaching.

From the very beginning of the book, Hammer clearly outlines the principles behind his course of study. He states in a straight forward and sensible manner on the major aspects and topics covered by the course's multi-layered syllabus. However, even if at first site the syllabus seems daunting, in reality it follows a quite traditional approach as to sequencing. The point of this section is because Hammer realizes that most teachers will not use the book cover to cover but instead will pick and choose various materials and tasks. This opening statement lets the teacher know how this can be done by clearly outlining the organization and contents of the book. For this reason, it is clear that Hammer is an advocate of a learner based approach to teaching the English language and thus encourages the teacher to use the book in a manner that best meets the learning needs of his or her students. In other words, instead of arguing for the course book to dictate the flow of the learning process, hammer advocates for letting the teacher react and go with the students and general direction of the classroom.

According to Hammer, as he states in his book Just Right:

Using a course book is a skill. It involves looking at the material on the page and deciding if, when and how to use that material. It may be, for example, that a particular exercise, activity or even, in some situations, a whole section is not quite appropriate for your class. In such circumstances you may decide to either omit that material or, if you have something better up your sleeve, replace it with your own activities."

In terms of the actual look and feel of the book, it is done in a very professional and appeasing manner. Aesthetically, it an inviting book that encourages the user to read and become involved in its pages. Thus, the book comes in a hard cover and the pages are glossy with numerous photographs and other images, graphics, and colors. The student book is done in a tasteful manner that is aimed at appealing to the adult learner. The book is well organized, with each section being easily identified by graphic separations. As a whole, the text does not create a busy or overcrowded effect that tends to tire and distract the student prior to the satisfactory conclusion of the course.

Overall, the text uses a good selection of text examples that work to appeal to the interest of all learners. However, one concern I have is that there are not enough texts, a learning tool that I feel is essential for language development, particularly for non-English speakers. This shortcoming can easily be resolved by bringing in outside sources, such as magazine articles, books and newspapers, to use as text examples.

As a whole, the texts that the book does present are clearly states, easy to read in terms of font type, and are of appropriate interest level for the adult learner.

The teaching of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and functional language use are all well done in this course book. Instead of separating these skills from the rest of the course book, as many similar texts do, this text places the language sections in a strategic manner with the purpose of guiding the student in discovering rules not through rote memorization but by individually noticing tasks. To add to the actual learning of these acquired skills, the course book can be supplemented with grammar and audio exercises, along with workbook and role playing tasks.

In terms of guiding the teacher in presenting the materials, the teacher book does an excellent job at providing detailed guidance. The book comes with a brief training guide on how to best use the course book as a guide for teaching the English language to non-native English speakers. Further, it provides detailed instructions on the best procedure for teaching each individual unit and skill level.

Unique to the new fourth addition of this book is the DVD program, which contains clips from real classrooms, along with observation tasks and interviews with both students and teachers. With the included DVD program, all the concepts of this book are added to through the benefit of visual learning. Not only does this allow the teacher to use the book as a teaching guide, it also allows the teacher to use the DVD as a reference in visually seeing how the text can be used in the classroom. Together, the book and DVD provides the teacher of English Language with the resources needed to successfully teach English language to their classes.