Evaluating the SAMT English Textbook for BSc Students of Physics

Evaluating the SAMT English Textbook for BSc Students of Physics

Mina Sajjadi[1]

Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

Vahide Hadavi Nia

Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) are developing branches of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instruction in Iran. These branches have a marginal status in the tertiary education, and the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology’s high commission offers no clear guidance for selecting and developing basic academic instructional materials related to the linguistic or communicative standards expected by teachers (Mazdayasna & Tahririan, 2008). This paper tries to evaluate an ESP textbook written for BSc students of physics entitled, ‘English for the students of physics’, which is prepared by the Center for Studying and Compiling University Books in Humanities (SAMT). The present research was based on qualitative and quantitative research techniques and included two steps. First, internal, external and overall evaluation of the book was carried out based on McDonough & Shaw (1993) model. While conducting the external evaluation of the book, the intended audience, the proficiency level, the context of use, the language, the author's views on language and methodology, the inclusion of a vocabulary list/index, visual features, and the cultural aspects were examined. The internal evaluation included the presentation of the skills, grading and sequencing, discourse skills, listening section, the representation of different learning styles. And in overall evaluation, general suitability of the textbook was assessed. In the second step, six teachers each responded to a 22-item textbook evaluation questionnaire to express their perceptions concerning various aspects of the textbooks. The results revealed the extent of appropriateness of the textbook used by BSc students of physics. Suggestions are offered for the future revision and/or designing the textbooks.

Keywords: ESP Textbook, Physics BSc., Evaluation

Textbooks realize the purposes of education, which lead them to be a significant source in educational lives of students as one of the educational materials (Uyulgan, Ozbayrak, Alpat, & Alpat, 2011). That is why they are preferred and used the most among other materials in schools. Textbooks play an important role in educational systems due to the fact that in all the levels of education teachers prefer using them and also they help students cope better with the educational environment.

     Richards (2001) suggests that textbooks play two roles in different situations: they may be the basis for the content of the lesson in some situations, and may be a complement to the teacher’s instruction in other situations. So any ELT program can be represented in textbooks, and most of the language input given to the students in the classroom comes from textbooks, too. In many EFL contexts, including Iran, the textbook may serve as the main source of contact learners have with the language in addition to the input provided by the teacher.

     Textbooks may also provide some kind of teacher training in that they may include ideas on how to approach lessons, especially in their introduction section or throughout the instructions (Kirkgoz, 2009). Hutchinson and Torres (1994) suggest that "the textbook is an almost universal element of English language teaching and no teaching-learning situation, it seems, is complete until it has its relevant textbook". Textbooks as good assistants of the teachers help students learn different subject matters. They are the building blocks of school instruction (Azizifar, Koosha, & Lotfi,  2010, p. 36).

    Textbooks not only function as basic teaching tools in the processes of teaching and learning of English, but also play a very important role in the process of innovation. There are some features related to the textbooks which give them such significance in the process of educational change: "first textbooks act as a vehicle for teacher and learner training; second textbooks provide a picture of what the change will look like; and third, they provide the psychological support to teachers" (Kirkgoz, 2009, p. 79). In this respect, textbook must also be able to provide up-to-date information which includes technical, visual and aesthetical items (Uyulgan, et. al., 2010).

      One of the most important requirements in the pedagogical system is that a textbook must be appropriate to learner's needs and also to the socio-cultural aspects of the context in which it is used; nevertheless, there are some situations where this requirement is neglected or violated. Such a condition most commonly occurs when the teaching materials' goals, at least to some extent, are different from the objectives of the learners who use these materials, or when there is a mismatch between the educational and the cultural settings where the learners are studying and those settings originally targeted by the authors (Yakhontova, 2001).

     Textbooks are the manifestations of the curriculum in the sense that the order of information to be taught and learned is determined by them. Thus, one approach to assess the purposes of teaching programs and schools is to evaluate textbooks; that is, textbook evaluation (Uyulgan, et Al., 2011). Teachers, supervisors, administrators and materials developers can evaluate the influence of the materials on the individuals who make use of them. Material developers often find it difficult to predict the problems that arise as others may make use of the materials; therefore, the feedback from teacher and student users through an evaluation and review process is important. The ones that undergo such evaluation process satisfy the student and teacher audiences more effectively in comparison to others . 

       McGrath (2002, cited in Azizifar, et. al., 2010) believes that evaluation of textbooks is also of an importance in the production and administration of language learning programs. To this purpose, the use of formalized list of criteria is necessary for any systematic evaluation (Soodmand Afshar, 2010). Different checklists have been used for evaluating course books. The selection of textbooks will be more efficient and more reliable if these checklists are used (Miekley, 2005).

Review of Literature

There is a vast literature on textbook evaluation. Therefore, the most relevant literature will be presented. While the theoretical literature review will investigate the latest studies contributing to the theory of textbook evaluation, the empirical literature review will brief some related experimental studies on EFL textbook evaluation in Iran.

Theoretical Studies

Hemsely (1997) summarizes three kinds of ELT material evaluation discussed previously by Ellis (1997), Chambers (1997) and Low (1987) as: 1) intuitive impressionistic approach, b) formal prior-to-use evaluation and c) process approach. Impressionistic approach is based on 'first impressions' evaluator gains in examining the blurb and thumbing through the book's pages. Unfortunately, this approach disappoints the one who uses it, when further evaluation is carried out and later findings are gathered.

In the formal prior-to-use evaluation, advocated widely by Chambers (1997), checklists and other precise procedures are used since gathering systematic, comprehensive, and step-by-step information on examining the material is the main goal to be achieved.

For the process approach, Rod Ellis (1997) differentiates between two types of materials evaluation: a predictive evaluation and a retrospective evaluation. A predictive evaluation is designed to make a decision regarding what materials to use, whereas a retrospective evaluation is designed to examine materials that have actually been used. A brief review of the literature relating to materials evaluation reveals that the research focus to date has been more or less exclusively on predictive evaluation. Retrospective evaluation provides teachers with information regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the used syllabus. It also serves "as a means of testing the validity of a predictive evaluation, and may point to ways in which the predictive instruments can be improved for future use"(p. 37).

Material evaluation is one of the main components of syllabus design. Sharp (1990, p. 133) argues that although classical evaluation procedures may work well, there is an inherent dependence on the "course/program objectives being or having been clearly stated", regardless of whether or not they were achieved. Also, the significance of the evaluation of books becomes apparent as McDonough & Shaw (2003, p. 60) ascertain that "The evaluation of current materials therefore merits serious consideration as an inappropriate choice may waste funds and time, not to mention the demotivating effect that it would have on students and possibly other colleagues". Many scholars offer checklists based on generalizable criteria. These detailed checklists use a variety of methods to assess how well a particular textbook measures up to certain standards. Ellis (1997) believes that these checklists generally reflect the decision-making process which is expected from teachers to go through. They help teachers conduct predictive evaluations for selecting the text books systematically.

Xu (2004) developed a predictive textbook evaluation questionnaire which was based on the literature review as well as on the interviews of practicing ESL teachers. The questionnaire included 80 criteria in 13 categories: content, activities, language, culture, communication, evaluation, organization, format, reliability, supplementary components, literacy, marketability and legal. Xu's study also revealed that when evaluating a textbook, teachers and supervisors refer to the use of standard English and quality of language in the textbook and good editing, an attractive design and layout, easy access to components and content for organizing instruction, evidence of a developmental progression of content, topics that are of relevance and interest to students, educational validity, an assessment of costs and durability, a wide variety of activities, a sufficient number of practice activities that fit all parts of the learning process, various activities on a similar theme or topic, follow-up questions for all readings, contemporariness of the curricular content, activities which promote communication, and activities that meet the needs of multi-level classes.

Meikely (2005) proposed a checklist for evaluating ESL/EFL reading textbooks. Also, other checklists have been presented by Gearing (1999), Chambers (1997), Xu (2004), Ellis (1997) and Hemsely (1997). In this study the checklist proposed by McDonough & Shaw (1993) has been selected as an efficient and reliable evaluation material.

Empirical Studies

Research on Textbook Evaluation in Iran

Different research studies have been conducted to evaluate textbooks, some of which are mentioned below: Amerian (1987, cited in Razmjoo, 2007) carried out a comparative study of the first two books of Right Path to English and Books One and Two of the Graded English series based on Tucker's (1975) model. Tucker (1975) proposes four main categories for evaluating a textbook. These are based on four linguistic, psychological, and pedagogical principles. He uses three scales for rating in his model: The Value Scale (VS), The Merit Scale (MS), and The Value Merit Product (VMP).. Amerian’s study showed no significant differences between the two series. This is due to the fact that the two series represented the structural syllabus and design.

Kheibari (1999) modified Tucker's (1975) model and based on this new checklist examined the five volumes of Teaching Persian to Speakers of Other Languages (TPSOL) textbooks. The results of the study revealed that the books were written based on the Grammar Translation Method paying less attention to role-playing, different kinds of tasks, or language skills such as speaking.

Ansary and Babaii (2002) examined a corpus of 10 EFL/ESL textbook reviews in addition to 10 EFL/ESL textbook evaluation checklists. Then they made a list of the common core features of standard EFL/ESL textbooks. The main categories were outlined as approach, content presentation, physical make-up, and administration. They further divided each set of main features of EFL/ESL textbooks into a number of subcategories. In the conclusion, it was mentioned that not all of these characteristics would be present in each and every textbook.

Yarmohammadi (2002) analyzed the senior high school textbooks based on a modified version of Tucker's model. He came to the conclusion that these textbooks suffer from a lot of shortcomings: "1. they are not authentic; 2. English and Persian names are used interchangeably; and 3. oral skills are ignored". At the end, some remedial suggestions were proposed for these shortcomings.

Finally, Amalsaleh (2004) adopted Van Leeuwen's model (1996) in order to evaluate three types of textbooks, including junior and senior high school textbooks with respect to the presence of social factors. The results revealed that the textbooks demonstrated a deferential representation of social factors. They tended to recognize female as performers belonging to a home context and having limited job opportunities in society. In particular, junior and senior high school textbooks tended to shape normative perspectives towards gender-specific issues and class relations in which a middle-class urban male was considered to be the norm. 

English is an ancillary course necessary to all the fields of study at university level in Iran. In this EFL context, EAP textbooks are the main source of input and contact that students have with the language. SAMT (the Center for Studying and Compiling University Books in Humanities publications) as a major university editorial has published EAP textbooks for different majors. This paper tries to evaluate an ESP textbook written for BSc students of physics entitled, ‘English for the students of physics’, which is prepared by SAMT.

Research Questions

This paper intends to provide answers to the following questions:

RQ1.What skills and/or components are taught to students through this book?

RQ2.Do these skills and/or components correspond to the learner's needs?

Method

This study is both qualitative and quantitative. The selected book for the purpose of evaluation was "English for the students of physics" (2003, SAMT publications). For the qualitative part of this study, the evaluation checklist proposed by McDonough and Shaw (1993) was used. For the quantitative part, six teachers who had the experience of teaching the book answered a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire.

Materials

Material used for the purpose of the study included the textbook evaluation checklist proposed by McDonough and Shaw (1993) and a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire. The textbook under evaluation is "English for the students of physics" (2003, SAMT publications).

Procedure

The selected book was weighed against the McDonough and Shaw (1993) checklist by the researchers scrutinizing the material. Then six teachers who had the experience of at least 2 years of teaching the book were selected from three universities in Tehran answered a Likert-type questionnaire. The results are presented separately in details in the following sections.

External Evaluation

The external evaluation is the examination of the general organization of the material. To this end, the introduction, the blurb and table of contents were looked through. The introduction and blurb of the book were jointly presented in a section under the title of SAMT introduction (Sokhane SAMT). Furthermore, the inclusion of some materials such as pictures, vocabulary lists, tests, etc. was examined.

• The intended audience

To assure that the organization and the content of the book are appropriate and motivating for the audience, their proficiency level and field of study should be pointed out. As indicated on the front cover and in the introduction section, the book is targeted at the BSc students of physics as a main technical course weighing two credits. All the topics presented in the table of contents are relevant to Physics concepts corresponding to the selected audience's major and their proficiency level.

• The proficiency level

     The author contends that the book is suitable for BSc students, and an overview of the topics mentioned in the table of contents reveals their relevance to the proficiency level of the targeted audience.

• The context in which the materials are to be used

Another important factor which should be identified by the author is the textbook context of use which shows the degree of the specificity of the materials. Whether the material is devised for the general or specific purposes, the degree of specialist subject knowledge should vary. This book is intended for the students of Physics, and thus follows specific purposes. Therefore, one will expect that the content is sufficiently narrowed down to serve the needs of students of Physics. This fact also calls for the teacher to be somehow specialist in both general English and subject matter.

• How the language has been presented and organized into teachable units/lessons

In deciding on how to fit the materials into a given educational program, one of the factors that should be taken into account is the number of units/lessons and their respective length. The table of contents reveals that the book includes sixteen units, and the average length of each is 15 pages. Nothing is mentioned explicitly about the hours required for covering the book; however, since this course weighs two credits which normally sixteen sessions have been allocated, it is implied that each unit should be covered in one session. 

• The author's views on language and methodology and the relationship between the language, the learning process and the teacher.

     Although the author's views on language, methodology and the relationship between the language, the learning process and the teacher have a great influence on the organization, content and even evaluation of a textbook, the author does not explicitly bring up anything in this regard in different sections of the book.

• Is a teacher's book in print and locally available?

This issue is important as non-native speaker teacher may encounter some problems in using the book and a teacher's book would be of help to them. Furthermore, teacher's books may offer useful guides or hints to teachers in order to help them cope better with the teaching process. According to Dudley-Evans & ST. John (1998), there are four types of EAP situations. Iran is placed in the fourth situation where "all subject courses are taught in the national language, but English may be important for ancillary reasons" (p, 35). The need for supplementary materials and teacher's guides has been given different priority based on these different situations. However, no teacher's book is available in the market related to this book.

• Is a vocabulary list/index included?

   In some contexts such vocabulary lists are useful for learners. McDonough and Shaw (2003) emphasize on the usefulness of these vocabulary lists for learners especially for those who want to have out-of- class practice. A list of words has been included at the end of each unit as a translation exercise. All of these words are selected from the passages of the unit and so around one topic area. However, there is no guidance to the pronunciation of these words.

• What visual material does the book contain (photographs, charts, diagrams)?

Few visual materials have been used in the passages which are related to the content of the text. No visual aid has been given in the exercises. Pictures enjoy no cosmetic values. They are in black and white, scientific-based and completely integrated into the text. Although they contribute to better comprehension of the text, they add no attraction to the book to motivate students more.

• Is the layout and presentation clear or cluttered?

All the passages and exercises in each unit are around one technical topic; hence, the information is not presented in a scattered way. Instructions are short, clear and to the point. The same format is repeated in all units. This helps students to focus on the content rather than being confused with the complication of the layout.

• Is the material too culturally biased or specific?

     Since the book is designed for EAP courses and it is scientific-based, no culturally-biased issues are included in.

• The inclusion of audio/video material and resultant cost.

No audio/video material accompanies the book.  The units are designed in the way that there is no requirement to any audiovisual supplementary material. So no resultant cost has been added to the main price of the book.

• Are there any tests included in the teaching materials?

Exercises in each unit can be regarded as achievement tests. No extra diagnostic, progress, etc. tests are taken into account in the book.

The Internal Evaluation

For the next stage of evaluation, a journey through the depth of the material to the internal layers of the textbook is required. As McDonough and Shaw (2003, p 66) state '' the extent to which the aforementioned factors in the external evaluation stage match up with the internal consistency and the organization of the material as stated by the author/publisher'' is the significant issue at the internal evaluation stage. To this end, three units of the book have been investigated in terms of the following factors:

• The presentation of the skills in the materials.

The book appears to focus on reading as the dominant skill in all units, as it is reflected in the fact that in addition to two sections uniquely devoted to reading comprehension in each unit, 50% of all exercises are dedicated to reading skills while just 8.3% is for writing and speaking skills separately. Besides, 16.7%, 8.3% and 8.3% of the exercises are to improve vocabulary, grammar and translation abilities, respectively.

• The grading and sequencing the materials.

All the units of the book follow a unified format: section one: reading comprehension, section two: further readings and section three: translation activities. The exercises following section one are composed of three reading comprehension exercises, one of which must be answered orally followed by a vocabulary, grammar and two reading comprehension exercises. For section two, there are three reading comprehension exercises, one of which focusing more on writing skill. Section three requires students to translate an English passage into Persian and then a vocabulary exercise has been added.

• As far as reading/''discourse'' skills are concerned, is the text appropriate beyond the sentence?

As the two reading comprehension sections in each unit are related in terms of the topic they deal with, they make an extended reading passage. All the exercises are adopted from these passages; therefore, they are not considered isolated sentences in the abstract. The context which is prepared by the reading comprehension passages provides students with the prior knowledge to acquire the appropriate understanding of the texts beyond the sentence.

• Where listening skills are involved, are recordings ''authentic'' or ''artificial''?

No listening activities are involved in this textbook.

• Do speaking materials incorporate what we know about the nature of real interaction or artificial dialogues offered instead?

In each unit, there is only one exercise related to (targeted at/ aimed at) enhancing speaking ability, which encourage students answer some questions orally. Although this is one type of interaction that actually occurs between students and teachers in real classroom situations, such exercises cannot meet all the genuine needs of learners in terms of their speaking abilities.

• The relationship of tests and exercises to a) learner needs, and b) what is taught by the course material?

As this textbook is a main source for this course and not a supplementary one, it must satisfy the needs of BSc Physics students, as claimed by the publisher in the introduction section. As mentioned by the publisher, a need analysis has been conducted to find the specific needs of the students and the book has been organized based on the analysis, but there is no indication of those needs in the book.

• Do you feel that the material is suitable for different learning styles? Is a claim and provision made for self-study and is such a claim justified?

No section has been specified for listening skills. There is only one exercise in each unit that provides the chance of speaking for students. Few illustrations are included in the book, which consist of some charts and a few black and white pictures. Accordingly, not all of the learning styles have been taken into account. No claim has been made by the publisher as to use the book as a self-study, and no provision is made for this purpose.

• Are the materials sufficiently "transparent" to motivate both students and teachers alike, or would you foresee a student/teacher mismatch?

All the exercises are organized in a way that students can answer them without intervention of the teacher. The instructions presented in the book place no responsibility on the part of the teacher. No interaction is required between the learners and also between learners and teacher. In addition to this issue, the deficiency of the audio-visual features in the book leads to the decrease of motivation on the part of the students and teachers. The motivating factor is that the content of the passages is sufficiently narrowed down to fall in their exact area of interest.

The Overall Evaluation 

The following parameters should be considered in order to assess the general suitability of the textbook:

• The usability factor

This factor deals with the level of the integration of the material "into a particular syllabus as 'core' or supplementary" (McDonough & Shaw, 2003, p 70). As the publisher recommends the use of the book as a main course book, due to the above-mentioned deficiencies, it is recommended that the teacher make use of some other supplementary materials during the course study.

• The generalizability factor

The generalizability factor refers to the extent to which one can generalize the core learned material to the other similar contexts of use. All the passages selected in the book use the academic language which facilitates the comprehension of other academic texts of the same domain for the students.

• The adaptability factor

The book does not help students to cope with their problems in speaking and writing situations. Concerning reading skills, the book improves students' general reading comprehension skill. In real reading situations, students mostly deal with papers and research studies; nevertheless, the passages in the book all propose a different format.

• The flexibility factor

The flexibility factor determines the rigidity of the sequencing and grading of the content of the material. Since the sequencing of the units is based on topics and no structural syllabus has been used, following the strict order of the units is not compulsory.

The Results of Teachers' Evaluation of the Book

A five-point Likert-scale questionnaire consisting of 25 criteria devised by the researchers to correspond to the textbook evaluation checklist proposed by McDonough and Shaw (1993) (and a copy of which exists in the Appendix) was administered to six teachers who has had the experience of teaching the book in order to analyze the results of teachers' evaluation of the selected book (English for the students of Physics). In the questionnaire, 1= complete disagreement and 5= complete agreement. The forth column in the table shows the mean of the digits which the participants have chosen among five choices for each question. The results are summarized in table 1 next page:

Table1

The Results Obtained from the Respondents' Answers to the 25 Criteria in the Questionnaire

As the tables demonstrates, the teachers' and the researchers' ideas are similar to a great extent.

Discussion

In Iran, almost all undergraduate textbooks are in Persian; nevertheless, students are also urged to read other materials and professional journals in English. Therefore, "the main aim of English classes at undergraduate level is to help students improve their technical vocabulary, reading, and translation skills" (Mazdayasna & Tahririan, 2008, p. 277). The significant focus of the book under investigation is to improve reading skills; however, no method is offered as to how to approach reading comprehension in sections 1 and 2 of each unit. These two sections only provide students with some technical passage, followed by some exercises to assure that students have fully understood the content of the texts. The book seems to place the responsibility of how to teach the material wholly on the teacher. Only one suggestion is provided for how to improve reading ability, which is presented in section 3 as translation. This strategy encourages students to make "intensive use of bilingual dictionary and dependence on the teacher" (Pritchard & Nasr, 2004, p. 426). No other method such as, skimming, scanning, understanding information from figures and tables, etc. is offered.

BSc students need to read texts in article format besides books; thus, they should learn the organization of Physics articles and what to be expected in each part of them. They are expected "to know how to read, summarize, analyze, and interpret a piece of research done in their field" (Mazdayasna & Tahririan, 2008, p. 280). However, all the units of the book follow the same format, and are collected from different Physics books in English. Although it does not seem possible to present a complete article in each unit, it would be better if at least different parts of articles such as, abstract, discussion, result, or conclusion parts were presented. This would help students get familiar with the expected content and language structures in various parts of such texts. 

Concerning our research questions, among different skills, the focus of the book seems to be on reading skill, and other skills have been neglected. Although reading comprehension is the basic skill dealt with in all ESP courses (Rajabi & Azarpour, 2011: 27), the approach of the book toward the reading skill is not that much satisfactory, too. Vocabulary is almost the only language component which is given importance to in the book. Different learners have different learning styles and employ different strategies; however, this issue is not taken into account in the book. Researchers believe that although this book can be used as a main course material, teachers' method and the supplementary materials they recommend should compensate for the shortcomings of the book.  

Conclusion

In this paper, the "English for the students of physics" (2003, SAMT publications) has been (was) evaluated. This is an EAP book currently in use at BSc level of university. The book consists of sixteen units. All the units of the book follow a unified format: section one: reading comprehension, section two: further readings and section three: translation activities. The exercises following section one compose of three reading comprehension exercises, one of which must be answered orally followed by a vocabulary, grammar and two reading comprehension exercises. For the section two, there are three reading comprehension exercises, one of which focuses more on writing skill. Section three requires students to translate an English passage into Persian, and then a vocabulary exercise is added. The results obtained from the study suggest that the book is designed to mostly satisfy the needs of students on their reading comprehension skills and to some extent turns a blind eye on their other needed skills. Although the book is claimed to be a main/core course source, other supplementary materials are required. The researchers suggest that further complementary sections be included in the units to cover other needs of the students reading the book. Inclusion of more illustrations would be of more help in terms of better comprehension of the content and could increase students’ motivation. It is suggested that such evaluation of EAP textbooks should be done to give further insights into the future revision and/or designing of the textbooks for EAP learners of English.

The Authors

Mina Sajjadi is an MA student in TEFL at Tarbiat Modares University. Her main research interests are teacher education, textbook evaluation, and ESP.

Vahide Hadavinia is an MA student in TEFL at Shahid Chamran University. Her main research interests are discourse, ESP and textbook evaluation.

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Appendix

Likert-scale questionnaire used for teacher evaluation of the book. In this test 1= complete disagreement and 5= complete agreement.

1. The book is appropriate for Physic students learning English.

1        2        3        4        5

2. The material is suitable for BSc level of proficiency.

1        2        3        4        5

3. The book is well designed for EAP purpose.

1        2        3        4        5

4. The language has been well-presented and well-organized into teachable units.

1        2        3        4        5

5. A teacher's book is necessary as a supplement to this book.

1        2        3        4        5

6. A vocabulary list is included at the end of the book or throughout the book.

1        2        3        4        5

7. The book contains useful visual materials (photographs, charts, diagrams).

1        2        3        4        5

8. The layout and presentation are clear and not cluttered.

1        2        3        4        5

9. The material is not culturally biased or specific.

1        2        3        4        5

10. The price of the book is suitable.

1        2        3        4        5

11. Review or progress tests are included in the book.

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12. All skills and components of language have been incorporated into the book.

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13. The material is sequenced and graded well.

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14. Reading/''discourse'' skills are involved in the book.

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15. Speaking materials incorporate the nature of real interaction and not artificial dialogues.

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16. The tests and exercises correspond to learner needs and to what is taught by the course material.

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17. Different learning styles have been taken into account in the design of the material.

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18. The materials are sufficiently "transparent" to motivate both students and teachers alike.

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19. The materials could be integrated into a particular syllabus as core.

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20. There is a restricted use of core features that make the materials more generally useful.

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21. The materials can be used in other contexts.

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22. The sequencing and grading of the materials are flexible (one can enter them at different points).

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