How does the institution you work for choose textbooks? How are placement tests developed?
Unfortunately, it is a common practice in many schools to follow the trends in choosing materials, to prioritize stakeholders’ interests above learner’ needs. However, even if you cannot influence such decisions, you can make a difference your classroom by being flexible with what you were told to use.
Needs Analysis will help you tailor a course from the materials at hand by supplementing and modifying them in such a way that the needs of each particular group you teach are met.
Definition: “Techniques and procedures for collecting information to be used in syllabus design are referred to as needs analysis” (Nunan, 1988: 13) whereas “needs represent what is deemed essential for individuals to have or learn or understand in order for something of value to occur”. (Ornstein & Hunkins: 319)
How: There are many ways of collecting information about your learners and their needs. I personally like these ones:
- Questionnaires
- Tests
- Interviews
- Observations
Please check this link for more variations.
Here you may find a sample questionnaire, which you can modify to fit your group.
This is a good article on NA.
When: Ideally the needs assessment should be made before a textbook is chosen. In practice, it is not always the case. I usually collect information about my learners in the first week of school and use it as a guide to developing supplementary materials.
Hope you find this useful!
Cheers,
Elena
References:
Nunan, D. (1988). Syllabus Design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ornstein, A.C., Hunkins, F.P. (2004). Curriculum – foundations, principles, and issues. Pearson Education,Inc.
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Comments
Hi Elena,
Thank you for raising this problem. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to choose the textbooks we will use during the school year. Each year we are given different books and we have to use them without questioning. The thing is, we express the problems we have with these books with inspectors and even with local educational administratives, but the problem is still there. There is not a consistency among the books we use. For instance, we start with a book which does not include grammer activities but based on communicative activities, then next year we are given a book which assumes that students know everything. Moreover, different state schools in different cities use different books. Although the contents are similar, they are different. I cannot see any rational reason behind this policy.
When it comes to placement test, since I teach in a primary school. I can only give a test to see how much they remember from the previous year and plan my lessons accordingly. I believe the efficiency of these tests, for they give us a clue about the needs and proficiency level of students.
Such luck of consistency must cause a lot of unnecessary preparations when planning for a new academic year. Our school often changes books which I don’t like either. It takes a while for a teacher to familiarize him/herself with the structure of the book, read teachers’ notes. If I use same textbook for the second year, then I already know it well enough to expand units with extra activities, I have an opportunity to reflect on each unit, decide on what went well, what did not and what lessons need improvement. I don’t think that any book (unless it is really badly written) can be judged by just a year teaching.
This is an important dialogue that could be the subject for a new post.