Analyzing textbook materials

There are many wonderful student textbooks out there with creative and thoughtful activities that help students focus on target language. However, it is still the teachers that need to make sense of these activities for themselves and for their students as they design a lesson. One way to use ECRIF is in planning lessons so to visualize how the activities might help students learning. One can also see whether their are gaps in the learning process by noticing that certain stages of the ECRIF framework are not addressed. For example, many course books may not offer enough activities to help students remember/internalize the target language. Similarly, course books often do not have activities that really provide opportunities for fluent use of the target language. By analyzing course books with ECRIF, teachers can better see what students needs might be during the lesson and where they might want to supplement or adjust activities. 

Look at the following textbook samples. As you look at the activities, think about the ECRIF questions. What seems to be the aim of each activity? What gaps do you notice? What would you keep, reject, add or change? 

• How will students encounter the target language? In what context? How can I provide them with opportunities to activate their prior knowledge and fluency?
• How will students clarify the form, meaning, and use of the target language?
• How will students remember/internalize the target language?
• What communicative tasks will provide students opportunities to fluently use the target language?
  
  

Sample 1: Elementary (Present Progressive)

Sample 2: Intermediate (Job related vocabulary)

Sample 3: Upper Intermediate (Past tenses and Past Perfect)