A tool to analyze oral competence development in EFL textbooks

  1. María Camino Bueno-Alastuey
  2. Gloria Luque Agulló
Revista:
Revista española de lingüística aplicada

ISSN: 0213-2028

Año de publicación: 2015

Volumen: 28

Volumen: 1

Páginas: 73-96

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.1075/RESLA.28.1.04BUE DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR

Otras publicaciones en: Revista española de lingüística aplicada

Objetivos de desarrollo sostenible

Resumen

Even though the Common European framework of reference for languages has placed great emphasis on the teaching and learning of oral aspects and there is general agreement about the need to analyze oral competence development through checklists, the inventories developed so far to analyze textbooks are too general, not explicit enough or devote too little space to oral skills. Consequently, there is currently no specific instrument created to evaluate how oral competence is being fostered in English as a Foreign Language textbooks. This paper aims at filling this gap in research by presenting a tool to analyze oral skills development in EFL course books. The checklist was divided in four sections named background information, listening, speaking, and pronunciation, and included quantitative and categorical measures. The tool is presented in an abridged and an extended version to allow for a shorter and a more detailed scrutiny. A preliminary analysis using it showed a highly significant and excellent inter-rater agreement of 0.995 for numerical items and of 0.907 for categorical ones.

Referencias bibliográficas

  • Bongaerts, T., van Summeren, C., Planken B., & Schils, E. (1997) Age and ultimate attainment in the pronunciation of a foreign language. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 191, 447–465.
  • Bygate, M. (2001) Speaking. In R. Carter & D. Nunan (Eds.), The Cambridge guide to teaching English to speakers of other languages (pp. 14–20). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Cerezo, L. (2007) Investigación sobre las directrices curriculares relativas a la enseñanza de la lengua inglesa y su aplicación en el aula (1º de bachillerato). Dissertation. University of Murcia, Spain.
  • Chen, R.T.H. (2013) East-Asian teaching practices through the eyes of Western learners. Teaching in higher education, 18(7), 761–772.
  • Council of Europe. (2001) Common European framework of reference for languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  • Criado, R., & Sánchez, A. (2009) English language teaching in Spain: Do textbooks comply with the official methodological regulations?: A sample analysis. International Journal of English Studies, 9(1), 1–28.
  • Criado, R., & Sánchez, A. (2012) Lexical frequency, textbooks and learning from a cognitive perspective: A corpus-based sample analysis of ELT materials. RESLA, Special Issue, 77–94.
  • Cunningsworth, A. (1995) Choosing your coursebook. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT.
  • Derwing, T. (2008) Curriculum issues in teaching pronunciation to second language learners. In J.G. Hansen Edwards & M.L. Zampini (Eds.), Phonology and second language acquisition (pp. 347–369). Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
  • Derwing, T.M., Munro, M.J., & Wiebe, G.E. (1998) Evidence in favor of a broad framework for pronunciation instruction. Language Learning, 481, 393–410.
  • Ellis, R. (1997) The empirical evaluation of language teaching materials. ELT Journal, 51(1), 36–42. Doi:
  • Fleiss, J.L. (1981) Statistical methods for rates and proportions (2nd ed.). New York/London: Wiley & Sons. Doi:
  • Fromkin, V., & Bernstein, N.R. (1999) Producción del lenguaje. En J. Berko & N. Bernstein (Eds.), Psicolingüística (pp. 329–368). Madrid: McGraw Hill.
  • Gilmore, A. (2004) A comparison of textbooks and authentic interactions. ELT Journal, 58(4), 363–374. Doi:
  • Gómez-Rodríguez, L. (2010) English textbooks for teaching and learning English as a foreign language: Do they really help to develop communicative competence? Educación y Educadores, 13(3), 327–342. http://educacionyeducadores.unisabana.edu.co/index.php/eye​/article​/view​/1728 DOI:
  • Harmer, J. (2007) The practice of English language teaching (4th ed.). New York: Pearson Education.
  • Hu, G. (2002) Potential cultural resistance to pedagogical imports: The case of communicative language teaching in China. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 15(2), 93–105.
  • Hutchinson, T., & Torres, E. (1994) The textbook as agent of change. ELT Journal, 48(4), 315–328. Doi:
  • Jiménez, R.M. (2003) Libros de texto para la enseñanza precoz del inglés: estudio comparativo. RESLA, 161, 237–250.
  • Jiménez, R.M., & Mancebo, R. (2008) Vocabulary input in EFL textbooks. RESLA, 211, 147–165.
  • Krashen, S. (1985) The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. New York: Longman.
  • Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006) Understanding language teaching: From method to postmethod. London/New York: Routledge.
  • Levelt, W. (1993) Language use in normal speakers and its disorders. In G. Blanken, J. Dittman, H. Grimm, J. Marshall, & C. Wallesch (Eds.), Linguistic disorders and pathologies: An international handbook (pp.1–15). Berlin: de Gruyter.
  • Littlejohn, A. (2011) The analysis of language teaching materials: Inside the Trojan Horse. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Materials development in language teaching (pp.179–211). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Manchón, R. (2008) Taking strategies to the foreign language classroom: Where are we now in theory and research? IRAL 461, 221–243.
  • McDonough, J., & Shaw, C. (1993) Materials and methods in ELT. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Morales, D., & Izquierdo, J. (2011) L2 phonology learning among young-adult learners of English: Effects of regular classroom-based instruction and L2 proficiency. Revista Electrónica de Investigación Educativa, 13(1), 86–107.
  • Mukundan, J., & Ahour, T. (2010) A review of textbook evaluation checklists across four decades (1970–2008). In B. Tomlinson & H. Masuhara (Eds), Research for materials development in language learning: Evidence for best practice (pp. 336–352). London: Continuum.
  • Mukundan, J., Hajimohammadi, R., & Nimehchisalem, V. (2011) Developing an English language textbook evaluation checklist. Contemporary Issues in Education Research, 4(6), 21–28.
  • Munro, M.J., & Derwing, T.M. (1995) Foreign accent, comprehensibility and intelligibility in the speech of second language learners. Language Learning, 451, 73–97.
  • Naiman, N. (1978) The good language learner. London: Multilingual Matters.
  • Nicolson, M., & Adams, H. (2010) The languages classroom: place of comfort or obstacle course? The Language Learning Journal, 38(1), 37–49
  • Oxford, R. (2001) Language learning styles and strategies. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a second language (pp. 359–366). Boston: Heinle and Heinle.
  • Razmloo, S. (2007) High schools or private institutions textbooks?: Which fulfill communicative language teaching principles in Iranian context? Asian EFL Journal: The EFL Professional’s Written Forum, 9(4), 126–140.
  • Riasati, M.J., & Zare, P. (2010) Textbook evaluation: EFL teacher´s perspectives on new interchange. Studies in Literature and Language, 1(8), 54–60.
  • Richards, J. (2008) Teaching listening and speaking: From theory to practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Roldán, A., Lucena, D., Mesenger, L., Roldán, J.E., & Sánchez, M. (2009) Adecuación de los libros de texto al Marco Común Europeo de Referencia para las Lenguas (MCERL). Porta Linguarum, 111, 189–206.
  • Rost, M. (2002) Teaching and researching listening. Hong Kong: Pearson Education
  • Sahragard, R., Rahimi, A., & Zaremoayeddi, I. (2009) An in-depth evaluation of interchange series (3rd edition). Porta Linguarum,121, 37–54.
  • Schmidt, R. (2001) Attention. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and second language instruction (pp. 3–32). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Sheldon, L.E. (1988) Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials. ELT Journal, 42(4), 237–246.
  • Tok, H. (2010) TEFL textbook evaluation: From teachers’ perspectives. Educational Research and Review, 5(9), 508–517.
  • Tomlinson, B., & Masuhara, H. (2011) Research for materials development in language learning: Evidence for best practice. London: Bloomsbury.
  • Williams, D. (1983) Developing criteria for textbook evaluation. ELT Journal, 37(3), 251–255.
  • Ying Leung, C., & Andrews, S. (2012) The mediating role of textbooks in high-stakes assessment reform. ELT Journal, 66 (3), 356–365.
Fuente de los datos: Dialnet