how to evaluate an esl course

Coursebook Evaluation

[An ELT Checklist]

1. The PPP lesson structure. There are quite a few different strategies out there, but this one never gets old.
2. Personalization. To learn something, students need to own it. Personalization happens when activities allow students...
3. Natural language. This point is relevant only to ESL coursebooks. ... A man walks into a pet...

Full Answer

How to evaluate an ESL coursebook?

Besides oration techniques, rubrics can focus on pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar structure and more. Here are a few other ways to assess student speaking: Interview with a partner. Group discussion with each member contributing and one reporting out. Creating a …

How do I objectively evaluate ESL and EFL students'speaking proficiency?

Mar 14, 2022 · When ESL teachers assess students’ progress, they first need to check on the lesson objectives. Then the teacher needs to come up with a method for checking that their students have achieved the proficiency level that was expected of them. A good assessment should inform the teacher if the ESL lesson was effective and how it can be improved.

What is evaluation in teaching English?

ESL / EFL course book evaluation checklist. Alireza Rizvi. Coursebook Evaluation Form This form is designed for evaluating EFL course books from beginning to upper intermediate level. Basic Information Name of Evaluator (s): Title of course book (s): Current level of learners: Publisher (s): Cost of Course-book package: Date of Publication: Is book now available (Yes/ No): Reasons …

What is the best way to assess English learners?

Aug 18, 2013 · In being fair to teachers, students, parents, and school administrators, evaluating ESL speaking proficiency must be done more objectively. First, this begins by clearly defining speaking proficiency and then using a well-constructed rubric to make the final evaluation less subjective. ESL Speaking Proficiency

How do you evaluate ESL?

Here are a couple that can be easily adapted to your student's language proficiency level and help them move up the Bloom's scale.Journaling – reading response notebooks.Drawing pictures.Acting out (especially for beginners with lower level vocabulary)Open book assessments.Interviews with partner.More items...

How do you evaluate instructional programs?

The following are possible areas to focus on:Views of the staff involved with the program.Comparison of actual program results with expected results.Reviews of currently available student achievement data or other data.Evaluation of the current instructional materials or proposed new materials for the program.More items...

What are the components of an effective English language learner program?

English Language Learners and the Five Essential Components of Reading InstructionPhonemic awareness. Phonemes are the smallest units making up spoken language. ... Phonics. ... Vocabulary development. ... Reading fluency, including oral reading skills. ... Reading comprehension strategies.

How can we measure the effectiveness of a teacher in teaching English?

Methods of Measuring Teacher Effectiveness These include principal evaluations; analysis of classroom artifacts (i.e., ratings of teacher assignments and student work); teaching portfolios; teacher self-reports of practice, including surveys, teaching logs, and interviews; and student ratings of teacher performance.

How do you evaluate a program evaluation?

Conduct outcome evaluation by following these steps:Draft an Outcome Evaluation Plan.Determine what information the evaluation must provide.Define the data to collect.Decide on data collection methods.Develop and pretest data collection instruments.Collect data.Process data.More items...•Sep 2, 2021

What are the methods of evaluation in education?

The three main types of evaluation methods are goal-based, process-based and outcomes-based. Goal-based evaluations measure if objectives have been achieved (We highly recommend S.M.A.R.T. Goals). Process-based evaluations analyze strengths and weaknesses.Dec 3, 2020

How do you develop an ESL curriculum?

How to Build an ESL CurriculumGive a standard grammar test.Arrange students into small groups and provide a 'get to know you' activity. Pay close attention to who's leading the group and who is having difficulties.Ask students to introduce themselves.Feb 24, 2019

What are the 5 language skills?

You should not be surprised to learn that these five categories are Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing, and Grammar.Jul 7, 2020

What are the 5 components of oral language?

Oral language is made up of at least five key components (Moats 2010): phonological skills, pragmatics, syntax, morphological skills, and vocabulary (also referred to as semantics).

How do you evaluate the success of your teaching?

There are many different sources of evidence you can draw on to evaluate your teaching, such as:continual self-reflection: regularly evaluating your own performance.informal student feedback: asking students what they think you are doing well or could be improved.More items...•Aug 1, 2019

How do you measure impact of teaching and learning?

Evaluate the impact of your teachingUnderstand assessment design. ... Assess the knowledge and understanding of your students. ... Assess the capabilities and skills of your students. ... Assess the attitudes, motivations and dispositions of your students. ... How to interpret assessment data.More items...•Feb 12, 2019

How do most teachers measure their own success as an educator?

How do most teachers measure their own success as an educator? By their students' progress toward becoming an effective citizen.

What is the purpose of evaluation?

Evaluation is the task of assigning marks, grades or percentages that represent how well students have learned the skills or concepts taught. Evaluation can help the teacher look back in retrospect and decide whether the assessment of the students was accurate and whether the reinforcement of concepts was effective.

What is a good assessment?

A good assessment should inform the teacher if the class was effective and how it can be improved. A good assessment should also be the base for further planning since new concepts should not be taught until the students have achieved the objectives.

How to measure speaking proficiency?

The role-play is probably the best way of accurately measuring speaking proficiency. In a role-play with a small group of students, the student is placed in a familiar social situation where she or he must naturally and spontaneously interact with peers in generating speech and in asking and answering questions.

What are some examples of emotion in speech?

This is about the emotion speakers express in their speech to show, for example, anger, happiness, surprise, and pain. In English we would use words like "Darn," "Great," "Really?," and "Ouch."

What is a rubric for speaking?

What is a rubric? A rubric is a standard of performance for a defined population. According to Bernie Dodge and Nancy Pickett, as cited by Wikipedia, common features of a scoring rubric can be distinguished by the following: one, a focus on measuring the stated objective whether it be a performance or behavior; two, using a range to rate performance; and three, it will contain specific performance characteristics arranged at levels indicating the degree to which a standard has been met. Let us now look at a rubric for evaluating ESL and EFL speaking proficiency.

What is the stress in a word?

Stress refers to the primary accent of multi-syllabic words. For example, in the word "record," the stress is on the first syllable "re" when "record" is used as a noun. When "record" is used as a verb, the stress is on the second syllable "cord.". Intonation is about the rising and falling of voice at the end of sentences.

What is word usage?

Word usage is a reflection of the depth of vocabulary and experience of speaking on different occasions. For example, mama and daddy, mother and father, and parents refer to the same but are used at different times. Usage of vocabulary could also apply to the kinds of adjectives used for description.

What is grammatical usage?

Grammatical usage may refer to using the parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) correctly in sentences, using verb tenses accurately, and having the correct agreement between subjects and predicates. For instance, one would say "they were" instead of "they was."

What is the interview method?

An Interview. The interview method is most commonly used in speaking evaluations. In this method, the teacher usually first greets the student and then asks him or her about family life, school, and personal hobbies and interests.

What are the skills of ELT?

The learners need to develop their four basic skills-reading, writing, listening and speaking in this language. ELT materials play a very important role in many language classrooms but in recent years there has been a lot of debate on the actual role of materials in teaching English as a Second/Foreign Language.

What is the most important criterion for textbook evaluation?

One of the most important and essential criterion that pertains to the overall textbook evaluation is the author’s approach to teaching methodology. Brown (1995) and Cunningsworth (1995) suggest that it is absolutely essential in evaluating any textbook to determine whether or not its inherent methodology matches the aims and objectives and conforms to the classroom context. The simplest and quickest way for initially discovering a textbook’s theoretical premises and methodological underpinnings is to examine its back cover (the blurb). So, a closer examination of Stepping Forward’s back cover reveals that the authors (Heather Jones and Robyn Mann) claim to adhere to the “Communicative Approach” and the textbook contains a multi-skills curriculum and follows a topical/functional format. The book also tends to focus on both accurate and fluent communication emphasizing linguistic as well as communicative value of the topics. The promotion of integrated language-skills practice and the inclusion of topical themes, grammatical structures and functions, as well as lexical development are focused. Particular emphasis is placed on meaningful and authentic communication with the goal of establishing communicative competence in production and comprehension as the authors’ state in the blurb, “students as well as teachers will find Stepping Forward an exciting and stimulating language learning experience, one that will result in the learners being competent and confident users of the English language”. Moreover, many of the pair and group activities such as role-playing and information-gap tasks are claimed to facilitate learning through genuine interaction and the language skills and sub-skills are presented and practiced through the use of both inductive and deductive approaches.

Why is it important to evaluate textbooks?

Another reason for textbook evaluation is the fact that it can be very useful in teacher development and professional growth. Cunningsworth (1995) states that textbook evaluation helps teachers to acquire useful, accurate, systematic, and contextual insights into the overall nature of textbook material.

What is Stepping Forward book?

The pictures are not merely added for a cosmetic effect, they are rather of an integrative value that they help explaining the theme to the learners. In addition, Stepping Forward contains an excellent package of supplementary materials including items such as classroom tape cassettes or CD’s, a student workbook, and a teacher’s guide. More specifically, the teacher’s guide includes useful page-by-page instructions, teaching suggestions and instructional input, lesson notes, optional tasks and alternatives, classroom management advice, language notes, general notes about the task and cultural data, expansion activities and game ideas, tests, answer keys, transcripts for listening activities, and opportunities for teacher reflection. The student workbook, on the other hand, provides review exercises and a variety of practice exercises that help the development of students’ proficiency in grammar, reading, writing, spelling, vocabulary, and speaking and has enormous potential for classroom use or for home assignments.

What is a step forward syllabus?

Stepping Forward is a multi-skills syllabus and therefore covers and integrates both productive (speaking and writing) and receptive skills (liste ning and reading). The authors advocate an integrated, multi-skills syllabus because it considers and incorporates several categories of both meaning and form. A more positive characteristic of the integrated syllabus within Stepping Forward is the fact that the linguistic elements of the textbook such as grammar and vocabulary items are closely connected to the skills-base. So, as the grammar element and the vocabulary base become more demanding, the skills work also gets more challenging. An internal evaluation of the book reveals that material used for each skill becomes more complex as the units progress. An in-depth analysis of the treatment of language skills in units 8 and 9 is presented below.

What is the language type and content of Stepping Forward?

In terms of grammatical structures and functions, Stepping Forward places much emphasis on grammatical accuracy and repetition of structures and functions. Grammar and vocabulary are organized into separate sections in each unit. In unit 8, grammar section deals with pronouns and in unit 9 it provides a practice of simple present and present perfect tense. The section of vocabulary also includes thesaurus use in every unit, so that the students can build on new vocabulary on their own. A fair weightage given to grammar and vocabulary in the book justifies the authors’ claims as it is stated on the back cover of the book: “a wide range of grammar and vocabulary exercises are especially designed to help students acquire the necessary language skills and vocabulary to discuss and write on the topic in each unit”. The authors believe that correct knowledge of grammar and functions are an essential aspect of communicative competence and they have adopted the task-based learning technique as a means of accomplishing their objectives.

What is the importance of English in Pakistan?

It is the medium of instruction in the institutions of higher education and is widely used on radio and television in the country. Several newspapers, periodicals and books on different subjects are published in English. It is the official language of all the government departments and private organizations in Pakistan. Most importantly, our body of law is codified in English and the knowledge of English is considered to be essential for getting good jobs as exams and interviews for civil services, armed forces and other attractive posts are conducted in this language. The inevitability of English, not only in Pakistan but in the whole world, lies in its dominance in the three major areas of development: science, humanities and trade.

1. The PPP lesson structure

There are quite a few different strategies out there, but this one never gets old. Presentation, Practice and Production (PPP) is one of the most popular lesson plan formats. And it’s a must-have of every good coursebook.

2. Personalization

To learn something, students need to own it. Personalization happens when activities allow students to express their own preferences and opinions.

3. Natural language

This point is relevant only to ESL coursebooks. So, English teachers, consider the following situation:

4. Recycling in the book

Like it or not, forgetting things we’ve studied before is part and parcel of the learning process. We need repetition and regular revision.

5. Coursebook Evaluation: Catering for all learner types

I have talked before about the importance of the visual element. That’s because I believe that younger generations are becoming more and more visual as a result of new technologies. However, a balanced textbook must address the auditory and kinesthetic learners equally well.

What are the important considerations in a class?

Important considerations include the age, final course (are the students going to take a test?), objectives, and whether the class is made up of students learning for work purposes or for a hobby.

Who is Kenneth Beare?

Kenneth Beare is an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher and course developer with over three decades of teaching experience. Finding the right coursebook is one of the most important tasks a teacher needs to undertake.

What is written assessment?

Written Assessments. Written assessments are a nice way to see how students can apply their knowledge of English over a wide variety of concepts. For example, you can use assignments to see just how well they understand a text, or even different forms of writing.

What is non verbal assessment?

Non-verbal Assessments. For students who are shy or aren’t as proficient in English, using non -verbal assessments is a great way to see a student’s academic progress. What you’re looking for in this type of assessment is their understanding of vocabulary. Examples include:

What is FluentU?

FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons. It's got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch regularly.

Why shouldn't teachers use tests?

One of the most common reasons why teachers shouldn’t only use tests is because students may have test anxiety. What tends to happen is that students are so nervous when presented with a test that they don’t do as well. You then aren’t able to see what the student is really capable of.

Why use rubrics in student work?

It’s usually based on language proficiency and academic progression through work such as presentations, written assignments and reading activities. You can not only use these to grade your students, but to chart their growth over a set period of time.

Why is rubistar important?

A tool like RubiStar is helpful, as it can show you sample rubrics other teachers have developed, and anyone can modify them for their own use.

Can ELL students see growth?

Seeing growth and improvement can be a huge motivator for ELL students. But you can’t see growth if you don’t measure it. That’s why no great class is complete without some way of assessing students. Not only is it a fantastic way for both you and your students to see what they’ve learned, but you can also use the results to help you plan future ...