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Saja Elshareif 4/4/13

Textbook Review

North Star: Focus on Listening and Speaking (Introductory) P. Merdinger and L. Barton Pearson Education Inc. 2003, 184, pp., ISBN 0201619806

Summary In The analysis of language teaching materials: inside the Trojan Horse, Andrew Littlejohn (1998) provides a design framework giving a valuable outlook for evaluating classroom materials. The framework involves the consideration of the aims of materials, how the tasks, language and content in the materials are selected and sequenced and the nature and focus of content in the materials(p. 193-194). Littlejohn (1998) also suggests that the nature of the activities and the roles that teachers and learners play should play a central role in material analysis, An analysis of materials will need to focus closely on what precisely learners are asked to do, and how what they do relates to what Breen and Candlin (ibid.) call learners' 'process competence'. Littlejohn (1998) goes on to explain that process competence is defined by the amount of knowledge that learners can draw from. This knowledge refers to realms such as social behavior, attitudes, values, abilities; and how they affect learners reading, writing,

speaking and listening skills (p.194). Keeping Littlejohns (1998) design framework in mind, I applied the concepts for analysis to measure the effectiveness of a NorthStar introductory Listening and Speaking textbook in a communicative ESL classroom. My analysis is mostly concerned with the aims that the textbook seeks to accomplish and whether it indeed achieves them. The analysis also reviews the activities and tasks and whether they are successful in providing students with an effective listening/speaking experience.

Since it seems to be a popular choice among ESL classrooms, I specifically chose to look into the NorthStar series to see what the hype was about. This particular book is part of a five-level series which has parallel books for each level: listening/speaking and reading/writing. The books in the two strands correlate in theme, meaning that chapter one in the reading/writing strand would have the same topic as chapter one in listening/speaking. This of course is irrelevant if a course does not integrate all four skills in one classroom. Both strands of textbooks also follow the same sequence within units. Ranging from 5-8 hours of classroom material, teachers are encouraged to use exercises in sections 1-4 which are thought to be essential for comprehension while sections 5-7 are optional activities (Merdinger & Barton, 2003, p.vii). The five levels in the series range from Introductory to Advanced. For my analysis, I specifically reviewed the introductory level book which focuses on Listening and Speaking.

Organized by theme, not by difficulty of concepts, the textbook is divided into nine units that are unrelated in content. In this particular text, the units function as chapters starting with, A world of friends, a world of peace, and ending with The Quiz Show. The table of contents lists the

units topically with a title that is posed as as an ambiguous phrase or question as well as the following additional information: Theme, Listening 1, Listening 2, Grammar, and Style. While theme refers to the theme of the entire unit, Listening 1 and Listening 2 are simply the titles of the listening activities that will presumably be played during the lesson. Grammar lists the metalinguistic description of the grammar lesson that will take place. Finally, Style, which seems to be an ambiguous category, actually refers to the skill that will be used in the particular unit (i.e. Asking for and Giving Definitions and Explanations (p.iii)).

Looking within the units, the book has several subsections with activities to aid students understanding. The introduction to the textbook provided some additional input about the books setup, even showing how each unit is organized and describing the components of each section. Ranging from 16-20 pages in length, each unit in this textbook is set up almost exactly the same . The theme-based chapters are sectioned into seven general parts in the following order: Approaching the Topic, Preparing to listen/Preparing to read, Listening to one/Reading one, Listening two/Reading two, Reviewing Language, Skills for expression, and On your own. The first section of every unit, Approaching the Topic, greets students with warmup activities for students, usually beginning with an image and discussion questions meant to help students recall schemata that might help them to develop context for the chapter. On your own, the last section of each unit, end with speaking activities that allow students to apply the content learned. Part of this last section is a subsection, Fieldwork, which involves activities that ask students to take their language learning outside of the classroom through interviews or research about the corresponding units theme.

Overall Critique When scanning the book as a whole, I noticed that the textbook lacked a couple of features that might enhance the language learning experience. First of all, one of the biggest issues was the appropriateness of themes chosen. The topics were random and unrelated, which I assume would require a lot of scaffolding and schemata in order for students to fully engage with the text. At first glance, the themes are not clearly understood by title. For example, Driving you crazy, the title of unit 7, would not immediately be understood to be a chapter about road rage. Apart from ambiguity, I wondered about the overall relevance of the topics chosen to students language learning process, especially because there would be sufficient amount of time spent on each unit. An example of irrelevant themes is unit 3, Diamonds are Forever, which involves teaching students about buying diamonds. Apart from problems with theme choice, there was not a single colored picture in the book. Although visual-learners are catered to with images, and even real photographs incorporated in every unit, it would help to include some color in the book. I feel that the black and white photos gave an outdated feel to the book and made units seem a bit bland. Finally, because the book is a listening/speaking book, I was surprised with the amount of lengthy readings in the text. There was a noticeably heavier emphasis on listening in the units and speaking was given a lesser priority. Although a commendable feature of the book was the Fieldwork section the allowed students to practice communicating outside of the classroom, again, the input restricted the activities.

Detailed Critical Review of one chapter/unit To put my overall descriptive summary and critique into perspective, I chose to look at Unit 8, Only Child, Lonely Child, in perspective. I chose this particular unit because it exemplifies what I liked most and least about this textbook. To begin with, the theme title, like the rest of the book, is ambiguous at first glance. The unit opens up with the Approaching the topic section displaying two images showing cartoon family portraits of: Family A and Family B. Family A shows a set of happy parents with a single child. The child in Family As portrait is turned facing Family B which shows a set of miserable parents with six children that face the child in the first image. The expressions on the children's faces show that the only child longs for siblings and is pitied by the other children. The questions that follow ask students to discuss what an only child is and to describe how they think the family members in each portrait feel. The next task, Sharing Information personalizes the chapter opening by asking students questions about their own families. Although this task is productive, students are provided with a template showing how they should ask and answer their questions. Right away, I questioned the topic of this chapter and whether this was an appropriate theme. I imagine that some students would be extremely sensitive to this topic.

I continued to analyze the next three sections, which the book had deemed required for comprehending the unit, paying attention to redundancy, interactivity and appropriateness. In the second section, Preparing to Listen, students are given two graphs . The first graph shows the number of U.S. families with one child during 1976-1999, while the second graph gives a comparison of the amount of families that have an only child in U.S. and in New York City. The

graphs are then followed by questions about the data. The corresponding sub-section is a cloze reading which focuses on vocabulary comprehension. Section 3, Listening One, is a series of listening activities: A.) Introduction to Topic; B.) Listening to Main Ideas; C.) Listening for Details; D.) Listening Between the Lines. All of the activities are a mixture of fill-in-the blanks, multiple choice, and True/False questions.

Similarly, Listening Two: How do only kids feel? is the third section in the unit. Whereas the previous listening activity asked students to listen to a narrative and answer questions, this section is a conversation between two kids discussing how it feels to be an only child. Students are once again asked multiple choice questions about the audio being played. Part B in this section asks students to create a list of reasons why families may choose to have only one child. Although the final task is good in the sense that it provides students with a chance to produce output, the topic may not be appropriate or relevant to students. Interestingly, the required sections of the unit had a very weak emphasis on speaking. In fact, the brief speaking activities could have been done by students on their own without having to say word.

Sections 5-7, the unrequired activities in the unit

Reviewing Language: Be going to

incorporates grammar into the lesson. Students are actually taught when it is appropriate to use gonna and when it is not.The first activity asks students to listen to sentences and circle the form that they hear: going to or gonna. The following activity changes the focus and asks students to work in pairs to read cloze sentences and fill-in-the blanks with the correct word from the bank given. Strangely, Section 6: Skills for expression returns to the original grammar form

introduced be going to and deals with the future form.

Here, students are asked given a

formulaic chart showing be going to being used with the future tense and negation. The corresponding activity asks students to fill-in-the blanks with the correct verb form, then to use a list of scenarios and ask a partner about what they will be doing. This short-lived communicative grammar approach ends quickly with an input overload that follows, asking students to complete a matching exercise with a partner.

Ironically, Section 7: On your own was perhaps the best in theory and the worst in actuality. Activity A, An Important Decision asks students to read role play scenarios of two characters, a husband and wife who are in opposition to one another over the subject of having more children. The task asks students to assume the roles of Michael and Ellen and to role play the argument with one another, acting as husband and wife and giving reasons for whether they should have more children or not. Students are then asked to go around the classroom switching partners and taking part in this conversation. Not only was I shocked that this would be included in a textbook, but I was also dumbstruck as to why someone would want to use this in a classroom. I had to step far back from the actuality of the task to look at the structure and appreciate the communicative benefits of learning to argue, defend, and listen to different opinion. I am still very disappointed however. In Fieldwork, the last activity of the unit, students are asked to interview someone about their own family. I liked that students were able to continue their learning outside of the classroom, but again the topic and given questions such as Why did your parents decide to have only one child? Do you know the reason? made it very difficult to notice any positivity.

According to Flowerdew and Miller (2005), in order for listening materials to be successful, they should incorporate activities that require top-down, bottom-up, and interactive processing. Furthermore, listening activities should include six dimensions: individualization, cross-cultural, social, contextualized, affective, strategic, intertextual, and critical (p.85). In accordance with Littlejohn (1998) and Flowerdew and Miller (2005), successful listening materials should allow opportunities to interact, to produce output, and to think critically while being exposed to culturally accepted themes. Overall, I have to say that I was disappointed in NorthStar. With very little priority given to output and speaking (not to mention the inappropriateness), the textbook was not at all what I expected it to be, nor was it what the introduction promised it would be. According to Goh and Burns (2012), Learners should be encouraged to plan, monitor, and evaluate their speaking development, but none of these strategies were included in this particular textbook (p.142). This textbook review made me more critical and aware of students general needs and what would be suitable for classroom use. I do not currently have a class of my own, but I think this book would be problematic in any language classroom. Therefore, we should take time to review textbooks before considering bringing them into our classrooms (see appendix for further details).

References

Flowerdew, John & Miller, Lindsay. (2005). Second Language Listening: Theory and Practice.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0521786478 Goh, Christine C. M. & Burns, Anne. (2012). Teaching Speaking: A Holistic Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-1107648333 Littlejohn, A. (1998). The analysis of language teaching materials: Inside the Trojan horse. In B. Tomlinson (ed.) Materials Development in Language Teaching. Cambridge: CUP, p. 190-216. Merdinger, P. & Barton, L. (2003). Northstar: Focus on Listening and Speaking (Introductory). White Plains, NY: Longman.

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Checklist
Factual Information Title:North Star: Focus on Listening Year: 2003 Level: Introductory Class: n/a Page Length: 184 Unit Length: 16-20 pages Target Skills: Listening/ Speaking Price: n/a Organization yes somewhat no Chapters/units/sections are organized by difficulty. Chapters/units/sections are in coherent order. Table of contents is informative and clear. The textbook includes an answer key. Units can be taught independently Comments:

and Speaking (Introductory)

x x x x x

Chapters are not organized in any coherent order. style was ambiguous (also includes transcripts)

Context yes somewhat no Chapters/units/sections are relevant to students needs. Chapters/units/sections are culturally appropriate. Topics/Themes are authentic. Comments:

x topics were too randomized and inappropriate x themes were not suitable for an ESL classroom the Fieldwork section invited students to use the lesson outside of the classroom x Many students would be offended by the topics chosen

Chapters/units/sections are relevant to students needs.

Interactiveness yes somewhat no Do activities require students to participate? Comments:

activities call for partner work, but could have been done individually

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Is there a balance between individual, partner, and group work? Does the book give students the opportunity to develop skills outside of the classroom?

x most activities were listening fill-in-the-blanks that could have been done alone Fieldwork section

Teacher Information yes somewhat no Is there a clear teachers guide/ introduction for instruction? Are units teachable directly from the book? Comments:

x x

introduction is informative about the series Lots of scaffolding would be needed because topics are not at all related

Are there any practice tests? Overall

yes somewhat no Will the book be suitable for your classroom?

Comments:

Does the book need a lot of supplemental material?

x No, I dont think it would be suitable for any language learning classroom because of the topics There were not any videos involved, and themes need scaffolding x only black and white pictures, text heavy

Were instructions easy to follow? Was there a sufficient amount of graphics as compared to text?

General Comments: Maybe some units could be taught in the classroom, but I would not use this as a main textbook.

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Checklist References Littlejohn, A. (1998). The analysis of language teaching materials: Inside the Trojan horse. In B. Tomlinson (ed.) Materials Development in Language Teaching. Cambridge: CUP, p. 190-216. Sheldon, L. (1988). Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials. ELT Journal 42 (4): 237-246. Grant, N. (1987). Making the Most of Your Textbook. Harlow, Essex: Longman. Tucker, C. A. (1975). Evaluating beginning textbooks. English Teaching Forum 13 Special Issue, 355-361.