Taped Interview

1 - Do you think coursebooks are important?

I do think course book are necessary, they are good guide for teachers, they can help you
to get many ideas to plan your own lesson and to guide your lesson in the way that you
want, course books would be very good or could very bad depending how you use them, it
can become addict, but that is something else. In a general views are good for guiding
teachers.
2 - What are your criteria for choosing a coursebook?
Lets see At the university level our criteria has to do with the goal we need to achieve, is
the kind of level we want from the student, so based on that , we chose textbook related
to the Cambridge tests. In school it would depends what the stress of English classes in
school, depending on the hours, if I have two hour a week I will choose a very simple
book, if I have six hours a week I will choose a book that will give me more activities
including maybe a work book to work with and audios.
3 - Which part(s) of the coursebook do you frequently use?
I would say almost everything, because books are divided in the four skills, but the most
frequently would be speaking activities then listening, reading and writing in that order,
and also I find the teachers book a very good resource as well.
4 - Which part(s) do you seldom use?
Writing, I do not stress the writing skill that much or the writing exercises, because its a
little bit time consuming for the class.
5 - When do you supplement the coursebook? Why?
When the grammar point or when the structure is a little bit difficult for the students
depending on the level, I would add extra information and when there is time, if I have a
good balance of time and I can do extra activities apart from the course book I usually put
them there, If not, If I find that the topic is interesting and that I already have materials or
that I have thought that lesson or topic before I would use the supplement. It depends on
the topic and it depends on the time.
6 How do you supplement the coursebok?
I use the grammar as a guide and then I bring more exercises related to that I would
create worksheets or I would use the laboratory on the students will work on line the

exercises that they already done on the web mmm and then maybe some in media
practice or practice that the students can do in the moment, yes.
7 What kind of help would you like to have from the coursebook in the teaching
grammar?
Usually the definition of the grammar point are very brief, are not very clear if the student
should learn only from that grammar point I dont think it would be enough, so I would
say that the grammar point should be more explanatory a little bit more, it should have a
little more information for the students, for me its okay because we can find information
somewhere else or we can base also we can trust in the teachers book for that, but I
would say that the grammar should be extend a little bit, its too short.
8 What kind of help would you like to have from the coursebook in the teaching
pronunciation?
When there is a pronunciation or there is a text that it should been the audio, its
important to have the audio and maybe the transcript as well that you can usually get
through the teachers book and that the book brings all the material. The cd-room or the
audio that come from the book, the coursebook audio or the cd.
9 What kind of help would you like to have from the coursebook in the teaching lexis?
Usually brings, shows a lot of words It brings at the end of the book they usually gives
you or at the end of lesson or at the end of the book they usually show a list of words,
usually by alphabet, it sometimes is divided by unites and the definitions are not very
clear, sometime it only have the words and the pronunciation maybe but not the
definition or not the part of the speech, for example it doesnt say if it a noun or a verb or
maybe only that, but theres not definition, but only for the students they could be better
if it is right there like the main words adding a little bit more, the definition should be
there, but if not is not that hard to find it anyway, nowadays the students can use their
cell phone or we can use the computer to find the definition.
10 What kind of help would you like to have from the coursebook in the teaching skills
of the language?
I think with the teaching skills aaah, it depends on the teaching style, you have all this
exercises, you have a topic, you have a way to teach it and then you adapt it to your own
style, so Im okay to have the topic, the grammar point and the exercises and with that I
can get my own point of view when teaching the different language skills, I think I can

adapt it, I like what I see If I like what I see I can expand it or not, so its okay how it
comes, it helps me with the idea and with the idea I can expand it a little bit more.

Analysis
1 The teacher explained that the use of the coursebook depend mainly on the use that it
receive, if the teacher utilizes it in a good way he/she can have good results in terms of
teaching/learning. Also, the teacher explained that a teacher can take many activities of it,
because most of these are good and it can be used as a guide in the class. So he/she
allows the use of coursebooks.
2 The teacher explained that he/she chooses a coursebook depending on the goal of the
course and the level in which it would be used; the numbers of hours and the activities
that it brings it is an important factor as well.
3 The teacher elections of the activities are very accurate, because he/she prefers
activities related to the speaking ability and then immediately activities related to
listening, those skills are very connected because their use reinforce each other and allow
a good complementation in the process of learning a language. The same with reading and
writing which are his/her second option.
4 For the teacher the writing part implies too much time implementing in a class and the
learning process to apply it would be slow.
5 The teacher explained that if he/she considers that the coursebook is too difficult for
students, maybe because they do not have the knowledge for that level of demanding or
the activities are not very well explained mainly in the grammar point, he/she will add
extra activities and information for the class, it is a good idea in terms of facilitate the
process of learning of the students, to make a more interesting class and also to adjust the
time for the class.
6 This answer is similar and it is a complementation to the previous answer, because the
teacher explained that the grammar point could be difficult in coursebooks but he/she use
it as guide for his/her classes, and he/she prefers develop hi/her own method of work in
class, for example, create his/her own worksheets or work in media practice, which is very
useful because we can find lots of activities on internet.
7 The teacher follows his/her posture saying that the grammar in coursebooks is not
good for teaching the students, it is not explanatory, but for the teacher is not a real
problem because he/she is able to find information somewhere else, this is good because

show that the teacher interviewed have creativity in terms of realize activities in class,
also he/she mention the teachers book saying that is a good resource as well in this case.

8 For teaching pronunciation the teacher focuses in the extra resources that the
coursebook should have which is the CD-ROOM, nowadays most of the course brings with
it and it is very useful, because it have the audios and activities related to the specific
level, also the teacher mention the transcript that the teachers book should bring as a
help for them to teach it to students.
9 For teaching lexis (vocabulary) the teacher said that the coursebooks are good,
because it brings the words that the students should know by the end of the lesson, but
there is missing something, it could be better if it brings the definition and the part of the
speech in the list of words that it has. It is really true, because according with the
coursebook that we analized the list of words are normally at the end but there is
nothing else, just the words, and if we do not know the definition we have to use another
resource, but as the teacher said nowadays it is not a problem because the students can
use their cell phone or their computers, it is to find a solution for grammar.
10 For the teacher teach the skills of the language depends mainly on the criteria of
every teacher and their style, every teacher adapts the content of the coursebook and
teachs it in the most comfortable way for them.