newheadwayseries

Language teaching is a complex process which contains certain conditions without which an effective and sufficient learning can not be achieved. Among these conditions; the students themselves, the teaching process and the materials and the results of teaching exist. Each of these conditions above has an inevitable importance in the learning process; however, the main focus of this work is going to be on the materials which help both teachers and learners in managing with language tasks. Out of the materials used in the classroom, especially the coursebooks with their different aspects are going to be examied and evaluated in terms of the given criterias for this important task, since coursebooks mainly play the role of a guide for the teacher and a prompter for the students allowing them to encounter of a wide range of usages of language in real life under social circumstances.

Provided that a coursebook suits with the criterias of a successful one it can be so beneficial for teachers and for students that the guidance of the coursebook will bring about better results at the end of the teaching; whereas, if the coursebook cannot prove to be well enough to procure a good opportunity for learning, then it will be meaningless to try to make use of such a book for teachers. Consequently, it becomes very important to know how to choose a good coursebook and to be familiar with the criterias in evaluating them.

In this work, the New Headway Series are going to be evaluated so as to find out whether it proves to be a quality coursebook. There are seven parts in this work and in each of them a different subject is taken in hand, then examples are given after each criteria is mentioned. At the end of the work the appendix section is going to serve as a displayer of each example of the items in different levels of the books.

PART 1 DESIGN AND ORGANIZATION

1 Components of the Coursebook Package

New Headway series are written by Joan and Liz Soars. Elementary and Pre-Intermediate levels both contain 145 pages, and Intermediate and Upper-Intermediate levels both ınclude 160 pagesi and Advanced level ıncludes 170 pages.

Coursebook package consists of student’s book, teacher’s book, teacher’s resource book, video guide,video, activity book, workbook and cassettes. Student’s book is used as a basic element of the course to contact with students.Teacher’s book has an important place for the teacher to provide detailed information.It presents the best appropriate order to make the course effective. Workbook provides learners with with more and more practice and grammar activities. Cassettes are used for developing learners’ speking and listening skills and providing them with a better pronunciation.

All these parts of the course package work together though the student’s book is the center of the course. Student’s book has a great deal of activities which give directions for both teachers and students. All the seperated parts are put in an order through the whole package.

For example: At the beginning of the New Elementary Headway student’s book starts with a “reading and listening” activity that supplies a relation with a seperated part of the package, the casette. Whenever more practice is needed,then the workbook can be used.

While getting prepared for the lesson, teacher can benefit from the teacher’s book, yet video, video guide, and activitiy book are all available as optional accompaniment to the course for Pre-Intermediate level.The video is linked to the syllabus and consists of mini documentaries on topics that reflect these in the student’s book and situational language such as in a shop and in a pub(For example: Pre-Intermediate: ‘Shop’ p.30 )

2 The Organization of the Content

The continuity of the books changes according to their level. As far as the elementary level is concerned its organization is different from the Pre-Intermediate level. In elementary level the content is planed in order of grammer, vocabulary, skills work, everyday English and writing. However, in Pre-Intermediate level the content is organized according to grammer, vocabulary, everyday English, reading,writing,speaking and listening. In Pre-Int. level, seperated skills are seen, whereas in Elementary level there are integrated skills. The reason might be related to students’ knowledge about English. For example: In elementary level, listening activities are done within a reading passage or a dialogue. Therefore, it is seen that there is a guided listening activity, because students’ level is not appropriate for a listening activity.( Elementary p.20)

New Headway series contents are completely new and this represents a break in what a Headway student’s book traditionally looked like. They are cleaner and fresher, and activities are easier to follow.

Every unit starts with a title which includes many activities. There are communicative activities that make students speak and put them in the center of the lesson. Consequently, it can be said that the organization of the content is done ın accordance with the functional and communicative approaches.

3 Suitability of the Organization of the Coursebook for Students & Teachers

The organization of the coursebook is easy for teacher to present the structures and to practice them. Thus, the suitability of the coursebook makes it easy for students to understand the activities, the structures and the unknown items. New items are presented many times to be stored in long-term memory.

For instance, Simple Present Tense is recycled until the unit seven in different aspects and then it is compared with Simple Past and Present Perfect Tenses in Elementary level. Hence, new items are ıntroduced many times in context to make the structure comprehensible for students.

Revision is frequently done to be stored in long term memory. It is sufficent for comprehension.

4 Squence of the Content

4.1 Recycling and Revision

As it is mentioned above, Simple Present Tense is recycled over and over in various aspects to be stored in long-term memory and to ne able to realize the differences between Simple Past and Present Perfect Tense.

There is a list of words that appear in each unit of the New Headway Pre-Intermediate level. A copy of the word list of each unit can be given to the students for revision. It is probably best given towards the end of each unit as an aid to revision. Some very useful words are repeated for revision.

Extra ideas and songs section with notes on how to use them after Units 1-4,5-8,9-12 and 13-14.

There are four ‘Stop and Check’ revision tests which cover the afore mentioned units. Additionally, there are also ‘Progress Tests’ which cover Units 1-5,6-10,11-14 for revision.

The workbook is an important component of the course. It revises the grammatical input of the student’s book and contains the writing syllabus.

Being incomplex, the content sequence increases learnability. Rcycling are sufficent for new-item-comprehension.

4.2 Reference Section for Grammar

At the end of the student’s book grammar reference sections for each unit are found. In every unit, there are ‘ Grammar Spot’ sections which are mix of explanations, questions and self-check tasks to reinforce the grammar being taught in elementary level ( p.8). ‘Starter’ section is designed to be a wormer to the lesson (In Elementary p.20, in Pre-Intermeiate p.30). It is a student centered activity and always has direct relevance to the language to be introduced to the units. It helps focus students on the topic or the key language point of unit. It also enables the teacher to find out how well the students can use the language of the unit.

There are also irregular verbs and verb-patterns at the back of the books as a grammar reference section. (For example: Elementary p.142)

5 Clearness of the Layout

It is easy to follow the book since there exist instructions to find your way during the course. Sequence of the content moves from familiar to unknown. There are lots of presented skills to comprehend the structures and to make the layout clear.