Analyzing and Evaluating: A Grade Nine English Language Book Critique

            Working for a life as a teacher and an English coordinator, the “Lebanese Educational System” course was very provoking and appealing to my needs and desires, since compared to the experience that I once had, I usually felt falling within the cracks, especially when I had to work in a new field of curriculum, standards, and design, being unacquainted of prioritizing concept, its integration, and understanding. When I first read the title “Lebanese Educational System” in the list of offered courses I instantly found myself clicking the ‘Register’ button, I believed that the course will effectively answer all my guesses and that it will add significance and meaning to the understanding of what might best work in each and every classroom; as to me each and every class reflected and resembled a whole new explicit world. I proudly admit it, the course was of great influence and it did meet my expectations, now I see myself more confident to choose, especially when it comes to standards, curriculum, and books, what best works for my students, their level, their need, their culture, and many others. To get a clear knowledge of where I now stand, that is to set it on ground, I prepared a critique of a Grade Nine English Language book which not only did I previously study when I was a Grade Nine student, but also taught, during my teaching career. This critique analyses and evaluates the book from two different angles; the first focuses on structure and appearance (form), and the second uses a microscopic lens to surf content (i.e. meaning and function).

            Digging a bit deeper into the book, a closer look to structure and appearance is presented. From its colorful cover page and throughout flipping through the pages, the book proves to be colorful, well organized, and with readable size and font. The pictures in the cover page tackle some of the concepts discussed in the units presented; like: self-confidence, sports, supernatural events, trade, tourism, and many others. To continue, Themes begins with an introduction that states features of the book, a thematic approach, and a brief explanation of the components of the Themes book. Moving on to the ‘Table of Contents’, one can clearly notice an arrangement and series of twelve topics and concepts; respectively, Building Self-confidence, Crafts, Scientific Discoveries, Sports, Mysteries and Supernatural Events, Tolerance, Preserving Our Planet, Trade, The Generation Gap, Natural Disasters, Social Behavior, and  Education, that vary in type; Social, Scientific, Historical, Economical, and Educational, style and genre; Expository text; Social Studies and Sciences, Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Persuasive text, Biography, Myth, Legend, E-mail, Poem, and Drama. (see Themes, p. 8)

At first glance, being the critic, I had to make the ‘familiar’ ‘strange’; that is, I had to make sure that regardless of studying and teaching the book, I still had to deal with the book as if I have never encountered it before; here, two main ideas rang the bell in my mind. First, I believed the subjects could have been better sequenced according to relevance of concepts and their flow, however, after surfing into content, the arrangement that I disliked proved to be purposeful, hence concepts were sequenced, from simple to complex, in terms of meeting standards, goals, language, concepts, familiarity (relevance to students’ prior knowledge), and desired results. A second idea that triggered my mind reflected the fact that if in each and every unit a series of eight lessons followed, and if the book contains twelve units, will a teacher make it to successfully cover all the units and their lessons by the end of the school year? After the experience of teaching the book for three consecutive years and studying it, as a student, I can clearly state that it was impossible to finish all the units, lessons and activities during one academic year. Working more with appearance, it is witnessed that each unit starts with a cover page that has pictures, regardless of being old; in fashion and style, however, each relates and reflects a discussed concept. Under the pictures, some definitions and proverbs follow, these stimulate big ideas that will encourage and motivate students to read. I remember that I used to like those quotes and I tried to use them in my productions of speaking and writing, being a student, and recently, as a teacher, I try to transfer my juvenile admiration to my students too. Concerning the flow of lessons within each unit, I validate the idea that the lessons are related and the end of one leads to the introduction of the other; building the background knowledge of the students, a fact that I really liked. To continue, the lessons in all the units seem to follow some sequence and routine where each lesson starts with 3-4 essential questions that relate students’ background knowledge (the familiar) to the lesson (the new), and the general (basics) to the specific (core). After the essential questions, a reading text follows, and in most times a vocabulary chart, an activity that tests the objective, and some questions about the reading, are presented to check for understanding. At last, a writing task and an assignment end the lesson. It is important to mention that in each unit two to three grammatical lessons (out of the total eight lessons) are presented. Talking about graphic organizers and illustrations; tables, charts, statistical representations, maps and even pictures, all are designed and used to reflect purpose. The illustrator chose to use real pictures and snapshots every time he was willing to reflect a serious reality and every time he wanted to show authenticity, as the case is in the units of ‘Building Self-Confidence, Crafts, Scientific Discoveries, Sports, etc…On the other hand, his choice fell on fiction pictures in the units that discuss legends, myths and mysteries, like the case is in Unit 5 entitled “Mysteries and Supernatural Events”. The closure of the book was about two appendixes that only related to grammar. (see Themes, p.259-262)

            In order not to criticize the authors just because they didn’t write the book that I would have wanted, I decided to judge the book according to what the authors clearly announced, ‘to reflect their intensions’. Diving into content, being the one with the pen and paper, I found it crucial to note down an analysis and an evaluation of what the authors declared to be achieving in terms of what the book is about; the desired results, that is, the clear goals and objectives, that conform to the national standards set by the Center for Educational Research and Development (CERD). Working hand in hand with the standards, makes the book fall into the same sin these standards originally suffer from, the sin of coverage, that tackles the Goldilocks’ theory; where some standards are too big, like ‘Demonstrate critical understanding of spoken discourse’, ‘Demonstrate ability to speak fluently and accurately’, ‘Demonstrate critical understanding of what is read’, ‘Demonstrate ability to write correctly, coherently, and fluently’, and ‘Develop critical thinking skills’ while others are too small, like ‘Develop basic understanding of short passages of spoken discourse’ to be met. (CERD) To add, what is positive about the book, is the fact that it encourages the integration of all language skills, since in each and every lesson one is asked to listen as well as to speak, and read as well as to write, this comes in different and various forms, for example in Unit 1, that talks about building self-confidence, students are asked to listen in order to answer essential thematic questions like; “What is self-confidence?”, “Why is it important to have self-confidence?” What kind of a person would you be without self-confidence?” which are seen as of great significance depending on the intensions behind the desired answers. Moreover, the lesson continues with a reading part ending with writing a piece of journal, all related to the concept of “Building Self-Confidence”. (see Themes, p.10-12) Another point of strength that is seen in the book and validated thought the CERD standards is the focus on the development of: critical thinking; proved in questions like, “Why is it important to work on your self-confidence?”, “At what point in the story do you think T.J’s self-confidence began to grow?”, and “What is the message (theme) behind the poem?” (see Themes, p.10, 16 and 29 respectively), cultural awareness; presented in the reading lesson itself, especially when discussing matters about society, customs, beliefs and traditions like, “How do you feel when people around you support and motivate you to do well? Think of an example from your own personal life and share it” and “How do you feel when people around you show they don’t think you can do something or you are not good enough to do it? Think of an example from your own personal life and share it.” (see Themes, p.13), and study skills like, “In pairs decide which is the main idea of each paragraph in the selection?”, “Reread the selection “Broken Wing” in Lesson 2, and in your group work, organize the events in chronological order.”, and “What kind of tone/attitude does the speaker have? Explain your answer.” (see Themes, p. 16, 17, and 29 respectively)

            Moving to talk about the thematic approach, Themes, from its lessons, vocabulary, grammar, integrated skills, level of critical thinking, and its culture proves to use authentic texts and activities that present a concept based curriculum, but that actually encourage content, this is because their thematic-approach doesn’t fully encourage students to do, use, or transfer the knowledge to gain significant learning experiences, also because more focus is given on teaching than on learning; which can be seen through the vast amount of lessons hoping to be covered in a single curricular year that at its utmost lasts a maximum of nine months, falling in the trap of the “Expert Blind Spot”, believing that when covering everything the students will understand better, or that teaching more is better, which is not true. Although claiming to be of concept-based orientation, unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to prove ‘the degree of Grade Nine curricular integration with other materials’ the book tends to carry, neither had I the chance to check whether it is really about integration or coordination among the resting curricular subjects.

Under the thematic approach title, the authors declare the book to enable students acquire vocabulary and grammatical structures in context. For the vocabulary, it is true that they work on etymology and word derivations, it is also true that most of the vocabulary when compared to the standardized Vocabulary Size test[1] ^{(Schmitt, 2010)} confirm to be authentic (i.e. transferable to real usage in life) and suitable to the students’ level, taking into consideration their English as a Foreign Language reality; here are few examples of the transferable words:  rare, resemble, induced, concealing, etc… (see Themes, p. 43). However, most of the vocabulary although derived from the reading text (i.e. context) is presented in a table with its definition, it is true that the vocabulary were taken from context but it was never dealt as critically asking the students to derive meaning from it. As to say, ‘vocabulary in context’ was a beneficial means, but unfortunately, with ill formed ways; hence outside there, in real life, explicit vocabulary definitions are never served with each and every piece of reading that we might encounter.

On the other hand, whether during my school years as a student, or later, as a teacher, I remember that the grammar of the book was always presented with extra-handouts and sheets that were either prerequisites for the coming lessons in the book, or follow-ups with further explanations and extra-activities; because although going hand in hand with the grammatical standards at CERD and its sequence, yet they were very limited in explanation and practice. To add, being the critic, I believe that the grammar in Themes could have carried a more meaningful consideration, one that treats grammar not only as forms (Morphosyntax; How is it formed?) and functions (Pragmatics; When/why is it used?) in context, but also, one that focuses on meaning (Semantics/Meaning; What does it mean?) as a separate dimension, integrating what has been seen in context (in the book), to what the students  might be needing and using in their real lives. An example to this, the book explains the ‘Conditionals’ lesson derived from the reading text (pp. 252-253) presenting the formula or rule, its function or use, but never encourages students to transfer this knowledge into their lives, for example, by drawing their attention to use the 3^rd conditional and its form whenever they feel sorry about something or whenever they regret something in their lives.

                        After analyzing and evaluating what the book is about, it is time to talk about other aspects that the authors should pay attention to if they are willing to raise a more fashionable and updated  version  of Themes, 2^nd Edition.

Thanks to the rapid knowledge explosion, some lessons in the book have expired, they no longer sound as interesting as they were; as the case was when I was a student, this is clearly shown specially through the units that tackle scientific concepts, those that because of globalization and advanced technology are no longer classified as top ten, even more, they are not mentioned in the whole list. In the “Scientific Discoveries” Unit, although the authors attempt to use content (real topics) to teach English, yet they present out-of-time information; i.e. in a time were laptops, computers and other machines found their way to accommodate blind people, the book proudly insists to crown the Braille as the exquisite and most advanced invention to challenge blindness (see Themes, p. 54-56), also the book mentions visiting the moon as the hottest and latest news in a time were astronauts are paving the way to live there (see Themes, p. 66)

Talking about language, the book presents a clear and up-to-level language that discusses concepts and issues educating students away from politics and religion. The language used fits the level of the students and their need for understanding; however, the presence of small mistakes, although little in occurrence, affect the credibility of the book and students’ trust, especially when it comes to grammar. In the ‘Modal Verbs’ grammar lesson, when they explain the ‘logical conclusion’ part in the examples found on page 102, a complete change in meaning takes place and if the student studies it the way it is presented paying attention to form at the expense of function and meaning, he will definitely be learning what is ungrammatical, unaccepted in grammar; hence grammar isn’t only about rule and form, but about form, function and meaning interrelated, the following is the example:

-The missing ships and planes must have sunk to the bottom of the ocean.
-There must have been foul weather since the planes took off in perfect flying weather conditions. 
-Being experienced pilots, the crew could have lost their way.

From this example, after directing the students to the mistake and its huge effect on the meaning of the sentence, the students will increase a sense of uncertainty, expecting other similar mistakes to occur in other coming grammatical lessons, once they reoccur, the students will be chaotic whether or not to trust the existing information, thus uncertainty is all what they will end to have every time they question the book’s credibility.

There were other minimal typing mistakes, like in ‘Activity 3’ stating, “Here’s the content page of the book the above selection is taken from. In pairs, read the selection and decided (meaning decide) which chapter each paragraph comes from.” (Themes, Unit 5, Lesson 2, p.95) Also, on page 24 under the ‘Simple Present Tense’ title, “… a true or factual atatement (meaning statement)” Another example is depicted in the ‘Word Order’ lesson (p. 130) under the ‘Interrogatives’ title where they mistakenly use a period instead of a question mark for punctuation: “Does the contribution of fossil fuels increase the concentration in the atmosphere of certain greenhouse gases.” Having these minimal mistakes, whose corrections are within the grasp, I wonder why are these old versions still available on library shelves? Why aren’t they just revised, renewed, and reformed?

            To conclude, no book is so good that it has no weaknesses or is free of criticism, a good book will always have some positive aspects that exceed the negative ones, and this book could be a better one if it is carefully taken into consideration. For this, I recommend a newer version of updated pictures, a sincere focus on concept fearless of coverage and content, not only the elimination of expired lessons but their replacement with  long-lasting lessons that focus on concepts not on changing facts , a change in the routine followed in most of the lessons, an actual implementation of learning vocabulary in context; where the top-down and bottom-up successful interactions between the reader and the text are the major factors for the contextual guessing of vocabulary, a serious call for learning, using and transferring grammar with a focus on the interrelation of form, function and meaning along with a more sufficient explanation and wider playground for practice, and a correction of the minimal mistakes that challenge the validity and credibility of the book. 

Reference

(n.d.). Retrieved from CERD: http://www.crdp.org/CRDP/all%20curriculum/English/English_Second%20language%20curriculumn.htm

Ghaith, G., Zahara, M. S., Abou Ayyash, A., Van Loan, A., & Zay'our, A. (2000). Themes English Language. Lebanon: Educational Company for Printing, Publising and Distribution S.A.R.L).

Schmitt, N. (2010). An Introduction to Applied Linguistics, 2nd Edition. Hodder Education, Inc.

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[1] The Vocabulary Size Test (Nation and Beglar, 2007) was designed as a proficiency test to measure total vocabulary sizes. Copies of the test can be found at http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/staff/paul-nation/nation.aspx and at Tom Cobb’s website (www.lextutor.ca). It consists of 140 multiple-choice items with the stem containing the tested word in a non-defining context sentence. Although the test is divided into fourteen 1000-word levels, with 10 items at each level, a learner’s total vocabulary size is found by simply multiplying the learner’s score on the test by 100.

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