REVIEWS 91

inspiration for starting similar exercises on their own. The chapters called “First steps with
a video camera” (chapter 8) and “A note on video hardware” (chapter 10) are, on the
other hand, too elementary. Some further information could have been provided and the
existence of the videodisc and the linking of video and microcomputers could have been
mentioned.
Arne Zettersten

University of Copenhagen
English Department
Njalsgade 84-98
DK-2300 Copenhagen
Denmark

Cunningsworth, Alan, Evaluating and Selecting EFL Teaching Materials. London:

Heinemann, 1984, 104 pp., f5.25. (Heinemann Educational Books).

In deciding about matters of language pedagogy it is becoming increasingly customary to

draw from four disciplines: general linguistics, psychology, psycholinguistics and
sociolinguistics. There is also a growing tendency for foreign language (FL) teaching to
become learner-centred. In terms of the four disciplines feeding into second language
pedagogy this means: concentration on the learner as learner and on the learner as
communicator. For the learner as learner syllabus and coursebook writers should look to
psychology and psycholinguistics, for the learner as communicator they should be guided
by general linguistics and sociolinguistics. The former two disciplines decide the how and
the latter two decide the what of the learning process. In drawing up criteria for the
evaluation and selection of EFL teaching materials it would be wise to be guided by what
the four disciplines have to offer.

Cunningsworth in his book, indeed, bases himself on these four, though not on each of
them to the same extent. Moreover, the nature of this book seems to dictate a rigorous
teacher-centredness. It focuses more on how languages are taught than on how they get
learnt. There is little attention for the fact that ultimately, of course, it is the learner who
does the learning (Holec, 1979). It is a pity therefore that the role played by psycholinguistics
in the building up of criteria for materials selection is so small. It is true that this discipline,
(which, perhaps significantly, is lacking in the glossary of EFL terms at the back of the
book) is called in for the description of the influence on EFL materials of theories of learning
(such as behaviourism and cognitive code). However, what is known by now about how
learners process language data and how, in negotiating meaning, they individually compensate
for sociolinguistic) inadequacies in their language command, is not taken into account. Yet the
stimulation of communication strategies is beginning to play a role in materials writing
(Elaine Tarone, 1984) and should play a role in evaluating them. Perhaps it is unfair,
however, to expect in this book evaluation criteria for materials that are not yet widely
available. Besides, Cunningsworth seems to be aware of how highly individual a process
98 REVIEWS

language learning is as may appear from the following quote: “They (the learners) must
be able to use creatively the rules that they have learned so as to meet their own needs
and satisfy their own purposes” (33).

The role of sociolinguistics in determining the use of language forms increases in this book
as it progresses and finds its culmination point in chapter 9: “Adaptation and Innovation”
which is about making language teaching really communicative. It is oddly disturbing in
this context, however, to read how Cunningsworth sometimes gives the impression that
spoken discourse consists of sentences instead of utterances with all the instability this term
suggests (pages 17, 29, 43 and 48), and how he leaves one with the impression that
correctness, after all, is slightly more important than appropriateness.

Because this book was written to help the teacher spot “both the strength and weaknesses
of coursebooks” and to identify “areas of language teaching which require the use of
supplementary materials” (18), and as most coursebooks on the market are still structure-
bound, the first part of the book, dealing with the what of language teaching and its
presentation is strongly based on grammar. The functional syllabus, quite rightly, is put
in its proper place: “no one . . . can produce a functional course without also teaching
language form. . .” (16). This quote was taken from chapter 2: “The Language Content”
which deals with aspects of language form (phonology, grammar, vocabulary and discourse),
with appropriateness and with varieties of English next to the form-function dichotomy.
In chapter 3 the selection and grading of language-items is discussed. Methodological issues
play a strong role in chapter 4, 5 and 6 successively entitled: “Presentation and Practice
of New Language Items”, “Developing Language Skills and Communicative Abilities”
and “Supporting Materials”. It is a pity that in chapter 5 Cunningsworth does not avail
himself of recent (communicative) ideas for the teaching of reading and writing (see e.g.
Johnson, 1982) and listening (see: Geddes and Sturtridge, 1979; Ur, 1984) and that he has
so little to offer on the use of the video as a support in chapter 6 (see: ELT Documents 1983)*.
Chapter 7 looks at materials from a motivational angle, taking psychological as well as
social and cultural factors into account. In case a teacher wants to assess a course in general
terms without reference to a particular class chapter 8 offers him a range of suggestions
and questions. And, finally, all the criteria for evaluation of materials drawn up in chapters
2 to 8 from all the different perspectives described there, are neatly gathered together for
easy reference in chapter 10. A glossary of basic EFL terms written by Brian Tomlinson
completes the book. It does contain terms like “paradigmatic” and “syntagmatic” but
omits, as stated, names of disciplines like “psycholinguistics” and “sociolinguistics” and
recent methodological terms like “Jigsaw Listening”. There is a very short index in contrast
with the 22 page glossary and a very short bibliography, the most recent entry of which
dates from 1981.

Perhaps the best quality of the book is the sound advice that it offers the user beside the
selection criteria for EFL materials. In the first chapter Cunningsworth very outspokenly
admonishes teachers not to do what they might most wish to do after selecting a coursebook:
stick to it through thick and thin. He tells them not to be slaves of their textbooks but use
them actively: “No teacher should permit the coursebook to set the objectives, let alone allow
‘teaching the coursebook’ to be the objective” (1). He urges them to keep four principles
in mind on which good language teaching is based and on which materials evaluation ought
*For a review of this publication see elsewhere in this issue [Review Editor’s note].
 REVIEWS 99

to take place: (1) teaching materials should match aims and objectives of learners (this
is where, in this reviewer’s opinion, the teacher should involve his learner in deciding what
will be learnt thus making him, as communicator, less dependent and consequently raising
his motivation); (2) care should be taken that materials are selected that will enable learners
to use language for their own purposes; (3) language input should be graded and structured
in such a way that learners get a chance to feel that they are getting somewhere; and (4)
it should be realized that language learning is a highly individual process. Cunningsworth
also warns teachers that the ideal textbook that will help them to live up to these four
principles in their particular situation does not exist and will probably never be written.
Looking for and designing supplementary materials, he justly feels, should be considered
part and parcel of a teacher’s job. As we have seen chapter 9 in this book lends a helping hand.

In this way this unique book with its lucid, if somewhat repetitive, style may not only assist
teachers to responsibly select their course materials but also to develop their thinking about
language teaching in a more creative and communicative direction. The fact that the learner
as learner does not get his full due cannot really change that.

Gerard M. Willems

English Department
Interstudie Institute for Teacher Education
P.O. Box 30011
NL-6503 NH NIJMEGEN
The Netherlands

REFERENCES
ELT Documents (1983) Video Applications in English Language Teaching, Pergamon/British Council.
GEDDES, M. and STURTRIDGE, G. (1979) Listening Links, London: Heinemann
HOLEC, H. (1979, 1981) Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning, Oxford: Pergamon.
JOHNSON, K. (1982) Communicative Syllabus Design and Methodology, Oxford: Pergamon.
TARONE, E. (1984) Teaching Strategic Competence in the foreign language classroom. In Savignon, S. J. and
Berns, M.S. (eds.) Initiatives in Communicative Language Teaching, Reading: Addison-Wesley.
UR, P. (1984) Teaching Listening Comprehension, Cambridge: C.U.P.

Voss, Bernd, Slips of the Ear. Investigations into the Speech Perception Behaviour of
German Speakers of English. Tiibingen: Gunter Narr, 1984, 184 pp., DM 36,-(Ti.ibinger
BeitrHge zur Linguistik 254)

Slips of the Ear is a study of errors made by German students of English in the orthographic
transcription of recorded texts.

The title of the book is, strictly speaking, erroneous. As currently used in the literature
(e.g. Fromkin 1980), “slips” (of the tongue, ear, pen, etc.) are involuntary lapses in