Resumen de Tracking trends in coursebooks for young learners
Learning materials, often in the form of a coursebook and its supporting components, can be seen as the principal tool used by the teacher at the interface between the curriculum and the classroom, impacting enormously on the effectiveness of teaching and learning, and are therefore a crucial factor in successful classroom teaching and learning. In 2014, in ELTJ’s Young Learners Special Issue, Annie Hughes reviewed five courses for very young learners (YLs) (Hughes 2014). Given the increase in prominence of teaching YLs in the past couple of decades, it seems high time to look carefully and critically at some coursebooks commonly used in YL classes around the world to identify strengths, weaknesses, and trends.
This survey review analyses seven current YL coursebooks written for a global market, focusing on the lower levels of these, which are a likely match for children aged from five or six to around eight years old, commonly at the beginning of formal primary or elementary education, or ‘lower primary’. They will be learning English in a variety of settings, such as a mainstream school setting or privately, such as in a conversation school setting, both of which may involve in-person, remote, or blended classes. I begin this survey with an outline of the history of YL coursebooks and then enlarge and explain the four groups of factors which played a part in the evaluation, and the principles arising in each factor. I then present a detailed review of each coursebook, and end by identifying trends and commonalities.
