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Articles |
Reading in recent ELT coursebooks
BA in English Philology from the University of Santiago, and an MA in TEFL from the University of Reading. She has taught EFL at secondary level in Spain. Her current interests include EFL reading, grammar, and translation.
This paper presents an analysis of the reading component in a representative sample of ELT coursebooks for intermediate level and above, published in the last ten years. It examines the way those coursebooks reflect current theories on foreign language reading in their treatment of the reading skill. Based on the instructional implications of interactive models of reading, the analysis focuses on the attempts to develop both lower-level processing skills and higher-level comprehension and reasoning skills in EFL learners. From this analysis, it is concluded that, in general, the coursebooks seem to reflect current interactive views on reading, although they differ in the number and type of activities included, and are deficient in various ways. This implies that EFL teachers need to supplement deficient reading activities to help learners become efficient readers.