Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and identify the problematic areas of the course book syllabus designed for the Think Teen series (3rd Grade) used in Greek Junior High Schools and suggest adaptations to match the new teaching challenges imposed by long distance learning during Covid times addressing a specific target group of students.

The evaluation of the textbook is a creative, seamless process and constitutes an integral part of the curriculum development (Karavas, 2004, p.222). Only through the evaluating process a thorough understanding can be gained and appraise the strengths and weaknesses of the materials used in the EFL classroom in Greek State Schools during e-learning.

Hence, this paper delves into the textbook evaluation complying criteria established by leading experts in the field. It discusses the teaching situation referring to the learners’ profile, their needs and the constraints met. It describes the coursebook which is evaluated according to the model designed by McDonough and Shaw (1993).

Furthermore, it discusses the teaching situation referring to the learners’ profile, their needs and the problematic areas to be improved. It focuses on the areas which are incompatible with the current teaching situation and the students’ current needs. In making the adaptations, the stages of the Task Based Teaching framework were taken into consideration. The tasks and materials intended to be used are presented and explained as well as the grading and sequencing criteria.

Finally, the paper stresses the need to adapting the textbook in order to make it complying to the students’ needs and the curriculum design and concludes with suggestions to adapt the textbook to align with the learners’ profile, current needs and match it as much as possible to the specific teaching context of long distance.

Certain exercises can be modified, omitted, adapted or designed to supplement the coursebook to acquire a more communicative approach and fit the new curriculum demands. Incorporating a number of activities to a given syllabus in order to make it more suitable to the needs of a particular EFL class though long distance learning is challenging because the supplementing or adapted material can boost learning or it can be a “booster” of learning.To this purpose the best practise to achieve effective second language development is to taskify the course book. Aiming at a richer interaction in virtual class, a teacher should use the textbooks flexibly by “taskifying them”, explore what happens when the task is used, get some students’ feedback, adapt it and try again.

Keywords:

Task-based learning, long distance learning, coursebook evaluation, Greek EFT context.