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Course books are important material to teach language to students. In an ideal situation, schools provide teachers with all materials required, but often teachers have to create their own material to supplement the course material or to suit the needs of the students. For many students, material created by the teacher is more relevant and suited for learning. These materials can be divided into two groups: 1. Authentic materials: Anything that an authentic speaker hears or reads is described as authentic. They are not designed for EFL students. Since they are not graded to level, the teacher must carefully select what the student must read. Authentic materials are used for different tasks at different levels. Authentic materials are more interesting and motivating. Students gain confidence when they understand them. They can be geared to the interests of a particular group of students. 2. Created materials: They are created by the teachers to either replace or supplement materials from a course book. They are graded to the level of the students. Common created materials include crosswords, word search puzzles, role-play cards, flashcards, gap-fill activities, picture stories etc. Course books usually consists of a set of materials like student?s book, workbook, cassettes, teacher?s book, videos, and other published material. Course books vary from one country to another and it also depends on the availability of the material. There are many advantages of course books. It is less time consuming for the teachers to create new material. It provides a syllabus which is graded to a level suitable to the students. It provides a balance mix of grammar, vocabulary and skills work. The materials are tried and tested before publishing. In spite of many advantages of course books, there are a few disadvantages. Course books does not always fit the needs of the students. Students may become bored. Most course books are designed for use by all nationalities. Teachers should know how to make the best use of course books. The course books should not be used for the entire lesson. They should be supplemented with other material according to the needs of the student. The tasks and the lessons should be balanced. New ideas and activities should be tried in the classroom. There are four different options for course book use. 1. Omit: Teachers must carefully omit parts of the course books if they are not relevant to the class. Care must be taken not to omit too much of the course book. 2. Replace: The teacher may choose to replace the course book with some other relevant material. 3. Supplement: The teacher may add extra material to the course book to extend students engagement with the language. 4. Adapt: The teacher decides to use the same material in his/her own style. A teacher must analyse a few factors regarding course materials like its price, availability, design, methodology, skills, difficulty, syllabus, topics and teacher?s guide.
