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This unit covered coursebooks and lesson material. Whether to use a coursebook may be up to the teacher and this decision would be based on the pros and cons. Coursebooks are often expected by the students, they provide security and the students may be lost or confused without one. Coursebooks will have a syllabus which is tried and tested and provides progression and continuity while looking attractive and giving many different ideas for lessons. They can however, stifle teacher creativity and induce laziness in the teacher as it may be an attractive prospect to simply follow the course and not create any supplementary materials. Because coursebooks cater to a general audience, it will almost always be better to augment the material by omitting, replacing, supplementing or adapting. The teacher is ultimately responsible for catering the lessons specifically to his/her own class in a way which is engaging and not simply linear as per the book. Created materials are often more interesting for the students and can be adapted to the specific skill level of the individuals. Using Authentic material is another method which can help students develop confidence as the language use may be considered more realistic and intriguing. Authentic material such as books, videos, newspapers etc. can be motivating for the students but will need to be selected carefully as the level may be too difficult for some. If the teacher has the opportunity to select a coursebook, he/she can analyse the price, local availability, artistic attractiveness, methodology (does it easily allow for ESA style lessons?), mix of skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking), difficulty, subject matter of lessons and whether the book comes with supplementary material like a teacher's guide or videos etc.
