1 Pedagogical Task
Pedagogical task refers to specially designed classroom tasks that are intended to require the use of specific interactional strategies and may also
require the use of specific types of language such as skills, grammar, and vocabulary.
2 Real-world Task
Real-world task refers to the tasks that reflect the real-world uses of language and that might be considered a rehearsal for real-world tasks.
In addition, Nunan 2004: 56-57 proposes three principal of task types namely information gap, reasoning gap, and opinion gap.
1 Information-gap Activity
It involves a transfer of given information from one person to another or from one form to another, or from one place to another, generally
calling for the decoding or encoding of the information from or into language.
2 Reasoning-gap Activity
It involves deriving some new information from given information through processes of inference, deduction, practical reasoning, or a
perception of relationships or patterns. 3
Opinion-gap Activity It involves identifying and articulating a personal preference, feeling,
or attitude in response to a given situation.
8. Materials Evaluation
a. The Nature of Materials Evaluation
According to Tomlinson 1998: xi, materials evaluation refers to attempts to measure the value of materials in relation to their objectives and
to the objectives of the learners using them. Furthermore, Hutchinson and Waters 1987: 96 define evaluation as the matter of judging the fitness of
something for a particular purpose. Evaluation is basically a matching process between the needs and the available solution. They add that there is no
absolute good or bad, it is only the degrees of fitness for the required purpose. Brown in Ellis 1998: 220 states the important point that any
evaluation can be carried out before, after, or on both occasions the program commences. In addition, McDonough and Shaw 1993 in Ellis, 1998: 220-
221 believe that there are two kinds of materials evaluation namely external evaluation and internal evaluation. External evaluation consists of the claims
made on the cover of the books, the introduction, and the table of content. It will help to determine the intended audience, the level of proficiency, the
content in which the materials’ writers intend them to be used, the way the language has been organized into teachable units, and also the writers’ views
on the language and the methodology. In contrast, internal evaluation deals with the in-depth look at two or
more units. It is aimed to investigate such aspects as the presentation of skills in the materials, the grading and sequencing materials, the kind of texts used,
and the relationship between exercises and test.
b. The Process of Materials Evaluation
As stated before, evaluation is a process of matching needs to available solution, further, Hutchinson and Waters 1987: 97-98 divide the evaluation
process into four major steps as follows. 1
Defining Criteria This step will have been done in the course design stage. In defining
criteria, the questions that should be answered in this step are what bases will you judge the materials and which criteria will be more important. It
will be useful to make the comparison among different sets of materials easier.
2 Subjective Analysis
This step is also done during the course design stage. Subjective analysis covers the realisations of the criteria that the writers want in the
course. 3
Objective Analysis The objective analysis answers the question of how the materials
being evaluated realise the criteria. 4
Matching The last step is matching. It covers the answer of how far the materials
match with the needs. In addition, Ellis in Tomlinson, 1998: 228 divides the evaluation
process into five major steps: description of the task, planning the evaluation,
