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,
collecting information, analysis of the information collected, and conclusions and recommendations.
To make it easier to understand, the steps are shown in the figure below.
1 Step 1: Description of the task
A clear description of the task to be evaluated is required in the evaluation process. To achieve that, specifying the content of a task input,
procedures, and language activities and objectives are needed. Step 1: Description of the task
Step 2: Planning the evaluation
Step 3: Collecting Information
Step 4: Analysis of the information collected
Step 5: Conclusions and recommendations
Figure 2.4: The Materials Evaluation Process
2 Step 2: Planning the evaluation
It covers the consideration of how the materials developers will evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the task. Planning the
evaluation is aimed to achieve a systematic and principled evaluation. 3
Step 3: Collecting Information This step considers on what information to collect, when to collect it,
and how to collect it. There are three types of information will be needed to be considered in a task evaluation: a information about how the task
was performed, b information about what learning look place as a result of performing the task, and c information regarding the teacher’s and the
learner’s opinion about the task. 4
Step 4: Analysis of the information collected The important decisions facing the evaluator in this stage of
evaluation is whether to provide a quantitative the use of numbers, the task rate or a qualitative whether the task has been accomplished
successfully or not analysis of the data or both. 5
Step 5: Conclusions and recommendations Conclusions refer to what has been discovered as a result of the
analysis, while recommendations concern proposals for future teaching. Separating the conclusions and recommendations enables a user of
evaluation to determine whether the recommendations are valid in the light of the stated conclusions. It allows the user to agree with the conclusions
yet disagree with the recommendations.
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