Towards An Evaluation Of Language Instructional Materials Within The Context Of Eastern And Southern African Languages: A Theoretical Perspective

Abstract

No one doubts that evaluation serves an important role in the teaching and learning process. In particular, evaluation of instructional materials dictates the way in which learning takes place. There is now widespread agreement among evaluators that none of them can reasonably claim to operate from a value-free position. The thesis of this paper is that all participants in the process of teaching and learning should be involved in evaluating programmes and materials used to teach them. The paper observes that those involved in language instructional materials evaluation will often ask different questions and explore different, possibly even conflicting criteria for judging the "failure" or "success" of instructional materials. The paper looks at the evaluation likely to be performed by participants. It proposes ten categories of participants and these are: (1) the consumer of the programme (i.e. the pupil); (2) the parent; (3) the deliverer of the programme (i.e. the teacher); (4) the head of the institution; (5) the college lecturer (as a teacher trainer);