Criteria for coursebook evaluation in view of effective development of Intercultural Communicative Competence

Abstract

This paper deals with the design and evaluation of materials for foreign language instruction, with special attention paid to commercial coursebooks for learning English. The author focuses particularly on the effective development of Intercultural Communicative Competence, viewed as a more encompassing concept than an acceptable, communicative use of linguistic resources, but also including a certain psychological stance to others, e.g. motivation to interact with a foreigner, open-mindedness, and some intuitive or trained knowledge of shared cultural assumptions, common themes, values, norms of interaction characteristic of the culture the foreigner interlocutor represents. She proceeds from the theoretical ruminations on the nature of the title competence to an overview of existing criteria for material assessment in view of this competence to finally summarize the paper with her own evaluation checklist.