Lost in Translation: A comparative research on Authentic and Translated Geography TTO coursebooks

Abstract

One of the issues in TTO education is selecting an appropriate coursebook. Although translated books (from Dutch to English) conform to the Dutch national curriculum, the books seem ineffective in terms of language acquisition. Alternatively, authentic coursebooks can be used, though they often fall short in terms of the curriculum requirements. In this research we compare a translated Geography coursebook (The Geo) with an authentic one (Geog). We aim to provide a framework of criteria to be taken into consideration when choosing a coursebook, based on pupils’, teachers’ and CLIL experts’ opinions on the language, content and layout features of the books.