The materials development forum is having a lively discussion about the future of the coursebook and its role in providing a syllabus for teaching http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2009/forum/future-course-book?page=1#co... Many of the comments centre round the generic nature of coursebooks and the fact that they do not address the needs of learners in specific contexts.

This makes me wonder whether EAP contexts are more diverse or less diverse than General English contexts. Perhaps university study through the medium of English is actually fairly uniform wherever it is found and we could design a generic coursebook to suit most contexts for EAP.

What do you think about this?

And do you have any favourite coursebooks you return to often in your EAP teaching?