Originating from a concern with the quality of teachers' guides that accompanying English language course books, this report examines the amount of importance they are accorded and the type of information they contain. The first section discusses the demands that the guides' assumptions make on the teacher in terms of the teacher's knowledge, the teacher-learner relationship, teaching techniques, and classroom management. In the second section the focus is on the practical support that teachers require in order to be able to handle communicative materials and on ways in which that support might be supplemented. The third section analyzes the results of a questionnaire that was distributed to practicing English language teachers in a number of countries. Finally, the fourth section presents a framework of basic features that teachers' guides could contain and briefly examines examples of guides written for current English language teaching materials. The framework of basic features includes the following: attitude to language; attitude to language learning and teaching; background information; linguistic information; rationale for methodology; implementation; evaluation; usability; supplementary work; and practical effort. A questionnaire on the use of teachers' guides to English language coursebooks is appended. Contains 50 references. (LB)