This post is based on material originally used in our Delta Module One course, and looks at the advantages and disadvantages of basing your course on a textbook, the alternatives to doing so, and how the textbook might be modified to overcome the disadvantages.
a) i. What are the advantages of basing courses on textbooks?
1. Richards points out that they provide
structure and a syllabus for a program. Without textbooks a program may have no
central core and learners may not receive a syllabus that has been systematically
planned and developed. Clandfield adds that this can
give a course a sense of security, of purpose and achievement as the class
advances through the book.
2. They help
standardize instruction. The use of a textbook in a program can ensure that the
students in different classes receive similar content and therefore can be
tested in the same way (Richards) In addition, if halfway through a course a
learner wants to change class or the group’s teacher has to be changed, the
student or teacher knows exactly what has been covered up to that point and con
continue from where the previous course/teacher left off.
3. They
maintain quality. If a well-developed textbook is used, students are exposed to
materials that have been tried and tested, that are based on sound learning
principles, that are paced appropriately (Richards), that provide graded content suitable for the learners’ level, a
full syllabus that covers language skills and language systems, and a source of
ideas and methodology. Modern teacher’s books come packed with extra ideas,
tips and language explanations, plus “step-by-step” Teacher’s Guides. This kind
of material can help teachers improve their teaching and knowledge of language
lesson by lesson (Clandfield), and is particularly valuable for inexperienced
staff, contributing to their continuing professional development.
4. They provide a variety of learning
resources. Textbooks are often accompanied by workbooks, CDs and cassettes,
videos, CD ROMs, providing a rich and varied resource for teachers and
learners. This “up-to-date aspect” can be engaging
for learners. (Clandfield)
5. They are
efficient. They save teachers time, enabling teachers to devote time to
teaching rather than developing syllabuses and materials (Clandfield) – again,
something that inexperienced teachers may not yet be capable of doing
effectively.
6. They can
provide effective language models and input. Textbooks can provide support for
teachers whose first language is not English and who may not be able to
generate accurate language input on their own. (Clandfield)
7. They are visually attractive and appear
“professionally produced” Commercial textbooks usually have high standards of
design and production and hence are appealing to learners and teachers. (Richards)
yet again contributing to the learners’ feeling that they are following a
quality course.
a) ii. What are the disadvantages
of basing courses on textbooks?
8. They may
contain inauthentic language: Textbooks sometimes present inauthentic language
since texts, dialogues and other aspects of content tend to be specially written
to incorporate teaching points and are often not representative of real
language use. (Richards) Examples of this include the type of exponents often
taught for eg agreeing and disagreeing like “I agree/ don’t agree with
Riccardo” which may make learners sound stilted when they use them, or grammar
“rules” that suggest to learners that forms must be used in a certain way when
the reality is much less clear cut.
9. They may
distort content. Textbooks often present an idealized view of the world or fail
to represent real issues. In order to make textbooks acceptable in many
different contexts controversial topics are avoided and instead an idealized
white middle-class Western view of the world is portrayed as the norm (Richards).
This may not reflect the reality of the learners’ world and makes the book less
engaging for them.
10. They may
not reflect students’ needs. Since textbooks are often written for global
markets they often do not reflect the interests and needs of students and hence
may require adaptation (Richards) as eg the syllabus omits items that Ls need
or includes items which they don’t. For example, the
majority of modern coursebooks follow a very similar grammar syllabus which
forms, if not the backbone, then a very important strand of the course (Clandfield).
This often makes them unsuitable for ESP, BE and 121 courses which need to be
based on the specific needs of the students, and even in GP courses may leave
the students unengaged with the language being taught.
11. They can
deskill teachers. If teachers use textbooks as the primary source of their
teaching leaving the textbook and teacher’s manual to make the major
instructional decisions for them the teacher’s role can become reduced to that
of a technician whose primary function is to present materials prepared by
others (Richards).
12. Richards
also points out that commercial textbooks are expensive and may represent a
financial burden for students in many parts of the world.
13. Coursebooks often contain too much material to
cover in an academic year (Clandfield). Language schools where I have taught often tell teachers, for example, that they
must cover a two-page spread in every lesson, which leaves no time to deal with
the learner’s real learning needs – full explanation of the language in the texts,
recycling and consolidation, a focus on emergent language etc.
b) i.
What are the alternatives which overcome
the disadvantages?
14.
If a course is based on an initial analysis of learners’ communicative and
learning needs and wants, a course can be designed to meet these. These may
draw on published materials (if schools have class sets for group courses, or
if the Teacher’s Guides include photocopiable material), or may be materials
produced by the teacher. However, the course will not be “based” on a single
textbook, thus avoiding disadvantage 10 for ESP and 121 learners.
15.
A “Dogme” approach can be used. The Thornbury and Meddings book “Teaching Unplugged” provides a series of activities that can be used at various levels
to stimulate T/S and S/S interaction. Language Focus and practice is then based
on the “emergent language” which comes up as learners enact the activities.
Thornbury and Meddings argue that has
the advantage of engaging learners more, as they are learning to express in
English what they want to say at that moment, again avoiding disadvantage 10. Thornbury has also
argued that there is no proof that a systematic “Grammar McNuggets” approach to
syllabus design is the most effective way to learn a language.
16.
The course can be based on authentic materials taken from the net or print
sources on topics which specifically interest the learners - and possibly provided by the learners
themselves. The teacher can develop tasks around these materials. Working on
them again engages the learners more, and also overcomes all the other
disadvantages (8,9,11,12,13) mentioned in section b.
17.
In appropriate contexts – eg a state school – CLIL or project based courses can
be run. The language teacher can liaise with a teacher of another academic
subject and “shadow” the content being taught, so that the students learn to
understand, discuss, and/or write about the topic in English. This is another way of
making the course relevant to the learners’ needs outside the language
classroom, and is particularly relevant at secondary level where learners may
be going on to university courses taught at least partially in English – which
now happens in many countries – and therefore need to develop academic skills
in English.
18.
When cost, and possibly quantity of material is an issue (points 12 and 13),
the textbook can be replaced with courses available (free) on websites such as
the BBC Learning English site. This has the advantage that the courses are
designed for self-study, so that even if the web course is too long for the
time available, the learner(s) can continue working on it independently after
the taught course finishes.
b) ii. How can textbooks
be adapted to overcome the disadvantages?
17. By modifying
content (Clandfield) to overcome the problem stated in point 9. Content
may need to be changed because it does not suit the target learners, perhaps
because of factors related to the learners’ age, gender, social class,
occupation, religion or cultural background. For example, the PARSNIPS policy
followed by most publishers means that by just following the book, elementary
learners never learn the words for ham,
pork, wine, beer etc and would therefore be unable to recognise them on a
menu (possibly in order to avoid those dishes) or order them in a restaurant.
In my adult courses with European learners, I have often changed the menus
provided for restaurant roleplays in order to include these.
18. By adding
or deleting content (Clandfield) to overcome the problem stated in point 13. If,
for example, the book contains a large amount of “new” material in every unit
but insufficient controlled practice of any of it, additional controlled
practice tasks may need to be added. Or a course may wish to focus primarily on
listening and speaking skills and hence writing activities in the book will be
omitted.
19. By modifying
tasks (Clandfield). Material in the book may also be re-used in a different way
to recycle language items, again solving the problem mentioned in point 13. Eg.
If specific lexical chunks have occurred and been focused on in a reading text,
the teacher may re-use a paragraph of that text in a later lesson (perhaps as a
dictogloss or running dictation) to recycle them.
