Thinking globally, acting locally: Selecting textbooks for college-level language programs. 8 0 obj This would not only help with student’s writing, but also in other areas as well such as speaking. New titles have been evaluated and ordered but they will arrive too late to be of any use with my current classes. One possible explanation for the increase is that students acquire new words incidentally through reading thousands and thousands of words every day. 6 0 obj For whom do we write the curriculum? As has been mentioned a few times now, whatever limitations a coursebook has, we can work around them. For the first time since the early days of my teaching career, I have started to wish I had access to coursebooks. 4 0 obj This allows for greater autonomy in the learning process. True, coursebooks may over-generalise at times or focus so much on target language that it loses an element of authenticity, but I generally find it easier to address those shortcomings than the ones in my own materials that don’t become apparent until too late (Of course, my own materials have the advantage that I can go back to them to edit and revise but that’s another discussion for another day). For example, if the class is reading a short story, the teacher can use class discussions as a form of conversation practice. Nation (2001) claimed that when learners read, they not only learn new words, but they can also develop their syntactic knowledge as well as general knowledge of the world. This would be a great help to those inexperienced teachers who are just getting started into teaching. This means that in a typical semester, students only receive between four to six different types of grammar instruction, a number far behind from what they could have been studying if the students had a grammar textbook where they can study a different unit every week with lots of practice activities. Therefore, what could teachers do to improve their courses when they are restricted by the ESL course book assigned to them by the administration? Revisiting print exposure: exploring differential links to vocabulary, comprehension and reading rate. With no computers in sight in the teacher’s room that meant hundreds of hand-crafted creations (including a few of my own – click here to see my ‘early’ efforts!). %���� %PDF-1.5 Other recent studies have also shown that students who participated in extensive reading increased gains in the areas of vocabulary knowledge ( Hirsch, 2003; Horst, 2005) as well as in reading comprehension and reading fluency ( Hirsch, 2003; Iwahori, 2008; Sheu, 2003). <>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 595.32 841.92] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>> endobj They do not have to be followed completely (though it is easy to see why some people end up doing that with the carefully laid out teacher’s books and ready-made lesson by lesson plans) nor do they need to be covered sequentially. Taking a moment for a selfish thought, this is the main aspect I miss at present. The current library of resources is a mix of grammar exercises and editions of books that have been around longer than I have been teaching. ABSTRACT. Why? According to Cheung and Wong (2002), the major premise of an academic curriculum should aim at developing students’ intellectual abilities in subject areas that are most worthy of study. Iwahori, Y. Relying on the course book to provide the students with adequate knowledge of grammar would not be enough, especially when a teacher spends between two to three weeks to cover a single unit of the course book. However, inappropriate use of course books may de-skill teachers and tire students. If you click accept my preferences we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on our website. This would greatly increase and develop the student’s language ability. The following suggestions are proposed to make any English program that relies on ESL course books more effective. A good example would be in the study of grammar. … I soon became frustrated with the repetitive approach of published materials, the quickly out-dated texts, the unnatural sounding dialogues, and the over-generalised grammar ‘rules.’ When the opportunity to deign my own skills course for young learners came up, I jumped at the chance to ‘teach unplugged’ with a materials light course based on building upon the learners pre-existing knowledge and encouraging them to put their language to use. endobj Moving on to secondary students, the coursebooks became heavily exam-focused packed with study skill tips, ‘grammar bites’, ‘culture corners’, and ‘phrasal with Francis,’ one of the photo story characters. It is not simply a case of finding a relevant text or video clip; it is a case of having to find a text or video clip that is both age and level appropriate and contains examples of the target language to extract and analyse. endstream Of course, the material within the main pages of a unit may not be sufficient to facilitate understanding for every student. Finally, ESL course books are the cheapest and most convenient ways of providing learning materials to each student (Kayapinar, 2009). After a few lessons, many students may find the learning process boring and uninteresting. ��U1_CyÊé��, �P�C,=�Aٿ$oq�Jϯ� ׉R��ힽ\�,�+. 5 0 obj In addition, many inexperienced teachers may find ESL course books to be useful and practical because the ready-made activities and lessons are easy for the teacher to prepare. x��UMk�@���(A����BĊSZb(E=��։M b���%��S�0�7~o�opu5[6_nA^_����y;���(+���q:Q �@� ��༈ڗ�D�=>O'�?��:�,��e0W#�\�A팆�tC��AE>H��vS�b ��*�n=��4#�p!�����A>зe�=���j� ��(���C�?�Ĉ�$��g�4��~-��2d㔐Y�\!�p*�����E��Q�7�����VwY+V�"���`A{���H.�-p�s��5���i7Z �?E!c����Mz�v��o�����p��ϫ�x���g Y�]�@y/L��ȉO�G�Jh�R�,�R�FX���z��3���0ZȘ50�T�Bf-5}��ڗ�)��톔A�����uEy���/��7��&h�L�?�.�LܔF��P��֮�o�0X4t�kkD�y�'�)c�!0��p�E4�B��v)�eX�Z}-_�Ys I have had the opportunity to see the advantages and disadvantages they bring along with the pros and cons of working without them. (2002). Of course, to get the most out of these pre-made resources, there is still work to be done as I rarely take a coursebook page at face value. As an EAL teacher in an international school, I teach a mix of small group and whole class language support sessions. First, the course books have a clearly identified set of achievement objectives which include what the learners are expected to be able to do and what to expect next. Brynes, H. (1988). Having said that, when recurring characters have been done well, they really enhance the course, adding to that sense of structure discussed earlier. The grammar section in each unit of the course book usually does not provide enough explanation or practice questions. Even with teens and adults, recurring video stories and skits have captured my students’ attention and become an anticipated event at the end of each unit. I love looking at sts' language needs and putting a lesson together from various books...in that way, my lesson is sure to be tailor made to my sts. Extension and consolidation exercises may be needed and a few tweaks to ensure more learner-centredness may be required but it takes much less time than sourcing everything from scratch. Kayapinar, U. Give me a coursebook and the bulk of that work is already done. Learning L2 vocabulary through extensive reading: A measurement study. These activities would be more challenging for the students than the question and answer activities found in most ESL course books. From the researcher’s own experiences, there are a number of issues to consider when using ESL course books. Many hours of planning and developing other activities are still required, but these planning and development will benefit both the student and the teacher by making the classroom activities more fun, more interesting, and result in more learning. After all, the students who are using these ESL course books are young adults and they should be gaining knowledge from their readings, not just coming to class to practice English. 1 0 obj The sooner we can get our students to use more correct English, the more confidence they will have. 3 0 obj By increasing the amount of reading, especially reading for pleasure, it can increase both vocabulary knowledge and reading rate, both of which are an important part of reading comprehension (Martin- Chang and Gould, 2008). Once we get to know our students, we can adapt and enhance the materials provided to produce a tailored learning experience. Using course books has its share of benefits and advantages such as having a well organized content with a consistency in the topics and genres for the four … Developing reading fluency: A study of extensive reading in EFL. Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd 2020. Failing that, I often find myself adapting texts to include more examples or remove unnecessarily complex or lengthy sample of prose. endobj Horst, M. (2005). Cheng, D. & Wong, H.W. Measuring teacher beliefs about alternative curriculum designs. There are obviously pros and cons and especially for the lazy teacher, a course book is ideal...but then again, nobody knows your students like you do so supplementing the course book is a must.

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