using course books for language teaching

Using Course books for Language TeachingLecture # 27

Review of Lecture 26

• We had a discussion on CBI and some of its more commonly practiced models (theme-based, sheltered, adjunct, and SCLT).

• We have situated CBI within the broader paradigm of CLT, articulated the underlying principles of CBI, and shown how these principles mesh with those of the communicatively oriented classroom.

• The classroom extracts illustrate the underlying principles in action.

• They provide a clearer picture of how content and language provide complementary aspects of the curriculum and how the input –rich environment of the CBI classroom can lead to successful language acquisition.

What is a Course book?

• Course books are prepackaged, published books used by the students and teacher as the primary basis for a language course.

• Course books range from those that are broadly focused on the developing all language skills to those that focus on a specific skills such as writing, or specific area such as hotel management.

• In addition to the student book, course book packages may include audio-cassettes or CDs, videos, work books, CD Roms, test packages and internet material.

• A course book is a learning tool shared by teachers and learners that can be used in systematic and flexible ways.

• To use it well, it is important to understand how it is put together and how it can be adapted to meet the needs of your particular learners.

Background to the design and use of course books

Up until the mid twentieth century, language books were mainly used in academic setting to understand the written texts of the target language. This approach is called as grammar translation approach. We saw in GTM, the use of course books for reading passages….

In the 1960s and 1970s, the focus shifted from GTM to Audio lingual Method and grammar.

ALM was the outgrowth of behaviorist theories that learning is habit formation, the result of response to stimuli. Language course books used dialogues, pattern practice and substitution drills in which the teacher provided a stimulus such as a sentence beginning with they and cue she and the learners provided a response sentence, changing the subject from they to she…….

Background to the design and use of course books

• Structural linguistics, which views language as a system

• In the 1970s and 80s, there was a shift toward the notional-functional approach. According to this approach, language was understood to be used for purposes, of functions, such as expressing opinions, and to talk or write about both abstract and concrete topics, or notions, such as time and weather. Communication took precedence over grammar.

• Course books began to emphasize functional language as well as pair work and group work activities in which learners used the language to communicate with each other.

• The development of EAP and ESP also influenced the kinds of materials that were published.

• Other approaches to language teaching have also questioned the effectiveness of course books. The intro of Task based Language Teaching in 1980s ……….

Principles for Using a Course book

1) Understand how the course book is organized•A course book provides a visible outline for what is to be learned in the classroom.

•Course books are described metaphorically as maps.

•Most course books are organized around key features of language.

•These features include topics associated vocabulary, grammar structures and social and cultural interaction skills.

•Course books also emphasize two or more of the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing.


2) Adapt the material

Course books are not written for a specific group of people.

They are written for a generalized target group (e.g for children or adults for use in English speaking countries or in other countries, for beginner, intermediate or advanced levels and so on.

No book can meet all the needs and interests of each group of learners that uses it. For this reason, a course book must be adapted to your particular group of learners.

Acklam (1994, p.12) suggests the following acronym for adapting a coursebook: “ SARS”

SARS on next slide


SARSS= Select; what parts of the course book do you definitely want to keep?

A= Adapt;

What parts of the course book do you basically want to keep, but need to change in some way to make them more suitable for your students, and in tune with your teaching style?

R= Reject;

What parts of the course book do you definitely want to leave out.

S= supplement; what else do you need to bring to the course book to fulfill the requirements of the overall syllabus your are working to, and to respond to the needs of your particular students.


3) Prepare the learners;Preparing the learners means two things, First it means orienting them to the content and purpose of the activity, that is making sure they know what the activity is about and why they are doing it.

Second, it means making sure they understand the steps of the activity, how to do it.

Simply telling the learners the what, how and why of an activity doen’t prepare them.

Preparing the learners means preparing yourself.

What is the context for the acitiviy?


• Monitor and Follow up

Any activity actually has three parts: preparation, implementation, and follow-up.

While the students are doing an activity, you have an important role: to monitor what and how well they are doing.

The easiest way to monitor is to walk around the classroom and observe what they are doing.

As you circulate, you can answer questions, keep track of language problems, offer helpful corrections and make sure they are doing what they are supposed to be doing.

Monitoring also helps you to see if the time limit you set was appropriate and whether it will need to be shortened or extended.


• Build a repertoire

Classroom techniques and tasks

• Survey or map the territory

• Group prioritizing

• Personalizing

• Format shift

Classroom techniques and tasks

• Use props, visuals or realia

• Visual instructions

• Elicitation

• Mistake log

• Group survey

• Activity chart

Using a course book in the class room

• Talk it over

• Talk about…..

Summary

• In this lecture, we talked about some of the ways in which course books have changed through the years, as well as some of the disadvantages and advantages of using course books.

• We talked about five principles for using a course book, followed by techniques that show how to put the principles into practice;

• How a course book is organized, ways to prepare for, monitor, and follow up an activity, ways to adapt and supplement what is in a course book, as well how to build a repertoire of one’s own.

using course books for language teaching

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