Job Discussion Forums

[Deconstructor]

Witness the consequence of pressing the wrong keys!!!!

[Guy Courchesne]

Are you saying that you don't find benefit in teaching/practising structure?

I've had some one-to-one classes where students initially requested conversation practice only but later realized that there would be benefit in seeing grammar models to back up the text or conversation, with which I strongly agree.

[Deconstructor]

[Justin Trullinger]

Dear Decon, Please publish the textbook! I think it would offer really interesting ideas, as well a a laugh.

In the meantime, you can't eat the "healthy bit" of a Big Mac, without getting the other crap besides. I'm fully capable of taking the "good activity" out of a textbook, and leaving the rest in the resource library.

Justin

[Deconstructor]

[Deconstructor]

[Guy Courchesne]

You're very correct that ESL/EFL materials most commonly used out there could stand to be far more 'authentic' than the canned claptrap it can be. But, they can be supplemented, as JT points out.

One benefit you can't ignore in using a designed program is the month-to-month, level-to-level, year-to-year progression of difficulty built in. A series like New Interchange, I find, moves nicely from Intro to Level 3 and offers lots of opportunities for recycling. The audio clips are not good, agreed, but if you work with larger groups, it's easy to monitor progress with a good marking scheme with frequent checkups.

New Interchange seriously lacks authentic reading though, and this is where you should bring in the net.

[Deconstructor]

[ls650]

[Deconstructor]

[some waygug-in]

I read somewhere that these textbooks are designed to help train newbies more than to be good teaching resources.

For people new to teaching (as a good percentage of EFLers are) these texts give them a place to start with something that is structured and organized.

No textbook is going to satisfy everyone. Students need materials that are relevant to their own lives and situations and your average ESL/EFL text is not. However, for a new teacher they do serve as a basis for some kind of structured lessons. It's up to us as teachers to try and make the material more relevant, or if that's not possible, to try and bring in supplimentary material that students can relate to.

[Deconstructor]

[Crab]

Sadly, publishing companies are among the most conservative, risk-averse outfits you could ever hope to find. I mean you'd be hard-pressed to get them to kiss without a condom let alone, well, you know. This is why the same crappy textbooks get recycled over and over again. They're safe.

It is certainly frustrating because the majority of experienced teachers don't like most of the textbooks that are available, but due to administrative pressures and time constraints, have no choice but to use them. Decon, you are lucky you work in an environment which supports philosophically and financially) the use of original materials by instructors.

The only exception I have found to the rule that major publishers create boring and unispired tetbooks is Macmillan Language House, a subsidiary of Macmillan UK. MLH is based in Tokyo and produces a number of unique and "out of the box" textbooks exclusively for the Japanese market. Admittedly, some of what they produce it also crap, but at least it smells differently.

In fact, Deconstructor, they may have published the textbook that you would like to see. It was my favourite when I worked in Japan and was organized entirely around conversation strategies (not themes or tasks).

So, while not all textbooks are the same, you have to look really hard to find the ones that are truly different and of high quality. Too bad they don't get marketed to the extent that New Interchange does

Maybe we should boycott all of these buggers until they start making the kinds of textbooks that teachers believe will help them to meet their curricular goals.

Best to all!

[Deconstructor]

[Crab]