ELT News Think Tank

This Month's Think Tank Panel

Marc Helgesen

Peter Viney

Chuck Sandy

Panelists: Marc | Peter | Chuck
Date: June 2002

Topic: "How can I make the best use of my textbook?"

Chuck Sandy

To interact with a book is an act of creation that shapes and changes both user and text. As we read or interact, we make a text our own both by what we derive from it and what we bring to the act of involvement. This is no less true for a language textbook than it is for a novel, a book of poetry, or a book of essays. In fact, to become involved with a language textbook is by design an act which calls upon users to create meaning while also creating a self which can express itself in a new language. Just as no two readers come away from a novel with the same reading of it, no two learners come away from a language textbook with the same experience. Each reader of a novel is unique. Each learner with a textbook is unique.

Most often we read novels alone in a comfortable place with no direction, no goal except pleasure, and no one to guide us through. Most often we use textbooks in a classroom surrounded by others, with at least a vague goal of achievement in mind, and guided through by a teacher. Yet, though the circumstances are different, the act of creation is the same. A novel is a story we give meaning to by who we are when we read it. A language textbook is a framework upon which we build and give meaning to by who we are and what we’re capable of as we work through it with the help of classmates and a teacher. The primary difference, as Frank Smith has noted, is that while readers moving through a novel in their own language are already members of a literacy/language club, learners working through a language textbook are people who for various reasons desire membership in that club. Whether or not they do become members depends on many more factors than their interaction with a textbook, yet very often the textbook and the way they are guided through it becomes the most concrete bridge to admission.

Just as no two learners have the same experience with a language textbook, no two teachers interact with a language textbook in the same way. Teachers also give meaning to a textbook by who they are and what they’re capable of as they guide students through it. New teachers might feel that the textbook they’ve been given to use is an immutable object with a syllabus and activities best followed the way one follows a map for fear of getting lost. More experienced teachers realize that at best a textbook is a guide, a framework which needs to be built up, torn down, and modified to best suit a particular group of learners to avoid getting lost. Teachers who realize this understand they are involved in an act of creation and create the textbook with their students as they guide them through it.

In order to create something which already exists even as a framework, it is first necessary to deconstruct it. In order to deconstruct it, one needs to know how the framework works. To understand how a textbook works, a teacher must examine its linguistic, thematic, and pedagodical content -- that is the grammar that drives it, the topics it’s built around, and the way the text approaches the act of language learning. A teacher must also examine learner and task factors in a textbook -- that is how the book views learners and how it sets up tasks and activities. Some books view learners as people who are simply acquiring language patterns and lexical tools and need a great deal of controlled guidance. Other books view learners as people who are aiming at language independence and need little or even no controlled guidance. Most textbooks fall somewhere in the middle.

Once a textbook has been examined and deconstructed, it can then be put back together again and recreated. There are several simple ways for a teacher to do this starting at the micro level and dealing with activities, tasks, and content.

Twist Activities/Shift Modalities
Add & delete activity items as needed. Cut out items that are less appropriate. Add new items that are more appropriate. If an activity has ten items, cut it down to eight. Shift modalities by turning written activities into listening activities. Turn written work into oral work. Turn pairwork into groupwork. Turn groupwork into individual work. Do class activities in small groups. Add a follow-up step to an activity. And of course, just delete activities which you feel are not going to work with your students and replace them with something that will. Also, remember that it’s not an act of rebellion to keep the book closed sometimes.

Localize Content
Add items to tasks and activities which reflect local interests. For example, adding items about the World Cup is appropriate in classes where that’s of interest. Adding items particular to a group of learners or a particular school is always appropriate. Deleting activity items (or activities) which deal with content that is inappropriate for your students is always the right thing to do.

Simplify Instructions & Tasks
Break tasks down into do-able chunks. Rephrase instruction lines so that they are easier for students to make sense of. Provide simple graphic organizers on the board or on paper to help students work through listening and reading material.

Offer Choices
Provide more than one way to do an activity. For example, have students decide whether to work alone or with a partner. Allow students to choose which items in an activity they want to work through. Have students decide which of two activities they’d rather do. With vocabulary tasks, allow students to decide upon and choose which items they’d like to learn. With reading texts, have students decide what their purpose for reading is going to be or which discussion questions to focus on. With listening tasks, give students choices of what to listen for. With grammar activities, encourage students to personalize responses or let a sense of humor shine through in the way they respond.

Extend and supplement
Provide more language support or control when needed. Often, a grammar box with examples is not enough, and sometimes an activity designed to be less-controlled will need more scaffolding in a particular classroom. You might also need to build on tasks by providing additional items or additional practice. In the same way, topics of interest might be extended by bringing in additional readings for the class or for individual students. If you make use of the internet, providing such additional reading material is very simple to do. The internet can also be used to locate additional practice material as well as additional listening material.

Finally...
With any luck, you’re using a textbook that’s well designed with activities that have been carefully thought through. Even if you’re lucky enough for this to be the case, it’s important to remember that whoever wrote your textbook never met your students and perhaps couldn’t even imagine the sort of students you have in your class this semester. Therefore, recreation is going to be necessary both on the micro level and macro level. If the textbook you’re using is too difficult for your students, water it down, use it as a guide, make it a point of reference rather than the main focus of the class. If a textbook is too easy, build it up, supplement it, use it to build confidence. Whatever the case, no textbook is going to be entirely appropriate for any given group of students, and no two learners within a class are going to have the same experience with it. If you come to see a textbook as a framework on which to build rather than as some static object you’ve been saddled with for a term, then even the most troublesome textbook becomes something usable. In the end, it’s not the textbook, but what you and your students create with it that really matters.

Panelists: Marc | Peter | Chuck

Chuck Sandy, Chubu University

Co-author of two series from CUP, Passages and Connect

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