Филологические
науки/ 1.Методика преподавания языка и литературы
Довженко О.А., Соловей М.С.
Сумский национальный аграрный университет, Украина
The textbook as agent of change
The textbook is an almost universal element of ELT teaching. The danger
with ready-made textbooks is that they can seem to absolve teachers of
responsibility. The format of the textbook does not sit easily with the
developments in ideas about teaching and learning that have come out of the
applied linguistics debates of the last decades. Having recognized the dynamic
and interactive nature of the learning process, and the individuality of any
teaching-learning situation, the textbook is expected to wither away in favour of
negotiated syllabuses backed up by materials produced by teachers and learners
working together. Indeed, the development of concepts such as the process
syllabus should logically preclude the very idea of a fixed and permanent
textbook. The textbook as a medium should have given way to resource packs and
the like.
Textbooks prosper primarily because they are the most convenient means
of providing the structure that the teaching-learning system – particularly the
system in change – requires.
Textbooks are regarded as effective agents of change. Far from being a
problem, as some educationalists have concluded, the good textbook, properly
used, can provide an excellent vehicle for effective and long-lasting change.
Attempts to do without a textbook (unfortunately, the all too common strategy of many
a reform programme) are more likely to create the damaging insecurity that will
make it more difficult for the individual to accommodate the change. Only the
textbook can really provide the level of structure that appears to be necessary
for teachers to fully understand and 'routinize' change. The move to more
highly structured textbooks is not something to be deplored, but rather to be
welcomed as a natural and beneficial response to a period of rapid change.
It is hopefully clear why, apparently in the face of developments in ELT
methodology, the textbook continues to be the mainstay of ELT provision.
Furthermore, in a period of change the value of the textbook becomes even
greater. The anti-textbook argument appears to be based on a number of
assumptions, which, when probed, appear to have little or no evidence to
support them. Let us look at some of these possible assumptions.
Assumption I: Textbooks are merely a pre-packaged form of classroom
materials. There is at the base of this assumption a belief
that only the needs of the classroom interaction and more particularly the
needs of the learner matter. However, textbooks satisfy a range of needs both
within the classroom and beyond it. Principally, the textbook provides a
structure for the management of the lesson as a social interaction and a basis
for negotiation between all the relevant parties. Textbooks are not just classroom
materials packaged in a particular format. Providing classroom materials is
just one of the functions that textbooks have.
Assumption 2: Maximum freedom of choice is both desirable and desired. Structure constrains
creativity. This is patently not true. Freedom of choice brings with it the
responsibility of making decisions. This both confuses and frightens people.
Thus, both teachers and learners benefit from the security that a clear
structure provides, even though this restricts the options available.
Assumption 3: The fixed format of a textbook makes
negotiation more difficult. In fact, the opposite is the case. For
negotiation to happen, there has to be something to negotiate about, and that
must be as complete as possible, and available equally to all parties of the
interaction. The great benefit of a textbook is that it is visible and therefore
can be freely negotiated.
Assumption 4: The development of more highly structured textbooks leads
to the de-skilling of teachers. There is little evidence to support the idea
that teachers teach strictly by the book. Instead there is variation in
practice that results from teachers' own convictions and preferences, the
nature of the materials they use, the school context in which they teach, the
particular students in their class, and the subject matter and grade level they
are teaching. Most often teachers follow their own scripts by adapting or
changing textbook-based tasks, changing the management of the tasks, changing
task inputs or expected outputs, and so on. Moreover, the teacher's planned
task is reshaped and reinterpreted by the interaction of teacher and learners
during the lesson.
The more secure teachers feel in what they are doing, the more inclined
they are to depart from the given script. The more complex the textbook
becomes, the more skill is required of the teacher in using it. Without the
kind of structured guidance that a good textbook can provide, teachers are
likely to carry on teaching in the same way as they have always done. The
textbook should be seen as a means of 're-skilling' not 'de-skilling'.
Assumption 5: A textbook cannot meet the needs of any
individual teaching-learning situation nor the needs of the individuals within
it. If textbooks should be done away with because they cannot meet all the
needs of a given situation, should teachers be done away with since no teacher
can meet all the needs of any given learner? Given that a reasonable amount of
thought has gone into the creation of the textbook by the publisher, and to the
choice of the textbook by the teachers, there is no reason to assume that any
other materials would be any better, and many reasons why they may be worse.
To sum up, there are a number of implicit assumptions in the arguments
against textbooks for which there is little or no support.
The teacher development potential of textbooks should be recognized and
actively built into textbook design. This will require more research into what
teachers and learners actually do with textbooks and teacher's guides in the
classroom. It is little wonder that such discussion as there is about ELT
textbooks is generally so ill-informed. We need to know what the role of the textbook
really is in ELT.
Just as textbooks (or at least their producers) need to find out more
about the teachers' needs, so teachers need to learn more about textbooks.
Teachers should become good 'theorists', who understand not only how, but also
why something is done. In particular, we need to abandon the generally hostile
attitude to textbooks that pervades much teacher training, teachers should become
better consumers of textbooks, be able to evaluate textbooks properly, exploit
them in the class, and adapt and supplement them where necessary.
Довженко О.А.
Домашня адреса:
40030 м. Суми, пр. Лушпи 14, кв. 90
Місце
роботи:
викладач кафедри іноземних мов
Сумського національного аграрного університету.
тел. роб. ( 0542) 22-24-48, (кафедра 230)
Соловей М.С.
Домашня
адреса:
40030 м. Суми, вул. Кірова, буд. 6, кв. 47, тел. 8
(0542) 27-18-83
Місце
роботи:
викладач кафедри іноземних мов
Сумського національного аграрного університету.
тел. роб. ( 0542) 22-24-48, (кафедра 230)