WORKING WITH A COURSEBOOK

Working with a coursebook/ textbook


Le Van Canh
Hanoi National University
Aims of coursebooks
Coursebooks are written:
to give less experienced teachers support and guidance and the control of a well-organized syllabus;
to give more experienced teachers materials to work from.
Factors affecting how teachers use a coursebook
Experience and training
Workload
Institutional policy
The quality of the coursebook
What a coursebook can offer
The syllabus
Teachers working to similar plans, in similar ways
Institutions co-ordinating and monitoring
Preparing tests
A revision checklist for learners
What a coursebook cannot provide
Your specific teaching conditions
Your specific learners’ interests & personalities
No personal relationship with learners.
Using a coursebook
Main areas of grammar, function, vocabulary or phonology?
Things might do in this lesson (S, L, R, W, T)?
Any activities you would categorize as ‘games’ or ‘game-like’?
Any challenge to learners in each activity?
Any activities relate the language to true personal information about learners?
Divide activities into ‘teacher does a lot’; ‘teacher does some things’; ‘teacher does very little’. Visualize yourself as teacher.
Possible classroom procedure (how to exploit)?
Any parts you might omit? Any parts you need to plan carefully if learners are shy?
Any thing you want to add? Why?
How to adapt the coursebook
How to exploit the illustrations
How to handle the pre-task stage
How to make the texts and tasks fully relevant to the learners’ interests and needs
How to make the texts and tasks as appropriate as possible for the learners’ abilities
How to adapt the coursebook
Adapt activities to the learners’ interests and needs
Bring situations to life, perhaps with specific aids or supplementary material
Explain and demonstrate activities and tasks
Personalize the language practice material
Use contexts or topics that are especially interesting or familiar for your learners.
Do something with the book closed first
Adapting the coursebook
Look at the following page (p.20) in Tieng Anh 9 and discuss what the problem is
2. Work with a partner. Imagine you and your partner are visiting Ho Chi Minh City. Ask and answer questions about the things you have done. Use the present perfect tense of the verbs in the box.



Sights Food
Giac Lam Pagoda Vietnamese
Reunification Palace vegetarian
Zoo and Botanical Gardens Chinese
Dam Sen Amusement Park French

Have you seen Giac Lam Pagoda yet? Yes, I’ve already seen it.
Have you eaten Vietnamese food yet? No, I haven’t.
do visit see go eat
Activities and lessons
A basic skill in teaching English as a foreign language is to be able to prepare, set up and run a single classroom activity, e.g. a game or a communication task or a discussion.
Steps in a lesson:
1. pre-activity
2. set up the activity
3. run the activity
4. close the activity
- If the activity is complex and involves more than one step, repeat points 2,3 and 4 for subsequent steps.
5. post-activity