If you’re into predicting the future, and you’ve already digested my five TEFL trend predictions, have a go at Alex Case’s how the future of textbooks has to be.
He says that some of the most important new-ish knowledge about learning has not really been incorporated all in one textbook…and he has some answers.
First of all, what’s this new-ish knowledge on learning? In his words:
- What we teach is not the same as what students learn
- There is a long delay and many stages between coming across the language for the first time and mastering it
- People learn differently and so learn different things at different speeds
He goes on to suggest how textbooks themselves, workbooks, and also tests need to change to better reflect this current knowledge.
I especially like his suggestions for textbooks to break grammar points down, so they resemble bite-sized chunks rather than the family-size portions they come in now (if I understand and summarize this correctly). Granted, current textbooks are probably an improvement on past ones, but I’m with Alex here on breaking it down more. Why?
“… an approach where the stages are clearly divided also frees us up from having to use all those stages all the time and allows us to judge with each grammar point etc. whether students would benefit more from polishing something up or seeing something new, depending on our aims.”
I quote this with joy because, over at a site that rhymes with ESL ashtray, someone called me a “teacher without a clue” when I attempted to explain something along these lines. To be fair, I was nowhere near as coherent as Alex, so I will put my voodoo doll away and save this quote for another fruitful online mud-slinging fest.
I do not have strong feelings on improving workbooks, but Alex’s ideas on testing?
Someone frame this and put it up on the wall:
“if you train the students mainly to cope in real life tasks but then grade them on a grammar test they are going to feel they are being cheated and that you don’t really believe in the method you are using.” If you’re new, and haven’t mastered a strategy to focus on real life tasks but still fit in the grammar and vocab that’s on the test, you may find out what it’s like to have several students fail.
He suggests some simple but good ways of changing standard tests (“write seven kinds of weather”, rather than “fill the gaps with these weather words”). I will add “my” one suggestion here – I use “” as I can’t really claim this as original - include a speaking component in the test. This is probably more connected to the teacher’s or the school’s decisions than the book, but I think a good textbook of the future could include ideas and tips on how best to do this. I’ll try to post soon about a speaking test which I had the chance to see in action.
My only questions are: When will all this become available in textbook form of New TEFLtasticWay Student Book and Workbook…and can I have a discount?
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I feel your pain with the ESL Au Lait crew- they are like a pack of jackals getting their teeth into someone! The great thing about the net is that you can just totally ignore what they say and carry on with your original point. It drives them to more rage but there is nothing they can do…
Ha - I like the nickname. I do have to practice my “ignoring” skills more, but the Cafe has temporarily fallen out of my good graces, if that is a correct expression. I’m sure I will return, but … blah…
From the research, it doesn’t seem students have much success in accessing the grammar rules they have been taught and turning them into accurate communication.
Just look at personal pronouns of gender. In a 20-minute lesson a teacher can explain how “he” and “she” works. But you will find students still making mistakes with this for several years.
It must be one of the simplest grammar rules that can be taught. It is very simple to understand. Yet, when students are communicating they have trouble accessing those rules that would enable them to avoid the mistake.
So from my reading of the research it seems that students must assimilate the language through a lot of exposure to it. We actually learn things that were not taught to us.
Let’s look at Alex’s first sentence:
“Looking back on my 12 years of teaching English, if it is not just old age speaking I could swear that the first couple of years after I did my initial certificate (CELTA) were a golden age for EFL textbooks.”
Looking back on my
I could swear
golden age
These three examples of language above and other idioms and phrases that we know are things that were not taught to us. I doubt any teacher gave students lessons on how to say “Looking back” yet it is a natural part of our language. It is also doubtful that we actually taught ourselves these things, that we said, “Hmm, I like this ‘looking back’ thing I just read in this book and I need to remember to use it sometime.”
So we can see that students can learn a lot that is not taught yet take years to learn what is taught.
INSIGHTS-INTO-TEFL.blogspot.com, DAVEKEES.blogspot.com
12 years ago was the Golden Age? I am in the process of completing my MEd TESOL (in the next 10 days) and dissertation addresses how English-speaking culture(s) is(are) taught in a sampling of popular ESOL coursebooks. I have to admit, though I do see some good books out there, the majority are just marginally better than those released in 1998 when I started teaching and did my cert TESOL.
I would agree that in many ways they are slightly better- syllabuses that cover the points that were left out before, more components, a more sensible attitude to how authentic texts have to be, less Euro-or UK- centric etc. What they are not is inspiring! Also, there are more silly little errors in the answer key etc. than there used to.
Thanks for your comment, Dave. I agree that it can be surprising how much students pick up indirectly compared to how much they gain from explicit teaching.
As for this golden age point - I read it like “textbooks got much better then but haven’t really improved that much since then”.
I have to say coming across those mistakes on the spot (ie when students tell me I’m wrong!) is what has inspired me to stay on my toes and do the exercises all myself!
Good luck with the last week of the MA, Cairogal.
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