Choosing a coursebook
Introduction
Choosing a coursebook is one of the most important selections
which teachers can make. Teachers cannot influence their working
lives in many ways. You cannot
choose your teaching hours, your
holiday periods, the classes you teach, the learners who are in
those classes,
or the classrooms you use, but you can choose your
coursebook.
You select a coursebook for your learners and for yourself, so you
first need to analyse your learners’ needs and your own needs.
W
HAT DO YOU WANT FROM A COURSEBOOK
?
Teachers want different things from their coursebooks and they use
them in different ways. Some teachers want a coursebook to
provide everything. They want the teacher’s
book to tell us what to
do, in which sequence to do each activity and how to assess the
progress which our learners have made.
However, some teachers do not want the coursebook to control
their lives. They want to be able to plan
their own lessons or even
their own syllabus. They want the coursebook to be a library of
materials from which they can choose to be used in the ways they
choose.
W
HAT CAN A GOOD COURSEBOOK GIVE THE TEACHER
?
A good coursebook can help a teacher by providing:
•
a clearly thought out programme which is appropriately
sequenced and structured to include progressive revision;
•
a wider range of materials than an
individual teacher may be
able to collect;
•
security;
•
economy of preparation time;
•
a
source of practical ideas;
•
work that the learners can do on their own so that the teacher
does not need to be centre stage all the time;
•
a basis for
homework if this is required;
•
a basis for discussion and comparison with other teachers.