TEXTBOOKS: HELP OR HINDRANCE IN TEACHING?
By J.C. Richards
ARTICLE CRITIQUE
I-
Rationale for the article:
Even though elements such as the teacher and the
learners have been the focus of several researches during the last decades,
less attention has been given to textbooks used in teaching and learning. But are textbooks really important in
language learning? What is the role of textbooks in the classroom? Do they have
any influence on teachers, learners, and the curriculum itself? Maybe not so
many teachers and language teaching researchers have thought about the
tremendous role played by textbooks but textbooks could be actually considered
as the corner stone of many ESL courses and they could even be the basis of a
great amount of course curricula in different places around the world. And this
is exactly what Richards tries to explain through this article about the role
of textbooks in the classroom and their influence on teachers and learners.
This interesting article is intended to provide an objective
view of the characteristics of textbooks used in the past and at the same time,
compare textbooks used then with the textbooks used now. Another important
aspect discussed here is the responsibility of textbook authors and publishers
toward the learners and teachers and how commercial textbooks could influence
them.
II-
Statements that produced more impact and why. (Write
statements that called your attention and make comments on them)
There are plenty of ideas that called my attention
when I was reading this interesting article but some of the thoughts that
really made me think are listed below:
“Textbooks and
other commercial materials in many situations represent the hidden curriculum
of many language courses”. This statement is true for many teaching
situation in our country. Teachers based their lessons on specific textbooks
without enriching the course with other resources. But what is worse is that
most of the textbooks used are not adapted to the social and cultural
environment we live in
“If teachers
were not allowed to use textbooks, they would need additional training in the
preparation of material”. Nowadays textbooks help teachers save time,
money, and effort when planning lessons. Not all of the teachers are enable
with the qualities needed to create their own material. Thus, teachers who are
asked to avoid the use of textbooks in their classroom should receive a special
training to produce their own resources. In addition to this, producing
resources requires a lot of teacher’s extra time and money, something that does
not exist in many cases.
“Materials
as seen as an essential component of instructional design and are often viewed
as a way of influencing the quality of classroom interaction and language use”.
I agree with this statement since good and well-based textbooks and resources
can affect teaching in a positive way. Nowadays, there is a wide variety of
textbooks based on the latest methodologies that can be used in order to
improve teaching and help learners get better results in their courses.
III- Negative
aspects of the article (if any). Support your answer.
Even though this article is very interesting and most
of the ideas presented are valuable and reliable, I found a points that I don’t agree with. First of all,
the idea that most of the teachers use textbooks as their primary source of
teaching ideas and materials for their courses is not totally true. There are
many teachers who still start planning their lessons from an analysis of their
students’ needs and expectations and who get ideas from their cultural
surroundings.
IV-
Positive aspects of the article. Support your answer.
This article provides teachers with a good opportunity
to reflect on the textbooks being used in the classroom and how these textbooks
affect their teaching environment. It also lets us know the advantages of
today’s textbooks and gives us an idea on how authors and publishers work to
produce effective textbooks.
V-
Application of the principals or examples given in the
article in your classroom setting.
Every language teacher should be responsible of
selecting just those books that can be adapted to the necessities of the
learners without paying attention to shallow aspects of the textbooks such as,
presentation and extension, but to those aspects that are closely related to
learners’ needs and reality. In addition to this, teachers should try to
determine if the methodology they are using in their classroom is in accordance
to the one used in their textbooks in order to find a balance and get better results
in their courses.
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