How to use textbooks

1.1 What are the different options for textbook use?

When teachers open a page in their textbook, they are to decide whether they should use the
lesson on that page with their class. I the language at the right level? Is the topic/content suitable
for the student? Are there the right kind of activities in the book? Is the sequendcing of the lesson
logical?
If the language content and sequencing of the textbook are apporiate, the teacher will want to
go ahead and use it. Its however, there is something wrong with the textbook, the teacher has to
decide what to do next.
in his book making the most of your textbook, the author nevill. Grant suggests four alternatives
when the teacher secide the textbook is not apporiate. Firstly, he or she might simply decide to amit
the lesson. That solves the problem of inappropriacy and allows him or her to get on with something
else.
Theres nothing wrong with omitting lessons from textbooks teachers do it all the time,
developing a kind of pick and choose approach to whats in front of them. However, if they omit to
many pages, the students may begin to wonder why they are using this book in the first place,
especially if they have bought it themselves.
Grants second option is to replace the textbook lesson with oneof the teachers own. This has
obvious advantages: the teachers own material probably interests him or her more than the textbook
and it may well be more appropriate for the students. If the teacher is dealing with the same language
or topic, the students can still use the book to revise that particular language/vocabulery. But the
same comments apply here as for omission. If too much of the textbook is replaced, both students
and teacher may wonder if it is worth bithering with it at all.
The third option is to add to what is in the book. If the lesson is rather boring, too controlled,
or if it gives no chance for students to use what they are learning in a personal kind of way, the
teacher may want to add activities and exercises which extend students engagement with the
language or topic.
Addition is a good alternative since it uses the textbooks strenghts but marries them with the
teachers own skills and perceptions the class in front of him or her.
The final option is for the teacher to adapt what is in the book.i reading text in the textbook is
dealt with in a boring uncreative way an invitation sequence is too predictable or if the teacher
simply wants deal with the material his or her way, he or she can adapt the lesson, using the same
basic material, but doing it in his or her own style.
Using textbook creatively is one of the premier teaching skills. However good the material is,
most experienced teachers do not go through it we for word. Instead, they use the best bits, add to
some exercises and add others. Sometimes, they replace textbook material with their own ideas
from other and books and occasionally they may omit i textbook lesson completely.

1.2 what do adding adapting and replacing look like?

In the following four examples, we are going to show how textbook material can be used creatively
by teachers.
Example 1: addition (intermediate)
Most textbooks have word lists, sometimes at the back of the book sometimes at the end of a
unit or a section. These are usually ignore except by some students who often write inaccurate
translation of the words. Teachers seldom touch them. Yet here is a chance to add to what the
textbook provides in enjoyable and usefull ways.
The following word list occirs after three lessons of intermediate material.
Admire axciting killer proffessor
Attendance experience law protection
Attractive factor leader record
Bad fair-haired lovely rugged
beautiful fair-skinned lover scenic
boring fantastic magnificent sick
cute fascinating melanin skin cancer
dangerous flight memorable song
dark-haired attendant motor way striking
dark-skinned freckles moving stunning
die gang newscaster sunburnt
doctor good-looking picturesque suntanned
dramatic handsome pig trust
elegant impressive place ultra violet
event interesting pretty unmemorable victim
There are immediately things that can do with such an apprence static piece of text.
They fall into three categories: personal engagemes word formation, and word games.
Personal engagemet: the teacher can ask students to dicuss questions likewhich
words have a positive meaning? Which wordshave a negative meaning? After they discussed
this with other students, they might come up with attractive and magnificient as a positive
words and dangerous and sunburnt as negative words. The teacher then asks the same
questions about the words in these phrases; dangerous game, dangerous lover, dramatic
succes, dramatic failure, expensive outfit, expensive train ticket etc. To show how words
change their connotation
The teacher ask students to list their favourite words from the list- words that appeal to
them because of their meaning, sound, spelling etc.
The teacher can ask whether any of words look or sound like words in their language
and whether they mean the same. This is especially usefull for other romance languages.
Finally, the teacher can ask students which words will be most useful to them in the
future.
All of these questions ask the students to almost physically engage with the meaning
of the words-and what the words say to them. The word list has immediately become dynamic,
not static.
Word study: the teacher can ask a number of questions about how words are constructed,
students can be asked to make a list of words which are stressed on the first, second or third
syllables. They can be asked how many of the adjectives can be changed into verbs and/or what
endings the verbs would need if they were changed into adjectives. They can be asked to
identify compond words and say how they are formed.
There are many other possible activities here: how we make contrary meanings by
adding un- or in- for example, how we give adjectives a comparative form, which of the
verbs are regular and what sound their past tense endings make etc. In each case, using a word
list reminds students of some of the rules governing words and their grammar.
Word games: after a discussion about headlines, the studentsare asked to use words from the
list in headlines for a bad tabloid newspaper, e.g. attractive doctor in dramatic motorway
experience.
The word list can be used for expansion too.the teacher gives the students a sentence like the
man kissed the woman and asks them to expand it using words from the list and adding any
necessary grammar words too. They might produce something like the attractive fair-haired
man with dramatic but elegant suntannes freckles kissed the fascinating preety flight attendant
in front of the dangerous woman on the motorway.
There are many other game-like activities. Their purpose is to get students using and
playing with the words in a word list-something often scen as dreary uninteresting
Example 2: adaption (elementary?pre-intermediate)
In this example, the teacher decides that though there is absolutely nothing with the
textbook page in front of him, he wants to do differently, perhaps for motivational reasons,
perhaps just because he enjoy it more or because he thinks the students need the kind of role-p
activity he si planning.
In the textbook he is using, the students are studying a unit car keeping the customer
satisfeied, in the last class, they discussed whether they agreed that the customer is always
right. They studied word with positive and negative meanings. They sis customer service
questionnaire about places they knew and they discussed whether staff needed diffrent qualities
in different places.
Instead of having students discuss the implications of the bank managers decision to
dress informally, the teacher tells them that they are going to write telephone dialogues for the
following situation: an important customer has complained to the head office of the the old
trusted bank because his local bank manager was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt when the
customer had a meeting with him or her the other day. Why did he do it? Whats wrong with
it? The persinnel director from the head office rings up the bank manager to discuss the issue.
After students have written the dialogues, they read/act them out and the students are
asked who they agree with: the head offfice or the manager.
In groups, they now role-play a head office meeting in which a committee decides
whether to let staffdress informally or not. While they are doing this the teacher goes around
listening. If he hears that students use will, might or wont perfectly correctly, he moves
on to the next section of the book. If students either dont use these verbs correctly (as he
excepts them mot to) or if they hardly use them at all, he gets them to open the book and do
exercises 1 to 3. He mighy then finish the sequence by having students write from the head
office to the local bank manager telling him or her what they think about informal clothes and
what they are going to do about it.
The teachers use of role-play, letter-wrtting etc. Is neither better not worse than the
material in the textbook: it is simply different because the teacher thought it would be more
appropriate for a particular group of students and their teacher on a particular day.
The example shows how a teacher takes original textbook idea, adapts it, putting in his
own activities whilst staying faithful to the language and topic of the writers. He is perfectly
happy to use the material if necessary but simply wants to give the lessons his own spin
Example 3: replace (lower Intermediate)
In this example of replacing textbook material with a teachers own ideas, the teachers
decision to try and find his own materal leads to a radically different type of lesson.
The textbook he is using wants students to practice the would like construction in sentences
like Id like live in a sunny country, shed like to live on her own, theyd like to move to
kansas etc. The material looks