Choosing Textbooks for English Language Learners

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Choosing Textbooks for English Language Learners
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One of the considerations English language programs need to make is how to select and use textbooks in the classroom. This crucially important decision is to be made before the English language teachers enter the classroom. It is often ignored that much of what transpires in the classroom is contingent upon the textbooks that are required and the lesson that is being delivered. Truth is that English language teachers must envisage what textbooks complement instruction and help the teachers meet the curricular objectives for a specific course. Whether it is a reading, writing, listening, speaking, or an integrated skills course, textbook adoption decisions play a pivotal role in determining the success and/or failure of a given course.

In English as a Second/Foreign Language Textbooks: How to Choose Them – How to Use Them, Pat Byrd and Cynthia Schuemann offer the following rules for selecting a textbook for a specific English language course:

1.     Know yourself. To use the activities in ways that fit your teaching style, you need to bring some of your preferences to a conscious level beyond “like” or “do not like” to “I believe in and am comfortable with XYZ.”

2.     Know your students. Analyze the students in your classes to understand how language skill, personality, and background knowledge influence the ways they learn in class.

3.     Know how the class fits into the larger curriculum. No matter how clear an activity or how interesting and important some content, you should not use it unless you can clearly state how it fits the larger goals of the course and its place in the curriculum.

4.     Go slow. Be careful about picking something that seems appealing but that has language that is too difficult or cultural knowledge that is not accessible to the students. Give yourself time to think through how the materials will fit with your students.

5.     Do not duplicate activities or content already in the textbook. Be sure to know what is already in the textbook before you put the time and energy into creating materials.

6.     Be sure you can do a new activity yourself. Try it out yourself before taking a new activity to class.

7.     Keep clear records. Keep records about what worked and did not work in class and about your understanding of what changes might be needed to future classes.

8.     Find a like-minded colleague. Share ideas and successes with colleagues: ask them to help analyze problems.

9.     Consider using additional or alternative media to complement a printed textbook. For example, you might use music, film, computer software, internet sites, field trips, or other nonprint materials that support learning of the linguistic or topic content of a textbook section.

English language teachers must ask themselves how the textbook(s) they have selected can help them deliver appropriate lessons and enable their students to achieve the curricular objectives of a specific course. Another consideration for the teachers is to create lesson plans including exercises and activities that engage students in achieving the measurable learning outcomes. English language programs must be cognizant of the pitfalls in assuming that textbooks impede creativity on the teacher’s part, and that the same textbook will yield the same outcome regardless of the group of students and their diverse social and linguistic backgrounds. In fact, depending on the students’ learning experiences, they may respond to the same content differently. Just as each teacher is different in terms of her or his educational background, strengths and weaknesses, each student is different in her or his learning style and cultural values.

An English language program must strive to strike a balance between selecting textbooks whose content is geared toward meeting the curricular objectives and giving the English language teachers the autonomy to select, implement, and supplement materials that hone on the linguistic needs of the students enrolled in a particular language course. Systematically adopting textbooks that support the program’s curricula, give language teachers some flexibility to be innovative, and help meet the students’ specific needs can create a conducive learning atmosphere for both teachers and pupils.

English language teachers can download a form for selecting textbooks from the following URL:

http://tinyurl.com/ESL-EFL-text-checklist

Guidelines for implementing ESL textbooks can be downloaded from this URL:

http://tinyurl.com/ESL-EFL-text-use-guide   
  


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