How textbooks work

From ‘dogme’ to ‘pragme’

Simon GreenallInternational House Trust

IH Directors of Studies Conference January 2013

How textbooks work

Textbooks, criticisms and survivalELT’s life-changing responsibilitiesComplex problems and complex solutions Publishing and profitsTextbooks and good teachersSharing failure, reforming for successCreative compromise and pragmatic response

ELTNEWS: You never thought of writing a coursebook?Mario: Financially… of course. But never seriously. I

firmly believe that what happens in my classes arises from the meeting between the students and me and the students and each other. How, rationally, can any outside person map this meeting out in advance? Suppose you go to have dinner with a few friends, do you all arrive with a pre-arranged conversation script? A coursebook is as daft and off-course as that. Feeling this, how could I contemplate writing one?

Mario Rinvolucri “Ambition, rage, jealousy, betrayal, destiny, greed, fear and the other Shakespearean themes are far from the soft, fudgey sub-journalistic, woman’s magaziney world of EFLese course materials.” The UK, EFLese Sub-Culture and Dialect on TEFL Farm, 1999

How textbooks work

Textbooks, criticisms and survivalELT’s life-changing responsibilitiesComplex problems and complex solutions Publishing and profitsTextbooks and good teachersSharing failure, reforming for successCreative compromise and pragmatic response

The structure of course objectives

Target culture

Sample culture

… multipolarization

economic globalization

informatization.

… the principal tool to enhance international communication as well as scientific and cultural exchanges

… conducive to laying a solid foundation for improving the overall qualities of our people

… cultivating talent with innovative and cross-cultural capabilities

… enhancing international competitiveness of China and communication skills of its people

… helps them better understand the world

… acquire advanced scientific and cultural knowledge

… spread Chinese culture

… enhance mutual understanding and communication

… more opportunities for education and career development

… cultivate the character of openness and tolerance

… develop an awareness and capability for cross-cultural communication

… promote the development of thinking

… form correct life outlooks, values and high character attainment

… an increasingly interdependent community of nations…

… internationalism is the hallmark of modern education

… linguistic and cultural diversity are the hallmarks of internationalism

… more active thinkers

… an economic-reproductive function

… an ideological function

… increasing the language resources available as Palestine competes in the global economy

How textbooks work

Textbooks, criticisms and survivalELT’s life-changing responsibilitiesComplex problems and complex solutions Publishing and profitsTextbooks and good teachersSharing failure, reforming for successCreative compromise and pragmatic response

course designmulti -syllabus course design

organizing or principle syllabuses topicslexis

grammar functions.

supplementary syllabusesreadingwriting

speakinglistening

learning strategiessocio-cultural competence

grammar syllabus

natural order of grammar

methodology or an approachcommunicative

classroom interactionpairwork

information gapcontent-rich material

learner-centred teaching and learningprescriptive or descriptive approaches

Where do the words we teach come from?

meaning

contextualisation

integration

communicative activity sequences

layout and designwhite space

visuals

cosmetic artwork/photos functional artwork/photos

typefacepoint size

yield

Rubricsconsistencybrevityclarity

1 Underline the true sentences. 2 Correct the false sentences.

OR 1 Underline the true sentences. Now correct the false sentences.

teaching to an exam syllabus

exam-oriented

exam-specific

Content

Criteria for choosing a textA text should one or more of the following criteria:interestentertainmentnew informationcross-cultural relevanceRelevance to the learner’s personal experience

suitable lexical densitysuitable structural densityattractive layoutsuitable lengthrelevance to the hidden curriculumsuitable for exploitation (communicative activity

sequences)

book plan teaching units or textbook lessons

review unitsprelims

endmattertextbook lesson or classroom lesson

How textbooks work

Textbooks, criticisms and survivalELT’s life-changing responsibilitiesComplex problems and complex solutions Publishing and profitsTextbooks and good teachersSharing failure, reforming for successCreative compromise and pragmatic response

‘Accepting and reinforcing this state of psychological affairs (the disempowerment of the non-native speaker teacher) is a handy way for publishers to ensure that the standardised native speaker versions of English remain the status quo. … It’s called protecting your profit margin.’Luke Meddings, The Guardian, 2004

‘Coursebook writers are the arms dealers of theELT profession’

#ELTchat 2011

Production 34.72%

Pre-press 13.06%

Royalties 8.77%

Editorial 8.01%

Sales and marketing 12.27%

Distribution 4.65%

Office o/h 7.80%

Publisher profit 10.72%

The P&L• The total number of copies forecast to sell annually • The revenue from each item for sale • The number of years the publisher considers the product will stay in the market.

Sue Jones, former Publishing Director, Macmillan Education

The future of coursebooks – digital publishing?

EditingBreadth of appeal

FundingOnline access

‘Do you really think you would have written what you’ve written if you hadn’t been obliged to do so by your publishers?’

Anon, Dogme yahoo list 2011

How textbooks work

Textbooks, criticisms and survivalELT’s life-changing responsibilitiesComplex problems and complex solutions Publishing and profitsTextbooks and good teachersSharing failure, reforming for successCreative compromise and pragmatic response

• 1.5 billion learners of English worldwide• 11.5 million teachers of English in PES and

PLS• 90% are non-native teachers• Approximately 200,000 in the PLS• Approximately 100, 000 are CELTA/DELTA

trained• So 1.3 million in the PES

How textbooks work

Textbooks, criticisms and survivalELT’s life-changing responsibilitiesComplex problems and complex solutions Publishing and profitsTextbooks and good teachersSharing failure, reforming for successCreative compromise and pragmatic response

‘Coursebooks don't just dominate the teachers' lives, they dominate the students' lives too’

Chiasuan Chong

‘ … the reason that coursebooks are so often in the line of fire is that they DO to a large extent dominate and determine so many aspects of a teacher's day-to-day professional life. They (more often as not) instantiate the curriculum, provide the texts, and - to a large extent - guide the methodology.’ Scott Thornbury An A-Z of ELT blog

Due to a lack of training and support, as well as uncertainty about their own English language skills, coupled with learner and other stakeholder expectations about the role of the teacher, ‘many teachers feel insecure and disempowered.’ For teachers such as these, the courseboook is their lifeline. To suggest that they should abandon coursebooks and engage with the language that emerges from the socializing and communicative needs of the ‘The people in the room’ is simply disingenuous.Scott Thornbury (ibid)

How textbooks work

Textbooks, criticisms and survivalELT’s life-changing responsibilitiesComplex problems and complex solutions Publishing and profitsTextbooks and good teachersSharing failure, reforming for successCreative compromise and pragmatic response

The ‘pragme doctrine’

• Teachers need our help. They don’t need to feel disempowered or downgraded by the devices they use to help them: eg technology

• Teachers need to adapt to learners’ needs – a mark of good teaching

• Teaching for exams or a formal curriculum is a reality for many teachers, it’s not teaching in inferior circumstances.

• Teachers need approaches and methodologies appropriate to their cultural contexts

The ‘pragme doctrine’ (cont)• Teachers don’t always teach in ideal circumstances• Teachers need to be encouraged to use their own instinct,

training and emotional sensitivity and intelligence to provide an honest response to their students needs, by whatever means they use.

• Common sense and basic good instinct need to prevail.• Dogmatic principles need to yield to pragmatic awareness

of the huge variation in teaching circumstances. We cannot afford to give them anything but the very best and most complete facilities and training.

How textbooks work

Textbooks, criticisms and survivalELT’s life-changing responsibilitiesComplex problems and complex solutions Publishing and profitsTextbooks and good teachersSharing failure, reforming for successCreative compromise and pragmatic response

simon.greenall@btconnect.com

@simongreenall