Textbooks come in and out of fashion. With the advent of AI and the popularity of language-learning apps, it appears the tide is turning against the use of textbooks, but they still have a place in my classroom and I’d argue they should in yours too. Here are seven reasons why I use textbooks in most of my lessons:
There’s no better way to ensure you are teaching a well-balanced syllabus. You never have to ask yourself have I taught the kids enough food vocab? Shouldn’t we be doing past tense about now? Haven’t we already beaten this topic to death? It’s all there in the textbook, in some kind of order that makes sense. You don’t have to teach every lesson in the textbook, but if you know what grammar or other language point it’s trying to teach, you can devise your own lesson if you prefer, and know that the students are still following the syllabus, still studying what they need to learn.
A textbook massively reduces teacher preparation time. Why reinvent the wheel every lesson when an expert has already worked out what needs to be taught in a lesson? No more scouring the internet in your free time, desperately sifting through crappy free lesson material to print out something usable.
Students and parents can see what is being taught in the classroom. If a student misses a class, there’s a resource where they can catch up with the class on their own with no extra effort from you.
Adult students particularly like to work ahead, so knowing what is likely to be taught over the following month is really helpful for those students who like to prepare.
A textbook enables you to pace your lessons easily. An important note here is, just because you have a set textbook, doesn’t mean you have to use it every lesson, or do every activity it suggests. But it gives you an idea of what to do and how long to spend on each language point.
Having a textbook adds a professional air to what you do. Put yourself in your students’ shoes. Would they rather sign up with school or teacher who has a set textbook, or one who wings it every lesson? Which school looks more professional (and therefore can command a higher fee)?
Once you’ve been teaching for a while and have developed your own style, you can publish your own textbooks and ebooks, sell them to your students and other schools as a valuable extra stream of income. I’ve taken the best ideas from other textbooks and what works in my own classroom to write and sell my own set of textbooks on Amazon. You could do too.
What do you think? Is there a place for textbooks in your classroom? How would you integrate a textbook into your lessons?
All the best,
Patrick
Teaching tip
Don’t ask a student “Do you understand?” because they might think they understand, but they don’t really, or think they don’t understand but they do really. Either way, the better approach is to ask a question that they can only answer correctly if they did understand. The answers to “What does this mean?” “Is he happy or angry?” “What did she say?” will tell you immediately whether your student understands or not.
It’s a moa…
At first I wasn’t that enamoured with Abiko City Council’s decision to erect a giant silver moa (an extinct New Zealand bird) in the car park of the local farmer’s market opposite the city bird museum (yes, there’s a museum devoted to birds here), five minute’s walk from my house, but the thing has kinda grown on me. According to the plaque, it’s supposed to symbolise the need for harmony between humans and birds (moas went extinct thanks to humans encroaching on their habitat). Maybe, as an odd bird myself, I see a kindred spirit?
Recommended
I don’t know much about investing in Japanese stocks, preferring passive index funds myself, but KonichiValue-san does. And, here, he explains how you — even if you are a foreigner — can avoid key money and get approved for a place to rent.