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The decline and fall of coursebooks?

The decline and fall of coursebooks?. Simon Greenall IATEFL Liverpool 11 April 2013. What’s wrong with coursebooks? Where are we now and how did we get here? What are the alternatives? Who are today’s stakeholders in ELT? What’s the future for coursebooks and course material?.

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The decline and fall of coursebooks?

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  1. The decline and fall of coursebooks? Simon Greenall IATEFL Liverpool 11 April 2013

  2. What’s wrong with coursebooks? Where are we now and how did we get here? What are the alternatives? Who are today’s stakeholders in ELT? What’s the future for coursebooks and course material?

  3. What’s wrong with coursebooks?

  4. What’s wrong with coursebooks? “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.” Mario RinvolucriThe UK, EFLese Sub-Culture and Dialect on TEFL Farm, 1999

  5. What’s wrong with coursebooks? ‘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 standard native speaker versions of English remain the status quo … it’s called protecting your profit margin.’ Luke Meddings, The Guardian, 2004

  6. What’s wrong with coursebooks? ‘ … 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

  7. What’s wrong with coursebooks? ‘Coursebook writers are the arms dealers of the ELT profession’ #ELTchat 2011

  8. What’s wrong with coursebooks? ‘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

  9. Methodology Choice and control What’s wrong with coursebooks? Content Costs

  10. Where are we now? How did we get there?

  11. How did we get here? • Functional language • Swing back to grammar • Micro- / discrete skills • Authentic material • Content syllabus

  12. Where are we today? • 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

  13. Where are we today? • Increase in professionalism of ELT • Language learning curricula beyond simple language knowledge and language skills • Coursebooks as interpreter of a complex curriculum

  14. Curriculum requirements - China … the principle 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 the communication skills of its people

  15. Curriculum requirements - Palestine … more active thinkers … an economic and reproductive function … an ideological function … increasing the language resources available as Palestine competes in the global economy

  16. What are the alternatives?

  17. Methodology (egDogme, TBL) Content (eg CLIL) Alternatives to traditional textbooks Digital solutions

  18. What are the alternatives? Methodology (egDogme, TBL) trained vs less-trained teachers CLIL content-rich training poor no language syllabus Digital solutions opportunities for content, delivery replicating coursebooks traditional functions (training, interpreting the curriculum, integrated methodology)

  19. Who are today’s stakeholders in ELT?

  20. What’s the future for coursebooks and course material?

  21. Conclusions (1) What’s wrong with coursebooks? Failure and the responsibility of coursebooks Where are we now and how did we get here? Professionalism in ELT Complex requirements of end users What are the alternatives? Granularity vs communicative, integrated materials.

  22. Conclusions (2) Who are today’s stakeholders in ELT? Ecosystem of ELT What’s the future for coursebooks and course material? Customization and closer link between content and assessment Change business models and the threat to expertise and professionalism

  23. Email simon.greenall@btconnect.com Twitter @simongreenall

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