Teacher’s Books
Nov 04, 2014
Teacher’s Books
Teacher’s Role
StudentsDifferent learning styles
TeachersDifferent teaching
styles
One teacher may be extrovert and amusing, another may be quiet and sympathetic, a third may be highly organized and
disciplined […] Books can give plans, but they can never
show you how to relate to a number of individuals in a
particular place on a particular day. (Grapevine Teacher’s
Book 1)
Coursebook is to aid students and teachers in numerous ways, but not to dictate a rigid predetermined method by which language shall be taught and learned.
Teacher can develop the materials in the coursebook because teachers is the one who completely know the class situation and condition.
Students’ feedbackTeachers
Decisions
Macro Decisions
Micro Decisions
The prerogative lies with the teacher
should not hesitate to make the necessary decisions if they seem appropriate
from choosing the whole course to omitting certain exercises to adapting a communicative activity
Examples:
Page 109-110.
Main role of the teacher
A guide or a facilitator
A monitor
Guiding learning
through the learning process
Monitoring student progress
correcting errors
Supported by the
coursebook
The Teacher’s book for Formula One(White and Williams 1989) expands on this role:
The teacher’s role is to act as a presenter or material, manager of learning resources and activities, and informant for the students. The teacher will:
Teacher’s book for Campus English (Forman et al 1990), a coursebook specializing in English for Academic Purposes.
It is expected that the teacher’s role will be that or monitor and facilitator rather than director. The aim I to promote learner independence from the teacher and students should be encouraged to work intervention by the teacher […] The teacher’s task is to facilitate the process by which students arrive at an answer.
Conclusion:
The monitor and guide model is the commonest, yet in general coursebooks and identifies perhaps the two crucial roles that coursebooks cannot fulfil themselves.
Checklist on the teacher’s role
Page 111.
Teacher’s Books
What is Teacher book?
Teacher book is one included in the whole materials package.
This book can exert a considerable influence on how the course is taught.
The functionSetting out the guiding principle of the courseStating the aims and objectives of the courseDescribing the basis for the selection and
grading of the language contentExplaining the rationale for the method that is
usedGiving an overview of the course and the parts
of the course.Providing practical guidance of how to use the
materialGiving linguistic information that is necessaryProviding background cultural informationPromoting better understanding of the
principles and practice of language-teaching in general, and helping to develop teaching skill.
Some teacher book start with:• Give description of the make-up of the course•Give notes about content using per unit.
Some others:•Informing the course•Discuss the needs of learners and teachers.
Starting Up
A good teacher’s book consists of: guidelines -> Teacher’s book should give a guidance
what to do and how to do the planning and teaching lessons.
Detailed plans-> The teacher’s book should give
detailed plan to teach each unit.Detail of predictable problems-> it should give details of predictable
problems that learners may encounterAnswer key.
Some teacher books provide a very detail lesson plans, specify every activity and the language that should be used in class.
Others simply provide a small number of sample lesson plans that cover different kinds of activity in the course book.
A good example of straightforward but sufficiently detailed explanation of the meaning of a grammar item can be found in connection with the present perfect in Bridge Plus One Teacher’s Manual (Molteno Project 1987), a course for primary English in South Africa:
The perfect tense of verb means an action which was done at a time before writing or speaking the sentence in which it stands, and the results of the action are still effective (present) at the time of writing or speaking.
-> the strange of such an explanation lies in its simplicity, clarity and intelligibility.
Teachers’ books can also offer regular tests which can be used to give the feedback to the students of their progress and also give information of which areas of language need to be revised and have yet to be consolidated to the teacher.
Major factor in success in language learning: Learner motivation.
-> teachers’ books can help by:- providing advise on including variety of
activity in lessons- Using topics of real interest to the learners- Adapting or extending course book exercises
that match the learners’ level and ability- Being prepared to make quick changes of
plan.
ConclusionA good teachers’ books need to have some extra ‘contingency’(ALTERNATIVE) activities for each unit, which teachers can draw on if necessary, from a valuable addition to the contents of a teacher’s book. They can save a lesson that is losing momentum as well as providing teachers with a welcome additional sense of security.
Checklist for teachers’ bookSee the book on page 123
THANK YOU