[RELO] Classroom Interaction: Getting More out of Course Books
1. Classroom Interaction:
Getting More out of Course Books
galapagoselt@gmail.com
Kevin Hajovsky
Senior English Language Fellow
Galápagos, Ecuador
2. Webinar Objectives
“Course books are proposals for action, not instructions for use.”
(Harmer, 2001)
Build our awareness of positive and negative aspects
Learn & share strategies and techniques for effective use
PLEASE SHARE YOUR IDEAS!
3. Focus Question #1
In your opinion, what are the
advantages and disadvantages of
using course books?
4. Potential Advantages
Provide structure to class or semester
(vocabulary, grammar, and content)
Guide class with sense of accomplishment
Work as a starting point for extension activities
Save a lot of preparation time
Often expected by learners in schools
(Dalby, 2009)
5. Potential Disadvantages
Creativity can be limited
Quality, design, or organization can be poor
Topics can be boring or irrelevant
Contexts or content may not be culturally relevant
Language is often inauthentic
(Dalby, 2009)
6. Focus Question #2
What general kinds of techniques do you use to create
more learner-centered interaction with course books?
7. Key Techniques for Creating Interaction
How students are seated immediately affects how
they interact.
versus
8. Key Techniques for Creating Interaction
Using your whiteboard effectively:
clarify how to use the language, provide support in the
tasks
Sentence Starters
Models of language
Language to guide or for students to exploit
Key words of instructions Focus questions
Sentence patterns
Brainstormed lists of words
9. Focus Question #3: The Big Question!
What are some of your specific strategies, ideas and
techniques for using course books more effectively?
…difficulties arise when we try to use textbooks exactly as they
are, without thinking about the needs, skills and circumstances of
the particular set of students sitting in front of us.” (Elliott, 2010)
10. Major Ideas Considered Here
Use of books’:
pictures (+other pictures)
texts
exercises
+ Key Techniques for Creating Interaction
11. Building Interaction: Pictures
Focus Question #4:
How do you use course book pictures in your classes?
“A picture is worth a thousand words.”
~Unknown
12. Building Interaction: Pictures
With the picture(s) in front of them, contextualize
lesson by having students:
make predictions about text
ask and answer questions
describe
talk and/or speculate about (meaningful to students)
share their own (personalize)
knowledge of
opinions of
likes/dislikes
preferences
cultural comparisons
role play (as if in the picture)
(Dalby, 2009; Tanner & Green, 1998; Witherspoon, 2012)
13. Building Interaction: Pictures
Use pictures of students’ own country/city
(meaningful, relevant, and personal)
Can adapt to course book settings and improvise.
E c u a d o r
(Baumgardener & Kennedy, 1995)
14. Building Interaction: Pictures
Use Tasks + Pictures Topics of Interest and/or
Related to Learners’ Actual Lives
• People
• Places
• Things
• Contexts
• Actions
• History
• Music
• Food
• Clothes
• Holidays
• Special events
• Customs and
traditions
• Culture
• Sports
• Sterotypes
• Common
occurences
• Climate
• Religion
• Politics
(Baumgardener & Kennedy, 1995)
16. Building Interaction: Texts
(Conversation or Reading)
Predict/connect what’s in the text (with pictures)
Copy and cut up the texts, students order them
Running or shouting dictations, or dictoglosses
Students add/change words in conversations for own
social contexts (adjectives, adverbs, local
vocabulary, etc.)
Students draw and fill out graphic organizers together
(Dalby, 2009; Scionis, 1990; Tanner & Green, 1998; Witherspoon, 2012)
17. Building Interaction: Texts
(Conversation or Reading)
Students imagine before or after a story or conversation
Students compare and discuss answers to
comprehension questions
Students personalize by giving advice and point of
views, or stating similarities/differences, preferences, etc.
Vary setting, mood, or characters of conversation to add
creativity
Role play or act out in pairs or small groups (with pictures
as settings?)
(Dalby, 2009; Scionis, 1990; Tanner & Green, 1998; Witherspoon, 2012)
19. Building Interaction: Exercises
Students do and/or check answers in pairs/groups (before and/or
after practice or drills)
Students ask class for clarification as needed (teacher oversees
only)
Teams make questions to elicit answers from other teams
Make a quiz game for checking answers (multiple-
choice, right/wrong)
Copy and cut up exercises to make a team race game
Students act out or draw answers (Charades/ Pictionary) while other
General Goal: Give students more interaction time
& transfer responsibility for learning to them.
(Dalby, 2009; Sionis, 1990; Tanner & Green, 1998; Witherspoon, 2012)
21. Bibliography
*Baumgardner, R.J. and Kennedy, A.E. (1995) The use of local contexts in the design of EST materials. In Creative Classroom
Activities: English Teaching Forum 1989-1993, ed. T. Kral, Office of English Language Programs, Washington, D.C.
Dalby, T. (2009). Adapting your course book: Becoming skilled in the art of manipulation. TESOL Review, 1, 145-166.
Elliott, David (2010) The coursebook challenge. English Teaching Professional, 69, July 2010
Harmer, J. (2001) Coursebooks: A human, cultural and linguistic disaster? Modern English Teacher, 10(3), 5-10.
Harmer, J. (2010) How to teach english. Pearson Education Limited, Essex, England.
*Sionis, C. (1995) Let them do our job! Towards autonomy via peer-teaching and task-based instruction. In Creative Classroom
Activities: English Teaching Forum 1989-1993, ed. T. Kral, Office of English Language Programs, Washington, D.C.
Tanner, R. and Green, K. (1998) Tasks for teacher education: A reflective approach. Pearson Education Limited, Essex, England.
Witherspoon, J. (2012) English comes alive! Dynamic, brain-building ways to teach ESL and EFL. Synapse
Books, Bryan, Texas, USA.
*Free Downloadable Book and other materials on the American English website!
http://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/creative-classroom-activities
Editor's Notes
Exercises are usually done individually. How can we create more interaction with the exercises in class?