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Unlocking the textbook and unleashing English language pedagogy
Citation
Workshop presented at the RELC International Seminar Seameo Regional Language Centre, Singapore, 2008
Abstract
In Singaporean schools and other settings with a national syllabus, ‘required’
textbooks and high-stakes exams, teachers usually feel locked into their
textbooks. One way to ensure coverage of the necessary material is to follow the
book, lock step. In other contexts where there is less structure in the syllabus
and exams (for example, teaching in private language schools in some Asian
countries), teacher sometimes have the opposite problem of feeling that
teaching is a free for all. Textbooks can be a joy or a sorrow depending on how
much they constrict or support our classroom teaching.
In this workshop, I demonstrate ways to unlock the textbook so it can serve as a
resource for classroom teaching and student learning whether in highly
structured contexts or in situations which lack supporting structures for
pedagogical planning. Together we work through three steps for unleashing
classroom teaching: analysis of the textbook as classroom teaching materials
and resources, adaptation of those materials to create more variety in day-today
teaching and to enhance opportunities for student learning, and adopting
alternative activity types that can supplement that materials which are readily
available in the textbook.
Date Issued
2008
Project
CRP 8/04 RES