673. Is my coursebook any real aid?




One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “Something helpful you can do with your students is to get the most from their textbooks. The students at a first moment could see the pages of the English coursebook as something full of pictures and mixed activities, one activity similar in format to the next one.



Teach them the meaning of the icons and subtitles: grammar, listening, etc. They should get a clear view of the contents of the unit.



You can help them understand, read and re-read the instructions of a given exercise, on their own. Some words or phrasal verbs can be practiced more naturalistically later on. You, provide a real life context to the sentences of the activity, and give one more example of a sentence about news they’re interested, or a context really close to their real life and city. Or make them imagine the situation that reflects each sentence: the characters, the place, who’s talking with who, etc.



Each exercise is like a short story where your students have got to find the bad guy, which is like the goal of the activity. They’ll feel satisfied when they finish the exercise. Each exercise must be something actually meaningful to them, not an ‘extra world’ not touching their lives at all. The photos provide context too. The students, thus, become like motors of their working on their books.” / Photo from: bostonpic org. Teacher helping student with textbook.

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