I am a language teacher not a slave of school textbook.... My fellow teachers often ask me why I have no textbook for my teaching at year 10. Actually I do have some good textbooks at home, I simply dont bring any into our classes. Here are the reasons why: 1. Impersonal Most English textbooks are notoriously impersonal. How can I allow my class to enjoy humane learning choice and voice if I let myself be dictated by a textbook author who knows nothing about my students? Does the author know well what my students want to read, listen, write, and talk about? Nope. My students are not a group of learning robots. They are flesh and blood human being with different preference, interest, and language proficiency one to another. 2. Fake What students learn from a textbook is often has gone through over simplification and unnecessary filtering. School textbooks deprive our kids of experiencing the language in use and the reality of life, while the internet and non-textbook materials provide ample choices of authentic language and contents. 3. Narrow-minded Most issues in listening and reading texts are presented from one perspective only. In my class, students are encouraged to bring some reading texts of the same topic yet in various perspectives. This helps my students advance beyond their narrow-mindedness and practice seeing one issue from different angles, a crucial life skill to be a part of civilized society. 4. Rigid I am a blessed teacher with amazing freedom to choose what and how to teach my students. We have a lot of negotiations in class on what and how to learn, something almost impossible to do if my students and I are a slave of textbook. Thanks to the principles who allow us to enjoy such luxury. 5. Routine kills me Have you ever seen a teacher who has been using exactly the same textbook for decades? How boring! Certainly not me. I love to see my students bring various topics of reading text into our silent reading session. I am eager to learn new things from them, new words and ideas such as platonic love, butterfly effect, and how to spot a liar. I have learnt a lot from them, some ideas that never came across my mind. 6. Obsolete Language and time happen to be very tight with one another. School textbooks are obsolete once they are published. Will you let your kids digest rotten food for thought? No way! Anyway, why should they have to pay for something that is abundantly available out there FOR FREE?
Posted on: Wed, 16 Apr 2014 05:44:51 +0000
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