Diseño de Materiales - Week 6 - Coursebook Based Teaching Pt. 1

Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 6 of the course Diseño de Materiales in the Licenciatura in English Teaching program at ULACIT. In this class we will begin our two week focus on effective use of coursebooks in ELT. We will begin by debating the pro's and con's of coursebook based teaching before reviewing a principled approach for planning and teaching with coursebooks in a responsible and effective way. We will also take some time to review your research for your Materials and Macroskills paper. .

Today's Goals:

• Debate the pros and cons of using a coursebook as the primary didactic material in an ELT program and compare your arguements with ones made in the professional literature.
• Review a planning framework for working with coursebooks in a professionally responsible way.
• Share findings from your research and brainstorm additional areas of exploration for your macroskills paper.

Guiding Questions:

• What are the arguments in favor and against using a coursebook as the primary didactic material in an ELT program?
• What principles or frameworks can help teachers make better decisions about how to use coursebook materials?

Task 1: Mini-Debates

In this task you will compete with your partners in three mini-debate tasks. Here are the steps to follow. 

• Spin the wheel to choose a topic. You now have to defend this statement.
• Present your most convincing arguements for 45 seconds.
• Your partner then presents his/her arguments against the statement for 45 seconds.
• You and your partner express your true opinions about the statment.

• Then switch roles and play another round. 

Task 2: Pros and Cons of Coursebook Based Teaching

In this activity, you will have a class debate about the pros and cons of coursebook based language teaching. Students in favor will have two minutes to speak. Students against will have two minutes to reply. Then there will be a final two minute period for open discussion. During this time, judges will take notes of the arguments. 

• Judge Notes: CLICK HERE

Task 3: What does the literature say?

Take a moment to review some of the arguments from the professional literature about the dominating influence of coursebook based methodologies in ELT. Use the highlight function to mark any of the ideas that came up in your debate.

• Professional Arguements: CLICK HERE

Task 4: Materials and Macroskills Research - Input Session

Your Materials and Macroskills research paper is due on March 27th. Take this time to share the ideas you generated through your research task this week. Use the study guide you created to explain the key concepts from the article you read. 

• Umbrella Topic: Speaking Skills
• Guiding Questions: What is involved in second language speaking? How do learners acquire speaking skills? What frameworks, methods, or techniques connected to materials can be used to teach speaking?

Conclusions

• Core Idea 1: What is your key idea?
• Significance: Why is this idea interesting to you?
• Branching Ideas: What are some components, questions, and branching ideas?

• Core Idea 2: What is your key idea?
• Significance: Why is this idea interesting to you?
• Branching Ideas: What are some components, questions, and branching ideas?

• Next Steps: What research do you still need to do?

References:

McGrath, I. (2016). Materials Evaluation and Design for Language Teaching (2nd ed.). Edinburgh University Press. 

Ur, P. (1991). A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.