How to give a sense of purpose to textbooks

If you really have to use a textbook, then at least spice it up a bit--make it real; turn those grammar drills back into real communication.

Instead of following a unit blindly from start to finish, look at the unit as a whole. If it has a written or recorded text, use that as your center-piece. Prime students, not by doing pre-teaching of vocabulary, but by getting them speaking about the topic of the text. So, for example, if the text is about a couple of celebrities who have something in common (either because they restarted their careers, or they are philanthropists or maybe just because they´re all blonde!), ask students what they know about them--make it a challenge to see who knows the most. Then ask them to read for general information (how many things you mentioned were correct?) and then for more specific information. Follow-up by highlighting some interesting or useful phrases, vocabulary or grammar. Finish with a task: assign each pair a part of the text (one celebrity) and ask them write a quiz to give to another pair.

Other things you can do with texts is rewrite them as a gapped jigsaw activity or ask them to write summaries. Or they can be asked to look for and take notes on specific things, or from specific part.

Other units might not have a text at all. In that case, take a look at the final activity--usually a speaking activity--and make that the first thing you do, not the last. Set it up, make sure students understand what they will be doing. Generally, you´ll want to demonstrate with a student or group in front of the class. Also, make sure the objectives are clear (you´ll have to invent one if the textbook doesn´t give it) and time limits (even if you don´t stick to them). The idea is that learners will use whatever language they know now to complete the task, not what the book says they should know. And if you would have preferred that they use a conditional but they´re not at that point yet where conditionals come easy, then they´ll probably use some more simple language. However, they mean to use a conditional. Some may even try to use a conditional. That´s when you know you know they´r ready for some input. When the task is finished, you can go back to the language focus, or create your own language focus based on the content of the task. You can do this by offering corrections for attempts or you can do this by eliciting a conditional sentence in the context of the activity. (also see How to put "teaching" back into the task?).

No matter how you do it, you´ll notice how much more interested your students are to know, learn and use the grammar, vocabulary or phrases now that they actually need them. Not only that, now that you´ve given your students a reason to use the target language, it´s going to be much more real to them. It´s going to also provide a context for examples that makes sense to them and hopefully is more memorable.

Let´s take a look at an example:

This the original procedure from one unit of a popular intermediate textbook:

1.1 Begins with a listening exercise in which two co-workers are discussing the arrival of a difficult client. The client has never been to Paris before and they have to entertain her. They discuss possiblities of where to take her using, "Shall we...?" and "How about...?" and "Why don´t we...?". Students are asked to cover the dialogue, listen and decide what the problem is and what the decision is.

1.2 Students now read the gapped tape-script and decide what the missing words are. They listen again and check.

1.3 They listen again and repeat the highlighted phrases.

1.4 They try to remember them by filling in extracted and gapped phrases.

1.5 Finally they are asked to decide in groups what they are going to do the next weekend. The questions they should ask which are about when and where they should meet are provided.

The same unit continues on to other listenings and readings with the same basic format.

So firstly, let me just say that this material is not bad. The actors are convincing and speak naturally. Also, the phrases used at least seem fairly natural (but obviously are not). In addition, they are given tasks with objectives (Plan when and where you´ll meet for dinner). So what´s the problem? Well, really, two things.

First, it´s not fun, not at all. I can´t imagine this taking less than an hour to get through and I think it would be a long hour. In fact, I see students going through it quite mechanically. As I´ve said again and again, to be fun, it has to be interesting, and to be interesting, it has to engage the students on a personal level. Can we be sure that this text-book material is doing that? No, not really, but you yourself probably don´t care, so why the heck would you expect students to?

The second problem is that there are a lot of opportunities for real communication that are not exploited--at all. It´s a bit odd really. I mean, why go from a recording of two people discussing what they´ll do with a visiting client in Paris to a speaking activity where students have to plan a time and place to meet for dinner? I think this is what happens when textbook writers are only concerned with how to speak rather than what.

So, here´s what we could do to make it more interesting. This would probably be at least a 1 1/2 hour class depending on how quickly students work through each step.

1.1 Ask students if they´ve ever been to Paris. Ask them to decide in groups, what are the top three things to see in Paris?

1.2 Tell students what they´re going to listen to. Ask them to listen and check the places mentioned by the speakers against their own "top 3".

1.3 Listen again and decide what the problem is and what they decide.

1.4 Look at tape script. Guess missing words. Listen and check.

1.5 Language focus: what phrases do they use to make suggestions?

1.6 Imagine this client is coming to your city. In groups, plan a one-day itinerary detailing where you would take her.

1.7 Groups report: others listen and note any differences. Each successive group reports their differences from initial reports. Finish with general discussion and comments.

Homework: Teacher writes erroneous phrases students had used and asks students to correct them.

So as you can see, I´ve added one more listening cycle to the task to give extra practice but always with an objective (call it an excuse to listen, if you must). From start to finish, each step scaffolds the next--and again, each step contains a mini-objective (call it a challange, if you must). Nearly all the orginal material is used, and in the same order. Notice that in this case, I didn´t make the final speaking activity the first activity as texts (written or recorded) provide great opportunities for learners to "notice" and hopefully, use the language they contain for the speaking activities. However, I did prime them for the listening activity by asking them something to bring them into the dialogue personally.

Another example, original procedure from an upper-intermediate business book:

1.1 The topic is "Starting up a new business". Students listen to two people who successfully started up their own business and fill in a chart with basic information.

1.2 Students match nouns and noun phrases from the listening to definitions provided.

1.3 They complete a text giving advice for starting up a business with noun phrases from the previous exercise.

1.4 Now they listen to extracts from the recording in 1.1 and complete a list of intensifiers with their corresponding adjectives.

1.5 Next, they match synonyms to the adjectives from the previous exercise.

1.6 With a partner, students respond to statements provided (such as, "What´s it like working for yourself?") using an adjective and adverb.

1.7 Working in small groups, students choose from a list of business ideas (or provide their own) and discuss questions regarding their opinions about the idea, advice for getting started, etc.

So at what point did you stop reading? I hope you didn´t, but I understand if you drifted away for a moment. I was bored myself.

Okay, so what´s the problem? Well, again, there is a task included and everything is integrated and related. The problem is that the question of interest and exploiting opportunities for real communication. Now, personally, I think the idea of starting up a business is very interesting. Why? Well, that´s exactly what I would want my teacher to ask of me. And that´s what we´re going to do. As for getting some real communication out of this, well, there are plenty of opportunities.

Let´s give it a shot.

1.1 Ask students if they have ever tried to start up a business or know anyone who has (one at a time)--what was the experience like? General discussion. In pairs, discuss what would be necessary to do so: planning, source of finance, resources, problems to consider, etc.

1.2 Listen to recordings and compare speakers´ answers to yours. How are they similar or different? Do you agree?

1.3 Listen again and answer questions for specific information (teacher written).

1.4 Look at tape script. Highlight unfamiliar vocabulary. Check meaning with other groups.

1.5 Match nouns and noun phrases from text to their definitions.

1.6 Listen to extracts and complete the intensifiers with adjectives

1.7 Match synonyms to adjectives

1.8 Task: with a partner, read the following case-study and come up with at least one possible solution, along with a rationale.

W. Murray spotted a gap in the market when noticed how difficult it was to find a good pair of headphones in shops and online so he decided to start up his own online store for headphones and headsets. The start-up capital came from his own savings as well as a loan from the bank. It´s been one year and his business isn´t growing as quickly as he´d like it to. He barely has a marketing plan and he´s behind on payments to the bank and needs to do something quickly.

Okay, so what did I do here? First, I brought in students interest into the text by asking them about their experiences or if they haven´t any and don´t know any one who has, I´d ask them if they´ve ever fantasized about it. Once we have some general discussion going (we hope), we ask them to imagine what would be necessary to do so. This gets them thinking about the topic and details of the listening extracts. It also engages them in the listening process, by asking them to compare their answers with the speakers´. Next we focus on language details before finally doing a problem-solving case-study which I invented based on ideas taken from the unit.

Perhaps you´re wondering to yourself two things: one, why not ask them to practice using the adjectives like in part 1.6 of the original? And second, the final task the book sets of starting up a business as a group and discussing the issues related is an interesting task, why not use it?

To the first I say, the statements are ridiculous and completely unreal--we delete such garbage directly. If you want them to practice some specific grammar, don´t do it this way, please. Ask them to write their own statements or questions to have a partner respond to, if you must do anything. But pre-fabricated statements and questions make us feel like we´re speaking using a machine.

To the second, I say yes that´s true, it should be interesting and fun to do but the reality is that it isn´t. It´s a tough call but remember, there has to be a clear and realistic objective. At first it seems that this activity does contain an objective: to start a business. But think about it. If the objective was to start a business, you would actually write out a business plan and start the business, right? But obviously you can´t. So then the objective becomes, talk about what would be necessary to start up a hypothetical business. It´s phoney and I think students know that. So they do it half-heartedly. And even when just choosing the business--they think, what´s the point? Does it matter which they choose? No, not much, so then students hem and haw for a while over it before just deciding on the first choice provided. Now, I know that in business schools, the long-term project is to do such things, but they have a good reason for doing so and the experience of having written a realistic, detailed business plan is truly a worthy objective. But for a ten or twenty minute activity in English class, it´s going to be very difficult. It´s just not a real task. So instead we have to look at something else. Problem solving, even if it´s about a fictitious person, is real to students because we have a clear and obtainable goal and because they can share their ideas with each other--almost competively. We focus only on a few details and we choose from several possibilities before coming up with a final plan. It´s simple, it´s interesting and it´s realistically achievable.

One last example, a unit overview of a popular lower-intermediate coursebook:

This is the first unit in the book, whose aim is for students to talk about themselves. Page one and two are about names, page three is about remembering names and faces, page four and five are texts and form focus exercises related to discussing personal details and the last page is a song coupled with a task for students to talk about themselves. This material would probably take four classes at least to cover. So we can roughly divide it so that each class is a page or page and a half. I´m now going to detail the first page to illustrate that how you can apply a task-based teaching methodology to even the simpliest and most basic topic: names.

1.1 Students listen to someone talk about all the different names she´s called and answer one gist question (found at the end).

1.2 Students listen again and match the names she´s called to the person who calls her that name.

1.3 Students write down a list of names that they are called and explain to a partner which they like the most and which they don´t like much.

1.4 Students fill in a chart with names of family members which correspond to the various family relations listed as headings

1.5 Students add more headings and names

1.6 Students discuss questions related to the names they wrote such as whether names are usual/unusual in their country.

1.7 Students listen to a list of English names and decide which one has a different vowel sound (long).

1.8 Finally, they listen again and rearrange the names so they have the same sound

Again, this is the first unit of the book meaning that teachers are expected to actually begin with this on day one of class. Well, in general, it´s not the worst approach to get students talking about their names and family. However, the procedure is quite dry. Let´s see if we can´t make it a bit more interesting.

1.1 Introduce self (again) and say how I am also called by different "nick-names". My teachers at school called me "Zachary", my wife calls me "cariño" and my brother calls me "bro". Ask some students their names and if they have other names. Continue asking until find someone who is called "Cariño" (common term of endearment). Ask students to do the same by answering the question, "Do you have any names in common?" in pairs/groups.

1.2 Introduce recording then ask students to listen and answer gist question from book.

1.3 Students listen again (and again) and match names to person who calls her that name.

1.4 Students look at tape-script and check answers. Extract a few common phrases from the recording such as, "My name´s...", "Most of my friends call me...", or "I was always called...at school." Choral drill each and choose individuals to finish sentences. Then ask students to do the same in pairs.

1.5 For exercise about family, in pairs, student describe their family while partner draws family tree based on description(see page____ "Family tree").

So as you can see from day one, we can begin with unscripted conversations in class. There is still a model which students can follow, both by the teacher and by the listening exercise, but it´s not forced upon them to perfectly execute the task. And as with all tasks, they have a reason to explain to each other the names they´re called, or to explain about their family. 

 In addition, one activity builds on another, going from speaking to listening to speaking again. Notice I did eliminate the listening for pronunciation exercise (1.7-1.8). The ability to listen and distinguish sounds is always important but I felt that distinguishing the difference between Burt and Luke was not as important as focusing on other things. 

Finally, I chose a jigsaw-type activity as a way for students to describe family because it makes it more interactive and it gives them a reason to listen. It´s challenging but students can utilize whatever language and grammar is available to them. They can say "My grandmother...Maria" or "My grandmother is called Maria" or "My grandmother´s name is Maria". They can describe immediate or extended family. If the person drawing the family tree choose to ask for more information, he/she can. So we don´t place strict rules and limits on what students can say but as they speak or afterwards, we can provide correction and alternatives.