Gregory Hadley is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Cultural Studies at Niigata University, Japan. A Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford, he has written a number of books and articles on English Language Education. He is also a contributor to upcoming title, The Cambridge Guide to Learning English as a Second Language.
With the exception of students and teachers, textbooks are perhaps one of the most pervasive objects to be found in the second language classroom. And yet despite their ubiquity, few items are as divisive among educators.
I learned this lesson firsthand some years ago, when I took a post as the coordinator of an intensive English language program at a small Japanese college. The department that hired me felt that most English language textbooks represented a form of Anglo-American propaganda, in that they presented idealized forms of ‘The West’. They feared that such textbooks implicitly colonized the minds of young learners by making them more amenable to Western concerns, while implicitly downplaying their Japanese cultural values. The department wanted English language textbooks, but not those made in Anglophone countries. Instead, they wanted textbooks depicting Japanese carrying out routine social activities, but which were communicated in the English language.
It was then that I started to become aware of how the political could appropriate the pedagogical. This experience was the beginning of a professional journey where I have sought, on one hand, to raise awareness about the sociopolitical underpinnings of textbooks, while also seeking to find out what, if anything, can be learned through language textbooks. By ‘language textbooks’, I am referring to published materials designed to stimulate language learning and support language instruction. They can range from Global Textbooks of the type marketed by major academic publishers, to Local Textbooks created by smaller publishers, and designed for groups of learners in specific sociocultural contexts (i.e. Japanese High School students).
Views on language textbooks
During the course of my journey, I have found teachers and scholars working from three basic positions with regard to language textbooks. Some see language textbooks as indispensible for language study, others use them begrudgingly as necessary evils, and there are those who think that language textbooks actually keep students from learning the language. Among these educators, many would be happy if all language textbooks were forever banished from the classroom.
Certainly, there are ineffective textbooks out there. These are those turgid little books that many of us have had the misfortune to encounter as a set text, where there are shortcomings in productive and receptive language tasks, where there is a lack of logical sequencing in communicative activities, inconsistent organization, a dearth of goals and strategies, and which are lacking in meaningful interaction as well as instructive feedback. Most teachers know a bad language textbook when they see one. But there are equally many that are effective in accomplishing these goals. In addition, there is a growing body of empirical evidence to suggest that, when used in a conscientious, informed manner, language textbooks do in fact support the process of learning a second language.
How do textbooks help in the language classroom?
So, for those who are not immediately biased against the presence of an effective textbook in the language classroom, the above question remains. I believe that a strong case can be made for language textbooks, both for students, teachers, and for the institution.
For students, simply having a language textbook (especially an effective one) is reassuring, because it gives the fuzzy notion of learning a language a physical representation. They get a better idea about what should be learned and how to get there. The textbook provides a springboard for meaningful output and reformulation, as well as graded tasks to help in building towards new levels of acquisition. Textbooks can be taken out of the classroom, which give the students a resource for autonomous learning.
Like students, teachers vary. For inexperienced teachers, the language textbook can serve as a ‘pedagogic cookbook’ for how to ‘serve up’ language lessons. In this sense, both teachers and students are using the textbook to learn. Even for more experienced teachers, having an organized, portable, and pre-packaged set of learning materials will be an economical set of resources that will help save time in terms of class preparation. There will, of course, be those with decades of classroom experience who will look at language textbooks in the way that a gourmet chef looks at a cookbook designed for young people who have just moved away from home. They have internalized much in their years of instruction, and teach their classes with artistic flair. Denigrating textbooks, however, implicitly can position themselves as superior to those who choose to use them or who need them, and can deny students the opportunity to have a textbook as a resource. This does not seem, to me at least, to be a productive position to take.
Institutions often need language textbooks as much as some students and teachers, though it is often for maintaining accountability with stakeholders, and for also providing a coherent, uniform approach to the language curriculum. This can then allow for standardized assessment aimed at improving future instruction. There will be institutions, such as the one where I had once worked many years ago, who view textbooks with a skeptical gaze, but my experience elsewhere over the past twenty years is that most institutional decision makers find textbooks from reputable publishers comforting, because they have faith that considerable effort has been put into creating and testing the materials before they were published.
Certainly, learning without a textbook is possible, but in most situations around the world, having an effective textbook serves as an important learning resource for students, as a pedagogical support for teachers, and as a provider of coherence for the educational institution. Learning through textbooks happens when teachers do not see them as a hindrance, but instead, find what is useful within the pages, in order to help their learners better acquire the target language.
What is your opinion on language textbooks? Are they a help or a hindrance in your work? Do you have any stories of success or failure with using language textbooks?
Suggested papers to explore:
Guilloteaux, M. (2013). Language Textbook Selection: Using Materials Analysis from the Perspective of SLA Principles. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 22(3), 231-239.
Hadley, G. (2013). Global Textbooks in Local Contexts: An Empirical Investigation of Effectiveness. In N. Harwood (Ed.), English Language Teaching Textbooks: Content, Consumption, Production (pp. 205-238). Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave-Macmillian.
Nitta, R., & Gardner, S. (2005). Consciousness-raising and Practice in ELT Coursebooks. ELT Journal, 59(1), 3-13.