Course books or DIY for TP in initial training?

IATEFL Brighton 2018 Bill H arris bharrisefl@gmail.com

Selected quotes from my surveys of CELTA and Trinity Cert TESOL trainers, newly
qualified teachers and centre Directors of Studies via survey monkey.

CELTA trainers: 81 responses

Laura Woodward (Turkey) : the reality is that most of the trainees who attend
our courses will have to use CBs in their schools, so it makes sense to show
them how to use them well, i.e., not following the book slavishly, but adapting and
replacing where appropriate.

Cathy Gannon (Ireland) : Most teachers intend to teach in the private sector
after the course and the majority of private schools nowadays have a specific
CB assigned each term to a particular level so we need to train trainees to use
any course book effectively.

Mary Drummond (UK) : I encourage trainees to work through the material and
only check the teacher’s notes if need be. Some weaker trainees can get side-
tracked by many alternative suggestions and try to cover too much.

Olga Connolly (Russia) : Using a (good) CB on CELTA saves time for trainers
and trainees and increases the quality of lessons. If the CB material is chosen
well, it’s usually possible to engage learners at least by the content when
teachers are still unable to engage them by their performance.

Anna Cuccia : Its not fair to ask CPs to create their own lessons and rather
than whole off book lessons, I massively encourage them to make their own lead
-in materials and extension tasks.

Patrick Howarth (Spain): We don't give our candidates access to the

teacher's book as we feel it reduces their analysis.

Charles Hadfield (NZ) : In the distant past, when I began training in the
1980s, I felt CBs were pretty limiting in scope, and really needed to encourage
independent creative thinking on the part of trainees. I still believe this, but in
fact the course books on offer nowadays are so much better in so many
different ways that it actually seems a pity NOT to see them!!

Guus van der Made (Germany): For the first TPs the candidates use CBs but
we quickly make them aware of the need to adapt material. The stronger
candidates do so.

Jason Anderson (freelance) : By using CBs, I believe we reduce the workload,

allowing them to enjoy the course, reflect more, and deal with the challenges on
an emotional level. They can always choose to create their own material if they
want to. I was a slow learner on my CELTA. I just scraped a 'Pass', and the
coursebook helped me get there.

Carole Harrison (UK) : I think that the key is to get a balance. Trainees need
to be exposed to CB materials as they will probably be expected to use them,
but I would hope that they would never be expected to simply ‘page turn’
Lizzy Adams (UK) : I have recently started using CB demo lessons as it
reflects what they have to do in initial lessons more closely. This has
(anecdotally!) led to better lesson plans, particularly for early TPs, as they're
able to stick to similar staging / aims and have a more closely matched lesson
plan template to follow. It also models the fact that the CB can be adapted and
CB based lessons can be fun. I may be in the minority here but for CELTA I
don't think designing own materials or lessons from scratch is a necessary skill.
Adapting the CB is more useful in my opinion...

Rebecca Haag Trainees may process lesson frameworks better if they create
their own materials for them.

Chris Meoli (USA) : So I want them to be able to take a text book and the
materials provided in that resource and use it to plan an effective lesson...
efficiently. If trainees get too hooked on DIY lessons, they can end up spending
too much time making every lesson perfect and won't last as teachers - they get
burned out.

Rick Ansell (UK) : CBs never provide sufficient practice. Candidates can often
feel that if they have done the practice activities in the book they have done
enough when they haven't. This is something they need to be made aware of.

Tasveer Shemza (UK) : Trainees would be expected to use tutors’ model

lessons as appropriate and SASS: select, supplement, adapt and substitute as
appropriate.

Liz Turner (UK) : CB contexts are sometimes inappropriate for the group of
learners or need to be supplemented e.g. asylum seekers in Middlesbrough or
Glasgow don't want to talk about fashion in order to practise adjective word
order or the best holiday they've ever taken as a way of contrasting Present
Perfect and Past Simple.

Ray Parker (UK) : Before becoming a CELTA trainer I was heavily involved in
Trinity courses where there is a much stronger emphasis on non-coursebook-
based TP. Much more demanding and increased workload for trainees.

Trinity trainers: 7 responses

Steve Hirschhorn (Italy) Always felt that if teachers can create their own
lessons, they'd find it easier to use (adapt, select, reject) CB materials.

Iza Mania (Italy) : CBs also tend to save time and might be a kind of 'comfort
blanket' for those trainees what have never taught before or who are not very
creative.

Anne Carmichael (UK) : A good indicator of useful CB publications is the range

of supplementary and support materials that come alongside, and particularly
online materials now. Most schools have smart boards so additional materials can
be brought up easily.
N ew ly qualified teachers: 122 responses (som e incom plete)

Ø I spent a lot of time creating worksheets from scratch that I spent 5-

10 minutes on in the TP!
Ø A lot of the classes I teach are on a substitute basis. This means I don't
get the luxury of a lot of planning time beforehand, therefore, I use the
CB a lot more than I would like.
Ø The setting for my experience is summer school and a course book led
syllabus. As a relatively new teacher I found most of the material old
fashioned and not relevant to young adults. I did a lot of adapting or
Hybrid / ELT searching: steep intense learning curve
Ø It is good to have exposure to different materials but to learn how to
design a lesson from scratch is vital for teachers to feel more confident
rather than relying solely on the CB.
Ø CBs are useful to structure lessons at the beginning but if you learn to
create a lesson from scratch it’s a skill you can use anytime especially
if your course book is not great!
Ø Our session on analysing and identifying possible lessons from CB units
and pages enlightened me on the relationship of a good teacher and the
CB he/she uses.
Ø Non-coursebook lessons are a way to adapt to students' needs and
level of English. A more effective learning experience should be the
primary reason for a teacher to adapt and create material. If a CB has
appropriate staging and content that suits the learners of a specific
group, DIY might be rendered unnecessary.
Ø It depends on the subject. Most EFL teachers in China teach oral English
- in this scenario, a textbook is not normally used. However, when
teaching reading, writing or listening or when teaching subjects, a CB is
usually supplied by the school.
Ø The option for DIY were available but as a trainee without teaching
experience the book was safe!
Ø I've found that needs of each group are very different and CBs are
essential only for beginning teachers for the above mentioned reasons.
Otherwise teachers tend to rely solely on the CB and thus lessons
become boring and monotonous.
Ø Two things that can really help trainees doing TP that should be
emphasized: one is making sure they are acquainted with as full a range
of supplementary materials as they can be from every available source;
and the other is equipping trainees with those teacher trainers’ go-to
low/no-prep routines or tasks they have developed from experience
that could be used to supplement particular kinds of lessons or that could
be used for any and all lessons.
Ø It is perhaps quite often the case that students might prefer lessons
not based so much on a textbook.
Ø Never had I thought that non-course book lessons could be as
interesting, creative, and challenging for SS in a way that they make
SS deal with more real-life texts/contexts since they are absolutely
tailored by the T and according to his/her SS needs in class. SS learn
what they need to learn and not just what they are taught or are
expected to learn.
Directors of Studies: 20 responses

Sarka Kreuzova (Bell London): I'd say exploiting materials and activities
sufficiently is a problem.

Angela Mora (ih Bogata) : The TP points for CELTA, are always based on books
and teachers always get "easy" levels to work with (they don't get a1 learners.
More than materials, they should be able to teach any given level and to adapt
materials.

Maria Helena Primon (Brazil) : Teachers are encouraged to use the CB as

learners expect it to be used in class due to its cost. Our experience shows
that most teachers/ instructors tend to use freshly downloaded from the
Internet and may devise a one-fits-all lesson - if so. Or they may devise so-
called conversation lessons which are more an informal conversation rather an
structured lesson. Hence the use of a CB.

Jason West ( Australia) : The AE Curriculum is already designed in a way to be

modular and integrated in nature, so you don't need to bring extensive materials
in to the lesson. It's good though for variety's sake to bring in extra materials
tailored to the needs of students.

Anon: Teaching more meta-language in advance. Also, a greater focus on writing

skills (production).

Sophie Revez (UK) : We encourage paper-free lessons for our integrated skills
classes, a combination of CBs, authentic and original materials on our General
English courses, and more structured use of CBs for exam prep courses.

Anon: New teachers can often spend large amounts of time creating their
own materials and making resources which there are already pre-existing
variations of (role plays about friends meeting up is a common one) and often
their other planning and teaching can suffer (along with their confidence if the
lesson doesn't work as well)

Anna (Dublin) : I feel that once teachers have a CB they feel that the lesson
will be interesting if they simply follow activity by activity. They need to learn
how to be more creative and inject life into the CB. They need to understand
it’s OK to take the content out of the CB and adapt it by, for instance, by
making cards or turning a lead-in vocab activity into a game, using texts for
jigsaw reading etc. Using the book without looking at the book.

David Gannon (St Giles Eastbourne):We aim to utilise the CB for around 60%
of content. I do not believe teachers should be limited by a CB when there are
many other methods of putting a teaching point across.

Anon (Spain):As a director of studies I employed many trainees straight off

the CELTA and noticed they spent hours planning their lessons, cutting up and
adapting the CB unnecessarily, adding a lot of extra stress at the beginning of
their teaching career.