What you must decide
What possible changes should be introduced into the second edition of the textbook? Role cards
The author Aged 55
You are the author of the textbook. It is highly valued by the school teachers and so the publishing house is planning the second edition of it. As you have not been teaching at school yourself for the last ten years you have had no feedback from the learners (only practising teachers have). You appreciate the criticism and suggestions offered by the participants of the discussion. But you are a bit hurt by the students' impertinent remarks on your textbook and you let it show.
' The teacher must decide which textbook the group is going to discuss in the role-play. The students are given cards in advance so that they will study the chosen textbook and find out the items for criticism and approval.
12 3189 Аракин, 4 курс
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| Aged 45 |
Publisher
You are representing the publishing house specialising in textbooks. You conduct the discussion but your contribution to it is rather limited as you are more concerned with technical matters, therefore you object to colour illustrations urging to observe space limit. At the end of the discussion you thank the participants, promising to inform the editorial board of their suggestions/proposals.
Teacher S. Aged 54
You are an experienced English teacher, favouring the existing textbook, its layout and the exercises provided. As some people doubt the necessity of using the students' mother tongue and especially a number of exercises on translation you strongly object to this view and argue in favour of translation as an objective method of foreign language teaching.
NB: After being at college together with the author of the textbook, you worked at the same school for some time.
Teacher D. Aged 25
You are a young teacher with an urge to make innovations. You've been using the textbook for two years but you can't say you are happy about it. Your firm conviction is language and culture are not separable and should be taught together. But the textbook is not informative enough. So you insist that more information about the country should be provided and should be definitely supplemented by colour illustrations.
Ann/Michael Aged 22
You are a final-year student who has already had two teaching practices in school. You are flattered by the invitation to participate in the discussion. You were asked to look through the exercises and drill material on the vocabulary and evaluate them. Say whether you consider the essential language items are really the most commonly used words about the topic.
Jane/Andrew Aged 22
You are a final-year student. You were reluctant to participate in the discussion as you think that the grammar exercises you were asked to
look through are subjected to a lot of criticism. They should be more contextualised. Exercises on translation and filling in the blanks should be eliminated. You sound too categorical and uncompromising but you are not aware of it.
Helen/Peter Aged 30
You are a final-year student of an evening class. For the last two years you were allowed to work at school as a trainee teacher. Therefore you know the textbook well. You think no textbook can be perfectly designed and there is no limit to perfection. Concerning possible changes some texts pertaining to real-life teaching situations should be added to the course as well as additional visual aids (maps, diagrams, cartoons, slides, etc.).
Dorothy/Donald Parker Aged 35
You are a visiting English teacher with the English department. Today you are present at a special meeting where a school textbook planned to be re-edited is discussed. You are surprised to hear of a complex set of teaching material (try to find out what the set consists of)- In Great Britain it's up to the subject teachers to choose any textbook for their forms. So you think that approach is a bit biased as it may reflect a teacher's preferences and it makes it difficult for a child to change schools.