Is There a Need for Coursebooks in ELT?
Coursebooks are the standard in ESL and EFL classrooms across the world. As a teacher, do they light your fire, or do you think they should they be used to start one? The use of course books for teaching English is a rather divisive issue. Some school insist upon their use while other educational organisations insist that teachers utilise only their wits and the students in front of them as the means to teach. Dogme language teaching famously advocated for ' teaching without published textbooks and focusing instead on conversational communication among learners and teacher '. And yet, for someone who is new to ELT, or simply for a school or teacher who want to work from a tried-and-tested text book, they can offer guidance, inspiration, and a ready-made solution to the problem of what and how to teach. It is worth thinking about what the purpose of learning materials is in the classroom, or to the independent learner. It is important to consider that learning ma...