I realise that this may be a nagging question for a teacher, especially young, but course books organise teaching and keep a talkative teacher within bounds. There is an article from ELT Journal of, probably, the 1980s, which is entitled "Let the student have the last word". So course books organise teaching. Plus a diary plan and you can be sure you will be a disciplined instructor for days. But given the argument, supplementary materials are not denied. They are useful but even more useful than usual if added to a course book.

One other point. Viewing teaching EFL in the University of Vilnius, Lithuania, in retrospect, I know that we applied what to day is known as CLIL. Advanced students - university undergraduates were taught the understanding of literature and poetry analysis. But to teach them some skills in these areas, we used to select articles excerpts from books or interviews, multiply them by a typewriter (there were no Xerox machines with us then) and set tasks to learn what is in the publications on character, plot, composition, conflict, development, denouement, point-of-view, etc and discuss it in class using the vocabulary of the publications. Discussion classes used to be followed by analysis classes. The students' advancement in English was remarkable and the level of knowledge pleasing. I am saying this to remind you that we had no textbook for this unnamed CLIL. So we used to collect the materials in pinned files which were course books of a kind. So you see - the idea of a course book features in the porcess if one is disciplined in teaching.

Honestly and sincerely, you may set your mind at reast - a course book, even one of  moderate quality, does no harm. Remember that a book means a finished thought or conception. It is a world or a whole human life in books of fiction. A book always organises and gives one a complete idea of something. Belive me, it is useful. Thank you.

Marija Liudvika Rutkauskaite   Email: liudvikadam@yahoo.com

I teach two adult classes - both Intermediate (B1), the students are mostly middle-aged and retired women who have been attending for several years, and all want to "keep up" their English for family and social reasons. One class uses a course book; the other does not.

One class has 15 students - they don't really make much progress, so it’s like a "maintenance" class. We don't use a course book - at the moment we have a Reader book of five short stories - one story takes up four lessons; then we use other materials for the next few lessons. I use a lot of materials from teaching resources books and internet web sites, but I also use articles from online English Newspapers. Some Newspapers have "feel-good" stories about animals or unusual topics. These are ideal – short stories with short paragraphs. Each student reads a paragraph aloud, then it can be translated to help understanding if required. There are opportunities for learning new vocabulary, and sometimes revision of specific grammar structures. Newspaper articles often use phrasal verbs and idioms, and many have "play-on-word" titles - these need a little explanation, but this adds interest. I ask the students if these sayings mean the same when translated into L1, or if they know equivalent sayings. I sometimes use the video file of the TV News report afterwards - they know the story, so they can understand the TV report. A fairly short Newspaper article can take over an hour to read, translate in part, compile new vocabulary on the board, clarify grammar, watch the video and then discuss afterwards. There’s plenty of Student-Talk-Time, and it doesn’t require much preparation – just a little ingenuity in finding an interesting article. Authentic materials of this type don’t usually need to be adapted for Intermediate classes and above.

My other class has 12 students - this group DOES make progress, and they like to be given homework. We use a course book, and I supplement lessons with similar materials to the above class - sometimes the same materials. This class relies much less on translation, and they will discuss a topic quite freely after reading the article.

I think the choice of whether to use a course book or not depends upon the aims of the course and the students. If I do use a course book, I always supplement it with additional materials. Everyone enjoys the additional materials that I bring to class - and it’s more interesting for me as a teacher. Just sticking to the course book is a bit too much like school!

Carol K.

English Language Teacher in Germany

Hello!

Being a pre- service teacher and more importantly a student, I think course books are a great help as they provide an outline of the course and one can get a quick view of what they are going to study. So its better to have a course book and then a teacher can always bring extra material whenever it is required.

Barirah Idrees 

Dear Isasan,

I think the answer is quoted in your last entry - "if you can have a GOOD course book".

I don't seen any sense in just using a book for the sake of it - I'd only employ a book if you're sure it's the right level and going to interest/motivate the students and cover everything required by the course. There are lots of books out there but not all of them are good for use in the classroom, depending on your students. So yes, go for a course book, but think carefully about the choice!

CMF