JOIN USRavinarayan Chakrakodi analyses the importance of textbooks and how they should provide ample scope for spontaneous and creative interaction in the classroom.
Learning cannot take place in a vacuum. We need to direct our learners to specific learning goals and see that these goals are achieved. Textbooks help teachers and learners in this regard.
They play a vital role in the teaching-learning process. They provide the basic framework within which much of the classroom activities occur and also give every child the best possible opportunities for learning.
The Karnataka Textbook Society has been in preparing new textbooks for school children based on the learning objectives and the syllabi specified in the National Curriculum Framework (2005) and the Karnataka Curriculum Framework (2007).The new English textbook prepared for Grade VI second language learners of Karnataka is one such attempt.
Objectives
The book aims at providing comprehensible input for second language learners. As spelt out in the book, the objectives of teaching English at this level are;
*Enabling learners to use English fluently, confidently and appropriately
* Developing their reading and comprehension skills
* Helping them produce short texts, in spoken and written forms
* Developing their reference skills by encouraging them to use dictionaries and other reference materials, and
* Sensitising them towards vocabulary items, pronunciation and grammar.
Age-appropriate texts have been chosen to hone the English skills of second language learners. ‘The Lighthouse’, ‘How do bees make honey?’, ‘What I want for you and every child: A letter from Obama to his daughters’, ‘Neerja Bhanot: Brave in life, brave in death’, ‘Channapatna toys’ are some of the themes discussed in the text.
Activities
A number of interesting tasks and activities to develop listening, speaking and writing skills as well as vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation are also suggested in the new book. Each unit of the book contains the following sections;
* Preparatory activity: Activities for activating learner’s background knowledge.
* Let's understand: Questions to check reading comprehension skills
* Let's practice words: Activities for vocabulary building
* Let's listen: Tasks for developing listening skills
* Let's write: Tasks for developing writing skills
* Let's practice: Language activities for grammar practice
* Let's speak: Speaking activities
* Extended activity: Games for language development
Equal weighting is given to all the four skills namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. However, the main goal is to develop communication skills in English. The content of the book - prose pieces and poems - should be used to develop these skills.
Learners should be involved in group discussions, pair activities, individual and group presentations to maximise learning opportunities in the class.
Learning strategies
Another interesting feature of the book is tasks for Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE). A checklist, to raise learners’ awareness about the importance of reading in English has been given.
* Do you enjoy reading? Why or why not?
* Do you enjoy reading in English? Why or why not?
* What do you generally read in your first language – newspapers? Magazines?
Children’s books such as stories, comics? Notices? Advertisements? Any other?
* What do you generally read in English?
* If you could easily read anything in English, what would you like to read? Why?
* Do you think reading in English helps you improve your English language? If yes, how? In what way?
Similarly, writing has been made process-oriented where learners will plan before they write, prepare a draft, edit or self-evaluate, make necessary modifications and prepare a final copy.
As pointed out by O’Neill (1982), a well designed textbook allows for a great deal of improvisation and adaptation by a teacher and also provides ample scope for spontaneous and creative interaction in the classroom.
The Position Paper on ‘Curriculum, syllabus and textbooks’ of the National Curriculum Framework -2005 states that a good textbook should function as a guide to construct understanding through active engagement with text, ideas, things, environment, and people rather than transferring knowledge as a finished product’.
What next?
What is required now is reliable and valid information about the effectiveness and the actual learning outcomes of the newly developed materials.
We need much more research into the effects of such materials on teachers as well as learners in order to facilitate better teaching and learning in schools.
More attention should be paid to ‘while-use’ and ‘post-use’ evaluations of the new textbooks so that high quality materials could be published and made available to teachers and learners in future.