To Read or Not to Read... The Textbook

Textbooks, teachers either love them or hate them. Some teachers cling to them like a life preserver while others find them most useful as a doorstop, (mainly to spite the fire-marshal.) While textbooks themselves are not inherently good or bad, determines whether they are beneficial or harmful to student's learning. Textbooks have many faults. They are often rife with errors and cover too much information only ever scratching the surface. However, if one chooses to or is coerced into using a textbook, it can be implemented in way that results in real learning.

 A textbook can be used as an excellent road-map or framework. World language teachers may find textbooks particularly helpful in discovering how to group vocabulary families with grammatical structures into units that make sense and aspects of culture can be discussed using these elements. Also, non-native speakers may not be familiar with all aspects of the culture and a textbook can help fill-in the gaps. 

Teachers should use as many authentic texts as they can work into to the curriculum. Textbooks do not provide authentic language or communication. Texts in language textbooks, whether a mini-dialogue or a culture piece, often sound canned and out of context. Language teachers can use any type of authentic text to teach with: stories, poems, newspapers, magazines, novels,letters, websites, brochures, advertisements, music, interviews, and many more. Choosing texts sets is also an opportunity for teachers to align their instruction more closely to their students' interests. Textbooks should be heavily supplemented to provide real-world opportunities for students to interact with texts.

Because textbooks are meant to be a tool for students and teachers to interact during the learning process, and because of the overwhelming amount of specialized information, students will probably not be capable of navigating the textbook by themselves. Textbooks should be a framework or just one tool in the classroom toolbox. Teachers are supposed to experts in their fields and life-long learners. If this is true then they should be well-prepared and arm themselves with copious amounts of literature in their content area that they can draw on to make activities meaningful and authentic.