Coursebooks and materials - Resource Books Part 2
Let's just consider next, when using these resource books, the student book, the workbook and the teachers resource book, what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using those types of materials? Well, firstly, the main advantage perhaps of using these types of material is that it's quicker than actually creating your own. Secondly, the course books that you will get will be graded for a particular level. So there'll be a set of books for the starter level, a set of books for the elementary level and so on and so forth. So you know that the activities and materials in there will have been graded for level. The use of the book can also offer continuity so that the syllabuses have been covered in a particular way by the book itself and are presented in a logical order. Another advantage of using these types of books is the students often expect it and finally they are good for inexperienced teachers who are perhaps not able to create all of the materials that they need for themselves. Having said that particularly looking at the advantage for the last one then some of the disadvantages of using these they shouldn't be used for the whole class because just using that course book can become very boring. Other disadvantages, the books themselves will not have been created for every type of class and situation that you teach. So, do they actually cover the needs and interest of your class? Another possible disadvantage is that because these books have been created by large companies, they always tend to be something of a compromise. It's very unlikely that these books have been created and set up for any particular teaching situation. Also another disadvantage is that over reliance on it can mean that the book is actually dictating what is being taught and obviously it should be the other way around. Our teaching should then lead us into what can we use from these books rather than the books telling us what we need to teach. Another final disadvantage, very often it's not our decision which particular type of book that we have to use and very often either we or our students don't actually like the presentation that's given in that book.
Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next.
