TEACHERS TO PLAY PART IN TEXTBOOKS
English-language teaching experts encourage front-line educators to play a bigger role in compiling teaching materials to better serve the needs of their students, Zhou Wenting reports.
Domestic and foreign experts in Englishlanguage teaching encouraged all the teachers on the front line to participate in preparation and compilation of teaching materials, an important channel for teacher development.
Teaching materials development helps teachers — from primary schools to universities — to grow quickly in the profession, as they need to take into consideration various factors, including the subject to be taught, selection of materials as well as students’ adaptability and their interest level, said Shu Dingfang, chief expert at the Shanghai Center for Research in English Language Education.
“Needless to say, they first need to command the theories of writing and compiling teaching materials,” he said at a forum hosted by the center and the Materials Development Association, a United Kingdom-based nonprofit international association that brings together researchers, publishers and teachers to work toward the development of high-quality materials for language learners.
The job is important for English teachers in particular, as foreign language teaching requires fresh and up-to-date materials, Shu observed.
“They can cover the latest topics and materials in everyday life, publications and movies that fascinate the students and target the knowledge points that they need to learn,” he said at the forum on June 9 — which attracted more than 130 scholars and experts in English-language teaching from all over the world, hosted at Shanghai International Studies University.
More teachers can start by participating in developing school-based textbooks and designing follow-up exercises, questions and interactions, Shu said.
“It also demands a lot from the teachers as the materials should not only serve to help with the students’ language skills but also their comprehensive qualities and moral values,” he said.
Foreign experts said that teachers universally have started to gain awareness of joining in with materials development.
Hitomi Masuhara, a lecturer of language teaching at the University of Liverpool, said a team of experts from the university have been involved in a project in Wenzhou city, Zhejiang province, to develop textbooks for primary and junior high schools.
“We worked with the education bureau and Chinese researchers, and local teachers were involved,” she said.
Brian Tomlinson, founder and chairman of the Materials Development Association, offered an example from Turkey, where the new course book for the whole country was entirely written by teachers instead of academic experts.
The teachers were selected to represent different regions. Some were young and enthusiastic, and others were experienced, Tomlinson noted, each with different expertise in similar disciplines, like music and drama.
“The textbook was very wellreceived and popular because it was much more relevant to the students’ needs. They even asked students what interested them and they gave intelligent answers,” he said.
Tomlinson said a basic principle for teachers to practice materials development in their everyday work is to localize the materials in the textbook to make them best suit and serve the learners.
“I’ve written many textbooks. I can only vary examples but not localize them — which is something teachers can do,” he said.
Tomlinson raised the example of a text about weddings in India. He said in a Chinese school, teachers can first let students discuss weddings in China, and then read the text and find similarities and differences. Then the teacher can ask students to write a story about weddings in China, in order to localize the materials.
Shu said the target for English teaching materials developers in Shanghai, one of the most vibrant cities in the country, is to design textbooks that not only benefit local students but also learners and teachers in other countries and regions.
“English-language teaching in Shanghai is quite advanced, even from an international perspective, and we have our own experience and advantages,” Shu said.
Tomlinson reminded education authorities that they do not have to be obsessed with teaching a standard variety of the language. Instead, what matters is the understanding with which learners are able to communicate with speakers of English from other countries.
“At this moment, all over the world, there are millions of interactions of English communication taking place between nonnative speakers and other nonnative speakers of different countries,” he said.
They first need to command the theories of writing and compiling teaching materials.” Shu Dingfang,