Previous               

PART 5. TEACHER’S BOOK

5.I. TEACHER’S BOOK

 Teacher’s book is the important element in course book package. So they should be given much importance while they are being prepared as the other aspects of the whole package. The good teacher’s book should be efficient enough to offer guidelines on how to make the course effective. There should be detailed plans for every teaching units and keys to the exercises. The book should serve some functions in order to be more comprehensible for the teacher can search for these functions which mentioned in the book of Alan Cunningsworth, “A Division Of Heinemann” as the following:

-         setting out the guiding principle of the course

-         stating the aims and objectives of the course: The aims and objectives should be presented clearly for the teacher in order to help him / her with knowing what will the students learn at the end of the course.

-         describing the basis for the selection and grading of the language content: The teacher’s book should contain description of the language content (grammar, vocabulary, phonology) and how to teach and use them effectively.

-         explaining the rationale for the methodology used: Teacher’s book should give the reasons why it chose the method they applied, what they aim with this method.

-         giving an overview of the way the course is constructed and of how the different parts relate to one another: Instructions about the organisation of the course book what it contains for which purposes.

-         providing practical guidance on how to use the material: the teacher’s books should be a guide for teacher to show what he / she will do with the material.

-         giving linguistic information necessary for effective use of the material in class. It can give teacher some linguistic usage for the particular material. For example, how do English people use “can” for asking permission.

-         providing background, cultural information where this is necessary in order to understand the context being used in the material: Teacher should be aware of what the context is about to use the material in a meaningful way.

-         promoting better understanding of the principles and practice of language teaching in general, and helping to develop teaching skills: They should direct the teachers by the help of principles and practiced activities of language teaching and besides they should make him / her create their own way of language in all four skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening).

So far we mentioned required points that the teacher’s book should have. And the teacher’s book should have more than one of them to be made use of.

5.I.I. Guidance for teachers

Teacher’s book contains an introduction part named “Introduction to the teacher” at the beginning which describes the content of the course clearly (See Appendix LIV). This part starts with the methodology of the course, the method of Enterprise and what the course book aims with this method. As it is stated in the introduction to the teacher part of Enterprise 1 Beginner, it is a communicative course, which motivate and involve students in effective learning in beginner level. Also the content of the book is stated and some clues are given about presenting new vocabulary and organising pair-work. (See Appendix LV)

The Enterprise Course Book is designed as communication based books, so as to make students to use the language for communication. Not only they learn English as a language on the aspect of linguistic, but also they learn how to use it effectively in their daily life. So the teacher’s book should be the one, which related to the course book, they should have communicative structures and patterns, which are exercised with the type of activities. But in this book although many different activities are included but the alternative ways of doing them are not. The teacher’s book contains only the instructions, which are given very briefly in each activity. In unit 1 the activity 5 has the instruction, which explains what the students will do with the materials (See Appendix LVI) and another type of instruction, which explains teacher how to deal with the material they had and how they can be served by the teacher to reach better points (See Appendix LVII).

On the other hand some of the instructions are about how to explain language items (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation). In unit 6, the activity 4 in the vocabulary part the instructions explain the students that firstly they should give the meaning of the words the activity is based on, the activity used. The vocabulary unknown words are explained even in the teachers’ books so as to make them also clear for the teachers. And grammar activities have the instruction which explain the rules for the grammar as it is stated in unit 9,the activity 2 (See Appendix LVIII).

The instruction part at the beginning of the every activity inform teacher about what it is about or how she / he can handle or make use of that activity. But as it is mentioned in the book of Alan Cunningsworth, “A Division Of Heinemann” “The way guidance is presented in teacher’s book is also important about the cross-referencing by page numbers and by clear page lay out                   . An increasingly popular format is to interleave the pages of the teacher’s book into the student’s book. In teacher’s book only, the activities are presented in order and the page numbers are given within the title of the units such as in unit 5 named An Early Bird or A Night Owl (pg.34-39) as in the Students’ Course Book 1.

5.I.II. Detailed information on the language items

If we want to have detailed information about the aspects of teacher’s book we should consider presentation of the teacher’s book as a whole. As it is mentioned in the book of Alan Cunningsworth, “A Division Of Heinemann” we need to check that there are stated objectives for each unit and that sufficiently detailed information is given about language items to be taught. It means that the book should explain teacher how to teach the language items in the way that students can understand easily. For example, there are always explanations of the meaning of unknown vocabulary in the vocabulary part activities, the instructions which are the keys for the teacher always have them. We can see this in unit 9 ”Times change firstly the meaning of the words are said to be explained by the teacher it means that the teacher’s book directs teacher to give the clear meanings of the words before doing the activity with the students.”

Another important language item is grammar - the form and the usage of the language appropriately. How we construct the language and how we can use it for the appropriate situation (eg: tenses) sometimes regarded as the main focus in learning English. Of course Enterprise Course Book consider the grammar mainly so the teacher’s book. But only in the instructions, acknowledges about the usage of them and the brief information about the structure. For instance it’s indisputable that teaching present perfect tense is very difficult and complex because there is no equivalence of it in Turkish. It needs to be studied on more detailed than the other to be understood easily, as in the explanation in the activity 3 in unit 15 (See Appendix LIX). The instruction said that the teacher should explain the present perfect tense clearly that students can realise where to use it appropriately.

The pronunciation is another item that is crucial while learning English because to produce as in authentic language is important as much as constructing grammatical sentences. First of all the weak forms stress and rhythm should be taught to the students because the stress and intonation have functional importance while speaking. For example, you can make this sentence so you are coming, question with rising tone and answer with falling tone. These systems will most probably operate in English quite differently from the way they are used in the learner’s mother tongue.    Teacher should consider it as a stress-timed language so teacher’s book should contain parts about the stress and intonation.

In course book each unit has a pronunciation part and the teacher’s book have this part naturally. For example, in the Course Book Enterprise 1 Beginner, in unit 9 the activity 9 is the one that is about phonetic alphabet. And these activities continue in each unit like the same with this example.

         Listen and tick. Listen again and repeat.

              /s/       /∫/                                      /s/       /∫/                    

Shop                 √                           Ship                  √

Sport      √                                     Sun        √                     

Shoe                  √                          Street    √                      

Phonetic alphabet is presented through the units and especially in later units the difference between the sounds are identified by the book and students are required to be able to identify them also.

But in the book only the sounds are dealt with but there is no information or activity about intonation.

Discourse is also one of the main items which should be mentioned in the teachers’ books. Because it is important for our communication to learn how we can use English effectively. The teacher should be aware of them and help the students to use language in a meaningful way or in an effective way to produce greater conversation. That includes sequencing of sentences, cohesion, and paragraphing, structuring, text. But in this course book there is no explanation or guidance for teacher to emphasise these terms which is mentioned above while doing the writing or speaking activities in the course book.

5.I.III. Teaching techniques and language items

The main language items are vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. The Enterprise Teacher’s Book handles all these three items effectively but not in detail. The teacher’s book is only the guide for the teacher how to use the course book’s materials etc.

Vocabulary is dealt with widely in the course book so the teacher’s book should have more alternatives for the vocabulary activities but this teacher’s book only help teacher to show what he / she will do with the activity. The helpful thing for the teacher is that at the beginning of the each unit there is an objectives part which includes all the skills, items, projects, in this part the vocabulary as a language item is mentioned (which words they are going to learn in this unit).

Grammar is dealt with as a natural outcome of the familiar structures. Because as related to the student’s book, first of all the structures are seen in the sentences, paragraphs or extracts in its usage form by the students. Before giving the rules or the explanations about the grammar items the course book has the activity, which contains the structure so students can see them before they learn and they get familiar to them in Teacher’s Book 1, the activities 1-2 in unit 12 (See Appendix LX) are the examples of the techniques that the teacher’s book follow with the teaching of grammar items. And all the items are dealt with this way.

The pronunciation is the another important item that the course book dealt with. In every unit in the student’s book so in the teacher’s book there is pronunciation part, which is done by using tape recorder. So the teacher’s book also give information about these activities. The teacher’s book only contains brief information, instruction about how to do these activities. There’s nothing more about the explanations etc. For example, in unit 14 in the Teacher’s Book Enterprise 1 it says that teacher will play the cassette and students will tick the appropriate boxes and teacher will check their answers, then they will repeat chorally and individually (See Appendix LXI). And also teacher can use the items given by the course book according to his / her style of teaching. But the course book package provides everything that the teacher needs such as tables that the students will fill after the listening, a cassette, which is recorded to use in the class and they usually contains authentic speeches.

5.I.IV. Answer keys

Course book has many different kinds of activities for the students, some of them are multiple choice, some of them are fill in the blanks, and some of them are open-ended etc. And every activity has the answer key in the teacher’s book. If the activity is clear enough, easy to answer for the students, the keys are given directly in the teacher’s book, because there can be only one correct answer for it. For example, in unit 15 in the Student’s Book Enterprise 1 (activity 5) the language development part includes fill in items; the words are listed first, then students are asked to fill in the gaps by using them (See Appendix LXII). Also the activity 9, there are open-ended questions about the reading passage and we can give lots of examples from the teacher’s book.

Some activities have suggested answers in teacher’s book. In episode 1 Waterfall in the Student’s Book 1 the activity 7 includes suggestions that students are expected to give as the answers. First, the objects are matched with the words then the suggested answers are given (See Appendix LXIII).

The course book has revision tests after every four units in the student’s book. Revision 1 includes the units 1,2,3,and 4 and Revision 2 includes the units 5,6,7,and 8 and so on, and at the end of these tests there is an answer key. The activities, which are explained in the teacher’s book follows the same sequence with the student’s book so, the answers of the revision tests are presented after every four units in the same sequence. As the answer key of the Revision 1 is stated after the unit 4 on page 26 in the Teacher’s Book 1 (See Appendix LXIV).

On the other hand, teacher’s book also includes tape scripts, which help teacher with the listening activities. At the end of every unit teacher give small exams to the students to check their learning. And the teacher’s book includes sample tests for the students, which can be used for this purpose. They are prepared just like the revision tests including four units (See Appendix LXV). Also the teacher’s book contains answer keys for the workbook of the student’s books.

5.I.V. Guidance of the teaching procedure

Teacher’s book has brief information about the method that the course book applied at the introduction sections of the each book. But in presentation of the units there is no explanation, no plan about the suggested teaching procedure. So it depends on the teacher how to teach any structure and what to do with it. The books only give some instructions about the activities, which are stated in the student’s book.

5.I.VI. Cultural explanation for interpretation of the situation

This course book was written by the native speakers of English for international market so, there are lots of cultural aspects such as food, drink, lifestyle, people very different from the Turkish culture (especially in reading passages). These areas should be explained or identified by the teacher in case students may not adopt them in the process of learning new structures. For example, in unit 8, reading and listening part are full of foreign things, which do not refer to our culture. There is a passage telling about the eating habits in Brazil, Philippines and Finland. The passage contains many unknown kinds of food, which are foreign for our culture like snacks, smoked fish etc. (See Appendix LXVI). In the same unit the other activity, which is about practice the ordering food from the menu, the students are asked to say the prices of the food in the menu and they should use pound and pence. Teacher should explain what the pound and the pence are and how much it is if we change it in Turkish Liras etc. But the teacher’s book doesn’t contain any information about this. This can cause problem for students they may not be familiar to these terms.

As it mentioned before the teacher’s book includes the answers of the activities of the course book. There is no alternate way on any subject of the course books. So, the cultural explanations are also not considered in the teacher’s book. As well as the other areas (explanations of structure, teaching procedure, teaching techniques), culture is omitted in the teacher’s book.

5.II. Teacher’s role

Generally the course book identifies the role of the teacher as a guide and facilitator or monitor but in fact the teacher’s role can be extended to a very large units.

The teacher can provide introductory activities before the lesson, he / she can provide explanations where necessary they can use them. When students have problem with the material, the teacher can direct the students’ studies move from one activity to another, monitor them during the process, encourage them to use language as much as possible. And we can continue to find out more details about the role of the teacher.

But the most common ones are monitoring the performance of the students and guiding model because it is believed that the course book can not fulfil itself as monitor or guide for process.

5.II.I. The function of the teacher in the course book

The teacher’s book of the course are designed as an answer key for the student’s book because they contain the answers of all of the activities, which students are asked to do in the course book.

It is left to the teacher himself / herself to create different exercises for students. The book doesn’t give explanations for the structures that can cause problem. For instance Present Perfect Tense can cause problem for both the students and the teacher, for students while learning, for teacher while teaching. Teacher can offer special teaching styles for vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation because these are the main aspects of the language content. But in this book we can’t see these kinds of things.

On the other hand, teacher is seen as the monitor and facilitator because all the activities in the course book are designed for students to use their own ability or gain ability in English. We can call this as a problem solving skill, which students build up by their experienced learning through the course book activities. Teacher only presents new material in more detail if necessary and directs students while moving from one activity to another.

PART 7. QUESTIONNAIRE

The aim of this course is exactly communication. Students want to learn English to speak, to understand spoken / written language, to write in English etc. The course book selection was made according to this certain aim because this book has an integrated syllabus. It includes information to correspond all learners’ needs. But its corresponding or not corresponding, is a different matter. To see this, that is to understand if the aims or objectives achieved, periodic tests are made. There are four kinds of assessments in this course; first one; teacher assesses students’ position in the class or their homework etc. The second one is oral test that teacher asks questions to students and if they give true answers, their marks will be high. The third one is students’ term homework. It is a big work for a student and for the teacher to give mark on it. And the last one is periodic tests four tests, in one term. The important ones are periodic tests for the students.

English is a foreign language in Turkey. But today every people need to learn English to be aware of the world or for their jobs etc. That’s why in many schools of Turkey, English is taught. This course is one of these kinds of schools. In the first year of Lycee, there is a preparation class, which includes an intensive teaching program of English. It is one the most important ways learning English. First of all, it is very intensive; students have 24 hours, as English lesson, in a week with the homework and their special works. Apart from the book, there are cassettes for listening activities.

The size of the class is in normal standards for Turkey. There are about 30 students in one class. There are no other additional materials or equipment such as computers or TV. Mostly classes are homogenous in level of English but it is not easy to decide on the homogeneity of ability in the class.

7.I. Results Of Questionnaire

The students are made a questionnaire with 8 questions. The average age of the students is 14. The results are given in the following chart:

                             Beginner         Elementary           Pre-intermediate              Intermediate

English level                                                                                                     

of the students            -                       24                             2                             -

                                              Sufficient                                    Insufficient

Sufficiency

of  students’

English                                         7                                                   19

                                                   Yes                                                No

Previous

learning

experience

of English                                     8                                                  18       

                                   Sufficient                                    Insufficient             

Sufficiency

of English

teaching in

school                                      25                                                1

                                           Entertaining                                     Boring

Opinions about

activities of

course book                              24                                                  2       

                           Comm.&pron.  Episode   Dialogues   Listening  Games  Reading passages

Most enjoyable

activities                        5                 12               7                3              4                   5

                                                yes                       no                sometimes

Enjoyable

subjects of

reading passages                        21                         1                      14

                                           Entertaining                                     Boring

opinions about

teaching lesson               16                                                  10

When the teacher was  interviewed , he told about these subjects: his methods are G.T.M. and communicative approach. He has no other additional material, he is following the course book in a certain item. But he finds the time insufficient to use addition materials and he says that the book is full of activities. Also he criticises the course book in terms of the grammar subjects. He thinks about explanations that they are limited. Teacher’s book is used as a helper for lessons.

7.II. Conclusion

First of all, most of the students are at elementary level. They think their English is good according to their level. Most of the students have their first language learning experience. However, some of them had a course before that one. Students think that they’ll have learnt enough English, when they graduate from this school. Most of the students answered the questions about the activities course book, as they like all of the activities. But especially, the episodes are thought as the most enjoyable activities. So that, students at these ages like stories with pictures. Also, students enjoy making dialogues. Other parts are also found enjoyable such as reading passages, games, and communication and pronunciation sections. Most of the students find reading passages useful and entertaining. About the teaching lesson, the class divided into two parts. The first group think that teacher is teaching lesson in a good way. The lessons are not boring. But the second group finds the lessons boring and say that teacher shouldn’t give importance to marks of students.

When the matter comes to teacher’s opinions about the course book, he criticises the books in terms of grammar explanations. He says that there isn’t enough explanation. He uses the book in a strict line. He uses G.T.M. and communicative approach in the lessons.

There should be provided additional entertaining materials activities. When students are bored with the book teacher can do different activities. For the grammar subjects, teacher’s explanations are important also, because the course book is inadequate for grammar explanations.

Teacher can give additional work sheets about grammar subjects. Also, the listening activities can be expanded. Sometimes songs or stories with pictures in listening activities can be used. Other sections of the course book are found good.