Courses or Resources?

Which is your choice: a coursebook or resource material? Why should it be either the one or the other? My answer is: a combination of both (but with a clear preference for a (good) book).

Let me try to explain. We as TEFLers are fortunate people because we can choose from a vast array of well-made coursebooks. Yet, the ideal coursebook has still to be produced and will probably never be produced. For the simple reason that classes are different and coursebooks tend to be standard; learning styles are different but coursebook content, format and order are standard. Having no say in the 'choice' of 'your' textbook can make matters even worse. Yet for all that, I have always been a confirmed textbook user. As a teacher with some experience I see no point in slavishly 'following' my book (in the hope that it 'follows' my curriculum). But on the other hand, a reliable coursebook used sensibly can take a load of work off my hands and this is no doubt a great asset when you teach 20 hours a week, or more, to between 7 and 10 different classes of varying age groups.

For me The New Cambridge English Course is such a course. That you do not know the author(s) of your coursebook personally, may seem irrelevant. Yet, the fact that I do, and also know what Michael Swan and Catherine Walter stand for professionally, undoubtedly influenced my choice and made it easier to convince my colleagues to follow me.

What then do I consider the main qualities of this course? Here's an overview.

• The structure of the Student's Book in blocks of 1 to maximum 8 units (depending on the book you use) is clear and coherent. Each book opens with a kind of ordnance survey map of the routes followed through the subject matter.
• There are four books, corresponding to as many levels, from beginner to upper-intermediate.
• The A4 format enables a single page or two-page spread design per lesson unit as needs be. The visual presentation (full colour photos and drawings) is attractive without being lavish or gaudy.
• On the methodology level: the multi-syllabus course design covers 8 areas: vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, notions, functions, situations, topics and skills (both receptive and productive). Especially for skills training this course is very useful and since over the past few years the local (i.e. Flemish) inspectorate have been putting great emphasis on the training of communicative skills in FL learning ...
• A good mix of practice material allows plenty of choice and helps towards differential learning. Be assured, you will find no trace of 'make negative' or 'put into the past tense' mechanical stuff anywhere!
• The Student's Book contains a detailed vocabulary index, a lesson reference for each new word, and its phonetic transcription. ¥ Regular Summary, Revision and Test sections facilitate waystage checks of the learning process.
• The accompanying audio cassettes are really outstanding; I do not just mean their acoustic quality (this is, of course, all right) but the amount of authentic speech and accents on them, vital to make listening comprehension into what it should be.
• The Teacher's Book is an easy-to-handle interleaved version of the Student's Book. For each lesson unit the aims and objectives are clearly outlined. And it also contains a generous offer of guidance and advice for both the novice and the more experienced teacher. ¥ Per lesson unit the Practice Book offers 6 to 8 practices for reinforcing, extending and consolidating work, often highly original, stimulating and creative. The learner also finds in it a mini grammar for quick reference, and additional (short) reading passages.
• The Practice book is livened up by functional black and white line drawings and a great number of funny cartoons, a unique feature of this course.

Understandably, some of my students find some units too difficult or boring, some exercises too easy or not useful, and others regret the absence of translations into their mother tongue. The perfect textbook É remember? If as a teacher you feel that something does not work, then stop and drop it, and try something better from an alternative source, or of your own making, or challenge your students to design an activity that does work! Here is where alternative resources come in. Do not be a slave of your book, be resourceful!

Fiction fragments and culturally loaded texts are rare and this can be seen as a shortcoming. It certainly is when the curriculum explicitly requires work with literature and expects some cross-cultural understanding (Landeskunde). Interested learners can easily be catered for in our EFL library. All my readers do have to read a set number of pages per term but they can choose freely what they read.

A negative point is the rather high price of the books (around BEF 1,000 for a combination of Student's Book and Practice Book).

Because of its well-structured, communicative and pragmatic approach (with a minimum of theoretical grammar), I have used the NCEC Books 2 and 3 with great satisfaction and good results in my so-called socio-technical classes; students for whom English is a compulsory 2-hour extra. For more academically gifted and literature-oriented students NCEC suits the curriculum requirements much less and therefore I use a different coursebook more adapted to their needs and different curriculum.

Of the vast output of EFL coursebooks on the market I do know but a very narrow segment. But of all the coursebooks I have had to use so far, and especially of those I could choose myself, I dare say that CUP's NCEC figures among the very best.

Ray Janssens
Sint-Annacollege, Antwerp, Belgium

Further reading: - Cunningsworth, A., Choosing your Coursbook, Heinemann, 1995.