Do you prefer using course books as a material for online classes?
6 answers from our tutors
Best answer
I like both methods.
- DaniloTeaching English linguistics
The key sin of the run-of-the-mill English coursebooks and related literature involving teaching grammar is that they jumble together unrelated aspects of language, often in a random order. Many if not most also give very misleading ideas about the fundamental concepts underlying the use of language. In the screenshot from the link https://ibb.co/drsmdnx you can see the topics dealt with in the first three chapters of a globally popular coursebook (intended for upper-intermediate level students, according to the subtitle). The first chapter is about the tense system, which, in their view, comprises as diverse language ideas as: progressive and non-progressive aspect, perfect tense, active and passive voice. I'd strongly advise against reading this chapter (or any other chapter in this coursebook for that matter), simply because it doesn't make sense to subsume unrelated aspects of language under the concept of a verb tense.
- DaniloTeaching English linguistics
The coursebooks I have had in my hands provide visually attractive content garnished with colorful images and stuff, and it might be making them appealing to learners, but that won't help much in terms of effectively learning language. Clearly, publishing similar materails, along with issuing all sorts of A, B, C level certificates is what the major part of language industry is about. Whether and to what extent it all helps students really master the ABC of language is another question entirely. One thing is for sure: students have to be careful about the sources they pick to study from. There's a deluge of materials and information available online and offline but the quality of a lot of them is to say the least questionable. Low-quality study materials are certainly part of the reason why we have generations of language learners, across the globe, who have been struggling with mastering the very basic facts of language. (continued in the post above)
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I make my own materials and I teach with books sometimes. Either can be good but with a book, you need to use a bit of imagination of it can be boring.
I love using my own written notes as a teaching method. (Which are attained from some educational books)
I usually meet my student and after discussions i decide on whether i will use a course book or other materials, my own designed lesson plan etc, my lesson are tailormade to fit my student.
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- Can you share your experience how you teach students conditionals?
What kind of method do you use to explain clearly each conditional for students? Do you provide some examples from real life and how you do it? Thank you!
Best answer
The first thing to do when teaching conditionals would be to explain what conditionals are, then provide them with examples, then play a game where they need to identify the conditional, and finally have them create their own to see if they understood it
- Could you explain me, please, when I need to use 0,1,2,3 and mixed conditionals? Thank you!
Can you provide examples?
Best answer
Mixed conditional combined second and third conditionals to talk about the past situations has a present consequence or a present situations that is a result of a past action Structure: If + past perfect + would +verb If I had studied medicine, I would be a doctor now.
