How to demand high with a coursebook

Jim Scrivener
16.00—17.00, Ground Floor

How can you take a good coursebook and really make it come alive in class? The normal answer to this problem often seems to involve adding in a whole flood of spurious competitions, games, running around etc., all in the hope that these will somehow jazz up the exercises and make the lesson more entertaining - which they often do - although what they more often do is pull the focus away from the real work that needs to be done.

But let's approach this problem from a different angle. It is a language classroom. Can we find ways to make the learning and the language exciting and engaging in their own right? And do we do that by making things easier - or paradoxically, by pushing students and demanding more?

In this practical session, we will be asking whether it is possible to worry less about " fun and games" and instead investigate ways to make the language itself sparkle and for the inherent challenge of the tasks, exercises and the learning to get students interested.

• Biodata

Planning: pitfalls and pluses (of coursebooks in current use)

Vicki Anderson
16.00—17.00, Room A

These days course books generally deal with interesting topics, lots of grammar and useful vocabulary (with extra activities and exercises), the four skills, including authentic material, and are now embracing new technology too with extra DVDs, CD-roms or online stuff. All that seems to be reflected in the price students pay, so I for one feel I should use a course book as productively as I can. The problem for us poor teachers, though, is that it's like trying to squeeze a quart into a pint pot, and for the writers packing so much into a course book can bring problems too.

This talk will look at a few ways to select, improve and reject course book material with a view to making planning and teaching more relaxed.

Biodata • Vicki Anderson has been an EFL teacher since 1983. She teaches regularly as well as being a teacher trainer on mainly DELTA courses. She is the co-author of 3Sixty5 (iT's Magazine) and Grammar Practice Activities Pre-Intermediate (Pearson Longman) as well as writing the workbooks for the course book Next Generation (CUP), designed for Bachillerato 1 & 2. She is currently involved with CUP in a project producing course books and workbooks for ESO. Vicki has given workshops about a wide range of issues, based on her experience of working with teachers and learners.