To Use or Not to Use Coursebooks? : A Study of Teachers' Opinions on Coursebooks and What Constitutes a Good One in the English Classroom

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To Use or Not to

Use

Coursebooks?:

A Study of Teachers’ Opinions on Coursebooks and What

Constitutes a Good One in the English Classroom

COURSE: English for Subject Teachers 91-120, 15 credits WRITER: Daniel Sandström

EXAMINER: Jenny Malmqvist SUPERVISOR: Anette Svensson TERM:Spring 2020

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ABSTRACT

Author: Daniel Sandström

Title: To Use or Not to Use Coursebooks?: A Study of Teachers’ Opinions on

Coursebooks and What Constitutes a Good One in the English Classroom

Location: Jönköping University Language: English

Number of pages: 24

The aim of this study is to investigate teachers’ opinions and experiences using analogue coursebooks in lower secondary school English teaching. The study was conducted using written interviews, interviewing 7 currently active teachers teaching English in the Swedish school system, with the participants’ answers being the material. Thematic Analysis was a method used to structure the results, and Sociocultural Theory was the theoretical perspective. The themes that were identified were: analogue coursebooks; digital coursebooks; more or less suitable activities for coursebook usage; the future of coursebook usage; and desirable qualities of a coursebook.

The results of the study reveal that the participants have a positive outlook on using analogue coursebooks in the English classroom as a way of maintaining a certain level of difficulty and quality in the teaching, whilst also having something to fall back on as a source with varied content that can be used. There were no noticeable differences in the teachers’ opinion of what they could be used for but the extent to which they used them varieddepending on their experience in the profession. Finally, the cost of coursebooks was mentioned as a key aspect in the process of selecting coursebooks, together with user-friendliness and flexibility.

Keywords: lower secondary school language teaching, pedagogical material, coursebooks, second language learning, differentiation

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is a necessity to succeed in an ever-increasing globalized world. Studying English learners’ and lower secondary teachers’ views on communicative competence, a recurring theme that was found was that teachers would often opt to not use analogue coursebooks in their language teaching (Sandström, 2019, pp. 32-37). What influences the teachers’ decisions to use or not to use analogue coursebooks and for what types of activities do they find them to be more or less suitable? Harmer (2015, p. ix) discusses the never-ending development of sophisticated classroom tools and teaching materials to assist teaching which is also evident to teachers that are active in the profession. This not only increases the opportunities for teachers to differentiate in the classroom, but it also challenges the analogue coursebook with the steady digitalization of coursebooks. Harmer discusses non-native-speaker teachers’ understanding for the students’ learning situation, and claims that:

Non-native-speaker teachers, however, have many advantages that their “native” colleagues do not. In the first place, they have often had the same experience of learning English as their students are now having, and this gives them an instant (even if only subconscious) understanding of what their students are going through. (Harmer, 2015, p. 10)

Relative to the claims of Harmer, teachers I have previously worked with during field placement have often opted to create their own teaching material because of personal preference.1_{VanTassel-Baska (2020, p. 44) mentions that teaching is often a solitary}

activity and therefore teachers are not used to external observation. Thus, the reasoning behind teachers’ choices are often unknown as they are never asked to be disclosed. In sum, the unknown nature of teachers’ choices motivates the present interview study about Swedish lower secondary school English teachers’ opinions on and experiences with using analogue coursebooks in the classroom to aid their teaching.

1_{My own observation from own teaching and information gathered in personal communication with other}

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2. Background

In the background section, the Swedish National Agency for Education’s guidelines and student goals in the Swedish school system will be accounted for. Secondly, the

background will provide an overview of previous research on coursebook usage in language teaching and learning. Finally, a description of how Swedish schools work with differentiation and how this is affected by the 1:1 initiative being implemented in schools will be given.

2.1 The Swedish National Agency for Education

Lower secondary school in Sweden are the final four years of the compulsory school years in the Swedish school system, where students typically are between the ages 12 and 15. The English language is being taught to students in Swedish school throughout all the compulsory school years (Skolverket, 2018a, pp. 25-41). One of the reasons for why the English language is a constant in school curricula is motivated by the increasing

globalisation. (Crystal, 2003, p. xii) The Swedish National Agency for Education claims that students being communicative in multiple languages is the key to gain an

understanding of their surroundings on a global scale (Skolverket, 2018a, p. 34). The overarching goal of the compulsory school (Skolverket, pp. 11-12) is that students develop the capacity to: communicate in both spoken and written English; use both digital and other tools for attainting knowledge, processing information, problem-solving, creation, communication and learning; and make well-informed choices regarding further education and vocational orientation.

Students developing their ability to communicate in English is a goal for any English teacher, however, assisting students in developing their language skills can be a difficult and long process which ultimately will require different methods of teaching for

everyone to succeed. As these goals are explicitly mentioned in the curriculum, an expectation is put on each individual teacher as well as the school to provide students with an arena in which they do not only expand their knowledge of the English language, but also develop the confidence and capacity to use the language in varying contexts (Skolverket, 2018a, p. 34). The expected English language proficiency amongst students increases over their compulsory school years, culminating with students reaching

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is also something that authors of coursebooks are aware of and are guided by when constructing new material for teachers.

Working in the Swedish school system it is apparent that the school system is built on the idea that learning happens via social interaction, both for teachers and students. In

practice, this means that teachers are constantly assisting each other with developing their teaching methods. In the steering documents (Skolverket, 2018a, pp. 10-18), a

requirement is put on all personnel that are employed in the Swedish educational system to be observant of and support pupils in need of extra adaptations. Furthermore, they must also co-operate with other teachers to make the school a good environment for development and learning (Skolverket, 2018a, p.11). Identifying student needs and making appropriate changes to the teaching is an ongoing process in teachers’ everyday work. As student needs are subject to change at a moment’s notice, this adaptation is a constant challenge. In relation to the present study, being able to provide students with a coursebook that allows students to progress without excessive teacher interference is valuable due to the disproportionate number of students per teacher.

Furthermore, all school staff must also: consider each individual’s educational needs as well as stimulate, guide and offer extra adaptations or special support to students with difficulties (Skolverket, 2018a, p. 13). In the Swedish school system, it is as much the school’s responsibility as the teachers’ to provide everyone with the correct tools to advance their learning. This is carried out as far as possible by using differentiation in the teaching, which means that entering a teaching situation without accounting for different everyday hinderances that some of the students are facing, risk not only losing their motivation to learn but also not progressing at a rate that is appropriate for their skill level. Therefore, there is a risk of teachers attempting to create a middle-ground at which the most proficient students are moderately challenged, but not to the extent that it might necessarily intrigue them to learn more, whilst the less proficient students struggle to keep up the pace.2 Thus, the challenge is not only helping students reach the goals

minimum goals, but also helping students progress even further if the potential to do so is there.

Collegial learning is something that is growing rapidly in schools. There is a belief, which is also taught at the teacher education, that by studying colleagues work and

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operating with your colleagues ultimately lead to a much stronger learning environment for students, whilst removing some of the stress put on each individual teacher when structuring their lesson plans for each semester. Collegially, the Swedish National Agency for Education expects of and encourages teachers to co-operate in creating an environment in which students can thrive. Skolverket mentions it as teachers being required to co-operate with other teachers to attain the goals of the education. They should also organise and carry out the work so that pupils: receive support in their language development; learn to use digital tools in a way that promotes development of knowledge; and gradually receive more and increasingly independent tasks to perform and take greater personal responsibility (Skolverket, 2018a, p. 13).

Digital tools are becoming increasingly popular in the Swedish school system because of the 1:1 system that is starting to be implemented in lower secondary schools. This creates a situation in which the importance of students’ ability to use these tools and to take responsibility for their own learning process increase as the difficulty level gradually increases as well. This could create a situation in which the deciding factor on whether teachers decide to use digital or analogue pedagogical material is how user-friendly the digital tools are. Considering this from the teachers’ point of view, whilst also ensuring that students are allowed to influence and be involved in the structuring of the tuition can prove difficult and surely impacts the use of analogue coursebooks or lack thereof. In sum, teachers must co-operate to help all students develop, and this social learning strategy might impact the decisions to use coursebooks or not.

2.1.1 Differentiation and “1:1” school environments

In the debate surrounding the Swedish school system, the term differentiation is found. Differentiation is the principle in which the tuition is, to the best of the teachers’ and schools’ ability, tailored to each individual student in order for them to be challenged in the most appropriate way (Skolverket, 2018c, p. 5). Differentiation is appropriate for teachers in general education with students that are at different levels of language

proficiency (Tomlinson, 2014). This view on education creates diversity in the classroom and adapts to each individual student’s potential for reaching the educational goals (Skolverket, 2018c, p. 5), and calls upon the requirements put on schools and teachers by the National Agency for Education.

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With the increasing digitalization of classrooms, students are provided with increasing alternatives when it comes to using digital tools for learning. Swedish municipalities often implement the 1:1 system for lower secondary school, where students are to receive their own personal digital tool for learning, such as laptops, iPads, or other digital tools to aide their learning. Skolverket (2020b) claims that providing students with their own computers helps make the tuition more formative. The implementation of the 1:1 system has changed how students acquire knowledge and has forwarded the tuition. In relation to the curriculum, which compels teachers to provide students with varied and personally tailored learning situations appropriate to their current knowledge level, this creates a situation in which coursebooks may not be useable in the event that there is no digitalized version of the coursebook. This lack of availability might in return affect how teachers choose material for their teaching and how they teach, which will be investigated later on in the study. Skolverket (2020a) additionally claims that having personal computers available to students requires more from the physical environment in schools since the students are becoming increasingly mobile whereas the classrooms remain more traditional. This impacts the entire school system as it increases the need of personnel that can manage all the technology and potentially makes schools allocate resources that could otherwise have gone elsewhere to the IT.

Finally, Skolverket (2020a) claims that the more digitalized the classroom environments become the less coursebooks are used in favor of teachers’ own material which is tailored to the 1:1 system, the gradual increase in difficulty in lower secondary school and the increased responsibility placed on students for their own learning.

2.2 Previous Research

The research basis for coursebook usage in lower secondary school English teaching is a limited field, in which there is very little research previously conducted. However, general teaching and learning studies have been conducted as well as studies on coursebook usage in other subjects. Rubin (2008) conducted a study on issues teachers face when working with struggling students needing different types of adaptation. There is a consensus that pedagogical material must contain content to which the students are able to relate (Rubin, 2008), something that might be difficult to maintain should one resort to using analogue coursebooks as they are not able to be updated and contain texts which are relevant to the time in which they are written. Rubin (2008, p. 126) claims that

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a common format found in contemporary English learners’ textbooks is listing difficult and likely new vocabulary to the students, to further their vocabulary and increasing their language proficiency.

Olshtain & Celce Murcia (2001, p. 708) researched the development of coursebooks over time and found that coursebooks have recently made a transition from just teaching sentences and concepts to a more holistic approach with discourse and context in mind, which was developed on by Arkian (2008) in his study about what topics are focused on most often in coursebooks, where he found that there is a clear preference for

supernatural phenomena, crime, and violence (Arkian, 2008, p. 81). Further, Arkian (2008, p. 78) claims that it is most important for EFL learners to read many texts to which they can relate to in their learning process in order to better be able to

contextualize the language in their everyday life. Considering the availability of different texts for students that are provided with personal computers, Arkian’s claims are not only achievable but also readily available to students in a more digitalized setting rather than in an analogue setting with traditional coursebooks.

The coursebooks position in the classroom is something that Jordan and Gray (2019) discusses. They claim that for a long period of time, the coursebook has been

unchallengeable in the language classroom, and that it is the predominant tool for language teaching, even though they are found to be structured in ways contrary to what contemporary teaching and learning research finds to be most efficient (Jordan & Gray, 2019, p. 438). Coursebooks oblige the teacher to work within the framework that the author had in mind during the time of writing and is not always easily transferrable to each teacher’s classroom situation (Jordan & Gray, 2019, p. 445). In turn, this reduces the ability to employ the differentiation that Swedish schools strive for. Ultimately, there are benefits to using coursebooks because they provide a very clear structure for the teacher, but they often risk falling short in terms of flexibility, which is a quality that all education is required to have today.

2.3 Distinction between Analogue and Digital Coursebooks

In the present study, a distinction is made between analogue coursebooks, digital

coursebooks and other pedagogical material. Pedagogical material is the terminology that will be used to describe any form of teaching material that can be used in the English

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classroom. As analogue coursebooks are the primary focus of this study, analogue coursebooks will be referenced to as coursebooks and will refer only to published and peer-reviewed books specifically designed with language learning in mind, equipped with exercises and guidelines for the teacher to use as well as clear considerations for how the book fulfils the requirements placed by the curricula on teachers and schools. In sum, if the use of coursebook is not explicitly referred to as digital or otherwise, analogue coursebooks is what is being discussed.

3. Aim and Research Questions

The aim of this study is to investigate teachers’ opinions on and experience of the use of coursebooks in the English classroom in lower secondary school, in order to discuss how and when coursebooks can be used to advance English studies or not. To do this, the following research questions will guide the study:

- What is taken into consideration by the participating English teachers when selecting coursebooks?

- What is the teachers’ opinion on using coursebooks in English teaching? - What are the teaching implications of using coursebooks for teachers?

4. Method and Material

In this section an overview of the method and material used for this study will be provided. First, the selection and work process of the interviews will be accounted for, including explanations of the choices made in the selection of participants. Secondly, ethical considerations in the study will be accounted for, as to provide a basis for how the integrities of the participants are protected. Finally, a section is devoted to discussing the material used for the study, the method of analysis as well as limitations and advantages of the chosen method.

4.1 Interviews and Participants

This study was conducted using semi-structured interviews in which the participants were provided with 14 questions all pertaining to their teaching experience and their opinions. Interviews were chosen as data collection method because this study aims to

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investigate the participants’ opinions, behaviour, and attitudes in a qualitative way. The interviews were held with teachers teaching English in lower secondary school. These interviews were conducted in a written format in which the teachers were provided with the questions in the interview guide and were asked to answer them as elaborately as possible. If there was any confusion, the teachers were encouraged to reach out on their own initiative, however, this never became necessary. All the answers collected for this study can be found in the appendix and have been translated from Swedish to English for readability throughout the study. The study incorporated seven teachers from various areas in Sweden.

Ratislavová and Ratislav (2014, pp. 453-455) argue for the benefits of using this form of written interview as opposed to a face-to-face interview being many. They highlight that it preserves the anonymity of a regular face-to-face interview, provides equal data quality due to the increased focus of participating in a written interview in order to communicate as clearly as possible, it more easily overcomes personal and political distance as well as reduces cost while being time efficient. The disadvantages of using this method is that it can make the sample recruitment harder and it puts a greater emphasis on the trust between interviewer and participant. (Ratislavová & Ratislav, 2014, p. 456) The

interview form allowed the participants to answer the questions when they had time over to allocate to the interview and did not require any extra planning for a sit-down oral interview (Ratislavová & Ratislav, 2014, p. 453), whilst relieving pressure to answer “correct” by allowing the participants to carefully think about their answers and revise them before they were submitted to the researcher. All the participants in the study were Swedish, and thus the interviews were all conducted in Swedish to avoid

misunderstandings as far as possible.

4.1.1 Structure of the interviews

When choosing what type of interview structure to use for this study, several considerations lead to the conclusion that a semi-structured interview style was preferable. The reason for not calling these interviews structured is because whilst the participants are provided with an order in which the questions are given, they are not instructed to answer them in this particular order, nor is doing so necessary. Additionally, the interviews are not unstructured either because the questions are pre-made and are not open to change during the time that the participants answer them. When the participants

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were provided with the 14 questions they were only instructed to answer the questions, but the order in which they answered the questions was the participants’ own prerogative. Semi-structured interviews can both occur face-to-face, and using the internet via email, zoom or skype where participants answer questions using computer assistance. (Holt, 2010) Therefore, the fact that semi-structured interviews can be conducted in varying formats and using different technologies, the interviews in this study are considered semi-structured (Brown & Danaher, 2017, p. 77). The questions were ordered in a way that lead the participants onto the next question but could still be answered in any order without hinderance. The reasons for structuring the interviews this way were twofold: to ensure that the participants would be continuously guided through while they were answering the interview, and to maintain freedom of choice by not forcing an order in which questions were to be answered. By doing this, the participants’ answers were not limited by being pigeonholed into a certain type of answer or question, which could have been an issue had the interview been structured or unstructured rather than

semi-structured.

Several of the questions encouraged the participants to give elaborate answers as well as exemplifying where possible to prevent the participants’ answers from being limited. Structuring the questions in a way that provides more elaborate answers also enables deriving more information from the material to be presented in the results. Additionally, all the participants were encouraged to ask for clarification of a question if they found them to be unclear, however, this clarification was never asked for by any of the participants.

Finally, in interviews there is a risk of appropriation, where the participants will tailor their answers to match what the researcher would like to hear. This is a risk that was kept in mind during the study, but there is no reason to doubt the participants’ sincerity.

4.1.2 Participants

In the process of selecting participants for this study, three key principles were followed, namely: Motivation, Availability and Neutrality. In practice, this meant that the primary factor for selecting teachers to interview was their motivation to participate in the study, as this would mean that the answers that they provided would provide the desired information, regardless of whether they were negative or positive towards the use of

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coursebooks. Secondly, this meant that the participants’ ability to participate in the study within the timeframe in which the study was carried out played a part in which teachers were chosen to participate. Thirdly, this meant that the selection process required interviews with the participants while remaining neutral to their views of the

coursebooks, as to avoid a biased result. This neutrality was extended not only to the participants’ views on coursebooks, but also without taking into consideration their gender, age and professional experience, in order to provide an authentic view of what a small sample of teachers’ opinions and experiences would look like. Furthermore, the neutrality also extended to geographical areas. As this study was conducted online, the participants were not deliberately chosen to limit or increase a geographically spread out sample of opinions.

To provide a structure to the answers in the result, and to maintain anonymity for the participants, they have been categorized alphabetically in descending order from A-G. This ordering depends primarily on the participants’ experience as a teacher. Teacher A has the most experience, having taught varying age groups for 33 years. Teacher B has nearly as much experience, having been a teacher for 27 years teaching crafts, English, technology and Swedish as a second language. Thus, Teacher B also has the most experience teaching different subjects. Teacher C and D have similar experience, having taught 10 and 9 years respectively, with all their teaching experience concentrated in lower secondary school(s). Teacher E and F have equal experience, both in terms of length and that their teaching experience is limited to only lower secondary school

teaching. The difference between these teachers is that Teacher E submitted their answers earlier than Teacher F and were therefore categorized in order of submitting their

answers. Finally, Teacher G has the least experience, currently working their first year as a teacher in lower secondary school. After gathering participants, a clear pattern emerged among the participants, where they would either have a plethora of experience or be new to the profession. Most of the teachers have experience teaching different age groups and/or different levels of English in their teaching career.

4.1.3 Ethical considerations

To conduct research in an ethical way, several ethical considerations were necessary to consider. Throughout the study all the participants’ identities will remain anonymous to protect their integrities (Swedish Research Council, 2017, p. 41) and personal interests

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(Denscombe, 2010, p. 331). All of the participants were informed of the purpose of the study before choosing to participate and were all informed that they may choose to withdraw from participation at any point in time, without needing to explain their motivations behind the decision (Swedish Research Council, 2017, p. 41). Additionally, all of the participants were informed beforehand that any and all answers that they give are subject to being included and translated in the study (if the original answer is in Swedish), at the researcher’s own discretion. In the event that an answer was included, a translation was made or an answer was paraphrased, the entirety of the answer will be presented in the appendix as to ensure that the content of the answer is kept authentic and has not been taken out of context. The Swedish Research Council (2017, p. 12) mentions the importance of researchers not attributing value to what their research uncovers, and therefore none of the answers have been prioritized higher than another.

Finally, as all of the participants are legally considered adults, they were all able to consent to participating in the study without mediation from a third party, and were informed that their choice to participate also meant consenting to have their answers included in the results of the study. The participants’ answers have been stored on an external hard drive and will be deleted upon completion of the study.

4.2 Material

The material used for this study is the participants’ answers to the interview questions and is therefore what will be observed and categorized using Thematic Analysis.

Throughout the study, all of the answers have been considered in the analysis whilst not necessarily quoted or discussed in detail.

4.2.1 Method of Analysis

Because this study made use of Thematic Analysis as described in Clarke and Braun (2006 & 2019) it is necessary to briefly introduce the method. Thematic Analysis is a method of categorizing results and is a relatively recent system for identifying and analyzing patterns in qualitative data research. Thematic Analysis is appropriate to use for this type of research because it allows for clear and structured categorization of the results. In turn, this allows for understanding people’s experiences and perceptions of phenomena and is applicable regardless of sample size (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p. 78; Braun & Clarke, 2017, p. 297.). In this study, Thematic Analysis will be used to:

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familiarize myself with the data; search for themes in the data; review, define and present themes (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p. 87). By using this method of categorization, it enables consolidation of the results and analysis into themes which contributes to making the study easier to interpret for the reader.

4.2.1 Methodological Advantages and Disadvantages

Whilst the choice of Thematic Analysis and semi-structured interviews was appropriate for this study, conducting the study with oral interviews could have benefitted the study by creating a more organic and conversation-like interview structure. However, the flexibility of semi-structured written interviews provided a less demanding structure for the participants (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p. 78), allowing them to take part in the study without having to allocate an excessive amount of time for it. The interview structure also relieved the participants of the pressure to answer in a “correct” manner and may have helped with avoiding appropriation. In sum, using a more elaborate interview guide or conducting oral interviews rather than written ones could have given more elaborate answers for the present study.

5. Theoretical Framework

In this section, the use of Sociocultural Theory will be accounted for. The discussion will include why it was chosen, which parts of the theory that are applicable to this study as well as touching on limitations of its use for the present study.

5.1 Sociocultural Theory

The theoretical framework for this study is Sociocultural Theory. The reason for this choice of theory is twofold: 1) it is a very broad approach to learning and is therefore applicable to most educational situations, and 2) the Swedish education system is heavily based on this theory (Säljö, 2014). The stance of this study is that the choice of

coursebooks is not only influenced by collegial learning but as part of all of the social interactions that take place in schools between both students and staff. Sociocultural theory was originally constructed by Vygotsky. This developmental theory claims that development and learning come from social interaction (Abdul, 2016, pp. 183-184), and progress by helping or receiving help from others and that this is not limited to school environments. Säljö (2014, p. 28) and Abdul (2016, p. 183) claim that learning is inevitable for human beings because we are constantly interacting with others in

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everyday life. In education, knowledge is when students are able to associate what they learn to a concrete activity, and how they progress from abstract ideas to concrete knowledge (Abdul, 2016, p. 183). Vygotsky’s development theory was that it happens primarily in the zone of proximal development, where the capacity of a student meets the need for assistance and further knowledge to progress their learning. (Abdul, p. 184) In practice, this means that to progress in learning students must always be challenged at their capacity’s limit and receive correct assistance to overcome obstacles. This type of learning is made more accessible by the learning opportunities created by the 1:1 school environment discussed in the background, where learning from peers and colleagues is heavily encouraged. The cons of using the sociocultural theory for this type of study is that the concept is very broad and difficult to pinpoint what exactly is related to the theory in any field of research, as it could be argued to be applicable to any type of research done within the humanities. However, for the present study the sociocultural theory is applied because of the school system’s connection to it and because the study aims to assist teachers through their peer’s opinions.

6. Results

In this section the results of the study will be presented. The results section has been divided into the five identified themes: analogue coursebooks; digital coursebooks; more or less suitable activities for coursebook usage; the future of coursebook usage; and desirable qualities of a coursebook.

6.1 Analogue Coursebooks

In the interviews, the participants mentioned using different coursebooks for teaching the same or similar age groups. The results also showed that there was very limited overlap in coursebooks used among the participants. The analogue coursebooks that the

participants in the study were using were: Wings, Magic, Happy, Good Stuff and Focus

on English. Teacher A claims that it is easier to go back and check what work has been

done previously and to revise when using analogue coursebooks as opposed to digital ones, because it is more readily available as well as there being a bigger risk of getting lost looking for information in a digital coursebook. Teacher A takes the following stance on using coursebooks in the classroom:

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Even though I have a lot of experience working as a teacher I often feel like using a coursebook as a basis for my teaching, and instead opting to side-track from it. Especially in later years and in confident and well-functioning groups. – (Teacher A, 2020)3

Adding to what Teacher A said, Teachers B, C, E and G cite problems with using digital coursebooks in lower secondary school English teaching. Contrarily, Teacher G indicated that they strongly preferred avoiding the use of coursebooks as a primary teaching tool when possible and would only use them out of necessity:

I do what I can to avoid using coursebooks. However, the teaching unit which I am a part of at my school uses coursebooks as a part of the plan for the semester so therefore I must use it out of necessity every now and then. (Teacher G, 2020)4

All of the participants except Teacher G found analogue coursebooks to be a positive addition to the tuition, whereas Teacher G rather found them to be hindering their ability to innovate their teaching when planning their courses. This finding in particular caught my attention, as it distinguishes itself from the rest of the answers, with a clearly negative opinion on using coursebooks, mostly opting to not use coursebooks except for when it is necessary even though there is a variety of analogue and digital coursebooks available, as the present study shows. Additionally, analogue coursebooks are used by the participants as a means of ensuring a certain level of educational quality for the students, and as something to be able to fall back on when they do not want to create their own pedagogical material.

6.2 Digital Coursebooks

Teachers A, C and D explicitly mentioned that they were using digital coursebooks. The digital coursebooks that the participants mentioned were: Digilär, Gleerups Portal, EF

Classroom and Clio, respectively. The participants were open to the use of digital

coursebooks, but only Teacher G explicitly said that they always prefer it. All the other participants mentioned that it can be useful to have as something to fall back on as

3_{”Även jag som jobbat länge har gärna en lärobok som grund, men gör många utvikningar från den,}

särskilt i högre årskurser och i trygga, fungerande grupper.” – Teacher A

4_{”Jag undviker det helst till den större graden, men då min enhet har vissa läromedel som del av deras} grundplanering har jag fått använda mig av vissa läromedel till och från.” – Teacher G

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backup plan. Additionally, Teacher C mentions that network issues, students forgetting their passwords and other general issues with the technology itself.

As opposed to Teacher G, Teacher A finds themselves finding great value in having a coursebook as a form of benchmark for what level of difficulty the students should be aiming to and succeeding to work with. In this critique, students’ ability to use them or inability to not misuse them is a factor:

Even though I use a lot of my own pedagogical material I still prefer to use analogue coursebooks as students often misuse their computers that they’ve been provided with by the school, so they act more as an annoyance than as a tool for furthering learning. (Teacher E, 2020)5

Teacher B goes as far as to say that “having a coursebook on the table in front of them is the best way for me to know that they are keeping up with the work”.6_{(Teacher B, 2020).}

6.3 More or Less Suitable Activities for Coursebook Usage

Providing students with a variety of activities when teaching English is important,

therefore knowing when and when not to use coursebooks is important. Teacher F (2020) mentioned that “they are particularly good for grammar and repetition exercises”,7_but

much less so for speaking, where they instead found the coursebook to be limiting their ability to further students’ knowledge (Teacher F, 2020), something that was also mentioned by Teacher E (2020). Additionally, the results show that the coursebook, according to the participants, is a useful tool to use when teachers have either: not had sufficient time to plan; not worked with a group of students before; or are going to work with students that need a very clear structure (Teacher C; Teacher D; Teacher G, 2020).

Teacher B described the best situations for using coursebooks as:

When the working situation is pressed for time and you do not have time to come up with catchy courses for all of your groups. In a school where students require a lot of time outside of teaching situations it is nice to have

5_{”Trots att jag använder mig av mycket eget material så använder jag mig helst av analoga läromedel då} eleverna ofta missbrukar sina personliga datorer som de har fått av skolan och de är just nu oftare ett störningsmoment istället för en hjälpreda.” – Teacher E

6_{"Jag tycker att det är absolut bäst att varje elev har en bok framför sig på bänken, så jag ser att de är på} banan vid genomgång och vid enskilt arbete.” – Teacher B

7_{”För grammatiska övningar och repetitionsövningar, där är läroböckerna ofta väldigt välfyllda med} material” – Teacher F

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a good coursebook to default to with varied exercised on varying levels. (Teacher B, 2020).8

Being pressed for time is something that is both recurring in the results as a factor for teachers’ choices and a sentiment that many teachers working in lower secondary school share, especially due to also bringing up students somewhat, both inside and outside of the classroom.9

An area that was mentioned to not be well-suited for analogue coursebook usage is when trying to incorporate current events into the teaching. For obvious reasons, analogue coursebooks are not able to be updated as frequently as their digital counterpart. Teacher D (2020), mentioned that coursebooks are less suitable when working with literature, as texts are too short and do not provide the students with a big enough language challenge. Furthermore, teachers C and E (2020) both mentioned that using coursebooks is less beneficial in groups where the students are at different skill levels, as students that require different challenges on either side of the proficiency spectrum will not be catered to adequately.

Finally, coursebooks were deemed to be better suited for meeting new groups, when teaching students who have an increased need of structure as well as for grammatical or repetitive exercises. On the contrary, they were found to be less suitable for speaking exercises and for extracurricular learning because of their limited nature, only providing challenges up to a certain level.

6.4 The Future of Coursebook Usage

In what direction coursebooks are headed and what role they will play in lower

secondary school English teaching are uncertain. The results of this study show that most participants believe that the coursebooks will continue being a part of language teaching. Only Teacher G (2020) believes that we will have transitioned entirely into digital course material 10 years from now. Teacher A (2020) also believes that we are moving towards using more digital coursebooks, albeit not at the speed Teacher G suspects. The

8_{“När arbetssituationen är pressad så man inte hinner hitta på en massa käcka kurser för sina många} klasser. I en skola i ett utsatt område, där arbetet runt eleverna tar mycket tid och där eleverna är på väldigt olika nivå, är det skönt att ha ett stabilt läromedel att luta sig mot, med varierade uppgifter, på olika nivåer.” – Teacher B

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consensus among the participants that coursebooks will continue to have a place in the classroom is wide (Teacher B; Teacher C; Teacher E; Teacher F, 2020), but all of the participants mentioned that they believe that we are going to see a shift into more digital coursebooks as we move forward (Teacher A; Teacher C; Teacher D; Teacher E; Teacher F; Teacher G, 2020). In their answers, Teacher C (2020) claims that there is external force put on the school to digitalize:

Digital to a greater extent. There seems to be a driving force that believes that digitalization will solve all the school’s problems. Those are the voices that are heard in society the most right now and it seems like that is what we are moving towards. Principals believe that it will reduce cost and are thinking short-term in these types of questions. As usual. (Teacher C, 2020)10

External influence on the choices schools make could both be an inevitable side-effect of growing digitalization in society, but also a natural path of progression for the Swedish educational system. Teacher D (2020) pointed out that they see it as likely that

companies will attempt to expand their businesses into pedagogical material and mentions the risks that it holds for the tuition, and how the National Agency for Education will have to adapt to this potential change.

The participants all mention valuable areas in which coursebooks are used, and thus there is a reluctance to let go of the coursebooks entirely, as is evident by the results where a majority of the participants think we are moving towards a more digitalized classroom. Teacher F (2020) said that they believe that even if we are going to move over to an almost entirely digitalized classroom environment, teachers will still opt to make use of the tools of the “stone age” for certain activities.11_{Overall, the results show that the}

participants believe that there might be an upcoming shift towards even more digitalization in the future, and that it will put increased pressure on the school environment, teachers and pedagogical material to adapt accordingly.

10_{”I högre grad digitalt. Det verkar finnas en drivande kraft som anser att digitaliseringen löser skolans} problem. Det är de rösterna som hörs mest just nu och det verkar vara ditåt vi rör oss. Huvudmännen tror att det blir billigare, och tänker nog som vanligt kortsiktigt i sådana frågor.” – Teacher C

11_{”I vissa situationer tror jag dock vi lärare kommer att välja att gå tillbaka till stenåldern och använda} böcker dock, som till exempel i grammatikövningar.” – Teacher F

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6.5 Desirable Qualities of a Coursebook

When selecting a coursebook to work with there are multiple factors impacting the teachers’ decisions on what material to use. The results show that structure, flexibility, and user-friendliness are all important aspects to consider when selecting a coursebook. Additionally, text quality, general usability and cost were also of importance (Teacher A; Teacher B; Teacher D, 2020). Teacher E (2020) also mentioned that for lower secondary school it is important that the book is aesthetically appealing for students in addition to the content found inside of the book. Teacher C expressed how limited the selection process is by pricing and political decisions:

I have been working at my current workplace since 2014. We have yet to replace our coursebooks. It is always the economic resources that dictate purchases. The municipality also bought the same digital pedagogical material for all schools, prohibiting any new purchases. (Teacher C, 2020)12

The cost of coursebooks can be high when you need to purchase a large quantity of coursebooks, especially if every student is to have one for themselves rather than having them available inside the classroom to be used by more than one group of students. Connected to this desire to reduce cost where possible, Teacher E (2020) mentioned that the resources that coursebooks provide for the teacher is also a key factor in selecting coursebooks, as it reduces their workload.

A theme that became apparent throughout the interviews was the importance of structure. Having a structurally sound coursebook is a necessity for some students, something which Teacher A summarized as:

A coursebook acts as security for students that require a lot of structure in their learning and that need to be able to recognize the way they are supposed to tackle a certain task and how that task is structured. (Teacher A, 2020)13

Alongside structure, the participants named qualities such as being user-friendly (Teacher D, 2020), having reasonably sized exercises, wordlists and texts to avoid students feeling demoralized and/or unsure of their abilities to successfully complete the tasks, (Teacher

12_{”Jag har arbetat på min nuvarande arbetsplats sedan 2014. Vi har inte bytt ut det läromedel vi har. Det är} alltid ekonomin som styr. Nu valde kommunen dessutom att samtliga skolor ska ha samma digitala läromedel och då tog det också stopp vad gäller inköp.” – Teacher C

13_{”Ett läromedel är också en trygghet för elever som behöver mycket struktur och som behöver känna igen} sig i arbetssätt och upplägg.” – Teacher A

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C, 2020) being flexible by providing both repetitive exercises and new challenges

(Teacher F; Teacher B, 2020) as well as being varied enough to create motivation and not running the risk of feeling mundane for the students (Teacher D, 2020).

If the coursebook is not structured and easy enough to navigate, it becomes a hinderance rather than a benefit to use it. However, the results also show that the ability to use the coursebook to give feedback in a clear and efficient manner is desirable. Teacher D (2020), mentioned the ability to give quick feedback to both the students and the teachers as a factor for preferring coursebooks with access to digital platforms. Because of this, the more adaptive nature of the digital coursebooks could be a factor that encourages teachers to opt for digital coursebooks as opposed to analogue coursebooks. Overall, the participants found that user-friendliness, exercise variety and flexibility were desirable characteristics of coursebooks that directly impact their usability in the classroom.

Cost, re-usability and quality of the material were mentioned as the primary factors that were considered when choosing coursebooks throughout all the interviews. A recurring theme was also that selecting coursebooks is a joint effort and not something teachers did on their own (Teacher B; Teacher D; Teacher E, 2020).

7. Analysis and Discussion

The results of the study indicate that there is a consensus among the participants that analogue coursebooks are in the process of being phased out, but that they will remain a constant in the classroom for certain types of activities and for certain student groups, in agreement with the findings of Jordan and Gray (2019), who claim that the coursebook has an unchallengeable status in the English classroom. Additionally, the participants in the study have indicated that coursebooks are ill-equipped to deal with speaking

activities, further confirming the findings that coursebooks have been structured in contrary to what contemporary teaching and learning research has found to be most effective (Jordan & Gray, 2019, p. 438).

The findings of the study also suggest that there is a need for coursebooks and

pedagogical material to contain concepts to which the learners can relate, something that Olshtain and Celce Murcia (2001, p. 708) suggest to be what coursebooks have started including in later adaptations, moving away from learning only words and sentences and

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focusing on holistic learning that can be contextualized. Furthermore, participants have expressed positive experiences using digital coursebooks, as they are more flexible and adaptive in comparison to their analogue counterpart. Similarly, Arkian (2008, p. 78), found that to progress language learning, students must read an abundance of texts of varying types to learn how to contextualize what they learn.

The results of the study do not indicate that there is any noteworthy difference in the participants’ opinions regarding when it is beneficial to use coursebooks, as the

difference was rather found in their experiences using them and motivation to resort to other material than their own. As the Swedish educational system rests on a sociocultural basis, something that deserves special attention is the participants’ willingness to partake in collegial learning, which stands in accordance with the sociocultural view on learning discussed in Vygotsky (1960); Abdul (2016, pp.183-184); Säljö (2014, p. 28) as well as Tomlinson (2014).

Differentiation, and the flexibility of coursebooks to allow for proper differentiation, was an important consideration made when choosing coursebooks, as there was a consensus amongst the participants that one of the key aspects of their pedagogical material was for it to be user-friendly and able to be used for many different purposes. The 1:1 school environment that aims to provide students with individual digital tools was also found to be potentially impacting students’ ability to maintain focus in the classroom in a negative way.

The analogue coursebooks were found to be more user-friendly but run the risk of becoming outdated and subsequently reducing the students’ motivation to learn by using them in their more modern classroom environment. Coursebooks, both analogue and digital, were found to be most suitable to use when practicing grammar or basic language skills that require repetition or has limited room for creativity. Furthermore, they were found to be less suitable for practicing reading and speaking, as the texts are too short to be used as literature and too limited in topics to challenge students’ speaking ability.

Finally, the common belief that using analogue coursebooks is something that is in the process of being phased out of the educational system and that they will only be used for very specific tasks and/or purposes within the next 5-10 years signals a belief in the

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digitalization of the classroom and what opportunities to learn that it can provide for students.

7.1 Conclusion

In conclusion, the data in this study has shown that regardless of which coursebook the participants were using, the same characteristics were sought after, and seemingly provided by the coursebooks that the participants had chosen. The findings also revealed that the cost of the coursebook was an aspect that was taken into heavy consideration when the participating English teachers were selecting a coursebook. Looking at what implications this has for teachers that use coursebooks, it points towards external factors potentially prohibiting teachers from selecting freely due to political decisions and budget.

Furthermore, the participants all found using coursebooks to be positive for the tuition, but to varying degrees. There was some variance amongst the teachers’ opinions, where the results suggest that increasing positivity towards using coursebooks came with more experience in the profession. The reason for this could be twofold: teacher education programmes encouraging digitalizing teaching where possible; or lack of motivation among the more experienced teachers to improve teaching methods that have worked previously. This mindset was eluded to by the teachers with ample teaching experience, where they referred to the coursebooks as something to fall back on, as a guarantee of quality for the students or as a guideline for themselves to know where the difficulty of the tuition should be.

This study was intending to investigate teachers’ opinions on coursebooks, the implications of using them and what considerations were made when selecting a coursebook to use. A majority of the teachers said that the most beneficial way to work with coursebooks is to have coursebook activities act as a complement to their own material in order to both provide a good base to stand on, whilst still being able to challenge students of all skill levels. One implication that was mentioned by the

participants that stood out was that using digital course material to a great extent run the risk of encountering issues stemming from students’ inability to use the digital tools they are provided with in a responsible manner.

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7.2 Future Research

After conducting this study there is potential for a study on students’ opinions of using coursebooks in English teaching, as this study only focuses on the teachers’ opinions. In addition to that, repeating the same study in a broader scope could provide a more quantitative view on the matter and would allow for making generalisations based on the results. Alternatively, this study could also motivate an observational study of how coursebooks are used in practice and how the findings of that study stand in relation to the findings of this study. Finally, because of the emphasis put on the cost of the coursebooks in this study, a study about how the budgeting for coursebook purchases look could be of interest to further explain the findings in this study.

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8. References

Abdul H. P. (2016). Sociocultural Theory and its Role in the Development of Language Pedagogy. Advances in Language and Literary Studies : AL & LS., 7(6), 183–188.

Arkian, A. (2008). Topics of Reading Passages in ELT Coursebooks: What Do Our Students Really Read? Reading Matrix: An International Online Journal, 8(2), 70–85.

Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (2006) Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology. Qualitative

Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. DOI:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.

Brown, A., & Danaher, P. A. (2019). CHE Principles: Facilitating Authentic and

Dialogical Semi-Structured Interviews in Educational Research. International Journal of

Research & Method in Education, 42(1), 76–90.

Clarke, V. & Braun, V. (2017) Thematic Analysis. The Journal of Positive Psychology,

12(3), 297-297, DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2016.1262613.

Council of Europe. (2001). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages:

Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Cambridge, U.K: Press Syndicate of the University of

Cambridge.

Denscombe, M. (2010). The Good Research Guide: For Small-scale Social Research

Projects. Berkshire: Open University Press. 4th ed.

Harmer, J. (2015). The Practice of English Language Teaching. 5. ed. Harlow: Pearson Longman.

Holt, A. 2010. Using the Telephone for Narrative Interviewing: A Research Note. Qualitative Research 10 (1): 113–121. DOI:10.1177/1468794109348686.

Hult, F. M. (2012). English as a Transcultural Language in Swedish Policy and Practice. Tesol Quarterly 46(2), 230-257. DOI:10.1002/tesq.32.

Jordan, G., & Gray, H. (2019). We Need to Talk about Coursebooks. ELT Journal, 73(4), 438–446.

Olshtain, E. & Marianne Celce-Murcia. (2001). Discourse Analysis and Language Teaching. In The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. (eds. Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen, Heidi E. Hamilton). Blackwell: Malden Massachusetts. 707–724.

Rubin, J. (2008). Turning the Page on Learning New Vocabulary. Reading Matrix: An

International Online Journal, 8(2), 124–132.

Säljö, R. (2014). Lärande i Praktiken: Ett Sociokulturellt Perspektiv. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Sandström, D. (2019). So, What You’re Saying Is...?: A Study of Year 9 Students’

Attitudes Towards and Perceived Knowledge of Communicative Competence. B.S. thesis,

Jönköping University, Jönköping. DiVA, id: diva2:1290853.

School Inspectorate. (2011). Engelska i Grundskolans Årskurser 6–9. Stockholm: Skolinspektionen. Retrieved from

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https://www.skolinspektionen.se/globalassets/publikationssok/granskningsrapporter/kvali tetsgranskningar/2011/engelska-2/slutrapport-engelska-grundskolan-6-9.pdf.

Seidlhofer, B. (2005). English as a Lingua Franca. ELT Journal 59(4), 339-341. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI:10.1093/elt/ccio64.

Skolverket. (2018a). Curriculum for the Compulsory School, Preschool Class and

School-age Educare. Stockholm: Skolverket.

Skolverket. (2018b). Kommentarmaterial till Kursplanen i Engelska. Stockholm: Skolverket.

Skolverket. (2018c). Inkludering, Differentiering och Lärararbete. Stockholm: Skolverket.

Skolverket. (2020a). Ändrade Villkor för Lärande När Alla Elever Får Egen Dator. Stockholm: Skolverket.

Skolverket. (2020b). En-till-en Miljö Gör Undervisningen Mer Formativ. Stockholm: Skolverket.

Swain, M., Kinnear, P., & Steinman, L. (2015). Sociocultural Theory in Second

Language Education: An Introduction Through Narratives (2nd ed.). Bristol, England:

Multilingual Matters.

Swedish Research Council. (2017). Good Research Practice. Stockholm: Swedish Research Council.

Tapper, N., & Horsley, J. (2017). Differentiation in the Secondary School Classroom.

Kairaranga, 18(2), 40–46.

Tomlinson, C. A. (2014). The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All

Learners. Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development. Alexandria: Pearson

Education Inc.

VanTassel-Baska, J. (2012). Analyzing Differentiation in the Classroom: Using the COS-R. Gifted Child Today, 35(1), 42–48.

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9. Appendix

Intervjufrågor – Interview guide

#1: Hur länge har du varit aktiv som lärare och i vilka årskurser har du undervisat? #2: Vad är din åsikt om att använda läromedel i engelskundervisningen?

#3: Använder du dig av något läromedel när du undervisar i engelska? Om ja, vilket/vilka?  

 #4: Anser du att analoga eller digitala läromedel är bäst? Varför?

#5: Enligt dig, vad behöver ett läromedel ha för kvalitéer för att vara ett bra läromedel? (övningar, struktur, verktyg till elever, tillgänglighet online m.m.)

#6: Baserat på din erfarenhet, i vilka situationer är läromedel särskilt lämpliga att använda? Använd gärna exempel.

#7: Vilka fördelar ser du med användandet av läromedel i undervisningen? 

#8: Baserat på din erfarenhet, i vilka situationer är läromedel mindre lämpliga att använda? Använd gärna exempel.

#9: Vilka nackdelar ser du med användandet av läromedel i undervisningen? 

#10: Hur ser processen ut när ni på skolan skall välja ut ett läromedel att använda och vilka faktorer väger tyngst?

#11: Finns det några andra undervisningsmaterial förutom läromedel som du använder dig av eller skulle vilja testa?

#12: Beskriv någon/några erfarenheter då ditt undervisningsmaterial fungerat riktigt bra?  #13: Beskriv någon/några erfarenheter då ditt undervisningsmaterial inte fungerade? #14: Avslutningsvis, hur tror du användningen av läromedel kommer att se ut om 5–10 år?

Teacher A

#1: Hur länge har du varit aktiv som lärare och i vilka årskurser har du undervisat? Sedan 1987. Höstterminen 1987 jobbade jag i åk 7–9 + gymnasiet, därefter endast åk 6–9. #2: Vad är din åsikt om att använda läromedel i engelskundervisningen?

Jag tycker det är ett sätt att säkerställa kvaliteten i innehållet om man som lärare inte är helt säker på vad som ska ingå och vad som är bra. Ett läromedel är också en trygghet för elever som behöver mycket struktur och som behöver känna igen sig i arbetssätt och upplägg.

Även jag som jobbat länge har gärna en lärobok som grund, men gör många utvikningar från den, särskilt i högre årskurser och i trygga, fungerande grupper.

#3: Använder du dig av något läromedel när du undervisar i engelska? Om ja, vilket/vilka? Wings. Till viss del även Digilär.

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#4: Anser du att analoga eller digitala läromedel är bäst? Varför?

Jag tycker de är bra på olika sätt. Det är lättare att snabbt gå tillbaka och kolla på något man gjort tidigare eller på en grammatisk förklaring, i en analog bok. Det går naturligtvis även digitalt, men innebär ofta många fler steg och större risk att “tappa bort sig”.

#5: Enligt dig, vad behöver ett läromedel ha för kvalitéer för att vara ett bra läromedel? (övningar, struktur, verktyg till elever, tillgänglighet online m.m.) Oj vilken svår fråga att svara kort på… jag försöker:

-Det behöver vara lätt att hantera och hitta i (tydlig layout och konsekvent upplägg tex).

-Övningarna bör träna färdigheterna som efterfrågas i läroplanen OCH vara konsekventa (t ex har jag ibland stött på att de ord man använder i texten är andra än de som man sedan tränar i

övningen som hör till, vilket inte är bra)

-Övningarna bör finnas på olika nivåer, så att elever kan få arbeta på sin nivå utifrån en gemensam text/ ett gemensamt innehåll.

-Det är väldigt bra om materialet finns både digitalt och analogt, så att man kan använda det som passar just den eleven eller den situationen. (Men oftast måste man ju då köpa bådadera, och det tillåter absolut inte vår ekonomi mer än i undantagsfall)

#6: Baserat på din erfarenhet, i vilka situationer är läromedel särskilt lämpliga att använda? Använd gärna exempel.

Med elever som behöver tydlig struktur och inte klarar nyheter/ förändringar är ett bra läromedel guld värt!

#7: Vilka fördelar ser du med användandet av läromedel i undervisningen?

Jag tycker att bra läromedel är en slags försäkring/säkerhet att eleverna får träna på det de ska träna på, att de får den undervisning de har rätt till. Det är naturligtvis ingen garanti, men ger ändå stor vägledning om man är osäker på vad man egentligen ska hålla på med på jobbet… Det ger också en tidsvinst för pedagogen att inte alltid behöva tillverka eget material och uppfinna hjulet om och om igen.

#8: Baserat på din erfarenhet, i vilka situationer är läromedel mindre lämpliga att använda? Använd gärna exempel.

Då det gäller aktuella händelser och dagsläget i målspråksländerna är läromedel (åtminstone analoga) alltid hopplöst gamla och inaktuella.

#9: Vilka nackdelar ser du med användandet av läromedel i undervisningen?

Läromedel kan vara begränsande om man känner sig alltför styrd av dem. Om man tror att man måste “göra allt i boken” blir det lätt ohållbart.

#10: Hur ser processen ut när ni på skolan skall välja ut ett läromedel att använda och vilka faktorer väger tyngst?

Vi lärare tittar på olika alternativ och beslutar själva, inom givna ekonomiska ramar förstås (men vi har mycket stort inflytande över det).

Användbarhet, kvalitet på texter och uppgifter samt pris väger tyngst. (Men vi spar hellre ett år med anskaffning av nytt läromedel än att tumma på kvaliteten)

#11: Finns det några andra undervisningsmaterial förutom läromedel som du använder dig av eller skulle vilja testa?

Vi använder material från UR, filmer från SLI, olika inslag (nyheter, korta informationsfilmer, musik…) från internet och även övningar online.

#12: Beskriv någon/några erfarenheter då ditt undervisningsmaterial fungerat riktigt bra? Vissa delar engagerar verkligen många elever och fungerar därför bra.

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#13: Beskriv någon/några erfarenheter då ditt undervisningsmaterial inte fungerade? Vissa delar engagerar inte många elever och fungerar därför inte bra.

#14: Avslutningsvis, hur tror du användningen av läromedel kommer att se ut om 5–10 år? Jag tror vi går mot digitala läromedel, men jag tror också att pedagoger kommer använda allt mer externt material online. Utbudet är enormt!

Teacher B

#1: Hur länge har du varit aktiv som lärare och i vilka årskurser har du undervisat?

Jag har jobbat som lärare i snart 27 år. Då min ämnesbehörighet är Slöjd, engelska, Teknik och SvA, så har jag jobbat från årskurs 3 i slöjd och engelska samt SvA på högstadiet. Teknik har jag bara haft på mellanstadiet.

#2: Vad är din åsikt om att använda läromedel i engelskundervisningen?

Perfekt! Någon har läst om centrala innehållet och därefter utformat kurser för de olika

årskurserna. Grammatiken blir varierad och täcker förhoppningsvis det eleverna behöver träna på och kunna, t.ex.

#3: Använder du dig av något läromedel när du undervisar i engelska? Om ja, vilket/vilka? Ja, vi använder Magic för årskurs 7 – 9.

#4: Anser du att analoga eller digitala läromedel är bäst? Varför?

Det varierar. Vissa elever kan absolut inte hantera digitala läromedel på högstadiet. Jag tycker att det är absolut bäst att varje elev har en bok framför sig på bänken, så jag ser att de är på banan vid genomgång och vid enskilt arbete. Som extra träning är det väldigt bra, om det finns en digital del också. Gärna med liten tävlingsinriktade moment.

#5: Enligt dig, vad behöver ett läromedel ha för kvalitéer för att vara ett bra läromedel? (övningar, struktur, verktyg till elever, tillgänglighet online m.m.) Baskurs för alla och sedan texter och övningar på olika nivåer.

Gärna självrättande grammatikövningar med olika svårighetsgrad.

Ett digitalt läromedel är ju lättare att uppdatera med aktuella texter. Gärna korta klipp som ”Lilla Aktuellt” på TV.

#6: Baserat på din erfarenhet, i vilka situationer är läromedel särskilt lämpliga att använda? Använd gärna exempel.

När arbetssituationen är pressad så man inte hinner hitta på en massa käcka kurser för sina många klasser.

I en skola i ett utsatt område, där arbetet runt eleverna tar mycket tid och där eleverna är på väldigt olika nivå, är det skönt att ha ett stabilt läromedel att luta sig mot, med varierade uppgifter, på olika nivåer.

#7: Vilka fördelar ser du med användandet av läromedel i undervisningen?

Jag har en bok framför mig nr läsåret börjar och kan få en bra överblick redan från augusti, istället för att jobba kurs för kurs, och inte veta vad nästa kurs ska innehålla.

#8: Baserat på din erfarenhet, i vilka situationer är läromedel mindre lämpliga att använda? Använd gärna exempel.

Om de är sjukt tråkiga och man inte har fått vara med och välja läromedlet. :-) #9: Vilka nackdelar ser du med användandet av läromedel i undervisningen?

Om man vill, så behöver man i princip inte göra någon planering, utan kan köra efter principen, ”Sedan tar vi nästa sida”.

To Use or Not to Use Coursebooks? : A Study of Teachers&apos; Opinions on Coursebooks and What Constitutes a Good One in the English Classroom

To Use or Not to

Use

Coursebooks?:

A Study of Teachers’ Opinions on Coursebooks and What

Constitutes a Good One in the English Classroom

Table of Contents

To Use or Not to Use Coursebooks? : A Study of Teachers' Opinions on Coursebooks and What Constitutes a Good One in the English Classroom