Are you frustrated with language textbooks that seem to prioritize vocabulary lists and grammar drills? This week, we’ll talk about some of the shortcomings of traditional language textbooks and explore four practical ideas to better align them with the principles of second language acquisition (SLA). Stay tuned next week for part 2 of this discussion.
Discover how to shift the focus from mere language production to providing ample input for your students. Learn to personalize textbook content, ensuring it resonates with your learners and fosters meaningful communication. I’ll help you restructure the sequence of activities, emphasizing a communicative purpose and encouraging input before output. Additionally, we’ll delve into the importance of prioritizing relevant, high-frequency vocabulary to streamline language acquisition.
In this post, I’ll teach you the first step in aligning your textbooks with the principles of second language acquisition without the frustration! Then, listen to episode 52 of GWP The Podcast for more specifics and examples.
What I have seen consistently in the last few years is a struggle that some of us have when we start learning about the principles of second language acquisition and want to blend those principles with our textbooks.
My Textbook Journey
When I started teaching Spanish, I didn’t have many tools. I only had my textbook, and I followed my textbook page by page. Soon, I started to understand that I wanted more, and my students really needed more, if our goal was to develop proficiency so I started learning about second language acquisition.
When I did that, I found that there was a big misalignment between what I have in my textbook and what I was learning. That’s when I started doing a ton of attempts to blend both, and it was hard. This is why I do podcast episodes for this topic.
Start with Input and Add Personalization
One of the pitfalls of some textbooks is the focus that they have on product producing the language. If you look at the verse in many of the activities and the goals of units in textbooks, they mainly relate to production.
First, input needs to precede output. But also, and more importantly, input is the data that learners need to acquire the language. Therefore, one of the first adjustments that we can make is to start with comprehensible input.
How can we do that? We can look at the texts that are already included in your units, and you can select one that you think will provide the best input for your students. Then, you can expand that input by doing something that many textbooks don’t incorporate very well, and that is personalization.
You can ask a ton of personalized questions and answers. So, we expand on the text, but also we connected with our learners. In Episode 51, I share with you nine activities that you can do before, during, and after reading the text.
We can deepen the complex comprehension of the text by also creating opportunities where students engage with the text in different ways. You’re not only extending the input, you will be adding a ton of repetition. Most importantly, you’re also connecting with our students. You’re using the resources included in the textbook unit and talking about unit topic.
Restructure the Sequence of the Activities
Next, we need to add a communicative goal for the activities. Now, most textbooks have a PPP model, presentation, practice, and production. That model focuses on practicing language, but it doesn’t center on communication. Communication needs to be at the center of our classes because the input embedded in a communicate event is going to give us the data that is the comprehensible input that we want.
When we have activities in our textbooks, we need to give them a communicative purpose. Don’t forget that input precedes output. So, when you’re looking at the activities in the textbook, you focus on input. Then, you move on to the other modes of communication, which are interpersonal and presentational. In episode 52, I provide an example of how this all works. Listen above or find the episode here.
Focus on Frequency
We have textbooks with a very long list of vocabulary, and some of those words are very infrequent and not really relevant. So, what we need to do instead is to focus on the language that is both frequent and relevant for our students.
It is important that we understand that one interaction with a word is not enough for a student to truly acquire the language; there must be multiple interactions in different contexts. You cannot be afraid to eliminate some words! The most important part is to use those words in different contexts throughout the unit and give them enough repetition for our students to acquire the language.
Let’s Talk About Grammar
What is kind of evident in research is that the traditional approach to teaching grammar is not effective and is not useful for language acquisition. So what can we do instead? In Episode 41, I talk about structured input activities. These are focused on form. We need to pay attention to some specific form that we want to address in a specific unit while we are also focusing on communication and meaning.
Form focused instruction is an umbrella term to refer to any potential pedagogical effort to draw learners attention to language, either implicitly or explicitly. But focus on form, singular, is when the language is viewed as a tool to express meaning. Attention to grammar happens while communicating, and that's what makes it different.
I hope you find this post helpful. Don’t forget to listen to episode 52 to hear more details and examples. Stay tuned for next week’s post where I answer your questions about this topic. Leave your questions below, and I’ll choose some to answer next week.
Resources & Links
You can find all GWP The Podcast episodes here.
