3. Textbook or forum?
An ideal compromise involving both
Nowadays, language teachers are rarely willing to work with just one textbook, even though the constantly growing supply of new textbooks leads them to find the one which corresponds best to the aims of their curricula or best suits the pupils in their class.
Moreover, as the foreign language as a means of communication is no longer just a set of rules, the textbook is accompanied by authentic documents of every kind (whether teaching-oriented or not) which will enable a measure of reality to be brought into the classroom, but whose choice and use are still decided by the author of the textbook or the teacher using it.
In creating the atmosphere of the real environment in the classroom, the use of a forum seems to offer an ideal compromise between the rigidity of textbooks and the freedom of authentic documents. This work is simultaneously motivating, free and directed and ensures linguistic progress.
As we had expected, forum work took two forms:
- It supplemented programmed textbook-based work (the contributions from other pupils became additional authentic documents on the subject, different opinions were starting-points for discussion, and the drafting of contributions could replace exercises suggested by the textbook, etc.)
- It replaced the textbook for some of the time.