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Writing a language textbook, why not? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Wilco Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6331 days ago 160 posts - 247 votes  Speaks: French*, English, Russian | Message 1 of 11 30 April 2011 at 2:55pm | IP Logged |
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Has anyone actually ever wrote their own language learning textbook?
Some colleagues and I have been thinking for some time about starting to create a language book for our common target language, not to make money (obviously!) but for the experience. It would not be a piece of cake. We would need the constant help and input of native speakers. We should make sure the most important aspects of the language are covered and well explained (phonology, grammar, culture, etc) while the less important parts are left aside (how to choose?). We should select which words are to be included, which are not, should we concentrate on the written language, or introduce different dialects and regional varieties, etc. There are so many ways this textbook could miserably fail that it seems almost an impossible task to accomplish, but that's exactly what makes it even more interesting to us! Our target language is also terribly lacking resources, so this textbook could come handy to other learners out there. Since members of this forum are accomplished learners, who I presume read through tens of textbooks and language manuals, I am looking for some guidance and suggestions. If you had the possibility to create your own textbook (for any language), what are the things you would absolutely include, and the things you wouldn't? Should we take the "pattern" of Assimil, TY or something completely new? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5131 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 3 of 11 30 April 2011 at 3:25pm | IP Logged |
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Quite a while ago, I had put together a complete conversation/dialog-based course in Moodle to teach English as a second language. The lessons and exercises were complete. What I got stuck on was the audio. At the time Rhinospike or a work-alike wasn't available, and I just didn't have the time or money to search for voice talent.
In the end, what I did was already more successfully done by the likes of Teach Yourself or Assimil (really,the model was more along the lines of French in Action or Destinos). I did like my storyline, though. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| BartoG Diglot Senior Member United States confession Joined 5448 days ago 292 posts - 818 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Latin, Uzbek | Message 4 of 11 30 April 2011 at 4:25pm | IP Logged |
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They always say the teacher learns more than the student, so it could be valuable for you and your colleagues at any rate!
hrhenry notes that in writing his own textbook, what he created did not match up to what was already out there. This mirrors my own experience making little lessons for my website: if the language is rare enough that there's little of value out there, you may have a real contribution to make, even if it's just to add one more inadequate support to the larger, but not large enough, collection of inadequate learning tools out there. Looking back, I have some clear ideas on why, with time at the top of the list, but there's one other thing I'd like to toss out for consideration here: Most textbook writers start with an ideology - a belief about what it means to know a language. That ideology extends to a sense of stages along which one progresses. And they are usually looking at something like the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) or CEFR or DELF in order to make sure their textbook can be sold into an existing language program at one level or another. Because they have beliefs about language teaching and an idea of what they need to cover, their textbooks hold together in a way that amateur efforts often don't. If you wish to write a textbook, your first question is not which format to use. Your first question is whether you believe people learn better inductively or deductively - by looking at content and learning to decipher it or looking at rules and applying them. You need to decide whether learning the language as it is spoken, or as it is used properly (but perhaps stiltedly) is preferable. You need to work out whether it's better to master simple patterns which allow earlier creation of language that is functional but inauthentic, or whether it's better to dive into more idiomatic language. From there, you will want to look into things like the CEFR guidelines or the tasks one needs to complete to pass the different levels of the DELF and other such tests as other people have already done a lot of work for you in figuring out what to cover at what stage. Once you've figured out what you want to teach and how you want to teach it, then you can look for a format that clearly illustrates how the language works and is acquired from your perspective. I'd make an outline of the courses I like and the courses I dislike. I'd make clear notes on why. And then, when I was done, I would take one step back and ask myself not "What do I like/dislike about this feature?" but "How did this feature improve my understanding and motivate me to continue/confuse me and make me want to give up?" This will help you think in more practical terms about the abstract questions in the previous paragraph. When you're done, you'll have a better idea of what, if anything, you can contribute that isn't there now, and how you want to go about it. Best of luck! Edited by BartoG on 30 April 2011 at 4:28pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5670 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 5 of 11 30 April 2011 at 5:38pm | IP Logged |
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One of the most important issues with writing a course is deciding who your audience
is. That means making assumptions about what they know already, and what their aims are. From this, you can guess suitable content for your course: deciding what to put in and (often more importantly) what to leave out. Usually you can only make rough guesses, but when the audience is yourself you can be very certain about what you know and what you want to know, so you can tailor the course to your exact needs. Even more importantly, you can receive constant and immediate feedback and so you can keep fine-tuning the course as you go. For example, you may find that your prefer an audio course to a textual one, or perhaps a combination of the two. It was this realisation that led me to my own Spiral Method, wherein you are continually creating your own evolving and personalised language course. If my audience were some unknown abstract group, I am sure the courses I produce would be very different. By personalising your courses you will get much more out of them. Plus, years down the line you will have learned such a great deal you may be better prepared to make a course for a more general audience. Edited by Splog on 30 April 2011 at 5:40pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6471 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 6 of 11 30 April 2011 at 7:53pm | IP Logged |
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I have developed more than 600 lessons, chiefly for German, but also Latin, Esperanto and
a few writing systems. Moreover, I was hired by two different internet companies as a consultant to plan and supervise the creation of language courses for various languages. If you pursue this project and have some concrete questions, I'm ready to answer them in French over Skype. I already spend too much time using English rather than my target languages, plus I don't want to type that much. Edited by Sprachprofi on 30 April 2011 at 7:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hughes007 Diglot Newbie Spain Joined 5525 days ago 17 posts - 21 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Italian Studies: EnglishB2 | Message 7 of 11 30 April 2011 at 8:15pm | IP Logged |
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Yes, I've recently written a textbook on my own language XD
Me iku bada, sali me (I'm a bit crazy, sorry) I've also tried once to develop a blog about Spanish language (http://spanishiseasy.blogspot.com/), but I ended up getting bored of it. Besides, I wasn't completely motivated. There're lots of resources on Spanish around the web so I finally felt that I wasn't doing very much. I think it would be a great if there were any microblogging site (like digg or reddit) on languages in which users uploaded their own lessons sorted into different categories or tags. So, a community could be created where users could rate those lessons (by, for instance, thumbing them up or down), comment and chat with native people and things like that. Well, maybe I'm just a dreamer but I completely believe it could work. Edited by hughes007 on 30 April 2011 at 8:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Keilan Senior Member Canada Joined 5087 days ago 125 posts - 241 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 8 of 11 01 May 2011 at 5:06am | IP Logged |
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Well.. I don't know much about language textbook writing, but just in case it helps I will give you a few things that annoy me (or that I would find helpful) in my own books.
1) Repeated vocab. My German text often has the same word in the vocabulary section of multiple chapters. Their rationale for that is that the word is needed in more than one scenario (i.e. the word "seat" for both going to a restaurant and around the house). If you need a word in multiple sections, please only list it once and mark it in following sections (have a list of useful words that we have seen before for example). 2) Don't use lots of vocab that hasn't been seen, unless it is specifically in a "learn by context" section. At some point most language texts switch to being completely in the target language (or almost completely). That is a good thing, but when you do so make sure that the majority of the words you use are known to the read (by known I mean already presented in the vocab section of a previous chapter). 3) Get as much audio as possible. I will not buy a language text without an accompanying CD and if it says "with 6 CDs of audio", I'm more likely to buy it than one that just comes with 4. If you have the means, give complete audio for every vocab list. I realize that is a lot of work, but it's very helpful. Additionally include long listening passages (some with the text given in the book, some without). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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