English Textbooks

3.5 Textbooks All this implies much more teacher and learner control over the texts used in class, including textbooks. Curricular freedom cannot exist in the presence of a single prescribed text. Earlier practices of choosing from a range of available texts can be revived; some states like Orissa have come up with innovative textbooks with short units that can be “covered” within a single class (Sunwani 2005), incorporating the idea of a reading card. Language should be seen as a “dynamic” text, i.e. exposure should be to new occurrences of comparable language samples everyday, rather than repeatedly to a single text that is mastered (Amritavalli (1999) makes an analogy with the learning of a raga in Indian classical music). This will prepare the child for tests of “unseen” comprehension passages. Teachers and learners need to evolve for themselves a balance in the use of predictable and unpredictable texts that suits their individual levels of comfort.
 3.5.1 Learner-chosen texts Preliminary research exists on the use of learner-chosen texts (Kumaradas 1993), i.e. articles, books, or shorter items such as paragraphs, jokes, or cartoons that learners bring to class to share. Stimulating learnersearch for suitable material encourages reading and extensive reading. It also opens up the class to “authentic” material, a resource neglected by the system; the ELT literature has wideranging discussions on the use of such material. One teacher writes about how trips to the post office and the railway station allowed the children to collect samples of English “texts”. With older learners, radio, print or television news or news features can be used (as CIEFL research suggests).
A “problem” is the existence of “guides” to prescribed texts. Instead of merely condemning the practice, we might ask why guides exist; they bridge the gap between local competencies (teacher/learner) and centralised systemic expectations (examinations/ prescribed texts). A useful distinction can be made between “simplified” texts and “simple” texts; compare, for example, an article on butterflies in a science text with a newspaper science column or an adult encyclopedia entry on this topic, and again with an article on butterflies in a children’s book of knowledge; all these differ not merely in language but in information structure. The information structure of textbooks that requires guides needs to be examined. Space should be provided for more creative textbooks to emerge. There is a dearth of books written imaginatively in simple English for older learners. There does exist a range of creative literature in India for children in the private as well as the public sectors, but much of it does not find entry into the classroom for a variety of reasons.
3.6 Teacher preparation: Teacher training and development Teacher education needs to be ongoing and onsite (through formal or informal support systems) as well as preparatory. Emphasis must be laid on teacher proficiency in or familiarity with the language, as the teacher is often a role model (for example, for reading). This is also one way to cultivate teacher awareness of or sensitivity to language learning. Proficiency and professional awareness are equally to be promoted, the latter to be imparted, where necessary, through the teachers’ own languages. A curriculum is only as effective as its implementation. The 1960s structural curriculum aimed at “teacher-proof ” material; this model failed linguistically, pedagogically, and psychologically. Subsequent presumptions of the teacher as “facilitator” of learning similarly face problems of credibility. While the teacher need not be the sole purveyor of language input (as recognised, for example, by his/her dependence on a textbook), the success of any classroom activity or innovation stems from the teacher’s resources in the language.
i) Teacher proficiency in English is linked to the teachers’ sense of satisfaction, indeed to his/ her willingness to teach English (Krishnan and Pandit 2003). This factor has hitherto not been addressed in teacher-training programmes. The recommendation for a later start for English presumed the availability of better (languageproficient) teachers at later stages (which, however, may not be true). With English now having been extended to situations where the teacher and the classroom are the sole sources of input, teacher proficiency has to be addressed urgently.
ii) When proficiency is given its due place, there is freedom to provide the ideational or development component of teacher preparation in the teacher’s own language, ensuring comprehension as well as debate. Teacher training through English has often found the language of its academic content an obstacle to understanding; this leads to jargonisation of teaching methodology. The Assam experience (Dowerah 2005) shows that academic content can be delivered in the teacher’s own language. School teachers must mandatorily receive both pre-service training and in-service education at regular intervals; systemic provision must be made to spare teachers from constant routine activity. Pre-service education could profit by updating its curricula (and training personnel) to reflect the cognitive revolution in learning; too often “lesson planning” is still done in terms of immediate behavioural objectives, in spite of the accumulated evidence for language and vocabulary “growth” as against conscious knowledge of content, rules, or definitions.
iii) Onsite intervention is essential if workable ideas are to be identified and put into practice. The current gulf between “theory” (or academic posturing) and “practice” (or routinised survival), and theoreticians and practitioners, is a reflection of the gulf in their physical workspaces. Teachers can form selfhelp groups if “trainers” are not available in sufficient numbers, and supported with reading and media material. This will encourage grassroots-level innovation. There is a need for reflective teachers who have a deep understanding of language learning and the English-multilingual classroom. The current pre- and in-service curriculum must be restructured to this end. Two key areas that must be incorporated in teachereducation programmes are an understanding of the psychology of learning and current knowledge about the processes of language and literacy acquisition, including topics such as those mentioned in this document.