4 reasons to take another look at your workbook
It seems to me in the modern age workbooks have become a
little old fashioned and unpopular amongst teachers. Seen as ‘only controlled
practice or homework books’ they are not seen to be communicative enough and
are often forgotten about or underused. But actually the workbook is a useful
tool for the teacher and student and now that we have online workbooks they can
be a key part of the language learning process helping to create a blended
learning package for our students.
In this short blog, I will suggest four reasons why
workbooks are useful tools and look at how the electronic versions enhances
this further.
The first reason that workbooks are useful is that students
tend to like them. It is true that many of the exercises in the workbook are
controlled practice but a good controlled practice helps students to feel more
comfortable with the language. Controlled
practice helps students to remember the language and have more confidence when
using it freely. Controlled practice allows students to analyse and manipulate
the language they are studying. Success
in controlled practice can be measured and gives students a sense of
achievement that freer practice activities don’t always provide and this might be
why a study done by Peters, Weinberg, and Sarma (2009) suggested that students
preferred doing mechanical workbook type activities online than more creative
tasks like making wikis etc.
The second reason is that a good workbook can act as a
substitute teacher. The grammar reference, study tips, functions banks etc can
answer the students questions and help them become independent learners. With a
little bit of learner training the students can take responsibility for their
own learning. The online workbook helps this even more. The smart key helps
students to see why they have got answers wrong, the dictionary look up helps
them to deal with unknown vocabulary, the chance to do activities again helps
them to measure their own progress. This instant feedback allows for immediacy.
If students do homework and wait three days for their next English lesson then
the impact is lost but with the online workbook they can see their success
straight away.
Thirdly workbooks provide variety. I said in the previous section
that workbook exercise are mostly controlled practice but a good workbook would
have a range of activities to focus on different language points and in
different ways for example gap fills, readings, matching, crosswords, word searches
etc. Online workbooks can include listening and speaking activities too. With a
paper workbook I often allowed my students a choice of homework; I allowed them
to do any two activities from the page. This meant that the students could
choose their homework depending on their own taste and learning styles. This
was of course difficult in terms of marking but the online version has instant
marking for teachers. This means I can see who has done what and how they have
done. This of course is very helpful with mixed ability classes too. It means I
can set different tasks for different groups. The stronger ones will not be
demotivated by it being too easy while the weaker ones will not be demotivated
because it is too difficult.
Finally a workbook provides consolidation of what is done in
class. Students need to realise that coming to English lessons two or three
times a week is not enough. They need extra practice and exposure to English
outside the classroom. Because the workbook is closely linked to the student’s
book, students don’t have to look far to get useful and relevant practice using
similar topics and vocabulary. With online workbooks you as a teacher can
design a blended course, covering what you feel is important in class and
leaving the rest for students to do online. And what’s more students don’t even
have to carry around their books; all they need is their login details and a
Wi-Fi signal and they can practice on the go.
So pick up your workbook and have another look at it. Ask
yourself how it can help your students improve their English and then consider
how an online version could bring real possibilities to your teaching.
Reference
And thanks to
@nikkifortova
@sandymillin
