Teachers can easily dispense with textbooks in language classes
In recent weeks, a debate has been raging on the price of textbooks.
The government is urging publishers to lower prices, but publishers are unwilling to succumb.
Critics have stated that the only way to get prices down is for 'teachers to write the teaching materials' ('Textbook prices up despite pressure', May 12).
I would like to take this idea even further and say that textbooks can be eliminated altogether from language classes. Language, whether it is speaking, listening, reading or writing, is best learned by doing.
From the moment we are born, we begin learning how to speak and listen. As infants, we hear our parents, learn their speech patterns and then try to emulate those patterns ourselves. At about the age of two, we are able to form simple sentences.
As adolescents, we can communicate with others effortlessly. Within this process, there are no textbooks involved.
It seems preposterous to use them to teach something we learn so naturally. Reading is another facet of language that does not require textbooks.