The Characteristics of a Good English Text Book

Hello Readers, Its been exciting to connect with you through this blog. Thank you so much for your responses and your valuable suggestions. I request you to continue to do so. In my last blog, we saw the characteristics of a good English teacher. In this blog my mind went towards the characteristics of a good English text book. According to F.L.Billow, “To make the best use of time in the classroom and to avoid unintended repetition or the neglect of essential language patterns, the teacher is, wise to have a text book, at least in the background of his mind.”          Thus, text books are very useful for systematic and regular teaching. There are certain characteristics of a good textbooks in English, they are:

        1.      Language and Vocabulary:

                           The vocabulary used in the book is well selected and properly graded. A good book is written within limited vocabulary. If a word has more than one meaning, the easier meaning is introduced in the early lessons and difficult meanings later. It should be well organized. The organization should proceed from simple to complex and concrete to abstract.

         2.      Structures:

                     In a very scientific way, the different structures are placed in a good text book. The learners do not come  across many new structures in the same page. Only simple structures occur in the first few pages of the book. In later lessons the earlier structures are repeated, helping pupils to consolidate their knowledge. Old structures are used with new vocabulary and new structures are presented with old vocabulary so that there may be one difficulty at a time for the pupils to master, either vocabulary or structure.  In every lesson the new structure are printed in bold type. Thus the students understand well that new structures have been introduced in the lesson.

        3.      Selection of Subject Matter:

                      The subject matter contained in the book is according to the mental level of the students. Children are concerned with home, family, school, toys, games, animals, festivals etc. So, in the lower levels, the text books have the content which deals with these aspects. In case of seniors, there may be tales of actions, dramatics, fiction etc depending upon their interests and needs. The chapters graded in the order, simple to complex and easy to difficult. It is important to consider the social background of the learners. So they may have clear-cut comprehension of the content. As far as possible, the various chapters of the book are kept inter-related. The story element is maintained in the book. Essays, stories, poems, biographies should be included. The lessons should, however, be neither too long nor too short.

        4.      Illustration:

                    Children should be attracted to their textbooks through good illustrations. They should be colorful and realistic. In the lower classes, the activity pictures help the students to understand the activities described in the lesson. The teachers can explain several points by means of pictures without using mother tongue. Several poetic ideas are illustrated in the case of poetry lesson.

         5.      Exercises:

                   There are some exercises at the end of each chapter. These exercises have reading material, practice material and testing material. Some of the exercises enable the students to apply the subject matter learnt by them. The different exercises test as many language items as possible. In case of difficult exercises some hints may also be included in the exercises.

         6.      Physical make-up of the text book:

                         

 There are some technical points which are very important in the case of every book. A book’s appearance, make up etc. make it lovable and readable.  The following points are worth considering in this regard:

1.      The paper should be of good quality.

2.      No printing errors should be there.

3.      The size of printing is moderate and in case of early classes, the letters may be bold and thick.

4.      The binding should be good as the books last at least one year.

5.      The size of the book is neither too big nor too small.

6.      It should have an attractive cover.

7.      Moreover, the price of the book should be reasonable.

These are the essential characteristics of a good English book. I hope you liked this article. We shall come with more tips to improve your English. Do not forget to visit our website www.emmanuelenglishcentre.com 

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