Monday, March 19, 2012

Why aren't text books messy?

Communication is frequently messy and full of misunderstanding - as well as the converse. I have yet to see a text book which reflects this, which is a pity I feel. Similarly, any teacher of a second language will be familiar with those occasions when a student will give an answer to a cloze exercise, where the answer is perfectly acceptable grammatically, but would only be found in a context that was somewhat unlikely to occur. However, I would always point out to the student that such answers are acceptable if the context allows them, even if the context may itself be one that was infrequently met. I'd like to see a messy text book - in fact I may even write one myself...even if it only attracts one student!

No comments:

Post a Comment