Coursebooks for teenagers

Coursebooks appropriate for teenagers

If teenagers function in various spheres of life, including learning processes, in a different manner than children or adults do, then they will need different tools for learning as well. In other words, such special audience as teenagers are, need to be taught in a specific way and by means of specific tools, which in the case of English language learning/teaching means appropriate ELT coursebooks. It seems important to emphasize that particularly in the case of teenage audience, the coursebook must necessarily be chosen with adequate care and attention. So now the issue of what the coursebook for teenagers should look like in order to be ‘appropriate’ for this specific audience will be dealt with.
It is mentioned as one of most important characteristics of teenagers that they often cannot see any sense in doing something which is not related to their lives and the reality they are a part of. That is why, they are, as a rule, unwilling to deal with themes that are outdated or very distant from their personal experience. Therefore, textbooks that teenage students use during their English courses should be linked as close as possible to learners’ everyday experiences. This concerns language, themes and activities offered by a particular coursebook.
Let me start with the issue of language presented in the textbook. As Ronnqvist and Sell put it, ‘Teenage foreign language learners, like any other teenagers, are keen to establish a difference between themselves and older generations, and in particular to do so by means of linguistic demarcation’ (1994: 127). According to Ronnqvist and Sell, teachers should avoid providing students with fossilized English which is really disliked by learners. The authors claim that it is important for a coursebook to present various types of English: formal language, language used for talking about specific subjects like, for example, science, technology or art, as well as some passages where rather informal or even contemporary ‘slang’ is used
What is more, fossilized English is a version of British English whilst a lot of teenagers are fascinated by American culture, and what they are constantly exposed to through computer and television programmes, films, video, or music is mostly American English (Ronnqvist and Sell, 1994: 130). So it seems important that a coursebook should also give students an opportunity to get acquainted with, at least, some elements of American version of English – just to ...