Communication potential of textbooks for learning a foreign language on the example of German language

Magdalena Białek

Uniwersytet Wrocławski, Instytut Filologii Germańskiej

Abstract

For more than 40 years, the current approach in foreign language education has been the communication approach, and the most important goal of language education is to develop communication skills. But as history shows, neither the communication approach nor the communicative competence of learners are easy targets for the formal learning of a foreign language. Language training is conditioned by many factors, and one of them is undoubtedly the textbook. This article presents the results of the analysis of German language textbook in terms of its communication potential. To this end, it refers to the principles of interpersonal communication in general, the theoretical considerations present in the literature of the subject, as well as the available practical teaching solutions. As the survey shows, textbooks have low communication potential. This is evidenced by, among others, a small number of authentic texts, improperly formulated instructions, or lack of communication tasks. It would be interesting and appropriate from the perspective of the target group to recognize the lexical themes appearing in the analyzed textbooks, but their implementation (expressed in the concept of exercise) differs from the communicative schema of today’s approach. Although it is known that the textbook is only one of the possible teaching aids, on the other hand it is also known that most teachers are eager to use it and faithfully reproduces the course of the lesson according to the instruction manual. In the context of so much “attachment” of teachers to textbooks, one should monitor their quality in detail and strive for optimal solutions for their development.

Keywords:

communication approach, communicative competence, communication tasks