In today's modern, world we have access to all sorts of material in terms of teaching English. But still, we are bound to use a particular coursebook that was already designed/chosen by the Ministry of National Education (if it is state school) or by the education managers (if it is private language school). Throughout my teaching experience in private langauge institutions I had a chance to use different coursebooks designed by the most important publishing houses in our field.
Now I am using education solutions of Pearson which is U.K.-based educational publishing company that topped this year’s Livres Hebdo/Publishers Weekly annual ranking. I want to analyse social justice issues of Pearson's Top Notch 2 coursebook that won the TAA award for Textbook Excellence in 2016. Pearson's Top Notch 2 coursebook consists of 10 units that deals with common notions and fuctions to use the language effectively for communication purposes. It has clear and practical communication goals which manage mixed ability classes through the right input of language, intensive practice, and systematic recycling.
Before analysing Top Notch 2, I have a few questions to ask for every individual person in the field of language education. So, is it enough for a learner to communicate in target language? Or is it enough for an instructor to focus on learners' success? How about education itself? How about appreciation of different cultures, creating awareness more on environmental issues, gender roles in a society, LGBTQ rights, refugee and peacebuilding organisations? Do we, as teachers, have to focus on these issues? More importantly, do publishing houses have to include related issues while they design a courseook for language learners?
I will try to analyse first unit of Top Notch 2 that I feel particularly support social justice education. First unit's topic is Getting Acquainted.
On this page you can see illustrations about different customs around the world. I think to teach learners about different greeting styles, issues on having small talk with the person you just get aquainted and sharing business cards rises their intercultural competence and awareness on social justice education. This unit is a right moment to talk about gender roles in various societies around the world.
On page 3, Part C, you can see two foreigners from different language backgrounds talking to each other in a hotel loby. That is more effective to motivate our learners to speak English. Also this minor detail shows the importance of English as a Lingua Franca. In fact, this photo disturbs me in terms of gender issues. Generally most of the books use, including Top Notch 2, male photos when the issue comes to business and science world. It would be better if we see a man and woman wearing formal dress and having a talk about business, or even it is far better to see two different ladies on this page.
On page 6, the aim is to teach important vocabulary to talk about travel experiences. In Conversational Model Part A (listening activity), 2 people talk about China and towards the end of a conversation they mention about eating/trying Chinese dish (Beijing duck). A person, who prefers to live as a vegan, might feel a bit disgusted when s/he listens to this listenining section. I strongly support that we should consider this kind of lifestyle, being a vegan or vegetarian (staying away from a debate whether it is right or wrong), in language teaching to create awareness on social justice education. Moreover, when topic comes to travel or countries we have to speak up about global issues which includes environmental, economic subjects.
As teachers, we can create/design our own supplemental materials related to social justice education for each unit of our coursebook that we use while teaching. Publishing companies can add Social Juctice Spots to coursebooks that may lead teachers to talk about these issues. Finally, as human beings we have a lot more way to go and to practice/integrate social justice issues in our own lives.
A sample version of this unit of Top Notch 2 is available on Pearson's official website.
A content page of Top Notch 2 is also available on Pearson's official website.