Contemporary Issues in Language Education：Teacher Education and Textbooks

王京

【Abstract】There are several common but important components in second and foreign language classrooms such as teachers，learners and textbooks.This essay will compare and contrast the two issues：textbooks and teacher education.It will explore the relationship between the textbooks and teacher education.

【Key words】Teacher； Teacher Education； Textbooks

In the past，teacher，teaching and learners focused on discussion and theory analysis rather than textbooks.However，textbooks play a vital role in language teaching and learning in contemporary society.They experienced a significant change，from the designing，producing to publishing.Language-learning textbooks have an appealing visual，with good magazine-like design，color paper and high qualified printing.They are used as the curriculum，teaching materials or syllabus in the classrooms，are useful tools for teachers teaching.According to Richards （1998：129） textbooks would help teachers to reduce the loads of teaching due to the fact that these textbooks could save the time for preparing the teaching content in terms of teaching tasks，activities，language points and teaching materials.

Teacher education could be considered as teacher training courses.According to Turner（1975：97） in teacher education，“training” means a kind of preparation for being a teacher，teachers conducting training courses would have a direct bearing on processional practice in terms of skills and knowledge.After their training，they would know how to plan a course，how to manage the class，how to facilitate the students.

Textbooks could be considered as a sword with two blades.One the one hand，it has a profound influence on language teaching.They could be used as a tool for class organization， management and class materials，especially for novice teachers especially for novice teachers who have little or no formal teaching education and training.On the other hand，if more teachers give lessons in this way，they would lose creative ability of teaching and become the robots only repeat contents of textbooks.

References：

[1]Richards， J.（1998）.Beyond training.New York：Cambridge University Press

[2]Richards， J.， Li， B.， & Tang， A.（1998）.Exploring pedagogical reasoning skills.In J.Richards （Ed.）， Beyond training （pp.86-102）.New York： Cambridge University Press.

[3]Richard， L.Turner.（1975）.The seventy-fourth yearbook of the national society for the study of education， An overview of research in teacher education （pp.97-98）.Chicago Press.