Abstract
This article presents a project to design a new Amharic coursebook which draws upon current approaches to language teaching, and will provide stimulating learning materials for its users. The coursebook will target university students at A1 level, and in its content and structure will aim, for the first time in the history of Amharic language teaching, to conform to the spirit of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Topic-based and task-based syllabi will form the backbone of the coursebook. It will contain a range of activities in which students, while learning grammar, are engaged in using new language in a meaningful, communicative way. Apart from developing the usual four language skills, among which priority will be given to oral practice, the coursebook will help students to acquire cultural competence and support them in improving their language learning strategies.
Highlights
A coursebook is a central tool in a foreign language class.1 coursebooks have some drawbacks, the majority of teachers use them because a good coursebook spares hours of designing their own teaching materials (Kusiak-Pisowacka 2015: 65–67)
The idea of designing a coursebook occurred to me because as a practising Amharic teacher I face a severe lack of good teaching materials
The first version of this paper was delivered at the 23rd Afrikanistentag (25–26 May, 2018 Hamburg) in the panel “Teaching African languages: Methods and materials”
Summary
A coursebook is a central tool in a foreign language class. coursebooks have some drawbacks, the majority of teachers use them because a good coursebook spares hours of designing their own teaching materials (Kusiak-Pisowacka 2015: 65–67). A coursebook is a central tool in a foreign language class.. Coursebooks have some drawbacks, the majority of teachers use them because a good coursebook spares hours of designing their own teaching materials (Kusiak-Pisowacka 2015: 65–67). In this article I will present my project to develop a new Amharic coursebook which draws upon up-to-date approaches to language. The idea of designing a coursebook occurred to me because as a practising Amharic teacher I face a severe lack of good teaching materials. It is advisable for any teacher to avoid heavy dependence on a coursebook (White 2013: 3–4); using additional materials, selfmade or ready-made, is highly recommended in a foreign language classroom. At the moment, we have few Amharic coursebooks and almost no supplemental materials targeting the learner of Amharic. My overall goal is to make our need for Amharic teaching materials less acute
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