Trade Books And Their Usefulness For ESL And EFL Classroom Case Study Sample

Trade books are various printing media including fiction books, magazines and newspapers, the primary role and purpose of which is to entertain readers. Though it is believed that trade books cannot be useful for students in ESL and EFL classroom, I have an opposite opinion and think that this printing material is a great source of information and knowledge.
The main benefit of trade books is that they cover all topics and areas of people’s life, therefore teacher can easily find a trade book that is relevant to the curriculum and the objectives of the classroom. Also, another benefit of trade book is that usually there is a very simple and easy language, which is definitely more preferable by students, who usually do not like a stilted language in textbook. As a result, they will be more interested and motivated to read and to learn, which is definitely beneficial for a learning process in general.
Trade books also allow a teacher to design the lesson based not only on simple reading and learning new vocabulary, but also on performing different activities that might be built around the topic covered in a book.
Since interest is a fundamental element in a learning process, it is necessary to find a trade book that has an engaging story. Moreover, it will be good if the story is not only interested but also contains some humour. Students will be definitely more motivated and interesting, if the material is presented in a funny way. However, at the same it does not mean that if the book is funny it cannot cover serious and important topics.
It is also good that trade book might be used for students of different age group and can become an effective way of learning both for small children and adults. It is just necessary for a teacher to choose a right book that will be interesting and engaging for particular age groups. For example, for small children fairy tales might be used, while for adult students it can be magazines or novels with an intriguing plot.
Summarizing all the written above about trade books as learning material, it is possible to draw a conclusion that they are very useful sources of information and sometimes are even more effective that regular textbooks, even though if they are considered to be unserious printing media.