Teacher and Textbook: Using Textbooks in English Language Classes at Secondary School Level

The presented diploma thesis entitled "Teacher and textbook: using textbooks in English language classes at Secondary school level" deals, in its theoretical part, with the general role of teacher and textbook within the education process with a focus on specific features of English language teaching at primary school level. The introductory chapter deals with the definition of textbook and its differentiation from other material resources used by teachers in lessons. The chapter also includes a description of the general structure, content properties and basic functions of a school textbook. These serve as a basis for a short evaluation of specific features of English textbooks. The second chapter focuses on the personality of the teacher, his pedagogical competences and roles within the education process. It also briefly mentions specifics of foreign language teachers. The practical part documents research of the teacher´s use of textbook, which is based on direct observation of English lessons and a questionnaire. The main aim of this research is to find out how much time during English language lessons at primary school level teachers spend working with the basic textbook in comparison to the amount of time dedicated to activities without textbooks or to activities with other textual resources. In connection with this research we also intend to find out whether the rate and the way of using basic textbooks within English language lessons at primary school level vary among teachers qualified to teach English and teachers without this qualification and among teachers with different lengths of professional teaching experience. The main aim of this diploma thesis is to describe the functioning of textbooks within the English language teaching process from the point of view of the teacher