There are a number of questions I am often asked related to my job as a text book writer. The most frequent ones are Why did I choose to become one? Why did I choose to write textbooks if, as a teacher, I know they are not necessary? Why did I leave the classroom so as to write text books? Most of the questions are based on a wrong premise: that teaching and writing textbooks are incompatible activities. Far from being true. On the contrary, I consider that writing textbooks is another aspect of teaching.

I have worked in different scenarios, children, teens and adults, schools, universities and language schools and I've used textbooks in many of them, but not in all cases. My feeling, and my students' as well, was that if there was no course backbone, which can be provided by a textbook, English turned out to be a collection of photocopies. Many things that were dealt with in class that sprang from one article were never seen again in any other text, and it is the job of the teacher to keep a record of those and to design activities to bring them back into the picture. Constructing a clear, coherent whole in this case is not easy, and I consider it is one of the most important principles that should guide our teaching. This, of course, does not mean to say that if we have a textbook, then most of our job is done. It means we, teachers, have a whole from which to go any way we want. As teachers, we have the option of teaching the book or teaching the students. It is the teacher in his or her role as a professional who will make informed decisions as to what from a textbook will be used as presented, what will be modified or adapted to students' needs, and what will be discarded. In a way, textbooks are re written in each and every class, and all this re writing is done by the teacher with his or her students in mind. I remember thinking many times, “Why didn't the authors include this, or why are they asking students to do this if it doesn't work? Pity the authors haven't thought of further practice for this, or a different type of approach for multi level classes.” The connection between the textbook and the class was evident. I also see this connection when I give feedback on book projects because I have my students in mind, and it is from this perspective that I can say if I think something may work or not. What I do when I am writing a textbook is precisely have many students and many teachers in mind, and real educational contexts as well.

Writing textbooks and teaching are not incompatible.

On the contrary, I don't think a writer should stop teaching for it would mean losing this essential connection between textbook writing and teaching. The title reads ‘from the classroom to the textbook’, but, actually, in my case, it has been from the classroom to the textbook and back to the classroom.

Leonor Corradi holds a Master´s degree in Education and Training from Surrey University, UK. She is a lecturer in Methodology at ISP Dr. Joaquin V. Gonzalez and I.E.S. en Lenguas Vivas J R Fernandez. Coordinator of state bilingual schools and co-author of the Curriculum Design for Foreign Languages for Buenos Aires. She is also a presenter at national and international conferences and ELT author.