The word ‘materials’ in education does not solely refer to a coursebook.

What to take into account

The word ‘materials’ in education does not solely refer to a coursebook. As Tomlinson (2003:1-2) states, materials include anything which can facilitate language learning and its development is a vital opportunity for professional development since processes such as production, evaluation and adaptation of materials reflect the teaching principles and beliefs that teachers possess.

 However, we need to acknowledge the fact that coursebooks are the most widely used type of material used. Furthermore, coursebooks have become a structuring pack which includes DVDs, CD-Roms, mini-dictionaries, and other supporting materials which revolver around them. This interest in them may be due to the fact that, as Rubdy (2003:39) lists, they cater for practical needs for teachers, such as organisation in terms of complexity and sequencing. This structure, in turn, may be regarded as a map which not only guides learning but also predicts how a course will develop helping learners and teachers develop self-confidence and security.

Nevertheless, materials have to be developed, that is, created. It may be agreed that creativity has to be a feature which runs through the complex process of materials development. This process cannot be left to publishers only as we may be running the risk of solely depending on publishers while simultaneously, disempowering teachers (Torres, 1998:177-178). Creativity is essential as it will promote professional development among teachers, who can work collaboratively in order to produce material for their own contexts. Creativity, as Maley (2003:184-187) asserts, invites us to experiment with newness, immediacy, unpredictability and acceptability while becoming aware of its powerful force which is needed for survival. This force will be motivating teachers will intrinsically feel that in the process of creation they are learning themselves and experiencing personal or even historical creativity.

Yet, creativity needs to be channelled so that its effects are enhanced. Therefore, the literature offers a varied collection of principles which ought to be contemplated for developing principled frameworks for materials development.

Bell and Gower (1998:116-129), for example, offer a list of principles to follow. First, and perhaps the most important for later adaptations and contextual features (de la Torre, 2007:61-62), they believe flexibility is crucial. Following flexibility, selected texts should be chosen in such a way so that they trigger language work through integrated skills. Materials should also feature engaging content, natural language in terms of use, analytic approaches for grammar work, emphasis on review, personalised practice so that it is more context-responsive within learners’’ universe, and a balance of approaches, thus offering an eclectic view foreign language learning.

What we do

As far as the integration of content and language is concerned, within a language-driven approach, we, that is, my fellow teachers and I, have devised a number of principles that we have followed when developing material that we are compiling in a sourcebook or home-made coursebook. First, we organise the contents, that is, the syllabus, around topics stemming from Geography, topics new or familiar to our students. Then, we divide each content into the four skills, and vocabulary (for those wondering WHERE IS MY GRAMMAR?, grammar noticing and language awareness run along the skills.

Once we set the syllabus, we start looking for initial input (written texts, ads, videos, slides, etc) which we agree that it has to be authentic. For each unit/topic, rather than adapting the material, we devise activities that scaffold the text. Every five units, there’s a project (some examples can be found in my previous post) and an evaluation form that students need to complete so as to get feedback from the material. This feedback is then used to develop or change future units in the syllabus. Even though the topics are fixed, there’s always room for flexibility as students can choose what to focus on.

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Submitted by hellen51 on Mon, 05/10/2010 - 18:14

hi dear Dario,

I am a  teacher of English in Iran and I teach at high schools. unfortunately, my students' English is not very good. They have some problems in Dictation and pronunciation so I wanted to tell you that if you have any new idea of how to teach Dictation i will be happy to take some pieces of advice.  thanks a lot and i am looking forward to hearing from you.

yours Hellen

Hellen I don't know whether you would appreciate this answer from me when the question was not directed to me, take it just as if i have shared my views or experiences and if it is really helpful i will be the happiest teacher to be of some help.

I have had experience of teaching students in school with very poor English language learning skills. Taking dictation was more problematic for them, what i did at that time was -

Begin with easy disyllabic words and try to emphasize on each syllable that will break the long word into shorter comprehensible sounds.

Like 'Independence' has four syllables so first give them the whole word in one go and then make syllable specific utterance- In/ de / pen / dence/.

Some students may make wrong attempts in writing them, like the /de/ syllable might be written as /di/ or /day/ but more and more practice would make them comfortable.

Regards

Sumangal

Hi Hellen

Sorry for a rather late reply.

I'm afraid to say dictation is not something that we encourage here in Argentina. Sometimes, what I do is an activity called Vanishing Words. First, I write a short paragraph on the board, then I start deleting words and ask students, individually or as a whole, to read the text filling in the missing words. Every time I delete more words and draw a line instead. In the end they repeat the whole text by just following the lines, it's good for pronunciation and sentence pattern. Perhaps, you can dictate them the text as a follow-up. What do you think?

Best,

Dario

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