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TE 20303
MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
Week 1Course overview and
introduction: The role of teaching
materialsDr Lee Kean Wah
School of Education and Social Development
University Malaysia Sabah
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Course Overview
Main aim:
To provide a synthesis between„principles‟ and „practice‟ by making
links between b/grd issues in AL
where appropriate, and at the sametime looking at the practical design of
materials and methods.
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Specific Objective
1. To understand the most common
design principles for teachingmaterials;
2. To critically evaluate the principles
upon which language learningmaterials are based;
3. To assess the relevance of teaching
materials to own teaching context
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First half (Wk 1 – 7)
Look at principles on which materials and methodsare based:
Wk 1 – looks at the educational f/w of materialswhich is relevant to ELT practitioners
Wk 2 – linking research (SLA) to best practice
Wk 2 – (Background reading of the context of MD)- Provides an analysis of the growth of thecommunicative approach to language teaching &the implications for materials. Examine some
critiques of the comm appro & try to analyse someof the „post-comm‟ trends in design principles over the last decade, notably the multi-syllabus &process syllabus, & how these relate to actualteaching materials.
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Wk 3 – Materials Evaluation
Wk 4 & 5 – analyzing and evaluatingCoursebooks
Wk 4 & 5 –Examining a number of
working models for examining &evaluating textbooks.
Understanding the principles of
textbook construction
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Wk 6 & 7 – Materials Adaptation
Offers a working model for teachersto evaluate materials for adoption &selection purposes.
Concerned with how teachers, fromthis understanding of their learnersand the materials they are workingwith, can adapt these materials to
meet the demands of their learners ina given situation.
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Second half (Wk 8 -13)
Putting theory into practice
Attempt to relate the principles raised anddiscussed in part 1 to each individual skills
in turn.Wk 9 -12 - see how the theory related toeach individual skill of R, S, L & W hasaffected approaches to the design and use
of materials in the respective areasWk 13 & 14 – summing up - Addressingstudent diversity in the language classroom
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Lecture Week 1: Overview
What are Language learning
materials?
What is Materials Development?
What are our roles in Materials
Development?
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The roles of Teaching Materials
1. What are „teaching materials‟?
2. What is(are) the function(s) of teachingmaterials in the classroom? What is(are)
their role(s) in the teaching-learningprocess?
3. If you were in a remote area, and youhad no teaching materials would you still
be able to teach English?
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Survey
Read the following statements. Indicate whether you “Agree” (A), “Disagree” (D) or are “Not Sure” (NA) about the statements?
1. Teaching materials should be under the controlof the teacher at all times.
2. Teaching materials should not be permanent;they should be disposable or alterable to suitlearners‟ needs and choices.
3. Teaching materials are absolutely essential for
teaching.4. Teaching materials should be flexible to allowlearners the chance to work at their own speedand in their own preferred ways.
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5. Teaching materials should allow variableprocedures for carrying out tasks and
variable outcomes, in terms of solutionsto tasks or problems.
6. There should be one main textbook used
by all class teachers in a country orregion or institution to ensure that there isuniformity of standards in teachingEnglish.
7. Teaching materials are reallyunnecessary; learners can learn fromeach other and the teacher withoutneeding printed materials.
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8. Teachers should be able to choosetheir own textbooks.
9. Textbooks are useless because they
can never hope to cater for theconstantly changing needs ofteachers.
10.Textbooks encourage teacherdependencyAdapted from Wright, T (1987). Roles of Teachers and Learners.
Oxford: OUP
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What are „Language Learning
Materials‟?
Anything which is used by teachers orlearners to facilitate the learning of a language .
Could be cassettes, videos, CD-Roms,dictionaries, grammar books, readers,workbooks or photocopied exercises.
Could also be newspapers, food packages,
photographs, live talks by invited nativespeakers, instructions given by a teacher,tasks written on cards or discussionsbetween learners.
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Con‟t
anything which is deliberately usedto increase the learners‟
knowledge and/or experience of
the language.
(Tomlinson, B. (Ed.). (1998).Materials development in language
learning. Cambridge: CUP)
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What is „Materials Development”?
“Materials development is theplanning process by which ateacher creates units and lessonswithin those units to carry out thegoals and objectives of the course.In a sense, it is the process ofmaking your syllabus more andmore specific.” [Graves, Kathleen. (2000). Designing Language Courses: A guide for teachers. Boston: Heinle & Heinle. P149]
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Con‟t
Materials development refers to“anything which is done by writers,teachers or learners to provide sources of language input and to
exploit those sources in ways whichmaximise the likelihood of intake :in other words the supplying of
information about and/or experience of the language in ways designed to promote language learning .” [Tomlinson, B. (Ed.). (1998). Materials development in language learning. Cambridge: CUP]
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Materials development takes place ona continuum of decision-making and
creativity which ranges from beinggiven a textbook and a timetable inwhich to „cover‟ it to developing all the
materials you will use in the class„from scratch‟.
x=======x======x========x
least responsibility most responsibility& decision making & creative
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Where is your position in thiscontinuum?
Neither extreme is desirable.
Little room to make decisions and toput to use what they have learnt from
experience, which in effect „deskills‟the teacher
The majority of teachers not paid or
do not have the time to develop all thematerials for every course that theyteach.
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What ought to be done?Just because a teacher does not have
responsibility for choosing materials,does not mean she cannot exercisecreativity in using them.Teachers can be involved in materialsdevelopment from the moment they pickup a textbook and teach from it.Because a teacher will inevitably haveto make decisions about how long tospend on certain activities, which ones
to skip or assign for homework if thereisn‟t enough time, which ones to modifyso that they are relevant to theparticular group of students.
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What is the basis for materials design?
How is Materials Development seen inthe larger context of the languageteaching & learning process?
Materials and methods cannot be seen in
isolation, but are embedded within abroader professional context. (SeeMackey,1970, & Strevens (1976. 1977) &Stern‟s (1983) models of language
learning/teaching process)Analogy – teacher & materials = driver &cars.
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McDonough and Shaw (1993:5) givethis „framework‟ for materials use
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McDonough & Shaw‟s (1993)
Framework
Context
learners
Educationalsettings
Implementation ofgoals
Syllabus construction
Materials,classroom methods
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Statement of goals – related to the learnersand conditioned by the setting -> leads to
selection of an appropriate type of syllabuscontent & specification.
The broad syllabus outline will in turn havedirect implications for the more detailed
design & selection of materials and tests,the planning of individual lessons, and themanagement of the classroom.
Our focus throughout this course will be
concerned with maximising learningopportunities via providing richcomprehensible input = materials (& alsomethods) .
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Conclusion
Our professional activities aslanguage teachers are not carried outin a vacuum and, in Richards‟
(1985:11) words,
“Planning a successful language
programme involves consideration offactors that go beyond mere contentand presentation of teachingmaterials”.
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Con‟t Although we work in specific situations withspecific groups of learners, according to aspecified set of aims, our work can bedescribed along a number of shared and
generalizable dimensions.These dimensions are:
The characteristics of learners;
The range of factors in the teaching situation
itself;and the syllabus types available to us as aprofession.
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Further reading
Chapters 1 and 2 of Richards, J. C.
(1985): The context of LanguageTeaching. Cambridge: CUP
Chapter 8 of Richards, J. C.
(2001):Curriculum Development inLanguage Teaching. Cambridge:
CUP. p. 252-285
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References
1. Tomlinson, B. (Ed.) (1998). Materials
development in language teaching .Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2. Graves, Kathleen. (2000). Designing Language Courses: A guide for teachers. Boston: Heinle & Heinle. p.149
3. Stern, H. H. (1983). Fundamental
Concepts of Language Teaching . Oxford:Oxford University Press.