Materials: a challenging worldDr. Claudio Díaz

James Dean Brown “The elements of language curriculum” (1995)

Heinle & Heinle

Ronald Carter & David Nunan. “The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages”

(2001)

Cambridge

What are materials?

• “Any systematic description of the techniques and exercises to be used in

classroom teaching.”

• Anything that can be used to facilitate the learning of a language”

• Linguistic, visual, auditory or kinesthetic

Types of materials

• Instructional: inform learners about the language.

• Experiential: provide exposure to the language in use.

• Elicitative: stimulate language use.

• Exploratory: seek discoveries about language use.

Unresolved issues in materials development

• Materials should be driven by theory or by practice.

• Be driven by syllabus needs, learner needs or market needs.

• Cater for teacher needs and wants as well as those of learners.

• Aim for language development only or should also aim for personal and educational development.

• Aim to contribute to teacher development as well as language learning.

Adopting

• Materials:

• come in many forms.

• are based on many different approaches.

• are organized around a number of syllabuses

• Are presented on a number of media and take many physical forms…. • Books, workbooks, journals, maps, realia, video

tapes, teachers’ books, magazines, pictures, charts/graphs/diagrams, cassete tapes,computer

software, video tapes.

Adopting, Developing and Adapting

Sources of information about materials

• Publishers’ catalogs (desk copies/examination copies

• Books received

• Teachers’ shelves

Evaluating material

• Stevick (1971)…

• 3 qualities: (strength, lightness, transparency as opposed to weakness, heaviness, opacity)

• 3 dimensions: linguistic, social, topical

• 4 components: occasions for use, sample of language use, lexical exploration, exploration of structural relationships

Developing materials…

Steps for adapting materials

The Materials Development Association

• http://www.matsda.org.uk/