TASK 1: SOURCING AND PRESENTING

INFORMATION

PRINCIPLES OF MATERIALS SELECTION AND ADAPTATION

SOURCE 1: BOOK

BOOK TITLE TSL 3111 Developing and Using Resources for the primary ESL classroom.

AUTHORS Ruth Wickham

PUBLISHER Brighton Education

PRINCIPLES OF

MATERIAL ADAPTATI

ON

Personalizing

Individualizing

Localizing

Modernizing

Catering for all

learner styles

Providing for

learner autonom

y

Making the

language input more

engaging

Personalizing

• Increase the relevance of content in relation to learners’ interest, and their academic, educational or professional needs.

• Example: Teacher inserts elements of visuals to attract the pupils’ interests.

Individualizing

• Address the learning styles of both individuals and the members of a class working closely together.

• Example: Teacher adapts the reading text into a listening text for groups with auditory learning style.

Localizing

• Takes into account the international geography of English Language teaching.

• Example: Teacher changes names and culture in the material into something that are familiar to the pupils such as Ali and nasi lemak instead of Marvin and French toast.

Modernizing

• Updating the materials as not all materials show familiarity with aspects of current English usage. It can be outdated, misleading, and incorrect.

Catering for all

learner styles

• Match the teaching style with the pupils’ learning styles. pupils learn better and more quickly if the teaching methods used match their preferred learning styles.

• Example: kinaesthetic learners learn best when they are personally involved.

Providing for learner autonomy

• Learner autonomy refers to a student's ability to set appropriate learning goals and take charge of his or her own learning. Teacher needs to provide materials that can help in fostering learner autonomy.

• Example: involving pupils in creating the materials.

Making the

language

input more

engaging

•Making the materials more accessible and comprehensible to the learners.

•Example: Reduce the complexity of the materials by using easier vocabulary, or slower pace, and simpler sentences.

SOURCE 2: BOOK

BOOK TITLE MATERIALS AND METHOD IN ELT: A TEACHER’S GUIDE (THIRD EDITION)

DERIVED FROM

http://books.google.com.my/books

AUTHORS Jo McDonough, Christopher Shaw, & Hitomi Masuhara

YEAR PUBLISHED

2013 by John Wiley & sons, inc.

PRINCIPLES:

CONTEXTUAL

FACTORS

Age

Level of proficien

cy

Aptitude

Mother tongue

Academic and

educational level

Attitudes to

learning

Motivation

Reasons for

learning

Preferred

learning styles

Personality

CONTEXTUAL FACTORS DESCRIPTION

Age The topic chosen and the learning activities are based on the pupils’ age. Teachers need to consider the suitability of the topics and activities with the pupils.

Level of proficiency Teachers need to know the pupils’ level of proficiency in English based on mixed proficiency principle.

Reasons for learning If it can be stated, teachers can come up with analysis of needs of the pupils. This will help in selecting appropriate materials.

Personality Personality affects methodological choices such as acceptance to activities like role play, and an interactive classroom environment, or preference to study alone.

Preferred learning styles Helps in evaluation of the suitability of activities. For example, to evaluate what kind of activities the pupils are used to, whether problem solving activities or rote learning.

Motivation There are many factors affecting motivation in class. It can be either extrinsic or intrinsic motivation. For examples, rewards and encouragement from the teachers and parents.

Aptitude It basically refers to something that learners might show themselves to be good at. Some pupils may be good in speaking while some in writing. This can be measured by formal aptitude test.

Mother tongue This can affect the treatment of errors or the selection of syllabus items such as grammar or vocabulary.

Academic and educational level

Helps in determining intellectual content, breadth of topics, or depth to which material may be studied. Teachers may not go into depth if their pupils are low in academic and educational level as it does not suit the pupils’ level.

Attitudes to learning Refers to the pupils’ attitudes to teachers, to the institution, to the target language itself and to its speakers.

SOURCE 3: ARTICLE FROM THE INTERNET

TITLE Lecture 8: Materials Adaptation

DERIVED FROM

https://www.google.com.my/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web

AUTHORS Unknown

DATE ACCESSED

4th August 2014

PRINCIPLES OF MATERIALS ADAPTATION

Making dialogues communicative

Ex: the dialogue used should be able to be used outside the school. It should be relevant to

the pupils’ lives so that they can apply it in their daily lives.

Making learning activities relevant and purposefulEx: the content and the

execution of the activities are relevant to the pupils’ culture and lives. Hands on activities

can be meaningful to the pupils.

Meet your learners’ needs, both external and

psychologicalEx: fulfills the pupils’ interest, motivate the pupils to learn, and gives them the pleasure

of learning.

Use models of real, authentic languageEx: use audio/video with native speakers

in it.

DON’TS IN MATERIALS ADAPTATION

Do not adapt the materials too casually

• The materials should be adapted based on the learners’ needs and not based on the teacher’s own preference or taste.

Do not adapt at the expense of completeness and overall framework of the materials.

• Do not simply cover all the contents in one material.

Materials deleted or added should not go beyond a reasonable proportion, otherwise consider alternative materials.

• Do not add or delete too many things in the materials.

Teachers should not adapt materials only to cater for the needs of exams or tests

SOURCE 4: JOURNAL ARTICLE

TITLE Principles and Procedures of Materials Development for Language Learning (Part 2)

DERIVED FROM

http://www.matsda.org/Documents/folio_sample_articles/Tomlinson_Part2_14-2_2010.pdf

AUTHORS Brian Tomlinson

DATE ACCESSED

4th August 2014

PRINCIPLES OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT BASED ON LANGUAGE ACQUISITION THEORY

PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

PRINCIPLES OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT INVOLVED

EXAMPLE OF MATERIALS

Second language learners can benefit from using those mental resources which they typically utilise when acquiring and using their first language. Mental resources - Mental

imaging (seeing pictures in their mind), using the inner voice to give our own voice to what we hear and read, to make plans, to make decisions, to solve problems, to evaluate, to understand and ‘control’ our environment.

• Make use of activities which get learners to visualise and/or use inner speech before, during and after experiencing a written or spoken text.

• Make use of activities which get learners to visualise and/or use inner speech before, during and after using language themselves.

• Make use of activities which help the learners to reflect on their mental activity during a task and then to try to make more use of mental strategies in a similar task.

Before asking the pupils to read a poem about a boy’s first day at school, the teacher asks the pupils to visualise their own first day at school and then to talk to themselves about how they felt.

Language learners can benefit from noticing salient features of the input. If a learner notices how a

particular language item or feature is used, they are able to develop their own language awareness, and achieve readiness for acquisition.

• Use an experiential approach in which the learners are first exposed to the language before focusing on the language items or specific features.

• It is more powerful to help them discover the language items and features rather than drawing their attention on that particular items and features.

The pupils read about a student whose parents gave him a graduation party. They then discussed the reasons why the parents gave him the party and the reasons he was reluctant to attend it .Next one half of the class analysed the father’s use of the interrogative and the other half analysed the son’s use of the imperative. They came together in groups to share their discoveries and then they wrote a version of the text in which the mother (rather than the father) tried to persuade the son to attend the party.

Learners need opportunities to use language to try to achieve communicative purposes. If they are participating in

interaction, they are also pushed to clarify and elaborate their points. At the same time, they are producing comprehensible input.

• Provide many opportunities for the learners to produce language.

• Design activities in which the learners are using language rather than just practising specified features of it.

• Activities help learners to develop their ability to communicate fluently, accurately, appropriately and effectively.

• Output activities are fully contextualised in that the learners are responding to an authentic stimulus (e.g. a text, a need, a viewpoint, an event), that they have specific addressees.

• Try to ensure that opportunities for feedback are built into output activities.

Develop a lot of material in which the pupils have to produce a text which is a development from one they have just experienced. Pupils analyse reasons to

live healthily, then they come up with their own advertisement. Pupils then role play to advertise their ideas.