REFLECTION

DEVELOPING AND USING RESOURCES FOR THE PRIMARY ESL CLASSROOM

(TSL 3111)
There are four parts of tasks for the TSL 3111, Developing Resources
Coursework Project Assignment. The first part is demonstrating an understanding of
principles of materials selection and adaptation by using suitable graphic organiser(s).
The second task is designing and exploiting teaching and learning materials by planning
and write a lesson and from the lesson, we have to adapt, design and exploit the
teaching and learning materials for the lesson planned. The third task is designing a
checklist to evaluate the teaching and learning materials for the lesson that I have plan
before and the last part is writing a critical reflection.
There are lot of new things and knowledge I have learnt throughout the process of
writing TSL 3111, Developing Resources Coursework Project Assignment. The first task
is requiring us to read four different articles and we need to write graphic organiser(s) to
demonstrate our understanding on the principles of materials selection and adaptation.
Reading the articles have widen my knowledge and enhance my understanding about
the factors in selection and evaluation of teaching resources. However, reading alone
without scribbling and highlighting the important points will not help in improving and
memorizing the ideas we have develop in mind. Thus, the purpose of transferring the
information into a mind map is to help us see the key point of the principles of materials
selection and adaptation. Writing and jotting it down had helped me to perceive and
identify the strengths and weaknesses in developing teaching and learning materials.
Besides that, reading through the articles also helps to open my mind and increase the
awareness of the importance of materials in language instruction. Allwright (1990)
argues that materials should teach students to learn, that they should be resource
books for ideas and activities for instruction and learning, and that they should give
teachers rationales for what they do. Allwright emphasizes that materials control
learning and teaching. Therefore, materials are the centre of instruction and one of the
most important influences on what goes on in the classroom.



The second task is the designing of lesson plan for a 60-minute lesson based on
the KSSR syllabus and we have to adapt, design and exploit the teaching and learning
materials for the lesson planned. Planning and designing a lesson is not a new area of
learning to us as we have been practicing in planning a lesson for these five semester
already. This task has help to improve my way in designing lesson plan that meets with
the requirement needed especially by considering the factors of materials selection and
the students level and abilities in learning English subject. Learning to plan a lesson is
a lifelong process. It is an art that is truly mastered only after years of practice (ELT
Methodology: Principles and Practice, Page 25). The process of designing and creating
the teaching materials is one of the best parts in this second task. Materials that I used,
for example, big book, strip of cartoons, visual aids and interactive quiz by using Power
Point presentation gives so much positive impact on the students perception towards
learning the topic and it gives so much fun and enjoyment atmosphere in the classroom.
I understand that teaching materials will help the teachers to present the lesson
effectively and in an interesting manner. With these learning materials as learning aids,
pupils are able to carry on their learning activities. Thus, it is very crucial to select the
best and appropriate learning materials for the primary students. For example by
considering all the factors and principle of materials selection and adaptation so that the
teachers can help to improve and strengthen the overall development of the pupils
potentials, especially development of cognitive, physical, emotional and social aspects
(Educational Psychology & Pedagogy: Learner and Learning Environment, Page 133
and 134).
The third task is designing a checklist to evaluate the teaching and learning
materials. Preparing the checklist is a new scope for me to learn. It is quite hard
because I have to really understand the lesson plan and relate it with the factors in
selection and evaluation of teaching materials. There are seven factors that I consider in
my checklist, and there are levels, content, clarity, accessibility, versatility, cost
effectiveness and impact. These factors gave me an overview of the materials that I
have chosen for the lesson. In the process of doing the checklist, I keep on asking
questions to myself about the seven factors and try to relate the factors with the lesson
that I have design. Through this process, I realized that materials are not the main
things that we have to consider, but the learners themselves. Since the end of 1970s,
there has been a movement to make learners rather than teachers the centre of
language learning. According to this approach to teaching, learners are more important
than teachers, materials, teaching methods and evaluation. As a matter of fact,
curriculum, materials, teaching methods, and evaluation should all be designed for
learners and their needs. In other words, learners should be the centre of instruction
and learning. Thus, I understand that it is the teachers responsibility to check to see
whether all of the elements of the learning process are working well for learners and to
adapt them if they are not.
To put it into a nutshell, I would say that this TSL 3111 Coursework Project
Assignment have taught me a lot about teaching and learning materials. Instruction
alone would not be enough in the teaching and learning process. It would need
materials to improve pupils understanding and attract their attention. Besides that, I also
learnt that learners is the first priority when planning a lesson and I need to bear in mind
that although materials helps to simplify the wider teaching context, but as a future
teacher to be I cannot rely heavily on them as materials cannot control the instruction.
Another important knowledge that I have learnt is that, whenever we want to choose
materials, it must be appropriate for a particular class and it need to have an underlying
instructional philosophy, approach, method and technique, which suit the students and
their needs.









Principles in Material Adaptation
o Relate your teaching materials to your objectives and aims.
o Make sure that you know what language is for. You should choose a material that
your students can use effectively for their own purposes.
o Keep your learners needs in mind.
o Pay attention to the relationship between language, learning process and the
learner .
Key Learner Variables
o Personality
o Motivation
o Attitude
o Aptitude
o Preferred Learning Styles
o Intelligence

o Personality: Personality affects the materials that we want to design. Learners
might be introverted or extroverted. The material that we design should encourage
even a shy student in the classroom .
o Motivation: Highly motivated students learn faster and better. As teachers, we
should design activities that motivate our students .

o Attitude: Learners have some attitudes to learning. They can learn something in
different ways. The most important point is that we should satisfy our students
needs by combining our experiences and their needs.
o Aptitude: Some people seem more readily than others to learn another language.

o Preferred Language Styles: Some students might be more comfortable in a spoken
language whereas others are more comfortable in written material.
o Intelligence: It has also an effect in learning a foreign or second language.
Contextual Factors
o When planning and determining your goals, consider the learners:
o Age
o Interests
o Aptitude
o Mother Tongue
o Motivation
o Reasons for learning
o Personality
o Academic and educational level.

o Factors that affect course planning, syllabus design, selection of materials and
sources :
o The role of English in the country
o The role of English in the school
o Resources available
o Time available
o Physical environment
o The number of pupils
o Management and administration


















Lecture 8: Materials Adaptation

1. Why do we need to adapt materials

Despite the great effort that textbook writers make to meet the needs of the intended users, textbooks
are subject to adaptation when they are actually used in the classroom. After all, most commercial
textbooks are not written for any particular class. What makes the matter worse is that sometimes the
teachers are compelled to use certain materials, that is, materials imposed by authorities. In a word, in
most ELT cases, teachers have to adapt the materials they are using if they want their teaching to be
more effective and more interesting.

Materials adaptation should be based on the results of materials evaluation. Of course different
materials have different potential areas for adaptation. The following are some common deficiencies of
existing ELT materials:

fail (unable) to fulfil the goals and objectives specified by national or local syllabuses or curricula
fail to fulfil the goals and objectives of schools where the materials are used
cannot be finished in the time available
require facilities or equipment or other supporting materials that are not available
not engaging the learners personality
detrimental to the learners culture
not cater for the learners interests

McDonough and Shaw (1993:86) have listed more reasons for materials adaptation. The most important
reason is that there is mismatch between what is needed and what is provided by materials.




2. Principles of materials adaptation

Grant (1987) has listed the following principles for materials adaptation:

1) Making dialogues communicative
2) Making learning activities relevant and purposeful
3) Meet your learners needs, both external and psychological
4) Use models of real, authentic language

Very often, adaptation involves supplementation, that is, teachers add materials from other resources to the
textbook they are using. It is believed that authentic materials are better than non-authentic materials for
supplementation. So teachers who make a point of collecting authentic materials find it much easier to adapt
textbooks. This is especially true in ELT contexts where authentic English materials are not always readily to
hand.

DONTS in materials adaptation:

1) Teachers should not adapt materials too casually, e.g. based on his or her own preferences or tastes;
2) Materials adaptation should not be done at the expense of completeness and overall framework of the
materials.
3) Materials deleted or added should not go beyond a reasonable proportion, otherwise consider alternative
materials.
4) Teachers should not adapt materials only to cater for the needs of exams or tests.

3. Level of materials adaptation

Textbook adaptation can be done at three levels:

1) Macro adaptation

This is ideally done before the language programme begins. After comparing what is covered in a textbook and
what is required by the syllabus or examination, the teacher may find that certain areas or even whole units of
the book can be omitted, and certain contents need to be supplemented. Macro adaptation is very important
because it helps to avoid waste of time and energy of the teacher and the students as well. It also helps the
teacher to see in advance what he or she needs to supplement so that he or she can keep an eye on materials
that could be used.

2) Adapting a unit

This could be reordering the activities, combining activities, omitting activities, rewriting or supplementing
exercise material, etc. Unit adaptation helps to make the classroom teaching more smooth and cohesive. It also
helps the teacher to better fulfil the aims of a unit.

3) Adaptation of specific activities

Occasionally an activity is regarded as valuable, but it is not well-designed or it is not feasible in a particular
class. If the teacher does not want to give up the activity, he or she needs to adapt it.

4. Specific adaptation

Maley (1998:281, in Tomlinson, 1998) suggested the following options for materials adaptation:

Omission: the teacher leaves out things deemed inappropriate, offensive, unproductive, etc., for
the particular group.
Addition: where there seems to be inadequate coverage, teachers may decide to add to textbooks,
either in the form of texts or exercise material.
Reduction: where the teacher shortens an activity to give it less weight or emphasis.
Extension: where an activity is lengthened in order to give it an additional dimension. (for example,
a vocabulary activity is extended to draw attention to some syntactic patterning.)
Rewriting/modification: teacher may occasionally decide to rewrite material, especially exercise
material, to make it more appropriate, more communicative, more demanding, more accessible
to their students, etc.
Replacement: text or exercise material which is considered inadequate, for whatever reason, may
be replaced by more suitable material. This is often culled from other resource materials.
Re-ordering: teachers may decide that the order in which the textbooks are presented is not
suitable for their students. They can then decide to plot a different course through the textbooks
from the one the writer has laid down.
Branching: teachers may decide to add options to the existing activity or to suggest alternative
pathways through the activities. (for example, an experiential route or an analytical route.)













TSL Education Announces Acquisition by
TPG
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LONDON, July 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
TSL Education, the global digital education business is pleased to announce that it has entered
into a definitive agreement to be acquired by TPG Capital LLP from Charterhouse Capital
Partners for an undisclosed sum. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2013.
The investment by TPG will enable the company to grow its considerable presence in the
education sector and accelerate its online and off-line growth plans.
Louise Rogers CEO of TSL Education, said, "We are extremely excited to enter the next phase
of our growth strategy with TPG and I am very proud of the whole team at TSL who have helped
to transform our company into a Global Digital Education Business. TPG shares our vision to
help drive up standards of education by putting TSL platforms into the hands of every teacher in
the world. We are fortunate to have found a global partner who has extensive experience in
digital and an impressive track record of growing similar businesses."
Karl Peterson, Managing Partner for TPG Capital LLP, said, "TSL is well known for its
longstanding and vital role in the UK education sector. Over the past several years Louise and
her team have done an outstanding job in transitioning the business to become the leading site for
teachers both online and in print while gaining a sizeable and growing audience across the globe.
TPG's global presence and extensive online experience fit well with the Company's ambitions
and we anticipate accelerating growth through further investments in TSL's digital capabilities."
TSL's flagship platform TES Connect http://www.tesconnect.com is home to more than 620,000
teaching resources and connects a community of 52 million teachers and students across the
globe. TES Connect is now the largest single-professional network in the world and up to 8
lesson plans are downloaded every second by teachers in 197 countries.



About TSL Education
TSL, headquartered in London and with offices in Washington DC, New Delhi and Sydney,
exists to drive up standards of education by putting the right teachers in the right jobs and giving
them the tools to be the very best that they can be. Teachers around the world are the single most
important influence on a child's education and they need to access the very best content and
resources to inspire their students. By pooling the vast knowledge, experience and creativity of
teachers, and by giving them the ability to review and share the very best lesson content, TSL
believes that the education system can be transformed for the better."
http://www.tsleducation.com
About TPG
TPG is a leading global private investment firm founded in 1992 with $56.7 billion of assets
under management and offices in San Francisco, Fort Worth, Austin, Beijing, Chongqing, Hong
Kong, London, Luxembourg, Melbourne, Moscow, Mumbai, New York, Paris, So Paulo,
Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. TPG has extensive experience with global public and private
investments executed through leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts, growth investments,
joint ventures and restructurings.
The firm seeks to invest in world-class franchises across a range of industries. Past and present
Internet and media related investments include starting Hotwire.com (where Karl Peterson
served as President/CEO), RentPath, SurveyMonkey, adknowledge, CAA, MicroGame and Saxo
Bank. For more information please visit http://www.tpg.com