MATERIALS DESIGNED FOR

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

A Critical Evaluation
Magdalena Bobek
Introduction
A coursebook is definitely 'a convenient aid' in the language classroom, providing, 'a structure
for teaching' and something teachers can rely on for 'linguistic, cultural and methodological
support' (McGrath 2002:10-11). However, even though 'carefully designed', a single
coursebook can never completely meet the needs of a specific class of learners, but will often
necessitate the integration of additional material to 'bridge the gap' between what the
coursebook offers and what the teacher knows the learners still need, be it more practice of a
particular grammatical structure, exposure to more 'textual material', use of 'differentiated
material' for different levels of proficiency, or more use of activities for affective purposes
and motivation (ibid:80-81).

The set of materials that I have designed aims to show how

coursebook material can be supplemented to meet the learners' needs and enable them to
practise grammar with content they can identify with and enjoy.

My Teaching Concept and Working Environment

As a language practitioner I have always tried to hold my ground against coursebook

dependency, because I believe it marginalizes the teacher's role 'to that of little more than a
technician' to use Richards' words (1998:132). I have always favoured using a combination of
different techniques and materials in my teaching either for reinforcement or for motivation
purposes of content that has proven to be laborious or uninteresting for learners. Linking
language content to the learners' life experiences and making pedagogy 'context-sensitive',
location-specific [and] based on a true understanding of local linguistic, social, cultural, and
political particularities (Kumaravadivelu 2006:69), has not only proven to have a positive
influence on learners of all ages, but also complies with Prabhu's view of the teacher as being
'a reflective practitioner whose sense of plausibility' or 'pedagogic intuition', 'with regard to
classroom practice is constantly being reviewed and refined in the light of theory and practical
experience' (Gray 2009:74). Like the teachers mentioned in 'Torres' study of the use of an

ESP coursebook', I find myself 'adapting or changing textbook-based texts, adding new texts
or deleting some, changing the management of the tasks, changing task inputs' as well as
'expected outputs' (Hutchinson and Torres 1994:325 in Gray 2000:275), and sometimes even
reshaping the planned lesson while teaching it. It is my firm belief that besides being receivers
of knowledge, learners should have the opportunity 'to respond to or challenge the
information they receive from the perspective of their own culture' (ibid:280) as well as from
their own point of view as individuals. This is something I strive to incorporate in my
teaching as much as possible.

The main aim of education at the primary, lower secondary school level in which I teach is for
learners to receive general knowledge of the various subject areas offered in the curriculum,
including English. The national or school-leaving exams that learners sit in at the end of their
final year, play a key role in getting accepted into the secondary schools of their choice,
especially into those with limited enrolement. It is worth mentioning that besides Mathematics
and the learners' mother tongue (L1), these examinations also test knowledge of the first
foreign language (L2), which in the majority of schools in the country is English. Those
pupils who excel in L2 have additional opportunities in which to make good use of their
knowledge of English, such as taking part in the annual national English competition, where
they can acquire extra credits for secondary school enrolement, or participate in external
examinations such as the Cambridge ESOL examinations for young learners. Besides the
prescribed coursebooks, most of our teachers have opted for ICT as a convenient tool to use in
their teaching, so that each classroom is equipped with a computer and if needed, lessons can
also be held in the school computer room.

Class and Material Choice

Of all the classes I teach I find my sixth graders, a group of twenty twelve-year-old pupils, to
be the most lively and yet the most inquisitive. Most of them are into their fourth year of
English. Quite a few excel in L2 and three pupils are fluent L2 speakers. There are also a few
slower learners in the group and two who need extra help in all activities. The atmosphere in
the class is very positive as they seem to get along very well with one another and help each
other out whenever necessary. The main aim for learning English at this stage of their second
language acquisition (SLA) is to obtain a good level of knowledge of the language, which is a
prerequisite for successfully completing their scholastic year and continuing at the next level.

The prescribed coursebook, Messages 1 by Diana and Noel Goodey (2005), is quite
interesting to follow, and as well as being attractive to the eye, offers more than adequate
learning material. A lot of the reading material is, however, culture bound with excessive
reference to the British, American and Australian cultures. Because the learners cannot
always identify with its contents, quite often an additional explanation of a cultural or
linguistic particularity within the reading is required before they are able to further analyse it
grammatically or use it for other purposes. When the reading involves a theme that is of
particular interest to the learners, I will often supplement it with additional material from
other sources and try to bring it as close as possible to their own life experiences. Having
done that it can then serve other purposes more easily such as for grammar review or
extended reading, writing and speaking practice.

One such example can be found in Unit 6 of Messages 1 (2005:58), entitled I'm usually late,
which begins by introducing the learners to a few wild animals and some of their habits. The
text and pictures serve to introduce the meaning and use of the frequency adverbs, always,
usually, often, sometimes and never, as well as their position in the sentence. In my opinion,
however, the above-mentioned frequency adverbs are not dealt with adequately enough at this
introductory stage in the coursebook. The set of materials that I designed, [see lesson plan in
Appendix 1], aim to supplement the coursebook material and help reinforce the learners'
knowledge of the adverbs in more depth. I elaborated on the theme of animals from the
coursebook, because most children at this age have all sorts of pets at home, adore animals
and can easily identify with the subject matter, making the grammar easier to review.

Material Analysis and Commentary

The pupils were divided into five mixed ability groups with four pupils in each group, in
which each member had a significant role to play in reaching the final goal. Even though
some practitioners, among them Penny Ur, do not consider group work to be good enough for
language development, arguing that it does not put enough emphasis on fluency and accuracy
(Balancing fluency and accuracy, date not given), I found that the group tasks created a good
learning atmosphere, as they triggererd interaction among the learners, and 'encourage[d]
socialisation and teamwork', made learning possible through observation, and provided
practice in 'transferrable skills', such as 'collecting and classifying information, reasoning,
critical thinking' and 'creativity', which McGrath (2002:205-206) points out are important

factors within the learning process. Slower learners felt less intimidated, overcame their
shyness, participated better and were able to adopt certain things much faster just by listening
to their peers than they would being taught using only the traditional frontal approach. The
instructions, which were explained and written on the board at the beginning of the lesson in
L1, made it easier for all the pupils to understand what was expected of them. Had I used L2,
there would always be a few pupils left in the dark, who would need an additional 'mother
tongue explanation by a peer who [] understood', which Atkinson (1987:243) rightly points
out, may often be better than 'the clearest inductive presentation by the teacher'. The use of
L1 undoubtedly saved time. I welcome the use of L1 in the classroom, because as 'a potential
resourse' (Auerbach 1993:21) it helps overcome 'problems of vocabulary, sentence structure
and language confidence' (Shamash 1990:72 in ibid:19) and, therefore lessens the feeling of
intimidation that slower learners go through far too often in their SLA. Each activity carried
out by the groups had a time limit, so as not to over-extend the tasks and make them boring.
Once the instructions were clarified, my role as teacher changed to that of monitor/advisor
and the power of decision-making was carried over to the pupils in the groups.

Each group was given an envelope which contained the picture puzzle of an animal that they
had to put together as well as additional information for the group tasks. This led to a lot of
interaction mainly in L1 with frequent remarks in L2, which is something to be expected at
this level. Two pupils from each group, preferably those with a good knowledge of English,
had to search the Internet to find at least three facts about their animal's habits that were
always, usually, often, sometimes or never true. Learners at this age know how to operate
computers very well, but are still inexperienced at searching for information (McGrath
2002:126). They may waste precious time looking at irrelevant material, get 'lost or
distracted', and with the limited time available, their work may not be good (ibid). It is,
therefore, always a wise choice for the teacher to prepare Internet material in advance and
monitor the learners at the computers. Pupils were advised to go to the Google Search Engine
and type in questions about their animal using the frequency adverbs. Examples referring to
the anteater include: What do anteaters usually do?; What do anteaters never do?; What do
anteaters always eat?; Where do anteaters usually sleep? [see Appendix 2]. Webpage
addresses were also prepared for each animal [see anteater example in Appendix 3], which
saved time and enabled the pupils to search more easily. I emphasized writing short, to-thepoint sentences and to avoid getting tangled up in long complex explanations. It was then left
up to the pupils to decide what was or was not relevant information. Even though some

learners needed more guidance in using the Internet than others, it gave them more freedom in
deciding what to write and more responsibility in getting the work done. In short they became
'more autonomous' (ibid:132). The pupils copied as much information from the computer as
they could find in the allotted time, and took it back to the group, where the other two
members were busily pasting the puzzle pieces of their animal together and searching for
more pictures from the Internet and other sources. The speed at which the groups worked
varied, depending on the animal they had to work with and their computer and L2 skills.
Nonetheless, by the end of the first lesson all the pupils had found something about their
animal and were ready to discuss it in their groups.

During the second lesson the pupils were busy in their groups discussing and deciding on the
best and most relevant Internet information about their animal, paying particular attention to
the use and position of the frequency adverbs. The discussions in the groups were carried out
in both L1 and L2. There was a lot of debate and peer explanations regarding the information
obtained. Some pupils even made use of the coursebook and their own notes to check if the
frequency adverbs were being used correctly. When things came to a standstill, some pupils
asked for my assistance. Once the members in each group came to an agreement as to the
information they wanted to present, a third pupil from the group copied or typed it out, and it
was shown to me for final approval before being added to their picture puzzle [see Appendix
4]. The information and picture puzzles of all the animals were then put on a big poster,
forming the overall class project. Finally, a representative from each group presented their
animal by reading the information out loud to the rest of the class. Had there been enough
time, we could have taken this activity a step further for reinforcement purposes and played
the Guess the animal game, where the pupils would try to guess the name of the animal by
listening to hints given by the teacher based on the material collected in the groups. I left the
game for another day.

At the end of the second lesson everything began to focus on the learners and their life
experiences with animals. I monitored their comments by asking them questions such as:
Where does your dog always eat? or When do you usually clean your budgie's cage?, so as to
keep to the grammar point that was being reinforced, and get them to properly formulate as
many examples as possible using the frequency adverbs. This then led to their homework
assignment, which involved writing five sentences about their favourite animal and/or pet, in

which they had to include as many of the frequency adverbs as possible, such as: what it
never eats, where it always sleeps, what it usually plays with, and so on.

On the whole our goals had been met. The learners reinforced their knowledge of the
frequency adverbs, learned new facts about less-known animals around the world,
subsequently concentrated on their own experiences with animals, and had fun in the process.

Overall Evaluation

Perhaps there is some truth in Swan's claim that ' for the most part of the world's language
learners' the task-based approach might prove 'less effective for the systematic teaching of
new language' especially in cases 'where time is limited and out-of-class exposure
unavailable' (2005:376). However, it works very well for reinforcement purposes as the above
activities have shown. The pupils not only reviewed the grammar as such, but they did it by
being 'engage[d] in a language activity', and 'using [the] language pragmatically' (Ellis
2003:9-10). They also used the cognitive processes mentioned by Ellis, that of 'selecting,
classifying, ordering, reasoning, and evaluating information' (ibid:10) to get the task done. It
was not just a matter of learning a grammatical structure and supplying the right answers in a
given exercise from the coursebook. They were actually putting their knowledge of frequency
adverbs to real use by searching for new information by themselves, debating and discussing
it and finally coming to an agreement as to its relevancy. The activities were learner-centered
with the teacher stepping down and giving them freedom of choice. Of course, they all needed
some sort of guidance from time to time, even if it only meant answering yes or no to a simple
question. But this pushed them forward and urged them to get the work done. It also got all
the learners in the groups involved on an equal level. Perhaps there was less of L2 being used
in the discussions themselves, but that cannot be evaded at this level of SLA. What was
important was achieving content relevancy and lingustic correctness of the final result to
which they all contributed each in their own way searching for information, reading to the
group, listening to the facts being read, choosing the best information, copying it on paper,
and reading it to the rest of the class. They all gained something positive from the activities,
and judging by their remarks during and after the lessons, the vast majority of the pupils
enjoyed the different approach. There were also no disciplinary problems, because even the
slower learners wanted to be involved in this challenging task.

Conclusion

As a practitioner I firmly believe that learning a language is 'a jointly constructed and socially
motivated process, contingent on the concerns, interests, desires, and needs of the user', and
that my role as teacher is among other things 'to manage and facilitate the social processes out
of which and for which language develops' (Thornbury and Meddings 2001:11). I will not
deny using the coursebook in my teaching, however, not to the extent that it dictates how I
teach or which learning element I give priority to in a particular unit. Using a variety of
approaches and allowing learners to interact with one another, where they can make use of
what they have learned, through activities that 'encourage learner initiation and creativity' and
allow 'the possibility of peer feedback' (McGrath 2001:209), adds to the vitality needed in
successful SLA, where the learners are not only receivers of knowledge, but also decisionmakers.

APPENDIX:

1.

Lesson Plan

I have designed a follow-up activity whose main aim is to reinforce the use of the frequency
adverbs, always, usually, often, sometimes and never, and their position in the sentence while
at the same time allowing learners to discover new facts about yet other less known animals in
their country and the world.
Pre-activities:
-

pupils give a quick oral review of the frequency adverbs and their meanings

they listen to the follow-up activity instructions

Activity:
Step 1:
-

divide the class into groups of four/five (There can be fewer learners in each group
depending on how big the class is)

each group is given an envelope in which there is a picture puzzle and name of an
unknown animal

the pupils' first task in the group is to put the picture puzzle together to see which
animal they have to work with

Step2:
-

two pupils from each group go to a computer (Google Search Engine) and type in the
name of the animal from the envelope. Eg: anteater, or the webpages and/or questions
about the animal suggested by the teacher

they search the Internet to find new facts about the animal and try using the frequency
adverbs that are being reviewed (ie. what it never eats; how it usually looks for food;
where it always sleeps; and so on)

the pupils write as much information as they can in the allotted time and return to their
groups

other pupils in the group put the animal puzzle together and look for more pictures
from the Internet and other sources

Step 3:
-

the newly acquired information is read to the other members of the group and
discussed

there may be a pupil in the group who knows something more about the animal

this additional information (if any), is also added

any disagreements regarding the information are discussed with the help of the teacher

a pupil from the group writes or types the sentences about the animal on an A4 paper
and shows the teacher for approval

this is then added to the picture puzzle

Step 4:
-

all this information is then put on a big poster along with the information of the
animals from the other groups to form the overall class project.

a pupil from each group reads the information of their animal to the rest of the class

Post activities:
exchanging information a guessing game
writing a similar presentation of your favourite animal

2. Google: what do anteaters usually do?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ei=E_r1SYuANYv3_Aay7jLCQ&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=1&ct=result&cd=1&q=what+do+anteaters+usually+do&s
pell=1

3. Webpage addresses of each animal were prepared for the groups to look at, such as:
(Web Links): http://www.maiaw.com/anteater/links.html
(Giant Anteater): http://www.thebigzoo.com/Animals/Giant_Anteater.asp
4. End product of pupils' group work. The Anteater.

Picture of anteater taken from:

http://www.chatanplay.com/arcade/attachments/kids-area/185d1217800634-forum-gamekids-anteater1.jpg

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