TSL3107 TEACHING WRITING SKILLS IN THE PRIMARY ESL CLASSROOM

LESSON 7:
SELECTION AND ADAPTATION OF MATERIALS AND ACTIVITIES

Mohd Iskandar Daud IPG Kampus Kota Bharu

Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Content
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Evaluation of Material and Task Factors to consider in material selection Principles of Adaptation

Principles of material design

Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Evaluation of Material and Task

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Oh, this is a good textbook

or Well, I dont think my students will like this book What do these statements have in common? Evaluating materials (textbooks) What is the basis of these evaluations?

Ad hoc / impression / intuition / classroom experience? Systematic evaluation?

Normally we evaluate before we select materials

Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Systematic material evaluation

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An ideal systematic textbook evaluation would be a

longitudinal one

pre-use evaluation whilst-use evaluation post-use evaluation

The core of systematic material evaluation is to examine how

well a given material matches the needs of a language programme and how effectively and efficiently it can realise the objectives of the programme. Therefore needs analysis has to be done prior to textbook evaluation How can we evaluate suitability of materials?

When they fulfill features of good materials

Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Evaluating materials based on good features of the materials

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Adapted from Tomlinson (1998): 1. Good materials should attract the students curiosity,

interest and attention - materials should have novelty, variety, attractive layout, appealing content, etc 2. Materials should help students to feel at ease - layout of presentation, tasks and activities and texts and illustrations should all look friendly 3. Materials should help students to develop confidence provide tasks or activities that students can cope with. 4. Materials should meet students needs covers what is relevant and useful to what the students need to learn and what they want to learn.
Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Evaluating materials based on good features of the materials

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5. Materials should expose the students to language in

authentic use - authentic language are more motivating and challenging 6. Materials should provide the students with opportunities to use the target language for communicative purposes 7. Materials should take into account that the positive effects of language teaching are usually delayed - important for materials (textbooks) to recycle instruction and to provide frequent and ample exposure to the instructed language features in communicative use. 8. Materials s should take into account that students differ in learning styles - provide a variety of tasks and activities to cater for all students
Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Evaluating materials based on good features of the materials

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9. Materials should take into account that students differ in

affective factors - accommodate different attitudinal and motivational background as much as possible 10. Materials should maximise learning potential by encouraging intellectual, aesthetic and emotional involvement which stimulates both right and left brain activities - good Materials enable the students to receive, process and retain information through multiple intelligences.

Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Evaluating materials based on good features of the materials

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If we rigorously applied the criteria outlined above to the

evaluation of materials around us, we could hardly find any satisfactory books almost impossible to find materials that can fulfill all criteria Creating own materials could be one solution Teachers homegrown materials may be more finely tuned to the local classroom needs with valid methodological awareness BUT the colourful or glossy appearance of commercial textbooks may be more eye-catching and may even seem to the students to have more face validity.
Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Materials for writing

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What kinds of materials can be used for writing

activities? 1. Visual-based materials

Pictures Clips / videos / films

2. Reading-based materials Reading texts 3. Auditory based materials Listening texts 4. Combination of materials Visual auditory (clips, etc) / Pictures with texts (cartoon, etc)
Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

General factors to consider when selecting materials

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Based on lesson 6: 1. Proficiency level 2. Maturity level

3. Opportunities for exploitation

4. The activities planned 5. Materials that learners can relate to 6. Avoid controversial materials : Violent, Sexually offensive, Politically biased, Racial undertones, Against the norm of the culture, etc
(Mohd Iskandar Daud)
Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Other factors to consider in material selection

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Ivannia Jimnez Arias (Universidad Nacional. Costa Rica,

2007) the article is about reading but can also be used for selection of other skills Divided into 2:

Student related
Students level Students interest Students needs Students background knowledge

Text/material related
Content - suitability Relevance to the task Authenticity to create meaningful learning

Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Other factors to consider in material selection

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http://www.ehow.com, 4.8.2012: 1. Student's Age Attention span (children vs adults) match the material to the interests of students 2. Student's English Level Beginners vs advanced learners (easier vs more difficult) 3. Class Size

Personalized materials vs general viewing (small size vs big)

Strong vs weak points, visual vs auditory Specific materials for specific purpose of learning

4. Individual Learning Style

5. Specific Purpose

Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Other factors to consider in material selection

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6. Budget material cost ranges from highly inexpensive to a major financial investment From simple exercise books to hi-tech gadgetry Affect budget of the school 7. Teacher Preference Depends on personal preference
Expertise in certain types of materials eg: ICT Availability of materials in stock Teacher intention what the teacher plans to do

Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Adaptation of materials
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Despite the great effort, most commercial materials are not

written for any particular class - therefore materials are subject to adaptation when they are actually used in the classroom

Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Reasons for material adaptation

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1. The 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 are not engaging the learners personality are detrimental to the learners culture do not cater for the learners interests
Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Reasons for material adaptation

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2. When the teachers want to:

add more into them delete or omit

Subtracting: Reducing the length of material Abridged: Omitting some part of the material Substituted: Materials may be taken out and substituted Re-writing: eg: when some of the linguistic content needs modification

Modify by doing internal change

Simplify

instruction, choice of words, level of activity, etc

Putting the parts of a course book in a different order.

Re-order

Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Reasons for material adaptation

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3. McDonough and Shaw (1993)

The most important reason is that there is mismatch between what is needed and what is provided by materials

Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Principles for material adaptation

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Adapted from Grant (1987): 1) Making activities communicative

2) Making learning activities relevant and purposeful

3) Meet your learners needs, both external and

psychological 4) Use models of real, authentic language

More principles of adaptation
Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Adapting materials
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Can be done at 3 levels: 1. Macro adaptation

Ideally done before the language programme begins. Compare what is covered in a textbook and what is required by the syllabus or examination, then may be we find certain areas or even whole units of the book can be omitted, and certain contents need to be supplemented. 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

Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Adapting materials
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2. Unit adaptation

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. I t also helps the teacher to better fulfil the aims of a unit. Certain activities may be good but not well designed These activities can be adapted through supplementation of materials, etc
Authentic materials are better than non-authentic materials for supplementation

3. Activity adaptation

Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

How to adapt materials

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1. Omission

the teacher leaves out things deemed inappropriate, offensive, unproductive, etc., for the particular group where there seems to be inadequate coverage, teachers may decide to add to materials, either in the form of texts or exercise material. where the teacher shortens an activity to give it less weight or emphasis

2. Addition

3. Reduction

Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

How to adapt materials

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4. 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.) 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.

5. Rewriting/modification

Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

How to adapt materials

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6. Replacement

text or exercise material which is considered inadequate, for whatever reason, may be replaced by more suitable material teachers may decide that the order in which the materials 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 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.)

7. Re-ordering

8. Branching

Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7

Principles of material design

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a. Materials

should be clearly linked to the curriculum they

serve. b. Materials should be authentic in terms of text and task c. Materials should stimulate interaction d. Materials should encourage learners to focus on formal aspects of the language e. Materials should encourage learners to develop skills, and skills in learning f. Materials should encourage learners to apply their developing skills to the world beyond the classroom Nunan (1988) in Tomlinson (2003)

Mohd Iskandar TSL3107 lesson 7