Changing the way you learn

1_State of Art Article

Materials Evaluation
1. Establishing criteria, and developing evaluation instruments
  1. Tucker (1975) proposed a four-component scheme for measuring the internal and external value of beginners’ textbooks
    1. Davison (1976) proposed a ﬁve-category scheme for the evaluation and selection of textbooks
      1. Dauod & Celce-Murcia (1979) provided checklists ofcriteria for evaluating coursebooks
        .Candlin&Breen(1980)proposedcriteriaforevaluating materials and proposed the use of these criteria when developing materials.
        Matthews (1985), for example,insists that any evaluation should start from a speciﬁcation of the teaching situation
        Cunningsworth (1995) stresses the importance of determining criteria relevant to the target learners
Materials Adaptation
1. Good teachers are always adapting the materials they are using to the context in which they are using them in order to achieve the optimal congruence between materials,methodology,learners,objectives,the target language and the teacher’s personality and teaching style.
  1. McGrath (2002) also devotes a chapter to discussing the objectives, principles and procedures of adaptation
    1. He proposes ‘four evaluative processes’ when basing a lesson on a coursebook and goes on to discuss the issues and procedures involved in each process
    2. Teachers may select the material that will be used unchanged, reject either completely or partially sections of the material, add extensions or further exploitation of the existing materials and replace components of the materials.
      1. Islam & Mares (2003) include such objectives as adding real choice,catering for all learner styles, providin for learner autonomy, developing high-level cognitive skills, and making the input both more accessible and more engaging.
        A different approach to adaptation is taken by Saraceni (2003), who advocates providing the learners with an important role in adapting the materials they are using.
Materials Production
1. How writers write
  1. Reports of how writers actually write materials reveal that they rely heavily on retrieval from repertoire, cloning successful publications and spontaneous ‘inspiration’
    1. Although some of them mention influence by principles of language acquisition, replicating previous materials, adapting activity types which had worked for them before and relying upon creative inspiration.
      1. Prowse (1998) report similar approaches and stress the importance of thinking as you write, of how ‘Ideas come to you at any time’
  2. Principled development of materials
    1. writers do describe establishing principles prior to writing
      1. Flores (1995: 58–59), for example, lists five assumptions and principles which drove the writing of a textbook in the Philippines
        Hall (1995: 8) insists that the crucial question we need to ask is ‘How do we think people learn languages?’ and goes on to discuss the principles which he thinks should ‘underpin everything we do in planning and writing our materials’
        Tomlinson proposes fifteen principles for materials development which derive from second language acquisition (SLA) research and from his experience, and a number of other writers outline principled approaches to developing ELT materials in Tomlinson.
    2. Practical guidance to writers
      1. There are very few publications offering practical guidance to materials writers on how to develop effective materials.
        Tomlinson (2003b, 2003c) proposes a flexible text-driven framework for developing materials and puts forward ways of ensuring that materials are humanistic
        Tomlinson & Masuhara (2004) provide practical advice on developing materials, writing instructions, using illustrations and layout and design.
Materials Explanation
1. Tomlinson (2003d) proposes classroom procedures to help teachers to humanise their coursebooks.
  1. There is some literature reporting how teachers use their textbooks as resources rather than as scripts
  2. Richards & Mahoney (1996) use questionnaires and observation to find out how teachers in Hong Kong make resourceful use of their textbooks.
    1. Gray (2000) reports how teachers censor or adapt aspects of cultural content in ELT reading materials
      1. how they use their coursebook depends both on their experience and their view of the coursebook’s value in their teaching context.
Issues in Materials Development
1. The value of Textbooks
  1. The need for published materials
    1. Pedagogic approaches
      1. Authenticity of texts and tasks
        Acceptability
        Humanising materials
        Ideology in materials
        The roles of new technologies in language-learning materials
        Materials facilitate learning depends on ‘how the technology is implemented’
        The role of English language teaching in a globalisation process which they see as promoting western, capitalist, materialistic values.
        Coursebooks most likely to achieve more than coverage of teaching points are those that take a humanistic approach to language learning and help the learners to localise, to personalise and to achieve confidence and self-esteem
        Materials developers have to make use of controversial topics and texts that would be acceptable in their cultures and would have the potential for stimulating affective engagement.
        Authentic text is one which is produced in order to communicate rather than to teach, and an authentic task is one which involves the learners in communication in order to achieve an outcome, rather than practice the language.
      2. His preference is the text-driven approach, in which an engaging written or spoken text drives a unit of materials in which readiness activities activate the learners’ minds in relation to the text, initial response activities stimulate engagement whilst experiencing the text, intake response activities encourage articulation of personal responses, input response activities invite exploration of features of the text and development activities encourage learner production
    2. if a teacher has confidence, principled creativity and the respect of their learners, then a textbook-free course can actually be more facilitative in providing the personalised, relevant and engaging experience of language in use and opportunities for observing how the language is used and for meaningful communication, which many textbook authors find it difficult to provide.
  2. We need textbooks to save time and money and many teachers want a coursebook which provides everything they need in one source. I would like to see more localised textbooks and more global textbooks which are designed to be flexible and to offer teachers and students opportunities for localisation, personalisation and choice.
2. Based in the opinion of Tomlinson...
Research in materials development
1. Day & Bamford (1998), Elley (1991) and Krashen (2004) report research findings which demonstrate the positive power of free, voluntary reading in facilitating language acquisition.
  1. Harwood (2010a) contains numerous chapters relating research-driven theory to materials development
    1. Mishan (2005) reviews the research literature on SLA and concludes that
      1. authentic texts ‘provide the best source of rich and varied input for language learners’,
        ‘impact on affective factors essential to learning
      2. Empirical investigation of the effects of materials on language acquisition requires longitudinal research
        Also requires a careful control of variables, which would be quite easy in controlled experiments

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