Materials

The role and designed of instructional materials

         Instructional material generally serve as the basis for much of the language input learner receive and the language practice that occurs in the classroom. Dudley Evans and St. John  (1998,170-171) suggest that for teacher of ESP course, materials serve the following functions:

·         As a source of language

·         As a learning support

·         For motivation and simulation

·         For reference

The materials provide the basis for content of lesson, the balance of skill thought, and the kinds of language practice student take part in.

Authentic versus created material

Authentic materials refers to the use in the teaching of text, photographs, video selections and other teaching resources that were not specially prepared for pedagogical purposes. Created material refers to textbook and other specially developed instructional resources.

Textbook

Commercial textbook together with ancillaries such as workbooks, cassettes, and teachers guide are perhaps the commonest from teaching materials in language teaching. Textbook are used different ways in language program. The use of commercial textbook in teaching has both advantages and disadvantages, depending how they are used and the context of  their use.                 

The advantages are:

·         They provide structure and syllabus for a program

·         They help standardize instruction

·         The maintain quality

·         They provide a variety of learning resources

·         They are efficient

·         Etc

The disadvantages are :

·         They may contain in authentic learning

·         They may distort content

·         They may not reflect what the students need

·         They can deskill the teacher

·         They may expensive

Evaluating textbook

Evaluation,  however   can only be done by considering something in relation to its purposes. A book may be ideal in one situation because it matches the need of situation perfectly.                                                                                                

Criteria for textbook evaluation

Cunningsworth  (1995) proposes four criteria for evaluating textbook particularly course books :

1)      They should correspond to learners

2)      They should reflect the uses that learners will make of the language

3)      They should take account of students need

4)      They should have a clear role as a support of teaching

Adapting textbook

Most teacher are not creators of teaching materials but provides of good materials. Dudley Evans and St. John (1998, 173) suggest that a good provide of materials will be able to:

1.      Select appropriately from what is available

2.      Be creative with what is available

3.      Modify activities to sit learners needs

4.      Supplement b providing extra activities

This adaption may take a variety of forms:

·         Modifying content

·         Adding or deleting content

·         Reorganizing content

·         Addressing omissions

·         Modifying task

·         Extending task

Preparing Materials for a Program

Advantages and disadvantages for setting up a materials development project need to be carefully considered at the outset.

Adventages

Advantages of building a materials development project need to be carefully considered at the outset :

Relevence : Materials can be produced that are directly relevant to students’ and institutional needs and that reflect locat content, issues, and concerns.

Develop expertise : Developing materials can help develop expertise among staff,giving them greater understanding of the characteristics of effectives materials.

Reputation : Institutionalally developed materials may enhance the reputation of the institution by demonstrating its commitment of providing of materials development specially for its students.

Flexibility : Materials produced within the institution can be revised or adapted as needed, giving them greater flexibility that a commercial course book.

Disadvantages

Disadvantages also need to be considered before embarking on materials development :

Cost : Quality materials take time to produce and adequate staff time as well as resources need to be allocated to such a project.

Quality : Teacher-made materials will not normally have the same standard of design and production as commercial materials and become and hence may not present the same image as commercial materials.

Training : To prepare teachers for materials writing projects, adequate training should be provided. Materials writing is a specialized skill and potential materials writers need of the opportunity to develop the necessary skills.

The nature of materials development

The nature of materials development and the process that are typically involved if quality materials are to be created. Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998, 173) observe that “only small proportion of good teachers are also good designers of course materials”.

Shulman goes on to describe the transformation phase of this process as consisting of :

·         Preparation

·         Representation

·         Selection

·         Adapting and tailoring to student characteristics

Decision in materials design

Processes of program design and materials design were discussed :

·         Developing aims

·         Developing objectives

·         Developing a syllabus

·         Organizing the course into units

·         Developing a structure for units

·         Sequencing units

Choosing input and output sources

The following are examples of input questions in the design of different kinds of materials:

            Grammar materials : Will the new grammar items be presented through the medium of texts, conversation extracts, or corpus of utterances? How will these be selected?

            Listening materials : Will the source of listening be authentic recordings taken from real-world sources, scripted materials on different topics, or a mixture of both?

            Writing materials : Will students be shown examples different types of compositions? Will these be examples of the real texts or will they be specially written? Will examples of student writing also be included?

            Reading materials : What kinds of texts will students read (such as magazine articles, newspaper articles, extracts from books), and how will these be choosen?

            Speaking materials : What will the source of speaking activities be? Will dialogues, recordings, texts, topics, pictures, situations,and so on be used, and how will these be selected?

Selecting exercise types

Exercise types related to different types of listening skills are presented as follows :

·         Exercises that develop “top-down” listening

·         Exercises that involve listening for interactional purposes

·         Involving a nonlinguistic response to the text

·         Involving a linguistic response to the text

Managing a materials writing project

Materials writing project are of different scope and dimensions. The management of a team-based writing project involves addressing the following issues:

Ø  Selecting the project team

·         Project director

·         Writers

·         Media specialist

·         Editor

·         Illustrator

·         Designer

Ø  Planning the number of stages involved

Ø  Planning the writing schedule

Ø  Piloting the materials

Monitoring the use of materials

Monitoring may take the following forms :

·         Observation

·         Feedback sessions

·         Written repots

·         Reviews

·         Students’ reviews.

CONCLUSION

The role and designed of instructional materials instructional material generally serve as the basis for much of the language input learner receive and the language practice that occurs in the classroom. The materials provide the basis for content of lesson, the balance of skill thought, and the kinds of language practice student take part in.