Materials for ELT

Language Teaching Materials Skills Discourse (Language Focus) Grammar Vocabulary Pronunciation Receptive Productive Listening Reading Speaking Writing

The role of materials A resource for presentation materials A source of activities for learner practice and communicative interaction A reference source for learners on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and so on A source of stimulation and ideas for classroom activities A syllabus A support for less experienced teachers who have yet to gain in confidence Cunningsworth, A. (1995) Choosing Your Coursebook. Oxford. Heinemann.

Authentic versus created materials Authentic Materials: Texts, photographs, video selections, and other teaching resources that are not specifically prepared for pedagogical purposes. Created Materials Textbooks and other specially developed instructional purposes.

Authentic materials Advantages Disadvantages The provide authentic cultural information about the target culture They provide exposure to real language The relate more closely to learner’s need They support a more creative approach to teaching Disadvantages Authentic materials often contain difficult language Using authentic materials is a burden for teachers

Textbooks Advantages Disadvantages They provide structure and a syllabus for a program They help standardize instruction They maintain quality They provide a variety of learning resource They are efficient They can provide effective language models and input They are visually appealing Disadvantages They may contain inauthentic language They may distort content They may not reflect students’ needs They can deskill teachers They are expensive

Adapting Textbooks Modifying content Adding or deleting content Reorganizing content Addressing omissions Modifying tasks Extending tasks

Self-prepared materials Advantages Relevance Develop expertise Reputation Flexibility Disadvantages Cost Quality training

Decisions in materials design Developing aims Developing objectives Developing syllabus Organizing the course into units Developing a structure for units Sequencing units

Organization of materials Curriculum level: educational objective  the whole body of knowledge that learners acquire in an educational institution. Course level: Course objective  specific linguistic content Instruction level: Learning objective  learning outcomes for a specific meeting/unit

Example of material organization Unit level: read for information Identifying the topic (theme) Identifying the main ideas, stated and implied Distinguishing between the topic and the main idea Reading for detail Distinguishing important from unimportant details Skimming to obtain the gist or a general impression of the semantic content Scanning to locate specifically required information

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