The role of materials
-
Upload
zohreh-dehghan -
Category
Education
-
view
153 -
download
0
description
Transcript of The role of materials
In The Name Of the Most High
Chabahar Maritime University
Faculty of Humanities
The role of Materials
Professor :
Dr. Khoshsima
Student :
Z. Dehghan
May 2014
The
role of
Materials
Overview
The purpose of materials
Writers or providers of materials
Teacher-generated material
Learner-generated material
Materials and technology
The purpose of material
As a source of language
As a learning support
For motivation and stimulation
For reference
1 )As a source of language
Where classroom is the primary source of language ,
the materials need to maximize exposure to the language.
2 )As a learning support
As a learning support, materials need to be reliable.
To enhance learning , materials must involve :
1. learners in thinking about language
2. Learners in using the language
The activities need to stimulate cognitive not mechanical process.
The learners need a sense of progression.
3)For motivation and stimulation
Materials need to be challenging yet achievable.
To offer new ideas and information while being grounded in
the learners' experience and knowledge; to encourage fun
and creativity.
4)For reference
Many ESP learners have little time for class contact and rely on a mix of classes , self-study and reference material.
For self-study or reference purposes , materials need to be complete , well laid out and self-explanatory.
The materials should have overt organization-through informative contents pages and an index.
Writers or providers of materials?
All this places high demands on the materials and great pressure on materials writers.
Producing one hour of good learning material demands hours of preparation time. Each stage of finding suitable carrier content , matching real content to learning and real world activities is time-consuming.
Preparing new materials from scratch for every course taught is impractical , even if the teacher had the ability.
What all ESP practitioners have to be is good providers of materials.
A good provider of materials will be able to:
Select appropriately from what is available;
Be creative with what is available
Modify activities to suit learners' needs ; and
Supplement by providing extra activities(and extra
input)
Selecting materials involves making choices and decisions.
Considering these criteria for the analysis of materials:
factors about the learners , the role of materials, the topics, the language.
Initial questions to ask when selecting materials include:
Will the materials stimulate and motivate?
To what extent does the material match the stated learning objectives
and your learning objectives?
To what extent will the materials support that learning?
1)Selecting from what is
available
Situations can vary according
to:
Freedom to choose from any material
Small range of material to
choose from
Given materials have
to be used
2)
Being creative with what is
available
• extract what is no longer true;
• Separate what they already know from what is new;
• Extract what is true and re-write or re-tell it.
Where carrier content is out of
date, learners
could:
Reasons for modifying materials:
1) There are too many activities, so either there is repetition
or too many different objectives are dealt with at one time.
2) The activities focus too strongly on carrier content.
3) The activities are too mechanical.
4) The activities focus too quickly on the detail of the carrier
content.
5) An activity is linguistically flawed.
3 )
Modifying activities to suit
learners’ needs
The skills ESP practitioners need in order to provide extra input and activities:
Matching carrier content to real content;
Providing variety;
Grading activity level to learning and language level;
Presenting the material well.
Supplementing by
providing extra input and
activities
Teacher-generated material1 .Matching carrier content to real content
Process for preparing new materials
Starting point A Starting point B
Have some carrier content Need materials for specific objective
Determine its real content Search for suitable carrier content
Match real and carrier content to course framework
2.Providing variety
Variety in the micro skills
Variety in activity types
Variety in interaction
3 .Grading exercises
Grading concerns with the amount of support provided to enable learners to do a set of exercises;
It provides learners with tasks at different levels of difficulty.
one way to achieve this is by setting tasks at three levels:
1) Unsupported2) Partially supported3) Fully supported
4. presenting the material well The final and important step is to present the material well.
It includes writing good, consistent rubrics, planning layout and
proofing.Focus on learning
Learner-generated materialFramework materials
• Framework materials set a context within which the learners fit their own carrier content and their existing language competence.
• They supplement rather than replace more traditional materials.
• They may be used at:
a practice stage after specific language input
or
as a starting point for a deep-end approach.
• They are enjoyed most by people with right-brained learning style. With mixed learning styles, they complement the more left- brained material.
• Learners who have only experienced traditional, teacher-centered education, may need help and time to adjust to framework materials.
Devising frameworks
First, using published frameworks devised and tested by others.
For devising frameworks the golden rule would be” keep it simple”.
The visual variables within the framework include: shape , size, color ,relative positions and connections.
The content variables are primarily whether the framework generates particular language or generates particular interaction.
Activities that are devised by the learners
Text
comprehension
Note-taking / information transfer
Vocabulary development:
Materials and technology
Technology offers the possibility of alternative materials and classroom interaction.
After audio and video cassettes, the next major technological change was the use of computers and CD-ROM.
The Internet is bringing further changes as courses can now be downloaded from all over the world.
Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by it's ability to climb a tree, it will live it's whole life believing that it is stupid.
-Albert Einstein