The role of materials in relation to others elements
Since
the end of 1970s, there has been a movement to make learners rather than
teachers the center of language learning. According to this approach to
teaching, learners are more important than teachers, materials, curriculum,
methods, or evaluation.
As
a matter of fact, curriculum, materials, teaching methods, and evaluation
should all be designed for learners and their needs.
It is the teacher's responsibility to check to see
whether all of the elements of the learning process are working well for
learners and to adapt them if they are not.
In other words, learners should be the center of
instruction and learning. The curriculum is a statement of the goals of
learning.
The role of teachers is to help learners to learn.
Teachers have to follow the curriculum and provide,
make, or choose materials. They may adapt, supplement, and elaborate on those
materials and also monitor the progress and needs of the students and finally
evaluate students.
Materials Include:
·
Textbooks
·
Video
·
Audio tapes
·
Computer software
·
Visual Aids.
They influence the content and the procedures of
learning. The choice of deductive vs inductive learning, the role of
memorization, the use of creativity and problem solving, production vs.
reception, and the order in which materials are presented are all influenced by
the materials.
English textbooks should have correct, natural,
recent, and standard English. Since students' vocabulary is limited, the
vocabulary in textbooks should be controlled or the textbooks should provide
information to help students understand vocabulary that they may not be
familiar with.
The cultural information included in English textbooks
should be correct and recent. It should not be biased and should reflect
background cultures of English. It should include visual aids etc., to help
students understand cultural information.
From learners´ view
point:
Content English textbooks should be useful, meaningful
and interesting for students. While no single subject will be of interest to
all students, materials should be chosen based, in part, on what students, in
general, are likely to find interesting and motivating.
How do we get materials?
In addition to publishers, there are many possible
sources of materials. There is a lot of material available on the Internet. You
can search for materials when you have free time, and store them for your
future classes.
Concerns about
Materials
The market of language teaching materials are fairly large
and many companies are competing. They produce new materials and promote them
with many advertisements and through their salespeople. You need to be careful
about what they tell you. You always need to examine their materials carefully
from the point of view of what is appropriate for your students and the classes
you are teaching.
Another concern about materials is that the copyright issue. Many teachers violate the copyright laws every
day. We cannot copy any copyrighted materials. Of course, we cannot copy them
and distribute them to our students in the class. We need the permission from
the publisher to do so.
