TEFL – Structuring a Lesson – Further Reading

Teaching without a course book

 What’s wrong with using a course book?

 Often, nothing at all > teachers have great set of resources at fingertips
 Students may not see it that way
 Bad textbook experiences in the past
 Wanting more variety in lessons
 A topic-based syllabus (TBS)
 Removing course book removes teachers safety net
 Topic-based syllabus provides natural stimulus for learning language in realistic context
 Start with topic of interest > discuss/explain issue/opinion > students find out what they
want to say AND whether they can say it or not > provides further objectives
(grammatical, lexical, pronunciation) to build course
 Structuring the course > 5 steps
 Needs analysis
 For successful TBS must start by clearly establishing students’ interests and motivations
 1s lesson students talk about themselves and each other > their interests, do they
follow current news
 Note down all that comes up > potential topics list will be long
 Chosen topics will be those that foster agreement or disagreement from
classmates > students are well-informed about them
 Students take over convo > lead it themselves
 Use course books behind the scenes
 Look at contents pages for ideas > suggest to class
 Take student ideas and back up with textbook material
 Set short-term objectives
 Plan for focus on 3 or 4 of topics over certain time frame (term, no. of hours etc)
 Decide objectives with students
 Ensure topics cover several lessons > give idea of continuation
 If poss find links between topics > thread to the course
 Remedial grammar
 Make sure grammar and lang input not seemingly abandoned
 Structural errors will during needs analysis and the course itself > these form
framework for language input
 Requirement of flexibility and reactive to arising problems
 Course books again a potential behind scenes base > select exercises in accordance
to S needs
 Okay to say “we’ll discuss this in next lesson” if unprepped thing comes up
 Error correction
 Focus on convo can encourage fluency at expense of accuracy (esp at higher levels)
 Discuss with Ss > get them to think about when they want to be corrected > some
want on spot others at certain points
 Experiment with variety of approaches > see what works best
 Keep note of errors > give to Ss next lesson to correct
  Makes them think back on mistakes and demos progress
 Variety
 Wider the variety of sources and resources the better engagement of students
 Example: interest in cinema
 Discuss films they like > storyline, why like them
 Use of internet, mags, npapers to research films > language of film reviews studied
 Video/DVD used to watch films
 Consideration of pronunciation, accents, spoken English
 Activities such as role plays, discussions, descriptions, predictions, translations
 Grade the task not the text > authentic material can still be used with lower level
classes
 Course book material used > reading and listening exercises
 Variety of further topics
 Fame and fortune, privacy, the media, entertainment, fashion etc

Guidelines for Designing Effective English Language Teaching Materials – J. Howard and J. Major

Why English Language Teachers May Choose to Design their own Materials

 Advantages
 Often the disadvantages of course books (CBs) can become advantages for T-produced
materials
 Four key themes tied to advantages
 Contextualisation
 Commercial materials tend to be necessarily generic and not aimed at specific learners or
cultural and educational contexts
 Global CBs do not address local teaching contexts nor recognise English as a global
language
 Designing own materials allows a T to take into account their specific learning
environment
 Resources available
 Some contexts may be extremely impoverished with little more than a blackboard
 Making own materials enables teachers make the best of the resources available
 Cost of commercial resources
 Teacher made resources often the best for student and school budget
 Individual needs
 Modern methodologies emphasise importance of IDing and teaching to individ learner
needs
 T-designed materials can cater to the heterogeneity inherent in a classroom
 Allows selection of materials at exactly the right level for students
 Encompass the learners’ first languages and cultures
 Research suggests bilingual approaches help are most successful in learning a new
language BUT most CBs incorporate first language opps
 Teachers have control over the organising principle or focus of the materials and activities
 Can intro more variety to the often grammar centred and PPP modelled approach of
most CBs > can focus on the developing needs and interests of the learners
 Personalisation
 Add a personal touch to teaching that Ss appreciate
 Able to tap into interests and learning styles of Ss and adapt accordingly > increase
motivation and engagement
 Greater choice, freedom and scope for spontaneity
 Timeliness
 Able to respond to local and internat events with highly relevant and high interest topics >
“the teachable moment can be more readily seized”
 Overall T-designed materials avoid the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach of most commercial materials
 Disadvantages
 3 main points
 Organisation
 CBs usually organised around one principle and follow clear pattern
 This can be dull but it does provide safety net for Ts and Ss > coherent body of work to
teach/revise from
 T-made materials may lack this coherence and clear progression
 Without overall organising principle materials may be piecemeal and activities lack
direction
 Physical org and storage of materials
 Easy to damage or lose without proper storage
 Quality
 Can seem v unpro next to commercial materials
 Errors, poor construction, unclear layout etc
 T inexperience/understanding can see elements left out or covered inadequately
 Aiming to take advantage of authentic text BUT the text may be inconsistent or poorly
chosen
 Unclear instructions in how to use the materials
 Time
 The amount of time and effort that needs to be put in outside the lesson means there often
simply isn’t time

Factors to Consider When Designing Materials

 The learners
 Needs analysis > in order to make materials relevant, interesting, motivating and specific to
the learners needs a T must know their learners well
 Reveal learning needs in 4 skills, vocab and grammar
 Reveal individ learning style preferences
 Reveal/know students’ backgrounds
 Experiences, 1st language, aspirations, interests etc
 Curriculum and the context
 Curriculum will define content, skills and values to be taught > outline goals and objective for
learners
 Ts responsibility to ensure these kept close when designing materials
 Context of Ss also vital
 Young school children will need v different materials to refugee adults
 Resources and facilities
 Must be realistic about what can be achieved within limitations of available resources and
facilities
 See Hadfield and Hadfield for suggestions regarding “resourceless” teaching
 Personal confidence and competence
 Determine willingness to embark on such efforts
 Influenced by level of experience, perceived creativity/artistic skills, overall
understanding of principles of material design and production
 Most Ts tend to be modifying/adapting/supplementing a CB rather than starting from
scratch
 Decisions available:
 Add activities to suggested ones
 Leave out activities not suited to needs
 Replace/adapt activities/materials with:
 Materials from other commercial texts
 Authentic materials
 Teacher-created materials
 Change organisational structure of activities e.g. pairs, groups, whole class
 Use modern tech to achieve professional results in material production
 Copyright and compliance
 Important consideration when copying authentic materials, published materials and
materials downloaded from internet > esp when using for large number of classes of long
period
 Time
 How to manage the time restrictions?
 Share materials with other teachers
 Work in team to design and make materials
 Organise a central storage > all can access

Guidelines for Designing Effective English Teaching Materials

 Guideline 1
 English language teaching materials should be contextualised
 To the curriculum they are intended to address
 Keep curriculum objectives to the fore throughout the design stages
 Design not solely determined by these but they should be a central guiding factor
 To the experiences, realities, and first languages of the learners
 Important T awareness of the “socio-cultural appropriacy” of designer’s own style of
presenting material, arranging of groups etc
 Aware of culture-specific learning processes of intended learners
 Link materials to S knowledge, 1st languages and cultures, alert Ss to areas of sig
cultural difference
 To topics and themes that provide meaningful, purposeful uses for the target language
 Rated on appropriateness for intended learners
 Ensure personal engagement and motivation for further study
 Find new angles on old topics
  One-offs > let Ss star in the material
 Guideline 2
 Materials should stimulate interaction and be generative in terms of language
 Materials should create situations where Ss have to use the language forsome real
communicative purpose > interactions that reflect those likely to occur outside the
classroom
 Hall > 3 conditions necessary
 Something we want to communicate
 Someone to communicate with
 Some interest in the outcome of the communication
 Nunan > learning by doing philosophy
 Info gap and info transfer activities useful here
 Designers must be able to acknowledge comms challenges inherent within interactive
teaching approach > address different norms of interaction e.g. preferred personal space
 Learners must be pushed to explore new linguistic terrains
 Materials and interactions should contain sufficient scope for learners to be
stretched to a degree and push beyond surface fluency to proficiency
 Guideline 3
 English language teaching materials should encourage learners to develop learning skills and
strategies
 Should teach Ss how to learn and how to take advantage of lang learning opps outside
the classroom
 Provide confidence to persist in attempts to find solutions to problems encountered
in communication
 Strategies like rewording and using facial expressions and body lang can be fine-
tuned with well-designed materials
 Provide opps for self-evaluation
 Material that includes metalanguage and activities encourage and enable self-
assessment
 Can utilise first language
 Ellis and Sinclair CB > exercises for students to explore their own learning styles
and strats
 Guideline 4
 English language teaching materials should allow for a focus on form as well as function
 Initial motivation for creating own materials usually a desire to make tasks more
communicative BUT danger of completely losing any focus on language form
 To aid guideline 3 materials must encourage learners to take an analytical approach
to language > form and test own hypotheses about how language works
 Guideline 5
 English language materials should offer opportunities for integrated language use
 Materials should provide opps to integrate all the 4 skills and use them in an authentic
manner
 Guideline 6
 English language teaching materials should be authentic
  Imperative for learners to be regularly exposed to real, unscripted language i.e. passages
not written specifically for language learning purposes
 In terms of texts
 Not just written texts, e.g. newspapers, but also spoken and visual > must hear, see,
and read how natives communicate naturally
 In terms of tasks
 Consider real-world tasks the specific groups may need to perform > activities in
lesson can then reflect the language and behaviour required outside the classroom
 Guideline 7
 English language teaching materials should link to each other to develop a progression of
skills, understandings and language items
 Clearly state objectives at the beginning of the design process > this ensures materials
will have coherence
 Must clearly progress specific learning goals AND provide opps for repetition and
reinforcement
 Guideline 8
 English language teaching materials should be attractive
 Physical appearance
 Must look good at first glance > first impressions v important with a resource
 Density of text, type size, coherence and consistency of the layout
 User-friendliness
 Attractive in terms of usability
 Are gap-fill gaps big enough? Are oral listening silences long enough?
 Durability
 Make sure they can at least last a single use or as long as they are needed
 Ability to be reproduced
 Work with the facilities of a school > don’t spend ages making something v colourful
to find out they only have a black and white photocopier
 Guideline 9
 English language teaching materials should have appropriate instructions
 This applies both for intended learners AND for other Ts who may use them
 Should be written in language appropriate for target learners > correct metalang can
also generally aid in making instructions more concise and efficient
 Guideline 10
 English language teaching materials should be flexible
 For longer series of materials
 Construct materials that allow Ts and Ss to make choices some of the time
 Design materials that cater for flexibility in content > provide a range of possible
inputs not organised by lesson units > Ts or Ss can choose which to use and which
procedure (comp, grammar, role play etc) to apply
 Maley: flexibility also poss in approach, level, methodology, logistics, tech, teaching
style, evaluation, and expected outcomes
 Put in short-term effort to diversify materials and their uses can massively pay off in
the long run
Conclusion

 Following the above guidelines could make the difference between a class of diverse learners in
an excited “state of expectancy” (what will happen this time?) rather than “expectation” (Oh,
not that again!”