Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified in Pennsylvania? Are you interested in teaching English in Rural Valley, Pennsylvania? Check out our opportunities in Rural Valley, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English in your community or abroad! Teflonline.net offers a wide variety of Online TESOL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Here Below you can check out the feedback (for one of our units) of one of the 16.000 students that last year took an online course with ITTT!
UNIT 9
This unit examines the materials and books used for teaching EFL lessons, how to choose them and how to use them. Generally, many teachers have independently either sourced or created the teaching materials for their classes due to the fact that many schools mostly lack the requisite or suitable teacher/learning materials. It is a known fact that students tend to respond positively to the materials provided by the teachers during lessons, as those materials tend to be more interesting and relatable than their Course books. Materials introduced by teachers to support their lessons can be divided into two groups:
1. Authentic materials – they are ordinary/everyday things such as TV. programmes, songs, brochures, menus, films, newspapers, etc. that are not designed specifically for EFL lessons, thus require the teacher’s discretion in choosing the suitable ones for a class, a topic and at what level. Using Authentic materials is important because they constitute part of the daily lives of students, thus are easily relatable and interesting to them. Also, the teacher can introduce them according to various levels of students and they would still be relevant.
2. Created materials – these are created or designed by the teacher to supplement the course book, and they can be graded to the level of the students. These materials range from drawings, cut-outs, magazines or newspapers, crossword, word searches, flashcards to gap-fill exercises, etc.
The following sample creative materials are presented:
? A tree crossword, a word search about adjectives that describe feeling/sentiments
? Flashcards – 1. Two flashcards, with the same images depicting people in restaurant but with two different captions: a person who serves wine and a person who serves food is a waiter.
2.two card with same images showing two people sitting before computers but with different captions: a person who works with computer; a person who designs websites is a Web Designer.
The same sequence is presented for flashcards featuring a Scientist, Stock Broker, Miner, Nurse, Firefighter and an Inventor
? Picture stories – three pictures, first one depicting two people in a type of relationship, and the other two, of objects (a gift box, and a table lamp) are cut out from a magazine. The teacher divides students into groups of three or four then shows them the three pictures successively, then asks them to discuss:
a. the kind of relationship the people in the 1st picture seem to have.
b. the 1st object as something important to the people in the 1st picture
c. the second object as something the people dislike the reason behind it
At the end of this activity, students will likely come up with different stories and views about each of the pictures, while enhancing their interaction and participation.
? Role-play cards – telephone role-plays that require students to make a phone-call about various topics such as, booking a doctor’s appointment, seeking a leave of absence from school, inviting a friend on a date etc.
Course Books
Essentially, Course books remain relevant and requisite materials for teaching and learning. They consist of, student’s book, workbook, cassettes/CDs, and Teacher’s book. Sometimes a course book can include video activities, reading books, test books, learner dictionaries, vocabulary flashcards, etc. There are several advantages derived from using course books. The following are some of them:
• Students expect to use it
• It is convenient as it saves time and is easier to use with the help of supplements
• It follows a syllabus thus it enables grading according to students’ level
• It is helpful especially to new teachers
Nevertheless, there exists several disadvantages associated with using course books:
• Students may not like them
• Teaching lessons solely from the course book can be boring and predictable to students
• It can affect teachers’ creativity and motivation to ensure a more interesting lesson, also making them lazy
• It can engender teacher-centered lessons thus affecting student talk-time
Hence, it becomes necessary for teachers to learn how to use course books to maximize their objectives, and the best way to use a course book is to:
• First choose a range that is most suitable for the level of the students/class
• Find materials and activities that can serve as supplements to enable a more vibrant student response
• Do a critical analysis of the book and research ways to complement it in the areas it fails to serve the needs of the students
• Not depend completely on the course book as the only source of solution to all language problems
Technically, there are four basic options available to teachers when it that comes to making use of a course book:
1. Omit – teachers may choose to omit certain parts/units of a course book that they deem irrelevant to the needs of their students
2. Replace – the teacher may choose to rather replace the irrelevant parts/units with the appropriate content instead of omitting them altogether.
3. Supplement – the teacher may want to add some materials to the course book to supplement a language point or to facilitate more practice
4. Adapt – the teacher may use the same materials provided in the course book a particular way contrary to the what is provided in the book to suit his/her suit his/her own style of teaching to better serve the needs of the students
To conclude, some points to seriously consider when analyzing whether a course book is suitable for student use are presented: price, availability, design, methodology (whether it features the ESA techniques or not), skills (whether it presents a balance of receptive and productive skills), difficulty, suitability to syllabus, topics/content relevant or not, whether it provides a teacher’s guide, and whether it includes supporting materials such as CD ROMs, work books, cassettes, etc.
From this unit, I have learnt the importance of authentic/creative materials as supplements to boost teaching and learning, how to create them, the sources to find them; the purpose of course books, components, terms of selection, and appropriate usage.
