Assignment - M&R
SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT:
MATERIALS AND RESOURCES
GENERAL INFORMATION:
This assignment consists of creating a ‘kit’ of own-produced materials for a specific
group. Besides, it must be done in groups and has to fulfil the following conditions:
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Length: between 8 and 10 pages (without including cover, index or appendices –if
there are any).
Type of font: Arial or Times New Roman.
Size: 11.
Line height: 1.5.
Alignment: Justified.
The assignment has to be done in this Word document and has to fulfil the rules of
presentation and edition, as for quotes and bibliographical references which are
detailed in the Study Guide.
Also, it has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the “Subject
Evaluation” document. Sending it to the tutor’s e-mail is not permitted.
In addition to this, it is very important to read the assessment criteria, which can be
found in the “Subject Evaluation” document.
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Assignment - M&R
Assignment:
Carry out the following task
You are expected to submit a ‘kit’ of own-produced materials for a specified group of
learners in your current or a future context.
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The kit should be a coherent block of work, produced in response to some
observed need of the learners.
It must be prefaced by a rationale, in which the issues that have been raised about
design, trialling, adaptation and evaluation in the subject are discussed, as they are
relevant to your circumstances and the materials. A rationale might include
discussion of the context, the age and level of the students, the nature of the
syllabus and materials used by the learners, the need you perceive, the belief about
language learning and teaching that the materials represent, and any other issues
that are relevant to your materials (for example because of the particular media
chosen).
You must also include information about how you intend to evaluate the materials
when they are used.
You must submit copies of the materials you produce, with the teacher’s
instructions that make it clear how they are to be used. Write these instructions as if
they were for another teacher who could use them.
Note: You may find it useful to refer to the reading available in Assignment Materials
section (at the same place where you can find this paper).
Important: you have to write your personal details and the subject name on the
cover (see the next page). The assignment that does not fulfil these conditions
will not be corrected. You have to include the assignment index below the cover.
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Assignment - M&R
FP009 – Materials and Resources
Students’ names: Juan Pablo Lara Ramirez, Paula Almeida Ribeiro, Rodrigo
Fraga dos Santos, Sara Eunise García Morales
Group: 2020-06
Date: November 26rd, 2020
Producing own materials
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Assignment - M&R
GROUP CHOICE
We are a group formed by people from different countries, working in different
contexts and for diverse groups. For this reason, we decided to “imagine” and create a
group of students to find common ground among us, so that this discipline promotes
true collaborative work. We will design our kit for young people aged 18 and over, who
master an intermediate level and who attend classes at an adult language center.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE CREATION OF NEW MATERIAL
Jolly and Bolitho in Tomlinson (1998: 97) managed to put in a clear diagram the
steps to produce new material. For now, we will not include the expanded version of
your diagram that proposes the evaluation as a gauge of the material, as we will
develop this part of the process later. For the sake of cleanliness and organization, we
are following the path shown below.
IDENTIFICATION by teachers or learners of a need to fulfill or a problem to
solve by the creation of materials;
EXPLORATION of the area of need/problem in terms of what language, what
meanings, what functions, etc
CONTEXTUAL REALISATION of the proposed new materials by the finding of
suitable ideas, contexts or texts with wich to work
PEDAGOGICAL REALISATION of materials by the finding of appropriate
exercises and activities and the writing of appropriate instructions for use
PHYSICAL PRODUCTION of material, involving consideration of layout, type,
size, visuals, reproduction, etc
“IDENTIFICATION OF NEED FOR MATERIALS” AND “EXPLORATION OF NEEDS”
Regarding the observed needs, we can say that the skills that most interest this
group are speech and listening. Some students want to be able to communicate
proficiently due to the possibility of doing business abroad, others want to establish
interpersonal relationships during travel or business. A significant and positive aspect
of the group is motivation, they are eager to learn and improve. However, this group
represents an extra challenge for us, teachers, as its cultural origins are quite broad
and its expectations are high. This means that it is important that the chosen themes
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Assignment - M&R
and input levels, as well as the difficulty of the tasks, meet your expectations to keep
motivation high.
According to Ball and Lennon, we can deal with the design of teaching
communicative languages at two levels; at the level of the communicative task and at
the level of macro skills. If we focus on the skills we mentioned as paramount to our
group (listening and speaking), we have to analyze their nature and their implications
for creating material. Hearing takes place in real time; outside the classroom, the
second language learner must follow speech or conversation at the speaker's pace.
This has clear implications for the material. We believe that our group will need semiauthentic and authentic input, of varied themes, with possibilities to practice the
functions of transactional and interactional language, as well as chances to respond to
it. With regard to speech, we find again the “problem” of real time in cases of
interaction, and the need for greater practice in cases of transactional functions.
Materials are directly affected by the types of tasks that are now believed to encourage
oral negotiation of meanings, such as problem solving tasks, games, among others.
“CONTEXTUAL REALIZATION”
First, it is important that the materials are adapted to the cultural context, as well
as the institutional context, that is, the program of studies. As already said, this work is
based on “imagination”. Therefore, knowing that the suitability of our unit must be
tested against a program, we will mention the characteristic of the “ideal” program
where this unit would be located. According to the institution and the course we have
defined, we must adhere to the communicative approach, considered the most suitable
for Second Language Teaching environments today. We are all familiar with the
challenges of implementing a communicative approach in a language center. Most
students outside the classroom do not have the necessary exposure and inclusion in
intentional exchanges in English, so they learn mainly not to say only in the classroom.
Based on student centralization, the communicative approach includes solving
problems in pairs or in small groups, students respond to authentic examples of
English, which allows the exchange on topics of interest, the constant growth of student
autonomy and the integration of the four basic skills. We believe that the classroom
should be a place where the language is not only taught, but also used in a meaningful
way. The teacher's role is to organize the learning processes, to provide students with
not only understandable data, but also useful tools for effective and independent
learning, in addition to creating the conditions necessary for a successful outcome.
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Assignment - M&R
It is extremely important that the socio-cultural dimension is met. The target
group is formed by members aged 18 or over, whose English level is intermediate and
whose life experience and internship allow them to have a high critical thinking. They
are also characterized by an open worldview that tends to be global and related, in a
way, to other ways of thinking. This is evident from the fact that they decided to study
English on their own.
All these factors need to be “pedagogically materialized” in the units of study, so
it will be possible to know the level of success at the same time that we evaluate it in
terms of suitability for the age group, level of quality, cultural diversity, variety and
quantity of exercises.
“PEDAGOGICAL REALIZATION”
At this point, our goal is to find appropriate topics that capture students'
attention and motivate them to participate, as well as create effective exercises to
engage them in meaningful interaction.
Within our curriculum, we chose the unit, hypothetical, “Education around the
world”. Students will be challenged throughout this unit to use higher level thinking
skills. All four skills will be covered, but with a special emphasis on speaking and
listening.
When planning the design of our kit, we decided to create a thematic unit that is
a type of content-based instruction within the CLT approach. It is a series of classes
related to a theme that connects students with language in a communicative way. The
use of thematic units is supported by different researchers and authors in the ELT
literature.
We strongly believe that a thematic unit designed based on an interesting and
relevant topic can provide opportunities to engage students in real communication,
integrate the four basic skills of the communicative approach and promote student
autonomy.
McDonough and Shaw suggested that for materials to be suitable, they must
leave space for individualization, personalization, modernization and localization. An
important tool for developing our Unit in the classroom will be cooperative learning.
Cooperative learning has been part of language teaching for over 20 years and aims to
raise the quality of learning by making students cooperate in small groups. This type of
learning promotes the active participation of all students in solving problems. This helps
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Assignment - M&R
to increase interaction between students, as well as awareness and improvement of
their learning strategies.
In the following paragraphs, we will describe and back up our choices for each
lesson in our unit. These are:
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Assignment - M&R
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brinton, D. (2003). Content-based instruction. In Nunan, D 199-224 Practical English
Language Teaching.New York: McGraw-Hill.
Christison M.A. (ed.). (1994) Cooperative learning in the ELT Classroom. In Teacher
development: Making the right moves. T.Kral, 38-49. Washington, DC: United States
Infromation Agency.
Littlewood, W. (1981). Communicative language teaching. Cambridge.
McDonough, J. and Shaw, C. (1993). Materials and Methods in ELT. Blackwell. Oxford
Tomlinson, B. (1998). Developing Criteria for evaluating L2 material. IATEFL Issues,
Feb. 1998, p.p. 10-13
Tomlinson, B. (ed.) (1997). New Directions in L2 Materials Development. Cambridge
University Press.
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