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.
Difficulty Level
As a general rule, materials should be slightly higher in their level of difficulty than the students' current level of English proficiency. (Exceptions are usually made for extensive reading and extensive listening materials, which should be easy enough for students to process without much difficulty.) Materials at a slightly higher level of difficulty than the students' current level of English proficiency allow them to learn new grammatical structures and vocabulary.
Instructional issues
English textbooks should have clear instructional procedure and methods, that is, the teacher and students should be able to understand what is expected in each lesson and for each activity.
Textbooks should have support for learning
This can take the form of vocabulary lists, exercises which cover or expand on the content, visual aids, etc. Traditionally, language teaching materials in Japan are made up mostly of text, with few, if any, visual aids. However, with the development of technology, photos, visual materials and audio materials have become very important components of language teaching materialss, and they are becoming easier to obtain. Teachers need to learn how to find them, and how to best exploit these characteristics.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Some reminders on the Characteristics of materials
Just some reminders about some characteristics of materials.
1. Language
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. for lower-level students, grammar should also be controlled. Many textbooks use narratives and essays. It would be useful to have a variety of literary forms (for example, newspaper articles, poetry, or letters), so that students can learn to deal with different forms.
2. Information on Culture
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.
1. Language
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. for lower-level students, grammar should also be controlled. Many textbooks use narratives and essays. It would be useful to have a variety of literary forms (for example, newspaper articles, poetry, or letters), so that students can learn to deal with different forms.
2. Information on Culture
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.
Last minutes reads!!! Part 2
Continue from the last discussion of the few things to know when working with young learners:
3. Children's instinct for play and fun
I observe my own cousins that, when two or more of them getting together, they will surely engage in playing, either it will be chasing one another, or engage in a drama with each of them taking one role. Thus it is so true that being playful and engaging in fun is IN the children's nature. And teacher should adapt her teaching method to suit this characteristics of children.
4. The role of IMAGINATION
When watching children play sometimes, their surroundings seem to be out of reality: that off the bed is the fall of a waterfall; and the car handle becomes the house of the villain in their story; that by the changing of the shape of the watch the character becomes different in roles... all these are not even in the realm of my imagination but it comes out from the mouth of the children! Well it is amazing and teacher surely can make full use of this characteristic of children to engage them in stories that enable them to learn language through imagination.
3. Children's instinct for play and fun
I observe my own cousins that, when two or more of them getting together, they will surely engage in playing, either it will be chasing one another, or engage in a drama with each of them taking one role. Thus it is so true that being playful and engaging in fun is IN the children's nature. And teacher should adapt her teaching method to suit this characteristics of children.
4. The role of IMAGINATION
When watching children play sometimes, their surroundings seem to be out of reality: that off the bed is the fall of a waterfall; and the car handle becomes the house of the villain in their story; that by the changing of the shape of the watch the character becomes different in roles... all these are not even in the realm of my imagination but it comes out from the mouth of the children! Well it is amazing and teacher surely can make full use of this characteristic of children to engage them in stories that enable them to learn language through imagination.
Last minutes reads!!! Part 1
Well well well....... due to the loads of assignment.... i only got to read my notes for next day exam at 3am... Not too bad as instructions are given that we have to read chapter one.
Well, got a bit of insights as i read through the notes. As it is about working with young learners. And i find the information are quite useful for teachers to know about young learners:
1. Children ability to grasp meaning
I never thought about this that children can associate the meaning with the words that teacher utter by observing the gestures, intonation, facial expression, actions and circumstances at that time, before knowing the word itself. I amaze at this inborn ability in human.
2. Children creative use of limited language resources.
I witness this personally when i was in the car together with my cousin sister who are just 5 years old. She was in the car playing with the toys that she can find: the watch from his daddy's wrist; two balloons that she has just got; cakes that i was holding and even dress that she is wearing. She made full use of these items that she can find around her and began to play on a drama by uttering english words. I presume that the words that she utters are from the children video that she watches. And i believe there's a new language that she utters though she has not heard it before. That is the observation by the innatists. And trully at the age of five, she was quite enjoy in indulging in her own 'drama' with the limited words that she has.
Well, got a bit of insights as i read through the notes. As it is about working with young learners. And i find the information are quite useful for teachers to know about young learners:
1. Children ability to grasp meaning
I never thought about this that children can associate the meaning with the words that teacher utter by observing the gestures, intonation, facial expression, actions and circumstances at that time, before knowing the word itself. I amaze at this inborn ability in human.
2. Children creative use of limited language resources.
I witness this personally when i was in the car together with my cousin sister who are just 5 years old. She was in the car playing with the toys that she can find: the watch from his daddy's wrist; two balloons that she has just got; cakes that i was holding and even dress that she is wearing. She made full use of these items that she can find around her and began to play on a drama by uttering english words. I presume that the words that she utters are from the children video that she watches. And i believe there's a new language that she utters though she has not heard it before. That is the observation by the innatists. And trully at the age of five, she was quite enjoy in indulging in her own 'drama' with the limited words that she has.
Assignment 3 is over!!
Assignment 3.... TATA!!!
Well, no doubt that assignment 3 is a real rush for me... but that is because i do it quite last minute...
But, when recall, i am quite satisfied with my work. No doubt that 4 lesson plans to prepare is really a heavy work. But it is not so boring when technology is involved in the lesson plan. Thus i quite enjoy creating teaching aids out of smart board software, e-book, inserting videos, audio, etc.
In a way it was not too hard to produce those teaching aids as we've done them before.
Well, after passing up the assignment, i see that i still have a long way to improve on my ideas of creating activities for the English lessons. Truly as what Azliza has said in her blog, in order to make a lesson interesting and successful, innovation and creativity are needed.
Well, guess that i still need to brush up on that.
Well, no doubt that assignment 3 is a real rush for me... but that is because i do it quite last minute...
But, when recall, i am quite satisfied with my work. No doubt that 4 lesson plans to prepare is really a heavy work. But it is not so boring when technology is involved in the lesson plan. Thus i quite enjoy creating teaching aids out of smart board software, e-book, inserting videos, audio, etc.
In a way it was not too hard to produce those teaching aids as we've done them before.
Well, after passing up the assignment, i see that i still have a long way to improve on my ideas of creating activities for the English lessons. Truly as what Azliza has said in her blog, in order to make a lesson interesting and successful, innovation and creativity are needed.
Well, guess that i still need to brush up on that.
Detective game software...
There was one session where Mdm Foziah let us view a few children softwares. She brought a bunch and my group got one detective game CD. I think this game will serve as a good tool for pupils to generate their reasoning and analyzing skill as being a detective, they need these two HOTS in order to solve the cases in the CD. This CD is highly interactive, where they are a lot of conversations going on, and they serve as clues for pupils to synthesize the all the clues that they can get and then gradually figure out the source of the problem.
One weakness about this software that i can observe is that it challenges pupils patience. There are conversations which last for a couple of minute per one, and there is no option to skip them. That will reduce the thrill for the game overall as even adults will feel impatience let alone children. Perhaps the clues should be made simple yet challenging.
Other than the detective game software, we have also seen others that let children explore some simple contraptions. They are all interesting, highly interactive and highly motivating. The software all contain colourful and interesting graphics and animation that attract even us as adult.
It thus inspires us that we can use these children softwares as our teaching aids as well next time...
One weakness about this software that i can observe is that it challenges pupils patience. There are conversations which last for a couple of minute per one, and there is no option to skip them. That will reduce the thrill for the game overall as even adults will feel impatience let alone children. Perhaps the clues should be made simple yet challenging.
Other than the detective game software, we have also seen others that let children explore some simple contraptions. They are all interesting, highly interactive and highly motivating. The software all contain colourful and interesting graphics and animation that attract even us as adult.
It thus inspires us that we can use these children softwares as our teaching aids as well next time...
Recall final exam..
Resources paper is the first final paper that i'm taking for the sem... well, it was kinda relaxing.. in fact, it was more like a exercise rather than an exam, due to the setting, the hour... well, good in a way, that it made me not so nervous, and in this way i believe the paper can be answered more properly..
Well the questions are not so tough... butta... i thought i answered it well. But i only start wandering if the answers i give was acceptable after passing up the paper... many people were creating the story board for the whole story instead of creating only one sample as of mine... and for the other question, pick up two teaching aids from the technology and non-technology categories and compare and contrast them. What i did was comparing them individually instead of as a group... O.....
Well, anyhow, anyway. I'm glad that this paper has passed. And another burden is put down. Now it is the portfolio assignment that demands my attention now..
Well the questions are not so tough... butta... i thought i answered it well. But i only start wandering if the answers i give was acceptable after passing up the paper... many people were creating the story board for the whole story instead of creating only one sample as of mine... and for the other question, pick up two teaching aids from the technology and non-technology categories and compare and contrast them. What i did was comparing them individually instead of as a group... O.....
Well, anyhow, anyway. I'm glad that this paper has passed. And another burden is put down. Now it is the portfolio assignment that demands my attention now..
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