After we discussed the principles that underpin the design of the ELT materials, our next step was to create an evaluation framework.  I evaluate materials informally almost every day but it never occurred to me to use a framework.  For this task we had to work in groups. The groups chosen this week to present had to evaluate a coursebook using their framework. As my group wasn’t presenting, we simply developed a general framework based on our reading and personal beliefs.

As all three of us work in a similar teaching environment, which is multilingual General English classes in  private language schools in Brighton, we decided to set it is as our context.

Next step was to decide what approach for evaluating materials we were going to follow. It became apparent that there are various ways of looking at it. McDonough (2013), for instance, divides the process into the external evaluation, the internal evaluation and the overall evaluation.

The aim of the external evaluation is to examine the organisation of the materials by looking at claims made on the cover and the table of contents. At this stage it is suggested to look at the intended audience, the proficiency level, the context in which the materials are to be used, how the language has been presented and organised, the author’s view on the methodology.

The aim of the internal evaluation is to carry out a more in-depth investigation into materials. It includes investigation of the following factors:

-the presentation of the skills in the materials

-the grading and sequencing of the materials

-the authenticity of the materials

-the speaking materials and the nature of real interaction

-the relationship of the text and exercisers to learners’ needs

-the suitability for different learning styles

Finally, the aim of the overall evaluation is to make an overall assessment by considering the usability factor, the generalizability factor, the adaptability factor and the flexibility factor.

In my group we decided to use the Mcdonough’s evaluation checklist as a basis.  I find this model pretty straightforward, although I am doubtful whether an effective external evaluation can be conducted without working with the coursebook – after all, I have been always told not to judge a book by its cover. Some coursebooks can look as though they are very well-designed, however, in practise they can be hard to use.

After deciding on our evaluation checklist, we then added further criteria for our framework based on our beliefs and other sources. We divided our criteria into 4 sections: teacher, student, content and design.

Tomlinson (2012) suggest using questions instead of a checklist for the framework and McGrath (2013) also suggests that criteria can be statements or questions. For our framework we decided to use both statements and questions.

MATERIALS SHOULD : 

McGrath (2013) points out several problems with evaluation frameworks. First, criteria made at a particular point in time may not be appropriate years later. Secondly, as teachers work in different contexts, we cannot simply take an existing checklist and reuse it without considering ‘local’ factors.   In our framework, for instance, we focused on use of technology and development of soft skills, as in our context these are important factors, however in a different setting they may not be relevant.

As I personally have a strong interest in educational technology, I noticed that although there are numerous checklists and frameworks available for coursebook packages, there is very little mentioned about other elements such as software or apps. As I am currently working on designing a mobile app for language learning, I am interested in the ways I can evaluate my final product. Perhaps later in the course I could come up with this framework myself.

What I have learnt.

There is a vast selection of checklists of evaluation criteria for coursebooks available for teachers to use. However every evaluation should start from specification of the teaching situation and use criteria relevant to the target learners.

McDonough, J., et al. (2013) Materials and Methods in ELT: A Teacher’s Guide. (3nd ed) Chichester:Wiley-Blackwell.

McGrath, I. (2013) Teaching Materials and the Roles of EFL/ESL Teachers: Practice and Theory. London: Bloomsbury.

Tomlinson, B. (2012) Materials development for language learning and teaching. Language Teaching 45 (02): pp. 143-179. doi:10.1017/S0261444811000528.

Today we discussed  principles and frameworks that underpin the design of ESL materials. First, we came up with our own, self-made principles and narrowed them down to 12.

Here are the ones that I wrote.

1. Materials should be engaging and motivating.

This is an extremely important but equally difficult point to achieve.  We want our learners to be engaged in a lesson as we all know it is the best way to learn.  We want materials that are up- to- date, interesting, relevant and  fun.  However, how realistic is it to design these ultimate engaging materials if everyone has a different idea of up –to- date, interesting, relevant and fun.

I recently came across a blog post which talks about a simple songs gap fill website where the average time of engagement is 20 minutes. Twenty minutes of engagement is pretty  incredible considering the simplicity of the activity. What is the secret? Personalisation. The learners were so involved because they could choose their favourite song and that’s what made them stay on the website for so long.  And the more time our learners spend learning and using the language, the better.  The idea of mediating resources according to the unique needs of each learner is a driving force behind adaptive learning and there is a lot of buzz about it, but so far there hasn’t been a single successful ESL product to implement it.

2. Materials should integrate life skills and digital literacy skills.

I feel that apart from allowing learners to develop their reading, listening, writing and speaking skills, materials should help to develop a range of life skills.

I feel that very often there is a mismatch between what students acquire in the classroom and what is required in the real world. They are given a decent grasp of English grammar, a reasonably broad vocabulary range and strategies to jump through the various hoops of examining boards. However,  little emphasize is put on developing, for example,  teamwork skills, communication skills or digital literacy skills- the set of skills they need to really take advantage of the language they acquired.

3. Materials should take into consideration the nature of language learning

Although SLA is a relatively new field to me as we have just started this module, it is already obvious that there is a connection between the theories about language learning and the ESL materials. Unfortunately, I am still unsure about the true meaning of SLA and can’t give sufficient examples. However, I could already notice that some course books are changing the way they present the language according to the developmental sequences of SLA.

4. Materials should provide a positive user experience

Not only did you fail to learn something; you had a horrible time trying. – ELTjam’s working definition of bad UX (user experience)

Nick Robertson (2016) talks about  user or rather learner experience in relation to digital ELT materials but I believe it can be applied to print as well.  I’d prefer to use the term user experience as for me the user is a teacher as well as a student.

I’m sure many teachers could remember the time they were using a course book that was so badly designed that it totally ruined your lesson.  I can definitely remember a couple of times as a newly qualified teacher I tried to follow a course book, realised after 10 minutes of the class that it wasn’t working but due to lack of experience was unable to deviate from the book.  As a result I could only continue a very painful, for me and my students, lesson. I was surprised nobody left the room. Of course, as an experienced teacher, now  I can easily improvise, adapt or abandon a course book and use my own materials, but it shouldn’t be the case.

The same I believe applies to learners. Publishers proved them with tons of material. Take the course book I’m using at the moment – English File 3^rd edition. My students are provided with: a coursebook, a workbook, a DVD,  a  student website, English File app, Oxford Online Skills Program, iTutor.  But some of these resources are so complicated to navigate that most of my learners give up after their first attempt.

I wish the publishers wouldn’t leave it all to the teacher, and focus on designing a course book that could deliver a positive user experience.

5. Materials shouldn’t use technology for the sake of using technology.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I am a great supporter of EdTech, however, sadly I came across too many products where technology has done more harm than good.

Take, for example, New Total English course book and its new ActiveTeach software. The publisher made a great effort to promote this multimedia platform – in my school we had a presentation by Pearson’s rep demonstrating how it works. And I’m not denying, it is a good tool, however, it seems that they spent all  their time and money on developing the digital component of the course and completely ignored their printed materials. The course book and the teacher’s book were horrible to use. They were full of typos, the questions and answers didn’t match, the context was only slightly updated and mostly recycled. Everyone who used it in my school had a terrible experience and I felt bad for the Pearson’s rep who came back a couple of weeks later to get some feedback as most of it was extremely negative.

I truly believe learning can be transformed by technology but it shouldn’t be done just for marketing purposes.

Kerr ,P. (2014) ” A guide to adaptive learning in ELT” accessed on 1/02/2016https://adaptivelearninginelt.wordpress.com/2014/01/20/a-guide-to-adaptive-learning-in-elt

Robinson, N. (2016)  “We need to talk about LX” accessed on 09/02/2016  http://eltjam.com/we-need-to-talk-about-lx/

I just came from a very inspiring workshop by Paul Driver where he talked about Augmented reality (AR) among other things.

Lately I’ve been reading and experimenting with Virtual reality (VR) and how it can be used in the ELT classroom, but AR was a totally new thing to me. So, what is it?

Paul Driver defines it as ‘real-time superimposition of digital media over real-world physical environments’.  Sounds puzzling, but it is really not.  Think of it as an advanced version of QR codes where instead of the code you are working with a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.  By scanning these elements you trigger that digital media to appear on the screen of a mobile device.

The great thing about AR is that, unlike VR which replaces the real world with a simulated one, it is embedding digital media into the physical environment of the real world.

Paul showed us lots of great ways of using AR in ELT classroom and after a bit of brainstorming we came up with some others. I’m going to write a different post dedicated to different ways of incorporating AR into the learning process.  But just to demonstrate how  easily applicable AR is, on my way home I popped into a shop to get some folders and  simply by looking at what’s available I could see a lot of resources  for potential AR activities.  Can’t wait to start experimenting with it.

Here is the link to Paul Driver’s blog and the demonstration of AR use http://digitaldebris.info/listeningpost/

Why are you here? This is the question we were greeted with on our first session of ELT Materials module. Our tutor, Paul Slater, asked us to note what we want from this module. This is what I wrote:
1. To gain a deeper understanding of materials and materials design
2. To get better at evaluating and choosing ELT materials
3. To get better at catering for needs of students and teacher
4. To explore the future of ELT materials
5. To create my own education product
6. To get involved in EdTech

Before this seminar Paul asked us to put together some information on what, how, when and why we use materials in our classroom. Here is what I came up with:

It was so interesting to hear what other teachers had used and the possible variety of resources that can be used in the EFL classroom (many of them technologically based). Paul made an interesting observation that about 5 years ago many of the mentioned materials were not used or simply not available.
So, what are English Language Teaching materials? According to Tomlinson (2012) they are ‘anything that can be used to facilitate the learning of a language’. He talks about some ‘traditional’ materials such as coursebooks, flash cards, graded readers but also goes on to include videos, games, websites, mobile phones or even instructions given by the teacher and conversations between the learners. ( Tomlinson, 2011).
Thinking about my personal practice I can see how my own idea of materials has changed over the years. As a newly qualified teacher I was relying heavily on coursebooks and the materials they provide. However as I gained more experience in the classroom I began to experiment with other types of materials and started to move away from coursebooks. These days if you ask me what is my favourite type of materials I’d say my students. Over time I realised they are the most relevant and real-life material you can get. Last week, for instance, my afternoon class was working on creating a video podcast. Their work then was published on the school’s VLE where everyone can view it. I can also use these podcasts with my other classes as a listening material or as an example of what is needed for the next group working on a similar task. Of course, to capture their production we need to use some kind of technology, and this is where I believe technology makes a difference and creating more opportunities for learning.
I also believe it is what you do with the materials that is important, and as soon as you engage your learners with it, it becomes a material. To demonstrate, Paul gave us a set of Cuisenaire rods and asked to come up with different ways of using them in the classroom. I was amazed by how many excellent ideas that were shared: to highlight the word stress, to show transformation from active to passive, to explain the word order, to work with connected speech and many others. So this is how easily some colourful wooden blocks become a learning material.
Working with Cuisenaire rods reminded me of a talk by Nathan Arthur I saw at Business English UK conference in 2014 where he demonstrated the use of wooden block and Lego in his classroom. Here is the link to his blog http://englishbrickbybrick.blogspot.co.uk/

Tomlinson, B. (ed.) (2011) ‘Materials development in language teaching’. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Tomlinson, B. (2012) ‘Materials development in language teaching’. Language Teaching 42:2. pp.143-179

Ok, I’ll be honest – this is the module I’ve been looking forward the most, and its first session didn’t disappoint me.  So, why materials?  Well, because I believe this is the future of ELT.  From what I can see most of the research and development seem to focus on this area.  It is unlikely that someone will come up with a completely new methodology – it is all about being eclectic and picking and choosing from the best practices. Second language acquisition approaches seem to be going round in circles.  Yet, materials and technology for ELT keep advancing and developing.

What is the future of ELT? While trying to find the answer to this question I came across so many new areas: mobile learning, adaptive learning, online learning,  gamification, virtual reality, advanced machine translation, automated marking to name a few. And it is all about technology and materials.

I won’t hide it, I’m very interested in Ed Tech and I am sure it will come across a lot in my posts. However, while there are a lot of people who actively support the use of technology in education ( Nicky Hockly,  Nick Peachey, Jamie Keddie, Russell Stannard , Philip Kerr, Pete Sharma, ELTjam team are some of the people I follow ), I came across a lot of negativity and resistance towards technology from many teachers.  There are a lot of reasons for this and I agree that we need to have a discussion about its disadvantages and dangers.  However, as Laurie Harrison mentioned in his talk about the Ed Tech revolution, we have three choices: resist, surrender or engage. And while others will continue to resist, I chose to engage. Because, I believe only by engaging with technology we can steer it away from the direction we don’t want it to go.

Now, let me just say it here, I’m not a techie person. I don’t own the latest Mac, I don’t have a tablet and I only started blogging during this course. However, this is a common misconception that only tech-savvy people get interested in technology.  A lot of things to do with technology are easier than they seem (setting up this blog is a good example). I am, however, curious and not afraid to experiment and this is what allowed my interest in Ed Tech to develop.

I have also decided to keep this blog open as I believe in global collaboration. I remember a couple of years ago having a chat with a British Council inspector during an inspection at the school where I work.  She was impressed with my innovative, at the time, use of flip-classroom and the technology to facilitate it. As a newly qualified teacher I was flatted with the comments and ask for some professional advice. I was told to protect and copyright whatever I do. I was shocked. It really made me think. Until that point I was sharing all my materials and ideas with my colleagues and they did the same. I enjoyed and valued that collaboration. And suddenly I was advised against it. I didn’t take that advice on board, however I can see why someone would want to protect a creation which they’ve worked hard on. But what I am talking about is sharing the knowledge. One of the things I love about technology is that it has provided fabulous opportunities for continuing professional development through networking, sharing and daring.   I believe in an open source model and think this is one of the factors that will determine the future of ELT.

Although this is my second blog, the whole experience is totally new and slightly terrifying to me. Personally, I am not a very wordy person and I don’t think I have a particularly good writing style (it is not a consequence of being a non-native speaker, I’m the same in my mother tongue). But if with the help of this blog I can persuade some of my readers to engage with technology instead of resisting it, my mission would be complete. Be inspired. Be inspiring. That’s the motto I go by.