I mentioned in Part 1 of my blog examples of adaptation and supplementation of teaching materials for the IB coursebook. The focus of this blog is to explain why I had to adapt the coursebook materials and what I had to consider for during this process; for example learner’s needs and contextual factors. In my case, my tutoring sessions are between one or two hours a week with students who are mainly English speakers, with an age range between 16+ to adulthood. There are two groups; one of four adolescents and one group of six adults.
The adapted materials were implemented in a context where Spanish is learned beyond a formal classroom setting. (Private tuitions). Being a home tutor involves many factors, but I would like to summarize my concerns of what is important and suits a home tutor. Barkhuizen(2011:163) states that:
- A concern with how the learner undertakes the learning process: for example, students’ engagement with materials and lesson contents. Observing teenagers needs, I had to provide more informational input, such as explanation of historical context, because not all the students know about the Spanish Civil war. The aim of the lesson is to link with the poem with its background. Contrary to this, the adult group brings their past knowledge to the class. They are the focussed on the form of language and they request reinforcement with grammar and pronunciation.
- A concern with particular attributes of the learner; the teenagers’ motivation is to pass their exams (university requirement entrance). The adult group had a second house in Spain or family in Spanish.
- A concern with how to use the one or two hour weekly sessions effectively. This involved organising materials that engaged learners in order to fulfil their goals.
- A concern with the subject matter of learning, i.e. with what is taught and learned, and how the materials are adapted in accordance with the learners’ needs and interests.
The fourth framework is concerned with the subject matter of learning, which is undoubtedly very important in my practice. I would like to highlight that the learners who seek tuition are already motivated to learn, but their frustration of not understanding the content of their coursebook could indeed jeopardise their learning. When adapting my materials, I had to consider the aforementioned factors. I supplemented two examples in order to complete a task which was centred around understanding a poem called Recuerdo Infantil by Antonio Machado (1875–1939). The carefully selected materials came through visual media on YouTube, which were; an extract of the film La Lengua de las Mariposas, by Manuel Rivas and a Flamenco song.
The main reason I chose this type of media was its accessibility for the learners outside the language tuition. Their feedback was that they found this type of material entertaining and interesting for learning more about Spanish culture. Another reason was to foster the learner’s need to overcome the problems they faced when they had to explain what they read, because it was difficult for them to distinguish between the literal meaning and the deeper meaning of the poem. Not only that, but also, they had to complete a task that involved reading aloud, discussing their interpretation of the poem and the task of analysing it.
Internal evaluation Teaching Materials
I carried out an internal evaluation of the materials (table1below):
(A) film from YouTube- La Lengua de las Mariposas,by Manuel Rivas.
(B) Listening Task: Students listened to a Flamenco song from YouTube- which was the poem in the coursebook: Recuerdo Infantil by Antonio Machado.
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INTERNAL EVALUATION Of Materials A/B |
Reading | Are materials (A/B) adequate and appropriate for improving reading comprehension of the poem? Yes, it helped the semantic predictability of the main topic -Time/Death/Love/some terms such as una ‘tarde parda y … de lluvia tras los cristales..’ |
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Listening NO-Difficulty: A-Film/B-Song |
Is the listening material well recorded? Yes. Provide authentic input? Yes, the students were able to match the related film visuals and video visuals with relevant lexical phrases in the reading material. They were also able to copy the pronunciation and repeat it along with the music. | |
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Speaking Grade of Difficulty Need more practice to achieve higher level |
Does the task include adequate individual and group speaking activities? In pairs students had to discuss the new terms in the poem and make links between the poem and the setting. | |
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Writing Grade of Difficulty NO This task was completed. |
Are models provided for different genres? Yes. Teenagers had to write sentences with the vocabulary and link them with the school setting. The adult group had to write about their previous school experience. | |
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Vocabulary Grade of Difficulty NO Materials were feedback ‘I had learned new meanings and the Spanish social context’ |
Is the new vocabulary integrated in varying contexts and situations? Yes. Students were not familiar with the new vocabulary items or the historical context. The visuals on the film extract provided new knowledge. So the students were able to identify the new items when they listened to the flamenco music. | |
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Grammar The learner need more time to rewrite the task |
Do the poem structures gradually increase in complexity to suit the growing ability of students? Yes. Students recognised alliteration, adjectives and phrases. They also recognised hyperbole and exaggeration as a rhetoric device, for example ‘truena el maestro’. In the writing task students benefited from paired feedback. | |
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Pronunciation Grade of Difficulty The accent of the song was clear easy to understand and the film was easy.
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Is there sufficient work on recognition and production of stress patterns, intonation and individual sounds? Yes. They were able to recite the poem without any difficulties. |
Overall, my aim is not to promote the use of technology as the only means of adapting or supplementing materials, but to recognise that in this study I found the role of media to be an important choice for adapting teaching materials. Due to the fact that multi-media offers the learners extra input, I was not able to expand just by being a native speaker of Spanish in one session. I found the supplemented materials were optimal resources for the learners that were exposed to Spanish accents, the music with visuals to accomplish their difficult task. This media materials were appropriate for the age group and their need. The film extract and the flamenco music engaged learners with semantic fields such as: monotonous, routine, school, teacher. I decided to use an extract of the film to show the setting where the poem was written and the classroom scene in the film is linked to key themes in the poem such as; time, love, death and education in Franco’s strict regime. Also, the music video reinforced the students’ past knowledge by having the visuals with the new vocabulary.
At first glance students found that the vocabulary of the poem was colloquial, although they struggled when they had to explain the deeper meaning of the poem. However, the material encouraged them to use their own words in order to explain what they had heard and watched. For the adult group, the pronunciation was a problem, especially when they had to read aloud. However, the media provided opportunities for reflection of their pronunciation and self-correction. Upon reflection, it was useful to create material that supports learners to be autonomous so that they can achieve their goals, and to be able to enhance the teaching materials for future use.
References
Barkhuizen,G.(2011) Home Tutor Cognition and the Nature of Tutor-Learner Relationship.In:Benson, P., Reinders, H. & Dawsonera 2011, Beyond the language classroom, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke