Materials are…
So today we discussed what materials are, were and will be as EFL is evolving. Amidst all discussions ( some slightly heated ) the conclusions which emerged were that anything could be used as material. Tomlinson, who seems to be the guru on the subject, sums it up as ‘anything used to facilitate learning’ ( Tomlinson 2012: Language Teaching Vol 45 Part 2 ). With this in mind when talking about materials we should therefore consider both what materials are/could be and how they are/could be used.
Along with many questions asked in the session we also had to identify what we wanted to achieve in this module. One which stood out for me was inspiration. Having taught for over 3 years I have tried using various coursebooks and have recently started exploring use of PowerPoint, IWB-type software eBeam as well as use of video in class. But experimenting with what’s out there can often prove a rather daunting task. During my teacher training I found peer observations and simply asking around the most useful way of putting a lesson together. To some extent, I have similar hopes for this course. It’s not so much observing others I am talking about but the opportunity to share and exchange ideas. It’s so easily done to stick to a repertoire of lessons we are comfortable with and it will be my challenge to look at my practice from both materials’ and other teachers’ perspectives.
As a starting point for our discussion we compared materials we used in 3 of our most recent lessons and talked about their effectiveness,origin and relevance. This is what I did:
Our table talked about a variety of materials used in classrooms including streamlined coursebooks, online materials, images and videos. With an array of experiences at hand this proved an interesting discussion. Contexts, time element and top-down restrictions were mentioned as key when selecting materials. Many of us, myself included, found we were often pushed into using a particular book and though enjoyed the security of a framework it had to offer it was rarely popular with students, especially in a summer school context. We all agreed that although coursebooks are rarely universal and date quickly, they are still somehow expected by learners. This in itself places additional pressure on the teacher to humanise and personalise published material to make the most of it.
Allen (2015) also concluded that published EFL textbooks ‘will continue to provide support for student EFL teachers who lack experience’. His research showed that trainee teachers really valued the coursebook highly and considered it more of a ‘plan’ to language learning and teaching. More experienced teachers lost this sort of appreciation and, as discussed at in our group, saw it as a ‘contingency’ or even a ‘restrictor’. Masuhara (2011) elaborated not only on a range of complex reasons teachers use coursebooks in their dayily practice but also how published material comes to life. Among many factors influencing teachers in the process of using materials to aid learning were teacher’s own wants. Personally, I think those play a huge role in how one uses the coursebook or any other material to meet learners’ needs. To our relief, both the case study (Allen 2015) and Masuhara’s article validated our discussions. We all agreed that it is something we are initially trained to use and we often held onto it for dear life in our early teaching days. However, through our experience and journey to reinvent ourselves as teachers, we then got to realise that coursebook is more of a guide rather than a manual. Another point raised at our table was that using and indeed following coursebooks to a letter was how we all gained our experience in selecting, adapting, supplementing and even abandoning some sections altogether. What’s more, as little or no guidance has been given to us in our CELTA/TESOL training, it goes without saying that our practice in this area was hugely experiential.
Though it is still generally believed that relying on a coursebook is a sign of inexperience (Allen 2015) or lack of creativity it was clear that most of us use it to some extent. Tomlinson (2012) pointed out that the discussion about using textbooks to aid language learning has been going on since early 1980s and clearly has not been resolved against using those in EFL classrooms. As British Council survey revealed that 94% of teachers admit to using published materials it appears that, whether we like admitting it or not, this huge industry has found sufficient market to feast on. As Our experience and creativity was put to a test when given a set of cuisenaire rods. There was no right or wrong here – simply different.
This exercise gave us all an opportunity to see others’ creativity as it unveiled before our eyes. To me, it proved Tomlinson’s broad, yet most accurate definition of materials: they are indeed anything we can make use of.
References
Tomlinson,B.(2012) Materials development for language learning and teaching. Language Teaching 45 (02)
Masuhara,H. (2011) What do teachers really want from coursebooks? In:Tomlinson, B.(ed) Materials Development in Language Teaching. (2nd edn) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Allen,C. (2015) Marriages of convenience? Teachers and coursebooks in the digital age. ELT Journal
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Hello Aleks!
I also agree that while we teachers often criticize course books, none of us would want to completely abandon them.
I found this session very interesting. It really made me think what we mean by ‘materials’. The activity we did using a set of rods reminded me of a workshop by Nathan Arthur I attended some years ago. Here is the link to his website is you are interested http://englishbrickbybrick.blogspot.co.uk/
Hi Anna,
Thanks for your comment and a useful link 🙂 Really creative! Have you used it yourself or used it in class? Would be interesting to see it in action as his presentation nicely reminds us of wise Confucius:
I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.
It’s good to see you identifying in this post what you want to get from the module. It would be useful to return to those points to consider the degree to which you have or haven’t got what you wanted.
I’m not sure who views Tomlinson as a ‘guru’ but he is certainly very knowledgeable about the world of language learning materials.
You say that “it is still generally believed that sticking to coursebooks is a sign of inexperience or lack of creativity” but you don’t say where you got this information from. I raise this because I don’t get this view from most of the teachers I talk to. The blog is certainly a place where I’d encourage you to express your views but you need to distinguish between opinions and reporting things as facts.
Thank you very much for your feedback. I have revisited couple of my earlier post so far to see if, indeed, my blog is heading towards finding the answers for me after all.
Apologies for not referencing Allen (2015: 259) initially. He states that published material ‘will continue to provide support for EFL teachers who lack experience in judging the appropriacy of teaching materials in relation to proficiency levels in their classrooms’. As mentioned earlier in my post it is common knowledge that newly qualified teachers heavily rely on coursebooks at the beginning of their practice often to find their bearings. The comment on limited creativity was my interpretation of Tomlinson’s State-of-the-Art Article (2012) where he suggests that teachers who have the ability to facilitate learning without any published material have so called ‘principled creativity’. My understanding of this was that teachers who frequently rely on coursebooks do so in case they are still to develop such qualities. Principled materials design is not part of our initial teacher training and, in my opinion, is a result of conscious and reflective development of several, not all, teachers who strive for perfection in their field. Doing this course has put us all in a very privileged position where we can reflect on our practice in a supportive and non-judgmental environment. Sharing and exchanging ideas across a range of contexts is what helped us all establish our principles and put us on track to principled creativity.