“There is value in verbalizing attitudes and metaphoric language is particularly revealing of the subconscious beliefs and attitudes that underlie consciously held opinions. “McGrath, 2006:173
In this seminar we discussed the notion of metaphors and what are the metaphor
s teachers and learners have for the coursebook. As for the Teachers in Kuwait, their understanding of the coursebook is that it is a product of collaborative work of excellent material designers who the government pay to create a coursebook that is culturally appropriate to our context. For them, the coursebook seems to be their Holy book which must not be altered. “textbooks can seem to absolve teachers of responsibility… it is easy to just sit back and operate the system, secure in the belief that the wise and virtuous people who produced the textbook knew what was good for us” (Swann, 1992: 33)This made me reflect on the other issues we discussed in class about process of adaptation and supplement and what, when, how and why teachers adapt and supplement materials in ELT classrooms.
My group consists of three members Steph Khoi and myself. The three of us come from different educational backgrounds and varied experiences. It was interesting to see how we adapt materials in our different contexts.
We decided that to answer the questions of the process of adapting and supplementing materials in the classroom, we should answer the four WH questions
What: we decided that there are four foci which can be adapted or supplemented. 1) the language 2) the process 3) the content 4) the level.
When: the process of adapting materials and supplementing can be Ad hoc that is without prior planning or can be principled. In my case, I don’t need to adapt new materials for my learners because I’m supposed to stick with the assigned coursebook by the ministry of education in Kuwait. However, knowing that adaptation is different than supplementation, that is, supplementation means that teachers provide their learners with material outside the assigned coursebook, often in the form of a worksheet (McGrath 2016). In certain cases, I do supplement like when I need more elaborative materials on grammar for example, I usually look for readymade materials online, but this depends on its availability and suitability for the context and the learners.
Why: teachers tend to adapt materials by assessing their learning environment and whether their teaching situation requires them to adapt and supplement materials. Also, one of the reasons why teachers adapt is based on their learners’ different needs. Teachers cater for the differentiation in learning with their leaners and take into consideration the personalities of the students. Also, teacher’s beliefs play a major role in the process of adapting and supplementing materials. Some maybe flexible and use some suitable materials from outside the curriculum to enhance the learning process, and some just adhere to the assigned coursebook.
How: there are three categories for adapting and supplementing materials. 1) addition, where the teachers extend or exploit the materials 2) change where the teacher can reorder or replace or simplify the materials 3) supplement where the teachers can use other published materials or create their own.
In conclusion, I don’t personally adapt in general material all the time. However, I tend to use other materials created by other experienced teachers that really solve some of the problems I face in the curriculum.
McGrath, I. (2002). Materials evaluation and design for language teaching. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
McGrath, I. (2016) Materials Evaluation and Design for Language Teaching (2nd edn). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
McGrath, I. (2006) Teachers’ and learners’ images for coursebooks. ELT Journal 60 pp.171-180
Mishan, F., & Timmis, I. (2015). Materials development for TESOL. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Swan, M. (1992) The textbook: Bridge or wall. Applied linguistics and language teaching 2(1): 32-35.
Tomlinson, B. (2011). Materials development in language teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
What you have written is good but I have concerns. First, you have provided a short bibliography but it wasn’t clear to me how the reading that you had done had informed your post. Second, you post is about 350 words which is about half of what I’d expect it to be. I realise that all students may have concerns about the amount of writing they have to do on this module but this is down to the register of blog writing. Academic writing is short, concise and effective, but writing effectively in the academic register takes time and application. Blogs take more words but involve less work refining and sticking to a set of limitations. You have fewer restrictions than with academic writing, but it takes more words to achieve the depth required. – Paul
Hi, Bader
I think it would be interesting to know the difficiency of the course book and corriculum in your country and how you choose the other teachers’ adaptation or supplementation.
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