In their article "Guidelines for Designing Effective English
Language Teaching Materials," Howard and Major (2005) provide readers
with a set of instructions about the best way to design your own materials
successfully.
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In guideline 1 the authors propose that the materials should be contextualized.
Some of the things they mention is that the topics and themes we propose
need to be meaningful to our
students. In this perspective, technology can help us as it represents one of
the most relevant aspects in learners' every day life, which makes it a
significant context for students to work with.
In guideline 3 Howard and Major speak about the relevance of developing learning skills and strategies in learners. ‘It is essential that language teaching materials also teach their target learners how to learn, and that they help them to take advantage of language learning opportunities outside the classroom‘ (Howard and Major, 2005, p. 105).
Students can use technology to be in constant
contact with the foreign language and put what they learned into practice.
Nowadays, many websites allow us to do online activities which adolescents
enjoy a lot, and which can function as an absolutely entertaining tool for them
to learn informally.
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We, as future English teachers and digital natives at the same time, would like to focus on three important points to bear in mind when dealing with materials that are designed through technology.
The last guideline we would like to concentrate on is number 8, in which the authors suggest that the materials we design should be attractive. Here, the use of technology becomes essential; the idea of working with computers, cellphones or tablets while learning is absolutely advisable.
We have to admit that these days the use of technological appliances is part of our routines and learning cannot be ignored; we should try to give it a place in this modern movement.
Images taken from: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/01/03/the-frontier-of-classroom-technology
http://www.parentvoice.ca/tag/technology-in-the-classroom/
Hi Julieta and Fani!! We found your post very interesting and we agree with you in the assertion that good teaching materials should be contextualized, attractive and teach learners how to learn. We think that that are the major factors on which teachers need to concentrate on when designing their own teaching materials; but we also consider that teachers need to bear in mind that no matter how attractive the activity presented is, if the topic or theme is not relevant or meaningful for each specific group of students, there might be no sense on trying to present it using technology or any other tool since students would not be engaged. And if despite that the teacher gets the students’ attention she/he will need to provide his/her students with appropriate instructions so as to facilitate their learning process.
ReplyDeleteWe know that designing materials for teaching implies many things that sometimes are overlooked but studying and experience will teach us that, don’t you think?
Gisela and Evelin.-
Absolutely! we completely agree with you on the idea that the topic needs to be relevant to them. Moreover, we should always propose an activity to work with technology which cannot be done in pen and paper, if not, it would be nonsense.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your last comment, more than studying, experience will give us many more answers than we think! but meanwhile, let's keep on preparing ourselves to face the work that being a teacher implies!!