SOME INSIGHTS ON INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

THE FOLLOWING ARE ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS 66 TO 70 ASKED BY PROF. DR. HERNANDEZ

66. SUGGESTED FEATURES ON THE TEACHER´S MANUAL:

According to the Florida Department of Education, Bureauof Curriculum and Instruction, a Teacher´s Manual can be a strong selling point as long as it is well designed. If it is well organized and it includes the following basic features, it will be easily adapted and used in the classroom.

Practicality:

This feature refers to qualities such as how clearly it is written, if it is easy to use, if it is cheap enough to buy it, and if it will be used on several occasions.

Clearly, a Teacher´s Manual must be a useful tool for the teacher, and it is fundamental that it has a clear layout so we can read it and use it easily. A complicated manual will never be used by the teacher. Its cost is also an issue to be considered, for in many bookstores, what I have seen is that acquiring a Teacher´s Manual is conditioned to the amount of textbooks you buy.


Alignment:

The contents and activities have to align to student materials, for this is the most elemental reason for obtaining the Teacher´s Manual.

Coverage:

The manual should have enough content for teachers to dedicate time for preparing lessons. it should explain procedures in teaching, cultural aspects, answers, a plan for each lesson, enough content for each topic, and information about what may be more difficult for students and how to explain these.

Readability:

It should be easy to understand the manual, and the objectives and instructions should be clear.

Methods:

Methods for students to learn the subject, activities for large and small groups, different learner contexts and learning styles should be includd.

Assessment:

The manual should include ways to evaluate the learning.

Management:

Support to classroom management, such as outlines to plan and organize the courses, units, and lessons, should be included in the manual.

From my own experience, some of the textbooks that we use in Costa Rica are not always published along with the teacher´s manual, or it is difficult to obtain it. In some cases, salespersons visit our schools and offer to give a teacher´s manuals and CDs that come as compliment of the instructional materials if the teacher sells certain amounts of books. Really, they are not giving anything for free, because the teacher has to work selling the books, collecting the money, and delivering it to the salesperson.

67. TECHNOLOGY CHANGES

Visual presentation has become very important, almost as relevant as the contents.Specialization features, such as graphic design, photography, and typefaces. These and titles of materials have become relevant.

The advances in technology have brought many innovations that could be used in the teaching process. Nowadays, many of our students have small gadgets like music reproducers, be these mp3s, iPods, small CD players, or their cell phones, which could be used for exposing our students to standard English songs or conversations. The students operate their cell phones for so many functions like filming short videos, taking pictures, passing images, songs, messages, to each other, just in seconds. Two other changes have been the access to cable TV and the use of DVD players to watch films. They also are members of social communities like chats in the web, Twitter or Facebook, where they can easily communicate with English speaking people all around the world. If we could only convince them to use standard English ! Those students who do, really outstand in our classes, and they recognize it is due to their constant exposure to the target language. They seem to acquire faster mastery of the language and a higher self-esteem.

As an English teacher, having my own blog provides me with a space where I can express my opinions and insights, or simply provide with information for colleagues or students. It makes me use the new technology and practice using it, making mistaskes and corrections, add ing images even from my own pictures, videos, sounds, to a degree I just keep surprising myself because of the diversity of possibilities in these presentations. I still have much to learn, but actually, I am enjoying it. I hope the reader does, too.

STUDENT PRODUCED VIDEOS: TWO APPROACHES

The following is a comment about an article published in the FORUM Magazine, which is a recommendation by Prof. Dr. Gilberto Hernández.

Nathaniel Carney and Patrick Foss, Japan, are authors of the article, "Student Produced Videos: Two Approaches," published in the English Teaching Forum, issue Number 2, 2008.

COMMENT:

Videos have become a form of expression and communication, such as videos posted in YouTube, or vlogs (video-based blogs), those sent by SKYPE, and others. Since producing a video by students was thought to be a motivating and self-empowering activity for the L2 learners, two instructors created a learner-centered project-based activity for a short-term intensive English program for college in Japan.

For these activities, time and cost considerations included digital video technology and editing softwares. They required a light, powerful digital video camera (at a lower cost than years before) and free time-efficient video editing software. They found these two softwares as the best found at the time:

-Microsoft´s MovieMaker (included in XP and Vista operation systems);
-Apple´s iMovie (included in the OSX operation system)

Having chosen the latter one, they connected their digital video camera to a Macintosh via a firewire cable. The computer, then, imported the videos automatically. It broke these videos into "clips" - segments of video created every time the user pressed "pause." These clips could be modified, too. After trying the software themselves, the two instructors gave each group instructions on how to use it. All students had access to one digital video camera and one computer.They had to acquire the following skills: writing, directing, acting in and editing a movie.

The general objectives for these video projects were:

1. Each student should use as much English as possible;
2. Students should learn as much about filmmaking as possible.

The specific language objective was:

- Students should learn and practice various debating language.
Added to these objectives were four rules students had to follow.

VIDEO PROJECT N° 1:
The first approach for this activity included eight students that had to work in pairs to make four short films. Through processes of negociation, students proposed the following videos:

-The ethics of cloning (as news report);
-Robot ´s work vs human work (drama);
-electronic surveillance (drama);
- electric cars (drama).

The instructor´s role was to instruct camera operation and use of iMovie software, to be present during most negiciations, to print a shooting, rehearsal, editing schedule, check in regularly with each group, and to help editing the film. In fact, the instructor helped mostly in editing.

All students were filming, acting, rehearsing, and editing at the same time. They were done before due time.

VIDEO PROJECT N°2:
The second approach for this activity included eight students that had to work together in a longer film. On the first day of class, they received some questions on the scientific/ethical theme of the relationship between animals and humans, and for homework, they had to think of one or two specific stories that could be the focus of the drama. On the next class, students negociated the final selection, as well as who had the responsibilities to be directors, writers, costume designers, and set and sound designers, during all the filmmaking process. They used Wiki, which is a free online collaborative website that allows all users with the password to write and edit content on the site, to write the script.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES:

FIRST APPROACH:
Avantages seen with students who worked in Project N°1:
-Each student had the opportunity to learn more about each major aspect of filmmaking.
-Each student had the opportunity to work on multiple English skills.

Disadvantages seen in this group were:
-The instructor was unable to work closely with students who were rehearsing. No one practices pronunciation or intonation.
-Students had little time to create sets or costumes
-On the final video, at times, students/actors were difficult to understand.

SECOND APPROACH:
Advantages seen with students who worked in Project N°2:
-Instructor and students consistently spent time together. Students practicedtheir pronunciation and intonation and body movements.
-Instructor´s feedback was immediate and constant. This showed on the final video.
-This approach proved to be an efficient way to produce a film, where all students had an opportunity to be a leader at times.

Disadvantages found in this group were:
-There was an unequal learning due to the division of labor for the video production.
-Some students were not involved at all in certain tasks.
-There was an unequal length of speaking roles where some students practiced more than others, (although all were present during these rehearsals) at memorizing, acquiring more vocabulary, grammatical structures, and paralinguistic skills.

These two approaches to student video production proved thatthis is a motivating and self-empowering activity where students acquire communicative and technical skills for these times.

PRIORITIES FOR EVALUATING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

PRIORITIES FOR EVALUATING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
by Prof. MSc. Orietta Vélez Dumani

Evaluation for Selection.

Evaluating instructional materials includes several aspects, sucha s the evaluation for selection of these. According to Patricia Byrd, evaluating and selecting textbooks is a process that varies. There are some settings in which the teacher decides on the books he/she wants to use, as is the case of some universities in USA, where teachers select the texts, order them through the bookstore in campus, and then use them in their classes. In other cases, the Ministry of Education decides about the curriculum and the texts that are used all around a country. Also, there are places where there are groups of people, such as members from the boards of education and administrators give a list of recommendations. Although the English teachers seldom participate in such decisions, it is important to know how to influence in the process of deciding which materials will be used.

The Fit Between Curriculum and Texts.

According to Byrd, fundamental considerations for selecting materials must address a fit between the materials, the curriculum, the students and the teachers. These are requirements that publishers ought to consider if they want their material to be bought by powerful buyers. Nevertheless, this fit is hard to achieve for smallergroups. That is why the materials are not completely congruent with the pedagogical goals of the syllabus.

The Fit between Students and Texts.
To be able to obtain a proper adjustment between the students and the texts, Byrd says that the latter ones have to cover the students´s needs in:
- content, being interesting, useful, with explanations that students understand.
- examples that are suitable for the lives and interests of the students.
- enough variety of exercises and tasks.
- well constructed presentation and format.

The Fit Between Teachers and Texts.
Byrd also says that there must be a proper adjustment between the materials and the teachers so they will use them. These aspects ought to be considered:
- contents that teachers find useful to obtain their goals, that fit their knowledge-base, for teachers must have the adequate English to understand the - examples usable for the teacher.
- enough exercises and tasks that cover different learning styles, with instructor´s manual and answer key.
- presentation and format providing teaching opportunities.

Textbook analysis in the implementation process includes the same aspects mentioned above.

Analysis For Implementation.
It is relevant to know the resources in the textbook well before the teaching process begins to utilize it thoroughly. In the initial reading of a textbook, the teacher should consider the following aspects:
- presentation and format to know the way it is organized.
- content or information in each unit.
- practices given, their relation to the content and connections between activities.
- evaluation provided.
- support for the teacher such as instruction manual.

Analysis of the Content of the Textbook.
ESL/EFL textbooks tend to have either of these two contents:
- the linguistic content;
- the thematic content.
In content-based materials, topics are clearly visible, but in other materials, teachers need to look past the linguistic content to encounter the themes that are being included.

Finally, Byrd recommends sites where we can find text reviews such as:
- TESOL journal,
-the TESOL Quarterly,
-newsletters or journals of regionasl affiliates of TESOL.

CHALLENGES IN REVIEWING CONTENT

When we review the content of instructional materials, several challenges emerge.

-There are controversies in regards to what the best approach is because there are many beliefs concerning teaching methods or because of the educational policies that vary from one state to another (in USA). The content may be inaccurate because of the treatment that is given to a topic, there are errors in the facts or disproven concepts in the material.

-Analysis of the content may be misleading. Publishers have to show a correlation between the requirements of the educational curriculum and their material, but some only cross-check particular requirements with finding the vocabulary (key words) in the headings, indexes, titles, texts, or glossaries, and this does not mean that the contents are matching the desired requirements of education.

Hugh Laurie: the British accent vs the American

More Principles of Effective Materials Development

More Principles of Effective Materials Development,
according to Brian Tomlinson

Tomlinson also follows these principles when developing effective materials.

Principle of Language Acquisition N° 3:

Language learners who achieve positive affect are much more likely to achieve communicative competence than those who do not.

Comment:
Learners who are motivated in a positive way are going to feel that what they learn is valuable, and they may develop a positive self-esteem. It is important to have a reaction from them, whether it is laughter or aversion, for in the end, a valuable positive affective involvment will have been accomplished.

Principles of materials development:
- Materials ought to be attractive, interesting, relevant, pleasant, achievably challenging, to bring forth a positive influence on the learners. Controversial, provocative, and cheerful materials that include readings, songs, art, and others, stimulate emotive responses.


Principle of Language Acquisition N° 4:

L2 language learners can benefit from using those mental resources that they typically utilize when acquiring and using their L1.

Comment:
- All of us use multidimensional mental representations (mental maging, inner speech, predictions, interpretations, connections with our lives, and others) when we learn and use our L1. To promote durable language acquisition of L2, learners ought to develop the ability to use the target language effectively, through multidimensional representations.

- We use the inner voice to control our environment (hear, read, make plans, solve problems, evaluate) and prepare the outer voice utterances before saying or writing them, in L1. It is only advanced students of L2 who use these in the target language. But we should provide material for students to use their inner voice, even when they have not acquired an advanced level in L2.

- We should try to train L2 learners to use visual imaging to improve their language use and acquisition.

Principles of Materials Development:
- Before, during and after the learning activities, learners ought to be encouraged to visualize or use inner speech.
-Activities ought to make students reflect and use mental strategies once in a task and again in a similar task.