Teachers all over the world need materials to teach. Most of them rely on textbooks or materials already produced for specific levels. However, that is not always the case. Depending on the context and the content, some teachers decide to design their own material for their lessons. But why bother to do so if only by typing a few key words in Google we can find endless resources ready to be used? As we said before, it all depends, mainly, on the context and the content of the teaching situation.
It is obvious that the context of teaching will determine what and how we teach. That is why teachers have to carefully choose the right materials whether they are to teach in the most prestigious university of New York or in a rural school in Chaco, Argentina.
"For many teachers, designing or adapting their own teaching materials, enables them to take into account their particular learning environment and to overcome the lack of 'fit' of the coursebooks" (Howard & Major, 2005, p. 101)
"English language classrooms are diverse places, not only in terms of where they are situated, but also in terms of the individual learners within each context." (Howard & Major, 2005, p. 102)
It is also important to give the material a "personal touch" to increase motivation. Moreover, the teacher designer can use the current local and international events as resource, creating relevant tasks to respond to up-to-date affairs.
But it is not a bed of roses, designing materials has its drawbacks. It is time consuming, the material can seem unprofessional due to the lack of printing quality, unclear instructions or bad organisation.
In the paper written by Jocelyn Howard & Jae Major (2005),Guidelines for Designing Effective English Language Teaching Materials you can find 10 guidelines to help you when designing your own materials.
Here is a graphic summary of the content of the guidelines.
Hope it helps. Leave a comment.
[This word cloud was created in https://tagul.com/]
Source: Jocelyn Howard & Jae Major (2005),Guidelines for Designing Effective English Language Teaching Materials
