Should English Language Teachers design their own LT material?

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A fundamental issue present in most of the English Teaching units and programmes, is the creation of teaching materials. As soon as we start teaching, it is advisable to indicate whether to work with a coursebook or self-made materials. In this document, we will examine one negative aspect and one positive aspect, which might help you decide when is it appropriate to use LT materials.

A standout amongst the points of interest of teacher self-made materials is Contextualization. If we make a comparison with the materials already designed like coursebooks, teaching materials present the learners the fundamental tools and content to maximize their learning.  Unlike coursebooks which are globally designed, designing or adapting teacher materials enables ELT to assist to their learners needs and to take into account their particular learning environment (Howard & Major, 2008).

For example, we had to teach have got to a reduced group of Spanish speakers students. The coursebook, provided a grammar box and activities that consisted mainly of working with characters from the coursebook, like the exercises in New Treetops [1](as you can see in the picture N°1). The activity was completely decontextualized from the learners’ real experiences and background. So, to engage students in the process of learning, we designed an extra worksheet with pictures taken from different TV shows they may know like Adventure Time. In this way, students participated actively with the activities because they were related to their real life experiences.

picture - N°1


Howard & Major consider that time is a key factor that might inhibit teachers from designing their own material. We need to acknowledge that if we choose to use our own design materials, this means finding, selecting, evaluating, adapting, and making materials... to use in our lessons. All this process requires a lot of time. We believe that ELT would profit from LT materials if used for small courses. Consider planning or adjusting materials for 30 students in each course, for each of your lessons.


In conclusion, what we know about self-made materials is that it could be useful if they are used wittingly and contemplating about the measure of courses and students we have to educate, as well as the time available to do it. Consequently, even though the idea of creating new material seems positive, the disadvantages surpass the advantages.



Referencies:
[1] https://elt.oup.com/student/newtreetops/?cc=ar&selLanguage=en


Bibliography:

Howard, J. & Major, J. (2004). Guidelines for Designing Effective English Language Teaching Materials. The Tesolanz Journal.
Block, D. (1991). Some Thoughts on DIY Materials Design. ELT Journal, 45 (3), 211-217.

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