Principles of Effective Materials Development
By Prof. Licda. Virginia Mora Real
vimoreal@costarricense.cr
The reading Principles of Effective Materials Development is easy to understand and gives us info about the different principles we must take into account when creating materials: for language acquisition and for language teaching.
I strongly believe that, as teachers we may know these principles in practice. I mean, when I create materials, I have several aspects within my mind like the level of English my students have, awareness of their level, flexibility, my objectives and my students´ needs. They are in your mind like in an unconscious way. But what the author, Brian Tomlinson, does is to give us the theoretical part. He names the steps we should follow.
The principle I enjoy the most is the principle of language 3 which stands that those language learnes who achieve positive affect are much likely to achieve communicative competence thatn those who do not.
It is important to give our students positive feedback when receiving input or when they are giving their output. That kind of feedback is a must if we want a positive growth from them.
On the other hand, it caught my attention the principle that states: teaching should be designed to help learners to achieve language development and not just language acquisition.
That is the main struggle I have when teaching. I mean, sometimes it is hard to be just in the middle of the ideal teaching.
That is, I cannot just engage myself in teaching just vocabulary and grammar, but also I need to make them communicate and grow with the language.
That is, I cannot just engage myself in teaching just vocabulary and grammar, but also I need to make them communicate and grow with the language.
Hi, Vicky:
ReplyDeleteAchieving development and not just language acquisition should be clear to all of us. Oftentimes, as teachers we are concerned about how much a student is able to grasp rather than how well s/he can do it. We should be able to help students move from KNOWLEDGE into APPLICATION. Skills of application or production should then be fostered in the materials that we create.
Hi, Teacher,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you deeply. The difficult point is to be that type of facilitator. I guess courses like this one let us realize about how difficult our job is, and at the same time, it shows us how lucky we are.