Week 7

THE MYTH OF NATIVE SPEAKER USAGE MATERIALS

 

Many things have been said about the teaching of English as a foreign and second language. Taking into account the topic proposed about choosing authentic materials, it would be nice to propose two different materials for adapting in teaching different topics:

The first material to be adapted is the authentic text, useful for a reading lesson, more specifically, inferential Reading strategies, the answer is very simple here: when teaching reading, it is important to consider that learners need to have a very well-planned lesson where they can apply the strategies on how they can learn to read and answer questions taking into account inferential questions tips.

In this case, the idea is to take into account students’ background and, based on that background, to adapt different types of materials regarding the teaching of inferential reading (example, read in context and then, you will understand the meaning of words according to that situation).

The second material to be adapted in a lesson is the use of realia in order to motivate students to talk about present simple; if a teacher focuses his/her lesson in real situations and, properly in students’ situations, they will feel more motivated to learn and, their learning process will be easier and fun for students.

Finally, it is important to mention that if a teacher knows how to manage those kinds of materials in their lessons, the teaching process will be successful and students will feel more engaged to learn.