Week 4

FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN DESIGNING MATERIALS (Jocelyn Howard and Jae Major)

 

More than one we as teachers have face lots of difficulties when planning a lesson with lack of materials for teaching English; here the first option is to design but, there is a following question to answer :”What factors do I need to take into account when designing materials for my students? It can be a simple question, but, going in deep, there are some aspects that are necessary to take into account when designing materials for teaching English.

According to Howard and Major, there are remarkable aspects to take into account when designing materials for teaching English but I want to choose some two points that, in my opinion, are the most important for taking into account when preparing materials for EFL students.

The first factor that I want to mention is type of population, given that in many cases there are students that do not have previous knowledge at the moment of starting studying English (Taking the case of secondary students, in primary it is probably that they did not have English lesson so, it could affect their learning process). Also, there are students that do not feel motivated to learn English. In this case I as a teacher has to be very creative and innovative

The second factor that I want to mention is about students’ needs; there are students with different needs and materials are a way to engage students to participate in classes so if I as a teacher design my own materials based on my students’ needs (for example if they need to improve pronunciation, grammar use, vocabulary or even speaking or listening I should design all of those materials based on those needs).

Finally, it is important to consider that planning and designing materials based on what students know and what students need is the first step for a successful learning and teaching English process.