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MODULE 4
c)printed materials:
Materials for the Teaching of Grammar
brochures, comics, directories, greeting cards,
 It is self-evident that the development of invitation cards, journals, magazines, maps, restaurants
grammatical competence has an important role menus and recipe, newspapers, notices and bulletin
in second or foreign language learning. boards, product labels, puppets, calendars, coupons, etc.
 The goal of any language teaching is
communicative competence which is translated Digital materials: blogs, vlogs and videos, podcasts, or
into four components namely: linguistic, these digital tools like.
sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic Easy-to-use resources for grammar input and
competence. independent study
English Grammar Guide at
“Every English poet should https://www.ef.com/wwen/englishresources/english-
master the rules of grammar grammar/
before he attempts to bend or One Stop English at http://www.onestopenglish.com/
break them.” – Robert Graves Perfect English Grammar at https://www.perfect-
englishgrammar.com/

Some of these considerations in deciding what •Advanced grammar skills from fragmented and run-on
materials to use in the classroom regardless of subject, sentences to complex and well-structured sentences
in the teaching of grammar. using Quill Connect at https://www.quill.org/
•Apply understanding of the system of grammar rules
the age and level of the learners who will be through contextualized writing using comics, cartoons,
using the materials; and storybooks.
the extent to which any adopted methodology
meets the expectations of a) learners, b) •Collaborate and share one’s outputs and beautiful
teachers, c) the educational culture within boards, documents, and webpages through Padlet at
which the learners and teachers work; https://padlet.com/
the extent to which any contexts and co-texts •Use popular and inspiring talks from TED ED at
which are employed in order to present the https://ed.ted.com/
grammar area(s) will be of interest to learners; •Design visual and printed materials creatively using
the nature of the grammatical areas to be dealt canva.com, Piktochart.com, vennage.com, visme.com,
with, in terms of their form, their inherent infogram.com, visualize.me, snappa.com
meaning implications (if any), and how they are MODULE 4
used in normally occurring spoken and/or
written discourse; Materials for the Teaching of Vocabulary
the extent to which any language offered to the
learners for them to examine the grammar used Vocabulary
represents realistic use of the language, and the  is key to English language learning for without it,
extent to which activities for learners to produce it would be difficult for anyone to convey ideas
language containing the target grammar will or understand other people.
result in meaningful utterances and ones which  It glues everything else together from your
bear at least some resemblance to utterances ideas or understand other people.
which the learners would be likely to want to  It glues everything else together from your ideas
produce in their own, non-classroom discourse; to the meaning it holds to one’s understanding
f)any difficulties that learners can be expected of these ideas.
to encounter when learning these areas of
grammar, especially with regard to any Mastering the vocabulary of a target language also
similarities or differences in form, function, and facilitates the acquisition of all other skills like listening,
form/function relationship, between the target speaking, reading and writing. Vocabulary has been
language and their mother tongue. defined by several experts as

AUTHENTIC MATERIALS 1) a list of target language words (Nunan, 2000);

a)audio and video materials: 2) a set of lexemes comprising “single words,

compound words and word idioms” (Richards
radio broadcasts, TV shows and advertisements, and Schmidt, 2002) and
documentaries, news reports, movies, telephone
conversations,etc. 3) synonyms to Lexi’s and lexicon (Jackson and
Amvela, 2000).

b)visual materials: These 4 Ds will help you remember how to go about

considering materials development for the teaching of
postcards, picture/photographs, art works, stamps, vocabulary.
signages and symbols, street signs, picture books,
posters, cartoons, infographic, etc. • Diagnose to identify the vocabulary level/size
(use the given online resources for this) of your
students. Knowing your student’s vocabulary
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strengths and weaknesses will help you decide

later on as to what strategies and materials best
suit their level.

• Determine student’s interest and learning

inclinations. Does this student learn better
through flashcards? Or does he/she learn better
through associations and context clues? You
may use Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence
test as well to get an idea as to student’s
strengths. Banking on Students #hugot and
strengths helps increase learning success.

• Decide what strategy to use to teach vocabulary

for certain groups. Even If they are all in the
same grade level, you might design
differentiated activities and choose level-specific
reading materials to cater for these groups. This
will also be based on students’ vocabulary level
and what word Focus (form, meaning and use)
you would like to emphasize. Then identify and
choose possible learning materials and
resources that will help facilitate.

• Develop your own materials or adapt already

existing materials putting in mind the vocabulary
learning activities which cover the different
aspects of knowing a word -form, meaning, and
use. As you do this, you should not forget the
data that you got from the previous steps. You
also need to consider availability of such
materials or any alternative materials you can
use. Again, you can create your own materials,
adapt already existing materials or contextualize
these materials according to your own
classroom needs.

MODULE 4.3

Materials for Developing Reading Skills

The Reading behavior of L2 learners

Masuhara (2003) reviewed the literature on L2 reading

difficulties from the 1980s up to 2002 and noted the
striking similarities in the descriptions of unsuccessful
reading behaviors across wide varieties of readers (e.g.
Cooper, 1984; Hosenfeld, 1984; Kim and Krashen, 1997;
Masuhara, 2000; Tomlinson, 2011b).

Pang (2008) investigates the studies on L2 fluent and less

fluent reader characteristics in the past 20 years,
focusing on

3 dimensions:

 language knowledge and processing ability,

 cognitive ability and
 metacognitive strategic competence
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. According to his literature survey, what separates the to signal to the learners that they should be able to
two groups seem to be the abilities for achieve accurate comprehension of all the details
straight away. Reading research, however, indicates that
 automatic and rapid word recognition,
the reading process is gradual and that it requires
 automatic syntactic parsing and
constant renegotiation between the reader and text
 semantic proposition formation.
(Grabe, 2009; Bernhardt, 2011).

 Fluent readers have a vocabulary size of 10,000

to 100,000 and awareness of text type and
discourse organization. The Language-Based Approaches
 Fluent readers also make use of prior The Language-Based Approaches to reading seems to
knowledge and L1 skills. They are good at have gained support at least twice in ELT: first in the
monitoring the comprehension process and at 1950s–60s, then in the 1980s–present. The dominant
making conscious use of a variety of strategies view around the 1950s and 1960s was that once learners
effectively if they encounter problems during acquired the habit of language use through learning
the reading process. grammar and lexis, they would become able to read
Grabe (2009) fluently (e.g., Fries, 1963). Such behaviorist views led to
reading being treated as a means of language practice
identified four components of L2 reading fluency: using simplified texts and graded readers.
 automaticity, The Language-Based Approach to reading appears to
 accuracy, reading rate and have regained support in claiming that to read fluently
 prosodic structuring. the learners need general language ability and,
especially, automatic word recognition. In L2 reading
The importance of automaticity in various aspects of
research, there are verbal protocol studies which seem
language processing seems to echo Pang’s survey (2008).
to suggest that vocabulary knowledge is of primary
Grabe explains that fluent reading should not only mean
importance in reading and that learners are unable to
rapid and automatic processing, but also accurate and
pay due attention to other linguistic aspects of texts until
appropriate assignment of meaning performed at an
they have coped with vocabulary (Davis and Bistodeau,
optimal reading rate.
1993; Laufer and Goldstein, 2004).
What is interesting is that Grabe (2009, p. 292) notes
Vocabulary studies (e.g. Nation, 2006; McCarthy et al.,
recent recognition among the literature of the
2009; Schmitt, 2010) also seem to indicate that fluent
importance of ‘prosodic phrasing and contours of the
reading requires:
text while reading’. According to Grabe (2009), good
readers process text chunks in ways that match • fast and automatic word identification.
structural units in continuous prose.
• extensive knowledge of the lexicon.

• the ability to attribute the most appropriate

The Reading Comprehension-Based Approaches meanings to lexical items in relation to their context and
co-text.
Anderson (2012, p. 220) notes that ‘One concern with
reading instruction materials is that ESL/EFL reading
instructional books consist of short reading passages
followed by vocabulary and comprehension tests’. Most of the reading materials try to kill two birds
Wallace (2001, p. 26) describes traditional reading (language and reading) with one stone and seem to fail
pedagogy as an approach which emphasizes to hit both targets.
‘comprehension in the form of the presentation of text When formal reading instruction begins at school, L1
followed by post-reading questions on the text’. children have established:
Williams and Moran (1989) identified three possible • Flexible and extensive aural/oral vocabularies
aims:
• Intuitive knowledge of English syntax
a. check comprehension,
The Language-Based Approaches to reading pedagogy
b. facilitate comprehension and seems to hypothesize an equation between the ability to
c. ensure that the learner reads the text. manipulate syntactic operations outside a discourse
context (i.e. what grammar tests tend to measure) and
The underlying assumption of the Comprehension-Based the ability to disambiguate syntactical patterns during
Approaches seems to be that a text has only one the reading process. If this often-unchallenged equation
meaning – one that is intended by the writer. Grabe proves to be invalid, then we might like to reconsider the
(2009), however, argues how readers change their value of explicit grammar teaching in the reading
reading processes according to the purpose of reading, sections of coursebooks.
based on a significant number of studies in L2 reading
studies and in educational psychology. The Skill/Strategy-Based Approaches

In the Reading Comprehension-Based Approaches, Alderson (2000, p. 110) states, ‘the notion of skills and
comprehension questions immediately follow a text as if subskills in reading is enormously pervasive and
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influential, despite the lack of clear empirical Articles that deal with affect proved to be most
justification.’ When the term ‘skill learning’ was used by predominant, for example, in The Reading Teacher from
the proponents of the Communicative Approach in the 1948 to 1991 (survey results can be found in Dillon et
1970s, the word was often contrasted with knowledge or al., 1992). Yet, affective influences on reading do not
conceptual learning. appear to have stimulated similar interest among
researchers.
What the Skill/Strategy-Based Reading Approaches
seem to share in common are: 2. Listening to a text before reading it helps decrease
linguistic demands and encourages learners to focus on
• a view that in order to read effectively, readers
meaning.
need a range of skills and strategies;
Written language must stand on the shoulder of oral
• an awareness that different readers may have
language. The brain is programmed to process the
different reading problems;
sensory world, turn that into phonological
• a view that guided practice will help learners representations and turn those into syllables, words,
learn necessary skills and strategies. phrases, and ultimately allow us to develop a written
code which is the orthography or letters that go with
The Schema-based Approaches those sounds.

Comprehension, according to schematists, happens • taking away the cognitive load of processing
when a new experience (be it sensory or linguistic) is scripts and sounds at the same time;
understood in comparison with a stereotypical version of
a similar experience held in memory. Whether we • chunking a text into meaningful and
subscribe to schema theory or not (summaries of manageable lengths to help the learners
criticisms of schema theories can be found in Alba and gradually interpret the meaning;
Hasher, 1983; Alderson, 2000), the reading process • adding prosodic features such as prominence
cannot be explained without acknowledging the vital that mark situationally informative pragmatic
importance of the knowledge systems in readers’ minds. meaning;
There are some varieties in the terms, definitions, and • achieving impact through reading a text with
functions in the relevant literature but, in sum, schema suitable affect (e.g. humor, anger).
theory is a theory about knowledge in the mind: it
hypothesizes how knowledge is organized in the mind 3. Reading comprehension means creating
and how it is used in processing new information. multidimensional Mental representation in the reader’s
Mind.
Williams and Moran (1989) point out the influence of
schema theory on the ubiquitous pre-reading activity in Meaning construction in a reader’s/listener’s mind is
EFL materials in the 1980s. Typical pre-reading activities achieved in a multidimensional way, deriving from the
include: integrated neural interactions of the various parts of
the brain (i.e. the sensory, motor, cognitive and
• asking learners to discuss, in pairs or in groups, emotional systems). Schema theory was criticized as it
their personal experience related to the theme is only a plausible metaphor and does not represent the
or the topic of the lesson; actual construct.
• asking learners to consider statements, text 4. Materials should help learners experience the text
titles, illustrations, etc. first before they draw their attention to its language.
A schema is a pre-packaged system of stereotypical By experiencing the text, learners can:
knowledge, and such a fixed structure may not meet
the demands imposed by the ever-changing context we • activate the sensory, motor, emotional,
find in authentic texts. cognitive areas of their brain;

Schema theories do not explain well how the mind • self-project and self-invest in the activities
creates, destroys, and reorganizes schemata or how which lead to deeper processing and to fuller
schemata are retrieved from the memory during the engagement;
comprehension process.
• have time to make errors and adjustments in
Engaging affect should be the prime concern of reading connecting verbal codes with non-verbal
materials mental representations; have time to talk to
themselves in their L1;
Good texts work on learners’ affect, which is vital for
deep processing and creates reasons and motivation to • have time to develop inner speech in the L2
read on. Affect is occasionally mentioned in the before publicly speaking out or writing.
literature as an additional or peripheral factor, but I
The most important principle in providing the experience
would argue that the engagement of affect (e.g.,
of the text is to sequence the activities so that the
interest, attitude, emotions) should be given prime
learners can experience the text first before analyzing it.
importance in reading materials production.
Regardless of our developmental stage, we never stop
1. Engaging affect should be the prime concern of processing the L1 in multidimensional ways, but
reading materials somehow L2 learners tend to be fed on a diet of
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unidimensional, linguistic, analytical approaches to • delete (omit repetitive or too difficult items)
language from beginners’ level to advanced.
• modify (rewrite activities to improve relevance
and clarity)

MODULE 4.4 • simplify (reduce the difficulty: of tasks and/or

explanations and;
Materials for Improving Writing Skills
• reorder (change the sequence of activities).
Roles of materials in writing Instruction
These include, but not limited to, the, following:
Purposeful planning of teaching and learning activities
necessitates an analysis of both the present situation • access to an abundance of authentic materials,
(current language proficiency level) and the target
• opportunity for collaborative research and
situation (desired language proficiency level). In so doing,
writing projects,
linguistic skills and knowledge gaps can be identified and
addressed accordingly. In the process, materials are • access to dictionaries, corpora, and reference
needed to assist the students toward the ability to aids, and.
perform linguistic tasks.
• opportunity for student written communication
and dissemination of their work to a wider
audience.

MODULE 4,56

Materials for Enhancing Listening and Speaking Skills

LISTENING

These are varied sources of inputs on listening which you

can use to enhance listening skills. Listening materials
that most teachers use are from coursebook that
provides activities like dictation, cloze, listening then
rewriting, pronunciation practice, input from recorded
script dialogues and monologues through recordings, etc.
aside from these “scripted texts”, Tomlinson (2013) also
provided a list of intake-rich materials and activities.

They are given below:

 Listening to the teacher reading poems, short

stories, extracts from novels, etc. (an activity
which could be used for 5 minutes at the
beginning of every lesson);

 Listening to teachers delivering a scene from a

play;

 Listening to the teacher telling jokes ad

anecdotes;

They are given below:

 Listening to their classmates and peers reading

poems, telling jokes and anecdotes, etc. (but
only if they have prepared and practiced);

 Listening to other learners reading aloud a

‘texts’ which they have enjoyed studying;

 Listening to others delivering a prepared speech

on something that interest them (especially if
the listeners have a choice of presenters to
listen to);

They are given below:

In adapting materials for writing instruction, teachers  Watching sports events, news events,
can: documentaries, etc., with commentaries in the
target language;
• add (supplement what the book offers by adding
extra readings, tasks or exercises)  Listening to presentation/discussions/debates
on topics relevant to the learners;
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 Listening to advertisements, radio programs,

and podcasts, music and watching TV and films;

 Engaging in discussion with peers on

controversial topics

Speaking a

Tomlinson (2013) provides “a framework for developing

materials for spoken language” namely:

(a)conceptualizing learner needs,

(b) identifying subject matter and communication

situations,

(c) identifying verbal communication strategies,

(d) utilizing verbal sources from real life and designing

skill-acquiring activities.”

A. CONCEPTUALIZING LEARNERS' NEEDS

Just like the teaching of any language skill, it is important

to gain baseline data as to student’s needs, interests,
proficiency level (through diagnostic and needs
assessments), learning style, motivation, cultural
preferences, and expectations.

b) IDENTIFYING SUBJECT MATTER AND

COMMUNICATION SITUATIONS

Given student’s preliminary data, teachers can now have

a picture as to what kind of instructional content,
learning experiences, materials or resources and
strategies they will design to suit the profile of the
learner.

c) IDENTIFYING VERBAL COMMUNICATION

STRATEGIES

In the selection and design of materials for teaching of

speaking, the teacher should incorporate controversial
strategies for various speech situations and contexts.
these materials provide practice and opportunities where
students act upon their interlocutor’s speech, employing
different communicative strategies.

d) UTILIZING VERBAL SOURCES FROM REAL LIFE

To modify materials, besides printed sources such as

magazine, articles, or pictures as a springboard for
communication, course developers can also integrate
varied verbal interactions taken from real life and in
classroom (Tomlinson, 2013). These are “unscripted” and
“unstructured” materials that provide for authentic use
of the language.

e) DESIGNING SKILL- ACQUIRING ACTIVITIES

This time, the teacher creates relevant, appropriate,

authentic, and contextualized speaking tasks to help the
learners achieve their goal to become effective
communicator. Providing effective communicative tasks
is very important to help students acquire the target
skill.