MATERIAL ADAPTATION

Materials (textbooks) play a very important role in many language classrooms but in recent years there has been a lot of debate throughout the ELT profession on the actual role of materials in teaching English as a second/foreign language.

Issues to reflect potential and the limitations of materials for 'guiding' students through the learning process and curriculum needs and preferences of teachers who are using textbooks.

As Hutchinson and Torres (1994) suggest: the textbook is an almost universal element of [English language] teaching. Advantages Haycroft (1998): the primary advantages of using textbooks is that they are psychologically essential for students since their progress and achievement can be measured concretely when we use them.

O'neill (1982): Textbooks are generally sensitive to students' needs, even if they are not designed specifically for them, they are efficient in terms of time and money, and they can and should allow for adaptation and improvisation.

Advantages Cunningsworth (1995): textbooks are an effective resource for self-directed learning, an effective resource for presentation material, a source of ideas and activities, a reference source for students, a syllabus where they reflect pre-determined learning objectives, and support for less experienced teachers who have yet to gain in confidence.

They can support teachers through potentially disturbing and threatening change processes, demonstrate new and/or untried methodologies, introduce change gradually, and create scaffolding upon which teachers can build a more creative methodology of their own.

Learners will improve their language skills by using their textbooks as useful instruments for provoking discussion, cultural debate, and a two-way flow of information.

ADAPTING MATERIALS BRIDGING MAKING OBJECTIVES MEET REQUIREMENTS MATCHING PURPOSE MAXIMAZING APPROPRIACY LOOKING FOR “CONGRUENCE”

“Effective adaptation is a matter of achieving « congruence …the good is constantly striving for « congruence » among several related variables: teaching materials, methodologies, students, course objectives, the target language and its context, and the teacher’s own personality and teaching style.

“The good teacher is constantly adapting “The good teacher is constantly adapting. he adapts when he adds an example not found in the book or when he telescopes an assignment by having students prepare “only the even numbered items”.

when to adapt? not enough grammar coverage not enough practice of grammar points of particular difficulty for learners grammar presented unsystematically reading passages contain too much unknown vocabulary comprehension questions are too easy and can be lifted from the text with no real understanding not enough guidance for pronunciation

subject matter inappropriate for age or intellectual level photographs and other illustrative materials insufficient or inappropriate dialogs too formal not representative of everyday speech too much or too little in the variety of activities etcetera.

How to adapt? adding , including expanding and extending deleting , including subtracting and abridging modifying , including rewriting and restructuring simplifying reordering