“Anything which is used to help to teach
language learners. Materials can be in the form of a textbook, a workbook, a
cassette, A CD-Rom, a video, a photocopied handout, a news paper, a paragraph
written on a white board, anything which presents or informs about the language
being learned.”
-
Brain Tomlinson,
Material
plays an important part in the language learning system. Jane Crawford in his article “The Role of
Materials in the Language Classroom: Finding the balance” writes about the
materials that are using to meet up the learners needs. There are basically three parts of his
article, one is introduction, next is preplanned teaching materials-helpful
scaffold or deliberating Crutch? And another one is Effective Teaching
Materials. Crawford in his second part of his article tells about the different
concerns view about using materials in the classroom and in third part he used
to talk about the effectiveness of materials. In the second part the question
arise that do preplanned materials can meet the needs of the all learners,
because all learners have their own learning needs, interest and motivation so
their learning needs will different. All the human being is unique so their
needs will be unique and different from others. So depending on this issue, if
the teacher conduct the class from a preplanned book than the learners will be de
motivated and it will hamper the learning environment. Second language
acquisition process is different for learners, the entire learner cannot obtain
same thing in a certain time they need more or less time. For pre planned
materials if the teacher intended to take the class with same materials without
assessing the learner’s needs than their purpose and outcome will not be up to
the mark. Preplanned course book reduce teachers role in the class and
sometimes there will be culturally differences attitude in a pre planned course
book or materials, which will have negative effect on the learners because they
cannot relate their learning with their real world and fail to contextualize
language activities.
According
to author materials writer have to be familiar with the teaching and learning
style and the context of the materials use otherwise the material will be
useless. So the material designer has to be experienced, because they know the
critical use of materials in the classroom. With the growing tendency of
technological use teachers also have to know the use of technology and their
uses. By using the modern technology students will get the opportunity of outer
world and it reflects the real world to the students and it grabs the attention
of the learners. But if the teacher only follow the text book then all the
activity will be more controlled and their will be no feedback or challenges
for the learners to improve their own learning. To design a material teacher
has to know the answer of the questions is that what is learnt indeed
learnable. In the article author tells that teacher’s guide may provide a
scaffold for leaner’s to think. In the article the author suggests that
participants should get chance to participates so that they can identify where
the lesson fits into the wider context of the language program. Hutching and
Torres suggestion for this is the text book is important because it allows for
negotiation, accountability and orientation.
In
Effective teaching materials part the author eight characteristics of effective
materials. In a language learning process two component play the main role, one
is student and the other one is teacher and the materials bridge them in a tie.
So a material has to be effective otherwise the bridge will be broken. The
author in this section emphasis on language to develop materials. Language is
functional and must be contextualize, because the language is purposeful and
for a certain purpose people learn second language. So the materials have to
develop concerning their context. So he told that language development requires
learner’s engagement in purposeful use. To engage learners more the audio-video
materials inclusion will make learners more inter active. They feel interest,
so choosing the video and audio materials with the cultural context. Depending
on the learner’s background and goals, teacher can decide whether to enhance
and reduce this focus. The language use in the materials should be realistic
and authentic, to learn language if the teacher use authentic materials then it
remains long period in the learners mind. And another remarkable thing is use
realistic language, so that it can create easy environment for all proficiency
level. Suppose using to correct pronunciation if a teacher use a video which
contained 7-8 minutes than the learner will not understand all the words and
they feel difficulty so the material will not be authentic. So to make
authentic video, it must contain minimum 5 points. Another point he includes classroom material
will usually seek to include an audio visual component and his pint of view is
effective teaching materials foster learner’s autonomy. So his emphasis on
giving exercise or activities by using multi media. If it can be done then the
student will move into a new situation and it creates learning environment. He
also gives emphasis on materials flexibility and creates materials depending on
individual and contextual differences as well as engage learners both
affectively and cognitively. To develop language proficiency one learner should
have knowledge on 4 skills. To make the
learner real communicator if the materials cannot provide the opportunity of
these four skills development then the aim will not be fulfilled. So the main
idea is materials only give the input of certain linguistic and cultural
preparation but the main purpose is to attain language by the ultimate learning
process.
Materials
mainly give the direction to the teachers through which teacher get is idea how
to deal with class to get maximum output. Through this article the author tries
to give direction of maximum use of materials with certain perspective. With
the guideline of the materials learners and teachers can be helpful because it
provides input. It is the teacher’s responsibility to use the materials with
the needs of the learners by balancing the outcome and context. In a learner
centered classroom materials have to be have more learning centered activates
and students have to get chance to take part of this activities, than the
material become useful.
