TESOL Materials Design and Development

Finish Tomlinson’s “Introduction” and begin

Harmer’s “Describing Learners”

Week 3

Key Concepts & Ideas

• Implicit vs. Explicit learning• Inductive vs. Deduction teaching and which do

we use to facilitate learner self investment and discovery?

• How do we create materials with impact and that Ss will find useful and relevant?

• How do we put Ss at ease?• How do we build confidence in Ss?• How do we know if Ss are ready to acquire the

points being taught?

8. Learner’s attention should be drawn to the linguistic features of the input

• Meaning before form

• Materials help s to notice gap in interlanguage

• Recycling of key points or features to assure that Ss notice and acquire

• Use enhanced input techniques to drawn Ss attn to salient features of input

• Schema activation

Enhanced Input

• Jane plans to marry Tom.

• She likes Tom, but Tom doesn’t like her.

• Tom always runs when he sees her.

• She catches Tom.

• Tom falls in love.

• It ends happily.

What do I want my Ss to notice?How is their attention drawn to the input?

Schema Theory & Schema Activation

Preparing Ss to learn new vocabulary and concepts

9. Materials should provided opportunities to use the TL for communicative purposes

• Information and opinion gaps

• Survey• Mingle activities

10. Materials should take into account that the positive effects of instruction are usually delayed

Lessons, Units, Courses and Curriculum

Encounter

Internalize

Fluency

11. Materials should take into account that learners have different learning styles

• This will be discussed in detail later in the lesson.

12. Materials should take into account that learners differ in affective attitude

• providing choice of… – different types of texts– different kinds of activities

• providing optional extras for highly motivated and higher level learners

• remembering variety is the spice of life• including opportunities for Ss to discuss…

– the value of learning English– their attitudes and feeling about the course and materials

• being aware of the cultural sensitivity of your learners• giving Ss opportunities to connect classroom themes

and topics to their own lives and experiences• providing roles for reluctant learners who do not want

to participate in group work

13. Materials should permit a silent period at the beginning of instruction

•

14. Materials should maximize learning potentialLeft Brain• uses logic• detail oriented• facts rule• words and language• present and past• math and science• can comprehend• Knowing• Acknowledges• order/pattern perception• knows object name

Right Brain• uses feeling• "big picture" oriented• imagination rules• symbols and images• present and future• philosophy & religion• can "get it" (i.e. meaning)• believes• appreciates• spatial perception• knows object function

15. Materials should not rely too much on controlled practice•

16. Materials should provide opportunities for outcome feedback

Next Week’s Homework

• Please read the chapter on “Learning Objectives” and answer the questions (turned in online before our next class).

• Post your discussion forum entry and reply to at least two other participants’ entries.

Warm up:

Think about the following Qs:

• What are the different aspects of learners mentioned in this reading?

• How does “age” affect the way we teach our students?

• What is meant by “learning styles”?• Is important to consider our students’ learning

styles? Why?• What are some different ways we can motivate

our students?

How Learner’s Differ

• Age

• Level

• Ability/Aptitude

• Multiple Intelligences (related to aptitude)

• Learning styles

• Motivation

• Respond to meaning even if they don’t understand individual words.

• Often learn indirectly than directly.• Understanding comes from what they see, hear,

touch and interact with, not just from explanation.

• Generally display an enthusiasm for learning and are curious about the world around them.

• Have a need for individual attention and approval from the teacher.

• Keen to talk about themselves and respond well to learning that uses their own lives as topics in the classroom (personalization).

• Have limited attention span unless the activity is extremely engaging.

Adolescents and Praise

• Is it always appropriate for a T to openly praise a middle school Ss in front of his or her peers? Why or why not?

Adults and Language Learning

• Are adult learners more comfortable with inductive or deductive approaches to language learning? Why?

• Tomlinson and many researches say that the best way to learn a language is implicitly through a focus on procedural knowledge, how do we apply this to adult learners?

Attention Span & Older Learners

Discussion Questions

• What are the characteristics of a “good learner” in terms of Korean culture?

• What is your definition of a “good learner”?

Learning Styles

• visual (images, pictures, demonstrations)• auditory (prefer to hear the language)• kinesthetic (prefers to do something physical action)• tactile (hands)• studial (pays attention to the linguistic feature of the

language)• experiential (prefers to use the language, meaning more

than correctness)• analytic (learns language piece by piece)• global (prefers to respond to whole chunks of language)• dependant (prefers to learn from a teacher and a book)• independent (prefers to learn from their own experience)