4.

MATERIAL SOURCES

Materials are emphasized as an important component in teaching programs.

Many teachers develop their own teaching materials. Finding, selecting, assessing,
customizing, and creating teaching materials require significant effort on the part of
the teacher. Despite the meticulous design of the materials, many methods of
instruction will be required. In some cases, a textbook presents the subject in a way
that does not reflect classroom realities or students' current needs. The teacher must
now decide what to change, eliminate, add, or expand.
The significance of materials in language teaching and learning is widely

recognized. As other authors have stated, teaching materials are created in response to
the needs of the classroom. Many studies on authoring teaching material currently
focus on designing learning objects.17 In the educational welding, a learning object is
defined as any type of material that can be reused in teaching, such as a lesson plan,
video, or section of program code, or it can be any digital or non-digital object used
or reused for technical support of learning.18
Material sources of English learning refer to the various materials and resources
that individuals use to study and improve their English language skills. These materials
are designed to provide learners with opportunities to practice and develop their
listening, speaking, reading, and writing abilities in English. Material sources of
English learning can include textbook, workbook, online courses, language learning
apps, audio resources, video resources, language exchange partners, online language
forums and communities, newspapers and magazine, literatures, English language
websites, English language school and classes, language learning software,
educational YouTube channels, English-Language Tests and Exam Preparation
Materials, Language Learning Books, Language Learning Games, Language Learning
Communities, authentic materials, Language Learning Workshops and Conversation
Clubs, and so on.
The teacher must be aware of the type of material that will be delivered to
students. Teachers must recognize the importance of appropriate resources and
teaching approaches in the learning process. The need analysis, objectives, and testing
must all provide information to answer these questions. Here are some expert
opinions.:
17
Paulsson & Naeve. “Standardized Content Archive Management”
18
Friesen. “What are educational objects?”.
 The next logical step, according to Brown J.D., is to adopt, develop, or adapt
material that corresponds to that content.19
A. Adopting material
Material adoption is harder than it seems. The steps are:
o Deciding on types of material.
- Based on many different approaches
- Organized in different syllabuses
- Presented on media
- Other program can be afforded by the teacher
o Locating material
Material types are organized according to the topic that creates internal
cohesion for the materials. Topics may be based on the requirements of the
students, general interest, or other topics. After selecting a topic, the materials
writer collects or generates relevant texts and assignments.
Three sources in finding topic of materials that might suitable:
1. Publishers’ catalogs
2. “Book Received” sections of journals, and
3. Teachers’ shelves.
o Evaluating material
The firsthand examination will eventually be necessary to determine the
suitability of the materials for a particular program. Therefore, a firsthand
review of materials is the most personal and thorough method for evaluating
them. Stevick suggested that materials should be evaluated in terms of
qualities, dimensions and components as follows: 20
Three qualities : Strength, li
ghtness, transparency (as opposed to weakness, heaviness, opacity)

19
Brown. “The elements of language curriculum”.
20
Stevick. “Adapting and writing language lessons”.

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 Three dimensions : linguistic, social, topical
Four components : Occasions for use, sample of language use,
lexical exploration, exploration of structural
relationships.
According to Tomlison, B., material evaluation is a procedure that
involves determining the worth (or potential worth) of a set of learning
materials. It entails making decisions about the impact of materials on the
people who use them.21
According to the opinions of the experts mentioned above, once we have the
material in hand, the next step is to evaluate it so that we can determine the
results of what we provide. An evaluation makes conclusions regarding the
materials' impacts while concentrating on the users of the items. No matter how
organized, scientific, and criterion-referenced an evaluation is, it will basically
be subjective.
o Ongoing review of materials
The materials must be regularly reviewed so that they do not become out of date
with regard to the specific curriculum involved.
B. Developing Materials
Tomlinson discussed the principle of second language acquisition, which
the author believes SLA researchers would agree is relevant to the development
of materials for language teaching. Some of these tenets are summarized below:
22

• Materials should have an impact (through novelty, variety, attractive

presentation and appealing content)
• Materials should make students feel at ease (.e.g., through the use of white
space to prevent clutter and the use of texts and illustrations which they can
relate to their own culture, through a supportive approach which is not always
testing them and through the use of a personal voice)Materials should help the
learners

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 to developed condidence

21
Tomlinson. “Developing materials for language teaching”
22
Tomlinson. “Materials Development in Language Teaching”, 5-22.

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 • What is taught should be perceived as relevant and useful by learners.
• Material should necessitate and facilitate learner self-investment.
• Learners must be prepared to learn the points being taught.
• Materials should expose learners to language in authentic use.
• Learners' attention should be drawn to linguistic features of the input.
• Materials should provide learners with opportunities to use the target language
for communicative purposes.
• Materials should take into account that learners' affective attitudes differ.
Materials should maximize learning potential by encouraging intellectual,
aesthetic, and emotional involvement, which stimulates both right and left
brain activities.
• Materials should include opportunities for feedback on outcomes.
Much has been stated in this framework about needs assessments, goals and
objectives, and exams. If the tentative needs, goals, and tests accurately
characterize a program, and if no matter how hard individuals try, they cannot
locate the appropriate teaching materials for those aims, it may be required to
consider creating them from scratch. With the assistance and ideas of a number of
program participants, notably the teachers, materials can be created that
correspond as closely as possible to the curriculum in issue.

C. Adapting Material
It's common to think of adaptation as a fairly formal process in which a
teacher determines that an exercise, for example, needs to be changed and then
writes up a revised version for the class. It is not necessary to record or
permanently modify adapted data. It can be quite fleeting: for example, when a
teacher rewords and thus adapts a textbook explanation of a language point that a
student has not yet understood, we might consider the response to a student's
learning behavior at that precise moment.

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 "The good teacher is constantly adapting," write Madsen and Bowen. When
he adds an example not found in the book, he adapts. He adapts even when
referring to an earlier exercise or introducing a supplementary image. While a
conscientious author tries to anticipate questions from his readers, a teacher can
respond not only to verbal questions but even to his students' raised eyebrows.23
Textbooks play an important role in the curriculum for all practicing
teachers. Many teachers believe that textbooks are the heart of teaching centers,
but there is much debate about the actual role of materials in those textbooks.
Adaptation is required in this context. Now we'll look at the perspectives of some
experts.
According to Block, despite the bountiful harvest of ELT materials
provided in recent decades, published materials do not always provide the type of
texts and activities that a teacher is looking for in a given class.24
According to G. White, published materials of any kind must cater to a very
broad range of possible users, which means they cannot directly address any
individual student or group of students. 25 Although teaching materials may be
internally consistent, they may not be completely applicable in context.
Alternatively, they may be largely appropriate while also displaying signs of an
inconsistent organization. With an emphasis on materials, teachers must meet the
demands of the textbook while also satisfying those who learn from it.
We may infer from the opinions of the experts who have been listed above
that it is unquestionably rare to be utilized without modification to make them
more appropriate for specific situations in which they are used. However, there
are
benefits and drawbacks to modifying materials. Therefore, when changing their

23
Madsen & Bowen. “Adaptation in Language Teaching”.
24
Block. “Some thoughts on DIY materials design”, 211.
25
MacDonald, Badger R & White. “Changing values” 73.
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materials, teachers need to have the necessary experience to recognize which
components are being overlooked or not sufficiently addressed.

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