“Material evaluation and Material design”

 

“Material evaluation and Material design”



Material evaluation may be defined as a procedure or a systematic appraisal measuring the potential value, of materials on learning in relation to other objectives. (Tomilison 1998).

In other words, material evaluation means a principled process of providing useful information about the targeted materials in order to select and/or develop them in a reliable and valid approach. Mukundan (2004, 2009) argues that there are two purposes for evaluation: the first one is select the coursebook and the other purpose is to determine the effectiveness of the coursebook while they are used. However, Tomilison and Masuhura (2004) indicate that the ultimate purpose of evaluation is for re-development of material. Identifying the potential strengths and weaknesses of the materials for selection and/or development purpose is useful.

 

Types of Evaluation (Book)

·       External evaluation: claims made on the cover, introduction and table of contents, audience, proficiency level, context intended, how language is organized into teachable units, views on language and methodology.

·       Internal evaluation: in-depth look at two or more unit’s representation of skills, grading and sequencing kinds of texts, relation text exercise.

Types of evaluation (stages):

1.     Pre-use evaluation: it involves making predictions about the potential value of materials on people who use them (Tomlinson 1998,2003). He indicates that this type of evaluation is often impressionistic, subjective and unreliable since a teacher scans a book quickly to gain an impression about its value.

2.     Whilst (In)-use evaluation: It measures the value of the materials whilst observing or using time. Mukundan (2009), for example indicates that retrospective evaluation is the re-evaluation of materials while they are in-use to decide if the materials work.

Types of evaluation: Styles

Impressionistic (Elis,1997)

Systematic (checklist) (Byrd, 2001)

Purpose: get a general overview of material

Purpose: use checklist of specific criteria to evaluate textbooks & materials

Look at: Publisher’s pitch

               Contents & organization

Designer/teacher designed

Based on impression of teacher/designer

Convenient

Often subjective

Explicit

Can be vague

Takes into account external and internal criteria

 

Can be used in any stage

 

Tools for evaluations:

  • 1.     Reviews
  • 2.     Surveys
  • 3.     Checklist
  • 4.     Questionnaires
  • 5.     Evaluation scale

 


In selecting the material, first, we should check criteria in subjective analysis to identify the requirements. Then, analyze the material you have selected based on criteria in objective analysis. After that, we compare the findings in objective and subjective analysis. Make your choice and use your findings to prepare any documentation needed for defending your decision.

If a teacher decides that no material in the textbook is sufficient, he or she can do material adaptation because teachers can not treat a book as a product, but as a teaching tool. The difference between writing a textbook and teaching from a textbook is that once a textbook is written, it is fixed, whereas when you teach with it, you can make changes in how you use it.

Graves said that there are some factors to consider in adapting a textbook. First is the givens in your context. A teacher should consider schedule, number and level of students, time of day, etc. Next are your beliefs and understandings about how people learn languages. For example through interaction or introspection, by using all four skills, by identifying problems and proposing solutions because later on the beliefs will be applied in the learning process. The last is your students’ needs and interest. A teacher should consider the students’ level, whether they will use the language in specific context, whether they have certain expectations about how they will be taught. Then, based on the analysis, we can find which one should be adapted.

Before adapting the material, it is better if a teacher also knows the framework for investigating how a textbook is put together. It is needed so that the adaptation done will not be separated from the existing material or creating gap between the adapted material and the material taken from text book. According to Graves the things framework for investigating how a textbook is put together are

•         How has the author conceptualized content, i.e. what aspects of language, learning and social context are being addressed?

•         How the material is organized, i.e. what is the organizing principle?

•         What is the content of a unit?

•         What are the objectives of the unit? In other words, what should the students know or be able to do by the end of the unit?

•         How does the unit content help to achieve the objectives?

The last alternative for a teacher is writing the material or material Development. Material development is the planning process by which a teacher creates unit and lessons within those units to carry out the goals and objectives of the course. It is the process of making the syllabus more and more specific. Teachers can be involved in materials development from the moment they pick up a textbook and teach from it because teachers will inevitably have to make decision about how long to spend on certain activities, which ones to skip or assign for homework if there isn’t enough time, which ones to modify so that they are relevant to that particular group of students. Material development means crating, choosing or adapting, and organizing materials or activities so that students can achieve the objectives that will help them reach the goal.

Some Considerations in material development, according to Graves are

•         Learners

The material should be relevant to their experience and background, relevant to their target needs (outside of class), and relevant to their affective needs.

•         Learning

The material should engage in discovery, problem solving, and analysis. Beside that, the material should also develop specific skills and strategies

•         Language

The material should have target relevant aspects (grammar, function, vocabulary, etc) and integrate four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

•         Social Context

The material written should provide intercultural focus and develop critical social awareness

•         Activity/task types

The material should aim for authentic task, vary roles and groupings, and vary activities and purposes

•         Materials

Use authentic (text, realia) in the material written. The material should be varied in print, visuals, audio, etc)

In actual writing of the material, the principles that a teacher should know is that
materials provide a stimulus to learning. Thus, good materials do not teach: they encourage learners to learn. It contains; interesting text, enjoyable activities, opportunities for learners to use their existing knowledge and skills, and content which learner and teacher can cope with. The materials should help teacher and learner to organize the teaching learning process by providing a clear and coherent unit structure which will guide teacher and learner through various activities in such a way as to maximize the chances of learning. Last but not least, the materials must be clear and systematic, but flexible enough to allow creativity and variety. In addition, materials should reflect what you think and feel about learning process, reflect the nature of the learning task, have a very useful function in broadening the basis of teacher training by introducing teacher to new technique, and provide models of correct and appropriate language use.

In writing the material, there are elements of the model (Dubin). Those are input, content focus, language focus, and task. As the input, the written material should provide;

  • q   Stimulus materials for activity
  • q   New language items
  • q   Correct models of language use
  • q   A topic for communication
  • q   Opportunities for learners to use their information processing skills
  • q   Opportunities for learners to use their existing knowledge both the language use and the subject matter

For the content focus, a teacher as material writer should bear in mind that language is not an end in itself but a means of conveying information and feelings about something and non linguistic content should be exploited to generate meaningful communication in the classroom. For the language focus, as material writer, a teacher should know that good materials should involve both opportunities for analysis and synthesis. Thus, in language focus, learners have the chance to take the language to pieces, study how it works and practice putting it back together again. For the task, materials should be designed to lead towards a communicative task in which learners use content and language knowledge they have built up through the unit. Language and content are drawn from the input and are selected according to what the learners will need to do the task

 

 

References: 

Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. New York: Pearson Logman

Byrd, P. (2001). Textbook: Evaluation for selection and analysis for implementation.

Tomlison, B. (1998). Materials Development in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. 



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