Unit 2 - Assignment 2: ESL Materials Evaluation - TESL 0150
Assignment
2: ESL Materials Evaluation
Evaluating
Sentence Structure Materials
Profile of Target Learners
Learner
Type: International Students
Age: 18 and up
English Level: IELTS 5
Goals: To prepare students for future College programs and courses
Specific Needs: Academic English, Knowledge of essay writing, Note Taking
Proficiency with Technology: Students MUST have a laptop and internet access to participate in the class.
Age: 18 and up
English Level: IELTS 5
Goals: To prepare students for future College programs and courses
Specific Needs: Academic English, Knowledge of essay writing, Note Taking
Proficiency with Technology: Students MUST have a laptop and internet access to participate in the class.
Learning
Objectives
This course is designed to develop
academic reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. The students will
learn relevant grammar to write strong sentences, paragraphs and essays. They
will develop effective oral communication skills in order to listen and speak
in common academic scenarios. Students will expand their academic vocabulary to
assist them in future college programs and courses.
Selected
resources: www.englishclub.com
A grammar explanation that details
the different types of sentence structure including simple, compound, complex
and compound-complex. I’ve also included the quiz that pairs with the explanation
page.
Material Evaluation based on criteria from
Tomlinson (2014)
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Evaluation
Criteria
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Grade
out of 5
(1=Poor,
5=Excellent)
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Comments
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To
what extent are the materials related to the wants of the learners?
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4
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These
materials are related to the wants of the learners. The students objectives
are to expand their knowledge of essay writing and academic writing, in order
to accomplish this they must have the basics of sentence structure first.
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To
what extent are the materials likely to stimulate emotional engagement?
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1
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These materials likely will not stimulate
emotional engagement. The materials do not present an opportunity for
students to share their feelings on the topic. These materials have a low
degree of student centeredness.
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To
what extent are the materials likely to promote visual imaging?
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3
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The
materials may promote some visual imaging with the provided example
sentences. For example, “Our car broke down; we came last.” This may evoke
the image of a broken down car and individuals arriving late to an event. The
quiz would most likely not promote visual imaging.
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Does
the material achieve impact (attractive presentation)?
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5
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I believe the materials are presented attractively
and they will achieve impact. The presentation of the information about
‘clauses’ and ‘conjunctions’ are presented in colourful boxes. This create
more impactful and attractive materials and easier to follow information.
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Will
these materials help the learners develop confidence?
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4
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These
materials could help a learner develop confidence. Many students in this
context will already have ideas about sentence structure but they may not
have the appropriate background information to give them the confidence to
use it. The learners will likely not feel too much anxiety or hesitation if
we consider the length of the materials. According to Larry Lynch (2009), a
key to successful material adaptation is “adjusting the length of the
materials.” However, I don’t believe we will have to adjust the length as the
materials are already comprehensive and short therefore aiding in the
development of a learners confidence.
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Will
the learners perceive these materials as relevant and useful?
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5
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Given the context, I believe these materials would
be perceived as useful for academic and essay writing.
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Do
the materials expose the learners to language in authentic use?
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3
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These
materials somewhat expose the learners to language in authentic use. According
to Rogers (1988), the term authentic “is used to refer to language samples…
that reflect a naturalness of form and an appropriateness of cultural and
situational context that would be found in the language as used by native
speakers.” The materials provide several examples that could be used in
situational contexts by native speakers. Such as, “He left in a hurry after
he got a phone call but he came back five minutes later.” However, there are
also several sections of the materials that would not be considered authentic
use, such as the sentence structure quiz.
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Materials
take into account different learning styles?
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2
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These materials do not take into account different
learning styles. They are very focused on verbal learners. There is some
focus on visual learners. We must consider that these materials are a writing
skill focus and we must consider the learner’s strengths and weaknesses and
that “all teaching/learning situations are unique.” (McGrath, 2002)
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Material’s
provide opportunities for outcome feedback?
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4
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These
materials provide opportunities for outcome feedback. The sentence structure
quiz provides a formative assessment that will provide immediate feedback for
the students. This feedback separates the materials as a separate language
feature; it only provides feedback on the student’s ability to determine
sentence structure. Tomlinson (2014) argues that “materials ideally should
see it as part of language, not a separate feature to be learned for its own
sake.”
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Provides
opportunities for individual practice?
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3
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These materials provide some opportunity for
individual practice via the online quiz and possible partner exercises that
could be adapted from these materials. However, we should take into account,
that according to Tomlinson (2014), “grammar practice… is not language
practice.”
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Conclusion
Total
Score for the Evaluation Criteria: 34/50
In
conclusion, the goal of this course is not to use this language point
conversationally but to use these materials academically. With this in mind, I
believe these materials could be used effectively despite the fact that they
are not considered authentic use and language practice. These materials could
be adapted into an assessment or evaluation that is more appropriate for the learner’s
context such as with academic or essay examples. I also believe that these
materials are presented in an easy-to-follow manner that should achieve impact due
to its attractive presentation. There may be an issue with the feedback of the
quiz as it only provides feedback to the students ability to identify sentence
structure, it is isolated and not treated as part of language. These materials
do require some adjustment and the degree of student centeredness could be
improved, but overall, they could be used as background information prior to
essay writing and the quiz could be adapted to provide useful feedback for the
learners.
References
Collins. A. (2016) Framework for Evaluating ELT
Materials. Retrieved from http://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/te714ac792/2016/02/29/framework-for-evaluating-elt-materials/
Lynch,
L. (2009). How to Adapt Authentic Materials in English Language Teaching. ESL Base. Retrieved from https://www.eslbase.com/teaching/adapt-authentic-materials
McGrath,
I. (2002) Materials Evaluation and Design for Language Teaching Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press.
Pesce,
C. Keepin' It Real: 8 Best Authentic Sources of Reading Material. Busy Teacher. Retrieved from https://busyteacher.org/16195-reading-material-8-best-authentic-sources.html
Rogers,
C., & Medley, F., Jr. (1988). Language with a purpose: using authentic
materials in the foreign language classroom. Foreign Language Annals,
21, 467–478.
Tomlinson, B. (2014) Developing Materials for
Language Teaching. Great Britain: Bloomsbury Academic
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