RECENT TRENDS IN MATERIALS

RECENT TRENDS IN MATERIALS

1. Recent trends in suplementary materials

   • Materials designed to be used in addition to the core materials of a course (Tomlinson 1998)
   • "Blended learning" a term coined by Paul Myers in 2000
     • Can combine face-to-face- instruction with computer-mediated instruction
     • Applies science or IT activities with assistance of educational technologies
     • Aim of blended learning is to provide realistic practical opportunities to make learning independent, useful, sustainable and ever growing
     • The emphasis in this definition is on skill work
     • Skills work offered and additional element to the syllabus
   • Stern´s list of suplementary materials
     • Coursebooks Audio-visual and audiolingual courses
     • Dictionaries, vocabularies, glossaries books of drills, exercises and practice, workbooks
     • Conversation and composition books Literary texts, poetry collections . Song books
     • Materials designed for teaching a subject through the medium of the L2
     • Flash cards, film loops, film strips and slides
     • Wall maps, authentic documents
     • Language tests, teachers´guides, curriculum guides
     • Games, videos, films

2. A framework for characterising trends in materials

   • Stern´s sets of axis (teaching strategies)
     • Intralingual - Crosslingual
       • The role that L1 plays in the teaching and learning of the L2
         • Direct Method - Intralingual
           • No reference is made to the L1 in the teaching of L2
         • Grammar Translation Method - Crosslingual
           • L1 being used as the constant reference point for study of L2
             • Crosslingual techniques: L2 to L1 translation, the use of an L1 to an L2 dictionary, L1 help with L2 text interpretation
             • Crosslingual Strategies: The inclusion of language notes in L1 in some coursebooks and the publication of L1 mediated grammar reference books, which encourage students to make direct comparisons between L1 and L2
     • Explicit - Implicit
       • Emphasises the nature of language learning
       • A key issue in L2 pedagody is whether the learner should be taught to approach the learning task consciously
         • Explicit end would be located grammar translation and cognitive code
       • The learner should be encouraged to avoid thinking about the language and absorb it intuitively
         • Implicit end the seemingly unlikely bedfellows of audiolingualism and the strongest forms of CLT lie
       • Stern´s concludes : Explicit and implicit knowledge sources exist and complement one another, both contribute to proficiency development
     • Analytic - Experiential
       • Emphasises the feasibility of analysing the complexity of language
       • This axis opposes those learning experiences which are based on the techniques of study and practice of elements of the language
       • Analytic approaches rest on the assumption that language can be analysed to offer a base for learning
       • Experiential approaches aim to: create condiction in the language class in which the language is not examined, analysed of practiced. The focus is on the message. (Stern 1993)
       • Analytic Strategies depend on the current state of linguistic description
       • Analytic techniques can be applied to various categories of analysis
       • The issue of the relative effectiveness of expriential and analytic approaches is still unresolved
   • Stern´s framework allows us to communicate about materials. The teaching strategies they embody and to prioritise aspects of materials according to our own beliefs

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