Materials and Methods
The materials an ESL teacher decides to use have a great
effect on the whole classroom environment. The decision making of what texts
and materials that should be used, when they should be used and to whom should
use them are important decisions and should not be looked over. As a pre-service
teacher it is a little overwhelming to look at all the aspects and the
individual student’s needs that goes into planning and rearranging the
curriculum.
I agree whole heartedly with what Cortazzi and Jin say about
culture and communication, “communication in real situations is never out of
context, and because culture is part of most contexts, communication is rarely
culture-free.” Because the classroom is filled with different cultures it is a
difficult job to lay out the materials to use in the classroom. Text books can
be an extremely helpful medium to help the student learn but it should never be
the only material used, the teacher should not depend on the text to do the
teaching. Texts should be resources for successful learning but never the “teacher”.
This is why I had a hard time reading this particular chapter because it made
it seem like textbooks were the end all be all of resources and materials used
in the classroom. There are wonderful texts out there that should be used in
the classroom but I do not think that they should be the only materials used.
Language learning should be done in a natural setting, I’m not saying that
textbooks do not have a place in the classroom but they should only be used as
a resource.
Because every student has unique needs the materials and
texts should be catered for the individual student. The class should have many
different resources; ones that support oral, visual and audio learning styles. Text,
pictures and sounds all effect students differently and I think it would be
important to integrate all types of learning styles into the curriculum.
I learned a great deal in the Methods and Pedagogy TESOL
class and one of the most important things from that class is to mold your
curriculum around your students and to make the classroom individualized for
the students. A teacher should not take one “method” and replicate it year by
year, the students do not get their needs met that way. Instead the teacher
should see what the students need and go from there, that might be combining
some methods or just forming a unique one.
