Teaching Materials

 What kind of materials can help the learning process of our students? Which ones are the best: real-life, adapted, or teacher produced materials? These are some questions that teachers often ask to themselves. Teaching materials are as important as the English course, but one must be choose the correct ones carefully.

  It is important to keep in mind the difference between them. Real-life materials are the ones taken from real-life situations and/or created by native speakers; for instance, a newspaper, TV shows, sitcoms, etc.  Adapted materials are the ones that have been modified to the level of English of the students like books. Teacher produced materials are the ones that the teacher has created by him/herself.

  Moreover, one can consider helpful to use real materials. It prepares students to the real world. With real materials the student can practice real situations which can help them to have a better understanding with native speakers. On the other hand, adapted materials can be very useful especially for A1 and A2 students. Adapted materials can help these students to get familiar with the language. Once the students are familiar with the language, they can be ready to practice with Real Material.

  Bbclearningenglish.com is a useful website for EFL teachers. Teachers can find materials and ideas for their English classes. They can find free downloadable lesson plans, handouts and activities. Also, it is a useful website for students. They can improve their vocabulary skills by watching videos and listening to current news; also they can practice their English by making online quizzes or playing online games.

  In conclusion, it does not matter the kind of materials that we use in our class; the most important aspect is that the materials are helping our students. We must use the needs analysis to choose the correct materials. Other good option to keep in mind is the teacher produced material. If we create our own material, we will promote creativity in our students. Though it takes time creating our own material, it could create a big interest in our students.

Needs Analysis

Good teachers are often analyzing their environments. They are often observing the aspects that can affect the teaching/learning process, and they try to change them. After my teaching observation, I could notice the importance of needs analysis. Needs analysis can help teachers not only to find the aspects that can affect the teaching/learning process, but to try to change and adapt their classes according to students needs. It is important to focus on the importance of the needs analysis for the teacher and the students.

   Needs analysis should be present in each class. It helps teachers to have better results on the class; since they know what actually the students need in order to have a better academic performance. A good needs analysis can help teacher to choose the correct materials and teaching methods. In other words, a good analysis can make the curriculum more flexible. This will help the teacher to have successful classes and courses. Teachers should analyze their environment to avoid futures problems.

  Moreover, one of the most important aspects is that needs analysis helps to improve the learning process of the students. Since teachers analyze the students learning style and behavior; they can adapt the activities, lesson plans and curriculum to the needs of the students. Also, it can make students feel motivated. Since needs analysis provides information that will help the teacher to know the level of knowledge likes and dislikes of the students; they can adapt the course to the students. Teaches must keep in mind the needs of the students.

  In conclusion, once the teacher has analyzed the class the next step is to adapt the curriculum and lesson plan to the students learning style and needs. It is also important to keep in mind that needs analysis should be presented during the whole course because the needs of the students can change while they are getting familiar with the course.

Communicative Language Teaching

We are often thinking in a perfect method that can help our students to improve their language. Teachers have to keep in mind what students need during their teaching/learning process, and though many English teachers use different methods all of them have a common objective: that the student can achieve a C1level of English.

  There are a lot of methods that have been created throughout the years, but there is one that I consider useful: the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). Something very important when learning a new language is to put it into practice, and this method can help teachers to make their English classes more communicative. This can help students to put into practice their knowledge. One can consider this method is very useful because it allows beginner students to interact with their classmates using the target language. Unfortunately, this method is not appropriate for B2 and C1 students because it prepares students for real life situations and it does not prepare students for unexpected situations.

  There are many reasons why teachers complain about CLT.  This method makes difficult to monitor the whole class. Teachers feel frustrated when they have to teach a big audience of students. It is very difficult to help and correct students one by one. Also, one of the most challenges aspects is that the class becomes noisy, especially when there are a lot of students in a classroom. This makes the class more stressful for the teacher.

  In conclusion, sometimes teachers focus their classes only on one method. This makes students feel bored because they do the same activities. We can consider being more flexible when teaching. We have to make our classes more interesting and dynamic for the students, and also try doing different things. A good idea is to try to combine different methods, and try to do different activities in our classes. We always have to consider doing different activities that the teacher and students can enjoy.

Jose Mario Ruiz
ELT Student
Costa Rica