International Perspectives on Materials in ELT

International Perspectives on English Language Teaching

Series edited by Sue Garton and Keith Richards

Titles include:
Ema Ushioda (editor)
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON MOTIVATION

Sue Garton and Kathleen Graves (editors)

INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON MATERIALS IN ELT

Forthcoming titles in the series:

Sarah Rich (editor)

INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON TEACHING ENGLISH TO YOUNG LEARNERS
New Language Learning and Teaching Environments

International Perspectives on English Language Teaching

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Also by Sue Garton

FROM EXPERIENCE TO KNOWLEDGE IN ELT (co-author)

PROFESSIONAL ENCOUNTERS IN TESOL

Discourses of Teachers in Teaching (co-author)

Also by Kathleen Graves

DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES
A Guide for Teachers

DEVELOPING A NEW CURRICULUM FOR SCHOOL-AGE LEARNERS (co-editor)

ICON-ENGLISH FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION (co-author)

TEACHERS AS COURSE DEVELOPERS (editor)

International Perspectives
on Materials in ELT
Edited by

Sue Garton
School of Languages and Social Sciences, Aston University, UK

and

Kathleen Graves
School of Education, University of Michigan, USA
Selection, introduction, conclusion and editorial matter © Sue Garton and
Kathleen Graves 2014
Individual chapters © Respective authors 2014
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Contents

List of Figures vii

List of Tables viii

Series Editors’ Preface ix

Acknowledgements xi

Notes on Contributors xii

1 Materials in ELT: Current Issues 1

Sue Garton and Kathleen Graves

Part I Global and Local Materials

2 The ELT Textbook 19

Jack C. Richards
3 Global vs. Local: Does It Matter? 37
Mario López-Barrios and Elba Villanueva de Debat
4 Adapting Materials to Meet the Literacy Needs of
Young Bahraini Learners 53
Sahar al Majthoob
5 Cultural Representations in Algerian English Textbooks 69
Hayat Messekher

Part II Materials in the Classroom

6 Coping with New Teaching Approaches and Materials:

An East-European EFL Teacher’s Interpretation of
Communicative Teaching Activities 89
Kristjan Seferaj
7 Materials Adaptation in Ghana: Teachers’ Attitudes and Practices 104
Esther G. Bosompem
8 Multilevel Materials for Multilevel Learners 121
Apiwan Nuangpolmak
9 Designing Effective, Culturally, and Linguistically
Responsive Pedagogy 141
Josie Guiney Igielski

v
vi Contents

Part III Materials and Technology

10 English Language Learning through Mobile Phones 159

Arifa Rahman and Tanya Cotter

11 Using Interactive Fiction for Digital Game-based

Language Learning 178
Joe Pereira

12 Using Web 2.0 Tools in CLIL 198

Fabrizio Maggi, Maurizia Cherubin and Enrique García Pascual

Part IV Materials and Teacher Education

13 The Story Reading Project: Integrating Materials Development

with Language Learning and Teaching for NNES Teachers in
Training 219
Bonny Tibbitts and Patricia Pashby
14 Teaching Pre-service EFL Teachers to Analyse and
Adapt Published Materials: An Experience from Brazil 237
Eliane H. Augusto-Navarro, Luciana C. de Oliveira, and
Denise M. de Abreu-e-Lima
15 Factors Influencing Japanese Teachers’ Adoption of
Communication-oriented Textbooks 253
Simon Humphries
16 Materials and ELT: Looking Ahead 270
Kathleen Graves and Sue Garton

Suggested Reading 280

Index 285
List of Figures

4.1 Find, draw, and write activity from Happy House 2

Bahrain edition 61
4.2 Think about English activity from Happy House 2
Bahrain edition 61
5.1 A framework for cultural representations in textbooks 74
5.2 Textbook sample 1: local foods 79
5.3 Textbook sample 2: locally and regionally famous people 81
6.1 Speaking exercise illustration 95
6.2 Writing exercise illustration 96
8.1 ‘Information report’ 126
8.2 Partial text in ‘Essay’ (Level A) 128
8.3 ‘Essay’ (Level B) 129
8.4 ‘Essay’ (Level C) 130
8.5 Writing prompt 134
8.6 Guided reflection form 135
11.1 A screenshot of Bronze by Emily Short (2000) 181
11.2 IF for beginners guide by Plotkin and Albaugh (2010) 182
11.3 A screenshot of 9:05 (Cadre 2000) 186
12.1 Middle school students using the IWB to brainstorm
vocabulary related to the cell 206
12.2 Middle school students explain the cell 207
12.3 Videoconference. High school students explain Mendel’s Law 207
12.4 Students provide very practical examples 208
12.5 Example of multiple-choice test questionnaire 209
13.1 Needs of language teachers in short-term training programmes 220
13.2 The structure of The Story Reading Project 221
14.1 Example 1 of teaching material and suggestions by
teacher candidates 245
14.2 Example 2 of teaching material and suggestions by
teacher candidates 246
15.1 Factors supporting policy change 264

vii
List of Tables

2.1 A comparison of textbook and real-life language 24

2.2 Two paradigmatic views of coursebooks 26
3.1 Contexts of use of three different types of coursebooks 38
3.2 Features of local and localised materials 45
3.3 Reasons for textbook adaptation 46
3.4 Guiding questions in the design of local or localised
coursebooks 50
4.1 The contexts of EFL and ESL 55
5.1 Examples of culture in the textbooks 76
5.2 Regional representations of culture in Textbooks 1–4 77
7.1 Participating teachers 108
8.1 Primary and secondary instructions 131
8.2 Instructions written for three task levels of
‘Postcard to a Friend’ 132
9.1 Framework for culturally and linguistically relevant pedagogy 147
9.2 Teacher diversity self assessment 149
11.1 Results of IF CALL evaluation 192
14.1 Recommended practices from a discipline in Teacher Education 249
15.1 Textbook comparison 255
15.2 Factors influencing the use of innovative textbooks 255
15.3 Participant background information 259
15.4 Factors in the study 260
15.5 Recommendations for teacher training to support change 265

viii
Series Editors’ Preface

Anyone looking back on the history of English language teaching could be for-
given for thinking that teaching materials are the flotsam and jetsam of our
profession, floating on the tides and currents of ELT fashion. Every so often
some enterprising beachcomber in search of littoral treasure holds them up for
inspection and we are reminded of their value, but our attention is soon drawn
back to the navigational challenges of our profession and we sail on by.
This is a pity because as the editors of this volume, drawing on Richards,
make clear at the outset, much teaching depends on materials; they are part
of the waters on which we move. This is of fundamental importance, for as
long as we see materials as mere objects available for our use and, if necessary,
analysis, we deny ourselves the opportunity of understanding their place in
our pedagogic world. What makes this collection distinctive is its focus on
materials in situ: on the relationships between teachers and their materials; on
the challenges of using, adapting and creating materials; and on their devel-
opmental potential.
In keeping with the theme of this series, the relationship between local and
global emerges strongly in the collection, but it also includes López-Barrios
and de Debat’s (Argentina) provocative challenge to the relevance of the dis-
tinction itself. Ultimately, responses to this challenge must be formulated not
just in terms of local contingencies but in the connection between teacher
and students realised through the design and use of relevant materials. Igielski
(US) touches on the essence of this relationship in her engaging chapter on
designing culturally and linguistically sensitive materials: ‘My prior know-
ledge of the students as learners at school and my willingness to recognize
them as possessors of valuable cultural capital were the building blocks of the
unit’s design.’
At one level, this demands of the teacher sensitivity to local constraints
and opportunities, and a willingness to design or adapt materials accordingly.
We see in this collection the various ways in which teachers have responded
to this, whether wrestling with the challenges of the cultural adaptation of
existing materials (Messekher, Algeria), developing supplementary materials
(Nuangpolmak, Thailand), or seizing opportunities offered by new tech-
nologies (Rahman and Cotter, Bangladesh). At another level, however, teaching
materials raise profound questions about the nature of pedagogy and its place
within political and ideological systems. They can be facilitators of change
(Humphries, Japan) but also instruments of control, representing the impos-
ition of potentially alien approaches, as Seferaj (Albania) indicates.

ix
x Series Editors’ Preface

If we narrow our view of materials to embrace only issues of design, evalu-

ation, and application, we obscure their indexical significance and may thereby
fail to appreciate their potential. We believe that this collection offers a broader
perspective and that it represents an opportunity to think differently about
materials and their place in our pedagogic world.
Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the following for permission to reproduce copyright

material:

The Ministry of National Education of the Democratic Republic of Algeria for

permission to reproduce page 13 from Spotlight on English, Middle School, Year
Two and page 21 from On the Move, Middle School, Year 4.
Adam Cadre for permission to use a screen shot from 9:05.
Emily Short for permission to use a screen shot from Bronze.
CNA, Brazil for permission to use excerpts from Step Ahead 1 by S. Cunningham
and P. Moor.
We would also like to thank the BBC Janala project for their contribution to
the volume.

xi
Notes on Contributors

Denise M. de Abreu-e-Lima is an associate professor at Universidade Federal

de São Carlos (UFSCar-Brazil). She has taught English for 25 years and has
worked as a teacher educator in the undergraduate program since 1994. She
is also coordinator of Distance Education Programs at UFSCar. Her research
interests include teacher education, feedback processes, and using technology
for teaching.

Sahar al Majthoob is the Head of the Languages and Humanities Section at

the Curricula Directorate in the Ministry of Education in Bahrain. She started
her career as an English teacher then moved to the field of curriculum. She
supervises and participates in the materials selection and development. Her
interests include first and second language literacy processes.

Eliane H. Augusto-Navarro is an associate professor at Universidade Federal

de São Carlos (UFSCar-Brazil). She has taught English for over 20 years and has
worked as a teacher educator in the undergraduate (since 1996) and graduate
(since 2005) programs at UFSCar. Her research interests include teacher edu-
cation, grammar(ing) as skill, ESP/EAP, genre analysis, and teaching materials.

Esther G. Bosompem is a lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Languages, Ghana,

and has been engaged in the teaching of English as a foreign language for
more than ten years. She holds an MA in TESOL and Translation Studies from
Aston University, UK. Her main research interest is ELT materials use and
development.

Maurizia Cherubin is a high school teacher of English in Vittuone, Italy. She

is interested in ICTs and CLIL, and is an IWB tutor and coach. She holds three
masters degrees: teaching foreign languages and communication; teaching
English as a foreign language; communication with IWB. She also has a TKT
CLIL certificate.

Tanya Cotter has worked in a variety of ELT roles in Europe, Asia, and North
Africa since 1991. She was the ELT Editor for BBC Media Action on the BBC
Janala project from 2010 to 2012. She is currently English for the Future
Manager for the British Council in Libya.

Enrique García Pascual is Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Education

at the University of Zaragoza, Spain, and a member of the School Board of
Aragon. He has published books and articles about adult education, CLIL,
the role and responsibilities of teachers, and the use of ICTs in teaching and

xii
 Notes on Contributors xiii

research. He has participated in Comenius, Grundtvig, Minerva, and Erasmus

European projects.

Sue Garton is Director of Postgraduate Programmes in English at Aston

University, UK, where she tutors on postgraduate programmes in TESOL. She
has written and edited books and articles for teachers including From Experience
to Knowledge in ELT with Julian Edge and Professional Encounters in TESOL with
Keith Richards.

Kathleen Graves is Associate Professor of Education Practice at the University

of Michigan, USA. She has written and edited books and articles on cur-
riculum development including Teachers as Course Developers, Designing Lan-
guage Courses: A Guide for Teachers, and, with Lucilla Lopriore, Developing a New
Curriculum for School Age Learners.

Josie Guiney Igielski teaches in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. She taught

Kindergarten for three years in an English Learner clustered classroom. For the
last four years she has taught fourth grade to a diverse group of learners. She
has a BA in Education and a masters in Curriculum and Instruction from the
University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Simon Humphries holds a PhD in Linguistics from Macquarie University

and an MSc in TESOL from Aston University. His recent publications focus on
action research, classroom interaction, the analysis of EFL materials, issues in
CLT implementation and classroom observation. He is currently an associate
professor in the Faculty of Foreign Language Studies at Kansai University in
Osaka, Japan.

Mario López-Barrios is Professor of Foreign Language Teaching at the School

of Languages, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina. His research inter-
ests include second language acquisition, materials development, and research
methods in applied linguistics.

Fabrizio Maggi is a high school teacher, an EFL and ICT teacher trainer, and
trainer of trainers. He has been involved in CLIL projects since the mid-1980s
and has developed language courses and educational software. He is also a lec-
turer of English Language at the University of Pavia, Italy, and has organized
Comenius and Leonardo European projects.

Hayat Messekher is an assistant professor of English at the Ecole Normale

Supérieure de Bouzaréah in Algiers. Her research interests include teacher edu-
cation, critical pedagogy, critical discourse analysis, and linguistic landscapes.

Apiwan Nuangpolmak is a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University Language

Institute (CULI) in Bangkok, Thailand. She obtained her Master of Applied
Linguistics (TESOL) and Doctor of Philosophy (Linguistics) from Macquarie
xiv Notes on Contributors

University, Australia. Her research interests include materials development,

motivational strategies, fostering learner autonomy, and writing instruction.

Luciana C. de Oliveira is an associate professor of TESOL and Applied

Linguistics at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City. Her
research focuses on issues related to teaching English language learners (ELLs)
at the K-12 level, including the role of language in learning content areas and
teacher preparation for ELLs.

Patricia Pashby has taught in university settings in the US and Thailand for
25 years. Her work with in-service teacher training includes K-12 teachers
from Brazil, South Korea, and Taiwan. She currently teaches in the Language
Teaching Specialization programme at the University of Oregon.

Joe Pereira is an EFL teacher at the British Council in Porto, Portugal, and
has a deep interest in digital game-based learning. He actively researches and
promotes the use of parser-based Interactive Fiction as a language learning tool,
mainly through his blog, ‘IF Only: Interactive Fiction and Teaching English a
Foreign Language’, which can be found at http://www.theswanstation.com.

Arifa Rahman is an English language teacher and teacher educator in

Bangladesh with experience in educational research, materials development,
assessment, and programme evaluation. A reviewer for academic journals, she
has published widely. She has also been an educational consultant with BBC
Media Action, the British Council, and the European Union.

Jack C. Richards has taught in universities in New Zealand, Canada, the USA
and Hong Kong and is currently based mainly in Sydney, Australia. He has
published widely on methodology and teacher training, and has also written
many popular classroom texts, including the Interchange and Four Corners series.

Kristjan Seferaj is currently a doctoral candidate at Aston University, UK, and

his chapter is based on his doctoral dissertation. He has taught general, academic
English, and EFL teacher training courses in East Europe, West Europe, and North
America. His research interests are teacher thinking and EFL methodology.

Bonny Tibbitts has worked in TESL for 35 years, teaching middle school
English in Kenya, professional English at Rice University, and intensive and
academic ESL at the University of Oregon. She consults and facilitates work-
shops on vocabulary acquisition, teaching reading, and using authentic mate-
rials to teach grammar, vocabulary, and reading strategies.

Elba Villanueva de Debat teaches EFL Methodology at the Universidad

Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina. She served as ACPI President (Córdoba EFL
Teachers´ Association). She has presented at conferences in Latin America,
Europe, and the USA. Her research interests include materials development
and teacher education.
1
Materials in ELT: Current Issues
Sue Garton and Kathleen Graves

Overview

Materials in general, and commercial materials in particular, play a central

role in language learning and teaching. As Richards (2001: 251) notes ‘Much of
the language teaching that occurs throughout the world today could not take
place without the extensive use of commercial materials.’ Yet, until relatively
recently, this was a neglected area in English Language Teaching (ELT) research
and publication. Tomlinson (2012) identifies the early nineties as the decade
in which serious attention began to be shown towards materials development.
Fortunately, the last few years have seen an increase in this attention with a
number of new publications, including Harwood (2010), Tomlinson (2008),
Tomlinson and Masuhara (2010a), Tomlinson (2013), as well as new editions
of previous publications (McDonough and Shaw, 1993, 2003; McDonough,
Shaw and Masuhara, 2013; Tomlinson, 1998, 2011). An important contribution
to the field has also come from Tomlinson’s (2012) state-of-the-art review of
materials development.
Two things are noticeable about the majority of these publications, however.
First, the field is generally under-researched. Many of the books published are
‘how to’ books, with advice for teachers (see for example McDonough, Shaw
and Masuhara, 2013; McGrath, 2002; Tomlinson, 2003, 2011). These books
may draw on research and theory, especially in Second Language Acquisition
(SLA), but they are not based on research studies into materials. Most cer-
tainly such volumes have an important role to play but we think it is fair to
say that the field is generally lacking in empirical studies, a point also made
by Chapelle (2009) in relation to materials evaluation and Tomlinson and
Masuhara (2010b) in relation to materials development. Three notable excep-
tions are the edited collections by Harwood (2010), Tomlinson and Masuhara
(2010a) and Tomlinson (2013). The chapters in these volumes generally take a
more theoretical perspective in looking at what underlies the development of

1
2 Sue Garton and Kathleen Graves

ELT materials, although they tend again to be based on relating theories of

language and language learning to materials development rather than research
into the materials themselves or their use.
The second point to be made is that the majority of previous publications
focus primarily on certain aspects of ELT materials. Thus we find books and
chapters on materials design and development (Harwood, 2010; Jolly and
Bolitho, 2011; McGrath, 2002), materials evaluation and adaptation (Islam
and Mares, 2003; Littlejohn, 2011; McDonough, Shaw and Masuhara, 2013;
McGrath, 2002; Nation and Macalister, 2010; Richards, 2001), the materials
writing process (Bell and Gower, 2011; Mares, 2003; Maley, 2003) and types of
materials (Tomlinson, 2008).
Tomlinson’s (2012) review, for example, is concerned with ‘materials devel-
opment’, which he sees as both practical and a field of academic study. From a
practical point of view, ‘it involves the production, evaluation and adaptation
of materials’ (p. 144), while as an object of study, the focus is on ‘the princi-
ples and procedures of the design, writing, implementation, evaluation and
analysis of materials’ (p. 144). There seems to be, however, a curious omission
from these definitions – that of use. Any view of materials that neglects their
actual use by teachers and/or learners can, in our view, only be partial, and yet
none of the recent publications listed above (and indeed earlier ones such as
Cunningsworth, 1995; McDonough and Shaw, 1993; Tomlinson, 1998) focus
on this aspect, although Tomlinson (2012) does say that investigations into
materials should ideally inform and be informed by their use.
This volume therefore focuses not only on materials but on their use, not
only by teachers but also by learners. Where it is original is in the number of
chapters written either by or about practitioners and based on research into the
preparation and use of materials in everyday teaching in a variety of contexts
around the world.
The field of materials is vast and cannot possibly be covered in one intro-
ductory chapter. What follows will focus on the areas identified by the contrib-
utors to this volume as important in their work. As such, it will examine aspects
of materials that have been neglected, as well as look at more common aspects
from new perspectives.

The coursebook

Current developments in materials, particularly in the use of technology (see

for example, Macaro, Handley and Walter, 2012; Maggi, Cherubin and Garcia
Pascual, Chapter 12; Pereira, Chapter 11; Rahman and Cotter, Chapter 10),
challenge traditional definitions. Harwood (2010: 3) uses the term materials
to include texts in all forms (paper, audio, video) and language learning tasks,
with the expressed intention of including everything from teacher handouts
 Materials in ELT: Current Issues 3

to global coursebooks1. Tomlinson (2011: 2) gives an even broader definition

when he states that materials are ‘anything which is used by teachers or learners
to facilitate the learning of a language’. His list of examples ranges from videos,
emails and YouTube to grammar books, food packages and instructions given
by the teacher.
Yet in spite of the broad definitions of materials that are now generally
accepted, the coursebook is still ubiquitous and plays a fundamental role in ELT
around the world (Littlejohn, 2011; Richards, Chapter 2; Tomlinson, 2003), as
can be seen in the number of chapters in this volume that focus on some aspect
of it. Thus we find discussions of different types of coursebooks (Lopez-Barrios
and Villanueva de Debat, Chapter 3; Richards, Chapter 2); of how coursebook
materials are developed to meet local conditions (al Majthoob, Chapter 4) and of
cultural content (Messekher, Chapter 5). Other chapters focus on how teachers
use coursebooks and factors affecting their decisions (Bosompem, Chapter 7;
Humphries, Chapter 15; Seferaj, Chapter 6) or how they can be used in teacher
education (Augusto-Navarro, de Oliveira and Abreu-e-Lima, Chapter 14).

The global coursebook

The advantages and disadvantages of global coursebooks are well documented
in the literature, as well as being experienced by teachers in their daily pro-
fessional practice. Below is a list that some of Garton’s students on a graduate
TESOL programme drew up when asked why they would or would not want to
use a coursebook in their teaching:
Why use a coursebook?

1. It gives structure to lessons and to a course.

2. It saves time – teachers are too busy to prepare their own materials.
3. It gives a sense of security – teachers feel they know what they are doing.
4. It promotes autonomy as learners can use and refer to it outside the
classroom.
5. It is reliable as it is written by experts and published by well-known
publishers.
6. It gives a sense of professionalism in the way it is presented.
7. It offers different perspectives as it focuses on different cultures and different
places.

Why not use a coursebook?

1. It cannot meet the needs of a particular group of learners.

2. The language taught might not be appropriate.
3. It might not be culturally appropriate.
4. It is outdated.
4 Sue Garton and Kathleen Graves

5. It is not authentic.
6. It is not representative of the local context.
7. It takes away the teacher’s creativity.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this list is very similar to those in the literature (see
for example, Masuhara and Tomlinson, 2008; McGrath, 2002; Richards, 2001,
Chapter 2).
Different views of coursebooks were also noted by McGrath (2006) in the
metaphors that teachers use to describe them. McGrath (2006: 174) catego-
rised these metaphors into four groups, on a continuum from dependence
to independence, the first three of which demonstrated a relatively positive
attitude: Guidance (map, compass); Support (anchor, petrol); Resource (con-
venience store, menu); Constraint (millstone, straightjacket). Although this
study, and the list above, show that teachers generally have quite favourable
views of coursebooks, they also underline a certain ambivalence and highlight
a number of issues.
In-depth reviews by Tomlinson, Dat, Masuhara and Rubdy (2001) and
Masuhara, Hann, Yi and Tomlinson, (2008) have revealed perhaps less obvious
issues with the global coursebook. For example, overall Tomlinson, Dat,
Masuhara and Rubdy (2001) found that the coursebooks they reviewed did
not encourage adaptation or facilitate the tailoring of the materials to learners’
needs or to local contexts. Moreover, Masuhara, Hann, Yi and Tomlinson
(2008) found a lack of suggestions for personalisation, localisation and mixed-
level classes. They also found that topics were generally banal and that there
was a focus on politeness rather than conflict and competition. Yet most of the
above are issues that have long been recognised as key principles that should
underlie successful materials (see, for example, Tomlinson, 2008, 2011, 2012).

Critical views

In the wake of critical approaches to TESOL (see, for example Block, Gray
and Holborrow, 2012; Edge, 2006) global coursebooks have also come under
more critical scrutiny. At its most basic this can be seen in the open acknow-
ledgement that global publishing is a multi-million pound business (Masuhara
and Tomlinson, 2008), a realisation that is often something of a surprise to
graduate students and teachers. Masuhara and Tomlinson (2008) point out
that, in an attempt to maximise profits, global coursebooks for general English
are aimed at the dual markets of language courses in English-speaking coun-
tries and in English as a Foreign language contexts. The result is that they may
not satisfy the needs of learners and teachers in either (Masuhara et al. 2008:
310) and al Majthoob (Chapter 4) makes a strong case for materials that reflect
different realities.
 Materials in ELT: Current Issues 5

Tomlinson (2008) even goes so far as to assert that coursebooks are at least
partly to blame for the failure of learners to learn in that they conform to
the expectations of stakeholders and the demands of the market rather
than to what we know about language acquisition and the learning process.
Underlying Tomlinson’s criticism are pedagogical premises, which still view
materials as ‘curriculum artefacts’ (Apple and Christian-Smith, 1991: 4 as cited
in Gray, 2010: 2). However, Gray (2010, 2012), building on the work of critical
applied linguists such as Pennycook (1994) and Phillipson (1992, 2009) makes
a compelling case for considering the global coursebook as a cultural artefact
which presents a particular view of reality and is value laden. He describes
how ELT publishers focus on ‘aspirational content’ with frequent use of topics
around personal and professional success, celebrities, cosmopolitanism and
travel, all of which are believed to be motivating for language learners (Gray,
2012: 87) and with the underlying message that English equates with success
(Gray, 2012: 104). However, such images may not be motivating and may be
resisted by learners (Canagarajah, 1993) or may leave them feeling inadequate
(Masuhara and Tomlinson, 2008: 19).
The values portrayed by coursebooks are also inscribed in the methodological
approaches they adopt (Prodromou and Mishen, 2008). Global coursebooks
tend to be based on approaches developed in western academic departments,
exhibiting what Prodromou and Mishen (2008: 194) call ‘methodological
correctness’. They define methodological correctness as:

a set of beliefs derived from prestigious but incomplete academic research

in the Anglophone centre that influence the decisions one makes regarding
materials and methods in the classroom, even if those decisions are incon-
sistent with the local context and particular needs and wants of the students.
(ibid.: 194)

The effects of the introduction of western methodological approaches, and the

pressure it may put on teachers who are expected to use new approaches and
materials, are well documented (see Garton, Copland and Burns, 2011 for a
summary of the issues).
Gray (2012: 111) calls for alternative articulations of English, a call that is
reflected in alternative approaches such as that outlined by Guiney Igielski
(Chapter 9) through the development of materials that are based in culturally
and linguistically responsive pedagogy.
However, in spite of criticisms, teachers and learners themselves may gen-
erally view global coursebooks favourably, albeit with a healthy lack of idealism
(Yakhontova, 2001; Zacharias, 2005). This is far from the view of teachers and
learners as unquestioning consumers, which sometimes seems to emerge from
more critical approaches to materials.
6 Sue Garton and Kathleen Graves

Global vs. local coursebooks

An alternative to the global coursebook lies in books that are produced for spe-
cific countries or regions. In some cases these are local versions of global books;
in others they are books written especially for a particular country, either by
‘experts’ from English-speaking countries, or by local writers, or in collabor-
ation. The solution in China has been to use cooperation between local edu-
cation departments, local publishers, overseas publishers and textbook writers
(Hu, 2005). Al Majthoob (Chapter 4) provides an excellent example of how
a local version of a coursebook can meet the needs of learners in a specific
context far more effectively than any global coursebook.
However, these books do not necessarily address the issues raised above in
relation to global coursebooks. As Hoque (2009) points out, in Bangladesh, for
example, textbook writing committees are led by academics with little experience
of teaching in schools. Taking the case of Algeria, Messekher (Chapter 5) notes
how, even in locally produced coursebooks, the culture of Inner Circle (Krachu,
1985) countries may still predominate, and even where local culture is included,
it may be in a diluted form. Moreover, the approach taken to culture is one of
acritical information-giving, which does little to develop the intercultural aware-
ness needed by learners who are more likely to be using English to communicate
with other ‘non-native speakers’ than with ‘native speakers’2. As Graves and
Garton note (Chapter 16) ‘localizing content enables learners to talk and write
about their own experiences, concerns and culture through English’. Producing
local textbooks that do not reflect local contexts seems like a missed oppor-
tunity to promote positive attitudes towards both local culture and English.
Interestingly, Chapelle (2009) points to US national guidelines that state the
focus of materials should be on contexts where language is used. Given that,
in the case of English, that now means everywhere in the world, all materials
should be taking an awareness-raising approach to language and culture (see
Graves and Garton, Chapter 16).
However, local publishers can also have a positive influence on their global
counterparts. Prodromu and Mishen (2008) look at the example of Greece as
what they call (ibid.: 203) ‘an interesting example of the local determining
the global, the periphery fighting back against the centre’. In response to local
demands, Greek publishers produced coursebooks that introduced a stronger
form-focused element, which was not only more suited to local ‘cultures of
learning’ (Jin and Cortazzi, 2006) but also went some way to reinstating prac-
tices that had long fallen out of favour, such as use of the L1 and grammar
explanations. As a result, this ‘hybrid’ approach has now become the norm in
materials published for the Greek market.
It is worth noting that such hybrid practices have probably always been
very much alive in the majority of English classrooms around the world,
as teachers adapted global materials to their own contexts (see Humphries,
 Materials in ELT: Current Issues 7

Chapter 15; Seferaj, Chapter 8). However, at least with the advent of more
hybrid practices in published coursebooks, such practices can again be
considered respectable.

Materials and their users

We made the point in the introduction that there is surprisingly little written
about materials users and so far, in this chapter, we have considered the
coursebook as a tool. Yet any discussion that sees materials independently of
their users, the learners and teachers in a variety of learning contexts, can only
be partial. As Edge and Garton (2009: 55) put it:

the teacher’s purpose is not to teach materials at all: the purpose is to teach
the learners and the materials are there to serve that purpose.

They go on to note (ibid.: 60) that what published materials cannot provide
are insights into the needs and interests of particular groups of learners and
decisions about how best to use the materials. It is precisely how teachers use
materials to serve the purpose of teaching learners, their insights and decision-
making, as well as learners’ attitudes towards, and use of materials, that is
currently missing from the literature. As Moulton (1997: vii quoted in Opoku-
Amankwa, 2010: 162) noted:

It is difficult to find out how teachers use textbooks without actually

observing them ... what they think about their use without actually asking
them ... Observing how teachers use textbooks and asking them why they
use them as they do will reveal significant information about the learning-
teaching process and how it can be improved.

Moreover, the continued separation of materials and their actual use risks
entrenching the old theory/practice divide that Clarke was problematising
twenty years ago (Clarke, 1994).
One notable exception is Opoku-Amankwa (2010), whose ethnographic
study looked at the interaction between teachers, learners and textbooks in
an urban primary school in Ghana. Opoku-Amankwa (2010) identified a
number of factors that influenced students’ access to and use of textbooks,
including class size, seating arrangements and teachers’ interpretation of policy
concerning student access to textbooks. He concluded that there was a dis-
crepancy between the availability of materials and students’ access to and use
of them and that this could have a negative impact on literacy development.
This study underlines the importance of looking at the role materials play in
actual classroom contexts.
8 Sue Garton and Kathleen Graves

Studies such as this, together with those looking at teachers’ beliefs and atti-
tudes towards materials (see, for example, Lee and Bathmaker, 2007; Zacharias,
2005), learners’ attitudes (Yakhontova, 2001) and those comparing teachers’
and learners’ attitudes (see, for example, McGrath, 2006; Peacock, 1997) offer
an important insight into materials and their users.
A number of chapters in this volume go some way to addressing this gap
in the literature and from a variety of perspectives. Seferaj (Chapter 6) and
Humphries (Chapter 15) both report on teachers’ actual classroom practices in
using materials, while Bosompem (Chapter 7) shows how a group of teachers
in Ghana actually adapted their materials and also examines their motiva-
tions for doing so. What is also interesting about Bosompem’s chapter is the
attention it draws to the power of the coursebook in some contexts as her
teachers, far from seeing adaptation as necessary for learners and the sign of
a good teacher, felt guilty and inadequate. Detailed and personal accounts of
materials adaptation to suit a particular context are given by Nuangpolmak
(Chapter 8) and Guiney Igielski (Chapter 9), both of whom are responding to
issues that have been identified in the literature. By focusing on materials for
mixed levels, Nuangpolmak addresses a problem that has not only been raised
by Masuhara, Hann, Yi and Tomlinson (2008) in regard to coursebooks, but
which is also seen by English teachers, at least at primary level, as their biggest
challenge (Garton, Copland and Burns, 2011). Guiney Igielski’s focus on cul-
turally and linguistically responsive pedagogy is an effective contribution to
the debates around how best to value the multilingual and multicultural expe-
riences of learners in the language classroom.
However, most of the chapters in this book address materials use from the
teacher’s point of view, rather than from that of the learners. Tomlinson and
Masuhara (2010b) note that investigations into the effects of materials on
language learning would be desirable, but that there are practical difficulties
to carrying out such studies: they would have to be longitudinal, requiring
considerable resources; and it would be extremely difficult to control for vari-
ables influencing acquisition in a classroom situation. This remains an area for
research.

Materials use and change

As outlined above, one of the reasons for the popularity of coursebooks is

that they are deemed to provide a clear set of activities and guidelines that
both teachers and students can follow. Writers such as Hutchinson and Torres
(1994), Masuhara and Tomlinson (2008) maintain that materials can support
novice teachers or those who lack confidence.
It is also often argued that appropriate coursebooks can facilitate curricular
change because they provide a visible framework that both teachers and
 Materials in ELT: Current Issues 9

students can follow (Rubdy, 2003) and they help teachers to ‘fully understand
and “routinize” change’ (Hutchinson and Torres, 1994: 323). However, it would
seem this is often not the case.
In response to the perceived global demand for communication in English,
new language curricula around the world have generally emphasised commu-
nicative competence. Recent curriculum changes at all levels, together with the
introduction of English to primary schools, have created a series of challenges
for teachers (see Garton, Copland and Burns, 2011 for a detailed discussion),
and their use of materials, putting to the test the assertion that coursebooks
can facilitate change.
First, while curricula may change, the books used may not. Thus in many
countries, teachers have found themselves with a lack of suitable materials,
either because materials are not available (Hoque, 2009; Hu, 2007; Mathew and
Pani, 2009) or because those that are available do not reflect changes in the
curriculum (Hu, 2007; İnal, 2009; Nunan, 2003).
Second, it may simply not be enough to give teachers a new book and expect
them to change how they teach. As Nur (2003) notes, teachers may need
training to use the new books, otherwise they continue to employ previous
methods. While multimedia packages may offer support to teachers with low
levels of English proficiency (Mitchell and Lee, 2003; Nunan, 2003), actually
changing the way that teachers teach is far more complex, as Seferaj (Chapter 6)
and Humphries (Chapter 15) both show. Humphries (Chapter 15) identifies
a range of factors that influence the way that teachers use coursebooks and
shows that simply changing a coursebook will not necessarily change the way
a teacher teaches. Seferaj’s teacher informant also raises the question as to what
extent teachers should be expected to change the way they teach and brings
us back to Prodromou and Mishen’s (2008) idea of methodological correctness.
As Seferaj’s (ibid.) teacher shows, teachers demonstrate a clear understanding
of, and are able to clearly articulate, the very good reasons for adapting the
new materials they are given rather than changing the way they teach. So,
while governments mandate communicative language teaching, the typical
pragmatic response from teachers is to interpret and adapt the approaches
according to their local context (Littlewood, 2007).
It seems, therefore, that the introduction of new coursebooks alone may not
lead to changes in practice. Although coursebooks may represent the new cur-
riculum and provide some basic support when there is a shortage of qualified
practitioners, the teachers may not understand the underlying principles
(Nur, 2003). Moreover, beginning teachers do not always have the confidence
to challenge the authority of the coursebook (Bosompem, Chapter 7; Gray,
2000) potentially leading to confusion and feelings of guilt.
Teacher education is necessary to help practitioners to understand materials
better, together with how and whether to introduce changes inherent in new
10 Sue Garton and Kathleen Graves

materials. Yet courses on materials evaluation, adaptation and design seem to

be relatively rare on graduate programmes. Tibbits and Pashby (Chapter 13)
and Augusto-Navarro, de Oliveira and Abreu-e-Lima (Chapter 14) show how
teacher education programmes can ensure that teachers are informed users of
materials rather than mere consumers.

Technology

No overview of materials in ELT can ignore the enormous impact that tech-
nology has had in recent years. It is no exaggeration to say that developments
in digital technology have revolutionised language learning materials (see
Macaro, Handley and Walter, 2012 for a review of Computer Assisted Language
Learning in primary and secondary education).
On the one hand, technology has been embraced by publishers who now
use it to accompany coursebooks, producing not only CD-roms and DVDs but
also companion websites and versions of their materials for the Interactive
Whiteboard (IWB). This is what we might call top-down uses of technology.
However, perhaps the most exciting developments are the affordances given for
the bottom-up development of materials by teachers and learners through the
use of Web 2.0 tools. Thomas (2009) shows the range of possibilities afforded
by these tools with chapters on Skype, mobile phones, Personal Learning
Environments, social networking sites, podcasts and weblogs, to name just a
few. Motteram (2011) also gives examples of how teachers can use technology
to develop materials. The use of digital audio and video, the Internet, blogs,
wikis, Virtual Learning Environments and so on has put ‘the possibilities of the
adaptation and creation of a broad range of language learning materials into
the hands of the teacher, but also into the hands of the learners’ (Motteram,
2011: 304).
This last point is important. Prensky (2001) calls the current generation
of students, the first generation to have grown up with digital technology,
digital natives. On the other hand, he calls their teachers digital immigrants,
a group who needs to get used to a new way of thinking and learning and
who have varying degrees of success. Therefore, the use of technology can
place the learner squarely at the centre of materials in a way not always pos-
sible with traditional materials. Pereira’s use of interactive fiction in language
learning (Chapter 11) shows how learners can be active users of materials. The
project described by Maggi, Cherubin and Garcia Pascual (Chapter 12) is a
clear example of how learners can take control of the materials and of their
own learning.
However, not all learners have the opportunity to become digital natives.
Chapelle (2009) points out that the global spread of technology in language
learning and the social, political and economic realities of learners around
 Materials in ELT: Current Issues 11

the world may not be compatible. However, Rahman and Cotter’s experience
(Chapter 10) shows that widely accessible and relatively low-cost technology,
such as mobile phones, can be effective in language learning and actually has
the potential to reach learners who may otherwise struggle to access English
classes.
The example that Rahman and Cotter (Chapter 10) give is a very significant
one. The use of mobile phones to deliver English courses in Bangladesh is
an example of how technology contributes to clear pedagogical goals and
enhances the learning experience. As Kervin and Derewianka (2011: 328) note,
the concern should always be with the contribution that technology can make
to learning, and they list a number of important pedagogical considerations
(ibid.: 349) concerning how the electronic materials fit with learning aims and
objectives as key. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Mukundan (2008:
100) notes the money wasted on technology through investments such as lan-
guage laboratories, leaving teachers to puzzle over how to fit new materials into
existing practices and with the risk they will focus on technology and not on
learners.

Conclusion

This introduction, and indeed this book cannot focus on every aspect of
materials in ELT, which is a huge area. We have only very briefly mentioned
well-covered ground such as materials development and evaluation. We have
ignored aspects of the content of materials, such as gender, and the lan-
guage used (see for example, Jones, Kitetu and Sunderland, 1997; Nguyen,
2011; Sunderland, 2000) as well as debates around authentic materials (see for
example, Guariento and Morley, 2001; Gilmore, 2007; Peacock, 1997). We have
also not mentioned the use of corpora in materials or as materials (see for
example, Willis, 2011). Finally, we have also, to an extent, ignored learners,
both from the perspective of learner-developed materials (see, for example,
Maley, 2011; Willis, 2011) and the effects of materials on learners (but see
Rahman and Cotter, Chapter 10). Tomlinson (2012) called for more research
on the empirical effects of materials on SLA. Ellis (2011) also calls for evalu-
ation based less on the appeal of materials and more on what learners do with
them and what they learn. We would certainly endorse both these calls.
However, in this volume we have focused on the materials themselves and
the way that teachers use them, relatively neglected areas to date. We see the
underlying message of this introduction and of this volume as how materials
need to be a fit with learning aims and objectives. Materials are fundamental
to language learning and teaching (although see Thornbury, 2000 for an alter-
native view) but materials cannot be viewed independently of their users.
What this volume does is look at how materials are actually used to fulfil the
12 Sue Garton and Kathleen Graves

learning aims and objectives in a variety of local contexts and how these local
experiences can resonate with practitioners around the world in order to help
them become more effective materials users.

Notes
1. Throughout this volume, the terms coursebook and textbook will be used
interchangeably.
2. We use these terms purely for convenience, fully aware of how problematic they are.

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Part I
Global and Local Materials
2
The ELT Textbook
Jack C. Richards

Introduction

Despite the advances in technology and the role of the internet, coursebooks
are the main teaching resource used by many of the world’s English teachers.
The extent of English teaching worldwide could probably not be sustained
without the support of the many different kinds of textbooks and their ancil-
laries that are available to support English teachers (Tomlinson, 2003). In many
schools textbooks provide the main basis for the curriculum (Richards, 1993).
Appel (2011: 50–51) comments: ‘In no other school subject do coursebooks
exert a similar influence as in language teaching. The book is in fact often
treated as the syllabus.’ Coursebooks often determine the goals and content of
teaching, as well as the methods teachers use. For both teachers and learners,
the textbook provides a map that lays out the general content of lessons and
a sense of structure that gives coherence to individual lessons, as well as to an
entire course.
McGrath (2002: 8) presents a number of metaphors teachers use to describe
the role of a textbook for them: recipe, springboard, straightjacket, super-
market, holy book, compass, survival kit, crutch. As these metaphors suggest,
some teachers use textbooks as their primary teaching resource. The mate-
rials provide the basis for the content of lessons, the balance of skills taught,
and the kinds of language practice students take part in. In other situations
the textbook may serve primarily to supplement the teacher’s instruction. For
inexperienced teachers a textbook together with the teacher’s manual may be
an important source of training on the job. For learners a textbook and its
audio or video components may provide the major source of English language
input they receive, apart from that which they get from their teacher, serving
both for class use and for self-study before and after lessons. A textbook can
give learners a sense of independence, which reliance on daily or weekly teach-
er-prepared lesson handouts does not provide. Crawford (2002: 28) notes:

19
20 Jack C. Richards

It may well be this sense of control which explains the popularity of text-
books with students. Consequently a teacher’s decision not to use a textbook
may actually be ‘a touch of imperialism’ ... because it retains control in the
hands of the teacher rather than the learner.

In this chapter we will explore the process of textbook development and issues
involved in selecting and evaluating textbooks in language programs.

Types of published materials

A few minutes browsing in any ELT catalogue will reveal a wide range of text-
books and materials to support every type of teaching and learning situation.
These include:

• Coursebooks for international markets;

• Materials for specific age groups – children, teenagers, adults;
• Materials for specific skills – reading, writing, listening, speaking;
• Materials for specific purposes – academic study, travel, business, law,
engineering;
• Materials for exam preparation – TOEFL, TOIEC, IELTS, KET;
• Reference materials – dictionaries and grammars;
• Self-study materials;
• Readers.

Contemporary ELT materials generally reflect a large investment of time,

effort, and financial resources by authors and publishers. They also reflect the
fact that ESL learners are generally ‘digital natives’, often teenagers and young
adults, who are interested in popular culture, often associate English with
travel, consumerism, socialising, and expect their coursebooks to reflect their
real or ‘ideal’ world. Textbooks are consequently design rich, in full colour
and, rather than looking like classroom materials, often have a magazine-
like appearance or resemble content seen on the internet. Their titles often
make no reference to English language learning but reflect English as a cross-
cultural or international experience or journey (Gray, 2010). Textbooks have
multiple components such as workbooks, an assessment package, DVDs and
CD-ROMs, and additional resources for teachers and students. Digital compo-
nents are used increasingly, such as an e-book, online workbooks, and options
for varying levels of blended use.

From concept to classroom

In the case of national textbooks, such as those used in public schools, they
may be produced by the ministry or department of education, or written by
 The ELT Textbook 21

freelance writers contracted by textbook publishers to write books for the

national curriculum (Cheng, 2002). If commercially produced textbooks are
used in public schools an approval process is normally in place and only books
that are approved by the ministry of education can be used in schools. A chain
of events takes place in which the ministry of education produces test formats
or guidelines, publishers produce test formats to match the guidelines, school
districts set in place procedures by which textbooks are reviewed and adopted,
lists of approved textbooks are published, and teachers (or their supervisors)
then select the textbooks they will use.
In some countries (e.g. Japan, China), groups of academics and teachers often
work together to write textbooks according to the ministry of education guide-
lines. The guidelines include the exact number of words to be taught at each
level, the verb tenses that are to be covered, the topics and type of classroom
activities to be used, and assessment procedures. Selecting one or more of the
textbooks from among the drafts submitted is a type of competition and the
successful textbook series chosen through this process may sell in huge quan-
tities. In this way the ministry of education controls the content that will be
taught in its public schools.
Commercial textbooks for international or regional markets reflect a different
publication process. Most textbooks are written by experienced teachers in
cooperation with editors and consultants who guide the writers through the
process of textbook development (Richards, 1995). Effective textbooks do
many of the things a teacher would normally do as part of his or her teaching.
They should:

• arouse the learners’ interest;

• remind them of earlier learning;
• tell them what they will be learning next;
• explain new learning content to them;
• set clear learning targets;
• provide them with strategies to use in learning;
• help them get feedback on their learning;
• provide practice opportunities;
• enable them to check their progress.

While many teachers are successful in helping learners do these things in

classroom-based learning, developing a book that does the same things calls
upon a very different set of skills. As Byrd (1995: 7) observes:

For the writer of textbooks, the most demanding of the differences between
writing for a particular class and writing for publication is the search for
coherence. At its best, a textbook is a unified, seamless whole rather than a
random collection of materials. The creative energy demanded for writing
22 Jack C. Richards

textbooks involves more than the ability to present language learning mate-
rials that are different in some way from those that have been published
previously. Textbooks need to be different in conception and organization
from previously published materials that all of us develop over the years as
we teach our various ESL courses.

Another difference is that, in preparing materials for their own classes, teachers
can draw on a great deal of knowledge about who the learners are, what their
specific interests, needs, difficulties, and learning style preferences are, as well
as the teachers’ beliefs, principles, and assumptions about effective teaching.
Much can be left unstated and filled in by the teacher during the process of
teaching (Allwright, 1981). In writing materials for publication, however, the
goal is to produce materials that can be used in many different circumstances
and taught by teachers with widely different teaching styles and levels of
training, so the goals of the materials and the activities they contain must be
much more explicit (Cheng, 2002).
There are usually two approaches to publishing English language teaching
materials, particularly those intended for a large market. Either a teacher or
group of teachers develop a concept for a book based on their perception that
the book they propose has some advantages or unique features that would
make it appealing to both teachers and students. They then contact a publisher
with their proposal. Alternatively a publisher might identify the need for a new
book and identify teachers or writers who might be able to write it. Once a
commitment is made to publish the book, the writers work with editors from
the publishing company to develop the concept for the book project in more
detail (Richards, 1995).
Questions such as the following will need to be addressed at this stage:

• What kind of teachers, learners and institutions is the book intended for?
• What features are they likely to look for in the book?
• What approach will the book be based on and what principles of teaching
and learning will it reflect?
• How many levels will be involved and at what level will the book or books
start and end?
• How will the material in the book be organised and what kind of syllabus
will it be based on?
• How many units will the book contain and how many classroom hours will
be needed to teach it?
• What ancillaries will be involved, such as teacher book, workbook, tests,
audio component, video component, electronic and online components,
and who will develop these?
 The ELT Textbook 23

• What will the format of units be and what kinds of exercises and activities
will be used throughout the book?

As the answers to these questions are clarified the writer or writers will be in
a position to develop a proposal for the book or book series, a preliminary
syllabus and unit format for the book, and to develop some sample units. The
publisher then arranges to have the sample materials reviewed by a range of
people, both internally (i.e. editors) and externally (teachers and consultants).
Often teachers will be brought together in focus groups to review the materials
and may try it out with their students. This review process may repeat several
times as different samples are drafted until the specifications for the book
have been finalised. Only at this stage can writing begin in earnest. A writing
schedule is developed so that the publisher can plan for the different stages of
editing, design, and manufacturing that are involved in publishing a book.

Issues involved in evaluating English language textbooks

English language textbooks are a source of activities for teaching English. As

such they provide information about English and examples of how English is
used. They also contain real world information; the materials they make use
of will, intentionally or unintentionally, present information about countries,
cultures, people, lifestyles, beliefs, and values. Therefore textbooks raise two
important issues: the authenticity of the language they contain, and the repre-
sentation of the content they provide (Harwood, 2010).

Authenticity of language
There has been a great deal of discussion and debate in language teaching about
the kind of language that is presented in textbooks and the role of constructed
versus authentic language examples (Waters, 2009). Generally, authentic texts
are recommended:

Authenticity is felt to be important because it gives learners a taste of the

real world, an opportunity to ‘rehearse’ in a sheltered environment, hence
the less authentic the materials we use the less well prepared learners will be
for that real word. (McGrath, 2002: 105)

Traditionally, the writers of textbooks generally employ their own intuition

about language use as the basis for writing dialogue, developing scripts for
listening texts, and creating reading passages. This was often justified on the
grounds that using authentic texts taken from real life would expose learners
to language that was unnecessarily complex and would not allow the writer
24 Jack C. Richards

to provide a specific language focus to texts that are designed to support

instruction. This has sometimes resulted in the charge that textbooks that
contain unnatural or ‘artificial’ language, such as we see in the following dia-
logue that introduced different forms of the verb sing:

A: When did you learn to sing?

B: Well I started singing when I was ten years old, and I’ve been singing
everyday since then.
A: I wish I could sing like you. I’ve never really sung well.
B: Don’t worry. If you start singing today, you’ll be able to sing in no time.
A: Thank you. But isn’t singing very hard?
B: I don’t think so. After you learn to sing, you’ll be a great singer.
(Saslow, no date)

Proponents of the use of authentic language in textbooks suggest that the lin-
guistic information and grammar it contains is often based on author intu-
ition and may not reflect the findings of research into how the language is
really used. Jones and Waller (2011) compare information about conditionals
in textbooks, where conditionals are typically divided into zero, first, second,
and third conditionals, a distinction they find is not supported by corpus-
based data on how conditionals are used in English. Similarly, Chan (2009:
11) compares the language presented for expressing functions in business
English textbooks with the language used in actual business meetings and he
notes that the textbook language is over explicit. This tends to suggest that
there is a close relationship between function and form, whereas in real com-
munication functions are realised in much more complex and subtle ways:

Table 2.1 A comparison of textbook and real-life language

Examples from Examples from real-life business

Function contemporary textbooks meetings

Agreeing You’ve got a point there Mmm

I totally agree with you Implied by the function ‘accept’ (e.g.
Absolutely/Precisely/Exactly yes)
Implied by not disagreeing
Nods
Disagreeing That’s not right Well + comment
I don’t agree But ...
I don’t quite agree with that Yes. But ...
point because ...

Continued
 The ELT Textbook 25

Table 2.1 Continued

Examples from Examples from real-life business

Function contemporary textbooks meetings

Suggesting I suggest that ... We could ...

I propose that ... So, if ...
What about ... ? Imperative
Interrupting Sorry to interrupt, but ... Yes, but ...
If I may interrupt, could But ...
you ... ? Repetition of overlapping utter-
Sorry, can I just say some- ance (e.g. ‘I got, I got ... ’)
thing?

Since the 1980s there has been a movement towards the use of authentic lan-
guage in textbooks, drawing on information derived from discourse and corpus
analysis of authentic speech. Carter and McCarthy (1988: 369) comment:

We know from our knowledge of our first language that in most textbook
discourse we are getting something which is concocted for us, and may
therefore rightly resent being disempowered by teachers or materials writers
who, on apparently laudable ideological grounds, appear to know better.
Information or knowledge about language should never be held back; the
task is to make it available without artificial restrictions, in ways which
answer most learners’ needs.

No textbook writer or publisher, of course, would advocate the use of texts or

language models that provide incorrect or inaccurate information about the
use of English. The goal is to use texts and discourse samples that show how
language is used and that also enable learners to use authentic cognitive, inter-
actional, and communicative processes when carrying out activities. A dia-
logue in a textbook, or one prepared by a teacher, may have been constructed
to reflect features of authentic conversational interaction. It is these features,
rather than the text itself, that form the focus of classroom activities.
While the use of authentic texts in materials may be a desirable goal, it is not
always feasible. McGraw (2002: 104–105) comments:

Strictly speaking, an authentic listening text would be neither scripted nor

edited; in practice, poor quality, length, and other pedagogical considera-
tions lead to spoken texts being re-recorded and/or edited for use in class-
rooms. Written texts may similarly be retyped and edited.

When choosing texts for use in reading and listening textbooks some texts
taken from real world sources may suit the writer’s needs. However, it may not
26 Jack C. Richards

be possible to find texts that are of the right length, at the right level of diffi-
culty, reflect the reading or listening skills that are being addressed, and are on a
topic relevant to the unit. In this case the writer may adapt or create a text while
making sure that it requires the use of the processes the text is intended to practise,
such as listening to make inferences or reading to identify cause and effect. What
is important here is authenticity of process rather than authenticity of text.

Representations of content
In writing textbooks the author has to create situations and choose texts
that illustrate how language is used, and in so doing make decisions about
what kinds of situations and texts will be used and who the participants are.
Decisions have to be made concerning whose culture and values will be repre-
sented in the book. The choices the writer makes can send different kinds of
messages to students. Gray (2010: 142, citing Brown, 1990) reports:

The kind of English contained in coursebooks can be called ‘cosmopolitan

English’ because it ‘assumes a materialistic set of values in which inter-
national travel, not being bored, positively being entertained, having
leisure, and above all, spending money casually and without consideration
of the sum involved in the pursuit of ends, are the norm.

Two scholars who have examined the role of culture in language teaching from
a cross-cultural perspective are Byram and Kramsch, who argue for the concept
of ‘intercultural competence’ as a goal in teaching – and one that should also
be reflected in textbooks. Language learning provides opportunities for learners
to reflect on their own culture, as well as that which is embodied in the foreign
language.
Gray (2010: 33) summarises the views of Byram and Kramsch on foreign lan-
guage teaching and learning in this table:

Table 2.2 Two paradigmatic views of coursebooks

Dominant paradigm in foreign

language teaching Proposed educational alternative

– Language teaching as skills training – Language teaching as education

– Impoverished and conservative – Rich and critical
– Instructional and monologic – Educational and dialogic
– Culture occupies the background – Culture occupies the foreground
– Communicative competence the aim – Intercultural competence the aim
– Native-speaker model – Intercultural speaker model
– Aim to enable learners to survive as – Aim to create learners who are inter-
tourists/consumers nationally socially aware
– Learners construed as skills acquirers – Learners construed as apprentice
– Textbook as carrier of superficial view ethnographers
of target culture – Textbook as carrier of realistic view of
target culture
 The ELT Textbook 27

Textbook writing thus involves more than making decisions about how to
teach what English. It also involves consideration of how values are commu-
nicated through language. There are various ways in which messages may be
communicated through the choice of content in textbooks. For example:

• the diversity of characters presented throughout the book: what ethnic

groups will be represented?
• the treatment of gender: in what roles will male and female characters be
presented?
• the treatment of age: will younger and older characters appear, and in what
roles and situations?
• language varieties: what kind of accents will speakers use? Will English for
both native and non-native speakers be presented? Will standard, regional,
and social dialects be used and, if so, by whom?
• situations: in what contexts will characters be located?
• lifestyles: what kinds of lifestyles will be depicted?
• topics: what topics and issues will be explored throughout the book?
• art: what kinds of images will be used?

However, textbooks today are much more culturally sensitive than their pred-
ecessors. Publishers and writers seek to ensure that their textbooks reflect
progressive and politically acceptable values. Efforts are made to avoid social
bias and ethnocentrism, and to reflect universal human concerns, needs, and
values in their content. Often guidelines are provided for authors. Part of one
publisher’s guidelines suggests maintaining a 50–50 balance between the sexes:
numerically and in terms of the significance and prominence of the activity
illustrated; within schools and across the series, to aim for a gender-neutral
style of illustration; to use illustrations that include all physical types, with
occasional evidence of physical disability; and to avoid images with a stereo-
typical association.
Despite these efforts the criticism is still made that textbooks often present
an idealised view of the world or fail to represent real issues. In order to
make textbooks acceptable in many different contexts, controversial topics
are generally avoided, instead an idealised, middle-class view of the world
is presented as the norm. Gray (2010: 3) describes the global coursebook in
these terms:

a carefully constructed artefact in which discourses of feminism, multicul-

turalism and globalization are selectively co-opted by ELT publishers as a
means of inscribing English with a range of values and associations that
include individualism, egalitarianism, cosmopolitanism, mobility and afflu-
ence, in which students are increasingly addressed as consumers.
28 Jack C. Richards

However the comments of Jose Lema, an English teacher and teacher trainer
from Ecuador, reflect a different point of view:

My students have busy stressful lives and as often as not what they seem to
want from English classes is an exposure to ‘the brighter side of life’. They
don’t really come to class to try to solve the problems of the world but want
to have a chance to socialize with their friends and have fun. Their own
lives are often quite a struggle and the English class is a time to enter a
different imaginary world.

Choosing textbooks

When looking at the book in relation to the teaching context we find that
some teachers choose their own textbooks; for others, as with the example
above, they are chosen for them by coordinators or other teachers. Several
levels of review are involved in choosing textbooks (Cunningsworth, 1994,
1995). Apart from the content and quality of books themselves, the choice of
textbooks will reflect institutional, teacher, and learner factors. Let us consider
these issues first.
Institutional factors include:

• the type of curriculum and tests in place in the school;

• organisational structure of the institution;
• length and intensity of the English course(s);
• cost of the book and its availability;
• resources in place, such as whiteboards, computers, or self-access facilities;
• support available to prepare new teachers for the use of textbooks;
• classroom conditions such as class size or seating arrangements.

Teacher factors include:

• proficiency in English;
• level of training and teaching experience;
• familiarity with different methodologies;
• attitudes towards use of textbooks;
• preferred teaching styles.

Learner factors include:

• learners’ needs and aims;

• proficiency level;
• language learning experience;
 The ELT Textbook 29

• age range;
• interests;
• cultural background;
• language background;
• occupations;
• preferred learning styles.

As the factors above suggest, if a school decides to use a textbook there must be
a good degree of fit between the book and the context in which it is going to
be used. A brief review of the book should enable a decision to be made as to
whether the book suits the needs of both the programme in which it could be
used and the teachers and students in that programme.

Evaluating the book: Stage 1 – description

Evaluation is the judgement of how suitable something is for a particular
purpose. Textbook evaluation can be divided into two phases: pre-use, and
during or after use (Cunningsworth, 1995). Most textbook evaluation schemes
distinguish two essential stages that are necessary at the pre-use phase: a
description or analysis phase, and an interpretation or evaluation phase (Riazi,
2003).
In the first phase the contents of the book have to be carefully described
in terms of the way the book is organised, the syllabus or scope and sequence
plan of the book, and the types of texts and exercises it contains. Riazi (2003:
67) gives this explanation:

Analysis: a detailed analysis of the materials. It is more or less neutral and

provides the evaluator(s) with the information on categories of different
elements presented in the materials.

This is distinguished from evaluation, which Riazi describes as follows (67):

Evaluation: a professional interpretation of the information obtained in the

analysis stage. The evaluator(s) may use their experience and expertise –
reflecting their views and priorities based on a number of factors such as
learner and teacher expectations, methodological preferences, the perceived
needs of learners, syllabus requirements and personal preferences – and give
weights or provide value judgement to the obtained information.

The analysis phase will involve identifying this kind of information:

• aims and objectives of the book;

• level of the book;
30 Jack C. Richards

• skills addressed;
• topics covered;
• situations it is intended for;
• target learners;
• time required;
• components;
• number and length of units;
• organisation of units.

Information of this kind should be fairly easy to identify from the front and
back matter of the book, from information provided by the publisher or book
distributor, as well as by looking through the book and its table of contents.
Lee (2003: 173) gives an example of this level of analysis in describing a book
on academic writing:
The map of the coursebook as a whole

Focus Description

1 Year of publication 1996

2 Title of book First Steps in Academic Writing
3 Intended audience High-beginning writing students of ESL
4 Type Academic writing
Not identified as main or ‘core’ course or supplementary
5 Design and layout No colours. A4 size. 212 pages
6 Extent (a) Components
One book for students. No teacher book
(b) Total estimated time
Not mentioned
7 Distribution (a) Materials
* Visual materials (pictures & photographs)
Yes
* Guidance on use of the book
No
* Tests
No
(b) Access
*Content list
*Content name
*Page number
*Appendix
*Index
8 Subdivision 6 units with 4 parts in each unit
Part 1 (organisation); Part 2 (grammar and mechanics);
Part 3 (sentence structure); Part 4 (writing process)
 The ELT Textbook 31

Evaluating the book: Stage 2 – evaluation

This stage of evaluation is more difficult since it involves subjective judgements
and these often differ from one person to another. For this reason group evalu-
ations are often useful. A number of checklists have been developed to assist
at this stage of evaluation, such as Cunningsworth’s (1995) that is organised
under the categories of aims and approach, design and organisation, language
content, skills, topics, methodology, teachers book, practical consideration.
However, checklists such as these depend mainly on subjective judgements
that cannot easily be answered and they generally need to be adapted to reflect
the book under consideration. Criteria often need to be developed that reflect
the context in which the book will be used and the kind of book being evalu-
ated since factors of relevance in one situation may not necessarily apply in
another. The following factors can be considered.
Pedagogical approach: what methodology does the book reflect and does it
reflect an informed understanding of its subject matter? For example, if it is a
reading book or reading series relevant questions will focus on what theory of
reading the book is based on and on the kind of reading skills and strategies
it addresses. If it is a speaking book it will be important to determine what
theory of spoken interaction it reflects and what aspects of spoken interaction
it addresses.
Methodology: the methodology of the book will determine the range of
activity types and exercises employed throughout the book. Evaluation of
these will focus on whether they are considered appropriate and adequate for
developing the skills the book aims to teach.
Language content: the texts and linguistic input provided as the basis for
learning and practising throughout the book can be reviewed in terms of their
authenticity, accuracy, relevance to the students’ needs, and difficulty level.
Other content : it will be important to review the relevance of the cultural
content of the book, the suitability and appeal of the topics it includes, the
values and assumptions the book communicates, as well as the way it repre-
sents gender and ethnic cultural diversity.
Teacher appeal: many factors can affect a teacher’s impressions of a book,
such as its design and layout, the clarity of organisation, how difficult it would
be to teach, whether it is self-contained or would need to be supplemented
by teacher-made materials, and whether it suits the teacher’s teaching style.
For example, does it depend on a teacher-fronted style of teaching or would
it lend itself to pair and group-based learning? The teacher’s opinion will also
be influenced by the range of ancillaries provided, such as teacher book, tests,
optional extra photocopiable activities, and web-based teacher support.
Learner appeal: factors of interest to learners will include how appealing
its design is, including the photos and illustrations, the topics, the kinds of
32 Jack C. Richards

activities it includes, whether it has self-study components, and the relevance

to their perceived needs of the language skills taught.
When a group evaluation process is used these issues, and others specific to
the teaching context (e.g. the cost of the book), can be discussed and, if several
books are being considered, a consensus can be reached on the book that most
suits the teachers’ needs.

Evaluating during and after use

In-use evaluation focuses on how well the book functions in the classroom. It
depends on monitoring the use of the book and collecting information from
both teachers and students. The information collected can serve the following
purposes:

• to document effective ways of using a textbook;

• to provide feedback on how the book works in the classroom and how effect-
ively it achieves it aims;
• to keep a record of adaptations that were made to the book;
• to assist other teachers in using the book.

This may involve regular consultation with teachers to address issues that
arise as the book is being used and resolving problems that may occur. For
example:

• Is there too much or too little material?

• Is it at the right level for students?
• What aspects of the book are proving least and most effective?
• What do teachers and students like most or least about the book?

Various approaches to monitoring the use of a book are possible:

• Observation: classroom visits to see how teachers use the book and to find
out how the book influences the quality of teaching and learning that goes
on in lessons.
• Record of use: documentation of what parts of the book were or were not used,
and what adaptations or supplements were made to the book and why.
• Feedback sessions: group meetings in which teachers discuss their experience
with the book.
• Written reports: the use of reflection sheets or other forms of written feedback
(e.g. electronic) in which teachers make brief notes about what did and what
did not work well, or make suggestions for using the book.
• Reviews: written reviews by a teacher, or group of teachers, on their experi-
ences with the book and what they did or didn’t like about it.
 The ELT Textbook 33

• Students’ reviews: comments from students on their experience with the

book.

Post-use evaluation provides information that will help decide if the book will
continue to be used.

Adapting textbooks

As we noted above, in many situations textbooks form the basis of the cur-
riculum in language programmes. Provided there is a good degree of fit
between the textbook and the teaching context teachers use textbooks as the
major source of input and direction to their teaching. This does not neces-
sarily mean that the teacher plays a secondary role in the teaching process
since teachers normally improvise around their teaching materials, moving
back and forth between book-based and teacher-initiated input. Hence, even
though a teacher may teach the same lesson from a textbook many times,
each time it becomes a different lesson due to the improvisations the teacher
initiates during teaching. These may result from on the spot decisions relating
to timing, affective factors, and responses to learner difficulties. Experienced
teachers use textbooks flexibly as a teaching resource (Savova, 2009).
Sometimes, however, adaptations may be required to reflect the needs of a
specific teaching context. Various forms of adaptation are possible.
Adding material to address an examination requirement: sometimes supple-
mentary material may need to be added to address the requirements of a spe-
cific institutional or other exam. For example, the reading component of an
institutional text may make use of multiple-choice questions rather than the
kinds of comprehension tasks found in a coursebook, so extra material to
practise using multiple-choice questions may be needed.
Extending to provide additional practice: a book unit has a limited number of
pages and at times the teacher may source other materials for the additional
practise of grammar, vocabulary, or skills to supplement the book.
Localising: an activity in the book may be more effective if it is modified to
reflect local issues and content, rather than using the content that is discussed
in the coursebook.
Localisation also involves adapting or supplementing an activity to address
the specific needs of a group of learners. For example, pronunciation prob-
lems might reflect interference from the students’ first language that are not
covered in the book. Additional activities can be added to address problems
specific to the learners.
Modifying content : content may need to be changed because it does not suit
the target learners, perhaps because of their age, gender, social background,
occupation, religion, or cultural background.
34 Jack C. Richards

Reorganising content : a teacher may decide to reorganise the syllabus of the

book, and rearrange the units into what she or he considers a more suitable
order. Or the teacher may decide not to follow the sequence of activities in the
unit but to reorganise them for a particular reason.
Modifying tasks: exercises and activities may need to be changed to give them
an additional focus (McAndrew, 2007). For example, a listening activity may
focus only on listening for information, so it is adapted for students to listen
a second or third time for a different purpose. An activity may be extended to
provide opportunities for more personalised practice. Or some exercises within
a sequence may be dropped.
While in many cases a book may work perfectly well without the need
for much adaptation, in some cases different levels of adaptation may be
needed. Through the process of adaptation the teacher personalises the text,
making it a better teaching resource, and individualises it for a particular
group of learners. Normally, this process takes place gradually as the teacher
becomes more familiar with the book because the dimensions of the text
that need adaptation may not be apparent until the book is tried out in the
classroom.

Conclusion

Textbooks are an important resource for teachers and learners in language

teaching and their role in a language course should be carefully planned for
and monitored. Since they provide much of the input to their lessons, teachers
should be involved in making decisions about the textbooks they will teach
from. Teachers are sometimes overwhelmed with the large range of textbooks
that are generally available for teaching every kind of English course. Teachers
in training can benefit from learning how to analyse and review textbooks, to
learn effective ways of using textbooks, and how to localise them for their spe-
cific teaching contexts.

Engagement priorities

1. What are the main advantages and disadvantages of using textbooks in lan-
guage teaching? What can a school do to ensure that textbooks facilitate
creative teaching rather than textbook dominated teaching?
2. What criteria do you use in choosing textbooks and other materials for your
own teaching context? To what extent do you adapt published materials you
use, and in what ways?
3. Examine a currently used, popular or successful textbook. In your opinion,
what features of the book account for its success?
 The ELT Textbook 35

4. In view of the role of English as an international language, or lingua franca,

to what extent do you think native-speaker usage should be reflected in
textbooks? How can other users of English be represented in textbooks?
5. If you were asked to provide guidelines for a textbook writer creating your
ideal ELT textbook, what would the guidelines contain?

References
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Appel, J. (2011). Moments of practice: teachers’ knowledge and interaction in the lan-
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Barbara Schiftner (eds), Theory and Practice in EFL Teacher Education: Bridging the Gap.
Bristol: Multilingual Matters, pp. 38–54.
Brown, G. (1990). Cultural values: the interpretation of discourse. ELT Journal, 44(1):
11–17.
Byrd, P. (1995). Material Writers Guide. Boston: Heinle.
Carter, R. and McCarthy, M. (eds) (1988). Vocabulary and Language Teaching. London:
Longman.
Chan, C. S. C. (2009). Thinking out of the textbook: toward authenticity and politeness
awareness. In Savova, Lilia (ed.), Using Textbooks Effectively. Alexandria, VA: TESOL,
pp. 9–20.
Cheng, X. (2002). English Textbook Analysis and Design. Beijing: Foreign Language
Teaching and Research Press.
Crawford, J. (2002). The role of materials in the language classroom. In Jack C. Richards
and Willy Renandya (eds), Methodology in Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge
University Press, pp. 80–92.
Cunningsworth, A. (1994). Evaluating and Selecting ESL Materials. London: Heinemann.
Cunningsworth, A. (1995). Choosing Your Coursebook. Oxford: Heinemann.
Gray, J. (2010). The Construction of English: Culture, Consumerism and Promotion in the ELT
Global Coursebook. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
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University Press.
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tionals. ELT Journal, 65(1): 24–33.
Lee, Y. (2003). A package for an English paragraph: an evaluation of the coursebook used
in two EFL writing courses. English teaching, 58(3): 165–188.
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Burns and H. Joyce (eds), Planning and Teaching Creatively within a Required Curriculum .
Alexandria, VA: TESOL.
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Edinburgh University Press.
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evaluation schemes of the three decades. In Renandya, W. (ed.), Methodology and
Materials Design in Language Teaching. Singapore: RELC.
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teaching. RELC Journal, 24(1): 1–14.
36 Jack C. Richards

Richards, J. C. (1995). Easier said than done: an insider’s account of a textbook project. In
Hidalgo, A., Hall, D. and Jacobs, G. (eds), Getting Started on Materials Writing. Singapore:
RELC, pp. 93–135.
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English-Speaking World. Unpublished paper.
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Linguistics, 30(1): 138–143.

An expanded version of this paper appears in Key Issues in Language Teaching: Jack C.
Richards, Cambridge University Press (in press).
3
Global vs. Local: Does It Matter?
Mario López-Barrios and Elba Villanueva de Debat

Introduction

Teaching materials are used in specific teaching contexts (schools, univer-

sities, language schools, and so on), with specific learners (according to age
and degree of L2 competence), and to meet specific needs (for example, to
build a general communicative competence in L2, to train call centre staff in
reading or speaking skills). This is why, when teachers use materials produced
for international markets (so-called global coursebooks), they adapt them to
fit their students’ needs, to comply with curricular demands, to supplement
any missing information, to provide extra practice, and so on. This is also true
of locally produced materials. How do EFL teachers go about using global and
locally produced coursebooks? Is there a significant difference between the way
teachers implement global and local coursebooks? Do they supplement them
with other materials? Do they skip some texts, activities, or other elements,
and on what basis? These are questions we address in this chapter in order to
find out about EFL teachers’ practices when using both kinds of coursebook.

A typology of foreign language teaching coursebooks

Differentiation by target users, and specific teaching and learning

contexts
The following typology is based on the contexts of use for which the course-
books are designed. These include the characteristics of the intended learner
groups, the location of the courses, and the institutional context in which the
textbook is used. The characteristics of groups of learners can be regarded as
homogeneous or heterogeneous in terms of relevant variables, among which
are their L1, age group, and sociocultural background. Location refers to the
actual country or region in which the coursebook is used. The term region
allows for a greater degree of generalisation, for example, referring to the

37
38 Mario López-Barrios and Elba Villanueva de Debat

countries of Spanish-speaking Latin America. The institutional context is espe-

cially relevant in reference to specific school types for which the coursebook is
intended. Apart from these contexts of use any explicit reference to particular
exams that the coursebook may prepare for also constitutes a distinguishing
feature in classifying coursebooks. The typology will be illustrated with ref-
erence to coursebooks that are or have been widely used in Argentina.
Different labels have always been applied to refer to types of coursebooks
according to their context of use. The distinctions global and local are used
by Tomlinson (1998b), and Gray (2002) adds the label glocal. Other labels
include international, local, and glocal (Arnold and Rixon, 2008), imported,
in-country, and regional (Dat, 2008), global, local, and adapted (Basabe,
2006), international, local, and localised (López Barrios, Villanueva de Debat
and Tavella, 2008). In this chapter we will use the labels global and inter-
national interchangeably, plus the terms local and localised, as described in
Table 3.1.
The international or global coursebook is defined by Tomlinson (1998a: x)
as a ‘coursebook which is not written for learners from a particular culture

Table 3.1 Contexts of use of three different types of coursebooks

Target
learners (L1,
age group and
sociocultural Location Institutional Target
Type Definition background) of course context exams

Global intended for use in heterogeneous/ worldwide schools (official Possible

any part of the homogeneous curriculum), preparation
world by learners of language for a target
a specific foreign schools, exam
language level and universities
age range

Localised a global coursebook homogeneous a specific schools (official Possible

adapted or localised country or curriculum) preparation
to make it fit with region for a target
the learners’ exam
background and a
national curriculum
Local specifically homogeneous a specific schools (official Possible
produced for a country or curriculum) preparation
country or region, region for a target
sensitive to learners’ exam
background, draws
on a national
curriculum
 Global vs. Local: Does It Matter? 39

or country but which is intended for use by any class of learners in the spe-
cified level and age group anywhere in the world’. Gray (2002: 151–152)
adds that international EFL coursebooks are typically ‘produced in English-
speaking countries’. A local coursebook is one ‘specifically produced for a
country or region and draw[s] on a national curriculum and on the learners’
experiences by including references to local personalities, places, etc.’ (López
Barrios, Villanueva de Debat and Tavella, 2008: 300). A glocal coursebook is
an adapted or localised version of a global coursebook that provides ‘a better
fit’, in that it connects the students’ world with ‘the world of English’ (Gray,
2002: 166). Tomlinson (2003a: 324) favours the localisation of global course-
books, stressing the fact that for the materials to be successful they necessarily
need to ‘match the target learners and the environments they are learning
in’. A coursebook type that is different from the classifications proposed by
most of the authors mentioned above is Dat’s ‘regional coursebook’, it is ‘a
unique category of materials, which are written by non-native speakers in one
country but are exported to and become accepted in several other countries’
(Dat, 2008: 268).
All these types of coursebook exist in Argentina and their relevance tends
to change as a result of curricular innovations and economic conditions
that favour or impede access to foreign books. International coursebooks are
widely used, not only in private language schools that offer English courses to
children, adolescents, and adults, but also in private primary and secondary
schools. Examples of localised coursebooks are the series For Teens (Corradi
and Rabinovich, 2004) and Click into English, (Casuscelli and Gandini, 2010),
adapted from a Spanish and a Brazilian course respectively.
The less favourable aspect of publishing local and localised coursebooks
relates to the lower profits they yield in commercial terms. This can be observed
by comparing the number of international, local, and localised coursebooks
produced by the main ELT publishers where a preference for the first type is
clearly noticeable. Because local and localised coursebooks display character-
istics that can have a positive impact on the educational contexts for which
they are intended, notably schools, they can be agents of innovation. In this
respect we share the view of Lopriore (2006), who claims that publishing
houses contribute to a large extent to shaping teachers’ preferences since they
play a significant role in setting educational trends through the textbooks they
publish. But this positive characteristic is affected by commercial reasons since,
according to Tomlinson, ‘local coursebooks don’t generate as much profit as
global coursebooks and, despite a recent trend of producing localised versions
of coursebooks, the global coursebook is going to remain the resource used by
the majority of learners of English in the world’. (Tomlinson, 2003b: 171). In
sum, publishers’ actions also exert an influence on the quality of teaching and
learning a foreign language.
40 Mario López-Barrios and Elba Villanueva de Debat

Theoretical underpinnings of local and localised coursebooks

As has been shown, the production of teaching materials with local con-
textual characteristics is not a new development. Many of the underlying
theoretical underpinnings only emerged towards the beginning of the 1980s,
coinciding with the rise of Critical Pedagogy as an educational theory and
of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) as a foreign language teaching
approach.
Critical Pedagogy claims that power relations among the different actors
involved in the teaching and learning process should be amenable to ques-
tioning and, consequently, it opposes the transference of allegedly superior,
dominant methodologies. In the field of ELT, the opening up of the economies
of Eastern European, Far Eastern, and Latin American nations during the 1980s
and 1990s, coupled with the spread of globalisation, created new opportunities
for the large-scale introduction of English to these regions. The urge of the,
so-called, developing nations to join the global economy implied the need for
their citizens to acquire English, the medium of expression of globalisation
and progress criticised as linguistic imperialism by Phillipson (1992, in McKay,
2003). Thus, EFL became a coveted export commodity in the shape of teaching
materials and courses to train educators to implement CLT, the state-of-the-art,
centrally designed method that was thought to be an answer to the same needs
worldwide.
Regarding the export of foreign expertise, large-scale surveys of the teaching
and the training of EFL teachers in China in the late 1970s by a US commis-
sioned team (Cowan et al., 1979) and of a teacher training course run by a
Canadian team (Patrie and Daum, 1980) criticise the established EFL meth-
odology that relies on memorisation, translation, and negligible oral use of
the target language. The Canadian specialists stress the impact of ‘properly
designed teaching materials’ (1980: 393) on ELT in developing countries. The
power attributed to teaching materials to effect a change in EFL, even if taught
through more ‘traditional’ teaching approaches, is questionable since teachers
adapt materials when planning classes and teaching, so it is not uncommon
for instructors to use teaching materials in ways very different from those
conceived by their authors. In our contemporary understanding the cases
described above are examples of unsuccessful attempts to impose change from
the top-down to solve, what is perceived as, a problem and we agree with
Widdowson’s assertion that ‘the local contexts of actual practice are to be seen
not as constraints to be overcome but conditions to be satisfied’ (2004: 369).
In acknowledgement of the limited suitability of EFL coursebooks produced
for use in English-speaking countries or for an indeterminate target user,
context-specific teaching materials were produced. The ensuing, more flexible,
understanding and implementation of CLT paved the way for the development
of new coursebooks, many of them locally produced, and some of them as
 Global vs. Local: Does It Matter? 41

localised versions of coursebooks produced for a similar setting, such as those

mentioned above.
CLT went through a number of phases in its development, starting with the
design of syllabuses that reflected the notion of communicative competence,
the identification of learners’ needs, and the design of activities compatible
with the notion of CLT (Richards and Rodgers, 2001). A second point is one
that is particularly relevant to the coursebook typology. Coupled to a further
characteristic of CLT, namely the shift from a teacher-centred to a learner-
centred approach, there emerged a recognition of the need to design teaching
materials that are more sensitive of contextual characteristics, such as the
local cultures of teaching and learning, time allotted to EFL, the availability
of teaching resources, the learner’s interests and needs, their L1, and the cur-
ricular demands of the local educational context. The search for more appro-
priate pedagogies that are sensitive to the local teaching and learning context
is stressed by Kramsch and Sullivan (1996), they are also viewed by McKay
(2003) in a critical light, who stresses the notion of diversity within particular
contexts. The following section aims to capture what we consider the ideal
characteristics context-sensitive foreign language teaching materials should
display.

Distinctive features of local and localised materials

We identify four aspects that distinguish local and localised materials from
international ones: contextualisation, linguistic contrasts, intercultural
reflection, and facilitation of learning. The development of Critical Pedagogy
and CLT mentioned above sparked applied linguists in some Western European
countries, as well as in North America, to reflect on the need to produce
context-sensitive teaching materials. The work of these applied linguists ran
parallel at the end of the 1970s but developed along somewhat different lines,
with German researchers Gerighausen and Seel (1983, in López Barrios, Dalla
Villa, Jáimez and Villanueva de Debat, 2004) concentrating on the principles
of regional-specific coursebooks. In characterising the distinguishing features
we refer to both the presence of the category (as in conformity with the theor-
etical framework) and its absence (as in the distance between the theoretical
category and the actual presence in the local and localised coursebooks). In the
following sections we discuss each feature in turn.

Contextualisation
Contextualisation involves three aspects: personalisation, content topics
included in the materials, and pedagogical fit. Personalisation implies pri-
marily ‘connecting coursebooks to the real world which the learners live in’
(Tomlinson, 2003b: 171). One way of contextualising the coursebook is the
inclusion of local references, such as familiar personalities, places, facts, and
42 Mario López-Barrios and Elba Villanueva de Debat

folklore among others. For example, Argentine local and localised coursebooks
tend to include references to personalities from local showbiz, as well as from
culture, science, and history who are familiar to learners.
Also, content subject matter covered by local and localised coursebooks
should be sensitive to the sociocultural norms of the society where they are
implemented. Today this is less of an issue in Argentina as there is a general
tendency to discuss virtually any topic, albeit this may be less so in religious
schools. Despite the current open attitude to controversial topics, local and
localised coursebooks – which are almost exclusively used in schools – largely
tend to avoid them. Banegas (2010) gives an example of how teachers deal
with this absence in an action research project carried out in an Argentine
secondary school. The syllabus content negotiated between teachers and
learners included the addition of topics such as gay marriage and single
parenting.
Pedagogical fit, the third aspect of contextualisation, refers to the degree of
harmony between a coursebook with educational practices that suit the local
teaching context and its conformity to a country’s school curriculum. In our
analysis of two localised coursebooks (López Barrios and Villanueva de Debat,
2006) we mention the agreement of these books with the foreign languages
curriculum in effect at the time of publication. This is reflected in both the
model syllabus to accompany Dream Team (Planificaciones), which is designed
in accordance with the official curriculum and is offered to teachers as a
planning aid, and in the Teacher’s Book New Let’s Go for EGB! (Mugglestone,
Elsworth and Rose, 2000), where the authors state that the course was written
to meet the curricular demands of Argentine lower secondary schools.

Linguistic contrasts
Linguistic contrasts focus on the opportunity to make learners reflect on the
form, meaning, and use of the target language linguistic features by encour-
aging contrastivity. Despite the considerable amount of evidence reported in
Second Language Acquisition scholarship regarding the positive impact of lan-
guage awareness from a contrastive viewpoint, coursebooks do not respond, or
only do so to a very restricted degree. A study carried out in Spain by Rodríguez
Juárez and Oxbrow (2008) to find out the students’ attitudes to the use of
the L1 produced very interesting results. Even if the authors report a general
positive attitude regarding the use of the L1 on the part of the learners, they
found a less favourable opinion on their part in connexion with the value
they attribute to cross-linguistic comparison. This may be due to a generalised
belief that comparing the target language with the L1 may negatively affect the
learning process.
As regards the distinction between international, local and localised course-
books, the intended learners’ L1 is an issue of interest. Courtillon (2003)
 Global vs. Local: Does It Matter? 43

contends that speakers of a language related to the target language – such as

speakers of Romance and Germanic languages learning English – will profit
from a coursebook that encourages learners to look for cross-linguistic similar-
ities. Likewise, students whose L1 is more distant, for example in terms of mor-
phological typology or writing systems as in Chinese, would need a coursebook
that helps them explore these differences. The inclusion of such linguistic
contrasts is feasible in local and localised coursebooks, but goes against the
very notion of international coursebooks.
In local and localised coursebooks linguistic contrasts can take different
forms. In Explorer Starter (García Cahuzac and Tiberio, 1999) learners are made
to notice the English phonemes /i:/, /g/, /p/. Subsequently, learners look for
words containing the sound in question and provide Spanish words with the
similar sound. They then listen to the English words and reproduce them
and do the same with the Spanish words, thus contrasting the selected sound
and becoming aware of the differences. Comparing aspects of the grammar
of English and Spanish is a feature of In Focus 1 (Abbs, Freebairn and Barker,
2001). For example, after introducing and practising different forms of the
plural of nouns, learners are asked how the plural is marked in Spanish nouns.
Unfortunately, such examples are hardly found in more recent local and local-
ised coursebooks.

Intercultural reflection
Intercultural reflection is defined as ‘awareness of the relation between home
and target cultures’ (Council of Europe, 2001: 104). It presupposes a critical
confrontation with facts about a foreign culture rather than the mere con-
sumption of information related to the target culture (C2). However, an ana-
lysis of four coursebooks of this kind suggests that this is not a predominant
practice in local and localised materials (López Barrios and Villanueva de
Debat, 2007). In fact, the transmission of facts and practices of the C2, mainly
restricted to the UK and usually treated in coursebooks in a special section
under a label such as Culture Corner, is very frequent in the sample analysed.
Opportunities to relate the C2 with the C1, when restricted to the mere ‘what
is it like in your country?’, tend to emphasise unfavourable comparisons on
the part of EFL learners in developing nations. The C2 is generally viewed by
the learners as more elaborate, efficient, and desirable, thus dismissing the C1
as more backward, inefficient, and less favourable. For example, the photo-
graphs that show the homes of the, usually British or American, coursebook
characters are generally considered by learners in developing countries to be
those of wealthy families, the food consumed or the holiday plans discussed,
usually in attractive foreign locations, can be interpreted as typical of any
British or American person, thus inducing in learners a standardised, mono-
chrome interpretation of the target culture, unless there is an intervention on
44 Mario López-Barrios and Elba Villanueva de Debat

the part of the materials to include a more balanced picture of different family
backgrounds.
In brief, for intercultural reflection to develop, tasks should be included that
make the learners go beyond mere surface impressions and engage them in
activities whereby stereotypes are challenged and their world view is altered
or defamiliarised. Furthermore, through intercultural contrast, local and local-
ised coursebooks could make a significant contribution to the development of
democratic citizenship by offering opportunities for learners to foster critical
thinking, acknowledge and respect diversity and otherness, and take an active
participation in different aspects of public life.

Facilitation of learning
By facilitation of learning we mean the inclusion of features that contribute
to the learner’s autonomy. In local and localised coursebooks, including the
L1 when the learner’s L2 competence is still very limited, could facilitate inde-
pendent work. This, to date quite uncommon, feature can be found in Click into
English 1 (Casuscelli and Gandini, 2010), where instructions in the workbook
section are given in Spanish. This coursebook also uses the L1 to contextualise
dialogues, for example ‘The Rovitti Family meets Karen and Ann Dillon at
Ezeiza Airport’ (6), or when questions with ‘do they ... ?’ are introduced, learners
are asked in Spanish ‘How does Ann ask if the vicuñas belong to the family of
camels? How does she ask if they eat meat?’ (56) for learners to notice the way
questions are formed. A more common feature is the use of the L1 to clarify
grammar rules, as in the Grammar View sections of Click into English 1. Lastly,
for teens 1 (Corradi and Rabinovich, 2004) opens up the coursebook with a
two-page introduction in Spanish where the structure of the units is explained,
the characters are introduced, and the main rubrics for activities and icons are
clarified.
Overall, these four distinguishing characteristics of local and localised
coursebooks are quality criteria that should be considered by materials devel-
opers when designing local or localised coursebooks, and by teachers when
selecting coursebooks. Table 3.2 summarises these criteria.

Coursebook use by teachers: an Argentine perspective

The information presented in this section is based on data obtained from EFL
teachers in the Argentine context through a survey, a follow-up open ques-
tionnaire and an interview. We received 30 responses from teachers working
in different types of institutions in central Argentina. Our aim was to explore
how teachers use and adapt textbooks in the belief that most of them adapt
the materials used to the local context and their teaching style (Tomlinson,
2012: 151).
 Global vs. Local: Does It Matter? 45

Table 3.2 Features of local and localised materials

Feature Definition Characteristics

Contextualisation Connection of coursebook • inclusion of local

with learner’s world and references: places,
match with local personalities, etc.
pedagogical practices and • context-sensitive subject
curriculum matter
• choice of controversial
topics
• harmony with local
educational practices
• conformity to school
curriculum
Linguistic contrasts Making learners reflect on Comparison with L1 of
form, meaning and use of diverging L2 features at
the L2 linguistic features different levels:
contrastively phonological,
morphological, lexical,
textual
Intercultural reflection Awareness of the relation Learners go beyond mere
between home and target surface impressions and
cultures engage in activities that
challenge stereotypes and
alter their world view
Facilitation of learning Inclusion of features that Inclusion of the L1 in
contribute to the learner’s rubrics and to
autonomy contextualise, clarify or
train learners

In many public educational institutions in Argentina, teachers are given

the freedom to select textbooks. In private institutions procedures vary, but in
most cases the heads make the choice, sometimes based on the opinions and
consensus of the teachers. Sometimes choice is determined by factors that are
outside educational concerns, such as availability or price, and that are resolved
by ‘the vicissitudes of a capitalist market, [where] decisions about the “bottom
line” determine what books are published and for how long’ (Apple, 2000: 184).
With the exception of primary schools, most educational institutions where
English is taught as a foreign language in our context are represented by the
informants who responded to the survey: public secondary schools (38 per
cent), private secondary schools (29 per cent), language centres (29 per cent)
and institutions of higher education (4 per cent). All of the participants are
non-native teachers and most of them are qualified teachers who have received
training in foreign language teaching.
46 Mario López-Barrios and Elba Villanueva de Debat

The findings revealed that a high percentage of the teachers use an inter-
national book (74 per cent) and only a small percentage (26 per cent) use a local
or localised coursebook. The responses also showed that all teachers adapt
coursebooks and that most of them do so frequently (52 per cent) or very fre-
quently (24 per cent).
Regarding the reasons for adapting the textbook, our survey included the
following statement: I adapt or supplement the coursebook for the following reasons
(tick as many as necessary) and a number of options to choose from. All teachers,
regardless of whether they use an international or a local coursebook, answered
this question. The results are presented in Table 3.3.
As Table 3.3 shows, the most frequent reason for adapting textbooks is the
complexity of reading or listening texts. The second most frequent reason is
to provide more reading or listening activities, and the third most frequent
is that there are not enough language activities. For item b (complexity of
reading or listening texts), we provided other options to explore why the texts
are considered too complex. The responses indicate that most teachers believe
complexity is mainly related to two issues: the relevance or familiarity of the
topic to the learners (37 per cent and 15 per cent respectively), or the amount
of unknown vocabulary or difficult grammar of the texts (30 per cent). Other
reasons offered in the open item were that teachers adapt the coursebooks
to expand on certain subtopics, to trigger conversation, or to integrate topics
mainly regarding grammar and vocabulary. In addition, one teacher stated
that she adapted the book to motivate the students.
We also asked participants to describe how they supplement the textbooks
they use. Most teachers adapted or compiled from several textbooks (38 per cent)
or designed their own activities (31). Contrary to what might be expected,
downloading activities or texts from the Internet is not so common. Some of
the teachers state that they also supplement the textbook with activities and/
or texts designed by colleagues who use the same coursebook, with simplified
stories from other books, and also with audio books, films or TV series.

Table 3.3 Reasons for textbook adaptation

(a) the reading or listening texts contain outdated information 7%

(b) the reading or listening texts are too complex for my learners 24%
(c) to provide more reading or listening activities 23%
(d) the speaking or writing activities are too demanding for my learners 4%
(e) the speaking or writing activities are too simple for my learners 4%
(f) the topic of the speaking or writing activities is not interesting or 12%
motivating for my learners
(g) the language activities are too mechanical and repetitive 9%
(h) there are not enough language activities 14%
(i) other 4%
 Global vs. Local: Does It Matter? 47

The survey clearly shows that teachers supplement textbooks, but they also
dealt with most of their contents. When asked how frequently they skipped
activities, most of our informants ‒ mainly those who use a localised book ‒
answered that they only did so on few occasions; a smaller percentage said
that they did so frequently, and a few of the teachers rarely or never leave out
activities.
Among the features in the textbook that teachers tend to replace are mainly
speaking and writing activities (33 per cent), followed by reading or listening
texts and comprehension activities (19 per cent), which would be congruent
with the fact that one of the reasons for adaptation is that texts are consid-
ered too complex for the students. In relation to this, teachers also marked
the option activities done as preparation for reading or listening activities as one
of the features they commonly replace, as well as vocabulary activities. To a
much lesser degree they also include language practice and language reflection
activities. When asked to justify why they skip activities, some respondents
mentioned time constraints as the main reason.

Local use of coursebooks

In order to find out whether there is a significant difference between the way
teachers implement global and local coursebooks, we asked seven teachers
using a local book to answer an open-ended questionnaire and we interviewed
two of them. The questions dealt mainly with the reasons for choosing a local
book over an international one and the book’s strengths and weaknesses.
The teachers’ perceptions regarding the strengths of local and localised
coursebooks are analysed in reference to the categories discussed above:
(a) contextualisation, (b) linguistic contrasts, (c) intercultural reflection, and
(d) facilitation of learning.
Regarding contextualisation, the teachers remarked that the topics of the
texts included in the local books are more familiar to the learners. For instance,
some books contain information about regional tourist landmarks or local per-
sonalities (such as a description of Montevideo or a fact file about hockey player
Soledad García in for teens). However, some teachers mentioned that they would
like more texts related to the local area and culture. One informant stressed that
the books include situations that ‘are useful and relevant for [the students’] lives
and for their future’, for example, the inclusion of topics that are significant to
those students who usually start working right after their secondary education,
such as applying for a job or how to prepare a CV. Teachers also value that local
textbooks take into account aspects of the local educational system and the
official curriculum. For example, lessons for a 40-minute class period with texts
and activities that can be used with large and mixed ability groups are seen as
important features that international books are not likely to consider. Other
reasons for choosing a local book have to do with practical concerns that are
48 Mario López-Barrios and Elba Villanueva de Debat

also connected to the local context, such as its availability, an affordable price,
or that textbook and workbook are published as a single unit.
The respondents made little direct reference to the other three categories: lin-
guistic contrasts, intercultural reflection, and facilitation of learning. Despite
this, the fact that they would like books to include more local themes might be
in line with a desire to stimulate intercultural reflection as well as to motivate
learners. Regarding facilitation of learning, teachers tend to adapt coursebooks
by providing tasks and strategies not usually contained in the books that they
believe will facilitate learning, for instance pre-, during and post-reading activ-
ities, or more guidance in communicative tasks. Even though no reference
was made to the inclusion of linguistic contrasts (probably because virtually
no book makes use of them), they did refer to the use of the students’ L1 to
facilitate learning. For example, one of the teachers said that she would also
write instructions to tasks in the L1.
Informants also identified shortcomings in the coursebooks used. Some
stressed that the local coursebook contained too many activities of the same
type and that many of them focused exclusively on forms. In another case,
the respondent complained about the lack of contextualisation and the neg-
ligible number of communicative activities. Another weakness mentioned
by the teachers was the weight given to the macroskills such as listening or
writing. Some think that there are too many written exercises, producing an
unbalanced development of the four macroskills. Lastly, they remarked that
the rubrics are often unclear or incomplete. In those cases, the teachers either
changed or completed the rubrics or translated them into the L1.
Even when the teachers surveyed believe that the local coursebook is a better
fit for the local context, they still see the need to adapt it by adding activities
and texts and by modifying or translating instructions.

Global vs. local: does it matter?

Undeniably, regardless of the negative aspects perceived by the teachers and

the need to make adaptations, virtually all teachers (93 per cent in our study)
use a coursebook, which indicates that books still continue to represent the
essence of the curriculum even when teachers and learners reconstruct and
modify them (Hidalgo Dávila, 2009). Consequently, it is necessary to take into
account that, as Apple states:

texts are not simply ‘delivery systems’ of ‘facts.’ They are at once the results
of political, economic, and cultural activities, battles, and compromises.
They are conceived, designed, and authored by real people with real inter-
ests. They are published within the political and economic constraints of
markets, resources, and power. (2000: 180)
 Global vs. Local: Does It Matter? 49

An aspect valued in local or localised coursebooks by the teachers surveyed is

the inclusion of references to the local culture and geography. However, critical
analyses of localised textbooks used in Argentina have shown that these inclu-
sions are negligible and therefore result in an unequal representation of the
learners’ and the target cultures (Basabe, 2009; López Barrios and Villanueva
de Debat, 2006). Our study showed that teachers, regardless of whether they
use global or local coursebooks, also adapt by adding texts that are more mean-
ingful or familiar to the students in order to motivate them. A study with
Colombian teachers indicated that they also supplement the coursebooks
with texts that are more familiar to the students to motivate them (Hidalgo
Dávila, 2009). In our study, the teachers who use a local book seem to have less
of an urge to adapt the coursebook since it adjusts more appropriately to the
local conditions, mainly to the local educational curricular demands, whereas
the other areas (linguistic contrasts, intercultural reflection, facilitation of
learning) do not seem to be an important concern. To understand the reasons
for this, new studies should be carried out to find out about teachers’ beliefs
regarding the role of L1 use, about the development of intercultural compe-
tence, and to discover whether teaching at a specific type of school, or other
contexts, reveals a difference in these two aspects. These are open questions for
future research that may illuminate what is now a grey area.
To guide materials developers in the design of local or localised course-
books, and teachers in the selection of a context-sensitive coursebook, in
Table 3.4 we propose a set of questions based on the framework described in
Table 3.2.
To conclude, we believe that changes also need to emerge from the bottom-up
and that this will only be possible if the voices of teachers and learners – the
coursebook users – are given the opportunity to be heard and considered. As
one experienced teacher put it, ‘I have been teaching for 24 years, and we have
employed different kinds of books ... All of these books were good and when we
adopted a new one, we always hoped that we would not have to prepare extra
material, but sooner or later we realised something was missing.’

Engagement priorities

1. Critically analyse a coursebook you are currently using with the criteria
proposed in this chapter. Use the questions in Table 3.4 to guide your
analysis.
How close is the coursebook to these features? What are ways of adapting
the coursebook to suit a local context?
2. Research has shown that most teachers adapt the textbooks they use. This
chapter has presented the most frequent reasons given by teachers in a
specific geographical context. Do these reasons apply to you?
50 Mario López-Barrios and Elba Villanueva de Debat

Table 3.4 Guiding questions in the design of local or localised coursebooks

To what extent is the book • Does it make use of the experiential world
contextualised? of the learners, their knowledge of the
world?
• Does it include topics, characters, places,
information familiar to the students?
• Does it propose pedagogical practices that
suit the local needs?
To what extent does it promote • Does it provide opportunities for learners
intercultural reflection? to develop an awareness of the relation
between their own culture and other
cultures?
• Does it offer learners opportunities to
express their opinions when confronted
with information about the target culture,
rather than merely absorb the information
uncritically?
• Does it provide opportunities for learners
to develop a critical and open attitude to
other cultures?
To what extent does it make use of • Does it provide opportunities for learners
linguistic contrasts to raise to relate the features of the new language
students’ awareness? with their L1?
To what extent does it include • Does it offer ways to foster learner
elements that facilitate learning autonomy, for example with the inclusion
by the specific learners it was of rubrics in L1, self-check tables, clear
designed for? and explicit objectives, learner training
(cognitive and metacognitive strategies),
bilingual glossaries?
• Does it provide guidance for the devel-
opment of the macroskills, the study of
vocabulary and grammar?

3. From the reading of this chapter and your personal experience, what do
you think are the advantages of local or localised books over global ones?
Can you think of other features of global coursebooks that do not fit in the
framework we propose?

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4
Adapting Materials to Meet the Literacy
Needs of Young Bahraini Learners
Sahar al Majthoob

Many educational systems in the world, including that in Bahrain, rely on

globally produced materials to teach English. However, these materials are not
developed for a specific context. Efforts were made to adapt global materials to
meet the specific needs of the Bahraini context by making them appropriate
for the traditions, beliefs, and values of their learners, teachers and culture.
This chapter will discuss the adaptations made to global materials prepared
for children in the early grades, the rationale for those adaptations, and the
issues in trying to adapt EFL materials for a world where the notion of English
as a foreign language may no longer be appropriate. This chapter sheds light
on literacy and how it is acquired, and it presents measures taken to support
literacy through published materials.

The education context in Bahrain

As a first foreign language, English is taught in all public schools as a com-

pulsory subject. Initially introduced in Grade 4 at primary level (nine to ten
years old), it became compulsory in Grade 3 in 2001. This additional year was
considered as a warm-up stage where children studied English for two hours
weekly, unlike at higher grades where they had five hours study. However
that was not enough, so, as in many countries worldwide, Bahrain decided to
introduce English in Grade 1, starting in September 2004.
Several factors contributed to that decision. English plays an important role
in Bahrain, whose cosmopolitan society has always been open to the world.
English is a lingua franca in many situations in daily life. It is viewed as a
means of attaining a better future when it comes to getting jobs, scholarships
and education in general. Additional factors relate to parental influence, both
out of concern for their children’s future and driven by exam results, which
were not always up to expectation. Private education had its share of the
influence as the level of English in public schools was compared with that in

53
54 Sahar al Majthoob

private schools, where children started learning the language from pre-school.
Additionally important were the expectations of the labour market and uni-
versities, who had expressed dissatisfaction at the level of English among high
school graduates. On top of that came the boom in information technology
and the increased use of computers and the Internet, which made the decision
seem inevitable.
However, there were concerns about how to meet the needs of young
Bahraini learners because of differences between Arabic, their mother tongue,
and English. Young learners are challenged by the direction in which letters
are formed and read, and by the limited sound–spelling correspondence of
English. Because of these concerns, the Ministry of Education studied previous
research on how children learn languages and carried out consultations with
the support of the British Council before making the decision to start teaching
English from Grade 1. Regional practices were also visited, especially in coun-
tries already teaching English from Grade 1, like Kuwait and the UAE.
Initially, teaching English in Grade 1 focused on the pre-literacy stage, con-
centrating on listening and speaking. The rationale for that step can be summa-
rised in three points. First, they are the skills children acquire initially when
learning their first language. Second, focusing on listening and speaking helps
children acquire oral language and gives them confidence in learning the lan-
guage and using it in a non-threatening way. Third, it helps students develop
oral language and build a bank of vocabulary that will be beneficial when they
start reading and writing.
However, follow-up meetings and feedback from teachers confirmed the
need to pave the way to literacy. Therefore, initial adaptations were made to the
prescribed textbook and children were introduced to the alphabet in the second
semester of Grade 1, then a two-page spread with an alphabet poster was added
for the year after. At this level, children worked on letter recognition, tracing,
and some activity worksheets at a pre-writing level. Monitoring of the children’s
progress, especially after the first cohort reached Grade 3, revealed the need for
other measures. It was also the time when our dilemma became very clear.

EFL or ESL, where do we fit?

EFL has traditionally been defined as English taught as a school subject with
the purpose of communicating with native speakers (Al-Mutawa and Kailani,
1989). EFL can also be defined in terms of the relationship of the target lan-
guage, English, with the context. In an EFL context the classroom (or school)
is the only place that English is regularly encountered, since the learner’s first
language is the language of the school and the wider community. Graves (2008)
has called this a ‘target-language removed context’, because the target language
is removed from the context in which it is used.
 Adapting Materials to Meet the Literacy Needs of Young Bahraini Learners 55

On the other hand, in an ESL context English is the dominant language of

the school and wider community, and is used extensively in everyday life. The
target language, English, is embedded in the context (Graves, 2008; Graves
and Lopriore, 2009). The learner lives in the target language community and
the language is learnt for specific needs relating to that community (Harmer,
2007).
Bahrain has long been labelled as an EFL context, yet with a reality and
expectations that are more proximate to ESL. English is widespread in the
country; it is the language of business and finance, and is used on a daily basis
in shops and restaurants. Films are in English and national TV has an English
channel. Road signs, restaurants, shops, and many more have their signs in
English. In other words, young learners are surrounded with environmental
print, which means a child comes to the classroom with some background
knowledge of English.
Although Bahrain has characteristics of an ESL context because English is
widespread outside of the school context, within schools it exhibits character-
istics of an EFL context. Table 4.1 illustrates some of the differences between
how English is learnt in the two contexts.
The question in Bahrain is how to use the limited time in schools to prepare
students to be able to participate in and take advantage of the widespread use
of English outside the school. An additional issue is that learners in Grade 1
are simultaneously learning to be literate in their first language, Arabic, which
uses a non-Roman alphabet. Therefore, the materials need to introduce learners
to literacy in English, whereas most EFL materials for young learners do not
provide a systematic approach to literacy.

Table 4.1 The contexts of EFL and ESL

EFL in primary school ESL in primary school

Age at onset of English Varies (but earlier is trend) When student enters local
instruction (Grade 1 in Bahrain) school (or when started
in home country)
Time spent studying or Varies (3–5 hours/week) The whole school day
exposed to English (Five 45 min. classes/week
in Bahrain)
Purpose for learning As school subject; to learn To participate and succeed
other subject matter academically in all
(CLIL) school subjects
Focus of lessons Varies; English materials; Grade level curriculum
other subject matter (and may receive
(CLIL) language-focused
instruction)
Source: Graves (2011).
56 Sahar al Majthoob

EFL materials for young learners

In Bahrain English is being taught from Grade 1 using internationally produced

materials written for an EFL (TL removed) context without a particular learner
in mind. The combined resources include a coursebook, workbook and a
storytelling/shared reading programme. The materials immerse the learner in
English through a thematic, whole language, top-down approach that involves
lots of songs, chants, stories, and games.
This approach has helped children become confident during lessons
conducted in English, albeit with some issues related to opportunities for real
speaking that need addressing in teacher training. For example, units are built
in a manner that immerses the learner in themes related to school, food, play
time, and so on. They provide children with enough vocabulary and context
clues to understand the theme, talk about it, and probably attempt to write
about it, using age-related tasks. The different tasks done using the same
vocabulary, and the whole language approach, help children to recognise these
words and read them in isolation or in a familiar context.
However, this approach typical for EFL learners does not give children
the same confidence in reading beyond these themes because they lack the
necessary strategies to decode or read any unfamiliar text they encounter.
Although EFL materials do provide opportunities for the teaching of literacy,
they are not systematic or structured. What is needed, therefore, is a more sys-
tematic and structured approach that draws on practices from first language
literacy. In order to describe such an approach, the next section explores what
literacy is and how it is acquired.

What is literacy and how is it acquired?

At its simplest, literacy can be defined as the ability to read and write. In this
context it refers to learning to read and write in English. However, a more
important question is not what literacy is, but what it can do. According to
Hudelson (1994) it is not just about constructing meaning from text; it goes
beyond that to making the choice to read and write and having the desire to
engage in these processes. Children’s first encounters with literacy start with
the print around them. This environmental print (Hudelson, 1994; Linse,
2005) helps children identify fast food chains, toy brands, restaurants, or road
signs, for example.
The next contributor to literacy acquisition is reading stories. This happens
at home for many families and at school as well. An adult reading a storybook
to a child helps the child construct meaning from the adult’s reading and the
available picture cues. Initially, the child gains an overview of the story, such
as what happened at the beginning or the end. Gradually, he or she will fill
 Adapting Materials to Meet the Literacy Needs of Young Bahraini Learners 57

in the gaps with details. Finally, there will be a real attempt to focus on the
print to decode words, to point while reading, before becoming a fluent reader.
Younger children start with reading-like activities where they learn to handle
books, turn pages, and pretend to read the text while applying directionality,
as in left to right or top to bottom (Scott and Ytreberg, 1990).
Construction of meaning is at the heart of literacy (Graves, 2011; Hudelson,
1994). Common practices are shared reading, learning words in context, talking
about pictures, predicting, and creating and sharing texts (Graves, 2011).
Journal writing, or making a birthday card or alphabet book, are examples of
creating and sharing text. Even a very simple text can give a clear example of
a child’s understanding of sound–letter correspondence. In the initial stages of
journal writing a drawing with a few scribbles to label or semi-describe it can
be enough.
Research suggests that the teaching of literacy be built around the five
essential components involved in the process of learning to read (International
Reading Association, 2002):

1. Phonemic awareness: this refers to the ability to recognise that words have
individual sounds that work together. When children have phonemic
awareness they are able, for example, to isolate the first sound in a word
or a group of words that start with the same sound, like /k/ in cat and car.
Having this skill helps children to read and spell because they are able to
hear and identify sounds, as well as manipulate them in spoken language.
When children manipulate phonemes or sounds, they delete, add, or sub-
stitute them and hence they are able to spell better because they understand
the predictable relation between sounds and letters.
In a blended setting (EFL/ESL) where children need phonemic awareness
and do not have the necessary lexicon knowledge, teaching materials and
teachers need to carefully select lexis in themes that lend themselves to
phonemic awareness. In a playtime theme children would learn that ‘train’
starts with /t/, and in a weather theme they would learn that deleting /t/
would leave ‘rain’.
2. Phonics: in phonics, children learn the relationship between the written
letters and their sounds (phonemes). Children gain knowledge of the alpha-
betic principle, that is the understanding of the systematic relationship
between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken lan-
guage. Eventually, this helps them to decode using the letter–sound rela-
tionship and enhances their ability to read. Phonics instruction needs to
be systematic and explicit if it is going to really boost a child’s reading
achievement. Linan-Thompson & Vaughn found that ‘English language
learners struggling with reading acquisition who receive explicit phonics
instruction as part of comprehensive literacy instruction tend to develop
58 Sahar al Majthoob

stronger foundational reading skills.’ (2007: 33). According to Put Reading

First (Adler, 2001) phonics instruction has a greater impact if started early.
One criticism of phonics teaching is that English spelling is irregular.
English has 26 letters in its alphabet but 44 corresponding sounds, which
creates a challenge for first language young learners, let alone second/
foreign language learners. However, without really knowing the rules that
govern the difference between a soft ‘g’ and a hard ‘g’ or a soft and hard ‘c’
the learner would be confined to what he/she learns in a particular context
and will not be able to decode properly outside it. When children are taught
to read, the ultimate goal is to provide them with strategies to cope with the
surrounding print beyond the frontiers of the classroom.
3. Fluency: this refers to the ability to read text accurately and quickly. The
importance of fluency lies in the fact that fluent readers focus less on
decoding and more on making connections between ideas in the text, at
the same time connecting the text and their background knowledge. Fluent
readers grasp meaning while recognising words (Antunez, 2002), whereas
less fluent children pay more attention to decoding words in isolation, and
are less occupied with the meaning of the words and how they contribute to
the comprehension of the whole text (Adler, 2001).
4. Vocabulary: having limited vocabulary can impede effective communi-
cation and text comprehension while reading. Being able to decode without
constructing meaning is not really reading. Silverman (2007: 365) asserts
that: ‘Vocabulary knowledge is a key building block in children’s early lit-
eracy development.’ She adds: ‘It provides the foundation for learning to
decode and comprehend text.’
Vocabulary needs to be taught explicitly and encountered in several tasks
and contexts in order to be acquired (Fishkin, 2010). In a top-down context
for example, teachers would decide what the essential vocabulary is for
understanding the context of a story during a read aloud lesson and pre-
teach it. This learning of vocabulary can be done directly through probes,
realia, or visual aids. According to Silverman (2007), reading storybooks
is an ideal way of introducing new vocabulary. While explicit instruction
is important, children also learn indirectly through conversations with
others, especially adults. Moreover, children are not always dependent on
others to learn vocabulary; they do it also through reading on their own as
autonomous learners.
It is important, however, that vocabulary instruction does not come at the
expense of instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, print knowledge,
and word recognition. The balance between top-down and bottom-up
approaches has to be maintained (Thornton et al., 2009).
5. Comprehension: people read for pleasure and for information. Uttering the
sounds on a page becomes reading only when these sounds make words that
 Adapting Materials to Meet the Literacy Needs of Young Bahraini Learners 59

have meaning (Linse, 2005). Learners have to interact with the text before,
during, and after reading to really comprehend it. This can be done through
questioning using higher order thinking questions that promote thinking
skills and strategies. Moreover, engaging in activities such as summarising,
reflecting, or using graphic organisers, especially after reading, can con-
tribute to comprehension.
Another factor that contributes to comprehension is oral vocabulary
(which is related to the previous point). Deriving meaning from a text
requires the use of background knowledge to process the encountered words.
Having a wide range of oral vocabulary enhances comprehension. Cameron
(2001) goes beyond that and states that knowing words orally is a condition
for encountering them in writing. The rationale here is that if learners know
it they will comprehend it.

Using L1 literacy strategies to teach L2 literacy

Children need explicit, structured and systematic instruction in reading to

become readers, and teachers need to see that clearly in the materials they
use. Unfortunately, this kind of teaching is lacking in EFL materials in general
because the approach used assumes the acquisition of basic literacy. Few writers
suggest using approaches and strategies in literacy with young EFL learners that
are similar to those used with ESL or young native speakers. Young English lan-
guage learners are no different from native speakers in many respects (Brown,
2000), but similarities, especially in needs and strategies, are not mentioned
explicitly in the literature.
This issue is also related to beginning writing, not just reading. Native
speakers and ESL learners are taught the basics of punctuation or print conven-
tions at the earliest stages in a systematic way because it is important for writing
and comprehension in reading as well as fluency (Linse, 2005). A child who is
made aware of the full stop and the comma, for example, knows when and how
long to pause while reading, which can improve his or her fluency.

Initial adaptation of EFL materials to provide literacy

support for Bahraini learners

In order to address the needs of Bahraini learners, ministerial committees were

set up to adapt the materials used in schools. Changes were driven by the
results of classroom observations, teachers’ views, and comments from parents.
The committees included teachers, senior teachers, curriculum specialists, edu-
cational supervisors, and the publisher’s resident teacher trainer who was, in
addition to training, in charge of working out the adaptations and liaising with
the editorial team to get them done. Each grade level had a separate committee,
60 Sahar al Majthoob

but they all shared some of the members from curriculum and educational
supervision directorates in the Ministry, in addition to the teacher trainer. The
members were selected carefully to make sure that informed adaptations were
made. My role in the committees changed over time from being a member to
leading the teams and doing the final revisions of the needed adaptations.
The initial phase focused mainly on screening the materials to guarantee
cultural appropriateness and took place before the materials were used in
the classroom. The second phase was concurrent with the actual implemen-
tation of the materials. Committees would suggest adaptations, or approve
them based on classroom observations, meetings with teachers and senior
teachers, feedback from teachers who used the materials, and members of the
committee. The committee then submitted a table of the suggested adaptations
that was sent to the publisher. It has to be noted that the editorial team was
very cooperative, reflective in looking at the adaptations, and made sugges-
tions that were found to be more effective in several cases. The process of adap-
tation continued to the year following, when the new activities were tested
in class to verify their effectiveness. The third phase was done after using the
series in the classrooms for Grades 1–3.
One set of measures was to modify the EFL materials to include more literacy
work. Another was to prepare materials for developing handwriting. The hand-
writing materials were produced in two phases. The first was to practise letter
formation and recognition for children in Grade 3. Later however, the need
to start earlier resulted in the production of a patterns booklet for children to
practise tracing the different shapes, lines and directionality which later help
in letter formation and give children the basics for handwriting. Additional
activities for class work, parental involvement, and homework were compiled
in a CD that was given to all teachers to supplement the materials. The content
of the CD included resources provided by the publisher, teacher-made activ-
ities, and worksheets prepared by curriculum specialists. The CD contained a
wealth of other resources that made teachers of other subjects wish they were
English teachers.

Including more literacy work in the EFL materials

Originally, there was a recurrent section called Find, draw, and write that focused
on identifying an object or character, drawing it, and labelling the drawing
using the given words, as shown in Figure 4.1. It was changed after discussions
within the Ministry and collaboration with the publisher to create a section
called Think about English, to include strategies related to literacy. For example,
the activity in Figure 4.2 helps students learn print convention strategies by
recognising the use of a capital letter at the beginning of the sentences and the
use of a full stop at the end. It presents a good start to learning the mechanics
of writing.
 Adapting Materials to Meet the Literacy Needs of Young Bahraini Learners 61

Find, draw, and write.

a lion a tiger a monkey a zebra
a snake a crocodile

Fgiure 4.1 Find, draw, and write activity from Happy House 2 Bahrain edition

Think about English.

Circle the capital letters and full stops.

1. It’s a green book.

2. This is my yoghurt.

3. I like bread and cheese.

4. It’s a monkey.

5. This is a red car.

Figure 4.2 Think about English activity from Happy House 2 Bahrain edition

In another Think about English activity students are asked to circle the sentences
in a paragraph. This helps students recognise sentence boundaries and that para-
graphs are made up of sentences. Every sentence makes a whole unit of meaning,
with a beginning marked by a capital letter and an end marked by a full stop.
At a higher level, one of the Think about English activities asks students to circle
the adjectives in a list of sentences such as, ‘She’s got long black hair.’ This type
of activity focuses on strategies related to identifying parts of speech, in this
case for children to identify adjectives as words that describe nouns. This is a
typical activity in first and second language learners’ materials which is useful
62 Sahar al Majthoob

for foreign language learners too. At this age children are engaged in many activ-
ities where they have to describe or talk about personal things or pictures in a
story. It helps them to engage in speaking activities like show and tell.

Handwriting framework: an initial stage towards the

literacy strategy

Another issue was the teaching of handwriting – how and when to start.
Based on feedback from the field (teachers, supervisors, trainers, principals,
and parents), classroom observations, and reports (Graves, 2010), in add-
ition to reports on the national examinations, handwriting was identified
as an area that needed development. Children’s handwriting was illegible
and they needed more practice. Modern EFL materials basically let the child
practise writing in a minimal way that does not really improve their skills.
The English Syllabus for Basic Education that guides educational decisions in
Bahrain did not have a clear policy, especially for students in Grades 1–3,
and so teaching materials again dictated the amount of attention given to
handwriting. The solution was to write a handwriting framework that spe-
cifies expectations for primary students starting with pre-writing activities
in Grade 1.
Writing the framework was not easy due to the shortage of literature on
handwriting for EFL young learners. Most of the literature found was written
for first language young learners so, considering the stages of development
young learners go through when learning the alphabet, the framework
adopted similar stages and strategies as those for first language learners. A
structured schedule was prepared and accompanying materials were written
to fill in the gaps at the initial stages of handwriting. The framework starts
with pattern practice to help children acquire the basic movements needed
to form letters, and aims to ensure a uniform and principled approach to
the development of basic handwriting skills in Grade 1. Since the framework
targets children who do not use the Roman alphabet, it emphasises the need
for more time to develop the basic patterns that will eventually lead to auto-
matic hand movements when forming letters. This is important in devel-
oping the children’s ability to communicate as thoughts, ideas, and feelings
are expressed more easily if the learner does not have to worry about letter
formation.

The next step: a literacy framework

Adapting the materials helped to fulfil the needs of the learners. Along with
the other resources, they made the teachers’ task easier. Yet, and despite the
 Adapting Materials to Meet the Literacy Needs of Young Bahraini Learners 63

cooperation of the publisher, adaptations were limited to a certain percentage

as they were confined to the number of pages in the original edition of the
book. Other supportive resources, which were not part of the original pro-
gramme, came at different intervals because the need for them was not iden-
tified initially. That situation affected the cohesion of the programme and
caused inconsistencies in classroom practices. Those two issues therefore
needed to be addressed.
The proposed solution lies in producing a literacy framework. Such frame-
works are a common practice in the US and the UK. Nevertheless, importing
a framework that has been written for a different context would not be appro-
priate. The Bahraini model will be a framework written locally with a par-
ticular learner in mind: one who is learning to be literate in his/her first
language; uses a non-Roman alphabet; reads right to left; and is viewed as an
EFL or TL removed context learner while in reality he or she is exposed to the
language in a manner that corresponds with an ESL context. This framework
is based on a premise that children, regardless of whether they are learning
to read English as their mother tongue or as an additional language, learn to
read it the same way. They need to learn letter shapes, sounds, initial sounds,
final sounds, and to use the same decoding strategies. The literacy framework
will combine top-down and bottom-up approaches to reading. It will focus
on reading strategies and include an extensive reading programme, which,
although common in the ESL context, is not a very common practice within
the EFL context.
A top-down approach focuses on topics and themes and uses stories, while a
bottom-up approach focuses on contextualised phonics. The two approaches
are equally important and complement each other (Jannuzi, 2010). While
the top-down approach requires the application of background knowledge
for comprehension, it assumes that learners have already mastered decoding,
which is important for reading and fluency (Purewal, 2008). Given the limited
vocabulary of the language learner, the top-down approach can be scaffolded
with different strategies to pre-teach vocabulary. The use of the bottom-up
approach, on the other hand, will help learners decode the symbols on a page
but does not necessarily lead to understanding. According to Moats (1999: 18),
‘A child cannot understand what he [sic] cannot decode, but what he decodes
is meaningless unless he can understand it.’
The framework will focus on reading readiness and reading skills with
an emphasis on reading strategies. The aim of reading and writing will be
described specifically and systematically. The framework will be the reference
upon which the materials are selected and should also be reflected in the mate-
rials in order to provide the right support for teachers. Many teachers attempt
to apply strategies that support the teaching of reading, nevertheless, without
64 Sahar al Majthoob

the framework, materials dictate what teachers do and how they do it. The
ultimate goal is to have a consistent, structured, and systematic approach.
The framework will also address extensive reading as a means to improve
learners’ reading skills and contribute to literacy. Most EFL materials lack
age-related extended readings that really help children become readers. On
the other hand, native and second language learners generally work with
literature-based materials in addition to accompanying reading programmes,
which include fiction and non-fiction books. This is a major difference in
approach and has a great impact on acquiring reading strategies. Moreover,
systematic exposure to reading does not only create a good reader but also a
good writer.
Children need to experience reading starting with storytelling and picture
books, shared reading, and guided reading, until they become independent
readers who can ultimately handle chapter books. Strategies like reading aloud,
predicting from the book cover before reading, pointing to illustrations during
reading, checking for comprehension upon completion need to begin as early
as Grade 1, even before children learn to read.
The objective here is to establish a bond between the child and the book, and
develop an enjoyment of reading and literature while developing literacy skills.
As Moats (1999: 11) puts it, ‘the teacher must instruct most students systemat-
ically and explicitly to decipher words in print, all the while keeping in mind
the ultimate purpose of reading, which is to learn, enjoy, and understand’.

The importance of teacher training

No matter how strong the materials or how clear the framework, their successful
use in the classroom depends upon how well teachers understand the princi-
ples and rationale that underpin them. Lack of proper training is a universal
issue, both in ESL and EFL contexts. In the US teachers do not always have
the proper training to teach English language learners, especially in main-
stream classes (Moats, 1999), while in EFL contexts teachers of English lan-
guage learners enter classrooms with a varied language proficiency or a lack of
training in language teaching (Fishkin, 2010). Teachers of young learners also
need special preparation since understanding how children learn is crucial
before embarking on language related activities, whether in an EFL or an ESL
setting.
Before English was introduced in Grade 1 in Bahrain, teachers, supervisors,
and curriculum specialists went through intensive training that laid the ground
for teaching young learners. This gave teachers a good start in coping with the
demands of lowering the age of teaching English. The course aimed to:
 Adapting Materials to Meet the Literacy Needs of Young Bahraini Learners 65

• deepen and strengthen the understanding of key issues surrounding the

teaching of English to young learners in Grades 1–3, and to explore these
issues in relation to practise in the classroom;
• address concerns related to this age group;
• investigate and share best practice;
• deal mainly with pre-literacy activities that children need to learn English.

The proposed literacy framework will require new training programmes to

support teachers. The absence of a structured training programme that deals
with phonics and opportunities to raise phonemic awareness, for example,
could mean an unfair delay in literacy acquisition for children. Although
teachers are capable of handling literacy strategies that support learners’
autonomy, a hit and miss approach leaves teachers the sole judges of how to
handle literacy. To guarantee a fair start for all children, in-service teachers
need intensive training on the five pillars of teaching reading described
earlier: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and compre-
hension (Nat’l Reading Panel Report, 2002). There should also be a focus on
meaning and comprehension of text through common practices like shared
reading, learning words in context, talking about pictures, predicting, and
creating and sharing texts
Training also needs to tackle how children learn their first language and
how that affects second language acquisition. Having strong literacy skills in
the native language leads to transferring these skills into English (Linse, 2005;
McKay, 2006). Understanding the relationship between how one learns first
and second language literacy can lead to more cooperation between teachers of
both languages in local contexts and can have positive effects on the strategies
of teaching one language or another.

The next generation of EFL materials

This chapter has described the process of developing materials for the Bahraini
situation. However, the situation in Bahrain is not unique. The relationship
between education, society, and language in many countries has contributed
to, and been affected by, the changing role of English in the world today
(Tomita, 2009). Bahrain is not the only country that has lowered the age of
introducing English, and these changes have created a new set of needs and
priorities. Although English is widely used outside the classroom in many coun-
tries, the context is different to that of immigrant English language learners
in, for example, Canada or the US. Therefore the context of English language
learning in countries like Bahrain lies in between ESL and EFL.
66 Sahar al Majthoob

The growing population of speakers of English and the lowering of the age
children start learning it in many countries has created a learner with different
needs. English has become a global language (Tomita, 2009) and that has
created a global learner who cannot be categorised as an EFL or ESL learner.
Young learners worldwide share the same characteristics and need similar
approaches to help them learn to read and write in English, and traditional EFL
materials are no longer sufficient to provide learners with the strategies they
need to unlock symbols on pages. Blending the two approaches, top-down and
bottom-up, has to be reflected in the new generation of materials. Changing
the approach has to be met with an increase in the time spent reading. Finally,
the success of any shift in education relies on the teachers’ preparation that
goes with it.

Engagement priorities

1. The debate used to be about how young to start English language instruction.
Now that more and more countries are choosing to start at a younger age,
the question is no longer ‘How young?’ but ‘How can we make learning
another language better for young learners?’ How would you answer this
question?
2. The number of countries with a similar context to Bahrain is growing. From
a materials development perspective, what are the lessons learnt from the
Bahraini story?
3. How explicit should the focus on literacy be in EFL/ESL materials?
4. Learners’ needs are at the heart of any educational system and programme.
What kind of research into the characteristics and needs of young learners
is needed to help us determine whether new materials, methods, and tech-
niques are needed? How much research is required before these needs will
be addressed? How can the international materials market address these
needs?

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5
Cultural Representations in Algerian
English Textbooks
Hayat Messekher

Introduction

Culture, whether taught explicitly or implicitly, permeates many aspects of

foreign language teaching. Teachers, then, need to be cognizant of how to
approach culture and how to teach it in the language classroom. In Algeria,
where exposure to the English language is rare, teachers rely heavily on text-
books as the source of both language and culture for their teaching. This
underscores Riazi’s (2003: 52) argument that ‘textbooks play a very crucial role
in the realm of language teaching and learning and are considered the next
important factor in the second/foreign language classroom after the teacher’.
How culture is represented in textbooks plays an important role in how it is
taught. This chapter reports on a study that looked at the cultural representa-
tions in the English textbooks used for public middle schools in Algeria, and
the reactions of practising teachers to local and global cultural representations.
The chapter begins by looking at the way culture has been framed in ELT text-
books in general and what is meant by culture and cultural representations in
textbooks. It then introduces the Algerian context by looking at the place of
ELT in Algeria and the quality of teacher education in relation to the mandated
textbooks. This is followed by a discussion of the cultural representations in
four Algerian textbooks and implications for the teaching of culture in today’s
globalised world.

Which culture is represented in English textbooks?

The way culture is conceived of, and hence represented, in textbooks is a

crucial matter. Cortazzi and Jin (1999) describe three patterns of culture repre-
sentation in English textbooks. These are: (1) the source culture, representing
the learner’s own culture; (2) the target culture, where the foreign language
is used as the first language; and (3) international target cultures, which are

69
70 Hayat Messekher

the different cultures that do not represent the source or the target culture,
which can be English-speaking or non-English-speaking countries. Kramsch
(1993) has argued that one important issue with how culture is represented
in textbooks, regardless of whether it is the source, target, or the international
culture(s), is that they only represent one or very few cultures for one language.
In other words, textbooks have a simplistic approach to the representation of
a culture; for example, they do not include various sub-cultures related to
the English language within American culture (African-American, Hispanic-
American). Similarly, Gray (2010) has been very critical of the ‘essentialism’
prevalent in English textbooks whereby the target culture is reduced to a set of
generalised characteristics.
It has been reported that in some English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts
English textbooks produced locally represent the source or local culture (Gray,
2000). Cortazzi and Jin (1999) point to Venezuelan English textbooks that
feature national heroes and cities, and Turkish textbooks displaying Turkish
culture, including Turkish food and history. Additionally, Gray (2000) gives the
example of Saudi Arabia and China producing materials with almost no ref-
erence to English-speaking cultures. However, culture is not always represented
in terms of the source/local culture vs. the target culture(s). In South Asia some
English textbooks feature international cultural contexts with characters from
all over the world using English as an international language (Cortazzi, 2000).
Hence, when considering how culture is represented in English textbooks, one
has to bear in mind that there is a lot of variation as to which culture is repre-
sented, whether it is local, target, international, or a combination.

Language and culture: two sides of the same coin

Although language and culture are often treated as separate, they are inex-
tricably linked. One cannot expect language to exist in a vacuum without
being embedded in a given culture, but at the same time one cannot imagine
a culture without an accompanying language that mediates it. It is noticeable
that, when talking about languages, we often say things like, ‘in Arabic we say
so and so; in French we do so and so’. Arguably then, when we use language
referring to ways of speaking, behaving, and thinking, we are in fact referring
to culture, or as Kramsch (1996: 3) eloquently argues:

[O]ne of the major ways in which culture manifests itself is through lan-
guage. Material culture is constantly mediated, interpreted and recorded –
among other things – through language. It is because of that mediatory role of
language that culture becomes the concern of the language teacher. Culture
in the final analysis is always linguistically mediated membership into a dis-
course community, that is both real and imagined. Language plays a crucial role
 Cultural Representations in Algerian English Textbooks 71

not only in the construction of culture, but in the emergence of cultural

change. [italics in original]

Indeed, sociocultural behaviours are part of a given culture and they manifest
themselves through language. To take a simple example, we greet differently
in different cultures, using different formulas that are context-dependent, so
any language learner needs to learn how to use the language in a culturally
appropriate manner. In EFL educational settings, this can only be achieved if
instruction includes a culture teaching component that might be explicit or
implicit. EFL teachers need to raise their learners’ awareness and draw their
attention to the language structures (both spoken and written) that are cul-
turally bound. They may also give similar or counter examples from the learn-
er’s L1 and local culture.
Moreover, as Kramsch (1996) argues, changes in language bring about cul-
tural changes, and vice versa. Changes in language, namely vocabulary, such
as that related to gender or race, mirror changes in the sociocultural reality of
individuals and nations. The dynamic and changing nature of language and
culture, then, can make it challenging for a teacher and for a textbook writer to
represent current culture. Any cultural representation depicted in a textbook
is going to be situated in time and may make little or no sense to students who
receive those cultural representations years later.
When learning a language, we learn a new cultural frame of reference.
Alpetkin (2002: 57) argues that ‘learning a foreign language becomes a kind of
enculturation, where one acquires new cultural frames of reference and a new
world view, reflecting those of the target language culture and its speakers’.
In EFL instruction learners are likely to be exposed to new values that they
may pick up. Such values might constitute a new cultural frame of reference.
However, in my experience, learners of a foreign language may not acquire
a new cultural frame of reference but might just develop awareness and an
understanding of the existence of such a frame of reference.
The relationship between language and culture is further complicated
because one cannot assume that for a given language there is one accom-
panying culture. In the case of English for example, the accompanying culture
can be the culture of any of the Inner Circle Countries, e.g. British, American,
or Australian. It can also be the culture of one of the Outer Circle Countries,
e.g. India or Singapore, where English is an official language. Conceiving of
the target culture in ELT as monolithic is particularly problematic or ‘unreal-
istic because [this] fails to reflect the lingua franca status of English’ (Alpetkin,
2002: 57).
When learning English, since there is not one but many cultures, even within
the same country, that can be associated with English, acquiring a new cultural
frame of reference becomes problematic. This gives rise to the questions: when
72 Hayat Messekher

learning English, what culture do we learn? What is the new cultural frame of
reference being acquired? These questions suggest that, rather than focusing on
specific cultures, teaching should raise students’ awareness of the role culture
plays in communication. It should not impose different frames of reference,
but prepare students for understanding that there are different worldviews and
to be able to communicate their own culture in order to develop cross-cultural
understanding. Being a global citizen means being able to communicate across
cultures.

Culture representations

In order to understand what and how culture is represented in Algerian text-

books of English, it is first necessary to define what culture is. To this end,
I have drawn primarily on two analyses of culture as the basis for defining
cultural representations in the English textbooks used in Algerian schools,
Watson’s four categories (2010) of which I used the first two, and Yuen’s four
P’s (2011).
Drawing on the definition by Bousquet and Pessin (2003: 41) that culture
represents ‘cultural objects produced and distributed by practitioners [that
include] all of the styles of doing, thinking, and feeling that distinguish a par-
ticular group, its conscious or semi-conscious shared beliefs’, Watson (2010:
478) proposes four categories of culture: big C culture, small c culture, com-
modity culture, and hybridised culture. He defines them as follows:

1. big C culture, which includes the canon of great artistic and intellectual
works along with the institutions that produce and preserve them;
2. small c culture, the anthropological definition which encompasses a social
collectivity’s shared values, behaviours, entertainments, and artefacts;
3. commodity culture, which not only consists of the products of the culture
industry but also commodifies the products of big C and small c culture;
4. hybridised culture, which has emerged as a result of post-colonialism and
globalisation and which enfolds big C, small c, and commodity culture.

Big C culture can include, for example, the Seven Wonders of the World, or
world renowned paintings like the Mona Lisa or The Last Supper by Leonardo
da Vinci. Small c culture represents how, where, when, and what people from a
specific community do. These include verbal and non-verbal communication
styles, such as ways of greeting, thanking, and so on. Commodity culture
can be seen through how a product of big C culture, such as Harry Potter,
has become a commodity that is traded like any other manufactured goods.
Finally, hybridised culture includes examples of any form of big C, small c, or
commodity culture that has been appropriated and given local meanings and
 Cultural Representations in Algerian English Textbooks 73

values such as a Barbie doll turning into a Fulla doll, and Palestinian youths
using hip hop as a tool in their struggle and resistance. I have used Watson’s
interpretations of big C culture and small c culture as a basis for analysing
cultural representations in the Algerian textbooks. Watson’s commodity and
hybridised cultures are very difficult to use when analysing textbooks because
their interrelation and abstraction makes them challenging to delineate.
For practical purposes, I have also adopted Yuen’s (2011) analytical tool of the
four Ps. These are: (1) products, (2) practices, (3) perspectives, and (4) persons.
Products are the products of literature, fine arts, and the sciences, along with
historical figures, and social, political and economic institutions. These overlap
with Watson’s ‘Big C’ culture. For example, Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist as a
cultural product overlaps with literature as an example of big C culture. Practices
are the way of life and patterns of behaviour. These overlap with the behav-
iours, entertainments and artefacts of Watson’s small c culture. For example,
sports and games as practices overlap with entertainment. Perspectives refer
to ‘subjective culture’ and include inspirations (equality), myths (horoscopes),
and worldviews (Yuen, 2011: 6). Perspectives representing worldviews in a
given culture can give value to some things that may or may not be similarly or
equally valued by other cultures, such as privacy and personal space. Persons are
well-known icons or individuals as stressed by Moran (2001). Persons are at the
centre of recognised cultural productions that range across music, television,
journalism, and the Internet. Such ‘celebrity culture’, according to Friedman
(1999: 5), is one that the average person usually embraces and which becomes
part of the ‘aspirational content ... in the ELT industry [that is believed] to be
inherently motivating for language learners’ (Gray, 2012: 87). Indeed, persons,
or ‘celebrity culture’, is important for analysing textbooks because celebrities are
used frequently throughout the four analysed textbooks as they raise learners’
interest and make the books appear current.
The relationship between the four Ps is not mutually exclusive. For instance,
while one item, such as Charles Dickens, might be categorised as belonging to
the Products category or big C culture, it might also be categorised as belonging
to the Persons category.
By cultural representations, then, I mean any mention (text or image) in the
textbooks of any of the categories represented in the framework depicted in
Figure 5.1 that is related to Britain, Western countries (i.e. the rest of Europe), the
United States, Algeria, Arab-Islamic countries, Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The Algerian context

Continuous reforms
The Algerian educational system has been subjected on several occasions to
many reforms (Miliani, 2000), on different levels that have ranged from minor
74 Hayat Messekher

– including literature e.g. Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist,

(1) Mohamed Dib’s L’incendie; monuments, e.g. The White
Products/ House, Taj Mahal; history, e.g. Tribes of the Indian Nation,
Big C culture Martin Luther King; food, e.g. fish & chips

(2)
Practices/ – behaviors, e.g. different ways of greeting, dress code; artefacts,
Small c e.g. flags, currency; entertainments, e.g. sports, games
culture

(3) – the values and beliefs that represent subjective culture, e.g.
Perspectives concept of time, eye-contact

– “Celebrity Culture”, well-known icons or individuals, e.g.

(4)
Nicole Kidman, Zineddine Zidane, Britney Spears, Souad Massi,
Persons
Mr. Bean

Figure 5.1 A framework for cultural representations in textbooks

to major revisions of textbooks, curricula, assessment, and teaching methods.

The reforms are often motivated by political considerations.
In the 1990s Algeria experienced sociopolitical unrest due to the rise of
Islamist Fundamentalism. The Black Decade, as it has been called, had serious
ramifications on societal and educational realms. Education was at the heart
of political changes and reforms because it was blamed for developing a certain
ideology in the youth. One field that noticed many reforms was ELT. As in
many developing countries, the Algerian government has made ELT a priority
to keep up with regional and global advancements, to make up for the delay
caused by the Black Decade, and to be active agents in globalisation (Tsui and
Tollefson, 2007). This necessitates mastering English as a requisite for techno-
logical and economic advancement.
However, the preparation of English teachers has been problematic because
one Ministry, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, is respon-
sible for educating them, and another, the Ministry of National Education, is
responsible for employing them, with little connection between the two. As a
result, although student teachers receive a lot of training through courses on
language-based skills, educational psychology, English teaching methodology,
school legislation, and so on, in practice the training they receive does not
equip them to fully understand and face the classroom realities they will have
to deal with. They continue to complain, as one teacher interviewed for this
study put it, that they ‘were not prepared enough especially to use the English
textbooks that are discovered fully once facing pupils in the classroom when it
is somehow too late’.
The continual reforms have also caused problems for teachers. In the early
2000s, the Ministry of National Education, which oversees primary and
 Cultural Representations in Algerian English Textbooks 75

secondary education, started massive reforms that looked at the textbooks, cur-
ricula, teaching methods, and in-service teacher training. However, nothing
has been done for pre-service teacher training because that is the responsibility
of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. This explains in
part why novice English teachers are constantly confronted with the challenge
of adapting to the new demands of the ELT field without being fully prepared,
and their considerable reliance on the mandated textbooks, which continue to
serve as a vehicle for cultural content and are the main source of information
for many students in EFL contexts like Algeria.
Feedback from practising English teachers is not solicited prior to undertaking
reforms and this has a negative influence on teaching and learning practices,
which can clearly be seen in views about the newly designed textbooks that are
often described as boring and not aesthetically appealing to students.

Cultural representations in Algerian textbooks

A two-stage study was conducted in order to understand how culture is

represented in Algerian textbooks. The first stage was a content analysis of
the four English textbooks used in public middle schools in Algeria. In the
second stage eleven practising English teachers from eleven different schools
were interviewed, including both novice and veteran teachers. The study
was guided by the following questions: (1) How is culture represented in
Algerian textbooks? and (2) What are teachers’ perceptions of how culture
is represented?
Although many EFL countries from what Kachru (1986) called Inner Circle
Countries (ICC) use textbooks designed by experts for students using English as
their second or foreign language (Gray, 2010), Algeria is one of those countries
that has promoted the local design and production of English textbooks. The
textbooks analysed in this chapter are written by Algerian experts solicited by
the Ministry for students in Grades 6–9 in middle schools, aged between 12 and
15 years. Each textbook is divided into files that are the equivalent of traditional
teaching units. There is a section for explicit culture teaching named Learn about
Culture in Textbooks 1 and 2, and Snapshots of Culture in Textbook 3. Culture does
not have an independent section in Textbook 4 because the cultural component
is integrated into different aspects of the language learning components.
The study’s initial focus was on the explicit teaching of culture in the Learn
about Culture and Snapshots of Culture sections. However, after interviewing the
teachers, I went back and added other cultural representations that were not part
of these two sections because the participant teachers referred to them as part
of the teaching of culture. For example, in Table 5.1 below, the last item comes
from the Listen and Speak section. The cultural representations in Textbook 4
were analysed throughout the whole book right from the beginning.
76 Hayat Messekher

Table 5.1 Examples of culture in the textbooks

Type of Cultural
Book Topic Section Page culture representation Country

Year 1 File 1: Learn about 32 Big C culture TV show ‘What, US

Hello! Culture Product Where quiz
show’
Big C culture Pictures of US–2, Algeria,
Product monuments England–2,
France, India
34 Persons Pictures of the England–7
British Royal
Family
34 Small c culture Money bills Algeria,
Artefact Morocco,
Japan, US,
UK, Germany
(Euro/Europe)
35 Small c culture Flags England, Kenya,
Artefact Canada,
Lebanon
38 Big C culture Pictures of UK–4
Product monuments and
Oxford English
Dictionary
38 Small c culture Flag, currency, UK–3
Artefact map
39 Small c culture Travel brochures, UK–2
Artefact leaflet
File 3: Listen and 71 Perspective Valuing time UK
Speak (Sue’s agenda),
and exercising
sports

The cultural representations were coded according to the four Ps of:

(1) Products/big C culture: including books, foods, laws, music, games, history,
geography, artistic and intellectual works, and institutions such as arts, lit-
erature, drama, and dance; (2) Practices, which are the equivalent of small
c culture: including patterns of interaction, behaviours, entertainment, and
artefacts; (3) Perspectives: including meanings, attitudes, values, and ideas; and
(4) Persons: or the ‘celebrity culture’ representing famous people and icons.
They were also coded according to the country representing each ‘P’. These
were categorised into: British, US, local Algerian, Western, Arab/Islamic, Asian,
Latin American, and African cultures.
For example, in Table 5.1, in the Learn about Culture section of the first unit
(file) of Textbook 1, there were three instances of big C culture – TV show,
 Cultural Representations in Algerian English Textbooks 77

pictures of monuments and the Oxford English Dictionary. There were images
of, or references to, monuments from the US, Algeria, England, France and
India. There was also an image of the Oxford English Dictionary. There was one
instance of Persons – seven pictures of the British Royal Family. There were
four instances of small c culture in the form of artefacts from nine different
countries; the artefacts were grouped according to tasks they were associated
with. There was one instance of perspectives from the UK, Sue’s diary, which
showed both how time and sports are valued.
Overall, culture appeared to be a solid teaching component in the textbooks
for the first, second, and third years. Furthermore, as in Textbook 4, it was per-
vasive throughout the units, not just in the sections devoted to culture.

Cultures represented
An analysis of the cultural representations found in the textbooks shows a
global cultural perspective taught as part of ELT, as shown in Table 5.2. The
cultural representations not only encompassed the target culture (British and
US), and the local Algerian culture, but also encompassed different cultural
aspects of English-speaking and non-English-speaking countries.
Table 5.2 shows how many times a cultural representation related to a
given culture appeared in each textbook. When looking across the four text-
books, the US comes first, followed by the UK and Algeria, which are almost
equally represented. Although Africa, including Anglophone Africa, and the
Arab-Islamic, Asian, and Latin American cultures are under-represented, this
should not be taken as a criticism. The mere fact that such cultural variety is
represented is in itself significant. What is worth noting though is that British
culture is massively represented in Textbook 1 and later overtaken by US repre-
sentations in Textbooks 2, 3, and 4. Local Algerian culture is represented in all
four textbooks and is anchored to a certain extent in representations of big C,
small c, and ‘celebrity’ cultures. Overall, although the cultural representations
are dominated by Inner Circle English-speaking countries, local and regional
cultures are also represented to varying degrees.

Table 5.2 Regional representations of culture in Textbooks 1–4

Arab- Latin
UK USA Algeria Islamic Western Africa Asia America

Textbook 1 29 15 22 6 22 2 3 5
Textbook 2 10 18 16 1 13 3 3 1
Textbook 3 12 22 10 7 15 1 4 2
Textbook 4 17 30 17 7 6 3 10 0
Total 68 85 65 21 56 9 20 8
78 Hayat Messekher

How culture was represented

Big C culture, depicted through different forms of products, made up the
majority of cultural representations in the textbooks. These included iconic
historical monuments, such as the Statue of Liberty, Big Ben, Maqam Echahid,
and also travel to some of these places that reappear in different files throughout
the four textbooks. Books representing great literary works, such as Charles
Dickens’s Oliver Twist and Mohamed Dib1’s L’Incendie, were another form of big
C culture. Games and foods, such as McDonald’s products, fish and chips, local
(Tamina2) and different ethnic foods were also represented (see Figure 5.2).
Products of mass media entertainment, such as Hollywood movies and tele-
vision programmes, including Harry Potter, Cat Woman, Spiderman, and ‘The
Battle of Algiers3’ were another common form of representation.
Most of the time, big C cultural representations revolved around mentioning
the product or picture of the product with some basic information to practise
language structures. For example, a picture of Big Ben followed by a Where is
it? section. Is Big Ben in {Leeds? Manchester? London?} Answer: It’s in London.
There were also many instances, such as the Learn about Culture section in
file 1, Textbook 1, that asked students to recognise cultural artefacts with the
purpose of learning cultural information.
Likewise, small c culture representations of practices included mainly
artefacts such as flags, currency, travel brochures, and leaflets; religious and
popular celebrations and customs, such as Eid El Fitr4 for Muslims, Christmas,
and Halloween; aspects of daily life, including conversation about pets in the
US, dress codes in Algeria throughout history; and sports, such as soccer and
baseball. These representations were not as inclusive as those of products and
they were limited in scope – mainly Algeria, the US or UK, and very few other
countries. Similar to the representations of products/big C culture, they are not
treated in depth. For example, in the activity about Eid El Fitr, Christmas and
Halloween, students are asked to look at pictures representing each festival and
say ‘What they have’. The example given is ‘In Algeria, for Eid El Fitr, children
have new clothes and have money’. There was no information given about
Christmas or Halloween, their history or the role they play in the culture.
Representations of perspectives were more difficult to find. Coding some-
thing as a perspective was a more subjective process of deciding that the item
represented a perspective or worldview. For example, as shown in Table 5.1,
although Sue’s timetable could be considered an artefact, it was coded as a per-
spective because one teacher referred to it as a representation of how time and
exercising are valued in British culture in a way that are not common or valued
in Algerian culture.
‘Celebrity culture’ representations included famous sportspersons, singers,
actors, inventors, and scientists, as well as the British Royal Family. They
were not limited to international celebrities; they also included locally and
regionally famous people, such as Assia Djebbar, El Anka, Rouiched, and Souad
 Cultural Representations in Algerian English Textbooks 79

Figure 5.2 Textbook sample 1: local foods

80 Hayat Messekher

Massi. Most celebrities were American, closely followed by Algerian, then

British, and Western; African, Latin American, Asian, and Arab-Islamic celeb-
rities were barely represented. As with other types of cultural representations,
the activities around celebrities focused mainly on information. For example,
one activity (Figure 5.3) provided the date/place of birth, nationality and nick-
names of Souad Massi, Rowan Atkinson, and Youssou N’Dour. Students were
asked to, ‘Be one of these stars and introduce yourself to the class.’
As discussed earlier, there is often no clear-cut distinction between the
different categories of culture. The British Royal Family, for example, can rep-
resent big C culture (history), perspectives (values) and persons. The blurring
of categories can make it problematic for teachers because it is not always clear
what the items are meant to represent or what should be done with them.
One important advantage of the textbooks being locally produced is the
large number of representations of local culture. Yet, while Algerian culture
features prominently, there is still a big emphasis on Western culture.

Teachers’ perspectives on representations of culture

In the second stage of this study, 11 Algerian practising teachers of English

who were using the textbooks analysed were interviewed about what they
thought of them, whether the textbooks contained much culture-related infor-
mation, the type of culture-related information they contained, and what the
teachers thought of, and how they felt about, the culture-related information
they identified. The eleven participants were eight novice English teachers
with 1–2 years teaching experience and three veteran English teachers with
10–20 years of teaching experience.
The novice teachers were more willing to be critical of the textbooks and
discussed the need to supplement what was in them, particularly with regard
to culture. For example, one teacher, Nadia (all names are pseudonyms)
described developing materials to supplement a Learn about Culture section
about the different types of sports practised, whose layout she thought was
neither attractive nor motivating. She went to an internet outlet, made a search
about typical sports in the US, UK and other countries, printed the pictures
and brought them to class. She used some of the pictures to emphasise the
popularity of football, even in the US, where it is called soccer. She reported:

I sometimes develop some teaching materials to use in my classroom

and I share them with my colleagues who make fun of me for losing my
time, energy, and money preparing extra materials instead of sticking to
the textbook. It’s really annoying that they would stick to the textbook
blindly.
 Cultural Representations in Algerian English Textbooks 81

Figure 5.3 Textbook sample 2: locally and regionally famous people

82 Hayat Messekher

Nadia, like the other novice teachers, questioned much of the quality of the
cultural representations in the textbooks. For her, they did not serve a clear
teaching purpose. The students were not always enthusiastic during the culture
teaching section because, according to some of the teachers, it was not clear
to students how such cultural information could inform their language use.
One of the participants, for example, reported that when she first taught her
students about holidays, they argued that they were learning the English lan-
guage and should not be learning about Christmas because it is a Christian
holiday. The next time she taught that section, she provided some background
information on how different religions have different holidays and why it is
important to know about these holidays.
With respect to the sources of culture represented, most of the teachers
reported their satisfaction with the inclusion of Algeria in the teaching of
culture. They posited that this will enable students to talk about their culture
using English and this may, in turn, promote intercultural communication
in the long run. However, one teacher was very critical as to the selected
Algerian cultural representations. For her, these were included only when they
converged with Western culture and they were not authentic nor faithful to
the local culture. For instance, her argument was that Souad Massi, an Algerian
singer who has been called the Algerian Tracy Chapman, is not representative
of Algerian female singers (see Figure 5.3). For her, Souad Massi made it into the
English textbook because she converges with Western cultural norms.
In summary, cultural knowledge is omnipresent in the Algerian textbooks,
while cultural awareness and how it informs language use and communication
is missing. The representations of culture did not show how language structures
(both spoken and written) are culturally bound or how to use the language in
a culturally appropriate manner. They did not raise students’ awareness and
understanding of the existence of different worldviews or frames of reference.
There was no provision for any intercultural communication teaching or even
activities to raise students’ awareness of the role culture plays in communi-
cation when one uses an additional language. Teachers had trouble teaching
about culture because they were unable to see its usefulness for communi-
cation. The burden of linking language to culture fell on the teachers, some of
whom were prepared to do so and some of whom were not.

Implications

The analysis of cultural representations in Algerian textbooks and the teachers’

perspectives suggest that culture is an important component of language
learning materials, but it is also highly problematic. The following points
should be borne in mind when responding to the challenges this represents:
 Cultural Representations in Algerian English Textbooks 83

• In order to be effective, cultural representations and the tasks associated

with them need to serve clearly defined learning objectives to determine
what is culturally valued, appropriate, and expected. For example, when and
how to pay and respond to a compliment is culture specific. If compliments
are included in the textbook, they should serve the objective of learning
about a cultural aspect (complimenting) and how it is linguistically real-
ised (developing linguistic competence) in the target culture. This can be
achieved by using activities in which students are invited to formulate and
respond to compliments, and discuss whether a given compliment can be
realised in their own culture, and if so, how. By doing so, students will learn
how complimenting is culturally determined, how to use compliments
appropriately, and what is expected from them according to the norms of
the target culture.
• Materials should judiciously incorporate different aspects of the students’
local culture in order to help them communicate about their own culture as
well. This will enable them to use their local cultural perspectives to think
about, critique, and appreciate the target culture in different ways.
• Cultural representations should highlight the changing and dynamic
aspect of culture, and include different representations of sub-cultures
in order not to be essentialist or foster stereotypes. For example, if a unit
deals with family, it could depict current representations of American or
British families (target culture) along with an Algerian family. This could
be followed by activities in which students can learn linguistic elements,
such as the comparative and adjectives, but could also include another
activity inviting students to discuss family representations from different
sub-cultures or social classes in the target culture so as to avoid essentialist
representations. Similarly, if a family representation across time is used, it
will depict the inherent dynamic and changing aspect of culture. A dis-
cussion of representations from both the target and local cultures would
enable students to use their cultural perspective to discuss, compare, and
make sense of them.
• No matter what cultural representations are used in textbooks, their effect-
iveness depends on how they are taught. Teachers should be cognizant
of the overall aims of teaching culture and help develop students’ cross-
cultural competence, which in turn can contribute to developing cultural
awareness and respect for cultural diversity. The case of the Algerian teacher
who met resistance from her students for just mentioning Christmas is a
good example. If that same teacher had been prepared to relate religious and
popular celebrations to learning about what is culturally valued in the local
and target cultures, the inclusion of Christmas in the textbook would have
made more sense to her students.
84 Hayat Messekher

• Teachers should also be aware of the cultural representations in the textbook

they use. These may be explicit, such as products, practices, and persons, or
implicit, such as perspectives. They should be careful not to offend students,
impose meanings and, by extension, a whole frame of reference on their
students. Teachers should allow for the interaction between teachers,
students, and cultural representations in the text to be a process that may
result in different interpretations.
• For teachers to be able to use materials to teach culture effectively, they
need good teacher preparation programmes to ready them for the lan-
guage classroom. Such preparation should be aimed at helping them define
students’ needs, set objectives for culture teaching and to know what
content will help attain those objectives. With clear objectives it will be
easier for them to adapt cultural representations in the textbooks, or to
choose or develop substitute materials to teach culture.

When using textbooks to teach culture it is also important to:

1. Understand the purpose of teaching culture in the language classroom by

clearly defining the learning objectives to be achieved.
2. Incorporate different aspects of the learners’ local culture to help them
better conceive of the aspects of the target culture being taught about.
3. Highlight the dynamic nature of language and culture and how they
influence each other.
4. Understand the key role teachers play in the teaching of culture that should
work towards developing cross-cultural competence, cultural awareness,
and respect for cultural diversity.
5. Expose a new frame of reference to the learners, but not necessarily impose it.

Engagement priorities

1. A number of frameworks have been proposed to analyse culture in textbooks.

Take a textbook you use or are familiar with and analyse it in terms of which
local, source, and international cultures are represented. Then analyse it in
terms of the four Ps: products, practices, perspectives and persons. Which
predominate? Why do you think this is so? What do you learn about your
textbook from this activity?
2. Choose three different representations of culture in a textbook. What
purpose do the representations serve? Do they promote cultural awareness?
Do they point out sociolinguistic features of the language? Are they used as
information about the culture, or as a basis for a grammar point?
 Cultural Representations in Algerian English Textbooks 85

3. What role do you think culture should play in language teaching? If you
were to prepare a course on teaching culture, what would you include in it?

Notes
1. Renowned Algerian author who wrote in French advocating for Algeria’s fight for
independence.
2. Tamina: a traditional Algerian dessert prepared when babies are born and to celebrate
Prophet Mahomet’s (PBUH) birthday.
3. A historic movie on Algeria’s War for Independence.
4. A Muslim festivity marking the end of the Islamic holy month of fasting called Ramadan,
celebrated by a prayer, breaking the fast, and visiting relatives among other things.

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Part II
Materials in the Classroom
6
Coping with New Teaching Approaches
and Materials: An East-European
EFL Teacher’s Interpretation of
Communicative Teaching Activities
Kristjan Seferaj

Overview

Reforms in language teaching, implemented in many countries around the

world, have focused on introducing Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
and various attempts have been made to change the traditional way non-native
(NNS) English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers teach. As a result, educators
in several countries are officially required to use communicative textbooks in
their classes and to incorporate student-centred approaches in their teaching,
even though many of them do not have adequate knowledge and expertise of
CLT (Savignon 2010).
At present, little evidence is available on how experienced teachers use text-
books and teachers’ books, and even less is known about the connections
between teacher cognition, teaching resources, and classroom practices when
textbook instructions concerning operations in the classroom do not match
teachers’ views about how languages are learnt/taught. Unfortunately, this is
the case for thousands of EFL teachers in many countries that are seeking to
improve and westernise their educational systems.
This chapter will focus on the difficulties faced by EFL teachers in using
CLT teaching resources and the effect of communicative materials on teacher
behaviours. These issues will be addressed and illustrated through the analysis
of how one Albanian state schoolteacher interprets communicative activities
in her context. In addition, a number of practical implications for educational
authorities and EFL teachers who find themselves in a similar situation will be
suggested.

89
90 Kristjan Seferaj

The Albanian context

During the communist period (1945–1990), education systems in all East

European communist countries mirrored the Soviet educational model (Webber
and Liikanen, 2001, mentioned in Dyrmishi, 2005: 38). From the early 1990s,
when these countries abandoned communism in favour of capitalism, the new
East European governments have been implementing reforms to purge schools
and textbooks of the Soviet influence and to westernise the education system.
In Albania, among other reforms, attempts are being made to develop new
national curricula and change the philosophical orientation of teachers and
students. The reforms have been carefully planned with the involvement of
foreign experts. However, the Albanian Ministry of Education (MASH) is now
being faced with the need to work with the public to gain acceptance of these
reforms. Among several financial, organisational, and opposition challenges
the authorities admit that ‘the change of philosophical orientation is a par-
ticular problem, notably with some teachers’ (Qano, 2005: 24).

L2 learning in Albania
Nowadays, English is the dominant foreign language learnt in state schools
and private tuition classes, although Italian, French, and German can also be
studied as L2. Albanian pupils start learning a foreign language at Grade III,
when they are eight years old, and attend three forty-five minute classes weekly
until the end of compulsory schooling (at 15-years old). Students who con-
tinue their education study two foreign languages and attend four L2 classes
every week, two of which are in English, in both high school and university
courses. Thus, most Albanian students take two to three EFL classes weekly for
a 10–12 year period under the current national education system.
Since communism was overthrown in 1992, Albanian governments have con-
tinuously emphasised the importance of English as the lingua franca. Indeed,
the Anglophone Albania policy that seeks to motivate students to be conversant
in English was launched in 2008 (see www.mash.gov/anglophonealbania.al for
more details). In 2012, the government re-emphasised the importance of the
English language by officially requiring MA/PhD candidates to present proof of
English language proficiency before degrees could be issued by Albanian post-
secondary education institutions (decree 14/2012). MASH has recently proposed
adding a foreign language to the two obligatory Albanian exams (language/lit-
erature and mathematics) that complete secondary education in Albania and
authorities are currently holding public meetings to discuss the proposal.

L2 teaching in the country

In the way other subjects were taught in Eastern European countries during the
communist period, Albanian teachers of foreign languages adopted a teacher-
centred approach in their everyday teaching practice, relying heavily on rote
 Coping with New Teaching Approaches and Materials 91

learning (Dyrmishi, 2005). Because the traditional approach considers language

learning ‘as little more than memorising rules and facts in order to understand
and manipulate the morphology and syntax of the foreign language’ (Richards
and Rodgers, 2001: 5), EFL classes during the years 1945–1992 mainly focused
on grammar, and the only L2 speaking activity that took place in the class was
translation drills from L1 to L2 or vice versa (Dyrmishi, 2005: 42).
The majority of today’s Albanian teachers are likely to have formulated their
very first ideas about English and ELT when they were L2 students. The above-
mentioned rote learning image of L2 teaching and learning will have been
further consolidated during their university studies. Indeed, the BA in ELT and
Translation offered at four Albanian state universities during the communist
era included several modules that took an in-depth deductive look at different
components of both Albanian and English language and literature (Dyrmishi,
2005). The seminars were conceptualised as the transmission of knowledge from
the lecturer to the students and classes were mainly conducted in Albanian.
Recently, Albanian democratic governments have recognised the importance
of learning and using English as an international language and have taken many
initiatives to encourage EFL teachers to change the way they teach, such as the
review of syllabi and textbooks to accommodate new teaching ideologies, piloting
new learner-centred approaches throughout the country, and the decision taken
in 2008 (decree 186) to compensate maths and L2 teachers at a higher level than
teachers of other subjects. Additionally, several agreements have been signed
by MASH and its international partners to provide professional development
opportunities for Albanian EFL teachers. For example, British Council Albania
trained a number of local EFL teachers to act as teacher development coordina-
tors through a National Team of Trainers Programme (for more details see http://
www.britishcouncil.org/it/albania-newsletter-march-2008.htm).

Reforms and CLT

Underlying the above-mentioned institutional initiatives, there is the per-
ception that the post-communist system of education is neither efficient
nor appropriate for the new democratic epoch. Richards and Rodgers (2001)
mention a number of scholars who have criticised the traditional method of
teaching, the authoritative role of the teachers, and the formal class interac-
tions typically used during the communist period. They have recommended
the use of Western teaching approaches in L2 classes, arguing for a shift of
emphasis to communication aims.
The much referred to communicative teaching method of CLT is an approach
to second language teaching that first appeared in Europe in the late 1970s as a
reaction to traditional teaching methodologies. This approach emphasises the
use of communicative activities in L2 teaching, often attempting an imitation
of real-life situations in L2 classes. In addition, CLT classrooms may involve
cooperative learning activities such as group or pair work (Savignon, 2010).
92 Kristjan Seferaj

East European EFL practitioners might find it difficult to implement this

approach in their classes for a variety of reasons. To begin with, as Nunan
(1992, in Husbands et al., 2003) notes, it can be challenging to use CLT in
big classes – in Albania there are sometimes more than 40 students in a class.
The lack of proficiency in English of NNS EFL teachers can also be a barrier
(Harmer, 2007). Additionally, there is an uncertainty as to what the specific
features of CLT are because communicative language teaching continues to
adopt any technique that aims to improve the learners’ ability to communicate
in English (ibid., 2007: 70). Therefore, many EFL teachers who are new to CLT
can find it difficult to make an informed choice about what and how to teach
communicatively in their classes. To make things easier, Wesche and Skehan
(2002: 208) identify the following as the main qualities of communicative
classrooms:

1. Activities that require frequent interaction among learners or with other

interlocutors to exchange information and solve problems.
2. Use of authentic (non-pedagogic) texts and communication activities linked
to real world contexts, often emphasising links across written and spoken
modes and channels.
3. Approaches that are learner-centred in that they take into account learners’
backgrounds, language needs and goals, and generally allow learners some
creativity and role in instructional decisions.

These characteristics at the heart of CLT methodology are essentially Western

concepts that represent a particular ideology, very often different to that of
many EFL teachers around the world. Indeed, collective learning is a very
common pattern in the ESL classes in the US (Donato, 1994, in Savignon,
2010) and other developed English-speaking countries. In contrast, the trad-
itional teacher-fronted pattern of classroom interaction still seems to be dom-
inant in many EFL classes worldwide (Fishman and Garcia, 2011). Likewise,
the real world context in many ELT materials is representative of the Western
social, cultural, political, and historical environment in which English is used
as L1 for everyday communication. Unfortunately, a great number of non-na-
tive EFL teachers who have studied English as L2 through books possess little
knowledge of this context and, thus, are not in the position to link commu-
nicative activities to the real world context. Lastly, as Harmer (2007) points
out, learner-centred approaches often do not meet the learning expectation of
non-Western students and teachers who are used to teacher-centred learning/
teaching practices.
This is the case for many Albanian EFL students and teachers. The former
seem to have developed their cultural and educational background from the
influence of their early rote learning experiences, their parents’ expectations,
 Coping with New Teaching Approaches and Materials 93

and the perception of uncertainty that comes from the ongoing efforts of
Albanian authorities to overhaul the communist era’s pedagogical philosophy
(Dyrmishi, 2005). The latter, who have neither studied CLT theory during their
university programme, nor attended any CLT teacher training practice courses,
are likely to have their L2 teaching/learning beliefs rooted in the transmission
model of learning they were exposed to as learners.
To try to minimise the impact on their practice of teachers’ knowledge and
beliefs resulting from their L2 learning, Albanian authorities introduced a
number of top-down policy directives. These include a communicative syl-
labus introduced in 2006, and the requirement to develop a new student-
centred, daily lesson plan with details of students’ learning goals, minimal
and maximal learning objectives, lesson procedures, lesson descriptions, and
means of evaluation. In addition, Albanian EFL teachers are officially required
to use coursebooks and other teaching materials in their classes that provide
learners with some communicative functional input. By so doing, it is hoped
that ‘the more an ESL teacher uses communicative resources in the class, the
more communicative his/her approach becomes’ (Qano, 2005: 24).
Given the great emphasis placed on textbooks in the Albanian context, the
following section provides an overview of communicative materials and relates
the discussion to a specific textbook used by the teacher whose practices are
reported on in this chapter.

CLT and communicative teaching resources/textbooks

Richards (2006) claims that the textbook can play a significant part in the
professional lives of EFL instructors. However, the extent to which communi-
cative teaching materials can foster communicative learning and teaching is
dependent not only on the extent to which a textbook embodies communi-
cative characteristics, but also on other factors discussed above. Clarke (1989)
discusses the features of the first generation of CLT materials ‘that are still
relevant to language teaching today’ (Richards, 2006: 14), and claims that the
majority of commercial EFL/ESL textbooks have been careful to reflect on:

• text authenticity – as opposed to artificially constructed texts. It is believed

that the use of authentic teaching materials exposes students to real world
knowledge and, thus, provides cultural information about the target lan-
guage and prepares learners to participate in real world language events by
developing strategies for dealing with its complexity.
• realism – Richards (2006: 14) notes that real communication occurs ‘when
a speaker engages in meaningful interaction to get information he/she
doesn’t possess, produces language that might not be predictable, seeks to
link language to context and maintains comprehensible and ongoing com-
munication’. Mirroring these features, the majority of commercial textbooks
94 Kristjan Seferaj

contain real world language activities that put learners in a position where
they have to use their linguistic and communicative resources in order to
obtain purposeful information.
• context – establishing a coherent context in materials means ‘a learner uses
the information obtained from one activity in order to perform another
and this relationship between tasks simulates the kind of “accountability”
required of the real world language user’ (Johnson and Johnson, 1981,
in Clarke, 1989: 77). Attempts to integrate activities or to create activity
sequences in published textbooks reflect this principle.
• a focus on the learner – as in a learner’s response to teaching materials
irrespective of their intrinsic nature. Most commercial textbooks contain
visual clues, colourful pictures, authentic texts, interesting topics, and
a wide selection of materials to enable learners’ appropriate responses to
materials.

In Albania, since 2006, EFL teachers have been given freedom to choose from
a list of different coursebooks approved by the authorities. The majority of
these textbooks are published by British publishers and virtually all of them
claim to be communicative in their aims. Nonetheless, the degree to which
CLT principles are translated into actual teaching materials seems not to be
the main selection criteria in Albania. Instead, as the participating teacher in
this project, Miss Landa, points out, ‘the not so favourable economic situation
of many Albanian families has led to heightened sensitivity to cost as criteria
in textbook selection’. As a result, the cheapest textbooks are the most widely
used around the country.

Coping with CLT and communicative materials:

classroom practices

In order to better understand how EFL teachers respond to the changes and
challenges outlined above, a case study of a teacher’s delivery practices was
carried out. The participating teacher, Miss Landa, was awarded a BA in ELT
and Translation from the University of Tirana in 1985 and has been teaching
English to secondary school students since then. She has also worked as a free-
lance teacher, offering afternoon classes in her own house, for more than eight
years. She teaches English to Grade IX students (aged 14). There are thirty-six
students in her class and, like in any other Albanian EFL class, there are some
intermediate students who have attended private English courses for years and
other low-level students who need to improve all four skills.
Qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to explore and under-
stand how communicatively the participant used communicative teaching
materials. Firstly, the way the teacher used the textbook was documented by
 Coping with New Teaching Approaches and Materials 95

observing her teaching four EFL classes in her normal classes. Secondly, a ques-
tionnaire, informal interviews and discussions with the teacher, and lesson
plans were also used to explore the factors that informed the teaching behav-
iours of the participant and to determine how particular teaching behaviours
related to the teaching guidelines provided by the textbook/teacher’s book. To
achieve this, the researcher recorded four EFL classes and walked the teacher
through the lesson by stopping the video at important events and asking the
participant why she behaved in that way.

Miss Landa’s textbook

Miss Landa has used several English coursebooks, such as English for You, Headway
and Opportunities during her teaching career. Since 2010 she has been using the
Access coursebook series, a four level, multilayer course prepared by Evans and
O’Sullivan (2000) and published by Express Publishing Ltd. Access 3 contains
eleven modules, each divided into six main components: Grammar, Vocabulary,
Reading and Listening, Speaking and Functions, Writing, Culture/Curricular.
There are five units in every module, each unit focuses on a particular theme
and all the texts and activities within a unit are related to that theme.
The Reading and Listening section follows a topic-based approach and covers
topics which seem to appeal to teenagers, such as celebrities, vampires, cool
sports, travel, and so on. The textbook includes some authentic texts (including
news reports, teen magazine articles, emails and internet blogs) in addition to a
number of doctored passages. Likewise, an attempt is made to represent speech
with all its accents at a nearly normal speaking rate, but the scripted recordings
lack some key features of everyday speech, such as repetition, hesitation, and
unplanned interruptions. Listening and Reading passages are often followed
either by traditional comprehension checking questions, such as True/False
statements, Wh questions, and fill in the blank sentences, or by more commu-
nicative exercises, like the one shown below:

Exercise 2: Read the text again. In which of

these places can you see the following?
Tell your partner.
bluebells field mice golden eagles
swans puffins deer geese
Figure 6.1 Speaking exercise illustration
Source: From Access 3 Student-book, p. 85.

The coursebook features a strong morphological emphasis (as in, determiners,

prepositions, singular/plural markings, and so on), it proceeds from apparently
simple structures to more complicated ones, and presents new grammatical
structures or rules inductively to the students in a real language context.
96 Kristjan Seferaj

The Speaking and Functions section adheres to a situational syllabus, as

there are a number of tasks that link the development of language skills with
the context in which to use the language by inviting learners to imagine some-
thing that inspires them for creative writing/speaking. Access 3 targets a wide
range of communicative tasks designed with ‘the information gap’ as the
central principle and emphasises pair/group work. The syllabus also devotes
some time to the development of writing skills (for instance, paragraphing,
writing a thesis statement with supporting sentences and linkers) through the
use of several portfolio tasks, as exemplified below:

Writing (a letter of invitation)

7 Portfolio: Use your dialogue from Ex.6 to
write a letter to invite your friend who lives in
another city to your party.
Follow the plan below (50 –80 words)

Dear ...,

Part 1 opening remarks, reason for

writing
Part 2 details about the party (food, theme,
clothes etc.)
Part 3 closing remarks

Best wishes,
__________________
Figure 6.2 Writing exercise illustration
Source: From Access 3 Student-book, p. 94.

Insights into how communicatively the teacher used the

communicative teaching materials
Initially, an observation scheme was used to obtain an overview of classroom
patterns in three main quantifiable categories: Activity, Content, and Class
Dynamic. For all the activities, the principal focus was marked, for example, a
listen for pleasure song was classified as a listening in isolation activity. Where
there was more than one equal focus, the activity was coded Combinations.
To exemplify the point, a listen and fill in the gap exercise was classified as
Combinations since it targets listening and writing skills. The start and finish
times of activities were rounded to the nearest minute.
The observations indicate that Miss Landa’s classes are mainly organised
around whole class activities and her students are primarily engaged in teach-
er-led textbook activities. Miss Landa engaged her students in individual work
for almost one third of the total class time.
A considerable amount of class time was also spent in activities that pushed
the students to process language more deeply, such as speaking and writing in
isolation. Oral activities coded as speaking in isolation involved reading aloud
 Coping with New Teaching Approaches and Materials 97

and oral grammar/pronunciation drills, and written activities coded as writing

in isolation involved written grammar gap filling/drills. Teacher’s explanations
of grammar rules, correction of grammar/pronunciation errors, and pronun-
ciation drills, coded in the categories System and Pronunciation respectively,
accounted for 10 per cent of the total class time. Activities like greeting students,
giving instructions, keeping records of class attendance and discipline related
issues (coded in the category Other) occupied 11 per cent of the class content.
Lastly, students spent about one-third of their class time (33 per cent) in activ-
ities that integrated and developed real-life receptive and productive skills.
A primary focus on form comprised 39 per cent of the content of the observed
classes. Likewise, the students spent a quarter of their class time engaged in mean-
ing-based activities (like listening/reading comprehension activities). Participation
in activities that foster genuine language use occupied 13 per cent of class time
and, in most cases, students’ participation depended on Miss Landa’s management
of classroom communication. Indeed, the majority of oral interactions in the
observed classes developed through a teacher question/student answer type of
exchange, following the typical IRF (Initiation, Response, Follow-up) pattern of
classroom discourse (Sinclair and Coulthard, 1975, in Fishman and Garcia, 2011).
Integration with equal emphasis on meaning/use, form/use, and form/meaning
comprised 23 per cent of the content in the observed classes.
Miss Landa engaged in a number of teaching practices that can be associ-
ated with communicative uses of teaching materials. She consistently used pre-
listening and reading activities to prepare students for what they were going to
listen to or read about. In addition, she taught receptive and productive skills
in combination with each other, explicitly asked students to pay attention to
the content of the text, and engaged her students in comprehension-based exer-
cises. In one of her classes, the teacher also asked students to listen to the tape
and read the transcript at the same time, ‘to develop a sense of English rhythm,
intonation and stress because they are not very exposed to native (L2) speaking’,
as she put it. Moreover, Miss Landa used L2 as the primary means of communi-
cation and asked students to communicate authentic information in English.

Insights into how the teacher interpreted communicative

teaching activities
When asked about her approach, Miss Landa replied that she uses mainly
English in her classes because she rarely speaks English outside and she does
not want ‘to lose it’. ‘On top of it, it’s good for them (students)’, she added.
As regards the importance of activating student knowledge, Miss Landa
believes that ‘much depends on the difficulty of the text; students under-
stand the reading/listening when its content and form are familiar to them
and guessing does not necessary help them’. In her view, pre-reading exercises
can be a hindrance, particularly for low-level students who read at the limits
of their linguistic abilities and their comprehension of the text is likely to be
98 Kristjan Seferaj

influenced by other students’ guessing. She used the example of the class just
observed to illustrate her point1:

As you saw this morning, Gladjol [one of the students] was misdirected by
his friend’s wrong guess, who thought that the woman in the picture, you
know, because she was wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase, she looked
more like a banker. I did not correct the student’s guess because I did not
want to give them the right answer. However, Gladjol’s comprehension was
pretty much influenced by this answer, because he circled banker as the
right answer in the listening comprehension exercise.

In spite of her belief regarding the importance of pre-reading/listening activ-

ities, Miss Landa still made sure students completed the warm-up exercises
because, in her view, it is important to stick to the textbook:

It shows students that they have to take learning seriously; they cannot
neglect any part of the material. You know, I have realised that when you
[the teacher] skip an exercise or any other part of the book, students will do
the same and they will particularly skip homework exercises.

Likewise, Miss Landa followed the textbook steps for teaching language as
a whole, although she is not sure whether L2 students can ‘get’ the L2 by
just integrating language skills and focusing on L2 speaking. She personally
believes that if students do not work on discrete language items they will
either ‘not say the right word or not use the right form in a certain situation’.
That’s why she often supplements the textbook with extra materials. Indeed,
in one of her classes, she explained the grammar item by writing extra rules
on how to use possessive pronouns on the blackboard and, in another class,
she revised the grammar by asking each student to read a sentence com-
pletion exercise and explain why he/she used the simple present or present
continuous in that sentence. The teacher used a similar traditional approach
to do two free speaking activities (‘Use the prompts to make true sentences
about yourself’ and ‘While you were abroad on holidays, you witnessed a
car accident. Tell your friend: Where and when the accident took place,
who was involved, and so on’). Instead of getting students to pair with the
person beside them, the teacher asked them to write down their answers. She
explained her decision:

they do need some prep time. Most of them have neither been abroad nor
witnessed any accident. That’s why, if I don’t give them some time to think
about what to say and what form to use, for sure they will repeat the same
scenario they read in the reading passage.
 Coping with New Teaching Approaches and Materials 99

No supplementary vocabulary exercises were used in the classes observed and,

when asked, the teacher said that ‘the textbook does a good vocabulary pres-
entation/revision job, so there is no need for any extra exercise’. However,
she pointed out that ‘from time to time I recycle vocabulary items by asking
students to form a sentence with previously seen words’.
Miss Landa did not follow textbook directions when it came to teaching/
practising speaking. Indeed, instead of engaging students in pair/group work
fluency speaking activities, she focused on students’ accuracy through con-
trolled teacher/student exchanges. The rationale behind this adaptation of the
textbook activity is that:

classroom learning should be provided by the one who has the knowledge
and understanding of the subject. Obviously, students come to school, and
parents send their offspring to school, to be instructed by someone who has
the skills and ability to teach, not by a pair who lack an understanding of
English. For sure, a teacher cannot monitor thirty students speaking sim-
ultaneously. Then, if I pair up Eva (an upper intermediate student) and Adi
(a beginner student) for example, OK, Eva is able to correct some of Adi’s
mistakes, but who will monitor Eva’s speaking?

This strong position clearly reflects Miss Landa’s teaching belief that ‘it is
very important for students to participate in whole class, teacher-directed
instruction’ (Item No. 8 – Questionnaire). On the subject of pair work, she
added the following in one of our informal discussions:

We [teachers of English] keep hearing ‘pair work, pair work’. However, any
experienced teacher knows that this idea, along with other initiatives that
successive governments have tried to foist on secondary schools, simply
does not work. Indeed, our students do not come here [the school] to study
only English. They study mathematics, geography, history, Albanian lan-
guage, and so on – they never do any pair work or things like that in other
geography/mathematics classes. Are they expected to be taught by each
other just in one subject, English? That’s unrealistic and I am not surprised,
because these ideas originate from either politicians or educational theorists
who are largely ignorant of classroom practice.

Miss Landa also feels that she would like to do more drills and additional
grammar and translation exercises because:

At the end of their study, students take a national exam which is designed
to assess their knowledge of grammar. So, teaching and practising grammar
is a must do thing.
100 Kristjan Seferaj

However, environmental factors also seem to affect what Miss Landa does
in her classes. Indeed, she feels that the whole issue of not teaching enough
grammar is a ‘matter of time and money’ and elaborates as follows:

It is mainly lack of time and resources. Lack of time because the textbook
provides so many activities and I simply do not have much time to do other
activities. And it is a lack of resources because writing grammar exercises
on the blackboard is very time consuming and handing out photocopies to
students is out of the question because I would have to use my own money
to photocopy handouts as there is no photocopier on the school premises.

Overall, it can be concluded that Miss Landa, dictated to by the textbook in her
choice of activities, exhibited a number of CLT features in her teaching, such
as using non-pedagogic texts and real world tasks, focusing more on meaning
than on system, activating her learners’ schemata before listening/reading
activities, and relating different exercises and tasks with each other with a
emphasis on the links across different modes and channels. However, she
carried out a number of adaptations to make her students consciously learn/
reinforce items of language in isolation and implemented most activities in a
traditional, teacher-led way.

Implications

As Miss Landa integrated some communicative teaching behaviours into her

teaching, it can be argued that the use of communicative resources can con-
tribute to the development of a communicative approach to the teaching of
foreign languages. This is in line with previous findings (Hutchinson and
Torres, 1994) that have suggested that contemporary textbooks can be seen as
agents of change, in that they provide classroom materials, as well as ‘a level
of structure that appears to be necessary for teachers to fully understand and
routinize changes’ (Hutchinson and Torres, 1994: 323).
Yet, Miss Landa’s experience suggests that it is certainly not enough to just
give a teacher a textbook to change his/her behaviour. Indeed, the participant
did not always stick to the methodological procedures clearly described in
the textbooks, as in the case of replacing pair/group interaction with teacher/
student(s) interaction, or changing the focus of some activities from fluency
to accuracy. Borg (2011) suggests that certain types of communicative teaching
behaviours can only be acquired if teachers’ cognitions are acknowledged and
discussed, not merely challenged. Borg (2011) notes that many teachers find it
difficult to put their thoughts into words because they have never been asked
to articulate their beliefs in a direct way. Therefore, using indirect strategies,
such as using a lesson plan as the basis for exploring a teacher’s beliefs, can
 Coping with New Teaching Approaches and Materials 101

help teachers to acknowledge the difference between what they actually do in

their classes (contextualised concepts) and what they believe they do in their
classes (abstract concepts).
However, the crucial question here is not how to motivate EFL teachers to
acquire certain communicative behaviours, but rather how to motivate EFL
teachers in countries such as Albania to use CLT in an appropriate way, in
accordance with the context they work in. Miss Landa gives very good reasons
why she does not use CLT in all its forms. For example, she questions the effect-
iveness of teaching mainly speaking in her classes because:

The English Matura Exam [the national exam that students take when they
finish the high school] is designed to assess students’ knowledge of grammar
and reading and does not involve any speaking section.

Urging her to incorporate into her teaching pair/group interactions and other
communicative behaviours that do not necessarily fit with the local context
would mean treating teachers as implementing agents who should strictly
apply a set of theoretical principles in their classes. Hence, we need to ask
what changes are really desirable. Is it teacher training by foreign specialists in
developing countries that is really desirable?
It is certainly the responsibility of local educational experts to develop
educational reforms that best suit the teaching/learning reality in a country.
Allowing EFL teachers to have their own say in educational reform-related
decision-making processes might give authorities a clearer view as to why
they want EFL teachers to use a communicative approach, and how possible
this aim is within the teaching/learning context of the country. In addition,
local experts have to take a more active role in developing teacher training
policies. Currently, teacher training services in many developing countries is
inevitably provided by foreign specialists. However, Holliday (1994, in Harmer,
2007) notes that BANA (Britain, Australasia, North America) specialists and
materials might not take into account local teaching realities and, thus, their
efficacy is questionable. It is for this reason that local experts, who fully under-
stand the linguistic, educational, and cultural needs of local EFL teachers,
should be in charge of preparing teacher training materials and delivering
teacher training courses for local EFL teachers.
An alternative response to the issue of desirable changes would be to motivate
EFL practitioners to develop locally appropriate communicative pedagogies
rather than impose models of communicative teaching. Husbands et al. (2003)
argue that the teachers’ awareness of their students’ needs and the influence
that a teacher’s colleagues can have on his/her own teaching are two potential
external factors that might considerably impact the teaching approach of EFL
teachers. It follows that authorities should encourage: on-site discussions;
102 Kristjan Seferaj

exchanges among colleagues about effective teaching experiences; and teacher

observation practices where teachers feel free to express their own points of
view, discuss their beliefs, and accept, reject, and discuss new ideas. Previous
research (Wiścicka, 2006) in this area suggests that an on-site supportive atmos-
phere can contribute considerably to the professional development of novice
teachers. In addition, devising a scheme to evaluate the teaching approach
of EFL teachers through communicative tests periodically given to students
might motivate EFL practitioners to accommodate more teaching of communi-
cative behaviors in their delivery. Indeed, because EFL teachers would like their
students to do well in national exams, they would be willing to incorporate
more communicative activities in their teaching.

Engagement priorities

While a considerable number of developing countries are spending large sums

of money to mirror Western-style educational systems, stakeholders involved
in this process should ask a number of hard questions, among others:

1. Is it right to ask experienced EFL teachers in developing countries to follow

a CLT model that doesn’t necessarily fit their teaching context, or should
authorities emphasise the central role of the teacher to learning, as many
post-method pedagogy experts recommend?
2. The post-method pedagogy (see Kumaravadivelu, 2003) encourages EFL prac-
titioners to develop their own teaching methods based on their learning/
teaching experiences, their pedagogic knowledge, their own beliefs, and
their students’ needs. This might be the case in many Western countries
where ESL/L2 teachers’ beliefs and previous learning experiences are rooted
in communicative learning approaches. However, EFL teachers in many
developing countries possess a limited knowledge of CLT practices. Hence
the question: is it possible for inexperienced EFL practitioners to develop
their own communicative teaching styles based on their own GT learning/
teaching experiences?
3. Sticking with the content and methodological procedures clearly described
in a textbook might help teachers to approach their teaching more commu-
nicatively. Is there anything else EFL practitioners in developing countries
can do to use communicative teaching resources more effectively?

Note
1. Albanian was the main interview language and the extracts are translated by the
author.
 Coping with New Teaching Approaches and Materials 103

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7
Materials Adaptation in Ghana:
Teachers’ Attitudes and Practices
Esther G. Bosompem

Introduction

Adapting teaching materials is about effecting changes to make them suitable

for learners and their needs. Indeed, textbooks are not merely artefacts, and
teachers have a fundamental role to play as ‘mediators’ (McGrath, 2002:
20) between the books and learners. This implies that teachers will almost
inevitably adapt the materials they use in class. While a number of writers have
focused on reasons why teachers need to adapt and how this might be achieved
(see, for example, Cunningsworth, 1995; Maley, 1998; McDonough and Shaw,
2003), little attention has been paid to how teachers actually adapt materials,
their underlying rationale and, above all, their attitudes towards adaptation.
Against this backdrop, the present chapter examines the adaptation of ELT
materials by a group of Ghanaian teachers. By uncovering the practices of this
group of teachers, this chapter will shed some light on what teachers actually
do in their use of materials and why. The chapter will conclude with some
recommendations for how teachers can become more aware of their practices
and thereby exert greater control over their use of materials, particularly in
contexts where there are few opportunities for teacher training and devel-
opment. There are also implications for teacher who can promote creativity
and positive attitudes towards adaptation and for materials writers, who need
to develop ways of encouraging the adaptation of their materials through, for
example, built-in flexibility.

The Ghanaian context

Like many countries in Africa and elsewhere, Ghana is a multilingual setting in

which English is the official language and the medium of instruction in schools
(Opoku-Amankwa, Brew-Hammond and Elsbend Kofigah, 2011: 305). All text-
books, apart from those for the teaching and learning of local languages, are

104
 Materials Adaptation in Ghana 105

written in English. Therefore, the effectiveness of English language teaching,

learning, and use determines whether the country’s education will succeed or
fail (Akagre, 2006). Moreover, globalisation means that competence in both
spoken and written English is seen as very necessary in Ghana.
In the Ghanaian education system, the textbook is considered the prin-
cipal teaching and learning material (Opoku-Amankwa, 2010: 159) for both
children and adults. For many children, the textbook is their first encounter
with written texts (ibid.: 160). Besides, since Ghana is a context in which
students have limited opportunities to encounter authentic spoken or written
materials, the textbook assumes a pivotal role in English language education.
Despite the central role of textbooks in this setting, how teachers use them is
generally taken for granted (ibid.). Yet, this is not necessarily straightforward.
In my experience, while some teachers adapt materials with confidence, others
do so with guilt and uncertainty, feeling that the authority of the textbook
or of the government syllabus should not be challenged. Still others practise
adaptation without even being aware of what they are doing. Finally, some
Ghanaian teachers, particularly in rural areas, have actually rejected textbooks
prescribed by school authorities because ‘the books were not aligned with the
children’s reading ability’ (Moulton, 1997: 6) and ‘the teachers did not have
the skills to adapt the books to the children’s skill levels’ (ibid.). The teachers
reverted to writing on the chalkboard since that was the medium of reading
and writing familiar to them.
Given the situation outlined above, this chapter seeks to find answers to the
following questions:

1. Are teachers aware of what the adaptation of ELT materials entails?

2. Do they adapt materials? Why?
3. What approaches do they employ? Why?
4. What are their opinions on adaptation, and their attitude towards it?

Teacher autonomy vis-à-vis textbook selection

According to Meddings and Thornbury (2009: 86):

Most teachers – perhaps 99% – work in contexts where the use of a coursebook
is mandated. A few lucky ones may actually have a say in which coursebook
to use, but most don’t.

This observation reflects the general practice in most Ghanaian language

schools, especially government institutions like the one under investigation.
Although the classroom teacher is the direct user of the books, selection usually
goes beyond them to involve the Ministry of Education, institutional and
106 Esther G. Bosompem

departmental heads, and even fellow teachers (McGrath, 2002; McDonough

and Shaw, 2003).
As a result, teachers who claim books are ‘imposed on them from above’
(Meddings and Thornbury, 2009: 86), sometimes become dissatisfied and frus-
trated. They may hesitate to use the textbook or, in a worst-case scenario, they
may simply abandon the book completely (Moulton, 1997). In the words of
Opoku-Amankwa (2010: 161), ‘teachers may be reluctant to use textbooks
because their interests and experiences, and those of their students, are not
reflected in the content’. However, regardless of whether they choose their own
textbooks, teachers generally need to make changes and modifications for the
books to work for their students (McGrath, 2002). Yet many teachers may have
no training in materials analysis and adaptation, and can only rely on their
experience or intuition. Considering such responsibility, it is worth knowing
how teachers generally perceive textbooks and how such views affect how they
use them in the classroom.

How and why ELT materials are adapted

The importance of ELT materials adaptation and the variety of approaches

involved are widely recognised in the literature (see Maley, 1998; McDonough
and Shaw, 2003; Edge and Garton, 2009). As McDonough and Shaw (2003:
76) state, the general purpose of adaptation

is to maximize the appropriacy of teaching materials in context, by changing

some of the internal characteristics of a coursebook to suit our particular
circumstances better.

Since no material can meet the needs of every single teacher or learner in any
given context (Edge and Garton, 2009), adaptation is almost inevitable in ELT.
Previous writers have identified a number of ways in which teachers can adapt
materials, and these are outlined below.

Addition
In this approach, teachers retain what the textbook contains and add materials
from other sources to it. This method has sub-types such as extemporisation,
supplementation, exploitation and extension.
Extemporisation: This type of addition is instinctive and is the one most widely
employed by teachers. It entails a teacher’s natural reaction to situations that
come up during lessons. Examples include paraphrasing, referring to pre-
ceding lessons, and providing explanations, illustrations and examples. It is
mostly done orally (McGrath, 2002: 64–65) before, during, or after the use of
 Materials Adaptation in Ghana 107

textbooks for lead-ins, elicitation, and to help students comprehend lessons

effectively.
Supplementation: This entails the addition of exercises, activities, and texts to
those in the textbook. These can be from other published materials or materials
improvised by the teacher. This approach is generally used by teachers for variety,
stimulation, active student participation, and to make up for inadequacies in the
textbook in terms of addressing particular needs of learners (Maley, 1998).
Extension: This is the addition of extra items of the same kind as are already in
the textbook. For instance, when tasks or exercises in the book are not enough
for learners’ practice and comprehension, the teacher supplies extra activities
that have the same learning objective. The difference between supplementation
and extension is that while the former involves materials that are structurally
different from those available, the latter deals with items that are structurally
akin to existing ones (McGrath, 2002: 65).
Exploitation: This kind of addition refers to teachers making the most of mate-
rials by exploring means of increasing their original use as suggested by the
textbook. Parallel to extemporisation, exploitation can be employed before,
during, and after the use of a textbook in class for lead-ins, examples, and
practice respectively. In this approach a teacher uses portions of the material,
such as the text, topic, or pictures to generate or stimulate more language use,
vocabulary, personalisation, localisation, etc. (McGrath, 2002: 65).

Modification
This is another form of adaptation where teachers alter the form, use, or order of
different features of materials (McDonough and Shaw, 2003: 81–82). They usually
do this by changing activities and linguistic content in order to exploit their com-
municative elements, rendering them more intriguing and relevant to learners
and their context. In terms of form modification, this may be ‘rewriting’ (Maley,
1998: 281) an activity or text; ‘restructuring’ (Maley, 1998: 281) the way an activity
is implemented or ‘reordering’ (McDonough and Shaw, 2003: 81–82) by changing
the sequence in which tasks, activities and exercises appear in a book.

Replacement
Replacement concerns the substitution of some portions of the book deemed
unsuitable for learners, the learning context, or learning objectives (Maley,
1998: 281). For instance, a teacher can replace closed questions following a
comprehension text with open-ended ones for original and interesting answers
from students. Another reason for replacement may be to avoid content that
is culturally inappropriate for the students in that particular learning context
(Gray, 2000).
108 Esther G. Bosompem

Deletion
Finally, ‘deletion’ (McDonough and Shaw, 2003: 81–82), or ‘omission’ (Maley,
1998: 281), is another form of adaptation. In this case, all or some material is
rejected by teachers for various reasons, including disparity with learners’ profi-
ciency level, with teaching and learning styles, as well as the teacher’s inability
to adapt materials, or a need to avoid culturally inappropriate materials.

Investigating adaptation

In order to gain an insight into how teachers adapt materials, their rationale
and their attitudes towards the practice, questionnaires were completed by 12
teachers at a Ghanaian government-run tertiary institution, and an additional
four were interviewed about the type of materials they used and the extent of
adaptations made. The interview questions also covered areas such as teachers’
reasons for adapting materials, factors that influence their decisions or their
attitudes, their sources of supplementary materials, how they deal with socio-
culturally sensitive contents, challenges faced when adapting materials, the
benefits derived from adaptation, and their suggestions on how novice teachers
can use books better, or how they can be helped to do so.
English classes at the institution are divided into four levels: Beginner I,
Beginner II, Intermediate and Advanced. The Beginner I classes are for learners
with a very low level of proficiency, who can hardly understand or commu-
nicate in English. Students in the Beginner II, Intermediate and Advanced
classes have various needs, including communication, preparation for specific
examinations and higher education. Students are from countries like Burkina
Faso, Togo, Mali, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Burundi, Sierra
Leone, Benin, Portugal, Niger and Ghana.

Table 7.1 Participating teachers

Level Questionnaire Experience Interview Experience

Beginner I Ama 1 year to 3 years Abena 2 years

Charles 3 years to less than 6 years
Dede 3 years to less than 6 years
Beginner II Efua 3 years to less than 6 years Kwasi 5 years
Ben 3 years to less than 6 years Peter 3 years
Intermediate Getty 6 years to 10 years Kofi 7 years
Irene More than 10 years
Kwame 6 months to less than 1 year
Lamptey 6 months to less than 1 year
Advanced Fiifi 6 years to 10 years
Henry More than 10 years
John More than 10 years
 Materials Adaptation in Ghana 109

Formal teacher training is not a compulsory requirement, but having a uni-

versity degree and appreciable language proficiency is necessary for teachers
at this institution. Thus, the teachers all have at least a first degree. Teachers
of lower-level classes are mostly university graduates who are posted to the
school for a one-year national service, whereas advanced classes are taught by
experienced teachers.

Selection of textbooks
Teachers of the beginner and intermediate classes use African-authored books,
while those of the advanced classes use both local and global books. Only
teachers of the Advanced level (Fiifi, Henry, and John) get to choose their own
textbooks. Significantly, they attribute their autonomy in textbook selection to
experience. Regardless of who selects the textbooks, school authorities expect
all teachers to make the books they use work for their students at all costs. This
leads to dissatisfaction due to wide disparities between book content, learner
proficiency level and learning objectives. Thus, some of the teachers expressed
the desire to be involved in the selection and even the writing of textbooks
to be used for their students. As Efua puts it, textbooks ‘should be generated
in consultation with the language teachers to avail their practical experience
in the classroom’. Although teachers’ involvement in textbook writing and
selection is a legitimate suggestion, it is not easily accepted in educational
settings like the one under investigation.

Teachers’ views on textbooks

The teachers both identified benefits and expressed reservations about the
use of coursebooks. Firstly, they underscored the facilitating, supportive and
guiding roles of textbooks as identified by McGrath (2006). In the question-
naires, for example, when asked to comment on the use of textbooks, teachers
responded that they are ‘very helpful’ (Dede), ‘absolutely necessary for a good
lesson’ (Getty), ‘help the teacher to teach effectively’ (John) and ‘makes teaching
less difficult’ (Kwame). These assertions echo Ur’s (1996: 184) observation that
coursebooks provide ‘helpful support and guidance’. Such support can be lin-
guistic, methodological, cultural or contextual (Hutchinson and Torres, 1994;
McGrath, 2002).
Another benefit mentioned is the evaluative role of textbooks. According to
Irene, ‘well written textbooks can provide means of assessing students’ pro-
gress’. This highlights their role in helping teachers to evaluate and account
for their work with learners (McGrath, 2002; Hutchinson and Torres, 1994). In
addition, the teachers pointed to the time-saving role of coursebooks because,
as Abena puts it, ‘it is tedious and time consuming for me to prepare new sets
of materials for each lesson I teach’.
110 Esther G. Bosompem

Although the teachers generally support the use of textbooks, some also
make mention of their disadvantages. For instance, Ama claims that ‘some-
times, textbooks and other materials are too restrictive’. Kofi observes that ‘at
times, textbooks do not allow me to teach what I want to teach fully’. These
reservations reflect the fact that books may leave little room for teachers to
make ‘curriculum decisions’ (Littlejohn, 1992: 83) while using them. The books
may lack the flexibility to accommodate a variety of teaching and learning
strategies, a characteristic of a good course book (Cunningsworth, 1995). At
the same time:

Materials will always be constraining in one way or another, so that teachers

will always need to exercise their professional judgement (‘or sense of plausi-
bility’) about when and how a particular piece of material is best imple-
mented in any particular case. (Maley, 1998: 287)

When asked to show a ‘restrictive’ book, Kofi provided a book with a set
structure and sequence meant to prepare students for particular external
exams. In fact, such a structure does not mean the book prohibits or inhibits
adaptation. Rather, Kofi’s misgivings about such constraints could also point to
a lack of experience or confidence to adapt the books when necessary.

Attitudes towards and influences on the practice of adaptation

The questionnaire responses show that the teachers generally have a positive
perception of adaptation. Responses from all 12 teachers to the question ‘What
is your general opinion about the practice of changing (some) contents of
English language teaching materials/textbook(s)?’ showed a positive attitude.
One teacher stated, ‘I believe every teacher knows the level of his students and
for this reason, whenever it is necessary, additions and subtraction [sic] can be
made.’ Nine teachers endorsed adaptation as a legitimate teaching practice that
needs no authorisation and nine encouraged teachers to do it with confidence.
Above all, ten of them attested to the inevitability of adaptation due to the
diversity of teaching situations.
However, while the teachers showed a generally positive attitude to adap-
tation, their accounts of their own practices sometimes presented a different
picture. For example, three teachers, Irene, Lamptey, and Henry said they never
intentionally made changes to the content of their textbooks. However, Henry
said he would ‘leave the contents as they are but look for addition elsewhere
to supplement’. This may imply that he is not aware that supplementation is a
form of adaptation.
One reason presented for eschewing adaptation of textbooks is the adequacy
of content to meet learners’ needs. For Irene, with ‘content well structured’
 Materials Adaptation in Ghana 111

and ‘adequate’ there is no need for her to adapt her book. For Lamptey, ‘the
textbook has enough passages and all the necessary components’ so adaptation
is not necessary.
There may be hesitation in adapting the textbook because of the absence of
a formal directive by the school authorities. For instance, although Peter went
through the school’s mentoring scheme by understudying a teacher for some
time and observed the usefulness of making changes to the contents of the
textbook when necessary, he felt reluctant because he claimed he had not been
authorised by anyone to do so. Thus, although by giving examples, explana-
tions and illustrations in class, he intuitively practised extemporisation and
modification, he felt the practice of adaptation was reserved for experienced
teachers. When asked to suggest means of helping teachers overcome their
reluctance to adapt, he recommended a sensitisation programme to educate
novice and newly employed teachers on how to use and adapt materials. He
also proposed that such teachers should be specifically made aware that adap-
tation is a legitimate and integral part of language teaching and so does not
need any authorisation.
Probing further into factors that influence participants’ practice of adap-
tation, experience seems to be a key factor. For example, Kwasi mentioned that
due to his five years of teaching beginner and intermediate students, adapting
materials comes to him with so much ease that it has become an integral part
of his teaching practice. Kofi gives credit to his seven years of experience in
teaching intermediate and advanced levels. Thus experience may help teachers
anticipate how students ‘will cope with and respond to certain types of
published material’ (McGrath, 2002: 4).
Abena pointed out that, in her experience, although novice teachers are made
to ‘understudy experienced teachers’, they are not ‘coached on how to use mate-
rials’. She felt reluctant to adapt textbooks given to her by the school author-
ities because she was not confident about the outcome of her adaptations and
feared they might negatively affect the lessons and her students. When asked
how she overcame her reluctance, she said she approached a senior colleague
who took her through ‘a few days of grooming on how to make changes when
necessary’. She added that after a few weeks of practice she became ‘master over
the book’, ‘improved with more practice’, and gained confidence.
Kofi’s experience echoed Abena’s. He not only feared making changes at
the initial stages of his teaching career, but ‘also felt guilty challenging the
authority of the book writers and that of the leaders who gave me the books
for my lessons’. However, continuous practice with adaptation boosted his
confidence. His creative nature made adaptation a skill he became proud of
and something he later helped novice teachers he came into contact with to
practise.
112 Esther G. Bosompem

At the end of the interviews it emerged that Kofi, Kwasi, Peter, and Abena
had all been practising adaptation without even realising it. For instance, they
practised extemporisation as a spontaneous reaction to classroom situations
(McGrath, 2002) in the form of illustrations, explanations, and examples they
gave in class to help students understand lessons better. The experiences of
teachers at the initial stages of their teaching career also tie in with Richards’
(1993: 47) assertion that non-native speakers of English who are not experi-
enced in teaching ‘may tend to follow the textbook very closely ... and to be
relatively reluctant to discard sections of the book and replace them with other
materials’.

Reasons for adaptation

The teachers identified a variety of reasons for adapting materials. These
include deficiencies in textbooks, the needs of the learners, evaluation, variety,
and stimulation.

Deficiencies in textbooks
In this study, the teachers’ reasons for adaptation reiterate its gap-filling role
(Block, 1991), particularly with regard to being up-to-date and meeting the
needs of particular learners in particular contexts. Teachers said that they make
changes in order to ‘make up some ground the textbook couldn’t cover’ (Dede),
‘to make room for other topics not treated’, or to streamline those that are not
‘well treated’ (Getty). They want ‘to make the topic more understandable’ to
students (Kwame), or to ‘meet the exact needs of my students’ (Ama).
Block’s (1991: 214) concept of ‘timeliness’ of materials showcasing current
happenings in the world also resonated with the views of the teachers. For
John, ‘making changes from time to time is good to meet changing situations
and should therefore be encouraged’. Abena mentions the importance of using
up-to-date materials to teach ‘since the world is fast changing and information
has become more powerful than weapons’. In Kofi’s opinion there is the need
for the use of materials containing ‘trends and current affairs because the world
has become a global village’.

Learner needs
One significant aspect considered by the teachers is their recognition that they
are the ‘mediators’ (McGrath, 2002: 20) between the coursebooks and their
learners. The chief reason attributed to this vital role is the teachers’ prox-
imity to students, which affords them the opportunity of knowing particular
learners, their level of proficiency, and their specific needs (Jolly and Bolitho,
1998: 111). For instance, Peter said, ‘I am the best person who know [sic] my
students, so I know how I can make changes to meet their needs.’ For Efua
 Materials Adaptation in Ghana 113

adaptation is ‘very necessary because students have different language needs

and can only be identified by the teachers in class’. For Ama, it is ‘necessary
since the writers [sic] knowledge about learners may differ from the learners I
come into contact with’. Surprisingly, even Irene, who earlier denied adapting
her textbook, admits that adaptation ‘is the mark of a good teacher who has the
interest of his/her students at heart’.
As teachers do their best to make textbooks work for their students, one
important consideration they make is the proficiency level of the learners
(McDonough and Shaw, 2003: 75). When materials are above a learner’s level,
they lose motivation and discouragement sets in (Humphries, 2011). On the
other hand, when materials are below a learner’s level, they get bored due to
lack of challenge. Charles and Getty, respectively, mention that ‘the level of
the students’ and ‘the standard of the learners’ are the basis for adapting text-
books. Efua specifically identifies vocabulary ‘beyond their levels’ as a reason
for adaptation. Peter describes a section of the textbook for his Intermediate
class as irrelevant because it does not contain much on ‘the past perfect
tense it is supposed to illustrate in context’ and ‘the exercises too are not
challenging enough for my students’. For these reasons, he maintains the
topic and replaces the exercises and illustrations with materials from another
book.

Stimulation, variety, and exploration

Teachers also adapt materials for the sake of stimulation, variety, explor-
ation, and active student participation. Teachers in this study said they make
changes to ‘spice the lesson with varieties’ (Fifii), to make ‘the lesson inter-
esting’ (Kwame), to make ‘teaching and learning fun and easier’ (Ama), and
‘to enrich students’ awareness and experience’ (John). Furthermore, for Efua
the multicultural setting of the school propels adaptation, possibly because
the Ghanaian-authored book she uses mostly contains local illustrations and
examples. The teachers personalise, localise and improvise to achieve their
aims (McGrath, 2002: 74).
All these reasons boil down to the vital role played by the teacher who
observes the students in various contexts and manipulates the materials to
facilitate and enrich their language learning through adaptation.

Learner assessment
Learner assessment was also given as a reason for adapting textbooks. One
reason Ben adapts is ‘to find out whether the students really understand the
topic’. For Dede, the reason is ‘to find out if students could identify similar
exercises in other books’. Similarly, Fiifi indicates he makes adaptations ‘to
ascertain if students can work outside the course book’.
114 Esther G. Bosompem

Creativity and method exploration

Teachers also explore techniques for adaptation in a quest for creativity. For
instance, Fiifi practises adaptation ‘to see how creative I can be without the
book’. Charles makes adaptations because his ‘teaching styles’ are different
from those found in the textbook. Thus, apart from efforts to meet learners’
needs, teachers can use adaptation as a means of trying out their own skills and
ability. This is a commendable step towards professional development since
the outcome of adaptation can help a teacher improve decisions and actions
regarding the use of teaching materials in general.
Thus far in this chapter, we have looked at teachers’ attitudes to textbooks
and adaptation and the reasons they give for their practice. In the next section,
we will consider what teachers say they actually do when adapting materials.

How teachers make adaptations

The questionnaire presented the teachers with a number of situations in
which they may need to adapt their materials and asked them to complete
the sentences with what they do. The situations concerned topic, language
content, exercises, language skills, activities, and student engagement. The
responses show that the approaches mainly identified by respondents are
addition, modification, replacement and deletion (McDonough and Shaw,
2003). For example, the first sentence to be completed was, When topics are
not likely to stimulate students’ interest and participation; Charles says he would
‘skip or swap the topic’, implying rejection or replacement, and Efua replaces
such topics with related interesting ones. Both Dede and Ben employ add-
ition, Dede through explanation and Ben with examples from other sources.
Henry, however, opts for rejection. In his words, ‘I don’t teach it, I leave it
out.’
Regarding contents that do not generate language learning and language use,
Charles and Efua replace the contents with suitable ones, while Henry and
Dede reject them. In dealing with contents that do not exploit students’ experience,
prior knowledge and creativity, Charles says he gives ‘detailed explanations to
bring them on board’, while Henry creates and integrates engaging contents.
Getty and Ama make modifications to exploit students’ experience and cre-
ativity. Dede, however, rejects such contents. Efua uses the familiar as a starting
point ‘to lead them to the unknown’, as suggested by Meddings and Thornbury
(2009: 87).
Interestingly, when asked to indicate how they handle materials with socio-
culturally or ideologically sensitive contents, more than half of the questionnaire
respondents (Ama, Ben, Charles, Irene, John, Kwame and Lamptey) did not give
any response at all. Considering that they all use books produced by Ghanaians
and Nigerians, it could be that the content is culturally appropriate. On the
 Materials Adaptation in Ghana 115

other hand, Efua states that she groups the students in accordance with similar
cultural settings to ‘discuss what pertains to their cultures’. Dede reports using
‘experiences and happenings in other places rather than those of my students’.
Fiifi modifies such contents, Getty avoids them and Henry leaves ‘those parts
out’. When interviewed, Kofi explained that due to the multiplicity of learners’
backgrounds in the institution, issues of ethnicity and religion are very sen-
sitive. Thus, he usually resorts to rejection. When asked how learners can learn
about other cultures he said he preferred directing learners to conduct indi-
vidual research than to ‘risk stepping on people’s toes’.
Other questions focused on grammar items and exercises that are not chal-
lenging, exercises that are too difficult for students, unbalanced concentration
on the four language skills, as well as unsuitable and unavailable activities to
accompany lessons. It is worth noting that, as suggested by McDonough and
Shaw (2003: 80), when it comes to addition, it is not obligatory to bring it in at
the end. It can be done in the form of a warm-up or a lead-in activity ‘to prepare
the ground for practice’ (ibid.), as done by Efua who creates ‘the right atmos-
phere to stimulate the targetted [sic] teaching/learning activities’ when none is
suggested by her textbook.
Overall, the teachers’ answers show the whole range of possible responses that
reflect addition, modification, replacement and rejection. According to information
gathered from the interviews, the differences in approach can be attributed to
a teacher’s personality, personal beliefs, experience, professional competence,
and available facilities. Although teachers react differently to the same situation,
they all ultimately aim to meet the diverse needs of specific learners in a spe-
cific context (McDonough and Shaw, 2003: 75). Thus, not only do participants
demonstrate an awareness of the possibilities, they are also able to articulate the
reasons underlying their choice of one approach over another. This would seem
to show that, while some teachers at least may not consciously be aware of their
practices in adaptation, when they are asked to reflect on those practices they
are able to give a clear rationale for what they do.

Implications

The study suggests the following:

• No textbook can perfectly meet the needs of any given group of students.
Thus, not only is it acceptable to adapt a textbook but vital to do so in order
to meet the particular needs of students in a particular context.
• A textbook is not a sacred object, but a raw material for teaching and
learning. As such, teachers need to understand how to use their textbooks
and feel free to make necessary changes.
116 Esther G. Bosompem

• Teachers, especially novices, may be afraid to adapt their textbook because

they don’t know whether it is permissible to do so, and/ or because they
don’t want to be seen as questioning the authority of the book.
• Teachers don’t necessarily know how to adapt a textbook, they need to learn
how to do so.
• There are a variety of reasons for and a variety of ways to adapt a textbook.
Teachers need to learn what they are.
• Adaptation not only benefits learners, but also benefits teachers by allowing
them to stretch their capabilities.

Educational institutions, teacher educators and materials writers all have roles
to play in helping teachers learn how to use, adapt and develop materials
effectively.

Educational Institutions
The concerns raised by teachers in this study underline the importance of edu-
cational institutions becoming more aware of how teachers use ELT materials.
Newly employed teachers need to be sensitised to what is possible and feasible
in a particular institution. Teachers may not be aware that they are free to
adapt materials, and thus avoid adaptation due to their perception that it is
not authorised. One reason institutions may not make newly employed and
novice teachers aware of what is possible is the assumption that adaptation is
an integral part of language teaching, so no teacher needs a formal mandate
before practising it. This reflects McDonough and Shaw’s (2003: 75) assertion
that issues on adaptation are ‘frequently overlooked, perhaps because it is so
much a part of our everyday professional practice that we are unaware of its
implications’.
However, from the teachers’ comments in this study, taking such sensi-
tisation for granted can affect teachers’ confidence to adapt materials, and
thus deprive learners of the best input. Accordingly, measures can include
orientation programmes where teachers can be briefed on the nature of their
teaching contexts and the particular ways of doing things in the institution,
including the extent to which autonomy in materials use is possible. Further,
the role and importance of adaptation, where this is possible, needs to be
mentioned explicitly so that new teachers can adapt materials with certainty
and confidence.
New teachers need support in the use of materials, especially those who have
not undergone formal training. However, even trained teachers may not be
prepared in materials development and adaptation, though it is a skill that is
expected to be the core of language teaching (McGrath, 2002; McDonough and
Shaw, 2003). To address these issues, institutions can assign mentors to novice
teachers for guidance and support on the use of materials, which also involves
 Materials Adaptation in Ghana 117

adaptation. With such measures, teachers can gain the necessary confidence to
make decisions that will benefit them and their students.
Considering the changing trends in language teaching, it is also advisable
to provide refresher courses for upgrading teachers’ knowledge and skills to
help them keep up with developments in the field (Canniveng and Martinez,
2003: 482). In developing countries like Ghana, in-service training for
teachers is rare (Opoku-Amakwa, 2010). Even when there are opportunities
for teacher development, focus on materials use is virtually absent. On the
one hand, this results in the deification of textbooks, since some teachers
may lack the competence or confidence to make adaptations. On the other
hand, the absence of such training may result in the rejection of materials
that could be profitable for English language teaching and learning in Ghana
and countries with similar conditions. Without such preparation, the lack
of monitoring of how teachers use materials can also have telling effects on
learners.
To equip teachers with skills in materials use and production, institutions
can organise regular seminars and workshops with the help of experts in mate-
rials development or senior teachers. Moreover, institutions can subscribe to
different sources of online ELT materials to help teachers access literature on
materials use and general ELT practices. Although they may appear challenging
to achieve, these are feasible ventures with great benefits.

Teacher educators
There is a general concern about the absence or lack of emphasis on mate-
rials development in teacher training programmes (Canniveng and Martinez,
2003: 482). For example, Kofi, one of the only two TESOL trained teachers in
this study, reported the lack of a materials development module in his UK MA
course. In Africa, although there are various pre-service training programmes
for English language teachers, most of them lack the essential ingredient of
materials development. This is true of Ghana, where even one of the most
renowned training colleges in Ghana has no provision for materials use and
development in its syllabus.
The lack of training in materials use and development affects teachers’ atti-
tudes towards adaptation. In line with Milambiling’s (2001: 3) proposal for
‘context-sensitive’ teacher training for non-native teachers, teacher training
in materials use and development with the local context taken into account
is recommended. With the right competence, teachers will be empowered to
graduate from unquestioningly accepting any material they come across, to
making appropriate decisions and choices (Jolly and Bolitho, 1998), which
include adaptation. In addition, given that adaptation may involve teacher-pro-
duced materials, teachers must be trained to prepare materials that can expose
learners to more tailored input in situations where materials in textbooks may
118 Esther G. Bosompem

have been inappropriately presented (Gray, 2000), cannot address learners’

needs, or are absent.

Materials writers
Due to the diversity of teaching and learning contexts, textbooks will always
be constraining to an extent. Nevertheless, writers of textbooks and other
materials can help make adaptation less challenging for teachers by incorp-
orating more flexibility, which Cunningsworth (1995) presents as a criterion
for book evaluation and selection. Writers are encouraged to make the books
easily accommodate teacher input as well as various teaching and learning
styles (McGrath, 2002: 159). Such materials will make materials adaptation
easier and reduce the uncertainty and anxiety that make teachers hesitant to
practise it.

Conclusion

This chapter has delved into an area of ELT that has not received much atten-
tion: what teachers think of and actually do with the materials they use.
Teachers are generally aware of the existence of adaptation, though some may
not know what it entails. Consciously or unconsciously, all of them adapt
materials, using various approaches. Careful selection of materials to suit a par-
ticular learning context can minimise the volume of adaptation that teachers
need to make. Teachers should be involved in materials selection and devel-
opment to suit local contexts since they are close to the learners.
Although this chapter has focused on one particular context, Ghana, the
issues that have emerged are relevant across a wide variety of countries and
contexts. Whatever type of materials are used by teachers, wherever they
are, teachers are mediators and are therefore responsible for making the
materials work for learners in the best way possible. Since this reflects the
essence of adaptation, the subject must not be taken for granted. Rather, it
must be addressed explicitly to raise teacher awareness, increase confidence,
and help develop positive attitudes towards adaptation. Thus, to make the
most of the textbook, teachers need to have the necessary knowledge, skills,
and support to adapt materials and make language teaching and learning a
fruitful venture.

Engagement priorities

1. In what ways does your experience with textbook selection and adaptation
resemble that of the teachers in the study described in the chapter? In what
ways is it different? Why do you think this is so?
 Materials Adaptation in Ghana 119

2. Do you think teachers should be able to develop their own materials?

What would you include in a course on materials development and
adaptation?
3. Examine an existing textbook. How is it amenable to adaptation, for example
in terms of learning styles, topics, or task types? What are ways in which it
could be more flexible and amenable to adaptation?

References
Akagre, J. (2006). Effective Teaching and Learning of English in Ghana. Available at http://
www.ghananewsagency.org/details/Features/Effective-Teaching-and-Learning-of-
English-in-Ghana/?ci=10&ai=1853 [Accessed 20/8/2011].
Block, D. (1991). Some thoughts on DIY materials design. ELT Journal, 45(3): 211–216.
Canniveng, C. and Martinez, M. (2003). Materials development and teacher training. In
Tomlinson, B. (ed.), Developing Materials for Language Teaching. London: Continuum,
pp. 479–487.
Cunningsworth, A. (1995). Choosing your Coursebook. Oxford: Heinemann.
Edge, J. and Garton, S. (2009). From Experience to Knowledge in ELT. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Gray, J. (2000). The ELT coursebook as cultural artefact: how teachers censor and adapt.
ELT Journal, 54(3): 274–281.
Humphries, S. C. (2011). Exploring the Impact of the Introduction of New EFL Textbooks
on Teachers’ Practices and Attitudes at a Technical College in Japan. Sydney: Macquarie
University (Unpublished doctoral dissertation).
Hutchinson, T. and Torres, E. (1994). The textbook as agent of change. ELT Journal, 48(4):
315–28.
Jolly, D. and Bolitho, R. (1998). A framework for materials writing. In Tomlinson, B. (ed.),
Materials Development in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
pp. 90–115.
Littlejohn, A. L. (1992). Why are ELT Materials the Way They Are? PhD Thesis: Lancaster
University. Available at http://www.andrewlittlejohn.net [Accessed 10/8/2011].
Maley, A. (1998). Squaring the circle – reconciling materials as constraints with materials
as empowerment. In Tomlinson, B. (ed.), Materials Development in Language Teaching.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 279–294.
McDonough, J. and Shaw, C. (2003). Materials and Methods in ELT: a Teacher’s Guide, 2nd
Edition. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
McGrath, I. (2002). Materials Evaluation and Design for Language Teaching. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press.
McGrath, I. (2006). Teachers’ and learners’ images for coursebooks. ELT Journal, 60(2):
171–180.
Meddings, L. and Thornbury, S. (2009). Teaching Unplugged: Dogme in English Language
Teaching. Peaslake: Delta Publishing.
Milambiling, J. (2001). More than talk: a proposal for TESOL teacher education. TESOL
Journal, 10(4): 3–4.
Moulton, J. (1997). How do teachers use textbooks? a review of the research literature.
Academy for Educational Development. Washington DC: SD Publication Series: Technical
Paper No. 74, 1–29.
120 Esther G. Bosompem

Opoku-Amankwa, K. (2010). What happens to textbooks in the classroom? Pupils’

access to literacy in an urban primary school in Ghana. Pedagogy, Culture & Society,
18(2): 159–172.
Opoku-Amankwa, K., Brew-Hammond, A. and Elsbend Kogigah, F. (2011). What is in a
textbook? Investigating the language and literacy learning principles of the ‘Gateway
to English’ Textbook Series. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 19(2): 291–310.
Richards, J. C. (1993). Beyond the textbook: the role of commercial materials in language
teaching. Perspectives, 5(1): 43–53.
Ur, P. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
8
Multilevel Materials for Multilevel
Learners
Apiwan Nuangpolmak

Overview

The presence of learner diversity is inevitable in any language classroom. Not

only do our learners differ in their ages, interests, learning styles, goals, and
motivation, but their levels of proficiency may also vary. In everyday teaching,
practitioners are constantly faced with the problems of finding the right mate-
rials for all their learners. The situation may be worse if there is a required
material, such as a coursebook, involved since, on many occasions, language
teachers are left to cope with a mismatch between the assigned coursebook and
the actual proficiency levels of the learners.
This chapter describes the design and implementation of multilevel writing
tasks created by the author and used in a mixed ability, tertiary English class.
These materials were utilised as a supplement to the main coursebook in order
to accommodate learners of different proficiencies. A multilevel task can be
described simply as a material that offers learners the choice of working at
different levels. This multilevel task approach also encourages learners to
monitor and reflect on their performance so that they can select the level at
which they prefer to work, based on self-evaluation.

Teaching context

Currently in Thailand, English is mandated as a compulsory foreign language.

Having a good command of English is essential for career advancement since
English is commonly used by Thais as a medium for international communi-
cation in various domains, such as diplomacy, business, academia, and tourism.
The push for the establishment of the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian
Nations) community by 2015, a regional economic integration similar to that
of the European Union, also necessitates the knowledge of English as a tool for
cooperation, networking, and sharing information.

121
122 Apiwan Nuangpolmak

The importance of English in both academic and professional domains has

led to many educational reforms in Thailand over the years. Since 1996 English
has been mandated as a compulsory subject in primary (P. 1–6) and secondary
(M. 1–6) curricula. Students at tertiary level are also required to complete at
least six credits of English courses as a condition for graduation (Wongsothorn
et al., 2002). Despite the mandatory status of English, each school and uni-
versity still maintains its administrative freedom with regard to teaching
materials, methods, assessment, and time allocation for English classes (Foley,
2005). Furthermore, the pressure from school achievement tests and university
entrance examinations has led many learners, especially those with higher
economic status, to seek extra tuition in private language schools (Prapphal,
2008). The lack of uniformity in English syllabi and the unequal access to
English learning have resulted in various levels of proficiency among school
graduates.
Through my teaching context at Chulalongkorn University Language
Institute (CULI) in Bangkok, Thailand, I have dealt with students from various
disciplines and of different English proficiency. Despite their differing levels
of English, these students are required to take the same compulsory English
course called Experiential English (EXP ENG), which is the course that forms the
basis for discussion in this chapter.
EXP ENG is a foundation English course which aims to enable students to
communicate effectively about topics of interest in daily life using the four
skills. It is also specified in the syllabus that the course should promote the active
participation of the students in the learning process and develop autonomous
learning behaviours. Students who enrol in EXP ENG are required to purchase
a commercial English coursebook at upper intermediate level for the class.
CULI’s academic affairs department still produce some supplementary exer-
cises, mostly grammar and vocabulary review, to be used in conjunction with
the coursebook, and they allow instructors to supply supplementary materials,
if needed.
There were three main issues with the EXP ENG classes. First, there was a
mismatch between the coursebook level and the actual proficiency of some
students. A number of students were clearly below upper intermediate level;
some could even be considered high level beginners. On the other hand, there
would be a few advanced students in each class who possessed an exceptional
level of English. Since the whole class were assigned the same material some
students would have to struggle in order to get it done, while others would
finish it very quickly and perhaps think that it was not challenging enough.
Second, there were certain shortcomings of the coursebook in that it did not
fully address the needs of the students. Since most secondary English curricula
in Thailand placed a heavy emphasis on receptive rather than productive skills,
especially reading, the students commencing tertiary education were usually
 Multilevel Materials for Multilevel Learners 123

proficient readers, but not competent writers. The content of the commercial
coursebook did not provide sufficient support for this skill. Last but not least,
there was also a tension between policy and real practice. The course syllabus
specified that EXP ENG promoted autonomous learning. However, there was no
specification of how to achieve this goal in the teacher’s coursebook manual.
Furthermore, due to syllabus constraints, there was no time to spare for learner
training activities, which could have been employed to foster autonomous
behaviours. Consequently, the policy which was mandated by the institute
was not fully implemented in practice.
In order to address these issues the idea of a multilevel task was born with
the proposition to develop materials that could offer flexibility in terms of
task levels, while maintaining the same learning objectives. This set of mate-
rials would focus specifically on developing the writing proficiency students
were lacking. Additionally, it would develop a practical procedure to foster
autonomous learning. However, this procedure had to be incorporated into
the existing syllabus and implemented within the classroom hours. As a result,
three levels of the same set of writing tasks were designed and incorporated into
the established EXP ENG syllabus to offer the students a choice. The students
themselves chose at which task level they would like to perform. By encour-
aging the students to decide for themselves, it was anticipated that they would
undergo the process of monitoring, evaluating, and reflecting on their pre-
vious performance in order to make informed choices. It is believed that skills
such as self-monitoring, reflection, and making decisions about learning are
the fundamental foundation for the development of learner autonomy (Holec,
1981).

Theoretical framework

McGrath (2002: 80) claims that ‘the needs of a specific class of learners can
never be perfectly met by a single coursebook’. Consequently, many teachers
decide to supplement the main coursebook with other materials. There are two
main reasons for the use of supplementary materials. The first is the teacher’s
recognition that the coursebook does not fully address the syllabus objectives
neither does it prepare learners for the required examination. The second
reason is the teacher’s obligation to provide optimal learning opportunities
for their learners. Therefore, additional materials are given to learners so as to
enhance exposure and/or practice of the target language.
Affective considerations may also influence classroom teachers to adapt some
parts of the required coursebook. McDonough and Shaw (2003: 77) emphasise
teachers’ needs to ‘personalise’, ‘individualise’ and ‘localise’ coursebook mate-
rials in order to achieve greater appropriateness in their teaching environments.
To increase relevance in relation to learners’ needs and interests, teachers
124 Apiwan Nuangpolmak

sometimes adapt the materials to provide personalised content. Teachers also

adapt the activities in the coursebook to address learner diversity and indi-
viduality in terms of proficiency and learning styles. Lastly, it is common for
teachers in EFL contexts to adapt the content of commercial coursebooks to fit
in with local settings and local demands for language use.
Furthermore, materials adaptation is considered when classroom teachers
wish to conduct learner training in a specific area. Islam and Mares (2003)
propose enhancing learner autonomy as one of the reasons for materials adap-
tation. They posit that materials should be adapted to offer activities in which
learners are encouraged to discover independently rules about the target lan-
guage. Also, materials should be adapted in a way that can assist learners in
developing skills useful to independent learning.
Linked to the notion of materials adaptation is the idea of flexible learning
materials. Hemingway (1986) asserts that it is possible to turn any material
designed for teaching a homogeneous class into a potential learning activity
for a mixed ability class, as long as such materials are open to interpretation.
According to McKay and Tom (1999), one way to address mixed ability class
issues is by manipulating one of the three main components in any learning
activity – materials, task and performance level – to create various versions of
the same activity in order to accommodate learners of different proficiency
levels and interests.
In task-based language teaching, pedagogical tasks (such as classroom tasks
which aim to bridge the gap between the learners’ current ability and the real
world task demands) are also purposely graded into a continuum of difficulty
levels and presented to learners in sequences, each one with ‘increasingly
accurate approximation’ to the target task (Long and Crookes, 1993: 40). These
sequences of tasks are graded in order to accommodate the learner’s growing
proficiency (Skehan, 1998), as well as to maintain an ideal that tasks should
appear challenging but attainable to learners (Prabhu, 1987). Appropriate
levels of task difficulty can therefore enhance a learner’s motivation since they
realise that their efforts are exerted towards achievable goals (Dörnyei, 2001).
A discourse oriented, or genre based, approach in writing instruction
promotes the use of a learning/teaching cycle which offers a number of activ-
ities in sequential stages (see for example, Feez, 1998; Thai, 2009). Through
these stages, it is anticipated that learners will gradually gain independent
control of their texts. Since the discourse oriented approach advocates explicit
instruction of text structure – as it is believed that genre knowledge ‘develops
with repeated experiences’ (Hyland, 2004: 55) – model texts and language
samples are commonly used to elicit analysis and discussion, and to support
the learner’s comprehension and construction of texts, especially at the early
stages of learning a new genre. This support is usually withdrawn, in a gradual
manner, in the later stages of the learning cycle when learners have gained
 Multilevel Materials for Multilevel Learners 125

the knowledge and skills necessary to construct the text independently (Feez,
1998).
The conceptual framework for the design of multilevel writing tasks which
will be described in this chapter was largely influenced by the notions of scaf-
folding (Vygotsky, 1978) and flexible learning materials. To specify, a multilevel
task approach offers choices for learners so that they are able to work at their
own level. Weaker learners may choose to work at a less challenging level than
their more proficienct peers. Working at an appropriate level, each learner has
an equal chance of succeeding at the task. Essentially, the multilevel writing
tasks become a scaffold to assist learners in their production of texts and at the
same time provide a practical solution for mixed ability class management.

Designing writing tasks

A series of ten writing tasks, each task with three different levels, were designed
to be used as supplementary writing materials. Since it was proposed that each
set of multilevel writing tasks be incorporated into the existing syllabus, ideas
for the tasks mostly derived from the activities specified in the coursebook.
Some writing tasks were developed in extension to, or in lieu of, existing activ-
ities, which were focused on different skills. At the same time, to promote
meaningful communication through the use of tasks, each of the tasks
contained some relevance to the students’ academic and real world contexts.
Accordingly, some of the writing tasks aimed to replicate real-life tasks (like
writing a postcard) whereas others resembled academic assignments (such as
writing a report). With these different genres to cover, it was important to be
certain that the students understood the relationship between language forms,
features, and functions. Hence, the tasks were designed in such a way that they
raised the student’s awareness of the textual structures specific to each genre.
To illustrate, a writing task called Information Report (see Figure 8.1) was devel-
oped to replace a pair work oral communicative activity in the coursebook
that required learners to share ideas on the development of a technological
invention and its impact on society.
Instead of having the students discuss the issue orally, it was assigned as a
writing task so that the students could still address all the questions raised
in the coursebook, namely (1) which technological invention has made the
biggest impact in this century, (2) why such technology was invented, and
(3) how such technology has changed people’s lives. Additionally, the students
got a chance to practise the past tense and passive voice, which were the focus
of the unit of study. Therefore, this writing task was designed to ensure that
the students were exposed to the content and language points specified in the
coursebook. Furthermore, the context of writing was created to add a com-
municative purpose to the task. Usually, when assigned to write a report, the
126 Apiwan Nuangpolmak

Name ____________________________________________ I.D. _______________

Unit 2: Technology Task 1: Information Report (A)
Which invention has made the biggest impact on people’s lives?
Write a short report (about 150 words) about the chosen technology
including reason(s) why it was invented and how it affected our lives.
 You can begin your writing by giving a short description of the chosen invention.
 Then you may write about the purpose of invention and its impact on society.
 When writing about the history of the invention, remember to use Past Tense to
indicate finished actions e.g. Mr. X invented machine Y during the first World
War. However, you may use Present Perfect to talk about the impact as it is
continued to the present e.g. This invention has changed the way people travel.
 You may use Passive Voice to emphasize more on the action rather than the
actor e.g. Machine Y was invented fifty years ago. It is also useful when the
actor is unknown.
 To complete the report, you need to include factual information from other
sources. Do not copy words directly from the source. Use some of
paraphrasing techniques you’ve learned in class to retell the information.

CHULALONGKORN UNIVERSITY SCIENCE FAIR

Invention of the Century

______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

Figure 8.1 ‘Information report’

 Multilevel Materials for Multilevel Learners 127

students would expect the teacher to be their sole audience. However, this task
was linked to the situation where the student’s report would be showcased at
the university science fair. This context of a public audience encouraged the
students to express their thoughts more meaningfully.

Grading task levels

The most distinct characteristic of the multilevel writing tasks is the three
tasks levels offered. The decision to have three task levels was originally based
on the common assumption that there are three broad groups of learners in
a mixed ability class: beginner, intermediate and advanced (McKay and Tom,
1999). However, the levels were named according to stages of writing devel-
opment – controlled writing, guided writing, and free writing (McDonough
and Shaw, 2003) – in order to avoid labelling the learner’s ability. Accordingly,
the terms Supported Writing, Guided Writing and Free Writing were coined
for task levels A, B and C respectively. This way, the name of the task levels
implied both the task characteristics and the relationship between the task
and the writer.
To assign different levels to the writing tasks, criteria were developed
drawing on a literature review in the areas of task difficulty and task sequences
(see Prabhu, 1987; Brindley, 1987; Long and Crookes, 1993; Skehan, 1996;
Nunan, 2004; Duran and Ramaut, 2006). The criteria were concerned with the
following factors:

The steps involved in completing the task

The first aspect concerned in grading the three levels was the number of steps
the students were required to take in order to successfully complete the tasks.
These steps were in relation to both cognitive skills involved in the writing
process, such as brainstorming, planning, outlining, revising (Skehan, 1996;
Ellis, 2005), and the schematic structures involved in the production of a
certain text type (Wing Jan, 2009).
To reduce the steps in Level A (Supported Writing) so that the degree of
task difficulty appeared the lowest among the three levels, partial texts were
provided in some tasks (see Figure 8.2). For example, in an essay task, the
students who chose the tasksheet in Level A would be given a partially written
text in the writing space. All they had to do was to complete the partial text
and add more content to the body of the essay. Providing parts of the text made
Level A tasks appear more manageable compared to tasks in Level B (Guided
Writing) and C (Free Writing) where the students were required to produce the
whole text by themselves (Figures 8.3 and 8.4 show Levels B and C for this task,
respectively).
128 Apiwan Nuangpolmak

Name __________________________________________ I.D. ________________

Unit 4: Make an Impact Task 3: Essay (A)

‘Watching television is bad for children’

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Write an essay (about 180 words) on this topic. Use specific reasons and
examples to support your opinion.
 First, you need to decide whether you agree or disagree with the statement above.
 If you agree, find reasons and examples from sources that talk about bad things
that can happen when children watch television. However, if you disagree with the
statement, find other reasons and examples which show good things children get
from watching television.
 You may use the guided writing to begin and end your essay. Make sure you
explicitly express your opinion on the issue e.g. ‘I absolutely agree that watching
television is bad for children.’ OR ‘Most people believe that watching television is
bad for children but I strongly disagree.’
 Keep your writing logical and coherent – use some of the connectors such as in
addition, furthermore to group similar ideas and however, on the other hand to
show contrast of ideas.
 End with a conclusion that summarizes the key points that support your opinion.

Television is a big influence in the lives of most of us. People, young and old,
spend hours every week watching television program. ____________________________
________________________________________________________________________
I think watching television is __________ for children because of these reasons.
First of all, _______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
In conclusion, I believe watching television is ____________ for children because
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Figure 8.2 Partial text in ‘Essay’ (Level A)

 Multilevel Materials for Multilevel Learners 129

Name __________________________________________ I.D. ________________

Unit 4: Make an Impact Task 3: Essay (B)

‘Watching television is bad for children’

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Write an essay (about 180 words) on this topic. Use specific reasons and
examples to support your opinion.

 Before you begin writing, you need to decide whether you agree or disagree with the
statement above.
 If you agree, find reasons and examples from sources that show negative effects of
television. On the other hand, if you disagree, find the evidence to prove that
children can receive positive influences from watching television.
 Your essay should start with an introduction that includes your opinion on this topic.
 Then you can give reasons to support your agreement/ disagreement. Remember to
be specific. This will make your argument more convincing.
 Keep your writing logical and coherent – use some of the connectors learned in class
to help organize your thoughts.
 A proper essay should end with a conclusion. It is an opportunity to summarize the
key points you have made and reaffirm your opinion.

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Figure 8.3 ‘Essay’ (Level B)

130 Apiwan Nuangpolmak

Name __________________________________________ I.D. ________________

Unit 4: Make an Impact Task 3: Essay (C)

‘Watching television is bad for children’

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Write an essay (about 180 words) on this topic. Use specific reasons and
examples to support your opinion.

Before you start writing, ask yourself these questions:

 Do I agree or disagree with the above statement?
 What are the reasons to support my agreement/ disagreement?
 What kind of information can I include in my writing to make it more convincing?
 How do I start the essay? Should there be an introduction? How do I write a good
introduction?
 Should I state my opinion on the issue from the beginning?
 How can I make my writing logical and flowing? How can I make it easy for
readers to follow my thoughts?
 How do I end my essay? Should there be a conclusion as well? What should be
included in my conclusion?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Figure 8.4 ‘Essay’ (Level C)

 Multilevel Materials for Multilevel Learners 131

The complexity of task demands

In order to complete the tasks successfully, learners need to be able to fulfil
the task demands and achieve the communicative goals (Willis, 1996; Skehan,
1998). Tasks that impose too many cognitive demands on learners may appear
difficult to manage (Brindley, 1987; Skehan, 1996). To assist students with the
requirements of multilevel writing tasks, two types of instruction were given.
First, the primary instruction, which was identical in all three levels, stated
the task demands in terms of topic of writing, text type, word limit, com-
municative goal and, perhaps, intended audience. Next, the list of secondary
instructions, or writing directions, broke down these task demands into prac-
tical writing steps. In this sense, the secondary instructions, which varied at
each level, helped reduce the cognitive complexity of the task demands for the
students. Table 8.1 shows the primary and secondary instructions for an essay
task.

Table 8.1 Primary and secondary instructions

Primary instructions Secondary instructions

‘Watching television is bad for Level A

children’ • First, you need to decide whether you agree or dis-
To what extent do you agree or dis- agree with the statement above.
agree with this statement? • If you agree, find reasons and examples from
Write an essay (about 180 words) sources that talk about bad things that can happen
on this topic. Use specific reasons when children watch television. However, if you
and examples to support your disagree with the statement, find other reasons
opinion. and examples which show good things children get
from watching television.
Level B
• Before you begin writing, you need to decide
whether you agree or disagree with the statement
above.
• If you agree, find reasons and examples from
sources that show negative effects of television. On
the other hand, if you disagree, find the evidence
to prove that children can receive positive influ-
ences from watching television.
Level C
Before you start writing, ask yourself these ques-
tions:
• Do I agree or disagree with the above statement?
• What are the reasons to support my agreement/
disagreement?
• What kind of information can I include in my
writing to make it more convincing?
132 Apiwan Nuangpolmak

The explicitness of information

Also in relation to the cognitive complexity of the task is the degree of expli-
citness in the information provided to learners. Nunan (2004) asserts that the
level of task difficulty can be reduced through explicit input because it mini-
mises ambiguity and cognitive load. In the case of multilevel writing tasks,
the main input provided to the students was in the form of task instructions.
Accordingly, the instructions written for the three task levels were designed
to vary in their degrees of explicitness, especially in terms of recommended
language use. To illustrate, Table 8.2 compares the instructions written for the
task Postcard to a Friend.
As displayed in Table 8.2, the instructions for Level A tasksheet are the most
explicitly written. Instructions at this level suggest both content and language
appropriate to the specific text. Additionally, samples of language patterns are
given. Meanwhile, Level B tasksheet still offers relatively detailed instructions
on how to complete the tasks but omits samples of language patterns. On the
other hand, Level C tasksheet provides only guideline questions, implicitly
suggesting the language to be used in the writing.

Table 8.2 Instructions written for three task levels of ‘Postcard to a Friend’

Level A
• First, you need to think about all the fun things you did or the exciting/surprising/
disappointing experiences you had during this trip.
• You can use the guided writing to begin and end your story.
• After a short introduction of where you are and how you feel about the overall trip,
you can begin to write about the things you saw, activities you did or people you met
etc. – use adjectives and/or adverbs to describe how you feel, such as beautiful
scenery, strange people, meet unexpectedly or moving too slowly.
• Remember to use Past Tense – you are telling a story that has already happened!
Level B
• You may begin by telling your friend the background information, such as where
you are, how you got there, or whom you came with.
• Then you can write about what exactly happened on the trip.
• You should add your thoughts and/or feelings about the trip at the end to conclude.
• You can use Past Tense to talk about events that already happened and Present Tense
to talk about general facts.
Level C
Before you start writing, ask yourself these questions:
• How do I begin writing? Do I need to give a short introduction?
• What should I include in my story?
• How should I arrange the information?
• Which tense should I use to tell my story?
• Should I include my feelings and comments or just give the facts?
• How should I end the story?
 Multilevel Materials for Multilevel Learners 133

The syntactic and lexical complexity of instructions

Task levels were not only decided by the degrees of explicitness the instruc-
tions offered, but also by the complexity of the language used in these instruc-
tions (Ellis, 2003; Nunan, 2004; Duran and Ramaut, 2006). In other words, the
vocabulary and language structures for each level of instruction were selected
purposely to portray different levels of difficulty. For instance, the Level A task-
sheet in Figure 8.2 uses the expressions ‘good things’ and ‘bad things’, while
the Level B tasksheet in Figure 8.3 refers to ‘negative effects’ and ‘positive
influences’.

The degree of control

According to Skehan (1996), task participants usually feel less pressured and
consequently perceive tasks as less difficult when they possess some degree of
control over the tasks. Therefore, it is ideal that task manageability is assured for
all learners. However, previous research findings (Nuangpolmak, 2005) showed
different factors leading to the perception of task manageability; namely guid-
ance, assistance, and freedom dependent on the learner’s personal traits, such
as motivation and self-efficacy. Thus, different measures were employed to
vary the degree of task manageability at each level.
In Level A tasks, the students were supported with explicit instructions, lan-
guage samples and, in some cases, partial texts (see Criteria 1, 2 and 3). Through
these features, it was anticipated that even less-proficient learners would be
able to successfully achieve the task goals. As for Level B tasks, step-by-step
instructions were still provided to guide the students through the production
of texts. For those who were not confident enough to complete the writing
tasks on their own, these guided instructions were designed to facilitate the
fulfilment of task goals. Unlike tasks in Levels A and B, in which control was
heightened by precise knowledge of how the tasks were to be executed, the
writing tasks in Level C offered a different sense of control in that the students
were free to address the tasks in whichever way they wanted to as long as the
task goals were achieved. The freedom and flexibility yielded by Level C tasks
was likely to appeal to students with a higher writing proficiency.

The amount of support available

Fundamentally, all the measures discussed in Criteria 1–5 were employed to
ensure that the students were able to manage the tasks by themselves. The
amount of support given within the task (Brindley, 1987; Nunan, 2004), in terms
of explicitness of instructions, language samples, and partial texts provided
was therefore considered the most important criterion in assigning a particular
task to one of three levels. As there were several forms of support embedded
within the materials for each task level, it was completely the student’s choice
to select the task level that offered the kind of assistance they required.
134 Apiwan Nuangpolmak

Implementing multilevel writing tasks

Over the course of the 16-week semester, the implementation of the ten multi-
level writing tasks was incorporated into the established syllabus and lesson
plans. These tasks were designed to supplement the content in the coursebook.
For each writing task a prompt was designed as an introduction to the task.
The prompt was effective in setting a context for the task, providing a more
realistic communicative goal, and suggesting a target audience. An example of
a prompt is shown in Figure 8.5. This was a prompt used in the writing task
where the students were asked to write about the mysteries surrounding the
origin of Stonehenge.
After seeing the writing prompt each student made a decision with regard
to the task level he/she would like to perform at. Once decided, each of them
collected the tasksheet at the selected level and worked individually to complete

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Figure 8.5 Writing prompt

 Multilevel Materials for Multilevel Learners 135

the task. The completed writing tasks were commented on, marked, and
returned, if possible, before the distribution of the next task. As a requirement
of the activity, the students were also asked to fill in a guided reflection form
upon completion of the writing task. This reflection form, which was attached
to the back of the tasksheet, consisted of eight questions regarding their per-
formance of the task, the knowledge acquired from the task and their plan for
future task levels. The guided reflection form embedded as a part of the multi-
level writing task is shown in Figure 8.6.

Reflection _____________________________________________________________ 
In my opinion, this task is  too easy for me  too difficult for me  suitable for my ability

I could do this task  on my own  with my friend‛s help  by referring to study tips

I think I did this task  very well  quite well  badly because _____________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

My problem(s) when doing this task was _______________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

I solved this problem by __________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

From this task, I learned __________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

I can use what I learned to ________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

I will choose level  A  B  C for the next writing assignment because ______________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

TEACHER’S COMMENT:

Figure 8.6 Guided reflection form

136 Apiwan Nuangpolmak

One of the main objectives in designing and implementing a multilevel task

approach was to foster autonomous learning behaviours. The best way to do
this, as suggested by Nunan (1997), was to have a pedagogical intervention in
the actual learning process. Learning situations where autonomy is promoted
usually place a great emphasis on training learners in metacognitive strategies
such as planning, monitoring, evaluating, and reflecting (Cotterall, 2000),
and involving learners in a decision-making process in relation to the self-
management of learning experiences, such as selecting materials and deter-
mining a learning pace (Lamb, 2003). Accordingly, the reflection form was
developed, as a part of multilevel task features, to assist the students in their
retrospection. In order to make an informed choice with regard to the future
task level, the students would go through the process of monitoring and evalu-
ating their own performance. The reflection form helped highlight this process
and, at the same time, raised the student’s awareness of their strengths, weak-
nesses, and needs. During the 16-week implementation of the multilevel task
approach, the students were able to plan and choose their task levels based on
their own evaluation of previous performances.

Implications for materials development

Where a mixed ability class is concerned, most teachers tend to describe this
diversity in terms of student linguistic levels (Jiménez Raya and Lamb, 2003).
However, students also vary in their cognitive and affective maturity. These
factors in turn will influence their perception of task difficulty. Learning mate-
rials which contained simple language structures were not necessarily perceived
as the easiest ones. Therefore, materials developers should explore other ways
to ‘ease’ up the learning activities than merely simplifying the language.
Furthermore, since the construct of task motivation is influenced by various
internal and external factors, such as personal traits, self-efficacy, judgement,
and perceived task value (Julkunen, 2001), materials which aim to enhance
motivation need to interact with all these factors. It can be argued that no
single set of materials can motivate all learners equally. Hence, offering choices
to learners seems to be the optimal way that materials can ensure some degree
of learner engagement and enjoyment in learning. The concept of multilevel
tasks suggested in this chapter illustrates that minor adaptation can be made
to the coursebook materials in order to provide choices to the students. These
choices do not suggest ‘what’ the students learnt, but highlight the process of
‘how’ they learnt (Islam and Mares, 2003). As Allwright (1981) emphasises,
materials should be perceived as learning materials rather than teaching mate-
rials. Accordingly, materials development should not be focused on the ways in
which teachers teach, but on the ways in which learners learn.
 Multilevel Materials for Multilevel Learners 137

As language teachers, we all want to help our students develop their lan-
guage skills and acquire the language in the best way that they possibly can.
Essentially, there are two equal parts in the term language learning, namely lan-
guage and learning. Therefore, teachers who aim to facilitate language learning
must pay attention to these two components equally. The multilevel task
approach described in this chapter is an example of a pedagogical intervention
where both language and learning can be scaffolded at the same time through
the use of learning materials. The design of multilevel tasks, specifically the
in-task support features, provides the assistance required for students to com-
plete writing tasks by directing them through the schematic steps of the texts,
as well as modelling language features appropriate for such texts. The instruc-
tions within the design of the multilevel tasks therefore form a scaffolding to
support the students in their production of texts in the class while equipping
them with skills to enable the performance of the same tasks without support in
the future. Besides scaffolding language ability, the multilevel writing tasks also
enable learners to become better at learning. It is believed that learners who
utilise metacognitive strategies, such as planning, monitoring, and reflecting,
can better manage the learning process and thus become more efficient as
learners (Benson, 2001). In turn, these metacognitive skills enable learners to
take more active roles in their learning and consequently to develop autonomy
(Littlewood, 1996). The implementation of a multilevel task approach can be
considered as a support for learners during their transition to becoming fully
autonomous.

Concluding remarks

Despite some criticism of teachers as materials developers (for instance

Allwright, 1981), McGrath (2002) supports the notion of teacher-developed
materials by pointing out that classroom teachers know their own students
best and therefore are able to design materials suitable to the levels, needs and
interests of their students.
This chapter has provided an example of a teacher-initiated materials devel-
opment process. It has shown how, through the use of multilevel tasks, teachers
can assist their students more meaningfully, both in the present (developing
their language abilities) and in the future (becoming autonomous learners).
Moreover, the approach outlined here is relatively easy to adapt to the demands
of any local curriculum and does not require an unreasonable amount of the
teacher’s time.
Nevertheless, there are limitations to the multilevel task approach. The
limited reading ability of weaker learners may prevent them from fully under-
standing the instructions given in the handouts. This can result in incomplete
138 Apiwan Nuangpolmak

tasks or incorrect written products. One solution to this issue would be to

include task instructions in the mother tongue, especially in Level A tasks.
In finding ways to improve our practice, there is no need to look further
than our own classrooms, as all classrooms have their own challenges and
dilemmas. The motivation for creating these multilevel materials was ori-
ginally fuelled by the constant practical problems of classroom diversity. As it
turns out, diversity, like many classroom problems, need not be an issue if we
find a way to work with it

Engagement priorities

1. As Benson (2004) claims, language learners should be seen as individuals

and their individuality should be embraced in the classroom. What aspect
of learner diversity, for example, age, learning styles, first language back-
ground, second language proficiency, etc., is common in your practice? How
do you plan to address the issue of learner diversity in your classroom?
2. Many students enter a language classroom accepting the fact that they have
no control over what and how they learn. The multilevel task approach
described in this chapter is an example of a classroom practice where
students are given control in terms of learning materials. What else can be
done in the classroom to allow students more control?
3. According to Tomlinson (2001), materials take different roles in the learning
process. Materials can inform learners about the rules of language, expose
learners to language samples, and stimulate language use. Since materials
play such an important role in learning, should students get involved in the
development of materials? In what ways can students contribute to mate-
rials design? In your own context, to what extent do you think student
involvement can be achieved?

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9
Designing Effective, Culturally, and
Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy
Josie Guiney Igielski

Introduction

Schooling students in a language that is not their home language has become
a responsibility for more and more teachers around the world due to global
movements of people. This chapter describes how the author, in a US context,
sought to provide access to the curriculum, materials, and learning to the
English learners in her classroom.
A significant achievement gap exists in US public schools between native
English-speaking students and students whose first language is something
other than English. Valdes (1996) posits that factors that contribute to this gap
include language barriers, socio-economic status, educational backgrounds,
and overall cultural differences. ELLs (English language learners) consistently
score below English-speaking peers on academic achievement tests. ‘National
statistics show that ELLs are three times as likely as native English speakers to be
low academic achievers. They are also twice as likely to be held back to repeat a
grade’ (Freeman and Freeman, 2007: 5). Both educators and society at large need
to address these issues in order to provide access to success for all students.
Throughout history, the educational community in the US has tried to
address the complex problems of inequality in schooling. Although there is no
magical solution or educational programme that addresses all of the factors at
play in increasing achievement gaps, one important place to address the gaps
is the classroom. The framework for the research described in this chapter was
developed using three themes that contribute to student success. The first is
a need for culturally responsive teaching (Gay, 2002; Ladson-Billings, 2001;
Villegas and Lucas, 2007). The second is the importance of a culturally relevant
curriculum and materials for the success of all students (Gay, 2000). The third
is the importance of teaching language through thematic and integrated
content, and to support all students’ first languages and cultures (Freeman and
Freeman, 2007; Gibbons, 2002).

141
142 Josie Guiney Igielski

Based on the work of these researchers, it became clear that, as a fourth grade
(9–10 year olds) teacher with a significant number of culturally and linguistically
diverse students, the author could design relevant pedagogy using five main prin-
ciples: (1) understanding the cultural diversity present in the student population;
(2) utilisation of students’ funds of knowledge; (3) inclusion of linguistically and
culturally diverse content in the curriculum and materials; (4) responsiveness to
ethnic and linguistic diversity in the method of instruction; and (5) engagement
of students in purposeful language-rich academic tasks (Villegas and Lucas, 2002;
Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, 1995; Diaz-Rico and Weed, 1995).

Understanding the cultural and linguistic diversity present in

the classroom and utilising students’ funds of knowledge

In countries all over the world, teachers design and adapt their curriculum and
materials for student populations who have experienced life in a culturally
and linguistically different way. Villegas and Lucas (2007: 31) push for teachers
to have ‘an awareness that a person’s worldview is not universal but is pro-
foundly influenced by life experiences, as mediated by a variety of factors,
including race, ethnicity, gender, and social class’. Students’ cultural identities
also play a large role in how they learn (ibid.: 33). Therefore, teachers need
to gain more knowledge about the cultures, ethnicities, and languages of the
student populations in their classrooms. Without an adequate understanding
of students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds teachers will not be able to
help all students reach their highest potential.
However, these concepts and understandings only translate into student
success when the teacher utilises them in curriculum planning and imple-
mentation, while being mindful that each student’s worldview is unique and
actively evolving. Gay states: ‘The knowledge that teachers need to have about
cultural diversity goes way beyond mere awareness of, respect for, and general
recognition of the fact that ethnic groups have different values or express
similar values in various ways. (2002: 107). Teachers must strive to use know-
ledge of their students in the creation of responsive curriculum design.
Culturally responsive teaching is ‘using cultural characteristics, experiences,
and perspectives of ethnically diverse students as conduits for teaching them
more effectively’ (Gay, 2002: 106). When academic knowledge and skills are
situated within the lived experiences and frames of references of students they
are more personally meaningful, lead to increased engagement, and are learnt
more easily and thoroughly (Gay, 2000, 2002; Ladson-Billings, 1995). In this
way teachers create space for students’ cultures and languages to be represented
in the academic domains of school.
No one particular teaching strategy engages all learners all of the time.
Instead, teachers must find ways to elicit engagement from students by tapping
into student motivation. ‘Rather than trying to know what to do to students, we
 Designing Effective, Culturally, and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy 143

must work with students to interpret and deepen their existing knowledge and
enthusiasm for learning’ (Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, 1995: 17). Teachers must
draw on students’ cultural perspectives, and at the same time view students as
uniquely and actively evolving individuals. Thus, teachers should think not
only in terms of general cultural characteristics and traits, but also about what
their particular learners bring and know.
Teachers can create a bridge between home culture and school culture by
utilising students’ funds of knowledge, which Moll and Gonzalez define as ‘the
idea that people are competent and have knowledge, and their life experiences
have given them that knowledge’ (2002: 625). Their research also suggests that
the documentation of students’ funds of knowledge can be used in systematic
and powerful ways by teachers to represent and harness personal, familial,
and community resources in a school setting. When teachers use the know-
ledge and expertise that students bring in the service of academic learning, the
learning becomes relevant and meaningful.
One important connection between culturally responsive teaching and funds
of knowledge is that some knowledge is valued more than other knowledge
in institutional contexts such as schools. Historically, the types of knowledge
that are validated academically are the funds that exist within white, middle-
class culture. This means that the texts, tasks, and even topics that are part
of the school curriculum are more familiar to mainstream students than to
others, such as English learners, and makes it more difficult for ELLs to succeed
in school (Freeman and Freeman, 2007; Moll and Gonzalez, 2002). Thus it is
important to consider the materials through which content is presented.

Including ethnically and culturally diverse content in the

curriculum and materials

‘Students need to understand that the history of the United States is not about
the life events and accomplishments of one culture. It is an extraordinary
chronicle of many different cultures each determining their place and purpose
in history’ (Montgomery, 2000: 36). Teachers can accomplish this goal by
using texts and information that are diverse in content and theme. It is espe-
cially important for ELLs learning in English to have the additional support of
materials that make a connection with their lives. However, finding quality lit-
erature that meets this criterion can be difficult because some texts perpetuate
stereotypes instead of addressing issues from the perspective of an individual.
Researchers Freeman and Freeman (2007: 13) have created rubrics and assess-
ments to help educators establish a repertoire of resource materials that respect
and value individuals. When using stories, a key resource material for all
learners, they suggest that teachers consider whether the characters presented
in the story have cultural or linguistic characteristics similar to those of the
student population. They prompt educators to consider whether the material
144 Josie Guiney Igielski

will provide parallels or connections to the students’ lived experiences. One

final consideration is the setting and context of the story. Culturally responsive
content utilises ‘literacy that builds on linguistically and culturally diverse
students’ existing knowledge, [and] draws on their families, communities, and
the world around them to make sense of the world’ (Gaitan, 2006: 156).
A vital aspect of culturally and linguistically relevant teaching is the
inclusion of content that is written in the student’s first language (Freeman and
Freeman, 2007). Even if teachers do not share the students’ languages, they can
infuse their curriculum with first language materials, like books and classroom
print, letting students use their first languages where possible in writing, and
bringing in school and community members who speak the students’ lan-
guage. An important consideration for culturally and linguistically relevant
content is the creation of what Montgomery (2001) calls a ‘Culturally Complex
Atmosphere’, which incorporates relevant and current news and events, a
diverse classroom library, cross-cultural literature discussions, and cooperative
learning. This atmosphere helps students to begin to understand and appre-
ciate the range of human experiences and cultural backgrounds. Culturally
responsive content also directly addresses controversy. Gay states:

responsive curriculum addresses controversy by studying a wide range of

ethnic individuals and groups; contextualizing issues within race, class, eth-
nicity, and gender; and including multiple kinds of knowledge and perspec-
tives. (2002: 108)

With an approach that explicitly engages students in thinking and talking

about controversial issues, students are given the opportunity to see issues as
complex and to engage in critical analysis.

Responding to ethnic and linguistic diversity through the

methods of instruction

Teachers are responsible for providing access to academic success for all learners.
The goal is to design learning that serves students from non-dominant cultures
equitably. There are many ways teachers can provide access to students within
the method of instruction of their curriculum.

Participation patterns
The term participation patterns refers to the way in which students are asked
to participate in the act of learning. Students’ learning styles vary. Some are
culturally or linguistically specific. For example, some cultures have individu-
alistic approaches to learning and others have communal approaches (Pransky
and Bailey, 2002). The use of different participation patterns helps teachers
organise learning so that all students within a multicultural classroom can
 Designing Effective, Culturally, and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy 145

experience success. Setting up activities that include a variety of modes of

engagement helps students from non-dominant cultures succeed and excel in
content area instruction. In classrooms where teachers allow flexible grouping,
there is greater flexibility in the flow and acquisition of information. Useful par-
ticipation patterns implemented in response to this knowledge are cooperative
groups, guided discussions, and homogenous linguistic pairings, in addition to
more traditional teacher-fronted approaches (Hawkins and Katz, 2008).

Themed units
Themed units provide scaffolding and meaningful connections for all learners,
but specifically for ELLs. ‘Organizing curriculum around themes supports
ELLs as they learn English and learn academic content in English. Themes
help students make sense of instruction.’ (Freeman and Freeman, 2007:
78). Interdisciplinary themes are effective because they encourage students
to participate in meaningful reading, writing, listening, and speaking tasks.
Freeman and Freeman refine the concept of themed teaching by focusing organ-
isation of instruction around ‘big questions’ like ‘Why do people immigrate
or migrate?’, which give ELLs and other culturally diverse learners a context
within which to interpret learning. Students are able to organise their thinking
and analysis within a lesson by considering how they fit into the larger organ-
ising question. For example, the big question above enables students to better
analyse a lesson on illegal immigration to the United States from Mexico.

Native language support

Mainstream monolingual teachers are most effective in teaching multilingual
students if they design instruction that draws on students’ first language and
cultural knowledge. Freeman and Freeman (2007: 92–96) list several methods
for supporting first languages in a mainstream classroom. These include: using a
preview/view/review approach; accessing cognates; bilingual tutoring; allowing
ELLs to talk in their first language; using first language storytellers; arranging
for students to read in their first language; and publishing books written in first
language. They also stress the importance of allowing students, ELLs in par-
ticular, time to reflect on the materials presented and practise the skills taught
within the content.

Assessment
ELLs undergo a range of formal assessments in US schools. These include
standard state, district, and classroom assessments, as well as assessments of
language proficiency. However, these assessments are usually used for account-
ability purposes and are not necessarily useful for the classroom. Useful assess-
ments provide teachers with accurate feedback about a student’s proficiency
with language and understanding of content that helps them create a responsive
curriculum. Such assessments include ‘teacher observations of interactions,
146 Josie Guiney Igielski

teacher student interactions, outcomes of listening, reading, speaking, and

writing tasks, portfolios of work, and students’ self-assessments’ (Gibbons, 2002:
124). They offer an alternative to traditional assessment approaches that can be
effective but are limiting due to possible bias, issues with content validity, and
practicality of implementation (ibid.). Teachers use assessment measures that
include analysis of student work and interactions to pinpoint what students
can do with language, and what they are learning, thus enabling them to plan
a more responsive curriculum that is tailored to student levels and needs.

Engaging students in purposeful language-rich academic tasks

A key component of culturally responsive teaching is to teach language through

the content areas and not in isolation. ‘If second language learners are not to
be disadvantaged in their long-term learning, and are to have the time and
opportunity to learn subject-specific registers of school, they need access to an
ongoing language-focused program across the whole curriculum.’ (Gibbons,
2002: 5). This type of curriculum is designed with both language and content
objectives in mind. Content objectives for ELLs function as they do for main-
stream students, and identify the content area knowledge students are to gain,
which usually aligns with state and school standards. Language objectives
identify the language that students will need to participate successfully in a
content lesson, the forms, features and functions of language specific to what
they are learning and being asked to do. Language objectives operate on many
levels, including individual words and vocabulary, sentence structures, and
whole texts, seeking to increase the level of academic language used by learners
within the curriculum.
Content specific vocabulary is an important component of a language-fo-
cused curriculum, and academic vocabulary words need to be purposefully
selected and meaningfully experienced. However, teachers also have to be
skilled in finding the language features within the curriculum. Language-
focused instruction focuses on usage of formal and informal language struc-
tures, syntax, tense, first language interference, note taking, summarising,
asking questions, use of appropriate connectives, word choice, and vocabulary.
In planning instruction teachers first inventory the language needed for
student success, and then tailor the language objectives to fit the current pro-
ficiency levels and needs of their students. Beginning with just one or two
language-focused goals for each lesson is an effective way to begin to see all of
the ways in which language can infuse content instruction.

Culturally and linguistically responsive learning in

a fourth grade classroom

I am a fourth grade teacher in an elementary school in a city with a population

of 230,000. My school is a high poverty school; ELLs are a significant percentage
 Designing Effective, Culturally, and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy 147

of its population with the largest group coming from Spanish-speaking fam-
ilies. The second largest ELL group is Hmong-speaking. Various other languages
are present at our school including African-American Vernacular English,
Bhutanese, Vietnamese, and Chinese. According to school district data, in
the 2008–2009 school year, 74 per cent of the school’s population were low
income, and 38 per cent were ELLs.
When I began to research my fourth grade inclusive mainstream classroom of
sixteen students, nine of whom were ELLs, I could not see all my students’ his-
tories valued and validated in the curriculum. I did not see my students making
enough connections between the texts and themselves. I saw the language and
vocabulary of the texts and curriculum as being prohibitive for my ELLs (and all
my students) instead of being a vehicle for expanding students’ current know-
ledge and vocabulary. In response to the lack of responsive pedagogy in my
classroom, I conducted a study based on two fundamental questions:

1. How can explicit attention to language, culture, and identity in the cur-
riculum and practice affect students’ sense of themselves as learners in
school?
2. How can the curriculum and pedagogy validate and value what students
bring in service of academic learning?

In order to answer these questions I designed a curriculum unit that utilised

a framework of culturally and linguistically relevant pedagogy, as described
above and summarised in Table 9.1.

Table 9.1 Framework for culturally and linguistically relevant pedagogy

Big question(s) for the unit:

Access to and Content goals Language Diverse content Relevant

utilisation of objectives delivery
funds of method
knowledge
Students as State and district Students’ Teacher resources Participation
experts and standards for language and student patterns;
resources; social studies, needs/goals resources; Assessments
Families and reading, writing, Content used;
communities as maths, oral presented that Information
experts and language, and confronts exchange
resources; Prior inquiry research; controversy format and
knowledge Textbook goals style;
activation and vocabulary Primary
language
support
148 Josie Guiney Igielski

The goal of the framework was to create a structure that would push me to
be more purposeful, and culturally and linguistically relevant in the imple-
mentation of content and use of materials. This structure and ideology held
me accountable for providing students with multiple entry points and better
access to the content and language of the unit. These key factors are addressed
for every lesson in the organising headings of the framework, which was an
effective tool for leveraging students’ funds of knowledge, language, and cul-
tural capital in the service of academic learning.
I designed a study that compared a traditional, commercially-designed cur-
riculum unit to one that I developed using the framework. I taught the trad-
itional unit (the theme was mapping) according to the teaching guide with no
modifications. It included fourteen social studies lessons, and several writing
lessons. After the completion of the traditional unit, I identified shortcomings
for my student population: the text was too lengthy, the vocabulary was not
repeated and integrated within the unit, and the concepts were not presented
in a way that was relevant to the lives of my students. I also identified the
ways my students’ success as learners was limited within the curriculum. The
traditional unit never tapped into my students’ funds of knowledge or asked
me, their teacher, to modify a lesson based on what I knew about their lives.
Students also looked for connections that were never made within the trad-
itional unit, and their misconceptions continued. For example they asked me,
‘Where is Puebla, Mexico? Is it in Texas?’
Within the traditional unit, in terms of responsive delivery methods, during
paired activities students produced work that better met the requirements of
the assignments. Students paired with others who shared a common first lan-
guage met the requirements of more lesson objectives, something I consid-
ered when designing delivery methods for the modified unit. With regard to
diverse modes of assessment, student work indicated that most students were
searching for, and not finding, relevance in the traditional unit. One student’s
final reflection was, ‘Why do maps even matter?’ Regarding the richness of
language within tasks, students used some specific vocabulary within discus-
sions, but not independently within oral and written responses. This feedback
confirmed that the modified curriculum unit needed to be guided by a uni-
fying theme, and supported by essential, inquiry style questions.
The end of unit test scores and student feedback served as clear evidence that
students had not gained essential content goals nor developed a meaningful
understanding of key vocabulary. This data and reflection on the implemen-
tation of the traditional unit led to the responsive planning and linguistic scaf-
folding of content and language goals for the modified unit.
The content theme of the modified unit was immigration and migration
to our state. I designed the modified unit utilising several different mate-
rials, including the district-issued, fourth grade social studies text chapter,
 Designing Effective, Culturally, and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy 149

and picture books, web resources from the Historical Society, guest speakers,
student and family stories, and photographs of immigrants and migrants
throughout US history. It was a month-long unit consisting of fourteen social
studies lessons, daily writing lessons, and a non-fiction book study within
reading. Each lesson varied from thirty to sixty minutes in length. Maths and
science lessons were integrated in a more indirect way to the unit.

Practitioners’ diverse knowledge base

Prior to the design and implementation of my modified unit I knew that
assessing my own bias and worldview would be an important step towards
success. Self-assessment using the questions in Table 9.2 helped me identify my
weaknesses and strengths. personally and professionally. It made me re-evaluate
how I would initiate the unit with my students, and how adept I would be at
responding to and identifying their cultural and linguistic needs.
Knowledge of my students, their families, their first languages, their cul-
tural and ethnic backgrounds, and the community in which they lived was
the basis for my curriculum design. I worked hard not to essentialise my
students’ experiences by focusing on the identity of students as individuals.
Each year deepening this knowledge base is an adventure for me, and I pur-
posefully take the opportunity to engage students and families in non-school
environments. Some strategies I have found successful are going to students’

Table 9.2 Teacher diversity self assessment

• What is my definition of diversity?

• Do the children in my classroom and school come from diverse cultural back-
grounds?
• What are my perceptions of students from different racial or ethnic groups? With
language or dialects different from mine? With special needs?
• What are the sources of these perceptions (including friends, relatives, television,
movies)?
• How do I respond to my students, based on these perceptions?
• Have I experienced others making assumptions about me based on my membership
of a specific group? How did I feel?
• What steps do I need to take to learn about the students from diverse backgrounds in
my school and classroom?
• How often do social relationships develop among students from different racial and
ethnic backgrounds in my classroom? What is the nature of these relationships?
• In what ways do I make my instructional programme responsive to the needs of the
diverse groups in my classroom?
• What kinds of information, skills, and resources do I need to acquire to effectively
teach from a multicultural perspective?
• In what ways do I collaborate with other educators, family members, and com-
munity groups to address the needs of all my students?
Source: Montgomery (2001).
150 Josie Guiney Igielski

sporting events, shopping at neighbourhood businesses, discovering parents’

places of employment, participating in community events, and volunteering
at neighbourhood resource organisations. These activities help me find links
between the school curricula and my students’ lives. For example, I learnt that
a student’s father was struggling with immigration issues after conversing with
the family several times at a weekly soccer game. We had built enough trust
for them to feel comfortable sharing this aspect of their lives, and this in turn
affected how I presented immigration issues in my unit.

Funds of knowledge
The deep knowledge base I have about my students’ lives helps me to situate
their learning in experiences that relate to and celebrate the cultural capital that
they bring in the service of learning. Harnessing students’ funds of knowledge
gives me the opportunity to design a curriculum that validates what is histor-
ically undervalued or omitted from traditional curricula. Several students in my
classroom had parents that were first generation immigrants. This knowledge
proved valuable in my search for guest presenters. These connections became
empowering sources for students to interview, record, and map immigration
stories.
The use of primary language guest presenters in the unit enabled speakers of
Spanish and Hmong to be viewed as possessing expert knowledge. The guest
speakers also provided an authentic way for Mexican, Hmong, and Native
American cultures to be viewed as valuable parts of history. The immigration
or migration stories I selected from the textbook were featured because of their
content, and the likelihood that students would connect to them personally, or
within a historical context. In addition, several lessons provided opportunities
for peer to peer mentoring and first language scaffolding, which placed value
on the student’s primary language as opposed to English.

Include linguistically and culturally diverse content

The texts utilised throughout the unit were selected to reflect the cultural,
ethnic, and linguistic diversity present in the classroom. In the unit each
student had access to a story that closely related to their own lived experience
with immigration and/or migration. Where the texts fell short, or posed a devel-
opmental challenge, guest speakers from the community, and in some cases
the families of students themselves, were incorporated as primary language
storytellers. Students were also given opportunities in discussions and assess-
ments to respond in both oral and written forms in their primary language.
Montgomery’s (2001) ‘Culturally Complex Atmosphere’ became a way in
which students contextualised the complex issues that are involved in the
topic of immigration and migration. In particular, a trusted and respected guest
speaker from our school staff spoke about her immigration story from Mexico
 Designing Effective, Culturally, and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy 151

to the United States. Her story presented the marginalised point of view on the
topic of illegal immigration. This trusted source, and the focus on essential ques-
tions, helped students deal with a controversial topic while engaging in content
and language specific goals. This presentation was a catalyst for incorporating
current events, and it helped validate the complexity of historical immigration
and migration stories from the Holocaust, slavery, war refugees, and religious
persecution. Evidence from my study showed that several students shifted their
original thinking, and began to see the validity of the marginalised perspective
on illegal immigration.

Respond to ethnic and linguistic diversity in the method of instruction

Themed units
The essential questions that focused my integrated immigration and migration
unit created open-ended opportunities for student to engage meaningfully in
the content and process of the unit. These questions were: Why do people (im)
migrate?; What factors push them from their home?; What factors pull (im)
migrants to a particular location?; How does (im)migration affect the culture
and identity of the (im)migrants?
Unlike the unmodified unit, students were provided with questions that
guided their thinking, and also enabled them to interpret objectives and make
connections. Several of my ELL students came back to the vocabulary words
and concepts of push and pull in a later science unit to describe the movement
of fauna in our local watershed. The big questions drew not only on the state’s
history, but also on the histories of my students and their families. In this way
the unit’s theme and driving questions were relevant to my students’ lives and
could be modified to include and respond to all students’ diverse needs.

Participation patterns
Flexibility in grouping increases the flexibility of the flow of information in
the learning environment. Students engaged in varied participation patterns
are given more opportunities to demonstrate their skills, and for developing
richer meaning. For example, students were asked to first map immigration
stories of guest speakers as a class, map stories from supporting texts in small
linguistically heterogeneous groups, record their own stories at home, and
finally to translate their research into a personal immigration or migration
capstone project with a linguistically homogeneous peer. These groups served
not only as content scaffolds, but also as opportunities for linguistic and cul-
tural leverage points to be negotiated and given meaning.
My research showed that cooperative groups offered the most responsive
academic structure for students whose cultures value the collective over the
individual. Within this format students were expected to engage in listening,
writing, and speaking in English. The goals of these groups were attainable for
152 Josie Guiney Igielski

all students because of peer mentoring and because the project’s success was
determined by the efforts and abilities of the group as a collective.
The guided discussions of read aloud texts and guest speakers’ stories
provided opportunities for students to negotiate meaning and share their own
opinions and reflections. This is evidenced by one ELL student’s comment
that, ‘[presenter’s name]’s push factors are like [an immigrant from our read
aloud]’s because they wanted to get away from bad laws. They were brave to
leave.’ A non- ELL responded, ‘Those laws were unfair. People should leave
places where they aren’t safe. Like in my book for reading group [a holocaust
story].’ Discussions like this were key factors in rich language development and
the exchange of ideas. They provided students with access to the wide variety
of texts and materials available to them throughout the unit.
As a responsive curriculum designer I felt that there were times when lin-
guistically homogeneous groups were necessary scaffolds for the success of the
project. These groups gave students opportunities to engage in peer mentoring,
translation, and primary language clarification. For example, students were
grouped this way when working on creating a map of the immigration or
migration story for their final project. In one pair of Spanish speakers, one
student helped the other translate sections of her interview (which was
conducted and recorded in Spanish) as they discussed how to address all of the
requirements of the project using a graphic organiser. I found these pairings
to be very useful during planning phases and before sharing. These groups
were transformative in terms of building confidence for my ELLs. One pair of
Hmong girls spoke entirely in Hmong for their planning process, and when it
came time to share they helped each other find the words for their all-English
presentation. One stated that, ‘It felt good to have [the other girl] think too.
Sometimes it hard not to get messed-up.’ These two girls rarely volunteered
to speak in class, but after this experience frequently requested time to think
together and then share.

Scaffolding
The concept of scaffolding (Wood, Bruner and Ross, 1976) is to provide
supports that help students work beyond their current level, then gradually
remove them, enabling the student to work independently at a more advanced
level. The entire unit was designed in this manner. Students were first provided
with teacher-led and text-based examples of their unit projects and goals. Then
guest speakers contextualised and made these projects and goals more relevant.
Students then engaged in projects as members of cooperative groups with the
support of other ELLs and native English speakers. Finally, students were asked
to complete projects about their own immigration or migration stories. This
final step was a self-directed and open-ended approach to achieving the unit
goals.
 Designing Effective, Culturally, and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy 153

Engage students in purposeful language-rich academic tasks

The unit was designed with language development at the root of each lesson.
There were direct vocabulary objectives: specific terms (culture, identity,
push, pull, immigration, migration, affect, food ways, refugee, integrate), use
of comparisons and contrasts (like/unlike, same/different), and using content
specific vocabulary when discussing a text. There were also language function
and form objectives: presenting opinions (I’d like to say, I’d like to add, in my
opinion), asking interviewees questions in an appropriate manner and voicing
disagreement politely (I don’t agree with you, in my opinion, did you think
about). Language function objectives included: recounting a story in writing,
using appropriate connectives of time (first, next, afterwards, finally and past
tense), formulating questions for an interview, and determining importance of
questions.
Finally, students were asked to present their projects orally to several different
audiences. The projects were posters detailing their own im/migration story, or
that of a family or community member. The posters included a map of the
subject’s im/migration route, a timeline of their life, a short history of the
places the subject had lived, and the reasons why they had left a location or
decided to live in a new location. The oral presentations were the culmination
of all the unit’s language objectives. Each student demonstrated mastery of
language use and form by writing a speech for the different audiences that
would be present at our celebration.
Within the culturally and linguistically relevant unit, I was looking to validate
and value the culture and knowledge of all students in the classroom. My prior
knowledge of the students as learners at school, and my willingness to recognise
them as possessors of valuable cultural capital were the building blocks of the
unit’s design. Each lesson built on the strengths of the students, and targeted
specific objectives to expand their content knowledge and understanding of lan-
guage. Students engaged in lessons that were designed to create a connective web
of language and content that pushed them to engage meaningfully in learning.
In this way access to content was scaffolded and the learning reflected students’
varied cultural and linguistic needs. Students were valued and validated because
the unit was designed in response to their expertise and needs.

Assessment
Student mastery of content and language goals was evaluated through a port-
folio assessment. I had conferences with individuals in which they presented
evidence of their learning throughout the unit in both oral and written formats.
Students had to explain how they met the objectives in a one-on-one meeting
where they led the discussion, and also submitted a one page, written version.
This combination helped all students, but especially ELLs, prepare for their
oral one-on-one meeting. Students also completed self-assessments of the work
154 Josie Guiney Igielski

in their portfolios, their participation in discussions and groups, and their

overall growth in the unit’s goals. The portfolios allowed students to meet cri-
teria in a more open-ended manner than a traditional unit test could. Student
success was determined using multiple factors and modes of expression. This
type of differentiation gave my ELLs many different entry points to demon-
strate understanding and mastery of language and content objectives.
I also utilised check-ins, which are mini one-on-one conferences designed
to quickly assess each students’ success with a specific language or content
goal. These informal check-ins were documented in an ongoing and systematic
way, and helped clarify progress during the unit, and identify strengths and
weaknesses at the unit’s conclusion. Formal assessments of student portfolios,
vocabulary inventories, and content and language specific objectives were
based on pre-established rubrics.

Conclusion

‘Perhaps the greatest challenge for teachers is to offer students academically

challenging curriculum while, at the same time, helping them catch up with
both English and content.’ (Freeman and Freeman, 2007: 15) The responsive
curriculum framework detailed in this chapter demonstrates that students
achieve success and are validated when they are provided with academic, social,
and emotional access to a curriculum that is designed and implemented with
the intention of valuing and accommodating their perspective. By remaining
focused on who participated and how they participated, by utilising both
formal and informal assessments, I was able to keep the unit grounded in my
students’ funds of knowledge and further develop my knowledge base about
the diversity present in my classroom. Educators will find greater success in
these efforts when they find support in their colleagues, students’ families,
school and district administrators, and the larger community.
It is the responsibility of mainstream practitioners to increase their know-
ledge of cultural ways of knowing and being, and their knowledge of effective
teaching for ELLs while still supporting non-ELLs. A responsive curriculum
implemented in a classroom with small student to teacher ratios offers the best
educational environment for all students, but specifically for ELLs. Culturally
and linguistically relevant pedagogy implemented by knowledgeable prac-
titioners could revolutionise curriculum design and help put an end to the
achievement gaps that exist. This type of unit design and ways of using mate-
rials not only specifically addresses the needs of ELL populations in main-
stream classrooms, but also has relevance in English medium classes.
It takes continuous effort, collaboration, and self-evaluation to develop a
knowledge base of the diversity in the learning environment, and an aware-
ness of how language and culture affects our interactions with the world
 Designing Effective, Culturally, and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy 155

and our meaning making processes. This project serves as proof that time
and effort invested in designing the curriculum and materials that engage
students in language-rich, culturally aware, and personally validating edu-
cational experiences leads to students’ increased academic success, increased
emotional connection to learning, and more widespread social understanding
and appreciation for each other. The responsive framework provides access for
a wide range of learners and accommodates the needs of the individual and
the collective. Educators engaged in this difficult and complex work will be
catalysts for change, but educational systems will never truly work until our
social, political and environmental systems reflect the evolving needs of our
global society.

Engagement priorities

Providing a curriculum that is responsive to student language and culture is

important for the success of all learners. The way in which the curriculum is
designed will be unique to each educational setting, and implemented differ-
ently for specific students. The framework described in this chapter presents
accommodations and curricular considerations applicable to all learning
settings and is designed to help you begin, or continue, this difficult and
complex work in your own educational setting. Here are some areas for further
exploration:

1. What steps can you take to deepen your knowledge and understanding of
your students’ roles as learners and possessors of rich funds of knowledge?
2. How do the curriculum and the materials in your classroom provide entry
points for your students’ lives to be valued and validated?
3. What restrictions are present in your school/classroom environment that
would prevent the implementation of a responsive curriculum? What
resources and tools do you need to overcome these barriers?

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New York, NY: Scholastic.
Gaitan, C. D. (2006). Building Culturally Responsive Classrooms: A Guide for K-6 Teachers.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
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Teachers College Press.
Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education,
53(2): 106–116.
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Gibbons, P. (2002). Scaffolding Language Scaffolding Learning: Teaching Second Language in

the Mainstream Classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
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Part III
Materials and Technology
10
English Language Learning through
Mobile Phones
Arifa Rahman and Tanya Cotter

Introduction

With the advent of the 21st century, there has been a growing realisation, par-
ticularly in developing countries, that an ability to use the English language
is necessary to participate fully in global economic and social opportunities.
As a result, there has been a proliferation of national and international initia-
tives to channel English language teaching (ELT) endeavours into directions
that might lead to more effective outcomes. The past two decades have also
ushered in innovative practices that have had an impact on ELT and its inter-
related areas like course design, materials development, teaching/learning
methodology, and the use of resources provided by ever easier access to
technology.
This chapter is set within the context of this growing trend for using tech-
nology for language learning, in this particular case, the ubiquitous mobile
phone. It is an attempt to add to the growing understanding of the educational
value and impact of mobile technology by investigating to what extent it has
the potential to be an effective tool for developing English language skills and
for fostering self-directed learning.
The chapter starts with a brief overview of the setting in Bangladesh and
recent English teaching initiatives adopted there. It then moves on to a dis-
cussion of mobile phone language learning services in developing contexts,
before focusing on a current English learning project in Bangladesh. This
mobile phone initiative is discussed in terms of planning, design, and imple-
mentation followed by an analysis and evaluation of its educational impact.
The final section deals with changes that have been incorporated to adjust to
the learning culture and the local context, providing some useful insights for
a wider audience embarking on similar projects.

159
160 Arifa Rahman and Tanya Cotter

English language learning initiatives in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has a population of approximately 150 million (Bangladesh Bureau

of Statistics, 2012) making it one of the most densely populated nations in the
world. As a developing country with a large population the government faces
many challenges in providing access to quality education for all and levels of
English tend to be low, especially outside the capital, Dhaka, which may be
attributed to historical, sociolinguistic, and educational management factors
(Hamid and Baldauf, 2008; Seargeant and Erling, 2011).
English has become the universally accepted international language with
many developing countries, like India and Bangladesh, seeing English as
necessary to their economic development. The importance of being able to
communicate in English in today’s globalised world is one of the major reasons
why the number of ELT initiatives in Bangladesh has grown since the mid-
nineties. There has been a plethora of state-run directives and a succession of
donor-aided ELT projects including PEDP II, TQI, ELTIP, SEQAIP, and ETTE1.
Perhaps the largest to date is English in Action (EIA), a nine-year programme
with primary, secondary, and adult initiatives funded by UKaid2.
The overall objective of EIA is to raise the English language skills of 25 million
people in Bangladesh by 2017 by initiating innovative ways of learning English.
The assumption is that improved English language skills will ultimately provide
Bangladeshis with more prospects for participating in ever growing opportun-
ities. With regard to the economic benefits of learning English, a BBC Media
Action (2009) baseline survey for the adult initiative of the project revealed
that 87 per cent (of 8,300 respondents surveyed) thought that knowing English
would help them earn more money.
One of the strategies that EIA has applied is to increase access to English lan-
guage learning resources and to improve English language skills through the
use of mobile technology. With 95.528 million mobile phone subscribers in
Bangladesh at the end of August 2012 (BTRC, 2012), access to a handset is increas-
ingly commonplace, even among poorer and harder to reach communities.

Mobile technology and English language learning

With increasingly widespread accessibility to mobile technology, its potential

to transform where, when, and how people learn is widely recognised and the
technology is being harnessed to provide educational content in both formal
and non-formal learning environments. Learning through mobile technology,
commonly referred to as m-learning, provides the opportunity to learn
anytime, anywhere since learning can take place on personal, portable devices
at no fixed time or location and can support face-to-face, blended, distance, or
self-directed learning.
 English Language Learning through Mobile Phones 161

With regard to English language learning, numerous multidimensional and

memorable ways to practise and improve English language skills are available
through applications which can be downloaded from the Internet to the latest
smartphones. However, this is at the high end of the market and accessible
only to those who can afford the most up-to-date mobile technology. While
mobile cellular subscriptions reached almost 6 billion in 2011, with developing
countries largely responsible for this growth, mobile broadband penetration in
the developing world was only 8 per cent compared to 51 per cent in the devel-
oped world (ITU, 2012). However, even simple handsets are equipped to deliver
learning resources via SMS text messages, audio formats, and Interactive Voice
Response (IVR) quizzes which require users to respond to questions delivered
in SMS or audio by pressing numbers on the keypad. Moreover, many less
sophisticated handsets are increasingly able to support multimedia content,
such as games.

SMS through mobile

In English language learning, there have been several studies to assess the
impact of SMS. For example, Cavus and Ibrahim (2009) used SMS to send
vocabulary messages to first year volunteer students in Cyprus studying com-
puter information systems. The students received short text messages, at timed
intervals during the day, with English words and their L1 meanings related to
their academic field of study. Participants reported learning new words and
enjoying the learning experience.
In Mongolia SMS technology has been used to provide English learning
modules to those otherwise unable to afford or access computer-based distance
education programmes. Students involved in this initiative also responded
positively to this kind of learning (UNESCO, 2012).
Other initiatives that use SMS have targeted far greater numbers of learners
in non-formal learning environments. Since 2009, Nokia Life Tools has been
providing a range of services for people outside urban areas in India, Indonesia,
China, and Nigeria, including an English language learning service through
SMS supported by local languages at beginner, intermediate, and advanced
levels. In 2012, Nokia Life Tools relaunched an enhanced and more interactive
service.
In November 2011 the US State Department, in partnership with the US
Embassy in Tunis and the largest mobile network operator, Tunisiana, launched
an English learning mobile service also using SMS technology. By dialling
*136#, subscribers answer interactive multiple-choice questions related to 50
everyday situations (US State Department, 2011).
Wang, Cheng and Fang (2011: 92) argue that mobile learning investigations
‘have centered on two cell phone functions, text messaging and web access’.
Given the low penetration of the websites in developing countries, it is not
162 Arifa Rahman and Tanya Cotter

surprising that, in trying to reach less urban areas, providers of ELT content
have opted to maximise the benefits of SMS technology. However, low cost,
easily accessible content can also be provided to users with basic handsets
through audio lessons. These can be made available through mobile network
operators, can be preloaded onto a handset, or can be loaded onto a handset
through micro SD cards3. According to a GSMA Development Fund survey
(2012: 5) on young people in Ghana, India, Morocco and Uganda:

Although smart phones and data enabled devices are beginning to make an
impact in emerging markets, voice calls remain the most used and favoured
service: 85% of young mobile users made voice calls every day, and 67%
of respondents believe that calls would be the most desirable method for
receiving content such as educational information.

Audio through mobile

One example of an initiative using audio through mobile is English Seekho
(translated as Learn English) launched in India in 2009 by IL&FS in association
with Tata Indicom (2012). The service provides five-minute audio lessons in
conversational English together with interactive quizzes and SMS lesson sum-
maries. Another example is the mobile service developed by BBC Media Action
for the adult initiative of EIA, which launched in 2009 in Bangladesh and
provides three-minute audio English lessons and interactive quizzes supported
by the first language, Bangla.

Multimedia content through mobile

Although mobile broadband penetration is still low in developing countries,
the number of people with mobile phones that support multimedia content,
such as games, is increasing. In India this kind of mobile device is used by the
Mobile and Immersive Learning for Literacy in Emerging Economies (MILLEE)
project to deliver English language learning to children from low income fam-
ilies in rural India. The educational games have been designed to model the
traditional games that these children play and thus provide enjoyable, alter-
native, and culturally appropriate ways to learn English. According to MILLEE,
devices which can support multimedia content ‘are perfect for new kinds of
out-of-school language learning, which can occur at places and times that are
more convenient than school’ (MILLEE, 2012: 1).
Not only is there anecdotal evidence on the educational value and impact of
mobile English language learning, but there is also a growing body of research,
the results of which have been largely positive, where users claim that they
enjoy the experience and are able to learn from it. For example, BBC Media
Action’s midline survey (2012) for the adult initiative of the EIA project revealed
that more than two-thirds of those who had used the audio lessons and IVR
 English Language Learning through Mobile Phones 163

quizzes found them useful as a way of learning English. A typical mobile audio
lesson presents a short two-line dialogue, which is then broken down. Users
are encouraged to repeat the language they hear and answer questions. One
example of a dialogue for a beginner level user is:

A: Hello. Nice to meet you.

B: Nice to meet you too.

BBC Janala: an English learning, mobile initiative in Bangladesh

BBC Media Action is responsible for the adult learning initiative of the EIA
project. In 2009, a nationwide baseline survey of 8,300 respondents who were
mobile users/cable and satellite viewers, aged 15–49, revealed that around 84
per cent of people in Bangladesh viewed learning English as a top priority for
their future, with 99 per cent reporting that they wanted their children to
learn English (BBC Media Action, 2009).
BBC Janala (translated as BBC Window) was developed as part of the wider
EIA project to enable Bangladeshi adult learners, from a wide range of socio-
economic groups (with a focus at the lower end), to learn English affordably
through mass media. Mobile technology, television, websites, CDs and print
lessons are used to deliver accessible and affordable ELT materials to adults
who are unable to access face-to-face tuition or who may need extra practice
resources to support their learning. The aim is to change perceptions of, and
reduce barriers to, learning English among the adult population. BBC Media
Action’s baseline survey (2009) revealed that 64 per cent of those surveyed
felt embarrassed to speak English, 47 per cent considered English to be too
expensive to learn, and 44 per cent felt English was difficult to learn. Thus, the
most significant barriers at the time of the survey were confidence, cost, and
the perceived difficulty of learning English.
Since its launch in 2009, the mobile phone service has been providing
three-minute pre-recorded English audio lessons that focus on different
aspects of language (such as vocabulary), and different situations in which
language is used (as in English for work). The target language is presented
in context in the form of a short dialogue and a Bangladeshi presenter uses
L1 to introduce the lessons, set the scene, and give instructions. The target
English is repeated several times in different ways and learners are encour-
aged to listen, repeat, and answer questions aloud. They can also record their
stories, give feedback, and participate in IVR quizzes, thus fulfilling a fun-
damental element of m-learning: ‘its ability to deliver learning resources to
those who may otherwise be unable to attend traditional learning environ-
ments such as classrooms and provide a practical and personal way to learn’
(GSMA Development Fund, 2010: 6).
164 Arifa Rahman and Tanya Cotter

The BBC Janala mobile service transforms a simple handset into a low-
cost educational device, which can be used anytime and from anywhere in
Bangladesh since all six operators provide the service at a reduced tariff of
less than half a penny per minute plus VAT. By end July 2012, BBC Janala had
6.4 million users of this service.

Developing mobile audio lessons and quizzes

There are limitations to developing educational content for less sophisticated

mobile devices since it cannot support images or video and interactivity is
limited. However, audio lessons and IVR quizzes can be provided at low cost in
a context whereby the learner, who may have had negative experiences of edu-
cation, is not threatened by the abilities or opinions of others and can begin to
build their confidence.
In m-learning there is a need to ensure that the technology does not obstruct
access to the learning content and that it can be navigated with ease on less
sophisticated mobile devices. This is especially important for those who may
have no experience of the technology or may be new adopters. In addition, it is
essential to develop content that takes into consideration the needs, wants, and
abilities of the target learners, engages them and helps them to learn through
the technology and not in spite of it. Sharples, Milrad, Sanchez and Vavoula
(2009: 6) claim that:

The design of mobile learning activities should be, like the design of any
learning activity, driven by specific learning objectives. The use of (mobile)
technology is not the target; rather, it is a means to enable activities that
were otherwise not possible, or to increase the benefits for the learner(s).

As for all ELT materials, in the development of audio English lessons and
quizzes for mobile phones, factors such as level, topic, relevant language, and
the local context need to be considered. As the content is likely to be used for
self-directed learning, it is also important to consider what support can be
provided to help learners understand the lesson. Moreover, if audio is to be
central to the delivery method, the voice requires special attention and pitch,
tone, intonation, style, and speed will all need to be tested in the development
process. This is important because many learners’ feelings of anxiety can be
reduced and their confidence built up ‘through a “voice” which is relaxed and
supportive’ (Tomlinson, 2003: 8).
In the BBC Janala project, in order to understand the needs and context
of the target audience, to create the mobile phone service together with the
content, and to assess what impact the service has had, BBC Media Action’s
 English Language Learning through Mobile Phones 165

researchers have drawn on a wide range of research methods to collect and

analyse data. Their studies have included:

• investigating needs and context to guide development;

• pre-testing and piloting of media products to provide feedback on audience
responses;
• monitoring audience reactions;
• evaluating the impact.

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of mobile phones as a tool for devel-

oping communication skills in English by listening to the mobile audio
lessons and participating in IVR quizzes, information was collected from
a panel of representatives from the target audience and a full report was
produced (BBC Media Action, 2011a). It is from this report that the overview
and the project impact have been extracted and presented in the following
section.

Evaluating the educational impact of the project

This impact assessment study extended over ten months (April 2010 to February
2011) during which time a panel of users were tracked in terms of:

• Engagement: by assessing users’ motivation to use lessons, their opinion of

lessons and whether they were driven to discuss and recommend the lessons
to others.
• Language development: by evaluating the users’ ability to retain and use the
specific information taught in the lessons, and by assessing their capacity to
apply the learning to everyday life.
• Learning English in other ways: by determining whether users were prac-
tising English with others and were involved in further engagement.

The panel
In order to ensure a wide representation from the target audience, respondents
were recruited and invited to an English testing session according to a set of
criteria that included a balance in terms of gender, age, socio-economic class,
education, and occupation (including unemployed).

Grouping of panellists
Respondents underwent speaking and writing tests based on the descriptors of
levels A1 to B2 of the Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of
Reference (CEFR). Taking into account the results of the tests and their interest
166 Arifa Rahman and Tanya Cotter

in learning English, 46 panellists, consisting of 23 males and 23 females, were

selected initially and divided into three groups:

• Those at beginner level (A1) with moderate levels of interest in learning

English were assigned the Beginners Basic Package (BBP) which required
them to listen to one lesson per week and take part in a quiz.
• Those at beginner level (A1) but with high levels of interest in learning
English were assigned the Beginners Full Package (BFP) which required
them to listen to three lessons a week.
• Nine panellists with higher levels of English (A2 to B1) were assigned the
Intermediate Package (IP) with three, higher level lessons to listen to each
week.

The panel decreased to 32 during the study due to dropouts. In order to avoid
losing the statistical significance of the data, four additional females (boosters)
were recruited in November 2010. This means that a total of 50 panellists took
part in the study, though not all together at any one point in time. In addition,
new intermediate mobile lessons ceased to be published and the intermediate
panel stopped operating in November 2010.
The cost of the airtime used by panellists was compensated weekly by mobile
credit top-ups to ensure that financial pressures did not interfere with the
project.

Panel assigned tasks

Participants agreed to undertake the following activities:

• Use mobile lessons: dial and listen to each of the assigned lessons according
to the package allocation. The respondents were told to listen to each lesson
as stipulated to ensure uniform exposure.
• Fill in diaries: all panellists were provided with self-completion forms called
diaries, to be filled in immediately after listening to the lesson. In these
diaries, panellists recorded their immediate feedback about the effectiveness
and drawbacks of the lessons.
• Undergo regular face-to-face interviews and lesson tests: these interviews
took place every four to six weeks and were designed to track how effective
the lessons were in teaching English and increasing confidence and motiv-
ation to learn.

Face-to-face interviews
The interview questions covered the degree to which the panellists understood
the lessons; whether they could recall the key learning points; and whether they
could reproduce the English they had learnt from the lessons. The interviews
 English Language Learning through Mobile Phones 167

explored levels of motivation for learning English and the barriers faced during
learning to see how this changed over time while using the mobile phone
lessons. In the first interview, respondents were also asked a series of questions
to determine their preferred learning styles, such as whether users were pri-
marily auditory, visual, or kinaesthetic learners.

Quarterly English tests

Every three months, the users were tested on their English speaking and writing
skills. These tests, based on CEFR descriptors, were assessed by ELT experts.
Scores from the pre-test (during recruitment) and from the following rounds
were compared to reveal whether the mobile phone lessons had an impact on
the users’ English writing and speaking skills.

Previous experience of learning English

Most panellists had learnt English at school or college. A few had also learnt
English through newspapers and/or television. Male panellists tended to
have more previous English learning experience and had more exposure to
English content. Many of the panellists did not have a favourable experience
of learning English. They criticised the education system, which tends to focus
on rote learning, getting good grades, and passing exams rather than commu-
nicating in English. Many stated they had found grammar the most difficult
aspect of English, particularly sentence structure, followed by vocabulary and
spelling. However, users believed that learning English through mobile lessons
was entertaining compared to their previous experience of learning, which
they had found uninteresting, even frightening.

Results of the evaluation

Some common features emerged from an analysis of the information collected

from panellists in the study. These have been grouped under the following:

1. attitudes towards the mobile lessons;

2. motivation and confidence;
3. learning practices;
4. aspects of language use.

Attitudes towards mobile lessons

Panellists were generally positive about the mobile phone lessons for various
reasons. Firstly, they appreciated the convenience in accessing the lessons
anytime and from anywhere. Most of them listened to the lessons at home and
some also used them while travelling. A few of the panellists listened to the
mobile lessons together.
168 Arifa Rahman and Tanya Cotter

It is good because it is convenient; can dial anytime; especially because

people have the freedom to dial when I am in the appropriate mood and no
obligation when I am not. (Male, 20 years, IP)

Secondly, all the panellists found the content useful and relevant. They thought
the lessons were life oriented and the phrases they learnt could be used in
everyday situations. One male user of the BBP stated, ‘I can learn to use English
in daily life.’ Panellists also appreciated learning certain phrases/words and
how to apply them in different situations.

It is good because it has shown when and where we may apply English and
the way we should apply it. (Female, 18 years, BBP)

One user mentioned that, although the words introduced were already familiar,
he had learnt how to pronounce them well through the lessons.
Thirdly, panellists found the mobile lessons easier and more interesting than
their traditional English lessons. All except two said they preferred mobile
phone learning to conventional methods. One female user of the BBP described
lessons as ‘very interesting, amazing and grammar seems a lot easier now’.
Panellists pointed out that they learnt English in schools and colleges only to
pass written English examinations rather than in order to speak and listen to
English.

At school, college, it is for passing the exam and after that people forgot
their learning but here [mobile] they are free from this tension [passing
exam]. (Female, 27 years, BBP)

Finally, some also felt it was a cheaper way of learning than taking private
tuition or going to a coaching centre.
There were, however, aspects of learning English through mobile phones
that some panellists were not very comfortable with. Some complained that
they did not receive any tuition in grammar, which their previous educational
experience had led them to expect. Some missed the presence of a teacher
with whom they could speak when they could not understand, or when they
wanted further explanation or clarification.

It was clear in school life because someone was there to make me under-
stand if I can’t, but I am alone and I find it hard to understand. (Male,
21 years, BFP)

Moreover, 37 per cent stated that they had problems understanding all the
content. Some felt the pace of the lessons was fast, while others found the
 English Language Learning through Mobile Phones 169

British accents daunting. This was particularly true for those with a limited
exposure to spoken English prior to the study.

Lessons were very good, but the problem is to understand the British accent.
I had to listen to it for five to six times. (Male, 19 years, IP)

Over the course of time, and with more exposure to the mobile phone lessons,
the attitudes of some of the less satisfied panellists changed. They came to
realise the importance of learning English and found the lessons beneficial.

Earlier, I didn’t realise how much important it is to learn English language,

so, wasn’t much interested. Now, I realise the importance. (Female, BBP).

Motivation and confidence

Motivation has been identified as a key factor in successful language learning
(Ellis, 1997). Panellists were asked to rate their motivation to learn English,
on a scale of one to ten, at six-month intervals. Out of 32 panellists, 40 per
cent reported increased motivation to learn English over the course of ten
months. On the other hand, 60 per cent reported no increase. Interestingly
these latter panellists were the ones who were highly motivated to begin with
and remained equally motivated after exposure to the BBC Janala service.
Therefore, in the case of these users, motivation was a key factor in learning.
In addition, listening to the mobile lessons enabled learners who were over-
confident about their own English ability to identify weaknesses and the areas
they needed to focus on to improve their English.
The panellists reported two common reasons for learning English: a realisation
that there was an increased need for English; and that knowing English would
bring more respect from peers. Other factors included a desire for self-develop-
ment, interaction with foreigners, coping in society, going abroad, increasing
world knowledge, using the Internet, and increasing ability to use technology.
Panellists stated that, whereas previously they had been nervous about com-
municating in English, they felt more confident and less fearful after exposure
to the lessons. When asked to rate their confidence about their ability to learn
English, 73 per cent of panellists reported increased confidence in learning
English over the study period, and the 23 per cent who felt confident at the
start remained confident until the end. Reasons for increased confidence were
attributed to interesting lessons, frequent practice, positive feedback, fairly
good results, and access to useful learning tools.

Learning practices
Most panellists tried to adhere to the stipulated number of lessons per week,
but worked through lessons at their own convenience. Interestingly, although
170 Arifa Rahman and Tanya Cotter

they had agreed to use only the mobile lessons at the outset of the study, some
of them started employing additional means of learning English, including
using BBC Janala’s website, print and television content.
A significant aspect that emerged, which appeared to impact on learning
in a positive manner, was the further engagement factor. Panellists using
the Beginners Basic Package and who had more involvement in the lessons,
learnt better than those with less involvement. Further involvement included:
extending the lesson by reviewing it, repeating it, making and reviewing notes,
or practising; seeking further practice by talking about the lessons with others
or going to coaching centres/tutorials; or applying learning to real life by
becoming teachers at neighbourhood elementary schools, watching English
television programmes, helping children or younger siblings with English
homework or studies, reading English medium newspapers, listening to English
pop music, or writing more SMS/text messages in English.
The further engagement factor also appeared to be at variance with the VARK
learning styles model (Fleming and Mills, 1992). It would seem that auditory
learners would be at an advantage when using mobile lessons, yet the degree of
learning appeared to be almost independent of the learning style, with a high
success rate comparable among all four types of learners with equivalent levels
and forms of further engagement. On the other hand, the success rate was
medium or low among those who only listened to the lessons without further
engagement, regardless of their preferred learning style. To sum up, individual
learning styles did not impact significantly on learning. On the other hand,
learners who were more involved and had engaged further in additional modes
of learning appeared to learn better.
However, it is pertinent to note that for intermediate learners further
engagement was not a significant factor. The data shows six out of the eight
intermediate learners improved their English-speaking and writing skills
purely as a result of the exposure to the mobile lessons and reported not to
have engaged in other means of learning English.
Overall, what appeared to impact on learning was:

• compliance: listening to the three-minute lessons;

• confidence: in their ability to learn;
• learning in other ways: further engagement;
• motivation: the higher the motivation level, the more successful the
learning. Those with higher levels of English at the outset were generally
more motivated.

Aspects of language development

The panellists were tested for their speaking and writing skills over the
project period. Out of the 35 learners tested, seven improved significantly, 11
 English Language Learning through Mobile Phones 171

improved moderately and five improved slightly. Eleven of the learners showed
no improvement and one learner, who had been in a road accident, showed
a decline. Progress was confined to those belonging to the two higher levels
using the Beginners Full Package and the Intermediate Package.
Language analysis of writing and speaking tests (pre-test at the beginning,
tests administered throughout the ten-month period, and a post-test) indicated
the following:

Writing skills
Whereas at the pre-exposure stage panellists were answering questions with
single words, after mobile lesson exposure some started to use complete
sentences. For example,

Where do you live?

Mirpur (pre-exposure)
I live in Mirpur (after mobile exposure)

Grammatical accuracy also increased to some extent. In the pre-exposure

stage, the degree of inaccuracy sometimes blocked communication (for
instance, I song). However, on subsequent rounds, users produced answers
which, despite grammatical inaccuracies, were able to convey meaning (such
as, I like watch TV).
Additionally, it was found that during the pre-exposure tests almost all the
users avoided using complex sentences. However, in post-exposure rounds,
intermediate users attempted to write more complex sentences which, despite
some inaccuracies in word order, were reasonably acceptable in terms of
grammar (for instance, I have no free time as I am all time busy).
With regard to vocabulary, some of the users’ answers reflected their increase
in vocabulary and a growing confidence in using more expressive words (such
as bonding, challenging, bonanza, heritage site). At the same time, even after
exposure to the mobile lessons, there was still an inaccurate use of vocabulary
(for instance, people self-working, oftenly I go).
With more mobile lesson exposure, there was a more frequent use of connec-
tors (such as first, then, finally, and, but, also). Although spelling and punc-
tuation errors were frequent, especially among users of the Beginners Basic
Package, there was evidence of improved control during the later stages.

Speaking skills
The panellists improved in the following areas:

• Fluency: users were comparatively more forthcoming and more fluent in the
later rounds of speaking tests. Although not always grammatically accurate,
172 Arifa Rahman and Tanya Cotter

answers became more spontaneous over the course of time (for instance,
Yes, I like live Rajshahi. It is peace city).
• Accuracy: there was a relatively greater degree of grammatical accuracy
during the later rounds.
• Using comparisons: in the earlier sessions, panellists were unable to use
comparative and superlative adjectives when required (as in: This is big. This
is small), while during the later sessions some were able to use comparative
adjectives (bigger, smaller). However, there were some cases of over general-
isation, such as biggest being used to compare two objects.
• Extended speech: during later rounds, some panellists attempted to extend
their language output by providing more information when answering ques-
tions (When I need essential goods, I go to market. I usually go to market
at noon).
• Taking risks: users in later stages attempted to use words which are less fre-
quently used by Bangladeshis (like exciting, interesting). Although these
words were not always used appropriately, the propensity to use them
can be taken as an indication that panellists had started taking risks with
language.
• Improvement in pronunciation: all eight intermediate users demonstrated
improvements in their pronunciation, especially in terms of intonation and
word stress. However, levels of improvement varied.
I learnt that unimportant words are usually unstressed and are almost
silent. They are almost merged with the preceding or following words
while pronouncing. (Male, 25, IP)
• A similar improvement was also observed among some beginner level users,
particularly when they were conscious of pronunciation, improvement.
• There was some development in aspects of discourse and communicative
effectiveness. This was evident through relevant content and a sense of
engaged meaning, despite considerable grammatical and lexical errors such
as, ‘I can see the picture another overbridge and it is used walking one side
to another side. Who don’t use this overbridge they maybe accident on the
road.’

Mobile language learning revisited: a response to context

and culture

Fullan (2007), in his seminal work on educational innovation, speaks of

‘re-culturing’ as the kind of psychological acceptance required of users when
faced with new or changed modalities of delivery. Wedell (2009) takes this
concept a step further and argues that this same sense of ‘re-culturing’ also
needs to be undertaken by the change agent as a response to an understanding
of the culture and the context within which the users operate. Subsequent
 English Language Learning through Mobile Phones 173

developments in the BBC Janala project can be analysed in the light of this
concept of ‘re-culturing’. In response to the findings of this study – and several
other research studies that took place prior to, at the time of, and after the
study period – lessons for the BBC Janala mobile phone service have been
modified extensively.

Level, amount and relevance of content

During the first phase BBC Media Action responded to learner feedback by
lowering the level and reducing the amount of content, reducing the length
of the lessons, and ensuring that the content was more relevant to learners’
lives. This last was achieved by introducing topics like cricket and Bangladeshi
festivals, which learners could relate to more easily. BBC Media Action (2011b)
reports that much of the success of the service is due to making the content
relevant to the users’ lives. This had been earlier reported by Lotbiniere (2010).

Accents
There was a transition from using L1 speakers of English with British accents
to using fluent Bangladeshi speakers of English with accents more familiar
to users. This change was due not only to the feedback, but also to the real-
isation that there is a need for Bangladeshi speakers of English to understand
Asian English for trade and commerce with neighbouring countries. This use
of English as an International Language (EIL) and as a Lingua Franca (ELF) can
be linked to the strong advocacy initiated by Jenkins (2000) in terms of English
being used today by around 1.5 billion non-native English speakers worldwide
for whom intelligibility across multilingual groups is more important than
native speaker accents.

Teacher figure
Another significant change has been the introduction of a teacher figure
across all media platforms, including the mobile service. User feedback about
the teacher has been positive, with the majority feeling that the teacher
helps them learn. This is significant since the idea for using a teacher figure
came from the initial research into how the lessons could be improved. The
teacher plays an important role in a context such as Bangladesh, where there
is little experience of self-directed learning and where there is a high regard
for an authoritative teacher figure, and it may well be that the presence of
a teacher can help learners adapt to this new kind of learning by offering
tangible and recognisable support and by meeting learner expectations.
When asked about the teacher in the mobile phone lessons, one user stated,
‘he doesn’t seem like a teacher to a student, but a teacher to a friend. If I
meet the teacher, he will be very friendly ... It is impossible to learn anything
without a teacher’.
174 Arifa Rahman and Tanya Cotter

Repetition
Another feature of the lessons which has been modified and has subsequently
received positive feedback is the increase in the amount of repetition. Within
the lesson, the English is repeated several times and the listener is encouraged
to repeat aloud. This may well be a popular feature of the lessons since the
Bangladeshi education system is still quite traditional and rote learning is a
fairly common practice (Rahman, 2009), although there have been attempts
to change this and introduce more communicative approaches. It is also worth
mentioning that Bangladesh is a country with a strong oral tradition and a
nation that prides itself on its traditions and the art of storytelling and poetry.
Moreover, the majority religion is Islam and the recitation aloud of the Quran
plays a central role in religious practices.
This context may result in learner perceptions that when language is being
memorised and repeated, learning is taking place. Moreover, sufficient repe-
tition in the lessons appears to be a factor in building confidence and reducing
fear. One user reported, ‘the repetition is a good idea, especially for people like
me who are weak in English. The repetition helps me understand’.

Use of L1
The use of L1 in the lessons has featured from the outset of the project, since
this support was considered necessary in a culture with little experience of
self-directed learning. It can be argued that through L1 support learners are
put at ease, anxiety is reduced, and confidence is built. In an audio mobile
lesson, where there is no scope for a demonstration or a picture, the use of the
mother tongue to convey meaning becomes more important. Moreover, the
fact that these lessons require a financial commitment, however low, from
the low income groups they are aimed at, means it is essential that meaning
is conveyed in the shortest time possible.
One significant modification to the lessons has been the development of a style
of Bangla more easily accessible to users. To achieve this Bangla copywriters and
copyeditors with experience of writing for mass communications were brought
in to develop a style appropriate to the target audience. Users report that the
more accessible Bangla helps them to understand the lessons more easily and
that they no longer have any problems in following Bangla instructions and
explanations, which were previously of a more pedantic nature.

Conclusion

In light of the panel study and subsequent discussion, it can be argued that
a mobile learning service for English language learning has the potential to
be an effective learning tool, not only for developing English language skills
 English Language Learning through Mobile Phones 175

but also for increasing confidence and levels of motivation, and encouraging
learners to engage further in additional modes of learning.
However, in order to do this, the service needs to be developed with the
assumption that context and culture have a significant influence on human
behaviour and that reality is seen as being constructed by the subjective
perceptions of those involved within that context. The implications in this
particular case appear to be not just the introduction of m-learning for devel-
oping English language skills, but how far and to what extent this technology
is realistically appropriated by local users.
Another parameter which needs to be built into educational delivery
programmes is the provision for ongoing research that functions as a watchdog
and assists in assessing, monitoring, and developing the delivery system. These
two perspectives are likely to provide useful insights into the sustainability of
English language learning projects, particularly those using technology, that
are being initiated all over the developing world.

Engagement priorities

1. The materials developed for the BBC Janala mobile phone lessons were
adapted in response to research carried out with the target audience. What
can teachers do to ensure that the materials they are using are appropriate
to their context and relevant to their learners’ needs and interests?
2. In what ways is classroom learning different from self-directed learning?
What implications does this have for the development of classroom and
self-directed learning materials?
3. In the evaluation of the educational impact of the mobile phone lessons
presented in this chapter, a significant aspect that emerged, which appeared
to impact on learning in a positive manner, was the further engagement factor.
Can teachers encourage their learners to engage further or is it a matter of
the learner’s motivation and interest? What role could technology play in
the further engagement factor?
4. ‘Re-culturing ’ is the kind of psychological acceptance arising from sensitivity
to local context and culture. The BBC mobile learning project revised some
of the content and the modality of delivery due to this re-culturing aware-
ness. Can you identify some re-culturing processes in language development
situations you are familiar with? What were the outcomes of the steps that
were taken? Were they sustainable?

Notes
1. Primary Education Development Project II (PEDP II), Teacher Quality Improvement
Project (TQI), English Language Teacher Improvement Project (ELTIP), English for
176 Arifa Rahman and Tanya Cotter

Teaching: Teaching for English Project (ETTE), Secondary Education Quality and
Access Improvement Project (SEQAIP).
2. English in Action (EIA) involves a consortium of partners including BMB Mott
MacDonald, Open University UK & BBC Media Action (formerly BBC World Service
Trust). BBC Media Action is responsible for the adult initiative of the project.
3. Micro SD cards are very small flash memory cards which store data (e.g. audio and
video material) and can be used in mobile phones or other portable devices that
support them.

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11
Using Interactive Fiction for Digital
Game-based Language Learning
Joe Pereira

Introduction

The concept of learning spaces has moved beyond the walls of the classroom
and language learning is now, more than ever, in the hands of the learner.
Teachers must accept that their role in the learning process has changed,
in many situations, becoming that of facilitator. As facilitators, they should
promote the use of learning materials that are motivating, engaging, and
useable in both the classroom and in autonomous learning contexts. A valid
alternative to traditional language learning materials can be found in digital
game-based language learning (DGBLL), which offers a means for all four lan-
guage skills to be practised in a flexible, highly empowering and engaging way.
This chapter proposes and evaluates the use of the text-based video game genre
of Interactive Fiction (IF) as an authentic learning material in line with the
principles of second language acquisition (SLA). Furthermore, it describes how
IF, in addition to creating conditions in which reading, writing, speaking, and
listening skills may be practised, can be a particularly useful tool for improving
reading for fluency and promoting reading for pleasure.

The learning context

The majority of students at the British Council in Porto, Portugal, are young
learners between the ages of 13 and 17, many of whom are preparing for
Cambridge ESOL exams. Young Portuguese learners of English often have a
good level of comprehension of spoken English and good pronunciation, in
large part due to the fact that foreign movies and television shows are not
dubbed in Portuguese but subtitled, and music sung in English is widely
marketed and appreciated. Nearly all the classes are monolingual with lesson
instruction taking place solely in English, in order to provide opportun-
ities for learners to develop their communicative competence, described by

178
 Using Interactive Fiction for Digital Game-based Language Learning 179

Larsen-Freeman (1986: 131) as ‘being able to use the language appropriate to

a given social context’. The acquisition of communicative competence is also
the primary goal of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), the teaching
approach officially promoted by the British Council. The main principles of
CLT include the following (Richards, 2006):

• learners need to be engaged in meaningful and authentic interaction and

communication;
• content must be relevant, purposeful, interesting and engaging;
• language learning is facilitated by inductive discovery of language rules;
• the process of language learning involves creative use and trial and error –
language is learnt by using it;
• intrinsic motivation results from authentic interest in what is being commu-
nicated with the language;
• the use of authentic language and materials is fundamental;
• fluency is strived for over accuracy.

In this teaching context, speaking and listening skills are prioritised in classroom
tasks in order to help learners achieve the goal of acquiring communicative
competence. This often involves students participating in speaking tasks in
pairs or groups, where they are encouraged to share experiences and opin-
ions. However, despite this focus on speaking and listening in the classroom,
reading and writing skills are not neglected, but are linked mostly to grammar-
focused activities. Reading texts, usually from coursebooks, are used mainly
to test basic comprehension and to introduce vocabulary and grammatical
structures. Thus, reading for fluency and, by extension, for pleasure, is not
often actively promoted by teachers, due to the need to follow an established
syllabus. Many young learners do not think of reading for pleasure, especially
in a foreign language, as a necessary way to improve their language skills, and
even less as a worthwhile way to spend their free time. I therefore began to use
IF initially as a means of motivating students to engage in extended reading
outside the classroom.

Digital game-based learning

Video games are currently the most lucrative entertainment industry in the
US (ESA, 2012) and have become a pervasive element in modern society. Not
only have they made their mark on the public consciousness, but they have
also become accepted as serious educational tools. In parallel, the field of study
pertaining to using video games for education, known as digital game-based
learning (DGBL), has seen enormous growth in the last decade. Gee’s (2007a)
seminal work presented thirty-six learning principles inherently found in good
180 Joe Pereira

video games, based on theories of situated cognition and semiotic domains.

Gee (2007b: 43) points out that the motivating and engaging elements of video
games are precisely why they make such good tools for learning:

When we think of games, we think of fun. When we think of learning we

think of work. Games show us this is wrong. They trigger deep learning that
is itself part and parcel of the fun. It is what makes games deep.

Some recent research on using video games for foreign language learning
(Reinders, 2012; Cornillie et al., 2012) has examined critically whether the
learning principles and affordances of video games can be used for structured
language learning, and the results indicate that there is potential for their
implementation, with some necessary pedagogical considerations and reserva-
tions. DGBL has even begun to be represented in mainstream foreign language
learning publishing, with a pioneering teacher development book on how to
use video games in the language classroom (Mawer and Stanley, 2011).

An introduction to interactive fiction (IF)

You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building. Around
you is a forest. A small stream flows out of the building and down a gully.
(Crowther and Woods, 1976).

With this passage a new literary genre, the text adventure, was born1. A text
adventure is both a video game and a form of participatory storytelling where
the reader/player is the protagonist of the story (usually presented in the second
person) and must provide input in natural language in order to interact with
it. As text adventures began to transcend the staple fantasy theme to become
more varied in setting and more complex in scope, the genre began to be
marketed by its more prominent creators as Interactive Fiction, thus denoting
its enhanced interactive qualities and literariness. Montfort (2003) defines IF
as being:

1. A text accepting and generating computer program;

2. A potential non-linear narrative;
3. A simulation of an environment or world;
4. A structure of rules, with which an outcome is sought and played volun-
tarily: a game.

In order to reach the goal of the game, which is often unknown or unclear at its
beginning, the player needs to command the protagonist to explore the game
world and interact with the characters and objects within it.
 Using Interactive Fiction for Digital Game-based Language Learning 181

Figure 11.1 A screenshot of Bronze by Emily Short (2000)

As an example, in Bronze (Short, 2000), an alternative version of the

Beauty and the Beast fairytale, the reader plays the part of Belle returning to
the Beast’s castle after a week’s leave as per their arrangement. After being
given the initial description of the immediate location, the Drawbridge, the
player is given total freedom to explore the game world and experiment
with commanding Belle. The EXAMINE ME command produces some
182 Joe Pereira

non-essential, but nevertheless interesting, information. Navigation, in this

case by using the N command (an abbreviation for GO NORTH), takes Belle
into another location in the game world, the Entrance Hall. The description
of the Entrance Hall provides more information on the setting of the story
and gives the player the first indication of a goal: to find the Beast. The
descriptive text of the Entrance Hall also indicates the possible exits from
the room and points out that there is an object in the area which may be of
some importance and can be manipulated by Belle. The sign, as expected,
can be read, and the command READ SIGN provides more backstory. The
W command moves Belle west into another part of the castle, where both
she and the player will continue to explore the environment and discover
what needs to be done in order to find the Beast. However, this is only the
beginning of the story and the player’s many subsequent actions can lead to
three different endings to the tale.
In IF, through exploration of the game world, the reader is not merely a
passive observer, but is also an instigator of change in the story, dictating how
the narrative unravels. By deciding what to do and by giving the necessary
commands to perform those actions, the narrative is co-constructed by the
reader. However, one of the challenges in IF is to discover not only what to
do and what actions to take, but also to discover what words are necessary
to embody these actions, in a way that the computer will understand. The
element of IF that understands natural language (known as the parser), cannot
understand every word. It chiefly recognises the most common words needed
to function within the specific world/story being experienced. An example of
common verbs and commands understood and needed to play IF can be seen
in Andrew Plotkin’s (2010) IF for Beginners guide:

Figure 11.2 IF for beginners guide by Plotkin and Albaugh (2010)

 Using Interactive Fiction for Digital Game-based Language Learning 183

Most commands in IF are given by using a verb plus noun construction,

such as ‘GET THE SILVER BELL AND RING IT’ or ‘LOOK UP FATHER IN THE
CONTRACT BOOK.’ Giving the game a command that is not understood will
require the player to paraphrase the idea or follow a different line of thought.
While the main goal in IF is to reach the end of the story, achieving it is not
as straightforward as simply typing ‘GO NORTH’, reading the textual descrip-
tions and occasionally interacting with the environment. In addition to the
linguistic challenge of discovering how to communicate with the story, the
game element of IF provides logical puzzles that need to be solved in order for
the narrative to open up. Pereira (2011: 3) notes that:

Puzzles in IF act as a challenge and force exploration of the game world.

They should not be considered as an add-on to the narrative experience –
they are an integral part of the interactive process between the reader and
the author, which generates the narrative.

As an example of this, many puzzles in Bronze require the use of a specific

object in a specific location, such as climbing a stool to reach a higher point
or wearing a magical helmet to allow Belle passage into hitherto inaccessible
parts of the castle.
In this way, in addition to being a form of participatory storytelling, IF is
also a challenging game. As such, IF has the potential not only to motivate and
engage learners to read, thus giving them the opportunity to improve their
reading fluency, but also to actively promote language learning awareness and
acquisition, due to the deep engagement and interactivity required to play it.

Language learning with IF

Because of its textual nature and relationship to literature, IF is a natural tool

for practising reading skills. As reading is a vehicle for introducing vocabulary,
grammatical forms and cultural notions, its role in SLA is acknowledged (Day and
Bamford, 1998). The initial reason for using IF in a teaching context was to help
learners improve their reading fluency by offering an alternative source of reading
material to traditional texts, which might empower them to become autonomous
readers. Taguchi et al. (2006: 1) define ‘reading fluency’ as the ability

to identify words in a text quickly and accurately with a minimal amount

of attention. Word recognition is done efficiently and effortlessly and con-
sequently, readers can read connected text silently or orally with speed and
good comprehension.

It is generally accepted that the ‘extensive reading’ approach – providing

large quantities of texts to learners which they find enjoyable – is a means of
184 Joe Pereira

improving the decoding and comprehension of texts (Alyousef, 2006). However,

the real difficulty lies in providing learners with large quantities of texts that
they find captivating, especially if they are to be read outside the classroom in
their own time. Lancy and Hayes (1988: 42) note that

in helping students to learn how to read, it is clear that half the task is to
teach the students how to read while the other half involves getting them to
use that ability often enough to become fluent.

Because IF offers challenge and is dependent on user interaction, it is poten-

tially more motivating to engage with than a traditional text, as reported in
the results of a study by Lancy and Hayes (1986: 9):

students with no more than average interest in reading will spend large
amounts of time engaged in interactive fiction that requires heavy amounts
of reading.

This potential for creating intrinsic motivation to begin reading, and providing
prolonged engagement to continue with it, are two reasons why IF can be used
to promote the practice of reading for fluency and extensive reading both in
and outside the classroom.

The evaluation of IF

While my own research (Pereira, 2013) has shown that learners perceive IF to be
an engaging and useful tool for practising English language skills, Tomlinson
(1998: 3) maintains that ‘it is not necessarily enough that the learners enjoy
and value the materials’. In order to determine if IF is an appropriate form of
learning material, I framed the argument using the criteria from Chapelle’s
Judgemental evaluation of CALL2 framework (Chapelle, 2001):

Language learning potential: The degree of opportunity present for bene-

ficial focus on form.
Learner fit: The amount of opportunity for engagement with language
under appropriate conditions given learner characteristics.
Meaning focus: The extent to which learner’s attention is directed towards
the meaning of the language.
Authenticity: The degree of correspondence between the CALL activity and
target language activities of interest to learners out of the classroom.
Impact: The positive effects of the CALL activity on those who participate in it.
 Using Interactive Fiction for Digital Game-based Language Learning 185

Practicality: The adequacy of resources to support the use of the call

activity.

Furthermore, the evaluation criteria must be applied not only to the com-
puter application itself, but also to the specific task being done with it
(Chapelle, 2001: 53). The task involved learners playing a 45-minute session
of 9:05 (Cadre, 2000), as part of a 90-minute lesson using the following
procedure:

1. Pre-reading/playing phase: difficult vocabulary is clarified through a non-

contextualised matching activity. Learners are given a list of possible (but
not all) verbs and commands understood by the game. (20 minutes)
2. While-reading/playing phase: learners play the game in pairs. Learners are
encouraged to replay the game after reaching one of the multiple endings
in order to see how IF allows the reader to make different choices and take
different paths (and in this case, especially to corroborate the ‘bad’ ending).
(45 minutes)
3. Post-reading/playing phase: this involves a class discussion of what students
really think happened in the story, some classroom practice on the third
conditional (taking examples from happenings in the story), and the setting
of a composition based on the story for homework (a letter to a loved one
explaining the actions taken by the protagonist). (25 minutes)

Language learning potential

Because most IF is authentic and unscripted for language learners, no specific

focus on form is provided by the game during play. As when using traditional
literature for language learning, the main focus of IF is on meaning and not
on form. Understanding the words and the rules that govern the world model
and the protagonist’s place in it is mandatory in order to advance through the
narrative. However, because the player needs to provide input in a way that
the game understands it, some focus on form, specifically related to verbs and
prepositions is required by the player, otherwise progress in the game cannot
be made. Despite not focusing specifically on form, IF can nonetheless provide
learners with opportunities for incidental language learning. The existing
body of research on using IF for foreign language learning has thus focused on
the incidental learning of vocabulary (Cheung and Harrison, 1992; Cornillie
et al., 2011). However, in my view, the language learning potential of IF goes
well beyond focus on form and incidental learning. Through the implemen-
tation of Pre-, While-, and Post-tasks, it can be used as material that allows for
the practice of all four language skills.
186 Joe Pereira

Figure 11.3 A screenshot of 9:05 (Cadre 2000)

The pre-reading/playing phase

During the pre-reading phase, any difficult vocabulary should be clarified using
non-contextual activities, such as a meaning matching task, so as not to give
away plot information or clues linked to puzzles and their solutions. During
this phase, the learners’ schemata (Carrell and Eisterhold, 1988), or personal
knowledge of the topic or theme, can be activated through discussion and
other activities, as long as elements of surprise in the narrative are not ruined.
 Using Interactive Fiction for Digital Game-based Language Learning 187

However, if the topic of the story is known, as in the adapted fairytale Bronze,
activating schemata during this phase can scaffold learners during the while-
reading phase and can also be exploited during tasks in the post-reading phase
(such as comparing the different versions, creating a new version, and so on).

The while-reading/playing phase

While playing most IF, because turns are not taken in real time, there are
natural pauses for reflection, allowing learners to find support for clarifying
difficult language, either from the teacher or from discussion with a partner (if
played in a classroom setting), or from a dictionary or the Internet (if played in
an autonomous learning context). Some IF interpreters also have built-in text to
speech options, which may enhance learner support for unfamiliar vocabulary
by providing examples of pronunciation. During the while-reading phase in IF,
the use of comprehension questions is not necessary as progress in the game is
inherently linked to the player’s understanding and synthesis of the text. If a
passage or word is not understood, the player may be unable to solve a puzzle
when confronted with it at a later time, and will remain stuck until that text
is revisited and assimilated. Progression through the game clearly shows that
the reader understands the meaning of the words and how the words affect the
narrative and the world model that is being simulated.
Paralleling its major role in SLA, feedback and learner modification of output
is integral to playing IF successfully. The process of ‘noticing’ mistakes in
output (Schmidt and Frota, 1986) involves the learner becoming aware of a lin-
guistic difficulty, followed by an attempt to modify that output, which poten-
tially facilitates SLA. It is this cycle of input/output which creates the narrative
in IF. Player input in IF can result in two types of output by the game: error
messages, or the presentation of new narrative text. Feedback in IF is not yet
adaptive and thus upon executing an unsuccessful command, learners need to
consider if their error is:

spelling related: PUT THE CANDEL ON THE STOOL;

syntax related: PUT THE CANDLE TO THE STOOL;
vocabulary related: POSITION THE CANDLE ON THE STOOL;
that their command is simply not possible: EAT THE CANDLE;
or irrelevant to the story: PUT THE CANDLE UNDER THE STOOL.

The writing skill is thus being practised during these exchanges and there is
some opportunity for the noticing and repairing of written errors. During this
while playing phase it also possible to implement tasks involving varied group
dynamics, such as information gap type activities, or giving each member of a
group a specific role (taking notes, mapping, and so on).
188 Joe Pereira

The post-reading/playing phase

In the post-reading phase, all of the language skills may be revisited through
follow-up activities and a focus on form can be implemented through tasks on
discrete language points.

Computer-mediated collaborative learning

Given the textual nature of the medium the learning affordances of IF may
seem restricted to reading and writing skills. However, speaking and listening
skills can also be practised and a much greater possibility for noticing and
repairing errors is possible when playing IF in pairs or small groups. The act
of two or more people working at a single computer and communicating with
each other in order to accomplish a given task is known as computer-mediated
collaborative learning (CMCL). In CMCL the computer-provided task becomes
a source of generating language between users. The greatest opportunity for
SLA during CMCL occurs when the discourse between learners allows for
‘negotiation of meaning’, defined by Pica (1994: 495) as the:

modification and restructuring of interaction that occurs when learners and

their interlocutors anticipate, perceive, or experience difficulties in message
comprehensibility.

Ortega (1997: 87) further stresses the importance of pairing learners when
using CALL by positing that CMCL:

may provide for an instructional context that generates opportunities for

communicative practice of the target language and opportunities for mean-
ingful learner output to a significantly greater degree than more traditional
arrangements in the L2 classroom.

Learner fit

The subject of learner fit is certainly an important consideration when selecting

language learning materials. For the most part, IF is authentic material and thus
needs to be carefully selected, with consideration of the level of linguistic dif-
ficulty being paramount. Any IF considered for use with learners needs to be
played through, and more than once, in order to experience alternate endings and
different paths. While a recommended pre-reading phase will consist of the clari-
fication of difficult vocabulary and possibly further schemata-activating activ-
ities, the majority of words in the text (99 per cent, according to Nuttall, 1982)
need to be familiar to the learner in order for them to understand the text and be
able to interact with the game. In addition to evaluating the level of linguistic dif-
ficulty, one needs to think about the appropriateness of the language itself and the
 Using Interactive Fiction for Digital Game-based Language Learning 189

narrative content. Game-specific considerations, such as genre, puzzle difficulty,

and geographic complexity of the game world, have been suggested by Pereira
(2012). However, because of its authentic nature, and because the vast majority
of modern IF has been written by adults for adults, it is difficult to find IF that
can be used with low-level learners. The need to have an active imagination and
some puzzle-solving ability in order to successfully interact with puzzle-based
IF further restricts who will be able to play it satisfactorily. Notwithstanding, by
offering a higher level of support through vocabulary lists and hint sheets, in
addition to using text adventures from the 1980s with sparser text descriptions
and less complex language, it may still be possible to use IF with these learners.
Further support can be given by getting learners to play IF in pairs which, in
addition to offering conditions for negotiation of meaning and SLA, also offers
scaffolding for learners with weaker linguistic and cognitive skills.

Meaning focus

When reading/playing IF understanding the meaning of the language and

responding to it with meaningful input, based on a conceptual model of the
narrative and the game world, is what characterises it as a both a narrative and
a game and ultimately, as a unique form of participatory storytelling. The main
goal when playing IF is a meaningful one: to reach the end of the story, co-au-
thoring it along the way. Further to this inherent focus on meaning, IF is com-
pletely in line with the principles of the CLT approach to language learning:

• reading for fluency is seen as a process instead of a product and is valued

more than the accuracy of discrete language points.
• the target language needs to be used to interact with the game;
• finishing the story and problem-solving constitute meaningful tasks;
• solving puzzles requires using knowledge and language, which can often be
transferred to the real world;
• it is an authentic text.

Authenticity

The principles mentioned in the previous section stress the authentic nature
of IF both as a material and as a learning activity. The language tasks involved
in playing IF require the use of the target language in a meaningful way, as
represented in the following cycle:

• decoding the language presented in the text;

• synthesising the information and re-contextualising it;
• thinking of the words needed to express a desired action;
190 Joe Pereira

• creating the input following the conventions of IF;

• adapting the words or actions upon negative feedback.

However, in addition to engaging in this cycle of creating comprehensible

input/output to create the narrative, the vast majority of IF includes a further
element of challenge in the form of logic puzzles. Solving puzzles in IF often
requires not only a clear understanding of the text and the subtle clues hidden
within it, but also the ability to hypothesise how things work and how they are
connected in the real world and in the game world.
As an example, in Bronze, the solution to some of the major puzzles in
the game involves acquiring a candle by first summoning a ghostly servant
following the mythology of the game world through a process requiring,
among other objects, a bell and a magical helmet. The links between the serv-
ants and these objects can be found in the narrative and need to be discovered
and acted upon by the reader in order to progress in the game. However, the
player also needs to know:

1. What a bell and helmet do and how they are used;

2. The exact language involved in using bells and helmets.

Thus, in order to solve these puzzles, the player is challenged in five distinct
ways:

1. Piecing together the information that explains how the game world works
(servants, bells, mirrors, magical clothing);
2. Discovering and acquiring these objects in the game;
3. Understanding that a bell can be used to make a noise and a helmet worn to
reduce, or in this case, amplify it;
4. Knowing that the verb ‘ring’ collocates with bell and ‘wear’ collocates with
helmet;
5. Producing the correct input at the right time and in the right location.

While the example described here is based in a fantasy world with elements of
magic, many puzzles in Bronze and in IF in general, no matter what the setting,
are based on knowledge of real world concepts and the manipulation of real
world objects. Gee (2007a: 105) posits that situated and embodied learning,
also called ‘learning by doing’ can ‘lead to real understanding and the ability
to apply what one knows in action’. Another concept related to schema theory,
which is also strongly relevant to playing IF, is that of ‘script’, described as ‘a
pre-determined, stereotyped sequence of actions that defines a well-known
situation’ (Schank and Abelson, 1977: 41). Scripts, like schemata, are cultural
not universal. Playing IF, because it is experiential and implements situated
 Using Interactive Fiction for Digital Game-based Language Learning 191

cognition, can be an excellent source for broadening learners’ schemata and

scripts, thus extending their own content and cultural knowledge, which may
be transferable to real world situations.

Positive impact

As well as the language learning affordances of IF, because it is a form of lit-

erature, it encompasses all the advantages of using literature for language
learning, such as developing content knowledge and cultural awareness, and
appealing to imagination and creativity (Van, 2009).
Furthermore, IF is known to activate the following cognitive skills:

• problem-solving and lateral thinking (Shelton, 2005);

• critical thinking (Seitan, 2010);
• spatial orientation (Gander, 2004);
• metacognitive strategies (Kozdras et al., 2006).

All of these cognitive skills are transferable to the learners’ real lives beyond
the game and beyond the classroom, where further learning may take place.
After playing IF in a classroom setting, learners may become interested in
playing/reading IF on their own. Encouraging learners to play IF outside of
class time, possibly even as a homework assignment, might motivate them to
become more autonomous learners and readers.

Practicality

The three elements needed to play IF are a computer (or mobile device), an
interpreter (the software that runs IF game files), and a game file. Because IF is
completely text-based, it can run on computers that are decades old. Game files
are cross-platform and interpreters to play them can be found for nearly every
computer operating system and mobile device. The vast majority of IF games
and interpreters are distributed for free by their developers and can be found
at the Interactive Fiction Database (http://ifdb.tads.org). IF is also extremely
portable, with large and complex games requiring only half a megabyte and the
interpreters themselves less than ten megabytes. It is therefore quick and easy
to set up on multiple machines, even by teachers themselves, provided admin-
istrator access rights are not required. In learning contexts where the software
cannot be installed, hundreds of IF games can be played online in Java applets
or, preferably, through the browser-based Parchment interpreter (http://parch-
ment.toolness.com). While this may be convenient, the main disadvantage of
using a browser-based interpreter is a more limited ability to save and restore
one’s progress or to save a transcript of the game session for post-play analysis.
192 Joe Pereira

IF can be implemented in a variety of different learning scenarios. It can

be used with one computer and a data projector in a whole class setting, or
with students at individual machines, alone, in pairs, or in small groups. IF
is also perfectly suited as an autonomous learning tool to practise reading for
fluency, as the presence of a teacher is not required. Advancing through the
narrative by solving the linguistic and logic puzzles that act as barriers to pro-
gress is clear evidence of the reader’s comprehension of the text. Desilets (1999:
7) posits that the ‘pause’ in the flow of text, created by the existence of a puzzle
in IF,

adds an evaluative dimension of considerable instructional power, an

element that operates even when the teacher isn’t around ... The aesthetical-
ly-placed pauses for problems thus become, among other things, compelling
and integrated reading comprehension tests, perhaps the only such tests
that most kids will take voluntarily. (Desilets, 1999: 8)

In the absence of a pre-reading, vocabulary clarification phase during

autonomous play, a dictionary should be consulted while playing. Additionally,
help related to playing the game and solutions to puzzles are available for most
games as in-game hints (implemented in many of the higher quality games), and
maps and walkthroughs (step-by-step guides) can be found on the Internet.

Evaluation results

Evaluating the benefits of using IF for SLA using Chappelle’s Judgemental CALL
evaluation framework has produced the results shown in Table 11.1.
The results show that despite there not being a strong focus on form when
playing IF, there is still the possibility for incidental language acquisition in
both classroom and autonomous learning scenarios. Furthermore, adding a
CMCL component to the classroom setting can create significant opportun-
ities for noticing and negotiation of meaning, in addition to extending reading
and writing skills practice to include listening and speaking. Additionally, the

Table 11.1 Results of IF CALL evaluation

Chappelle’s criteria Classroom setting Autonomous learning

Language learning potential (form) POSSIBLE+ POSSIBLE−

Learner fit POSSIBLE POSSIBLE−
Meaning focus STRONG STRONG
Authenticity STRONG STRONG
Impact MEDIUM MEDIUM
Practicality STRONG STRONG
 Using Interactive Fiction for Digital Game-based Language Learning 193

recommended implementation of Pre-, While- and Post-reading tasks, can

provide opportunities for specific focus on form.
The question of learner fit requires some consideration since finding suitable
IF for use with lower levels, while possible, may be both a time consuming
and difficult task. With regards to the other criteria, IF more than meets the
requirements for both learning scenarios.
In conclusion, I believe that IF has very clear language learning affordances
and that reasons for its consideration as valid language learning material have
been evidenced through judgemental evaluation. The following section reports
on the validity of IF as language learning material from the perspective of the
learner.

Results of students playing IF: a case study

In a recent case study on the perceptions of using IF for language learning

(Pereira, 2013), ten upper intermediate learners of English as a foreign lan-
guage were observed while playing 9:05 for a period of 45 minutes, followed
by Lost Pig (Jota, 2007) for 60 minutes. The students were then asked to fill
out a questionnaire with Yes/No and open-ended questions on their percep-
tions of the usefulness of IF as a language learning tool and their opinions
on whether playing IF was a fun and engaging experience. The results of the
observation show that the students were totally engaged during the playing
sessions and actively practised the four language skills. Results from the
questionnaire revealed that while nine of the ten students stated that they
found playing IF to be a pleasurable activity, they were unanimous in recog-
nising its language learning affordances, and many students commented
on how playing IF exercised their imagination and problem-solving skills.
Questions pertaining to whether students viewed IF as a potential tool for
the autonomous practice of reading fluency outside the classroom were met
positively, with seven of the ten students replying that they would play IF at
home to practise English.

Conclusion

Despite having reached its peak of popularity three decades ago and not having
state-of-the-art graphics or cinematics, IF continues to be a potentially motiv-
ating and engaging DGBLL tool. Because it is text-based, its language learning
affordances are clear both to students and teachers and this is evidenced by
the judgemental evaluation of IF as valid CALL material described in this
chapter. IF can offer engaging language practice for all skills in the classroom,
as well as offering a more challenging and interactive alternative to static text
for improving reading fluency in an autonomous learning context. However,
194 Joe Pereira

there are challenges in using IF in the language classroom, mostly related to

finding IF that can be played by lower-level learners and the fact that playing
IF requires that learners have above average imagination and problem-solving
skills. Nonetheless, these challenges can be overcome by providing adequate
support. Teachers who wish to use IF with their learners are given this support
through the IF Only: Interactive Fiction and teaching English as a foreign language
website (http://www.theswanstation.com), which provides in-depth lesson plans
for carefully selected IF games covering most levels of language proficiency.
In-class support for learners when playing IF can be given by using pair/group
interaction and supplying vocabulary lists, maps, and quick hints if they get
stuck in the game.
The implementation of DGBLL in the classroom will become more prominent
as language teachers become more aware of the affordances of digital games
and as they overcome their reluctance in accepting them as valid language
learning material. It is my hope that IF, and the growing body of teachers who
have begun to use it with their learners, will help make DGBLL a widespread
addition to traditional language learning materials.

Engagement priorities

1. IF has been criticised for not having a clear focus on form, due to its authentic
nature. Is this a determining factor in deciding whether to use IF with your
learners? Can you think of ways to provide this focus on form in the while-
or post-reading phases?
2. One of the main challenges of using IF with learners is their need to be
imaginative and able to apply critical and lateral thinking in order to solve
puzzles. While IF itself serves as a tool to give learners practice in problem-
solving, it may be useful to prepare learners to think in these terms before
playing. How can we get our learners to be more imaginative and to think
outside the box?
3. Beyond the walls of the classroom, IF is an excellent source of alternative
(and potentially more engaging) material to practise autonomous reading
fluency. In addition to recommending IF works for learners to read/play,
how else can we help them get the most out of this resource on their
own?
4. The next step after having your learners play IF is to get them to create their
own IF in the classroom, using freely available authoring software such as
Inform 7 (http://www.inform7.com) or Quest 5 (http://www.textadventures.
co.uk/quest/). How might writing their own stories sway those learners who
are put off by the extensive reading or puzzle-solving to value IF from a cre-
ative writing and collaborative perspective?
 Using Interactive Fiction for Digital Game-based Language Learning 195

Notes
1. The original text adventure game, ‘Adventure’, was the first form of electronic lit-
erature to accept natural language input and would spawn hundreds of imitators on
home computers throughout the 1980s.
2 . Beatty (2003: 7) defines computer assisted language learning (CALL) as ‘any process
in which a learner uses a computer and, as a result, improves his or her language’.

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12
Using Web 2.0 Tools in CLIL
Fabrizio Maggi, Maurizia Cherubin and Enrique García Pascual

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to show how the use of Web 2.0 tools in foreign
language learning CLIL situations, besides increasing foreign language exposure
and use, enhances the levels of student satisfaction, motivation, and confidence,
all of which are crucial for communicative, lifelong foreign language learning.
We will illustrate how the use of Web 2.0 technology can connect students
across grade levels and schools as collaborators and peer tutors of school subject
matter in English. Learners are generally used to traditional, individual activ-
ities such as reading articles, books or short stories, but may be unfamiliar with
the type of collaborative learning activities that Web 2.0 supports. By preparing
material to teach each other and assessing or reworking peer output, students
experience a variety of cognitive and communicative activities that stimulate
reflection, critical thinking, and self-directed, self-organised learning. This
chapter describes ways to motivate learners to get involved in these new Web
2.0 activities.

What is CLIL?

The CLIL acronym (Content and Language Integrated Learning) has become
a very familiar term in European school contexts. The term was coined and
launched by David Marsh in 19941. According to Marsh: ‘CLIL refers to situ-
ations where subjects, or parts of subjects, are taught through a foreign lan-
guage with dual-focussed aims, namely the learning of content, and the
simultaneous learning of a foreign language.’ The concept was taken up and
developed in the Eurydice Report, CLIL at School in Europe (Eurydice, 2006),
which stated: ‘The acronym CLIL is used as a generic term to describe all types
of provision in which a second language (a foreign, regional or minority lan-
guage and/or another official state language) is used to teach certain subjects in

198
 Using Web 2.0 Tools in CLIL 199

the curriculum other than the language lessons themselves.’ Of major signifi-
cance in the development of CLIL is the fact that the CLIL languages are not
limited to traditional foreign languages, but also include minority languages,
regional languages, or other officially recognised languages. Thus, CLIL is not
only a language policy tool for the promotion of foreign languages, especially
of English, but can also serve to promote languages that are spoken by very
few people.
There are many advantages to the CLIL approach, both for learning subject
matter and for learning language. Because of the dual focus on language and
content, ‘CLIL induces the learner to be more cognitively active during the
learning process’ (Van de Craen et al., 2008: 197). In addition to developing
academic cognitive processes and communication skills, it develops con-
fident learners. CLIL ‘can be very successful in enhancing the learning of
languages and other subjects, and developing in the youngsters a positive “can
do” attitude towards themselves as language learners’ (Coyle, 2010: 30). CLIL
encourages intercultural understanding and community values. Research also
shows (Braun, 2007; Sierra, 2008; Zydatis, 2009) that learners become more
sensitive to vocabulary and ideas presented in their first language, as well as in
the target language, and they gain a more extensive and varied vocabulary. In
the target language learners reach proficiency levels in all four skills (reading,
writing, listening, and speaking).
In this chapter we provide practical examples to confirm the ways CLIL
develops learner confidence, enhances their understanding of the target
content, and increases communication skills in the target language.

ICT in education

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have evolved dramatically

in the last decade and the use of ICT in education (Internet, WWW, search
engines, digital videos, digital audios, PPT, spreadsheets and so on) is leading to
change in the practices, methods and content of teaching, and in assessment
processes. In order to increase knowledge of the effectiveness of ICT in edu-
cation and training, over the past ten years research has analysed, among other
things, the extent to which access to these technologies (including Internet
connections) can improve learning and what kind of learning will be positively
affected. The data collected from the international surveys IEA-TIMSS 2007
(http://www.iea.nl/timss_2007.html) and OECD-PISA 2009 (http://www.oecd.
org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisa2009/pisa2009keyfindings.htm) show a population
of learners, especially young people, fully engaged in a multimedia world, both
inside and outside school. A large number of young people are using computer
technology and its derivatives, such as fifth generation digital devices (iPods,
tablets, smart phones), for a variety of purposes. For the younger generation,
200 Fabrizio Maggi, Maurizia Cherubin and Enrique García Pascual

in particular, the use of computers is part of normal daily activities. The inte-
gration of ICT within the sphere of education and vocational training therefore
reflects these trends.
In 2000 the European Commission adopted a specific plan of action, called
eLearning, to determine the central issues for development in the following
decade, in particular to examine the effective integration of ICT in education
and training. In this document, eLearning has been defined as ‘the use of new
multimedia technologies and the Internet to improve the quality of learning
by facilitating access to resources and services’. 2
The subsequent strategy i2010 one-inclusion,3 on the one hand has iden-
tified specific areas directly related to the use of ICT to improve teaching
effectiveness, and, on the other hand, has emphasised the need to promote
education and training in the use of ICT. From this perspective, educational
technology has become one of the four crosscutting themes of the Lifelong
Learning Programme (Council of the European Union, 2008), and a priority
in the four vertical programmes (Erasmus, Comenius, Leonardo da Vinci and
Grundtvig).

Web 2.0

One area in particular that has been the focus of interest in education is that of
Web 2.0. This term, introduced at a conference in 2004 by Tim O’Reilly, refers
to the second generation of the World Wide Web (WWW). The new gener-
ation of the Web contains features and functionality that were not previously
available. Web 2.0 does not refer to a specific version of the Web, but rather to
a series of technological improvements.
Some examples of features considered to be part of Web 2.0 are:

• Blogs: also known as Web logs, allow users to post thoughts and updates
about their life on the Web.
• Wikis: sites like Wikipedia, Wikispace, enable users from around the world
to add and update online content.
• Social networking: sites like Facebook and MySpace, allow users to build and
customise their own profiles and communicate with friends.
• Web applications: a broad range of applications such as Vimeo, Delicious,
Skype, Dropbox, make it possible for users to run programs directly in a Web
browser.

Web 2.0 technologies provide a level of user interaction that was not available
before. Websites have become much more dynamic and interconnected, pro-
ducing ‘online communities’ and making it even easier to share information.
In other words, the WWW has evolved from Web 1.0, which, according to
 Using Web 2.0 Tools in CLIL 201

Berners-Lee, Hendler and Lassila (2001), could be considered the ‘read-only

web’, towards becoming a ‘read/write platform’ where users can engage with
others, contribute and publish information in several formats including text,
graphics, animation, audio, and video.
Today the term Web 2.0 is used to describe applications that take full
advantage of the networking nature of the Web; they encourage participation,
are inherently social and open and distinguish themselves from previous
generations of software by a number of principles:

• Web 2.0 enables and facilitates the active participation of each user;
• Web 2.0 applications and services allow publishing and storing of textual
information, by individuals (blogs) and collectively (wikis), of audio record-
ings (podcasts), of video material (YouTube), of pictures (Flikr, Picasa), and
so on.
• Web 2.0 services typically focus on usability and aim to simplify the interac-
tions as much as possible by concentrating on the task or service the appli-
cation provides.

Web 2.0 and language learning

The WWW has become an environment for personal and collective product-
ivity, and this opens up great opportunities for learning and teaching. Unlike
traditional Web 1.0 technologies, social software, such as social networks,
wikis, and blogs, have opened up new opportunities for interaction and col-
laboration between teachers and learners, and among learners. The ‘distrib-
uted knowledge’ (Roelofsen, 2006; Bonifacio et al., 2003) available, regardless
of place and time, now uses the same applications and does not depend on
a particular computer, operating system, or on specific software and the
compatibility of file formats they produce. Web applications allow you to
create and edit text, presentations, graphics, photographs, mental and con-
ceptual maps, slideshows, sound effects, video, video seminars, hypertext,
and websites.
A learner can, for example, watch a clip from a new foreign language movie,
comment on it in the target language in a blog and thereby start a discussion
about the movie in a social network with his or her peers or even beyond the
classroom context with native speakers. All this is possible without, at any stage,
having to change tools or technologies: the Web is the platform throughout.
The fact that each user can generate their own content on the Web and practise
their right to communicate represents another benefit of Web 2.0 for language
learning and teaching, both culturally and linguistically.
We now have access on the Web to a vast and constantly growing range
of content in the form of text, audio, and video files, provided by users with
202 Fabrizio Maggi, Maurizia Cherubin and Enrique García Pascual

different motivations and of different age groups, social, local, and linguistic
backgrounds. For language learning and teaching this can only be considered
beneficial, insofar as it helps to fulfil one of its main aims, namely to create
communication situations for the learner which are as authentic as possible.
These advancements of Web 2.0 in terms of interactive communication, collab-
oration, and user participation open up new potentials for enhancing each of
the four language skills, as all of the commonly discussed social software appli-
cations mentioned above can be employed both for receptive and productive
purposes.

Collaborative learning and Web 2.0

We use the term collaborative learning to refer to a method of education

through which students at various performance levels work together toward
a common goal; a collaborative activity is not only a socially distributed
activity, but also an activity in which the objectives of each individual depend
on those established and shared by other participants in the learning situ-
ation. Collaborative learning is a democratic model of class management,
which mainly focuses on working in heterogeneous groups that give each
member an equal opportunity to achieve success. For this reason, the first and
fundamental aim of those who intend to apply this teaching method is cer-
tainly the creation of an educational, non-competitive, highly empowering,
and collaborative environment.
When weak students work with the best students in cooperative situations it
increases the use of higher order reasoning strategies: strategies for producing
more detailed analysis and criticism, more creative answers, more elaborate
levels of explanation. The cognitive processes induced by having to talk, discuss,
and explain to others, often in different ways, improve memory retention and
promote the development of reasoning strategies based on the elaboration of
the content (Johnson and Johnson, 1987). In general, the research suggests a
superior cognitive level in cooperative groups of students who provided elabo-
rated explanations to others. In particular, students who received elaborated
explanations learnt more than those who worked alone, but not as much as
those who provided explanations (Webb, 1985).
Web 2.0 tools have immense potential for fostering collaborative learning.
The Internet allows the free exchange of information, the circulation of ideas,
and interaction between participants (synchronous and asynchronous). It
makes the written word, which at school is considered to be a tool for com-
posing texts later subjected to the judgement of the teacher, a means of inter-
personal communication, discussion of ideas and experiences and, ultimately,
a social tool. As Kaye (1994: 19) puts it:
 Using Web 2.0 Tools in CLIL 203

Working through the computer means working together, which implies a

sharing of tasks and an explicit intention to add value in order to create
something new or different through a collaborative process. A broad def-
inition of collaborative learning could be the acquisition by individuals of
knowledge, skills or attitudes that are the result of a group action or said
more clearly, individual learning as a result of a group process.

Thus, collaboration is a deliberative and structured process that stands in sharp

contrast to a simple exchange of information or instruction execution.
Prior to Web 2.0, ICT supported online teaching models that were essen-
tially focused on the learners, or, as Isidori (2003: 47) puts it, ‘the online
didactic learning environment aims to create systems focusing attention on
the learner’. With the advent of Web 2.0 the focus has shifted from teaching
learners to creating ways for learners to work together autonomously so that
they can learn from and with each other. Thus, when we talk about learning
environments planned in a manner typical of Web 2.0, we mean those virtual
places in which students can study and help each other to learn, equipped with
‘tools that facilitate the active participation’ and

make the place where you study a rich environment of solicitations, capable,
said in behaviourist terms, of providing quality inputs so that learning can
take place. (Rosati, 1999: 67)

Collaborative learning is the educational model used in educational online

activities because it allows students to work on issues, projects, or products
interacting among themselves and with the teacher. Using all the tools of Web
2.0 it is possible to guide the students to meet their specific interests and realise
their own purposes so that they can see and understand all the possibilities of
the new learning environment, which they can later use as tools to perform
and carry out their own personal projects.
This is the case of webquests4, for instance, which are very popular with
CLIL teachers. Webquests make effective use of the vast information resources
available on the Web and promote higher order thinking through authentic
assignments that emphasise enquiry-based learning. They provide a model for
teachers searching for ways to incorporate the Internet into the classroom on
both a short- and long-term basis. Webquests can be designed within a single
discipline or they can be interdisciplinary, and are most likely to be group
activities. For example, a webquest on human rights violations for high school
students focuses on the task of persuading people to take action against human
rights abuses (http://www.aacps.org/aacps/boe/instr/curr/comed/HSwebquest/
frick/index.html). Viva Espana is a role play-based webquest in English for
204 Fabrizio Maggi, Maurizia Cherubin and Enrique García Pascual

students who wish to learn about Spain. Webquests have been a part of project-
based learning and teaching in mainstream education for some time, but they
also have a multitude of applications in language classes that are focused on
content or theme-based learning.
Another concrete example is the use of Google Docs, a free Web-based appli-
cation in which documents can be created, edited, and stored online then
accessed from any computer with an Internet connection. It allows users to create
and edit documents online while collaborating in real time with other users. For
this reason it is an ideal tool for collaborative projects in which multiple authors
(students) work together in real time, possibly from diverse locations. All partici-
pants can see who made specific document changes and when those alterations
were done, facilitating collaboration. Moreover, the revision history included
in the service allows teachers to see the additions made to a document, with
each student distinguished by colour (although the entire document must be
manually searched to find these changes). Because documents are stored online
as well as on users’ computers, there is no risk of total data loss.

A case study: the Vertical Transversal CLIL project

We now want to show a practical application of how the use of some of Web
2.0 tools can increase student interaction, participation, and motivation, and
provide peer tutoring and teaching. The project Vertical Transversal CLIL: the
student protagonist of their own learning follows CLIL methodology by using
only the second language, English, to communicate, listen to, and learn from
others, using integrated technology.
The project focused on a science unit that involved two schools in two different
towns: a third class of a middle school in the province of Milan; and a third class
of a secondary high school in Pavia, aged 14 and 17 respectively. The authors had
different roles in the project: Maurizia was directly involved as a middle school
teacher of English; Fabrizio took care of the organisation of the whole project;
and Enrique provided the necessary theoretical pedagogical background.
The project can be considered a vertical project because it involved students
from two different grades of school. They exchanged information, documents,
and presentations using the second language, the Web 2.0 tools, and by video-
conferencing; they experimented with peer education and tutoring, showing
what they learnt using the interactive whiteboard (IWB). In this way students
became the protagonists of their own learning, while teachers were facilitators
and, in a certain sense, learners too. The project can be considered a transversal
project because the subjects it dealt with – cells, meiosis, mitosis, Mendel’s
Law – are part of the curricular programme for science for both grades. Middle
school students study the cell in English, while high school students study
Mendel’s Law in the same language.
 Using Web 2.0 Tools in CLIL 205

The assessment was based on peer evaluation. The students cooperated and
collaborated to create presentations, documents and videos to post and share
on their blog and on the school website. Moreover, the high school students,
using shared Google documents, checked the results of a quiz they created
for the middle school students, explained the mistakes made and provided
feedback through a final videoconference.
The aims of this project focused on language, content and learning to:

• improve overall target language competence;

• diversify methods and forms of classroom practice;
• provide opportunities to study content from different perspectives;
• access subject-specific target language terminology;
• develop oral communication skills;
• develop social abilities to build up knowledge using the Web 2.0 tools;
• improve learning in a student familiar environment;
• increase learner motivation.

Project development

In this section we describe the different phases of the project, and the ways in
which ICT was integrated in each phase (highlighted in bold). The project was
developed over a span of six months.

Phase 1: Planning
English and science teachers from the two different schools agree on the
goals, the topics, the phases, the time, and the methodology to follow using
Google docs and Google Calendar to set the deadline of each phase. Both schools
use IWB for presentations and for surfing the Internet. They also select
YouTube videos (for example this video on mitosis: http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=VlN7K1–9QB0) and use Skype for videoconferencing. The purpose of
using these videos or animations is to provide a visual contribution to the text
students are working on, for example to make evident and clear the mech-
anism of functioning of a cell.

Phase 2: Setting up the project

Middle school English and Science teachers prepare some interactive activities
to do in class using the IWB multimedia software; they give students a list of
specific vocabulary and documents simplified according to the students’ lan-
guage level. For example, middle school students are provided with vocabulary
related to the cell and asked to organise key points on the IWB, as shown in
Figure 12.1.
206 Fabrizio Maggi, Maurizia Cherubin and Enrique García Pascual

Figure 12.1 Middle school students using the IWB to brainstorm vocabulary related to
the cell

Phase 3: Working organisation

Middle school teachers divide students into working groups of 4/5 people
according to students’ interest in the topics: cell, meiosis, mitosis, DNA, repro-
duction. In the IT laboratory students surf the Internet for materials, docu-
ments, videos, and images to insert in their presentations. Each group assigns a
specific task and a different role to each of its members: each group has a leader
(he/she is the group representative, interacts with the teachers and enforces
time); an editor; an Internet surfer and so on.

Phase 4: Presentations
Teachers open a gmail account for the middle school classes involved in the
project to share documents and presentations with the secondary school
students. At the end the middle school students present meiosis/mitosis in
English to their peers in their own class, as in Figure 12.2, and, through Skype,
to the secondary school students. The materials shown in Figure 12.2 are a
patchwork of information taken from the Internet.

Phase 5: Peer education and student tutoring

By means of videoconferencing the secondary school students explain Mendel’s
law in full detail through a PowerPoint (PPT) presentation with graphs and
drawings and show the experiment carried out in the science laboratory to
the middle school students (see Figure 12.3). In order to make Mendel’s Law
simpler to understand, students provide very practical examples. In Figure 12.4
they are explaining the theory of the green pea using plasticine of different
colours.
Figure 12.2 Middle school students explain the cell

Figure 12.3 Videoconference. High school students explain Mendel’s Law

208 Fabrizio Maggi, Maurizia Cherubin and Enrique García Pascual

Figure 12.4 Students provide very practical examples

Phase 6: Peer assessments

Secondary school students prepare an online multiple-choice test in English
about Mendel’s Law. Using Google docs, the test is administered to each middle
school student, who carries out the test underlining the correct answers in light
gray, as in Figure 12.5. The tests are checked by the older students who high-
light the mistakes in dark gray and underline the correct answer in mid gray. At
the end older students give a mark according to the number of right answers,
using a range from excellent to insufficient. The corrected tests are immediately
sent back to the middle school students, once again employing Google docs.

Phase 7: Feedback
Through a final videoconference, the older students provide feedback on
correct and incorrect answers and correct the wrong ones, and the younger
students provide feedback about the secondary school students’ presentation
in areas such as: the topic is easy to understand; the students are confident
with the topics; the language and vocabulary are appropriate.

Phase 8: Storing materials

All the materials produced are then posted to the virtual Dropbox store in
order to create a repository from which students can download the files they
are interested in, whenever they want. The products are also posted on the
 Using Web 2.0 Tools in CLIL 209

Name. Data...6/6/11
BIOLOGY TEST

1.
2. A pea flower has:
• neither pollen norovules
• both pollen and ovules
• pollen but not ovules

3. Pollen carries:
• father’s information
• mother’s information
• the anthers

4. In pea plants Mendel identified some characters easy to study. How many?
• ?
• 10
• 22

5. One of the characters studied by Mendel was seed colour which could be:
• either yellow or white
• either green or white
• either green or yellow

6. In cross pollination:
• pollen meets some other pollen
• Mendel transfers pollen from one flower to another
• Mendel transfers voules from one flower to another

7. The first generation of children is called:

• P
• F1
• F2

8. After the cross polination between two pure lines for the flower colour Mendel
obtained:
• all red flowers
• all white flowers
• some red flowers and some white ones

9. The red flower trait is dominant:

• over the seed colour
• over the white flower colour
• only in F1

Figure 12.5 Example of multiple-choice test questionnaire

‘Vertical and Transversal CLIL’ Blog (http://madaenglish.blogspot.it/2009/11/

prophase-metaphase-anaphase-i.html).
210 Fabrizio Maggi, Maurizia Cherubin and Enrique García Pascual

Evaluation

Evaluation and assessment in CLIL is complex owing to its duality: language

and content. Not only are teachers supposed to assess the skills and know-
ledge acquired by students, but also consider the process, namely how students
achieved certain results (Serragiotto, 2006). According to the project objectives
the focus of evaluation is on learners’ knowledge in relation to content, the
level of language acquisition, and how students passed on information to their
peers. The evaluation of this project was carried out as follows:

• Content was evaluated through tests similar to the one shown in Figure 12.5.
Mainly multiple-choice, cloze tests, wh- questions. The questionnaire was
checked and marked by older students, who also prepared complete feedback
on the mistakes made.
• Assessment of language acquisition was, on the contrary, only a task for
teachers. They evaluated the quality of language interchange and inter-
action in the groups and during videoconferences. The final editing of the
materials and documents prepared by students was also checked by teachers
to evaluate both content and language.
• The quality of interaction and the role and involvement of students in
the oral exchanges was also considered. Employing an observation grid,
teachers were able to form a fair idea of the relationship between students
within the group, the figure of the leader within the group, how students
came to a final decision, the effectiveness of presentations during a video-
conference, and how older students were able to pass information on to
younger students.

The Vertical and Transversal CLIL project is based on peer education using
Web 2.0 tools, so evaluation and assessment also took into consideration
the quality of learning achieved by students using Google Docs and blogs.
Moreover, assessing other students’ work allows students to learn by doing.
When a student judges a peer’s outcome he or she has the opportunity to
revise what he or she learnt, to develop autonomy, and to improve higher order
thinking skills through the processes of assessing and evaluating.

Reflections on the project

As teachers, we understand that the use of some Web 2.0 tools can be very useful
in stimulating collaboration to increase the motivation and involvement of the
students. For example, the use of Google Docs was of paramount importance.
With this tool, students worked closely with each other, arriving at the pro-
duction of a common text shared within the group, always working at a distance,
interacting, exchanging ideas and eventually producing a common document.
 Using Web 2.0 Tools in CLIL 211

This would have been impossible to achieve in the traditional classroom. The
documents were then placed in PPT and illustrated through the use of the IWB.
Another positive aspect was the combination of the IWB and videoconfer-
encing through the use of Skype. Having to explain what they have learnt to
their peers, the students, with great care, did their best to prepare clear and
thorough materials. They rehearsed their presentation to be sure not to make
mistakes. This high level of involvement and effort undoubtedly contributed
to the success of the initiative. Motivation therefore played a key role because
the students had to face a new and challenging situation, impossible in the
context of the traditional classroom.
Another activity not possible in a traditional classroom was the activation
of practices of peer teaching and peer tutoring when working vertically (across
middle and high schools). These were, without doubt, the most exciting activ-
ities of the project. This being a vertical project that involved students of
different ages (4 years apart), we saw a significant interaction and a great effort
by the two groups of students to explain the topics learnt in the clearest, sim-
plest way. Both sets of students prepared materials on the cell, mitosis, meiosis
and Mendel’s Law and then explained the content to their companions. We
think they really succeeded and this fact has been very satisfying for both
teachers and students.
A final consideration concerns peer evaluation. We think it has been very
rewarding for the high school students to assess the knowledge of their middle
school companions. Preparing the test required a great deal of cooperation and
reliability in processing. The correction was accurate, the students catalogued
the errors, and prepared explanations for mistakes that were illustrated in the
last videoconference.

Selecting and adapting materials

At present, there are relatively few published materials for CLIL teaching and
so one of our project tasks was the selection and adaptation of materials. Based
on our experience, we have provided a set of criteria to serve as a point of ref-
erence for evaluating, selecting, and adapting materials which can be found
on the Internet and used as a basis for collaborative and cooperative work
through suitable Web 2.0 tools (wiki, Google Docs and so on). These criteria
can also serve as a guideline for adapting materials to meet local requirements,
as CLIL courses need to be compatible with local curriculum frameworks and,
moreover, student needs vary from year to year.
For example, in Phase 2 of the project, the teachers provided students with
some materials, in particular concerning the cell. On the Internet and in the
scientific literature there are countless papers on this topic, but you cannot
just copy and paste, you have to select and adapt them for the cognitive level
212 Fabrizio Maggi, Maurizia Cherubin and Enrique García Pascual

of the students. This may seem obvious, but it is particularly difficult, if not
impossible, to find materials that are appropriate. In order to accomplish this
task, we used the following criteria:

a. The aim and sequence of the materials should include both content and lan-
guage objectives. They may also include plans for the teaching of learning
strategies and higher order thinking skills (HOTS). In the case of the cell
materials, our content objectives focused on the learning of the main topics
concerning the cell: mitosis and meiosis. Our language objectives focused
mainly on the acquisition of a basic technical vocabulary for younger
students (Figure 12.2), on the understanding of principles and processes and
on explaining the results of a process to the older students. Our learning
strategies addressed how students acquire information. They included strat-
egies for learning how to paraphrase critical information, picture infor-
mation to promote understanding and remembering (Figure 12.4), asking
questions and making predictions about text information, and identifying
unknown words in text. We also employed strategies to help students
express themselves (Figure 12.3), write sentences and paragraphs, monitor
their work for errors, confidently approach and take tests (Figure 12.5) and
pass information to peers.
b. Materials should be appropriate to the students’ age and grade level.
c. Adequate support should be provided to compensate for gaps in the
students’ cognitive and linguistic resources. If necessary, comprehension
can be supported and reinforced through timelines, semantic webs, Venn
diagrams, maps, graphs, drawings, photos and other visuals. As shown in
Figures 12.1, 12.2, and 12.3, we employed mind maps, pictures, drawings,
and handmade diagrams to help students understand the content.
d. Textual materials should be clearly written. We chose simple and clear mate-
rials that explained thoroughly the cell and its features. In some cases we
adapted the materials.
e. Materials should provide a purpose for using the language. Students should
feel they are learning new information and language should be used as
a tool for carrying out meaningful tasks. For example, Figure 12.1 shows
students using English to organise and learn the vocabulary related to cells.
When they had fully learnt the active vocabulary, students were asked to
explain to their peers the main characteristics of a cell.
f. Activities should include multiple opportunities for working in pairs or in
small groups (collaborative learning).
g. Materials should require students to reason, solve problems, and make
decisions. There should be practice in analysing, inferring, predicting,
hypothesising.
 Using Web 2.0 Tools in CLIL 213

Adapting materials
Adapting materials is largely a matter of simplifying the language of a text
without distorting or diluting the meaning, but, unless teachers are confident
of being able to do this successfully, it might be better to choose a different text.
The aim is to make the materials more accessible by eliminating a few linguistic
features that can impede comprehension. In doing so, the teacher provides
students with a bridge to their reading linguistically more complex materials in
a specific area. This was particularly evident in Phase 5 when students had to
prepare materials on Mendel’s Law suitable for middle school students. With the
help of the English teacher they selected documents, simplified grammar (they
transformed passive forms into active forms), added a glossary, added drawings
and pictures, and produced a video to better clarify the law.

Conclusion

The services and applications of Web 2.0 can help teachers to exploit their
resources in class and help students to improve their English level. So many
resources exist that we can now choose activities specifically related to our cur-
riculum that are also related to topics of most interest to teenagers. Moreover,
most Web 2.0 tools are really user friendly and do not require highly sophisti-
cated technical competence in order to manage them.
However, there are drawbacks. We do not have enough time to surf Internet,
to find and prepare new activities and tasks for our students. Furthermore, the
new technologies do not always work so well in our schools, for instance, when
you switch on the computer, you may encounter problems and waste a lot of
time. Moreover, there are not always enough computers for all the students in
the school laboratory.
As English teachers, one of our main aims was to help students to be more
autonomous in the process of learning a foreign language while also teaching
them to develop communicative competence in English and to learn new
content. We think Web 2.0 is a tool that can help us teach English and achieve
these objectives, although it may not always be easy. However, the benefits
to students are great. In our experience, these are the skills acquired by our
students during this project:

• use a second language to pass on information;

• improve searching skills: both broad and narrow;
• develop thinking skills: analyse, evaluate, justify, deduce, hypothesise,
compare and contrast;
• use online resources to share documents and exchange information, also
using chats and videoconferences;
214 Fabrizio Maggi, Maurizia Cherubin and Enrique García Pascual

• use Web 2.0 tools to communicate effectively;

• develop relational skills;
• implement peer teaching/tutoring and peer assessment.

All of these are important transferable skills that go well beyond the
classroom.

Engagement priorities

1. What Web 2.0 tools do you currently use in your classroom? In your
experience, have they increased student motivation and participation? What
are the advantages and drawbacks for you as a teacher? For your learners?
2. In what ways do Web 2.0 tools create authentic target language use? In what
ways do they enhance content learning?
3. In addition to ways described in this chapter, what are other ways Web 2.0
tools can be used for peer assessment?
4. In what ways do Web 2.0 tools foster both autonomy and collaboration?
5. Do you think Web 2.0 will eventually replace print materials in the
classroom?

Notes
1. From McMillan resource: http://www.animalexplorers.com/AnimalExplorers/page/
clil
2. eEurope 2002 Action Plan: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/2002/
documents/archiv_EEurope2002/actionplan_En.pdf
3. The i2010 strategy was presented in the i2010 Communication in June 2005. Since
then, it has been reviewed through Annual Reports and most recently updated
through the Europe’s Digital Competitiveness Report.
4. You can find theoretical explanations and concrete examples of webquests in Isabel
Torres’s wonderful website: http://www.isabelperez.com/webquest/

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Part IV
Materials and Teacher Education
13
The Story Reading Project: Integrating
Materials Development with Language
Learning and Teaching for NNES
Teachers in Training
Bonny Tibbitts and Patricia Pashby

Introduction

The young English teacher from Korea stands in front of the classroom, a book
open to a colourful page held for the audience to see. ‘[A]nd starts kneading the
dough’1, he reads aloud. Looking up, he asks, ‘What is kneading?’ Puzzled sounds
come from the audience. He sets the book face down on the desk behind him,
rolls up his sleeves, and grinning, says, ‘Okay, stretch your arms like this!’ He
pushes the heels of his palms forward, while chanting ‘kneading the dough’. The
audience imitates his rhythmic movements and chants along, placing stress on
the first syllable in ‘kneading’ and a strong rising/falling intonation on ‘dough’.
‘Softly’, whispers the teacher, and the audience whispers the chant. ‘Loudly!’ he
shouts, as the audience screams the chant and then bursts into laughter.
This is Anderson, a participant in our four-week training programme in the
US for elementary school English teachers from South Korea. The scene took
place during his final project presentation in the last week of the programme.
Language teachers enrolled in this or similar programmes often have a need
to develop language skills while also developing language teaching skills.
Perceived deficiencies in language ability can affect a teacher’s effectiveness,
especially in the area of confidence. When teachers lack confidence, they often
hesitate to engage in activities that would benefit their language learning com-
munity (Braine, 2010; Cullen, 2002). Susan Lavender (2002: 246), in her study
on the perceptions of teachers in short, in-service programmes, found ‘teachers
consistently, and over a range of instruments, viewed language improvement as
the single most important component of their course’. At the same time, teacher
training programmes are required to address much more than language skills.

219
220 Bonny Tibbitts and Patricia Pashby

Need for
Need for Developing Greater Need for Developing
Language Teaching Confidence as English Language
Skills English Skills
Teachers

Figure 13.1 Needs of language teachers in short-term training programmes

They are expected to include teaching methodology, techniques, practice, and

reflection. Teacher educators find it challenging to address both language and
language teaching needs adequately in the very short time they have in devel-
opment programmes. Incorporating these two aims in a single project allows
trainers to address both language teaching and language learning simultan-
eously, thus saving time and allowing participants to develop some of the lan-
guage that they perceive necessary for success in their classrooms.

Context
Like many other East Asian nations, South Korea has gone through a number
of educational reforms over the past two decades aimed at improving English
language instruction, which include beginning instruction in elementary
grades with greater emphasis on oral skills (Butler, 2007). As part of in-service
training for public school elementary teachers responsible for English language
instruction, the Ministry of Education in South Korea is sending groups of
teachers for four-week sessions in the US. Before arriving, each group, varying
from 20 to 45 teachers from all over South Korea, spend six months at a Korean
national university studying English language and language teaching. The goals
set by the Ministry of Education for the culminating four-week session at a US
university are to improve the Korean English teacher’s communicative compe-
tence in the US setting and gain some practical experience teaching English.
Our participants have from one to 25 years teaching experience and come
from a wide variety of teaching settings, many of which have set curricula in
which the teachers are not able to freely choose their materials. Some teachers
teach all subjects to their students, including English, while others teach
only English. Classes are usually 45 minutes in length. Some teachers have
 The Story Reading Project 221

proprietary classrooms while others must move from room to room. We have
had participants with teaching situations as varied as a one-room school on
a small island with grades one through five in the same room and very few
resources, to large city schools with hundreds of students and many resources.
The teachers work long hours, sometimes into the evening, and seldom get
a choice as to which class they will be assigned, often changing classes each
year.
Providing training to meet the needs of such a varied group presents
numerous challenges. How do we provide valuable learning experiences for
teachers who come from such diverse situations in terms of teaching assign-
ments, freedom to choose materials, motivation level of students, and access
to resources? How do we work effectively with participants who vary in their
level of teaching experience and English skills? What materials can we use to
meet the needs of all participants? We found the solution to these challenges
in a project-based approach in which participants develop materials based on
storybooks.

Theoretical framework

Our main goal for each participant is that he or she returns to the classroom
with a greater level of confidence in both English and language teaching
skills. Four components, all driven by a materials development project based
on storybooks, work together to achieve this. First, project-based learning and
teaching (PBLT) is implemented in a materials development project, including
a final presentation demonstrating all that has been learnt. Second, commu-
nicative language teaching (CLT) is taught and modelled; participants receive
instruction through a series of workshops targeting language skills, materials
development, and teaching skills. A third component is creating autonomous
language learners by directly teaching new language skills and providing
multiple opportunities for reflection, practice, and repetition. The final

Framework Implementation

Project Based Story Reading

Learning and Project
Teaching
Communicative Materials Workshops
Language Teaching Development
Independent Practice
Language Learners
Community of Final Presentation
Teachers of Project

Figure 13.2 The structure of The Story Reading Project

222 Bonny Tibbitts and Patricia Pashby

component is community building among peers through modelling of col-

laborative teaching and effective interaction and feedback. These components
work together as layers rather than steps or separate parts.

Approaches to language teaching and language teacher training

Our participants vary in their English language proficiency, and most can
benefit from a focus on their language development. Language proficiency dir-
ectly affects language teaching, especially when there is avoidance of engaging
in communicative language with learners (Braine, 2010; Cullen, 2002). In
Lavender’s study, teachers in training reported the following activities as most
useful:

• active language production from all participants;

• work outside the classroom;
• language input towards an end;
• interim tutor feedback;
• hard work;
• a tangible, permanent outcome.
(Lavender, 2002: 245)

When thoughtfully approached, all of the above can be combined into a

materials development project for professionals that incorporates language
learning.

Project-based learning and teaching

Our teacher training programme models a project-based learning and
teaching approach. The programme curriculum is organised into a series of
workshops with activities and tasks leading to a culminating project. Stoller
(2006: 20) summarises the commonly reported benefits of PBLT for language
learners as including ‘improved language skills, content learning, real-life
skills, sustained motivation, and positive self-concepts’. Project-based learning
effectively incorporates meaningful communication, experiential learning,
individual strategy building, and a sense of accomplishment. With the focus
on the culminating product, language learning becomes incidental because
the whole project incorporates both language learning and teaching. We use
a project-based approach for instruction of both language and teaching meth-
odology because it incorporates multi-faceted learning while allowing partici-
pants to find a level of challenge that is individually appropriate.

Communicative language teaching

Within this project-based approach, our general framework is best described
as communicative language teaching (CLT). We understand this methodology
 The Story Reading Project 223

may not be congruent with the curriculum of the settings in which our partici-
pants teach, and we must ‘address how the local context contributes to affecting
the teachers’ instructional practices’ (Kamhi-Stein, 2009: 97). While CLT is
well-known in the literature, most of our participants have not experienced
it directly and have not incorporated it into their teaching style; therefore, we
find it important to give them an active experience with CLT so they can con-
sider which aspects may enhance their teaching in order to add these elements
to their teaching approach. Modelling this approach in our workshops gives
participants the chance to practise being part of a language learning community
where they can make mistakes, ask questions, critique rather than criticise, and
see the gains made as they engage in extended practice each day.
Our approach to communicative language teaching and language teacher
education is guided by learning and teaching principles described by Douglas
Brown (2007). These include: the cognitive principles of automaticity, mean-
ingful learning, intrinsic motivation, and autonomy; the socioaffective prin-
ciples of language ego, willingness to communicate, and language–culture
connection; and the linguistic principles of native language effect, interlan-
guage, and communicative competence. We make these explicit to participants
in a workshop during the first week and ask them to connect all training expe-
riences back to these and/or other principles they use to guide their teaching.

Independent learners
Also central to our approach to both language teaching and language teacher
training are our efforts towards creating self-directed language learners. Brown
(2007: 259) asserts that language teachers have a ‘mission of enabling learners to
eventually become independent of classrooms – that is, to become autonomous
learners’. Throughout the programme, we provide explicit instruction in lan-
guage learning strategies, along with time and opportunities to apply and
practise them. Participants have time to reflect on their strengths and weak-
nesses as language learners and teachers, and adjust as necessary while they
work towards successful completion of their projects. In turn, we trust that our
participants will apply this experience to the teaching skills they bring back to
their classrooms and find ways to enable their learners to develop strategies for
autonomous learning. We also hope that they apply this experience of inde-
pendent learning to their continued professional development as language
teachers, finding ways not only to continue building their English skills but
also to strengthen the knowledge and skills needed to be effective language
teachers.

Community
An excellent way to encourage and sustain lifelong learning is through peer
support. Collaborative teacher development (Johnston, 2009) effectively helps
224 Bonny Tibbitts and Patricia Pashby

teachers work together as equals to strengthen teaching and bring improve-

ments to the field in general. As strong believers in the benefits of collabor-
ation, we model teaching as a team and demonstrate how we make choices
about methodology, techniques, and materials in unrehearsed dialogues in
front of the participants. Furthermore, we consider the participants our lan-
guage teaching peers. In our workshops, we demonstrate the effectiveness of
clear, non-judgemental feedback, and we show that respect and care for our
fellow teachers worldwide allows us to be more effective.

Materials
To meet the needs of our participants, we introduce materials that have
great flexibility and can be used in a wide variety of teaching situations. We
encourage the use of supplementary materials and creating projects that will
enhance classroom experiences. Tomlinson (2010: 89) argues that in selecting
materials we must ‘prioritize the potential for engagement by [using] ... a text
or task that is likely to achieve affective and cognitive engagement’. Materials
should encourage a variety of actions, reactions, and interactions, and
stimulate creativity that allows learners to experience with their hearts and
minds. When materials tap into emotions, there can be real responses from
the learner, encouraging authentic communicative language use. For these
reasons, well-chosen storybooks are engaging materials.

Choosing storybooks
The foundation of the Story Reading Project is children’s picture books.
According to O’Donoghue and Hales (2002: 185), it is important to empower
teachers to work with authentic materials. We need to provide opportunities for
them to ‘examine authentic instances of language ... and consider themselves
as researchers of language’. We choose to use books written for native speakers
because: they have authentic sentences, providing context for vocabulary;
they have examples of language and situations illustrating the culture of the
target language; and they give us the chance to practise the target language.
Participants utilise the project to explore authentic language and culture in
storybooks.
We look for visually appealing books in which pictures represent vocabulary
in the story, and we are also careful to choose books that are culturally
enlightening and appropriate for elementary students. We choose books with
vocabulary that introduces cultural concepts, is interesting for frequency or
idiomatic reasons, and is suitable for pronunciation practice. We avoid those
with nonsense words since these represent a stumbling block for non-native
speakers. We favour books with natural, conversational rhythms, over books
that have a rhythmic aspect that would not occur in conversation or prose. We
also eliminate books that might be too long or overwhelming, for reasons such
 The Story Reading Project 225

as complexity of grammar, so that the project can be accomplished within our

programme’s timeframe.
For the project to be successful, participants must select books that are
appealing to them. We supply a large variety of books that we have pre-selected,
and participants are able to choose one with the English level and content they
want to work with. This allows individuals to decide how much they want to
challenge themselves.
Overall, this Story Reading Project is attractive to participants as it provides
intrinsic motivation by addressing participants’ language learning needs in
ways that appeal to language teachers through providing intense language
practice and production with ‘a tangible, permanent outcome’ (Lavender,
2002). The project also has significant extrinsic motivation as not only are
participants expected to complete a worthwhile project, but must also perform
it well for an audience of peers. In the end, they take home with them: a port-
folio of materials (storybook, lesson plans, and support materials) developed
during the programme that they can potentially use immediately in their
classrooms; the ability to read and interact with materials in a fluent manner;
and peer feedback as to how to make the materials work in their classrooms.

The training programme

Our training programme is housed in the American English Institute at the

University of Oregon. We are staffed with a director, teacher training faculty,
tutors, and activity assistants. Starting in 2007, we began offering four-week
training sessions which included 80 hours of instruction and 40 hours of obser-
vation and skills practice. The programme consists of workshops and lectures
on teaching methods, site visits, class observations, English communication,
fluency, discussion, and reflection. Following is a description of how we incor-
porated all of these elements into a project addressing language competence
within a methodology course.

The Story Reading Project

In the Story Reading Project, participants: (1) select a storybook from among
books that have been carefully chosen for their language development pos-
sibilities; (2) learn to read it with appropriate pronunciation and prosody;
(3) develop parts of the storybook for target students, such as characters,
storyline, vocabulary, idioms, or grammar; (4) gather or create realia mate-
rials to support teaching the book in a classroom; and (5) devise a lesson plan
exhibiting communicative language teaching principles. After three weeks of
workshops, practice sessions, and peer input, the participants conduct their
lessons for each other and for invited teachers from our English programme.
This lesson must include a dramatic reading of the storybook which engages
226 Bonny Tibbitts and Patricia Pashby

the audience and an interactive lesson using materials developed to support

the language learning objectives.
The first few days of the training programme are filled with activities aimed
at creating a collaborative atmosphere and an understanding of the materials
development project. The primary goal is to give enough background about
the framework so that participants have direction for their projects, a clear
understanding of what is expected of them, and also an understanding of what
they will gain by participating fully. Workshops in the first two days cover: a
review of communicative language teaching; a description and demonstration
of a complete project and samples of past projects; a workshop on dramatic
reading and reasons for reading aloud; and beginning workshops on pronun-
ciation and prosody.

Motivation for a reading project

Through a series of workshops on building pronunciation skills, developing
principled lessons and activities for the storybook reading materials, and prac-
tising teaching these materials, the Story Reading Project focuses on instructing
language teachers to read aloud a children’s storybook. A learner’s ability to read
quickly and accurately with correct pronunciation and prosody usually increases
his or her comprehension. Motivated fluent readers can concentrate on meaning
instead of decoding (National Reading Panel, 2000). Our participants read aloud
so that we can directly address their pronunciation, phrasing and intonation.2
In addition to addressing oral production, the Story Reading Project aims
to increase fluency through practice. Practising reading a storybook several
times strengthens skills in decoding, pronunciation. and expressive reading.
Multiple repetitions of the text increase the chance for language learners to
move beyond the initial efforts required for decoding and pronunciation to
more fluent speech and reading, because these skills increase the connection
between the written and spoken word. The National Reading Panel (2000:
28) reports: ‘Repeated and monitored oral reading improves reading fluency
and overall reading achievement.’ The project workshops and practice sessions
provide the tools and feedback for monitoring repeated reading. In her research
brief on reading fluency, Penner-Wilger (2008: 6) states, ‘the [repeated] practice
generalized to new passages’, so practising a reading passage should have a
long-term effect.
Another effective method for increasing reading fluency is listening to
fluent reading (Rasinski, 1989). Participants are encouraged to practise outside
of workshops, listen to each other, and to find fluent models to read their
stories aloud. More importantly, the project trains participants to be models
for their own students.
The most important effects of the project become evident in the final pres-
entations, where we see well-rehearsed, confident teachers reading aloud in
 The Story Reading Project 227

English in front of their peers. This presentation is a concrete way for the
participants to bring together all the different parts of the programme –
teaching methodology, reading aloud, materials, and lesson plans they have
developed – while providing extrinsic motivation to improve oral production,
pushing participants to take full advantage of the workshops and the practice
schedule set up for them. It also serves as an event for this community of peers
to recognise the accomplishments of each teacher.

Workshop overview
The Story Reading Project is conducted through a series of workshops that
develop participants’ understanding of the story material and their ability to
read it aloud. Workshops cover pronunciation, expressive reading, vocabulary
development, and understanding of cultural and other meaning. All workshops
address the participants’ language needs while exploring a particular focus in
language teaching and learning. By the end of the programme the participants
have developed well-rehearsed classroom activities with accompanying learner
exercises and materials.
All workshops are experiential in nature so that the participants can under-
stand what their students might experience from similar activities, and they
illustrate materials and methods that can be used by participants to develop
their projects. Workshop leaders work within the CLT approach, creating a
safe environment for participants to explore not only workshop content, but
also their own language learning and teaching. A variety of formations for
group work and debriefing activities are used. Whenever possible, the leaders
engage in collaborative teaching to illustrate respectful and supportive team
teaching. The participants are also given multiple opportunities for reflection
about the ways in which the presentation, ideas, and content of workshops can
be adapted for their projects and for their individual teaching and learning
situations.
Because the workshops and project serve the dual purposes of training
teachers and of enhancing language skills, the goals of the workshops can be
seen from two points of view. Participants experience the workshops as both
language learners and teachers, so a goal such as choosing vocabulary from a
story can be seen as both a teaching and a language learning skill. Much the
same is true of the reflection activities. Participants may find that they have
more to learn from reflecting as teachers than as learners, or vice versa. It is
important that workshop leaders remain aware of this duality and design work-
shops so that both experiences are available to the participants. In keeping
with the CLT approach, a skilled workshop leader, by encouraging partici-
pation and communication, can help participants use their own experiences
and background to gain from the workshop. Participants often find they learn
far more than language teaching concepts because they are communicating in
228 Bonny Tibbitts and Patricia Pashby

the target language about concepts that they have never discussed before, or
only discussed in their first language.
The workshops within our training programme most directly related to the
Story Reading Project are Dramatic Reading, Realia, Story Comprehension,
Reading Expression, Vocabulary, and four pronunciation workshops.3 Each is
two hours in length. Sequencing these workshops generally follows the order
we provide here. Most important is that the first pronunciation workshop (on
stress, rhythm and intonation) should come before the Reading Expression
Workshop. Below is a description of two workshops giving a general idea of
how we develop the project. For each, we describe a brief rationale, goals, a
summary of the content and process, reflection questions and follow-up
assignments.

The Dramatic Reading Workshop – Rationale

Reading aloud dramatically can engage people, young and old, in the written
word. This workshop demonstrates how dramatic reading is a multi-sensory
activity that can be used in language classes. Overall, the workshop is an
example of what participants are expected to achieve with their individual
reading projects: a dramatic reading with one or more language elements devel-
oped into activities that encourage student participation and learning.

Goals
The participants will leave with these insights:

• Multi-sensory lessons are fun; dramatic reading engages sight and hearing
but can also engage taste, smell and touch.
• Dramatic reading is often more engaging than ‘normal’ reading.
• Language learners can rely on their ‘community’ and discuss and analyse
ideas before a teacher tells them something.
• Students learn from their own insights.
• Demonstration and modelling are useful teaching tools.
• Repetition works.

Content and process

Using three or four stories presented in various ways, the workshop illustrates
elements of dramatic reading:

• use of sounds (instruments, voice, hands);

• use of motions (facial expressions, natural gestures, planned movements to
add audience interaction and mark changes and actions in story);
• use of setting (classroom arrangement, ways of holding and showing book,
other realia);
 The Story Reading Project 229

• use of voice (intonation, making sounds, changing voices for different

characters);
• audience awareness;
• use of pacing (pauses, speed, rhythm).

Participants engage as learners in stories being read aloud. Activities encourage

multiple verbal repetition, active listening to multiple repetitions of target
phrases and materials, discriminating listening for particular details, repro-
ducing particular lexical items, and responding to visual and verbal cues.
At the end of the workshop, the Story Reading Project is introduced in
detail and participants select a children’s book to work with for the duration
of the training. Some participants are unsatisfied with the choices available.
We use this as a ‘teachable moment’, sharing our own criteria for selecting
books appropriate for EFL environments. We have found that using our cri-
teria, participants are able to find books on their own.

Reflective questions
What is dramatic reading? What dramatic reading techniques have you used
in your classrooms? What do students gain from dramatic reading? What did
you learn from the workshop? What book did you choose and why? What parts
of your textbook or curriculum can be supported by the story you are working
with?

Assignment
Participants are asked to read their story at least three times before the next
day. We ask participants to bring their storybooks, and any materials they are
working on, to all class meetings and workshops in order to use them in the
creation of their materials portfolio. We suggest they make a photocopy of
their storybooks, or type them out to use for taking notes in workshops.

Pronunciation workshop 1: stress, rhythm, and intonation – rationale

Pronunciation needs vary among groups of learners but most face challenges
at both the segmental and suprasegmental levels (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010).
Pronunciation is a teachable skill, and ‘comprehensibility’ and ‘intelligibility’
rather than native-like pronunciation are reasonable goals for instruction
(Derwing, 2010).

Goals
The participants will: develop a deeper understanding of stress, rhythm, and
intonation of English; become aware of gaps in their own production; identify
areas of desired improvement; and learn techniques and strategies to help them
reach their goals. Furthermore, they will experience a range of pronunciation
230 Bonny Tibbitts and Patricia Pashby

instruction techniques that may be adaptable to their teaching, including: an

overview of pronunciation instruction as it relates to English as an international
language (Jenkins, 2007); inductive techniques for introducing pronunciation
points, drills and exercises for initially practising a point; connecting lan-
guage in pronunciation lessons to real world and other meaningful contexts;
and helping learners develop strategies for improving their pronunciation as
autonomous learners.

Content and process

In this workshop, participants complete the following:

• listen to language examples;

• identify patterns and rules to describe these patterns;
• practice repeating examples using drills;
• apply rules to new examples;
• practise the language point in a longer discourse.

Reflective questions
Give an overview of the process and types of activities used in this workshop.
Which steps (and in what sequence) might be most effective for your learners?
Which activities might you adapt for your learners? What other activities would
you add? What other pronunciation points are central to helping your target
learners reach their goals? What techniques/strategies would be most appro-
priate for teaching these to them? How can you help your students become
autonomous learners of English pronunciation? What materials are you adding
to your portfolio based on this pronunciation workshop?

Assignment
Following the same sequence used to complete exercises during the workshop,
participants mark a photocopy of their storybooks by drawing lines between
rhythm groups, underlining content words, and drawing pitch lines over
focus words. They practise reading it aloud, and then record it, listen to their
recording, rerecord if necessary, and submit final recordings to workshop
leaders for feedback. Participants also design one or more pronunciation activ-
ities for their materials portfolio.

Practice
Meaningful practice is key to providing participants with the repetition necessary
to automatise language and skills that they are learning (Brown, 2007: 64–66).
The Story Reading Project has a natural context for repetition and practice
built into it, so that, as each language learning or teaching issue is addressed,
the participants are required to return to their storybooks and re-encounter
 The Story Reading Project 231

the materials with new tools and the need to repeat the words, phrases, and
sentences. Each time a concept or technique is introduced for either learners or
teachers, we explore how it will affect the storybook reading and project.
Other workshops provide participants with intense structured and unstruc-
tured practice of the target language, specifically in oral skills with a focus on
pronunciation. Participants practise both in and out of class, sometimes indi-
vidually and other times with tutors, fellow participants, or with instructors.
Participants are often inspired by their improvement and find interesting ways
to practise. For example, some participants use video to record their instructors
or tutors reading the storybooks, and then listen to this recording and imitate
the pronunciation and prosody of native speakers.

Final presentation
In the last week of the programme, participants conduct 20-minute lessons
in which they read their stories using all they have learnt. Before this, each
participant has a 20-minute session with a trainer, who listens to the reading
and gives feedback on pronunciation, intonation, expression, and pacing. The
participants also bring their lesson plans and support materials which the
trainer reviews, offering direction as needed.
Participants are encouraged to develop formal lesson plans with objectives
and activities reflecting principled language teaching and appropriate use of
storybook materials. The storybook can be used at various stages in a learning
cycle: it can be used to introduce a concept; reinforce a concept; recycle
vocabulary and ideas; or to provide a rewarding experience for the learners.
Throughout, the teacher is responsible for shaping learners’ interactions with
materials, and can use the experience to teach language specifically or to aim
for more general comprehension. Because of the flexibility these materials
offer, the project allows participants to develop materials and lessons in any
number of ways as long as the final product incorporates the story reading,
which is the first requirement of the presentation. The second requirement of
the presentation is that the lesson should aim for maximum audience partici-
pation during the reading of the storybook. Finally, it is expected that lesson
plans will show evidence of principled, communicative language teaching,
and reflect the application of what was learnt in the programme as appropriate
for the materials they are developing.
On the day of the presentation, participants are divided into ‘classes’ of about
ten participants. As a teacher participant presents, his or her fellow partici-
pants act as students. There is also a small audience of observers, including
programme instructors, faculty in our intensive English programme, and inter-
ested university graduate students.
This brings us back to Anderson, introduced at the beginning of the
chapter. In his final presentation, Anderson introduces materials that he
232 Bonny Tibbitts and Patricia Pashby

has developed for the storybook Pete’s a Pizza. Anderson’s lesson includes
a dramatic reading of the story during which students demonstrate active
listening by chanting phrases from the book and learning accompanying
actions for key vocabulary. He shows a short video on making pizza, which
illustrates and recycles the vocabulary used in his storybook. He focuses on
the pronunciation of vocalic /r/ followed by /l/ in words such as ‘twirling’.
He has students pantomime making a pizza with various toppings. He brings
in art materials to support a language activity in which students freely use
the vocabulary of the lesson. Anderson’s lesson is reflective of the overall
creativity of the groups of teachers we work with. They have developed
everything from vocabulary card games, to video interviews about pertinent
themes, to songs using phrases from the storybooks, to TPR activities – their
choices influenced by the language and themes in their storybook and the
needs of their target learners.

Feedback
It is imperative to design feedback that is communicative and encouraging.
Brown (2007: 472) argues that effective assessment of language learning
involves ‘authentic, interesting, appropriately challenging ... learning oppor-
tunities designed for learners’ best performances and for optimal feedback’. In
communicative language teaching, evaluation of learners’ progress should take
place through tasks that are interactive and meaningful.
In all our workshops, we demonstrate and encourage efforts at effective
feedback: encouraging; noting what is effective, useful, fun, and inspiring; and
offering suggestions or ideas for future directions. After the final presentation
each presenter elicits comments. Giving effective feedback is the final task
participants engage in. A faculty leader moderates, helping find ways to phrase
a comment so that it is a critique rather than a criticism, rephrasing comments
and modelling appropriate interaction between peers. The participants offer
their comments verbally, and sometimes in writing; the faculty leader always
gives verbal comments as well as written comments. These presentations are
filmed for self-evaluation purposes.

Implications

The time constraints placed on short-term training programmes poses prob-

lems for teachers needing help with both language and teaching skills. The
challenge of helping teachers develop confidence in their language abilities
while training them in teaching skills in such programmes led us to develop
a flexible project addressing the needs of both participants and educators.
Although the project we describe in this chapter is the version we use in a
four-week, fully staffed programme in the US, this approach is highly adaptable
 The Story Reading Project 233

to a variety of settings, cultures, target language proficiency levels of partici-

pants, grade levels, final products, and materials developed.
For example, we use a similar approach with a two-week programme in South
Korea, working with secondary school teachers who have vastly divergent
English language abilities. We replace the storybooks with readers’ theatre
because it is more age appropriate for those teaching middle and high school
students. In readers’ theatre, learners dramatically perform a play in small
groups while holding and reading from scripts. Props, minimal costuming, and
sets (including lighting, music) can be used to add theatrical effect. Readers’
theatre engages learners in a context that helps them develop in all skill areas
while engaging in real communication (Lengeling, 1996). Furthermore, it works
well for groups with differing proficiency levels and provides all participants
with experiences that are ‘cognitively challenging, socioculturally rewarding,
and affectively appealing’ (Liu, 2000: 360).
Like our storybook project, participants apply what they are learning in the
workshops to their final project, in this case a performance of the readers’ theatre
script. The readers’ theatre workshops vary from the storybook workshops in
topic and number; workshops include pronunciation, dramatic and expressive
reading, and vocabulary development with the focus on a group production.
Rather than developing a lesson plan to take back to their classroom, the partic-
ipants experience the full process of readers’ theatre as language learners.
Before the final presentation, each performance group is assigned a rehearsal
time and a ‘coach’ (a faculty trainer) who provides feedback on pronunciation,
voice, pacing, and expression. For the culminating event, all participants
attend and serve as audience for each group’s performance. For readers’ theatre,
the audience’s reaction during the performance is the feedback. Do they laugh?
Groan? Scream? In appropriate places? This is the measure of communicative
success for the performers. We also film the plays so participants can view their
performances.
Readers’ theatre was also successful in a longer eight-week programme with
Brazilian secondary teachers who worked with the same scripts as the Korean
teachers in the two-week programme, but experienced more workshops and the
use of technology for recording and feedback. As one participant commented,
‘I’m sure that it [readers’ theatre] can be adapted to our students and they’d
certainly benefit from that as much as we did. I loved it! It’s a great way to have
fun and practice our pronunciation.’

Conclusion

After completing the Storybook Reading Project, participants in our training

programmes have portfolios of materials supporting their storybooks and
knowledge of how to continue developing their own supplemental materials
234 Bonny Tibbitts and Patricia Pashby

in the future. They also have an overwhelmingly positive response to the

experience. The feedback we receive often focuses on participants’ perceptions
of significant language development (specifically in areas of vocabulary and
pronunciation); learning within a positive atmosphere; feeling motivated to
work hard; facing a challenging project but building confidence through scaf-
folded tasks while creating concrete products; and pleasure in interacting posi-
tively and intensely with colleagues. ‘It was one of the most interesting ways
of having fun and learning all together’, commented one of our participants.
‘I have never participated of such interesting and simple strategy to practise
vocabulary, pronunciation and intonation’, wrote another. ‘When doing it we
integrate speaking, reading, listening and writing. We were able to practise
more, developing confidence and fluency, correct some pronunciation and
intonation. We had a great time together!’ Participants also comment on how
much they appreciate the freedom to play with expression and intonation, and
how much they enjoyed watching others present.
In other words, they have experienced communicative language learning. Our
intent is to inspire them to find ways to bring this experience to learners in their
classes. Nothing is more satisfying, however, than our participants’ comments
on how much this activity affects their confidence, which is also apparent in
their presentations and the way they elicit and discuss the feedback they receive.
‘Not only did it provide us with the opportunity to practise and improve our
pronunciation, but also to become more aware of certain pronunciation issues
that we should work on and are likely to pass unnoticed in day to day conver-
sation.’ The Story Reading Project gives these participants the tools and confi-
dence to work on their own language skills and those of their students.

Engagement priorities

1. The approach described in this chapter recommends using storybooks for

elementary school teachers and readers’ theatre for secondary teachers as
the texts around which participants develop materials for their classes. What
are the strengths and weaknesses of these materials? What other types of
texts might be successful?
2. Using and developing materials that are not part of the established curricula
is challenging for teachers, but can also provide opportunities to under-
stand how classroom materials can be supplemented and enhanced. What
criteria might you consider when choosing and developing materials for a
language class? How could you make supplemental materials work in any
given curriculum?
3. The authors discuss briefly their goal of creating a community of lan-
guage teaching peers. What are the benefits of this type of community for
 The Story Reading Project 235

understanding, using and creating materials? What steps could you take to
create a support system among teachers?
4. The Story Reading Project gives many opportunities to use materials to
practise and repeat target language. What materials, projects and/or activ-
ities can you think of that incorporate this kind of practice?

Notes
1. Pete’s A Pizza by William Steig (2004).
2. The evidence here is based on native speakers learning to read their first language.
At this time, we are not aware of research which has separated out ELLs and docu-
mented how reading aloud affects their oral language production and reading com-
prehension. The Story Reading Project has been developed over several years and
programmes and, to date, anecdotal evidence is overwhelming for improved oral pro-
duction, increased reading fluency and confidence in language use.
3. Additional workshops conducted concurrently with the Story Reading Project work-
shops focus on, among other topics, history of language teaching, classroom man-
agement, reading strategies, creative writing, oral skills activities, and grammar
games.

References
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Development. New York: Routledge.
Brown, H. D. (2007). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy,
3rd Edition. White Plains, NY: Pearson Longman.
Butler, Y. G. (2007). How are nonnative-English-speaking teachers perceived by young
learners? TESOL Quarterly, 41(4): 731–755.
Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, B., Goodwin, J. and Griner, B. (2010). Teaching Pronunciation:
A Course Book and Reference Guide, 2nd Edition. New York: Cambridge University
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Cullen, R. (2002). The use of lesson transcripts for developing teachers’ classroom lan-
guage. In Trappes-Lomax, H. and Ferguson, G. (eds), Language in Language Teacher
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Derwing, T. M. (2010). Utopian goals for pronunciation teaching. In Levis, J. and LeVelle,
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Jenkins, J. (2007). English as a Lingua Franca: Attitude and Identity. Oxford: Oxford
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Kamhi-Stein, L. (2009). Teacher preparation and nonnative English-speaking educators.
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Education. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 91–101.
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Lavender, S. (2002). Towards a framework for language improvement within short

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gov/forum/vols/vol34/no3/p84.htm [Accessed 31/3/12].
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Teacher Education. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 173–186.
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downloads/other/acad-read/fluency_research.pdf [Accessed 31/3/12].
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14
Teaching Pre-service EFL Teachers to
Analyse and Adapt Published Materials:
An Experience from Brazil
Eliane H. Augusto-Navarro, Luciana C. de Oliveira and Denise M. de
Abreu-e-Lima

Introduction

An important component of teacher education is preparing pre-service teachers

to understand the theory of language as well as the principles of teaching-
learning that underlie the textbooks they will use. This comprehension may
lead to better preparation for teachers to critically evaluate teaching materials
so that they can adapt them effectively to the needs and wants of their students,
as proposed by Hutchinson and Waters (1987). However, as pointed out by
Harwood (2010), little, if any, attention seems to be given to this important
aspect in ESL/EFL teacher education programmes. As a consequence, many
teachers tend to be consumers of appealing-looking textbooks without being
aware that there are several important considerations to take into account
before deciding on teaching materials, especially: who one’s target students
are; what they need or are interested in regarding their target language; how
much time they have to reach their primary goals.
This gap in teacher education seems to be directly related to the history of
second/foreign language (SL/FL) teaching materials as a field of study. In his
recent state-of-the-art article on materials development for language learning
and teaching, Tomlinson (2012: 144) states: ‘Given how important language
learning materials are, it is surprising how little attention they have received
until recently in the literature in applied linguistics.’ He goes on to comment
that only in the mid-1990s did materials development begin to receive atten-
tion as a field.
Teaching materials serve a crucial role in organising, and hopefully stimu-
lating and facilitating, the teaching-learning process. Based on this consid-
eration and aligned with our observations of teacher candidates presenting
their teaching practice units without a clear rationale, we realised that there

237
238 Eliane H. Augusto-Navarro, Luciana C. de Oliveira and Denise M. de Abreu-e-Lima

should be a course in our EFL undergraduate teacher education programme

to deal specifically with EFL teaching materials analysis. In this chapter we
describe how we have organised and delivered a course to prepare EFL teachers
to make more informed choices (Larsen-Freeman, 1983) in relation to adopting,
adapting, and designing EFL teaching materials. The course ‘Evaluation and
Design of Teaching Materials in EFL’ was created in 2007 with the main goals
of giving teacher candidates the opportunity to:

• study teaching materials from a theoretical and practical perspective;

• recognise methodological thoughts and approaches underlying textbooks;
• design instruments of needs/wants analysis and understand results from
them, considering consequent adaptions that should be made in com-
mercial textbook activities;
• design tailor-made teaching activities based on a variety of resources (espe-
cially real life-like ones);
• analyse teaching materials through written and oral presentations;
• evaluate and discuss teaching material analysis proposed by colleagues,
reflecting on reasons for choosing given teaching materials and activities.

The course introduces some theoretical concepts about teaching materials and
contemporary views of grammar teaching-learning in ESL/EFL, as this topic is
constantly being raised as a concern among our teacher candidates. Bringing
theoretical studies and opportunities for reflection about their own practice
has proved very fruitful and, as stated by Graves (1996: 2):

Helping teachers understand how to make use of their own experience as well
the theories of others raises questions about the relationship between theory
and practice, which is a fundamental question for teacher educators.

Teaching context

The Brazilian context of pre-service language teacher education has common

characteristics with other global contexts as well as some unique features. One
of the common characteristics is the need to provide effective preparation to
develop pre-service teachers’ language proficiency in the language they will
eventually teach. A unique feature in Brazil relates to how teacher candidates
are admitted into language teacher education programmes. Upon graduation
from high school, students take entrance exams in order to be admitted to
undergraduate programmes. Different universities give different entrance
exams and public universities receive the highest number of candidates because
they offer high quality education free of charge. Candidates applying to these
universities may therefore apply for a less popular degree, such as Language
 Teaching Pre-service EFL Teachers 239

Teacher Education, rather than their preferred but more popular choice, such
as Law or Journalism, where there is more competition. Although most candi-
dates do want to be teachers, there may be some students who simply want to
get a degree from a high quality university, even when the career is not the one
they had planned to follow. Some subsequently fall in love with teaching and
go on to seek a career in education, while others do not get so involved with
the objectives of the programme and end up working in areas outside teaching
where language knowledge is important. Many language teacher education
programmes, specifically the ones that certify teachers of English as a foreign
language (EFL), teach English in the same way one would teach students who
want to learn the language for any other purpose, such as tourism or business,
or for general communication purposes. The fact that these programmes are
teaching the language for future teachers has been neglected (see Abreu-e-
Lima, de Oliveira and Augusto-Navarro, 2008 for a more detailed description
of these issues).
The five-year language teacher education programme ‘Languages and
Literatures’ certifies Portuguese (L1) and EFL teachers in Brazil at the Federal
University of São Carlos (UFSCar), a public university in the central part of the
state of São Paulo. The university is recognised as an excellent higher education
centre and receives students from all over the country, but mostly from the
state of São Paulo.
The Department of Languages and Literatures at UFSCar has provided lan-
guage support for other undergraduate and graduate programmes at the uni-
versity since the 1970s and the programme on Language and Literature Teacher
Education (Letras, as it is called in Brazil) was established in 1996. Today, besides
Letras, the department offers a bachelor’s degree in Linguistics and is connected
to a graduate programme in Linguistics, created in 2005, and another one in
Literature, created in 2011. The goal of the Language and Literature under-
graduate programme is to prepare students to be teachers of both language and
literature. The programme certifies teachers to teach Portuguese and offers two
tracks, English and Spanish. Students who are on the English language track
will have a degree that will certify them to teach Brazilian Portuguese as a first
language, English as a foreign language, Portuguese/Brazilian literature, and
English/North American literature. Some of our students have never taught
while others are in-service teachers. While one goal of the English programme
is to develop student proficiency in English so that they can work as English
teachers, more importantly, professors working in this programme are con-
scious that they are preparing future teachers of the language, and as a conse-
quence, pedagogical issues are a major concern.
Because language pedagogy is a key component of our programme, a course
focusing on evaluating, adapting, and designing teaching materials is par-
ticularly relevant for practising and future EFL teachers. The context for the
240 Eliane H. Augusto-Navarro, Luciana C. de Oliveira and Denise M. de Abreu-e-Lima

experience reported in this chapter is the elective course ‘Evaluation and Design
of Teaching Materials in EFL.’ The average number of students in a regular lan-
guage class is 20, but in these elective classes the tendency is to have groups of
five to 12 students, as in the course described here. Since the class is elective,
teacher candidates make the choice based on their motivation to study teaching
materials. This course is offered to prospective EFL teachers who are at least on
their third year in the five-year Language and Literature programme, whose
ages range from 19 to 25 years. The total amount of time for the class is 60
hours and there are two meetings a week throughout the semester (generally
March to June). Most of the teacher candidates who take it have at least some
teaching experience, either in private language institutes (extra-curricular
courses that charge a fee for EFL classes and hire undergraduate and graduate
students as teachers) and/or through university outreach programmes.

Theoretical framework

Among the various aspects involved in language teaching, and consequently in

learning to teach, analysing teaching materials is a task that directly involves
many others. As discussed by Tomlinson (2010, 2011), decisions about choosing
or designing teaching materials should be based on principles and what factors
teachers believe will affect the learning of their students, as well as why and
how these should be considered in the teaching materials. He exemplifies this
by listing his own basic learning principles (Tomlinson, 2011: 7): (1) learners
should be ‘exposed to rich, meaningful and comprehensible input’; (2) ‘to
maximize their exposure to language in use’ learners need to be affectively
and cognitively engaged; (3) ‘learners who achieve positive affect are much
more likely to achieve communicative competence’; (4) language learners ‘can
benefit from using those mental resources which they typically utilise when
acquiring and using their L1’; (5) ‘language learners can benefit from noticing
salient features of the input and from discovering how they are used’; and
(6) ‘learners need opportunities to use language to try to achieve communi-
cative purposes’.
Having the principles presented by Tomlinson as an example, we can under-
stand that an interaction between theories, combined with reflection about
one’s own practice will determine one’s learning (and resulting teaching)
principles. We can, for instance, relate the principles listed by Tomlinson to
Krashen’s input hypothesis (1985), Schmidt’s noticing hypothesis (1990) and
Swain’s output hypothesis (1993), among others.
We would argue that a key aspect of teacher education is to provide teacher
candidates with opportunities to: (1) study key theories in language learning,
so that they can form foundations for developing their choices; (2) identify how
theories are represented in teaching materials, to support them in establishing
 Teaching Pre-service EFL Teachers 241

awareness of how theories are represented in practical activities; and (3) reflect
on how effective the analysed materials might or might not be for a given
group of learners, so that they become aware that contextual factors should be
carefully considered.
Tomlinson (2010: 97) advocates an important concept: ‘The materials need
to be written in such a way that the teacher can make use of them as a resource
and not have to follow them as a script.’ However, even if a given material
is designed in this particular way, if the teacher who adopts it has not been
educated to understand this principle, or has not been given the opportunity
to reflect on when, why, and how to proceed with necessary adaptations and
additions, the author’s work might be in vain.
In addition to the importance of educating teachers to analyse teaching
materials is the idea that, as pointed out by Harwood (2010: 4), ‘even well-
known textbook writers concede [that] no pre-prepared materials can ever
meet the needs of any given class precisely; some level of adaptation will
be necessary’. However, teachers are not naturally gifted with being able to
perform such desirable adaptations. Experience will contribute to this task, but
a smoother, shorter, and more appropriate path towards principled decisions
may be constructed through opportunities for theoretical and practical reflec-
tions throughout the teacher education process.
The range of factors to consider in teaching materials for language learning
is far from limited and the task of preparing teachers to analyse or evaluate
them is neither simple nor straightforward. Among the many issues raised
by Tomlinson (2012) are: evaluation (predictive and retrospective); criteria
(general – essential features of any good teaching-learning material – and spe-
cific – context-related criteria); validity (interaction between psychological,
pedagogical, process, and content), among others. Nevertheless, no matter how
complex the many aspects involved in learning to teach can be, teacher educa-
tors have to choose a starting point, also making principled decisions about
how to approach each subject. Regarding teaching materials, we would say that
the starting point should be making both prospective and practising teachers
aware that, as pointed out by Graves (1996: 5), when discussing course design:
‘There is no set procedure to follow that will guarantee a successful course
because each teacher and each teacher’s situation is different. Put another
way, there is no answer to give, but there is an answer to find.’ Therefore it is
essential to help teacher candidates to be aware that they should look for their
own answers regarding appropriate practices in each of their contexts.
It is widely recognised that we tend to repeat the same practices we have
undergone as learners, so teachers who used to have classes where their teachers
would consistently follow textbooks may tend to do the same. However, Borg
(2003) claims that although student teachers’ individual experiences have
an important role to play in their practice, ‘formal education will contribute
242 Eliane H. Augusto-Navarro, Luciana C. de Oliveira and Denise M. de Abreu-e-Lima

to their cognition and practices, especially if previous cognition is revisited’.

Giving teachers the opportunity to reflect on which teaching-learning prac-
tices they believe to be effective, and requiring them to give supporting theor-
etical and practical reasons for their choices, is a possible way to revisit beliefs
and prepare them for critical reflection.
While we, as teacher educators, cannot tell prospective teachers which are
the best practices, we can certainly provide them with the tools to explore
possibilities that are based on insightful reasons and are not merely intuitive.
Respecting learners’ profiles and maximising learning possibilities in each
environment is what responsible teaching is about.

A course to prepare teacher candidates to reflect on

EFL teaching materials

In the course ‘Evaluation and Design of Teaching Materials in EFL,’ teacher candi-
dates are introduced to basic concepts underlying teaching materials. They read
and discuss questions regarding what they understand by language, how they
think languages are learnt, and the importance of considering their potential
target groups and students’ backgrounds, interests, needs, and teaching-learning
contexts. Considering the many aspects involved in teaching materials, and
based on the assumption that these teacher candidates should have a clear focus
to relate theory to practice, we have chosen to prepare them to consider how
grammar is approached in different teaching materials and why.
We have selected grammar as the focus for analysis because we share Larsen-
Freeman’s (2003: 10) point that ‘it [grammar] is the vortex around which many
controversies in language teaching have swirled’. In addition, given the con-
stant debate around the question of whether (and how) to focus on form in
language classes, grammar is a topic that teacher candidates tend to be more
apt, or at least willing, to discuss. Grammar constitutes a rich topic for raising
teacher candidates’ awareness and preparing them to revisit preconceived
concepts in the light of the relationship between theory and practice. However,
it is important to note that although the focus is on grammar, the analysis and
reflection skills that these prospective teachers develop can help them make
principled decisions about how to teach other parts of a textbook as well.

Course description
The course is developed through a sequenced combination of reading and
discussing theories of language. During the last third of the 60-hour long
course, teacher candidates work on their final assignment, preparing and
presenting a critical analysis of a textbook or course pack. They can choose
the materials they want to analyse based on their previous experience with, or
preference for, a target group of learners.
 Teaching Pre-service EFL Teachers 243

In this section, we present a description and comments about how the course
unfolds. The sequence is as follows:

a. eliciting teacher candidates’ views on teaching materials and grammar;

b. preparing students for individual reading of theoretical texts and writing of
main points based on guiding questions provided by the teacher educator;
c. providing opportunities for pair work to share understandings and doubts;
d. conducting whole class discussions about theory comprehension and prac-
tical applications for teaching (materials and practice);
e. requiring and assisting teacher candidates to perform and present their
teaching material analysis and their proposals for desirable adaptations;
f. offering peer and tutor feedback on the analysis and presentation;
g. recording teacher candidates’ points of view at the end of the process to give
them an explicit opportunity for reflection on their concepts, and to provide
teacher educators with elements to review and enrich their practice.

Raising teacher candidates’ awareness of teaching materials and grammar

Teacher candidates’ points of view regarding grammar in EFL and teaching
materials are addressed at two points during the course, in a pre- and post-
interview. The first is prior to their reading of the indicated theoretical texts
and the second is upon the conclusion of the course1. The first interview has
been developed with the purpose of identifying the teacher candidates’ under-
standing of language, language learning, grammar and its role in language
teaching-learning, and teaching materials. This gives the candidates an oppor-
tunity to reflect on the issues and the teacher educator has some information
to consider in the development of the course. It provides the opportunity for
considering previous beliefs, which is likely to make the theoretical study more
effective, as suggested by Borg (2003).
The first course interview repeatedly reveals that there is no common view
of the value of explicit grammar instruction among teacher candidates. At the
same time, even the ones who recognise the value of studying grammar in EFL
do not seem to be familiar with those theoretical views of grammar instruction
that see it as a natural part of communication. Often, our prospective teachers
do not see the possibilities for integrating grammar and communication before
they take this course.

Reading theoretical texts and writing a summary of main points

At the beginning of the course theoretical perspectives related to teaching
materials are discussed, based on Tomlinson, Dat, Masuhara, and Rubdy (2001).
More recently texts from Harwood’s (2010) book have been added, including
Tomlinson’s (2010) text about principles for effective materials development.
However, the central point of discussion and analysis in this course is how
244 Eliane H. Augusto-Navarro, Luciana C. de Oliveira and Denise M. de Abreu-e-Lima

grammar is defined in theoretical studies that defend the integration of focus

on form with communication.
Larsen-Freeman (2003) and Batstone (1994) form the theoretical basis for
introducing the theory of grammar in our classes. We try to bear in mind
the end result of producing practical teaching materials out of the concept
of grammaring, a term which Larsen-Freeman coined to represent grammar’s
dynamism and the fact that mastering it is a concurrent skill. This term is
related to Batstone’s proposal of filling the critical gap between product and
process perspectives in grammar teaching with a complementary and inte-
grated approach, which he calls teaching grammar as skill.
Students receive some guiding questions prior to their reading of the texts,
and they have to write a summary of the main points at each reading. They must
bring their summary to refer to during class discussions. Typically they read
two chapters a week (one after each class), and the sequence is Harwood (2010),
Tomlinson et al. (2001), Tomlinson (2010), Batstone (1994), and Larsen-Freeman
(2003). This gives them a sense of the importance of teaching materials, the prin-
ciples behind them, different approaches to teaching ESL/EFL grammar, and the
skill of developing grammar integrated with communication (grammaring).

Sharing understandings and questions through pair work and

whole class discussion
After the assigned text has been read, discussions about the theory and its prac-
tical applications for teaching are conducted in class. On these occasions teacher
candidates have some time to work in class, with a partner, on the questions they
had received the previous class (sometimes there are others that they raise them-
selves). The partners read each other’s summaries, compare them and discuss
their questions and understanding before a whole class discussion.

Presenting teaching materials analysis: proposing desirable adaptations

At the end of the semester teacher candidates have to present, in pairs, an ana-
lysis of a particular textbook or course pack, focusing on identifying the target
group for the teaching material, considering how the grammar is approached,
and proposing what adaptations should be made. Each pair can choose the
teaching materials that they want to analyse. Since many of them already have
teaching jobs, they commonly choose materials from their work in school.
The choice of pair work relies on the fact that it gives more confidence to
the teacher candidates, especially the ones who have never taught. This way
they have an opportunity to learn from each other while planning and deliv-
ering their analysis, and reflecting on post-presentation feedback. Research on
collaborative teaching often claims that collaborators have a lot to learn from
each other. Stewart and Perry (2005), for instance, comment that in partnerships
there is an opportunity for teacher growth and creativity development. Similarly,
 Teaching Pre-service EFL Teachers 245

Augusto-Navarro et al. (2011) argue that even a very experienced teacher can
gain new insights by co-planning and co-delivering classes with new teachers.
The pairs meet with the teacher educator to discuss their initial choices and
ideas and later to show their work progress. At these meetings the teacher candi-
dates are questioned about the reasons behind their choice of teaching materials
and the adaptations they would implement. This creates one more opportunity
to discuss the relationship between theory and previewed practice. As pointed
out by Watkins (2010: 370): ‘English language teaching is exceptionally diverse
in terms of both types of learners and teaching contexts, making any notion of
a “correct” or “best” way to teach impossible to pin down. The best any teacher
can hope for is to find appropriate ways to teach in the context in which they
find themselves.’ This shows our teacher candidates that continuous reflection
on their students and other aspects is key in language teaching.
In the presentations of the teaching materials analysis, as shown in the exam-
ples in Figures 14.1 and 14.2, teaching candidates provide theoretical support,
that is, they present appropriate quotations from the theory so the proposed
adaptations are consistent. The following examples show how a pair of teacher
candidates carefully considered a unit of instruction in a textbook to modify
the content by considering their target group of young adult Brazilian students
learning EFL twice a week in a private language institute.

Figure 14.1 Example 1 of teaching material and suggestions by teacher candidates

246 Eliane H. Augusto-Navarro, Luciana C. de Oliveira and Denise M. de Abreu-e-Lima

Figure 14.2 Example 2 of teaching material and suggestions by teacher candidates

Examples:
Material used for reflection: Step Ahead (Cunningham and Moor, 2005), Unit
chosen: Unit 5: Unusual achievements.
Summary presented by teacher candidates:
The book is divided into six units, which are divided into: (1) Skills and
vocabulary; (2) Task; (3) Language focus, (4) Writing; (5) Further skills and
vocabulary.

In Unit 5, the sub-sections are:

1. Reading and vocabulary: different kinds of achievements. Vocabulary: verb–

noun word combinations (cope with problems, etc.)
2. Preparation for task: the most important human achievement? (listening).
Task: What is the greatest achievement of the last 150 years? (extended
speaking)
3. (a) Perfect aspect in the past, present and future. (b) More about the present
perfect and present perfect continuous. Pronunciation: contradictions and
weak forms with more than one auxiliary. Writing skills: describing a movie
or book you have enjoyed
4. Follow-up task: your proudest achievement. Wordspot: up.
 Teaching Pre-service EFL Teachers 247

The teacher candidates who presented the analysis in Figure 14.1 were the
most inexperienced teachers – we will call them Laura and Maria. Laura had
never taught EFL and Maria had been teaching for three months in her first
teaching experience in a private language institute, where the book Step Ahead
is used. Their analysis and propositions do not show any major new ideas, but
they try to connect their analysis to the theory they had been studying in the
teacher education course, trying to indicate the reasons for their choices.
When analysing the first page, we can observe that the student teachers
indicate that students following this book might be asked to work in pairs
instead of individually in activity 1. When referring to activity 3 they propose
that the students might be invited to reflect about language choices and the
reasons for them, introducing students to language forms and to thinking
about why a given structure had been chosen. According to Laura and Maria,
EFL learners should be asked: ‘3 (a) When in time did those facts occur? and
(b) Which elements did you use to identify it?’ They justify their proposal
by quoting Larsen-Freeman’s assertion about the importance of students
understanding reasons for language choices, but they are previewing focused
noticing, a concept studied throughout the semester.
Even with very little experience and worrying excessively about making
learners’ choice central to the EFL teaching material that they analysed, these
teacher candidates were able to give the reasons for their choices and revealed
some professional analysis based on their teacher education process.

Offering peer and tutor feedback on the analysis and presentation

All these presentations are video recorded and presenters can make a copy of
their own, if they wish. At the time of the presentations the teacher educator
hands out a form with rubrics to guide peer evaluation of both the presen-
tation and the analysis. On the form, besides spaces for grading the work (such
as excellent, good, poor) there is a space for providing any comments each
evaluator judges relevant.
The aim of this practice is to offer opportunities for reflection to both
presenters and observers. Reporting on her study of collegial observation for
teacher development, Gebhard (1999), cited in Gray (2012), states that the goal
of collegial observation is to observe other colleagues and in the process ‘con-
struct and reconstruct our own knowledge about teaching and thereby learn
more about our teaching attitudes, beliefs and classroom practices’. We feel
that these opportunities provided for teacher candidates are crucial for their
development as future teachers.
Similarly, Richards (1998: 147) points out that peer observation may create
‘a valuable opportunity for teachers to develop a critically reflective stance on
their own teaching’, but he cautions that teachers should see each other as
‘co-researchers, collaborating for each other’s benefit’. We would say that there
248 Eliane H. Augusto-Navarro, Luciana C. de Oliveira and Denise M. de Abreu-e-Lima

should be such opportunities, whenever possible, in most courses taught on

teacher education programmes.

Recording teacher candidates’ points of view at the end of the process

As previously mentioned, upon the conclusion of the course teacher candidates
are interviewed in the laboratory to express their views on what they under-
stand by grammar and its role in language teaching-learning. This post-course
interview has been developed with the purpose of verifying any influence that
theoretical studies might have had on prospective teachers’ evaluation of the
studied themes. There are two main reasons for this practice, one that relates
to the teacher candidates and another that relates to our roles as teacher educa-
tors. It offers teacher candidates a moment to reflect explicitly on their views
of the course themes, including any changes that have taken place during the
course. As teacher educators this practice helps us to understand the results
of our own practice, so we can make necessary changes when re-offering the
course. We have redesigned our own teaching in response to data collected in
the interview with our teacher candidates as we discuss in the next section.

Outcomes and implications for teachers and teacher educators

The experience reported in this chapter has generated different kinds of aware-
ness in all parties involved, including the teacher educators. As an example of
such awareness, in the final interview of the semester every teacher candidate at
some point reveals their concerns about considering who their students are when
reviewing and preparing teaching materials. We believe that this is a direct result
of our emphasis, while discussing the selected theoretical texts, on the idea that
who our students are and their reasons for studying the language should always
be a primary concern. Some even quote Larsen-Freeman’s (2003: 4) assertion:
‘We are, after all, teaching students, not just teaching language’. This kind of
attitude motivates us to continue improving our course each time.
We have realised that updates should be made after every course. After the
second course, we introduced the pre- and post-course interviews to raise
teacher candidates’ cognition of teaching materials and grammar. An important
change deriving from the interviews was the realisation that offering teacher
candidates more practical examples of activities that would fit the theory was
very important, as they complained they lacked practical examples. More
examples were included from the third course on. Another change was the
inclusion of more theoretical texts about teaching materials per se, because we
noticed that they could theoretically base their discussions about grammar but
relied more on perception to talk about teaching materials. As a result, some
texts from Harwood (2010) have recently been assigned as mandatory reading.
In short, the outcomes of this experience have changed over the years. The
 Teaching Pre-service EFL Teachers 249

course has been offered once a year since 2007 and we have been learning, and
aiming to teach it more appropriately, each time.
There are important implications of our work as teacher educators that we
think should be shared with other professionals in the area. The most prom-
inent of them are summarised in Table 14.1.
Table 14.1 shows a summary of the main points that seem to have created the
richest opportunities for professional growth, both for our students (teacher

Table 14.1 Recommended practices from a discipline in Teacher Education

Recommendations Reasons

(1) Give teacher candidates an opportunity (1a) It will give teacher candidates a
to explore their beliefs about the topic to moment to think about the topic;
be discussed in the course. (1b) Teacher educators will be better
prepared to consider students’
beliefs and prepare them to revisit
their preconceived ideas.
(2) Provide opportunities for teacher candi- (2a) It will provide teacher candidates
dates to present their comprehension of with the time to reflect on their
the course topic,,in both written and understanding and the reasons why,
oral forms. They should have set occa- as they will have to expose them to
sions to show and discuss their work the class audience;
development with you. (2b) They will have the opportunity for
intensive discussion with their
instructor and to receive focused
feedback.
(3) Include peer observation session(s) and (3a) Receiving feedback from a larger
whole group feedback. Give teacher audience than just the teacher edu-
candidates rubrics and discuss these cator will contribute to revealing
with them prior to observation. Provide both positive aspects and aspects
room for personal comments. that need to be reviewed in teacher
candidates’ work ;
(3b) Observers will have a chance to
reflect on their own practice while
observing and using the rubics to
evaluate their colleagues’ practice.
(4) Organise the whole group feedback in a (4a) Receiving feedback that is organised
summary and deliver it to the observed will make comprehension easier and
student(s). the feedback more likely to be
considered;
(4b) Organising whole group feedback
will provide the teacher educator
with one more chance to see how
the whole group has understood the
themes studied.

Continued
250 Eliane H. Augusto-Navarro, Luciana C. de Oliveira and Denise M. de Abreu-e-Lima

Table 14. 1 Continued

Recommendations Reasons

(5) Record teacher candidates’ beliefs about (5a) It will give teacher candidates an
the topics addressed throughout the extra opportunity to reflect on their
course. educational process and its effects
on their cognition about teaching
and learning;
(5b) As a teacher educator, the infor-
mation gathered in this practice will
provide you with tools of inquiry
about your practice and contribute
to the reviewing and, hopefully,
improvement of your own practice.

candidates) and for ourselves as teacher educators. Therefore we would advise

other teacher educators to consider them when preparing their courses.

Conclusion

In this chapter we have described our experience in designing, delivering,

and reflecting on a course on teaching materials analysis in an under-
graduate programme in EFL teacher education in Brazil. We have justified
the importance of the topic because of both the key role played by teaching
materials in the teaching-learning process and the lack of awareness among
teacher candidates that teaching materials should not be followed as scripts,
since each group of (language) learners and their learning contexts has to be
closely considered.
Based on the outcomes of our repeated practice and reflection, we have
proposed some recommendations (summarised in Table 14.1) to other profes-
sionals involved in the process of EFL/ESL language teacher education in
similar settings. We do not mean to provide a recipe to be followed, as we
are aware that teaching is far more complex than merely establishing a rela-
tionship between theory and practice. Each new context should generate new
inquiry questions and particular ways to reach appropriate results, as many
studies have demonstrated. Nevertheless, guiding prospective teachers to be
more aware of what theoretical studies present, so they can reflect on what
would work best in their context with their target groups of students, may be
an important aspect of a teacher education course focused on the evaluation
and production of teaching materials.
Furthermore, by asking teacher candidates to reflect on the relationship
between the theories studied and their own practice, and by raising questions
 Teaching Pre-service EFL Teachers 251

that will help them look for and identify aspects that need closer attention and
possible research questions to reflect on the continuum theory–practice–theory,
awareness should be generated to ensure they make more informed choices.

Acknowledgements

The first author acknowledges the financial support received from Fundação de
Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) (Proc. 2012/03944–7).

Engagement priorities

1. Based on this chapter, how do teaching contexts and the special needs of
students influence materials selection and design?
2. What are some special considerations for EFL teachers in materials design
and production?
3. How can language teachers be better prepared to evaluate and design their
own materials in your specific context? Discuss some possible topics that
could be included in a methods course related to developing and adapting
materials.
4. Are textbooks published by major companies better than teacher-designed
materials for specific learners? Why or why not?

Note
1. The interviews take place in the language laboratory. The teacher educator reads the
questions into a microphone and each teacher candidate listens to it individually in
their private headphone cabin. They record their individual answer and this gener-
ates a file related to the cabin number. Later the teacher educator can save each file
from her control table.

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15
Factors Influencing Japanese Teachers’
Adoption of Communication-oriented
Textbooks
Simon Humphries

Overview

Textbooks are one of the main tools of the trade in language teaching (Littlejohn,
2011). One reason for their popularity is that they provide a concrete set of
guidelines and activities for teachers to follow, as such it is often maintained
that they can facilitate curricular change because they help teachers to ‘fully
understand and “routinize” change’ (Hutchinson and Torres, 1994: 323).
However, the idea of the textbook as agent of change (Hutchinson and Torres,
1994) can be problematic when considered against the broader context of lan-
guage learning and teaching.
This chapter outlines a context of change in Japan in which new textbooks were
introduced into a rural technical college (kosen). Although the textbooks were
innovative in this context, the teachers received no training to help them adapt.
The question therefore arose: What factors promote or inhibit the appropriate use
of an innovative textbook? Through studying these factors, we can consider what
measures can be taken to support teachers and what training can be given to help
the transition to textbooks that require new pedagogical approaches.

Teaching context

From the late eighties onwards, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) announced policies aimed at improving
the communicative competence of secondary school students, culminating in
the ‘Action Plan to Cultivate Japanese with English Abilities’ (MEXT, 2003).
Key areas of the Action Plan included:

• development of students’ communicative competencies through activities

promoting the use of English;

253
254 Simon Humphries

• criterion-based assessment for students and teachers;

• English classes in primary schools (compulsory from 2011);
• listening component for the national Centre Test from 2006 (many univer-
sities use this test to select candidates);
• funding for a five-year in-service teacher training programme.

Despite the government’s emphasis on improving students’ oral skills and com-
municative competencies through using English to communicate, Japanese
teachers of English (JTEs) tended to continue the yakudoku (grammar trans-
lation) tradition (Kikuchi and Browne, 2009). In general, yakudoku is: (a) teacher-
centred and highly structured; (b) predominantly in Japanese (English output
tends to be limited to repetition); and (c) focused on translating a written text
from English to Japanese.

Japanese technical college: the kosen

The kosen described in this chapter is located in a rural area of the Kii Peninsula
on Japan’s main Honshu Island. In contrast to students in regular Japanese high
schools who study for three years (aged 16–18) and may take English examina-
tions to enter university, kosen students study for an additional two years for an
associate degree in their engineering major. Upon graduation from the five-year
course, kosen students have three options: they can seek employment; study for
an in-house degree; or transfer into the third year of a university course without
sitting an English entrance examination. Although general English is taught in
the kosen, vocational engineering subjects take precedence.
From 2007, the kosen joined the Japan Accreditation Board for Engineering
Education (JABEE), which sets certification criteria for bachelor’s degrees in
engineering (JABEE, 2008). Although JABEE sets the standards for tertiary-
level courses, the kosen adopted the same objectives for secondary-level syllabi.
Some of JABEE’s engineering policies overlapped with MEXT’s visions, such as
internationalisation, for which students need to acquire ‘basic skills for inter-
national communication’ and the communicative language teaching (CLT)
learner-centred values: ‘an ability to carry on learning on an independent and
sustainable basis’ (JABEE, 2008: 2).
In line with JABEE recommendations, a new English curriculum was imple-
mented for Grades 11 and 12, which led to changes in assessment and textbooks
from 2007. The Grade 10 students, unaffected by the change in assessment,
continued to use a MEXT-mandated textbook called Vivid English Course (New
Edition) I (Minamimura, T., Asai, M., Ishihara, Y., Itoh, T., Iwamoto, K., Goi, C.,
Torio, N. Harada, Y. Miyagawa, K. Miyamoto, T. Watanabe, K. and Rockenbach,
B. 2006). However, Grades 11 and 12 used new CLT-oriented textbooks: On the
Go (Gershon, Mares, and Walker, 2004a) and On the Move (Gershon, Mares, and
Walker, 2004b).
 Factors Influencing Japanese Teachers’ Adoption 255

There are substantial differences between the old and new textbooks as
outlined in Table 15.1.
Although CLT has existed in various forms since the late 1970s, this approach
was new for the potential adopters – the teachers in the kosen – therefore, it
could be regarded as an educational innovation in this context.

Theoretical background

Drawing upon examples from the introduction of CLT in Japan, various factors
emerge that influence the successful adoption of an innovative textbook (see
Table 15.2). By successful adoption, I mean use of the textbook in the way that
the authors intended. (Practitioners who feel that they successfully adapt new
textbooks to suit their context may dispute this interpretation.)

Table 15.1 Textbook comparison

Vivid On the Go and On the Move

Teacher-centred Learner-centred
Emphasis on reading comprehension Emphasis on listening and speaking
Overt grammatical usage instruction Focus on communicative situations
Japanese publisher, aimed at Japanese British publisher, aimed at a variety of
high schools institutions in East Asia
Instructions and explanations in Only glossary and ‘phrase book’ contain
Japanese Japanese
Low output, highly structured exercises Meaning-focused exercises, designed to
encourage students to creatively share
information and opinions

Table 15.2 Factors influencing the use of innovative textbooks

Category Example

Sociocultural traditions Local cultural values may differ from BANA values
Teacher’s confidence The teacher may feel that he or she lacks the sociolin-
guistic competence
Training vs. experience Teachers may reject training in favour of using their
experience
External factors Teachers may perceive external tests as more important
than government policies
School level factors The culture of the school
Classroom factors Students’ attitudes
The textbook itself The textbook might not do what it claims to do
256 Simon Humphries

Sociocultural traditions
Teaching methods are not free of values. Curriculum planners and textbook
writers design their syllabi and materials on the basis of their social practices
and interests (Pennycook, 1994). When schools introduce textbooks that
contain values from a different worldview, teachers and students may struggle
to adapt to new forms of study and new social roles. CLT and internationally-
published textbooks that claim to follow this approach tend to incorporate
cultural norms from private language providers in Britain, Australasia and
North America (BANA) (Holliday, 1994). As a result, a cultural mismatch can
occur when CLT-oriented textbooks are exported from ‘interpretation-based’
BANA countries to ‘transmission-based’ regions (Wedell, 2003). Although
countries are diverse and continually evolving, East Asian countries generally
incorporate transmission-based learning through a shared Confucian heritage
(Carless, 2012), where teachers and elders are regarded as sources of wisdom.
Japan’s yakudoku tradition fits into this transmission paradigm and is a well-
rooted cultural norm.
Junior JTEs conform to the teaching approaches of their seniors. This
finding is supported by a survey of 422 novice teachers, which showed that the
majority (61 per cent) named elder teachers as their main source of advice (Sato
and Asanuma, 2000). Following peer on peer observations, teachers tended
to avoid critiquing senior colleagues, which could hinder change; however,
younger teachers received critical feedback, which would encourage them to
follow the established practices of the school (Sato and Kleinsasser, 2004).

Confidence
True change can be a stressful process, as people need to relinquish what
they are accustomed to in order to risk failure in a new venture. This stress is
compounded for teachers, who know that students may evaluate the quality
of their teaching. If teachers do not appear to know how to teach, there is a
risk that they can lose the respect of the students and, as a result, lose control
of the classroom. It is therefore often safer for teachers to maintain the status
quo and many may lack the confidence to change. In the case of non-native
teachers of English introducing CLT, they may perceive deficiencies in their
spoken English ability, as well as their strategic or sociolinguistic competence
and their understanding of suitable methods (Li, 1998).
In Japan, a MEXT survey indicated that fewer than half the secondary school
teachers had attained the national proficiency targets (a TOEFL score of 550 or
the equivalent on other tests) (Nishino and Watanabe, 2008). These JTEs might
fear making mistakes in front of their students, because this can tarnish their
authority (Nishino and Watanabe, 2008). Moreover, JTEs seem to lack confi-
dence in the students. They are reluctant to use too much English, because
they fear that the students will not understand and that they could lose control
of the class (Sakui, 2007).
 Factors Influencing Japanese Teachers’ Adoption 257

Training vs. experience

Several studies have indicated that many JTEs feel uncertain about how to follow
the government-mandated communicative goals; therefore, they tend to ‘fall
back on how they themselves were taught in school as a student’ (Kikuchi and
Browne, 2009: 175). Hino (1988) agrees that JTEs are poorly trained and lack
knowledge of alternative methods; therefore, they turn to yakudoku methods,
because they require no training to use.
Regarding pre-service training, Japanese universities tend to focus on theory
without integrating it into reflective practice (Kizuka, 2006). This lack of focus
on practice is reflected in the teaching practicum, which only lasts for approxi-
mately two weeks during which ‘trainees do not have sufficient time to reflect
on their own teaching together with [their] mentors’ (Kizuka, 2006: 57).
In-service training has been poorly funded. Although MEXT’s 2003 Action
Plan provided funds for in-service training, at the end of the five-year period
mentioned in the Plan, the funds dried up (Kikuchi and Browne, 2009).
Moreover, many MEXT-organised conferences and seminars have been poorly
attended (Lamie, 2004). One reason for the poor attendance could be the trans-
mission-based nature of the training, which tends to preach theories origin-
ating from BANA, but fails to address local problems (Nagasawa, 2004).

External factors
Teachers are influenced by factors from outside the school in how they must
teach. Local influences include parents and boards of education, for example.
At national level, the government may influence teaching approaches through
their policy documents and curricula, while the performance of teachers may
be assessed using agencies like Ofsted in the UK.
MEXT’s communicative policies have largely failed to change teaching
practices in Japan. Instead, university entrance examinations form the most
powerful external factor influencing teachers, students and textbooks. Studies
of English entrance examinations for prestigious universities have revealed an
enduring emphasis on reading comprehension and lexico-grammatical know-
ledge. Rather than testing creative English output, most exercises are multiple-
choice and translation (Kikuchi, 2006). The pressure to prepare students to pass
examinations for prestigious universities, combined with a lack of training in
alternative approaches, causes teachers to fall back on their test preparation
experience as students. Therefore, they continue to use yakudoku rather than
risk adopting communicative policies.

School
Schools can influence a teacher’s capacity to develop and deal with change
in two ways. Firstly, the working conditions mean teachers may have various
administrative duties and after-school extra-curricular activities, which reduce
258 Simon Humphries

their time for marking and preparation and may squeeze out any time remaining
for professional development. Secondly, school cultures may contain norms
that influence a teacher’s enthusiasm to discuss new approaches and find solu-
tions to methodological problems.
Japanese teachers tend to follow a culture of kizuna, where they routinely
and constantly consult each other in shared offices. The culture of kizuna,
combined with the Confucian-influenced respect for older teachers, means
that new teachers are soon socialised into school routines and the practices
of senior teachers are reinforced. In one school, teachers felt no practical need
to attend workshops, because ‘new or innovative ideas seemed not to be a
necessity’ (Sato and Kleinsasser, 2004: 812).

Classroom
Classroom factors include issues such as the physical attributes of the room,
the contact hours, the class size, and the students. Traditionally, classrooms
tend to be organised with desks facing the teacher and the blackboard, which
favours transmission-style education. Multimedia equipment, or the lack of it,
can also influence the variety of learning approaches. Most importantly, the
number of students in the class and their age, gender, expectations, proficiency
levels, and behaviour, influence teaching approaches.
In Japan, many teachers feel that they need smaller classes (the maximum
is 40 students) and more contact hours to maintain control of students and
balance new activities with the perceived need for entrance examination prep-
aration. Government surveys of attitudes to English classes have indicated
that, in comparison to other subjects, more students struggle to follow the
content and over time there were steeper decreases in motivation (MEXT, 2011).
Moreover, students tend to prefer quiet passive study because they fear making
mistakes in front of the teacher or their friends (Taguchi, 2002). Attempts
to implement learner-centred CLT approaches require new role expectations
and a new set of norms, which can lead to disruption for both teachers and
students – especially if seen as a diversion from the students’ perceived ‘real
study’ for entrance examinations (Sakui, 2007).

The textbook
So far, this chapter has focused on issues that affect how teachers mediate
changes in methodology that may be inherent in the new textbooks. However,
the ease of use of the actual textbooks for the teachers and students will ultim-
ately decide if they are adopted successfully. Moreover, from the perspective
of the policymakers, textbooks need to be introduced that accurately reflect
their goals.
All public secondary school teachers in Japan must use textbooks authorised
by MEXT and they have indicated that textbooks are the main influence on
 Factors Influencing Japanese Teachers’ Adoption 259

their teaching practice (Wada, 2002). However, rather than follow the govern-
ment’s CLT guidelines, these textbooks support the yakudoku approach, with
extensive information in Japanese that teachers can transmit to students and
a focus on selected language structures (Humphries, 2013). Moreover, students
have limited opportunities to use English creatively because most exercises are
highly structured and low output (Humphries, 2013).

Mediating the textbook

As mentioned earlier, the kosen introduced new textbooks which required a

fundamental change in teaching approach compared to the standard MEXT-
mandated textbooks used previously. However, the teachers received no
training for the new approach. The opportunity therefore arose to explore,
in the absence of teacher training, the factors that promoted or inhibited the
appropriate use of an innovative textbook.
Four kosen JTEs volunteered to participate in the study: Akira, Bonda, Chikara,
and Daiki (pseudonyms). They all taught Grades 10 (ages 15–16) and 11 (ages
16–17), which facilitated a comparison of the influence of the two different
types of textbooks on their attitudes and practices. The participants’ details
appear in Table 15.3.
The data collection consisted of classroom observations and semi-structured
interviews during a six-week period. For each teacher, I observed four periods
of 45 minutes per grade. In other words, there were eight periods per teacher,
totalling 32 periods. During the observations, I collected data using fieldnotes
and video recording. An independent bilingual Japanese transcribed and trans-
lated the video footage. For the interviews, topics arose through the process of
constant comparison (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) of data from classroom obser-
vations. I collected interview data using fieldnotes and audio recording.

Table 15.3 Participant background information

Akira Bonda Chikara Daiki

Age 55 43 55 41
Full-time/ Part-time Full-time (assoc. Full-time Part-time
part-time (rank) (lecturer) professor) (professor) (lecturer)
Years teaching 1 16 6 5
at this college
Class A (lower- B (lowest) C (highest) D (lower-middle)
(proficiency) middle)
Education MA Theology MA English MA Education BA English
Literature Literature
260 Simon Humphries

Table 15.4 Factors in the study

Category Example

Sociocultural factors All the teachers predominantly used yakudoku

Uncertainty The teachers tended to externalise their feelings of
uncertainty
Limited training Only one teacher valued his training but struggled to
apply it
Negligible external influences None of the teachers felt any pressure from external
sources
Internal laissez-faire No pressure to conform but some teachers wanted
guidance
Student issues Even the highest proficiency learners seemed to
prefer silent deskwork
Unsuitable materials The teachers struggled to explain sociocultural
differences

Factors influencing textbook use

Several factors arose that mediated the teachers’ use of the new textbooks: socio-
cultural factors, uncertainty, limited training, negligible external influences,
internal laissez-faire, student issues, and unsuitable materials (Table 15.4).

Sociocultural factors
All the participants used the traditional yakudoku teaching approach with the
new textbooks. Akira, Bonda, and Daiki guided students through the mate-
rials, selecting students to answer orally, and then writing the responses on
the blackboard for the whole class to copy. For both textbooks, the teachers
used most of their instruction time to translate sections of extended text into
Japanese. In the case of On the Go, the participants changed the emphasis from
listening comprehension to the translation of the listening transcript.
Chikara used more variety in his teaching approach because he was the
only teacher who attempted speaking pairwork and listening comprehension.
However, he also tended to avoid textbook sections that would require students
to create original utterances. Instead, he was inclined to select highly struc-
tured speaking exercises.

Uncertainty
All the teachers had feelings of uncertainty, but they externalised these feel-
ings to blame the students, textbooks, training, and lack of support from the
kosen, which are described later. Only Daiki indicated that he lacked confi-
dence in his own capacity to conduct communicative classes:

An ne communication no mokuteki wo tassei saseyouto omottara English teacher

no skill ga skill level ga yappa, takaku nakya dameyato omouwa. Bokuga yattemo
 Factors Influencing Japanese Teachers’ Adoption 261

anma kawan nainda (To accomplish communicative aims, we need to increase

the skill level of English teachers. Even if I try, nothing will change).

Limited training
Chikara was the only teacher who discussed the positive aspects of his training.
He held an MA in English Education and said that he attended conferences
and read methodology books in an effort to find new methods to improve his
teaching. However, he explained that the students struggled to understand
some of his linguistic explanations and they had tended to waste time when
he had tried to introduce some autonomous learning approaches. For example,
he abandoned an attempt to introduce extended reading in the library because
they chatted and fell asleep.
Chikara’s colleagues did not indicate the same degree of enthusiasm for
training. Bonda had studied English literature up to MA level, but described
the limited study style: ‘the only thing I can remember is always translation’.
His undergraduate English literature course included ‘four or five subjects to
get a teacher’s licence’. However, when asked if he could remember the titles
of the subjects, he joked that he had forgotten them, because they were ‘just
credit[s]’. Regarding in-service training, Bonda attended an annual conference
organised for teachers from the kosen and schools attached to the same parent
university. However, he explained that these gatherings were ‘no use’, because
the schoolteachers had different goals from kosen teachers: ‘High school is just
cramming to succeed in the [university entrance] examination.’
Unlike his colleagues, Akira was not principally a teacher, his main career
was as a Christian pastor. Rather than education or English, he had studied
theology to MA level in Scotland, but he explained that teaching qualifications
were not necessary in the kosen: ‘You can teach without being trained to be a
teacher. I didn’t have any teacher training course.’ Instead, Akira asserted that
his experience prepared him for English language teaching. He felt sociolinguis-
tically competent from living in the United Kingdom. Moreover, he believed
that he could transfer skills from the church, ‘preaching is communicating’, but
conceded kosen students were far less inclined to listen than his congregation.
Daiki, like Bonda, took teaching licence credits while studying an under-
graduate course in English literature. He could remember a theory related to
English-only instruction, but explained that he could not apply it in the kosen,
because the students were too ‘noisy’.
Daiki gave contrasting views regarding continual professional development.
From one perspective, he seemed to eschew new ideas, ‘my own way, no theory’.
However, he also expressed some regret that he had not studied new approaches
and asked during an interview, ‘please teach me how to teach English’.
Due to the limited influence of training, the teachers’ memories of the
instruction they received at school could be the most important factor influ-
encing their approach at the kosen. However, none of them could remember
262 Simon Humphries

their schooldays. Instead, Bonda and Chikara recalled studying at home using
mondaishu, textbooks that contain practice questions from previous university
entrance examinations.

Negligible external influences

None of the participants claimed to notice any influence from external sources.
As described earlier, the kosen teachers did not need to prepare students for
English university entrance examinations; moreover, the policies of JABEE
and MEXT appeared to be remote and all the participants tended to question
the relevance of either organisation to their own classes. Bonda joked that
they were out of touch with reality: ‘I don’t care. I think it’s an ideal thing of
teaching English, but in reality it’s almost impossible [laughs].’ Akira showed
his disdain for MEXT’s policies by stating, ‘I tend to ignore [laughs].’
Chikara, who had taught at a high school during most of his career, claimed
to take more notice of MEXT, but he noted the discrepancy between the proc-
lamations and the publications that it permitted: ‘what they [MEXT] decide,
write there and what they allow publishers to describe in the textbooks is really
quite distant’. He blamed the lack of change on the entrance examinations.

Internal laissez-faire
According to Daiki there was ‘no pressure’ from colleagues or management to
conform to any teaching approaches and the other participants shared this
opinion. However, Akira described the uncertainty caused by the lack of guid-
ance. As the newest English teacher he explained that it had been a ‘struggle to
find out what to do in the course of the classes’. Akira explained that he received
help from another part-time teacher, but her advice focused on administrative
issues rather than methodology: ‘She was giving me [advice about] how to run,
do things, not how to teach the students.’
Although departmental meetings could have provided a forum for discussing
classroom issues, Daiki asserted that the gatherings had not been useful
because they did not have any targets. Chikara agreed that a vacuum had been
created due to the lack of study for entrance tests. However, rather than suggest
internal options such as criteria based on the textbooks, he focused instead on
the need for a new external test.

Student issues
During the interviews, the teachers professed that student behaviour hindered
the implementation of communicative activities. The students’ conduct during
the observations tended to support these claims. Three main student-related
issues arose in both interviews and observations: sleeping, disrespect, and
quiet passivity.
During each observation some students slept at some point, leading Daiki to
claim that ‘school is their sleeping place’. In addition, Daiki also faced mockery,
 Factors Influencing Japanese Teachers’ Adoption 263

but he treated it as good-humoured banter: ‘I think they are ... good person[s],
but not good students.’
In contrast, Akira felt that he faced a ‘battle’ with some of his rudest
students.

It’s really bad. So before you start teaching there’s a battle going on, you
know, how mentally making them turn around to listen to you to the class,
but you know some kids are not interested in listening at all.

Although Akira and Daiki faced a few disruptive individuals, most of the
students in all the teachers’ classes tended to be quiet and passive. Even Chikara,
who taught the highest proficiency students, noted that they preferred silent
individual deskwork, which partly explained his preference for highly struc-
tured activities. On the few occasions that he nominated students to answer
unscripted questions, they either stayed silent, gave quiet single-word English
utterances, or responded in Japanese.
The teachers gave two reasons for these student issues. Firstly, the students
seemed unmotivated due to the lack of pressure from external assessment.
Instead, Akira asserted that students did the minimum necessary ‘just to pass,
not so much to study ... just to get through the course’. Secondly, the teachers
felt that the students’ low proficiency caused a lack of confidence. Bonda
asserted ‘students [are] not confident about English, so yeah often they read
[in] a very small voice’. Due to their reluctance to talk, Bonda tried a strategy
where he stood next to each speaker to guide him or her to the correct answer,
‘to cheer them up’. However, he felt uncertain: ‘I don’t know if it’s effective to
their skilling up or not [pause] but I think I can only do this way.’

Unsuitable materials
Apart from Daiki, who explained that he struggled to use the new textbooks
because they did not contain grammatical usage drills and explanations, the
participants preferred to focus on a textbook’s unsuitability for the students.
They described three issues.
Firstly, the students lacked the required sociocultural knowledge. Chikara
claimed that it was easier for the students to understand the contexts in Vivid
than the foreign locations in the new textbooks: ‘I must use background know-
ledge, cultural matters, without these things, sometimes it’s quite difficult for
them to understand.’ Secondly, the nature of the activities in the new text-
books, which focused on listening and speaking, may have caused some diffi-
culties. Akira stated: ‘I suppose they’re not so familiar with English, they don’t
never mind about talking, they cannot even listen to a conversation.’ Chikara
added that listening ‘is a very difficult aspect of studying’ and asserted that
the Japanese culture inhibited the students because ‘they don’t have to listen
to English or speak it’. Thirdly, the new textbooks may have lacked relevance.
264 Simon Humphries

Akira hinted that his students lacked the ambition to follow the travel-related
dreams in the textbooks, because they ‘just want a job, enjoy life and type of
thing’.

Implications

Based on the issues arising from attempts at curricular change in Japan and
from the introduction of innovative textbooks in the kosen, implications for
effective change can be discussed from two perspectives: policymaking and
relevant training.

Policymaking
Policymaking decisions can occur at various levels from national (such as
MEXT) to institutional (such as the kosen management). Before introducing
new policies, two initial factors should be considered. Firstly, teachers need
appropriate working conditions (small class sizes, adequate class contact hours,
time for reflection and professional development, and adequate facilities).
Secondly, although benefits may arise from implementing changes based on
language learning theories, policymakers must also consider the suitability for
local contexts. Changes introduced without listening to advice from teachers
regarding feasibility are less likely to garner support.
After considering these two initial factors, policies will be more successful
if they are co-ordinated with three supporting components: materials, assess-
ment, and training (see Figure 15.1).
As described earlier, in Japan the perceived need to focus on reading,
grammar, and translation skills for university entrance tests influences
teaching and learning. Teachers can use the same yakudoku test preparation

Policy Goals

Training

Assessment
Materials

Figure 15.1 Factors supporting policy change

 Factors Influencing Japanese Teachers’ Adoption 265

approach that they experienced during their own schooldays; therefore, they
rely on experience and feel less need for in-service training. Moreover, although
publishers of the MEXT-mandated textbooks need to pay lip service to the
government’s communicative aims, they can sell more books by satisfying
the demand for reading- and grammar-focused exercises. Although the kosen
differed because communicative materials were introduced and the students
did not need to study for English entrance examinations, a lack of direction
existed. The teachers found it difficult to motivate students without the exam-
ination incentive and their lack of confidence in some of the approaches in the
new textbooks caused instructors to fall back on a form of yakudoku.

Relevant training
Training needs to be relevant to the issues that teachers face in their class-
rooms. Areas highlighted in this study in which teachers need support are:
methodology, textbook selection, foreign sociocultural topics, student issues,
and instructional language proficiency (Table 15.5).

Methodology
Many training courses, such as the ones in Japan, feature lectures and pres-
entations preaching theories originating from BANA cultures. It is ironic that
interpretation-based, learner-centred approaches are explained to teachers in a
transmission-based style, and no surprise that teachers then struggle to under-
stand and implement what they hear. We need workshops where teachers can
practise using new materials and discuss issues of methodology with colleagues
and teacher trainers. From such hands-on practice and problem-focused discus-
sions, teachers can feel more confident about adopting changes that work in
their context. Moreover, the experience of an interpretation-based approach
to professional development can provide a model for teachers to change from
transmission-based instruction to learner-centred alternatives.

Table 15.5 Recommendations for teacher training to support change

Category Example

Methodology Workshops focusing on the materials that

facilitate discussion of methodological prob-
lems
Textbook selection Help teachers to analyse textbooks
Foreign sociocultural topics Students themselves can research foreign
cultures
Student issues Help teachers develop strategies to develop
students’ intrinsic motivation
Instructional language proficiency Train teachers to use the target language and/or
vernacular effectively
266 Simon Humphries

Textbook selection
Teachers may find the process of textbook selection time consuming; however,
selecting the correct textbook can save time in the long run because it reduces
the need to adapt activities and create supplementary materials. Various frame-
works exist for choosing textbooks, as reviewed by McGrath (2002). Moreover,
Littlejohn (2011) has a powerful framework for unpacking underlying textbook
approaches so that teachers can challenge the claims of the publisher/author.
Training in materials analysis and evaluation can also help teachers to make
principled decisions about the use of textbooks and the design and creation of
their own supplementary activities.

Foreign sociocultural topics

Unlike the MEXT-mandated textbooks, which tend to contain general topics
Japanese students can easily relate to, the new textbooks in the kosen contain
foreign sociocultural situations that the teachers sometimes struggled to
explain. However, culture influences language and a desire to learn about
overseas communities can stimulate language learning. Helping teachers to
learn about foreign cultures could be one solution, but training courses should
also focus on raising awareness of exploratory learning; in other words, using
approaches that encourage students to research and present their findings
about cultural differences. Depending on the students’ English proficiency
level, such exploratory study could be done in their first language – possibly in
coordination with another subject such as social studies.

Student issues
Low student confidence and motivation can create barriers to change because
teachers may opt for the safety of continuing past practices to avoid uncom-
fortable periods of silence or a loss of control. In normal Japanese schools,
change seems to be hindered by students’ preference to study using traditional
methods for university entrance tests. However, kosen students lacked this
extrinsic motivation to study English for tests and they had few opportunities
to use the language outside the classroom. The resulting behavioural problems
caused uncertainty for the teachers. Teachers need training in classroom man-
agement and, more importantly, training in techniques to engender intrinsic
motivation.

Instructional language proficiency

In this study, only Daiki indicated that he lacked adequate English ability. The
other three teachers expressed their opinions fluently in English during the
interviews. Nevertheless, classes tended to be dominated by the teacher talking
in Japanese. Rather than setting benchmarks based on external examinations
such as TOEIC and TOEFL, it would be preferable for training courses to focus
 Factors Influencing Japanese Teachers’ Adoption 267

on developing the teacher’s ability to use English for instructional purposes.

Alternatively, using the first language can help comprehension and form soli-
darity between teacher and learners, so training can also focus on finding the
optimal balance between English and the vernacular (Macaro, 2009).
In summary, effective change is unlikely if new textbooks are introduced
without considering other factors, such as: sociocultural conditions; level of
teacher confidence; quality of training; the impact from external, school level
and classroom forces; and the suitability of the textbook itself. Policymakers
can improve teaching conditions and ensure that the materials, assessment,
and training support the change. Training can focus on methodology, textbook
selection, foreign sociocultural topics, student issues, and instructional lan-
guage proficiency.

Engagement priorities

1. The teachers at the kosen adapted the new textbooks to suit their teaching
preferences. Think about the textbooks you use. What types of activity do
you tend to (a) disregard, (b) use in more depth, (c) alter, and (d) supple-
ment? What does this tell you about your teaching preferences?
2. Curricular change tends to be viewed from a top-down perspective.
Policymakers order changes for teachers to implement. Studies then focus
on how the teachers mediate the changes. This approach seems to view the
learners as passive receivers of change. Try spending a few minutes at the
end of your classroom activities to gather student feedback. What advan-
tages and disadvantages are there to asking students for their opinions?
3. MEXT-authorised textbooks do not tend to follow the CLT claims made by
the publisher. Read the claims made by the publishers of the textbook that
you use and analyse it using a framework such as Littlejohn (2011). To what
degree does the textbook actually support its claims? Why might it diverge
from the claims? How might you improve the textbook?

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16
Materials in ELT: Looking Ahead
Kathleen Graves and Sue Garton

The chapters in this volume have been written against the background of
the growth of English as a global language. Nine of the fifteen contributors,
representing Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ghana,
Japan, and Thailand, point out that English is being taught in these countries
because globalisation has made it the language of economic and social access
and participation. Although the role of English in people’s actual access to eco-
nomic and social opportunities is highly problematic (see Coleman, 2011), its
status as an international language (EIL), or global lingua franca (ELF), is well
established. As such, the importance of English has resulted in policy decisions
in countries around the world such as: lowering the age of compulsory English
in schools; the provision of school subjects in English; and the required use of
materials that may not match the teacher’s background. These policies have
created huge challenges to their implementation from the standpoint of mate-
rials development, of teaching and teacher preparation, of learner-readiness,
and of available resources, particularly technology. These challenges are a
cause for concern, since difficulties in implementing the policies undermine
the teaching workforce and simply do not produce the desired results. As
Wedell puts it,

national policy makers seem generally to have given insufficient thought

to existing socio-economic and educational/cultural realities, when consid-
ering hoped-for curriculum outcomes. Teachers have thus often failed to
enable learners to achieve them. (2008: 635)

This volume offers an exploration of the educational and cultural realities for
practitioners as they attempt both successfully and unsuccessfully to use, adapt,
and develop materials at the ground level in the classroom. These accounts
suggest three broad themes to consider as we sketch future developments
and lines of inquiry within the field: the content of materials for English as a

270
 Materials in ELT: Looking Ahead 271

globalised language; teachers’ effective use of materials; and the affordances of

technology for language learning.

The content of materials for English as a globalised language

How does one develop materials for English as a globalised, heterogeneous lan-
guage that is learnt locally in largely homogeneous populations? A globalised
English is different from English learnt as a foreign language, in the sense of
studying the language, literature, and culture of a foreign country with the
aim of travelling to or living in the country or interacting with people of that
country. Today’s learners are being educated to participate in discourse com-
munities in which English will be used as a lingua franca with other users of
English as an L2 as well as with native speakers (Modiano, 2009; Ur, 2010). In
fact, English is already part of many learners’ daily lives, as al Majthoob points
out in describing Bahrain (Chapter 4), where English pervades the media, is
part of the linguistic landscape, and is necessary in local government and
business communication.
The distinction between English as a globalised language and as a foreign
language is important for understanding classroom materials because much
of their content is still based on an EFL view. For example, representations of
the BANA (Britain, Australasia and North America) countries tend to dominate
materials, not only in materials produced in those countries for a global market,
but even in countries like Algeria that develop their own school materials
(Messekher, Chapter 5). Despite the recognition that there are more speakers of
world English varieties than of BANA ‘native speaker’ varieties (Jenkins, 2003),
a glance through most coursebooks will show that the ‘native-speaker’ is still
the preferred voice on audio recordings.
For materials developers, teaching English as a globalised language raises ques-
tions about the future content of materials. Whose English and whose culture
are to be represented in language learning materials? Which texts, contexts,
and people? Should materials represent local people, concerns, contexts, prac-
tices, and topics of interest because these will be more familiar to learners? Or
should materials represent a range of global contexts and speakers in order
to provide a variety of perspectives? Contributors to this volume suggest that
both are necessary.
Localising materials offers the benefit of familiarity. López-Barrios and
Debat (Chapter 3) make the case that localising materials connects them to
the learners’ world and matches local practices and curriculum. Rahman and
Cotter (Chapter 10) describe how user feedback on cell phone language learning
materials resulted in recording fluent Bangladeshi speakers of English rather
than less familiar British speakers, as well as choosing topics that were more
relevant to their users. Familiarity is also a factor for teachers. As Humphries
(Chapter 15) points out, one reason that the teachers in his study did not follow
272 Kathleen Graves and Sue Garton

the CLT-based textbook was that they ‘contained foreign sociocultural situa-
tions that the teachers sometimes struggled to explain’ (p. 266).
Localising content enables learners to talk and write about their own experi-
ences, concerns, and culture through English. Providing global content gives
a platform for learning about other perspectives and becoming intercultur-
ally competent. While López-Barrios and Debat, and Messekher support some
degree of localisation in materials, they also make the case that exploring
sociocultural and sociolinguistic differences are an important part of learning
a new language. Materials can provide opportunities for learners to explore
these differences and so develop a broader global awareness. López-Barrios and
Debat suggest that ‘Learners go beyond mere surface impressions and engage
in activities that challenge stereotypes and alter their world view’ (p. 44).
Messekher argues that the intent should not be to alter a student’s worldview,
but to show them that there are other worldviews.
Looking to the future it is important to consider sociocultural differences
not only as differences between BANA cultures and the cultures of the learners
but also as differences between the cultures of people who use English as an
L2. According to Sharifian (2009) what is needed is ‘meta-cultural competence’
because:

in EIL communicative events, speakers are likely to draw on their L1 systems

of cultural conceptualisations, perhaps not always realising they are doing
so. Since in such contexts English, a common language, is being used for
communication, speakers may too easily assume that they mean the same
thing when they use the same or similar words. (ibid.: 251)

Thus materials will need to provide opportunities for learners to become aware
that the ways in which they use English represent values and assumptions
drawn from their L1 systems of cultural conceptualisations, which may not be
shared by another user of English with a different L1. Further, they will need
to learn how to identify and address potential misunderstandings when they
occur.
Teachers and learners may welcome more localisation of the content of
materials, but materials designed to develop intercultural or meta-cultural
competence will only be effective if teachers see their point. The majority
of English teachers have themselves learnt English as a second or additional
language. While this means that they are ideal role models for their learners,
many have been prepared to teach English as a foreign language in the sense
described earlier; they are prepared to teach the English of a BANA country,
not a globalised language. Moreover, the ideology of English as a foreign lan-
guage holds the native speaker as the norm, which implies that the non-native
has a deficit to overcome (Amin and Kubota, 2004.) So, while teachers may
 Materials in ELT: Looking Ahead 273

experience English as a global language, they probably haven’t learnt or been

taught to teach it in that way and are unlikely to perceive themselves as role
models. As teachers are central to the effective use of materials, any changes in
the orientation of materials will need to make sense to them.

Teachers’ effective use of materials

The effectiveness of classroom materials ultimately depends on how they are
used by teacher and learners and how that use enables learners to become
competent in the language, however competence is defined. As the orchestra-
tors of classroom practice, teachers play a critical role in how materials are
used, which, in turn, depends on the teacher’s understanding of and skill in
using them. Humphries (Chapter 15) outlines a range of factors that affect a
teacher’s use of materials including: understanding of language and how it is
learnt, and of learners; the teacher’s own experience of learning and confi-
dence in English; and contextual factors such as the culture of the school and
perceptions of the purposes for learning English. When teachers are asked or
required to use materials that do not match their expertise, experience, and
beliefs, they may not use the materials in the ways intended and the expected
results are not likely to be achieved. (See Chapter 1 for a discussion of teachers’
responses to communicative methodology in coursebooks and Chapters 6 and
15 for examples.)
Mismatches between the intended use of materials and how they are actually
used are exacerbated when teachers are required to use materials they feel do
not take into account the realities of their classroom. A recurring theme in the
volume is the need to get teachers’ input and feedback about the materials they
use – at policy level, at development level, and at school level. Seargeant and
Erling’s (2011: 16) suggestion that not only teachers, but also learners and com-
munity members should be consulted by policy makers applies to materials as
well:

What is needed for ELT to be transformational, then, is an ongoing dialogue

between practitioners (that is learners, teachers, and the surrounding com-
munity) and policy makers which will enable a dialectic which can tailor
English language education to the local needs of communities attempting
to engage fully in a rapidly globalising world.

Teachers have ‘funds of knowledge’ – to borrow Moll and his colleagues’

term1 – about students and classrooms that can help developers design mate-
rials to meet their needs even more effectively. This knowledge includes how to
manage a classroom, understanding learner’s backgrounds, and understanding
the teacher’s role. For example, the teacher in Seferaj’s study (Chapter 6) gives
well-thought out reasons for eschewing pair work/fluency activities with her 36
274 Kathleen Graves and Sue Garton

students and instead focusing on accuracy through teacher-student exchanges.

She has clear ideas about her role and authority, what she can give the students,
and what her students’ parents expect of her as a teacher. Looking to the future,
materials developers and policy makers need to avail themselves of the wisdom
and experiences of teachers – and through them, learners, in order for mate-
rials to better reflect and meet local needs.
Even when there is a good fit between the materials and the classroom,
the teacher will still need to make adjustments for her particular learners.
Bosompems’ study (Chapter 7) found that novice teachers were reluctant to
adapt materials because they did not feel it was permissible to make changes
to the curriculum. Teachers need to learn that adapting is something good
teachers do. As Bosompem puts it, ‘not only is it acceptable to adapt a textbook
but vital to do so in order to meet the particular needs of students in a particular
context’ (p. 115). Knowing how and why to adapt is another matter. Adaptation
may take a variety of forms, as described by both Richards (Chapter 2) and
Bosompem. Teachers need to be aware of different ways to adapt, and the
reasons for adapting. This will facilitate what Richards calls ‘creative teaching
rather than textbook dominated teaching’ (p. 34).
Adaptation is based on understanding students, context, and materials and
Nuangpolmak (Chapter 8) provides an excellent example. The author prob-
lematised the gaps between the coursebook and the students’ proficiency levels
on the one hand, and the coursebook and the syllabus aims on the other. She
then designed multilevel writing tasks aimed at different levels, thus meeting
the needs of her learners. These same writing tasks gave students the oppor-
tunity for choice and self-direction, thus fostering autonomy, which was one
of the syllabus aims. To accomplish these steps, she needed to: understand her
learners’ backgrounds, language proficiency, and motivation; understand the
aims of the syllabus; and analyse the extent to which the course book fitted the
learners so she could help them achieve the aims.
A second striking example of adaptation is Igielski’s (Chapter 9) modifi-
cation and supplementation of the core textbook in her primary classroom.
Her context, the US, is the only one in the volume that does not fit straightfor-
wardly in the discussion of English as a globalised language. The US is an ESL
context in the conventional sense that the language and culture of English are
clearly dominant and ‘minority’ students are expected to function socially and
academically in English. Igielski problematises the dominance of English by
exploring ways to value her students’ language and backgrounds. She chooses
additional materials, in both English and the students’ L1, that reflect their
experiences. She invites perspectives on curriculum themes that are different
from those of the dominant culture. She draws on her learners’ funds of know-
ledge to create a culturally rich classroom that makes her students visible in
the curriculum.
 Materials in ELT: Looking Ahead 275

In summary, the effective use of materials depends on the teacher’s under-

standing of the materials, on the fit with their beliefs, expertise, and experience,
and on their ability to adapt the materials to their particular learners. One
implication for the future is that published materials should, as a matter of
course, include suggestions for different ways to adapt the content and tasks
in classroom contexts. Another is that teacher accounts of their reasoning and
experience of adaptation need to be part of the discourse in materials devel-
opment and evaluation.

Teacher education
The need to educate teachers to understand and learn how to use materials is
a corollary of the need for teacher input into the materials they use. A number
of contributors to this volume note the paucity of courses in materials design
and evaluation in teacher preparation programmes. While adding such courses
is an important step, this volume makes it clear that an individual course is
not enough. Analysis of coursebooks and how to use and adapt them needs
to be threaded through all teacher preparation courses, including those that
focus on core areas such as second language acquisition, methodology, and
linguistics. To do otherwise ignores the reality that teachers use materials on a
daily basis in teaching and helps to perpetuate the separation between what is
taught in teacher education programmes and what teachers experience in the
classroom.
One of those rare pre-service materials evaluation courses is the focus of
Augusto-Navarro, de Oliveira and Abreu-e-Lima’s chapter (Chapter 14). They
outline three aspects to a critical understanding of materials that are the foun-
dation for the course: learning key theories of language as a foundation for their
choices; identifying how theories are represented in materials; and analysing
how effective specific materials might be for a given group of learners. Their
course focuses on grammar, hence the emphasis on theories of language. All
the chapters in this volume written by practitioners about their development
and use of materials (Chapters 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14) provide clear evi-
dence of these three aspects in practice; they all have strong theoretical frame-
works, which they link to the materials and to their learners.
A critical understanding of materials is a first step in educating teachers so
that they can use them effectively in the classroom. However, if teachers have
not themselves had successful experiences of the approach on which materials
are based, such as interactive group work in communicative tasks, they are
unlikely to have confidence in their ability to implement the approach (Butler,
2005; Li, 1998). Put another way, in order to effectively teach something,
teachers need to have had a successful experience of it. Bandura’s concept
of self-efficacy (1997) may be useful here. An individual’s perceived self-ef-
ficacy is ‘a judgment of one’s ability to organise and execute given types of
276 Kathleen Graves and Sue Garton

performances’ (Bandura, 1997: 21). He identifies four sources of self-efficacy,2

two of which are enactive mastery experiences and vicarious experiences. In
enactive mastery experiences, a teacher enacts the complex tasks involved
in the practice or innovation. In vicarious experiences, the teacher observes
peers enacting a successful experience. Tibbitts and Pashby’s (Chapter 13)
approach to educating Korean primary teachers to use authentic materials for
storytelling includes both ‘enactive mastery’ and ‘vicarious’ experiences. In
addition, their approach includes a third type of experience, that of being a
learner. As learners, the teachers experience the trainers’ storytelling. Building
on this experience, they then teach stories to their peers and participate as
learners in their peers’ storytelling. They thus have successful experiences in
using materials in innovative ways, both as learners and teachers, as well as
experiences observing others.
Looking to the future, in addition to learning how to critically analyse mate-
rials throughout their courses, teachers in teacher preparation programmes need
to have experiences with the approaches the materials are based on. This means
that teacher educators need to provide those experiences, not simply talk about
them. When teachers can critically analyse materials in terms of theoretical
frameworks, their learners’ needs, and their own practice, they will be equipped
to use and adapt materials effectively. Moreover, they will be in a position to
engage in substantive dialogue with both policy makers and materials devel-
opers about the types of materials that are most likely to help learners learn.

The affordances of technology for language learning

Technology as a means for learners to direct their own learning is a salient
feature of the learning experiences described in the chapters on technology
(Rahman and Cotter, Chapter 10; Pereira, Chapter 11; Maggi, Cherubin and
Pascual, Chapter 12). Whether they use a language program on a mobile
phone, engage in reading and writing fiction via a program on a computer, or
brainstorm and display information on an interactive whiteboard, learners are
in charge of the activities of learning. Where their experiences differ is in the
role that language plays in their learning. The cell phone users use technology
as a means, with English as an end. The interactive fiction writers and science
researchers use English as a means, with new content as an end.
In Bangladesh, the learners use the technology – the program on their cell
phones – to listen to, answer questions about, and practise English dialogue.
The aim is for the learners to gain confidence and develop communication
skills that they can then use for their own purposes.
The students in Portugal and Italy use the technology – including IF
programs, Google docs, the Internet – to carry out interactive activities in
English. Technology and English are the means for reading and writing fiction
and learning science. English is not the explicit end, but is a tool or means for
 Materials in ELT: Looking Ahead 277

learning or interacting with the content. Technology, by providing students

with access to content as well as platforms for decision-making and co-con-
struction of content, supports individual autonomy and group collaboration.
Technology thus enables students to direct the course of their learning.
Students do not learn to use the technology in English without support. In
each of these classrooms teachers play a critical role that makes the autonomy
afforded by technology possible. They select and adapt materials and design
tasks to support and guide students. Interestingly, although there is no teacher
present for the cell phone users, a modification made in response to learner
feedback was the addition of a teacher’s voice to provide a similar sense of
support and guidance to the learners.
The difference in the way technology is used in Bangladesh and Europe
underscores, to some extent, the divide between countries where technology is
readily available and those where it is not. The European students function in a
world where using technology interactively with others, through social media
and other tools, is commonplace. For them, technology is one arena where the
globalisation of English is evident; they are likely to use technology in more
than one language, including English (Chien, 2012). A large number of today’s
students are what Chien has called ‘digital English natives’, people who have
grown up using English to a greater or lesser extent with various forms of tech-
nology in their daily lives. Since technology permeates these students’ lives,
materials developers and language educators need to consider how language
education can make best use of it. While the lack of access to technology is a
very real issue, it is likely to become less so over time as both access to and use
of technology spreads. A more important issue may be that many educators lag
behind their students in understanding how to use technology and thus do
not know how to make it part of classroom practice.
In summary, technology provides new paths to language learning. It affords
greater autonomy to students than print materials because, in terms of content,
it gives students access to varied, authentic, spoken, and written sources of
English; in terms of process, it provides interactive tools for constructing and
co-constructing knowledge in English. The content available through technology
and its potential for interactivity and knowledge construction may, ultimately,
provide the most promising basis for learning English as a globalised language.

Conclusion

This is a time of transition in ELT and therefore a time with the potential for
change and innovation. According to Modiano:

while there is agreement that English is now ‘global’ and as such is best
defined as a heterogeneous entity, few practitioners have as yet been able to
278 Kathleen Graves and Sue Garton

devise methods and curricula that can act as a basis for teaching with such
an understanding as the guiding principle. (2009: 59)

The challenge that Modiano defines for teaching a language that is used glo-
bally but learnt in local contexts, must, by its nature, be addressed in those
contexts. The contributors to this volume have explored, from a variety of local
perspectives, the complexity of what is involved in successfully meeting this
challenge. Moreover, they have shown how local solutions can have relevance
across continents and contexts and have thus provided a sense of the future of
materials in ELT.

Notes
1. Moll, L.C., Amanti, C., Neff, D. and Gonzalez, N. Funds of knowledge for teaching:
Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory Into Practice
31(2): 132–141.
2. In addition to enactive mastery experiences and vicarious experiences, the other
sources of self-efficacy are verbal persuasion and physiological and affective states
(Bandura, 1997).

References
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Aarseth, E. (1997). Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. Baltimore, MD: Johns

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The definitive scholarly work on digital literature. A dense read, but seminal in its
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Beckett, G.H. and Miller, P.C. (eds) (2006). Project-Based Second and Foreign Language
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Bridges the gap between research and practice in the area of project-based learning
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Coleman, H. (ed.) (2011). Dreams and Realities: Developing Countries and the English
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Provides insights on the complex dynamics of language policy and practice, and the
current debate on the discourse of English as a global tool for development. The
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Cummins, J. and Davison, C. (2007). International Handbook of English Language Teaching.
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Dalton-Puffer, C. and Smit, U. (eds) (2007) Critical Perspectives in CLIL Classroom Discourse.
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Content and language integrated learning (CLIL), classroom discourse, discourse ana-
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Freeman, D.E. and Freeman, Y.S. (2007). English Language Learners: The Essential Guide.
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This text is an essential reference tool, particularly the sections that focus on drawing
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Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education,
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Gonzalez, N. and Moll, L. (2002). Cruzando el puente: building bridges to funds of
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Utilizing students’ funds of knowledge is a major component in teaching for social
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280
 Suggested Reading 281

Graves introduces techniques and strategies for rich vocabulary instruction, which can
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Gray, J. (2010). The Construction of English: Culture, Consumerism and Promotion in the ELT
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A critical examination of global ELT coursebooks and the values and interests they
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GSMA Development Fund (2012). Shaping the Future: Realising the Potential of Informal
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All content development needs to be relevant to the learners it is trying to reach. This
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Explores issues related to the design, implementation, and evaluation of materials in
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A very interesting collection of essays on the theory and design of Interactive Fiction
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A rich and reflective, but also simple resource. It covers everything you need to work
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The authors apply the framework from their chapter to the analysis of the international
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Qu Jiangfiong and Tan Bee Tin’s chapter evaluates three coursebooks used in China
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This has the advantage of being a single-authored volume rather than a collection of
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282 Suggested Reading

designing other forms of materials. It offers practical ideas on how teachers can adapt
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Mehisto, P., Frigols, M.J. and Marsh, D. (2008). Uncovering CLIL. MacMillan
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Prensky’s follow up book to the incredibly influential ‘Digital Game-based Learning’
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 Suggested Reading 283

An interesting article that argues for the existence of the sense of ‘performing presence’
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This edited volume provides an informed and critical review of the materials used in
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A good overview of issues involved in the design and evaluation of different types of
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Wedell is a powerful voice on the issue of planning and managing educational innov-
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case studies. His “questions to consider” are designed to encourage critical reflection
while his own answers and approaches focus on implementation processes that are
sensitive to local contextual realities.
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Contains extensive materials and lessons designed to bring stories to life while building
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A very accessible and comprehensive guide to digital game-based learning, which looks
at the advantages and disadvantages of using DGBL in higher-learning.
Index

academic tasks, 146, 153–4 BANA, see Britain, Australia and North
accents, 173 America (BANA) countries
achievement gap, 141 Bangladesh, 6, 11, 159, 271, 276, 277
adaptation, see materials BBC Janala in, 163–72
adaptation English language learning initiatives
addition, to materials, 106–7 in, 160
Albania Batstone, R., 244
classroom practices in, 94–100 big c culture, 72–3, 78
communicative teaching approaches blogs, 200
in, 89–103 Borg, S., 241–2
educational context in, 90–4 Brazil, teacher education in, 237–52
L2 learning in, 90 Britain, Australia and North America
L2 teaching in, 90–1 (BANA) countries, 101, 256, 257,
reforms in, 91–3 265, 271, 272
Algeria, 6, 271 Brown, D.,, 223
cultural representations in English Byrd, P., 21–2
textbooks in, 69–86
educational reforms in, 73–5 CALL framework, 184–5, 192–3
Islamic fundamentalism in, 74 Carter, R., 25
teachers’ perspectives in, 80–2 celebrity culture, 73, 78, 80
Apple, M. B., 48 cell phones, see mobile phones
Argentina, 39, 42, 44–8 Chapelle, A. A., 6, 10–11, 184–5
assessment, 145–6, 153–4, 208, 210 China, 6, 40, 70
attitudes towards classroom practices, 94–100, 258
adaptation, 110–11, 117 CLIL, see Content and Language
coursebooks, 28 Integrated Learning (CLIL)
English classes, 258 CLT, see Communicative Language
materials, 7–8 Teaching (CLT)
mobile phone lessons, 167–9 collaborative learning, 188, 202–4
use of L1, 42 commodity culture, 72–3
audio lessons, 164–5 Common European Framework of
autonomous learning/learners, 58, Reference (CEFR), 165
122–3, 136–7, 178, 183, 191–3, 203, communication-oriented textbooks,
221, 223, 230, 261 253–69
authenticity communicative competence, 9, 179
of IF, 189–91 Communicative Language Teaching
of language, 23–6, 93, 184 (CLT), 40–1, 89–103, 221, 222–3, 234
of materials, 224, 276 challenges of, 92
in textbooks, 23–6, 31, 93, 184 classroom practices, 94–100
implications of, 100–2
Bahrain in Japan, 254–67
adaptation of materials for, 53–68 principles of, 179
educational context in, 53–4 reforms and, 91–3
teacher training in, 64–5 resources and textbooks for, 93–4

285
286 Index

community, 223–4 evaluation of, 23–33

comprehension, 58–9 factors influencing adoption of,
computer-mediated collaborative learning 253–67
(CMCL), 188 global, 3–7
computers, 199–200 global vs. local, 37–52
confidence, 169, 175, 256 glocal, 39
content introduction to, 19–20
ethnically and culturally diverse, 143–4 local, 6–7, 38–9, 40–5, 47–9
evaluation of, 210 localised, 38–45, 48–9, 271–2
level, amount, and relevance of, 173 mediating, 259–64
linguistically and culturally diverse, role of, 19–20, 105, 109, 253
150–1 selection of, 28–33, 45, 105–6, 266
localisation of, 6–7, 33, 271–2 supplementation of, 46–7, 49
of materials for English as globalised teachers’ views on, 109–10
language, 271–3 theoretical underpinnings of, 40–1
modifying, 33 typology of, 20, 37–41
reorganizing, 34 use of, 8–10, 32–3, 44–8
representations of, 26–8 values in, 5
subject matter, 42 writing, 20–3, 27, 117
subject-specific, 146 course design, 241
Content and Language Integrated Courtillon, J., 42–3
Learning (CLIL) Crawford, J., 19–20
advantages of, 199 creativity, 114, 274
assessment in, 210 critical pedagogy, 40
defined, 198–9 critical views, 4–7
evaluation in, 210 cultural competence, 272
selecting and adapting materials for, cultural diversity, 141, 142
211–13 culturally complex atmosphere, 144,
using Web 2.0 tools in, 198–215 150–1
Vertical Transversal CLIL project, culturally responsive pedagogy, 141–55
204–11 cultural norms, 256
context, 94, 172–4, 178–9 cultural representations
contextulisation, 41–2, 45, 47–8, 50 in English textbooks, 69–86
Cortazzi, M., 69–70 implications of, 82–4
coursebooks, 2–4 patterns of, 69–70
see also materials, ELT teachers’ perspectives on, 80–2
adaptation of, 33–4, 46, 49, 53–68, cultural values, 27
104–20, 274 culture
communication-oriented, 253–69 approaches to, 6
for communicative teaching, 89, 93–4 big c, 72–3, 78
content of. see content bridge between home and school, 143
context for, 37–9 celebrity, 73, 78, 80
contextualization of, 41–2 commodity, 72–3
corpus data and, 24–5 context and, 172–4
critical views of, 4–7 definition of, 72–3
cultural representations in, 69–86 language and, 70–2
curricular change and, 8–10 little c, 72–3, 78
deficiencies in, 112 local, 70
development of, 20–3 role of, 26
ELT, 19–36 subjective, 73
 Index 287

curriculum English in Action (EIA), 160

change, 8–10 English language
changes in Japan, 253–67 in Bahrain, 53–4
content objectives, 146, 153–4 demand for, 9
culturally and linguistically responsive, as a foreign language, 271, 272–3
141–56 as a global language, 71, 270–3, 277
role of, 65, 121–2, 159, 160
deletion, of materials, 108 success and, 5
Derewianka, B., 11 in Thailand, 121–2
developing countries, broadband English language learners (ELLs)
penetration in, 161, 162 see also learners
digital English natives, 277 achievement gap and, 141
digital games-based language learning content objectives for, 146, 153–4
(DGBLL), 178–97 culturally and linguistically responsive
digital immigrants, 10 instruction for, 146–55
digital natives, 10–11 methods of instruction for, 144–6
discourse oriented approach, 124–5 English language learning, see language
learning
Eastern Europe, 90–1, 92 English language teaching (ELT), 159
Edge, J., 7 in Bangladesh, 160
educational backgrounds, 141 current issues in, 1–15
educational institutions, 116–17 in South Korea, 219–21
educational system theoretical framework for, 240–2
Albania, 90–4 via mobile phones, 159–77
Algeria, 73–5 English language textbooks
Bangladesh, 160 see also coursebooks
Ghana, 104–5 adaptation of, 33–4, 46, 49
Japan, 253–4 cultural representations in, 69–86
South Korea, 219–21 development of, 20–3
Thailand, 121–3 evaluation of, 23–8
educational trends, 39 selection of, 28–33, 45, 105–6, 109
eLearning, 200 English Seekho, 162
ELT materials, see materials, ELT ethnocentrism, 27
English as a foreign language (EFL) evaluation, of textbooks, 23–3
context of, 55 Experiential English (EX ENG),
vs. ESL, 54–5 122–3
teaching methods, 40 exploitation, 107
English as a foreign language (EFL) exploration, 113
teachers, 40 extemporisation, 106–7
see also teachers extension, 107
in Albania, 90–103 extensive reading, 63, 183–4
classroom practices of, 94–100
language proficiency of, 222, 256, facilitation of learning, 44, 45, 50
266–7 feedback, 232, 247–8
non-native, 89, 92 flexible learning materials, 124, 224
pre-service, 237–52 fluency, 58
in South Korea, 219–21 foreign language, 271, 272–3
English as a second language (ESL) Fullan, M. G., 172–3
context of, 55 funds of knowledge, 143, 150,
vs. EFL, 54–5 273–4
288 Index

games-based language learning, 178–97 international markets, 21–3, 37

gender balance, 27 see also global coursebooks
Ghana internet, 19, 161, 199
educational system of, 104–5 Isidori, M. V., 203
materials adaptation in, 104–20 Italy, 276–7
global coursebooks, 3–4, 37
critical views of, 4–5 Japan
vs. local coursebooks, 6–7 Action Plan to Cultivate Japanese with
globalisation, 40, 270, 277 English Abilities, 253–4
glocal coursebooks, 39 adoption of communication-oriented
Google Docs, 204, 208, 210–11 textbooks in, 253–69
grammar, 242, 243, 244 educational system, 253–4
Gray, J., 5, 26, 27, 39, 70 policymaking in, 264–5
Greece, 6 technical colleges, 254–5
Japanese teachers of English (JTEs),
handwriting framework, 62 254–67
Harwood, N., 23, 241, 248 Jin, L., 69–70
Hoque, S., 6
Hudelson, S., 56 Kaye, A., 202–3
hybrid approaches, 6–7 Kervin, L., 11
hybridised culture, 72–3 kizuna, 258
knowledge, see funds of knowledge
ICT, see information and communication kosen, 254–5
technologies (ICT) Kramsch, C., 26, 70–1
independent learners, 223 Krashen, S., 240
information and communication
technologies (ICT), 199–200 L1 literacy strategies, 59, 174
Inner Circle countries, 6, 71, 75, 77 L2 literacy, 59, 90
input hypothesis, 240 language
institutional factors, in textbook authenticity of, 23–6, 93, 184
selection, 28, 38 awareness, 42
instruction barriers, 141
explicitness of, 132 culture and, 70–2
methods of, for ethnic and linguistic development, 170–2
diversity, 144–6, 151–2 first language, 33, 54–6, 62, 65, 141,
syntactic and lexical complexity of, 144–50, 162, 199, 228, 266
133 target, 40, 42–3, 54–5, 71, 93, 123–4,
Interactive Fiction (IF), 178–97 163, 184, 188, 189, 199, 201, 205, 214,
authenticity of, 189–91 224, 231
case study, 193 theory of, 237
evaluation of, 184–5 language learning, 90–1
evaluation of results of, 192–3 games-based, 178–97
introduction to, 180–3 with interactive fiction, 183–4
language learning with, 183–4 potential, 184, 185
meaning focus, 189 technology for, 276–7
positive impact of, 191 through mobile phones, 159–77
practicality of, 191–2 Web 2.0 and, 201–2
Interactive Whiteboard (IWB), 10 language proficiency, 222, 256, 266–7
intercultural competence, 49 Larsen-Freeman, D., 242, 244
intercultural reflection, 43–4, 45, 50 leaner fit, 188–9
 Index 289

learner assessment, 113 localised coursebooks, 38, 39, 48–9, 271–2

learner-centred approach, 41, 89, 92, 94 distinctive features of, 41–4, 45
learner fit, 184 theoretical underpinnings of, 40–1
learners Lopriore, L., 39
adoption of communication-oriented
textbooks and, 262–3, 266 Marsh, D., 198
autonomy of, 124, 221 materials, ELT
characteristics of, 37–9 access to, 7, 11, 39, 141
confidence of, 169, 175 adaptation of. see materials adaptation
context of, 172–4 analysis of, 240–51
culturally and linguistically responsive authenticity of, 276
curriculum for, 141–56 for CLIL, 211–13
digital technology and, 10–11 content of, 271–3
diversity of, 142–3 coursebooks, 2–7, 19–36
engagement of, 146 critical views of, 4–7
explicitness of information provided culturally relevant, 141–55
to, 132 current issues in, 1–15
funds of knowledge of, 143, 150, 274 ethnically and culturally diverse, 143–4
independent, 223 evaluation of, 1, 23–8
motivation of, 5, 142–3, 169, 175 flexible, 124, 224
multilevel, 121–40 future of, 270–9
needs of, 112–13, 188–9 importance of, 237
participation patterns of, 144–5, 151–2 literacy work in, 60–2
role of, 7–8 multilevel, 121–40
support for, 133, 152 next generation of, 65–6
textbook selection and, 28–9 research on, 1–2
views of, on materials, 5 selection of, 109, 188–9, 211–13, 237–8
young, 54, 56–64 supplementary, 46–7, 49, 107, 123–5
learning teacher developed, 6–7, 104–20,
context, 178–9 122–38, 237–52, 274
environment, 160 technology, 10–11
facilitation, 44, 45, 50 unsuitable, 263–4
factors affecting, 170 use of, 8–10, 241, 273–6
practices, 169–70 users of, 7–8
styles, 108, 118, 121, 124, 144, 167, 170 for young learners, 56
spaces, 178 materials adaptation, 6–7, 53–68, 274
to read, 57–9 addition, 106–7
linguistic contrasts, 42–3, 45, 48, 50 approaches to, 106–8, 114–15
linguistic imperialism, 40 for CLIL, 211–13
listening skills, 179 for culturally and linguistically diverse
literacy, 56–9 students, 141–55
framework, 62–4 deletion, 108
support for, 59–62 educational institutions and, 116–17
little c culture, 72–3, 78 in Ghana, 104–20
local coursebooks, 6–7, 38–9, 47–9 implications of, 115–18
cultural representations in, 70 influences on, 110–12
distinctive features of, 41–4, 45 investigation of, 108–15
theoretical underpinnings of, 40–1 modification, 107
local culture, 70 by pre-service teachers, 237–52
localisation, of content, 6–7, 33, 271–2 reasons for, 112–14, 123–4
290 Index

materials adaptation – Continued paralleling, 187

replacement, 107 participation patterns, 144–5,
teachers’ views on, 110–12 151–2
materials development, 1–2, 20–3, 237, pedagogical fit, 42
275 pedagogy, 5, 41
for mobile phones, 164–5 culturally and linguistically responsive,
multilevel tasks, 123–38 141–55
McCarthy, M., 25 language, 239–40
McGrath, I., 19, 123 peer evaluation/assessment, 205,
meaning focus, 184, 189 208, 247
method exploration, 114 peer observation, 247–8
methodological correctness, 5, 9 peer support, 223–4
methodology, 5, 255–8, 265 peer teaching/tutoring, 211
MILLEE, 162 personalisation, 41–2
ministries of education, guidelines of, perspectives, 73, 78
20–1 phonemic awareness, 57
Mishen, F., 5, 6, 9 phonics, 57–8
mixed ability class, 47, 124–5, 127, 136 portfolio, 146, 153–4, 225, 233
mobile phones, 11, 159–77 Portugal, 178–9, 276–7
Modiano, M., 277–8 post-reading/playing phase, 185, 188
modification, of materials, 107 power relations, 40
Mongolia, 161 Prensky, M., 10
Montfort, N., 180 pre-reading/playing phase, 185, 186–7
Montgomery, W., 144, 150–1 pre-service teachers, adaptation of
motivation, 5, 142–3, 169, 175 materials by, 237–52
Motteram, G., 10 pre-service training, 257
Moulton, J., 7 primary instruction, 131
Mukundan, J., 11 Prodromou, L., 5, 6, 9
multilevel materials, 121–40 project-based learning and teaching
multilevel tasks, 123 (PBLT), 221, 222
control over, 133 publication process, 20–3
designing, 125–7 public schools, textbooks in, 20–1
grading, 127–33 published materials
implementing, 134–6 see also coursebooks
implications of, 136–7 types of, 20
multimedia, 162–3 publishers, 39
multimedia packages, 9
readers’ theatre, 233
national curriculum, 20–1 reading instruction, 59
native language support, 145 reading skills, 183–4, 226
native speakers, 271, 272 realism, 93–4
non-native EFL teachers, 89, 92 real-life language, vs. textbook, 24–5
noticing hypothesis, 240 re-culturing, 172–3
novice teachers, 8, 80, 82, 274 reflection
reform, 73–5, 89–91, 101, 122, 230
Opoku-Amankwa, K., 7 repetition, 174
oral vocabulary, 59 replacement, of materials, 107
O’Reilly, T., 200 Richards, J.C., 21, 93, 247–8, 274
Outer Circle countries, 71 Rosati, L., 203
output hypothesis, 240 rote learning, 90–1
 Index 291

Saudi Arabia, 70 adaptation of materials by, 6–7, 104–20,

scaffolding, 152 122–38, 237–52, 274
Schmidt, R., 240 autonomy of, 105–6
school curriculum, 42 confidence of, 256
schools, 257–8 diversity self-assessment for, 149
secondary instruction, 131 effective use of materials by, 273–6
second language acquisition (SLA), 1, 42, external factors influencing, 257, 262
65, 178, 275 as facilitators, 178
selection, of textbooks, 28–33, 45, 105–6, information and communication,
266 199–200
self-efficacy, 275–6 knowledge base of, 149–50, 273–4
semiotic domains, 180 language proficiency of, 222, 256,
situated cognition, 180 266–7
smartphones, see mobile phones as mediators, 104, 112–13
SMS, 161–2 mobile learning and, 173
social networking, 200 novice, 8, 80, 82, 274
sociocultural traditions, 256, 260, 266 peer support for, 223–4
socio-economic status, 141 perspectives of, on cultural
South Asia, 70 representations, 80–2
South Korea, 219–21, 233 preferences of, 39
speaking skills, 171–2, 179 pre-service, 237–52
stereotypes, 27 as role models, 272–3
stimulation, 113 role of, 7–8, 178
Story Reading Project, 219–36 support for, 9
implications of, 232–3 textbook selection and, 28, 105–6
materials for, 224–5 training of, 64–5, 116–18, 219–20, 222,
structure of, 221 225–32, 257, 261–2, 265–7
theoretical framework for, 221–5 use of coursebooks by, 44–8
training programme, 225–32 use of technology by, 10–11
workshop overview, 227–30 views of, on materials, 5, 109–10
students, see learners teaching
subjective culture, 73 approaches to, 222
subject-specific content, 146 communicative language, 40–1,
supplementation, 46–7, 49, 107, 123–5 89–103, 221, 222–3, 234
Swain, M., 240 critical approaches to, 4–5
culturally responsive, 141–55
target language, 40, 42–3, 54–5, 71, discourse oriented approach to, 124–5
93, 123–4, 163, 184, 188, 189, 199, learner-centred approach to, 41, 89, 92,
201, 205, 214, 224, 231task-based 94
language teaching, 124 project-based, 221, 222
teacher-centred approach, 41 sociocultural traditions and, 256
teacher education, 9–10, 40, 117–18, 275–6 task-based, 124
in Albania, 91 teaching materials, see materials, ELT
in Brazil, 237–52 technology, 19, 276–7
in Japan, 257 accessibility of, 10–11
recommended practices in, 249–50 digital games, 178–97
theoretical framework for, 240–2 in education, 199–200
teachers impact of, 10–11
see also English as a foreign language mobile phones, 159–77
(EFL) teachers Web 2.0 tools, 198–215
292 Index

test formats, 21 Watson, J., 72, 73

text authenticity, 93 Web 1.0, 200–1
textbooks, see coursebooks Web 2.0
text messages, 161–2 about, 200–1
Thailand, educational system in, 121–3 case study, 204–11
themed units, 145, 151 collaborative learning and,
Thomas, M., 10 202–4
Tomlinson, B., 1, 2, 5, 237, 240, 241 language learning and, 201–2
top-down approaches, 56, 63, 65 tools, 198–215
Tunisia, 161 web applications, 200
Turkey, 70 webquests, 203–4
Wedell, M., 172, 270
uncertainty, 260–1 western methodological
United States approaches, 5
achievement gap in, 141 while-reading/playing phase, 185,
national guidelines, 6 187
wikis, 200
Valdes, G., 141 writing instruction, 124–5
values, 27 designing multilevel tasks,
variety, 113 125–7
VARK learning styles model, 170 grading tasks, 127–33
Venezuela, 70 implementing multilevel writing tasks,
Vertical Transversal CLIL project, 204–11 134–6
video games, 179–80 writing skills, 171, 187
see also digital games-based language
learning (DGBLL) young learners, 54, 56–64
vocabulary, 58 Yuen, K.-M., 72, 73