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The Framework of Materials and Methods
1.1 Introduction: setting the scene
As Richards (1985:1) reminds us, ‘the current status of English has turned a significant percentage of the world’s population into part-time users or learners of English’.
Many teachers work in geographical isolation, and may not have access to channels of professional communication (journals, conferences, in-service training courses); different countries have widely differing educational systems and philosophies, resulting in teachers being subject to different expectations and pressures.
A professional ‘common core’ is broadly made up of two kinds of factors: firstly, of the various wide-ranging criteria on which decisions about language teaching programmes are based, and secondly, on the pedagogic principles according to which materials and methods are actually designed. We shall take these two kinds of factors together and refer to them as the shared framework.
We subdivide it under the two headings of ‘context’ and ‘syllabus’.
1.2 The framework: context and syllabus
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1 Is there an explicit statement of the goals of the language programme on which you work? If so, what are its primary aims?
2 If there is not such a statement, try to draft one that represents your own understanding of the goals.
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My understanding of my career (teaching) goal
As a teacher of English in No. 13 High School, the main goal of my career (English language teaching) is to help my students achieve very high scores in the College Entrance Examination. The examination tests the students’ ability in listening, vocabulary, grammar, reading comprehension and writing skills. So I should try to help my students improve their skills for listening, reading and writing as well as help them use the words, expressions and sentences correctly in English.
For students who choose Science as their major, I should help them improve their abilities to understand scientific reports through listening and reading. I should also help them know how to write scientific articles.
For students who choose language or arts as their major, I should help them acquire various information through language input and help them develop their own skills and abilities at the same time. Writing and translation skills should also be trained.
For all my students who are mostly Chinese, I should help them aware cultural differences in the process of language studying.
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高中阶段的外语教育是培养公民外语素质的重要过程，它既是满足学生心智和情感态度的发展需求以及高中毕业生就业、升学和未来生存发展的需要，同时还要满足国家的经济建设和科技发展对人才培养的需求。因此，高中阶段的外语教育具有多重的人文和社会意义。
高中英语课程的总目标是使学生在义务教育阶段英语学习的基础上，进一步明确英语学习的目的，发展自主学习和合作学习的能力；形成有效的学习策略；培养学生的综合语言运用能力。综合语言运用能力建立在语言技能、语言知识、情感态度、学习策略和文化意识等素养整体发展的基础上。语言技能和语言知识是综合语言运用能力的基础。情感态度是影响学生学习和发展的重要因素。学习策略是提高学习效率、发展自主学习能力的先决条件。文化意识则是得体运用语言的保障。
高中英语课程应强调在进一步发展学生综合语言运用能力的基础上，着重提高学生用英语获取信息、处理信息、分析问题和解决问题的能力，特别注重提高学生用英语进行思维和表达的能力；形成跨文化交际的意识和基本的跨文化交际能力；进一步拓宽国际视野，增强爱国主义精神和民族使命感，形成健全的情感、态度、价值观，为未来发展和终身学习奠定良好的基础。
为此，高中英语教学要鼓励学生通过积极尝试、自我探究、自我发现和主动实践等学习方式，形成具有高中生特点的英语学习的过程和方法。
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The possibilities for actually implementing goals will be directly related both to the learners themselves – their needs, characteristics and so on – and to the whole educational setting in which the teaching is to take place.
The statement of goals, related to the learners and conditioned by the setting, leads to the selection of an appropriate type of syllabus content and specification. The broad syllabus outline will in turn have direct implications for the more detailed design and selection of materials and tests, the planning of individual lessons, and the management of the classroom itself.
Stern proposes a very detailed ‘conceptual framework’. Its main components are (a) views of the nature of language, (b) views of the learner and of language learning, (c) views of teaching and the language teacher, and (d) the whole context, which includes the educational setting, the language context, and the language teaching background. The chief characteristics of the model are that it should be comprehensive, coving any type of language teaching operation; that all factors under each heading are interdependent, so that ‘no single factor, for example the teacher, the method, the materials, a new concept … or a technological device, can by itself offer a general solution to most language learning problems’ (1983:47); and that it should see language teaching as multidisciplinary.
Contextual factors
A. Learners
We consider the learner’s
l Age
l Interests
l Level of proficiency in English
l Aptitude
l Mother tongue
l Academic and educational level
l Attitudes to learning
l Motivation
l Reasons for learning
l Preferred learning styles
l personality
B. setting
Setting here means the whole teaching and learning environment. In a wide sense: it is the factors falling under this heading that will determine whether the aims of a language programme, defined with reference to the learners’ needs and characteristics, are actually feasible and realistic. In certain situations, the setting itself may be so significant that it provides the foundation for the specification of aims.
The following factors will influence course planning, syllabus design, the selection of materials and resources, and the appropriateness of methods:
l The role of English in the country
l The role of English in the school
l The teachers
l Management and administration
l Resources available
l Support personnel
l The number of pupils
l Time
l Physical environment
l The socio-cultural environment
l The types of tests used
l Procedures for monitoring and evaluating
Hedge (2000) covers similar points, classifying them into social, educational, pupil and teacher variables. Malamah-Thomas (1987:97) describes setting in terms of three levels in an education system – the country, the school, and the classroom. She then divides the various factors into (a) physical, (b) temporal, (c) psycho-social, and (d) educational, showing how the three different levels may be affected by each of these. Thus, for example, psycho-social factors are related at national level to culture, politics and religion; at institutional level to school atmosphere and staff attitudes; and in the classroom to student-teacher rapport. Holliday (1994) is particularly concerned with the need for methodology to be appropriate to its socio-cultural context, not inappropriately transplanted from a different – and often more privileged – system.
By coming to grips not only with new ideas but with the evidence of what happens when they are introduced into the local context, [teachers] equip themselves with the tools for establishing an appropriate methodology that can set realistic national objectives for teacher training and education – Gaies and Bowers (1990:181)
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1 Now examine your own teaching environment in a similar way. First list the characteristics of your learners and of the teaching situation.
2 Then decide which are the more significant of these, and try to plot the patterns of cause and effect that they set in motion. For example, how are your classroom materials selected? To whom are you responsible? What possibilities do you have for innovation, or for professional development?
3 Finally, you might like to consider what kinds of changes in your teaching situation would have the strongest effect on your role as a teacher – a change in your status? Smaller groups? More time? The possibilities are many.
4 Discuss your analysis with colleagues, both with those working in the same environment and, if possible, with others from different backgrounds. Keep a note of your analysis: it will be helpful to refer to it again in subsequent chapters.
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A Brief analysis of my teaching environment
All my students, aged from sixteen to eighteen, are hard-working and excellent and the teaching conditions my school offers are perfect. Each classroom is equipped with a TV set and a computer connected with the Internet, etc. However, there are some disadvantages to the students’ English language learning in my school.
a. working and study hours
My students have very long study hours at school. They arrive at school at 6:55 a.m. and leave school at 9:20 p.m. Students who live in school study until ten o’clock at night and have to do the morning reading at half past six in the morning.
This kind of school schedule leads to the students’ tiredness in class and lack of personal space at the time when they grow up.
Moreover, my students have full-day lessons on Saturday. They even don’t have some of the national public holidays such as the Lantern Festival, the Mid-autumn Festival, etc. Physical tiredness is just one of the advantages, mental one should be greatly taken care of while doing teaching.
The school has two types of lessons with different teaching hours. One is a seventy-minute lesson and the other is a forty-minute one. It is very difficult for students at such age to concentrate all the seventy minutes. So the teacher have to use different kinds of tasks to attract the students’ attention.
b. busy students
My school is not a foreign language school. My students are encouraged to devote themselves to all their subjects, with lots of homework to do. Generally speaking, they really don’t have much time to listen and read in English, nor do they have time to recite English passages. However, it is important for English learners to do enough listening and reading training practice, otherwise they don’t have enough language input.
So it is important for the teacher to assign the homework carefully. However, because of too much homework to be done, many of the students still do not finish the reading or writing tasks carefully. These are all disadvantages for my students’ learning the English language.
c. teaching materials
According to the school rule, teachers must not provide students with extra teaching materials except textbook and a piece of ‘study-guide’ which is handed out before the start of each lesson. So the teacher cannot choose any other teaching material but the language input the textbook provides is not enough.
d. teacher co-operation
The teachers in my teaching group are nice and kind-hearted. They are willing to share the teaching plans and Ppts. However, because of lack of time talking together and every teacher is busy indeed, teachers don’t have much time to discuss the teaching methodology together.
My solution
I think the best way to solve the above problems is that to improve the efficiency of each lesson. That means to provide more chances for my students to practice using the English language so that they can use the language freely in the future.
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The syllabus
The ‘syllabus’ can be seen for our purposes as the overall organizing principle for what is to be taught and learned. In other words, it is a general statement as to the pedagogical arrangement of learning content.
Three distinct levels which Richards and Rodgers (2001) term: approach, design and procedure. The term is intended to show the relationship between the theory and practice of language teaching as an ‘interdependent system’.
‘Approach’ is the most general level, and refers to the views and beliefs – or theories – of language and language learning on which planning is based.
‘Design’ is where the principles of the first level are converted into the more practical aspects of syllabuses and instructional materials.
‘Procedure’ refers to techniques and the management of the classroom itself.
Six broad types of syllabus:
1) grammatical or structural: It is organized according to a list of grammatical structures.
2) functional-notional: It is based on the communicative and interpersonal uses to which language is put and, in contrast to the formal structural system of the first type, highlights what people do through language. It is normally referred to as a ‘functional’ syllabus. This design principle is often found together with the other list of items in the same box: they are technically called ‘notions’, a term used to describe the rather general and abstract categories a language is able to express.
3) situation: It presents a set of everyday situations or ‘settings’.
4) skills based: It focuses on language skills, and is concerned with what learners do as speakers, listeners, readers, writers.
5) topic-based: It uses topics or themes as its starting point.
6) task-based: It invokes the concept of task.
Two final explanatory points must be made: First, most syllabuses are based on a combination of two or more of the types we have illustrated. The second point to bear in mind here is the need to distinguish between the syllabus itself, and what we might call a ‘syllabus inventory’.
The ‘syllabus’ is the way in which that content is organized and broken down into a set of teachable and learnable units, and will include consideration of pacing, sequencing and grading of items, methods of presentation and practice, and so on. Harmer (2001b: 296) also refers to the criteria of learnability, coverage and usefulness.
1.3 Conclusion
In Richards’ (1985:11) words, ‘Planning a successful language program involves consideration of factors that go beyond mere content and presentation of teaching materials.’
1.4 Further reading
1 Richards, J.C. (1985): The context of Language Teaching. chapter 1 is entitled ‘The context of language teaching’. Chapter 2, which was written with Rogers, is entitled ‘Method: Approach, design and procedure’, and is a summary of the arguments set out in Richards and Rodgers (2001).
2 Harmer (2001b, ch 21) has a useful overview of the main types of syllabus.
Stern, H. H. (1983): Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
