Reflections on Course Readings

Two Important Concepts or Facts

Byrd, P. (1995). Writing and publishing textbooks. In Patricia Byrd (Ed.), Material writer's guide (pp. 3-9). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.

It is important to remember several factors when developing textbooks for ESL or EFL learners. Two that are salient in my mind are the teacher as a target audience and the many other groups writers must consider as potential viewers of their work.

Another issue relates to the necessity to tie several elements (i.e. activities, etc.) together to form a comprehensible whole textbook.

Dubin, Fraida. (1995). The craft of materials writing. In P. Byrd (Ed.), Material writer's guide (pp. 13-22). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.

While considering components in materials design, such as task-based activities and content, regarding learning in a more holistic manner might aid both students and teachers, enabling them to focus on issues of "doing".

When developing materials, writers should reflect on how theory and the actual use of language in real world contexts can provide meaningful lessons to students

There is a role for writers to play as pioneers of practice, not simply as followers.

Holmes, Martin. Web-based language learning materials. (By one of the developers of Hot Potatoes software) http://web.uvic.ca/hcmc/rnd/
weblang/

The technology available for producing interactive activities on the web has plusses and minuses, and materials writers must keep this in mind.

Hot Potatoes will be very useful in the design of web-based ESL activities

To keep students engaged and interested, we need to provide them with something to do. In other words, we have to make the process interactive.

Activities for use on the web must actively involve the learner, an important factor to address in activities creation.

Jolly, D, and Bolitho, R. A framework for materials writing. In Brian Tomlinson (Ed.), Materials development in language teaching (pp. 90-115). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

After developing materials with clear aims and instructions for use, I must go a step further and evaluate the design and its effectiveness in the classroom. Feedback from other teachers and students, who have been ignored in the past, can be quite helpful.

Learner needs are an important point to focus on.

Learning to write materials is inevitably a matter of trial and error.

This quote reminds me that materials development is a continuous process and, the value of this lies in the adaptability and creativity it supports.

McDonough, J., and Shaw, C. (1993). Current approaches to materials design. In Jo McDonough and Christopher Shaw, Materials and methods in ELT: A teacher's guide (pp. 43-62). Oxford: Blackwell.

Making activities "authentic" by allowing learner's to contribute personal experience may increase their motivation, as the level of relevancy increases.

Learners vary in their styles of learning, motivation, attitude, among other factors. I can try to plan activities based on these various factors and try to enhance the learning that occurs in the classroom.

They (coursebooks) are design principles, and cannot have equal and universal applicability: as we have seen different teaching situations have different requirements and expectations.

The design approaches reviewed in this chapter are helpful and informative, but I must thoroughly analyze my own teaching context before deciding upon any of them.

Byrd, P. (1995). Issues in the writing and publication of grammar textbooks. In Patricia Byrd (Ed.), Material writer's guide, pp. 45-63. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.

The overall effectiveness of the materials I develop is contingent on a multitude of factors that I should continually address throughout the design process. The way in which I organize content will impact students and teachers views of grammatical structures.

Directions are written for students and especially teachers; clear and thorough instructions should be provided for each activity to show possible adaptations in how it can be implemented.

The definition of the teaching of grammar that lies behind the following discussion certainly recognizes the usefulness of such an approach for certain students in certain classes, but it expands the teaching of English grammar to include explanations, examples, and exercises that approach the learning of form from many different angles.

This quote reminds me that I'll have ample opportunities for being creative and developing skills as a materials writer for this class. I'll also have to try to remain cognizant of the many factors that need to be considered throughout the process.

Conrad, S. (2000). Will corpus linguistics revolutionize grammar teaching in the 21st century? TESOL Quarterly, 34, 548-560.

When deciding how to incorporate frequency data from corpus linguistic analyses, a review of student needs will help instructors determine which high or low frequency data to include.

Viewing English from a pragmatic stance has become easier with technology; how this affects grammar teaching is something that I can choose to research and utilize in my classroom and effect the selection of activities, textbooks, etc. that I select.

Corpus linguistics leads to a description of grammar that is consistent with native speaker use, accounts for variation in a systematic way, and is useful for English language teachers and students.

Corpus linguistics provides an extremely useful basis on which I can design lesson plans and activities that are adapted to student needs.


Weeks 8 & 9
Healey, D. (1999). Theory and research: Autonomy in language learning. In Joy Egbert and Elizabeth Hanson-Smith (Eds.), CALL environments: Research, practice, and critical issues (pp. 391-402). Alexandria, VA: TESOL.	Language learners learning preferences should be assessed and considered, a variety of activity types can help achieve some sort of balance. Since all my activities will be computer-based, I must emphasize the accessibility of the activities to the students, so the ones with a limited amount of computer experience feel welcome to try them too.	Unless learners have strategies, they can't be self-directed, but learners may have no interest in the strategies until they start to take some control into their own hands. Encouraging students to make use of learning strategies is also an important aspect to consider in the materials design process.

Prowse, Philip. (1998). How writers write: testimony from authors. In Brian Tomlinson (Ed.), Materials development in language teaching (pp. 130-115). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.	I enjoyed reading this article and hearing about the writing process from experienced materials writers; the wide range of perspectives was enlightening. Reading this articles reminded me of the amount of planning, writing, revising, etc. required to develop a coherent set of activities.	How to work together is clearly something that occupies materials writers. In the accounts given here, we can distinguish pairs who work closely together, pairs who complement each other, and larger teams where management of the writing process becomes as important as the writing itself. For me, this quote underscores the benefits which may ensue when two or more writers collaborate and also the careful management needed to do so.

Reid, J. Developing ESL writing materials for publication OR writing as a learning experience. In Patricia Byrd (Ed.), Material writer's guide (pp. 64-78). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.	It's essential to have a purpose before engaging in the writing process; filling a niche may provide writers with ideas in this regard. I really need to start drafting my thoughts about how the activities I create are supported by relevant theories in second language learning.	Slowly I realized that I was contradicting all the rules of good writing: in my eagerness to reach more teachers 1) I was not writing for an audience I was familiar with 2) I was trying to write about what I did not know about, and as a result 3) the purposes for my writing were unclear. Asking myself throughout the writing process what my purpose is and who my audience is will help me to develop a meaningful and useful set of materials.
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Weeks 10 & 11
Chapelle, C. (1998). Multimedia CALL: Lessons to be learned from instructed SLA. Language Learning & Technology 2 (1), pp. 22-34	The examples of computer-based activities in this article illustrate how SL theories can be included in the materials design process. The specific suggestions helped me to envision some of the steps I'll need to included to develop activities based on my views and experience, as well as current theory. Applying my knowledge of SLA theory will help to define the content I've chosen and hopefully make it more useful to learners	The observation is that tasks are not prescribed as to the specific directions they can take and therefore learners' choices influence how a given task turns out. It follows that researchers and teachers do not have a clear conception of a task unless they observe how the task actually turns out during instruction. Feedback from students, teachers, and colleagues will help me to refine the activities I create for their intended audience..

Egbert, J. (1999). Classroom practice: Creating interactive CALL activities. In Joy Egbert and Elizabeth Hanson-Smith (Eds.), CALL environments: Research, practice, and critical issues (pp. 27-51). Alexandria, VA: TESOL.	Many interesting software programs are out there to provide support and encourage interaction among learners in CALL environments. I thought the author's thought on how automating materials through use of a computer, which may provide learners with more opportunities to communicate with one another as less time is spent on recording, was interesting.	Having established goals and created roles, the teacher can integrate computer technology into the task if needed. In some cases technology will play a peripheral role; in other it will help create an environment that is unique in the way it supports interaction. Since I've never seen technology implemented in the ways described in this article, I would've never imagined how engaging, interesting, fun, and truly useful it can be to teach English using computer-based activities.If learners are assigned roles and their assignment clear, then interaction can truly be a component of CALL materials.

Kol, S., and Schcolnik, M. (2000). Enhancing screen reading strategies. CALICO Journal 18 (1), 67-80.	This article reminded me of the importance of familiarizing students with the medium in which they will be working, as well as the tasks that'll be required of them. I found the authors' findings interesting and encouraging, as far as web-based materials are concerned.	According to the Interquest forecast (1997), "There will be dramatic changes in how we interact with non-paper devices and how we learn to use new media." Figuring out the most ideal way to present material to students via the computer may be the norm in a few years, so receiving feedback from a particular audience on user friendliness of materials is a crucial step in the design process.

Shin, J., and Wastell, D. (2001). A user-centered methodological framework for the design of hypermedia-based call systems. CALICO Journal 18 (3), 517-537.	Piloting the activities I develop and receiving feedback on them are essential to the design process. The authors' discussion on how they strove to balance usability and pedagogical concerns illustrates how when ignored materials design may suffer in terms of its usefulness to learners and teachers.	That the findings were, to a degree, contrary to our implicit design philosophy provides a salutary demonstration of the importance of adopting an empirically based, user-orientated approach to design. This quote again reminded that my audience's needs will greatly contribute and shape the activities that I design.
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Title	Two Important Concepts or Facts	Quotation
Weeks 1 & 2
Byrd, P. (1995). Writing and publishing textbooks. In Patricia Byrd (Ed.), Material writer's guide (pp. 3-9). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.	It is important to remember several factors when developing textbooks for ESL or EFL learners. Two that are salient in my mind are the teacher as a target audience and the many other groups writers must consider as potential viewers of their work. Another issue relates to the necessity to tie several elements (i.e. activities, etc.) together to form a comprehensible whole textbook.	For this script to be useful, it must not only grow out of theories about language learning, it must also recognize classroom realities by presenting choices that are likely to be of interest and utility to teachers and their students. This quote emphasized that creating materials involves a careful observation of what happens in the classroom among teachers and students. Theory alone is not enough to consider.

Dubin, Fraida. (1995). The craft of materials writing. In P. Byrd (Ed.), Material writer's guide (pp. 13-22). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.	While considering components in materials design, such as task-based activities and content, regarding learning in a more holistic manner might aid both students and teachers, enabling them to focus on issues of "doing". When developing materials, writers should reflect on how theory and the actual use of language in real world contexts can provide meaningful lessons to students	There is a role for writers to play as pioneers of practice, not simply as followers. For me, this quote highlighted the important role that scholar-teachers, utilizing our knowledge of theory and practice in a manner that may be extremely beneficial to learners and other scholar-teachers, have as writers of ESL/EFL materials, . With this knowledge, the ability to rethink and question the current approaches used in the presentation of materials resides with us.

Holmes, Martin. Web-based language learning materials. (By one of the developers of Hot Potatoes software) http://web.uvic.ca/hcmc/rnd/ weblang/	The technology available for producing interactive activities on the web has plusses and minuses, and materials writers must keep this in mind. Hot Potatoes will be very useful in the design of web-based ESL activities	To keep students engaged and interested, we need to provide them with something to do. In other words, we have to make the process interactive. Activities for use on the web must actively involve the learner, an important factor to address in activities creation.

Biographical statement on Martin Holmes. (n.d.) Retrieved August 18, 2002, from http://web.uvic.ca/hcmc/staff/martin.htm	Many options for web-based courses and activities are available. Well-developed materials require time, patience, and commitment.	The entire course was presented online, and students from anywhere in the world were able to register. Potential viewers of my website may live in other countries. As part of my target audience, I must choose and consider materials designs that are relevant to their needs, as I determine necessary.

Jolly, D, and Bolitho, R. A framework for materials writing. In Brian Tomlinson (Ed.), Materials development in language teaching (pp. 90-115). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.	After developing materials with clear aims and instructions for use, I must go a step further and evaluate the design and its effectiveness in the classroom. Feedback from other teachers and students, who have been ignored in the past, can be quite helpful. Learner needs are an important point to focus on.	Learning to write materials is inevitably a matter of trial and error. This quote reminds me that materials development is a continuous process and, the value of this lies in the adaptability and creativity it supports.

McDonough, J., and Shaw, C. (1993). Current approaches to materials design. In Jo McDonough and Christopher Shaw, Materials and methods in ELT: A teacher's guide (pp. 43-62). Oxford: Blackwell.	Making activities "authentic" by allowing learner's to contribute personal experience may increase their motivation, as the level of relevancy increases. Learners vary in their styles of learning, motivation, attitude, among other factors. I can try to plan activities based on these various factors and try to enhance the learning that occurs in the classroom.	They (coursebooks) are design principles, and cannot have equal and universal applicability: as we have seen different teaching situations have different requirements and expectations. The design approaches reviewed in this chapter are helpful and informative, but I must thoroughly analyze my own teaching context before deciding upon any of them.
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Weeks 3 & 4
Byrd, P. (1995). Issues in the writing and publication of grammar textbooks. In Patricia Byrd (Ed.), Material writer's guide, pp. 45-63. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.	The overall effectiveness of the materials I develop is contingent on a multitude of factors that I should continually address throughout the design process. The way in which I organize content will impact students and teachers views of grammatical structures. Directions are written for students and especially teachers; clear and thorough instructions should be provided for each activity to show possible adaptations in how it can be implemented.	The definition of the teaching of grammar that lies behind the following discussion certainly recognizes the usefulness of such an approach for certain students in certain classes, but it expands the teaching of English grammar to include explanations, examples, and exercises that approach the learning of form from many different angles. This quote reminds me that I'll have ample opportunities for being creative and developing skills as a materials writer for this class. I'll also have to try to remain cognizant of the many factors that need to be considered throughout the process.

Conrad, S. (2000). Will corpus linguistics revolutionize grammar teaching in the 21st century? TESOL Quarterly, 34, 548-560.	When deciding how to incorporate frequency data from corpus linguistic analyses, a review of student needs will help instructors determine which high or low frequency data to include. Viewing English from a pragmatic stance has become easier with technology; how this affects grammar teaching is something that I can choose to research and utilize in my classroom and effect the selection of activities, textbooks, etc. that I select.	Corpus linguistics leads to a description of grammar that is consistent with native speaker use, accounts for variation in a systematic way, and is useful for English language teachers and students. Corpus linguistics provides an extremely useful basis on which I can design lesson plans and activities that are adapted to student needs.

Jones, S., Byrd, P., Allomong, S., and Tanaka, Y. Heinle & Heinle grammar activity inventory. Retrieved from http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/inventgr1/	Patience and flexibility, and persistence are very important in designing materials. Creating activities that are meaningful and contextualized for my target audience is a goal that I'll try to fulfill in the writing of most materials. I'd also like to include sections on learning strategies for learners where appropriate.	It is for subsequent researchers to study the different categories and develop some correlation between particular activity types and improved learning. The evaluation stage of materials design will provide me with feedback to improve the activities I develop for classroom use. Action-research also appeals to me in this regard.

Larson-Freeman, D. (2001). Teaching grammar. In Marianne Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (3rd ed., pp. 251-266).	Second language learning develops as students realize how particular structures are used in everyday life and realize the meaning behind them. Teaching English based on Larsen-Freeman's framework addresses three important areas of grammatical structures: form, meaning, and use, the latter two often being ignored. With emphasis placed on all three areas, ESL learners may be more inclined and motivated to learn, knowing that real-world applications of the structures being taught exist elsewhere. Both students and teachers can benefit by examining student errors and determining the areas (form, meaning, and/or use) that students are unsure of. As a teacher, I could also research relevant pragmatic issues and how I can apply them to classroom presentations of grammar forms. .	Grammar is about form and one way to teach form is to give students rules: however, grammar is about much more than form, and its teaching is ill served if students are simply given rules. This quote conveys the gist of L-F's article, which in sum draws attention to the form, meaning, and use of grammar forms.
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Weeks 5 & 6
Coxhead, A. (2000). A New Academic Word List. TESOL Quarterly, 34, (2), 213-238.	The possible applications of corpus linguistics to second language instruction are considerable, however, it seems imperative to approach the use of compiled lists with class needs in mind and also to analyze the source. Though they should not be utilized as the sole source of vocabulary teaching, word lists, such as Cox's Academic Word List, have much to offer to materials designers, teachers, and students.	The results of this research show that the development and use of large corpora hold promise for obtaining information about vocabulary frequency in registers of interest for language teaching. Corpus-based studies offer an opportunity to see how language is used in certain registers, which informs teachers and enables us to focus on the language that we feel is most important to our students.

Decarrico, J.S. (2001). Vocabulary learning and teaching. In Marianne Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (3rd ed., pp. 285-299).	The concept of automaticity is important in vocabulary learning. Facilitating a deep understanding of words can help students remember words in the long-term; this can be done through activities and language games, for example, that require the students to process words into long-term memory. Presenting learning strategies as they pertain to different language skills is an important part of instruction. Making students explicitly aware of them is necessary for improved and future learning.	Vocabulary learning is central to language acquisition, whether the language is first, second, or foreign. By drawing student attention to the importance of vocabulary learning, we can help them improve their knowledge in many other language skill areas.

Groot, P. (2000). Computer Assisted Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition. Language Learning & Technology 4, (1), pp. 60-81.	In certain contexts, the use of bilingual lists need not be forbidden, as they can serve a learning function. Thus, I can and should vary approaches after assessing student needs. Technology and effective language teaching are possible, and the development of CAVOCA supports vocabulary learning that is retainable and useful.	Attractive though this idea may seem, it is not very realistic. Authentic language material is generally not produced with the intention of illustrating to learners the meaning or usage of certain words but rather to convey information to other native speakers who are already familiar with these words. The author's purpose for creating CAVOCA is highly supported by theory and addresses the irony of using authentic L2 materials in certain instances; I appreciated Groot's view because it reminds me of the need for teachers to question and evaluate the ideas put forth by researchers. It also reminds me that we need to be our own researchers sometimes.

Nation, P. (2000). Learning vocabulary in lexical sets: Dangers and Guidelines. TESOL Journal 9 (2), 6-10.	For me this article was the most enlightening (also the first one I read) because it addressed a manner in which vocabulary is frequently taught and why this might not be the best approach. I've been taught and taught L2 vocabulary in lexical sets, so Nation's findings are relevant and interesting to me. Based on my previous L2 learning experiences, I would've expected vocabulary to be taught in lexical sets, as many other students possibly would. Since this approach is questionable yet common, I think that students should be informed of this and their instructors' decision to ignore or minimize this approach in vocabulary presentations.	This research shows that learning related words at the same time makes learning them more difficult. This learning difficulty can be avoided if related words are learned separately, as they are when learning from normal language use. The focus placed on learning vocabulary as it's used in everyday speech or a particular register appeals to me as a learner and an instructor because it can increase student motivation if it is relevant.

Stoller, F.L., and Grabe, W. (1995). Implications for L2 vocabulary acquisition and instruction from L1 vocabulary research. In Thomas Huckin, Margot Haynes, and James Coady (Eds.), Second language reading and vocabulary learning, pp. 24-45. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.	Knowledge of vocabulary building skills is an area that materials designers and teachers can cover for their audience/students. Vocabulary learning is a process that requires time and can be improved by using various learning strategies and fun activities.	Generally speaking, the range of skills introduced in an L1 or L2 classroom, and corresponding instructional approaches, cannot be determined until the following issues are considered: …The point is that there is no one instructional approach that can address these varied vocabulary skills. This quote reminds me not to forget to view teaching and designing broadly and remember that vocabulary teaching involves many considerations and options.
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Weeks 6 & 7
Byrd, P. (2001). Textbooks: Evaluation for selection and analysis for implemention. In Marianne Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (3rd ed., pp. 415-427).	There are many factors to consider when choosing a textbook for a course and also those which must be examined before it's employed in the classroom. This article inspired me to think of some of the considerations made by instructors before textbook implementation transpires. Being aware of these provides me with important knowledge that I can review when developing materials.	In the evaluation-for-selection process, those with the responsibility for choosing textbooks need to consider not just the fit between the curriculum and the textbook but also the practical issues of usability by teachers and by students. The evaluation process of materials design can provide writers with essential knowledge related to usability. Another essential area to research prior to beginning the design process is student and teacher interests.

Kessler, G., and Plakans, L. (2001). Incorporating ESOL learners' feedback and usability testing in instructor-developed CALL materials. TESOL Journal 10 (1), 15-20	For me to develop meaningful and useful materials, student feedback will be an essential component to this. Getting my audience's perspectives on the activities I create will enable me to realize or see firsthand what is particularly advantageous and/or disadvantageous to their design.	As more instructors attempt to develop computer-based materials, it becomes increasingly important to assure the appropriateness and usability of these materials. This quote reminds me to investigate the needs and interests of the students for whom I'm creating computer-based materials and to request their viewpoints, as well as their instructors', on various aspects of them.

Reid, J. (2002). Dealing with reviews. Notice that this reading is on the web rather than on Docuweb.	Reid's advice on receiving and reviewing feedback reminds me that designing materials is an ongoing project, which can probably always be improved upon. It's refreshing to hear Reid's strategies for dealing with feedback because she shares both how she handles positive and negative feedback, as did the three guest speakers we had in class. Although I've received negative feedback before, this sharing is helping me to prepare for the good and bad feedback I get.	I try to highlight the good stuff (literally, with pink or yellow) first. Then I kind of divide the criticism into NO, YES, and CHECK. I don't put many NOs, but lots of CHECKs (which means I need to consider and then decide). I take care of the YESs first, and read around those changes to make sure everything in the surrounding area still "fits." I think Reid's system of coding feedback is a useful way to organize and highlight points to review.
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