Preparing to write materials
Dili, Timor-Leste
Entry # 2
Language offices: Ministry of Education, Dili, Timor-Leste
In a small, squat yellow building with a corrugated red roof, across a narrow road from the Ministry of Education’s main structure, is a cluttered office that will be my work home for the next two months. I share it with members of the three language curriculum teams. There is the Tetun team, one of the official languages of Timor-Leste, of which the 1,308,000 people that live in this small island nation speak some form. Because that language has many regional variations and is predominately an oral language it is introduced as a written language in first grade. Then there is the Portuguese team. Portuguese is the other official language in Timor-Leste, a vestige of Colonial rule that ended in 1975, and is introduced in the schools as a mandatory foreign language in first grade. Much is written and debated about this choice. I will write about the Linguistic complexity of the country in detail in next week’s entry, as it deserves some exploration and informs the work we do here greatly. Plus it’s hell of interesting. Then, there is the English team, of which I am part of along with two Timorese colleagues, and one Peace Corps Volunteer who comes in once a month from his posting in a remote village on the other side of the island. English is introduced in the schools as a mandatory subject, three hours weekly, in grade 7. All three teams (a total of 6 of us most days) are working on the third cycle of language materials as part of the Ministry of Education’s Curriculum reform efforts.
When I received notice that I was hired to join this team as an English Language Specialist with the Department of State’s English Language Programs to assist with reforming the curriculum and write student texts, I began doing some deep thinking about curriculum development and the writing of student materials. I first took stock of what I had already done in my career in this area: “Science at Home”, an outgrowth of my Master’s thesis, which became a manual and curriculum on using narrative writing to teach science for sixth grade throughout my school district in the late 80s, “Food and World War One”, which was a curriculum I wrote for the national WW I museum in Kansas City, Missouri, “Masks of Meso-America”, which was a an original unit I developed as part of a National Endowment of the Humanities project in Mexico, “A Night in Hagia Sophia” a curriculum disguised as an original play that I wrote as a culmination of a Fulbright grant to study in Greece and Turkey. These were the formal curriculums and materials. In addition, there were the countless materials/worksheets/Big Books, etc. that I created with colleagues and on my own for my students in the humanities, drama and ESL classes I have taught over the years at King Middle School in Berkeley, California.
None, in my mind, however, prepared me to create a student book and Teacher’s guide for English that would be used throughout this country. So, I did some research in the month I had before arriving. Googling “How to write English language materials” and other similar inquiries, I discovered that there is a whole subset of research and work within the greater TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) world, devoted to “Material Writing”. So I dove in.
What I discovered was reassuring, in that many of the elements that constitute good teaching, are the same elements that go into creating good materials. Something I could hold onto: my career as a teacher could guide me. In particular, I found these sources most useful: a book by Jack Richard, “Curriculum Development in Language Teaching”, Webinars and Journal writings from Brian Tomlinsin, and much of the materials (webinars and pamphlets) produced by a group based in England called “ELT teacher 2 writer”. I am using the main points I gleaned from these and other references to guide me as I dive into the work here. Here are some of the highlights, and while they won’t surprise anyone that is reading this, it is, I find, helpful to return to basic principles when confronted with what seems like a monumental and daunting task. Kind of like an NBA player who does the same routines when confronted by a foul shot in the waning moments of a game with the championship on the line. Stick to the fundamentals—stick to what got you here. If you don’t want to read all of this here is the key point: good lesson planning principles are the same as the principles involved in good material writing: the writer starts with a learning goal in mind and then seeks to create a set of materials and activities that enable the goal to be realized. But for those that want more specifics here are the ones I highlighted from my research.
• Communication should be the focus of language learning materials
• Materials should create opportunities for interaction and the negotiation of meaning through information sharing, problem solving and role-play activities
• Materials should link grammar and language structures to communicative tasks
• Materials should link different skills of speaking, reading, listening and writing
• Goal should be to build towards communicative competence
• Most texts have the following features, but a good one will be more focused on the third feature of the list
• Mechanical practice
• Meaningful practice
• Communicative practice
• Good materials reduce the amount of grammar-oriented activities and incorporate more practice of the 4 language skills (speaking, listening, writing, and reading
• Good materials get students involved in presentations, role-plays and project work
• Materials fail when they focus on linguistic items rather than providing opportunities for acquisition and development
• Materials should stimulate interaction and be generative in terms of language
• Materials need to move toward purposeful use of the targeted language
• In our materials, we should clearly state our objectives so we develop a progression of skills, understandings and language learning
• Successful materials have clear goals and procedures and produce the kind of learning outcomes they were designed to teach, are at an appropriate level of difficulty, and have value for both teachers and learners in terms of interest, usefulness and relevance
• Too many materials are designed for teaching English rather than learning English
• Good materials provide activities that help learners to activate for themselves salient features of texts
• Good materials are an aesthetically positive experience
• Good materials help learners make discoveries themselves
• Good materials help learners become independent learners (develop autonomy)
All of this is well and good, but the challenge is how to put all of these principles into practice given the cultural and linguistic variables present in the Timorese context, plus within the limitations of creating materials in just a few months time. More on that next time.
