UNIT 3: DEVELOPING AND ADAPTING MATERIALS FROM

A VARIETY OF CONTENT AREAS

3.0 Introduction
=> Involves half art-half science
=> Teachers and administrators – do a lot of
multi-tasking in selecting appropriate and
motivating content
- adapting the chosen content with language and
content specific teaching materials
 3.1 Selecting Materials
ö Shih’s (1988) principle – materials chosen should be

“exploitable”
ö Depending on student’s age and language level
ö Guidelines for making decisions concerning text selection of CBI
courses (Brinton, Snow & Wesche, 1989):
i. Content authenticity
- Is it up to date?
- Does it provide students opportunities to practice various
language skills?

ii. Task authenticity

- Are the activities designed appropriate to the subject matter?
- Do they promote creative and critical thinking?
- Example:
Guessing Meaning from context: Scientific Terms

The underlined words in the following exercise are all scientific terms
from the passage you just read. Can you guess their meanings? Write
your guesses on the lines. Do not use a dictionary.

1. Researchers say the people most at risk have a severe

underlying disease that leaves them susceptible to infection.
My guess:
_____________________________________________
2. The appearances of the strain renews concerns that overuse of
antibiotics may leave science helpless against a riding tide of infections.
My guess:
_____________________________________________________

iii. Interest level

- Will it be able to motivate students and engage their
interest?
iv. Difficulty level
- Are the materials suitable for students’ level of
language
proficiency?
- Length of text appropriate?
- Heavy in lexical/syntactic load?
- For example, the question – “State the manner in which the HIV
virus attacks the body’s immune system”, should be stated simply as:

- “How does one contract the HIV virus?” or

- “How does one get the AIDS disease?”

v. Accessibility
- Prior knowledge?
- Culturally accessible?
- Information load suitable?
vi. Availability
- Are the materials affordable?
- What are the content-specific materials available for
use in the course?

vii. Textual aids

- Are the textual aids utilized to assist students in their
comprehension and retention of content material?

viii. Supporting materials

- Is there a teacher’s guide and/or answer key available?
- Is there a supplementary student workbook?
ix. Flexibility
- Does the text lend itself to the integration of skills?
- Does it appeal to a variety of learning styles?

x. Source
- Are the texts drawn from a variety of sources, thus
exposing students to different text types? (e.g. narrative,
descriptive)

- Are the various media utilized?

List of topics
 Interesting:
 Sensitive:
 Boring:

8
3.2 ADAPTING AND DEVELOPING MATERIALS

ö Almost all language teachers adapt language teaching materials to

correspond with the needs and types of students

ö Teachers may fill in gaps or modify to improve and create additional

activities  expansion

ö Why? In many cases using texts that are not adapted  unfair as the
instructional situation may not provide the full linguistic, situational,
and experiential context = ‘real-life situation’
ö Guidelines on adapting language teaching materials based on
authentic texts:

i. Needs Analysis
- how to best adapt the content material
- need to analyze the linguistic features of the content reading
materials
- e.g. informal needs analysis – teachers need to be aware of
emerging problems in students writing.

ii. Juxtaposition of Language and Content Objectives

- teachers need to map out their teaching objectives
- design activities stemming from the content material itself
iii. Textual Features
- the use of an authentic text may warrant the teacher to
delete extraneous materials and add features to depict the text as
more cohesive

- revised versions à assist ss in comprehension and summary

iv. Informational Content

- content texts characteristically may contain a density of
information
- adaptation is necessary to make the materials more
accessible

activity…
ii. Juxtaposition of language and content objectives

OBJECTIVE: To use English to achieve academically in all content areas.

1. Students will be able to use English to interact in the classroom.

2. Students will use English to obtain, process, construct, and provide

information on (subject matter) in spoken and written form.

3. Students will use suitable learning strategies to construct and apply

academic knowledge.
iii. Textual features

Pro forms – single words that replace or refer to longer constructions in a

sentence and their referents can create problems for language learners.
E.g. – Original: By the beginning of World War II, Singapore had become
England’s main air and naval base in Asia. At the time of independence in
1965, it had a decaying infrastructure, a poorly educated population, and a
loss of its old markets.
Rewrite: At the time of independence in 1965, Singapore had a decaying
infrastructure, a poorly educated population, and a loss of its old markets.

 When adapting a material, examine the pro forms carefully, to make sure
that the referents are clear. Sometimes it is best to repeat the original term.