初中英语学科简报第五
期
主编：杨晓钰，杨涛 编者：赵月娥，严思妹，柯燕萍，陈小琴
2011年11月29日
Tell me and I forget；
Show me and I understand；
Involve me and I remember.
1. What is materials adaptation?
Materials adaptation involves changing existing materials so that they become more suitable for specific learners, teachers or situations.
In preparation for a particular lesson, teachers may, for example:
Decide to use only part of a unit
Add or delete text or activities
Replace or supplement texts or activities with ones from other sources
When teachers teach this lesson, they ma make further on-the-spot changes in response to the learners’
reactions. They may, for instance,
Shorten or lengthen an activity
Skip an activity and go on to the next one Change the order of activities
Materials Adaptation
Task 1
Reflecting Upon Your Own Adaptation Process 1. Select a unit of materials. 2. Adapt the unit for a lesson.
3. Note down the procedures you used in adapting the materials. 4. Teach your adapted unit. 5.
Revise your adaptation.
2. Why need we adapt materials?
Why do teachers adapt materials? It all starts with the teacher intuitively feeling, “
Mm. Something is not quite right.” Teachers may feel uncomfortable because of a mismatch with:
Their teaching environment (national, regional, institutional, cultural, etc), e.g., the materials have not been designed for the cultural and ethnic diversity of your class.
Their learners (age, language level, prior learning experience, learning styles, etc), e.g., the materials
favor analytical learning styles.
Their own preferences (personality; teaching styles; beliefs abort language learning and teaching), e.g., the materials offer a lot of communicative activities but a teacher fears she will lose control of the class by doing them.
The course
objectives (syllabus, institutional targets, etc), e.g., the materials focus on teaching grammar but the course objectives focus on helping learners to develop communication strategies. Materials (texts, tasks, activities), e.g., the text is interesting but the activities are boring and do not seem to fully exploit the text.
Task 2
A Systematic Approach to Materials Adaptation 1. Select another unit of materials. 2. List reasons for adapting the unit.
3. Based on your reasons, list three universal evaluation criteria and three local
evaluation criteria.
4. Do an evaluation of the chosen unit.
5. From the evaluation results, list three objectives for your adaptation. 6. Adapt the unit in the way you want to use it with your class. 7. Teacher your class with the adapted unit.
8. Do a post-evaluation to see if your three adaptation objectives in 5 above have been
achieved.
3. Principles of materials adaptation?
It is important that the processes of materials adaptation is principled in that it derive from a critical examination of theories of language, language listening and language teaching.
Focus first on meaning then on language
This means arranging activities in which learners listen to or read a text (e.g. story, joke, and riddle) for the sake of understanding and enjoying it in a meaning-focused and holistic way before their attention is drawn to the linguistic features in an analytical and discrete manner.
Reception before production
Provide rich, varied and frequent exposure to language in use through listening and reading before inviting learners to speak or write.
Start and end with the learner
In order to achieve self-involvement, start with what learners know (e.g. a local story) and connect their lives to the new content (e.g. a story from another culture). Then end the unit with the learners (e.g. the learners rewrite the new story in their own way).
Listening before reading
Meaning construction during reading is sound-based. At lower-levels, provide listening activities (e.g. listen to the teacher read a story, listen and mime, lesten and draw) before inviting learners to read a text.
Task 3
Principled Materials Adaptation
1. Write a list of the changes you made in your adapted unit in Task 2. 2. Write down the principles behind each change. 3. Put together all the learning principles you know.
4. What are procedures of materials adaptation?
The sequence of materials adaptation may be described as: 1. Profiling of teaching context
2. Identifying reasons for adaptation 3. Evaluating
4. Listing objectives 5. Adapting 6. Teaching
7. Revising
5. What are the techniques for materials adaptation?
The various techniques can be divided into three main categories in terms of quantity: Plus (+), Minus (-) or Zero (0), i.e., modification without changing quantity.
Plus Category
Minus Category
Zero Category
Format of Lesson Planning
In listening, reading and writing classes we use the three-stage framework, that is pre-stage, while-stage and post-stage.
Background information
School: ____________
Teacher: _______________
Materials: _______________ Type of lesson__________
Lesson duration: ________ Date ________________ Aids ____________
Objectives:
1. Instructional objectives(language knowledge and language skills)
1) 2) …
2. Educational objectives (affect, learning strategy and cultural awareness) 1) 2) …
3. Personal objectives
Contents: 1. Vocabulary 2. Structure
3. Dialogue or Reading（Title）
Focal points: 1. 2. …
Difficult points: 1. 2. …
Procedures and Time Allotment
Stage 1 Getting students ready for learning (… mins)
Step 1. Greetings Step 2. Routine task
Stage 2 Revision (… mins) Stage 3 Pre-stage（Pre-reading, Pre-listening…） (… mins) Step 1 Vocabulary presentaion and practice
Step 2 Structure presentation and practice(not always) Step 3 Prediction
Stage 4 While-stage(While-listening, While-reading…) (… mins) Developing different skills through tasks
Stage 5 Post-stage (Post-listening, Post-reading…) (… mins)
Step 1. Oral work Step 2. Written work
Stage 6 Assigning homework (… mins)
Step 1. Conclusion Step 2. Homework
Variety means planning a number of different types of activities and where possible introducing students to a wide selection of materials so that learning is always interesting, motivating and never monotonous for the students. 2. Flexibility
Flexibility means planning to use a number of different methods and techniques rather than being a slave to one methodology. This will make teaching and learning more effective and more efficient. 3. Learnability
Learnability means the contents and tasks planned for the lesson should be within the learning capability of the students. The things should not be too easy either. Doing things that are beyond or below the students’ coping ability will diminish their motivation. 4. Linkage
Linkage means the stages and the steps within each stage are planned in such a way that they are somehow linked with one another. Language learning needs recycling and reinforcement.
1. 怎样讲阅读理解?
专家：讲座中有很详细的讲解和案例，难道大家都不看讲座吗？那不是很可惜！培训的目的是
帮助大家更新教学观念，然后通过网络进行分享和交流。
2. 如何搞好分层次教学?
学员：我的同事说可以在作业上体现分层教学，提供一些附加题给优生做。
专家：作业是一方面，但更重要的是教学活动设计和课堂管理方面的分层。
3. 有些学生英语基础很差，个别辅导，思想鼓励，效果不明显，我和头疼，该如何
尽快提高他的成绩？
学员：兴趣是最好的老师。
专家：我觉得关键是课堂教学的有效性，建议观看完所有的讲座，并将其与自己的课堂教学进
行对比，我相信您一定能找到答案。
4. 任务型教学法在教学实践中证明，是比较有效的。培养学生的自主学习和创新学习的能力起到有力的推动作用。
学员：我很赞同任务型教学法，确实比传统模式有效多了，但是，要做好，真的很累！要改作
业，备课，还有生活中的种种因素，都会对课堂产生很大的影响。
专家：备课的过程就是教师自我发展的过程，我相信在您受累的同时，一定也收获了学生对您的喜爱。
5. 农村初中英语教师负担大呀，教育要面对应试的压力，又要不断地课改。让没有
条件的农村孩子们怎样提高听说能力？课堂45分钟真的不够！
专家：如果您真想成功地面对考试，您恰恰需要课改，改变原来的传统的教学方式。中考考的
更多的是技能，而非知识。对了，您说45分钟不够，不知您每天40分钟的课是否都在使用英语？如果一大半都用汉语，那如何能提高学生的听说能力？
6. 对于英语基础较差的学生，作业是很头疼的问题，做不起做不完怎么办?
专家：应该加强课堂的有效性，这样就会减轻学生做作业的负担。
7. 山区学生发音不标准但考试又是注重笔头功夫，那该怎么教？ 可以多用磁带，老师也可以自己多学习，提高自己的语音。
学员1：挑选较标准的听力听力教学专项磁带，对学生反复训练，纠正发音较差的学生。 学员2：我觉得首先需要教师自己把音发准。然后多鼓励学生认真听课文录音，花时间去模仿
语音语调。
学员3：当然，做题也是很重要的。不管是语音还是习题阅读写作，其实，我觉得首先要让学
生有我要学的意识，而不是要我学。让学生自己下来多钻研。初一老师要多花时间让学生养成好的学习习惯。然后在以后的教学过程中不断给学生灌输我要学的意识。不管哪个学科，内在的动力是最重要的。 专家：以上教师的建议非常中肯。
教师的教学是否达到了预期的效果？请根据下面的教师教学自我评价表来评价自己
的教学。注：分值取1~5。满分为100分。
教师教学自我评价表
初中英语学科简报第五
期
主编：杨晓钰，杨涛 编者：赵月娥，严思妹，柯燕萍，陈小琴
2011年11月29日
Tell me and I forget；
Show me and I understand；
Involve me and I remember.
1. What is materials adaptation?
Materials adaptation involves changing existing materials so that they become more suitable for specific learners, teachers or situations.
In preparation for a particular lesson, teachers may, for example:
Decide to use only part of a unit
Add or delete text or activities
Replace or supplement texts or activities with ones from other sources
When teachers teach this lesson, they ma make further on-the-spot changes in response to the learners’
reactions. They may, for instance,
Shorten or lengthen an activity
Skip an activity and go on to the next one Change the order of activities
Materials Adaptation
Task 1
Reflecting Upon Your Own Adaptation Process 1. Select a unit of materials. 2. Adapt the unit for a lesson.
3. Note down the procedures you used in adapting the materials. 4. Teach your adapted unit. 5.
Revise your adaptation.
2. Why need we adapt materials?
Why do teachers adapt materials? It all starts with the teacher intuitively feeling, “
Mm. Something is not quite right.” Teachers may feel uncomfortable because of a mismatch with:
Their teaching environment (national, regional, institutional, cultural, etc), e.g., the materials have not been designed for the cultural and ethnic diversity of your class.
Their learners (age, language level, prior learning experience, learning styles, etc), e.g., the materials
favor analytical learning styles.
Their own preferences (personality; teaching styles; beliefs abort language learning and teaching), e.g., the materials offer a lot of communicative activities but a teacher fears she will lose control of the class by doing them.
The course
objectives (syllabus, institutional targets, etc), e.g., the materials focus on teaching grammar but the course objectives focus on helping learners to develop communication strategies. Materials (texts, tasks, activities), e.g., the text is interesting but the activities are boring and do not seem to fully exploit the text.
Task 2
A Systematic Approach to Materials Adaptation 1. Select another unit of materials. 2. List reasons for adapting the unit.
3. Based on your reasons, list three universal evaluation criteria and three local
evaluation criteria.
4. Do an evaluation of the chosen unit.
5. From the evaluation results, list three objectives for your adaptation. 6. Adapt the unit in the way you want to use it with your class. 7. Teacher your class with the adapted unit.
8. Do a post-evaluation to see if your three adaptation objectives in 5 above have been
achieved.
3. Principles of materials adaptation?
It is important that the processes of materials adaptation is principled in that it derive from a critical examination of theories of language, language listening and language teaching.
Focus first on meaning then on language
This means arranging activities in which learners listen to or read a text (e.g. story, joke, and riddle) for the sake of understanding and enjoying it in a meaning-focused and holistic way before their attention is drawn to the linguistic features in an analytical and discrete manner.
Reception before production
Provide rich, varied and frequent exposure to language in use through listening and reading before inviting learners to speak or write.
Start and end with the learner
In order to achieve self-involvement, start with what learners know (e.g. a local story) and connect their lives to the new content (e.g. a story from another culture). Then end the unit with the learners (e.g. the learners rewrite the new story in their own way).
Listening before reading
Meaning construction during reading is sound-based. At lower-levels, provide listening activities (e.g. listen to the teacher read a story, listen and mime, lesten and draw) before inviting learners to read a text.
Task 3
Principled Materials Adaptation
1. Write a list of the changes you made in your adapted unit in Task 2. 2. Write down the principles behind each change. 3. Put together all the learning principles you know.
4. What are procedures of materials adaptation?
The sequence of materials adaptation may be described as: 1. Profiling of teaching context
2. Identifying reasons for adaptation 3. Evaluating
4. Listing objectives 5. Adapting 6. Teaching
7. Revising
5. What are the techniques for materials adaptation?
The various techniques can be divided into three main categories in terms of quantity: Plus (+), Minus (-) or Zero (0), i.e., modification without changing quantity.
Plus Category
Minus Category
Zero Category
Format of Lesson Planning
In listening, reading and writing classes we use the three-stage framework, that is pre-stage, while-stage and post-stage.
Background information
School: ____________
Teacher: _______________
Materials: _______________ Type of lesson__________
Lesson duration: ________ Date ________________ Aids ____________
Objectives:
1. Instructional objectives(language knowledge and language skills)
1) 2) …
2. Educational objectives (affect, learning strategy and cultural awareness) 1) 2) …
3. Personal objectives
Contents: 1. Vocabulary 2. Structure
3. Dialogue or Reading（Title）
Focal points: 1. 2. …
Difficult points: 1. 2. …
Procedures and Time Allotment
Stage 1 Getting students ready for learning (… mins)
Step 1. Greetings Step 2. Routine task
Stage 2 Revision (… mins) Stage 3 Pre-stage（Pre-reading, Pre-listening…） (… mins) Step 1 Vocabulary presentaion and practice
Step 2 Structure presentation and practice(not always) Step 3 Prediction
Stage 4 While-stage(While-listening, While-reading…) (… mins) Developing different skills through tasks
Stage 5 Post-stage (Post-listening, Post-reading…) (… mins)
Step 1. Oral work Step 2. Written work
Stage 6 Assigning homework (… mins)
Step 1. Conclusion Step 2. Homework
Variety means planning a number of different types of activities and where possible introducing students to a wide selection of materials so that learning is always interesting, motivating and never monotonous for the students. 2. Flexibility
Flexibility means planning to use a number of different methods and techniques rather than being a slave to one methodology. This will make teaching and learning more effective and more efficient. 3. Learnability
Learnability means the contents and tasks planned for the lesson should be within the learning capability of the students. The things should not be too easy either. Doing things that are beyond or below the students’ coping ability will diminish their motivation. 4. Linkage
Linkage means the stages and the steps within each stage are planned in such a way that they are somehow linked with one another. Language learning needs recycling and reinforcement.
1. 怎样讲阅读理解?
专家：讲座中有很详细的讲解和案例，难道大家都不看讲座吗？那不是很可惜！培训的目的是
帮助大家更新教学观念，然后通过网络进行分享和交流。
2. 如何搞好分层次教学?
学员：我的同事说可以在作业上体现分层教学，提供一些附加题给优生做。
专家：作业是一方面，但更重要的是教学活动设计和课堂管理方面的分层。
3. 有些学生英语基础很差，个别辅导，思想鼓励，效果不明显，我和头疼，该如何
尽快提高他的成绩？
学员：兴趣是最好的老师。
专家：我觉得关键是课堂教学的有效性，建议观看完所有的讲座，并将其与自己的课堂教学进
行对比，我相信您一定能找到答案。
4. 任务型教学法在教学实践中证明，是比较有效的。培养学生的自主学习和创新学习的能力起到有力的推动作用。
学员：我很赞同任务型教学法，确实比传统模式有效多了，但是，要做好，真的很累！要改作
业，备课，还有生活中的种种因素，都会对课堂产生很大的影响。
专家：备课的过程就是教师自我发展的过程，我相信在您受累的同时，一定也收获了学生对您的喜爱。
5. 农村初中英语教师负担大呀，教育要面对应试的压力，又要不断地课改。让没有
条件的农村孩子们怎样提高听说能力？课堂45分钟真的不够！
专家：如果您真想成功地面对考试，您恰恰需要课改，改变原来的传统的教学方式。中考考的
更多的是技能，而非知识。对了，您说45分钟不够，不知您每天40分钟的课是否都在使用英语？如果一大半都用汉语，那如何能提高学生的听说能力？
6. 对于英语基础较差的学生，作业是很头疼的问题，做不起做不完怎么办?
专家：应该加强课堂的有效性，这样就会减轻学生做作业的负担。
7. 山区学生发音不标准但考试又是注重笔头功夫，那该怎么教？ 可以多用磁带，老师也可以自己多学习，提高自己的语音。
学员1：挑选较标准的听力听力教学专项磁带，对学生反复训练，纠正发音较差的学生。 学员2：我觉得首先需要教师自己把音发准。然后多鼓励学生认真听课文录音，花时间去模仿
语音语调。
学员3：当然，做题也是很重要的。不管是语音还是习题阅读写作，其实，我觉得首先要让学
生有我要学的意识，而不是要我学。让学生自己下来多钻研。初一老师要多花时间让学生养成好的学习习惯。然后在以后的教学过程中不断给学生灌输我要学的意识。不管哪个学科，内在的动力是最重要的。 专家：以上教师的建议非常中肯。
教师的教学是否达到了预期的效果？请根据下面的教师教学自我评价表来评价自己
的教学。注：分值取1~5。满分为100分。
教师教学自我评价表