Natapon Kidrai 4436733 SCAL/M

SCLG 633 Aspects of English for Specific Purposes

Reflective Notebook: January 13, 2002
Reflective Notebook

Now that I have come across the issue of material use in ESP class,
I lay my concern in how much and how appropriate each material can be
usefully facilitated in class. Materials are, of course, to provide better
explanation to the lesson. There are various types of materials available to
be selected. Normally, materials are refered to the use of print, audio,
video and pictorial material originally produced for a purpose other than
the teaching of language (Robinson, 1991). And these materials can be
divided into two types: audio and visual. Both are found used in the same
situation. For example, teaching listening can be facilitated by using
audio tape, or video tape. There are sometime that these materials are
selected for particular activities. For example, audio tape are used in
listening test rather than video tape, i.e. TOEFL test. While visual
materials are thought to be better than audio ones, the mixture of them
came out to be in use: Audio-visual materials. The audio-visual materials
are, for instance, Computer Assistant in Language Learning (CALL),
video, and internet.
Well, I should not talk more about types of materials in current use.
The point that I would like to make here is the way these materials are
used in language learning, especially the audio-visual materials. As we
could see, the advantages of this type of materials vary from basic skills
to cognitive or learning strategies. But the use of it, let me make my point
clearer, is beyond the consideration of the teacher. I rather say that the
qualified and experienced teachers would find the use of it as part of their
curriculum, or a minor job. They are also useful when the teachers
themselves are not keen on the subject. This matter goes into the current
issue of “Child Learning” – totally learner-center based. The teacher must
be active in doing his role as not to let the student alone decides what to
learn. Materials are ready to be used to capture learner interests. I am
afraid that the teacher would tend to let the students use the materials too
much, with no parallel instructions or explanation. The learners will be,
then, addicted to learn from the materials rather asking for instructions
from the teacher or facing real-life situations. Though it is thought that
audio-visual materials get the learners ready to face real-life situations
and make them accustomed to techniques of problem-solving activities, it
may or may not lead the students to try those solutions in their daily life.
This problem can be solved only by the act of the teacher. Even the
teacher is though to be much freer than the past, doing less work in giving
lectures and let the video perform, the teacher must be active and sensible
in using materials. Not only materials that teachers should be well aware
of, teaching methodology and other aspects are also important.