LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 20:10 October 2020
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Exploring Ready-to-Use Instructional Materials:
From Newspapers to Question Papers

Ravindra B. Tasildar, M.A., Ph.D.

Abstract

The teachers of English are always in search of instructional materials (IMs) suitable to the needs of their learners. The experts in the field have discussed different facets of materials development for Teaching English Language and Literature (TELL). They have sought our attention towards one of the major trends in materials design, i.e. availability of sourcebooks. Though teachers have a choice for classroom activities, the materials available in the market appear inadequate to the needs of their learners. To overcome the limitations of available IMs, in the era of emphasis on the use of ICT tools, this article attempts to explore ready-to-use innovative IMs like newspapers in English and Indian languages, note-books, T-shirts, wrappers and question papers. The article divided into two main sections – innovative materials for teaching and innovative materials for testing - tries to make a point that availability of ready-to-use teacher-proof materials negates the need to separately design IMs for TELL in Indian classrooms. The state and central textbook preparation boards encourage teachers to use supplementary materials in their classrooms situations. This article is an effort to support teachers and learners for self-initiative to go beyond the prescribed IMs to cater to their pedagogical needs.

Keywords: Innovative Instructional materials, newspapers, note-books, question papers, TELL

Introduction

Materials development has always been a key component in English Language Teaching (ELT) across the world. In the ELT documents series of British Council, we come across a book Projects in Materials Design (1980), a collection of articles in which authors engaged in different projects in Hawaii, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Tunisia, the UK and Venezuela share their experiences of producing, adapting and using English for specific purposes (ESP) materials (also see Tomlinson, 2008). Reporting the origins and developments of the field of materials development, Tomlinson (2012) has reviewed the literature on the evaluation, adaptation, production and exploitation of learning materials for English.

The teachers of English in India are always in search of innovative materials suitable to the needs of their learners. There are studies on the use of innovative materials for every aspect of language teaching – Spoken English (Chaudhary, 1996), distance education (Pillai, 1996), science and technology (Narayanaswami, 1996), to name a few. Pointing out the advantages of using authentic materials in the language classroom, Saraswathi (1996) provides samples of non-pedagogic materials like jokes, advertisements, greeting cards, visiting cards, name boards in shops and wrapper labels (medicine). In his doctoral research, Sharma (2006) focusses on developing need-based materials for first year BA class of ‘Functional English’ course. Chauhan (2008) deals with advertisements in teaching English grammar in tribal classrooms. Kushwaha (2008) shows how language learning tasks can be developed by making use of supplementary materials like medicine labels, old railway timetables and newspapers. Jadhav (2011) develops support materials to teach English through use of cartoons, newspaper middles, crossword puzzles, anecdotes, proverbs, etc. In Patil, et al. (2012) we come across use of innovative materials like greeting cards, English songs and newspapers for teaching of English. Das (2015) suggests some useful activities to develop grammar and vocabulary (synonyms and spelling) of the learners using user manual of a cell phone (Nokia 3220) as a resource for imparting language lessons in the classrooms Brahmadevara (2015)shares some creative strategies of language teaching in her empirical research dealing with various activities designed through brochures.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Ravindra B. Tasildar, M.A., Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Head
Department of English and Post-Graduate Research Centre
Sangamner Nagarpalika Arts, D. J. Malpani Commerce and B. N. Sarda Science College (Autonomous), Sangamner – 422 605
Dist. Ahmednagar, Maharashtra
ravishmi1@gmail.com
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