Selection of ESL Didactic Materials

OF ESL DIDACTIC MATERIALS FOR ADULTS

"We are in the midst of a paradigm shift toward an emphasis on language as communication", remarks Sandra McKay (1987, p. 18). One may wonder, however, whether this trend has caught on equally among teachers of adults and teachers of young schoolchildren. Another source of puzzlement is whether English should be taught the same fundamental way whatever the goal of instruction. After all, the terminal objective of the process is the same: competence in English. And English is English. Yet, what kind of competence? Fluency in conversation? Accuracy in technical or literary translation? Capacity to pass examinations about English or capacity to communicate in English? One cannot begin to compare materials to be used in ESL without first setting the goals and the behavioral objectives of the instructional program. Once this is done, one need consider the age of the learners, because there is plenty of evidence to show that age is a significant factor on how and how much one learns. The cultural and life-experiential backgrounds enter into the equation too.

Moreover, shouldn't the literacy level in one's native language also matter? "The idea of literacy as an intellectual activity separate from oral language has been perpetrated by the study of classical language wherein the student was trained to read and to translate a dead language but would n

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echanical skills. Step Two: Connecting written with oral language. Step Three: Reading for new information. Step Four: Reading for different reasons. Step Five: Independent reading" (p. 146). Whatever the literacy material selected, it must be authentic. If the goal of the adult student is to pass State examinations, the contents of past examinations are used as basic material. If the goal is business conversation, oral communication using business concepts and terms is stressed. If the goal is avocational, there is no shortage of literature catering to most avocations. In summary: "The first rule of materials selection is student interest and usefulness" (Bowen, Madsen, and Hilferty, 1985, p. 231). Materials for the young schoolchild ESL learner It is often argued that the prime medium of communication in young children is the spoken word, and that, therefore, at least the first stages of learning/teaching a foreign language ought to be oral: Reading and writing will follow suit once conversation competence has been achieved. There is no doubt that a communicative approach (such as Total Physical Response), which melds speech and movement, orality and kinesis--the prime communicative instruments of the child, achieves greater su
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Approximate Word count = 1764
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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