LOGO Design and Materials Development

Course
for English Language Learning

Creativity in
materials
development
Group 5:
Đỗ Thị Việt Hà
Sầm Diệu Quỳnh
Tô Lan Anh
Phạm Thị Hiền Lương
 Contents

I. Making typical Coursebook activities more beneficial for the learner

1. Typical Types of Coursebook Activity
2. Make Activities More Likely to Facilitate Language Acquisition
II. Materials for creativity: A constructivist perspective
1. Materials for Creativity
2. A Constructivist Approach to Creative Materials Design
3. Five Key Principles Underlying Materials for Creativity
4. Proposed Strategies for Materials to Support Creative Negotiation
5. Implications of Creativity for Teacher Development
Why do we need creativity?
 creativity skills
 multiple possibilities
 societal benefits
 enhanced effects on learners
 learnability
 Making typical Coursebook activities
more beneficial for the learner
1. Typical Types of Coursebook Activity
Closed questions Only one answer is possible
Open questions More than one answer is possible
Choosing the correct word Choosing the correct word from a box to complete a
sentence

Controlled conversation The learners are told what to talk about and are given
phrases to use in their conversation

Matching exercises Matching a word with a picture; matching a word with

a definition
 Making typical Coursebook activities more
beneficial for the learner
1. Typical Types of Coursebook Activity
Sentence Finishing a given sentence with relevant content and/ or
completion correct forms
True / False Specify whether a statements is true or false in relation to an
questions accompanying text
Rearranging Putting jumbled up parts of a sentence into the correct order
sentences
Listen - and The learners listen to a sound/ word/ phrase/ sentence and
repeat then repeat it
Correction The learners are presented with incorrect utterances and asked
activities to correct them
Dialogue The learners are given a transcript of a dialogue to use when
repetition repeating it
 Making typical Coursebook activities
more beneficial for the learner
Five most important criteria for facilitating language acquisition
(to evaluate the typical types of activity)
1. expose the learners to a rich, recycled, comprehensible and meaningful input
of language in use;
2. engage the learners affectively (i.e. involve the learners‘ emotions and or
contribute to self - esteem and positive feelings about the learning experience)
3. engage the learners cognitively (i.e. stimulate the learners to think critically
and creatively);
4. pay attention to form during or after a meaning-focused activity
5. provide the learners with opportunities to use the target language for
authentic communication.
Make Activities More Likely to Facilitate
Language Acquisition

 connect the activities to authentic texts

 connect the activities to the lives of the learners
 challenge the learners to discover things for themselves,
 stimulate both personal responses and higher-order thinking skills
 get the learners to use language for communication rather than just
to practice it.
Make Activities More Likely to Facilitate
Language Acquisition

* Closed questions
 the question should be rephrased so that it becomes an open question
 permitting more than one acceptable answer,
 requiring a justification for the answer given (i.e. an evaluative
question) and / or adding a supplementary think question.
 An example

In the text it says, 'Bob went to work in his car from Monday to Friday and his
wife Mary used the car at weekends'. The explicit closed question asks, 'Who
went to work in his car from Monday to Friday?
The rephrased question could become a series of questions:
(1) Who drove to the city five times a week? How do you know?
(2) Do you think it's a good idea to drive into the center of Jakarta?
(3) Find somebody with a different answer from you and try to persuade them
that you are right.
 Make Activities More Likely to Facilitate
Language Acquisition
* Open questions
 the question in its original or rephrased form is evaluative
 engage learners affectively and cognitively and if it elicits authentic
communication
An example
Text reports a tourist's amazement at how late at night everybody eats and how
discos stay open all night.
The open question is, 'Which country do you think this is?
→ Rephrased: 'Tell a partner which country you think this and why. Then
discuss with your partner whether or not you would like to live in this
country. ''
 Make Activities More Likely to Facilitate
Language Acquisition
* Sentence completion
This type of activity can satisfy some of the criteria if
 the completions are open ended
 the content and expression are determined by the students rather than by
the materials writer
 the sentences become part of a communication activity
 An example
Work in pairs. Look at these sentences from the listening activity you have just
done. Try to remember how each sentence ended and write out the sentence in
full.
→ rephrased:
- Look at these sentences from the listening activity you have just done. Can you
remember how each sentence finished?
- Think of a conversation in which you might use these sentences and decide what
your purpose is for using them. Then complete each sentence so that it is a part
of your imagined conversation.
- Role-play your conversation in your head by using your inner voice. Then use
your sentences to have conversation with a partner.
 Make Activities More Likely to Facilitate
Language Acquisition
 Correction activities
Such activities can be beneficial only if
 they reflect mistakes that the specific learners do frequently make
 there has been some attempt to help the learners remedy their errors
 the activity makes the learners think,
 the learners have to justify their corrections
 the learners have to and further examples of correct / appropriate use
 An example
The learners are provided with pairs of sentences and are told:
Spot the mistake! Cross out the incorrect sentence.
(a) Did you use to visit the zoo?
(b) Did you used to visit the zoo?
→ rephrased:
(1) In each pair of sentences tick the correct sentence.
(2) Rewrite the incorrect sentence so that it is not only correct but it also
says something about your life.
(3) Show your sentences to a partner and explain to them the difference (s)
between each of your sentences and the other sentence in the pair.
(4) For homework, find other sentences which are similar to the ones you
have written.
(5) Use some of the sentences you wrote, some of the correct sentences in
the pairs and some of the sentences you found to write a strange story.
Materials for creativity: A
constructivist perspective
1. Materials for Creativity
2. A Constructivist Approach to Creative Materials Design
3. Five Key Principles Underlying Materials for Creativity
4. Proposed Strategies for Materials to Support Creative Negotiation
5. Implications of Creativity for Teacher Development
1. Materials for Creativity

Creative Materials for

materials creativity
(originality in (resources that
course help their
design, users become
including creative in
content and teaching and
pedagogy) learning)
 2. A Constructivist Approach to Creative Materials Design

According to Constructivism, learning happens on two levels:

intra psychologically (i.e. within everyone) and
inter psychologically (i.e. among social members.)
Þ Teaching materials, which situate the learner in its center, should be
designed in a way that responds to individual priority, social concern and
real - world practicality.

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 2. A Constructivist Approach to Creative Materials Design

A Constructivist material:
 Gives text for students to select what to read.
 Invite students to initiate their own questions.
 Provided open - ended and process – based tasks to encourage
different ways of the answer.

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3. Five Key Principles Underlying Materials for Creativity

- Stimulating curiosity in teachers and learners

- Inspiring unconventional responses
- Promoting open-ended learning experiences
- Creating emotional and intellectual challenge
- Facilitating teacher and learner negotiation with materials
4. Proposed Strategies for Materials to Support Creative Negotiation
(1) Adaptability: as a way to avoid the use of irrelevant materials.
(2) Sequence change: altering the sequence of a task, a lesson or even
the entire coursebook so as to suit learners' preferred system of
internalizing language.
(3) Re-timing: learning duration can stretch or shrink depending on time
availability, learner proficiency and learning interest.

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4. Proposed Strategies for Materials to Support Creative Negotiation
(4) Contextualization: localizing content to suit the learning
environment and any given situation
(5) Pedagogical and learning selection: offer rich communication
activities to ensure opportunities for both formal learning and informal
acquisition.

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4. Proposed Strategies for Materials to Support Creative Negotiation
(6) Variety: offering supplementary resources, such as optional
appendixes, and variations of tasks in terms of both method and content
(7) Supporting various cultures of learning: incorporating not only the
Western - style communicative approach but also a wide range of
strengths from other teaching Traditions

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4. Proposed Strategies for Materials to Support Creative Negotiation
(8) Opportunity for localization: avoiding subjective views that might
disturb learners beliefs and values (unless there is a chance for
learners to argue with those views)
(9) Open-ended participation: provided open-ended activities so that
different students can tailor the task to their own level of proficiency
and ability to participate

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4. Proposed Strategies for Materials to Support Creative Negotiation

(10) Conditions for building intercultural skills: involving both local and
international contexts that are familiar and relevant to diverse cultural lives.

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 5. Implications of Creativity for Teacher Development

• Negotiation: provide a valuable negotiation space for teachers to interact

with course content
• Experience: equip teachers with more experience in adaptation and enable
them to evaluate and reconstruct pedagogical resources in context
• Collaboration: Different teachers using the same coursebook may end up
teaching differently, depending on their choices, strengths,... Such practice
may be worth sharing among teachers.

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 5. Implications of Creativity for Teacher Development

• Inspiration: offer creative substance that inspires teachers rather than bores
them with the same routine when using textbooks
• Enhancement: allow the teacher to play with abilities, try out options, reflect
on practice, evaluate tasks and revise the materials for increased learning
opportunities
• Empowerment: respect and empower teachers to be the owner of the
materials, to treat coursebooks as tools, not authority

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