Adapting Materials

ADAPTING MATERIALS
CHAPTER 4
THE CONTEXT OF ADAPTATION
 The terms of the relationship between evaluation and adaptation are

adopting and adapting.
 Adaptation is a process subsequent to, and dependent on adoption.
 Adoption is concerned with whole course books while adaptation

concerns the parts that make up that whole.
 The illustration of relation between internal and external evaluation as
follows:
The Context of Adaptation
 Madsen and Bowen (1978: ix) said that “Effective adaptation is a matter
of achieving “congruence” . . . . The good teacher is . . . constantly striving
for congruence among several related variables: teaching materials,
methodology, students, course objectives, the target language and its
context, and the teacher’s own personality and teaching style”.
 McGrath (2002) argues for the benefits of adaptation: appropriate and

relevant adapted materials are likely to increase learner motivation and
therefore contribute to enhanced learning.
THE REASON FOR ADAPTING
 Not enough grammar coverage in general.
 Not enough practice of grammar of particular difficulty to the learners.
 The communicative focus means that grammar is presented
unsystematically.
 Reading passages contain too much unknown vocabulary.
 Comprehension questions are too easy because the answers can be lifted
directly from the text with no real understanding.
 Listening passages are inauthentic because they sound too much like written
material being read out.
 Not enough guidance on pronunciation.
 Too much or too little variety in the activities.
THE REASON FOR ADAPTING
 Subject matter inappropriate for learners of this age and intellectual level.
 Photographs and other illustrative material not culturally acceptable.
 Amount of material too much or too little to cover in the time allocated to
lessons.
 No guidance for teachers on handling group work and role-play activities
with a large class.
 Dialogues too formal and not representative of everyday speech.
 Audio material difficult to use because of problems to do with room size
and technical equipment.
FACTORS THAT MY TRIGGER FEELINGS OF
INCONGRUENCE AMONG TEACHERS ACCORDING TO
TOMILSON AND MASUHARA(2004:12)
 Teaching contexts
 Course requirements
 Learners
 Teachers
 Materials
Principles and Procedures
The reason for adapting can be taken from the need
to :
 Personalize
 Individualize
 Localize
TECHNIQUES UESD IN ADAPTATION
 Adding, including expanding and extending

 Deleting, including subtracting and abridging
 Modifying, including rewriting and
restructuring
 Simplifying
 Reordering
The TECHNIQUES
 Adding means materials are supplemented by putting more into them while
thinking the practical effect on time allocation. Teachers can do this in the
situations as follows:
 The materials contain practice in the pronunciation of minimal pairs
but not enough examples of the difficulties for learners with a
particular first language
 A second reading passage parallel to the one provided is helpful in

reinforcing the key linguistic features of the text, such as tenses,
sentence structure, vocabulary , cohesive devices.
 The students find the explanation of a new grammar point rather

difficult, so further exercises are added before they begin the practice
THE TECHNIQUES
Deleting or omitting The teachers can do this in the
situations as follows:
The student's pronunciation exercises on minimal
pairs contain too much general material.
Some of the language functions presented in a
communicative course book are unlikely to be
required by learners who will probably not use
their English in the target language environment.
THE TECHNIQUES
 Modifying It is divided into two parts:
Rewriting when some of the linguistic content needs
modification. It relates activities more closely to students
’own backgrounds and interests, introduce the example of
authentic language, or set problem solving tasks where the
answers are not always known before the teacher asks the
question .
Restructuring which applies to classroom management. It
refers to a modality change , to a change in the nature or
focus of an exercise, or text or classroom activity.
THE TECHNIQUES
 Simplifying refers to make the elements of a language course
easier to see how different parts fit together. The elements of a
language course such as the instructions and explanations that
accompany exercises and activities and even the visual layout of
material. It is according to:
Sentence structure
Lexical content
Grammatical structures
THE TECHNIQUES
 Reordering refers to the possibility of putting the parts of a
course book in a different order. The examples of reordering of
material are:
Materials typically present the future by ‘will’ and ‘going to’.
However, for many learners, certainly at the intermediate
level and above, it is helpful to show the relationship
between time reference and grammatical tense in an
appropriate way.
The length of teaching program may be too short for
finishing the course book from beginning to end. So, the
material will be taken from the language needs of the
students.
A Framework for Adaptation
THANKS FOR YOUR TIME &
ATTENTIO

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ADAPTING MATERIALS

 The terms of the relationship between evaluation and adaptation are

 Adoption is concerned with whole course books while adaptation

 McGrath (2002) argues for the benefits of adaptation: appropriate and

 Adding, including expanding and extending

 A second reading passage parallel to the one provided is helpful in

 The students find the explanation of a new grammar point rather

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