Justification on the Choice of Materials

1.0 Introduction
When there is a talk of teaching and learning aids in the lesson situation, by no
means is there an attempt to plead for their use in their teaching. According to Chanda,
Phiri and Nkosha (n.d.), teaching materials are the aids used by the teacher to help him
or her in teaching the lesson effectively. In accordance to this definition, our group has
designed a teaching aid called Now You See Me in order to make our teaching and
learning more effective, mainly on grammar when comes to teaching pupils about
Present Continuous Tense. In this essay, we are going to justify the effectiveness of our
teaching materials in terms of the principles of selection and materials adaptation, factor
in selection and evaluation of materials, as well as technical skills and knowledge
involved in producing, developing, presenting and evaluating the material produced.
2.0 Principles for selection and adaptation of materials
When developing or reviewing curriculum, we need to ensure that learning
resources support the learning activities or the evaluation and assessment planned for
the course (ABC, 2014). They also need to align with the needs, interests and abilities
of the learners. The materials that we design are specially targeted for pupils from Year
3 to Year 6, either of national or national-type schools.
2.1 Learners goals and needs
Grammar is an aspect of language about which learners have different
opinions. Learning grammar has always been an issue in the Malaysian ESL classroom.
Some learners are always interested in finding out or learning grammar rules and doing
lots of exercises. Others hate grammar and think it is the most boring part of learning a
new language (Shoebottom, 2014). As designed in the template, we actually internalize
the rules and use of Present Continuous Tense in the pupils by teaching explicitly,
added by some games and media. Medias such interesting videos and audios were
used to promote interesting learning among the pupils. Videos and audios were
visualized by cartoons and animations to attract pupils in learning the grammar. Learning
grammar could be boring, therefore using games and media could maximize their
interest in learning the language rules. Therefore, in conjunction to fulfill the goals and
needs of the pupils, it is necessary to use some interesting ICT elements such as games
and media to attract pupils attention and interest in learning.
2.2 Learners abilities / proficiency levels
According to Nair (2009, as cited in The Star, 2009), in Malaysia, most
native speakers know very little about grammar though they speak and write good
English. A simple reason to this is that the language is habitually acquired right from the
infancy. In order to minimize the anticipated problem as stated, our designed teaching
material was able to guide teachers and students in teaching and learning the proper
way of using English grammar, which is the Present Continuous Tense. Most
Malaysians speak the language; however, they are not aware of the rules when they are
communicating using the language. Rules can always be easily forgotten, even the
language can be forgotten if not practiced (Nair, 2009). In the PowerPoint, we had
actually opted out some complex vocabulary such as disband, recognize and indicate.
This is because in learning grammar, the main focus is to ensure the pupils learn the
rules of the language, not the meaning of the vocabulary, and therefore, it is not
necessary to use too much of complex vocabulary as this only provides more difficulties
for the pupils in learning. Hence, in terms of proficiency levels and pupils abilities, we
think that it is suitable for all the levels of pupils from Primary Three to Primary Six.
3.0 Factors in Selection and Evaluation of Materials
3.1 Learner factor







References List

Chanda, D., Phiri, S., & Nkosha, D. C. (n.d.). UNESCO basic edcucation capacity building project.
Teaching and learning materials analysis and development in basic education , 1-7.

Learning Resource Materials. (2014). Retrieved from Aligning and Building Curriculum (ABC):
http://gototheexchange.ca/index.php/curriculum-at-course-level/selecting-learning-
resource-materials

Shoebottom, P. (2014). How to learn grammar. Retrieved
fromhttp://www.easybib.com/reference/guide/apa/website

Nair, M. (2009, July 2). Grammar drilling will help weak students. The Star Online. Retrieved
from:
http://www.thestar.com.my/Story/?file=%2F2009%2F7%2F2%2Ffocus%2F4215228&sec
=focus