CC BY
4
Allamurodov Y. teacher
Termez State University WAYS OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT FOR ESP STUDENTS
Annotation: This article explains that language teaching materials can tend to focus on one particular skill in a somewhat unnatural manner. Some courses have a major focus on productive skills, and in these reading and listening become second-rate skills. With other materials, reading or writing may dominate. It can be pointed out that, "at the very least we listen and speak together, and read and write together ". Ideally, materials produced should give learners opportunities to integrate all the language skills in an authentic manner and to become competent at integrating extra-linguistic factors also.
Key words: ESP, materials development, skills, approach, role of tasks.
It has been stated that materials development is anything done by writers, teachers or learners to provide sources of language input and to exploit those sources in ways which maximize the likelihood of intake. Others add that material writing is the one of the most characteristics features in ESP in practice. In short, materials development is needed in ESP to provide suitable media for student to learn English based on their needs. The Model of Materials Development which is provided below suggests the systems approach model which consists of ten steps in designing educational product as follows. This model is the most needed explanation tool in teaching students to develop materials using agrarian terms since it covers the issue in the perspective of teaching ESP learners.
Figure 1. The Steps of the Systems Approach Model of Educational Research and Education (R&D) (Wong, L. L. C., & Nunan, D., 2011)3
Step 1: Assess needs to identify goal(s) Step 1 involves the definition of goals for the instructional program or product, which often includes a needs assessment.
Step 2: Conduct instructional analysis Step 2 involves an instructional analysis to identify the specific skills, procedures, and learning tasks that are involved in reaching the goals of the instruction.
Step 3: Analyze learners and contexts Step 3 involves the identification of the learners' entry skills and attitudes, the characteristics of the instructional setting, and the characteristics of the settings in which the new knowledge and skills will be used.
3 Wong, L. L. C., & Nunan, D. (2011). The learning styles and strategies of effective language learners. System, 39(2), 144-163.
Step 4: Write performance objectives Step 4 involves the translating of the needs and goals of instruction into specific performance objectives.
Step 5: Develop instrument assessments Step 5 involves the developing of assessment instruments that are directly related to the knowledge and skills specified in the performance objectives of the instruction.
Step 6: Develop instructional strategy Step 6 involves the developing of a specific instructional strategy for assisting learners with their efforts to achieve each performance objective.
Step 7: Develop and select instructional materials Step 7 involves the developing of instructional materials, which may include print materials such as textbooks and teacher training manuals, or other media such as audiocassettes or interactive video systems. If the instructional plan specifies a teacher, lesson plan or guideline for instruction by this person also would be developed as part of step 7.
Step 8: Design and conduct formative evaluation of instruction Step 8 involves the evaluation done by the developers during the program or product is under developed.
Step 9: Revise instruction Step 9 involves the revising of the instruction based on the results of formative evaluation.
Step 10: Design and conduct summative evaluation Step 10 involves the evaluation of final program or product. The evaluation here is done by individuals other than the materials developer. In developing the materials in the form of textbook that consists of units, it is also important to consider how units are designed. Therefore theory of unit design development is discussed.
Unit Design Development
a. Grading, Sequencing, and Integrating Tasks
Refer to Siyanova-Chanturia, A., & Webb, S. 4 grading is "the arrangement of the content of a language course or textbook so that it is presented in a helpful way. Gradation would affect the order in which words, word meanings, tenses, structures, topics, functions, skills, etc. are presented. Gradation may be based on the complexity of an item, its frequency in written or spoken English, or its importance for the learner". There exists the list of important questions for grading the unit as follows:
A List of Questions for Task Grading and Sequencing
Further, linguists have proposed six-step procedure to create a linked pedagogical sequence for introducing tasks.
Step 1: Schema building Step 1 is to develop a number of schemabuilding exercises that will serve to introduce the topic, set of context for the task, and introduce some of the key vocabulary and expressions that the students will need in order to complete the task. Step 2: Controlled practice Step 2 is to
4 Siyanova-Chanturia, A., & Webb, S. (2016). Teaching Vocabulary in the EFL Context English Language Teaching Today (pp. 227-239): Springer.
provide the students with controlled practice in using the target language vocabulary, structures and functions. Step 3: Authentic listening practice Step 3 is to involve the students in an intensive listening practice. Step 4: Focus on linguistic elements Step 4 is to involve the students to take part in a sequence of exercises in which the focus is on one or more linguistic elements. Step 5: Provide freer practice Step 5 is to make the students engaged in freer practice, where they move beyond simple manipulation. Step 6: Introduce the pedagogical task Step 6 is to introduce the pedagogical task itself to the students.
Task should be introduced in a row. Therefore, a pedagogical sequence for introducing tasks is presented below.
A Pedagogical Sequence for Introducing Tasks The role of tasks in materials development is another important factor which can present true value of the material with regards to developing ESP learners' language performance. Below the importance of tasks is discussed. First of all, it should have the following components:
1) Goals. Goals are the vague, general intentions behind any learning task. They provide a link between the task and the broader curriculum. 2) Input. Input refers to the spoken, written and visual data that learners work with in the course of completing a task. 3) Procedure. Procedures specify what learners will actually do with the input that forms the point of departure for the learning task. 4) Teacher Role and Learner Role. Role refers to the part that learners and teachers are expected to play in carrying out learning tasks as well as the social and interpersonal relationships between the participants. 5) Setting. Settings refer to the classroom arrangements specified or implied in the task. It also requires consideration of whether the task is to be carried out wholly or partly outside the classroom.
There are three types of task. The types of task are as follows (Eaves, M. 2009)5:
1) Information-gap activity, which involves a transfer of given information from one person to another - or from one form to another, or from one place to another - generally calling for the decoding or encoding of information from or into language. 2) Reasoning-gap activity, which involves deriving some new information from given information through processes of inference, deduction, practical reasoning, or a perception of relationships or patterns. 3) Opinion-gap activity, which involves identifying and articulating a personal preference, feeling, or attitude in response to a given situation. There are another seven tasks and activity types as follows: 1) Questions and answers. These activities are based on the notion of creation information gap by letting learners make a personal and secret choice from a list of language items which all fit into a given frame (e.g. the location of
5 Eaves, M. (2009). Learning styles technology and supporting overseas learners. Multicultural Education & Technology Journal, 3(1), 61-73.
a person or object). The aim is for learners to discover their classmates' secret choice. This activity can be used to practice almost any structure, function or notion. 2) Dialogues and role plays. These can be wholly scripted or wholly improved. However, "If learners are given some choice of what to say, and if there is a clear aim to be achieved by what they say in their role plays, they may participate more willingly and learn more thoroughly than when they are told to simply repeat a given dialogue in pairs". 3) Matching ac tivities. Here, the task for the learner is to recognize matching items, or to complete pairs or sets. 4) Communication strategies. These activities are designed to encourage learners to practice communication strategies such as paraphrasing, borrowing or inventing words, using gesture, asking for feedback and simplifying. 5) Picture and picture stories. Many communication activities can be stimulated through the use of pictures (e.g. spot the difference, memory test, and sequencing pictures to tell a story). 6) Puzzles and problems. Once again, there are many different types of puzzles and problems. These require learners to "make guesses, draw on their general knowledge and personal experience, use their imagination and test their powers of logical reasoning". 7) Discussion and decisions These require the learner to collect and share information to reach a decision (e.g. to decide which items from a list are essential to have on a desert island). In short, there are various task types that can be considered in developing tasks. After developing the task, it is important to know how the materials are evaluated.
THE LIST OF USED LITERATURE
1. Adewusi, C. O. (2012). Designing an English for Specific Purpose syllabus framework for engineering and technology students in polytechnics in south-western Nigeria. (Doctoral dissertation), University of Ilorin.
2. Adzmi, N. A., Bidin, S., Ibrahim, S., & Jusoff, K. (2009). The academic English language needs of industrial design students in UiTM Kedah, Malaysia. English Language Teaching, 2(4), 171-178.
3. Aguilar, M., & Muñoz, C. (2014). The effect of proficiency on CLIL benefits in engineering students in Spain. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 24(1), 1-18.
