Analysis of Language Teaching Materials

What is Required of Users?

Materials are divided into their specific tasks, and each task is keenly analyzed in order to enable deducting that learners, teachers or other users of the material are required to do. The task in this case refers to proposals that have been outlined by a material on the actions that should be undertaken by the users of the material with a clear aim of promoting knowledge of foreign language. Based on the ideas mentioned above, three key aspects of tasks are identified. Thus, these aspects include the process that teachers and students are supposed to go through, which asks the question ‘how’. There is a three section process involved in this first aspect, first being the turn-take that clearly explains the role to be taken in a classroom course. It could comprise responding to questions asked as directed by material using the language advocated for by the material, or initiating their own language, hence ignoring the one supplied. This implies free writing or having the liberty to ask individually perceived questions. The learners have the option of not taking any role and concentrating on listening only. Secondly, the role outlined could be that requiring learners to attend to the form of the language inclusive of the meaning of each. The role also is inclusive of the mental process to be followed. These mental operations could be repetition, language rules formulation, negotiation or formulating hypothesis (Harwood, 2010). Apart from the process, another aspect entails classroom participation and asks the question ‘with whom’ the learners are to work, whether in groups, pairs or with the whole class. The final aspect entails the content nature of the material, whether the input of the learners or their output, and asks the question ‘what about’. This seeks to find out whether the content is written or oral, whether it is in the form of individual sentences or an extension, whether the content originates from the material, teachers or individual learners, and finally what the content is all about, whether fiction or general knowledge.