Pros and cons when designing your own materials

At the beginning of the year teachers have to decide which materials to use with their students. Here comes the big decision, whether to use already made materials or designing their own. This would depend on the syllabus, the group, timetable and other input factors. In their article "Guidelines for Designing English Language Teaching Materials", Howard and Major (2005) provide readers with guidelines to take into account when designing materials. Here we want to share with you some pros and cons of designing your own materials. So when the moment to choose comes you know what is the best for you and your students.

          There are many reasons why teachers may want to design their own teaching materials, but we are concern with four of them: contextualisation, individual needs, personalisation and timeliness. 

• Contextualisation: When teachers are dealing with commercial materials and coursebooks, those tools may contain speech acts and functions which are not designed to the particular educational or cultural context they are teaching. Nevertheless, when designing their own materials, teachers think of their students learning environment and make the learning closer to their reality.

• Individual needs: Designing the material allows teachers to incorporate learners’ first language and culture to the learning of a second culture and language, and also to incorporate English to their everyday use. You can select texts and material that are appropriate for the learners’ levels, and that ensure challenges to them.

• Personalisation: Another advantage is that working on your own materials could motivate students, as you as a teacher know what makes your students feel more involved with the language and what kind of activities will increase freedom and spontaneity while learning.

• Timeliness: Finally we could add this advantage that is the possibility to work with up-to-date events and sources so that your learners can deal with relevant topics and you as a teacher to work with relevant tasks. 

• Organisation: It is important that the material is well organised and that activities show a clear purpose, and not just a random activity that has nothing to do with the lesson.  You can miss parts or damaged the materials and if they are not well organised, students may feel lost or frustrated with their progress.

• Quality: Design materials may look unprofessional as regards durability, the way they are construe and the clarity in the arrangement of it. If the teacher is an inexperienced one, she/he may left some elements out or cover them in a wrong way.

• Time: another disadvantage is that designing materials takes time and teachers may not have the sufficient hours required to think and make the material.

   But there are also some cons that make teachers think whether to design their materials or work with the coursebook.

Conclusion

   As a conclusion, we could say that working with your own materials, designing and then applying them is a good way to involve your students in your lessons, make them feel attracted by what you are teaching and also give them the feeling of being English foreigners for the hours that the lesson lasts. It is true that by doing so the time that you spend will be longer than if you plan your lesson with a coursebook, even though it provides you with structures and steps to follow. However the reward and the progress you will see if you are the one that designs the materials will not be the same as an everyday lesson.   

References

Howard, J., & Major, J. (2004) Guidelines for Designing Effective English Language Teaching Materials.