The sample of supplementary reading and writing ma- 123docz.net

CHAPTER 4: DEVELOPING SUPPLEMENTARY READING AND WRITING

4.4. The sample of supplementary reading and writing materials for NEMS

CONCLUSION 1. IMPLICATION

This research investigated the attitudes of the teachers and, to some extent, their evaluation to the coursebook New Headway. It has produced a quite detailed picture of what is going on in non – English majored classrooms, what students expect, and how far the coursebook meets their needs. Based on the findings, the study provided a complete pack of supplementary material to enhance reading and writing skills for this kind of students along with some recommendations on how to make best use of this material. It has thus hopefully contributed in its small way to the enrichment of the literature and teachers‟ professional development particularly in terms of developing their supplementary materials.

The parts presented in the paper shows readers a belief that the study has basically achieved three aims and answers quite satisfactorily the research questions when the researcher attempt to examine characteristics of the reading texts and exercises in the textbook „New Headway‟ (Elementary/ Pre-intermediate). The study finds out the preferences of non – English majored students in HULIS for the topics and types of supplementary reading and writing exercises so that the researcher can take essential criteria into consideration in making an effort to develop reading and, to some extent, writing skills interactively.

The results of the study bring us some precious conclusions. The topics in the textbook are acceptable but the contents of many reading texts are out of date. In addition, types of exercises are not varied, even boring and cannot motivate these students. Having a quick look through the whole textbook, we find that most of exercises are just Short- answer or True-False exercises, which discourage students from enhancing other reading and writing skills. The results of the study became the factual basis for this kind of supplementary material.

The designed exercises, which based on the students‟ preferences, meet both the needs of students but also the beliefs of teachers who work with their students day by day.

One big advantage can be seen is that this material can be useful for not only surveyed students but also those wishing to develop reading and writing skills. Hopefully, the researcher desires to help other teachers to save their time in preparing supplementary

reading and writing materials for the students. In order to make this material beneficial, the material is expected to be put in practice and then adapted, adjusted, changed if necessary by the researcher‟ colleagues.

The study also gives some recommendations for taking advantage of this material, what, when and how to use it. It cannot be denied that any designed or developed material once put into practice would not work well the first time. Thanks to the flexibility, the contribution and recommendations of teachers, this supplementary material is wished to be a timely help for both teachers and students.

In addition, the study implies a need of institutional support to teachers in materials development. Some awareness needs to be developed among administrators of the necessity to keep updating textbooks, to encourage and empower teachers to choose the most appropriate textbooks available for their classes (Hedge, 2000) and to use their textbooks actively. The study also suggests that the teachers should build awareness of what teaching resources provide and of the textbook adaptation to individualize their teaching. In the adaptation process, they should take account of course objectives and students‟ needs, as Breen (1989) suggested, students‟ views on the textbook are worth canvassing.

2. LIMITATION

It should be acknowledged that there are some limitations of this research. This research focused on session two with four credits, among four sessions of the whole syllabus for non-English majored students. Also, the study touched upon the aspect of teaching integrated reading and writing, not integrated four skills.

There may be some problems with the use of the questionnaires although they were delivered to students at random. The credibility of the information generated from the questionnaires is questionable, as it relies, like all instruments of this kind, on the truthfulness and proper understanding of the respondents. Student perceptions of the coursebook generated from a small number of students‟ questionnaire might not be appropriately representative.

3. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES

However, in spite of the above limitations, the research has dealt with a number of practical issues concerned with teachers‟ materials adaptation. It carries important practical implications in a number of dimensions from research perspective. It recommends the necessity of doing further research on this supplementary material adaptation to shed light on various practical issues involved in teachers‟ use of this material. The questionnaire should be delivered to a bigger number of students to gain higher reliability. In addition, further research on teachers‟ materials adaptation should be carried out. From the perspective of training methodology, it suggests that materials development is an effective way of helping teachers to understand and apply theories of language learning – and to achieve personal and professional development (Tomlinson, 2001: 67).

It is obvious that within limited time and condition, the study may have some mistakes, and shortcomings are unavoidable, the researcher would highly appreciate any suggestions and modification.

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APPENDICES

Appendix A: The Sample of Supplementary Reading and writing Material for NEMSs.*

UNIT 11 A. READING

READING 1

1. How many names of clothes do you know? Some names of clothes are always plural. Add the names of these clothes to the correct column.

shirt t-shirt jumper bra underpants

trousers tights shorts knuckles vest

singular always plural

20th century fashion

 Before the First World War fashion did not change very quickly. Men wore dark suits. They had short hair, and moustaches were popular. Women wore long dresses and they had long hair. Under their dresses they wore stiff corsets. These gave women a very narrow waist, but they were very uncomfortable.

 In the Roaring Twenties dresses and hair become much shorter. People saw women‘s knees for the first time. Corsets disappeared. A straight figure with no waist or bust was fashionable. For men, trousers with very wide legs became fashionable. They were called Oxford bags.

 In the 1930s and 40s hair, dresses and coats become longer again. Men‘s fashion didn‘t change very much. Men wore a suit, a tie and usually a hat, too. Moustaches were less popular.

 In the 1950s people were richer and teenagers spent a lot of money on clothes. For men this was the age of the Teddy boy. Teddy boys wore long jackets in very bright colours – pink, orange or yellow – and very tight trousers called ―drainpipes‖. For women jumpers and blouses with wide skirts and short socks were the fashion. Both men and women wore

―twinklepicker‖ shoes with long pointed toes. The women‘s shoes had high stiletto heels.

 The 1960s saw a revolution in clothes. Everything changed. This was the time of the mini-skirt and long boots. For the first time in the twentieth century men had long hair – the famous Beatles haircut.

 In the late 1960 and the early 70s the hippy ―flower power‖ style was in.

Women wore loose maxi-skirts. Men wore jeans and brightly coloured shirts or T-shirts. Clothes were very colourful. Very long hair was fashionable for men and women, and beards become more common (but only for men.)

 The 80s brought teenagers with punk hairstyles in red, blue, purple and green, and brightly coloured makeup.

Source: Hotline – Elementary (p68-69)

2. Look at the pictures. Match these years to the correct pictures.

1912 1927 1938 1957 1965 1970 1982 3. Describe these.

Oxford Bags Winklepickers Teddy Boys Drainpipes Stilettos A mini-skirt

Hippies Punks

III

4. Read the text again and complete the table below:

Time Men’s Women’s

hair clothes shoes hair clothes shoes Before the

First World War In the Roaring Twenties

In the 1930s and

40s In the 1950s

The 1960s In the late 1960 and

the early 70s

The 80s

5. What do you think of these fashions? Which do you like or dislike?

Why?

6. Follow up

 What do you like wearing:

o everyday?

o for parties or going out?

 What are you wearing now? Describing your own clothes?

Reading 2 JEANS

Jeans are the most popular kind of clothing in the world. They are popular almost everywhere – in Japan, France, Indonesia, Canada, and Brazil.

Rich people and poor people wear them. Young people and even some old people wear them too. Why are they popular? Who made the first jeans?

In 1849 two men discovered gold in California. Men from the rest of the United States and other countries hurried there to look for gold too. These miners needed good strong clothes.

A young man from Germany named Levi Strauss arrived in California in 1850. He went there to sell things to miners. He saw that the miners needed strong pants, so he began to make them. He used cloth that people made tents from. He put rivets on the pockets to make them strong because the men put rocks in their pockets. These pants were very strong and lasted a long time.

The pants became very popular immediately.

Later Mr. Strauss started making jeans from cotton cloth from Nimes, France. ‗De Nimes‘ means from Nimes. People called this cloth denim. Denim was popular during the fifteenth century. Christopher Columbus used denim for his sails of his ships. Sailors in Genoa, Italy wore denim pants. The word

‗jeans‘ comes from the word ‗Genoa‘. Mr. Strauss made the first jeans in the United States, but the idea and the kind of cloth came from Europe. The name came from France and Italy.

Jeans were always blue until recently. People used indigo to dye them.

Indigo was the oldest dye in the world. Most jeans have blue threads going cross and white threads going up and down. These two colours make denim look different from other kinds of cloth.

Today Levi Strauss and Company makes jeans in large factories. Other

one part of the pair of pants. Someone makes the front of the leg, and someone else makes the back. Another person puts in the zipper.

Why are jeans popular? In the United States, they are the only kind of traditional clothes. In other countries, young people want to wear them because they want to look modern. Jeans are the sign of youth and independence. Everybody wears jeans because everybody wants to be modern, young and independent.

Source: Concepts and Comments (p37-42)

1. Use the given words to fill in the blanks tent

strong sailor factory popular dye miner

independence

sail youth denim zipper rivets

immediately threads indigo

1. Bob has new sailboat. He likes to _________________ on the boat near his home.

2. Workers use _________________ to hold pieces of steel together.

3. Please go to the office _________________. You have an important phone call.

4. Many jackets have a _________________ up the front.

5. A _________________ spends most of his life at sea.

6. Helen and Susan spent their vacation in the mountains. They slept outdoors in a _________________.

7. Ms. Brown doesn‘t like the colour of the living room curtains. She is going to _________________ them.

8. Ann works in a _________________. She makes T-shirts.

9. Ann‘s brother is a _________________. He works in a gold mine.

10. Please lend me a needle and some _________________. I have to mend my shirt.

11. The _________________ of today will be the old people tomorrow.

12. Some countries have a holiday on _________________ Day. This is the day the country became free.

2. Give short answers to these questions 1. Why are jeans popular everywhere?

____________________________________________

______________________________________________

3. Why did he put rivets on the pockets?

_______________________________________________

4. What kind of cloth did he use for the miners‘ jeans?

_______________________________________________

5. Where did the name jeans come from?

_______________________________________________

6. What is denim?

_______________________________________________

7. What was jeans‘ original colour?

______________________________________________

8. What are American traditional clothes?

_________________________________________________

B. WRITING

1. Give a description of the clothes she is wearing:

___________________________________________________

VII

2. Rewrite these sentences without changing their original meaning 1. Before the First World War, fashion did not change very quickly.

 Before the First World War, fashion was not ___________________________

2. The stiff corsets gave women a very narrow waist, but they were very uncomfortable.

 Although ______________________________________________________________

3. The 1960s saw a revolution in clothes.

 There _________________________________________________________________

4. In the late 1960 and the early 70s the hippy ―flower power‖ style was in.

 The hippy ―flower power‖ style became _________________________________

5. Jeans are the most popular kind of clothing in the world.

 No other kinds of clothing are __________________________________________

6. Indigo was the oldest dye in the world.

 No other dyes are ______________________________________________________

7. Everybody wears jeans because everybody wants to be modern, young and independent.

 Wearing jeans _________________________________________________________

8. Rich people and poor people wear them.

 Both __________________________________________________________________

9. If it hadn‘t been for blue and white, denim would have been similar to other kinds of cloth.

 Blue and white ________________________________________________________

10. In the United States, jeans are the only kind of traditional clothes.

 The United States has _________________________________________________

VIII Unit 12 A. Warm-up

Let’s look at these pictures. Can you name these sports?

Which one do you like best? Why?

B. Reading

Reading 1 Read the

text and do the tasks below.

Susan

Part of me had always wanted to try skydiving, but I was really scared the first time. The worst bit was just before I jumped out of the plane – I wanted to be back on the ground, not 4,000 metres up in the air. Of course, as a beginner you don‘t do it on your own – you‘re attached to the instructor who opens the parachute for you. Falling through the air at 180 kilometres per hour is a massive adrenaline rush. That first time was five years ago, and since then I‘ve done more than twenty solo jumps.

Mike

Mountains offer a challenge I find impossible to ignore. I started climbing about twenty years ago, and I‘ve now climbed three of the highest five peaks in Europe.

Of course it can be dangerous, and I‘ve had some scary moments, but the sense of achievement when you reach the top is amazing. When you‘re pulling yourself up that wall of rock it feels like you‘re in a battle against nature – it‘s not a feeling you can get from anything in everyday life.

Teresa

I became hooked on snowboarding the very first time I tried it. I soon realized I had a natural talent for it, and it wasn‘t long before I was winning competitions and getting a bit of prize money. My dream is to be able to make my living just from boarding, so I now take three months off work every winter and concentrate on improving my technique.

I‘d recommend boarding to anyone. The exhilaration of going down the mountain, plus the beauty of the scenery – it‘s just fantastic.

(source: http: // www.insideout.net)

Task 1. Answer the questions.

1. How long has Mike been climbing mountains?

__________________________________________________________ . 2. Why did James decide to go surfing in Hawaii?

____________________________________________________________ . 3. How has Teresa already earned money from snowboarding?

_____________________________________________________________ . 4. Who opened the parachute during Susan‘s first skydive?

____________________________________________________________ .

Task 2. Now decide whether the following statements are true (T), false (F), or if the text doesn’t say (D).

5. Teresa doesn‘t have a job. …………

6. Susan has done more than ten skydives without an instructor. …………

7. Mike has climbed more than twenty mountains in Europe. …………..

8. Teresa gives snowboarding lessons. ………..

9. Mike has climbed the highest mountain in Europe. ………

10. James surfed in Bali before he went to Hawaii. ………

11. Susan has always felt relaxed before jumping out of the plane. ………..

12. James doesn‘t think about anything else when he‘s riding big waves in Hawaii. ………..

13. Mike has sometimes been frightened while mountain climbing. ………..

14. Teresa is trying to get even better at snowboarding. ………..

15. Susan did about ten skydives with an instructor. ………….

Task 3. Find the words in the text that mean the opposite of the following?

16. tiny _______________

17. ugliness _______________

18. failure _______________

19. in your own country _______________

20. learner _______________

The sample of supplementary reading and writing materials for NEMS

Students’ preferences for a supplementary material