colombia, a different view: a book creation proposal for...

Running head: Colombia, a different view; a creation and interpretation proposal

Colombia, a different view: a book creation proposal for teaching English as a foreign

language exploring cultural products

Yeison Andrés Sánchez Sánchez

Graduation project

Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas

School of Science and Education LEBEI

Bogotá

2015

2 Colombia, the other view

Colombia, a different view: a book creation proposal for teaching English as a foreign

language exploring cultural products.

Author: Yeison Andrés Sánchez Sánchez

Advisor: Paola Andrea Murillo Serrano

Graduation project

Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas

School of Science and Education LEBEI

Bogotá

2015


Table of Contents

Chapter 1 ...................................................................................................................................... 4

Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 4

Chapter 2 ...................................................................................................................................... 6

Justification and Purpose ............................................................................................................ 6

Chapter 3 ...................................................................................................................................... 9

Theoretical and epistemological principles ................................................................................. 9

Cultural products. ................................................................................................................... 9

Culture ................................................................................................................................. 10

Identity ................................................................................................................................ 10

Cultural identity .................................................................................................................... 11

Communicative competence. ................................................................................................ 13

Chapter 4 .................................................................................................................................... 15

Creation process ....................................................................................................................... 15

Chapter 5 .................................................................................................................................... 21

Implications in educational context and language ..................................................................... 21

Chapter 6 .................................................................................................................................... 26

Conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 26

References .................................................................................................................................. 27

Annexes…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….29


Chapter 1

Introduction

This project deals with the topic of material design for the English as a foreign language

classroom and more specifically with the design process of a book which includes

Colombian cultural products; a book which has two main purposes, the first one is to help

students in their English learning process as well as the development of their four language

skills (Reading, writing, listening and speaking) and the second one is to provide language

learners aspects from their own culture within this material.

The main objective of this project is to create a material for English learners which presents

stories based on Colombian cultural products and activities which enable students explore

their culture in the EFL learning process and prepare them to not only reproduce linguistic

patterns but communicate effectively their traditions and customs using English as a tool.

This project is conceived after a reflective process which has been done during my

teaching experience, both in my pre-service teaching and at work; this reflection made me

wonder about the appropriateness of English textbooks in Colombia, taking into account

the cultural setting provided on them. This was the inquiry that led to the development of

the project.

I expect with this project to obtain a textbook which helps students in their learning

process while they get immersed in Colombian cultural products, and also encourage them

to learn English in order to communicate and preserve our traditions and customs

communicating and sharing their own experiences and perspectives as the book does.


Therefore, this study looks into the contribution of the social factors to the foreign

language learning; as language is a cultural product, so through the development of a

material that would be used in the EFL classroom I pretend to show how the inclusion of

cultural content engages students in the learning process, prepares them to confront the

challenge of the intercultural communication and finally allows them to increase cultural

awareness.


Chapter 2

Justification and Purpose

As English as a foreign language teacher, we have been dealing with a lot of aspects

which have emerged from our classes. Every day we face challenges which in a long term

helps to improve our way to teach, methodology, didactics and pedagogy; this is why the

role of teacher/researcher is very important nowadays, especially when we are facing

changes in our society such as technological development, globalization and many others.

These aspects are challenges we have to turn into strengths including them in the English

classroom.

During my teaching experience I have noticed that a lot of teachers use textbooks in the

English classroom as a didactic tool to support the learning process. Even though textbooks

have been used for years in the education, there are some problems with the way they are

being used in the English classroom in Colombia; the first one I noticed is the drilling-

oriented use, when teachers leave aside most of their functions in the classroom and in

some way are replaced by books, whose only function is to be filled up by students.

The second one is related to the content, in Colombia we usually use textbooks made by

British or American publishing houses, these books present texts, stories and in general

content based on their culture, as it is stated by Corbett: “most of the English course-books

are oriented to the target language, leaving aside the intercultural dialogue” Corbett (2003).

However, books are an important resource in the Language learning process, but most

of the books are presenting aspects from the foreign cultures, this was the motivation to


start a journey to the discovery of stories that reflect aspects that most of us have forgotten

from our culture during the learning process

In terms of culture, some language course-books are only focused on one culture, the

foreign, these were the words of PhD Carlos Rico (2012), he analyses the role of the

materials in the English learning process regarding culture and intercultural competence.

An English classroom is a place where cultural discussions take place, language teachers

have to be prepared to deal with intercultural communication since globalization allows not

only us but also students to access information of many different cultures.

Having said that the English learning process deals with intercultural communication, it is a

big concern the fact that textbooks leave aside the intercultural dialogue, but the first step

to reach this goal is recognize and explore our own culture; in this vein Corbett (2003)

claims that “learning materials have to incorporate aspects of the home culture”, he asserts

that the intercultural component in second language education “requires teachers and

learners to pay attention to and respect the home culture and the home language” (Corbett,

2003).

Taking into account the words said by Corbett, it is important to respect the home

culture, English textbooks usually present us texts whose context is clearly set on the

foreign culture, this helps us to creates a certain kind of sensitiveness towards the foreign

culture, but sometimes we do not understand the context in which these texts are presented

because we do not have a reference in our own culture.

In order to foster the intercultural communication in the English classroom, first we have to

increase the cultural awareness in our own culture, so there will be a dialogic process of


interaction when students have the experience to interact with foreign people, presenting

aspects from their culture, paying attention to the foreign culture and establishing

differences and similarities to finally become more sensitive toward the foreign cultures.

In conclusion, the project will prepare students to join a global community where they will

have the opportunity to share aspects from their culture, some of these aspects could be the

one presented in the book which was designed, and at the same time they listen and learn

about foreign cultures.


Chapter 3

Theoretical and epistemological principles

This project, as it was mentioned before, deals with the creation process of a material

for English as a foreign language learners which explores cultural products on their texts,

since the purpose is to reflect culture in the English learning process, it is important to

explore and define the constructs that will be the basis for the theoretical foundations of this

project.

The book I designed deals with cultural products, according to Patrick Moran,

“products of a culture range from isolated objects, artifacts, tools or places, they are also

related to other constructions such as art, literature, architecture and music … members of a

society use the language in order to manipulate them” (Moran,2001). As literature is

considered by Moran as a cultural product, this construct will be used to define the myths,

stories and recipes which are included in the textbook; these cultural products are closely

related to Colombian culture and are a reflection of our identity.

Many different authors have already defined and explored the definition of cultural

identity, as this term is a construction which comes from two different terms; first I am

going to explore different authors’ perspectives about culture and about identity in order to

contrast them, to finally create a definition which will explain and fit best the context of my

project.


Culture is a term which has been explored by many different authors, Campbell on his

part defines culture as “a complex web of information that a person learns and which

guides each person’s actions, experiences, and perceptions”(Campbell, 2004); Banks

defines culture as “the behavior, patterns, symbols, institutions, values, and other human

made components of the society” (Banks, 1991); and finally, Patricia Marshall defines it as

“consistent ways in which people experience, interpret, and respond to the world around”

(Marshall, 2001). Campbell explores culture from a wider perspective talking about it as a

complex web of information learned by people; Banks narrows the concept of web of

information defining it as the behaviors, patterns, symbols, institutions and values, this

complex web of information is formed by all of the items mentioned by Banks, and

Marshall says that all of this information learned by people helps people to experience,

interpret and respond to the world, therefore I can affirm that culture is a set of patterns

which are shared by a group of people in a social group and defines their actions towards

the world surrounding them.

Now I have to define the term identity, it is important to clarify that I am going to

define identity from a social perspective; identity is “people’s concepts of who they are, of

what sort of people they are, and how they relate to others” (Hogg and Abrams,1988), we

also have a broader definition given by Jenkins, he says identity “refers to the ways in

which individuals and collectivities are distinguished in their social relations with other

individuals and collectivities” (Jenkins, 1996), we also have identity defined and linked

with the term culture, “Identity is used in this book to describe the way individuals and

groups define themselves and are defined by others on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion,

language and culture” (Deng, 1995). Finally Tomlinson says:


Identity was something people simply ‘had’ as an undisturbed existential possession,

an inheritance, a benefit of traditional long dwelling, of continuity with the past.

Identity, then, like language, was not just a description of cultural belonging; it was a

sort of collective treasure of local communities. (Tomlinson, 2003)

Taking into account the definitions previously given, I can say that identity is the way in

which individuals in a social group are distinguished and defined, using the language to

mediate in their social relations, reflecting their beliefs and perspectives about the way they

see the world (Sánchez, 2015).

Regarding the construct of cultural identity, I can briefly summarize it as the way in which

members of a social group define themselves using language to share their beliefs which

could be also defined as customs and traditions.

Since Cultural identity is related to ones groups’ sense of recognition, this implies each

social group creates, defines and shares his own identity; as I mentioned on the introductory

chapter of this paper, language teachers are facing challenges nowadays, one of these

challenges is globalization; even though globalization has been associated with the

“destruction of cultural identities” (Tomlinson, 2003) Language teachers have to find the

way to transform this challenge into an advantage in the English classroom, the way I

propose is to exploit the social dimension of the globalization, more specifically the access

to the information in order to share our beliefs, patterns, customs and traditions at the same

time we reinforce our cultural identity exploring what maybe not all of the people

remember from our culture using English language as means to communicate and share our

culture.


This process of exploring our cultural identity in the classroom leads us to a broader

concept that is essential to achieve in the language learning process; since exploring is the

first step to create a sense of the cultural awareness in the learning process, we as “teachers

are mediators between cultures” (Byram & Risager, 1999); professor Bonilla and Alvarez

add, “…this involves the responsibility to help learners to understand other peoples and

their cultures. Teachers work as mediators between cultures; we needed to foster in our

students a critical approach to culture” (Alvarez & Bonilla, 2009). So according to this, we

as teachers have an important role in the classroom, act as mediators of culture in the

foreign language learning process.

According to Straub (1999), what educators should always have in mind when teaching

is “…the need to raise their students’ awareness of their own culture”, to provide them with

some kind of metalanguage in order to talk about culture, and “to cultivate a degree of

intellectual objectivity essential in cross-cultural analyses”. DeVos and Ross (1982) argue

that “Identities are negotiated through a process of contrast of self to others and one's group

to other groups”. The cultural identities of interlocutors are a function of their self- and

alter-ascriptions in cultural terms (McCall, 1976). DeVos and Ross (1982) note that

identities function to define rules of comportment, create a moral commitment, and

reinforce a sense of common origin.

When language learners have the opportunity to interact with foreign people, they

usually wonder about the differences among cultures, customs and traditions mainly, if the

students establish interaction processes with foreign people, they will have the opportunity

to learn about others’ cultures, but to make this process dialogic, it is important also to

know about their own culture. At the end, if the student not only learns but also shares his


own culture, he reinforces his cultural identity and creates an environment not only for

communication but for intercultural communication.

If students have a material in the EFL classroom which provides cultural products from

their own culture, they will be able not only to share, but also compare and contrast the

differences among cultures, this would raise students’ cultural sensitivity, making them

“…aware about the differences and similarities among cultures and the effects on values,

learning and behavior” (Stafford, Bowman, Eking, Hanna & Lopoes-DeFede, 1997).

Identity can be revealed through rules and patterns; when individuals identify a

conversational partner as culturally different, the interaction process becomes more

complex. Intercultural communication is a process of comparisons, judgments, ascriptions,

and negotiations of both persons’ identities. One’s own cultural identity may include

stereotypes, opinions and meanings, and norms about other cultural groups that have been

passed down and are then modified and negotiated in intercultural contact.

The material I created is not only a source to help students reinforce their cultural

awareness and recognize their identity; this material will help them to be competent in their

communication. Communicative competence is a what a person knows about the language

or what she or he must know “when to speak, when not, ... what to talk about with whom,

when, where, in what manner” (Hymes, 1972); in other words, communicative competence

refers to the capability of understanding the speech context in order to produce an accurate

speech taking into account the context the speaker is involved.

Communicative competence is not isolated; actually, it is closely related with culture,

Saville-Troike for example defines communicative competence and classifies it into three


types of knowledge: the linguistic, the interactional and the cultural. The former refers to

the values and attitudes attached to the language use (Saville-Troike, 1989, 1996).

So at any rate, the “foreign language learning is at the same time foreign culture

learning and, in one form or another, culture has, even implicitly, been taught in the foreign

language classroom”. (Thanasoulas, 2001) Kramsch explains how culture is addressed in

the classroom:

Culture in language learning is not an expendable fifth skill, tacked on, so to

speak, to the teaching of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The Importance Of

Teaching Culture In The Foreign Language Classroom It is always in the

background, right from day one, ready to unsettle the good language learners when

they expect it least, making evident the limitations of their hard-won communicative

competence, challenging their ability to make sense of the world around

them.(Kramsch, 1993).

As a conclusion I can say that this project is exploring the matter of cultural awareness

raising while it pursues two objectives, the first one is to help students remember, recognize

and preserve their cultural identity through authentic texts based on cultural products from

Colombian traditions and customs. The second one is to develop cultural sensitiveness

preparing them to face intercultural communication processes. It is important to mention

that this project will not only help students, it is also a guideline for teachers who want to

work on culture and material design and adaptation in the English as a foreign language

classroom.


Chapter 4

Creation process

English as a foreign language teachers are multi-task and multi-skills professionals, the

language teachers have a lot of responsibilities in and out of the classroom which are

reflected in the learning process. One of the tasks language teachers have is the selection,

adaptation and sometimes creation of material for the classes; a good teacher is not only the

person who knows a lot about the subject or field of study he or she works with, the

definition of “good teacher” could be explored from many different perspectives, but in my

own words I have to say that a good teacher has to be wise when choosing, adapting and

creating material.

The three tasks I mentioned before have to be carried out taking into account many

different aspects, from the accessibility to the material itself to the appropriateness for the

students who are going to work with it. During my teaching experience I noticed that most

of the teachers use textbooks in the English classroom as a didactic tool to support the

English learning process, but there are some problems with their use in the English

classroom.

The first one is the drilling-oriented use, when teachers leave aside most of their functions

in the classroom and, in some way, are replaced by books, whose only function is to be

filled up by students; The second one is related to the content, in Colombia we use

textbooks made by British or American publishing houses, this books do not take into

account students’ context and present conversations and content set in their cultural

background, one that is sometimes unknown for our students.


When I noticed these problems I started wondering about the appropriateness of the

materials we use in the English classroom, probably English teachers are only choosing

their material but they are not going further in the process of analysis, adaptation and

creation which are very important in our career. In order to clarify these inquiries I decided

to carry out an online survey asking both English students and teachers about materials in

the classroom, these are some of the results:

I choose a sample of 50 English teachers and students, the first question I asked was

related to teaching materials in the EFL classroom, when I asked if they use support

material in their EFL class, 87.2% of the people surveyed answered yes while only 12.8%

answered no, this is very important because this shows that a great percentage of people use

resources to support the EFL learning process.

In the second question, I wanted to go a little deeper into the kind of materials which are

being used in the EFL classroom, so I asked what kind of materials do you use in your

English class? There were no significant differences in the figures in this question, 20.8%

claimed to use textbooks and videos in the classroom. Taking into consideration this

answers I can state that textbooks are still a useful resource in the EFL classroom even

though ICTs resources are getting involved in the EFL learning process and in the

classroom.

With the questions I tried to explore both students and teachers beliefs about materials in

the EFL classroom, when I asked about advantages and disadvantages again the answers

varied, but there were some aspects which were frequently mentioned, in the advantages

they mentioned aspects such as: organization in the class and it makes the learning process


easier, and in the disadvantages the most mentioned aspects were: materials do not take into

account students’ context and book-based classes, these aspects were the concerns I posed

at the beginning of the project, so EFL students and teachers corroborate my statements.

When I noticed this I was still wondering if the survey would demonstrate the necessity of

creating materials for the EFL classroom in Colombian classes, in other question I asked

the following: do you think English textbooks take into account Colombian students’

context in their learning process? The answers once again supported my criteria, 70.2%

answered no, while 29.8 answered yes, so it is necessary to design material based on

Colombian students’ context, but why? This question was still going through my head, and

the fifth question of my survey helped me clarify this inquiry. Most of the people answered

saying that it is important to know our culture before learning others’, the following are

some of the answers:

“Es importante ya que el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera no solo involucra el

aprender la lengua como tal sino conocer sobre las diferentes culturas no solo las

extranjeras, pero si las propias para así mismo darla a conocer”

“En los libros de texto muchas veces se habla del contexto referente a la nueva lengua

y se dejan de lado las propias costumbres, sería interesante poder mostrar y conocer

nuestra cultura a través de otra lengua; muchas veces la gente que conoce una lengua

extranjera y que tiene una experiencia ínter-cultural no es capaz de hablar de su

propia cultura porque nunca se ha visto la importancia de conocerla”

“Para entender otra cultura es necesario empezar por conocer la nuestra; así, será mas

fácil llegar al fondo del "iceberg" de las dos culturas como de su idioma”


“claro que es importante, hace parte del contexto inmediato del estudiante”

“porque no conocemos bien nuestra propia cultura y pues es bueno dar a conocer

nuestra cultura a los extranjeros”

Even though not all of the answers were affirmative and considered important the

inclusion of our culture in the EFL process, when disagreements appear someway they

supported my idea, as in the following example:

“No considero que sea de suma importancia dar a conocer la cultura colombiana en

este proceso ya que es bien sabido que aprender una lengua extranjera exige de cierta

manera el conocimiento de esta nueva cultura, sin embargo, pienso que la mejor

manera de relacionar estos dos procesos va a partir de la comparación. Por ejemplo,

al aprender partes de la casa, casi siempre aparecen partes como el sótano o el altillo

y es evidente que la mayoría de la población colombiana no tiene en sus hogares, sin

embargo es importante hacer una comparación en la que ellos puedan encontrar

diferencias entre su propia cultura y la otra”

With the support given by both students and teachers to my inquiries about the material

in the EFL classroom I decided to start my process designing my own material. I decided to

create a reading material because one of the things I enjoyed the most when I was a child

was listening to my grandmother telling me stories, legends and fantastic anecdotes about

people and characters in Colombia, so this was my first step, start gathering stories.

The sources of my stories were close to me, however there are stories from all over the

country in the material I designed, all of them came from people and material close to me, I

decided to sit with my parents and my grandmother one day, and listen to some of the


stories they know, but that not many people remember, that was how some of the stories

were written and then drafted. The stories which were not shared by my family were found

on books I had since my primary school.

After I chose the stories, I started adapting them, translating them being careful with the

vocabulary used, it took me about two months to choose the stories and adapt them for the

material, after the adaptation I asked for a revision to a professor close to me, he helped me

to correct some mistakes regarding cohesion, vocabulary and grammar.

When I finally chose the stories and adapted them, I started designing the book; I went

to the Colombo Americano’s library in order to check some reading books to shape my

idea, then I started designing the material using Corel Draw X6 which is a drawing

software, I selected some photos I had in my personal gallery and downloaded some from

the internet to illustrate the book, the process of design took me about 4 months due to the

problems I had organizing the elements to make it visually attractive.

After I finished designing the book, I decided to take it to my advisor to have a second

opinion, as the first idea was to include reading and listening in the book, my advisor

suggested me to include some exercises in order to work on reading comprehension as well

as the writing skill, since that moment I started reading books like Penguin Readers,

Dominoes, DK readers and Dolphin Readers which are books especially designed and

leveled for English learners with activities of reading comprehension. With these books I

took some ideas to design the reading comprehension activities I finally included on my

material.


As soon as I finished designing the book, I took it again to my advisor and corrected

some minimal mistakes related to typo mistakes and punctuation, and then I sent the

material to the editorial in order to be printed and finally presented to the evaluators in my

dissertation.


Chapter 5

Implications in educational context and language

The creation area I decided to work on this project is the materials development,

specifically the development of printed material, as I mentioned in the previous chapter,

this project arose from my inquiry supported by EFL students and teachers about the

materials in the Colombian classroom. Materials development is a process each one of us

has to carry out in the teaching-learning process and is essential in order to take advantage

of the material in the classroom in order to get positive results.

According to Tomlinson (2012) ‘Materials development’ refers to “…all the processes

made use of by practitioners who produce and/or use materials for language learning,

including materials evaluation, their adaptation, design, production, exploitation and

research”, this definition highlights the role of the practitioners, in this case an English

language teacher, in the design of material, in my specific case through the analysis of the

class and students’ needs to adapt and design a new material based on students’ needs

which will be a support to their EFL learning process.

But not all of the languages teachers design material, mainly because is a very time-

consuming process which requires dedication, imagination and planning, most of the

teachers adapt the materials to their classroom; Madsen & Bowen focused on adaptation,

when they explored the field of materials development. They made an important point

when they highlighted that:

Good teachers are always adapting the materials they are using to the context in

which they are using them in order to achieve the optimal congruence between


materials, methodology, learners, objectives, the target language and the teacher’s

personality and teaching style. Madsen & Bowen (1978)

In addition to Madsen & Bowen’s words, I want to highlight the role of learners in the

development of material, through my teaching experience I had the opportunity to empower

students to design the materials to work with in class, so they designed flashcards to show

aspects of their cultures in the foreign language, regarding this process, Saraceni mentions

the importance of the students’ role in the material development; Saraceni, who advocates

providing the learners with an important role in adapting the materials they are using. In

order to involve learners in the process, she proposes that “materials should actually be

written with learner adaptation in mind, aiming to be learner-centered, flexible, open-

ended, relevant, universal and authentic, and giving choices to learners” Saraceni (2003).

According to what I have previously said, if materials are adapted taking into account

students’ needs, the material will help the learning process and more important, it will be

meaningful, especially when the content is based on cultural products from their own

culture. It helps not only to improve language proficiency, but also the awareness, skills,

attitudes and knowledge both of language and culture as professor Rico says: “The main

findings showed that the materials adapted helped students to develop the dimensions of

ICC, the savoirs: Savoir (knowledge), saviors ´engager (awareness), savoir-faire (skills),

savoir-être (attitudes); and savoir-communiquer (proficiency)” (Rico, 2011)

The framework which supported the material adaptation was the `Text Driven

Approach´ - TDA (Tomlinson, 2003). This approach is intended to humanize materials

(i.e., coursebooks) which are mostly developed from language-centered perspectives.


Fundamentally, this approach aims to give the students the chance to experience texts

emotionally. As Rico explain us Tomlinson’s approach:

In turn, texts are perceived as cultural artifacts that enable the student to think,

reflect and communicate. TDA is characterized by two stages, the planning and the

development stage. The first one consists of the collection, selection and experience

of texts. The second one has to do with the development of the activities: readiness,

experiential, intake response, development and input response (Rico, 2011)

The design process of my material took into account Tomlinson’s recommendations for

the process; “Materials should help learners to develop confidence”, Tomlinson states that

materials should help students to feel confident in the learning process not simplifying the

activities but “…proposing activities which try to ‘push’ learners slightly beyond their

existing proficiency by engaging them in tasks which are stimulating, which are

problematic, but which are achievable too” (Tomlinson, 2011).

Also materials “should help learners to feel at ease” (Dulay, Burt and Krashen, 1982),

anxiety is a factor which influences the learning process, “the less anxious the learner, the

better language acquisition proceeds” (Dulay, Burt and Krashen, 1982) if the material is

designed taking into account students context, as I did in my creation process, English

learners will feel confident and less anxious during the process because they are learning

something maybe their parents mentioned once in an anecdote, this helps the learning

process and also involves family in it after students start to question about their culture,

“Relaxed and self-confident learners learn faster” (Dulay, Burt and Krashen, 1982).

Now, referring to the type of material being designed, I have to say that according to a

publication by Oxford materials can be categorized in the following groups:


Materials can be informative (informing the learner about the target language), instructional

(guiding the learner in practicing the language), experiential (providing the learner with

experience of the language in use), eliciting (encouraging the learner to use the language)

and exploratory (helping the learner to make discoveries about the language). As “different

learners learn in different ways” (Oxford 2002). The aim of the material I am designing is

to provide students aspects from these different groups of materials previously mentioned,

it means that the book being designed informs about the language, instructs, gives people

an experience in the language use, encourages them to use the language and helps them to

discover the language itself.

In the same way, the material I designed is leveled based on the grading provided in the

Oxford bookworms series. Some of the characteristics this series has are: It is based on the

Common European Framework of Reference, the average length of the story is about 40

pages and it also has an average count of words of 6.500. According to the grading

proposed by Oxford this material is belongs to the second level reflecting an A2/B1 level,

so it is a material that is going to be useful for English learners who have already studied

and learned vocabulary and grammar structures previously in their process (Oxford, 2013)

The book I designed contains some myths, stories and recipes from Colombian culture.

Mainly it is a reading material but I do not want students only to improve reading skills, I

want them to improve the four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) that is why I

included audios for each one of the stories which will help students to follow the story as

they read it; at the end of each story there is a reading check when students answers some

questions to check reading comprehension and practice writing, also in the reading check is


included a discussion question, this is for students to reflect about cultural aspects, debate

and express their thoughts towards these customs and traditions.

But, as this is a booklet with short stories the reading skill is one of the most visible,

that is why during the designing process I included activities for each one of the stages

proposed by Barnett, pre-reading activities which “…introduce students to a particular text”

(Barnett, 1989) the pre-reading activities are based on the exploration of vocabulary which

may be new for students, this would help them to understand the text when reading. While

reading activities are defined as activities which “help students develop reading strategies,

improve their control of the second language, and decode problematic text passages”

(Barnett, 1989) within the book you can find some boxes with additional information, the

idea is to clarify and extend information given in the stories. Finally post-reading activities

defined as “exercises first check students' comprehension and then lead students to a deeper

analysis of the text, when warranted” (Barnett, 1989) this stage is divided in two, the first is

a writing reading check where students have to answer questions and correct statements

based on the stories and the second one mentioned by Barnett as the “deeper analysis of the

text” is a question proposed through a speaking activity to discuss about the story.

To sum up, I can say the material designed will have a positive impact on students,

unfortunately this project will not be evaluated, but the proposal for further research is to

evaluate the material and record students and teachers perceptions about the performance

and suitability of the material in the classroom in order to keep designing and adapting

materials which explore Colombian cultural product and which may be included in the in

most of Colombian school’s curriculum.


Chapter 6

Conclusions

Materials adaptation and especially material creation must have in mind students’

context in order to make the EFL learning process meaningful, this lead to students’

engagement in the process giving them the opportunity to use the language in order to

communicate experiences close to his environment, strengthening the use of the language

improving their language skills and empowering them to recover, share and understand

their own culture.

In the project I mentioned authors who support the idea of including home culture in the

classroom; this is a way of creating an environment when students are thinking about the

cultural content more than in the linguistic patterns, becoming them aware of the

importance of the language use in context and creating an atmosphere in the classroom

which avoid students’ anxiety.

The idea of this project is not only to create a material to be used in the classroom, the

purpose is at the same time encourage EFL teachers to start designing materials for their

classes taking into accounts the needs they can observe in the classroom but more

important, taking into accounts students’ needs and interest to involve them in the

classroom creating a fun and interesting environment when they will not feel anxious but

comfortable.


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Annexes

Exploratory survey results


Annex 2: Book

colombia, a different view: a book creation proposal for...

Documents