ST.

JOHN PAUL II COLLEGE OF DAVAO

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Week 7-8
Lesson Title Selecting Materials
Learning Outcome(s) Identify the factors in selecting texts.
Time Frame 3:00PM-4:00PM-THF/7:00PM-F

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Terms to Ponder

Essential Content

Selecting Text
In choosing a literary text for use with your students, you should
think about three main areas. These are: the type of course you are
teaching, the type of students who are doing the course and certain
factors connected with the text itself. We begin by thinking about the
first of these - the type of course you are teaching.
In fact, most teachers find that when selecting texts for their
learners they generally proceed on an intuitive basis. With a good
knowledge of, and rapport with, a group of learners this usually works
well. But it is sometimes useful to focus more exactly on specific criteria
for selection or rejection of texts, as we did using the scales above. Using
the scales, for example, might have helped you to clarify that, although
your learners are at quite an elementary level linguistically, their
emotional and intellectual understanding is rather sophisticated. So you
need to select texts which are linguistically relatively simple but which
challenge them in other ways. In the section below we briefly discuss
some of the more complicated criteria mentioned on the scales.
Criteria for Selecting Texts
It is probably fairly self-evident what is meant by criteria such as
the age of students, their emotional and intellectual maturity and their
interests and hobbies. The only difficulty when applying these categories
to a whole class is that individual students within a group may vary
considerably in their maturity and interests. Obviously, when selecting

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materials you will need to try to find texts that are suitable for the
majority of students in the class. You may also find that developing the
facility for self-access is one way of personalizing learning so that you
can cater for the range of student development and interests within a
group. We may find, however, that consideration of criteria involving the
students' cultural background, linguistic proficiency and literary
background is more complicated. The following is an attempt to examine
these more complex criteria.

The Students Cultural Background

When considering this factor, think about how far the students'
cultural background and their social and political expectations will help
or hinder their understanding of a text. It would be difficult, for example,
for most readers to make sense of Jane Austen's novels without having
some knowledge of the class system and the values of the society they
describe. You will also need to consider how much background you will
need to provide for your students to have at least a basic understanding
of the text.
On the other hand, it is also true that texts which may appear to
be very remote in time and place from the world today may still have
appeal for students in different countries around the world. This is
either because they touch on themes (such as industrialisation or life in
the city) which are relevant to the students, or they deal with human
relationships and feelings (such as conflict between parents and
children) which strike a chord in the students' own lives. In addition,
many students may have a strong sense of curiosity about another
culture and enjoy studying its literature because they believe it reveals
key insights about that society.
The Students’ Linguistic Proficiency
This is an area of some complexity. It may well be that learners are
classified as advanced and can communicate with ease in an English
speaking environment. Yet they might not be able to cope with the
language of the text because it departs strikingly from the usual norms
of language use; it includes a great many archaisms, rhetorical devices
and metaphors; or it makes use of the dialect or register of a highly
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specialised field (such as law). You might need to ask yourself questions
like these when deciding whether or not to use the text:
1. Are students sufficiently familiar with the usual norms of language
use to recognise when these are subverted?
2. How much of the language in the text will students be able to infer?
3. Will students find it useful and enjoyable to study the text, or will
they feel demotivated by the difficulties of the language?
4. Even if the language of the text is extremely difficult, will students be
motivated by other factors to study the text (e.g. students often enjoy
studying a difficult short story if there is a film based on it which they
also enjoyed.
5. Finally, you may well ask yourself whether the text is too specialised
in its language to be relevant to the type of language the students
require to learn on the course.

The Student’s literary Background

There is an interesting relationship between the literary

background of the students and their linguistic competence, since the
two do not necessarily go together. Students may, for example, have
studied literature in their own language. If it is a language (such as a
Romance language) in which similar conventions to those in English
operate for reading and interpreting literature, then they may already
have a level of literary competence which will help them to make sense
of a literary text even when their linguistic knowledge is rather limited.
On the other hand, students who have little literary knowledge, but are
linguistically proficient, may find themselves understanding each
individual word on the page without being able to make sense of the
literary meanings behind the texts. t only at the grading of the language
in the text, but at its specific literary qualities and whether our students
can navigate their own way through these. A writer often cited in this
regard is Ernest Hemingway - while his texts often appear to be
linguistically simple, students may need guidance in making sense of
their deeper literary meanings.

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Other Factors to consider when selecting literary texts

Availability of Texts
1. What kinds of books and texts are available from which you can
choose?
2. How easily can you make these texts available to your students?

Length of Text
1. Do you have enough time available to work on the text in class?
2. How much time do students have to work on the text at home?
3. Could you use only part of a text, or an abridged version of it? If so,
how much background information will you need to give students to
make the text intelligible?

Exploitability
1. What kinds of tasks and activities can you devise to exploit the text?
2. Are there resources available to help you exploit the text, for example
a film of a particular novel the students are studying, recordings of a
play or poem, library materials giving information about the life of an
author, etc.?

Fit with Syllabus

1. How do the texts link with the rest of the syllabus? Thematically? In
terms of vocabulary, grammar or discourse?
2. Can you devise tasks and activities for exploiting the text which link
with the methodology you have used elsewhere in the syllabus? This
often helps to put students at their ease. For example, if your students
are used to using Multiple Choice or True/False questions when doing
reading comprehension, then you could use similar tasks when
exploiting a literary text.

A Checklist and Criteria for choosing literary texts

In this section we have thought about various criteria for selecting
literary texts. The checklist below summarises these criteria. You can

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consult it as a quick reference when choosing texts, especially if you add

any other criteria which you consider to be important.

Type of Course
Level of students
Students’ reasons for learning English
Kind of English required
Length/intensity of course

Type of Students
Age
Intellectual maturity
Emotional understanding
Interests/Hobbies
Cultural background
Linguistic proficiency
Literary background

Other Text-Related Factors

Availability of texts
Length of text
Exploitability
Fit with syllabus

SELF-SUPPORT: You can click the URL Search Indicator below to help you further understand the lessons.

Search Indicator
Lazar, G. (1993). Literature and Language Teaching: A guide for teachers
and trainers.
Showalter, E. (2013). Teaching Literature.
Yoqoob, M (2011). Reader & Text: Literary Theory & Teaching of Literature
in 21st Century.

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I
LET’S NITIATE!
Activity 1. Let us try to check your understanding of the topics. Write your
answers to the space provided below every after the questions.

1. Why is it important to consider the cultural background of the student

in selecting materials?
2. Why is it important to consider the language proficiency of the student
in selecting materials?
3. What are the other factors to consider in selecting materials?

I
LET’S NQUIRE!
Activity 1. Think about a group of students you have taught in the past,
are teaching at the moment, or are going to teach in the future. Note down
the information about them which is listed in the boxes opposite.

Type of course
Level of students:
Students' reasons for learning English:
Kind of English required on the course: (e.g. English for Academic
Purposes, English for Business, General English, etc.)

How intensive is the course? (e.g. five hours a day for three months, four
hours a week for a year, etc.)

Is there a syllabus? Yes No

1. Is it flexible? Yes No
2. Is literature included? Yes No

Can you include literary texts on this course? Why/Why not?

What kinds of texts will be most suitable? Extracts from novels? Poems? A
full-length play? Why?

I
LET’S NFER!
Activity 1. Think again of the group of students you had in mind in Task
1 and fill in the following information:

Type of students
Age of students:
Interests/hobbies of students:
Cultural or ethnic background/nationality of students:
Students' previous experience of reading literary texts:

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