How to Include Teacher Design Materials and ICT in EFL Classrooms

In recent years, technological devices such as mobile phones, PCs, tablets,etc., became more prominent in the lives of students. It can not be denied the fact that those devices have the potential to transform learning. As futures teachers, it is our job to find innovative ways to enhance student's learning experiences. But, "how do I do this? " Well, you can start by thinking about technology not as a separate thing but as an integrated part of your lessons and classroom environment. The implementation of the SAMR Model would be a good start. It consists of a framework created by Dr. Ruben Puentedura (2010), which includes four levels of technology integration to support educators in creating optimal learning experiences in the classroom. The acronym stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. The SAMR model can be used to reflect on how you are integrated technology into your classroom.  The image below provides you with a brief explanation ...

Since half of the last decade, the world had undergone multiple changes rapidly; namely war, industrialisation, new cultures, the invention of new technologies and more. This changes affected not only the political and economic aspects of society all over the world but also the cultural and educational. Schools nowadays, do not remain as the only owners of knowledge and information. Batista & Celso(2007:32) say, that exists a revolution of Information Communication Technology, that consist of a new way to produce, process, storage and distribute information. This is possible due to the advances in technology, that digitalized the information making possible its distribution through technological devices such as mobile phones, personal computers, tablets, TV, etc. As the authors say, young people and children knowledge and skills they have learned without the intervention of adults (Batista & Celso: 21). As a consequence, some schools in our country remain as old ways of ...

An important factor present in most English teaching programs is the creation of teaching materials. At the moment of teaching, we need to reflect on whether to work with a coursebook or teacher-design materials. Here we will examine one advantage and disadvantage that might help you to decide when to use LT (Language Teaching) materials. According to Block (1991), contextualization is one of the most important advantages of teacher-produced materials. Compared to commercial materials, teaching materials provide learners with the necessary tools and content to maximize students’ learning. In contrast to coursebooks which are ‘ Globally designed’ , designing or adapting teacher materials enables ELT (English Language Teaching) to support their students’ needs and ‘ to take into account their particular learning environment’ (Howard & Major, 2008: ). For instance, I had to teach the pronouns ‘his ’ and ‘her’ to a small group of young learners. The coursebook we use provid...