Reflection on Tutorial Task Week 8

In this week’s task, we were to compare and contrast the differences and similarities of the adaptation techniques between McDonough and Shaw with Maley and Tomlinson and also Masuhara’s. I noticed that all three had almost similar technique of adaption which includes addition and deletion and the only difference could be their organization and the usage of different terms for the same ‘step’. I think it is appropriate for a teacher to decide whether to delete or add certain things into her teaching materials as they have to alter certain materials to fit their students’ language proficiency, learning context and also the learning objectives.

I think it is important for a teacher to know the proper technique for adaptation of materials. It can help to avoid the wasting of time and energy of the teacher as well as the students as the teacher can see in advance what he or she needs to supplement so that he or she can keep an eye on materials that could be used. In Malaysia, all teachers in schools are to use the same textbook which is chosen by the education department and thus, the will have to adapt to the activities in the textbook in order to teach more efficiently. Different students have different progress in learning and all teachers should take this criteria into consideration given that they are not allowed to choose their own textbook. So, having these adaption techniques would be a great ‘help’ to all the teachers.

However, to apply it or not, it all depends on the teacher himself. Afterall, I think only teachers who really have the ‘commitment’ will actually spent time on the adaptation of the materials and I daresay not all would do so as this could be the reason why there are students who complained of the learning lesson being boring. In my opinion, I would really love to apply these techniques into teaching my future students. This is because from my past experiences, I dislike teachers who taught according to the textbook all the time. There is no point for me to listen to them if I can read and do those exercises on my own. Something new in the lessons would definitely attract students’ attentions I think this should not be limited only to the English subject but all the other subjects.