Making your own teaching material

making

If you are doing or have just done a pre-service training course, you'll know that many of them oblige you to make your own teaching material rather then just lift it off the shelf.
Why should this be?

What are the advantages of making your own?

Think for a moment and then click here for a list of three:

Context and engagement
Published materials are designed to appeal to a very wide market – the wider the better if you make your money from publishing and writing, of course. As a result, the language presented in course materials is often concerned with imaginary situations, characters and places. It cannot be otherwise.
However, teaching materials designed by the teacher can be specific to the context of the learners. You can make materials which are about people the learners know, places they are familiar with, situations in which they may find themselves and even about the learners themselves. This makes the material more engaging, motivating and memorable.

Contemporariness
Published materials deliberately avoid anything that is current and may, all too soon, become dated and unbelievable. Reference to 10-year-old films, pictures of people in dated fashions and so on all serve to make some published materials seem irrelevant and unbelievable.
Reference to current cultural phenomena, current people in the news (or in the class) and current events can, on the other hand, make materials engaging, relevant and lively.

Personalisation and focus
Materials writers and publishers are very careful to avoid writing materials which are culturally specific. Often, this limits them to the bland and banal. You have no such limitations.
You can make materials specific to your learners in your setting which focus on their needs. If, for example, you teach in a mono-lingual setting, you can make materials which focus on problems your learners have caused by their first language or their cultures. You can, of course, also make materials which focus very precisely on what you have done recently in your lessons and the targets you have set. (An added spin-off here is that your learners will see that that you have taken time and trouble to prepare.)

So what are the disadvantages?

Think for a moment and then click here for a few.

Presentation
Publishers use professional designers to make their materials accessible, colourful and attractive. Few teachers have the skills (or the time) to do that.
Material which is illegible, littered with error or plain boring can be demotivating and off putting.

Time
Most teachers are busy people.
If you have a heavy teaching load, it may simply not be possible to spare the time it takes to make focused, appealing materials for your lessons. There are other demands on your time, such as marking or planning, which you may well think take priority. And you may well be right.
Bear in mind, however, that taking the time to make good materials may not be wasted because if they are good, they can be used again and again.

Precision
Despite some evidence to the contrary, materials writers are professionals with great experience in writing materials which precisely target certain aspects of language and language skills. That requires time and skill. Many teachers, especially at the beginning of their careers, simply have not acquired the skills.
However attractive and interesting the material is, if it doesn't focus on the targets, it's worse than useless.

Types of materials

If you have come this far, you are intent on making your own materials so here are some guidelines concerning the types of material you can make and how to make them.

Text-based material

These are the simplest to make but there are still some important considerations.

Fonts and text sizes
Large text in silly fonts can appear patronising for adults (although children respond well sometimes).
Compare these, for example:
Images
Graphics appeal and are memorable but should reflect the content of the text in some way (even metaphorically) so choose with care. See the choices made on this page, for example.
Providing you are only using a picture for non-commercial purposes with your class, there are no serious copyright issues.
Current estimates are that there are 350 billion images out here on the web (and the number is rising fast). You should be able to find something appropriate.
Test and exercises
These sorts of materials can be very finely tuned and targeted at exactly what the content of the lesson is. However, they don't have to be dull and untidy. Compare these:

Notice:
1. The first text is handwritten and difficult, especially given the level and especially for people whose first language does not have a Roman script (i.e., most people).
2. The gaps in the first text do not give a clue about what should go in them and are too small for people to write in terms like opposite or in front of.
3. The second text has a little illustration to provide the instruction and allows the learners to decide whether or not a preposition is appropriate (the first text invites an error with fill __).
4. The second text also suggests how long and of how many words the inserts should be and that helps a lot.
Purposes
Think very carefully about what you are going to use the text for.
- If you intend to project it, can it be read from the back of the room?
- If you are going to ask the learners to read it individually, is it the right length for the time you've allowed?
- If you want people to read for a purpose, have you provided / will you elicit one?

Audio and video material

Audio and video materials are now quite simple to record and take little time. They can be carefully targeted and are often more intriguing and interesting if they contain recognisable voices and images.
However, you need to consider issues here, too:

Quality
Recording in a noisy environment or on rinky-dink equipment may result in the unusable. It may sound OK when you play it to yourself but you are going to be using it in a classroom and may need extra volume for a large room. The louder it is, the more the flaws are audible.
For video, in particular, if you plan to project a home-made video, try it on the big screen to check for quality.
Naturalness
Many people either freeze or become unnatural and sound false when a microphone and/or camera is put in front of them. Choose the colleagues with whom you want to make a recording carefully and have a couple of practice run-throughs to set them at ease. When you record, think about these questions and if the answer to any is No, start again:
1. Are the speakers using natural contractions?
2. Is the intonation too flat or exaggerated?
3. Is the word stress clear (and accurate)?
4. Are both speakers equally audible?
5. Is the language natural, correct and appropriate?
Purposes and time
Are you taking an hour to prepare the first 5 minutes of the presentation? If you are, there has to be a better way.

Electronic material

There are a number of on-line quiz and test-building programs which are free to use (and many more that cost money). Some allow the creation of lots of quiz types and some allow you to use a range of languages.
Some also allow you to create surveys and other types of questionnaires.
They come in two types: those which are purely online and require you to be connected when writing the material and those which provide software for you to run on your own computer.
Any search engine will locate a range.
Electronic quizzes and tests have advantages and disadvantages. Click here when you have thought of some.

Advantages	Drawbacks
Quick to write	Hard to use in class
Automatically formatted	Difficult to customise
Easy to save and re-use	Don't give learners a written record
Good for individual work	Cumbersome to use in groups or pairs
Ideal for homework / revision	Bad for controlled classroom practice
Can be quickly and simply edited	Seem less personal and relevant

Striking a balance

Don't make your own materials just because you can.
It is often quicker, easier and more effective to use commercially produced materials straight from the shelf or adapt them slightly to suit your purposes.
The disadvantages mentioned above are real and you need to make some professional decisions.

Reference:
Block, D, 1991, Some thoughts on DIY materials design, English Language Teaching Journal, 45/3, Oxford: Oxford University Press