Portafolio de Sistemas y Contextos Portafolio sistemas y contextos | Page 47

SISTEMAS Y CONTEXTOS EDUCATIVOS xlvii
market as they do, they cannot by definition draw on local varieties of English and
have not gone very far in recognising English as an international language, either.”
(Altan, 2015).
For many teachers, designing or adapting their own teaching materials, enables them
to take into account their particular learning environment and to overcome the lack
of ‘fit’ of the coursebook (Howard, 2014).
Resources available
Some teaching contexts will be rich in resources such as coursebooks, supplementary
texts, readers, computers, audio-visual equipment and consumables such as paper,
pens and so on. Other contexts may be extremely impoverished, with little more than
an old blackboard and a few pieces of chalk. A lack of commercial materials forces
teachers to fall back on their own resources and designing their own teaching
materials can enable them to make best use of the resources available in their teaching
context. A further aspect that is not often mentioned in the literature is the cost of
commercially produced resources. For many schools, teacher-produced materials can
be the best option in terms of both school and student budget (Howard, 2014).
Timeliness
Teachers designing their own materials can respond to local and international events
with up-to-date, relevant and high interest topics and tasks. The teachable moment
can be more readily seized.
In conclusion, the advantages of teacher-designed
materials can be summed up in the idea that they avoid the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach
of most commercial materials (Block, 2015).
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