McDonough and Shaw (1993) state that course planning, syllabus design, the
appropriateness of methods as well as the selection of materials and resources, will
be affected by the following factors: the role of English in the country, the role of
English in schools, teachers, management and administration, available resources,
support personnel, number of pupils, available time, physical environment, socio-
cultural environment, types of tests used as well as procedures for monitoring and
evaluating the program itself. Arias (1994) included materials as one of the factors in
the dynamics of teachers’ professional development, since materials may exert some
influence on the teachers’ work with colleagues. She invites teacher educators to
consider materials to be a powerful variable that may affect learning and teaching,
since they are particular to the different settings.
Although the literature reviewed stresses the importance of materials, there is no
evidence of studies carried out in Colombia that critically review how EFL teacher
education programs address training on materials use in the curricula. This paper
intends to provide a description of a particular teacher education program to enable
teacher educators to reflect critically on the training given to undergraduates in our
local and national contexts.
As a logical consequence of these principles, teacher educators must study more
closely how they can help future teachers in using materials in the EFL classroom.
The particularity principle is important in our materials training as teacher educators
need to provide student teachers with alternatives to their particular contexts, since
they may be EFL teachers in rural settings, underprivileged neighborhoods in urban
areas or private schools with various types of teaching materials. In the search for
practicality, teacher educators need to help students find a situated, eclectic,
personal approach to using materials in their teaching. This may allow them to
reflect on their experience and write about new ways to teach with and without
materials or to look for alternative ways to use traditional materials. The possibility
principle may have an application in the awareness training possibility of changing
the paradigm of EFL teachers from mere materials consumers in ESL settings to
teachers capable of creating effective teaching conditions regardless of the
availability of certain teaching materials.
EFL Teachers see materials as a very important component in effective teaching.
They tend to associate effective teaching with the availability of different kinds of
materials, mainly technical.
Student teachers require longer and deeper training in the use of technical and non-
technical materials. They must be acquainted with different possibilities to make
adequate choices in their classroom settings.
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