Juan Antonio Cejuela: Norwich Institute for Language Education (Norwich- United Kingdom)

https://www.nile-elt.com/

The two weeks’ course I attended to in Norwich (England) started on the 6^th of July, 2015 and lasted to the 17^th of July, 2015. It was a very positive and profitable experience. I could get and share very interesting and innovative methodologies and learnt to create, adapt and assess different kinds of materials for language teaching.

This module has enabled me to make my own contribution to the field of materials development by developing my critical awareness of language acquisition and pedagogy at a theoretical and practical level and the criteria for evaluation and adaptation of language learning materials. I could investigate different aspects of materials development and work both independently and in a team to produce a variety of language learning materials, justifying their principles, objectives and procedures.

This course has covered the following aspects:

• Second language acquisition
• Language teaching pedagogy
• Needs analysis
• Materials evaluation
• Materials adaptation
• Materials editing
• Materials design
• Materials writing

This course has extended my understanding and critical awareness of:

• The theories of language acquisition and language pedagogy which are potentially applicable to materials development
• How to develop and apply principled criteria for the evaluation and adaptation of language learning materials
• The different aspects of materials development (e.g. text selection and exploitation; the writing of instructions; the use of illustrations; the design and layout of a unit etc)
• How to work both independently and in a team to produce a variety of different types of effective language learning materials
• How to justify the principles, objectives and procedures of materials which we produce
• How to make my own contribution to the field of materials development