About the use of homegrown materials

Projects using the teacher’s own photo materials


Preparing our own materials as support for ‘task based teaching’, creativity exercises and not only brings some important benefits in the teaching-learning process. These materials can be done by one teacher alone or can be done in collaboration with colleagues or even students In my opinion some of the advantages of using ‘homegrown’ materials are:

We will be able to design and prepare visual support according to the level of English of our students, their specific interests, age our objectives, which can’t be done easily sometimes by ready to use materials and sometimes this kind of materials can’t be found easily or may be quite expensive.
-We can make ‘ do it yourself’ photo albums on specific topics that we are interested in or have knowledge about too, in this way we can play a participative role in the .learning process
-Students will be more motivated recognizing the high level of interest shown by the teacher, and will feel that he or she has an obligation for making greater effort in learning.- in the same way as patients who sense the vocational feeling and interest of a doctor feel more obliged to take medication correctly and come to check ups regularly.
-We can change and improve them continuously according to the students’ or colleagues’ opinions, suggestions.

The possibilities for preparing our materials for ‘ humanistic teaching’ are immense in an age when a scanner, or a computer is easily available in many parts of our world . I myself prepared and use scanned materials about the art, painting, sculpture, architecture of the XVIIIth century to the *** century. If a teacher with vocational goals sees the face of a teenager or even an older student looking at good quality impressive pictures of Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia, the fascinating Palacio Real in Madrid, the Dome in Milan or the people on the terrace on Renoir’s Le Moulin de la Gallette will realize suddenly how important the aspect of getting students involved in the learning process, making them feel that knowing a foreign language can help developing them as a ‘human being’ is. This of course means, I have to admit that requires a strong belief in our capabilities of performing ‘ humanistic teaching’- or simply efficient teaching (?).

The Thoughts of a Private Teacher
Copyright Peter Szabo, 2003