What is Instructional materials?
Instruction is nothing but the process of effecting learning. The various materials used during the process are called instructional materials. This also serves as the definition of Instructional materials.
Importance of instructional material
Humans beings learn by using the five senses - hearing, sight, touch, taste and smell. In teaching language, we make use of the first two mostly, and sometimes the third one too. The use we make of the first two has led to the term audio (hearing) and visual (sight). Instructional materials are thus termed audio-visual aids and they can be helpful to the language arts teacher in a number of ways.
i. They cam brighten up the classroom and brimg more variety and interest in to language lessons.
ii. They can help to provide the situations which light up the meaning of the utterances used.
iii. Children can be helped to speak the language as well as to read and write it.
iv. The teacher can be helped to improve his own grasp of the language being taught, while his lessons become periods of joy for him.
If instructional materials are that valuable in teaching, then it's necessary to find out the various types that exist and how they are used. Instructional materials that are relevant to language teaching and there uses is the main focus of this article.
There are various ways of classifying them. For instance, we can go by the senses and say those are related to hearing (audio) and those that are related to sight (vision). It's also possible to classify them from the angle of use. Here we can identify those used for the teaching of speaking; reading; writing and listening. We would have adopted this second approach, but for the fact that we would be repeating some of the materials while discussing each of the skills. The approach to be used therefore, is the presentation of each instructional materials. The various uses of the material will be discussed in relation to the relevant language skills.
Examples of Instructional Materials
1. The Textbook It's interesting to point out that many people hardly think of the textbook as an instructional material. The teacher needs a good language textbook which will help him teach effectively and logically, the students too need it for their own specific guidance and motivation. Most language texbooks, especially English, are written in series, with at least one basic text for each class. Good language textbooks are often written to cover government prescribed syllabus. This is one thing the text book selector must ensure, note how appropriate are the passages, the approaches, the vocabulary level and syntax of the texbook? These should be the questions which you have to ask yourself as a the teacher selecting or recommending the texbook. So too it goes with other texbooks be it Maths, Science etc.
2. The Blackboard/Writing board The Writing board or Blackboard is another instructional material, which many people take for granted. A classroom hardly takes the name "classroom" without a blackbord, chalkboard or whiteboard wbtever the size of the board and irrespective of whether it's a felt pen used on it. In teaching the board takes a pride of place, because it serves as a contact point between the teacher and his students, sentences, expressions, words, sketches are written or drawn on it for illustrations and information.
3. Pictures There are different types and sizes of pictures. There are simple ones, as well as complex ones, some come out as black and white pictures, while others are coloured. As far as size is concerned, some are small, while some are very large and are regarded as wall pictures. Generally, pictures are used to briog real life situations to the class. They arouse the interests of the students and ease the job of the teacher. Pictures can be usef for vocabulary development, pattern practice, oral drills . Simple pictures are however more valuable than highly complex ones, which may be too difficult for the pupils to understand and appriciate.
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