Teaching materials: adopting and adapting

Not Appealing to Learning Styles: The 
activities may not appeal to students of a 
certain class who may have different ways 
of learning. In such a case, some of the 

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วารสารวิชาการ สถาบันเทคโนโลยีแห่งสุวรรณภูมิ 
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learners are easily grasped, while some 
will be missed obviously. Teachers have 
to notice and assist the students in need. 
Too Long / Too Short: Lesson sessions 
are time-controlled. This obliges the 
teachers to manage the time of the in-
class activities. Teachers can add extra 
reading, exercises or activities to suit the 
remaining time. Teachers can lengthen to 
give it as additional dimension. For 
example, a vocabulary activity is extended 
to draw attention to some syntactic 
patterning. On the other hand, teachers 
can omit some parts to make an activity 
shorter depending on timing.
Not Balanced Skills: The balance of 
skills may be deficient in quality or there 
may be too much emphasis on one 
specific language skill area. Teachers who 
see the overview of the course book may 
think the balance of language skills is not 
satisfactory, they can add any other 
required skills depending on the goals of 
the course. Vocabulary activities, for 
instance, may be added if the learners 
lack vocabulary comprehension. Listening 
and speaking skills in a reading lesson can 
be added to create opportunities for the 
students to speak and listen. Texts can be 
modified into a play to practice four skills 
on the one hand; and to add more variety 
to classroom teaching on the other.
Inappropriate Methods: The exercises 
may be too mechanical filled with drills. It 
may be short of meaningful activities or 
may be too complicated. Teachers can 
start the lesson with warm-up activities, by 
introducing students the information 
background, aims and objectives of the 
lesson. Audio-visual aids, realia (pictures, 
the globe, and a calendar) can be utilized 
to help students' understanding. Teachers 
can also delete unnecessary language 
exercises or detailed grammar explanation 
in the lesson.