Tailor-made Materials in Teacher Education: Bridging the Gap Between Bilingual Practices and Public Schools

Workshop Presentation
Patricia De Oliveira Lucas,  Camila Höfling  

Teaching materials are very much needed and used to teach foreign languages around the world and although its importance is undeniable in teacher education, the majority of programs that prepare future teachers does not have one subject that is entirely dedicated to the area of materials development. So, the impact of this lack of knowledge, regarding both theoretical and practical sides may contribute to diminish the empowerment of teachers in making decisions. For this workshop, in the first part, we intend to invite the audience to briefly discuss some concepts related to teaching materials, along with some patterns that are necessary to follow when we are developing our own units. In the second part, participants will analyze some samples of activities that were developed by pre-service foreign language teachers and in the last part, attendees will have the chance of developing a sample of activity, based on a specific skill. The intention with this workshop is to show that when pre-service teachers have access to the theory related to materials development and educational technologies, in addition to the opportunity of developing activities, they can be more aware of the process of adapting materials that sometimes may not be suitable for their target audience. Some concepts regarding bilingual practices will also take place, as the incorporation of teachers’ first language to the materials, may enhance multilingual practices which are welcome in the teaching and learning foreign languages.