CHAPTER 3
ADAPTING
Obviously, in view of the great variety both of original textbooks and of student objectives, adaptation is and will remain an art.
We cannot here offer a mechanical procedure for accomplishing it. Nevertheless, on the basis of the principles outlined earlier in this chapter, we may venture to suggest an overall strategy:
- Predict what the students will need and respond to in each of the three dimensions: linguistic, social and topical.
- Make an inventory of the material at hand, in the same three dimensions.
- Compare the results of the first two steps, in order to form a clear picture of what you need to add or subtract.
- Draw up a list of ways in which the students may use the material. This is the most delicate step in adaptation because the list should be as heterogeneous as possible, yet stated in terms of actual behavior that the students are to engage in. It is also the most important step, however, because it opens up such valuable sources of motive power.
- Supply whatever is necessary (dialogs, drills, Cummings devices, etc.) in order to bring the students from mastery of the existing materials to the uses which you have listed in Step 4. Po1itzer (1971) has pointed out that changes may be in rate of progress, or in the means employed, or in the goals themselves. Adaptation of rate may take the form of added materials to make more gradual the transition from one part of the existing
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