Designing and providing inclusive ELT materials in times of the global pandemic: a Chilean experience

ABSTRACT

Purpose

The provision of inclusive learning materials has been a longstanding issue in FL education. During the 2020 pandemic, school closures have posed additional challenges to educators seeking to engage learners and provide egalitarian access to learning opportunities.

Approach

This case study documents a collaborative materials design process when the COVID-19 pandemic forced Chilean schools into remote lessons for a whole school year. The collaboration was based on a small professional learning network consisting of two pre-service teachers and two teacher educators. Two questions were posed:

1. What learning and circumstantial needs had to be considered for materials design and for the process of making the materials accessible to a diverse group of Year-9 EFL learners?

2. What were the benefits and challenges for this networked learning system when searching for solutions?

Findings: The combination of different access modes to materials, including paper-based worksheets and social networking, and the provision of internet access to facilitate video conferences, helped to overcome some but not all of the limitations caused by the lack of political commitment to offer solutions at a macro level. Based on a framework that combined principles of Differentiated Instruction, Universal Design for Learning, multimodality and bilingual support, the team developed materials at an appropriate level for most students. However, difficulties regarding differentiation between different learner levels persisted.

Value

This study sheds light on the affordances and challenges of a collaborative materials design process in which educators join perspectives to provide materials for greater educational justice in FL classrooms.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher materials design
• inclusion
• differentiation
• networked learning systems
• COVID-19

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (PMI UCV1897).

Notes on contributors

Katharina Glas

Katharina Glas studied Foreign Language Pedagogy in Germany, Spain and England and holds a PhD in English Language Pedagogy from Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena in Germany. Settling in Chile in 2005, she is now Associate Professor of English Language Pedagogy at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. Her research interests include teacher education and autonomy, as well as the intersection between materials design, (inter)cultural contents for ELT, and learner motivation.

Erica Catalán

Erica Catalán holds a degree in English Language Pedagogy from Universidad de Playa Ancha and a Diploma in Mentoring from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile. She has taught English at various secondary schools across Chile and has been involved with teacher education as a school-based mentor teacher for five years. Her research interests include cultural contents and project-based learning.

Marcel Donner

Marcel Donner holds a degree in English Language Pedagogy from Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso (PUCV), Chile. He is currently an assistant at the English as a Foreign Language Programme at PUCV. His research interests include multimodal materials design and reading comprehension.

Carla Donoso

Carla Donoso holds a degree in English Language Pedagogy from Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Chile. She currently teaches English at Colegio Virtual de Chile in the same country. Her research interests include material design and the effects of technology on EFL classrooms.