THE INSTRUCTIONAL USE OF CULTURALLY RELEVANT AND HIGHLY VISUAL MATERIAL OF FIFTH GRADE ENGLISH FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDENTS IN A COLOMBIAN PUBLIC SCHOOL

There are many reasons why English language teachers may choose to construct their own teaching materials, despite the availability of commercially produced materials. This paper presents some of these reasons by examining advantages of teacher produced materials. It also suggests factors that teachers should take into account when designing materials for diverse learners and present a set of guidelines for designing effective materials for teaching and learning English. Effective strategies used to overcome interaction and motivation difficulties among students in the classroom are of crucial importance for second language (L2) learners. Therefore, L2 learners might benefit from instruction on how to use culturally relevant and highly visual materials in the classroom to cope such difficulties. In Colombia, much research has been conducted on use of materials in an English foreign language classroom, the means used to overcome strategies and learning styles of the students. Due to differing theoretical perspectives, researchers have disagreed about the question of whether such strategy training is beneficial. However, few studies have specifically considered cultural and visual material strategies from a pedagogical point of view. In this paper, we will first briefly present the importance of using culturally relevant and highly visual materials with EFL students, some conceptualizations, and samples of studies about cultural material. Then, we will discuss the advantages of the application and design of the material done by the facilitators to contextualize the topics, arguing in favor of it. This will be reinforced by descriptions of research projects that analyzed the use and impact of culturally relevant material in foreign classrooms. Findings suggest that culturally relevant material will provide learners the opportunity to apply their background knowledge in all four language skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening). This thesis provides evidence in favor of the success of designing, using and developing culturally relevant material for the Colombian English classroom. Finally, suggestions for materials and pedagogical implications will be discussed.