ELT365 · Day 268 — Adapting Published Materials
Idea
Coursebook materials are a starting point, not a contract. Adding, cutting, replacing, or reordering activities to fit your class is the professional norm.
Example
A reading text written for British teenagers may need a new context question before it engages adult learners elsewhere.
Try
Take one coursebook exercise. Change the context or names while keeping the target language the same. Time yourself — aim for under five minutes.
From my training materials
I often start with published coursebook texts but quickly adapt them to fit my specific group. In my TP1 lesson, the source text involved two families, the Celiks and the Cavens. To make the content more relevant and engaging for my adult learners, I added a side-note comparing British and American English vocabulary. I highlighted that ‘courgette’ and ‘zucchini’ refer to the same vegetable. This small addition transformed a standard reading exercise into a useful discussion point about language variation.
Adaptation also means knowing what to cut. For my TP3 listening task on gap years, I did not use the full, complex text. Instead, I created a minimal slide deck containing only the character names and two focused gist questions. One question asked, “Who is STUDYING BIOLOGY?” This allowed me to control the difficulty and keep the focus on the target language. By deciding which elements to keep, remove, or replace, I ensured the material served my lesson’s goals rather than just following the original textbook layout.
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