Busbee, Everette. (2007). Readability, grammar, and vocabulary-profiling of content for a sound production course taught with free courseware. English Teaching, 63(4), 3-29. Content course English should be comprehensible but challenging. Textbooks using such English are rare for lower language levels, so content courses often require teacher-generated materials. A quick Internet search may locate authentic materials that seem simple enough, but an analysis can validate this while assuring materials are challenging enough to offset the content teacher's tendency to rely on language students already know. This paper describes matching the materials and student levels for a sound production course. A student project was broken into tasks, and sections of online files covering those tasks were graded by readability software. Promising material was then run through concordance software to determine the frequency of target forms and highlight repetitive grammar. Finally, vocabulary software provided lists of basic, academic, and off-list words. Each student required a package of software, but commercial wares would have been prohibitively expensive. The solution, which the author has never seen in print, was lesser-known but high-quality freeware. A course syllabus was produced by simply listing software and associated tasks in logical teaching order. Teaching is described and software and materials sources are provided, so an English teacher with computer skills could teach this class without demanding preparation. Principles of course design and software acquisition described here can be applied to other subjects.
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