TESLC Chapter 4

APLNG 412 Xuan

 Contents
 Text Selection

 Materials Development

 Task Construction
 A big prerequisite for succe
ss
 A clear idea of “the make up of the le
arner population, student needs, and in
stitutional goals” (127)
 Specifically, their backgrounds, prior
educational experiences, language profi
ciency
 Text Selection
 One/ several/no textbooks at all? (the
quantity)

 Comprehensive/rhetoric/reader/reference
guide/or combination? (quality)

 How to balance between quantity and qua

lity?
 Materials Development
 “there is no such a thing as a perfect
textbook” (Brown, 1995, p.166)
 On page 137, there are a list of variou
s kinds of possible supporting material
s for composition class. What are your
personal preferences?
 Do you have any successful or frustrati
ng experiences concerning materials dev
elopment?
 Task Construction
 Tasks using models: pros and cons, innovati
on
 Prewriting tasks :unstructured(free writing
, brainstorming, listing) and structured (l
oop writing, clustering, cubing)
 Planning and Drafting (informal/formal outl
ine, zero drafting,
 Formal writing tasks (topic and scope, a ra
nge of rhetorical patterns, several prompts
or only one?)
 My Research…
 English 202C (technical writing)
 Two ESL students: both are seniors in engineering, males, Hon
g Kong and Vietnam
 Research question: With academic writing and technical writin
g, which is harder for ESL students to acquire?
 Data: drafts from these two ESL students, questionnaires, the
comments from the instructor
 Academic literature:
Teaching English for science and technology through techni
cal writing(1981), CATESOL Occasional Papers 7:42-59·    
Research in English for Specific Purposes (2005). In Hinke
l, E. (Ed.). Handbook of research in second language teaching
and learning (pp. 99-116). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.