Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Material Development
Material Development
MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
Hasan BİLOKCUOĞLU
2001 : 66)
Teaching materials are one of the most crucial components in most language
programs since
They generally serve as the basis for much of the lang. input learners
receive
Guide learners towards the language they need for their particular
context
Authentic materials are reading texts that were written by native speakers and
published in contexts designed specifically for native-speaker consumption,
with no thought given to non-native accessibility. The topics, language, syntax,
structure, etc., are all pitched at a target audience of native speakers and
offered through media intended primarily for native speakers; thus, they are
mainly much more suitable for the highly advanced students only.
Authentic materials may contain culturally inappropriate content
Authentic reading texts are usually quite long, which usually leads
to demotivation.
They should correspond to learners’ needs. They should match the aims and
objectives of the lang. program.
They should reflect the uses (present or future) that learners will make of the
language. Textbooks should be chosen that will help equip students to use
lang.effectively for their own purposes.
They should take account of students’ needs as learners and should facilitate
thier learning processes, without dogmatically imposing a rigid ‘method’
Furthermore, Dudly-Evans & St. John (1998) suggest that the following
questions should be asked when selecting ESP materials:
To what extent does the material match the stated learning objectives
and your learning objectives?
Modifiying content
Content may need to be changed because it may not suit the
target learners, perhaps because of factors related to the
learners’ age, gender, social class, occupation, religion, or
cultural background
Reorganasing Content
Addressing Omissions
Modifiying Tasks
Extending Tasks
In cases where institutionally developed materials are being considered for a lang. program, both the adv.
and the dis adv. of setting up a materials development project need to be carefully considered at the outset.
ADVANTAGES : Advantages of building a materials development component into a
program include:
Relevence: Materials can be produced that are directly relevant to students’ and instutional
needs.
Develop Expertise: Developing materials can help develop expertise among staff, giving them a
greater understanding of the characteristics of effective materials.
Reputation: Institutionally developed materials may enhance the reputation of the institution by
demonstrating its commitment to providing materials developed particularly for its students.
Flexibility: Materials produced within the institution can be revised or adapted as needed, giving
them a greater flexibility than a commercial coursebook.
Quality: Teacher made materials will not normally have the same
standard of design and production as commerical materials, hence
may not present the same image as commerical materials.
A textbook is only as good as the teacher, and a textbook is just one tool, perhaps a very important tool, in
your teaching arsenal. Sometimes, teachers over rely on textbooks and do not consider other aids or other
materials for the classroom. Some teachers reject a textbook approach to learning because the textbook is
outdated or insufficiently covers a topic or subject area.
As a teacher, you'll need to make many decisions, and one of those is how you want to use the textbook. As
good as they may appear on the surface, textbooks do have some limitations.
When thinking about how you want to use your textbooks, consider the following:
Use the textbook as a resource for students, but not the only resource.
2’20’’