Principles and

Procedures of Materials
Development for
Language Learning
By Brian Tomlinson
Presented in class by Gillian
Mae G. Villaflor
 In Module 1, you learned about
MATERIALS

• Anything which is used by teachers and learners to facilitate the learning of a

language (Tomlinson 2011, p2)

• The defining characteristic of materials is that the materials designer builds in a

pedagogic purpose. (Timmis, forthcoming.)

• “any systematic description of the techniques and exercises to be used in

classroom teaching” (Brown, 2007)
 HIGHLIGHTS
OF MODULE 1

MATERIALS MATERIAL
CLASSIFICATI DEVELOPME DEVELOPE
ONS NT RS
• According to Purpose
• According to Form
• According to Design
• According to Creator
In Module 1 Lesson 2, you learned about

English language teaching methods, strategies, and

approaches and identified sample language learning materials used;
Principles and Procedures of Materials
Development for Language Learning
Introduction Positive and
01 Negative Trends
02 in Materials
Proposals for Development
Principled
Approaches to the 03
Development of
ELT Materials
 01
POSITIVE
TRENDS IN
MATERIALS
DEVELOPMENT
● There are some materials requiring investment by
the learners in order for them to make discoveries
for themselves from analysis of samples of
language in use (e.g. McCarthy et al., 2006;
Bradfield and Letharby, 2011; Clare and Wilson,
2011). Unfortunately though most of the current
coursebooks inviting discovery just ask the
learners to find predetermined answers rather than
to make unexpected discoveries of their own.
 There are more materials making use of corpus data reflecting actual
language use (e.g. McCarthy et al., 2006). However, as Timmis (2013)
points out, there are still many coursebooks which deliberately do not
make any use of corpora at all (e.g. Dellar and Walkley, 2005).
● There are more extensive reader series
being produced with fewer linguistic
constraints and more provocative
content (e.g. Maley, 2008; Maley and
Prowse, 2013) but, as Maley and Prowse
(2013) point out, there has also been a
disturbing trend for publishers to add
comprehension questions to their
extensive readers, thus ironically
promoting intensive reading.
 There has been a very noticeable and welcome increase in attempts to
personalize the learning process by getting learners to relate topics and
texts to their own lives, views and feelings (e.g. Clanfield and Benn, 2010;
Bradfield and Letharby, 2011; Clare and Wilson, 2011).
● There is an increase in attempts to gain
the affective engagement of learners
(Tomlinson, 2010, 2011) by involving
them in tasks which encourage the
expression of feelings but there has also
been a decline in the number of texts
likely to stimulate affective engagement
(see Tomlinson and Masuhara, 2013).
 There is an increasing use of the internet as a source of current, relevant and
appealing texts. For information about and examples of this trend see Kervin and
Derewianka, 2011; Motteram, 2011; Levy, 2012; Reinders, 2012; McDonough,
Shaw and Masuhara, 2013; Tomlinson and Whittaker, 2013; and Chapters 4
(Tomlinson), 9 (Kiddle) and 10 (Mishan) in this book.
There is evidence of a movement
away from spoken practice of
written grammar and towards
experience of spoken grammar in
use (e.g. Dellar and Walkley, 2005;
McCarthy et al., 2006).
 There is a considerable increase in the number of ministries (e.g. in Belarus,
Bulgaria, Columbia; Ethiopia, India, Iran, Morocco, Namibia, Romania, Russia and
Uzbekistan) and institutions (e.g. Bilkent University in Ankara; the University of
Hue; Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat) which have decided to produce their own
locally relevant materials (see Busaidi and Tindle, 2010; Tomlinson, 2012b).
02
NEGATIVE
TRENDS IN
MATERIALS
DEVELOPMENT
There is an even more pronounced return to the
‘central place of grammar in the language
curriculum’ (Soars and Soars, 1996), which
contradicts what my own confidential research
for a British publisher revealed about the needs
and wants of learners and teachers and which
goes against many of the findings of second
language acquisition research (Ellis, 2010;
Tomlinson, 2010, 2011, 2013; Tomlinson and
Masuhara, 2013).
 There is still a far greater prominence given in coursebooks to listening
and speaking than to reading and writing (Tomlinson et al., 2001; Masuhara
et al., 2008).
There is an assumption that most
learners have short attention spans,
can only cope with very short
reading and writing texts and will
only engage in activities for a short
time.
There seems to be an assumption that learners do not want and
would not gain from intellectually demanding activities while
engaged in language learning.
There is a neglect (or sometimes an abuse)
of literature in coursebooks, despite its
potential as a source of stimulating and
engaging texts and despite the many claims
of methodologists for the potential value
and appeal of literature (e.g. Chapters 2
(Saraceni), 4 (Tomlinson), 6 (Tomlinson)
and 8 (Maley)) in this volume.
There is a continuing predominance of analytical activities and a neglect of
activities which could cater for learners with other preferred learning styles
(Masuhara et al., 2008; Tomlinson and Masuhara, 2013).
There is still an ‘absence of controversial
issues to stimulate thought, to provide
opportunities for exchanges of views, and
to make topic content meaningful’
(Tomlinson et al., 2001) and there is a
resultant trivialization of content (see, for
example, Tomlinson and Masuhara, 2013;
Chapters 2 (Saraceni) and 18 (Masuhara))
in this volume.
There is a tendency to underestimate learners
linguistically, intellectually
and emotionally.
Despite the increase in publications
reflecting the predominant use of
International English as a lingua franca
most coursebooks still focus on
English as used by native speakers and
prepare the learners for interaction with
them (see Tomlinson and Masuhara, 2013).
 Here are the main
principles of language
acquisition which
Tomlinson follows when
developing materials,
and some of the
principles for materials
development which he
derives from them.
 Principle of Language Acquisition 1

A pre-requisite for language acquisition is

that the learners are exposed to a rich,
meaningful and comprehensible input of
language in use.
Principles of Materials Development

1 Make sure that the materials contain a lot of spoken and

written texts which provide extensive experience of language
being used in order to achieve outcomes in a variety of text
types and genres in relation to topics, themes, events, locations
etc likely to be meaningful to the target learners.

2 Make sure that the language the learners are exposed to is

authentic in the sense that it represents how the language is
typically used.

3 Make sure that the language input is contextualized.

4 Make sure that the learners are exposed to sufficient samples

of language in authentic use to provide natural re-cycling of
language items and features which might be useful for the
learners to acquire.
 Principle of Language Acquisition 2

In order for the learners to maximise their

exposure to language in use they need to be
engaged both affectively and cognitively in
the language experience
Principles of Materials Development

1 Prioritise the potential for engagement by, for

example, basing a unit on a text or a task which is
likely to achieve affective and cognitive
engagement rather than on a teaching point selected
from a syllabus.

2 Make use of activities which get the learners to

think about what they are reading or listening to and
to respond to it personally.

3 Make use of activities which get learners to think

and feel before during and after using the target
language for communication.
 Principle of Language Acquisition 3

Language learners who achieve positive

affect are much more likely to achieve
communicative competence than those who
do not
Principles of Materials Development

1 Make sure the texts and tasks are as interesting,

relevant and enjoyable as possible so as to exert a
positive influence on the learners’ attitudes to the
language and to the process of learning it.

2 Set achievable challenges which help to raise the

learners’ self-esteem when success is accomplished.

3 Stimulate emotive responses through the use of music,

song, literature, art etc, through making use of
controversial and provocative texts, through
personalisation and through inviting learners to
articulate their feelings about a text before asking them
to analyse it.
 Principle of Language Acquisition 4

L2 language learners can benefit from using

those mental resources which they typically
utilise when acquiring and using their L1.
Principles of Materials Development

1 Make use of activities which get learners to

visualise and/or use inner speech before during
and after experiencing a written or spoken text.

2 Make use of activities which get learners to

visualise and/or use inner speech before during
and after using language themselves.

3 Make use of activities which help the learners to

reflect on their mental activity during a task and
then to try to make more use of mental strategies
in a similar task.
 Principle of Language Acquisition 5

Language learners can benefit from noticing

salient features of the input.
Principles of Materials Development

1 Use an experiential approach in which the learners are first of

all provided with an experience which engages them
holistically. From this experience they learn implicitly without
focusing conscious attention on any particular features of the
experience. Later they re-visit and reflect on the experience and
pay conscious attention to features of it in order to achieve
explicit learning.

2 Rather than drawing the learners’ attention to a particular

feature of a text and then providing explicit information about
its use it is much more powerful to help the learners (preferably
in collaboration) to make discoveries for themselves.
 Principle of Language Acquisition 6

Learners need opportunities to use language

to try to achieve communicative purposes.
Principles of Materials Development

1 Provide many opportunities for the learners to produce language

in order to achieve intended outcomes.

2 Make sure that these output activities are designed so that the
learners are using language rather than just practising specified
features of it.

3 Design output activities so that they help learners to develop

their ability to communicate fluently, accurately, appropriately and
effectively.

4 Make sure that the output activities are fully contextualised in

that the learners are responding to an authentic stimulus (e.g. a
text, a need, a viewpoint, an event), that they have specific
addressees and that they have a clear intended outcome in mind.

5 Try to ensure that opportunities for feedback are built into output
activities and are provided for the learners afterwards.
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WORTH A
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