MATERIALS

DEVELOPMENT
PRELIM
 MATERIALS
DEVELOPMENT
WEEK 1
 MATERIALS AND MATERIALS
DEVELOPMENT

MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
• As a field
• As an undertaking
 MATERIALS AND MATERIALS
DEVELOPMENT
MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
AS A FIELD
– principles and procedures of the design
– implementation and evaluation of
language teaching materials.
 MATERIALS AND MATERIALS
DEVELOPMENT
MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
AS AN UNDERTAKING
– production, evaluation, adaptation of
language teaching materials by:
 teachers
 materials writer
 MATERIALS AND MATERIALS
DEVELOPMENT

MATERIALS
– anything which can be used to
facilitate the learning of a language.
(Tomlinson, 2001)
 MATERIALS
Print
 Linguistic Live performance or
 Visual display
Casette
 Auditory CD-ROM
 Kinesthetic DVD
Internet
 MATERIALS
provide experience of the
 Instructional language in use
inform learners about the
 Experiential language
 Elicitative stimulate language use
help learners make
 Exploratory discoveries about the
language
 CURRENT TRENDS AND ISSUES IN
MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

POSITIVE TRENDS
 materials requiring investment to make
discoveries
 materials making use of corpus data
 fewer linguistic constraints and more
provocative content
 CURRENT TRENDS AND ISSUES IN
MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

POSITIVE TRENDS
 learners relate topics and texts to their
own lives, views and feelings
 affective engagement of learners by
involving them in tasks
 CURRENT TRENDS AND ISSUES IN
MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
POSITIVE TRENDS
 increasing use of the internet as a source of
current
 movement away from spoken practice of
written grammar and towards experience of
spoken grammar in use
 CURRENT TRENDS AND ISSUES IN
MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

POSITIVE TRENDS
 increase in the number of ministries and
institutions which have decided to
produce their own locally relevant
materials
 CURRENT TRENDS AND ISSUES IN
MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

NEGATIVE TRENDS
 return to the ‘central place of grammar in
the language curriculum’
 greater prominence given in coursebooks
to listening and speaking than to reading
and writing
 CURRENT TRENDS AND ISSUES IN
MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

NEGATIVE TRENDS
 assumption that most learners have short
attention spans
 assumption that learners do not want and
would not gain from intellectually
demanding activities
 CURRENT TRENDS AND ISSUES IN
MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

NEGATIVE TRENDS
 neglect (or sometimes an abuse) of
literature in coursebooks
 continuing predominance of analytical
activities
 CURRENT TRENDS AND ISSUES IN
MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

NEGATIVE TRENDS
 an ‘absence of controversial issues to
stimulate thought
 a tendency to underestimate learners
linguistically, intellectually and
emotionally
 CURRENT TRENDS AND ISSUES IN
MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

NEGATIVE TRENDS
 most coursebooks still focus on English
as used by native speakers
 WHO SHOULD DEVELOP
MATERIALS?
PROFESSIONAL MATERIALS
WRITERS
–usually experienced and competent
–write books that are systematic, well-
designed, teacher-friendly, thorough
–often lack imagination
 WHO SHOULD DEVELOP
MATERIALS?

 Dudley Evans and St John (1998) state

that ‘only a small proportion of good
teachers are also good designers of
course materials’.
THANK
YOU!