Ways of Making Your Language

Learning Materials More

Effective for Your Learners
Brian Tomlinson
In this session I’m going to focus on three principles of language
acquisition which are typically neglected in many coursebooks. These
principles are:
• rich, meaningful and recycled exposure to language in use;
• potential for affective and cognitive engagement;
• opportunities to use the language for purposeful communication.
My analyses and evaluations of coursebooks for Tomlinson (2016, 2018) and
Tomlinson & Masuhara (2013, 2018, in press) reveal that many coursebooks:
• restrict the learners to intensive reading of or listening to short, simple
texts often contrived to illustrate a ‘new’ teaching point;
• feature such closed and shallow activities as true/false questions, matching,
filling in the blanks, word substitution, sentence completion and closed
comprehension questions (Tomlinson, 2018);
• restrict the learners to practice of just-taught language points or to
production activities which manipulate them to use just-taught language
points.
None of the activities listed on the previous slide satisfy my three
selected criteria.

In most cases we have no choice but to use coursebooks which feature

these activities. We can’t completely rewrite these books but we can:

• make small changes which increase their potential to

facilitate language acquisition.
Let me give you some examples of small effective changes we can
make.

You’ll find more examples in Tomlinson (2015, 2018) and in Tomlinson

& Masuhara (2018, in press).
 Performing the Coursebook
A performance of the coursebook consists of:
a human enactment of the words on the page.
It’s:
• live;
• in the classroom;
• sometimes augmented by props, visuals and sound
effects.
Perfoming the coursebook can augment, enrich and
energise the coursebook.

It can also achieve the exposure, engagement and

opportunities for communication advocated in my
three principles.
Here’s an example of a teacher performance.

It’s an example of a performance of a Lead-In Text in

which I tell a ‘personal’ story about a computer help
shop before the students turn to 5.1 ‘The advantages
and disadvantages of modern technology’ in Speak Out
Intermediate (Clare & Wilson, 2012).
Here’s another example of a teacher performance.
It’s a dramatic performance of the text on p. 45 of
global intermediate (Clandfield & Benne, 2012).
Gauld, T. (2005). Guardians of the Kingdom. (3rd edition). Cabanon Press.
Reading
1 Do you enjoy reading comics and graphic novels? Are graphic novels
for adults popular in your country?
2 Read the extract from Guardians of the Kingdom and answer the
questions.
1 What are the men’s jobs?
2 Are they friends or enemies?
3 What is the problem?
3 Read the text again and find these words and expressions:
1 a positive adjective
2 a negative adjective
3 a question to check understanding
4 an expression of surprise
5 a criticism
Here’s an example of a teacher Character Impersonation.

 Time to Listen (Adapted from McCullagh & Wright, 2008)

1 Please get into groups of three.
2 One of you is a doctor, one is a patient and one is an observer.
3 If you’re the patient you’re going to tell the doctor what’s wrong with you.
 4 If you’re the observer, time how long it takes before the doctor interrupts the patient.
 
5 Listen to what happened when a doctor decided not to interrupt a patient
(The teacher introduces Dr Barr who summarises what he says in A time to listen (Barr,
2004), focusing on the affective issues and omitting the medical terminology.)
6 Dr Barr invites the students to, “Read the text ‘Time to Listen’ and as you read it try think
of a way of allowing patients enough time to talk about their problem without creating
long queues of patients waiting to see the doctor.”

7 Dr Barr tells the students, “I’m organising a meeting to listen to ideas for increasing
patient/doctor time without creating long queues of patients. You’re invited to give a
presentation at this meeting.”

8 Prepare a presentation for this meeting. You can do this individually, in pairs or in a small
group.

9 Give your presentation to the meeting. 

Here’s an example of learner performance.
Brief Encounter in the Shoe Shop
The students perform dialogues from their coursebook in character,
with half the class performing A and half performing B.
For example, before performing the following dialogue the students are
told that the new salesman in the shoe shop has recently got divorced
from the regular customer. Neither expects to meet the other in a shoe
shop.
Salesman: Good morning madam.
Customer: Good morning.
Salesman: What can I do for you today?
Customer: I’d like a pair of red shoes.
Salesman: Certainly madam. What size do you take?
Customer: Size 3.
Salesman: What about these?
Customer: I’d like something a bit smarter.
Salesman: For a special occasion?
Customer: That’s right.
Salesman: What about these?
Customer: Yes, that’s better. I’ll try them on.
Salesman: Shall I help you madam?
Customer: No, I can manage by myself thank you.
Salesman : How are those?
Customer: They’re fine thank you. I’ll take them.
Salesman: That’ll be £180.
Customer: That’s fine. Charge them to my account.
(The customer starts to walk out of the shop with the shoes.)
Salesman: Wait a minute madam. What’s your name?
Customer: Mrs Thompson.
Salesman: Thank you madam. Hope to see you again soon.
An interesting extra activity is for the students to add inner speech
utterances to the dialogue, as in the following examples:
Good morning madam. (Oh no. It’s you.)
Good morning. (What the hell are you doing here?)
When they have added the inner speech utterances the students
perform their dialogues.
Here’s an example of an Interactive Performance.
This is what I did with the Korean folk tale on p. 28 of global
Intermediate (Clandfield & Benne, 2011).

1 Half the class are told to act as Hungbu and the other half as Nolbu.
2 Teacher reads the story whilst the students act their character.
3 Instead of the True/False exercise in the coursebook the teacher
interrogates the brothers about their characteristics and behaviour.
 Adding Readiness Activities

A Readiness Activity activates the learners’ minds in relation to the

topic or theme of the text they are going to experience.
Example 1
Localising a coursebook text in Nigeria on the making of igloos.
Example 2
Before getting students to do 7A in 5.1 ‘The advantages and
disadvantages of modern technology’ in Speak Out Intermediate (Clare
& Wilson, 2012) add:
‘See a picture in your mind of you using technology. Is the technology
working well? Are you happy with it?’
‘Tell a partner about the experience with technology which you saw
pictures of in your mind.’
 Extension Activities
An Extension Activity is something learners do after a unit to increase
their experience of the topic or theme and to increase their
opportunities for exposure to rich input and for purposeful
communication.
After doing 5.1 ‘The advantages and disadvantages of modern
technology’ in Speak Out Intermediate (Clare & Wilson, 2012) the
students are given pages 20-21 of The New Review Section of the
Observer newspaper of 30/08/15. This is a write up of an interview with
Kentaro Toyama, once an enthusiastic supporter of the digital revolution
but now the writer of a book warning against our reliance on technology.
After reading the text the learners write a follow up article for the
Observer in which they express their responses to Toyama’s views.

In a group the learners read each others’ article, choose one to

represent the group and then work together to improve it.

Each group reads the group articles, decides which one should be sent
to the Observer and then prepares a brief justification which they will
present when asked to give their decision.
 Personalisation
We could make small changes which personalise activities.
For example we could turn the grammar exercises on p. 55 of global
intermediate (Clandfield &Robb Benne, 2011) into a personalised
creative activity.
The grammar section gives examples of modals of permission and
necessity in relation to robots and then gives the following instruction:
1 Read sentences 1-8. Match the words in bold with a meaning
a-d.
1 A robot may create another robot.
2 A robot has to know that it is a robot.
I’d tell a joke about robots, do the exercise above and then add the
following activity:
1 Write the beginning of a short story in which you’ve bought a robot
and taken it home. In the extract from your story show the robot your
home and talk to it about its duties.
2 Swop stories with other students in the class.
3 If you are interested in robots and in stories read Ian Mc Ewan’s new
novel Machines Like Me.
 Making Creative Changes
1 The students find ways in which wrong answers could become right.
e.g. (1a on p. 49 of English Unlimited Pre-Intermediate (Tilbury et al., 2010))
‘a In pairs, decide on the rules for a library. Complete the sentences with: can,
can’t, have to or don’t have to.’
‘6 You __________ keep quiet in the library.’

It changes to:
‘Use the words I give you to complete each of the sentences.’
e.g. ‘6 You __________ keep quiet in the library ………………………………………...’
Use ‘can’t’ and ‘because’.
2 Opening Up Closed Activities
In The Big Picture Intermediate (Goldstein, 2012) on p. 41 in 4a the learners are
asked to:
Complete the sentences with already, always, ever, never and yet.
1 I’ve ……………. seen snow.’
This could be opened up as:
‘Complete the following sentences about yourself:
I’ve already …………………………………. but …………………………………………………….
I’ve always …………………………………… but …………………………………………………….
I’ve never …………………………………….. but …………………………………………………….
3 Challenging Creativity
e.g. The students:
i) draw their interpretation of a text rather answering questions about it;
ii) interview characters from a text;
iii) relocate and rewrite a text;
iv) continue a text;
v) add an extra think question for other learners to answer;
vi) read only the comprehension questions and then write a text to
answer them.
 Task

Come up with an idea for teacher, learner or interactive

performance for the extract from global intermediate
(Clandfield & Benne, 2012, p. 107) on the following
slide.
 ROOM 101
‘You asked me once,’ said O’Brien, ‘what was in Room 101. I told you that you
knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is
the worst thing in the world.’
The door opened again. A guard came in, carrying something made of wire, a
box or basket of some kind. He set it down on the further table. Because of the
position in which O’Brien was standing, Winston could not see what the thing
was.
‘The worst thing in the world,’ said O’Brien, ‘varies from individual to
individual …………. In your case,’ said O’Brien, ‘the worst thing in the world
happens to be rats.’
 References
• Tomlinson, B. (2015). Challenging teachers to use their coursebooks more
creatively. In Maley, A. & Peachey, N. (Eds.), Creativity in the English classroom.
London: British Council.
• Tomlinson, B. (2016). Achieving a match between SLA theory and materials
development. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), SLA research and materials development for
language learning (pp. 3-22). New York: Routledge.
• Tomlinson, B. (2018). Making typical coursebook activities more beneficial for the
learner. In D. Bao (Ed.), Creativity and innovations in ELT materials development:
Looking beyond the current design (pp. 21-34). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
• Tomlinson, B. (2020). Is materials development progressing? Language Teaching
Research Quarterly, 15, 1-20.
• Tomlinson, B. & Masuhara, H. (2013). Adult coursebooks. ELT Journal
67/2, 233-249.

• Tomlinson, B. & Masuhara, H. (2018). Chapter 4 – Materials adaptation.

In B. Tomlinson & H. Masuhara. The complete guide to the theory and
practice of materials development for language learning. (pp. 82-116).
Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.

• Tomlinson, B. & Masuhara, H. (in press). SLA applied: Connecting theory

and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
The MATSDA/Universiti Sains Malaysia Conference

Developing L2 Materials to Promote Creativity and Criticality

August 9th and 10th, 2021
Plenary Speakers
Rod Ellis Alan Maley Hitomi Masuhara
Jayakaran Mukundan Brian Tomlinson
Venue: Eastern and Oriental Hotel, Penang, Malaysia
Fees and Registration Details TBA
To offer a paper for a forty minute presentation or for a poster presentation
please send a 150-200 word proposal to Brian Tomlinson at
brianjohntomlinson@gmail.com
For information about MATSDA (the international Materials
Development Association) go to: www.matsda.org