EL 118 MIDTERMS

LECTURE/SECOND SEMESTER ENGLISH 3-1

EL 118 LANGUAGE LEARNING MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

Richards (2001, p. 251) observes that
OUTLINE “instructional materials generally serve as the
● Defining materials and materials basis of much of the language input that learners
development receive and the language practice that occurs in
● Current trends and issues in materials the classroom”.
development
● Who should develop the materials - most language teachers use coursebooks and
● Principles of second language that no coursebook can meet the needs and wants
acquisition (SLA) relevant to the of every (or even any) class (Tomlinson, 2010).
development of materials “Every teacher is a materials developer” (English
● Principles and Procedures of Language Centre, 1997) who is constantly
Materials Development evaluating the available materials, adapting them,
replacing them, supplementing them and finding
effective ways to implement the materials chosen
DEFINING MATERIALS AND MATERIALS for classroom use.
DEVELOPMENT
Materials development must therefore be central to any
1.1. What is Materials Development? course designed to train, educate or develop new or
practicing teachers and it must be accorded significance
Materials development is a practical undertaking by the applied linguists and teacher trainers who run such
involving the production, evaluation, adaptation and courses and/or publish articles, chapters and books for
exploitation of materials intended to facilitate language use on them. In addition to the obvious pragmatic
acquisition and development. It is also a field of function of preparing teachers for the realities of
academic study investigating the principles and classroom teaching materials development can also be
procedures of the design, writing, implementation, extremely useful as a “way of helping teachers to
evaluation and analysis of learning materials. understand and apply theories of language learning – and
to achieve personal and professional development”
Ideally materials development practitioners and materials (Tomlinson, 2001, p. 67).
development researchers interact and inform each other
through conferences, publications and shared endeavors. 1.2. What are Materials?
In the past materials development practitioners were
either teachers with little awareness of applied linguistics The term ‘materials’ in the context of language learning,
or applied linguists with little awareness of teaching and is commonly associated with textbooks or course books.
learning. Nowadays there are many materials This encompasses of various teaching/learning aid such
development experts who have considerable experience CD-Roms, DVD, handouts, charts, websites.
and expertise as teachers, as materials development
practitioners and as materials development researchers Brown (1995) defined materials as any systematic
and there have been a number of conferences recently in description of the techniques and exercises to be used in
which materials development principles and procedures classroom teaching.
have been both discussed in theory and demonstrated in
action. In the same vein, Tomlinson (2012) described materials
as “anything which can be used to facilitate the learning
WHY IS MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT of a language, including coursebooks, videos, graded
IMPORTANT? readers, flash cards, games, websites and mobile phone
interactions”. And, according to him, materials can be:
- most language classrooms throughout the world
most lessons are still based on materials. - informative (informing the learner about the
target language);
 - instructional (guiding the learner in practicing ● support for less experienced teachers who have
the language); yet to gain in confidence in the language
- experiential (providing the learner with classroom.
experience of the language in use);
- eliciting (encouraging the learner to use the Functions of (Instructional) Materials
language) and;
- exploratory (helping the learner to make Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) suggest that for
discoveries about the language)” teachers of ESP courses, materials serve the following
functions:
Commercially produced materials mostly focus on
informing learners about language features & guiding ● As a source of language
them to practice those features – basically serves as ● As a learning support
language input. ● For motivation and stimulation
● For reference
Created to help the teachers and learners providing
explicit teaching and practice of the target language. 1.5. Cite examples of language learning materials
used in the classroom?
Ideally materials should be developed for learning rather
than for teaching and they should perform all the ● Lesson Plans
functions specified above. ● Textbooks
● Story Books
1.3. What are the Forms of Materials? ● Grammar Charts and Posters
● Pictures
1. Print Materials work through printed forms of ● Flashcards
publications. It includes books, magazines, newspapers, ● Manipulatives
brochures, flyers, posters, maps, charts, and photographs. ● Model Clay
● Workbooks
2. Non-print materials work through an electronic ● Handouts
medium. It includes audio recordings, video recordings, ● Dictionary
realia, and multimedia presentations.
Cite examples of language learning materials used in
3. Self-access and the Internet describe different ways the digital classroom?
to access information. It includes Duolingo, Memrise,
Podcasts, and Audiobooks. ● Videos
● Podcasts or Audiobooks
1.4. (What are) the Role of Materials according to ● Online language games
Cunningsworth (1995), and Dudley-Evans and St. ● Virtual Reality (VR)Simulations
Jonn (1998)? ● Language learning apps
● Video conferencing tools
Role of (Instructional) Materials ● Online collaboration tools
● Online textbooks or modules
Cunningsworth (1995) summarizes the role of materials
(particularly course books) in language teaching as a:
CURRENT TRENDS AND ISSUES IN
MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
● resource for presentation materials
● source of activities for learner practice and
communicative interaction 1. The value of textbooks
● reference source for learners on grammar,
vocabulary, pronunciation, etc. For years there has been debate about whether or not the
● source of stimulation and ideas for classroom textbook is the best medium for delivering
activities language-learning materials. The debate started in the
● syllabus (where they reflect learning objectives eighties with Allwright (1981) putting forward arguments
which have already been determined) against ways in which textbooks deliver materials and
O’Neil (1982) mounting a rigorous defense. Since then
there have been numerous contributors to the debate.
Regardless of the views of experts who criticize the use It has been argued that explicit teaching of language
of textbooks, most language teachers seem to continue to through contrived examples and texts helps the learners
use them. by focusing their processing energies on the target
feature, and this is what most coursebooks typically do.
For Tomlinson, teachers need textbooks to save time and However, many SLA researchers argue that this
money and many teachers want a coursebook which overprotects learners and does not prepare them for the
provides everything they need in one source. reality of language use outside the classroom. Some
researchers argue that authentic materials can provide
- localized textbooks and more global textbooks meaningful exposure to language as it is actually used,
which are designed to be flexible and to offer motivate learners and help them develop a range of
teachers and students opportunities for communicative competencies and enhance positive
localization, personalization and choice. attitudes towards the learning of a language.
- publishers could produce web-based global
‘coursebooks’ which offer opportunities for For Tomlinson, an authentic text is one which is
choice, modification and replacement and which produced in order to communicate rather than to teach,
facilitate ‘an ongoing process where materials and an authentic task is one which involves the learners
are refined and even changed throughout the life in communication in order to achieve an outcome, rather
of a product. than practice the language. The text does not have to be
produced by a native speaker and it might be a version of
2. The need for published materials an original which has been simplified to facilitate
communication. The task does not have to be a real-life
Over the years many institutions and teachers have task, but can be a classroom task which involves the use
replaced published materials with homemade materials in of real-life skills in order to. Given these definitions, I
order to achieve greater relevance and engagement. think that every text that learners encounter should be
authentic and that most tasks should be authentic too –
e.g. the development and piloting of discipline-specific otherwise the learners are not being prepared for the
vocabulary materials on a CDROM software program reality of language use.

3. Pedagogic approaches 5. Humanizing materials

Over the last forty years, there have been many changes A number of recent publications have stressed the need
in the methodologies coursebooks claim to be using, but for the humanization of language learning materials.
very little change in the pedagogy they actually use. The Most of these publications refer to learning theories and
blurbs on the back are constantly changing. In the sixties stress the need to help learners to personalize, localize
and early seventies, they stressed they were teaching the and make meaningful their experience of the target
language directly, without the use of translation or language, as well as the need for materials to be
explanation: in the seventies they boasted that they were affectively engaging and cater for all learning style
following a communicative approach which featured preferences.
either the learning of functions or notions, or both.
Tomlinson (2003d) agrees with Berman (1999:2), who
The reality, though, is that for the last forty years most says, ‘We learn best when we see things as part of a
coursebooks have been and are still using PPP recognized pattern, when our imaginations are aroused,
approaches, with a focus on discrete forms and frequent when we make natural associations between one idea and
use of such low-level practice activities as listen and another, and when the information appeals to our senses’.
repeat, dialogue repetition, matching and filling in the Tomlinson goes on to advocate a humanistic coursebook
blanks. which engages affect through personalized activities and
which provides imaging, inner voice, kinesthetic and
The most popular approach at the moment seems to be process activities.
task-based, in which the learners are set tasks with
non-linguistic outcomes (e.g. arrangements for a trip, an
WHO SHOULD DEVELOP THE MATERIALS
agenda for a meeting, the solution to a problem).

4. Authenticity of texts and tasks

 and comfortable students apparently can learn more in
shorter periods of time. (Dulay, Burt and Krashen 1982)

Although it is known that pressure can stimulate some

types of language learners, He thinks that most
researchers would agree that most language learners
benefit from feeling at ease and that they lose
opportunities for language learning when they feel
Why Teachers? anxious, uncomfortable or tense (see, for example,
Oxford 1999).
Teachers are the one who should make their own
materials because it allows for the content to be relevant, Some materials developers argue that it is the
innovative, and personalized. They have ownership over responsibility of the teacher to help the learners to
what they teach and can adjust the pace of learning. Plus, feel at ease and that the materials themselves can do very
it can be a cost-effective solution for schools. little to help. He disagrees.

● Materials can help learners to feel at ease in a

PRINCIPLES OF SECOND LANGUAGE
number of ways. For example, he thinks that
ACQUISITION (SLA) RELEVANT TO THE
most learners:
DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIALS
- feel more comfortable with written materials
4.1. What are the principles and theories of language with lots of white space than they do with
teaching and learning relevant to materials materials in which lots of different activities are
development? crammed together on the same page;
- are more at ease with texts and illustrations that
Second language acquisition report can provide they can relate to their own culture than they are
guidelines for developing classroom materials. with those which appear to them to be culturally
There are some principles: alien;
- are more relaxed with materials which are
● Materials should achieve impact obviously trying to help them to learn than they
are with materials which are always testing them
Impact is achieved when materials have a noticeable
effect on learners, that is when the learners’ curiosity, ● Materials should help learners to develop
interest and attention are attracted. If this is achieved, confidence
there is a better chance that some of the language in the
materials will be taken in for processing. Relaxed and self-confident learners learn faster (Dulay,
Burt and Krashen 1982).
Materials can achieve through:
Most materials developers recognize the need to help
learners to develop confidence, but many of them attempt
to do so through a process of amplification. They try to
help the learners to feel successful by asking them to use
simple language to accomplish easy tasks such as
completing substitution tables, writing simple sentences
and filling in the blanks in dialogues.

This approach is welcomed by many teachers and

learners. But to Tomlinson’s experience, it often only
succeeds in diminishing the learners.
● Materials should help learners to feel at ease
They become aware that the process is being simplified
Research has shown... the effects of various forms of
for them and that what they are doing bears little
anxiety on acquisition: the less anxious the learner, the
resemblance to actual language use.
better language acquisition proceeds. Similarly, relaxed
They also become aware that they are not really using students wanting to learn English were so they would be
their brains and that their apparent success is an illusion. able to write love letters in English and so that they
And this awareness can even lead to a reduction in would be able to write letters of complaint for villagers to
confidence. the village headman and from the village headman to
local authorities.
I(he) prefer to attempt to build confidence through
activities which try to ‘push’ learners slightly beyond Perception of relevance and utility can also be achieved
their existing proficiency by engaging them in tasks by relating teaching points to interesting and challenging
which are stimulating, which are problematic, but which classroom tasks and by presenting them in ways which
are achievable too. could facilitate the achievement of the task outcomes
desired by the learners. The ‘new’ learning points are not
It can also help if the activities encourage learners to use relevant and useful because they will help the learners to
and to develop their existing extralinguistic skills, such achieve long-term academic or career objectives, but
as those which involve being imaginative, being creative because they could help the learners to achieve
or being analytical. Elementary-level learners can often short-term task objectives now. Of course, this only
gain greater confidence from making up a story, writing a works if the tasks are begun first and the teaching is then
short poem or making grammatical discovery than they provided in response to discovered needs. This is much
can from getting right a simple drill. more difficult for the materials writer than the
conventional approach of teaching a predetermined point
The value of engaging the learners’ minds and utilizing first and then getting the learners to practice and then
their existing skills seems to be becoming increasingly produce it.
realized in countries that have decided to produce their
own materials through textbook projects rather than to But it can be much more valuable in creating relevance
rely on global coursebooks, which seem to underestimate and utility for the teaching point; and it can be achieved
the abilities of their learners. by, for example, referring learners to ‘help pages’ before
and/or after doing subtasks or by getting learners to make
● What is being taught should be perceived by decisions about strategies they will use in a task and then
learners as relevant and useful referring them to ‘help pages”. So, for example, learners
could be asked to choose from (or add to) a list of project
Most teachers recognize the need to make the learners tasks and then to decide on strategies for achieving their
aware of the potential relevance and utility of the project targets. Those learners who decide to research
language and skills they are teaching. And researchers local documents could be referred to a section in the
have confirmed the importance of this need. For book which provides advice on scanning, whereas those
example, Stevick (1976) cites experiments which have learners who decide to use questionnaires could be
shown the positive effect on learning and recall of items referred to a section which deals with writing questions.
that are of personal significance to the learner. And Obviously providing the learners with a choice of topic
Krashe (1982) and Wenden (1987) report research and task is important if you are trying to achieve
showing the importance of apparent relevance and utility perception of relevance and utility in a general English
in language acquisition. textbook.

In ESP (English for specific purposes) materials it is ● Materials should require and facilitate learner
relatively easy to convince the learners that the teaching self-investment
points are relevant and useful by relating them to known
learner interests and to ‘real-life’ tasks, which the Many researchers have written about the value of
learners need or might need to perform in the target learning activities that require the learners to make
language. discoveries for themselves. For example, Rutherford and
Sharwood-Smith (1988) assert that the role of the
In general English materials, this is obviously more classroom and of teaching materials is to aid the learner
difficult; but it can be achieved by narrowing the target to make efficient use of the resources in order to facilitate
readership and/or by researching what the target learners self-discovery. Similar views are expressed by Bolitho
are interested in and what they really want to learn the and Tomlinson (1995); Bolitho et al. (2003), Tomlinson
language for. An interesting example of such research (1994a, 2007) and Wright and Bolitho (1993). It would
was a questionnaire in Namibia which revealed that two seem that learners’ profit most if they invest interest,
of the most important reasons for secondary school effort and attention in the learning activity. Materials can
help them to achieve this by providing them with choices each learner will only learn from the new input what he
of focus and activity, by giving them topic control and or she is ready to learn
by engaging them in learner-centered discovery
activities. Again, this is not as easy as assuming that what Readiness can be achieved by materials which create
is taught should be learned, but it is possible and situations requiring the use of variational features not
extremely useful for textbooks to facilitate learner previously taught, by materials which ensure that the
self-investment. learners have gained sufficient mastery over the
developmental features of the previous stage before
On Tomlinson’s experience, one of the most profitable teaching a new one, and by materials which roughly tune
ways of doing this is to get learners interested in a the input so that it contains some features which are
written or spoken text, to get them to respond to it slightly above each learner’s current state of proficiency.
globally and effectively and then to help them to analyze It can also be achieved by materials which get learners to
a particular linguistic feature of it in order to make focus attention on features of the target language which
discoveries for themselves (see Tomlinson (1994a for a they have not yet acquired so that they might be more
specific example of this procedure). attentive to these features in future input.

Other ways of achieving learner investment are involving But perhaps the most important lesson for materials
the learners in mini-projects, involving them in finding developers from readiness research is that we cannot
supplementary materials for particular units in a book expect to select a particular point for teaching and
and giving them responsibility for making decisions assume that all the learners are ready
about which texts to use and how to use them. and willing to learn it. It is important to remember that
the learner is always in charge and that ‘in the final
● Learners must be ready to acquire the points analysis we(teacher) can never completely control what
being taught the learner does, for HE [sic] selects and organizes,
whatever the input’ (Kennedy 1973:76).
Certain structures are acquired only when learners are
mentally ready for them. (Dulay, Burt and ● Materials should expose the learners to
Krashen 1982) language in authentic use

Meisel, Clahsen and Pienemann (1981) have put forward Krashen (1985) makes the strong claim that
the Multidimensional Model in which learners must have comprehensible input in the target language is both
achieved readiness in order to learn developmental feat necessary and sufficient for the acquisition of that
(i.e. those constrained by developing speech-processing language provided that learners are ‘affectively disposed
mechanisms –e.g. word order) but can make themselves to “let in” the input they comprehend’ (Ellis 1994: 273).
ready at any time to learn variational features (i.e. those Few researchers would agree with such a strong claim
which are free –e.g. the copula ‘be’). that exposure to authentic use of the target language is
Pienemann (1985) claims that instruction can facilitate necessary but not sufficient for the acquisition of that
natural language acquisition processes if it coincides with language. It is necessary in that learners need experience
learner readiness, and can lead to increased speed and of how the language is typically used, but it is not
frequency of rule application and to application of rules sufficient because they also need to notice how it is used
in a wider range of linguistic contexts. He also claims and to use it for communicative purposes themselves.
that premature instruction can be harmful because it can
lead to the production of erroneous forms, to substitution Materials can provide exposure to authentic input
by less complex forms and to avoidance. through the advice they give, the instructions for their
activities and the spoken and written texts they include.
Krashen (1985) argues the need for roughly tuned input, They can also stimulate exposure to authentic input
which is comprehensible because it features what the through the activities they suggest (e.g. interviewing the
learners are already familiar with, but which also teacher, doing a project in the local community, listening
contains the potential for acquiring other elements of the to the radio, etc.). In order to facilitate acquisition, the
input which each learner might or might not be ready to input must be comprehensible (i.e. understandable
learn (what Krashen refers to as i + 1 in which i enough to achieve the purpose for responding to it). This
represents what has already been learned and 1 represents means that there is no point in using long extracts from
what is available for learning). According to Krashen, newspapers with beginners, but it does not mean that
beginners cannot be exposed to authentic input. They can
follow instructions intended to elicit physical responses, however, an increased likelihood of eventual acquisition
they can listen to dramatic renditions of stories, they can provided that the learners receive future relevant input.
listen to songs, they can fill in forms.
White (1990) argues that there are some features of the
Ideally materials at all levels should provide frequent L2 which learners need to be focused on because the
exposure to authentic input which is rich and varied. In deceptively apparent similarities with L1 features make it
other words, the input should vary in style, mode, impossible for the learners to otherwise notice certain
medium and purpose and should be rich in features points of mismatch between their interlanguage and the
which are characteristic of authentic discourse in the target language. And Schmidt (1992) puts forward a
target language. And, if the learners want to be able to powerful argument for approaches which help learners to
use the language for general communication, it is note the gap between their use of specific features of
important that they are exposed to planned, semi-planned English and the way these features are used by native
and unplanned discourse (e.g. a formal lecture, an speakers. Inviting learners to compare their use of, say,
informal radio interview and a spontaneous indirect speech with the way it is used in a transcript of a
conversation). The materials should also stimulate native speaker conversation would be one such approach
learner interaction with the input rather than just passive and quite easily be built into coursebook materials.
reception of it. This does not necessarily mean that the
learners should always produce language in response to ● Materials should provide the learners with
the input; but it does mean that they should at least opportunities to use the target language to
always do something mentally or physically in response achieve communicative purposes
to it.
Most researchers seem to agree that the learners should
● The learners’ attention should be drawn to be given opportunities to use language for
linguistic features of the input communication rather than just to practize it in situations
controlled by the teacher and the materials. Using the
There seems to be an agreement amongst many language for communication involves attempts to achieve
researchers that helping learners to pay attention to a purpose in a situation in which the content, strategies
linguistic features of authentic input can help them to and expression of the interaction are determined by the
eventually acquire some of those features. However, it is learners. Such attempts can enable the learners to ‘check’
important to understand that this claim does not represent the effectiveness of their internal hypotheses, especially
a back-togrammar movement. It is different from if the activities stimulate them into ‘pushed output’
previous grammar teaching approaches in a number of (Swain 1985) which is slightly above their current
ways. In the first place the attention paid to the language proficiency. They also help the learners to automatize
can be either conscious or subconscious. For example, their existing procedural knowledge (i.e. their knowledge
the learners might be paying conscious attention to of how the language is used) and to develop strategic
working out the attitude of one of the characters in a competence (Canale and Swain 1980). This is especially
story, but might be paying subconscious attention to the so if the opportunities for use are interactive and
second conditionals which the character uses. Or they encourage negotiation of meaning (Allwright 1984:157).
might be paying conscious attention to the second In addition, communicative interaction can provide
conditionals, having been asked to locate them and to opportunities for picking up language from the new input
make a generalization about their function in the story. generated, as well as opportunities for learner output to
The important thing is that the learners become aware of become and informative source of input
a gap between a particular feature of their interlanguage (Sharwood-Smith 1981). Ideally teaching materials
(i.e. how they currently understand or use it) and the should provide opportunities for such interaction in a
equivalent feature in the target language. Such noticing variety of discourse modes ranging from planned to
of the gap between output and input can act as an unplanned (Ellis 1990:191).
‘acquisition facilitatot’ (Seliger 1979). It does not do so
by immediately changing the learner’s internalized Interaction can be achieved through, for example:
grammar but by alerting the learner to subsequent
instances of the same feature in future input. So, there is ● information or opinion gap activities which
no immediate change in the learners’ proficiency (as require learners to communicate with each other
seems to be aimed at by such grammar teaching and/or the teacher in order to close the gap (e.g.
approaches as the convention finding out what food and drink people would
Presentation-Practice-Production approach). There is, like at the class party);
 with radical new ones is the strategy most likely to
● post-listening and post-reading activities succeed.
which require the learners to use information
from the text to achieve a communicative ● Materials should take into account that
purpose (e.g. deciding what television programs learners differ in learning styles
to watch, discussing who to vote for, writing a
review of a book or film); Different learners have different preferred learning styles.

● creative writing and creative speaking Those learners with a preference for studial learning are
activities such as writing a story or improvising a much more likely to gain from explicit grammar teaching
drama; than those who prefer experiential learning. And those
who prefer experiential learning are more likely to gain
● formal instruction given in the target language from reading a story with a predominant grammatical
either on the language itself or on another feature (e.g. reported speech) than they are from being
subject: taught that feature explicitly. This means that activities
should be variable and should ideally cater for all
We need to recognize the teaching intended as formal learning styles.
instruction also serves as interaction. Formal instruction
does more than teach a specific item: it also exposes An analysis of most current coursebooks will reveal a
learners to features which are not the focus of the lesson tendency to favor learners with a preference for studial
(Ellis 1990). learning and an apparent assumption that all learners are
equally capable of benefiting from this style of learning.
● Materials should take into account that the Likewise, an analysis of the teaching and testing of
positive effects of instruction are usually foreign languages in formal education systems
delayed throughout the world will reveal that studial learners
(who are actually in the minority) are at an advantage.
Research into the acquisition of language shows that it is
a gradual rather than an instantaneous process and that Styles of learning which need to be catered for in
this is equally true for instructed as well as informal language-learning materials include:
acquisition.

Acquisition results from the gradual and dynamic process

of internal generalization rather than from instant
adjustments to the learner’s internal grammar. It follows
that learners cannot be expected to learn a new feature
and be able to use it effectively in the same lesson. They
might be able to rehearse the feature, to retrieve it from
short-term memory or to produce it when prompted by
the teacher or the materials. But this does not mean that
learning has already taken place. I am sure most of you
are familiar with the situation in which learners get a new ● Materials should take into account that
feature correct in the lesson in which it is taught but then learners differ in affective attitudes
get it wrong the following week. This is partly because
they have not yet had enough time, instruction and The learner’s motives, emotions, and attitudes screen
exposure for learning to have taken place. what is presented in the language classroom... This
affective screening is highly individual and results in
The inevitable delayed effect of instruction suggests that different rates and results. (Dulay, Burt and Krashen
no textbook can really succeed if it teaches features of 1982).
the language one at a time and expects the learners to be
able to use them straightaway. But this incremental Ideally language learners should have strong and
approach is popular with many publishers, writers, consistent motivation and they should also have positive
teachers and learners as it can provide a reassuring feelings towards the target language, their teachers, their
illusion of system, simplicity and progress. Therefore, fellow learners and the materials they are using. But, of
adaptation of existing approaches rather than replacement course, ideal learners do not exist and even if they did
exist one day, they would no longer be ideal learners the However, I think most researchers would agree that
next day. Each class of learners using the same materials forcing immediate production in the new language can
will differ from each other in terms of ling- and damage the reluctant speaker affectively and
short-term motivation and of feelings and attitudes about linguistically and many would agree with Dulay, Burt
the language, their teachers, their fellow learners and and Krashen that:
their learning materials, and of attitudes towards the
language, the teacher and the materials. Obviously, no Communication situations in which students are
materials developer can cater for all these affective permitted to remain silent or respond in their first
variables, but it is important for anybody who is writing language may be the most effective approach for the
learning materials to be aware of the inevitable attitudinal early phases of language instruction. This approach
differences of the users of the approximates what language learners of all ages have
materials. been observed to do naturally, and it appears to be more
effective than forcing full two-way communication from
One obvious implication for the materials developer is the very beginning of L2 acquisition. (1982:25-6)
‘to diversify language instruction as much as possible
based upon the variety of cognitive styles’ The important point is that the materials should not force
(Larsen-Freeman and Long 1991) and the variety of premature speaking in the target language and they
affective attitudes likely to be found amongst typical should not force silence either. Ways of giving learners
class of learners. Ways of doing this include: the possibility of not speaking until they are ready
include:
● providing choices of different types of text; ● starting the course with a Total Physical
providing choices of different types of activities; Response (TPR) approach in which the learners
● providing optional extras for the more positive respond physically to oral instructions from a
and motivated learners: providing variety; teacher or CD.
● including units in which the value of learning ● starting with a a listening comprehension
English is a topic for discussion; approach in which the learners listen to stories in
● including units in which the value of learning the target language, which are made accessible
English is a topic for discussion; through the use of sound effects, visual aids and
● including activities which involve the learners in dramatic movement by the teacher;
discussing their attitudes and feelings about the ● permitting the learners to respond to target
course and the materials; language questions by using their first language
● researching and catering for the diverse interests or through drawings and gestures.
of the identified target learners;
● being aware of the cultural sensitivities of the ● Materials should maximize learning potential by
target learners; encouraging intellectual, aesthetic and emotional
● giving general and specific advice in the involvement which stimulates both right- and
teacher’s book on how to respond to negative left-brain activities
learners (e.g. not forcing reluctant individuals to
take part in group work). A narrowly focused series of activities which require
very little cognitive processing (e.g. mechanical drills;
● Materials should permit a silent period at the rule learning; simple transformation activities) usually
beginning of instruction leads to shallow and ephemeral learning unless linked to
other activities which stimulate mental and affective
It has been shown that it can be extremely valuable to processing, However, a varied series of activities making,
delay L2 speaking for beginners of a language until they for example, analytic, creative, evaluative and rehearsal
have gained sufficient confidence in understanding it. demands on processing capacity can lead to deeper and
This silent period can facilitate the development of an more durable learning. In order for this deeper learning to
effective internalized grammar which can help learners to be facilitated, it is very important that the content of
achieve proficiency when they eventually start to speak the materials is not trivial or banal and that it stimulates
in the L2. There is some controversy about the actual thoughts and feelings in the learners. It is also important
value of the silent period and some learners seem to use that the activities are not too simple and that they cannot
the silence to avoid learning the language. be too easily achieved without the learners making use of
their previous experience and their brains.
The maximization of the brain’s learning potential is a Feedback which is focused first on the effectiveness of
fundamental principle of Lozanov’s Suggestopedia, in the outcome rather than just on the accuracy of the output
which he ‘enables the learner to receive the information can lead to output becoming a profitable source of input.
through different cerebral processes and in different Or in other words, if the language that the learner
states of consciousness so that it is stored in many produces is evaluated in relation to the purpose for which
different parts of the brain, maximizing recall’ (Hooper it is used, that language can become a powerful and
Hansen 1992). Suggestopedia does this through engaging informative source of information about language use.
the learners in a variety of left- and right-brain activities Thus, a learner who fails to achieve a particular
in the same lesson (e.g. reciting a dialogue, dancing to communicative purpose (e.g. borrowing something,
instructions, singing a song, doing a substitution drill, instructing someone how to play a game, persuading
writing a story). Whilst not everybody would accept the someone to do something) is more likely to gain from
procedures Suggestopedia, most researchers seem to feedback on the effectiveness of their use of language
agree on the value of maximizing the brain’s capacity than a learner whose language is corrected without
during language learning and the best textbooks already reference to any non-linguistic outcome. It is very
do contain within each unit a variety of different left- and important, therefore, for materials developers to make
right brain activities. sure that language production activities have intended
outcomes other than just practicing language. The value
● Materials should not rely too much on of outcome feedback is focused on by such writers on
controlled practice task-based approaches as Willis and Willis (2007)

It is interesting that there seems to be very little research

PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES OF
which indicates that controlled practice activities are MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
valuable. Sharwood-Smith (1981) does say that ‘it is
clear and uncontroversial to say that most spontaneous
performance is attained by dint of practice’, but he 5.1. What should drive materials development? What
provides no evidence to support this very strong claim. are the principles for materials development?
Also, Bialystok (1988) says that automaticity is achieved
through practice but provides no evidence to support her PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES OF
claim. In the absence of any compelling evidence most MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT FOR LANGUAGE
researchers seem to agree with Ellis, who says that LEARNING
‘controlled practice appears to have little long-term effect
on the accuracy with which new structures are Proposals for Principled Approaches to the
performed’ (Ellis 1990:192) and ‘has little effect on Development of ELT Materials
fluency’ (Ellis and Rathbone 1987).
One of the things which materials writers need to do is to
Yet controlled grammar practice activities still feature develop flexible frameworks to help them produce
significantly in popular coursebooks and are effective materials for target learners in principled and
considered to be useful by many teachers and by many coherent ways. But before such frameworks are
learners. This is especially true of dialogue practice, developed the writers need to decide what principles
which has been popular in many methodologies for the should drive their procedures.
last 30 years without there being any substantial research
evidence to support it (see Tomlinson 1995). In a recent Here are the main principles of language acquisition
analysis of new low-level coursebooks I found that nine which Tomlinson follow when developing materials, and
out of ten of them contained many more opportunities for some of the principles for materials development which
controlled practice than they did for language use. he derives from other writers. As you read them you
might like to evaluate their validity and usefulness and to
It is possible that right now all over the world learners think of other principles of your own.
are wasting their time doing drills and listening to and
repeating dialogues. Principle of Language Acquisition 1

● Materials should provide opportunities for A pre-requisite for language acquisition is that the
outcome feedback learners are exposed to a rich, meaningful and
comprehensible input of language in use.
In order to acquire the ability to use the language at any time and to return to read the texts they have
effectively the learners need a lot of experience of the collected many times
language being used in a variety of different ways for a
variety of purposes. They need to be able to understand Principle of Language Acquisition 2
enough of this input to gain positive access to it and it
needs to be meaningful to them (Krashen 1985). They In order for the learners to maximize their exposure to
also need to experience particular language items and language in use they need to be engaged both affectively
features many times in meaningful and comprehensible and cognitively in the language experience
input in order to eventually acquire them. Each encounter
helps to elaborate and deepen awareness and to facilitate If the learners do not think and feel whilst experiencing
the development of hypotheses needed for eventual the language, they are unlikely to acquire any elements of
acquisition. it (Arnold 1999). Thinking whilst experiencing language
in use helps to achieve the deep processing required for
Principles of Materials Development effective and durable learning and it helps learners to
transfer high level skills such as predicting, connecting,
1 Make sure that the materials contain a lot of spoken interpreting and evaluating to second language use. If the
and written texts which provide extensive experience of learners do not feel any emotion whilst exposed to
language being used in order to achieve outcomes in a language in use, they are unlikely to acquire anything
variety of text types and genres in relation to topics, from their experience. Feeling enjoyment, pleasure and
themes, events, locations etc. likely to be meaningful to happiness, feeling empathy, being amused, being excited
the target learners. and being stimulated are most likely to influence
acquisition positively but feeling annoyance, anger, fear,
2 Make sure that the language the learners are exposed to opposition and sadness is more useful than feeling
is authentic in the sense that it represents how the nothing at all. Ideally though the learner should be
language is typically used. If the language is inauthentic experiencing positive affect in the sense of being
because it has been written or reduced to exemplify a confident, motivated and willingly engaged even when
particular language feature then the learners will not experiencing ‘negative’ emotions. There is a substantial
acquire the ability to use the language typically or literature on the value of affective and cognitive
effectively. engagement whilst engaged in responding to language in
use, with much of it focusing on research into the role of
3 Make sure that the language input is contextualized. emotion in language learning and use or reporting
Language use is determined and interpreted in relation to research on cognitive engagement during language
its context of use. De-contextualized examples do not lessons.
contain enough information about the user, the
addressee(s), the relationships between the interactants, Principles of Materials Development
the setting, the intentions or the outcomes for them to be
of value to the language learner. 1.Prioritise the potential for engagement by, for example,
basing a unit on a text or a task which is likely to achieve
4 Make sure that the learners are exposed to sufficient affective and cognitive engagement rather than on a
samples of language in authentic use to provide natural teaching point selected from a syllabus.
re-cycling of language items and features which might be
useful for the learners to acquire. 2 Make use of activities which get the learners to think
about what they are reading or listening to and to respond
Examples of Materials to it personally.

Tomlinson use what he calls task-free activities to help 3 Make use of activities which get learners to think and
him to apply Principle of Language Acquisition 1. feel before during and after using the target language for
communication.
This involves the teacher at the beginning of every lesson
reading a poem or story, or telling a joke or anecdote. Examples of Materials
There are no questions or tasks after the listening, just
written copies of the text for those students who were Teacher uses a text-driven approach in which the starting
engaged by it to take home, read and file away. The point for developing each unit is a potentially engaging
students are encouraged to ask questions about the texts spoken or written text. He first of all devise readiness
activities which help the learners to activate their minds
prior to experiencing the text, give the learners a holistic In L1 learning and use learners typically make use of
mental imaging (e.g. seeing pictures in their mind), of
focus to think about when experiencing the text and then inner speech, of emotional responses, of connections
invite them to articulate their personal responses to the with their own lives, of evaluations, of predictions, of
text before going on to use it to stimulate their own personal interpretations. In L2 learning and use learners
language production. typically focus narrowly on linguistic decoding and
encoding. Multi-dimensional representation of language
Principle of Language Acquisition 3 experienced and used can enrich the learning process in
ways which promote durable acquisition, the transfer
Language learners who achieve positive affect are much from learning activities to real life use, the development
more likely to achieve communicative competence than of the ability to use the language effectively in a variety
those who do not of situations for a variety of uses and the self-esteem
which derives from performing in the L2 in ways as
Language learners need to be positive about the target complex as they typically do in the L1. See Tomlinson
language, about their learning environment, about their and Avila (2007) for example, for principled suggestions
teachers, about their fellow learners and about their as to how making use of multi-dimensional mental
learning materials (Arnold 1999). They also need to representation can help L2 learners.
achieve positive self-esteem and to feel that they are
achieving something worthwhile. Above all they need to There is a considerable literature on the vital use of the
be emotionally involved in the learning process and to inner voice in L1 and the infrequency of use of the inner
respond by laughing, getting angry, feeling sympathy, voice in the L2. What the literature demonstrates is that
feeling happy, feeling sad etc. Positive emotions seem to in the L1 we use the inner voice to give our own voice to
be the most useful in relation to language acquisition but what we hear and read, to make plans, to make decisions,
it is much better to feel angry than to feel nothing at all. to solve problems, to evaluate, to understand and
‘control’ our environment and to prepare outer voice
Principles of Materials Development utterances before saying or writing them. When talking
to ourselves we use a restricted code which consists of
1 Make sure the texts and tasks are as interesting, short elliptical utterances expressed in simple tenses with
relevant and enjoyable as possible so as to exert a the focus on the comment rather than the topic, on the
positive influence on the learners’ attitudes to the predicate rather than the subject. It is context and context
language and to the process of learning it. dependent, implicit, partial, vague, novel and salient to
ourselves. However, L2 users rarely use an L2 inner
2 Set achievable challenges which help to raise the voice until they reach an advanced level – though there is
learners’ self-esteem when success is accomplished. evidence that the use of an L2 inner voice at lower levels
can enhance L2 performance and can be facilitated by
3 Stimulate emotive responses through the use of music, teachers and materials. For further details of the
song, literature, art etc., through making use of characteristics and roles of the inner voice see de Guerro
controversial and provocative texts, through (2005) and Tomlinson and Avila (2007).
personalization and through inviting learners to articulate
their feelings about a text before asking them to analyze Principles of Materials Development
it.
1 Make use of activities which get learners to visualize
Examples of Material and/or use inner speech before during and
after experiencing a written or spoken text.
Teacher offers the students choices of texts and of tasks
and he consult the students about the topics they would 2 Make use of activities which get learners to visualize
like to read about and discuss. and/or use inner speech before during and
after using language themselves.
Principle of Language Acquisition 4
3 Make use of activities which help the learners to reflect
L2 language learners can benefit from using those mental on their mental activity during a task and then to try to
resources which they typically utilize when acquiring and make more use of mental strategies in a similar task.
using their L1.
Examples of Materials about it. For example, the students read about a student
whose parents gave him a graduation party. They then
Teacher builds into all my materials activities which discussed the reasons why the parents gave him the party
encourage and help the students to visualize, to talk to and the reasons he was reluctant to attend it. Next one
themselves in inner speech and to make connections with half of the class analyzed the father’s use of the
their lives. For example, before asking the students to interrogative and the other half analyzed the son’s use of
read a poem about a boy’s first day at school teacher the imperative. They came together in groups to share
asked the students to visualize their own first day at their discoveries and then they wrote a version of the text
school and then to talk to themselves about how they felt. in which the mother (rather than the father) tried to
persuade the son to attend the party.
Principle of Language Acquisition 5
Principle of Language Acquisition 6
Language learners can benefit from noticing salient
features of the input Learners need opportunities to use language to try to
achieve communicative purposes.
If learners notice for themselves how a particular
language item or feature is used, they are more likely to When using language in this way they are gaining
develop their language awareness (Bolitho et al 2003) feedback on the hypotheses they have developed as a
and they are also more likely to achieve readiness for result of generalizing on the language in their intake and
acquisition. Such noticing is most salient when a learner on their ability to make use of them effectively. If they
has been engaged in a text affectively and cognitively are participating in interaction, they are also being
and then returns to it to investigate its language use. This pushed to clarify and elaborate and they are also likely to
is likely to lead to the learner paying more attention to elicit meaningful and comprehensible input from their
similar uses of that item or feature in subsequent inputs interlocutors.
and to increase its potential for eventual acquisition.
Principles of Materials Development
Principles of Materials Development
1 Provide many opportunities for the learners to produce
1 Use an experiential approach in which the learners are language in order to achieve intended outcomes.
first of all provided with an experience which engages
them holistically. From this experience they learn 2 Make sure that these output activities are designed so
implicitly without focusing conscious attention on any that the learners are using language rather than just
particular features of the experience. Later they re-visit practicing specified features of it.
and reflect on the experience and pay conscious attention
to features of it in order to achieve explicit learning. This 3 Design output activities so that they help learners to
enables the learners to apprehend before they develop their ability to communicate fluently, accurately,
comprehend and to intuit before they explore. And it appropriately and effectively.
means that when they focus narrowly on a specific
feature of the text, they are able to develop their 4 Make sure that the output activities are fully
discoveries in relation to their awareness of the full contextualized in that the learners are responding to an
context of use. authentic stimulus (e.g. a text, a need, a viewpoint, an
event), that they have specific addressees and that they
2 Rather than drawing the learners’ attention to a have a clear intended outcome in mind.
particular feature of a text and then providing explicit
information about its use it is much more powerful to 5 Try to ensure that opportunities for feedback are built
help the learners (preferably in collaboration) to make into output activities and are provided for the learners
discoveries for themselves. afterwards.

Examples of Materials Examples of Materials

Teacher uses a lot of language awareness materials in Teacher develops a lot of material in which the students
which the students experience a potentially engaging have to produce a text which is a development from one
text, respond to it personally and then focus on a they have just experienced. For example, in one unit the
particular feature of the text in order to make discoveries students had to tell a circle story about part two of a story
about strange creatures on a beach which they had acted
out from the teacher’s narration of the story. In another
unit they had to re-locate a story set in Liverpool in their
own city. In another unit they had to design an improved
version of a vehicle in a newspaper advert and then to
write a newspaper advert and perform a tv advert for
their vehicle.

Conclusion

When developing classroom materials, teachers should

also, of course, consider principles of language teaching.

Teaching principle:

The teaching should meet the needs and wants of the

learners.

Materials development principle:

Materials need to be written in such a way that the

teacher can make use of them as a resource and not have
to follow them as a script.

It seems that most classroom materials are written though

for teachers and students to follow. It also seems that
many of them not driven or even informed by principles
of language acquisition and development. Some of them
manage to help learners to acquire language because their
writers have been effective teachers and are intuitively
applying principles of teaching. Most of them would be a
lot more effective if they were driven by the principles of
acquisition I have outlined above.