Module EL-118 - LANGUAGE LEARNING MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

Bachelor of Secondary Education Department
Reaccredited Level IV by the Accrediting Agency of Chartered Colleges and Universities of the
Philippines
BACHELOR OF SECONDARY EDUCATION

LANGUAGE LEARNING MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
EL 118
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EL 118: LANGUAGE LEARNING MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT | TSU
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Republic of the Philippines

TARLAC STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
Undergraduate School
Villa Lucinda Campus, Tarlac City
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LANGUAGE
LEARNING
MATERIALS
DEVELOPMENT ™
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PROFESSOR ELIZABETH P.
BALANQUIT
Associate Professor 5
BSED Department Chair
College of Teacher Education
epbalanquit@tsu.edu.ph
FRINCESS T. FLORES
Lecturer
College of Teacher Education
ftflores@tsu.edu.ph
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COURSE DESCRIPTION
Provides students the opportunities to study and competence
in employing innovative language and literature teaching
approaches, methodologies, and strategies.
This course engages the pre-service English

teachers in the selection, development, production,
and evaluation of variety of language teaching and
learning resources based on the identified K to 12
learning competencies. Through these activities,
they are able to demonstrate content knowledge
on the principles and procedures of language
materials development. Students show
competence in employing innovative strategies on
the design and development of contextualized and
localized instructional materials that provide
opportunities for meaningful, purposeful language
use thereby facilitate language learning and
teaching.
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COURSE OUTLINE
Course Content/Subject Matter

Week 1 A. Orientation on the TSU Vision, Mission and
Core Values; College of Teacher Education Goal
and Objectives;
B. Orientation and discussion about the course
Week 2-3 C. Introduction to Materials Development
Week 4-6 D. Materials Evaluation
Week 7-9 E. Adapting Materials
Week 10 F. Midterm Exam
Week 11-17 G. Developing Specific Types of Materials
Week 18 H. Final Examination
One week (or I. Allotted for the Midterm and the Final Exams
an equivalent
of three hours)
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What can you expect to

find in this module?
TOPICS
Introduction to Materials Development

1. Defining materials and materials development
2. Current trends and issues in materials development
3. Who should develop the materials
4. Principles of second language acquisition (SLA) relevant to the development of
materials
5. Principles and Procedures of Materials Development
Materials Evaluation
1. Definition and principles in materials evaluation
2. Qualities each unit of material should reflect
3. Types of materials evaluation
Adapting Materials
1. Teacher-centered and learner-centered approach to adaptation
2. Key features in materials adaptation
3. Materials and Digital Technology
Developing Specific Types of Materials
1. Materials for the Teaching of Grammar

2. Materials for Teaching Vocabulary
3. Materials for Developing Reading Skills
4. Materials for Developing Writing Skills
5. Developing Materials for Speaking Skills
6. Developing Materials for Listening Skills
7. Materials for Developing Viewing Skill
8. Materials for Cultural Awareness
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COURSE TITLE
LANGUAGE
LEARNING
MATERIALS
DEVELOPMENT
TM
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RATIONALE
EL118 -LANGUAGE LEARNING MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT is

designed to expose students to the approaches, theories, and principles
in evaluating, adapting, and developing language learning materials.
They will apply theoretical premises and approaches to areas of
English – reading, writing, viewing, listening, and speaking.
This course engages the pre-service English teachers in the selection,
development, production, and evaluation of variety of language
teaching and learning resources based on the identified K to 12
learning competencies. Through these activities, they are able to
demonstrate content knowledge on the principles and procedures of
language materials development. Students show competence in
employing innovative strategies on the design and development of
contextualized and localized instructional materials that provide
opportunities for meaningful, purposeful language use thereby
facilitate language learning and teaching.
This course delivered via distance learning will enable students to
complete the academic work in a flexible manner, completely online.
Course materials and access to an online learning management system
will be made available to each student. Online assignments will be
submitted before the start of the next class meeting to provide more
time for the students to make what is due. Developing materials for
the areas of English will be one of the requirements for midterm and
for final term. Quizzes and graded recitations are expected every
meeting. The assigned faculty will serve as the moderator and
facilitator throughout the 18-week course.
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COURSE
OUTCOMES
At the end of the semester, a student completing this course should be

able to:
1. Distinguish materials development and materials;
2. Determine the different examples of language learning materials
used in the classroom;
3. Point out the negative and positive trends of materials
development;
4. Relate the principles and theories of language learning to the
development of appropriate language learning materials;
5. Name some example materials that corresponds to each principle
of SLA;
6. Evaluate language learning materials used in a basic education
classroom using the principles in materials evaluation;
7. Select appropriate materials for the specific competencies/macro
skills;
8. Produce language learning materials specific for the teaching of
grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and
cultural awareness vis-a- vis the K to 12 learning competencies.
“Press forward. Do not stop, do not linger in your

journey, but strive for the mark set before you.” —
George Whitefield
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1 Introduction to Materials Development
Language, Teaching and Learning - 12

Defining materials and materials development -15
Current trends and issues in materials development -18
Who should develop the materials -18
Principles of second language acquisition (SLA) relevant to the
development of materials - 20
Principles and Procedures of Materials Development -31
CONTENTS
2 Materials Evaluation
Definition and principles in materials evaluation -40
Qualities each unit of material should reflect -44
Types of materials evaluation -46
3 Adapting Materials
Teacher-centered and learner-centered approach to adaptation
Key features in materials adaptation
Materials and Digital Technology
4 Developing Specific Types of Materials

Materials for the Teaching of Grammar
Materials for Teaching Vocabulary
Materials for Developing Reading Skills
Materials for Developing Writing Skills
Developing Materials for Speaking Skills
Developing Materials for Listening Skills
Materials for Developing Viewing Skill
Materials for Cultural Awareness
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1
Introduction to Materials
Development
Terms to Remember
Language Procedures Materials

Materials development Principles
Learning Acquisition
Second Language Acquisition
HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW?

Multiple Choice
PRE-TEST
Direction: Read each item and possible answers given below carefully.
Shade one for each number. Avoid superimpositions and erasures.
1. System of symbols and rules that is D

A B C E
used for meaningful communication.
2. Anything which can be used to
facilitate the learning of a A B C D E
language, including coursebooks,
videos, graded readers, flash
cards, games, websites and
mobile phone interactions. A B C D E
3. Propositions that serve as
framework of beliefs or behavior.
4. The conscious process of A B C D E
acquiring knowledge, skills, etc.
5. The unconscious getting of A B C D E
processible language.
A. Materials
B. Language
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Acquisition
D. Principles
E. Learning
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See choices below the statements
Introduction to Materials Development
Distinguish between language, teaching and learning, and materials

development and materials;
Determine the different examples of language learning materials used
in the classroom;
Point out the negative and positive trends of materials development;
Relate the principles and theories of language learning to the
development of appropriate language learning materials.
Key Concepts
Language
The language subjects are tools subjects. Language
proficiency is basic in learning. If a child fails to
acquire these basic language skills, his/her academic
performance suffers. If a child is frustrated with his/her
academic performance, chances are he/she drops out of
school and eventually reverts to illiteracy.
How should we teach language so that the child learns the basic language skills and so
performs satisfactorily? This is what you are supposed to be prepared for in this course.
The Structure of Language

When we teach a language subject, what is it that we are occupied with? We are occupied
wth the teaching of a “symbol systems used in communication”.
What criteria must a system of communication meet in order to be considered a

language? They are as follows:
A language uses symbols

A language is meaningful
A language is generative
A language has rules
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The Building Blocks of Language

1. phonemes – smallest units in a language
2. morphemes – smallest meaningful units in a language
3. syntax – system of rules governing how words are arranged from phrases to
sentences.
Properties of human language

Human language is said to be:
• creative and dynamic
• structured
• meaningful
• referential
• interpersonal
Language Teaching and Language Learning

Material developers might write textbooks, tell stories, bring advertisements into the classroom,
express an opinion, provide samples of language use or read a poem aloud. Whatever they do to
provide input, they do so ideally in principled ways related to what they know about how
languages can be effectively learnt.
Language Teaching
Most people think of teaching as the overt presentation of information by teachers to learners. In
this book the term ‘teaching’ is used to refer to anything done by materials developers or
teachers to facilitate the learning of the language. This could include the teacher standing at the
front of the classroom explaining the conventions of direct speech in English, it could include a
textbook providing samples of language use and guiding learners to make discoveries from them,
it could include the teacher providing the vocabulary a learner needs whilst participating in a
challenging task.
Teaching can be direct (in that it transmits information overtly to the learners) or it can be
indirect (in that it helps learners to discover things for themselves). It can also be pre-emptive (in
that it aims to prevent problems), facilitative (in that it aims to help the learners do something),
responsive (in that it responds to a need for language when it occurs) or remedial in that it aims
to remedy problems.
Language Learning
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Learning is normally considered to be a conscious process which consists of the committing to

memory of information relevant to what is being learnt. Whilst such direct learning of, for
example, spelling rules, conventions of greetings and vocabulary items can be useful to the
language learner, it is arguable that much language learning consists of subconscious
development of generalizations about how the language is used and of both conscious and
subconscious development of skills and strategies which apply these generalizations to acts of
communication.
Language learning can be explicit (i.e. the learners are aware of when and what they are learning)
or it can be implicit (i.e. the learners are not aware of when and what they are learning).
Language learning can also be of declarative knowledge (i.e. knowledge about the language
system) or of procedural knowledge (i.e. knowledge of how language is used). Many scholars
take the position that communicative competence is primarily achieved as a result of implicit,
procedural learning. But they also acknowledge that explicit learning of both declarative and
procedural knowledge is of value in helping learners to pay attention to salient features of
language input and in helping them to participate in planned discourse (i.e. situations such as
giving a presentation or writing a story which allow time for planning and monitoring).
Consequently, many views he main objectives of materials development as the provision of the
meaningful experience of language in use and of opportunities to reflect on this experience.
Take this challenge

Form groups of five members each and focus on three vital questions:
• What should be provided for the learners
• How it should be provided and
• What can be done with it to promote language learning.
Summarize and share your group’s responses to class.
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WHAT ARE MATERIALS?

The term ‘materials’ in the context of language learning, is commonly associated with textbooks
or course books. This encompasses of various teaching/learning aid such CD-Roms, DVD,
handouts, charts, websites.
Brown (1995) defined materials as any systematic description of the techniques and exercises to
be used in classroom teaching.
In the same vein, Tomlinson (2012) described materials as “anything which can be used to
facilitate the learning of a language, including coursebooks, videos, graded readers, flash cards,
games, websites and mobile phone interactions”. And, according to him, materials can be:
- informative (informing the learner about

the target language);
- instructional (guiding the learner in
practicing the language);
- experiential (providing the learner with
experience of the language in use);
- eliciting (encouraging the learner to use
the language) and;
- exploratory (helping the learner to make
discoveries about the language)”
Commercially produced materials mostly focus on informing learners about language features &
guiding them to practice those features – basically serves as language input.
Created to help the teachers and learners providing explicit teaching and practice of the target
language.
Ideally materials should be developed for learning rather than for teaching and they should
perform all the functions specified above.
Role of (Instructional) Materials
Cunningsworth (1995) summarizes the role of materials (particularly course books) in
language teaching as a:
• resource for presentation materials
• source of activities for learner practice and communicative interaction
• reference source for learners on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.
• source of stimulation and ideas for classroom activities
• syllabus (where they reflect learning objectives which have already been determined)
• support for less experienced teachers who have yet to gain in confidence in the language
classroom.
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Functions of (Instructional) Materials

Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) suggest that for teachers of ESP courses, materials
serve the following functions:
• As a source of language
• As a learning support
• For motivation and stimulation
• For reference
WHAT IS MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT?

Materials development is a practical undertaking involving the production, evaluation, adaptation
and exploitation of materials intended to facilitate language acquisition and development. It is
also a field of academic study investigating the principles and procedures of the design, writing,
implementation, evaluation and analysis of learning materials.
Ideally materials development practitioners and materials development researchers interact and
inform each other through conferences, publications and shared endeavors. In the past materials
development practitioners were either teachers with little awareness of applied linguistics or
applied linguists with little awareness of teaching and learning. Nowadays there are many
materials development experts who have considerable experience and expertise as teachers, as
materials development practitioners and as materials development researchers and there have
been a number of conferences recently in which materials development principles and
procedures have been both discussed in theory and demonstrated in action.
WHY IS MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT IMPORTANT?

- most language classrooms throughout the world most lessons are still based on
materials.
Richards (2001, p. 251) observes that “instructional materials generally serve as the basis
of much of the language input that learners receive and the language practice that occurs
in the classroom”.
- most language teachers use coursebooks and that no coursebook can meet the needs and
wants of every (or even any) class (Tomlinson, 2010).
“Every teacher is a materials developer” (English Language Centre, 1997) who is
constantly evaluating the available materials, adapting them, replacing them,
supplementing them and finding effective ways to implement the materials chosen for
classroom use.
Materials development must therefore be central to any course designed to train, educate or
develop new or practicing teachers and it must be accorded significance by the applied linguists
and teacher trainers who run such courses and/or publish articles, chapters and books for use on
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them. In addition to the obvious pragmatic function of preparing teachers for the realities of
classroom teaching materials development can also be extremely useful as a “way of helping
teachers to understand and apply theories of language learning – and to achieve personal and
professional development” (Tomlinson, 2001, p. 67).
Take this challenge

Form groups of five members each and focus on the vital question:
• Who should develop the materials?
Summarize and share your group’s responses to class.
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CURRENT TRENDS AND ISSUES IN MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
1. The value of textbooks

For years there has been debate about whether or not the textbook is the best medium for
delivering language-learning materials. The debate started in the eighties with Allwright (1981)
putting forward arguments 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 of textbooks, most language teachers
seem to continue to use them.
For Tomlinson, teachers need textbooks to save time and money and many teachers want a
coursebook which provides everything they need in one source.
- localized textbooks and more global textbooks which are designed to be flexible and to
offer teachers and students opportunities for localization, personalization and choice.
- publishers could produce web-based global ‘coursebooks’ which offer opportunities for
choice, modification and replacement and which facilitate ‘an ongoing process where
materials are refined and even changed throughout the life of a product.
2. The need for published materials
Over the years many institutions and teachers have replaced published materials with home-
made materials in order to achieve greater relevance and engagement.
e.g. the development and piloting of discipline-specific vocabulary materials on a CD-
ROM software program
3. Pedagogic approaches
Over the last forty years, there have been many changes in the methodologies coursebooks claim
to be using, but very little change in the pedagogy they actually use. The blurbs on the back are
constantly changing. In the sixties and early seventies, they stressed they were teaching the
language directly, without the use of translation or explanation: in the seventies they boasted that
they were following a communicative approach which featured either the learning of functions or
notions, or both.
The reality, though, is that for the last forty years most coursebooks have been and are still using
PPP approaches, with a focus on discrete forms and frequent use of such low-level practice
activities as listen and repeat, dialogue repetition, matching and filling in the blanks.
The most popular approach at the moment seems to be task-based, in which the learners are set
tasks with non-linguistic outcomes (e.g. arrangements for a trip, an agenda for a meeting, the
solution to a problem).
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4. Authenticity of texts and tasks

It has been argued that explicit teaching of language through contrived examples and texts helps
the learners by focusing their processing energies on the target feature, and this is what most
coursebooks typically do. However, many SLA researchers argue that this overprotects learners
and does not prepare them for the reality of language use outside the classroom. Some
researchers argue that authentic materials can provide meaningful exposure to language as it is
actually used, motivate learners and help them develop a range of communicative competencies
and enhance positive attitudes towards the learning of a language.
For Tomlinson, an authentic text is one which is produced in order to communicate rather than to
teach, and an authentic task is one which involves the learners in communication in order to
achieve an outcome, rather than practice the language. The text does not have to be produced by
a native speaker and it might be a version of an original which has been simplified to facilitate
communication. The task does not have to be a real-life task, but can be a classroom task which
involves the use of real-life skills in order to. Given these definitions, I think that every text that
learners encounter should be authentic and that most tasks should be authentic too – otherwise
the learners are not being prepared for the reality of language use.
5. Humanizing materials
A number of recent publications have stressed the need for the humanization of language
learning materials. Most of these publications refer to learning theories and stress the need to
help learners to personalize, localize and make meaningful their experience of the target
language, as well as the need for materials to be affectively engaging and cater for all learning
style preferences.
Tomlinson (2003d) agrees with Berman (1999:2), who says, ‘We learn best when we see things
as part of a recognized pattern, when our imaginations are aroused, when we make natural
associations between one idea and another, and when the information appeals to our senses’.
Tomlinson goes on to advocate a humanistic coursebook which engages affect through
personalized activities and which provides imaging, inner voice, kinesthetic and process
activities.
Take this challenge
Form groups of five members each, research, and focus on the statement below:
• Name and describe 5 other issues and trends related to materials development. Provide
brief description for each answer. Follow the format below for your answers.
Trends Description Issues Description
e.g. Adapting game features and Time Teacher adapts therefore
Gamificatio applying it to lessons. consuming needs to prepare materials
n
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PRINCIPLES OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION RELEVANT TO

THE DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIALS FOR THE TEACHING OF
LANGUAGES (Tomlinson, 1988)
Second language acquisition report can provide guidelines for developing classroom materials.
There are some principles:
Materials should achieve impact
Impact is achieved when materials have a noticeable effect on learners, that is when the learners’
curiosity, interest and attention are attracted. If this is achieved, there is a better chance that some
of the language in the materials will be taken in for processing.
Materials can achieve through:
Characteristics Examples
novelty unusual topics, illustrations and activities
variety breaking up the monotony of a unit routine with an
unexpected activity; using many different text-types taken from
many different types of sources; using a number of different
instructor voices on a CD
attractive use of attractive colors; lots of white space;
presentation use of photographs
appealing content topics of interest to the target learners; topics
which offer the possibility of learning something new; engaging
stories;
universal themes; local references
achievable tasks which challenge the learners to think
challenge
Materials should help learners to feel at ease
Research has shown... the effects of various forms of anxiety on acquisition: the
less anxious the learner, the better language acquisition proceeds. Similarly,
relaxed 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 anxious, uncomfortable or tense
(see, for example, Oxford 1999).
Some materials developers argue that it is the responsibility of the teacher to help the learners to
feel at ease and that the materials themselves can do very little to help. He disagrees.
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Materials can help learners to feel at ease in a number of ways. For example, he thinks that most
learners:
- feel more comfortable with written materials with lots of white space than they do with
materials in which lots of different activities are crammed together on the same page;
- are more at ease with texts and illustrations that they can relate to their own culture than
they are with those which appear to them to be culturally alien;
- are more relaxed with materials which are obviously trying to help them to learn than
they are with materials which are always testing them.
Materials should help learners to develop confidence

Relaxed and self-confident learners learn faster (Dulay, Burt and Krashen 1982).
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.
They become aware that the process is being simplified for them and that what they are
doing bears little resemblance to actual language use.
They also become aware that they are not really using their brains and that their apparent
success is an illusion. And this awareness can even lead to a reduction in confidence.
I(he) prefer to attempt to build confidence through activities which try to ‘push’ learners slightly
beyond their existing proficiency by engaging them in tasks which are stimulating, which are
problematic, but which are achievable too.
It can also help if the activities encourage learners to use and to develop their existing extra-
linguistic skills, such as those which involve being imaginative, being creative or being
analytical. Elementary-level learners can often gain greater confidence from making up a story,
writing a short poem or making grammatical discovery than they can from getting right a simple
drill.
The value of engaging the learners’ minds and utilizing their existing skills seems to be
becoming increasingly realized in countries that have decided to produce their own materials
through textbook projects rather than to rely on global coursebooks, which seem to
underestimate the abilities of their learners.
What is being taught should be perceived by learners as relevant and useful
Most teachers recognize the need to make the learners aware of the potential relevance and utility
of the language and skills they are teaching. And researchers have confirmed the importance of
this need. For example, Stevick (1976) cites experiments which have shown the positive effect on
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learning and recall of items that are of personal significance to the learner. And Krashe (1982)
and Wenden (1987) report research showing the importance of apparent relevance and utility in
language acquisition.
In ESP (English for specific purposes) materials it is relatively easy to convince the learners that
the teaching points are relevant and useful by relating them to known learner interests and to
‘real-life’ tasks, which the learners need or might need to perform in the target language.
In general English materials, this is obviously more difficult; but it can be achieved by narrowing
the target readership and/or by researching what the target learners are interested in and what they
really want to learn the language for. An interesting example of such research was a questionnaire
in Namibia which revealed that two of the most important reasons for secondary school students
wanting to learn English were so they would be able to write love letters in English and so that
they would be able to write letters of complaint for villagers to the village headman and from the
village headman to local authorities.
Perception of relevance and utility can also be achieved by relating teaching points to interesting
and challenging classroom tasks and by presenting them in ways which could facilitate the
achievement of the task outcomes desired by the learners. The ‘new’ learning points are not
relevant and useful because they will help the learners to achieve long-term academic or career
objectives, but because they could help the learners to achieve short-term task objectives now. Of
course, this only works if the tasks are begun first and the teaching is then provided in response to
discovered needs. This is much more difficult for the materials writer than the conventional
approach of teaching a predetermined point first and then getting the learners to practice and then
produce it.
But it can be much more valuable in creating relevance and utility for the teaching point; and it
can be achieved by, for example, referring learners to ‘help pages’ before and/or after doing sub-
tasks or by getting learners to make decisions about strategies they will use in a task and then
referring them to ‘help pages”. So, for example, learners could be asked to choose from (or add
to) a list of project tasks and then to decide on strategies for achieving their project targets. Those
learners who decide to research local documents could be referred to a section in the book which
provides advice on scanning, whereas those learners who decide to use questionnaires could be
referred to a section which deals with writing questions. Obviously providing the learners with a
choice of topic and task is important if you are trying to achieve perception of relevance and
utility in a general English textbook.
Materials should require and facilitate learner self-investment
Many researchers have written about the value of learning activities that require the learners to
make discoveries for themselves. For example, Rutherford and Sharwood-Smith (1988) assert that
the role of the classroom and of teaching materials is to aid the learner to make efficient use of the
resources in order to facilitate self-discovery. Similar views are expressed by Bolitho and
Tomlinson (1995); Bolitho et al. (2003), Tomlinson (1994a, 2007) and Wright and Bolitho
(1993). It would seem that learners’ profit most if they invest interest, effort and attention in the
learning activity. Materials can help them to achieve this by providing them with choices of focus
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and activity, by giving them topic control and by engaging them in learner-centered discovery
activities. Again, this is not as easy as assuming that what is taught should be learned, but it is
possible and extremely useful for textbooks to facilitate learner self-investment.
On Tomlinson’s experience, one of the most profitable ways of doing this is to get learners
interested in a written or spoken text, to get them to respond to it globally and effectively and then
to help them to analyze a particular linguistic feature of it in order to make discoveries for
themselves (see Tomlinson (1994a for a specific example of this procedure).
Other ways of achieving learner investment are involving the learners in mini-projects, involving
them in finding supplementary materials for particular units in a book and giving them
responsibility for making decisions about which texts to use and how to use them.
Learners must be ready to acquire the points being taught
Certain structures are acquired only when learners are mentally ready for them. (Dulay, Burt and
Krashen 1982)
Meisel, Clahsen and Pienemann (1981) have put forward the Multidimensional Model in which
learners must have achieved readiness in order to learn developmental feat (i.e. those constrained
by developing speech-processing mechanisms –e.g. word order) but can make themselves ready at
any time to learn variational features (i.e. those which are free –e.g. the copula ‘be’).
Pienemann (1985) claims that instruction can facilitate natural language acquisition processes if it
coincides with learner readiness, and can lead to increased speed and frequency of rule
application and to application of rules in a wider range of linguistic contexts. He also claims that
premature instruction can be harmful because it can lead to the production of erroneous forms, to
substitution by less complex forms and to avoidance.
Krashen (1985) argues the need for roughly tuned input, which is comprehensible because it
features what the learners are already familiar with, but which also contains the potential for
acquiring other elements of the input which each learner might or might not be ready to learn
(what Krashen refers to as i + 1 in which i represents what has already been learned and 1
represents what is available for learning). According to Krashen, each learner will only learn from
the new input what he or she is ready to learn.
Readiness can be achieved by materials which create situations requiring the use of variational
features not previously taught, by materials which ensure that the learners have gained sufficient
mastery over the developmental features of the previous stage before teaching a new one, and by
materials which roughly tune the input so that it contains some features which are slightly above
each learner’s current state of proficiency. It can also be achieved by materials which get learners
to focus attention on features of the target language which they have not yet acquired so that they
might be more attentive to these features in future input.
But perhaps the most important lesson for materials developers from readiness research is that we
cannot expect to select a particular point for teaching and assume that all the learners are ready
and willing to learn it. It is important to remember that the learner is always in charge and that ‘in
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the final analysis we(teacher) can never completely control what the learner does, for HE [sic]
selects and organizes, whatever the input’ (Kennedy 1973:76).
Materials should expose the learners to language in authentic use
Krashen (1985) makes the strong claim that comprehensible input in the target language is both
necessary and sufficient for the acquisition of that language provided that learners are ‘affectively
disposed to “let in” the input they comprehend’ (Ellis 1994: 273). Few researchers would agree
with such a strong claim that exposure to authentic use of the target language is necessary but not
sufficient for the acquisition of that language. It is necessary in that learners need experience of
how the language is typically used, but it is not sufficient because they also need to notice how it
is used and to use it for communicative purposes themselves.
Materials can provide exposure to authentic input through the advice they give, the instructions
for their activities and the spoken and written texts they include. They can also stimulate exposure
to authentic input through the activities they suggest (e.g. interviewing the teacher, doing a
project in the local community, listening to the radio, etc.). In order to facilitate acquisition, the
input must be comprehensible (i.e. understandable enough to achieve the purpose for responding
to it). This means that there is no point in using long extracts from 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, they can listen to dramatic renditions of stories, they can
listen to songs, they can fill in forms.
Ideally materials at all levels should provide frequent exposure to authentic input which is rich
and varied. In other words, the input should vary in style, mode, medium and purpose and should
be rich in features which are characteristic of authentic discourse in the target language. And, if
the learners want to be able to use the language for general communication, it is important that
they are exposed to planned, semi-planned and unplanned discourse (e.g. a formal lecture, an
informal radio interview and a spontaneous conversation). The materials should also stimulate
learner interaction with the input rather than just passive reception of it. This does not necessarily
mean that the learners should always produce language in response to the input; but it does mean
that they should at least always do something mentally or physically in response to it.
The learners’ attention should be drawn to linguistic features of the input
There seems to be an agreement amongst many researchers that helping learners to pay attention
to linguistic features of authentic input can help them to eventually acquire some of those
features. However, it is important to understand that this claim does not represent a back-to-
grammar movement. It is different from previous grammar teaching approaches in a number of
ways. In the first place the attention paid to the language can be either conscious or subconscious.
For example, the learners might be paying conscious attention to working out the attitude of one
of the characters in a story, but might be paying subconscious attention to the second conditionals
which the character uses. Or they might be paying conscious attention to the second conditionals,
having been asked to locate them and to make a generalization about their function in the story.
The important thing is that the learners become aware of a gap between a particular feature of
their interlanguage (i.e. how they currently understand or use it) and the equivalent feature in the
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target language. Such noticing of the gap between output and input can act as an ‘acquisition
facilitatot’ (Seliger 1979). It does not do so by immediately changing the learner’s internalized
grammar but by alerting the learner to subsequent instances of the same feature in future input.
So, there is no immediate change in the learners’ proficiency (as seems to be aimed at by such
grammar teaching approaches as the convention Presentation-Practice-Production approach).
There is, however, an increased likelihood of eventual acquisition provided that the learners
receive future relevant input.
White (1990) argues that there are some features of the L2 which learners need to be focused on
because the deceptively apparent similarities with L1 features make it impossible for the learners
to otherwise notice certain points of mismatch between their interlanguage and the target
language. And Schmidt (1992) puts forward a powerful argument for approaches which help
learners to note the gap between their use of specific features of English and the way these
features are used by native speakers. Inviting learners to compare their use of, say, indirect speech
with the way it is used in a transcript of a native speaker conversation would be one such
approach and quite easily be built into coursebook materials.
Materials should provide the learners with opportunities to use the target language to
achieve communicative purposes
Most researchers seem to agree that the learners should be given opportunities to use language
for communication rather than just to practize it in situations controlled by the teacher and the
materials. Using the language for communication involves attempts to achieve a purpose in a
situation in which the content, strategies and expression of the interaction are determined by the
learners. Such attempts can enable the learners to ‘check’ the effectiveness of their internal
hypotheses, especially if the activities stimulate them into ‘pushed output’ (Swain 1985) which is
slightly above their current proficiency. They also help the learners to automatize their existing
procedural knowledge (i.e. their knowledge of how the language is used) and to develop strategic
competence (Canale and Swain 1980). This is especially so if the opportunities for use are
interactive and encourage negotiation of meaning (Allwright 1984:157). In addition,
communicative interaction can provide opportunities for picking up language from the new input
generated, as well as opportunities for learner output to become and informative source of input
(Sharwood-Smith 1981). Ideally teaching materials should provide opportunities for such
interaction in a variety of discourse modes ranging from planned to unplanned (Ellis 1990:191).
Interaction can be achieved through, for example:
• information or opinion gap activities which require learners to communicate with each
other and/or the teacher in order to close the gap (e.g. finding out what food and drink
people would like at the class party);
• post-listening and post-reading activities which require the learners to use information
from the text to achieve a communicative purpose (e.g. deciding what television
programs to watch, discussing who to vote for, writing a review of a book or film);
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• creative writing and creative speaking activities such as writing a story or improvising a
drama;
• formal instruction given in the target language either on the language itself or on
another subject:
We need to recognize the teaching intended as formal instruction also serves as interaction.
Formal instruction does more than teach a specific item: it also exposes learners to features
which are not the focus of the lesson (Ellis 1990).
Materials should take into account that the positive effects of instruction are usually
delayed
Research into the acquisition of language shows that it is a gradual rather than an instantaneous
process and that this is equally true for instructed as well as informal 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 feature
correct in the lesson in which it is taught but then get it wrong the following week. This is partly
because they have not yet had enough time, instruction and exposure for learning to have taken
place.
The inevitable delayed effect of instruction suggests that no textbook can really succeed if it
teaches features of the language one at a time and expects the learners to be able to use them
straightaway. But this incremental approach is popular with many publishers, writers, teachers
and learners as it can provide a reassuring illusion of system, simplicity and progress. Therefore,
adaptation of existing approaches rather than replacement with radical new ones is the strategy
most likely to succeed.
Materials should take into account that learners differ in learning styles
Different learners have different preferred learning styles.
Those learners with a preference for studial learning are much more likely to gain from explicit grammar
teaching than those who prefer experiential learning. And those who prefer experiential learning are more
likely to gain from reading a story with a predominant grammatical feature (e.g. reported speech) than
they are from being taught that feature explicitly. This means that activities should be variable and should
ideally cater for all learning styles.
An analysis of most current coursebooks will reveal a tendency to favor learners with a preference for
studial learning and an apparent assumption that all learners are equally capable of benefiting from this
style of learning. Likewise, an analysis of the teaching and testing of foreign languages in formal
education systems throughout the world will reveal that studial learners (who are actually in the minority)
are at an advantage.
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Styles of learning which need to be catered for in language-learning materials

include:
STYLES DESCRIPTION/EXAMPLES
visual learners prefer to see the language written down
auditory learners prefer to hear the language
kinesthetic learners prefer to do something physical, such as following
instructions for a game
studial learners like to pay conscious attention to the linguistic features of
the language and want to be correct
experiential learners like to use the language and are more concerned with
communication than with correctness
analytic learners prefer to focus on discrete bits of the language and to learn
them one by one
global learners are happy to respond to whole chunks of language at a time
and to pick up from them whatever language they can
dependent learners prefer to learn from a teacher and from a book
independent learners are happy to learn from their own experience of the
language and to use autonomous learning strategies
Materials should take into account that learners differ in affective attitudes
The learner’s motives, emotions, and attitudes screen what is presented in the language
classroom... This affective screening is highly individual and results in different rates and
results. (Dulay, Burt and Krashen 1982).
Ideally language learners should have strong and consistent motivation and they should also have
positive feelings towards the target language, their teachers, their fellow learners and the
materials they are using. But, of course, ideal learners do not exist and even if they did exist one
day, they would no longer be ideal learners the next day. Each class of learners using the same
materials will differ from each other in terms of ling- and short-term motivation and of feelings
and attitudes about the language, their teachers, their fellow learners and their learning materials,
and of attitudes towards the language, the teacher and the materials. Obviously, no materials
developer can cater for all these affective variables, but it is important for anybody who is
writing learning materials to be aware of the inevitable attitudinal differences of the users of the
materials.
One obvious implication for the materials developer is ‘to diversify language instruction as much
as possible based upon the variety of cognitive styles’ (Larsen-Freeman and Long 1991) and the
variety of affective attitudes likely to be found amongst typical class of learners. Ways of doing
this include:
• providing choices of different types of text; providing choices of different types of
activities;
• providing optional extras for the more positive and motivated learners:
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• providing variety;
• including units in which the value of learning English is a topic for discussion;
• including units in which the value of learning English is a topic for discussion;
• including activities which involve the learners in discussing their attitudes and
feelings about the course and the materials;
• researching and catering for the diverse interests of the identified target learners;
• being aware of the cultural sensitivities of the target learners;
• giving general and specific advice in the teacher’s book on how to respond to
negative learners (e.g. not forcing reluctant individuals to take part in group
work).
Materials should permit a silent period at the beginning of instruction
It has been shown that it can be extremely valuable to delay L2 speaking for beginners of a
language until they have gained sufficient confidence in understanding it. This silent period can
facilitate the development of an effective internalized grammar which can help learners to achieve
proficiency when they eventually start to speak in the L2. There is some controversy about the
actual value of the silent period and some learners seem to use the silence to avoid learning the
language.
However, I think most researchers would agree that forcing immediate production in the new
language can damage the reluctant speaker affectively and linguistically and many would agree
with Dulay, Burt and Krashen that:
Communication situations in which students are permitted to remain silent or respond in their first language
may be the most effective approach for the early phases of language instruction. This approach
approximates what language learners of all ages have been observed to do naturally, and it appears to be
more effective than forcing full two-way communication from the very beginning of L2 acquisition.
(1982:25-6)
The important point is that the materials should not force premature speaking in the target
language and they should not force silence either. Ways of giving learners the possibility of not
speaking until they are ready include:
• starting the course with a Total Physical Response (TPR) approach in which the
learners respond physically to oral instructions from a teacher or CD.
• starting with a a listening comprehension approach in which the learners listen to
stories in the target language, which are made accessible through the use of sound
effects, visual aids and dramatic movement by the teacher;
• permitting the learners to respond to target language questions by using their first
language or through drawings and gestures.
Materials should maximize learning potential by encouraging intellectual, aesthetic and

emotional involvement which stimulates both right- and left-brain activities
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A narrowly focused series of activities which require very little cognitive processing (e.g.
mechanical drills; rule learning; simple transformation activities) usually leads to shallow and
ephemeral learning unless linked to other activities which stimulate mental and affective
processing, However, a varied series of activities making, for example, analytic, creative,
evaluative and rehearsal demands on processing capacity can lead to deeper and more durable
learning. In order for this deeper learning to be facilitated, it is very important that the content of
the materials is not trivial or banal and that it stimulates thoughts and feelings in the learners. It
is also important that the activities are not too simple and that they cannot 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 fundamental principle of Lozanov’s

Suggestopedia, in which he ‘enables the learner to receive the information through different
cerebral processes and in different states of consciousness so that it is stored in many different
parts of the brain, maximizing recall’ (Hooper Hansen 1992). Suggestopedia does this through
engaging the learners in a variety of left- and right-brain activities in the same lesson (e.g.
reciting a dialogue, dancing to instructions, singing a song, doing a substitution drill, writing a
story). Whilst not everybody would accept the procedures Suggestopedia, most researchers seem
to agree on the value of maximizing the brain’s capacity during language learning and the best
textbooks already do contain within each unit a variety of different left- and right brain activities.
Materials should not rely too much on controlled practice
It is interesting that there seems to be very little research which indicates that controlled practice
activities are 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 provides no evidence to
support this very strong claim. Also, Bialystok (1988) says that automaticity is achieved through practice
but provides no evidence to support her claim. In the absence of any compelling evidence most
researchers seem to agree with Ellis, who says that ‘controlled practice appears to have little long-term
effect on the accuracy with which new structures are performed’ (Ellis 1990:192) and ‘has little effect on
fluency’ (Ellis and Rathbone 1987).
Yet controlled grammar practice activities still feature significantly in popular coursebooks and are
considered to be useful by many teachers and by many learners. This is especially true of dialogue
practice, which has been popular in many methodologies for the last 30 years without there being any
substantial research evidence to support it (see Tomlinson 1995). In a recent analysis of new low-level
coursebooks I found that nine out of ten of them contained many more opportunities for controlled
practice than they did for language use.
It is possible that right now all over the world learners are wasting their time doing drills and listening to
and repeating dialogues.
Materials should provide opportunities for outcome feedback
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Feedback which is focused first on the effectiveness of the outcome rather than just on the
accuracy of the output can lead to output becoming a profitable source of input. Or in other
words, if the language that the learner produces is evaluated in relation to the purpose for which
it is used, that language can become a powerful and informative source of information about
language use. Thus, a learner who fails to achieve a particular communicative purpose (e.g.
borrowing something, instructing someone how to play a game, persuading someone to do
something) is more likely to gain from feedback on the effectiveness of their use of language
than a learner whose language is corrected without reference to any non-linguistic outcome. It is
very important, therefore, for materials developers to make sure that language production
activities have intended outcomes other than just practicing language. The value of outcome
feedback is focused on by such writers on task-based approaches as Willis and Willis (2007).
Take this challenge

Form groups of five members each and challenge your stock knowledge
collaboratively. Review the basic principles in materials development and write down the
important concepts about them. Share your group’s responses to class.
Your group may follow this format for your answers.

Principles Salient points Principles Salient points
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PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT FOR

LANGUAGE LEARNING
Proposals for Principled Approaches to the Development of ELT Materials
One of the things which materials writers need to do is to develop flexible frameworks to help
them produce effective materials for target learners in principled and coherent ways. But before
such frameworks are developed the writers need to decide what principles should drive their
procedures.
Here are the main principles of language acquisition which Tomlinson follow when developing
materials, and some of the principles for materials development which he derives from other
writers. As you read them you might like to evaluate their validity and usefulness and to think of
other principles of your own.
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.
In order to acquire the ability to use the language effectively the learners need a lot of experience of the
language being used in a variety of different ways for a variety of purposes. They need to be able to
understand enough of this input to gain positive access to it and it needs to be meaningful to them
(Krashen 1985). They also need to experience particular language items and features many times in
meaningful and comprehensible input in order to eventually acquire them. Each encounter helps to
elaborate and deepen awareness and to facilitate the development of hypotheses needed for eventual
acquisition.
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. If the language is inauthentic because it has been
written or reduced to exemplify a particular language feature then the learners will not acquire
the ability to use the language typically or effectively.
3 Make sure that the language input is contextualized. Language use is determined and
interpreted in relation to its context of use. De-contextualized examples do not contain enough
information about the user, the addressee(s), the relationships between the interactants, the
setting, the intentions or the outcomes for them to be of value to the language learner.
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.
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Examples of Materials
Tomlinson use what he calls task-free activities to help him to apply Principle of Language
Acquisition 1.
This involves the teacher at the beginning of every lesson reading a poem or story, or telling a
joke or anecdote. There are no questions or tasks after the listening, just written copies of the text
for those students who were engaged by it to take home, read and file away. The students are
encouraged to ask questions about the texts at any time and to return to read the texts they have
collected many times.
In order for the learners to maximize their exposure to language in use they need to be engaged
both affectively and cognitively in the language experience
If the learners do not think and feel whilst experiencing the language, they are unlikely to acquire
any elements of it (Arnold 1999). Thinking whilst experiencing language in use helps to achieve
the deep processing required for effective and durable learning and it helps learners to transfer
high level skills such as predicting, connecting, interpreting and evaluating to second language
use. If the learners do not feel any emotion whilst exposed to language in use, they are unlikely
to acquire anything from their experience. Feeling enjoyment, pleasure and happiness, feeling
empathy, being amused, being excited and being stimulated are most likely to influence
acquisition positively but feeling annoyance, anger, fear, opposition and sadness is more useful
than feeling nothing at all. Ideally though the learner should be experiencing positive affect in
the sense of being confident, motivated and willingly engaged even when experiencing
‘negative’ emotions. There is a substantial literature on the value of affective and cognitive
engagement whilst engaged in responding to language in use, with much of it focusing on
research into the role of emotion in language learning and use or reporting research on cognitive
engagement during language lessons.
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.
Teacher uses a text-driven approach in which the starting point for developing each unit is a
potentially engaging 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
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focus to think about when experiencing the text and then invite them to articulate their personal
responses to the text before going on to use it to stimulate their own language production.
Language learners who achieve positive affect are much more likely to achieve communicative
competence than those who do not
Language learners need to be positive about the target language, about their learning
environment, about their teachers, about their fellow learners and about their learning materials
(Arnold 1999). They also need to achieve positive self-esteem and to feel that they are achieving
something worthwhile. Above all they need to be emotionally involved in the learning process
and to respond by laughing, getting angry, feeling sympathy, feeling happy, feeling sad etc.
Positive emotions seem to be the most useful in relation to language acquisition but it is much
better to feel angry than to feel nothing at all.
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 personalization and through inviting learners
to articulate their feelings about a text before asking them to analyze it.
Examples of Material
Teacher offers the students choices of texts and of tasks and he consult the students about the
topics they would like to read about and discuss.
L2 language learners can benefit from using those mental resources which they typically utilize
when acquiring and using their L1.
In L1 learning and use learners typically make use of mental imaging (e.g. seeing pictures in
their mind), of inner speech, of emotional responses, of connections with their own lives, of
evaluations, of predictions, of personal interpretations. In L2 learning and use learners typically
focus narrowly on linguistic decoding and encoding. Multi-dimensional representation of
language experienced and used can enrich the learning process in ways which promote durable
acquisition, the transfer from learning activities to real life use, the development of the ability to
use the language effectively in a variety of situations for a variety of uses and the self-esteem
which derives from performing in the L2 in ways as complex as they typically do in the L1. See
Tomlinson and Avila (2007) for example, for principled suggestions as to how making use of
multi-dimensional mental representation can help L2 learners.
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There is a considerable literature on the vital use of the inner voice in L1 and the infrequency of
use of the inner voice in the L2. What the literature demonstrates is that in the L1 we use the
inner voice to give our own voice to what we hear and read, to make plans, to make decisions, to
solve problems, to evaluate, to understand and ‘control’ our environment and to prepare outer
voice utterances before saying or writing them. When talking to ourselves we use a restricted
code which consists of short elliptical utterances expressed in simple tenses with the focus on the
comment rather than the topic, on the predicate rather than the subject. It is context and context
dependent, implicit, partial, vague, novel and salient to ourselves. However, L2 users rarely use
an L2 inner voice until they reach an advanced level – though there is evidence that the use of an
L2 inner voice at lower levels can enhance L2 performance and can be facilitated by teachers and
materials. For further details of the characteristics and roles of the inner voice see de Guerro
(2005) and Tomlinson and Avila (2007).
1 Make use of activities which get learners to visualize and/or use inner speech before during and
after experiencing a written or spoken text.
2 Make use of activities which get learners to visualize 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.
Teacher builds into all my materials activities which encourage and help the students to
visualize, to talk to themselves in inner speech and to make connections with their lives. For
example, before asking the students to read a poem about a boy’s first day at school teacher
asked the students to visualize their own first day at school and then to talk to themselves about
how they felt.
Language learners can benefit from noticing salient features of the input
If learners notice for themselves how a particular language item or feature is used, they are more
likely to develop their language awareness (Bolitho et al 2003) and they are also more likely to
achieve readiness for acquisition. Such noticing is most salient when a learner has been engaged
in a text affectively and cognitively and then returns to it to investigate its language use. This is
likely to lead to the learner paying more attention to similar uses of that item or feature in
subsequent inputs and to increase its potential for eventual acquisition.
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
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the experience and pay conscious attention to features of it in order to achieve explicit learning.
This enables the learners to apprehend before they comprehend and to intuit before they explore.
And it means that when they focus narrowly on a specific feature of the text, they are able to
develop their discoveries in relation to their awareness of the full context of use.
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.
Teacher uses a lot of language awareness materials in which the students experience a potentially
engaging text, respond to it personally and then focus on a particular feature of the text in order
to make discoveries about it. For example, the students read about a student whose parents gave
him a graduation party. They then discussed the reasons why the parents gave him the party and
the reasons he was reluctant to attend it. Next one half of the class analyzed the father’s use of
the interrogative and the other half analyzed the son’s use of the imperative. They came together
in groups to share their discoveries and then they wrote a version of the text in which the mother
(rather than the father) tried to persuade the son to attend the party.
Learners need opportunities to use language to try to achieve communicative purposes.
When using language in this way they are gaining feedback on the hypotheses they have
developed as a result of generalizing on the language in their intake and on their ability to make
use of them effectively. If they are participating in interaction, they are also being pushed to
clarify and elaborate and they are also likely to elicit meaningful and comprehensible input from
their interlocutors.
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 practicing 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 contextualized 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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Teacher develops a lot of material in which the students have to produce a text which is a
development from one they have just experienced. For example, in one unit the 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.
(This paper is an adaptation of part of Tomlinson, B. (forthcoming 2010) Principles and
procedures of materials development. In N. Harwood (ed.) Materials in ELT: Theory and
Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.)
Take this challenge

collaboratively.
 Provide example materials that corresponds to each principle of SLA.
Share your group’s responses to class.
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Self- Assessment
HOW MUCH DO YOU REMEMBER?

Essay One
Direction: Extract your understanding about the lesson and reflect it by
answering thoroughly the questions below. Use the space below each part for
your answers.
Part I: Important Findings. What are the terminologies that you have
encountered while reading Introduction to Materials Development? Explicate the
terms based on your understanding.
Part II: Self Reflections: Share your meaningful thoughts as you answer the
guide question. (1) Among the given principles of SLA, what to you stands out
the most? (2) As a practicing English teacher, how will you embody the
principles to your future lessons?
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Main References and Suggested Readings

Tomlinson, B. (ed.) 1998. Materials Development in Language Teaching. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Tomlinson, B. (ed.) 2003. Developing Materials for Language Teaching. London: Continuum
Press.
Tomlinson, B. in 2008. Language acquisition and language learning materials. In B. Tomlinson
(ed.) English Language Teaching Materials. London: Continuum.
Materials and Methods in ELT: A Teacher’s Guide - PDF Drive. (2013). PDFDRIVE.
https://www.pdfdrive.com/materials-and-methods-in-elt-a-teachers-guide-e166494945.html
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2
Materials Evaluation
Terms to Remember
Language Evaluation Materials

Effects Need Principles
Purpose Types
SELF CHECK!
Assess yourself!
Read the statement. Choose an answer from the given choices below. Justify
your answer.
1. When it comes to learning materials, I only use what is available for me.
a. Consistently b. Usually c. Sometimes d. Not really
Materials
Evaluation
Define Materials Evaluation;
Determine the needs and purposes for materials evaluation;
Reconsider the principles to be used as a basis of materials evaluation;
Apply
MODULE INthe criteria for each type of materials evaluation in evaluating
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materials.
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MATERIALS EVALUATION
Brian Tomlinson
The ability to evaluate teaching materials effectively is a very important professional activity for
all English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers, and in this chapter, we shall examine the
reasons why teachers need to evaluate materials in the first instance. We shall then move on to
discuss the criteria that can be used to evaluate materials by suggesting a working model which
we hope will be an effective one to use for teachers working in a variety of contexts. The model
that we suggest is based on the view that it is useful for us as teachers to perform an external
evaluation of materials first of all in order to gain an overview of the organizational principles
involved. After this we move on to a detailed internal evaluation of the materials to see how far
the materials in question match up to what the author claims as well as to the aims and objectives
of a given teaching program.
What is Materials Evaluation?

Materials Evaluation is a procedure that involves measuring the value (or potential value) of a set
of learning materials. It involves making judgments about the effect of the materials on the
people using them and it tries to measure some or all of the following:
1. The appeal of the materials to the learners.
2. The credibility of materials to learners, teachers, and administrators.
3. The validity of the materials.
4. The reliability of the materials.
5. The ability of the materials to interest the learners and the teachers.
6. The ability of the materials to motivate the learners.
7. The value of the materials in terms of short-term learning (important, for example, for
performance on tests and examinations.
8. The value of the materials in terms of long-term learning (of both language and
communication skills)
9. The learners’ perceptions of the value of the materials.
10. The teachers’ perceptions of the value of the materials.
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11. The assistance given to the teachers in terms of preparation, delivery, and
assessment.
12. The flexibility of the materials.
13. The contribution made by the materials to teacher development.
14. The match with administrative requirements.
The Need for Material Evaluation

Material evaluation is needed for some obvious reasons:
1.Too many t/b /materials available in the market
- all claim to be the best in the field, and the only way to verify the claim is to evaluate them
2.An educated / informed choice need to be made for the benefit of all parties
- teachers must make informed decision in choosing materials to ensure that it serves the purpose
of enhancing the learning experience
3. Learners are more sophisticated & knowledgeable
- the materials given to them must meet their expectation & suit their level
4. Ensure only high standard of materials/books are used
- only choose materials of high quality so that in helps in achieving high standard of teaching &
learning
The Purpose of Material Evaluation

1. To adopt new textbook
– before decision can be made of which book to be used, a number of potential books need to be
evaluated
2. To identify strengths & weaknesses in books already in use
- before decision to replace it being made, evaluation needs to be conducted
3. To compare
- when there is more than a book that needs to be considered to be selected and when existing
materials are challenged by newly produced materials
4. To helps teachers to gain good insights into the nature of the materials
5. Sensitizing & familiarize teacher trainees with a range of published materials
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Principles in Materials Evaluation

It is very important that evaluations are driven by a set of principles and these principles are
articulated by the evaluators prior to the evaluation. In this way greater validity and reliability
can be achieved and fewer mistakes are likely to be made. In developing a set of principles, it is
useful to consider the evaluator’s theory of learning and teaching. All teachers develop theories
of learning and teaching which they apply in their classrooms (even though they are often
unaware of doing so). Many researchers (e.g., Schon, 1983) argue that it is useful for teachers to
try to achieve an articulation of their theories by reflecting on their practice. Here are some
theories which are articulated from teachers’ practice:
1. Language learners succeed best if learning is positive, relaxed, and enjoyable experience.
2. Language teachers tend to teach most successfully if they enjoy their role and if they can gain
some enjoyment themselves from the materials they are using.
3. Learning materials lose credibility for learners if they suspect that the teacher does not value
them.
4. Each learner is different from all the others in a class in terms of his/her personality,
motivation, attitudes, aptitude, prior experience, interest, needs, wants, and preferred learning
style.
5. Each learner varies from day to day in terms of motivation, attitude, mood, perceived needs
and wants, enthusiasm, d energy.
6. There are superficial cultural differences between learners from different countries (and these
differences need to be respected and catered for) but there are also strong universal determinants
of successful language teaching and learning.
7. Successful language learning in a classroom (especially in large classes) depends on the
generation and maintenance of high levels of energy.
8. The teacher is responsible for the initial generation of energy in a lesson; good materials can
then maintain and even increase that energy.
9. Learners only learn what they really need or want to learn.
10. Learners often say that what they want is focused language practice but they often seem to
gain more enjoyment and learning from activities which stimulate them to use the target
language to say something they really want to say.
11. Learners think, say and learn more if they are given an experience or text to respond to than
if they are just asked for their views, opinions and interests.
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12. The most important thing that learning materials have to do is to help the learner to connect
the learning experience in the classroom to their own life outside the course.
13. The most important result that learning materials can achieve is to engage the emotions of
learners. Laughter, joy, excitement, sorrow and anger can promote learning. Neutrality,
numbness, and nullity cannot.
However, what is valid for someone from his/her own experience will not be valid for other
evaluators and users of materials from their experience and it must be careful not to assume that
all criteria above will be the correct criteria.
Learning Theory
Research into learning is controversial as there are so many variables involved and local
circumstances often make generalization precarious. However, it is important that the materials
evaluator considers the findings of learning research and decides which of its findings are
convincing and applicable. The conclusions which are convinced are that:
1. Deep processing of intake is required if effective and durable learning is to take place (Craik
and Lockhart, 1972).
2. Affective engagement is also essential for effective and durable learning.
3. Making mental connections is a crucial aspect of the learning process.
4. Experiential learning is essential (though not necessarily sufficient) and, in particular,
apprehension should come to the learner before comprehension (Kolb and Kolb, 2009).
5. Learners will only learn if they need and want to learn and if they are willing to invest time
and energy in the process.
6. Multidimensional processing of intake is essential for successful learning and involves the
learner creating a mental representation of the intake through such mental processes as sensory
imaging (especially visualization), affective association and the use of the inner voice
(Tomlinson and Avila, 2007).
7. Materials which address the learner in an informal, personal voice are more likely to facilitate
learning than those which use a distant, formal voice (Tomlinson, 2001b). Features which seem
to contribute to a successful personal voice include such aspects of orality as:
 Informal discourse features (e.g. contracted forms, ellipsis, informal lexis)

 The active rather than the passive voice
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 Concreteness (e.g. examples, anecdotes)

 Inclusiveness (e.g. not signaling intellectual, linguistic or cultural superiority over the
learners)
 Sharing experiences and opinions
 Sometimes including casual redundancies rather than always being concise. (Tomlinson,
2001b)
The assertions above can be converted into criteria for the assessment of learning material. For
example, it would be constructed such criteria as:
1. To what extent are the materials related to the wants of the learners?
2. To what extent are the materials likely to help the learners to achieve connections with their
own lives?
3. To what extent are the materials likely to stimulate emotional engagement?
4. To what extent are the materials likely to promote visual imaging?
Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Research

(Qualities each unit of material should reflect)
SLA research is so far inconclusive and has stimulated many disagreements and debates (e.g.
about the value of the explicit teaching of discrete language points). However, there is now a
sufficient consensus of opinion on certain facilitating features of language learning for them to
be useful in helping to articulate the principles to be used as a basis of materials evaluation.
Some of these principles are summarized below:
1. Materials should achieve impact.

2. Materials should help learners to feel at ease.
3. Materials should help the learners to develop confidence.
4. What is being taught should be perceived by learners as relevant and useful?
5. Materials should require and facilitate learner self-investment.
6. Learners must be ready to acquire the points being taught both in terms of linguistic,
developmental readiness and of psychological readiness too.
7. Materials should expose the learners to language in authentic use.
8. The learners’ attention should be drawn to linguistic features of the input.
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9. Materials should provide the learners with opportunities to use the target language to achieve
communicative purposes.
10. Materials should take into account that the positive effects of instruction are usually delayed.
11. Materials should take into account that learners differ in learning styles.
12. Materials should take into account that learners differ in affective attitudes.
13. Materials should maximize learning potential by encouraging intellectual,
aesthetic and emotional involvement which stimulates both right and left-brain activities.
14. Materials should provide opportunities for outcome feedback.
Given the Second Language Acquisition principles by Tomlinson (2011a) listed above, here
are some of the addition which can be added to what materials should:
1. Help the learner to develop cultural awareness and sensitivity (Tomlinson, 2000b; Byram
and Masuhara, 2013).
2. Reflect the reality of language use.
3. Help learners to learn in ways similar to the circumstances in which they will have to use
the language.
4. Help to create readiness to learn.
5. Achieve affective engagement (Tomlinson, 2010).
The important thing is for materials evaluators to decide for themselves which findings of SLA
research they will use to develop principles for their evaluation. A textbook selected mainly
because of its attractive appearance could turn out to be very boring for the learners to use; a
review which overemphasizes an irritating aspect of the materials (e.g. a particular character in a
video course) can give a distorted impression of the value of the materials; a course selected for
national use by a ministry of education because it is the cheapest or because it is written by
famous writers and published by a prestigious publisher could turn out to be a very expensive
disaster.
Types of Material Evaluation
Brian Tomlinson
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There are many different types of materials evaluation. It is possible to apply the basic principles
of materials evaluation to all types of evaluation but it is not possible to make generalizations
about procedures which apply to all types.
Pre-use Evaluation
Pre-use evaluation involves making predictions about the potential value of materials for their
users. It can be context-free, as in a review of materials for a journal, context influenced as in a
review of draft materials for a publisher with target users in mind or context-dependent, as when
a teacher selects a course book for use with her particular class. Tomlinson and Masuhara (2004,
p. 7) proposed the following criteria for evaluating criteria:
 Is each question an evaluation question?

 Does each question only ask one question?
 Is each question answerable?
 Is each question free of dogma?
 Is each question reliable in the sense that other evaluators would interpret it in the same
way?
a. Is each question an evaluation question? If a question is an analysis question (e.g. ‘Does each
unit include a test?’) then you can only give the answer a 1 or a 5 on the 5-point scale which is
recommended later in this suggested procedure. However, if it is an evaluation
question (e.g. ‘To what extent are the tests likely to provide useful learning experiences?’) then it
can be graded at any point on the scale.
b. Does each question only ask one question? Many criteria in published lists ask two or more
questions and therefore cannot be used in any numerical grading of the materials. This question
could be usefully rewritten as:
 Is the book likely to be attractive to your students?
 Is it suitable for the age of your students?
c. Is each question answerable? This might seem an obvious question but in many published lists
of criteria some questions are so large and so vague that they cannot usefully be answered. For
example:
 Is it culturally acceptable?’ (Grant, 1987, p. 122).
 Does it achieve an acceptable balance between knowledge about the language and
practice in using the language?
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d. Is each question free of dogma? The questions should reflect the evaluators’ principles of
language learning but should not impose a rigid methodology as a requirement of the
materials. If they do, the materials could be dismissed without a proper appreciation of their
potential value. The following examples make assumptions about the pedagogical procedures of
coursebooks which not all coursebooks actually follow:
 Are the various stages in a teaching unit (what you would probably call presentation,
practice and production) adequately developed?’ (Mariani,1983, p. 29).
 Do the sentences gradually increase in complexity to suit the growing reading ability of
the students? (Daoud and Celce-Murcia, 1979, p. 304)
e. Is each question reliable in the sense that other evaluators would interpret it in the same way?
Some terms and concepts which are commonly used in applied linguistics are amenable to
differing interpretations and are best avoided or glossed when attempting to measure the effects
of materials. For example, each of the following questions could be interpreted in a number of
ways:
 Are the materials sufficiently authentic?
 Is there an acceptable balance of skills?
There are also a number of ways in which each question could be rewritten to make it more
reliable and useful.
Tomlinson (2012) reports these criteria and gives examples from the many checklists in the
literature of evaluation criteria which their use exposes as inadequate in terms of specificity,
clarity, answerability, validity and generalizability.
Whilst-use Evaluation
This involves measuring the value of materials while using them or while observing them being
used. It can be more objective and reliable than pre-use evaluation as it makes use of
measurement rather than prediction. Exactly what can be measured in a whilst-use evaluation is
controversial but it would be included the following:
 Clarity of instructions
 Clarity of layout
 Comprehensibility of texts
 Credibility of tasks
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 Achievability of tasks
 Achievement of performance objectives
 Potential for localization
 Practicality of the materials
 Teach ability of the materials
 Flexibility of the materials
 Appeal of the materials
 Motivating power of the materials
 Impact of the materials
 Effectiveness in facilitating short-term learning
Most of the above can be estimated during an open-ended, impressionistic observation of
materials in use but greater reliability can be achieved by focusing on one criterion at a time and
by using pre-prepared instruments of measurement.
Post-use Evaluation
Post-use evaluation is probably the most valuable (but least administered) type of evaluation as it
can measure the actual effects of the materials on the users. It can measure the short-term effect
as regards motivation, impact, achievability, instant learning, etc., and it can measure the long-
term effect as regards durable learning and application. In other words, it can measure the actual
outcomes of the use of the materials and thus provide the data on which reliable decisions about
the use, adaptation or replacement of the materials can be made. Ways of measuring the post-use
effects of materials include:
 tests of what has been ‘taught’ by the materials;
 tests of what the students can do;
 examinations;
 interviews;
 questionnaires;
 criterion-referenced evaluations by the users;
 post-course diaries;
 post-course ‘shadowing’ of the learners;
 post-course reports on the learners by employers, subject tutors, etc.
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The main problem, of course, is that it takes time and expertise to measure post-use effects
reliably (especially as, to be really revealing, there should be measurement of pre-use attitudes
and abilities in order to provide data for post-use comparison). But publishers and ministries do
have the time and can engage the expertise, and teachers can be helped to design, administer and
analyze post-use instruments of measurement. Then we will have much more useful information,
not only about the effects of particular courses of materials but about the relative effectiveness of
different types of materials. Even then, though, we will need to be cautious, as it will be very
difficult to separate such variables as teacher effectiveness, parental support, language exposure
outside the classroom, intrinsic motivation, etc.
Types of Materials Evaluation (2)
External Evaluation
External Evaluation aims to examine the organization of the material as stated explicitly by the
author of the publisher. This type of evaluation analyzes what the “book tells about itself” by
looking at the ad blurb, the introduction, and table of contents. Through external evaluation,
information on the following may be called:
• Intended audience
• Proficiency level
• Context in which the materials are to be used
• Organization into teachable units
• Date of publication
• Author’s view on language learning and teaching
• Publisher
Internal Evaluation
Internal Evaluation covers an in-depth investigation of the value of the material in relation to its
objectives, principles, lesson design, and assessment procedures. At this stage, the evaluator
analyzes the extent to which claims in the introduction and blurbs actually match up with the
internal consistency and organization of the materials. In order to perform effective internal
evaluation of the material, at least two units of a book or a set of materials need to be inspected.
The following information may be analyzed:
• Presentation of the skills in the material
• Grading and sequencing of skills
• Authentic or artificial recordings
• Authentic or artificial dialogues for speaking
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• Relationships of tests and exercises to learner needs and course content

• Provisions for different learning styles and self- study
• Motivation for the learners
Overall Evaluation
Overall Evaluation analyzes the value of the material in relation to its usability, generalizability,
adaptability and flexibility.
• Usability- How far could the material be integrated into particular syllabus as ‘core’ or as
supplementary material?
• Generalizability- How much of the material could be used by the individual or by a group of
people?
• Adaptability- Can parts be added/extracted/used in another context or modified for local
circumstances?
• Flexibility- How rigid are the sequencing and grading? Can the material be used in different
ways? Can they be entered in different parts?
Take this challenge

Work on a group and focus on the task:
1. Read “Materials Evaluation”.

2. Transform the listed criteria for whilst-use evaluation into questions.
3. Create a checklist using the questions for pre-use evaluation and whilst-use
evaluation.
4. Choose a material to evaluate. It may be a module for a certain area of English, a
worksheet, a test paper, or any material that is available around you.
5. Pre -use evaluation: Evaluate the materials by answering the questions for pre-use
evaluation.
6. Whilst – use evaluation: Administer or use the chosen material to your selected group
of people. Determine the problems or issues encountered by the group while using
material. Conduct an interview or provide your selected group a checklist regarding
their use of the material. Use the Whilst-use checklist.
7. Post- use evaluation: Combine the results and come up with a generalization about
the material.
8. Present results using PowerPoint Presentation.
9.
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Self- Assessment
10.
P
Essay One
completing the table below.
Pick a material to evaluate. Using the criteria for Pre- use evaluation, Whilst-us
evaluation, and Post-use evaluation, fill in the tables below with descriptions of
the chosen material.
Material (Pre-use evaluation)
Criteria Description
Ex. Is it suitable for the age of your Ex. Ans. The material is very suitable
students? to the age of its intended learner.
(use 4 criterion)
1.
2.
3.
Material (Whilst -use evaluation)

Ex. Comprehensibility of texts Ex. Ans. Yes/no. Why?
(use 4 criterion)
1.
2.
3.
Material (Post- use evaluation)

Ex. Comprehensibility of texts Ex. Ans. Yes/no. Why?
(use 4 criterion)
1.
2.
3.
Note: use one material for all the types of evaluation in this task.
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Press.
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3
Adapting Materials
Terms to Remember
Language Adaptation Materials

Effects Need Principles
Purpose Types
SELF CHECK!
Assess yourself!
Read and answer the questions. Justify your answer.
1. Who should create the learning materials? WHY?
2. State a possible reason why teachers need to adapt a teaching material.

Expound.
Adapting Materials
Identifying the factors to be considered in adapting teaching materials;

Determine the relationship of evaluating to adapting materials;
Enumerate some of the reasons why teachers might need
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to adapt their teaching material;
EL 118: LANGUAGE LEARNINGApply
MATERIALS
theDEVELOPMENT | TSU
principles and procedures for adapting materials.
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Adapting Materials
This part of the module looks at some of the factors to be considered in the process of adapting
teaching materials within particular classroom environments where there is a perceived need for
change and manipulation of certain design features. There is clearly a direct relationship between
evaluating and adapting materials, both in terms of the reasons for doing so and the criteria used:
this part can therefore usefully be seen as forming a pair with the previous lesson. We shall first
set the scene for a discussion of adaptation by looking at ways in which the concept can be
understood. We shall then try to enumerate some of the reasons why teachers might need to
adapt their teaching material. Finally, in the main part of the chapter, these reasons will be
examined in terms of the procedures typically used in adaptation.
The Context of Adaptation
A straightforward starting point for considering the relationship between evaluation and
adaptation is to think of the terms ‘adopting’ and ‘adapting’. We saw in the previous chapter that
a decision about whether a particular coursebook should be used in a specific teaching situation
can be taken on the basis of a number of evaluative criteria. These criteria, formulated as a set of
questions to ask about the materials, provide answers that will lead to acceptance or perhaps
rejection. For instance, typical questions concerned aspects of ‘skills’, different ways in which
language content is handled, and the authenticity of both language and tasks. However, a
decision in favor of adoption is an initial step, and is unlikely to mean that no further action
needs to be taken beyond that of presenting the material directly to the learners. It is more
realistic to assume that, however careful the design of the materials and the evaluation process,
some changes will have to be made at some level in most teaching contexts. As Tomlinson
points out:
Most materials, whether they be written for a global market, for an institution or even for a class,
aim to satisfy the needs and wants of an idealized group of target learners who share similar
needs and levels of proficiency . . . . No matter how good the materials are, they will not by
themselves manage to cater to the different needs, wants, learning styles, attitudes, cultural norms
and experiences of individual learners. (Tomlinson, 2006: 1)
Adaptation, then, is a process subsequent to, and dependent on, adoption.

Furthermore, whereas adoption is concerned with whole coursebooks, adaptation
concerns the parts that make up that whole.
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An important perspective on evaluation – though of course not the only one – is to

see it as a management issue whereby educational decision-makers formulate
policy and work out strategies for budgeting and for the purchasing and allocation
of resources. In this sense, teachers do not always have direct involvement: they
may well influence decisions about whole textbooks only if they are part of a
Ministry of Education team concerned with trialling or writing materials, for
example. Others, perhaps, may be invited to make suggestions and comments as
part of a corporate process of materials selection, but even then, the final decision
will be taken at a managerial point in the school hierarchy. A far more widespread,
and necessary, activity among teachers is therefore that of adaptation, because the
smaller-scale process of changing or adjusting the various parts of a coursebook is,
as we shall see, more closely related to the reality of dealing with learners in the
dynamic environment of the classroom.
This said, let us remind ourselves of another major and persuasive reason for
evaluating textbooks even in a context where teachers have little direct say in
decision-making. Evaluation as an exercise can help us develop insights into
different views of language and learning and into the principles of materials
design, and is something we do against the background of a knowledge of our
learners and of the demands and potential of our teaching situation. It is difficult to
see how the dependent activity of adaptation can take place without this kind of
understanding – how can we change something unless we are clear about what it is
we are changing?
External (What we have) Internal ( what the materials offer0

Learner characteristics Choice of topics
Physical environment Skills covered
Resources Proficiency level
Class size Grading of exercises
Table 1. Matching Internal and External criteria
With this wider perspective in mind, and as a starting point for thinking about the
process of adaptation, it will be useful to extend a little the criteria put forward in
previous part of this module under the headings of ‘external’ and ‘internal’ (see
Table 1). External factors comprise both the overt claims made about materials
and, more significantly for the present chapter, the characteristics of particular
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teaching situations. Internal factors are concerned with content, organization and
consistency. For instance, teaching materials may be coherent but not totally
applicable in context. In this case, internal factors are acceptable, but there is an
external problem. Alternatively, materials may be largely appropriate for the
teaching situation, so external factors are met, but show signs of an inconsistent
organization – an internal problem. Thus, to adapt materials is to try to bring
together these individual elements under each heading in Table 1, or combinations
of them, so that they match each
other as closely as possible.
Madsen and Bowen refer to this matching as the principle of ‘congruence’:

‘Effective adaptation is a matter of achieving “congruence” . . . . The good teacher
is . . . constantly striving for congruence among several related variables: teaching
materials, methodology, students, course objectives, the target language and its
context, and the teacher’s own personality and teaching style’ (Madsen and
Bowen, 1978: ix). This view is echoed in more recent publications on adaptation
(McGrath, 2002; Islam and Mares, 2003; Tomlinson and Masuhara, 2004).
McGrath points out that ‘non-compatibility’ is inherent when the materials are not
written for particular teaching and learning contexts (e.g. learner needs and wants,
syllabus). He also argues for the benefits of adaptation: appropriate and relevant
adapted materials are likely to increase learner motivation and therefore contribute
to enhanced learning.
Tomlinson and Masuhara point out that adapting materials can not only contribute
to the learners’ learning but also to the teachers’ enjoyment of teaching.
The final point in this section is frequently overlooked, perhaps because it is so

much a part of our everyday professional practice that we are unaware of its
implications. Adaptation tends to be thought of as a rather formal process in which
the teacher makes a decision about, say, an exercise that needs changing, and then
writes out a revised version for the class. In fact, although the concept of
adaptation clearly includes this kind of procedure, it is also broader than this.
Adapted material does not necessarily need to be written down or made permanent.
It can be quite transitory: we might think of the response to an individual’s
learning behaviour at a particular moment, for instance, when the teacher rewords
– and by doing so adapts – a textbook explanation of a language point that has not
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been understood. The recognition of the short-term needs of a group may similarly
require teachers to ‘think on their feet’ by introducing extra material, such as a
grammatical example or some idiomatic language, from their own repertoire in the
realtime framework of a class. Madsen and Bowen make the point clearly:
the good teacher is constantly adapting. He adapts when he adds an example not found in the
book or when he telescopes an assignment by having students prepare ‘only the even-numbered
items’. He adapts even when he refers to an exercise covered earlier, or when he introduces a
supplementary picture . . . . While a conscientious author tries to anticipate questions that may be
raised by his readers, the teacher can respond not merely to verbal questions . . . but even to the
raised eyebrows of his students. (Madsen and Bowen, 1978: vii)
To focus only on these kinds of activities would obviously not give us a complete
picture of the concept of adaptation, because it would be necessary at some stage to
extend and systematize its possibilities. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the
task of adapting is not an entirely new skill that teachers must learn.
Reasons for Adapting Materials
Instructional materials should generally be authentic and communicative, and even

if they are already nearly perfect, adaptation of materials nevertheless happens.
Here are some of the reasons for materials adaptation.
It will be useful to compare your own reasons with those in the following list. The
list is not intended to be comprehensive, but simply to show some of the possible
areas of mismatch (‘non-congruence’) that teachers identify and that can be dealt
with by adaptation:
• Not enough grammar coverage in general.

 Not enough practice of grammar points of particular difficulty to these learners.
• The communicative focus means that grammar is presented unsystematically.
• Reading passages contain too much unknown vocabulary.
• Comprehension questions are too easy, because the answers can be lifted directly
from the text with no real understanding.
• Listening passages are inauthentic, because they sound too much like written
material being read out.
• Not enough guidance on pronunciation.
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• Subject matter inappropriate for learners of this age and intellectual level.
• Photographs and other illustrative material not culturally acceptable.
• Amount of material too much or too little to cover in the time allocated to
lessons.
• No guidance for teachers on handling group work and role-play activities with a
large class.
• Dialogues too formal and not representative of everyday speech.
• Audio material difficult to use because of problems to do with room size and
technical equipment.
• Too much or too little variety in the activities.
• Vocabulary list and a key to the exercises would be helpful.
• Accompanying tests needed.
Undoubtedly much more could be added to this list, but it serves as an illustration
of some of the possibilities. All aspects of the language classroom can be covered:
the few examples above include (1) aspects of language use, (2) skills, (3)
classroom organization and (4) supplementary material. Cunningsworth (1995)
seems to generally agree with the list above but adds learner perspectives to his list
such as expectations and motivation. Tomlinson and Masuhara (2004:12)
summarize what factors may trigger feelings of incongruence among teachers.
They categorize the sources as:
• teaching contexts (e.g. national, regional, institutional, cultural situations)

• course requirements (e.g. objectives, syllabus, methodology, assessment)
• learners (e.g. age, language level, prior learning experience, learning style)
• teachers (e.g. teaching style, belief about learning and teaching)
• materials (e.g. texts, tasks, activities, learning and teaching philosophy,
methodology).
Principles and Pocedures for Adapting Materials
The reasons for adapting that we have just looked at can be thought of as dealing
with the modification of content, whether that content is expressed in the form of
exercises and activities, texts, instructions, tests and so on. In other words, the
focus is on what the materials contain, measured against the requirements of a
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particular teaching environment. That environment may necessitate a number of

changes that will lead to greater appropriacy. This is most likely to be expressed in
terms of a need to personalize, individualize or localize the content.
Personalizing materials refers to increasing the relevance of content in relation to

learners’ interests and their academic, educational or professional needs.
Individualizing materials addresses the learning styles both of individuals and of
the members of a class working closely together.
Localizing materials takes into account the international geography
of English language teaching and recognizes that what may work well in one
region may work in another.
Meanwhile, Edge and Wharton (1998) in Halim (2016) suggest that ' experienced
teachers do not tend to follow the script of a course book inflexibly. They add,
delete and change tasks at the planning stage, and they reshape their plans during
the lesson in response to the interaction that take place' (p.300) According to
Allwright (1999, p.25)), textbooks are respected as ' resource books for ideas and
activities' rather than as 'instructional materials'. However, if this receptacle of
ideas is not employed right, it can be a source of deviation. Modern teaching
methodology emphasizes the importance of identifying and teaching to the
individual needs of learners. English language classrooms are diverse places not
only in terms of where they are situated but also in terms of the individual learners
within each context. Commercial materials particularly those produced for the
worldwide English as a Foreign Language market is that they are not aimed at any
specific group of learners or any particular cultural or educational context. For
many teachers designing or adapting their own teaching materials, enables them to
take into account their particular learning environment and to overcome the lack of
'fit' of the course book.
We will now take a look at some of the principles and procedures of adapting
teaching materials:
1. Adding
2. Deleting
3. Modifying / Rewriting
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4. Simplifying
5. Reordering
Adding
The notion of addition is, on the face of it, straightforward, implying that materials
are supplemented by putting more into them while taking into account the practical
effect on time allocation.
Example: If students find the explanation of a new grammatical point rather

difficult,
further exercises are added before they begin the practice material.
It is worth pointing out that additions do not always have to be made on to the end
of something. A new facet of material or methodology can be introduced before it
appears in the framework of the course book.
Deleting or omitting
Deletion is clearly the opposite process to that of addition. Addition and deletion
often work together. Material may be taken out and then replaced with something
else.
Example of Deletion from Reading Contents

The following topics are included in the book titled Well Read 3 Skills and
Strategies
For Reading by Mindy Pasternak/ Elisaveta Wrangell which is followed in some
institutions in Saudi Arabia.
1. Affluenza
2. Jobs, Occupations and Careers
3. The Spirit of Competition
4. Sea horse Fathers
5. Addicted to the Internet
6. Street Art Goes Inside (From Graffiti to Galleries)
7. Solo Percussionist
8. Free Bike Programs
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9. Give a Man a Fish

10. A World of Fast Food
Having looked at the contents of a reading book, teachers may want to investigate
whether the reading materials are sufficiently transparent to motivate both students
and teachers alike or, is there a student/ teacher mismatch. Some materials may
seem attractive for the teacher but would not be very motivating for the learners. A
balance has to be sought and hence teachers can delete some of the topics from the
reading contents.
Modifying/ Rewriting
Modification is a very general term in the language applying to any kind of change.
In other words, the act or process of changing something in order to improve it or
make it more acceptable is known as modification or rewriting.
The most frequently stated requirement for a change in focus is for materials to be
made more communicative. This feeling is voiced in many teaching situations
where text books are considered to lag behind an understanding of the nature of
language and students' linguistic and learning needs.
Rewriting, therefore, may relate activities more closely to learners' own

backgrounds
and interests, introduce models of authentic language, or set more purposeful,
problemsolving tasks where the answers are not always known before the teacher
asks the question.
Example
If we look at the textbook Upper Intermediate Headway Unit 1 (pg. 13), here is a
topic on Holiday Camps where there are questions like' Are there holiday camps
for children in your country ? What can the children do there?' First of all, the
students in many parts of the world may not know about summer camps for
children and it would be difficult for them to understand the situation. If the
students are not familiar with what happens in summer camps then how would they
relate the pictures with the activities related to summer camps.
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Simplifying
Strictly speaking, the technique of simplification is one type of modification,
namely, a rewriting activity. The main application of this technique has been to
texts, most often to reading passages. We can simplify according to:
Sentence structure: Sentence length is reduced, or a complex sentence is rewritten
as a number of simpler ones.
Some teaching situations require attention to the simplification of content when the
complexity of the subject matter is regarded as being too advanced.
Example: 1." Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for
granted;
nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider." Of Studies by Francis
Bacon (1561- 1626)
Example: 2. "This ability to capture pieces of the world seemed to come from
school. No one had confirmed this but the chalk, the satchel, the morning departure
toward this unknown place seemed linked to a ritual of power into which he longed
to be initiated. – School Days by C. Patrick Tapestry Writing 3
Having looked at the two examples mentioned above, it can be said ' texts written
specifically for the classroom generally distort the language in some way.' (Nunan,
1988, p.6).
Simplification can refer not only to content, but also to the ways in which that
content is presented: we may decide not to make any changes to the original text,
but instead to lead the learners through it in a number of graded stages.
Reordering
This procedure refers to the possibility of putting the parts of a course book in a
different order. This may mean adjusting the sequence of presentation within a
unit, or taking units in a different sequence from that originally intended.
Example: Vocabulary Building 1 by Stuart Redman
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In some institutions the following book titled Vocabulary Building 1 – Stuart

Redman is followed in the class to teach the students vocabulary in context. While
following the book, it is noticed that out of 100 units, most of the units do not have
to be taught in any particular order.
A reordering of material is appropriate keeping in mind the length of teaching
program which may be too short for the course book to be worked through from
beginning to end.
It is likely in this case that the language needs of the students will determine the
sequence in which the material will be taken. There is little point in working
systematically through a text book if key aspects of grammar, vocabulary or
communicative function are never reached.
Take this challenge

collaboratively.
1. Choose some materials with which you are familiar, or any others you
would like to work with. (You may device the materials you use in Evaluating materials
task)
2. Decide on any features of the material you would like to change because it
is not entirely suitable for your own teaching situation.
3. Referring as much as possible to the techniques we have been discussing,
draw up some suggestions for how to adapt the material to achieve greater congruence’.
4. If possible, discuss with other groups the reasons for your decisions.
5. Present the result of the task to class.
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Self- Assessment

Essay One
answering thoroughly or responding to the task below. Use the space below for
your answers.
Important Findings. Enumerate five (5) from the abovementioned reasons why
teachers might need to adapt their teaching material. Explicate each reason based
on your understanding of the lesson.
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Press.
Halim, S. (2016, March 17). Adapting Materials: Revisiting the Needs of Learners | Halim |
International Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies (IJHCS) ISSN 2356-5926. Index.Php.
https://www.ijhcs.com/index.php/ijhcs/article/view/208
MODULE IN ENGLISH

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Bachelor of Secondary Education Department

BACHELOR OF SECONDARY EDUCATION

Republic of the Philippines

This course engages the pre-service English

Course Content/Subject Matter

Week 2-3 C. Introduction to Materials Development

Week 4-6 D. Materials Evaluation

Week 7-9 E. Adapting Materials

Week 10 F. Midterm Exam

Week 11-17 G. Developing Specific Types of Materials

Week 18 H. Final Examination

What can you expect to

Introduction to Materials Development

Developing Specific Types of Materials

1. Materials for the Teaching of Grammar

EL118 -LANGUAGE LEARNING MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT is

At the end of the semester, a student completing this course should be

“Press forward. Do not stop, do not linger in your

1 Introduction to Materials Development

Language, Teaching and Learning - 12

4 Developing Specific Types of Materials

Language Procedures Materials

HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW?

1. System of symbols and rules that is D

See choices below the statements

Introduction to Materials Development

Distinguish between language, teaching and learning, and materials

The Structure of Language

What criteria must a system of communication meet in order to be considered a

A language uses symbols

The Building Blocks of Language

Properties of human language

Language Teaching and Language Learning

Learning is normally considered to be a conscious process which consists of the committing to

Take this challenge

WHAT ARE MATERIALS?

- informative (informing the learner about

Functions of (Instructional) Materials

WHAT IS MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT?

WHY IS MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT IMPORTANT?

Take this challenge

CURRENT TRENDS AND ISSUES IN MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

1. The value of textbooks

4. Authenticity of texts and tasks

PRINCIPLES OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION RELEVANT TO

Materials should help learners to feel at ease

Materials should help learners to develop confidence

Styles of learning which need to be catered for in language-learning materials

Materials should permit a silent period at the beginning of instruction

Materials should maximize learning potential by encouraging intellectual, aesthetic and

The maximization of the brain’s learning potential is a fundamental principle of Lozanov’s

Materials should not rely too much on controlled practice

Materials should provide opportunities for outcome feedback

Take this challenge

Your group may follow this format for your answers.

PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT FOR

Principles of Materials Development

Take this challenge

HOW MUCH DO YOU REMEMBER?

Main References and Suggested Readings

Language Evaluation Materials

a. Consistently b. Usually c. Sometimes d. Not really

What is Materials Evaluation?