İngi̇li̇zce Öğreti̇mi̇nde Ders İçeri̇ği̇ Geli̇şti̇rme - 9. Hafta Ders Sunusu - 22kasim2022

KURUMSAL İLETİŞİM DİREKTÖRLÜĞÜ
Directorate of Corporate Communication
KAZIM KARABEKİR EĞİTİM FAKÜLTESİ

Kazım Karabekir Faculty of Education
Developing Reading
Materials
for ESL Learners
Dersin Adı: İngilizce Öğretiminde Ders İçeriği Geliştirme
(Course Content Development in ELT)
Dersin Hocası: Doç. Dr. Savaş Yeşilyurt
CONTENTS
Selection of Reading Topics
Selection and Use of Vocabulary

Developing reading materials is dealt with in terms of:
 the topics to be included (in relation to reader interest,

needs, and schema)
 the vocabulary components of the content materials

(selection and presentation of vocabulary items)
FIRST PART
Selection of Reading Topics
Reading is one of the most important and widely used activities.
It serves as a source of information;
 It is a means of increasing and consolidating one’s

knowledge of the language itself;
 It is also important for personal, social, and academic

achievement.
There are different reading goals:.
 Reading for language learning
 Reading for comprehension
The first one is practiced in the early stages of language learning;
The second one remains as the ultimate goal of most reading

courses.
In reading for meaning (or comprehension), readers not only
take meaning from but also bring meaning (through

background knowledge, experience, interests, emotions and
culture) to the printed material.
The reader makes meaning out of the materials thanks to the

efficient interaction between his world knowledge and
linguistic knowledge.
Readers should be able to both construct meaning from the
language in which the text is written and to identify and process
the words and phrases in the reading material.

Choosing the right reading material is not easy.
There are a number of factors that should be

taken into account.
Learner-related Factors
Interest
Background
Knowledge Relevance
Variety Authenticity
Interest:
The interest in reading is one of the most important factors. In the
absence of interest to read, very little or perhaps no reading will take
place.
 The reading activities need to generate interest in readers.

Individual interest: the reader preferences for certain subject

matters or topics
Situational interest: being appealing to the reader in terms of

text characteristics such as novelty, importance, relevance, ease of
comprehension, triggering emotional reactions, variety and so on.
Interest has a facilitating role in enhancing the tendency to read

more and benefiting from reading activity and to have a better
performance making te reader read better, attend more and work
harder.
Interest results in persistence in reading and increased attention,
better text processing, more recall of main ideas and deep
comprehension of the materials.
Relevance:
Use of materials that are not interesting or irrelevant to
learners’ present or future life results in their reluctance and

loss of confidence.
Authenticity:
The reading materials sould be as authentic as possible.
In a pedagogic context, a text that is made to communicate some
message can be considered authentic as it carries with it
some sort of authentic purpose.
However, materials designed for native speakers often involve

demanding language with complicated grammatical structures
and very rare lexical items.
… can be demotivating - can put up the affective filter
Therefore, any use of authentic materials should be levelled
for the reader’s level of language ability, meeting his
educational needs and expectations.

Variety:
Inclusion of a variety of topics proves to stand a better chance of
catering for the needs and interests of a larger number of

readers.
Reader’s Background Knowledge:

Topics should be familiar and comfortable.
The readers should be able to use their background knowledge to

understand the reading topic.
……………………………………………………………………
…...
Text-related Factors
Content Suitability: Exploitability: Readability:

Being interesting and An exploitable text is If the text is heavily
motivating and one that can be used loaded with new
relevant to learners’ to develop the reader’s structural and lexical
age, developmental competence in the items and offers too
level and needs. language. Only the much of new
materials that can be information, it would
used in the classroom be too difficult for the
context can be of reader to read and get
instructional value. any meaning from it.
In brief, readers’ comprehension can and must be maximized by

providing culturally relevant, schematically related and
interesting materials.
The reading passages should be levelled appropriately not only for

the reader’s grade and age but also for his interest, schema and
objectives.
SECOND PART
Selection and Use of Vocabulary
Vocabulary is one of the most important components of language.
“You can understand a reading text … with almost no

grammar, but you can’t get anywhere without
vocabulary”.
It is not possible to include all vocabulary in the ELT materials.
Degree of importance and usefulness to the language learners

should be taken into account.
Having decided upon the topics for the course, the next step for
materials developers is the selection of appropriate vocabulary

to present the content.
Two important aspects should be taken into account in the

selection of vocabulary.
Two important aspects of

vocabulary selection
LINGUISTIC
FACTORS
PEDAGOGICAL
FACTORS
LINGUISTIC FACTORS
Frequency, Range, Coverage and Defining Power

 Items of higher frequency rates have a better chance of
being encountered outside the classroom situation.
“Learners get the best return for their vocabulary
learning effort”. …and this affects recognition and
retrieval of word meaning(s).»
 Items that are used in a variety of language registers
are more useful than those with high frequency rate
that are specific to a special register.
 Items of wider coverage like ‘PUT ON’ covers a

wider sense than others like ‘DRESS UP’, which has a
more specialized meaning.
 Vocabulary items with high defining power such as
‘TOOL’ are more useful than those with less defining
power like ‘wrench (spanner)’, ‘SCREWDRIVER’,
‘pliers’, and so on.
PEDAGOGICAL FACTORS
Immediate use and learnability/teachability:

Items of immediate use to students that are of everyday use
should be prioritized over other lexical items at least in the early
stages.
More learnable / teachable items: Concrete, short, familiar

words are easier to pick up than abstract ones because of their
compositionality level.
Having selected the appropriate vocabulary, the next step is

the effective presentation of vocabulary items in the
reading texts.
Recycling:
New vocabulary should be effectively recycled. The frequent
occurrence of new forms accelerates the acquisition process.
An occurrence of seven times over spaced intervals stand a

good chance of being remembered.
It is pedagogically sensible for different aspects of language to be

recycled and elaborated on over a period of time (at spaced
intervals in the follow-up activities and lessons).
The repetition of the vocabulary items should be carried out in a way

that, when a new item is introduced, it gets repeated a number of times
in the same lesson (Successive Recycling) and then across the
following lessons in the course (Spaced Recycling) for learning
consolidation purposes.
Readers should be provided with ample opportunity to

extend their depth of knowledge of the different layers
of meanings of the vocabulary items that are of frequent use in
general English.
Another effective practice is to bring to the attention of the reader a

number of new items in each reading assignment with different
possible techniques.
 direct focus
 indirect focus
In Indirect Focus, words are just semantically related to the topic

of the reading.
In Direct Focus, words are practiced or drawn attention by
boldfacing, underlining, colouring, glossing them in the text or
questioning them in the follow-up reading activities.
(Some items are included in the reading for their instructional
usefulness.)
Although extensive reading helps learners learn vocabulary
incidentally in context, explicit instruction of some items in

each reading assignment should be adopted to enable learners to
achieve deeper levels of vocabulary knowledge.
On the other hand, the mere direct focus on new vocabulary
in the reading texts does not guarantee that they will

automatically be added up to the learners’ lexical knowledge.
Word knowledge is incremental (cumulative) and has
to be constantly expanded and deepened by frequent
repetition, presenting them in different contexts of

use.
Reference(s)
 Azarnoosh, M., Zeraatpishe, M., Faravani, A., & Kargozari,
H. R. (Eds.). (2016). Issues in materials development.
Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense.
Thank you for your attention.

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KURUMSAL İLETİŞİM DİREKTÖRLÜĞÜ

Directorate of Corporate Communication

KAZIM KARABEKİR EĞİTİM FAKÜLTESİ

Selection and Use of Vocabulary

Developing reading materials is dealt with in terms of:

 the topics to be included (in relation to reader interest,

 the vocabulary components of the content materials

Reading is one of the most important and widely used activities.

It serves as a source of information;

 It is a means of increasing and consolidating one’s

 It is also important for personal, social, and academic

There are different reading goals:.

 Reading for language learning

 Reading for comprehension

The first one is practiced in the early stages of language learning;

The second one remains as the ultimate goal of most reading

In reading for meaning (or comprehension), readers not only

take meaning from but also bring meaning (through

The reader makes meaning out of the materials thanks to the

Readers should be able to both construct meaning from the

language in which the text is written and to identify and process

the words and phrases in the reading material.

Choosing the right reading material is not easy.

There are a number of factors that should be

 The reading activities need to generate interest in readers.

Individual interest: the reader preferences for certain subject

Situational interest: being appealing to the reader in terms of

Interest has a facilitating role in enhancing the tendency to read

learners’ present or future life results in their reluctance and

However, materials designed for native speakers often involve

Therefore, any use of authentic materials should be levelled

for the reader’s level of language ability, meeting his

educational needs and expectations.

catering for the needs and interests of a larger number of

Reader’s Background Knowledge:

The readers should be able to use their background knowledge to

Content Suitability: Exploitability: Readability:

In brief, readers’ comprehension can and must be maximized by

The reading passages should be levelled appropriately not only for

Vocabulary is one of the most important components of language.

“You can understand a reading text … with almost no

It is not possible to include all vocabulary in the ELT materials.

Degree of importance and usefulness to the language learners

materials developers is the selection of appropriate vocabulary

Two important aspects should be taken into account in the

Two important aspects of

Frequency, Range, Coverage and Defining Power

 Items of wider coverage like ‘PUT ON’ covers a

Immediate use and learnability/teachability:

More learnable / teachable items: Concrete, short, familiar

Having selected the appropriate vocabulary, the next step is

occurrence of new forms accelerates the acquisition process.

An occurrence of seven times over spaced intervals stand a

It is pedagogically sensible for different aspects of language to be

The repetition of the vocabulary items should be carried out in a way

Readers should be provided with ample opportunity to

Another effective practice is to bring to the attention of the reader a

In Indirect Focus, words are just semantically related to the topic

Although extensive reading helps learners learn vocabulary

incidentally in context, explicit instruction of some items in

On the other hand, the mere direct focus on new vocabulary

in the reading texts does not guarantee that they will