Reviews
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International Perspectives on Materials in ELT
S. Garton and K. Graves (eds.)
Palgrave Macmillan 2014, 292 pp., $32
isbn 987 1 137 02329 2
As Richards (2001: 251) points out, ‘[m]uch of the
language teaching that occurs throughout the world
today could not take place without the extensive use
of commercial materials’. Researching such materials,
as well as researching their use in the classroom, is
therefore of great importance. Indeed, it may well
be the sign of a coming-of-age that the study of
English language learning materials has witnessed
a dramatic increase in publications over the last two
decades. Since the publication of Hidalgo, Hall, and
Jacobs (1995) and of Tomlinson (1998), there have
been important collections by Tomlinson himself (for
example 2003, 2008), Harwood (2014), and Gray
(2013), as well as research monographs (Gray 2010)
and research informed practical handbooks (McGrath
2002/2016; Mishan and Timmis 2015). This volume
is an impressive addition to this list, showcasing
16 chapters by contributors from a plurality of
international contexts, covering several forms of
materials. The studies included also shed light on the
intersection of materials with different areas such as
teacher education, literacy development, curriculum,
and technology for language teaching.
Chapter 1, ‘Materials in ELT: current issues’, by Garton
and Graves, provides the backdrop for this volume.
Acknowledging recent research, they nevertheless
point out that there is still little research into how
textbooks are used, also pointing out the inherent
problematicity of implementing textbooks within
specific learning contexts. Indeed, this is an important
theme running through many of the chapters in this
collection.
The rest of this volume falls into four sections.
Part I, ‘Global and local materials’, begins with an
overview by Richards, which in fact serves as a second
introduction. Richards outlines some of the important
ELT Journal Volume 71/3 July 2017 
© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.
issues long at the forefront of discussions of both the
production and use of textbooks, such as the cultural
content of textbooks and authenticity of language. He
discusses textbook selection and evaluation (including
pre-, while-, and post-use evaluation), and concludes
with a detailed and extremely useful discussion of
textbook adaptation (again, an important theme
throughout this book).
The rest of this section deals with specific instances
of textbooks and textbook use. In Chapter 3, López-
Barrios and Villanueva de Debat present a study of
textbook localization in Argentina, beginning with a
useful, theory-driven description of the differences
between international materials and local or localized
ones. Their study revealed that most teachers
tend to use international textbooks, adapting and
supplementing them with reading and listening tasks
as well as language activities. Interestingly, these
modifications focused mainly on contextualization,
as opposed to other parameters such as linguistic
contrast, intercultural reflection, or facilitation of
learning.
Al Majthoob (Chapter 4) offers a thought-provoking
chapter on adapting materials to meet the literacy
needs of young learners in Bahrain. It is particularly
interesting in its description of governmental
processes for overseeing materials adaptation,
including consideration of L1 literacy strategies.
Chapter 5, by Messekher, provides the only substantial
example of local textbooks in this section, addressing
the cultural representations of English textbooks in
Algerian public schools. Messekher’s textbook analysis
showed how cultural representations predominantly
included ‘Big C’ culture; her interviews with teachers
highlighted the need for cultural content (both local
culture and target culture) to be tackled more critically
both in textbooks and in teacher training.
Part II focuses on materials use in the classroom.
Seferaj presents a case study of an Albanian teacher
and her use of communicative language teaching
(CLT) materials. Although some of Seferaj’s examples
suggest to us that we would not view the book he
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discusses as ‘CLT’, he does illustrate the way the
teacher took activities with CLT features and changed
them to perform traditional whole class, teacher-led,
and accuracy-focused activities. Seferaj thus highlights
the importance of considering teachers’ cognitions,
contextual constraints and, importantly, teacher
training, when innovations are implemented. He also
stresses the advantages of engaging local trainers
(rather than foreign experts) to train teachers to
implement change.
In Chapter 7, Bosompem examines textbook
adaptation by teachers in a higher education
institution (HEI) in Ghana. Bosompem documents
the positive view teachers have of textbook adaptation,
although interestingly many teachers were not
aware of the ways in which they were adapting their
textbooks; in fact, some teachers did not feel they
were ‘authorized’ to do this. Adaptation is also the
focus of Nuangpolmak’s (Chapter 8) response to
different proficiency levels in a university classroom
in Bangkok through supplementing the coursebook
with ten writing tasks, each of which was differentially
scaffolded at three proficiency levels.
Igielski (Chapter 9) describes developing materials
in response to her English as a Second Language
(ESL) students’ affective, cultural, and linguistic
backgrounds in a mainstream class in fourth
grade in the United States. Through designing and
implementing a unit targeted towards the individual
cultural backgrounds and the language needs of her
students (compared with traditional, commercially
designed materials), she demonstrates that an
emotionally, academically, and socially responsive
framework can provide learners with significant help
to successfully access the curriculum.
The chapters in Part III all deal with materials and
technology, and, refreshingly, move away from a
preoccupation with the publishing industry to focus
on materials other than textbooks. Rahman and Cotter
describe the evaluation of a series of lessons designed
for EFL learners in Bangladesh, delivered on mobile
phones, using voice SMS. Examining learners’ diaries,
face-to-face interviews, and lesson tests, Rahman
and Cotter show how the lessons fostered language
learning, increased the learners’ confidence, increased
motivation, and encouraged learners to engage in
additional ways of language learning. In Chapter 11,
Pereira describes the use of Interactive Fiction, a
text-based digital game genre, as language learning
material promoting extended reading in English
instruction in Portugal. The chapter mainly deals with
a theoretical evaluation of one 90-minute lesson.
Pereira argues that the use of this technology proved
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not only pleasurable but also stimulated the use of all
four language skills.
In contrast to these two chapters, which are
notable for the simple technology they illustrate,
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Maggi, Cherubin, and García Pascual describe a
more complex project, using Web 2.0 tools and
collaboration between two classes in different towns
in Italy. The six-month project focused on a science
unit using blogs, wikis, social networks, Google Docs,
and Skype, among others, and highlights how learners
at two different levels can serve as facilitators and
teachers to the other group.
Part IV focuses on materials and teacher education.
Tibbitts and Pashby report on a materials development
project using Dramatic Reading, aimed at equipping
South Korean teachers with language and language
teaching competences. Chapter 14, by Augusto-
Navarro, de Oliveira, and de Abreu-e-Lima, provides
a detailed account of designing and delivering a
course on evaluating and designing teaching materials
for pre-service EFL teachers in Brazil. This 60-hour
course arose from the belief that teacher education
programmes should equip student teachers to
understand the impact of language learning and
teaching theories on materials, and also equip them
to reflect on their effectiveness, a need acknowledged
throughout this book. This experience made student
teachers aware of the importance of responding to
learners’ needs, placing them at the heart of their
concerns. Altogether, this chapter is a remarkable
example of teacher preparation in materials
development.
In Chapter 15, Humphries examines the factors
promoting or inhibiting the appropriate use of an
innovative textbook by teachers with no training in
CLT in a rural technical college in Japan. Through
observations and semi-structured interviews over a
period of six weeks, Humphries identified the factors
influencing the effective use of the textbook, such as
sociocultural elements, uncertainty, student issues,
limited teacher training, and the unsuitability of the
materials, amongst others. Humphries concludes
that policymakers should consider teachers’ opinions
when introducing both a new textbook and a new
methodology.
The final paper, by Graves and Garton, presents
three themes arising from the volume for future
consideration. The first is the content present
in materials, especially considering the status of
English as a globalized language. The second is
the effectiveness of teachers’ use of materials,
underscoring the importance of collecting feedback
from teachers on materials and the importance of
incorporating materials design and evaluation into
teacher education programmes. The third theme they
discuss is the affordances of technology and how
teachers play a critical role in supporting students to
use technology as a language learning tool.
Considering the current wide range of volumes on
materials and materials development, what does this
volume offer that is different? The first important
feature of this book is the truly international spread
it presents. Setting aside the three overview chapters
(1, 2, and 16), the other chapters reflect materials use
in 13 countries, some of which will not have figured
in many research papers on materials in ELT. This is
an important achievement, giving voice to contexts
which we are not accustomed to read about (in that
respect the only comparable volume, giving voice to
local authors and researchers is Hidalgo et al. op.cit.).
Interestingly, within this international context, and
in spite of the prevalence of the global textbook, we
have evidence of the importance of local materials:
Messekher (Algeria) focuses only on locally produced
textbooks, and the chapters by López-Barrios and
Villanueva de Debat (Argentina), Bosompem (Ghana),
and Humphries (Japan) mention this, too. Having
said that, this is in fact one area which could have
been emphasized even more: in many countries (for
example France, Germany, Austria, Israel) the public
education sector is dominated by local textbooks,
including at upper-intermediate and advanced levels;
in many other countries, locally produced books are
an option open to schools which often comes into its
own where cost is a factor. Thus, there is more work
to be done in our understanding of the role of local
textbooks worldwide. Another important international
aspect of ELT underpins al-Majthoob’s chapter, which
reminds us that the majority of EFL learners in the
world come either from non-alphabetic scripts or from
languages using different alphabets. Interestingly,
although there is substantial research into L1/L2
reading processes and literacy, there is very little in
the materials development literature which deals with
these issues.
Some of the chapters in the book very clearly illustrate
best practice, each in its own way. Outstanding
examples for us were Igielski’s careful attention to
the background of each of the nine ESL learners in
her classroom, in terms of affective, cultural, and
linguistic factors and her work with the community
to support language learning; the collaboration
demonstrated between different teachers and
different classes described in Maggi et al.;
Nuangpolmak’s graded writing tasks; and the highly
structured course on materials described by Augusto-
Navarro et al.
Reviews
But the international spread of the volume and the
bottom-up element in the authors’ engagement
with very real contexts mean that lurking within the
chapters—even these best-practice examples—
are some uneasy truths about teachers, learners,
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and teacher training. Some of the contexts in
the book which enabled the authors to construct
good quality materials are privileged contexts: the
primary classroom with only 16 pupils (Igielski); a
collaboration between two teachers in different towns,
facilitated by a third teacher (Maggi et al.); external
funding from UKaid (Rahman and Cotter). Another
uneasy truth is what some chapters reveal about
teacher training internationally. The importance of
training and the shortcomings of teacher training in
terms of materials evaluation and design has come
up in the summaries above; to that we need to add
that in the Ghanaian context described by Bosompem,
teachers do not actually need to have been trained;
likewise, in the Japanese technical college described
by Humphries, training background was extremely
varied. Seferaj’s chapter also illustrates how previous
training dominates the way the teacher adapts to
using a more recent textbook.
Another issue is what we mean by ‘materials’. Of the
13 chapters, eight deal exclusively with textbooks,
and much of the materials development described
here (and possibly in other contexts, too) seems to
be triggered by the need to adapt or supplement a
textbook. The chapters that do not take this route fall
into different groups. In two chapters (Igielski; Maggi
et al.), we have accounts of teachers who go beyond
the textbook to produce project-based, cooperation-
rich materials, with content as their backbone, for
use over an extended period of time. Two chapters
(Rahman and Cotter; Pereira) focus primarily on the
affordances of new technology. And in one chapter
we have a focus on non-textbook texts, picture books
(Tibbitts and Pashby). But clearly, the quote from
Richards (op.cit.) above is reflected in the spread of
the chapters here.
Another theme that emerges from this volume is the
current state of research into using materials and
the difficulty of conducting such research. Some of the
chapters are case studies, and provide illuminating
insights into their contexts: Seferaj’s case study of one
teacher using multiple data sources is a good example
of such small-scale research, even if a disheartening
one. However, chapters that rely on large numbers of
participants were not as strong. The data in López-
Barrios and Villanueva de Debat’s chapter come
from only 30 respondents. In such instances, we lose
the richness and insights of a case study, without
gaining any of the generalizability of surveys or their
379
statistical power. The chapter by Rahman and Cotter
is another case in point: it is an extremely ambitious
project, particularly in its important attempt to track
learners longitudinally. But with 46 participants,
only 32 of whom finished the project, one wonders
whether it would not have been better to recruit more
respondents initially in order to allow for attrition,
especially since these 46 were in three groups
(though obviously we are aware of the implications
of recruiting a large number of participants to such a
study).
There are many additional points that arise from
the chapters here, but overall it is a reminder that
more work needs to be done about locally produced
materials, and that our picture of materials, materials
writing, and materials development remains skewed
towards the Centre. Indeed, many chapters present
studies suitable for replication. The volume is
thus an important contribution to research into
materials and takes the field forward in its focus on
materials in under-researched contexts. It belongs
on the recommended reading list for any module on
materials design and on the reading list for anyone
interested in the realities of using materials in
classrooms worldwide.
References
Gray, J. 2010. The Construction of English: Culture,
Consumerism and Promotion in the ELT Global
Coursebook. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gray, J. (ed.). 2013. Critical Perspectives on Language
Teaching Materials. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Harwood, N. (ed.). 2014. English Language Teaching
Textbooks: Content, Consumption, Production.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hidalgo, A., D. Hall, and G. Jacobs (eds.). 1995.
Getting Started: Materials Writers on Materials Writing.
Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre.
McGrath, I. 2002/2016. Materials Evaluation and
Design for Language Teaching. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press.
380 Reviews
Mishan, F. and I. Timmis. 2015. Materials Development
for TESOL. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Richards, J. C. 2001. Curriculum Development in
Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/eltj/article/71/3/377/3737381 by National Science & Technology Library Root Admin user on 02 August 2021
Tomlinson, B. (ed.). 1998. Materials Development in
Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Tomlinson, B. (ed.). 2003. Developing Materials for
Language Teaching. London: Continuum.
Tomlinson, B. (ed.). 2008. English Language Learning
Materials: A Critical Review. London: Continuum.
The reviewers
Luis Carabantes is an English teacher from Chile.
He holds a BA in English language teaching from
the Catholic University of Temuco, an MA in English
Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics from
King’s College London, and is currently doing a PhD
in Education at the UCL Institute of Education. He has
experience teaching English in primary, secondary, and
tertiary education as well as training pre-service and
in-service teachers of English. His current research
explores how pre-service teachers of English learn to
design their language teaching materials.
Email: luis.carabantes@gmail.com
Amos Paran started his career as a secondary school
EFL teacher and later as a materials writer. He is
now a Reader in Second Language Education at
the UCL Institute of Education, where he teaches a
module on Materials Development on the MA TESOL
programme. His main areas of research are reading
in a foreign language and the use of literature in
language teaching and learning. He is the author, with
Pauline Robinson, of Literature (Oxford University
Press) and a lead instructor on the MOOC, Teaching
EFL/ESL Reading: A Task-based Approach.
Email: a.paran@ucl.ac.uk
doi:10.1093/elt/ccx020
Advance Access publication April 17, 2017