Understanding Language Teaching

Materials Development

PRESENTED BY:
YUSNITA, PURWATI AND RATNA
 Teaching Learning Materials

Materials can be:

Informative (informing the learner about the target

language)
Instructional (guiding the learner in practising the
language)
Experiential (providing the learner with experience of the
language in use)
Eliciting (encouraging the learner to use the language)
Exploratory (helping the learner to make discoveries about
the language).
 Examples of materials:

Videos
DVDs
Emails
YouTube
Dictionaries
Grammar books
Readers
Newspaper
Teacher’s instruction
 What does ‘Materials development’ mean?

‘Materials development’ refers to all the processes made use

of by practitioners who produce and/or use materials for
language learning, including materials evaluation, their
adaptation, design, production, exploitation and research.
Ideally, all of these processes should be given consideration
and should interact in the making of language-learning
materials.
Materials development is both a field of study and a
practical undertaking. As a field it studies the principles and
procedures of the design, implementation and evaluation of
language teaching materials
 Frameworks for materials development

 Richards (1995:102-103) describes frameworks as

the process of designing a “design or frame for a
unit in a textbook” which can “serve as a formulae
which the author can use in writing the book”
 Flores (1995:60-62) also describes frameworks that
outline a lesson format with the following basic
stage:
 Key components in lesson format

Starter
Input
General information
Language focus
Tasks
Basic stages in outlining a lesson format

Listening with Understanding

Using Grammar in Oral Reading for Understanding

Interaction

Writing Literature
Jolly and Bolitho (1998:97-98) have an interestingly different approach to
frameworks and focus not on a unit frameworks but on a framework for
developing materials, which involves the following procedures:

 Identification of need for materials

 Exploration of need
 Contextual realization of materials
 Pedagogical realization of materials
 Productions of materials
 Student use of materials
 Evaluation of materials against agreed
objectives
The basic principles of SLA relevant to the development of materials
for the teaching of languages

1. Materials should achieve 2. Materials should help

impact learners to feel at ease

Novelty Most learners feel more

comfortable with written
Variety materials with lots of white
Attractive presentation space
Learners are more at ease with
Appealing content
texts and illustration that they
Achievable challange can relate to their own culture
Learners are more relaxed with
materials which are obviously
trying to help them to learn
The basic principles of SLA relevant to the development of materials
for the teaching of languages

4. What is being taught should be

3. Materials should help perceived by learners as relevant
learners to develop confidence and useful

Relaxed and self- By relating teaching

confident learners points to interesting and
learn faster challenging classroom
tasks and by presenting
(Dulay, Burt and them in ways which could
Krashen in Tomlinson, facilitate achievement of
2011: 10) the task outcomes desired
by the learners.
The basic principles of SLA relevant to the development of materials
for the teaching of languages

5. Materials should require and 6. Learners must be ready to acquire

facilitate learner self-investment the points being taught

By By materials which create

providing learners
situations requiring the use of
with choices of focus and variational features not previously
activities taught
By materials which ensure that
Involving the learners in
the learners have gained sufficient
mini-projects mastery over the developmental
Involving learners in features of the previous stage
before teaching a new one
finding supplementary By materials which get learners to
materials for particular focus attention on features of the
units in a book target language
The basic principles of SLA relevant to the development of materials
for the teaching of languages

8. The learners’ attention should be

7. Materials should expose the
drawn to linguistic features of the
learners to language in authentic use
input

The advice they give It is important to understand

that learners need to pay
The instructions for attention to linguistic features
their activities of authentic input
The important thing is that the
The spoken and
learners become aware of a gap
written texts they between the interlanguage and
include the equivalent feature in the
The target language
activities they
suggest
 The basic principles of SLA relevant to the development of materials
for the teaching of languages

9. Materials should provide the

learners with opportunities to use 10. Materials should take into
target language to achieve account that the positive effects of
communicative purposes instruction are usually delayed

Information or opinion gap To

activities which require learners to
facilitate the
communicate gradual process of
Post-listening and post-reading acquisition, it is
activities which require the learners
to use information from the text important for materials
Creative writing and creative to recycle instruction
speaking activities (writing a story)
Formal instruction given in the
and to provide frequent
target language either on the
langugae itself
 The basic principles of SLA relevant to the development of
materials for the teaching of languages

11. Materials should take into 12. Materials should take into
account that learners differ in account that learners different in
learning styles affective attitude

Styles which need to be One implication is to diversify

language instructions. Ways of
catered:visual, auditory,
doing this:
kinaesthetic, studial, Providing choices of different text and
experiential, analytic, global, types of activities
dependent, independent. Providing optional extras for the more
positive and motivated learners; and
The important point for variety
materials developers is that Including units in which the value of
learning English is a topic for discussion,
they are aware of and cater involve the learners in discussion
for different of preferred Being aware of the cultural sensitivies
learning styles in their Specific advice to respond to negative

materials. learners
 The basic principles of SLA relevant to the development of
materials for the teaching of languages

13. Materials should permit a silent

period at the beginning of 14. Materials should maximize
instruction learning potential

It is extremely valuable to delay It is done by encouraging

L2 speaking for beginners until intellectual, aesthetic, and
they have gained sufficient emotional involvement which
exposure stimulates both right and left brain
activities
Possible ways include:
It is important that the content is
 Starting the course with TPR
not trivial or banal to lead to
 Starting with listening deeper and more durable learning.
comprehension approach The maximisation of the brain’s
 Permitting to respond by using learning potential is fundamental
as in suggestopedia: enabling
first language or through
learners to receive information
drawings or gestures through cerebral process
 The basic principles of SLA relevant to the development of
materials for the teaching of languages

15. Materials should not rely too 16. Materials should provide
much on controlled practice opportunities for outcome feedback

Ellis (1990; 192): controlled If the language that the learner

practice has little long term produces is evaluated in relation

effect on accuracy on to the purpose for which it is
used, that language can become
accuracy and fluency
a powerful and informative
Dominance is still shown in source of information about the
some low level course books, language use.
resulting in many students It is very important for materials
and teachers wasting their developers yo make sure that
time for drills, listening to language production activities
and repeating dialogues have intended outcome other
than just practising language
 Principles in Materials Development

Most writers on the process of the materials

development focus on needs analysis as starting
point. And some writers report starting by
articulating their principles.
Bell and Gower (1998:122-125) started by
articulating principles which they wanted to guide
their writing:
 Flexibility
 From text to language
 Engaging content
 Natural language
 Analytic approaches
 Emphasis on review
 Personalized practice
 Integrated skills
 Balance of approaches
 Learner development
 Professional respect
 Tomlinson (1999b) describes a principled and
flexible framework designed to help teachers to
develop materials efficiently and effectively.
 Penaflorida (1995:172-179) reports her use of the
six principles of materials design identified by
Nunan (1988):
a. Materials should be clearly linked to the
curriculum they serve.
b. Materials should be authentic in terms of text
and task
c. Materials should stimulate interaction
d. Materials should allow learners to focus on
formal aspects of the language
e. Materials should encourage learners to develop
learning skills, and skills in learning
f. Materials should encourage learners to apply
their developing skills to the world beyond the
classroom.
 A Text-driven Approach to Materials
Development

Tomlinson’s own preference is the text-driven

approach, in which an engaging written or spoken
text drives a unit of materials in which readiness
activities activate the learners’ minds in relation to
the text, initial response activities stimulate
engagement whilst experiencing the text, intake
response activities encourage articulation of personal
responses, input response activities invite exploration
of features of the text and development activities
encourage learner production (Tomlinson 2003c).
 Table of a summary of the text-driven
framework
Stage Procedure Principles Objectives
Text Collection Find or create Affective To build a library
potentially engagement is a of text with the
engaging texts prerequisite for potential for
(written or durable learning engaging learners
spoken)
Text Selection Select a text Texts need to be To find a text with
suitable in level matched with the potential for
and theme for your learners useful engagement
target learners for the target
learners
Text Experience Read or listen to Apprehension To start from an
the text should come experience which
experientially before you can try to help
comprehension the learners to
approximate.
Readiness Devise activities Inner speech and Multidimensional
Activities which could help the establishment way they would
the learners of affective and automatically use
achieve mental cognitive when experiencing
readiness for connections an L1 text.
experiencing the
text
Experiential Devise whilst- L2 learners tend to To help the
Activities reading or process a text in a learners to move
listening activities studies way in an away from their
which will help the insecure attempt tendency to study
learners to process to achieve total texts so that they
the text in an comprehension can engage with
experiential way the text instead
experientially
Intake Response Devise activities Learning is To encourage
Activities which help facilitated by learners to process
learners to starting positively their representation
articulate and from what the of a text rather than
develop their learners do know the text itself and to
mental and understand encourage them to
representation of be relaxed and
the text confident in their
response to texts.

Development Devise activities Mental To help learners

Activities which help the connections express themselves
learners to use facilitate learning in the target
their language
representation of intelligently and
the text as a basis creatively
for language
production
activities
Input Response Devise activities A good time to To get the learners
Activities which help the analyze a text is to develop their
learners to go back just after an analytical skills
to the text and to enjoyable and their ability to
discover patterns multidimensional make discoveries
and regularities of experience of it, about the use of
language use in the Helping learners the target language
text to make for themselves.
discoveries for
themselves can be
an effective way of
promoting long-
term learning

Trialling Try out the Matching To find out how

materials with a materials to usable and
typical target class learners needs and motivating the
wants is an materials are
ongoing, dynamic
process
Evaluation Use questionnaires, Giving learners a To show learners
interviews and chance to evaluate they are respected
analysis of the their learning process and to find out
learners’ work to find can not only provide what effect the
out what effect the useful information materials had on
materials had on the but can also motivate them
learners and stimulate
learners
Revision Produce an improved Materials developers To match the
version of the and teachers need needs and wants
materials constantly to improve of the learners
their materials to
achieve a closer
match with learners
need and wants
Although the framework above is primarily text-driven
it can be adapted to become an activity-driven
framework with the text to base the activities on being
chosen by the learners from a library of texts either
provided for them or built up over a period of time by
themselves.
Materials can be based on units of the text genres (e.g,
advertisement, reports, jokes, announcements, stories,
etc) and the learners can be asked to find an
appropriate and engaging text from the internet.
 Conclusion

Tomlinson’s argument is that the activities in a

course should match with learner needs and wants
and with principles of language learning, and that
they should be developed in ways which provide
flexibility of use as well as coherence of connection.
Consideration: target context of use for the materials
and principles; experience of the writers; developing
a flexible framework.
The writing process will start with the learner as the
focus and with principles in mind.
 REFERENCES

 Tomlinson, Brian. (2011). Materials Development

in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

Tomlinson, Brian (Ed.). (2003). Developing

Materials for Language Teaching. New York:
Cromwell Press.
THANK YOU