State of the art

Materials development can be informative and instructional

Most commercially produced materials focus on:

[blank_start]‘Materials development’[blank_end] refers to all the processes made use of by [blank_start]practitioners[blank_end] who produce and/or use materials for [blank_start]language learning[blank_end], including materials evaluation, their adaptation, [blank_start]design[blank_end], production, [blank_start]exploitation[blank_end] and research. Ideally, all of these [blank_start]processes[blank_end] should be given consideration and should interact in the making of language-learning [blank_start]materials[blank_end].

[blank_start]Fenner & Newby (2000)[blank_end] on approaches to materials design in [blank_start]European coursebooks[blank_end], Richards (2001) on curriculum development with frequent reference to materials development, and [blank_start]McGrath (2002)[blank_end] on materials evaluation and design, which was probably the first book to not only provide applications of theory to the [blank_start]practice of evaluating[blank_end], adapting and supplementing materials but also to make principled suggestions for systematising materials design.

Which are the questions for evaluating criteria proposed by Tomlinson & Masuhara (2004: 7)?

[blank_start]Many reports[blank_end] on micro-evaluations of materials are [blank_start]written for sponsors[blank_end] of projects or for publishers and are, understandably, confidential. Some [blank_start]reports of evaluations[blank_end] of materials in action are dotted throughout the literature but are rarely collected in one volume or issue. This is a point made by [blank_start]Ellis (2011: 234)[blank_end], who adds that such micro-evaluations are ‘often seen as too localised and too small scale, and so theoretically uninteresting’.

McDonough & Shaw sets a series of useful tasks for the readers to check their understanding of his suggested procedures and their ability to use them. Some of these tasks involve the reader adapting coursebook materials; others involve them in evaluating adaptations suggested by experts.

In the USA, [blank_start]Byrd (1995)[blank_end] published a guide for materials writers and in [blank_start]England books[blank_end] were published by [blank_start]Cunningsworth (1995)[blank_end] on choosing your coursebook, Graves (1996) on teachers as course developers and Tomlinson (1998a) on the principles and procedures of materials development. The last of these was published as a collection of papers by presenters at [blank_start]MATSDA[blank_end] Conferences, events which also stimulated many articles on materials development in various established [blank_start]journals and in Folio.[blank_end]

Coursebooks communicate a view of teaching and learning, a view of the target language and the culture(s) they represent and the worldview of their producer.

Very little of the existing [blank_start]literature on materials development[blank_end] tells us much about the actual effect of different [blank_start]types of materials[blank_end] on language acquisition and development, nor about how to encourage teachers and learners to try new types of [blank_start]materials[blank_end] (although see [blank_start]Tomlinson 2005)[blank_end], about ways in which commercial publishers can achieve face validity whilst introducing. principled [blank_start]innovative approaches[blank_end] or about approaches which help learners to develop their own [blank_start]learning materials[blank_end].