PREPARATION OF LANGUAGE

LEARNING MATERIALS
DEVELOPMENT
Subject Code: MC ELT3

MODULE 1
Introduction to Materials Development

Charlene Dolar-Loveranes
Subject Instructor

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 Table of Contents:
MODULE 1: INTRODUCTION TO MATERIALS DEVELOPMET

Cover Page ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1

Table of Content ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2

Preface--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3

Pre-test-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4

Lesson 1 - MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT -------------------------------------------------- 5

Lesson 2 - PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

(Part 1) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10
Lesson 3 - PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
(Part 2) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15
Lesson 4 - PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
(Part 3) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19

Module Summary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22

Post-Test ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23

Reference --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24

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 PREFACE

Preparation Of Language Learning Materials Development: Module 1(Introduction to

Material Development) is divided 4 lessons in which each lesson covers thorough
discussions of different topics:

Lesson 1: MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

Lesson 2: PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES OF MATERIALS

DEVELOPMENT (Part 1)

Lesson 3: PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES OF MATERIALS

DEVELOPMENT (Part 2)

Lesson 4: PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES OF MATERIALS

DEVELOPMENT (Part 3)

This module is designed to help the students gain a comprehensive knowledge,

to enable them to share ideas and perform several activities.

• Each module starts with an activity called PRE-TEST. It basically knows where
the learners are by evaluating their preparedness for the new lesson. This part
provides an opportunity to reflect on learner’s prior understanding of the lesson.

• Each lesson consists of OPENER. It is a short introduction of the lesson. It can

be a game, a story or a quick activity to engage students to finish the lesson.

• The LESSON CONTENT presents important concepts, principles, and other

information students need to know about the topic at hand. REQUIRED
READING AND LEARNING MATERIALS support each important topic being
introduced, the better for students to process the information as they delivered
to them.

• The most essential element of this module is the assessment of learning. In this
module, there are varied assessment tools to measure the progress of the child
including pen-and-paper type tests which is the POST TEST, while ACTIVITIES
allow authentic assessment to take place via exploratory activities.

• MODULE SUMMARY summarizes the most important points in the lesson.

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 Pre-Test
Write 12 words/ ideas that you can associate with material development.
Write your answers on the circles provided.

MATERIAL
DEVELOPMENT

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1.1. Lesson 1 Title: MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

1.2. Lesson Objectives: At the end of this lesson, the students are expected to:

a. Define materials development;

b. Identify the principles in material development; and
c. Identify the types and characteristics of teaching materials.

1.3. Opener: What is your thought about this quote? Share your answer below.

‘’It takes energy and creativity to devise authentic contexts and meaningful
interaction, but with the help of a storehouse of teacher resource materials, it can be
done.”- JAMES D. BROWN (2007)

_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
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1.4 Lesson Content:

Defining Materials Development

What is materials development?

Nunan (1992, p . 227) states that teaching materials are often the most
substantial and observable component of pedagogy. They determine the quality of
language input and the language practices during the learning process in the classroom.
In addition, Cunningsworth (Richards, 2003, p.251) has also summarized the role of
materials (particularly textbook) in language teaching as:

• a resource for presentation materials (spoken and written)

• a source of activities for learners practice and communicative interaction
• a reference source for learners on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and so
on
• a source of stimulation and ideas for classroom activities a syllabus (where they
reflect learning objectives that have already been determined)
• a support for less experience teachers who have yet to gain in confidence.

Generally, teachers tend to use all guidance provided by a textbook. However, it

is a fact that a textbook does not always meet the variety conditions in a language class
(Ur, 1996, p.185; Richards, 2003, p. 251). Sometimes, teachers need to explore
teaching materials outside textbooks and modify them in order to be relevant to
particular group of students. Teachers’ experiences and understanding of their students
are very important in materials development, so that the students will be motivated in
learning the target language.

Then, what is materials development? According to Tomlinson (1998, p. 2)

materials development refers to anything which is done by writers, teachers or learners
to provide sources of language input in ways which maximize the likelihood of intake. In
other words, it also relates to the supplying of information about and/ or experience of
the language in ways designed to promote language learning. In doing so, materials

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developers, including teachers, may bring pictures or advertisements in the classroom,
compose a textbook, design a student worksheet, read a poem or an article aloud.
Therefore, whatever they do to provide input, they also take into account any related
principle to make the learners able to learn the language effectively.

MATERIAL(S): Prof. BRIAN TOMLISON (2003) defines that:

• The matters or substances from which something can be made

• Tools or apparatus for the performance of a given task
• Having a logical connection with a subject matter or the consequential
events or the knowledge of which would significantly affect a decision or
course of action

MATERIAL(S): JAMES D. BROWN (2007)

• Any systematic description of the techniques and exercises to be used in

classroom teaching
• The key in developing sound materials is to ensure that they are described
and organized well enough so that teachers can use them with no
confusion and with a minimum of preparation time.

PRINCIPLES IN DEVELOPING MATERIALS

Tomlinson (Richards, 2001, p. 263) suggests the basic principles in conducting
materials development for the teaching of language as follows:
o Material should achieve impacts.
o Material should help learners to feel at ease.
o Materials should help learners to develop confidence.
o What is being taught should be perceived by learners as relevant and
useful.
o Materials should require and facilitate learner self-investment.
o Learners must be ready to acquire the point being taught.
o Materials should provide the learners with opportunities to use the target
language to achieve communicative purposes.
o Materials should take into account that the positive effects of instruction
are usually delayed.
o Materials should take into account that learners have different learning
styles.
o Materials should take into account that learners differ in affective
attitudes.
o Materials should permit a silent period at the beginning of instruction.
o Materials should not rely too much on controlled practice.
o Materials should provide opportunities for outcome feedback.

In addition, Crawford (Richards & Renandya, 2002, p. 84-87) states that materials
obviously reflect the writers’ views of language and learning, and teachers (and
students) will respond according to how well these match their own beliefs and
expectations. Thus, she suggests some points to be considered in providing effective
materials:
o Language is functional and must be contextualized.
o Language development requires learner engagement in purposeful use of
language.
o The language used should be realistic and authentic.

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 o Classroom materials will usually seek to include an audio visual
component.
o Second language learners need to develop the ability to deal with written
as well as spoken genres.
o Effective teaching materials foster learner autonomy.
o Materials need to be flexible enough to cater to individual and contextual
differences.
o Learning needs to engage learners both affectively and cognitively

TYPES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF TEACHING MATERIALS

When a school is planning a language teaching program, the plans regarding the
role of materials will be made. Most people associate the term teaching materials only
with course books because that has been their main experience of using teaching
materials. However, in fact, the term can be used to refer to anything which is used by
teachers or learners to facilitate the learning of the language (Tomlinson, 1998, p.2).
Related to that matter, we can divide the materials into some types as follows:

• Printed materials, for example textbook, student’s worksheet, pictures,

photographs, newspapers, magazines, etc.
• Audio materials, for example cassette and compact disc.
• Audio visual, for example video compact disc, film.
• Interactive teaching materials, for example web based learning materials,
computer assisted instruction.

Furthermore, the teaching materials can be also categorized whether they are
authentic or created. Authentic materials refers to the use in teaching of texts,
photographs, video selections, and other teaching resources that are not specially
prepared for pedagogical purposes. Created materials refers to textbooks and other
specially developed instructional resources.

Authentic materials

Strength Limitations
They have a positive effect on learner Created material can also be motivating
motivation They provide authentic cultural for learners.
information about the target culture. Authentic materials often contain difficult
They provide exposure to real language. language.
They relate more closely to learners’ Created materials may be superior to
needs. authentic materials because they are
They support a more creative approach to generally built around a graded syllabus.
teaching. Using authentic materials can be a burden
for teachers.

Created materials

Strength Limitations
They provide structure and a syllabus for a They may contain inauthentic language.
program. They may distort content.
They help standardize instruction. They may not reflect students’ needs.
They maintain quality. They can deskill teachers.
They provide a variety of learning They are expensive.
resources.
They are efficient They can provide

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effective language models and input.
They can train teachers.
They are visually appealing

Thus, in many language programs, teachers usually use a mixture of created and
authentic materials because both have their advantages as well as limitations.
Edge (1993, p. 46- 48) uses the term “teacher-produced materials” and “student
materials” to refer to how the materials are produced or used during the process of
teaching and learning in the classroom. Teacher-produced materials play an important
role to bridge the gap between the classroom and the world outside. In doing so,
teachers might produce their own worksheets for their students. Then, for student
materials, Edge shows two ways:

Student-produced materials

Teachers can ask the students to produce simple maps that they know as the basis for
an activity. In this way, the students are then using their own knowledge and personal
background to produce learning materials for their classmates. In addition to the effects
noted under teacher-produced materials, the learners also have a personal
investment in the materials. That is to say that they have put their own background
knowledge and creativity into the material and, thus, they will be interested in what
comes out of it.

Students as materials

• When we see the learners as materials, we can also use our methods to make
learning enjoyable. In doing so, teachers could, for instance: ‰
• ask a student to close his or her eyes and describe what someone else is wearing
‰
• ask a student to describe what someone else is wearing until the rest of us can
recognize that person ‰divide the class into pairs and
• ask each pair to do one the above

What kind of tools do children use in the classroom?

➢ In the past, teachers wrote on ➢ Today, teachers usually use whiteboards or

blackboards and children wrote with interactive whiteboards and students write
pen or pencils. with pencils and ballpoint pens, or on
➢ Abacus’ or counting frames were used laptops, and iPads. Others would just take
to calculate large math sums, and a photo of the lessons.
encyclopaedias’ were used to research ➢ Students sometimes use counting frames,
information. but they can also use calculators, counters,
MAB and other math methods.
➢ To research something children can use
encyclopaedia but can also find
information from all over the world by
using internet, computers, and iPads.
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1.5 Activities:

1. Referring to Tomlinson’s definition of materials development, make a list of 5 things

that we need to consider if we want to conduct materials development.

2. Write down at least 3 principles related to materials development that you often
considered, and explain why you choose them.

3. What is your experience of teaching or being taught a language from:

A textbook?

Teacher-produced materials?

Student-produced materials?

4. Have you any experience with using authentic materials in teaching? What problem
do they pose for teachers? Do you think they are preferable to created materials?

1.6 Required Readings and Learning Materials:

https://www.scribd.com/document/64328794/Materials-Development

https://www.scribd.com/doc/282921977/Developing-of-Material-for-
language- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFs0YBtE8FY teaching

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiV55Z5_524

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2.1. Lesson Title: PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES OF MATERIALS
DEVELOPMENT (Part 1)
1.2. Lesson Objectives: At the end of this lesson, the students are expected to:

a. identify the different principles and procedure of materials

development;
b. define the different principles and procedure of materials development;
and
c. Identify the types and characteristics of teaching materials.

2.3. Opener: Word cloud: What are the words or ideas that come into your mind
when you hear the word principles and procedure? Create a word cloud with language
and learning as two big words to show your answer.

2.4 Lesson Content:

PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

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 impact through:

a. novelty (e.g. unusual topics, illustrations and activities);

b. variety (e.g. 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);

c. attractive presentation (e.g. use of attractive colours; lots of white space; use
of photographs):

d. appealing content (e.g. topics of interest to the target learners; topics which
offer the possibility of learning something new; engaging stories; universal
themes; local references);

e. achievable challenge (e.g. tasks which challenge the learners to think).

One obvious point is that impact is variable. What achieves impact with a class in
Brazil might not achieve the same impact with a class in Austria. And what achieves
impact with ten learners in a class might not achieve impact with the other five.

In order to maximise the likelihood of achieving impact, the writer needs to know
as much as possible about the target learners and about what is likely to attract their
attention. In order to achieve impact with most of the learners, the writer also needs to
offer choice. The more varied the choice of topics, texts and activities, the more likely is
the achievement of impact.

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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, I think 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. I disagree.

Materials can help learners to feel at ease in a number of ways. For example,
I think 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.

Feeling at ease can also be achieved through a ‘voice’ which is relaxed and
supportive, through content and activities which encourage the personal participation of
the learners, through materials which relate the world of the book to the world of the
learner and through the absence of activities which could threaten self-esteem and
cause humiliation. To me the most important (and possibly least researched) factor is
that of the ‘voice’ of the materials. Conventionally, language-learning materials are de-
voiced and anonymous. They are usually written in a semi-formal style and reveal very
little about the personality, interests and experiences of the writer.

What I would like to see materials writers do is to chat to the learners casually in
the same way good teachers do and try to achieve personal contact with them by
revealing their own preferences, interests and opinions. I would also like to see them
try to achieve a personal voice (Beck, McKeown and Worthy 1995) by ensuring that
what they say to the learners contains such features of orality as:

• informal discourse features (e.g. contracted forms, informal lexis);

• the active rather than the passive voice;

• concreteness (e.g. examples, anecdotes);

• inclusiveness (e.g. not signalling intellectual, linguistic or cultural superiority

over learners).

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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 simplification.
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 in my experience it often only succeeds in diminishing the
learners. They become aware that the process is being simplified for them and that
waht 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 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 utilising their existing skills seems
to be becoming increasingly realised 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 recognise 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 learning and
recall of items that are of personal significance to the learner. And Krashen (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

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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 practise and then
produce it.

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 and activity, by giving them topic control and by engaging
them in learner-centred 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 selfinvestment. In my 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 analyse a particular
linguistic feature of it in order to make discoveries for themselves (see Tomlinson
(1994a for a specif example of this procedure).

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 Mutlidimensional
Model in which learners must have achieved readiness in order to learn developmental
feat (i.e. those constrained by develoing 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.

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 Pienemann’s theories have been criticized for the narrowness of their research
and application (restricted mainly to syntax, according to Cook 1996), but I am sure
most teachers would recognize the negative effects of premature instruction as
reported by Pienemann.

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 the final analysis we can never completely control what the learner does, for HE
[sic] selects and organizes, whatever the input’ (Kennedy 1973:76).

2.5 Activities:

1. What do you think would happen if learners are NOT ready to acquire the points
being taught?

2. Do you agree with what Krashen (1982) and Wenden (1987) reported about their
research showing the importance of apparent relevance and utility in language
acquisition? Justify your answer.

2.6 Required Readings and Learning Materials:

Excerpts taken from:

Tomlinson, Brian (2011). Material development in Language Teaching

(2nd Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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3.1. Lesson Title: PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES OF MATERIALS
DEVELOPMENT (Part 2)

3.2. Lesson Objectives: At the end of this lesson, the students are expected to:

a. Identify the different principles and procedures of materials

development;
b. recall the first 6 principles and procedures of materials development
discussed in lesson 2; and
c. share your thoughts about the principles and procedures of materials
development discussed in lesson.

3.3. Opener: Recall the first 6 principles and procedures of materials development
discussed in lesson 2 and briefly write your takeaways about each.

3.4 Lesson Content

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.

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

15
 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
generalisation about their function in the story. The important thing is that the learners
become aware of a gap between a particular feature of their inter-language (i.e. how
they currently understand or use it) and the equivalent feature in the target language.

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
inter-language and the target language.

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 practice 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 automatise 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).

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
programmes to watch, discussing who to vote for, writing a review of a book or film);

• 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

16
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.

Materials should take into account that learners differ in learning styles
Different learners have different preferred learning styles. So, for example, 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.

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

materials include:

• visual (e.g. learners prefer to see the language written down);

• auditory (e.g. learners prefer to hear the language).

• Kinaesthetic (e.g. learners prefer to do something physical, such as following

instructions for a game); • studial (e.g. learners like to pay conscious attention to the
linguistic features of the language and want to be correct);

• experiential (e.g. learners like to use the language and are more concerned with
communication than with correctness);

• analytic (e.g. learners prefer to focus on discrete bits of the language and to learn
them one by one);

• global (e.g. learners are happy to respond to whole chunks of language at a time and
to pick up from them whatever language they can);

• dependent (e.g. learners prefer to learn from a teacher and from a book);

• independent (e.g. 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

17
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.

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:

• 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).

3.5 Activities:

1. Identify your own learning style and share how it helps you in your study.

2. How do you think attitude affects the learning of a student?

3. Do you agree or not that “acquisition results from the gradual and dynamic
process of internal generalization rather than from instant adjustments to the
learner’s internal grammar”?

2.6 Required Readings and Learning Materials:

Excerpts taken from:

Tomlinson, Brian (2011). Material development in Language Teaching

(2nd Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

18
4.1. Lesson Title: PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES OF MATERIALS
DEVELOPMENT (Part 3)

4.2. Lesson Objectives: At the end of this lesson, the students are expected to:

a. Identify the different principles and procedures of materials

development; and
b. Write your takeaways from all the principles and procedures of
materials development discussed from lesson 2, 3 & 4.

4.3 Lesson Content:

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.

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.

A possible extension of the principle of permitting silence is to introduce most

new language points (regardless of the learners’ level) through activities which initially
require comprehension but not production. This is an approach which I call TPR Plus
and which we used on the PKG Project in Indonesian secondary schools. It usually
involved introducing new vocabulary or structures through stories which the learners
responded to by drawing and/or using their first language, and through activities in
which the whole class mimed stories by following oral instructions from the teacher (see
Barnard 2007; Tomlinson 1990, 1994b).

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 roder fro 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 rightbrain 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

course books 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
course books 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

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

20
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
activity 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).

4.4 Activities:

1. Do you agree or not that materials should provide opportunities for outcome
feedback?
2. Write your takeaways from all the principles and procedures of materials
development discussed from lesson 2, 3 & 4.

4.5 Required Readings and Learning Materials:

Excerpts taken from:

Tomlinson, Brian (2011). Material development in Language Teaching

(2nd Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

21
 Module Summary
What is material development?

Nunan (1992, p . 227) states that teaching materials are often the most
substantial and observable component of pedagogy. They determine the quality of
language input and the language practices during the learning process in the classroom.
In addition, Cunningsworth (Richards, 2003, p.251) has also summarized the role of
materials (particularly textbook) in language teaching as:

• a resource for presentation materials (spoken and written)

• a source of activities for learners practice and communicative interaction
• a reference source for learners on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and so
on
• a source of stimulation and ideas for classroom activities a syllabus (where they
reflect learning objectives that have already been determined)
• a support for less experience teachers who have yet to gain in confidence.

TYPES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF TEACHING MATERIALS

We can divide the materials into some types as follows:

• Printed materials, for example textbook, student’s worksheet, pictures,

photographs, newspapers, magazines, etc.
• Audio materials, for example cassette and compact disc.
• Audio visual, for example video compact disc, film.
• Interactive teaching materials, for example web based learning materials,
computer assisted instruction.

PRINCIPLES IN DEVELOPING MATERIALS

Tomlinson (Richards, 2001, p. 263) suggests the basic principles in conducting
materials development for the teaching of language as follows:
o Material should achieve impacts.
o Material should help learners to feel at ease.
o Materials should help learners to develop confidence.
o What is being taught should be perceived by learners as relevant and
useful.
o Materials should require and facilitate learner self-investment.
o Learners must be ready to acquire the point being taught.
o Materials should provide the learners with opportunities to use the target
language to achieve communicative purposes.
o Materials should take into account that the positive effects of instruction
are usually delayed.
o Materials should take into account that learners have different learning
styles.
o Materials should take into account that learners differ in affective
attitudes.
o Materials should permit a silent period at the beginning of instruction.
o Materials should not rely too much on controlled practice.
o Materials should provide opportunities for outcome feedback.

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 Post Test

Test I. Give 5 examples of each of the following:

✓ Printed materials
✓ Audio materials
✓ Audio visual
✓ Interactive teaching materials

Test II. True or False

Write true if the statement is correct and false if otherwise.

______1. Nunan (1992, p . 227) uses the term “teacher-produced materials” and
“student materials” to refer to how the materials are produced or used during the
process of teaching and learning in the classroom.

______2. The learner’s motives, emotions, and attitudes screen what is presented in
the language classroom.

______3. 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.

______4. Relaxed and comfortable students apparently can learn more in shorter
periods of time. (Meisel, Clahsen and Pienemann 1981)

______5. Edge (1993, p. 46- 48) uses the term “teacher-produced materials” and
“student materials” to refer to how the materials are produced or used during the
process of teaching and learning in the classroom.

______6. Edge (1993, p. 46- 48) states that teaching materials are often the most
substantial and observable component of pedagogy.

______7. Materials should maximize learning potential by encouraging intellectual,

aesthetic and emotional involvement which stimulates both right- and left brain
activities.
______8. 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 inter-language and the target language.

______9. Learners 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

______10. 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.

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Test III. Essay:
✓ What is the importance of teaching materials in the learning process of a child?
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References:

https://www.scribd.com/document/64328794/Materials-Development

https://www.scribd.com/doc/282921977/Developing-of-Material-for-
language- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFs0YBtE8FY teaching

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiV55Z5_524

Excerpts taken from:

Tomlinson, Brian (2011). Material development in Language Teaching

(2nd Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

24