Material

Development for
Language
Learning and
Teaching

Dina Fauziah
Dwi Firly Azhari
Dwi Novita Sari
Erma Agus Setyaningsih
Laranti Salaz
Ponco Prakoso Agung Purwanto
Vivi Nur Akmalia

Outline
History of publications on materials
development
Materials Evaluation
Materials Adaptation
Materials Production
Materials Exploitation
Issues in materials Development
Ideology in Materials
The roles of new technologies (The use of
CALL)
Research in Materials Developments
Conclusion

History of publications on materials

development
Year

History

1970s to
1980

few books and paper.

Ex: ELT Journal and Modern English
Teacher.

1995s

USA by Byrd: guide for materials writer

England by Cunningsworth: Choosing your coursebook.

1996s

Tomlinson: the principles and

procedures of material development.

Literature History
(cont.)
2000s Fanner&Newby: approaches to
materials design in European
coursebook.

2001s

Richards: Curriculum development with

frequent referrence to material development.

2002s

McGrath: Material evaluation and design, make principled

suggestions for systematising material design.

Literature History (cont.)

2003s

Tomlinsons ownbook
- Course on materials development with a possible textbook.
- Chapters on most aspects of material developments.
- Practical consideration as design and illustration.

2004s

Tomlinsons and Masuhara

A book for inexperienced teachers in southeast Asia written in
English and translated to Korean and Portuguese

Now

More atttention to materials development.

Illustrated their approaches with sample of
published materials.
Ex:
McDough&Shaw (1998,2003)
Revised with examples from contemporary
materials as;
McDough, Shaw&Masuhara (2012)

Material Evaluation
A procedure that involves measuring
the value (or potential value) of a set
of learning materials. It involves
making judgements about the effect
of the materials on the people using
them.

Early literature on
Material Development

Tucker (1975) propose a four-component scheme for measuring

the internal and external value of beginners text book.
Davidson (1976) propose proposed a five-category scheme for the
evaluation and selection of textbooks.
Dauod & Celce-Murcia (1979) provided checklists of criteria for
evaluating coursebooks.
Candlin&Breen (1980) proposed criteria for evaluating materials
and, unlike many of their contemporaries, also proposed the use
of these criteria when developing materials.
Rivers (1981) provided categories and criteria for evaluating
materials.
Mariani (1983) wrote about evaluation and supplementation,
Williams (1983) developed criteria for textbook evaluation

 Cunningsworth (1984) provided a very detailed checklist

of evaluation criteria for evaluating teaching material (p.
74).
Breen & Candlin (1987) published a principled guide for
both evaluators and producers of materials
Sheldon (1987, 1988) suggested criteria for both
evaluating and developing textbook material.
Skierso (1991) provided probably the most
comprehensive checklist of criteria for textbooks
and teachers books by combining checklists from various
sources.
Cunningsworth (1995), Harmer (1991, 1998), Roberts
(1996), Ur (1996), Brown (1997), Hemsley (1997) and
Gearing (1999) also proposed checklists for evaluating
materials

Tomlinson & Masuhara (2004: 7) propose

these questions for evaluating criteria:
a) Is each question an evaluation question?
Are there any material for testing?
(Cunningsworth 1984)
are the learning activities in the course
material likely appeal to the laerners?
b) Does each question only ask one question?
is it attractive? Given the average age of your
students, would they enjoy using it? (Grant
1987: 122)

c) Is each question answerable?

Does the writer use current everyday
language, and sentences structure that follow
normal word order? (Daoud & Celce-Murcia
1979: 304)
to what extent is the level of abstractness
appropriate? (Skierso 1991:446)
d) Is each question free of dogma?
are the various stages in a teaching unit
(what you would probably called presentation,
practice and production) adequately develop?
(Mariani 1983: 29)

e) Is each question reliable in the

sense that other evaluators would
interpret it in the same.
is it foolproof (i.e sufficiently
methodical to guide the
inexperienced teacher through a
lesson)?(Dougill 1987: 32)

Reporting Evaluation
Evaluation reports which has been published
- Focusing on principles and procedures in conducting the evaluation
(mostly)
- The effectiveness of course book

Evaluation reports which focus on course book

Tomlinson et al. (2001) - a review of eight currently popular UK course
books for adults
Masuhara et al. (2008) a review of eight course books for adults to a
rigorous criterion-referenced review
Both conclude the same view on how course book needs to be humanized
and personalized.
Result analysis:
- The neglect of literature as a source of potentially engaging text
- The lack of intelligent content in lower level
- The lack extensive reading and listening
- The scarcity of real task which has intended outcome than just
practicing on language forms

Material Adaptation
Why teacher needs to adapt the
material?

Optimal Congruence on

Material Adaptation (cont.)

How to achieve optimal congruence?

Several Tips for Material

Adaptation
McGrath (2002)s ways to adapt
Keep some material unchanged
Reject partially or completely
sections of material
Add extension
Further exploitation

 Saraceni (2003)s way for material

adaptation
Involves learner
Aiming to be learner-centered, openended, universal and authentic,
flexible giving choice for learner

McDonough et al. (2012)s way to make adaptation

contextual:

Using familiar material and suitable situation for

your teaching
Islam & Mares (2003)s way to solve
congruence problem
-Borrow objectives and categories from existing
book
-Provide all learning style
-Provide learning autonomy
-Developing high-level cognitive skill
-Making the input more accessible and engaging

References about Material

Adaptation
Other early publications which provided help

to teachers

when adapting materials include;

Candlin & Breen (1980), who criticise published
communicative materials and suggest ways of adapting
them so as to offer more opportunities for communication,
Cunningsworth (1984), who focuses on how to change
materials so that they get the learners to do what the
teacher wants them to do
Grant (1987), who suggests and illustrates ways of making
materials more communicative.

Experts who have given advice

adaptation in the nineties include;

about

Willis (1996), on ways of changing

classroom management and sequencing to
maximise the value of taskbased materials,
Nunan (1999), on procedures for making
materials more interactive and
White (1998), on ways of increasing student
participation when using listening materials.

Material Production
5.1 How writers write
Repertoire
Cloning successful publications
Spontaneous inspiration

Research about how writers

write
Johnson (2003) doing a research between
some experts and some students and get
results if the experts, they designed in
opportunistic ways, instantiated as they
wrote, showed learner/context sensitivity
and used repertoire a lot.
Interestingly, there was no explicit
reference by the experts to theory-driven
principles

Research about how writers write

(cont.)
Prowse (2011), some of writers of course
book focus on the creative, inspirational
aspect of materials writing (coursebook
writing is a creative rather than a
mechanical process and on making use
of prior experience of teaching and
writing.

Research about how writers write

(cont.)

Tomlimson (2012): approach to materials

writing in which the ongoing evaluation
of the developing materials is driven by :
1.a set of agreed principles, both universal
principles applicable to any learning
context .
2.local criteria specific to the target
learning context(s).

5.2 Principled development of mate

The principles proposed include:
the language experience needs to be
contextualized and comprehensible.
the learner needs to be motivated,
relaxed, positive and engaged.
the language and discourse features
available for potential acquisition need to
be salient, meaningful and frequently
encountered.

Principled development of materials

(cont.)
the learner needs to achieve deep
and multi-dimensional processing of
the language.
(Tomlinson 2008b: 4)

5.3 Practical guidance to

writers
Johnson (2003) gives his informed

opinion on the expertise needed to be a

good task designer and Spiro (2006)
provides advice on how to become an L2
storywriter.
Tomlinson (2003b, 2003c) proposes a
flexible
text-driven
framework
for
developing materials and puts forward
ways of ensuring that materials are
humanistic.

Practical guidance to writers

(cont.)

Tomlinson & Masuhara (2004) provide

practical advice on developing materials,
writing instructions, using illustrations and
layout and design.
Van Avermaet & Gysen (2006) and Duran &
Ramaut (2006) give advice on writing tasks
for young learners.
5.3 Practical guidance to writers (cont.)
Folio has been publishing articles providing
information, advice and stimulus to
materials writers twice a year since 1993.

Materials exploitation
Teachers use their textbooks as
resources rather than as scripts
how they use their course book
depends both on their experience
and their view of the course books
value in their teaching context

Issues in materials
development
The value of textbooks

The textbook is the best medium for delivering

language-learning materials.
Proponents : it is a cost-effective way of providing
the learner with security, system, progress and
revision, whilst at the same time saving precious
time and offering teachers the resources they need
to base their lessons on.
Opponents : they can disempowered both teacher
and learners, cannot cater for the needs and wants
of their actual and provide only an illusion of system
and progress

Tomlinsons own view

I
that they need textbooks to save time
and money and many teachers want
a course book which provides
everything they need in one source.

The need for published

materials
Published materials - home-made materials
to achieve greater relevance and
engagement.
For example, Tomlinson (2003d) describes
how a teacher in Jakarta made each group of
students responsible in one term for bringing
her a reading passage on which she then
based a reading lesson, and in the next term
made each group responsible for actually
teaching a reading lesson.

Tomlinsons View
My position is that most teachers
and students welcome published
materials and can gain from them as
facilitative in providing the
personalized, relevant and engaging
experience of language in use for
meaningful communication.

Pedagogic approaches
The methodologies course books claim
to be using, but very little change in
the pedagogy they actually use.
PPP approaches:

listen and repeat,

dialogue repetition,
matching picture or sentences and,
filling in the blanks.

Tomlinsons own preference is the text-driven

approach, in which an engaging written or
spoken text drives to activate the learners
minds in relation to the text, to stimulate
engagement whilst experiencing the text,
input response activities invite exploration
of features of the text and development
activities encourage learner production
(Tomlinson 2003c).

Authenticity of texts and tasks

The benefits of using authentic material
Provide meaningful exposure to the
language
Motivate learner and help to develop
communicative competence
Enhance positive attitude to the target
language

Tomlinsons view on authentic

material

Produced to communicate rather

than to practice the language

Acceptability
Debates on the sexism and racism issue used in
textbook
Pro: Material published on Namibian course book
ON TARGET marital violence and drug abuse
included as it is requested by students on
nationwide survey
Cons: Most publisher avoid sexism and racism
issue used in textbook (consider it as taboo
topic)

Humanizing Material
It relates to Learning theory and the need
to help learners to:
Personalize
Localize
Make meaningful their experience of
target language
Make material affectively engaging all
learning style preferences

Ideology in materials
Ferguson
(2003)
uses
the
termAngloglobalisation
to
identify
what he sees as a positive connection
between the British Empire, English and
globalisation
According to Tomlinsons opinion, it is
inevitable
that
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.

The roles of new technologies in

language-learning materials

1. There have been radical developments

in the use of new technologies to deliver
language-learning materials.
CALL Materials
ICT Applications
2. The use of new technologies in
language learning,
for teachers
flexibility in delivering the material

9. Research in materials
development

Richards (2005) stressed that all materials

reflect the writers theories of language,
language use and language acquisition. He
admitted that very few materials producers
are
also
academic
theorists
and
researchers and that there is very little
research into the design and effects of
materials, going on to suggest ways of
connecting
research
and
materials
development.

So there is already quite an

extensive literature on research and
materials
development
but
regrettably little of it provides
empirical evidence of the effects of
materials
on
their
users.
Interestingly, none of the projects
reported was conducting research on
the effects of global coursebooks,
though many were reporting on
projects to find replacements for
them.

Chapelle (2008) argued that we

need to take materials evaluation
forward into a more researchoriented framework, which will
enable us to make claims about
the effects of materials on the
basis of evidence from research.

Conclusion
10.1 The current situation

Materials development has progressed

dramatically for building our awareness
and creativity to develop the material.
> Teachers also seem to be more
constructively
critical
of
their
coursebooks and to be more willing,
confident and able to localise and
personalise their coursebooks for their
learners..

10.2 Gaps in the literature

How to encourage teachers and
learners to try new types of materials,
about ways in which commercial
publishers can achieve face validity
whilst
introducing
principled
innovative approaches or about
approaches which help learners to
develop their own learning materials.

10.3 The future of materials

development
> Edelivered electronically through
computers and smart phones, that
commercially produced materials will
continue to provide users with the
materials they expect and that more
and more institutions and countries
will decide that the only way to
develop locally appropriate materials
is to do it themselves.

Evaluation Book
Cutting Edge

Look A Head
(Erlangga)

Instruction

Direction and Question to awaken

Students Interest

Task

Accommodates all Skills

(Listening, Speaking, reading and
Writing) by categorization of each
English Language Skills

Randomly task
for students

One chapter focus on one

language system

There is a lot to
cover one
chapter

Content

Indonesian
context

Thank You :3