Principles and Procedures in Materials Development
Before engaging directly with the issues involved in materials development, it will be helpful to remind ourselves of the background from which materials emerge and against which they operate. Materials do not exist in a vacuum. They are part of the whole
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2. PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES IN MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
INTRODUCTION
Before engaging directly with the issues involved in materials development, it will be helpful to remind ourselves of the background from which materials emerge and against which they operate. Materials do not exist in a vacuum. They are part of the whole context of language learning, including the philosophical and belief-systems of stakeholders. Depending on what we think language is for and how we think people learn languages, so our materials will differ. So we cannot separate materials from more general issues to do with language and language learning. And materials are just one strand among others: the teachers who will use them, the learners who will hopefully learn from them, the sponsors who will pay for them, the publishers who will publish them, the curriculum and syllabus which prescribe their content, the system which will decide on the length and intensity of class time and assess the outcomes, the material and economic conditions in which they are produced and used, and the culture in which the learning is embedded. The moment we set out to design any materials, we are enmeshed in this web of interrelated and often conflicting factors. Like so many things, it is not as simple as it looks. Within pedagogy, there is the further question of what the materials are supposed to offer. Proponents of course-books claim that they provide an essential supporting structure for both teachers and students. According to this view, they are an invaluable reference to which users can return. Without them, it is claimed, the language would be a bewildering, confusing and disorganised mosaic of fragments of phonology, lexis, syntax and meaning. They offer content (linguistic and factual), organised into a graded sequence, with opportunities for language practice and use, which is supposed to lead to the efficient acquisition of the language. Moreover, materials are increasingly expected to offer much broader educational perspectives – critical thinking, life skills, citizenship, global issues, cross-cultural understanding and more. What is more, they have high face-validity for sponsors and institutions alike. If asked what is being taught, the course-book can be produced as proof that we are serious providers of language education.
M. Azarnoosh et al. (Eds.), Issues in Materials Development, 11–29. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.
A. MALEY
There has however been widespread criticism of such materials. All classes are heterogeneous however much some teachers might wish they were not. All learners are different in terms of aptitude, maturity, stage of language development, motivation, personal experience, and a host of other factors. Learners progress at different rates and are interested in different things. Furthermore, what and how students learn is for the most part unpredictable (Brown, 2013; Prabhu, 1998; Underhill & Maley, 2012). And we must not forget that published course-book materials, designed on the one-size-fit-all princ
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