In the second seminar, we explored the issues of designing and creating ELT materials. In the field of materials making, there is this belief that the process of making the materials is described as ad hoc, spontaneous and intuitive. This is of course seen from the perspective of experienced teachers who spent years teaching and creating suitable materials for their learners.
However, in the case of novice teachers the case is totally different. Due to the lack of enough experience and actual practice of teaching, novice teachers need some sort of a map or a guide in they want to create educational materials. At this point in the discussion, the issues of principles and frameworks were introduced. The two most important questions in the seminar were 1) what principles are going to underpin the process of design of the materials? and 2) what design framework will be used?
To answer these questions, we were asked by our tutor Paul to individually write down our beliefs and principle that we deem important in the process of creating ELT materials. That is what should or shouldn’t, must or mustn’t materials be. To be honest, although I have a teaching experience and I can say that I know what works and doesn’t work for my learners, I was stuck for few moment and didn’t know what to write. I could explain this uncertainty in writing down my thoughts to the lack of opportunity to actually contemplate and entertain the principles of a suitable ELT material.
We were then put in groups (I was in group c) and were asked to reduce our collective principles to 21 statements. Here you find yourself prioritizing the principles and negotiating them with your group members. Having done that, Paul provided us with principles from different researchers like Tomlinson (2011), Nunan (1988) and Hutchinson & Waters (1987). The next step was to merge our principles with these from the researchers and come up with a final list.
Our list consists of the following principles:
One of my contributions to the list is the principle of having the culture of the target language in the materials, which I believe can contribute to a better understanding of the Other and make the learner interculturally competent.
References:
Hutchinson, T. & Waters, A. (1987) English for Specific Purposes: A Learning-centred Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nunan, D. (1988) Principles for designing language teaching materials. Guidelines 10 pp.1-24.
Tomlinson, B. (2011) Introduction: principles and procedures of materials development. In:
Tomlinson, B. (ed). Materials Development in Language Teaching. (2nd ed) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.1-31.
