Today, we looked at principles and frameworks and in the second half of the seminar we worked on finding the fifteen most important ones for us as a small group of four, followed by finding the five underlying principles, about which we as individuals, personally feel most strongly about. I ended up with the following:

1. ‘Materials should help engage students’ – seems kind of obvious. We all want our materials to assist what we do, to support our ‘job’ in the classroom. We want to provide students with something relevant and interesting, something which actually concerns them. Something thought-provoking, cool and up to date. Have you ever been embarrassed by written or audio text, which was for example seriously out of date? Have you ever started a lesson which you had to cover with 5 minutes notice with the pre-prepared and readily-supplied lead in question on technology: ‘Have you got a mobile phone?’ I have and if you can’t remember you having done something similar you’re probably not trying hard enough…

Aren’t we all looking for the ultimate material, or the recipe (framework:) of the one, which grabs students’ attention and won’t let it go right until the last minute of the lesson. Or even longer, because…

2. ‘Materials should encourage learners to apply their developing skills to the world beyond the classroom’ was my second choice of principle. In my current practice where I teach varying levels of part-time ESOL classes, one of my constant aims is to give students something, which applies to their current situation, helps them with their everyday lives. I genuinely want to help them and I selfishly aspire to be the person providing them with the tools to achieve their goals whether it’s writing a better CV, getting a new job, or simply expressing their feelings and thoughts closer to the way they want or buying their first train ticket to London.

3. ‘Materials should embody your view of the nature of language learning – I choose this despite the fact that I am still unsure of it’s true meaning but it seemed to be the closest to my concept of language learning. Or rather to the complicated, confused picture I have, which SLA is just starting to shed some light on. I believe that this principle is to do with SLA and the connection between SLA research and materials. Language learning is so much more than having motivation or a good teacher and a reasonable course book. It’s also to do with psychology, personality, environment, needs, wants, time, effort and who knows what else. Well, I certainly don’t. But perhaps I’ve been presented with too many students with elementary English after several years in the UK; when at the same time trying to talk sense to upper-intermediate to advanced students being disappointed with their progress after a few months. It’s just so much going on. And perhaps I need to see through the matrix and have a clearer understanding of what exactly is that – given the particular circumstances – we can realistically achieve together.

4. ‘Materials should be evaluated with a feedback-loop to all stages of production’ – There is another very professionally selfish reason for this. I need to know ‘how well’ the material is working and if not, what I need to do to make it better. There is no other way. I want my students to be on a journey with me and I just simply don’t like unsatisfied customers and mediocre reviews. I need to know that what I do is working and that it is working the way I wanted it to do. And this too doesn’t stop at the class door. I feed on those stories about the first independent trip to London, a successful job interview, a new position, a polite question replacing ‘what?!’ or a phrase they picked up from me several sessions earlier to acknowledge the homework awaiting them for half term: ‘easy-peasy’.

5. ‘Materials should be clear and systematic but flexible enough to allow for creativity and variety‘ – I am still trying to create and deliver the ultimate lesson, where the materials lend themselves to the context, while being clear and easy to follow. Where students’ reactions are easily incorporated, even if they change the course of the lesson in the name of a better outcome. Where by changing one thing means that everything changes for the better and simply falls into place accordingly, like in a perfect excel sheet, where one change begins an avalanche of changes, due to the system of interlinked formulas, create the illusion of magic. And of course where students never look at their phones – unless the task involves doing so -, never yawn and where I am time after time presented with the sadly surprised look on their faces when I announce the end of the lesson.

Materials which with creativity can be turned into an endless variety of activities, which are effortlessly cool and engaging… because that’s also important. Or have I mentioned that yet?