Laura Reina

Paola Segnini

Material Development Commented [PSR1]: Deep understanding of the

main principles and the key principles of our
As Anton Chekhow once said, knowledge is of no value unless you put it own project

into practice. Therefore, books should aim to allow students to reinforce the
knowledge acquired on class and integrate it with real-life contexts. Nowadays,
materials must not only be seen as theoretical guidance, but also as dynamic
learning tools that ideally should be based by learning and teaching principles
(Tomlinson, 2010). What is more, the character of hazard or randomness should
be virtually removed from the material developments process.

Moreover, everyone who wishes to create a material, specifically in this case an

English Teaching Material, should bear in mind the foundations for its material.
This is necessary to achieve an adequate level of preparation and deliver to the
creative process a progressive approach which follows a specific order. These
foundations will guide the construction process and will help the author to stick
to certain basis.

Hence, each group had to create their own Guiding Principles for material
development. The precepts we decided to adhere to were the following:

1. Materials should enhance 7. Materials should achieve a

language awareness. holistic engagement of the students.

2. Materials should be for learners 8. Materials must have meaningful

to learn.
3. Materials should have an eye-
catching design.
4. Instructions must be clearly
stated.
5. Materials should ideally include
work on each linguistic competence.
6. Authentic language use must be
the foundations of the material.
content which aim for students to
perceive language from its whole
(metalinguistic consciousness).
9. Materials should be culturally and
time-spaced relevant
(contextualized).
10. Materials should be appealing
and motivate students to learn.

It is noticeable that it exists an evident influence on our own Guiding Principles

from the main Guiding Principles given at the beginning of the course.
First of all, both lists of principles focus on the students learning, and that is
exactly what we mean by stating that materials should be for learners to learn.
The general objective of any material should be assist education by easing
teaching. Even though several features of materials -such as the design, the
chosen colors or the interactiveness aimed to be achieved using ICT- are
important and can help learners to develop certain extra abilities. Materials
should work as a guidance to build the teaching planning instead of imposing
traced limits on the topics that should be seen on the course. They must allow
teachers to creatively innovate by focusing on the class dynamics.

Also, the role of authentic language use in both lists of Guiding Principles
turns relevant. According to Maley (2016), students are expected to experience
language in authentic settings and to explore it for themselves in a discovery
mode. Then, materials should promote curiosity among students and do not
have to give all the answers on linguistic issues. Thanks to materials, students
should be able to develop awareness of the learning process. Learners
should realize that they are being exposed to a new series of linguistic codes.
These may not have an equivalence to its native tongue, so students must
perceive the adversity of what it means to learn a new language. By this,
learners need to start to develop a metalinguistic consciousness. As Maley
(2016) states in a Chart for Generating class Activities integrating Inputs,
Processes and Outcomes, when talking of the Pedagogical outcomes he suggests
that they go beyond evaluation. These outcomes can converge into more
complex skills, such as developing a meta-competence in talking about
language and language learning. Students will go through compound cognitive
mental processes in order to understand the linguistic structure.

On top of that, another common inner idea among the principles is the
essentiality of contextualized materials. Materials should be created taking into
account the type of learner it is addressed to and its needs. To achieve a
successful teaching with the guidance of an English Teaching Material, it is
important to stablish the learning purposes. Along with the goals and
motivations to learn, the age and the environment of the learner. Based on
Tomlinsons main teaching principle: The teaching should meet the needs and
wants of the learners (2010). Besides, it is not possible for the teaching to suit
the learners need if the material does not fit them either. When talking about
contextualization, there are several indispensable aspects that should be
treated. To achieve a proper contextualized material, the teacher must ask
herself: is the material headed for global or local use? Does it favor identity
building considering cultural singularities? Is it directed towards an elder or a
young user? Does it allow students to perceive the existent social, cultural and
structural differences?
Subsequently, the target of any material must be to accomplish a
communicative competence. On a reading written by Pulvernes (2014) titled
Materials for Cultural Awareness, the author states that communicative
language teaching, in its emphasis on authentic text and genuine interaction,
privileges meaning over form. Though he worries that it may exclude cultural
meaning by promoting a transactional model of language, we consider that a
model based on functions and results is adequate to attain, at the first, a certain
level of communication. Now, following his ideas, it is through examples that it
is possible to let cultural grounds be illustrated.

Finally, last but not least, we rescue the relevance of addressing an integrative
approach when developing materials for language teaching. We strongly believe
that a meaningful learning is going to be achieved only through the entire
involvement of the alumni and its dimensions, emotions, motivations, feelings,
thoughts, etc. This implies making feel the students cognitively and emotionally
engaged. The more positive the affect of the students towards the language
learning process, the more fluent it is going to be.

References

Azarnoosh, M., Zeraatpishe, M., Faravani, A. & Reza Kargozari, H. (Ed.).

(2016). Issues in Materials Development. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

Tomlinson, B. (2010). Principles and Procedures of Materials Development for

Language Learning. Adapted from Tomlinson, B. (forthcoming 2010) Principles
and procedures of materials development. In N. Harwood (ed.) Materials in
ELT: Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tomlinson, B. (Ed.). (2014). Developing Materials for Language Teaching.

London: Bloomsbury Academic.