4 Principles ofeffective

materials development
Brian Tomlinson

Summary

This paper takes the position that language-learning materials should ide­
ally be driven by learning and teaching principles rather than be developed
ad hoc or in imitation of best-selling coursebooks. It reviews the liter­
ature which contributes positively toward the principled development of
ELT materials and comments on its implications for materials writing. It
then presents six principles of language acquisition and four principles
of language teaching that the author thinks should be given a lot more
attention in materials development. It outlines and justifies each principle
and then derives from it materials development principles and procedures
to be applied to the actual development of materials. Using the proposed
principles as criteria, typical current ELT materials are evaluated, a char­
acterization of the typical ELT coursebook is made, and the author makes
suggestions for improvement. The paper concludes by arguing that what is
needed are principled frameworks to help materials writers achieve prin­
cipled coherence in their contextualized application of theory to effective
practice.

Einführung

In recent years there have been a number of insightful publications which

have concerned themselves with how authors typically write ELT materials.
For example, Hidalgo et al. (1995) and Prowse (1998) asked numerous
authors to detail the typical procedures they follow, Bell and Gower (1998)
reflected on their own procedures for writing a coursebook, Johnson (2003)
gave a group of expert writers a materials development task and researched
the procedures they used to write their materials, and Tomlinson (2003e)
reviewed the literature on developing ELT materials. This literature reveals
that many experienced authors rely on their intuitions about what "works"
and make frequent use of activities in their repertoire that seem to fit with
81
82 Brian Tomlinson Principles of effective materials development 83

their objectives. Very few authors are actually guided by learning principles I would completely agree with Hall, as I would with the principle, which
or considerations of coherence, and many seem to make the assumption many of the authors in Hidalgo et al. (1995) advocate, that ELT materials
that clear presentation and active, relevant practice are sufficient to lead to should stimulate interaction.
acquisition. Tomlinson (1998b: 5-22) proposes 15 principles for materials develop­
My position is that materials should not be random recreations from ment that derive from second language acquisition research and experience.
repertoire nor crafty clones ofpreviously successful materials. Instead they Of these, I would now stress the following six as those that should drive
should be coherent and principled applications of: ELT materials development. The materials should:
• Expose the learners to language in authentic use.
i) Theories of language acquisition and development. o Help learners to pay attention to features of authentic input.
ii) Principles of teaching. o Provide the learners with opportunities to use the target language to
iii) Our current knowledge of how the target language is actually used. achieve communicative purposes.
iv) The results of systematic observation and evaluation of materials in o Provide opportunities for outcome feedback.
use. o Achieve impact in the sense that they arouse and sustain the learners'
curiosity and attention.
This is the position that drives this chapter. In it, I will focus in particular • Stimulate intellectual, aesthetic, and emotional involvement.
on (i) and (ii) above.
A number of other writers outline principled approaches to developing
ELT materials in Tomlinson (1998a). For example, Bell and Gower (1998:
Review of the literature 122-5) discuss the need for authors to make principled compromises to
meet the practical needs of teachers and learners and to match the realities
In this section I will review some of the literature that I think contributes of publishing materials, and they articulate 11 principles that guide their
positively toward the principled development ofELT materials. writing. Of these, I would particularly agree with the importance of:
In Hidalgo et al. (1995), some writers articulate principled approaches o Flexibility - so as to help teachers to make their own decisions.
to materials development. Flores (1995: 58-9) lists five assumptions and o Moving from text to language (e.g., focusing on the meaning of a text
principles that drove the writing ofa textbook in the Philippines; Penaflorida first before returning to it to pay attention to a language feature).
(1995: 172-9) reports her use of six principles ofmaterials design specified
• Providing engaging content.
by Nunan (1988); Fortez (1995: 26-7), Luzares (1995: 26-7), and Rozul o Learner development (in the sense ofhelping learners to further develop
(1995: 210) advocate needs analysis as a starting point; and Flores (1995: their skills as language learners through, for example, analyzing gram­
60--5), Fortez (1995: 74), Richards (1995: 102-3), and Rozul (1995: 213) mar for themselves and starting their own personalized vocabulary and
describe lesson and / or unit frameworks that they use. Maley (1995: 221) grammar books).
says that materials development is "best seen as a form of operationalised
tacit knowledge" that involves "trusting our intuitions and beliefs," and The principles I have mentioned so far could be proceduralized in a unit
Hall (1995: 8) insists that the crucial question we need to ask is, "How do of materials that provided the teacher (and possibly the learners) with
we think people learn languages?" Hall goes on to discuss the following opportunities to change the sequence of (or even select from) a range of
principles, which he thinks should "underpin everything we do in planning texts and tasks. In this way, the learners can gain opportunities for language
and writing our materials" (ibid): acquisition from motivated exposure to language in use and gain opportuni­
ties for language awareness from a subsequent focus on a linguistic feature
• The need to communicate. of a text just enjoyed.
• . The need for long-term goals. Also in Tomlinson (l998a), Edge and Wharton (1998: 299-300) talk
• The need for authenticity. about the "coursebook as ELT theory" and as a "genre whose goal is a
• The need for student-centeredness. dialogue about principle via suggestions about practice," and they stress the
84 Brian Tomlinson Principles of effective materials development 85

need to design coursebooks for flexible use so as to capitalize on "teachers' b. Investigate how these unfamiliar usages are employed in natural
capacity for creativity." In the same volume, Maley (1998: 283-7) provides authentic communication.
practical suggestions for "providing greater flexibility in decisions about c. Experiment with these usages in spoken or written communication,
content, order, pace and procedures" (p. 280), and Jolly and Bolitho (1998: so that they become familiar.
97-8) advocate the following principled framework:
Other writers who have stressed the role that corpora can play in developing
• Identification of the need for materials. principled materials by exposing learners to authentic samples oflanguage
• Exploration of need. use are Carter (1998), Carter and McCarthy (1997), Fox (1998), Hoey
• Contextual realization of materials (e.g., the teacher makes a decision (2000), McCarthy (1998), Tribble and Jones (1997), and Willis (1998). See
to provide practice in communicating hypothetical meaning in contexts also Tomlinson (2009) for discussion of some of the limitations of corpora
familiar to the students). and for suggestions on how to supplement them with author, teacher, and
• Pedagogical realization of materials (e.g., the teacher develops a work­ learner research.
sheet focusing on the distinction between fact and hypothesis and the Perhaps the publication that gives most attention to principles and pro­
verb forms involved in making this distinction). cedures of materials development is Tomlinson (2003b). This volume con­
• Production of materials (e.g., the teacher types out the worksheet and tains, for example, chapters on:
photocopies it for distribution to the learners).
• Student use of materials. • Materials evaluation (Tomlinson 2003c) - this proposes a process of
• Evaluation of materials against agreed objectives. articulating beliefs about language learning, turning the beliefs into
universal criteria, specifYing a profile of the target context of learning,
A usefully detailed review of the literature on advice and principles for deriving local criteria from the profile and then using both the universal
materials developers is provided by McGrath (2002: 152--61). This ranges and the local criteria for both developing and evaluating the materials.
from Methold (1972), who stressed the importance of recycling and of • Writing a coursebook (Mares 2003) - this describes and discusses a
localization, via Hutchinson and Waters (1987) and their focus on the principled process for writing a coursebook.
intended effect of the materials, to Rossner (1988) and his focus on the • Developing principled frameworks for materials development (Tomlin­
quality and authenticity ofthe experience offered, and to Tomlinson (1998a) son 2003d) - this reviews the literature on principled frameworks and
and his focus on learning principles. As well as reporting on recommended then outlines and exemplifies a text-driven flexible framework that has
procedures for materials development, McGrath also reports the literature be~n used successfully on materials development projects in Namibia,
on principled frameworks and procedures for units of materials, and he Norway, and Turkey (and that is currently being used on projects in
focuses, in particular, on the theme- or topic-based approach, the text-based Ethiopia and Oman).
approach (Tomlinson 2003d), and the storyline (Nunan 1991). • Creative approaches to writing materials (Maley 2003) - this offers a
Tan (2002a) is concerned with the role that corpus-based approaches framework for generating creative materials.
can and should play in language teaching and contains chapters in which • Humanizing the coursebook (i.e., giving it more personal relevance and
contributors from around the world report and discuss the contribution that value for the people using it) (Tomlinson 2003e) - this proposes ways
corpora have made in, for example, the teaching ofvocabulary, the teaching of humanizing language learning without a coursebook, of humanizing
offixed expressions, the conversation class, the teaching of writing, and the it with a coursebook, and of developing humanistic coursebooks.
teaching of collocation. Tan (2002b: 5-6) stresses how corpus-based mate­ • Simulations in materials development (Tomlinson & Masuhara 2003)­
rials can achieve the important criterion of providing "real contextualised this explores the principles and procedures of using materials develop­
examples of written and spoken language" and she states that these should ment simulations for teacher development.
be designed to help language learners to:
Other publications with valuable contributions to the subject of principled
a. Be consciously aware of the unfamiliar usages oflanguage they have materials development include Byrd (1995), Fenner and Newby (2000),
heard or read in native speaker contexts. McDonough and Shaw (1993), Mishan (2005), Mukundan (2006a), Ribe
86 Brian Tomlinson Principles of effective materials development 87

(2000), Richards (2001), and Tomlinson and Masuhara (2004). Tomlinson criteria derived from what is known about the learners, their teachers, and
(2007a) deals with language acquisition and development, but many of their context oflearning (Tomlinson 2003c).
the chapters propose applications of the research to materials development Below I list the main principles oflanguage acquisition that I follow when
for language learning. Tomlinson (2008a) provides critical reviews ofELT developing materials, and some ofthe principles for materials development
materials currently being used around the world and most of its chapters that I derive from them. As you read them, you might like to evaluate their
make reference to principles and procedures of materials development. It validity and usefulness and to think of other principles of your own.
also contains an introductory chapter on "Language acquisition and lan­
guage learning materials" (Tomlinson 2008b), which proposes ways of
Principle of language acquisition No. 1
applying commonly agreed theories of language acquisition to materials
development. A prerequisite for language acquisition is that the learners are exposed
As yet, there is very little literature reporting research results ofprojects to a rich, meaningful, and comprehensible input of language in use
investigating the actual effectiveness oflanguage-learning materials. How­ (Krashen 1985, 1993, 1999; Long 1985). In order to acquire the ability
ever, Tomlinson and Masuhara (forthcoming 2010) will publish the results to use the language effectively, the learners need a lot of experience of
of research projects from around the world that are attempting to discover the language being used in a variety of different ways for a variety of
how effective certain materials actually are in the learning contexts in which purposes. They need to be able to understand enough of this input to gain
they are being used. positive access to it, and it needs to be meaningful to them. They also
need to experience particular language items and features many times in
meaningful and comprehensible input in order to eventually acquire them.
Proposals for principled approaches to This is a point made by Nation and Wang (1999), whose research endorses
the devel()pment of ELT materials the value of extensive reading (providing the learners read at least one
graded reader per week) because ofthe benefit gained from the many times
In this section, I am going to present my own proposals for principled new vocabulary items are repeated in controlled graded readers. The point is
approaches based on my 40 years' experience ofteaching English, develop­ ~lso made by Nation (2005: 587), who stresses the importance ofrepetitions
ing language-learning materials, observing materials in use, and researching III extensive reading "with an optimal space between the repetitions so that
language acquisition and development. In the absence of empirical data to previous knowledge is still retained and yet there is some degree of novelty
substantiate my claims and to support my proposals, I can only offer my to the repetition," ideally with the word occurring each time "in a new
convictions in order to stimulate thought, debate, and (hopefully) research. context." Nation (2003) also stresses the importance ofthe elaboration that
Other materials writers would no doubt suggest different (and equally valid) takes place when meeting a known word again in a way that stretches its
principled approaches. meaning for the learner.
One of the things materials writers need is an inventory of flexible
frameworks to help them develop effective materials for target learners PRINCIPLES OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
in principled and coherent ways. But before such frameworks are devel­
oped, we must first determine what the principles are that should drive the 1. Make sure that the materials contain plentiful spoken and written
procedures. texts, which provide extensive experience of language being used to
Each principle of materials development needs to be derived from achieve outcomes in a variety of text types and genres in relation to
principles of language acquisition and should then be used to develop topics, themes, events, and locations likely to be meaningful to the
frameworks that link together procedures in an organic and coherent way. target learners.
Each principle of language acquisition should also be used to develop uni­ 2. Make sure that the language the learners are exposed to is authentic
versal criteria that act as criteria for both the development and evaluation of in the sense that it represents how the language is typically used. If
materials in conjunction. In the process of developing materials for spec­ the language is inauthentic because it has been written or reduced
ified target learners, the universal criteria need to be combined with local to exemplifY a particular language feature, then the learners will not
acquire the ability to use the language typically or effectively.
88 Brian Tomlinson Principles of effective materials development 89

Much has been written on the issue of authenticity, and some and durable learning (Craik & Lockhart 1972), and it helps learners to
experts consider that it is useful to focus attention on a feature of a transfer high-level skills such as predicting, connecting, interpreting, and
language by removing distracting difficulties and complexities from evaluating (Tomlinson 2007a) to second language use. If the learners do
sample texts. My position is that such contrived focus might be of not feel any emotion while exposed to language in use, they are unlikely
some value as an additional aid to help the learner to focus on salient to acquire anything from their experience. Feeling enjoyment, pleasure,
features, but that prior and subsequent exposure to those features in and happiness, feeling empathy, being amused, being excited, and being
authentic use is essential. For other recent thoughts on the value of stimulated are most likely to influence acquisition positively, but feeling
authentic materials, see Day (2003), Gilmore (2007), Mishan (2005), annoyance, anger, fear, opposition, and sadness is more useful than feeling
and Tomlinson (2001a). nothing at all (Tomlinson 2003e). Ideally, though, the learner should be
Ofcourse, in order to ensure authenticity ofinput, we need to know experiencing positive affect in the sense of being confident, motivated, and
how the language is typically used. Recently a number of very large willingly engaged even when experiencing "negative" emotions. There is
corpora oflanguage use have been developed, and we now know a lot a substantial amount of literature on the value of affective and cognitive
more about language use than we did 30 years ago. However, there engagement while engaged in responding to language in use. For example,
are still gaps between what we do and what we know and between Braten (2006) reports on research into the role of emotion in language
what we know and what we "tell" our learners (Tomlinson 2009). learning and use; Damasio (1994) reports research on the important role of
3. Make sure that the language input is contextualized. Language use is emotion in memory; Mathewson (1994) refers to the many articles on the
determined and interpreted in relation to its context ofuse. Decontex­ importance of affect in The Reading Teacher from 1948-1991; Pavlenko
tualized examples do not contain enough information about the user, (2005) investigates the role of emotion in second language learning; and
the addressee(s), the relationships between the interactants, the set­ both Schumann (1999) and Stevick (1999) report research on the value of
ting, the intentions, or the outcomes for them to be of value to the affective engagement while learning a language. Anderson (1990, 1993)
language learner. I can, for example, think of at least three different shows the benefits of cognitive engagement during language experience;
interpretations of "Give him the keys. Let him drive it." But I do Byrnes (2000) focuses on the value of using higher-level cognitive skills in
not know what it really means, nor why the speaker has used the second language learning; Green (1993) picks out cognitive engagement as
imperative, until I know who is saying it, who they are saying it to, one ofthe main drives ofsecond language acquisition; and Robinson (2002)
what the relationship between them is, where they are, what has hap­ contains a number of chapters reporting research on cognitive engagement.
pened before, and what the objectives of the conversation are. Only
extended samples of language in contextualized use can provide the PRINCIPLES OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
learner with the "information" they need to develop awareness ofhow
the target language is actually used. 1. Prioritize the potential for engagement by, for example, basing a unit
4. Make sure that the learners are exposed to sufficient samples oflan­ on a text or a task that is likely to achieve affective and cognitive
guage in authentic use to provide natural recycling oflanguage items engagement rather than on a teaching point selected from a syllabus.
and features that might be useful for the learners to acquire. 2. Make use of activities that make the learners think about what they
are reading or listening to and respond to it personally.
3. Make use of activities that make the learners think and feel before,
Principle of language acquisition No.2 during, and after using the target language for communication.
In order for the learners to maximize their exposure to language in
use, they need to be engaged both affectively and cognitively in the Principle of language acquisition No.3
language experience (Arnold 1999; Tomlinson 1998b, 1998d). If the
learners do not think and feel while experiencing the language, they are Language learners who achieve positive affect are much more likely
unlikely to acquire any elements of it. Thinking while experiencing lan­ to achieve communicative competence than those who do not (Arnold
guage in use helps to achieve the deep processing required for effective 1999; Tomlinson 1998d). Language learners need to be positive about the
90 Brian Tomlinson Principles of effective materials development 91

target language, about their learning environment, about their teachers, interpretations. In L2 learning and use, learners typically focus narrowly
about their fellow learners, and about their learning materials. They also on linguistic decoding and encoding. Multidimensional representation of
need to achieve positive self-esteem and to feel that they are achieving language that is experienced and used can enrich the learning process in
something worthwhile. Above all, they need to be emotionally involved ways that promote durable acquisition, the transfer from learning activities
in the learning process and to respond by laughing, getting angry, feeling to real-life use, the development ofthe ability to use the language effectively
sympathY, feeling happy, feeling sad, and so on. Positive emotions seem to in a variety ofsituations for a variety ofuses, and the self-esteem that derives
be the most useful in relation to language acquisition, but it is much better from performing in the L2 in ways as complex as they typically do in
to feel angry than to feel nothing at all. The value ofpositive affect has been the Ll.
attested to, for example, by de Andres (1999), who reports research on the There is a considerable literature on the vital use ofthe inner voice in L 1
value of positive self-esteem in language learning; by Arnold and Fonseca and the infrequency of use of the inner voice in the L2. For example:
(2007), who report research on how teachers can positively influence affec­ • Akhutina (2003), Steels (2003), and de Bleser and Marshall (2005)
tive involvement; by Dornyei (2002), who offers 35 strategies for how demonstrate how effective inner speech is vital for effective outer speech.
teachers might enhance their students' motivation, and who also stresses • Appel and Lantolf (1994) and Masuhara (1998) report on the use of
the importance ofpositive motivation; by Rost (2005), who reports research inner speech by advanced L2 learners.
on the value of positive affective involvement; and by Schumann (1997, • Blonsky (1964) demonstrates that the inner voice reproduces the speech
1999), who focuses on the benefits of positive appraisal. of the speaker you are listening to, and Anderson (1995), Klein (1981),
and Sokolov (1972) report the vital role of the inner voice during silent
PRINCIPLES OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT reading.
• Jenkin et al. (1993), Masuhara (1998), and Tomlinson (1998e) report on
1. Make sure the texts and tasks are as interesting, relevant, and enjoyable
the rarity of use of the L2 inner voice by L2 learners.
as possible so as to exert a positive influence on the learners' attitudes • Johnson (1994) researched the role of inner speech in defining and
to the language and to the process oflearning it. guiding the self.
2. Set achievable challenges, which help to raise the learners' self-esteem
• Korba (1986, 1990) researched the speed of inner speech and found it to
when success is accomplished. be ten times faster than outer speech.
3. Stimulate emotive responses through the use of music, song, litera­
• Sokolov (1972) reports research demonstrating the characteristics and
ture, art, and so on, through making use ofcontroversial and provoca­ functions of the inner voice.
tive texts, through personalization, and through inviting learners to
• Vygotsky (1986) reports research on the roles of the inner voice and
articulate their feelings about a text before asking them to analyze it.
stresses the importance of these roles.
What the literature demonstrates is that in the Ll we use the inner voice
Principle of language acquisition No.4 to give our own voice to what we hear and read, to make plans, to make
L2language learners can benefit from using those mental resources that decisions, to solve problems, to evaluate, to understand and "control" our
they typically utilize when acquiring and using their Lt. In particular, environment, and to prepare outer voice utterances before saying or writing
they can gain from multidimensional representation of both the language them. When talking to ourselves, we use a restricted code that consists of
they experience and the language they intend to produce (see Masuhara short elliptical utterances expressed in simple tenses with the focus on the
1998,2006,2007; Tomlinson 1998c, 2000a, 2000b, 2001b, 2001c, 2003a; comment rather than the topic, on the predicate rather than the subject. It is
and Tomlinson & Avila 2007a, 2007b for principled suggestions as to cotext and context dependent, implicit, partial, vague, novel, and salient to
how making use of multidimensional mental representation can help L2 ourselves. However, L2 users rarely use an L2 inner voice until they reach
learners). In Lllearning and use, learners typically employ mental imaging an advanced level - though there is evidence that the use of an L2 inner
(e.g., seeing pictures in their mind), inner speech, emotional responses, voice at lower levels can enhance L2 performance and can be facilitated
connections with their own lives, evaluations, predictions, and personal by teachers and materials (de Guerro 2004; Tomlinson 2000b). For further
92 Brian Tomlinson Principles of effective materials development 93

details ofthe characteristics and roles ofthe inner voice, see Archer (2003), 2. Make use ofactivities that encourage learners to visualize and / or use
de Guerro (2005), and Tomlinson and Avila (2007a, 2007b). inner speech before, during, and after using language themselves.
There is also a considerable body of literature on the role of visual 3. Make use of activities that help the learners to reflect on their mental
imaging in language use and acquisition. For example: activity during a task and then to try to make more use of mental
strategies in a similar task.
• Barnett (1989), Tomlinson (1998a), and Avila (2005) report that L2
learners do not typically use visual imaging when using the L2.
• Eysenk and Keane (1990) show how visual imaging is used to make Principle of language acquisition No.5
inferences about what is not explicitly stated. Language learners can benefit from noticing salient features of the
• Paivio (1979) and Sadoski (1985) demonstrate how we represent lin­ input. If learners notice for themselves how a particular language item
guistic utterances by combining images from relevant prior experience or feature is used (Ellis, this volume; Schmidt & Frota 1986; Tomlinson
with images generated by text. 2007b), they are more likely to develop their language awareness (Bolitho
• Sadoski and Paivio (1994) report the importance of visual imaging in et al. 2003; Bolitho & Tomlinson 1995; Tomlinson 1994). They are also
the development of the ability to read and understand text. more likely to achieve readiness for acquisition (pienemann 1985). Such
• Sadoski and Quast (1990) and Esrock (1994) stress the value of visual noticing is most salient when a learner has been engaged in a text affectively
imaging in deep processing (demonstrated by Craik & Lockhart 1972 to and cognitively and then returns to it to investigate its language use. This
be vital for long-term learning). is likely to lead to the learner paying more attention to similar uses of that
• Tomlinson (1996, 1998a) presents research on the role ofvisual imaging item or feature in subsequent inputs and to increase its potential for eventual
in retention and recall and in preparation of what you want to say or acquisition.
write.
• Tomlinson (l998a) and Avila (2005) report research demonstrating the
potential effectiveness of training L2 learners to use visual imaging in PRINCIPLES OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
their learning and use of the L2. 1. Use an experiential approach (Kolb 1984) in which the learners are
Basically, what the literature demonstrates is that visual imaging plays a first of all provided with an experience that engages them holistically.
very important role in L1 learning and use, that it tends not to be used by From this experience, they learn implicitly without focusing conscious
L2 learners, and that L2 learners can be trained to use visual imaging to attention on any particular features of the experience. Later, they
improve their learning and use of the L2. revisit and reflect on the experience and pay conscious attention to
Ideally the inner voice and mental imaging should be used concurrently its features in order to achieve explicit learning. For example, L2
(Collins 2009; Leontiev & Ryabova 1981; Sadoski & Paivio 1994), and learners could first of all be helped to respond multi dimensionally to
also in conjunction with affective connections and motor imagery. This is a text as a whole, to articulate personal responses to it, and then to
what happens in L1 use and what could happen in L2 use, too. revisit it to focus more narrowly on particular features ofthe text. This
For details of research on mental imaging and on inner speech and its enables the learners to apprehend before they comprehend and to intuit
application to materials development, see in particular Tomlinson and Avila before they explore. And it means that when they focus narrowly on
(2007a,2007b). a specific feature of the text they are able to develop their discoveries
in relation to their awareness of the full context of use (Tomlinson
1994).
PRINCIPLES OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
2. Rather than drawing the learners' attention to a particular feature of a
1. Make use of activities that encourage learners to visualize and / or text and then providing explicit information about its use, it is much
use inner speech before, during, and after experiencing a written or more powerful to help the learners (preferably in collaboration) to
spoken text. make discoveries for themselves.
94 Brian Tomlinson Principles of effective materials development 95

teaching that I follow when developing materials and the principles for
Principle of language acquisition No. 6
materials development that I derive from them.
Learners need opportunities to use language to try to achieve commu­
nicative purposes. In doing so, they are gaining feedback on the hypothe­
Principle of language teaching No. 1
ses they have developed as a result of generalizing on the language in
their intake and on their ability to make use of them effectively. If they The content and methodology of the teaching should be consistent with
are participating in interaction, they are also being pushed to clarifY and . the objectives ofthe course and should meet the needs and wants ofthe
elaborate (Swain 2005), and they are also likely to elicit meaningful and learners.
comprehensible input from their interlocutors.
PRINCIPLES OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
PRINCIPLES OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
1. For any course in which the main objective is to help the learners to
1. Provide many opportunities for the learners to produce language in improve their communicative competence in English, it is important
order to achieve intended outcomes. that the English the learners are exposed to is used in ways that either
2. Make sure that these output activities are designed so that the learn­ represent or replicate the reality of language use in typical English
ers are using language rather than just practicing specified features discourse. This implies that most of the texts and tasks should be
of it. authentic in the sense that they have not been contrived for language­
3. Design output activities so that they help learners to develop teaching purposes (Gilmore 2007; Mishan 2005) and that they are
their ability to communicate fluently, accurately, appropriately, and "as similar as possible to future applications of learning" (James
effectively. 2006: 153). It also implies that any explicit exemplification should be
4. Make sure that the output activities are fully contextualized in that the informed by corpus data (Tan 2002a) or by systematic observation by
learners are responding to an authentic stimulus (e.g., a text, a need, a the materials developers (Tomlinson 2009).
viewpoint, an event), that they have specific addressees, and that they 2. The materials need to be written in such a way that the teacher can
have a clear intended outcome in mind. make use ofthem as a resource and not have to follow them as a script.
5. Try to ensure that opportunities for feedback are built into output There must be a built-in flexibility to the course that helps teachers
activities and are provided for the learners afterwards. and learners to make principled decisions about texts, tasks, learning
There are many other principles oflanguage acquisition that should ideally points, approaches, and routes in relation to learner needs and wants.
inform materials development. Among these are the proposals that the
materials should: Principle of language teaching No.2
• Have the potential to facilitate transfer oflearning by replicating features The teaching should be designed to help learners to achieve language
of real-life activities in which the learners are likely to need to function development and not just language acquisition (Tomlinson 2007a). In
after their course (James [2006] presents research supporting this and other words, the teachers should not restrict their objectives to the achieve­
van den Branden [2006] reports the results of classroom research inves­ ment of basic communicative competence, but should aim to help their
tigating the effects of replicating future workplace realities in classes for learners to develop the ability to use language fluently, accurately, appro­
Dutch as an L2). priately, and effectively in numerous genres and for numerous purposes.
• Help learners to monitor themselves before, during, and after language This not only prepares the learners for the reality oflanguage use (van den
production (Krashen 1985). Branden 2006), but can also positively affect their self-esteem (de Andres
1999) and help them to develop communicative competence (Canale &
When developing classroom materials we should also, of course, consider Swain 1980), cognitive academic language proficiency (Cummins 2000;
principles oflanguage teaching. Below is a list ofthe principles oflanguage Duff2006), and functional literacy (Wiley 2005).
96 Brian Tomlinson Principles of effective materials development 97

PRINCIPLES OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT the needs, wants, and learning-style preferences of individual learners
(Anderson 2006). This can help to achieve the relevance and connectivity
1. The activities should, from the earliest levels onward, involve and found to promote language acquisition, to help learners to relate the mate­
encourage the use of such high-level skills as imaging, using inner rials to previous experience (Tomlinson 2007b), and to facilitate the use of
speech, making connections, predicting, interpreting, evaluating, and mental imaging and ~er speech (Tomlinson & Avila 2007a).
applying (see Principle of Language Acquisition No.4 above for
supporting references). This not only helps to prepare learners to .
PRINCIPLES OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
become effective communicators, but it can also help them achieve
the deep processing required for long-term learning. 1. The materials should provide the teacher with ideas (and maybe even
2. The activities should not be restricted to the practice of language banks ofmaterials) for localizing and personalizing generic activities.
forms and functions, but should provide opportunities to use the target 2. The materials should help the teacher to suggest ways in which indi­
language to achieve intended outcomes in a range of genres and text viduals can make their own choices and work at their own level and
types for a range of objectives. speed.
3. The materials should help the teacher to assess the learners and to
Obviously, there are many other principles oflanguage teaching, and there
give constructive feedback in relation to achievement of intended
are also language-teaching realities to cater to in designing materials. The
outcomes.
ability to cater to variations in class size, course duration, course inten­
sity, lesson duration, teacher experience, teacher skills, teacher personality,
Principle of language teaching NO.3 ~eacher communicative competence, learner access to the target language
ill use and learner motivation should obviously be a consideration when
The teaching should be designed so as to provide the learners with designing principled language-leaming materials.
learning opportunities that will help them to develop educationally
in the sense that they become more mature, more critically astute,
more creative, more constructive, more collaborative, more capable, Principled approaches to the development
and more confident as a result of the course. of ELT materials

Most global coursebooks these days seem to be clones of other commer­

PRINCIPLES OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
cially successful coursebooks, driven mainly by the need to appear attrac­
1. The materials should be cross-curricular in that they relate to other tive, to provide comprehensive coverage, to achieve face validity as typical
subject areas and are not narrowly focused on language leaming. coursebooks, to prepare learners for examinations, to help teachers by
2. The materials should include some element of content-based teach­ reducing their preparation time, to help administrators to allocate lessons
ing (Snow 2005) so that the learners learn more about an area of to teachers, to standardize teaching, and to provide teaching that would be
knowledge that is ofparticular interest or value to them. useful to any learner anywhere at a specified language level. This does not
3. The activities should help learners to develop skills, which can transfer mean, of course, that such books are not principled, but any analysis of cur­
to other subjects of study or to professional and / or leisure pursuits rent global coursebooks will reveal the following common approach that
(e.g., creative, analytical, evaluative, organizational, coordination, and I have just uncovered from an analysis of seven recently published global
leadership skills). coursebooks:

i) Presentation of a language-teaching point through contrived

Principle of language teaching No.4 examples and / or a short text.
ii) Questions on the examples focusing on the teaching point.
The teacher needs to be able to personalize and localize the materials
iii) Practice of the teaching point through matching, transformation,
(McKay 1992; Tomlinson 2006) and to relate them in different ways to
completion, rewriting, and sentence-construction exercises.
98 Brian Tomlinson Principles of effective materials development 99

iv) Reading or listening to a short text providing further exemplification Conclusions

of the teaching point.
v) Comprehension questions testing understanding of the text. It seems that most current global coursebooks and many local and localized
vi) Speaking and writing activities related to the theme or topic of the coursebooks are not driven or even informed by principles of language
unit and to the grammar and vocabulary points presented and prac­ acquisition and development. Some of them manage to help learners to
ticed earlier. acquire language because their writers have been effective teachers and are
intuitively applying principles of teaching. Most of them could be a lot
This might be a reassuringly familiar approach to administrators, teach­ more effective if they had been driven by the principles of learning and
ers, and learners, but its adherence to the presentation-practice-production teaching outlined above. What is needed are principled frameworks to help
format that has been much criticized for not matching what is known about future materials writers to manage to achieve principled coherence in their
language acquisition (Tomlinson et al. 2001; Willis 1996) is hardly likely to contextualized application of theory to effective practice.
lead to success in facilitating language acquisition and development. The
materials generated from this format sometimes do achieve a topic and / or
language point coherence, which connects each activity to the others, but Discussion questions and tasks
they rarely achieve coherence in the sense that each activity gains from the Reflection
previous ones and is a preparation for the subsequent ones. These materials
seem to be based on a very dubious principle that what is taught will be 1. In the literature, there is frequent reference as to whether materi­
learned and to disregard most of the commonly agreed principles of lan­ als work or not. Which of the following do you think are the most
guage acquisition outlined above. Interestingly, I cannot find anybody in the important criteria for deciding whether certain materials work or not?
literature actually recommending, supporting, or justifying this commonly i) Do the materials help learners to understand and remember gram­
mar rules?
used framework.
There are numerous exceptions to the generalization above about the ii) Do the materials help learners to remember definitions of vocab­
typical framework for published coursebooks. Some of these can be found ulary items?
in global coursebooks, but most of them are to be found in local course­ iii) Do the learners enjoy using the materials?
books, which do not have to compete in the marketplace. Such books can iv) Does the teacher find the materials easy to use?
afford to be more principled (and therefore different from the norm), espe­ v) Do the materials eventually help to facilitate successful language
cially if they have been commissioned by a Ministry of Education or an acquisition and development? Can you think of any other impor­
institution and will be given to all teachers to use. I know of examples tant criteria?
of local coursebooks driven by principles of language acquisition in Bul­ 2. i) Which of the six principles of language acquisition outlined in
garia, Japan, Morocco, Namibia, Norway, Rumania, Russia, Singapore, this paper do you think should be made more use of by materials
and Turkey, and of such a coursebook currently being developed in Oman. writers?
The most principled ofthe books already published are a low-budget, basic, ii) Are there any of the six principles that you don't think should be
black-and-white publication in Namibia (On Target) and a glossy, full-color followed by materials writers?
publication in Norway (Fenner & Nordal-Pedersen 1999). Both follow the iii) Can you think of any other principles oflanguage acquisition that
flexible, principled, text-driven framework outlined in Tomlinson (2003d), you think materials writers should pay more attention to?
both follow a principle of moving from personal to local to international, 3. i) Which of the four principles of language teaching outlined in
and both match the six principles of language acquisition outlined above. this paper do you think should be made more use of by materials
For more detailed accounts of principled local coursebooks, see Bolitho writers?
(2008), Popovici and Bolitho (2003), and Tomlinson (1995). For evalua­ ii) Are there any of the four principles that you don't think should be
tions of coursebooks in relation to principles of language acquisition, see followed by materials writers?
Masuhuara et al. (2009), Tomlinson (2008), and Tomlinson et al. (2001).
100 Brian Tomlinson Principles of effective materials development 101

iii) Can you think of any other principles of language teaching that Archer, M. S. (2003). Structure, agency and the internal conversation. Cambridge:
you think materials writers should pay more attention to? Cambridge University Press.
4. Do you know ofany coursebook that differs from the typical approach Arnold, J. (ed.). (1999). Affect in language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni­
outlined in Principle of Language Teaching No.4 (pp. 96-97)? Do versity Press.
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Avila, F. J. (2005). EI uso de la imagen mental en la lectura en el proceso de la
Evaluation adquisici6n de una secunda lengua. PhD thesis. University of Seville.
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Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.
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Bell, J., & Gower, R. (1998). Writing course materials" for the world: A great com­
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promise. In B. Tomlinson (ed.). Materials development in language teaching.
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context which you are familiar with. Blonsky, P. P. I. (1964). Izbrannye psihologiceskie proizvedenija [Selected psycho­
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6. Decide on a target group oflearners and then write a unit of material critical review. London: Continuum, pp. 213-22.
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you agree with. Bolitho, R., Carter, R., Hughes, R., Ivanic, R., Masuhara, H., & Tomlinson, B.
If possible: (2003). Ten questions about language awareness. ELT Journal 57(3): 251-9.
Braten, S. (ed.). (2006). Intersubjective communication ·and emotion in early
o Teach your unit. ontogeny. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
o Evaluate it in relation to the principles that drove it. Byrd, P. (1995). Materials writer's guide. Newbury House.
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effective. construction. In M. -R. Kecht & K. von Harnmerstein (eds.). Languages across
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