Welcome to the Textbook Design &Analysis Course!
This course investigates materials design from the point of view of the EFL teacher in middle and high school. It examines how EFL textbooks in Korea can be beneficially supplemented by teachers, to meet the special learning needs of their students. This is a practical course, which uses a workshop learning environment, and which focuses on three basic perspectives:: Why?, What? and How?.

Every language teacher faces the problem of material-selection:

• How do I find a textbook that suits my students?
  • appropriate level(s) (stimulating learning in the multi-level classroom)
  • current educational principles (attention to affective filters, cooperative learning, interaction, integrated tasks, meaningful learning)
  • focusing on the learner as the center of learning
  • holistic (education of the whole person)
  • process approach (how to learn rather than what to learn)
  • cultural sensitivity (looking at Korean culture as well as foreign cultures)
  • appropriate methodology (e.g. task-based, project-based)
  • learner training (development of study skills)
  • appropriate assessment methods (student-centered, ongoing, informing the students about their goals and achievements)
  • appropriate scope (e.g. 60 class-hours per book)

White (1988:113) remarks that choice of textbooks is "often dealt with in a largely unplanned manner", with program-designers choosing commercial texts based on a linear, reductionist view of language learning, which encourage teachers to present (and test) discrete language items, and to believe that valid language acquisition is occurring as a result. EFL texts thus often describe Caucasian families in America or England, and subscribe to teacher-centred presentation of formal concepts, giving little attention (beyond the contents page) to promotion of autonomy, positive affect, learner training, cultural sensitivity/suitability and critical thinking.

This course will examine how individual teachers can make their own materials, emphasizing affective rather than cognitive development, de-emphasizing the transmission of a fixed body of knowledge, and focusing on the capacity to learn independently, to develop effective thinking techniques, and to learn how to learn.

Language teachers often design their own materials to supplement class texts and to promote learning where texts are not available. Such materials aim to have a positive effect on learners by enhancing curiosity, interest and attention, so that the chances of the language being successfully processed by the learner are increased.

• Materials designed by individual teachers are made for the teacher's own students, looking at learning issues relevant to them.
• Materials that have been made by the teacher and the students can facilitate the "learning to learn" process and encourage students to develop learning skills that will be useful for the rest of their lives.

Here are some criteria for materials design. We shall be using these (or our own version of them) for peer-assessment of asignments:

1. Language-learning materials should achieve impact through:
   • novelty (e.g. unusual topics, illustrations and activities);
   • variety;
   • attractive presentation;
   • appealing content.
2. Language-learning materials should help learners feel at ease (reduction of stress).
3. Language-learning materials should help learners to develop confidence.
4. Contents should be perceived by learners as relevant and useful.
5. Materials should require and facilitate learner self-investment.
6. Learners must be ready to acquire the points being taught.
7. Materials should expose learners to language in authentic use.
8. The learners' attention should be drawn to linguistic features of the language.
9. Materials should provide learners with opportunities to communicate.
10. Materials should take into account the fact that the effects of instruction are usually delayed (learning is cyclical and complex).
11. Materials should take into account learners' different learning styles.
12. Materials should take into account learners different affective development (confidence, motivation, attitudes to learning).
13. Materials should permit a silent period at the beginning of instruction.
14. Materials should maximise learning potential by encouraging intellectual, aesthetic and emotional involvement which stimulates both right and left brain activities.
15. Materials should not rely too much on controlled practice.
16. Materials should provide opportunities for outcome feedback.

1. There should be exposure to worthwhile and authentic language.
2. There should be use of language.
3. Tasks should motivate learners to engage in language use.
4. There should be a focus on language at some points in a task cycle.
5. The focus on language should be more and less prominent at different times. (Adapted from Willis 1996)
   
   
1. Choose a range of target structures (learners do not simply learn what teachers teach. It is ineffective to choose a particular structure to be learned).
2. Choose tasks which meet the utility criterion (the teacher can only create appropriate conditions and hope the learners will avail themselves of the possibilities).
3. Select and sequence tasks to achieve balanced development (see below).
4. Maximise the chances of a focus on form through attentional manipulation.
5. At initial stages of task use, conditions need to be established to maximise the chances of noticing. (Adapted from Skehan 1998:129-32)

Candlin (1987) also offers useful criteria:

1. one-way tasks should precede two-way tasks;
2. static tasks should precede dynamic tasks;
3. tasks in the present time should precede ones using the past or future;
4. easy tasks should precede difficult ones;
5. simple tasks (only one step) should precede complex tasks (many steps).

For those who comprehend the instructions immediately, authentic language (item 1, Willis's list) appears in the two scrambled dialogues, and this language is made more meaningful by its appearance at the beginning of the book, after students have returned from vacation. Target structures (item 1, Skehan's list, above) are represented by the focus on the past tense in these dialogues, but as Skehan suggests, this is to be noticed (item 5, Skehan's list) rather than taught.

As explained in the instructions, the phrases are not in sequence, and students are asked to find a good order (not a "correct" order). It is not mentioned whether this should be done in pairs or groups, but discussion of the phrases (in the L2 if possible - item3, Willis's list) will ensue as students share their understanding of the terms, and sequences of phrases will constructed by various-sized groups, who will usually want to perform their dialogue, even if only to themselves or to each other. At this point, differences in sequences will provide further material for discussion (accessing the teacher if necessary) on the meaning of the phrases (items 4, 5, Willis's list, 4, 5, Skehan's list).

The final activity (4 & 5 in the instructions) is to make and perform "your own dialog" (item 3, Skehan's list). This more complex task (item 5, Willis's list) can be an opportunity for students to create their own dialogues (item 3, Willis's list), using the other dialogs as examples, or in the case of students who do not feel confident enough to do this, dialogues 1 & 2 (page 7, NYT, above) can be used as templates, and students can make a "jjigsaw" dialogue of the phrases they want.

Students are thus presented with a sequenced collection of tasks, building from static to dynamic, one-way to two-way, simple to complex, and present tense to past tense (cf. items 1-5, Candlin's list, above).

Autonomy is promoted through students being able to decide how to interpret the instructions, at what pace to perform the activities, how much attention to pay to form and meaning (accessing the teacher if necessary), whether to move on to follow-up activities such as talking about their own holidays, and (informal) peer assessment of colleagues' performances.

Positive affect is encouraged by the lack of any "correct" answer to the scrambled dialogues (students' opinions are valid), the freedom to do any or all of the activities, the use of the teacher as a language resource, the further freedom to perform final dialogues within groups or to the whole class, and the opportunity to comment (or not) on each others' performances.

• Candlin, C.N. (1987). Towards task-based learning. In C.N. Candlin & D. Murphy (Eds.). Lancaster Practical Papers in English Language Education. Vol. 7. Language Learning Tasks. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. 5-22.
• Skehan, P. (1998). A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• White, R.V. (1988). The ELT Curriculum, Design, Innovation and Management. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
• Willis, J. (1996). A Framework for Task-Based Learning. London: Longman

Most recently modified on July 22, 2003