MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT IN ESP

Presented by: Nuruladilah Bt. Mohamed GS 37456

OVERVIEW
Definition

Types of Materials
Purpose of Materials Teachers or Providers of Materials Teacher-Generated Material Learner-Generated Material Materials and Technology

DEFINITION

DEFINITION OF MATERIALS
Harsono (2007) states materials refer to anything which

is used to help to teach language learners.

Tomlinson(1998,2001) defined materials as
textbook, a workbook, a cassette, a CD-ROM, a video, a

photocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph written on a whiteboard or anything

presents or informs about the language being learned

and facilitate the learning of a language.

TYPES OF MATERIALS

TYPES OF MATERIALS (Ellis and Johnson, 1994)

General

Focuses on ones general ability E.g: GE

Subjectspecific

Focuses on a particular job or industry E.g: ESP Business English

PURPOSE OF MATERIALS
Evans & John (1998)
Source of language

Tomlinson (2001)

Instructional

Learning support

Experiential

Motivation & stimulation

Elicitative

Reference

Exploratory

SOURCE OF

LANGUAGE

PURPOSE OF MATERIALS
1.

Source of language
classroom may be the only source of English.

If English is a foreign not a second language, the ESP

Materials play roles in:

exposing or informing learners to a real language.

Provide additional materials max. exposure Use of instructions/explanations fits students

understanding filling the learners requirements E.g: use of texts from Time and Wall Street Journal in a classroom ( ) WHY? Differs from pedagogic style of textbooks, different

LEARNING

SUPPORT

PURPOSE OF MATERIALS
2. Learning support
Materials need to be reliable to work, to be

consistent, and to have some recognizable pattern

Some materials mislead objectives

Involving learners in thinking about and using the

language.
Activities used in the materials: stimulate cognitive

process.
The learners: have a sense of progression.

STIMULATION AND

EVALUATION

PURPOSE OF MATERIALS
3. Stimulation and motivation
Materials need to be: Challenging Achievable offer new ideas / information Encourage fun / creativity Can be used in real-life environment

REFERENCE

PURPOSE OF MATERIALS
4. Reference

- self-study / reference purposes Materials need to be: Complete, self-explanatory Provide explanations, examples, exercises, and answer keys
Well-organized

Through informative contents pages and

indexes E.g: Unit 1 Reading, Unit 2 Speaking

PREPARATION OF NEW

MATERIALS: WRITERS OR PROVIDERS ?

WRITERS/PROVIDERS OF MATERIALS
Preparing materials place high demands and

great pressure on materials writers.

Each stage is time-consuming: Find suitable

carrier content, match real content to learning and real world activities, compose clear rubrics, plan an effective layout,.
Preparing new materials from scratch for

every course taught is clearly impractical, even if every teacher actually had the ability.

WRITERS/PROVIDERS OF MATERIALS
A good provider of materials will be able to: 1. Select from what is available 2. Creative with what is available

3. Modify activities to suit learners needs

4. Supplement by providing extra activities/

input

(1) Selective
Make good choices

- Aim to have good criteria ( factors of the learners, role of materials, topics, language, presentation, analysis, and validity of materials)

- During selection, consider these questions: i. Will the materials stimulate and motivate? ii. To what extent does the material match the stated learning objectives ? iii. To what extent will the materials support that learning?

(2) Creative
It is not easy to be creative if the working

environment is heavily constrained, based on certain situations:

given materials choose from have to be used small range of material to choose from freedom to

any material

E.g:

- A TESL classroom studies Current Issues in Education -the lecturer/students out-of-date, different setting - 2 simultaneous threads of action : > prepare to change the situation

(3) Modify
Modify activities can occur if input and carrier

content are adequate

Possible modifications:
1.
2. 3. 4. 5.

Select activities that are central to the core objective Replace with activities which focus on real content Change rubric to change the focus/drop the activity Add in activity(s) before the given materials Omit exercises if necessary

(4) Supplement
Can be viewed as a form of modification

Changing the input supplement/prepare new

materials
Skills that ESP practitioners/teachers need to

have:
Matching carrier content to real content Providing variety Grading activity level: learning and language Presenting good materials

CATEGORIES OF MATERIALS
Teacher-Generated Material

Learner-Generated Material

TEACHER-GENERATED

MATERIAL

TEACHER-GENERATED MATERIAL
1) Matching carrier content to real content
2) Providing variety 3) Grading exercises 4) Presenting the material well

1. Matching carrier content to real content

The development of new material could be from

one of two directions:

STARTING POINT A: having some good

input/carrier content (authentic text)

STARTING POINT B: where there is a gap in

the course material (course objective)

Carrier Vs. Real Content

Carrier content - aspects that is used to assist the real content (e.g.: English for Banking) Real content - the main purpose of the course

Continue
A: - having a good input/carrier content

- analyze to determine what real content could be exploited - try to fit the content into the course

B: - there is a gap in the course material

- no suitable material is available

Process for Preparing New Materials Starting point A Starting point B

Have some carrier content
Determine its real content Match real and carrier content to course framework Need material for specific objective

Search for suitable carrier content

2. Providing variety
Variety is essential in any language class as

well as ESP class motivate learners

Variety in micro-skills Variety in activity types Variety in class interaction

Variety in the micro-skills

Focus more than one macro-skill

(e.g writing, speaking, reading, listening)

The use of other macro-skills will both help the

learning of the target macro-skill and provide variety for the class.
For example: In a writing class, not only focusing on writing skills but try to combine with other macro skills : reading

Variety in activity types

A visual used in an exercise is often effective It increases variety and avoids of too much

texts to be read and understand as input for a task.

Visuals include diagrams, flow charts,

graphs, bar and pie charts, matrices, photographs and sketches

Variety in interaction
ESP class is varied in the nature of its

interactions.
Changes from teacher input > individual

work > pair work > class discussion

Class size and learners expectation

should be taking into consideration by the teacher

3. Grading exercises
Grading - amount of support provided to enable

learners to do a set of exercises and tasks at different levels of difficulty.

Many ESP practitioners find themselves in the

situation where their groups are of very mixed abilities. For instance: A situation requires an approach to material which to some extent caters for everyone.

Continue

Three levels to present each task/set of exercises (Nunes, 1992):

1) Unsupported
2) Partially supported 3) Fully supported

Activities differ based on conceptual levels and can be graded according to its complexity (Nunan, 1989)

Continue
Bowler and Parminter (2002) present the three

levels proposed by Nunes (1992) as tiered-tasks

Top Tier : Weaker Students supported = Fully

Middle Tier : Middle-level Students =

Partially

supported
Bottom Tier : Advanced Students Unsupported =

4. Presenting material well

Consistency helps learners to focus on

learning rather than working out what to do.

It includes: writing good, consistent rubrics,

planning layout and proofing

A unit of material might have the following

broad format.

How to Prepare Material

LEARNER-GENERATED

MATERIAL

LEARNER-GENEREATED MATERIAL

1) Framework materials 2) Activities devised by the learners

1. Framework Materials
Materials: provide carrier content and activities for

input and practice

Role: Remove a difficulty to balance the levels and

appropriateness of carrier and real content Set a context or a framework

Learners fit their own carrier content and their existing

language competence into the framework

Types: compare and contrast chart, lists of advantages

and disadvantages diagram

Continue
Production process Advantages Disadvantages

Advantages and Disadvantages

A key aspect for using framework materials is what Ellis and Johnson (1994) refer to as the setting box.

2. Activities devised by learners

Text comprehension

- A pair of learners prepare some comprehension questions (as well as the answers) and exchange them with another pair. Each pair will answer the other pair's set of questions.

Continue
-

Note taking / Information transfer Learners themselves can think of some creative activities to transfer information for their peers (and their teachers)

Vocabulary Development Learners can generate their own sets or word partnerships E.g : matching and grouping activities

MATERIALS AND

TECHNOLOGY

MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY

Technology offers alternative materials and

classroom interactions.
Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL)

programs are largely linear, constructed along certain thought patterns.

CD-ROM offers information and opportunity for

repetitive practice.
Internet is bringing further changes as courses can

be downloaded from all over the world.

CONCLUSION

 Materials are not just a simple tools that can be

randomly used to assist the teaching and learning process

Materials are one of the important aspects in

teaching ESP to guide the teachers and learners in understanding the subjects better.
Developing materials in ESP require certain

aspects to be considered.

THANK YOU

REFERENCES
Bowler, B. & Parminter, S. (2002). Mixed-Level Teaching: Tiered Tasks and

Biased Tasks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dudley-Evans, T.,& St John, M. (1998). Developments in ESP: A multi-

disciplinary

approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ellis, M. & Johnson C. (1994). Teaching Business English. Hong Kong:

Oxford University Press.

Harsono, Y.M.(2007). Developing learning materials for specific purposes.

Retrieved October, 25, 2013 from http://www.journal.teflin.org/index.php/teflin/article/viewFile/191/109

Tomlinson, B. (2001). Materials Development. In Carter, R. & Nunan,

D.(Eds.), The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.