THE PROCESS OF MATERIALS WRITING
EDITED BY BRIAN TOMLINSON
PRESENTED BY
SUPARTINA (F2201141029)
GINA SELVIRA YANTI (F2201141025)
NURSIATI (F221141041)
The problems and few terms related
to the materials writing and textbook
• I have noticed that the coursebook I use
doesn’t seem to deal with ‘real’ English (
Italian secondary school teacher)
• My demand is becoming a reporter of the
English football and I need, so, much
familiarity….( Danish upper- intermediate
student on a full-time intensive course in a
British)
IDENTIFICATION
CONTS...
• The textbook my institute has written says
that you use ‘please’ and ‘would’ for simple
request and ‘would you mind’ for more polite
request. I have heard lots of other things such
as could you possibly…’(Croatian evening
institute teacher)
• I get very confused with all these noughts and
zeros and nothings in your
language…(Argentinean part-time student
on a low intensity course in Britain
•
EXPLORATION
CONTS...
• It’s a very nice book and very lively, but in the section
on the ‘processes’ for the example all the exercises are
about unusual things for our country. We are hot
country and also have many Muslims. The exercises are
about snow, ice, cold mornings, water cisterns; writing
and publishing EFL books and making wine. I can tell
you I can’t do making wine and smoking pot in my
country!(experienced school teacher from
the Ivory Coast)
• Previous materials were not based on life on Brazil
which is why I don’t think they worked very
well….(Brazilian teacher of English in school)
•
CONTEXTUAL REALISATION
CONTS...
• Pair 1
A: his wallet must have fallen down
the trolley….
B : he must have forgotten it there..
C : perhaps he left it on the shopping
trolley….
D: perhaps he left it on car…
E : No, perhaps he drop it in the cleaner’s…
PEDAGOGICAL REALISATION
CONTS...
The process of the materials writing
• IDENTIFICATION
by teacher or learners of a need to
fulfilll or a problem to solve by the creation of materials
• EXPLORATION
of the area of need/problem in terms
what language, what meanings, what functions, what skills
• CONTEXTUAL REALISATION
of the purposed new
materials by the finding of suitable ideas, contexts or texts
with which to work
• PEDAGOGICAL REALISATION
of materials by the
finding of appropriate exercises and activities AND the
writing of appropriate instruction s for use
• PHYSICAL PRODUCTION
materials, involving
consideration of layout, type size, visuals, reproduction,
tape length.
Conclusion
• Materials writing is at its most effective when
it is turned to the needs of a particular group
of learners.
• Teachers understand their own learners best
• All teacher need a grounding in materials
writing
• All teachers teach themselves
• Trialing and evaluation are vital to the success
of any materials
NEXT
This chapter focuses on....
1. If one of your pedagogic principles is that creativity is
important in the classroom, then how can you make
sure that your coursebook does not take away
investment in and responsibility for learning from
teachers and learners?
2. If coursebooks are sometimes used by schools to
maintain consistency of syllabus, how can you at the
same time make sure they reflect the dynamic and
interactive nature of the learning process?
CONT...
3. Although it is true no coursebook can cater for all
individual needs of all learners all of the time, can
you provide enough material to meet most of the
needs most of the time and build in enough
flexibility to enable teachers to individualise it?
4. If the language presented in coursebooks includes
few genuine example of authentic or corpus-based
material, how can you ensure that your samples of
use are as natural as possible?
5. If coursebooks are frequently predictable in format
and content, how can you bring to your material a
feeling that is not boring?
A.1. The notion of compromise
• Coursebooks are tools which only have life
and meaning when there is a teacher present.
• It is important to choose the coursebooks that
appropriate to the learners and the context, at
least in the eyes of the school.
A.2. The publisher’s compromise
• Compromise is not something that is shared by
users, publishers also compromise.
• The sensible balance – a compromise of principle
– will surely be beetween innovation and
conservatism, a blend of the new and different
with the reasurringly familiar.
• The sales of the coursebook will be long-run
published as long as the potential users use it.
A.3. The authors
• Teachers who are authors have to
compromise; they have to beware of being
too much the teacher trainer and look also at
what students want.
• Authors who are not teachers have to
compromise; whilst there are writing skills
which not all teachers have – such as
structuring a sequence of activities and
balancing it with usable visual.
B. A Case Study
• Intermediate level course for adult students
both in UK and in private schools overseas.
• The assumption was that teachers would have
experience in setting up communicative
actitvities in the class.
CONT...
The brief compromises:
● The multilingual intensive UK situation and the
monolingual far less intensive situation are.
● Monoligual situations differ. Europe vs Asian.
● The material was still likely to be used by less
trained, untrained or differently trained teachers.
● Who are the learners? The age of the learners
need to be considered.
● It was likely that the materials would be used in
some schools.
B.1. Principles
• Flexibility
Teachers could move activities around, cut them
out or supplement them according to need.
• From text to language
Because of the needs of intermediate students,
we wanted to provide authentic texts which
contained examples of the focus language.
• Engaging content
The author concluded that the main criteria for
the texts were that they should be generative in
terms of language and would motivative students
to want to talk or write.
CONTS...
Natural language
Old language which had already been presented to
them at lower levels would at intermediate level be
embedded in new and natural langugae from native
speakers communicating naturally.
• Analytic approaches
The authors placed the importance on students
working things out for themselves.
• Emphasiss on review
The authors felt the need to review rather than
present a lot of grammar at this level.
•
CONTS...
• Personalised practice
The authors tried to provide a lot of practice activities at
this level which is the activities draw students’ own
experiences.
• Integrated skills
By integrating the skills as far as possible, the authors are
able to link speaking and writing with what the students
had read o listened to, therefore providing a context and
reason for communication.
• Balance of approaches
In general, the authors would provide opportunities for
both controlled practice and creative expression so that all
learning styles were catered for as far as possible.
CONTS...
• Learning to learn
it is important to integrate learner development
work throughout rather than make it up-front
training. In this principle, the learners will be able
to develop their learning as time pass by.
• Professional respect
Professional satisfaction and was academically
credibel to our colleagues.
B.2. Pressures
• The publishers
the authors felt that the publisher gave more attention to
the ‘flick test’, not to its long-term usability.
• Schools and institutions
They want the book to be the right length, had many
units, the syllabus had to include the grammatical item.
• Teachers
the materials had to be pedagogic, usable, fun
activities.
• Students
They want material that they could enjoy and
comprehensible.
B.3. Principles compromised
• Overall structure
the authors felt that the material ended up being
less flexibly organised than they would have liked.
• Methodology
They failed to present enough authentic materials
at the intermediate level, partly because of the
difficulty of finding texts.
• Texts
the authors wanted the materials to be natural
and as authentic as possible.
CONTS...
• Content
In terms of content, they realised they could
not please everyone. They did compromise to
not use taboo subjects.
• Piloting
Testing the materials is limited because of the
time and budget.
Conclusion
• Compromised almost by definition
is a subtle art if all sides are to
satisfied with getting less than they
originally wanted, and it has not
always been possible to tease out
and identify all the compromises
that were made when and by
whom.
• Without certain compromises the
authors would have produced less
effective materials.
NEXT
This chapter looks at the process
of materials writing from the
writer’s perspective. It uses two
snapshots: one taken in 1994 and
one taken 15 years later.
A. Writers’ Perspectives in 1994
A.1. Working together
- Most of the contributors have written at some time,
or always, as a member of a team. Writing teams are
often put together by publishers and considerable
‘getting to know you’ needs to take place before
writing can start.
- ‘The mode of working we’ve
agreed on is the following:
- During a first workshop: the
group decides on
topics, functions, skills focus,
treatment of
CONTS...
- Writers
go back to their
hometown and
devise units
accordingly.
- In about three months
the group meets
again with the project
coordinator and
the consultants and
CONTS...
- ‘My colleague and I decide on
the topic to work on and we get
together in the same room ad
try to find appropriate
materials and ideas (in our
library). We also bring materials
from home and the bookstore,
pool it and then ‘disperse’ to
get acitivities prepared. Then
we come together again, order
out parts, decide together
CONTS...
- ‘I have had negative experiences
in working with co-authors who
are virtual strangers and who
are representing the country for
which the book is intented. This
is often relationship full of
stresses and strains which result
from approaching the project
from totally different angels.
Then changes made to a
CONTS...
● How to work together is clearly something
which occupies materials writers.
● In the accounts given here we can
distinguish pairs who work closely together,
pairs who complement each other, and
larger teams where management of the
writing process becomes as important as
the writing itself.
C. Working with publishers
● The
steps done between authors and co-author:
Initial stage
- Research on new level – what is needed/gaps in
market/weaknesses of other materials – by talking to
teachers (students sometimes). This step done
independently with following up meetings/sharing
opinions and findings.
- Meeting with co-author (at home) to discuss and draft
ourbasic rationale.
- Creation of draft unit (usualyy Unit I). Planning of unit
usually done together.
- Submit rational/draft unit/propsed grammar syllabus to
publisher.
B. The creative process
- ‘When
I feel inspired the
writing comes easily, but
when the first idea has been
put on paper I tend to lose
interest. I nevertheless want
to work to be ‘mine’, and get
tense when my co-author
seems less committed to the
storyline and the
CONTS...
Sometimes it’s hard to stop
writing. Carrying on into the
night - long after you’re past
your best and you seem to be
working on auto-pilot – can
bring on insomnia and reduced
efficiency the day after. Meals
get postponed, as does time with
the family and with friends.’
-‘
● Most of the writers quoted here appear to rely heavily
on their own institutions, viewing textbook writing in
CONTS...
- Meanwhile stage
- The author continue to buidl up ideas for other
syllabuses – vocabulary , writing, pron., etc. In
terms of activity types and topic. They also
build up a bank of authentic texts which we feel
we can use or adapt.
- There is often a meeting with the designer and
art editor at this stage to discuss the look we want
from the book.
- When reports come back on draft unit and rationale
there is meeting with the publisher and project
manager, to share views and ‘take astand’ on what
changes.
CONTS...
• These following are the next steps:
- First draft
The authors sent the draft to readers and the feedback
is following up with a mega-meeting with publishers.
- Second draft
This is usually takes a long time period involving quite a
lot of change.
- Third draft
At this point the publishing team are very involved, and
as we are writing, ‘finished’ units will be copy-edited
and sent bakc to us. And there are also meeting with
designers and editors.
- Finally
it takes, on average, six months of non-stop follow-up
production work, particulary in the area of design, cuts
and rubrics.
CONTS...
the writers refers to the publishing team which may
typically consists of a publisher in overall charge, a
commisioning editor, designer and readers.
D. Designers and Illustrators
• Whilst a number of the contributors complained of
lack of involvement with the design of their books,
the account which follows accurately reflects the
current awareness of the importance of design.
• The are sometimes problems with the artbriefs for
illustrators. These come from two sources:
1. My maxim illustrators: any one illustrator can
either read or draw.
2. Suspension of Gricean maxims.
E. Technology
F. A time and a place to write
Another reasurringly divergent set of views, this
time on when and where to write:
• ‘Usually when the kids are away. I need to
complete peace when I write. Distractions break
my flow of ideas’.
• ‘I usually write in my study, at the desk, by the
window. My bulldog always comes to sleep and
snore near me when I work. I can never work at
night; my most efficient time is morning.’
Conclusion
• What does come through strongly in the range
of views presented here in the apparent
centrality of writing to the contributors’ lives,
and the seriousness with which they take it.
• It is to be hoped that the above accounts will
strike chords with other writers around the
world, and lead to a little more understanding
between writers and publishers.
REFLECTIONS 15 YEARS LATER
There has been change in the predictable area
of technology, the creative and cooperative
aspects of materials writing appear timeless.
7.9.1 The influence of the market
• Mares (2003) says ‘when writing, do not write for
yourself. Remember what you are writing for a
market. You need to know the market, which
means getting as much as information as you can
about the market and writing for that market’.
• From Philip’s experience, he does his coursebook
project by doing repeated visits to the market
whilst project is under development and during
the writing process.
7.9.2 The ELT writer and technology
• The life of ELT writer has been transformed
due to advances in technology in general, and
educational technology in particular.
• Today’s author can look up thousands of
words in context using a concodancer; he or
she can tap into vast source of knowledge on
the World Wide Web, copy and paste text,
refine and repurpose it.
7.9.3 Using the internet
• By using the internet, the authors can find
more sources as the inspiration on every topic
imaginable.
• The text can be copied into a Word document;
the authors can select some sources online if
it is appropriate with his/her purpose.
7.9.4 Writing together
• Based on Philip’s experience, he says ‘working
face to face is essential for initial planning,
brainstorming, creative phrases as well as for
discussion of material and reviewing. But new
technology (and not so new, the telephone)
can mean that authors can ‘virtually’ in the
same room whilst in different parts of the
country or globe.’
7.9.5 Creative process
• So, whilst much has changed in 15 years, the
essential truth that coursebook writing is a
creative rather than a mechanical process
remains.
THANK YOU