Part I

Topics in the Design

of Materials and Methods

Design of Materials and Methods

The Framework

1
The Framework of Materials
and Methods

1.1

Introduction: setting the scene

As teachers of English as a foreign or second language (EFL/ESL), we are members

of an established worldwide profession. As Richards (1985: 1) reminds us, the
current status of English has turned a signicant percentage of the worlds population into part-time users or learners of English. Wherever we work, we share
many assumptions about what we do; we prepare and use teaching materials and
classroom methods and techniques based on similar, or at least comparable, principles. Yet, despite this commonality, it is not unusual for teachers to report a
sense of isolation from colleagues in other countries, and even in different areas of
their own country. Another attitude that is sometimes expressed is that the teaching situation in our country, or school, is unique, with its own special problems
and difculties. There is some justication for these feelings, of course: many
teachers work in geographical isolation, and may not have access to channels of
professional communication (journals, conferences, in-service training courses);
different countries have widely differing educational systems and philosophies,
resulting in teachers being subject to different expectations and pressures.
In this chapter we shall take some time to look beyond our individual teaching circumstances to what can be thought of as a professional common core.
This has relevance to all teachers, whether we work in a Japanese high school,
a Mexican university, a private language school in Spain, a Chinese polytechnic,
a Turkish secondary school, a Zairean college this list could go on indenitely. We shall argue that the idea of a common core is also useful whether
our materials and methods are selected by us or specied by the educational
authorities. It is, then, broadly made up of two kinds of factors: rstly, of
the various wide-ranging criteria on which decisions about language teaching
programmes are based, and secondly, on the pedagogic principles according to
which materials and methods are actually designed. We shall take these two
kinds of factors together and refer to them as the shared framework.

Design of Materials and Methods

In what follows, this notion of a framework is set out in a little more detail.
We then subdivide it under the two headings of context and syllabus, both
exploring their general implications and trying to relate them as we do so to our
own familiar and specic teaching situation.

1.2

The framework: context and syllabus

In simple terms, the overall goals of a language teaching programme usually

derive from an analysis of the reasons why a group of learners in a particular environment needs to learn English: these goals may be stated in general,
educational, or very specic terms. They may, on the one hand, be set out in the
large-scale categories of a national language policy with many associated implications for the development of the curriculum. For instance, the aim of English
Language Teaching in Malaysia was earlier stated to be to create a society that
is able to utilize the language for effective communication as the need arises, and
as a key to wider experiences. For those furthering their studies, the skills learned
should become an instrument with which they may cope with the necessities of
using the language. The new guidelines for language teaching in Japanese schools
include such statements as to develop understanding of language and culture
through a foreign language . . . to develop a positive attitude towards communication in a foreign language, and a basic practical communication ability in
hearing and speaking. Alternatively, at the other end of the scale, a course may
be organized to address a particular learning need for, say, the identiable
purposes of a small group. For instance, a course may be designed to meet the
needs of learners who need to improve their ability to communicate when
socialising, telephoning, making business presentations and taking part in
meetings, or to help international postgraduate students in English-medium
universities develop the writing skills necessary for writing dissertations.
There is, then, a whole spectrum of possibilities for dening the goals of
language teaching, for a country, an age group, a whole school, a class, or an
individual; and whether for general educational purposes, business, scientic
development, cultural appreciation or many other reasons.
1
2

Is there an explicit statement of the goals of the language programme on

which you work? If so, what are its primary aims?
If there is not such a statement, try to draft one that represents your own
understanding of the goals.

To dene what is meant here by framework we start from the view that
materials and methods cannot be seen in isolation, but are embedded within
a broader professional context. This is represented in gure 1.1, which shows
in a very simplied form the typical stages of planning an English language
programme.

The Framework

learners
CONTEXT

Implementation of goals
educational setting
syllabus construction

materials, classroom methods,

(lessons, tests . . . )

Figure 1.1

The framework of language teaching.

Whether goals are stated in terms of a national language policy, or in the

more restricted environment of, say, a particular school or college, the possibilities for actually implementing them will be directly related both to the learners
themselves their needs, characteristics and so on and to the whole educational setting in which the teaching is to take place. Obviously, as we shall see
in our subsequent discussion, goals need to be realistic for specic circumstances.
There is little use, for example, in planning for a multimedia course if appropriate equipment is unavailable or unreliable, or in making too many general
assumptions about classroom methodology. The statement of goals, then, related
to the learners and conditioned by the setting, leads to the selection of an appropriate type of syllabus content and specication. The broad syllabus outline
will in turn have direct implications for the more detailed design and selection
of materials and tests, the planning of individual lessons, and the management
of the classroom itself. Clearly this logical planning sequence is an idealization of what is often a less well-dened procedure, where set materials may
linger behind aims that have been reformulated and updated, or conversely where
new syllabus types may be ill-matched to existing educational objectives. The
logical sequence will nevertheless be used as a reference point for discussion,
and as a starting point for the exploration of individual teaching circumstances.
This whole topic is dealt with in considerable depth by Stern who, in his
Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching (1983: ch. 3), proposes a very
detailed conceptual framework, designed as a model that is intended to capture
what he sees as the complexity of language teaching. After surveying a number
of earlier models, he then sets out his own scheme. Its main components are
(a) views of the nature of language, (b) views of the learner and of language
learning, (c) views of teaching and the language teacher, and (d) the whole
context, which includes the educational setting, the language context, and the
language teaching background. The chief characteristics of the model are that it
should be comprehensive, covering any type of language teaching operation;
that all factors under each heading are interdependent, so that no single factor,

Design of Materials and Methods

for example the teacher, the method, the materials, a new concept . . . or a
technological device, can by itself offer a general solution to most language
learning problems (1983: 47); and that it should see language teaching as
multidisciplinary. Sterns perspective will be evident both in this and most subsequent chapters.
The rest of this book will be concerned with the third stage of gure 1.1,
the design of materials and methods. Let us now look at the most important
contextual factors involved in planning, and then at the key types of syllabus
from which actual courses are derived.

Contextual factors
In the preceding section, we took a broad view of context and included both
learners and setting under this heading. Let us examine each of these in turn in
a little more detail.
Learners It is possible to identify a number of important learner characteristics or variables which, as we have suggested, inuence planning decisions
and the specication of goals. The relative importance of these variables, and
their effect on programme design, obviously depend to a certain extent on some
of the situational factors to be discussed in the next section. For example, a
pupils mother tongue may be more, or less, signicant depending on whether
more than one native language is represented in the classroom, or perhaps on
the educational philosophy of that particular environment.
For the moment we can list here the key characteristics of the learner, indicating how they might affect planning and noting that they form part of our
common frame of reference as language teachers, wherever we work. Some
of these are characteristics of whole groups or subgroups of learners; others
are individual and less open to generalization. Again, some can be known in
advance and incorporated at the initial planning stage, in principle at least.
Others are more appropriately assessed in the classroom environment itself,
and as such are more obviously susceptible to teacher reaction and inuence.
We consider the learners

Age: this will particularly affect topics chosen and types of learning activity,
such as the suitability of games or role play.
Interests: as with age, this may help in the specication of topics and learning activities.
Level of prociency in English: teachers will wish to know this even where
their classes are based on a mixed prociency principle rather than streamed
according to level.
Aptitude: this can most usefully be thought of as a specic talent, in this
case for language learning, as something that learners might show themselves to be good at, perhaps in contrast to other subjects in a school
curriculum. (It can be measured by formal aptitude tests, although they are

The Framework

not very frequently used.) The relationship between aptitude and intelligence
is not clear, and is certainly not direct.
Mother tongue: this may affect, for instance, the treatment of errors or the
selection of syllabus items areas of grammar or vocabulary and so on.
Academic and educational level: which help to determine intellectual content, breadth of topic choice, or depth to which material may be studied.
Attitudes to learning, to teachers, to the institution, to the target language
itself and to its speakers. This is directly related to the following point.
Motivation, at least in so far as it can be anticipated. Obviously a whole
range of factors will affect this.
Reasons for learning, if it is possible to state them. With school age pupils
this may be less signicant than with many adult learners, where it is often
possible to carry out quite a detailed analysis of needs.
Preferred learning styles: which will help in the evaluation of the suitability
of different methods, for instance whether problem-solving activities could
be used, or whether pupils are more used to rote learning, where material
is learned by heart.
Personality: which can affect methodological choices such as a willing acceptance of role play and an interactive classroom environment, or a preference
for studying alone, for example.

Many of these factors will recur in the relevant sections of subsequent chapters.
Setting That aspect of the context that we refer to as setting is to be understood here as the whole teaching and learning environment, in a wide sense: it is
the factors falling under this heading that will determine whether the aims of a
language programme, dened with reference to the learners needs and characteristics, are actually feasible and realistic. In certain situations, the setting itself
may be so signicant that it provides the foundation for the specication of
aims. This might be the case, for instance, in a country with a single political or
religious ideological base, where the education system is primarily an expression of that ideology. In the majority of circumstances, however, the setting is
more likely to condition the way in which goals are carried out, and indeed the
extent to which they can be.
For most EFL/ESL teachers, therefore, the following factors, in some combination and with varying degrees of signicance, will inuence course planning,
syllabus design, the selection of materials and resources, and the appropriateness of methods:

The role of English in the country: whether it is a regular means of communication or primarily a subject taught in the school curriculum, where,
in turn, it may or may not be the rst foreign language. This relates to the
linguistic environment, and to whether English is spoken outside class in the
community or alternatively never heard.
The role of English in the school, and its place in the curriculum.

Design of Materials and Methods

The teachers: their status, both at national and institutional levels, their
training, mother tongue, attitudes to their job, experience, expectations.
This topic will be discussed in detail in the nal chapter of this book.
Management and administration: who is responsible for what level of decision, particularly which are the control points for employment of staff,
budgets, resource allocation and so on. Additionally, the position of teachers
in the overall system needs to be understood, as does the nature of the hierarchy in any particular institution.
Resources available: books and paper, audio-visual material (hardware and
software for cassette and video), laboratories, computers, reprographic facilities and so on. Design and choice of teaching materials will be particularly
affected by resource availability, as will the capacity to teach effectively across
a range of language skills.
Support personnel: administrators, secretaries and technicians, and their
specic roles in relation to the teaching staff.
The number of pupils to be taught and the size of classes. Overall numbers
may affect the total number of teaching hours available, and the large class
problem is a very familiar one in many settings worldwide.
Time available for the programme, both over a working year (longitudinally), and in any one week or term (intensive or extensive). Many teachers
would also consider that time of day is a signicant factor.
Physical environment: the nature of the building, noise factors, exibility of
tables and chairs, size of room in relation to size of class, heat and cold, and
so on.
The socio-cultural environment: this can often determine the suitability of
both materials and methods. For example, some textbooks contain topics
inappropriate to the setting, and some classroom methods require an unacceptable set of teacher and learner roles.
The types of tests used, and ways in which students are evaluated: assessment procedures may, for example, be formal or informal and subjective.
They may also be external, in the form of a public or national examination,
or internal to the institution and the course.
Procedures (if any) for monitoring and evaluating the language teaching
programme itself. This kind of evaluation may be imposed by senior management, or alternatively agreed between teachers as colleagues.

Hedge (2000) covers similar points, classifying them into social, educational,
pupil and teacher variables. Malamah-Thomas (1987: 97) describes setting in
terms of three levels in an education system the country, the school, and the
classroom. She then divides the various factors into (a) physical, (b) temporal,
(c) psycho-social, and (d) educational, showing how the three different levels
may be affected by each of these. Thus, for example, psycho-social factors are
related at national level to culture, politics and religion; at institutional level to
school atmosphere and staff attitudes; and in the classroom to student-teacher
rapport. Holliday (1994) is particularly concerned with the need for methodology

The Framework

to be appropriate to its socio-cultural context, not inappropriately transplanted

from a different and often more privileged system.
Teachers are affected, directly and indirectly, by all these variables. Some
they may be able to inuence or even control: for example, the deployment of
resources and materials, or the pacing of work within an overall time-scale.
Others, of course, arise from decisions taken far removed from a teachers dayto-day professional life, perhaps at Ministry level, or at an earlier point in the
countrys educational history. Whatever their source, it is the teacher who is in
the front line attempting to promote learning and full the stated goals
against the background of a complex network of interrelated factors. Not everyone will work in a situation as gloomy as that described by Gaies and Bowers
(1990: 176), with large classes, low motivation, inadequate coursebooks, poorly
trained teachers, lack of resources, heavy workload and the like, but we may all
share their conclusion that by coming to grips not only with new ideas but with
the evidence of what happens when they are introduced into the local context, [teachers] equip themselves with the tools for establishing an appropriate
methodology that can set realistic national objectives for teacher training and
education (181).
Consider the following short case study of a fairly typical teaching environment. Note how the factors associated with the learner and the teaching situation can affect the organization of the language programme, the materials, the
teachers and the methodology. For instance, most aspects are determined by
decisions taken at some distance from the teacher, although teachers views may
have some effect. Again, the classes are on the whole conditioned by the examination system, but a minority of pupils are able to select classes in line with
their own interests, which in turn means that teachers may be less bound by
coursebooks and able themselves to be more autonomous in choice of materials
and methods. In other words, there is a complex set of factors in operation, and
the teacher in the classroom is the focus of a variety of pressures and inuences,
both direct and indirect.
Teacher X works in a secondary school, with pupils ranging in age from 12
to 16. She teaches thirty periods a week, two of which are options selected
by older pupils according to their interests. Course materials consist in the
main of set textbooks graded according to age and prociency level and
focused heavily but not exclusively on accuracy. Materials are written by a
Ministry of Education team according to Ministry guidelines, and teachers
opinions are solicited annually by an Area Language Teaching Adviser. It is
Government policy to revise materials every 8 years.
Average class size is forty pupils. The pressure of the examination system
ensures satisfactory attention, though since there is little opportunity for
travel learners do not readily perceive the relevance of learning materials to
their own lives.
The school has a language laboratory, and a very small collection of books
(mainly stories) written in English. Classrooms are basic but adequate. Very

10

Design of Materials and Methods

few supplementary English language teaching materials are available, though

teachers are encouraged to make their own small-scale resource materials,
and to share ideas at local teachers centres. The school has one computer, so
far without internet access.
This teacher has been to Britain once, on a three-week summer school. She
corresponds regularly with an English school teacher.
1
2

Now examine your own teaching environment in a similar way. First list
the characteristics of your learners and of the teaching situation.
Then decide which are the more signicant of these, and try to plot the
patterns of cause and effect that they set in motion. For example, how are
your classroom materials selected? To whom are you responsible? What
possibilities do you have for innovation, or for professional development?
Finally, you might like to consider what kinds of changes in your teaching situation would have the strongest effect on your role as a teacher a
change in your status? Smaller groups? More time? The possibilities are
many.
Discuss your analysis with colleagues, both with those working in the
same environment and, if possible, with others from different backgrounds.
Keep a note of your analysis: it will be helpful to refer to it again in
subsequent chapters.

The syllabus
We can now assume that the goals of an English language programme have
been set out and that the contextual factors affecting its implementation have
been established and understood. The next step in the task of planning is to
select a type of syllabus relevant to the learners for whom it is intended, appropriate to the situation, and which fulls the aims as closely as possible.
The syllabus can be seen for our purposes as the overall organizing principle
for what is to be taught and learned. In other words, it is a general statement as
to the pedagogical arrangement of learning content. Richards and Rodgers (2001)
have proposed a useful framework for the comparison of language teaching
methods that illustrates the place of the syllabus in programme planning. Their
model has three distinct levels, which they term approach, design and procedure,
and is intended to show the relationship between the theory and practice of language teaching as an interdependent system. Briey, approach is the most general
level, and refers to the views and beliefs or theories of language and language learning on which planning is based. The most obvious example here is a
view of language described as a set of grammatical structures. The next level,
design, is where the principles of the rst level are converted into the more
practical aspects of syllabuses and instructional materials. It is here that decisions
are taken about the arrangement of content to be taught and learnt, the choice
of topics, language items to be included in the programme, and so on. Finally,
procedure refers to techniques and the management of the classroom itself.

The Framework

11

The English Language Teaching profession nowadays has available a range

of different types of syllabus from which a choice will be made for a specic
situation. So however diverse our teaching contexts, our courses will be based
on one, or a combination of, these principles of organization. Although syllabuses typically are written and published documents, their circulation is often
restricted to the particular situation for which they have been drawn up. Therefore, one of the simplest ways of surveying the types of syllabus available is to
examine the contents pages of published English language teaching textbooks,
because they reveal the underlying principles and assumptions on which the
writers have based their material. At one and the same time, they tell us something both about the approach and the design adopted, thus bringing together
principle and practice in a directly observable way.
This is not a book about syllabus design as such, and it will not be necessary
or appropriate to analyse each syllabus type in depth here. References to more
detailed discussion are given at the end of the chapter, and the next chapters will
examine the major areas of current debate. Let us simply try to identify the key principles of syllabus organization by examining the types of contents page most often
found in the materials we use, because these distinctions will be the foundation
for our discussion of design and procedure in the remainder of the book.
Look at the coursebook(s) that you use most frequently. With which of our
samples in gure 1.2 does the table of contents in your own material compare most closely?
The rst of these obviously is organized according to a list of grammatical
structures, and is one that will readily be recognized by most English language
teachers. The second is based on the communicative and interpersonal uses to
which language is put and, in contrast to the formal structural system of the
rst type, highlights what people do through language. It is normally referred to
as a functional syllabus. This design principle is often found together with the
other list of items in the same box: they are technically called notions, a term
used to describe the rather general and abstract categories a language is able to
express, such as concepts of time and place. For convenience and in line with
common practice they will be placed together here, and the syllabus as a whole
designated functional-notional. The most important distinctions between this
on the one hand and the so-called structural syllabus on the other will be taken up
in the next chapter. The third sample presents a set of everyday situations or
settings. The fourth focuses on language skills, and is concerned with what
learners do as speakers, listeners, readers, writers. The fth uses topics or themes
as its starting point. The sixth invokes the concept of task, discussed in chapter 3.
We can now identify six broad types of syllabus:
1
2
3

grammatical or structural
functional-notional
situational

Design of Materials and Methods

12

Simple past; irregular verbs

The passive
(1) Formation of adverbs
Type 3 conditionals
Gerunds and infinitives

(2a)

Making suggestions
Asking for directions
Giving advice
Introducing yourself

Location
(2b) Duration
Ability

In the restaurant
(3) At a hotel
In the post office
At a garage

Making notes from a talk

(4) Reading for information
Using a dictionary
Writing an exam answer

Space travel
(5) Intelligence tests
Smoking
The weather

Language focus: question forms

Vocabulary: meeting people
Skills: speaking, reading, listening
(6) Task preparation: listen to people meeting
Task: Interviews
Task follow-up

Figure 1.2 Principles of syllabus organization. (Adapted from Cutting Edge (Cunningham
and Moor, 1998).)

4
5
6

skills based
topic-based
task-based

We comment on process and procedural syllabuses in chapter 3. (See also

Urs list (1996: 1789), which gives a useful overview.)
It is, of course, unusual to nd just one of these as the only organizing
principle, in isolation from others, and before leaving this discussion of syllabus
types two nal explanatory points must briey be made.
First, most syllabuses are based on a combination of two or more of the types
we have illustrated. Some, like this one, for example, may have a primary and
a secondary organizing principle:
At the bank: question forms
At a garage: imperatives
At a hotel: present perfect
Indeed, many situational and topic-based syllabuses are part of a broader pattern
of this kind, where a grammatical point to be taught is linked to an interesting
theme or practised in a real-world setting rather than learnt mechanically and
outside any context. Other syllabuses are multilayered, using several different
principles (ideally) interwoven in a systematic way:

The Framework

13

Talking about holidays

Requesting information
Question forms
At the travel agent
Listening and role play
Intonation practice
This deliberately is a somewhat extreme example, but it does show how topics,
functions, structures, skills, situations (and pronunciation practice) can be brought
together.
The second point to bear in mind here is the need to distinguish between the
syllabus itself, and what we might call a syllabus inventory. The inventory is
simply a list of the contents to be covered in the language programme, whether
that is a list of functional or grammatical items, or of skills, or of topics and
situations. The syllabus is the way in which that content is organized and
broken down into a set of teachable and learnable units, and will include consideration of pacing, sequencing and grading of items, methods of presentation
and practice, and so on. Harmer (2001b: 296) also refers to the criteria of
learnability, frequency, coverage and usefulness.
Examine the list below, which shows a number of different types of learners
and teaching situations. Work with a colleague if possible, and select two or
three of them to look at in a little more detail.
Where?

Who?

Why?

China: university of
technology
Turkey: secondary
school
Britain: university

Undergraduates

An English town:
secondary school
withdrawal class
France: evening
class
London: private
language school
Japan: university

Refugees, newly
arrived

Reading purposes:
English is a library language
Part of general school
curriculum
To follow
postgraduate studies
after one year English
Language survival

Malaysia: technical
institute

School pupils
Postgraduates in
various subjects

Mixed group: retired

people, housewives
Young adults from
the Middle East (male)
Undergraduates
Post-O-level student

Tourism and general

purposes
To do engineering in
further education
To be tourist guides
for foreign visitors
To enter higher
education in Australia

14

Design of Materials and Methods

Try to decide what you think might be the most important factors to do
with the learners and the setting for the situations you have chosen. For
example, you may think that learners prociency levels, or attitudes to
English, are signicant, and that class size and resources are the key
elements affecting the teaching situation.
Consider the kind of syllabus that might be selected as the most appropriate in each case, bearing in mind the stated learning purpose. It does not
matter if you are not personally familiar with these kinds of teaching
context. They are quite representative, and the task here is to practise
applying and integrating some of the principles that we have been discussing in this chapter.

1.3 Conclusion
This chapter has discussed the background against which teaching materials
and classroom methods evolve. Our professional activities as language teachers
are not carried out in a vacuum and, in Richards (1985: 11) words, Planning a
successful language program involves consideration of factors that go beyond
mere content and presentation of teaching materials. Although we work in
specic situations with specic groups of learners, according to a specied set of
aims, our work can be described along a number of shared and generalizable
dimensions. These dimensions are the characteristics of learners, the range of
factors in the teaching situation itself, and the syllabus types available to us as a
profession. The differences lie in the relative importance of these factors, and
the choices that are made.

1.4 Further reading

1

Chapters 1 and 2 of Richards, J. C. (1985): The Context of Language Teaching.

Chapter 1 is entitled The context of language teaching. Chapter 2, which was
written with Rodgers, is entitled Method: approach, design and procedure, and is a
summary of the arguments set out in Richards and Rodgers (2001).
Harmer (2001b, ch 21) has a useful overview of the main types of syllabus.