Language Teaching Materials and the (Very) Big Picture

(Littlejohn, 2012)UNIVERSIDAD DE CALDAS

DEPARMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGESMASTERS IN ENGLISH DIDACTICS

Introduction

“We can view the production of language teaching materials as no less a cultural practice than any other human activity,socially and temporally located… Materials production, in this view, can be seen as potentially resonating in tune with social forces far beyond language teaching itself, and far beyond the immediate discussions of language teaching professionals…” (Littlejohn, 2012, pp. 284-285).

Introduction Retrace the development of materials for language teaching• The evolution of thought and practice in materials design, connected to the wider

social and historical context in which it has occurred.• Materials are cultural artefacts, rooted in a particular time and culture, and shaped by

the context.

Materials • Propositions for action in the classroom (‘workplans’), quite distinct from what may

actually unfold in the classroom once the materials are brought into use and reinterpreted by teachers and learners.

• Aimed at use inside a classroom, but always with the hallmarks of the conditions of their production outside the classroom.

• Gap between advances in applied linguistic thinking and the nature of commercially produced materials.

Introduction Materials writers • Individuals who live in a particular social context, in a particular era in history• Influenced by: - explicit organizational pressures - attitudes, values, concepts, social and political relations

The extent to which materials are ‘successful’ will be the extent to which they achieve the acceptance of teachers and learners as something natural and workablein a particular social context, at a particular point in history.

Marxist ViewIdeology as something woven into our day-to-day ‘lived experience’ such that we are engaged in sustaining social relations of power and particular ways of doing things as ‘common sense’ and ‘natural’.

Ruling elites are engaged in a struggle for hegemony, which aims to maintain their class-based views as natural and common sense, through institutions of socialization.

Such forms of ideology and struggle are encoded within the practices of schooling and texts.

ELT materials: the 1950s to the 1980sPartialA focus limited to developments within ELT materials, particularly from Britain and North America, which are known as being the sources of much innovation in ELT methodology.SubjectiveA highly selective identification of moments in social change and examples from teaching materials. The 1950s/60s and the Cold War- Tensions bt capitalists economies to the West (USA) and to the East (Russia).- The space race bt USA and Russia (Satellite launching and manned space journey).

In ELT: technical, ‘scientific’ approach = focused, efficient methodology.* Memorization exercises, language laboratories, pattern-practice drills and atomized samples of language* Behaviorist inspired methodologies into language teaching materials = Use of drills, substitution tables.

ELT materials: the 1950s to the 1980sThe late 1960s to the late 1970s

- Turbulence and rebellion, with major demonstrations and occupations in France, Italy, the UK, and USA.- ‘Flower power,’ ‘the love generation, ‘do your own thing’, do it yourself (DIY)

In ELT: Rejection of mainstream and search for innovations- Humanistic methodologies: Silent Way and Suggestopaedia.- DIY: self-access work, self-study materials and teacher-less language learning.- A new perspective on language acquisition theory: Krashen’s Input HypothesisLearners would produce language when they were “ready,” free of the “extensive use of conscious grammatical rules” and “tedious drill” = recreate the conditions of our linguistic infancy.

ELT materials: the 1950s to the 1980sThe 1970s to the mid 1980s

- Process of embourgeoisement: the increasingly affluent working class populations of the developed economies - The Me decade: shift away from collectivist goals and the prevalence of a concern for individualism.- Multiculturalism: the recognition of the status of different cultures and minorities.

In ELT: Rejection of mainstream and search for innovations- A concern with individuals’ linguistic wants and needs.- The development of tools for the specification of an individual’s particularneeds and the continued development of ‘Special Purposes’.- The recognition of different styles and strategies to approach language study = negotiated curricula.- The CLT: a shift from unilateral specifications of rights and wrongs in language form to a democratic focus con how ordinary people use it.

New imperatives on materials design: the mid 1980s onwards

ELT materials reflected the spirit of the times, as professionals sought to implement shifts in social attitudes into the design of classroom work.

However, nowadays it is evident a shift from a variety and exuberance of new approaches (70s–90s) to a sameness throughout commercial publishing.- Competition has intensified bt a small number of very large publishers. - Convergence around a ‘safe,’ proven publishing formula

Post-industrial society: McDonaldization and Neo-Liberalism.

New imperatives on materials design: the mid 1980s onwards

Present-day commercial publishingMcDonaldization Neo-liberalism

- An absolute emphasis on efficiency, predictability, and global standardization.

- Homogenous products and routines of interaction.

- Scripted, predictable, homogenized environments of consumption.

- Standardization of teacher training: CELTA.

- ‘50 minute lessons’ from a two-page spread known as units (blocks, or themes).

- A fixed sequence, repeated across units of what both Ts and Ss do.

- Standardized, routinized plans for classroom work, globally prescribed, including what to say.

- The dismantling of state intervention (welfare programs, state subsidies, state control of industries).

- the primacy of the market (supply and demand, price setting, and “effective” regulation of efficient distribution.

- a ‘provider’ (school/university) offers its ‘customers’/‘consumers’ (Ss) its ‘premium products’ (diplomas) offering a ‘market advantage’ (‘jobs, contracts, networks’).

- Language certification and examination.

- Materials filled with ‘exam-type’ exercises.

- Standardisation and centralization (CEFRL) impose uniformity on what happens in classes.

Conclusion Prior to the 1980sThe influence of the wider social context on the design of English language teaching materials has generally been one of inspiration: new imaginings in language teaching.

From the 1980s onwards- A shift towards a standardization of materials design, aimed at scripting the interaction of teachers and learners.- “A sense of cage construction”: Standardisation and centralization set out what needs to be done and simultaneously dictate what should not be done.- The notion of an alternative is rendered unnecessary, and, with it, the possibilities of experimentation, innovation, and a rethinking of what language teaching may be.

What to do• Resist the manner in which uniformity is being imposed, by wrestling back

curriculum decisions into the hands of those directly involved – teachers and learners.• Design tasks and guides which are open-ended, have the potential of producing unique

outcomes, and encourage and support experimenting.

Reference

Littlejohn, A. (2012). Language Teaching Materials and the (Very) BigPicture. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 9(1), 283–297.