Materials Development in ESP

2. Learning Materials

a. The Definition of Materials

Teaching English cannot be separated from the presence of materials. There are some experts who define materials quite similarly. Tomlinson 1998:2 defines materials as anything used by teachers or learners to facilitate language learning. He states that materials can be vary; cassette, video, dictionary, grammar book, photograph, newspaper, live talk native speaker, etc. Richards 2001: 251 defines instructional materials as the basis for much of the language input learners receive and the language practice that occurs in the classroom. Those materials may take the form of a printed materials such as books, workbooks, worksheets or readers; b nonprint materials such as cassette or audio materials, videos, or computer-based materials; and c materials that comprise both print and non print sources such as self-access materials and materials on the internet. In line with Tomlinson and Richards, Richards and Schmidt 2002: 322 define materials in language teaching as everything used by teachers or learners to facilitate the learning of a language. Those can be linguistic, visual, auditory, or kinesthetic, and they may be presented in print, audio or video form, on CD- ROMS, on the internet or through live performance or display. In short, materials are anything which helps the students in learning language. They can be in form of printed i.e. textbooks, nonprinted materials i.e. audio materials, and materials that comprise both print and nonprint sources i.e. selfaccess materials, and materials from the internet.

b. Principles of Good Materials

Due to the importance of materials in teaching and learning process, therefore materials must be developed effectively. In developing materials, the developer should pay attention some principles of good materials. Tomlinson 1998:7-21 proposes the principles of good materials as follows: 1 Materials should achieve impact. 2 Materials should help learners to fill at ease. 3 Materials should help learners to develop confidence. 4 What is being taught 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 the learners to language in authentic use. 8 The learners’ attention should be drawn to linguistic features of the input. 9 Materials should provide the learners with opportunities to use the target language to achieve communicative purposes. 10 Materials should take into account that the positive effects of instruction are usually delayed. 11 Materials should take into account that learners differ in the style. 12 Materials should take into account that learners differ in affective attitudes. 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. In line with Tomlinson, Hutchinson and Waters 1987, 107-108 also propose some principles of materials writing as follows: 1 Materials provide a stimulus to learning. They state that good materials encourage learners to learn. Good materials contain some aspects including: 1 interesting texts. 2 enjoyable activities that engage learners’ thinking capacities. 3 opportunities for them to use their existing knowledge and skill. 4 content that learner and teacher can cope with. 2 Materials help organizing teaching and learning process by providing a path through the complex mass of language to be learnt. Hutchinson and Waters 1987:107 state that good materials should provide a clear and coherent unit structure which guide both teacher and learner through various activities. 3 Materials embody a view of nature of language and learning. Materials should reflect what the writer thinks and feels about learning process. 4 Materials reflect the nature of the learning task. 5 Materials can have a very useful function in broadening the basis of teacher training by introducing teachers to new techniques. 6 Materials provide models of correct and appropriate language use.

3. Materials Development

a. The Definition of Materials Development

Graves 2002:149 defines materials development as “the planning process by which a teacher creates units and lessons within those units to carry out the goals and objectives of the course.” She also states that materials development is the process of creating, choosing or adapting, and organizing materials and activities to help the students reaching the goals of the course. Tomlinson 1998:2 defines materials development as “anything which done by teachers, writers or learners to provides sources of language input and to exploit those sources in ways which maximise the likelihood of intake: in other words the supplying of information about andor experience of the language in ways designed to promote language learning”. Materials development, therefore, can be said as developing materials done by the writers, teachers, or learners in the form of writing or creating, adapting, and organizing materials to achieve the objectives in language learning.

b. Steps of Materials Development

In developing materials, there are some steps to be followed by a material developer. Jolly and Bolitho in Tomlinson 1998: 98 proposed those steps as follows: 1 Identification of need for materials In this step, the materials developer identifies learners’ needs in order to get the information of learning needs and.target needs and to solve a problem by creation of materials. 2 Exploration of need In the next step, a materials developer explores the area of needs or problems in the language context such as forms and functions. 3 Contextual realization of materials In this step, a materials developer has to prepare contextualization of the materials that is the local content area of the materials to be involved in reading, writing, listening, and speaking resources. 4 Pedagogical realisation of materials Next, pedagogical realisation involves the use of instruction and appropriate exercises and activities in the materials developed.