Principles and Procedures of Material Development in the Evolving ELT Scenario

Abstract

There are many linguists who tried to define an important aspect of ELT which is the Curriculum. Curriculum refers to the specific blueprint for learning that is derived from desired results—that is, content and performance standards (be they state-determined or locally developed) (Dundar, 2017). According to Tomlinson, the term "material development" refers to all of the procedures used by professionals who create and/or utilize language learning resources, such as adaptation, design, production, exploitation, evaluation, and research. Curriculum designing in itself is a complex process which involves a lot of factors and not just writing or teaching a curriculum. As part of the development process, curriculum design and evaluation is crucial to the teaching of English and other subjects since it outlines the methodologies, procedures, strategies, and activities used to teach the language and its content. (Brown, 1995). Reflecting on the historical context of English language instruction, we don’t see  much done before the 20th century. ELT gained popularity with migrants moving to English-speaking countries. The importance of English also increased in terms of business and trade. The expansion of and significant growth of various media sources such as radio, movies, and television, supported English to become more popular. Eventually, lots of research was initiated in the area of English language teaching methods and material development. In fact, many teaching methods have been tried and tested in the last one century in pursuit of the most effective method. The search for new methods is still on to improvise ELT in the current dynamic classrooms