Language Teaching Materials and the (Very) Big Picture
LTM are cultural artefacts, no less rooted in a particular time and culture
than any other instance of human activity, and, as such, are shaped by
the context in which they occur.
ELT Materials: The 1950s to th 1980s.
-Limited developmente -Subjective
innovation in ELT methodolgy
1950's a period reflecting the birth of
modern-day language teaching.
The 1950s/60s and the Cold War
Need for expanding the English
Language
In 1958 National Defense
provides funds for the
develop of LANGUAGES
PROGRAMMES
BEHAVIORISM
methodologies for
learning
Develop of "English
Pattern Practice"
The 1970s to the mid 1980s
Shift away from colectivism =
Prevalence of a concern for
individualism
Individual's linguistics
wants and needs
Negociated Curricula "What sort of Language
learner are you?"
Unique styles and strategys
Learner with unique ways of approaching to
language
SPECIAL PURPOSES" materials
Cultural changes: "ALTERNATIVE"
WAYS OF DOING THINGS
Emergence of Humanistic Methodologies
Silent Way
Language teaching is
much more
instrumental in nature
Suggestopaedia
Natural, learners produce
language when they were
"ready"
1980s Onwards
Contemporary language
teaching materials
New imperatives on materials design: the
mid 1980s onwards
The variety of experimental and new approaches through the
1970s–1990s has now been superseded by a sameness throughout
commercial publishing.
Standarized conceptions of the language throught
these external influences
MCDONALIZATION
Standardized and homogenized
work plans in the classroom
(enviroment and materials)
Standarization of materials
Routinely materials
Predictable sequences
of language exercises
Commercial succes and thinking
NEOLIBERALIMS
Standarization and
centralization
Power of market
Stimulous on the economic field,
primacy of the "market"
Neoliberalism ideologies
underpin the selection of
content
Providers=School
Customers = Students
Conclusion
Materials influenced by social context
Materials have different aims of
interation teacher-student