Principles of effective materials development.

By Lic. Chalton Ferguson M.
teacher@costarricense.cr

According to author Brian Tomlinson, many experienced authors rely on their intuitions about what  works and make frequent use of activities in their repertoire that seem to fit with their objectives. Very few authors  are actually guided by learning  principles or considerations of  coherence and many seem to make the assumption that clear presentation and active,  relevant practice are sufficient to lead to acquisition.

In my opinion  most of us when  developing  materials for our students, we usually do not create from scratch, instead we imitate and adapt  to our  needs; which is fine if it facilitates language learning, helping students to reach easily to the target and serving as an  ease for the teacher.

My position is that materials  should be created thinking on both students and teachers' needs.  This means that effective materials should achieve the objetive desired by the teacher for each student, but it should also  make the teacher´s job easier.It  should, not be  too difficult to create,nor take  up  too much time   and it should be able to use  without much complications.

We should also keep in mind that materials should be made thinking on students´ needs and circumstances, this means that what is  useful and effective for one teacher, class, school or country may not be effective  for another.

In  short, before copying materials, we should first think if  it will be effective  for our students and for us.