Materials Development for Language Learning
Which kind of textbooks in the list above are you most familiar with? We will discuss materials for different age groups in Chapters 10 and 11; for skills in Chapter 9 and for different purposes and levels in Chapter 12.
Among those different kinds of textbooks above, the most widely used around the world seems to be the coursebook (Richards, 2014; Tomlinson, 2010; Tomlinson, 2015) and it is the publication of coursebooks that we are going to focus on in this chapter (though many of our points are relevant to other types of print materials and to digital materials too). Coursebooks are typically a package that contains more or less every- thing that the teachers and learners may need for learning at each level. Tomlinson (2015, pp. 172–173) divides coursebooks further into three categories: global course- books, adapted coursebooks and local coursebooks. We would now add an extra cate- gory of transplanted coursebooks.
Global Coursebooks
So-called “global coursebooks” are produced by commercial publishers, often for tar- geted regional markets initially but then sold on the international market (for more dis- cussion see Chapter 4, “Adaptation,” specifically in the section titled “Paradigm Shift 2: Global English for Multitudes of Cultures”). Contemporary global coursebooks are designed to be visually appealing to attract custom (for details see Chapter 13, “Visu- als, Design and Layout”) with magazine-like photos and illustrations on glossy paper.
Their titles often make no reference to English language teaching but promise interna- tional experience of the English speaking world. To keep up with various unpredictable demands from diverse learners in different contexts worldwide, the publishers have been offering multistrand syllabuses (i.e. language, skills, communicative functions and what- ever is topical in ELT around the time of publishing— e.g. cross-curricular Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL); life skills and critical thinking). Nowadays, more and more multicomponents such as digital and online materials are being added, as Richards (2014, p. 20) explains:
Textbooks have multiple components such as workbooks, an assessment pack- age, DVDs and CD-ROMs, and additional resources for teachers and students.
Digital components are used increasingly, such as an e-book, online workbooks, and options for varying levels of blended use.
Such multicomponent coursebooks require a large investment of time, effort, and financial resources by authors and publishers. In other words, coursebook production, though potentially lucrative (McGrath, 2013, p. 30), is typically competitive and high risk.
Adapted Coursebooks
Adapted coursebooks are local versions of global coursebooks either adapted by the original international publisher to suit a particular market or adapted by local experts for a ministry, institution, or publisher with the permission of the international pub- lisher. They are often more locally relevant and less expensive than their global originals
6 The Process of Publishing Coursebooks
but may also be considered less relevant to local requirements than tailor-made local equivalents.
Local Coursebooks
Local coursebooks are produced for a specific national, regional, or institutional location by a ministry of education, regional education bureau, institution or publisher.
In the case of national textbooks, such as those used in public schools, the Department of Education may initiate a materials writing project, employ a team of writers, or com- mission publishers to recruit writers to develop a coursebook that suits the national cur- riculum and guidelines (see Mukundan, 2008 for an example of a secondary coursebook produced and distributed by the Malaysian government; Popovici and Bolitho, 2003 for a Romanian secondary school project; Tomlinson, 1995 for various local projects). The driver behind the projects may be regional government branches. For example, we were invited by the Guangzhou educational bureau to lead a local team to develop primary and secondary school textbooks for Guandong province. Those books were later sub- mitted for government approval to be widely marketed all through China.
In other cases, the Ministry of Education publishes a national curriculum and guide- lines and invites local commercial publishers to produce textbooks to match them. The Ministry requires all the publishers to submit their coursebooks to go through approval processes. Only books that have been approved by evaluators from the Ministry of Education can be used in the schools (e.g. Japan, Korea; see Singapore Wala, 2003a, 2003b and 2003 for details of the approval process in Singapore).
Local education bureaus may establish additional processes for further reviewing and adopting in their school districts. For example, a local education bureau may publish a list of approved coursebooks from which schools in the district can choose one for adoption.
Sometimes institutions decide to produce and publish materials themselves. We have been involved with such projects in Sultan Qaboos University in Oman and in Bilkent University in Turkey, and Stoller and Robinson (2014) describe a case of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) at a university in the United States. The main strength of local coursebooks is their potential for direct relevance to the students, teachers and contexts.
Transplanted Coursebooks
A transplanted coursebook is one that was originally developed for a particular insti- tution or region (i.e. a local coursebook) but has been adopted for use in a different institution or region. Such adoptions are usually the result of the lack of an appropriate coursebook and an appreciation of the potential value of the coursebook being trans- planted. Obviously, though, the transplant will be less relevant in its new environment and will need to be adapted to achieve effective use.
Designing coursebooks so that they can be localized or transplanted would obviously increase the potential value of any coursebook. This could easily be achieved by pro- ducing an e-version of the coursebook, which could be sold for potential adapters to download, modify and print off for distribution. It could also be sold as a digital course with a menu of illustrations, texts and tasks to select from for each unit.
Materials Development for Language Learning