chapter 8

Richards, J. (2001). The role and design of instructional materials. In Curriculum development in language teaching (pp. 251-284). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The materials act as resources or support in language teaching. Such materials can be authentic (magazines, newspapers, teacher created) and created materials (textbooks, instructional resources). The chapter makes good points about selecting textbooks. One of the important criteria to look for in selecting textbooks is that student needs are met. Textbooks tend to be costly so it is important to carefully look through them before purchasing them. Authentic materials are good in that students are introduced to language used in real situations. But the downside is that it takes time to collect materials and to create activities around those materials.
What we do at immersion is to keep a collection of old and new textbooks and teacher resources (both English and Yup’ik materials) and use them as resources in teaching our language. I’m excited about having to develop materials around a theme that we don’t have materials for. In the past I’ve had to quickly make books or activities for family and animal units. Those take up time that we don’t have in the school year.