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Principles and Procedures of Materials Development Part 2

The document discusses several topics related to developing and publishing educational materials: 1. It explores the importance of humanizing coursebooks by adding activities that help learners connect the material to their own experiences. 2. It examines the process of publishing coursebooks and notes that feedback from various stakeholders like publishers, writers, teachers, and students is vital. 3. It considers the debate around piloting coursebooks with students before full publication and whether their feedback is useful at a young age.

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Arleen J. Lim
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20 views2 pages

Principles and Procedures of Materials Development Part 2

The document discusses several topics related to developing and publishing educational materials: 1. It explores the importance of humanizing coursebooks by adding activities that help learners connect the material to their own experiences. 2. It examines the process of publishing coursebooks and notes that feedback from various stakeholders like publishers, writers, teachers, and students is vital. 3. It considers the debate around piloting coursebooks with students before full publication and whether their feedback is useful at a young age.

Uploaded by

Arleen J. Lim
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Principles and Procedures of Materials Development (Part 2)

A. Publishing a coursebook
B. Humanizing the coursebook
C. The Use of Visual aids in ELT Materials

Among all the topics discussed, Humanizing a Coursebook struck me most, for it sounded intriguing. I did
not clearly know what to expect, and strangely enough, that perplexity made it even more interesting to
me. Good thing our dear professor asked us what we understood about the meaning of humanizing a
coursebook. After correlating the answers of my classmates, I learned that it is actually adding activities
that will make the learners connect what is written in the book to what they have in mind through
meaningful experiences. More oddly enough, my interest shifted to Publishing a Coursebook towards the
end of the session and after I have made further readings.

It sounds superficial, but I initially thought that publishing a coursebook is merely a concern of the
publishing company. Bit by bit, it dawned on me that there are more stakeholders involved in publishing a
coursebook: the publisher herself, the writer or material developer, the curriculum planner, the teachers,
and the students. Their feedback is vital in the process of both materials development and evaluation –
two important stages in publishing a coursebook.

I cannot help but marvel at the thought of involving young learners or those students in the elementary
grades in the process of giving feedback and evaluating a coursebook. I’m torn between agreeing to and
opposing the idea of including them in the giving of feedback and evaluation. On one hand, a part of my
being says that they may be too immature yet, and their perspective may be one-dimensional; thus, their
feedback might not help effectively in the enhancement of the material. Another ideal that experts deem
important in the process of publishing a coursebook, which I am slightly skeptical about, is the piloting and
testing of the book before it is finally published and perhaps adopted by schools. Honestly, I have
misgivings about the idea. I believe that with the experience of the writer of the coursebook, the guide
provided and monitored by curriculum planners, the feedbacks given by teachers, the goals of the
publishers, and with the help of in-house and external editors, the efficiency, effectiveness, and the
humanistic character of a coursebook can be achieved optimistically. I also believe that on behalf of the
pupils, the teachers themselves can gauge and tell if a book has been engaging, has facilitated learner
self-investment, and has catered to the differentiated learning styles of the pupils through observation,
results of assessments, and through their outputs. 

It is probably perfect timing that my editor and fellow author for the grammar book series that we wrote for
ICS Publishing, with the instruction from the publisher, communicated with me and asked me if I am
willing to write modules to accompany the grade 6 textbook that I wrote so that more schools will adopt
our books. Since I will not start from scratch as most of the contents will be lifted from the book to create a
supplementary material in the form of modules,  and to put also into practice what I am learning in my
CAELM subject, I am inclined to accepting the challenge. Now I am also thinking of making revisions on
some topics that need improvement so that they will be more suitable to the needs of the learners –
student-friendly, relevant, more interesting, up-to-date, and engaging. I hope and pray I can do all those
given the limited time frame to complete the work.

On a final note, I would like to share these pieces of advice I got from Angela Watson in her article How
to get started writing and publishing a teaching book and TAA: Textbook writing advice for new authors; I
came across these materials while reading other literature related to the reports. According to Watson,
aspiring authors should not worry about how to publish and sell the book when they haven’t even written
the book yet; instead, write the book first before worrying about anything. TAA, on the other hand, has
more structured steps to give as advice, but I would like to share only the very first advice as the others
are somewhat familiar. She recommends that new authors should buy copies of competitors’ books and
supplements; this way they will know where to get started. And lastly, though I am far yet from being an
expert, allow me to express my own thoughts about coursebook writing and publishing: “If you want to
become a book author, start with writing a coursebook. It may not be easy, but go on even if you think
you are unripe and ill-equipped; just always be open to change. Never cease exploring new knowledge,
and sooner or later, you too will become an expert.”

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