Nigel Harwood

University of Sheffield

Plenary speech

Title: 

Research on English language teaching materials: What do we still need to do?

Abstract:

There has been an enormous proliferation in research conducted on English language teaching materials and textbooks in the last couple of decades—and the research conducted by SCRELE is a shining example of that—and so what types of research, in what areas, are still lacking? Some time ago (Harwood, 2014), I identified three types of approach to studies of materials: studies of content, consumption, and production, and there have been numerous examples of each of these three types published in recent years. Nonetheless, some of these studies have reached disheartening conclusions. For instance, some studies of textbook content continue to critique materials in terms of their unsatisfactory coverage of language, culture, and pragmatics; some studies of textbook consumption continue to indicate that textbooks adopting innovative pedagogical approaches are utilized by teachers in ways which defeat the purposes of the textbook writers; and some studies of textbook production reveal a host of constraints placed upon textbook writers by publishers and ministries of education which stymie the writers’ attempts to author educationally effective resources. Having exemplified these claims by reviewing a selection of recent studies, I will end this talk by identifying some recent innovative research which we could usefully build upon, including the use of instructional materials by learners in extramural settings.