English Language Learning Materials: A Critical Review

There are complex issues related to materials production and use: what do learners and teachers do with coursebooks? How do language learning materials respond to or ignore language learning needs? Which ideological considerations come into play in publishers’ decisions to produce textbooks? How does the worldwide spread of English affect approaches to writing and production of learning materials? How do local contexts and global trends influence textbook writers’ decision-making processes? For anyone who wishes that such mind-boggling questions could be addressed from as wide a range of perspectives as there are English language learners and teachers all over the world, that wish has come true in Tomlinson's English Language Learning Materials: A Critical Review. A collection of 18 essays, this book takes the bold step of making incisive descriptions of ‘ELT materials currently in use throughout the world’ (p. ix). Lest the reader truly expects the world, however, Tomlinson's preface hastens to position the book more specifically as … not an attempt to provide an objective overview of the development and use of every type of EFL material in every area of the world. Instead, it provides an informed impression of what is happening in the ELT material world and in doing so hopes to stimulate teachers, researchers, materials developers and publishers to think of ways in which they can contribute to improvements in the development of ELT materials. (pp. ix–x)