What do we want teaching materials for?1

The question ‘What do we want teaching materials for?’ is premature until we establish what there is to be done in teaching and who should do it. Starting with a unified conception of language teaching and learning as ‘the management of language learning’, this paper proposes a management analysis which establishes a necessarity limited role for teaching materials, given the great complexity of the management problem revealed by the analysis. This leads to a diagnosis of teacher ‘overload’ and learner ‘underinvolvement’. (Traing is probably necessary if learners are to become productively involved in managing their learning.) ‘Learner-training’ has further implications for course design and for teacher-training, and raises the question of how teachers can best put their expertise at the disposal of ‘trained’ learners. Returning to materials, the paper then makes specific suggestions in support of a switch of emphasis from ‘teaching’ materials to ‘learning’ materials. Finally the conclusion is drewn that questions of materials should generally be related to the conception of the conception of the whole of language teaching and learning as the co–operative management of language learning.