Principles of Second Language
Acquisition Relevant to
Materials Development
1. Materials should achieve impact
Impact is achieved when materials have a noticeable effect
on learners, that is when the learners’ curiosity, interest
and attention are attracted. If this is achieved, there is a
better chance that some of the language in the materials
will be taken in for processing.
2. Materials should help learners to feel at ease
Although it is known that pressure can stimulate some
types of language learners, I think that most researchers
would agree that most language learners benefit from
feeling at ease and that they lose opportunities for
language learning when they feel anxious, uncomfortable
or tense (see, for example, Oxford 1999).
3. Materials should help learners to develop
confidence
Most materials developers recognise the need to help
learners to develop confidence, but many of them attempt
to do so through a process of simplification. They try to
help the learners to feel successful by asking them to use
simple language to accomplish easy tasks such as
completing substitution tables, writing simple sentences
and filling in the blanks in dialogues. This approach is
welcomed by many teachers and learners.
4. What is being taught should be perceived by
learners as relevant and useful
Most teachers recognise the need to make the learners aware of the
potential relevance and utility of the language and skills they are
teaching. And researchers have confirmed the importance of this
need. For example, Stevick (1976) cites experiments which have
shown the positive effect on learning and recall of items that are of
personal significance to the learner. And Krashe (1982) and Wenden
(1987) report research showing the importance of apparent relevance
and utility in language acquisition.
5. Materials should require and facilitate
learner self-investment
Many researchers have written about the value of learning activities
that require the learners to make discoveries for themselves. For
example, Rutherford and Sharwood-Smith (1988) assert that the
role of the classroom and of teaching materials is to aid the learner
to make efficient use of the resources in order to facilitate self-
discovery. Similar views are expressed by Bolitho and Tomlinson
(1995); Bolitho et al. (2003), Tomlinson (1994a, 2007) and Wright
and Bolitho (1993).
6. Learners must be ready to acquire the points
being taught
Certain structures are acquired only when learners are mentally ready
for them. (Dulay, Burt and Krashen 1982) Meisel, Clahsen and
Pienemann (1981) have put forward the Mutlidimensional Model in
which learners must have achieved readiness in order to learn
developmental feat (i.e. those constrained by develoing speech-
processing mechanisms –e.g. word order) but can make themselves
ready at any time to learn variational features (i.e those which are
free –e.g. the copula ‘be’).
7. Materials should expose the learners to language in authentic use Krashen (1985) makes the strong claim that comprehensible input in the
target language is both necessary and sufficient for the acquisition of that language provided that learners are ‘affectively
disposed to “let in” the input they comprehend’ (Ellis 1994: 273). Few researchers would agree with such a strong claim
that exposure to authentic use of the target language is necessary but not sufficient for the acquisition of that language.
8. The learners’ attention should be drawn to
linguistic features of the input
There seems to be an agreement amongst many
researchers that helping learners to pay attention to
linguistic features of authentic input can help them to
eventually acquire some of those features.
9. Materials should take into account that the
positive effects of instruction are usually
delayed
Materials should take into account that the positive
effects of instruction are usually delayed
10. Materials should take into account that learners
differ in learning styles
Different learners have different preferred learning styles. So, for
example, those learners with a preference for studial learning are
much more likely to gain from explicit grammar teaching than
those who prefer experiential learning. And those who prefer
experiential learning are more likely to gain from reading a story
with a predominant grammatical feature (e.g. reported speech)
than they are from being taught that feature explicitly.
Learning Styles
visual (e.g. learners prefer to see the language written down);
auditory (e.g. learners prefer to hear the language).
Kinaesthetic (e.g. learners prefer to do something physical,
such as following instructions for a game);
studial (e.g. learners like to pay conscious attention to the
linguistic features of the language and want to be correct);
Learning Styles
experiential (e.g. learners like to use the language and are more concerned with
communication than with correctness);
analytic (e.g. learners prefer to focus on discrete bits of the language and to learn
them one by one);
global (e.g. learners are happy to respond to whole chunks of language at a time
and to pick up from them whatever language they can);
dependent (e.g. learners prefer to learn from a teacher and from a book);
independent (e.g. learners are happy to learn from their own experience of the
language and to use autonomous learning strategies).
11. Materials should take into account that
learners differ in affective attitudes
Ideally language learners should have strong and
consistent motivation and they should also have positive
feelings towards the target language, their teachers, their
fellow learners and the materials they are using. But, of
course, ideal learners do not exist and even if they did
exist one day, they would no longer be ideal learners the
next day.
12. Materials should permit a silent period at
the beginning of instruction
It has been shown that it can be extremely valuable to
delay L2 speaking for beginners of a language until they
have gained sufficient confidence in understanding it. This
silent period can facilitate the development of an effective
internalised grammar which can help learners to achieve
proficiency when they eventually start to speak in the L2.
13. Materials should maximise learning potential by encouraging
intellectual, aesthetic and emotional involvement which
stimulates both right- and leftbrain activities
14. Materials should not rely too much on
controlled practice
‘controlled practice appears to have little long term effect
on the accuracy with which new structures are performed’
(Ellis 1990:192) and ‘has little effect on fluency’ (Ellis
and Rathbone 1987).
15. Materials should provide opportunities for
outcome feedback
Feedback which is focused first on the effectiveness of the
outcome rather than just on the accuracy of the output can
lead to output becoming a profitable source of input. Or in
other words, if the language that the learner produces is
evaluated in relation to the purpose for which it is used,
that language can become a powerful and informative
source of information about language use.
THANK YOU!
