Text classification and text gradation are important for language teachers. Profiling and readability studies examine textual and linguistic features that determine text difficulty. Arabic, as an under-resourced language, suffers from a lack of such studies which results in material developers and textbook writers relying on their intuitions and…

Despite coverage of materials development principles in the applied linguistics literature, principled production of open textbooks has not received attention. To address this gap and demonstrate the interdisciplinary potential of materials development research, the authors drew upon concurrent verbalization and interview data they collected while…

Although the ELT (English Language Teaching) materials development literature points to the influence of classroom experience on materials design, the literature is less specific about "how" such experience affects skilled textbook writing. Drawing primarily upon concurrent verbalization and pre- and post-concurrent verbalization…

English for Islamic Studies is taught as the general subject in the State Islamic Institute of Palopo. Therefore, the researchers aimed to develop valid English materials for learners of the Islamic education study program. The researchers applied the 4-D model by Thiagarajan et al. It consists of four stages namely, defining, designing,…

Corpus linguistics is a new branch of linguistics but its status is still debatable - either as a theory or a methodology. This article aims to give an overview of the different approaches and perspectives of corpus linguistics. The neo-Firthians contend that corpus linguistics is a method, while other prominent corpus linguists claim that it is a…

In the form of a review article, the "English Minimum Grammar" developed by Hans G. Hoffmann (Max Hueber Verlag, Munich, 1973) is discussed, and the problems that beset the writer of a modern teaching grammar are pointed out. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

A textbook author should be sure that his or her philosophy is respected by the publisher. Materials should be published in a form and according to quality standards which meet the author's approval. Textbooks that are part of a core program or series will require the collaboration of other writers. (SW)

ONE OF THE DIFFICULTIES OF PRODUCING ENGLISH SKILLS MATERIALS OR TEACHER-TRAINING MATERIALS FOR SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES IS THAT EXTREME VARIATIONS BETWEEN THE STUDENT'S CULTURE AND THE MATERIALS WRITER'S CULTURE CAN CAUSE SERIOUS INTERFERENCE IN COMMUNICATION. A SPEAKER'S VISION IS STRUCTURED BY THE KINDS OF TRAINING, BOTH FORMAL AND INFORMAL…

An attempt to demonstrate the erroneousness of the principle that language teaching materials must be based on a detailed analysis of various parameters of texts of the target language, such as frequency, usefulness, basicness, or productiveness of lexical or structural items. (Author/FWB)

Methodological and theoretical options confronting second-language textbook authors are outlined. Analytic and synthetic methodological approaches, linguistic options, geographic variability, registers of language, spoken versus written language, cultural materials, and learners' level are discussed. (SW)