Perspectives on Language Learning Materials Development

The Editors: Freda Mishan is a lecturer on the M.A. course in English Language Teaching at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Her research and publications include a book, book chapters and articles in the areas of language learning materials development and the use of ICT for language learning. She has over 30 years’ language teaching and training experience worldwide.Angela Chambers is professor of applied languages and director of the Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Limerick, Ireland. She has co-edited a number of books and published several articles on aspects of language learning. Her current research focuses on the use of corpus data by language learners.

«(...) this is a very useful book, with something for everyone, and where every chapter is thought-provoking and encouraging. Language teachers worldwide will be able to confirm the initial postulate, that we are all potential contributors to the field of materials development.» (Carmela Chateau, TEFL.net)«(...) a useful and stimulating read for people already working with language learning, be they teachers, researchers or materials developers.» (Guiliana Dettori, British Journal of Education Technology)

• Contents: Freda Mishan/Angela Chambers: Introduction – Jeanne McCarten/Michael McCarthy: Bridging the gap between corpus and course book: The case of conversation strategies – Fiona Farr/Angela Chambers/Stéphanie O’Riordan: Corpora for materials development in language teacher education: Underlying principles and useful data – Ivor Timmis: Teachers telling tales: Exploring materials for teaching spoken language – Brian Tomlinson: Helping learners to fill the gaps in their learning – Alexander Gilmore: Catching words: Exploiting film discourse in the foreign language classroom – Freda Mishan: Task and task authenticity: Paradigms for language learning in the digital era – Annie Hughes: Why should we make activities for young language learners meaningful and purposeful? – Jonathan Mason: Using ethnography to develop intercultural competence – Naeema Hann/Ivor Timmis/Hitomi Masuhara: ESOL materials: Practice and principles – Rubena St. Louis/Marta Trias/Silvia Pereira: Designing materials for a twelve-week remedial course for pre-university students: A case study.