Language Teaching Materials as Work Plans: An SLA Perspective

Language teaching materials are work plans. That is they constitute plans for activities intended to facilitate language learning. We can ask two questions about language teaching materials: (1) What kinds of work plans can be predicted to facilitate learning? and (2) Do the work plans result in activity that facilitates learning? The first question concerns the design of work plans while the second question involves evaluating their implementation. Second language acquisition (SLA) is a field of enquiry that can inform both the design and the implementation of work plans. On the whole, SLA researchers have been more interested in implementation – in particular, how the interactions that occur when a work plan is carried out foster learning. In this chapter I intend to focus on the first question by considering how SLA can inform the design or work plans. However, SLA constitutes a source of information that can only inform the design or work plans; it cannot prescribe. Nor is SLA the sole source of information. There are other relevant disciplines and, of course, teachers’ own experience of what works in their own classrooms.