Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition

4 What materials is the teacher using?
There are two important aspects to this question. One asks
first about the actual content of the teaching materials in a
number of senses. What is the actual linguistic content?
What sounds, words, grammar or conventions of reading or
writing are in it? A good deal of attention is devoted to
answering this particular question in subsequent chapters of
this book. Then: What is the language actually about—a
typical English family, Malaysian schoolboys of different
ethnic backgrounds, a pair of swinging London teenagers, or
corgies, crumpets and cricket? A tourist in New York, or the
polymerisation of vinyl chloride, or the grief of a king who
believes himself betrayed by the daughter he loves most?
The second aspect concerns the type of material it is. Is it
specially written with controlled grammar and vocabulary
from a predetermined list? Or is it ‘authentic’ and
uncontrolled? What kinds of control have been used in terms
of frequency of items, simplicity plus functional utility? Does

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In the Classroom
24
it have a specific orientation towards a particular group of
learners—English for electronic engineers—or is it designed
to foster general service English? Is its orientation primarily
linguistic or primarily communicative?