In Developing Materials for Language Teaching (2013) Tomlinson introduces a text-driven approach to materials development. He goes into quite a bit of detail regarding text selection, offers a suggested framework for the approach and provides a practical example (pages 99-114). I won’t attempt to summarise, I’ll just say read the chapter! It was the most useful and applicable reading I undertook on my recent MA course.
For the purpose of this post, here’s the framework overview, taken from Tomlinson (2013:110, ©Bloomsbury)
click on the picture to enlarge
We had to plan a lesson using the text-driven approach for a unit assignment. I chose to use my favourite poem as the text – Blessing by Imtiaz Dharker. Here’s a nice dramatization of it (I think originally BBC):
You can find the full text here
These activities are pitched at upper-intermediate, for young adults/adults.
I’m based in Bangkok, hence the personalisation in the first activity…
Readiness activities
- Imagine…
- you’re walking around the centre of Bangkok
- it’s 35 degrees, and you are in the sun
- you’ve no water and you really need a drink
How do you feel? How does your body feel? What would you do?
Think alone.
Now imagine:
- all the shopping malls, restaurants, etc are shut so you have to stay outside in the heat
- no shops have any water or drinks available
- nobody else can offer you a drink of water
- the temperature has gone up to 38 degrees
- you’ve been outside for nearly a day
What would you do? How do you feel now?
Now imagine… you see a water truck across the road spraying fresh water
What would you do?
- Share your thoughts with a partner. Did you feel/do similar?
Experiential activities
- You’re going to hear a poem about a similar event to above. Change the picture in your mind from your own feelings to the feelings of this person:
4. Teacher reads students the poem
Do you think the man’s feelings/actions are similar or different to yours? Why/how?
Intake response activities
- Work with a partner. Look back at the poem.
Partner 1 – read lines 1 – 17
Partner 2 – listen to Partner 1 read the poem. Mime the man’s actions/expressions
Change roles.
Read the poem again.
Partner 1 – pause after lines 2, 6, 8 and 11
Partner 2 – Close your eyes. Listen to the poem. When your partner pauses, say the first word/phrase you think of.
Development activities 1
6. Do one of the following:
- Imagine you’re the man. Run inside your house and tell your wife what’s happening
- Write a short newspaper report (80-100 words) on the event in the poem
- You are an engineer arriving at the scene. Call your manager and explain what’s happening
- Storyboard the poem (drawing) in 6 – 8 stages
7. In ‘Blessing’ the people need/wish for water during the long, dry season.
Think about something you really need or wish to happen. E.g.
- Meeting the love of your life
- Passing a test
- Seeing an old friend
- etc
Write a short poem (2 verses). Describe your feelings before (verse 1) and after (verse 2) the event happens.
Share your poem with a partner.
Input response activities
8. Language bits and bobs
A quick matching task just to clarify a few words
Match the words with the correct definition…
flash drip splash rush crash
frantic scream polish echo flow
- do something very quickly
- sound that is produced when sound waves bounce off a surface
- cause (water or another liquid) to move in a noisy way or messy way
- make (something) smooth and shiny
- suddenly cry out in a loud and high voice
- appear quickly or suddenly
- make a loud noise by falling, hitting something, etc.
- of liquid, gas, or electricity : to move in a steady and continuous way
- having a lot of wild and hurried activity
- fall in drops
Work with a partner. Find words in the text that relate to each of the themes below:
religion:
the body/the senses:
materials / elements:
Why do you think the poet has chosen these themes?
Read line 11: ‘a roar of tongues’.
If you don’t know the word ‘roar’, look it up in a dictionary. Why do you think the poet chose this word?
Development activity 2
- Learners look back at their poems and improve them based on language work in exercise 10. For example, they could try and include actions, themes, a metaphor, etc.
Two things I like about this approach
- You can differentiate and give learners choices at various stages
- It really suits drama activities and encourages lots of personal responses from learners
Two things I dislike about this approach
- Unrealistic planning time. If you’re writing it for a course book or a published lesson, great. But wow, it took a long time to think through…
- I feel the approach is more suited to higher levels in general
So, over to you:
- Have you used this text-driven approach before?
- What benefits/problems can you see with this approach in general?
- Would you teach the lesson above? Why/Why not?
Comments appreciated!
Reference:
Tomlinson, B. (2013). ‘Developing principled frameworks for materials development’. In Tomlinson, B (Ed). Developing Materials for Language Teaching. London: Bloomsbury
Feature image (c) Bloomsbury
Categories: General, Lesson Ideas, materials writing, videos
ELT Planning 
Looks interesting. Do you think the book is worth getting a copy of?
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Hello, Sandy. It is worth getting a copy of, especially the new edition since it has some new chapters.
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Hello,Pete. I did the same module 3 years ago and it was amazing! Useful and practical! I like the fact that you used the text-driven approach (my favourite) because it offers so many things to a materials writer. You can be very creative and work with everything that a text has to offer;it activates all four language skills and develops critical thinking skills. Good luck with the module!
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Hey! Cheers for commenting. So have you finished the MA now? What did you write your dissertation on?
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Yes, all done. It was on materials development
“DESIGNING MATERIALS TO INSTRUCT AND SUPPORT EFL STUDENTS IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA IN USING READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES THROUGH THE APPLICATION OF THE GUIDED COMPREHENSION MODEL FOR ENGLISH LEARNERS:
WRITING A CHILDREN’S FICTION BOOK WITH A TEACHER’S GUIDE TO FACILITATE THE APPLICATION OF THE GUIDED COMPREHENSION MODEL FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA”. Sory for the capital letters,original title 🙂
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Blimey! That’s an epic title!
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I love the poem and I love what you’ve done with it. I think it would really help students to connect with the theme. However I do feel that in this model the language feels a little bit like an afterthought. Of course, while it isn’t explicit in the six step model, there nothing to stop you from expanding or adding to the last stages. For example, you could take the examples of onomatopoeia and add other ones, and make this a clearer language focus. Or maybe not give a choice of text types to write, because if you just focused on one you could then teach them something about the features of that particular genre. This is why it feels more suitable for higher levels perhaps, because there isn’t much scaffolding. It also feels a bit top heavy to me at the moment, like there’s a great build up and then a bit of a sputtering out. But this isn’t a criticism of what you’ve done, more of a comment on the approach.
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Yeah totally agree. I didn’t really think much about the language focus here I just sort of shoehorned something in. The text-driven method isn’t perfect but it’s a refreshing change from a planning and teaching perspective. I feel it suits higher levels. I wish I could use it as an approach to the advanced materials I’m currently writing but it doesn’t fit with our own style and approach.
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Brilliant. I have been doing a lot of reading about this approach lately and it’s great to have this lesson example. Thanks for sharing! I will try to use this.
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Hi Peter,
How are you? I am in the thick of assignment writing for my NILE materials development module.
I am rewriting the task from Cutting Edge Intermediate Unit 10 ‘Society and Change’, page 102.
According to the evaluation criteria, it would be beneficial to make this task a. more closely related to students’ lives and b. present a more ecologically literate view of problems associated with oil use than does the text about the imaginary country of Peakoilia.
Anyway, I’m using the text-base approach and borrowing heavily from your lesson idea. I’ve just replaced the lead in questions which are:
Would you like to be president/prime minister of your country? Why/Why not?
Think of one thing you would change.
I have replaced it with this:
1.Imagine:
You are the president
It’s the first day of your working week
You are having morning coffee on your balcony
How do you feel? What is on your mind? What 4 things are on your to-do list?
Think alone.
2.Now imagine:
You have just arrived at the presidential work place.
You are having a second coffee
You look at your to-do list from earlier
Choose one thing fro your to-do list that you should attend to first. Why do you choose that thing?
Think alone.
3.Now imagine the minister for the environment comes in very worried because:
The climate is changing
The change is because of burning fossil fuels
We aren’t doing enough to stop this
Add something you and the minster of the environment can do about this to your to-do list for today. What is it? How do you feel now? Do you need a third coffee?
Peter, what do you think?
p.s. I can’t wait till June 1st when hopefully I will have submitted everything, and I will get in 3 bags of crisps, a bottle of coke and sit on the sofa watching who knows what on NetFlix and do nothing TEFL-related all day!
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Hey! Love that lead-in, it’s really open and engaging. I wonder what four things I’d put…
Sounds like you’re putting a lot of thought into the resource, would love to see the finished article. Please pass it on or, even better, do a blog post about it!
I still love this approach although it isn’t as suited to my current context, well, not in the ways I’ve used it before. I guess I could break it down more to make a sequence of lessons though.
Funny you commented, was thinking about your site the other day as my year 5 kids are learning about sustainable development goals. Have you done any lessons on those?
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Hi Peter,
Glad you like it!
Peter, in true Blue Peter ‘Here’s one I made earlier’ style, I present my project for the NILE TALL module: a website for teachers on how to use the global goals to develop digital literacies. They are teacher training videos but the include the lesson slides too.
Would love to hear your thoughts!
https://eltsustainabletraining.wordpress.com/
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