This document discusses the benefits and challenges of commercially produced teaching materials versus self-designed materials for ESP classrooms. It argues that self-designed materials can better meet the specific needs of learners by providing more authentic and memorable contexts. Examples of self-designed materials for art and design, medical English, and English for football are presented. Producing original materials allows teachers to stay engaged in professional development and enhance learner satisfaction.

1. Self-designed Teaching materials for Enhanced
Harmony in the ESP Classroom
(A Practitioner’s Perspective)
TESOL 2013 ESPIS-CALLIS-VDMIS Intersection: Dallas – 23 March 2013
Mark Krzanowski
markkski2@gmail.com
IATEFL ESP SIG Co-ordinator
Director of CELT, University of Westminster London
Senior ESP/EAP Adviser for Garnet Education
Sponsored by: the British Council

2. Commercially produced materials (CPMs)
• Advantages • Disadvantages
• Carefully fine-tuned • Often too sanitised and
• Normally piloted with not necessarily
groups of students authentic
• Accompanied by • May get ‘dated’ quickly
teacher’s books and • Long production cycle
CDs or videos • At times written with
• Written by experienced abstract learners in
materials writers mind
Major issue:
Authenticity of purpose (mats not suitable for a given group of
learners) or authenticity of response (not achieved) – this affects
the ‘harmony’ of the ESP classroom 2 2

3. Samples of commercially produced materials
3 major Medical English courses compared
Traditional topics include:
Receiving the patient; past medical and family history; examining the patient; breaking bad
news; dealing with sensitive issues; communicating with challenging patients, the elderly,
children
What is medicine; achievements in medicine; computers in medicine; clinical setting: acute care;
non-clinical setting – public health; evidence-based medicine;
Emergency medicine; accidents; sports medicine; psychiatry; dermatology; cardiology; tropical
diseases;
What is missing:
More realistic scenarios (e.g. a newly trained nurse making a mistake on the first day of
work in hospital) & memorable context
Real language and workplace talk, e.g. doctors and nurses to other doctors and nurses,
and doctors and nurses to patients
Humour (e.g. Jokes and small talk) and real-life drama
Coverage of delicate issues (e.g. abortion, use of contraceptives, euthanasia, sex
change operations, miscarriage or HIV; medical negligence) – problem of publishers and
cultural restrictions and sensibilities 3

4. Samples of commercially produced materials:
English for Football
Traditional topics include:
It’s my Club; Defender; Midfielder; Striker; Goalkeeper; Scout; Manager; The greatest
team
The language – very ‘cautious’ and almost ‘contrived’; absence of highly memorable
context; everything is fairly predictable
What is missing?
More challenging, topical and relevant thought-provoking topics such as:
Racism in football; match fixing; poor command of English of international football
players playing in the UK Premier league; poor command of English of coaches
responsible for English teams; the extra time controversy in matches that end up in a
draw (why not penalty kicks straight away); corruption in football; football
hooliganism; salaries of top football players; not a single gay football player known
yet internationally – why?
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5. Essential English (E4WP: Football
Industry) – what is missing
Understanding familiar expressions
"The referee's a ******"
"I am gutted, to be fair“
Using familiar expressions
"At the end of the day"
"There's a great bunch of lads in the dressing-room“
Introducing themselves
"I'm delighted to be joining such a big club"
"I really wanted to play for the gaffer"
Introducing others
"This is my WAG, Chantella. She's been in celebrity magazines"
"This is my agent, Paulo. He says many clubs are interested in me"
Asking questions about basic personal details
"How much is my signing bonus?"
"Where is the nearest Bentley dealership?"
Answering questions on personal details
"My best position is in the hole behind the front two"
"I have a sponsorship deal with Nike but I'm open to offers"
Have your say
Taken from The Times, 7th May 2008
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6. Why produce DIY materials?
What the others say
• ‘Over the years many institutions and teachers have replaced
published materials with home-made materials in order to
achieve greater relevance and engagement’ (Tomlison, 2012: 158)
• *CPMs+ can ‘overprotect learners from and *thus+ not preapre
them for the reality of language use outside the classroom’ (ibid:
161)
• Call for humanising teaching materials: many CPMs are
‘insufficiently humanistic’ (ibid: 163) – my question: cacophonous
rather than harmonious? (MK)
• Mukundan (2009b: 96)criticises excessive control exercised by
coursebooks; the classroom should perhaps resemble a jungle
‘where chance and challenge and spontaneity and creativity and
risk work in complementary fashion with planned activity’
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7. Why produce DIY materials?
What the others say
• Block (1990) – 3 reasons:
• 1. [better] contextualisation [than in CPMs]
• 2. timeliness – CPMs so dated that practically unusable.
• 3. the personal touch – learners value a teacher’s effort when s/he
goes beyond a coursebook
• Engagement in DIY mats – helps to become a reflective ELT
practitioner and enhances teacher development
• Gilmore (2007:98) points to ‘the gap between authentic language
and textbook language’; *...+ ‘although recently much has been
done to redress the balance, there remain numerous gaps’
• ‘Publishers are reluctant to take risks with innovative materials or
to change the status quo’ (ibid: 112); the costs of producing global
textbooks are normally very high
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8. Why produce DIY materials?
My ideas (MK):
• Commercially produced mats (CPMs) aimed at abstract cohorts of
learners – effectively such mats not always able to meet needs and wants
of specific groups of students
• To create a memorable context in a conducive learning and teaching
environment – such an effect is often absent in CPMs
• Go beyond editorial and content restrictions that traditional publishers
need to honour – an individual teacher can assess what can be safely
‘risked’ with a particular group in a particular country/culture
• Ease of self-identification with what one has produced for one’s students
– not so easy to read the mind of other authors
• To ‘seize the moment’ and make use of the topic that might wait for
coverage too late with a traditional publisher and even be ‘shared’
• For ESP/EAP teachers to ‘add value’ by adding another important
professional skill to their teaching repertoire, even if this happens
through trial and error
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9. Neglected areas of ESP/EAP – e.g. Art and
Design
• ESP and EAP publishers seem to cater more for text-
based disciplines (e.g. Engineering; Law; Economics)
• Youngest academic discipline - Nursing (some
improvement recently in ESP/EAP mats available)
• Art and Design courses and students – ‘neglected’; a
dearth of ESP and EAP CPMs available
• Solutions: Teachers tutoring such students need to
bridge the lacunae and engage in production of DIY
mats
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10. Art and Design – some specimen DIY materials
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11. Art and Design – some specimen DIY materials
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12. Art and Design – some specimen DIY materials
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13. Potential sources for DIY materials for Medical English & English for Football
• TV dramas and series, e.g.: • TV sports channels, e.g.:Special
• ‘Casualty’: Report: Sky Sports News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m uncovers racism in football
8wd • Radio programmes, e.g.: Chinese football
• ‘Holby City’: clubs punished for match fixing |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m ABC Radio Australia
hd6 • Topical newspaper articles (paper or online
• Documentaries: BBC - Horizon - Is alcohol editions): Robbie Rogers: Former Leeds
worse than ecstasy? football player comes out as gay and ...
• BBC - Radio 4 - The Making of • Regional topics not covered by mainstream
Modern Medicine TV and radio stations or global
• Comedies, e.g.: Carry on Matron Part 1 - newspapers, e.g.: Nigeria win Africa Cup of
YouTube Nations 2013 beating Burkina Faso 1-0 in ...
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14. How such materials can be designed and what skills and knowledge are required
• Emulation of good practice as • (Normally) solid EFL and ESOL
seen in leading proven CPMs background to be able to
transfer skills into ESP and
• Application of creativity and EAP
flair • Familiarity with current
• Creation of memorable trends in mats
adaptation, adoption, creatio
context exploiting striking and n and design
unique authentic mats • Willingness to experiment
• Attention to detail through trial and error if
necessary
• Aesthetic presentation to
• Reasonably good level of
match the standard of CPMs knowledge of a particular EAP
• Adding the personal touch to or ESP specialism in order to
humanise DIY mats and address the needs and wants
of the learners
involve learners
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15. Conclusions
References:
• ESP practitioners still need to • Block, D. (1990) Some Thoughts
produce their own materials to on DIY materials design. ELT
better cater for the needs and Journal 45.3, pp. 211-217.
wants of the learners • Gilmore, A. (2007) Authentic
(complementary use rather than materials and authenticity in
exclusive) foreign language teaching.
• ‘Adding value’ to ones CPD Language Teaching 40.2, pp. 97-
(Continuous Professional 118
Development) through mats • Mukundan, J. (2009b) Are there
design really good reasons as to why
• Effect on the ESP classroom: textbooks should exist? In J.
enhanced harmony, cohesion Mukundan (ed), 92-100
and better synergies: satisfied • Tomlison, B. (2012) Materials
learners and professionally- development for language
fulfilled tutors. learning and teaching. Language
Teaching 45.2, pp. 143-179
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