The question In this paper I will focus on the sorts of publications we might want publishers
to promote, in terms of the sorts of jobs we might want teaching
materials to do.
To ask 'What do we want teaching materials for?' is unfortunately a premature
question. To say "What do we want materials to do?' may clarify the
problem, because it may remind us that, if we are thinking about the role
of teaching materials in the whole teaching/learning operation, then we
ought first to ask 'What is there to be done?' This question deliberately
avoids reference to teaching or to the teacher, because I wish, at this stage,
to leave 'who should do what' in the management of language learning an
open question.
To be done' suggests action, but in fact there are three phases in
management, rather than one. There are things to decide, actions to be
taken on the basis of those decisions, and a process of review to feed into
future decision-making.
Figure 1 should help reinforce this point, widi its circularity and overlapping
segments indicating the dynamic interrelationships involved. After
a decision has been taken—say, to use a particular texdook for a particular
• course—some organization is necessary—namely die purchase and delivery
of an adequate quantity of the books to the classroom—before the decision
can be fully implemented. The use of the textbook, for a sensible review to be
possible, has dien to be monitored to permit evaluation of its use and