The question "What do we want teaching materials for?' is premature
until we establish what there is to be done in teaching and who should
do it. Starting with a unified conception of language teaching and learning
as 'the management of language learning', this paper proposes a
management analysis which establishes a necessarily limited role for
teaching materials, given the great complexity of the management
problem revealed by the analysis. This leads to a diagnosis of teacher
'overload' and learner 'underinvolvement', with implications for
teacher-training and 'learner-training'. (Training is probably necessary if
learners are to become productively involved in managing their
learning.) 'Learner-training' has further implications for course design
and for teacher-training, and raises the question of how teachers can
best put their expertise at the disposal of 'trained' learners. Returning to
materials, the paper then makes specific suggestions in support of a
switch of emphasis from 'teaching' materials to 'learning' materials.
Finally the conclusion is drawn that questions of materials should
generally be related to the conception of the whole of language
teaching and learning as the co-operative management of language
learning.