The most obvious and radical form for 'learning materials' to take
would be that of a learners' guide to language learning. It is difficult to find
many examples in publishers' lists at the time of writing, although there is
work in progress. The research so far is by no means conclusive, but any
such guide could profit from die work of Rubin, and of Naiman and his
colleagues (see Rubin, 1975, and Naiman et al, 1977), on die characteristics
of die 'good language learner'. One possibility would be a guide to
'independent' language learning, for learners widiout teachers. Such a
guide could include advice on how to establish one's priorities, advice on
die most productive ways of exploiting native speakers and other useful
people (like off-duty teachers), and also advice on die sorts of exercises a
learner might devise for personal use, or perhaps for use with friends. It is
too early to know what problems diere might be in writing such a guide
(aldiough we can predict some, of course) but diat should not prevent us
from exploring die concept.