Developing teaching materials for esp courses: the last option many esp teachers

Key aspects in ESP materials design 
According to Tomlinson (1998), the following main beliefs and 
principles outline the basic framework for materials development: 
a) materials writing is most effective when is it based on thorough 
understanding of the needs of a particular group of students i.e. their 
specific language difficulties, learning objectives, preferred learning 
styles. A process of materials writing which takes into consideration 
all these variables is learner-centered. Teaching contexts vary in that 
sometimes teachers are expected to rigidly follow a prescribed book; 
in some cases teachers struggle with finding time for writing their 
own materials, but in general the number of teachers who never adapt 
or modify and supplement the core teaching materials is low; 
b) teachers know and understand their students best. By becoming 
sensitive and responsive to their students’ needs, objectives, 
difficulties and preferred learning styles teachers simultaneously 
become materials writers and researchers;
c) teachers need a grounding i.e. basic knowledge or training in 
materials writing. Learning how to effectively write teaching 
materials should be an inseparable part of every teacher’s training 

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SEEU Review Volume 14 Issue 2 
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process. The process of writing materials in fact teaches one to 
develop criteria for evaluating materials produced by others. By 
learning to create materials teachers reduce their dependency on 
published materials and develop professionally;
d) all teachers teach themselves – when no choice is provided, there are 
cases when teachers have to teach against the grain. Producing 
effective materials minimizes the chances of teachers being forced to 
teach using a methodology that contradicts their personal teaching 
philosophy; 
e) trialling and evaluation are vital to the success of any materials. Since 
learners are users of the materials their opinion is very important and 
their feedback should always be welcomed. This is easy to 
implement in practice when the teacher uses his/her own materials 
whereas with printed materials usually there are trials in which 
teachers rather than learners provide the feedback.
With reference to materials development in ESP courses, Bocanegra-
Valle (2010) reminds that materials are particularly useful in ESP 
because of their key role in exposing students to the language of a