The development of a materials training framework for English for academic purposes - Volume 1

There seems to be a significant gap in research on how teachers develop EAP teaching - learning materials and the various types of problems they encounter when developing these materials. This is regardless of whether the teaching is for English for General Purposes or English for Academic Purposes (EAP).;This study explores how training in EAP materials development might be improved, and it sets out:;(1) to develop a task-based materials Framework and then.;(2) to explore its effectiveness with trainees on the context of a Malaysian university (Universiti Pertanian Malaysia [UPMS]).;In devising the Framework, guidance was sought from task and content-based approaches to language teaching, genre theory, Bloom's Taxonomy of educational objectives, a needs survey and various other sources. The Framework was trialled with Malaysian teachers studying at various British universities and further revised.;To evaluate and explore the effectiveness of the Framework an intact group or within - subjects design and workshop procedures were used. A materials design course already exists at UPM and hence the method taught could be compared with the use of the Framework. One hundred and seven pre and in-service TESL teachers participated in this comparison and they designed materials by the existing method, and then using the Framework. The attitudes of the teachers, their perceptions of the Framework, and the materials produced, were compared and analysed using a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods. These included questionnaires before and after the experience, a 'Materials Evaluation Checklist' and a collaborative progress log which the teachers kept. The results show a significant improvement in the materials produced, and in the attitudes, beliefs and perception of the teachers, when the Framework is used.