9 Try working through the materials yourself. Even though you are likely
to do all of the tasks and exercises correctly, and quickly, it is the best way
to see for yourself how the materials are intended to work. You will
sometimes find that materials that look good at first sight may fall in your
estimation when you have found out more about what they actually entail
for your learners.
10 Pilot the materials with a few learners before you make a final decision
to adopt them. However hard we try to work out whether materials are good
or not, the real test comes when learners work with them. One of the
problems is that we tend to take for granted the process skills that
independent learning materials demand: learners, especially those unused to
this way of working, may find difficulties that we have not anticipated.30 Designing self-access materials
There are many excellent materials for independent language learning available
for purchase, but large self-access centres generally include a significant
percentage of teacher designed materials. The advantages of this in terms of
relevance and suitability for the learners concerned are obvious. Small or
semiformal facilities, perhaps without the benefit of an institutional budget, may
rely entirely on teacher-designed materials. The following suggestions should
help you to design independent learning materials suitable for your own course
and learners; they also point out some of the benefits, for you, of doing this.
1 Decide which elements of the course your learners may be able to study
on their own. For example, it is often helpful to use self-access materials to
revise ideas with which your learners are already partially familiar. Those
learners who are already up to speed can work through the materials
quickly, while those who need to develop their skills or knowledge can work
through the same materials in greater depth, and at their own pace, so that
they gain the level of competence that you wish to use as a starting point.
2 Look at what you’ve already got before starting to write self-access
materials. You will already have valuable resources that you use in face-to-
face settings, including your own lesson plans, tasks and assignments that
you set learners, handout materials, extracts from other source materials, and
so on. You may be able to use such existing resources as a good starting
point, building up self-access materials around them.
3 Don’t forget your most valuable assets! These include your own
knowledge of the target language, your knowledge of your learners, and
your ability to respond to the most common problems that learners like
yours experience. All of these are necessary starting points towards
designing effective self-access materials.56 IMPLEMENTING SELF-ACCESS