Checklists in Material Selection: Developing Criteria for ESL Learners at University in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Instructional materials are a very significant aspect of the learning-teaching process, and in the field of foreign language learning, it is generally known that students learn well when they are enthusiastically engaged with the material. In order to make the learning process successful for the many stakeholders, a checklist approach has been developed. This provides a set of standards for the selection of instructional materials that ensure greater quality and consistency of the material to be exploited in the classroom. In this study, an attempt is made to design a checklist for selecting course materials for compulsory English as a Second Language course for all first-year undergraduates in a state university in Sri Lanka. This is to pinpoint a sustainable method for developing teaching materials that might be beneficial for many English as a foreign language programmes since checklists are expected to provide material developers with design guidelines on which course materials can be prepared. This study comprised three main phases: the exploration of existing checklists, the design of a tentative checklist based on the comments received via a questionnaire administered to the sample and lastly, a review of the developed checklist by the sample. The participants were intentionally sampled from the most senior members of the staff at the English Language Teaching Unit of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka, with more than fifteen years of experience in teaching English as a foreign language at university. With the expert views of the participants, the tentative checklist was revised. The final verified checklist ensures validity, reliability, and teacher satisfaction for the material selection process and can be used as a professional selection tool when developing instructional materials. The findings report that the top teacher-preferred criteria focused on relevance and authenticity of the content, contextualization of grammar structures, and importantly, accommodating different proficiency levels with comprehensive and communicative tasks. It is concluded that teaching materials immensely contribute to English as a foreign language learners’ progression, to the professional development of material designers, and to the success of English as a foreign language programmes in general.