Abstract:

Attractive modern textbooks are expected to reflect the current trends in ELT methodology, in particular the learner-centered approach. The market of English language teaching materials offers textbooks and coursebook packages covering many different aspects of language learning and language use. They range from comprehensive general courses to specialised series . But written to be relevant to as large a number of students as possible, which also means as wide a range of teaching-learning contexts as possible, they cannot perfectly match the needs of particular individuals. As B.Tomlinson (2003:4) notes teaching materials are sometimes ‘insufficiently relevant and appealing to the actual learners who use them’. Thirty years ago ESP books concentrated on teaching language correctness and vocabulary, twenty years ago they concentrated on communication skills, particularly on oral communication skills. In today’s working environment language skills, communication skills and business-related skills have become to be perceived as the requisites that are equally important to university education and qualifications. Linguistic competence needs to be combined with sociolinguistic competence and with pragmatic competence. To cater for the needs of particular students the teacher may want to make the teaching material more content–led. As Cunningsworth argues (1984) ‘ it is the responsibility of the teacher to explore his own way of using or adapting the coursebook.’ Finding new possibilities can enrich the original material and make it more suitable for students with different language skills and personal experience.
The aim of the presentation is to show how the same ready- made material can be used to develop various skills and sub-skills of the learners.

Keywords:

Teaching materials, adaptation, learners' needs.