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3)(xMATERIALS PRODUCTION 233Sample materialsI have Iieen involvcd in a number of materials and curriculum development projects. I willhcrc illustrate four of them and give an example of representative classroom activity fromeach, analysing the activity in terms of the above discussion.A notional-structural approachThe development of the materials which became the “Nucleus: English for Science antlTechnology” series arose out of the demands of the tcaching situation in the early scyentiesat the University of Tahriz in northern Iran. I’rachcrs and students alike Lvcrc unmotivatedby the general knglish textbooks then in use and wanted something more rclevant to theactual purposes to which students were going to put their English.Thc new materials were arrangcd under chapter headings labcllcd with scientific“concepts” such as Measurement, Description antl Process (Bates, 1978; Dudley-Evans etal., 1976), in a similar xvay to a Notional Syllabus (Wilkins, 1976). There is no doubt thatthe materials were very innovative in a numhcr of ways, but it is also clear that the ostensiblynotion-based framelyork for thc syllabus disguised an undcrlying structural approachusing pattern practice and traditional guided writing trchniqucs. The series proved tobe very popular when it was released commercially, and thc syllabus framework waswidely imitated, both in other commercially produced textbooks and, more significantly,in hundreds of indi\idual materials-writing projects in different institutions around thcworld as ESP became the catchword of the late 70s and earl! 80s. Hcrc is a rcprcscntativcexerciseA quadratic cquation has two solutions, called roots. If the factors of’ a quadraticequation can lie found easily, then \vc can find the roots by factorising.Example: 1:aLtorisation ofx’ + 1-1 20 gi\es (A ~+ 4) = 0.The roots of the equation arc therefore 3 antl 4.No\\ make similar rentences about thc follo\z ing:a) x2 + 7x + 10 = 0b) x’- 91r + 18 = 0c) x2 100 =0ti) x2 + 5x 6 = 0(Hall, 1980: 51 52)In tcrms of expected student responsc, it is clcar that thcrc is nothing here beyond theempirical 1evel.The student may bc motivatctl by thc partial relevance of the subject-matter,but thcrc arc no dcmands made on student inventiveness and nothing is contributed by thestudent. All language production is controlled entirely by the textbook, to the extent thatconceptually correct answers that arc not in conformity with the prescriptiveness of thetextbook author are deemed to bc incorrect. In tcrms of the prerequisites forcommunication, this text would only prowke authentic communication if students disagreedon some aspect of the content and the teacher allowcd thc discussion to go beyond thcdcmantls ofthc tcxt.The view of languagr learning is essentially behaviourist that learningtakes place through exposure to language patterns.