Assistant Professor, Department of English Language, Teaching of Gauhati University, Assam, India.
Online published on 11 October, 2017.
Relevant materials can assist in achieving the objectives for which a course was designed. Creating relevant materials, however, is not easy. It becomes more challenging when we want to take into account the purposes for which a group of students needs English.
This paper shares the experience of the writer in designing an English language course for technical students in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, India. After the first phase of classes, it was felt that the students were not motivated to attend the classes.
The technical students have their own set of needs as regards their field of work or study. Therefore, the materials had to be revised for the second phase of classes. Before the phase one classes began, a needs analysis was carried out and the different areas of language that were required by the students were included in the materials. However, it was realized that just including the relevant structures and functions is not sufficient. They had to be presented in such a manner that the students felt that they were relevant to their needs.
The paper will demonstrate how the English language teaching materials were revised and made more relevant to the needs of the students. It is believed that the writer's experience will assist in showing the importance of carrying out needs-based material designing.
