ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the phenomenon that writers of language-teaching materials—;;particularly coursebooks—;;regularly ignore evidence provided by relevant research and base their composition rather on a combination of intuition, creativity, professional experience-based judgement, and market demands. It suggests that the use of insights from the research can contribute to the effectiveness of materials design, and that it is to be regretted that this in fact happens so little. The chapter also suggests that the implementation in English language teaching materials of insights that clearly contribute to more effective learning and teaching is likely to make materials more attractive to teachers who are likely to be the main buyers. Materials writers by the nature of their occupation are likely to have a good command of English, and they should have less difficulty coping with the academic language used in research studies.
