Meaning-Focused Materials for Language Learning

This publication is a result of the joint conference held by MATSDA and Fontys University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands, in Tilburg in June 2017. MATSDA is an international materials development association founded in 1993 which serves to bring together researchers, teachers, materials developers and publishers in an effort to improve the effectiveness of language learning materials. The 2017 conference centred on issues related to the development of meaning-focused materials for language learning, and attracted presenters from twenty-five countries stretching from Greenland to Brazil. These issues are reflected in the chapters in this volume, with each one focusing on a different aspect of meaning-focused materials and many of them introducing the reader to previously unexplored facets of the theory of meaning-focused instruction and its application to materials development. The contributions here are of essential value to post-graduate students, to teachers, to materials developers and to researchers. They are written to be academically rigorous, but at the same time accessible to newcomers to the field and to experienced experts alike.