SOME FACTORS INFLUENCING THE SELECTION
OF ESL DIDACTIC MATERIALS FOR ADULTS
"We are in the midst of a paradigm shift toward an emphasis on language as communication", remarks Sandra McKay (1987, p. 18). One may wonder, however, whether this trend has caught on equally among teachers of adults and teachers of young schoolchildren. Another source of puzzlement is whether English should be taught the same fundamental way whatever the goal of instruction. After all, the terminal objective of the process is the same: competence in English. And English is English. Yet, what kind of competence? Fluency in conversation? Accuracy in technical or literary translation? Capacity to pass examinations about English or capacity to communicate in English? One cannot begin to compare materials to be used in ESL without first setting the goals and the behavioral objectives of the instructional program. Once this is done, one need consider the age of the learners, because there is plenty of evidence to show that age is a significant factor on how and how much one learns. The cultural and life-experiential backgrounds enter into the equation too.
Moreover, shouldn't the literacy level in one's native language also matter? "The idea of literacy as an intellectual activity separate from oral language has been perpetrated by the study of classical language wherein the student was trained to read and to translate a dead language but would never be able to speak that language" (de ValdFs, 1978, p. 176). Clearly though, whatever the link between literacy and oral language, whatever the chronological age of the learner, and whatever the goals and objectives of the curriculum, there is no doubt but that the level of literacy in L1 (transfer or no transfer) affects some aspects of the learner's capability to acquire and learn L2. Furthermore, such literacy background and its related life experiences are highly likely to motivate learners of different ag...