Hi all,

Sorry to arrive at this table so late but I'm very pleased I found it. I'm grateful to all those posting for a fascinating read. In response to Gavin's query, yes, there are some publishers reading - albeit late! I've worked in ELT publishing for over 30 years, in-house and freelance, and what continues to excite me about the industry is its engagement with teachers, students and ideas about language.

I agree with Peter and Scott that there needs to be much more debate about syllabus as the starting point for materials creation. Up until now we have had teaching syllabi (largely of course grammar-based) rather than learning ones. How would one begin to design a learning syllabus? Well a possible starting point is to use acquisition research to see what people of a particular L1 group find easiest to learn in English. Then the course could progressively present more difficult or unfamiliar language.