Challenges of Materials Development for the Tertiary Level EFL Learners in Bangladesh: Materials Developers' Perspectives

Quality of language teaching and efficient learning by the learners are much influenced by effective materials. Materials developers also get perplexed to decide which materials will work more; many prefer to adapt or develop their own materials but doing so requires the developers overcome a number of challenges at different stages of materials development: conducting needs analysis, setting aims and objectives, planning, drafting, pre-use assessment, piloting, production, revision and finalization. This qualitative study aims at describing those challenges in depth. Two focus group discussions with fourteen materials developers from eight private universities were conducted to collect data on materials developers' perspectives on the challenges. The findings show that lack of infrastructure and other facilities, interpersonal conflict among the stakeholders, especially the teachers and materials developers, lack of motivation and learners' poor background knowledge beget a number of challenges. It was found that the challenges can be overcome if the stakeholders are little more considerate towards the materials developers and learners' needs. The findings and recommendations provide a) implications for the administrative heads and other stakeholders and b) some guiding principles for the material developers to overcome the challenges and develop effective materials for their learners.