Writing ELT materials

A flexible, supportive course for teachers and writers of English and other modern languages who want to create engaging, effective learning materials.

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Create better materials
with confidence

 
Whether you're writing for your own students or aiming to publish professionally, this course will give you the tools and support to do it well.

You’ll learn the fundamental principles behind effective and engaging language learning materials - and apply them in a way that fits your own context, whether that’s primary, secondary, adults, ESOL, EAP, ESP, Business English, CLIL, or another specialist area.

Past participants have created materials for:

  • One-to-one coaching
  • Teacher training
  • Medical English
  • Academic writing
  • Landscape gardening
  • Learners of French, Spanish, German, Tagalog, and more

Whatever your focus, you’ll be supported to create something relevant and useful.

"The Writing ELT Materials course is the course that I wish had been available when I started my writing career."

Annette Flavel, ELT author

What you'll learn

 
By the end of the course, you’ll be able to:

  • Apply core principles of ELT materials writing to any teaching context
  • Develop clear, engaging tasks for learners
  • Create teacher-friendly notes and supplementary content
  • Evaluate and improve your own materials with confidence
  • Explore opportunities to write professionally

What's included

 

  • 13 modules, each with 3–6 lessons

  • Video presentations, podcast-style conversations, and readings from the course A to Z handbook, as well as further reflection activities.

  • Interactive quizzes and reflection tasks to check your understanding

  • Three major writing assignments, with personalised, editor-style feedback

  • Live Q&A sessions held regularly, to give you the chance to ask questions, meet other course participants or just chat informally about the course or any other related topics.

  • Downloadable templates, checklists, and sample tasks you can reuse

Suggested duration: 3 months
Access to all materials: 1 full year

Who it's for

 

  • Teachers and writers of English and other languages who want to write better materials for their own learners

  • New and aspiring ELT writers

  • Experienced teachers exploring publishing opportunities

  • Anyone who enjoys designing learning activities and wants to improve

No matter your background or teaching context, this course is designed to support your goals.

What previous course participants are saying

"This course has helped me upgrade the quality of my materials, make them clearer, more varied and learner-oriented. Totally recommendable!"

Coni Barbariol, Argentina

"This course comes highly recommended to anyone who’s interested in the world of ELT materials writing."

Pieter van Duijvenbooden

"The Writing ELT Materials course is the course that I wish had been available when I started my writing career."

Annette Flavel, ELT author 

"I am so grateful to both you and John for running the WEM course and I’m so fortunate that I came across the website where you promote it. I learnt a lot from your feedback."

Hédi Ilyés

"I normally write materials for my own students, but Kath and John gave me the strategies and inspiration that I needed to start writing for a wider audience.

The assignments were an opportunity to develop a creative teaching idea into a publishable set of materials."

Lauren Hamilton SĂĄez

"The course was excellent. John and Kath provided us with very useful insights into materials writing. The live sessions are engaging and the tutors provide participants with detailed feedback on their assignments."

Jennifer J. Lowe

Meet the trainers

John Hughes and Kath Bilsborough joined forces in 2022. Before then, they were both running courses and giving workshops for teachers with a focus on materials writing. They realised that by working together, they could combine their experience and provide a much more dynamic and well-rounded learning experience.

With complementary skills and shared values, John and Kath have co-designed a new course that offers practical, hands-on support while helping participants build confidence in their craft.

John Hughes speaking at a laptop, wearing glasses and a navy blazer, mid-presentation with expressive hand gestures.

John Hughes


John is a published ELT author with well over 50 titles. As an author, his main course series include ‘Life’, ‘World English’ and ‘World Link’ for National Geographic Learning. He is also a lead author on the ‘Business Result’ series for Oxford University Press. Increasingly, he’s working in newer areas such as online course design and video production.

John is also the orginator and series editor of the ‘ETpedia’ resource series for teachers (published by Pavilion ELT and an ELTons finalist). The series includes his book ‘ETpedia Materials Writing’ and the award-winning ‘ETpedia Business English’.

As a teacher trainer, John has worked with teachers from all over the world and given plenaries at numerous international conferences. He’s also lectured in materials writing and critical thinking on courses with Oxford University.

Kath Bilsborough smiling and gesturing with both hands while wearing red headphones and a red cardigan, seated at a laptop during an online session.

Kath Bilsborough


Kath is an ELT author of many print and digital courses. She is most known for her primary titles, including ‘Ace!’, ‘Oxford Rooftops’, ‘Big Questions’ and ‘Bright Ideas’ for Oxford University Press, and ‘Look!’ and ‘Imagine’ for National Geographic Learning.

Kath has also published courses for teenagers and for bilingual education (Science and Art), as well as a range of vocational titles such as ‘English for taxi drivers’ and ‘English for Oil and Gas’.

Besides coursebooks and digital courses, Kath writes free-access materials and lesson plans for the British Council and several ELT publishers.

As a teacher educator, Kath has worked face to face and online with teachers around the globe, focusing on developing all kinds of materials from low-resource printed worksheets to highly polished video animation.

Start improving your materials now  

Course Price

ÂŁ495

What you get:

  • Full access to all course content for one full year

  • Expert feedback on three writing assignments

  • Support via email and live sessions

  • Certificate and digital badge on completion

"This course has helped me upgrade the quality of my materials, make them clearer, more varied and learner-oriented. Totally recommendable!"
— Coni Barbariol, Argentina

Register now

FAQs

 

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