Writing ELT Materials: Receptive Skills

Develop your ELT materials writing skills at IH Madrid

Writing ELT Materials: Receptive Skills is a practical teacher development course from IH Madrid, designed for English language teachers who want to create engaging, learner-centred reading and listening materials.

Whether you write classroom resources from scratch or use AI to support your lesson planning, this hands-on mini course will help you design materials that are effective, motivating and ready to use in your English language classes.

Through four interactive sessions, you’ll explore the principles of successful ELT materials writing before putting them into practice in collaborative workshops. You’ll create your own materials, experiment with new techniques and receive constructive feedback from both your trainer and fellow participants.

Learn from an award-winning ELT materials writer

The course is taught by Ethan, an experienced ELT teacher trainer and materials writer. He has authored courses for Macmillan Education, including Elements and the Ready for exam preparation series.

His resource book Activities for Mediation (DELTA Publishing) received the British Council ELTons Award for Innovation in Teacher Resources in 2022, recognising its contribution to English language teaching worldwide.

Who is this course for?

This course is ideal for:

• English language teachers who create or adapt their own classroom materials.
• Teachers looking to improve their reading and listening activities.
• Teachers interested in adapting authentic texts and audio for classroom use.
• Teachers exploring how AI can support the materials writing process.
• Teachers seeking practical Continuing Professional Development (CPD) with ideas they can apply immediately.

What will you learn?

By taking this course, you will learn how to:

• Apply the principles of effective ELT materials writing.
• Select and adapt authentic reading texts and listening materials.
• Design motivating activities that develop learners’ receptive skills.
• Understand how spoken and written language influence materials design.
• Create meaningful follow-up tasks that extend learning beyond comprehension.
• Improve your materials through reflection, discussion and peer feedback.
• Build confidence in writing and adapting classroom materials for different learner needs.

Why choose IH Madrid?

IH Madrid has over 40 years of experience in language teacher education and is internationally recognised for its CELTA, DELTA and continuing professional development programmes. This course reflects our practical approach to teacher training, combining expert guidance with collaborative learning and classroom-focused techniques that you can immediately apply in your own teaching.

Course outcomes

At the end of the course, you will leave with:

• A solid understanding of effective reading and listening materials design.
• Practical techniques for creating engaging classroom resources.
• Greater confidence adapting authentic materials for English language learners.
• A collection of materials you have developed and refined during the course.
• Actionable feedback from an experienced ELT materials writer and your fellow participants.