I mostly work with intermediate to advanced learners in ESP contexts so the principle that guides my materials design is 'relevance'. I suppose in a way it's a combination of authenticity and contextualisation which Tomlinson has at the beginning of his list. My learners are quite vocal in their feedback and have the ability to critique materials in an astonishingly incisive way. When they see a task, activity or handout, there needs to be some face value and connections to work situations where they'll use this language/skill need to be obvious, or they'll tell me quite bluntly that I'm wasting their time :-)
I also like principle 5 from Tomlinson's list and I find myself often designing tasks that get learners to notice language and discover patterns of use for themselves. Besides these, I also try to incorporate as many open-ended tasks as possible to cater to my mixed ability classes and ensure that more advanced learners are adequately challenged.
I like the directness of your students Adi! And I think that's crucial in ESP for negotiating needs and the kinds of tasks that are as close as possible to a simulation of their authentic practice. In fact, one step better is to use their real language use in work, if you can get access, and use that as materials.
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