Localisation of Materials
The process of adjusting globally produced ELT materials to fit a specific national, regional, or institutional context — by reworking cultural references, names, places, examples, exam alignments, and pedagogic conventions while keeping the core syllabus intact. Localisation occupies a middle ground between off-the-shelf adoption of a global coursebook and full in-house course design.
What gets localised
Surface localisation changes proper nouns, prices, place names, photographs, and culturally embedded examples (a London supermarket scene swapped for one set in Hanoi, a euro price list converted to dong). Deeper localisation changes pedagogic assumptions: the role assigned to memorisation, the proportion of accuracy versus fluency work, the place of the L1 in instruction, and the alignment to local examinations such as VSTEP, HSK, or the gaokao. Some adaptations also reintroduce content filtered out under PARSNIP guidelines if the local market tolerates it.
Modes of localisation
Three patterns recur. Publisher-led localisation produces region-specific editions of a global coursebook: the same series rebadged with local examples and an exam mapping. Institution-led localisation has teachers or coordinators adapt a global book in-house, supplementing with local readings and reordering units. Teacher-led localisation happens lesson by lesson, often invisibly, as individual teachers swap exercises or replace texts on the fly.
The global coursebook critique
John Gray's The Construction of English (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) argues that global coursebooks construct a cosmopolitan, consumer-oriented English-speaking world that erases local concerns. Localisation can be read as a corrective — restoring local voice and context — or as a cosmetic operation that leaves the underlying ideology intact. Karen Risager's work on language-and-culture pedagogy makes the related point that learners need exposure to multiple cultural framings, not a single localised one.
Practical limits
Heavy localisation undercuts the economy-of-scale logic that makes global coursebooks affordable in the first place. Most institutions accept a partial fit and supplement with locally produced materials filed in a Materials Bank. Where the gap is too wide, full local authoring (sometimes by ministry-sponsored teams) replaces the global book entirely.
References
- Gray, J. (2010). The Construction of English: Culture, Consumerism and Promotion in the ELT Global Coursebook. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Risager, K. (2007). Language and Culture Pedagogy: From a National to a Transnational Paradigm. Multilingual Matters.
- Tomlinson, B., & Masuhara, H. (2018). The Complete Guide to the Theory and Practice of Materials Development for Language Learning. Wiley.