Can Student Voice be used to develop materials for Secondary School ESL students in the Singaporean context?

Abstract

This paper discusses the use of Student Voice (SV) as a mechanism for collecting the opinions of ESL secondary students in the Singaporean context. SV is used as a mechanism to collate opinions and to develop negotiated materials which have aims, themes and activities which resonant with these students. SV methodology is employed to act as bridge between white, Anglo-Saxon, middle-aged instructors and Asian teenagers at a private language institute. SV allows a degree of insight that might be unachievable with other methodologies. The paper seeks to assess the viability of producing negotiated materials design using the student voice methodology and seeks to identify potential limitations to this methodology and future research which might be explored