The current challenges for languages in higher education may be summarised as: global and local socio-political changes; diversity of learners with different life-long and life-wide needs and wants; demands for effectiveness, accountability, and employability of our language provision; different modes of delivery at different times and forms; and digital and non-digital delivery and quality assurance. Depending on the individual learners, learning and teaching contexts and modes of delivery, teaching materials and approaches will be different. When we conduct a systematic evaluation of available commercial materials, regardless of their trendy disguises, they tend to be reincarnated clones of popular coursebooks based on traditional syllabuses that assume face-to-face classroom delivery. These materials may come with additional digital materials but they seem to focus on the mechanical aspects of language (e.g. quizzes of discrete item knowledge). How can we ensure the quality and effectiveness of our provision as well as satisfy the diverse learner needs and wants when using different modes of delivery? Whatever approaches we decide to take, the answer paradoxically emerges from our wisdom and efforts in the adaptation and development of materials based on fundamental and universal learning principles that reflect current understanding in second language acquisition. [For the complete volume, "Innovative Language Teaching and Learning at University: A Look at New Trends," see ED594807.]