The Elements of Language Curriculum

The Elements of Language Curriculum

1. Overview of Curriculum

   • Method
     • has tended to claim for itself authority concerning what students need to learn, how to presentor practice language.
   • Approach
     • A theory of the Nature Language and the Nature of Learning Language.
   • Technique
     • It is a particular trick, stratagem, or contrivance used to accomplish an immediate objective.

2. Needs Analysis

   • is often viewed simply as identification of the language forms that the students will likely need to use in the target language when they are required to actually understand and produce the language.

3. Goals and Objectives

   • Goals are general statements about what must be accomplishe in order to attain and satisfy students' needs.
   • Objectives are precise statements about what content os skills the students must master in order to attain a particular goal.

4. Language Testing

   • Norm- referenced tests
     • intended to compare the relative performace of students to each other
   • Criterion- referenced tests
     • intended to measure the amount of course material that each student has learned

5. Materials Development

   • It is relatively easy to adopt, develop, or adapt materials for a program that is well defined in terms of needs analyses, objectives, and tests

6. Language Teaching

   • The teachers and students should be aware of what the objectives for a given course are and how the testing will be conducted at the end of the course.