Language Curriculum Design

Language Curriculum Design

1. There is a wide range offactors to consider when designing a course.

   • Parts of the Curriculum Design Process
     • The result of environment analysis is a ranked list of factorsand a consideration of the effects of these factors on the design.
     • These include the learners’present knowledge and lacks, the resources available including time, theskill of the teachers, the curriculum designer’s strengths and limitations, andprinciples of teaching and learning.
       • Considering the Environment
         • Environment analysis involves considering the factors of the situation inwhich the course will be used and determining how the course should takeaccount of them.
           • Choose three factors which will have the strongest effect on thedesign of your course.
             • Rank these three from the factor which will mostdetermine what you should do to the one which has the least influenceof the three.
           • The importance of environment analysis is that it makes sure that the coursewill really be suitable, practical and realistic.
             • Discovering Needs
               • These are discovered by a variety of means: by testing, by questioning and interviewing, by recalling previous performance,by consulting employers, teachers and others involved, by collecting data such as textbooks and manuals that the learners will have to read and analys-ing them, and by investigating the situations where the learners will need to use the language.
                 • Ways of doing needs analysis can be evaluated by the samegeneral criteria used to evaluate tests – reliability, validity and practicality.
                 • Following Principles
                   • The principles derived from this research include principles on the importance of repetition and thoughtful processing of material, on the importance of taking account of indi-vidual differences and learning style, and on learner attitudes and motivation.
                     • It is very important that curriculum design makes the connection between the research and theory of language learning and the practice of designing Language Curriculum Design: An Overview 5 lessons and courses
                       • There is a tendency for this connection not to be made,with the result that curriculum design and therefore learners do not benefitfrom developments in knowledge gained from research
                     • Goals
                       • Goals can be expressed in general terms and be given more detail when considering the content of the course.
                         • Examples:
                           • The aim of communicative teaching is to encourage students to exploitall the elements of the language that they know in order to make theirmeanings clear
                             • develop students’ receptive skills beyond those of their productive skills.
                               • contribute to the students’ personal, social and educational development.
                                 • expand the range of topics they can discuss and comprehend in English
                         • Content and Sequencing
                           • The content of language courses consists of the language items, ideas, skills and strategies that meet the goals of the course
                             • If there is no check being made, it may happen that learners are not meeting items that are important for their later use of the language
                               • Finding a Format and Presenting Materia
                                 • There are several advantages to having a set format for lessons.
                                   • Firstly, the lessons are easier to make because each one does not have to be plannedseparately.
                                     • It also makes the course easier to monitor, to check if all thatshould be included is there and that accepted principles are being followed.
                                       • Finally, it makes the lessons easier to learn from because the learners can predict what will occur and are soon familiar with the learning procedures required by different parts of the lesson
                                   • Because curriculum design is not a linear process, it may be necessary toalter the content or sequencing to suit the lesson format and to reorder theLanguage Curriculum Design: An Overview 9 list of environmental factors.
                                     • Monitoring and Assessing
                                       • An important recurring part of the design process is to assess how welthese aims are achieved.
                                         • Assessing generally involves the use of tests. An important distinction in testing is between proficiency tests which measure what a learner knows of the language, and achievement tests which measure what has been learned from a particular course.
                                           • Achievement tests are closely related to a course and the items in the tests are based on the content of the course and the learning goals of the course.
                                             • Short-term achievement tests are tests that occur at the end of each lesson or at the end of a group of lessons.
                                               • They provide the teacher and learners with information about how much has been learned.
                                                 • But testing is only one way of gaining information about the progress of learners and the effectiveness of the course.
                                             • Evaluating a Course
                                               • Basically, evaluation tries to answer the question “Is this a good course?”
                                                 • The range of meanings that can be attached to “good” determines the range of sources of information for carrying out an evaluation.
                                                   • An evaluation of a course can have many purposes, the main ones being to continue or discontinue the course, or to bring about improvements in the course.
   • the situation and learners for which itis used, and may be ineffective and inefficient as a means of encouraginglearning.