Curriculum Development in Language Teaching

Curriculum Development in Language Teaching

Presenter: Lyster Ramos

Objectives:

1. distinguish between curriculum and syllabus;
2. identify the 7 types of curricula;
3. compare the curriculum approaches in language teaching;
4. describe the different elements of Jack C. Richards’ theory-based model of curriculum development;
5. design a syllabus that reflects the elements of JC Richard's curriculum development model.

Questions to answer:

1. What is a curriculum?
2. What is a syllabus?
3. What are the 7 types of curricula?
4. What are the different curriculum approaches in Language teaching?
5. What are the elements of curriculum development?

What is a Curriculum?

What is a Syllabus?

7 Types of Curricula:

Glatthorn (2000)

1. Recommended curriculum

5. Learned curriculum

6. Assessed curriculum

2. Written curriculum

3. Taught curriculum

7. Hidden/Implicit curriculum

4. Supported curriculum

Curriculum Approaches in Language Teaching

Curriculum Approaches in Language Teaching

Step 7: determination of what to evaluate and of the ways of doing it

Step 6: organization of learning experiences

Step 5: selection of learning experiences

Step 4: organization of content

Step 3: selection of content

Steps in the Backward Design Process

Step 2: formulation of objectives

Step 1: diagnosis of needs

Elements of Curriculum Development

3. What gift have you received from the Holy Spirit? How is this gift being put to good use?

SOURCES

Anderson, L. and Krathwohl, D. Eds. (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. Bloom, B. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals. Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Company.

Elements of Curriculum Development

Sample - LCD Process

Step 1. Needs analysis

Student: Kazuto (Kaz) Nationality: Japanese Gender: Male Age: 40

Kaz is a Nanotechnology Engineer who wants to pursue a Master’s degree in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology either at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, which ranks #1 in the list of Best Universities for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and #33 in Best Global Universities, or Stanford University, which ranks #5 globally. He needs to take the IELTS (Academic module) as a requirement for entry to these universities, and he needs an Overall Band Score (OBS) of 7.0. He already took the IELTS once, and got the following scores in each of the four components of the test:

Listening – 7.0 Reading – 6.0 Writing – 5.5 Speaking – 6.0 OBS – 6.0 CEFR level – B2

Kaz enrolled at your ESL school because he needs to improve his English communication skills, especially writing, before he takes the IELTS again. He will be staying for one month only. Your Supervisor has tasked you to design a syllabus (course plan) for an IELTS Academic Writing course for Kaz good for one month.

IELTS 9-Band Scale

Step 2. Situation analysis

Before you design the syllabus, you want to know why Kaz got a very low score in Writing. You decided to give him a Writing mock test, and you found out these problems:Task 1: (TA) there is no clear overview, writing is underlength; (CC) paragraphing is not well-managed, (LR) use of lexis is superfluous or inappropriate, (GRA) grammar errors are evident; Task 2: (TR) tangential, because he followed the traditional Japanese way of writing using the ki-shoo-ten-ketsu format; for CC, LR and GRA - same as Task 1.

Academic Writing - Task 1

The pictures below show how tomato ketchup is made. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features

Task 1 Response

The procedure of tomato ketchup is presented on the illustration below. Ostensibly, it is apparent that there are several steps on making tomato ketchup and enjoying it. Before making ketchup, tomatoes are picked and placed into basket for further sorting process which divides good ones from bad ones. After that, when tomatoes are sent to factory, its skin would be peeled then stalk and seeds would be removed from fruit itself. Then the ready-to-cooked tomatoes would be tossed into one large container and go through several essential steps, which includes crushing, adding ingredients like sugar, vinegar and salt, boiling, and cooling down for two hours, until they become ketchup. Lastly, after being labelled and passing quality checks, the product would be packed into boxes and delivered to supermarkets, waiting for customers to make final purchase and enjoy with burgers and fries. (141 words)

ki-shoo-ten-ketsu

ki

shoo

ten

ketsu

1. INTRODUCTION

2. DEVELOPMENT

3. DENOUEMENT

4. CONCLUSION

Academic Writing - Task 2

Money is a very important resource that all people in the world need to use on a daily basis. However, some countries have adopted a cashless system (i.e. payments are made through bank transfers, mobile phone transfers, and the use of debit and credit cards). To what extent is this a positive or a negative development?

Task 2 - Response

In today’s ultra-modernized and technology advanced globalized world, cashless system seem to be already adapted as part of our daily routine. However there are still countries that stick on the actual money. In the following essay, I shall discuss why this is both positive and negative trend. (1) As someone who have been living in a nearly cashless society for more than ten years, I would say this change did bring the society some convenience and improvement such as the decreasing stealing cases and easier shopping experience. When people were still using cash, you would notice that the number of thieves would noticeably increasing when it comes to holiday or the start of a new semester for students. Because it would be the time that people carry large amount of money with them, once the thieves success for one time, it might be already enough for one month living expenses. I would say online shopping only started to get popular in my country Japan after a large scale of people had accepted mobile transfers as a safe way of regular payment. Comparing with the limited area that you could shop in, online payment offered more options to people from shops all over the country or even abroad because you do not have to go to store and give them the money before they would send you the items. (2) However, despite the so much convenience that cashless payment could provide us, there are

still cons. Being unfriendly to elderly people can be a rather strong weakness of it. Before you could access to any kinds of cashless payment, no matter if it is through mobile or bank transfer or credit cards, there would be a complicated process you have to go through to ensure the safety of your account. Without the assistance of young generation, it could be a really tough experience for the elderlies to learn. Take my grandma and aunt as an example, my grandma were never not able to learn anything about the cashless payment even it was five years already it faced out the society before she actually passed away while my aunt, an 50 years old woman, also had to spend several hours to learn about mobile payment with my instruction aside and still could not be called “master” of it after using it for so long. Thus, there are pros and cons for this development of being cashless in our daily life, pros like the lessen criminal cases and developed online shopping system and the disadvantage like being not so easy to be used by people in an older age. Generally the pros weight more than cons so I still partially agree that it is a sign of improvement of the society. (458 words)

Task Response

Step 3. Planning goals and learning outcomes

Course outcome: Student gets a band score of 7.0 in the IELTS Writing test

Course aim: The student will learn to write effectively in English in order to get a band score of 7.0 in the IELTS Academic Writing test.

Course objectives: The student will be able to: 1. identify the six different types of tasks in IELTS Academic Writing Task 1; 2. differentiate the six types of Task 2 topics; 3. construct effective introductions for Task 1 and Task 2; 4. write clear overviews for each of the six types of tasks in Task 1; 5. structure Task 2 argumentative essays in the correct way; 6. accept the fact that the ki-shoo-ten-ketsu is not the appropriate format to use in writing IELTS Task 2 essays.

Step 4. Course planning and syllabus design

Step 5. Selecting and preparing teaching materials

Step 6. Providing for effective teaching

The institution

The organizational structure

Quality indicators in an institution

• SIZE AND STAFF STRUCTURE
• EQUIPMENT
• SUPPORT STAFF
• TEACHER WORK SPACE
• TEACHER RESOURCE ROOM
• TEACHING FACILITIES
• CLASS SIZE

• A SENSE OF MISSION
• A STRATEGIC PLAN
• QUALITY ASSURANCE MECHANISMS
• A SOUND CURRICULUM
• FLEXIBLE ORGANIZATIONAL FRAMEWORK
• GOOD INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS
• PROFESSIONAL TREATMENT OF TEACHERS
• OPPORTUNITIES FOR TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

The teachers

Skills and qualifications

Support for teachers

• MENTORS
• FEEDBACK
• REWARDS
• HELP LINES
• REVIEW

• ORIENTATION
• ADEQUATE MATERIALS
• COURSE GUIDES
• DIVISION OF RESPONSIBILITIES
• FURTHER TRAINING
• TEACHING RELEASE

The teaching process

Teaching model and principles

Maintaining good teaching

• MONITORING
• OBSERVATION
• COURSE GUIDES
• IDENTIFICATION AND RESOLUTION OF PROBLEMS
• SHARED PLANNING
• DOCUMENTATION AND SHARING OF GOOD PRACTICES
• SELF-STUDY OF THE PROGRAM

The teaching process

Evaluating teaching

• to rewars teachers for good performance
• to help identify needs for further training
• to reinforce the need for continuous staff development
• to help improve teaching
• to provide a basis for contract renewal and promotion
• to demonstrate an interest in teachers' performance and development

The learning process

Understanding of the course

Views of learning

Learning styles

Motivation

Support

Step 7. Evaluation

Evaluation may focus on many different aspects of a language program:

• curriculum design
• the syllabus and program content
• classroom processes
• materials of instruction
• the teachers
• teacher training
• the students
• monitoring of learners' progress
• learner motivation
• the institution
• learning environment
• staff development
• decision making

(Sanders 1992; Weir and Roberts 1994)