Curriculum Timeline

HOW HAS CURRICULA EVOLVED OVER THE YEARS?

EVOLUTION OF THE CURRICULUM

20th century and earlier

1950s

1940s

1922

Something big is coming....

New types of courses.

Opposing the GM method.

The predominance of the grammar-translation method.

1930's

1950

1920's

Grammar syllabuses

Tyler's proposal

Start of the change in paradigms,

HOW HAS CURRICULA EVOLVED OVER THE YEARS?

EVOLUTION OF THE CURRICULUM

1970s

1960s-1970s

1960s

1939 to 1945.

Competence based language learning

ESP emerges

The golden age of Audiolingualism

Updating teaching methods

1969

1960s-1970s

1972

1950s

CE decisions

Adding communication to the syllabus

From syllabus to curriculum

Situational English

HOW HAS CURRICULA EVOLVED OVER THE YEARS?

EVOLUTION OF THE CURRICULUM

END SO FAR

2024

1980s

1982

References

My conclusions

Creating new guidelines

Expanse of curriculum development

This activity was a way to get an insight on the evolution of how educators and institutions have decided what "the best" way of teaching is. Of course, that is not an easy questions. Curriculum approaches have changed according to the needs of the students and the context that surrounds them, even before learner needs were fully taken into consideration. We as educators can benefit greatly from learning about the different approaches, because they are all useful on their own right. This is why nowadays we are living in a "post-methods era", that leaves behind the search for a perfect method and accepts that good educators are those that have a "full arsenal" of methods they can use, always keeping in mind the teaching context they are in.

The Council of Europe start to celebrate their linguistic diversity. Countries in the continent start considering:

• What foreign language to teach
• How to introduce it to its learners
• How L2 teaching could help them break communication barriers across the countries.

Competence based language learning

becomes popular in adult ESL programs, as another alternative for learners that needed English to work

Link >

WWII

A change in paradigm

With and after WWII, there appeared multiple other reasons for learning English:

• Refugees moving into English-speaking countries.
• Foreign students looking to continue their education in English-speaking countries.
• Growth of media in English
• More international tourism and business

Limitations to grammar-focused syllabuses

Despite its popularity, this general, grammar-centered type of syllabus had some disadvantages and challenges:

• Due to its focus on vocabulary and grammar, other aspects of the languages were ignored.
• Textbooks dictated majorly what would be taught in the courses.
• English was only thought of in regards to its use inside of class, not outside of it.
• All learners were thought of having the same needs.

The audiolingual method

Based on behaviorism, this method prioritised drills and habit creation to achieve an automatization of the target language.

1920's

There is a need for chane in the teaching methods used. Here begins the evolution of syllabus design, important for later curriculum development.

1940s

Beginner language courses start implementing grammar syllabuses, influencing American ESL methodologies and materials. They later inspired UK's and Australia's ESL syllabuses,

EXAMPLES

• Teaching & learning English as a foreign language (Fries, 1946, US)
• The Teaching of Structural Words & Sentence Patterns (Hornby, 1959, UK)

Emergence of a curriculum approach

As needs analysis emerge with ESP, the curriculum approach begins becoming mainstream. Nicholls & Nicholls propose their own 4 stages of curriculum development:

1. Setting of an objective for the course 2. Development of curriculum and trial use 3. Assessment of the performance of the curriculum 4. Feedback and potential further study

Ralph Tyler's curriculum development model

Start of ESL

When general english does not work as well

As frameworks for language teaching programs are evolving, it becomes clear that it is necessary to keep in mind the needs of certain types of English students:

• Foreign students abroad
• People who need business/technical English for work

English for Specific Purposes(ESL) courses are created to take care of those needs. This method also prompt the importance of needs analysis, important for curriculum development.

Situational English

became the popular teaching method at the time in the UK and its colonie, created by applied linguistics looking to adapt to the new learners.

In 1982, the American Council for the teaching of Foreign Languages publishes a series of guideline for organizing curricula based on the proficiency levels of the 4 abilities: listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Link

1930s

Applied linguistics start using grammar selection to design grammatical syllabuses.

A more integral way of teaching

By the 80s, the Ministry of Education of many countries create their own national teaching curriculum, which includes:

• Needs analysis
• Learning outcomes or purposes
• Course organization and topics (the syllabus)
• Materials
• Assessment of outcomes

PALMER, 1922

A set of principles for an oral-based methodology is created to teach "according ro usefulness and necessity". A new type of syllabus is created, taking into account two processes:

• Selection of vocabulary and grammar
• Gradation or "sequencing" of grammar.

References

Richards, J. (2001). Curriculum Development in Language Teaching (Cambridge Language Education). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi-org.bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co/10.1017/CBO9780511667220 Siefert, Thomas Raymond. 2013. Translation in Foreign Language Pedagogy: The Rise and Fall of the Grammar Translation Method. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University

Communicative language approach (CLA)

Differently to the other methods, CLA proposes a notional syllabus (Wilkins, 1976): apart from the semantic-grammatical meaning, two more: a modal meaning (related to certainty), and most importantly, a communicative meaning

PRECEDENT

THE beginnings of language teaching

There are some that say that the grammar-translation method originated in the early 16th century, with the learning of classic languages like Latin or Greek. In his dissertation, Siefert (2013) says that GTM as we know it began in Prussia, in the 18th century. Some characteristics of this methods are: Students learn grammar by translating texts from their target language to their native one. • Students should memorize lists of target vocabulary.• The native tongue of the student is usually used to learn.• The teacher is the source of knowledge and focuses on correcting the student to make sure they have the right answer at the end.