The document discusses different aspects of language curriculum design including definitions of curriculum, syllabus, methodology, and methods. It describes common types of language syllabuses such as structural, situational, and functional-notional. It also outlines different curriculum ideologies like academic rationalism, social efficiency, learner-centeredness, and social reconstructionism. The document provides guidelines for general curriculum planning, decisions in curriculum construction, and key features of curriculum development.
The document discusses different aspects of language curriculum design including definitions of curriculum, syllabus, methodology, and methods. It describes common types of language syllabuses such as structural, situational, and functional-notional. It also outlines different curriculum ideologies like academic rationalism, social efficiency, learner-centeredness, and social reconstructionism. The document provides guidelines for general curriculum planning, decisions in curriculum construction, and key features of curriculum development.
The document discusses different aspects of language curriculum design including definitions of curriculum, syllabus, methodology, and methods. It describes common types of language syllabuses such as structural, situational, and functional-notional. It also outlines different curriculum ideologies like academic rationalism, social efficiency, learner-centeredness, and social reconstructionism. The document provides guidelines for general curriculum planning, decisions in curriculum construction, and key features of curriculum development.
The document discusses different aspects of language curriculum design including definitions of curriculum, syllabus, methodology, and methods. It describes common types of language syllabuses such as structural, situational, and functional-notional. It also outlines different curriculum ideologies like academic rationalism, social efficiency, learner-centeredness, and social reconstructionism. The document provides guidelines for general curriculum planning, decisions in curriculum construction, and key features of curriculum development.
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Language curriculum
1. 1. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE CURRICULUM AND SYLLABUS Jovy D. Elimanao – Mihm,
MAEd Language Curriculum for Secondary Schools 2. 2. MATCHING TERMS TO DEFINITIONS Terms Definitions 1. Curriculum A general statement of goals, outcomes, learning arrangements, evaluation and documentation relating to management of programs within an educational institution 2. Syllabus An explicit and coherent plan for a course of study. It is a guide or map for the teacher and the learners which may be need to be altered once the course commences. It is constructed by selecting and sequencing content, based on explicit objectives. It is a public document, usually prepared by teachers and negotiated with learners. It specifies what to be taught in any particular course of study. 3. 3. MATCHING TERMS TO DEFINITIONS Terms Definitions 3. Course Design Is a process undertaken by the teacher to plan through a syllabus and to implement through methodology a particular course of study. 4. Methodology Underlying approach which influences how learners work with syllabus content in the classroom. It is how the teacher makes the syllabus real in the classroom. It refers to a set of activities in which learners are involved and why each activity is being undertaken e.g. communicative approach/genre approach 5. Method Refers to actual classroom practice and procedures. These include classroom management techniques for pacing the delivery of content as well as activities such as information gap activities, pair work, dictogloss etc 4. 4. The Language Curriculum Fig 1: A model of the parts of the curriculum design process ( Nation & Macalister 2010) curriculum syllabus 5. 5. The Language Curriculum curriculum syllabus methodology 6. 6. The Language Syllabus A syllabus provides a focus for what should be studied, along with a rationale for how that content should be selected and ordered. 7. 7. The Language Syllabus In the history of language teaching, many types of language syllabuses have been developed. Currently the literature reflects three major types of syllabuses: structural, situational, and notional. 8. 8. The Structural Language Syllabus • dominated in language teaching • Otherwise known as the grammatical syllabus • generally consisted of two components: • a list of linguistic structures (the 'grammar' to be taught) • and a list of words (the lexicon to be taught) 9. 9. The Situational Language Syllabus • is closely related to the topical syllabus • the use of dialogues is very common as these form the basis of communication within a specific situation • aimed at meaningful conversational interchange in specific contexts 10. 10. The Functional - Notional Language Syllabus • Functional- Notional approach focuses on the purposes for which language is used. It emphasizes communicative purposes of a speech act. • It underlines what people want to do or what they want to accomplish. • helps learners to use real and appropriate language for communication. 11. 11. Syllabus and Syllabus Design • A syllabus is the specifications of the content of a course of instruction and list what will be taught and tested. • Syllabus design is the process of developing a syllabus. • Syllabus design is one aspect of curriculum development. 12. 12. The Ideology of the Curriculum 13. 13. The Ideology of the Curriculum • Developing goals for educational programs need the understanding of both present and long-term needs of learners and the society as well as the planners’ beliefs and values about school, learners, and teachers. • These values are referred to as curriculum ideologies, and represent the philosophical underpinnings for educational programs and the justification for the kinds of aim they contain. 14. 14. The Curriculum Ideologies (Perspectives) 15. 15. Academic (Scholar) Rationalism The aims of the curriculum is justified by stressing the intrinsic value of the subject matter and its role in developing • The learner’s intellect • Humanistic values • Rationality 16. 16. Academic (Scholar) Rationalism • The content matter of different subjects is viewed as the basis for curriculum. • Mastery of content is an end in itself rather than a means to solving social problems or providing efficient means to achieve the goals of the policy makers. 17. 17. Academic (Scholar) Rationalism • The purpose of education is to help children learn the accumulated knowledge of our culture: that of the academic disciplines. • An academic discipline is viewed as a hierarchical community of people in search of truth within one part of the universe of knowledge. 18. 18. Social and Economic Efficiency This educational philosophy emphasizes • the practical needs of learners and society • the role of an educational program in producing learners who are economically productive • Franklin Bobbit (1918) one of the founders of curriculum theory, advocated this view. 19. 19. Social and Economic Efficiency • Curriculum development is seen as based on scientific principles, its practitioners were “educational engineers” whose job was to discover the total range of habits, skills, abilities, forms of thoughts, etc that its members need for the effective performance of their vocational labors. • In language teaching, this philosophy leads to an emphasis on practical and functional skills in a foreign or second language 20. 20. Learner Centeredness In language teaching, this educational philosophy is leading to • an emphasis on process rather than product • focus on learner differences, learner strategies and on learner self-direction and autonomy 21. 21. Social Reconstructionism This curriculum perspective emphasizes the roles schools and learners can and should play in addressing social injustices and inequality. Morris (1995) observes: “The curriculum derived from this perspective focuses on developing knowledge, skills, and attitudes which would create a world where people care about each other, the environment, and the distribution of wealth.” … 22. 22. Social Reconstructionism … “Tolerance, the acceptance of diversity and peace would be encouraged. Social injustices and inequality would be central issues in the curriculum.“ 23. 23. Cultural Pluralism This philosophy argues • that schools should prepare students to participate in several different cultures, and not merely the culture of the dominant social and economic group. • Cultural pluralism seeks to address racism, to raise the self-esteem of minority groups and help children appreciate the viewpoints of other cultures and religions (Phillips and Terry, 1999). 24. 24. General Curriculum Planning 25. 25. General Curriculum Planning Taba’s outline (1962) of the steps which a course designer must work through to develop subject matter courses has become the foundation for many writer’s suggestions. Her list of ‘curriculum processes’ includes the following: • Diagnosis of needs • Formulation of objectives • Selection of content • Organization of content • Selection of learning experiences • Organization of learning experiences • Determination of what to evaluate, and the means to evaluate. 26. 26. Decisions in Curriculum Construction 27. 27. General Curriculum Planning Curriculum development revolves around three major curricular elements (Garcia, 1976): 1. Decisions on what to teach which are educational ends generated at three levels of specificity and immediacy (educational aims, educational objectives, and instructional objectives) to the learner; 2. Decisions on how to teach, concerned with strategies in terms of selecting and organizing learning opportunities, and 3. Decisions concerning the extent to which educational ends are being attained through the strategies or means provided. 28. 28. Key Features of a Curriculum Construction 29. 29. General Curriculum Planning • Learning is planned and guided. What is sought to be achieved and how it is to be achieved should be specified in advance. • The definition refers to schooling. It should be recognized that current appreciation of curriculum theory and practice emerged in the school and in relation to other schooling ideas such as subject and lesson. 30. 30. Four Ways of Approaching Curriculum Theory and Practice 31. 31. Curriculum as a body of knowledge to be transmitted • Curzon (1985) points out, those who compile syllabus tend to follow the traditional textbook approach of an ‘order of contents’, or a patterned by a ‘logical’ approach to the subject, or – consciously or unconsciously –the shape of a university course in which they may have participated. Thus, an approach to curriculum theory and practice which focuses on syllabus is only really concerned with content. 32. 32. Curriculum as a body of knowledge to be transmitted • Curriculum is a body of knowledge-content and/or subjects. Education in this sense is the process by which these are transmitted or ‘’delivered” to students by the most effective methods that can be devised (Blenkin et al 1992). 33. 33. Curriculum as an attempt to achieve certain ends in students – product. • The dominant modes of describing and managing education are today couched in the productive form. Education is most often seen as technical exercise. Objectives are set, a plan drawn up, and then applied, and the outcomes (product) measured. 34. 34. Curriculum as an attempt to achieve certain ends in students – product. • In the late 1980s and the 1990s many of the debates about the National Curriculum for schools and did not so much concern how the curriculum was thought about as to what its objectives and content might be. Curriculum as product model is heavily on the setting of behavioral objectives. 35. 35. Curriculum as process • Another way of looking at curriculum theory and practice is via process. In this sense curriculum is not a physical thing, but rather the interaction of teachers, students and knowledge. In other words, curriculum is what actually happens in the classroom and what people do to prepare and evaluate. 36. 36. Curriculum as praxis • Curriculum as praxis is, in many respects, a development of the process model. While the process model is driven by general principles and places emphasis on judgment and meaning making, it does not make explicit statements about the interests it serves. It may, for example, be used in such a way that does not make continual reference to collective human well-being and to the emancipation of the human spirit. 37. 37. Curriculum as praxis • The praxis model of curriculum theory and practice brings these to the centre of the process and make an explicit commitment to emancipation. Thus action is not simply informed, it is also committed. It is praxis. 38. 38. Curriculum as praxis • In this approach the curriculum itself develops through the dynamic interaction of action and reflection. That is, the curriculum is not simply a set plans to be implemented, but rather is constituted through an active process in which planning, acting, and evaluating are all reciprocally related and integrated into the process (Grundy 1987). At its centre is praxis: informed, committed action. 39. 39. Curriculum as praxis
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