Discipline Studies of FL curriculum and materials development

Discipline: Studies of FL curriculum and materials development (Основы изучения учебных программ и разработка материалов)

Lecture 1 & 2 Introduction into the discipline. Curriculum design. Syllabus design.

Effective teaching depends on effective planning and design. Many problems that can occur once a course is in motion can be prevented by advance preparation and planning for your students’ learning. So, we should take into consideration the following components of the teaching process: • • Aim and objectives Type of the programme (name, time, etc. ) Students: age, level, abilities, learning experience, motivation, etc. Methods and approaches Content of the course (coursebook and other teaching materials) Assessment Given Syllabus/ Syllabus design Given Curriculum/ Curriculum design

Definition of “curriculum” The term “curriculum” is used to refer to the overall plan or design for a course. Curriculum comes from the Latin word which means a race or the course of a race (which in turn derives from the verb "currere" meaning to run/to proceed). The content for a course is transformed into a blueprint (detailed plan) for teaching and learning which enables the desired learning outcomes to be achieved.

John Kelly defines curriculum as, ‘All the learning which is planned and guided by the school, whether it is carried on in groups or individually, inside or outside the school. (Kelly 1983: 10; Kelly 1999).

Curriculum: • is more than a list of topics and lists of key facts and skills (the “input”). • It is a map of how to achieve the “outputs” of desired student performance, in which appropriate learning activities and assessments are suggested to make it more likely that students achieve the desired results (Wiggins and Mc. Tighe, 2006: 6)

Curriculum takes content (from external standards and local goals) and shapes it into a plan for how to conduct effective teaching and learning. It is thus more than a list of topics and lists of key facts and skills (the “input”). It is a map of how to achieve the “outputs” of desired student performance, in which appropriate learning activities and assessments are suggested to make it more likely that students achieve the desired results (Wiggins and Mc. Tighe, 2006: 6)

Curriculum development in language teaching can start from input, process or output. Dimensions of a curriculum Input Process Output Syllabus Methodology Learning outcomes

Input It seems logical to assume that before we can teach a language, we need to decide what linguistic content (Input) to teach. Once content has been selected it then needs to be organized into teachable and learnable units as well as arranged in a rational sequence. The result is a syllabus. Criteria for the selection of syllabus units include frequency, usefulness, simplicity, learnability and authenticity. Once input has been determined, issues concerning teaching methods and the design of classroom activities and materials can be addressed. These belong to the domain of process.

Process refers to how teaching is carried out and constitutes the domain of methodology in language teaching. Methodology encompasses the types of learning activities, procedures and techniques that are employed by teachers when they teach and the principles that underlie the design of the activities and exercises in their textbooks and teaching resources.

Throughout the twentieth century there was a movement mastery-oriented approaches • the production of accurate samples of language use activity-oriented approaches • interactive and communicative classroom processes

Output Outcomes: objectives, performance, competencies or skills. Output refers to learning outcomes, that is, what learners are able to do as the result of a period of instruction.

a targeted level of achievement on a proficiency scale • such as the ACTFL Proficiency Scale on a standardized test • TOEFL the ability to engage in specific uses of language at a certain level of skill • being able to read texts of a certain kind with a specified level of comprehension familiarity with the differences between two different grammatical items • such as the simple past and the present perfect the ability to participate effectively in certain communicative activities • using the telephone, taking part in a business meeting, or engaging in casual conversation Language teaching since the late nineteenth century has seen a change in the intended outputs of learning – from knowledge-based to performance-based outputs.

In simple form the components of curriculum and their relationship can be represented as follows: Each starting point reflects different assumptions about both the means and ends of teaching and learning. Conventional wisdom and practice tends to assume that decisions relating to input, process and output occur in sequence, each one dependent on what preceded it.

Forward Design • Forward design is based on the assumption that input, process, and output are related in a linear fashion. • Forward design starts with syllabus planning, moves to methodology, and is followed by assessment of learning outcomes.

Central Design • Central design begins with classroom processes and methodology. • Issues of syllabus and learning outcomes are not specified in detail in advance and are addressed as the curriculum is implemented. • Many of the ‘innovative methods’ of the 1980 s and 90 s reflect central design. A variety of teaching strategies can be employed to achieve the desired goals but teaching methods cannot be chosen until the desired outcomes have been specified. From this perspective many of the central-design methods or activityoriented approaches discussed above fail to meet the criterion of good instructional design.

Backward Design • Backward design starts from a specification of learning outcomes and decisions on methodology and syllabus are developed from the learning outcomes. • The Common European Framework of Reference is a recent example of backward design. It describes six levels of achievement divided into three broad divisions from lowest (A 1) to highest (C 2) which describe what a learner should be able to do in reading, listening, speaking and writing at each level. • Basic user – A 1, A 2 • Independent user – B 1, B 2 • Proficient user - C 1, C 2

Backward Design (steps)

Grave’s Model

Macalister’s Language Curriculum Design Model

Murdoch’s model of curriculum design

4 starting Points

nothing draw on a bank of existing materials

course books deliberately provide only some of the material needed

a published course book

Principles of the Curriculum : 1. Principle for the selection of content – what is to be learned and taught 2. Principles for the development of a teaching strategy – how it is to be learned and taught. 3. Principles for the making of decisions about sequence. 4. Principles on which to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of individual students and differentiate the general principles 1, 2 and 3 above, to meet individual cases.

Difference between curriculum and syllabus: Curriculum is a very general concept, which involves consideration of the whole complex of philosophical, social and administrative factors, which contribute to the planning of an educational programme. Syllabus, on the other hand, refers the subpart of curriculum, which is concerned with a specification of what units will be taught.

The European term ‘syllabus’ and its North American counterpart ‘curriculum’ often seem to be very close in meaning and sometimes further apart, depending on the context in which they are used. In a distinction that is commonly drawn in Britain, ‘syllabus’ refers to the content or subject matter of an individual subject, whereas ‘curriculum’ stands for the totality of content to be taught and aims to be realized within one school or educational system. In the USA ‘curriculum’ tends the synonymous with ‘syllabus’ in the British sense.

Syllabus

№ Number of hours Additional Independent lessons works 2 2 2 10 1. 2. 3 4 5 I can’t dance Shopping – men love it! Fatal attraction? Are you still mine? Revise and check - Unit 4 Practical lessons 2 2 2 6 7 8 9 Who were they? Sydney, here we come! Girls’ night out Murder in a country house 2 2 2 2 10 Revise and check - Unit 5 2 2 10 22 11 12 A house with a history A night in a haunted hotel 2 2 13 14 Neighbours from hell When a men is tired of London 2 2 15 Revise and check - Unit 6 2 2 10 22 Themes Total 30 Total 2 2 22

Definition of syllabus: A syllabus is a specification of work of a particular department in a school or college, and it might be broken down into subsections, which will define the work of a particular group or class. it is often linked to time semesters, terms, weeks A syllabus can only specify what is taught; it cannot organize what is learnt. It can, methodologically, allow for opportunities for acquisition and/or learning, but such opportunities cannot spelt out in detail as they will reflect the personalities of learners and continuing relationships established as the class progresses. Not to have a syllabus is to refuse to allow one’s assumptions to be scrutinized or to enable different teachers to relate their work to each other’s. It is consequently an essential feature of work in a democratic profession or as part of democratic education.

List of resources: • Curriculum Approaches in Language Teaching: Forward, Central, and Backward Design by Lack C. Richards – Article RELC Journal, 2013 • Language curriculum design by John Macalister. – ESL & Applied Linguistics Professional • Am I Teaching Well? Self-Evaluation Strategies for Effective Teachers by Vesna Nicolic and Hanna Cabaj – Pippin – pp. 51 -52

Questions?