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‎Curriculum
‎Components

‎Introduction

‎ curriculum is an overall
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‎plan for a course or
‎programme. Such a
‎programme usually states:
‎- The educational purpose of
‎the programme, in terms of
‎aims or goals
‎- The content of the
‎programme and the sequence
‎in which it will be taught (also
‎known as the syllabus)
‎- The teaching procedures and
‎learning activities that will be
‎employed (i.e. methodology)
‎- The means used to assess
‎student learning (i.e.
‎assessment and testing)
‎- The means used to assess
‎whether the programme has
‎achieved its goals (i.e.
‎evaluation)

‎Needs Analysis

‎ lso needs assessment (in

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‎language teaching and
‎language programme design)
‎the process of determining the
‎needs for which a learner or
‎group of learners requires a
‎language and arranging the
‎needs according to priorities.
‎Needs assessment makes use
‎of both subjective and
‎objective information (e.g.
‎data from questionnaires,
‎tests, interviews, observation)
‎and seeks to obtain
‎information on:
‎- The situations in which a
‎language will be used (
‎including who it will be used
‎with)
‎- The objectives and purposes
‎for which the language is
‎needed
‎- The types of communication
‎that will be used (e.g. written,
‎spoken, formal, informal)
‎- The level of proficiency that
‎will be required.
‎Needs assessment is a part of
‎curriculum development and
‎is normally required before a
‎syllabus can be developed for
‎language teaching.

‎ eeds Analysis is usually not a

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‎component on its own, it is
‎usually embedded in the
‎formulation of objectives.

‎Objectives

‎ goal of a course of
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‎instruction. Two different
‎types of objectives may be
‎distinguished:
‎- General objectives, or aims,
‎are the underlying reasons for
‎or purposes of a course of
‎instruction. For example, the
‎aims of the teaching of a
‎foreign lan-guage in a
‎particular country might be:
‎to teach students to read and
‎write a foreign language, to
‎improve students’ knowledge
‎of a foreign culture, to teach
‎conversation in a foreign
‎language, etc. Aims are long-
‎term goals, described in very
‎general terms.
‎- Specific objectives (or simply
‎objectives) are descriptions of
‎what is to be achieved in a
‎course. They are more
‎detailed descriptions of
‎exactly what a learner is
‎expected to be able to do at
‎the end of a period of
‎instruction. This might be a
‎single lesson, a chapter of a
‎book, a term’s work, etc. For
‎instance, specif i c objectives
‎of a classroom lesson might
‎be: Use of the linking words
‎and, but, however, although.
‎These specif i c objectives
‎contribute to the general
‎objective of paragraph writing.

‎ electing Content and

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‎Methodology

‎ urriculum content simply

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‎means the totality of what is to
‎be taught in a school system.
‎The content component of
‎teaching learning situation
‎refers to the important facts,
‎principles and concepts to be
‎taught. These contents must
‎be in line with the learning
‎experiences and there must be
‎clear cut objective to be
‎achieved by the end of each
‎respective lesson. Decisions
‎will be made about what
‎should taught and how the
‎content should be divided in
‎addition to the appropriate
‎instruction methods that are
‎going to used. the program
‎needs to be organized from a
‎vertical perspective (how
‎different courses complement
‎each other) and from a
‎horizontal perspective (how
‎courses are leveled and
‎sequenced and how they build
‎on each other over time)

‎ lanning Assessment and

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‎Evaluation

-‎ Assessment is a systematic
‎approach to collecting
‎information and making
‎inferences about the ability of
‎a student or the quality or
‎success of a teaching course
‎on the basis of various sources
‎of evidence. Assessment may
‎be done by test, interview,
‎questionnaire, observation,
‎etc. The term “testing” is often
‎associated with large-scale
‎standardized tests, whereas
‎the term “assessment” is used
‎in a much wider sense to mean
‎a variety of approaches in
‎testing and assessment.
‎- Evaluation is related to
‎decisions about the quality of
‎the curriculum itself and
‎decisions about individuals in
‎the programmes. The
‎evaluation of programmes
‎may involve the study of
‎curriculum, objectives,
‎materials, and tests or grading
‎systems.
 ‎ rinciples of
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‎Syllabus/Course
‎Design

‎Content and Sequencing

‎ - Frequency: A language
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‎course should provide the best
‎possible coverage of language
‎in use through the inclusion of
‎items that occur frequently in
‎the language, so that learners
‎get the best return for their
‎learning effort.
‎2- Strategies and autonomy: A
‎language course should train
‎learners in how to learn a
‎language and how to monitor
‎and be aware of their
‎learning, so that they can
‎become effective and
‎independent language
‎learners.
‎3- Spaced retrieval: Learners
‎should have increasingly
‎spaced, repeated
‎opportunities to retrieve and
‎give attention to wanted items
‎in a variety of contexts.
‎4- Language system: The
‎language focus of a course
‎needs to be on the
‎generalisable features of the
‎language.
‎5- Keep moving forward: A
‎language course should
‎progressively cover useful
‎language items, skills and
‎strategies.
‎6- Teachability: The teaching
‎of language items should take
‎account of the most
‎favourable sequencing of
‎these items and should take
‎account of when the learners
‎are most ready to learn them.
‎7- Learning burden: The
‎course should help learners
‎make the most effective use of
‎previous knowledge.
‎8- Interference: The items in a
‎language course should be
‎sequenced so that items which
‎are learned together have a
‎positive effect on each other
‎for learning and so that
‎interference effects are
‎avoided.

‎ his group of principles deals

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‎with content and sequencing.
‎That is, they are concerned
‎with what goes into a language
‎course and the order in which
‎language items appear in the
‎course. The aim of these
‎principles is to make sure that
‎the learners are gaining
‎something useful from the
‎course. It is possible to run a
‎language course which is full
‎of interesting activities and
‎which introduces the learners
‎to new language items, but
‎which provides a very poor
‎return for the time invested in
‎it. This poor return can occur
‎because many of the lessons
‎do not contain anything new
‎to learn, because the new
‎items have very little value in
‎the ordinary use of the
‎language, or because they set
‎out interference conditions
‎which result in a step
‎backwards in learning rather
‎than a step forwards.

‎Format and Presentation

‎ - Motivation: As much as
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‎possible, the learners should
‎be interested and excited
‎about learning the language
‎and they should come to value
‎this learning.
‎2- Four strands: A course
‎should include a roughly even
‎balance of meaning-focused
‎input, language-focused
‎learning, meaning-focused
‎output and fluency activities.
‎3- Comprehensible input:
‎There should be substantial
‎quantities of interesting
‎comprehensible receptive
‎activity in both listening and
‎reading.
‎4- Fluency: A language course
‎should provide activities
‎aimed at increasing the
‎fluency with which learners
‎can use the language they
‎already know, both
‎receptively and productively.
‎5- Output: The learners should
‎be pushed to produce the
‎language in both speaking and
‎writing over a range of
‎discourse types.
‎6- Deliberate learning: The
‎course should include
‎language-focused learning on
‎the sound system, spelling,
‎vocabulary, grammar and
‎discourse areas.
‎7- Time on task: As much time
‎as possible should be spent
‎using and focusing on the
‎second language.
‎8- Depth of processing:
‎Learners should process the
‎items to be learned as deeply
‎and as thoughtfully as
‎possible.
‎9- Integrative motivation: A
‎course should be presented so
‎that the learners have the
‎most favourable attitudes to
‎the language, to users of the
‎language, to the teacher’s skill
‎in teaching the language, and
‎to their chance of success in
‎learning the language.
‎10- Learning style: There
‎should be opportunity for
‎learners to work with the
‎learning material in ways that
‎most suit their individual
‎learning style.

‎ his group of principles deals

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‎with format and presentation.
‎That is, they are concerned
‎with what actually happens in
‎the classroom and during the
‎learning. Most practically,
‎they relate to the kinds of
‎activities used in the course
‎and the ways in which
‎learners process the course
‎material. It is in this aspect of
‎curriculum design that
‎teachers may have their
‎greatest inf l uence on the
‎course.

‎Monitoring and Assessment

‎ - Ongoing needs and

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‎environment analysis: The
‎selection, ordering,
‎presentation, and assessment
‎of the material in a language
‎course should be based on a
‎continuing careful
‎consideration of the learners
‎and their needs, the teaching
‎conditions, and the time and
‎resources available.
‎2- Feedback: Learners should
‎receive helpful feedback
‎which will allow them to
‎improve the quality of their
‎language use.

‎ his group of principles deals

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‎with monitoring and
‎assessment and to some
‎degree evaluation.
‎In each of these groups, the
‎principles have been ranked
‎in order of their importance,
‎so that the fi rst principle in
‎the group is the most
‎important of that group, the
‎second principle is the next
‎most important and so on.
‎Types of language-
‎teaching syllabi

‎Introduction

‎ ach type of syllabi focuses on

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‎one aspect of language in
‎addition to subordinating
‎elements. Types of syllabi are
‎usually an answer to two
‎questions:
‎1- What is language?
‎2- What is language learning?

‎Types of Syllabi

‎1- Structural (formal) syllabus

‎ here the focus is on the

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‎forms and structures of
‎language (grammatical
‎structures)

‎2- Notional/functional Syllabus

‎ onsiders language a
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‎collection of notions and
‎functions.
‎- Notions : size, age,
‎comparison, time, etc...
‎- Functions: informing,
‎agreeing, apologizing...

‎3- Situational Syllabus

‎ he content of language
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‎teaching is a collection of real
‎or fictive situations in which
‎language occurs or is used (
‎participants+setting)

‎4- Skill-based Syllabus

‎ collection of abilities that

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‎learners have to be able to
‎perform in the target
‎language (writing paragraphs,
‎oral presentations...)

‎5- Task-based Syllabus

‎ he content of teaching is a
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‎series of complex and
‎purposeful tasks that learners
‎need to perform in the target
‎language (applying for a job,
‎getting information through a
‎phone call...)

‎6- Content-based syllabus

‎ he primary focus is to teach

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‎content using the target
‎language. Themes are the
‎focus and language is taught
‎implicitly