Curriculum Design (medios y mediaciones)

Written Report Environment & Needs Analysis

Name:
Jessica Daniela Herrera Ballesteros

Teacher:
Johana Álvarez

Universidad Santo Tomas

Abierta y a Distancia
2023
 Taking as a starting point the process of learning the foreign language English, and
the observation of the classes carried out, the development and application of essential
elements in teaching-learning is evidenced, the curricular design is highlighted as a whole
that includes aspects of vital importance such as identification of needs, analysis of the
environment and the principles covered in class, taking as the main basis prior knowledge
and knowledge to be acquired, available resources and the skills of the educator, all in order
to develop a specific training course (Macalister, 2010). For other part, Perilla et al. (2020)
affirm that "curricular design cannot be limited to being an abstract proposal and distant
from the dynamics of each context, but must come to life in the transformation of real
situations" (p.1), and for this, there are take into account additional aspects such as content
and their sequence, referring to the curricular guidelines and their execution in class, the
goals emphasizing motivation and the creative design of the contents to be developed in the
course, the environment, the needs around to effective learning, emphasizing that it is
important to identify what the student knows and what the teacher wants him to know at the
end of the course.

The Ministry of National Education (2016), based on the above, tends that "the
teaching of foreign languages is prospective to respond to the needs of multiculturalism"
(p.4), which is why the teacher must be in the ability to identify the period in which the
students are in order to develop a curricular design according to the learning strategies, with
methodologies that are characterized by being active, playful and significant to later face an
evaluation in which it is executed a cycle that analyzes the assessment of achievement
indicators in relation to achievements achieved and expected achievements, this will allow
the pedagogical processes to be adjusted and oriented to overcome obstacles from the
curricular organization.

In the development of the observation practices, it is evident that the school has a
very organized curricular design according to the current norm for the teaching of English
in non-bilingual schools, however, during the third grade class the teacher adhered to what
established in the design, emphasizing playful and dynamic activities that tended to develop
recall processes, on the other hand, in the fifth grade class, that interaction was made a little
more difficult due to the methodology chosen by the teacher, which distances the process of
teaching and learning English with what is established in the school's curricular
development.

Consequently, when carrying out an analysis of the environment, existing

limitations must be taken into account, for example, if teachers are specifically trained in
the area and are trained to prepare their own proposals for training activities, verification of
resources for the execution of said curricular design, whether financial, human or
technological, is available, emphasizing that some factors such as the fact that the target
language is not generally used outside the classroom (Macalister, 2010).

In the case of the school in which the observation practices were carried out within
the curricular development, two days are specified in which the entire environment is
immersed in activities in English, but it is assumed that the immersion inside the classroom
is also it must be in the foreign language, as stated by Liu et al. (2014), "sometimes it is
necessary to consider broader aspects of the situation, for example, institutions or
government policies require the use of the target language" an issue that is evidenced in
different ways in the classes since in the third grade the teacher indicates all the activities
and instructions of the class in English and makes a subsequent translation into Spanish;
For her part, the fifth grade teacher communicates only in English, which is in accordance
with the curricular design but not with the learning needs of the students who in some
proportion were left without understanding the activity or explanation.

Regarding the analysis of the needs, it is established that two essential aspects
are taken into account, which are, what the students already know, and what they really
need to know, to identify the situation of the students, a series of tools can be proposed.
that will allow the objective of the course to be carried out, making it interesting and
successful in the acquisition of knowledge, being relevant for this case, the needs, the
deficiencies and the desires that lead to an evaluation and application of school
activities in favor of the student. (Long, 2005). The pedagogical observation process
carried out shows that the teachers at the school, in the third and fifth grades, use
different exercises in which they put into practice the previous knowledge and the
acquired knowledge, facilitating the process to satisfy the real and current needs of the
population. student.
 The implementation of the curricular design as a fundamental axis for dignified
training and in accordance with world needs occurs through the internal and external
Colombian language policies in Colombia, but in turn with this it is determined that
Colombia is not prepared to be a bilingual country despite being multicultural and
multilingual and being constitutionalized, this is due to the low intensity of hours
established in non-bilingual schools, in addition to little teacher training and updating,
which prevents the development of an objective exercise and teaching classes in which
significant progress in the learning process is visible (Gallego, 2020).

On the other hand, the General Law of Education 115 declares in its article 19
that in all educational processes a common curriculum will be structured, made up of
the fundamental areas of knowledge and human activity, and in article 23 it makes clear
in which Spanish language and foreign languages (among these, English) are mandatory
and fundamental areas, which continues to open the door to a country that has all its
sights on the future to be bilingual, however, due to the conditions described above, a
long road must be followed.

Article 76 mentions that the "Curriculum is the set of criteria, study plans,
programs, methodologies, and processes that contribute to comprehensive training and
the construction of national, regional, and local cultural identity, also including human
resources.”, academics and physicists to put policies into practice and carry out the
institutional educational project” (Congress of the Republic of Colombia, 1994). Hence,
to execute programs or courses we must have a curricular design and be consistent not
only with the teaching and learning processes but also with the needs of the community.

In the National Bilingualism Plan, it proposes that the learning objectives be

unified with the curriculum in order to achieve that the majority of the population
master the second language of English, eliminating factors such as the lack of adequate
teacher training, the number of students in the classroom , among others, in addition to
promoting actions within the appropriation plan that will avoid the shortcomings
mentioned and prepare students for a competent working life.
 During the observation classes, different factors that have been mentioned above
and that impact the training process positively and negatively were evident. It was
possible to verify that the two teachers have specialized training in the English
language, however, one of them has a degree and the other is a Technologist. Different
activities were used that allowed the students to be concentrated, attentive and actively
participate in the class observed in the third grade, the situation changed in the fifth-
grade class, the students were completely still, little participative and there was
evidence of some fear of time to communicate in English. The third-grade teacher
spoke in English, asked about the instruction given and later translated a little, the fifth-
grade teacher spoke everything in English, and even though the child mentioned that
they did not understand a part, the teacher did not translate and did not repeat the
instructions.

In the two classes it was evidenced that the teachers make use of ICT tools to
carry out the activities, use a television, project videos, songs and slides of their own
creation to innovate in the way in which the themes are presented. They look for the
development of the four communication skills (Reading, speaking, listening, writing),
however, speaking is always a bit relegated and so are the activities in which students
interact with each other.

The evaluation resources were diverse and different, in the third-grade class the
teacher allowed them constant participation which helped her to determine if the
activity was carried out correctly, as well as if they had appropriated vocabulary words,
in addition to asking them questions randomly that the children answered without fear
of being wrong. On the other hand, the fifth-grade teacher evaluated in writing with the
development of guides and a short reading comprehension exercise and she graded
everything before finishing the class.

The teachers are women of adult age who have been specially trained to teach
the foreign language English, have more than ten years of experience in the school and
each one has their own notable style in the development of the classes. The students are
children who mostly belong to socioeconomic stratum three, in third grade between 7
and 9 years old, in fifth grade between 9 and 11 years old, in a large proportion they are
respectful, participatory, attentive and responsible, they like activities that involve
movement, competence and mental agility.
 REFERENCES

Macalister, J. (2010). Language Curriculum Design. ESL & Applied Linguistics

Professional Series. Taylor & Francis Group. United Kingdom. ISBN 0-203-
87073-5.

Perilla, J., Camargo, M., Murillo, W., Acosta, M., Barinas, A., Barriga, J. y Galindo, F.
(2020). Diseño curricular y transformación de contextos educativos desde
experiencias concretas. http://hdl.handle.net/11232/1276.

Ministerio de Educación Nacional (MEN). (2016). Lineamientos curriculares idiomas

extranjeros. [PFD file] https://www.mineducacion.gov.co/1621/articles-
339975_recurso_7.pdf

Liu, D., Ahn, G.-S., Baek, K.-S. and Han, N.-O. 2004. South Korean high school
English teachers’ code switching: Questions and challenges in the drive for
maximal use of English in teaching. TESOL Quarterly 38, 4: 605–638.
https://doi.org/10.2307/3588282

Long, M., (2005). Second language needs analysis. Cambridge University Press.
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Gallego, S., Acevedo, Marcela., Polo, Lucila,. Gómez. (2020). Políticas lingüísticas
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Congreso de la República de Colombia. (1994) Ley General de Educación, Ley 115.

[PFD file] https://www.mineducacion.gov.co/1621/articles-
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