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