The book was organized into nine chapters covering language teaching history, methods, needs analysis, situation analysis, goals and outcomes, course design, the teaching and learning process, materials design, and evaluation. Each chapter ends with discussion questions and activities, an appendix, and chapter references.
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT IN LANGUAGE TEACHING
(Jack C. Richards)
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Submitted to the Guiding Lecturer
(Prof. Dr. Hj. Djamiah Husain, M.Hum)
By:
Saidna Zulfiqar Bin Tahir
Tittle : Curriculum Development in Language Teaching
AUTHOR : Jack C. Richards
PUBLISHER : Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001
PAGES : xiv + 321 Pages
This book presents an approach to the teaching-learning process which assumes that language learning success depends on developing the curriculum, namely the use of various planning and implementation processes in developing or updating the language program. This process includes the needs of learners, the situation for program analysis and consideration of the impact of contextual factors, learning outcomes planning, management of learning materials or set of teaching materials themselves, the selection and preparation of teaching materials, provision and maintenance for effective teaching, and program evaluation. These elements are a set of interrelated elements among one another, the nature and function is the focus of this book. This book seeks to explore key issues and practices in language curriculum development in order to provide a basis for more effective planning and decision making in the development of language learning planning, implementation, and review. The book reflects the writer own 30 years of experience as a teacher, teacher educator, program director, and materials writer in many different parts of the world.
The book is planned for use in in-service courses and workshops as well as to provide a sourcebook for teachers, program administrators, and other language teaching professionals. The book as a whole examines the key processes in curriculum development, including needs analysis, planning goals and outcomes, course planning, teaching, materials development, and evaluation. The subsequent chapters seek to survey key issues related to curriculum development issues and processes, illustrating different points of view and providing detailed practical examples by way of illustration. Discussion questions at the end of each chapter provide op¬portunities for further reflection and application of some of the issues dis¬cussed.
The book was organized into nine chapters covering language teaching history, methods, needs analysis, situation analysis, goals and outcomes, course design, the teaching and learning process, materials design, and evaluation. Each chapter ends with discussion questions and activities, an appendix, and chapter references. The chapters follow a chronological sequence that matches the development of a typical curriculum, which progresses from an initial needs analysis ultimately to program evaluation. Aspects that receive the most attention are needs analysis, learning outcomes, and syllabus frameworks.
Chapter 1: The Origins of Language Curriculum Development
The author describes the origins of language curriculum development brief and precise about the background and history, both specifically and in general the changes in teaching methods and approach. In connection with the idea of the writer of language curriculum development and syllabus design, he explained that the development of the curriculum “is a more comprehensive process of syllabus design. It includes the processes used to determine the needs of groups of learners, to develop goals or targets of the program to address those needs, determine the appropriate syllabus for use in teaching, course structure, teaching methods, teaching materials, and to carry out the evaluation of learning the language. On the other hand, “syllabus design is one aspect of curriculum development but not identical with syllabus design. Syllabus is the specification of the content of a course of instruction and a list of what will be taught and tested”. The chapter also focuses on vocabulary and grammar selection and gradation can be achieved through different approaches to support the teaching of the language previously used until the 1950′s, and leads to the development of language curriculum development in the next phase.
Chapter 2: From Syllabus Design to Curriculum Development
The author describes another approach to language teaching which is also available today, such as the role of English language books commercially organized around topics, situations, and phrases as well as some technical things that focus on English language or English language used in a specific job. But the last type of book or course book of language is incidental to the main trends in language teaching, which focuses on the teaching of general English, or, as sometimes called, English for Specific Purposes. Referring to the changes and the approach of the syllabi design for curriculum development in relation to search for new methods “in order to meet the changing needs of learners”, evolved from Structural-Situational Approach to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). In addition, the needs and objectives of teaching English in English for Specific Purposes (ESP). ESP is implemented through the approach are also presented.
Chapter 3: Needs Analysis
This Chapter provides examine approaches to needs analysis and consider the purposes of needs analysis, the nature of needs, Who needs analysis is intended for, who the target population is, who collects information, what procedures can be used, and how the information collected can be used. In many cases, learners’ language needs may be relatively easy to determine, particularly if learners need to leam a language for very specific purposes, for example, employment in fields such as tourism, nursing, or the hotel industry. In this case the tasks employees typically carry out in English can be observed and the language needs of those tasks determined. In other cases, learners’ needs may not be so immediate – for example, students learning English as a secondary school subject in an EFL context. Here English may be a compulsory subject that is considered an important part of a child’s general education. However, even though me students may not have any immediate perceptions of needs, curriculum planners will generally have consulted employers, parents, teachers, and others to find out what knowledge of English they expect high school graduates to achieve. Examples of two different needs analyses are given on pages a basic assumption of curriculum development based on an analysis of learners’ needs, specifically in terms of communicative needs. This chapter discusses the important aspects of needs analysis, the purposes, the definition, the courses, and the target population, administrating needs analysis, different procedures for conducting needs analysis, and designs and examples of needs analysis.
Chapter 4: Situation Analysis
The Chapter relates to “situation analysis” that provides several key factors to be essentially considered: social factors, project factors, institutional factors, teacher factors, learner factors, and adoption factors. The goal of the situation analysis is “to identify key factors that might positively or negatively effect the implementation of a curriculum plan”. Brindley (1989) discusses differences between learners’ and teachers’ views of needs and suggests the need for a negotiation process in order to satisfy and clarify each other’s assumptions. The same is true of other stakeholders in the curriculum. Where there are several different audiences for the needs analysis (e.g., teachers, administrators, a funding body), the information obtained will have to be analyzed – and analyzed in a form that suits each group’s interests. this chapter also explain how to make instruments for situational analysis such as questionnaire.
Chapter 5: Planning Goals and Learning Outcomes
It considers another crucial dimension of decision making in curriculum planning: determining the goals and outcomes of a program. Several key assumptions about goals characterize the curriculum ap-proach to educational planning. These can be summarized as follows: (1) People are generally motivated to pursue specific goals. (2) The use of goals in teaching improves the effectiveness of teaching and learning. (3) A program will be effective to the extent that its goals are sound and clearly described. This chapter focuses on the procedures for using the information collected during the needs analysis and situation analysis to develop program/ planning goals and objectives that result in the learning objectives. The author proposes the key assumptions about the goals in curriculum planning namely: “People are generally motivated to pursue specific goals; the use of goals in teaching improves the effectiveness of teaching and learning; and a program will be effective to the extent that its goals are sound and clearly described”.
Chapter 6: Course Planning and Syllabus Design
The Chapter examine the following dimensions of course development; (a) developing a course rationale (b) describing entry and exit levels (c) choosing course content (d) sequencing course content (e) planning the course content (syllabus and instructional blocks) (f) preparing the scope and sequence plan. These processes do not necessarily occur in a linear order. Some may take place simultaneously and many aspects of a course are subject to ongoing revision each time the course is taught. The types of decision making that we will examine in this chapter are also involved in developing instructional materials and many of the examples discussed apply to both course plan¬ning and materials design. This chapter deals with “course planning and syllabus design” including developing a course rationale, describing entry and exit levels, choosing course content, determining the scope and sequence, planning the course structure, and preparing the scope and sequence plan. The syllabus including major elements used in planning a language course and providing the basis for its instructional focus and the content could thereby be based on several options: situational syllabus, topical or content-based syllabus, functional syllabus, task based syllabus, and grammatical or structural syllabus.
Chapter 7: Providing for Effective Teaching
It focus of this chapter is how quality teaching can be achieved and maintained in a lan¬guage program. Whereas the preceding chapters have described some of the essential planning that is involved in developing a language course, the chapter seeks to examine factors that are involved in creating conditions for good teaching to take place. Quality teaching is achieved not only as a consequence on how well teachers teach but through creating contexts and work environments that can facilitate good teaching. The chapter also involves in creating conditions for effective teaching of a course by considering from four main factors: the institution, the teachers, the teaching process, and the learning process. Additionally, each factor is discussed as to its influence as well as implementation to effective teaching and learning in a language program.
Chapter 8: The Role and Design of Instructional Materials
The chapter deals with the role, design, and use of materials in language teaching, with particular focus on print mate¬rials and textbooks. It deals with the role and design of institutional materials as a key component in most language program. Several topics regarding teaching materials that normally play a role in the current curriculum planning are delineated and discussed in relation to authentic versus created materials, textbooks, evaluating textbooks, adapting textbooks, preparing materials for a program, managing a materials writing project, and monitoring the use of materials. They provide authentic cultural information about the target culture. Ma¬terials can be selected to illustrate many aspects of the target culture, in¬cluding culturally based practices and beliefs and both linguistic and non-linguistic behavior. They provide exposure to real language rather than the artificial texts found in created materials that have been specially written to illustrate par¬ticular grammatical rules or discourse types. They relate more closely to learners’ needs and hence provide a link be¬tween the classroom and students’ needs in the real world. They support a more creative approach to teaching. In using authentic materials as a source for teaching activities, teachers can develop their full potential as teachers, developing activities and tasks that better match their teaching styles and the learning styles of their students. However, critics of the use of authentic materials point out: Created materials can also be motivating for learners. Published materi¬als are often designed to look like teenage magazines and other kinds of real-world materials and may be just as interesting and motivating for learners. Authentic materials often contain difficult language and unneeded vo¬cabulary items, which can be an unnecessary distraction for teachers and learners. Since they have not been simplified or written to any lexical or lin¬guistic guidelines, they often contain language that may be beyond the learners’ abilities.
Chapter 9: Approaches to Evaluation
It involves an examination of the context in which the program occurs, of the goals, syllabus, and structure of a course, and how these can be planned and developed, as well as analysis of the teaching and learning that takes place during the course. The focus throughout has been analysis of the dif¬ferent factors that determine the successful design and implementation of language programs and language teaching materials. This overall and in-terlinked system of elements (i.e., needs, goals, teachers, learners, syl¬labuses, materials, and teaching) is known as the second language curricu¬lum. However, once a curriculum is in place, a number of important questions still need to be answered. These include: (a) is die curriculum achieving its goals? (b) What is happening in classrooms and schools where it is being imple¬mented? (c) Are those affected by the curriculum (e.g., teachers, administrators, stu¬dents, parents, employers) satisfied with the curriculum? (d) Have those involved in developing and teaching a language course done a satisfactory job? (e) Does the curriculum compare favorably with others of its kind?. The chapter also provides approaches to evaluation dealing with purposes of evaluation: formative, illuminative, and summative evaluations; issues in program evaluation; and procedures used in conducting evaluation.
Overall, this book is very useful which has provided many advantages for language teachers and teachers in other studies, practitioners and program administrators related to the process of planning, teaching and implementation to develop a curriculum, syllabus, and teaching materials or observe the curriculum. The questions and discussion at the end of each chapter is an explanation solely to stimulate further discussion and can be included as part of cooperative learning in pairs, in groups, or in whole language classes for teachers in training. Also, at the end of each chapter comes with a seemingly Appendix provides tools and excellent functional as a guide or for applications in language curriculum development. Furthermore, the advantages and disadvantages of different modes are provided for under several topics (such as Procedures to carry out a needs analysis in Chapter Three) definitely helps for the proper selection of the key elements for language-teaching curriculum.
Most of the book is easy to understand and only rarely becomes overly simplistic, as in the description on p. 161 of a task-based syllabus: “Tasks are activities that drive the second language acquisition process.” While axiomatic definitions such as this are present, they are infrequent and do little to detract from Richards’ efforts “to acquaint language teachers and teachers-in-training with fundamental issues”. Curriculum Development in Language Teaching presents lists, forms, and brief descriptions that provide an understandable, albeit limited, background to the issues involved in course design, as well as offering some related resources.
