Curriculum Development Terms for Final

Content and sequencing principles

1) A language 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) A language course should train learners in how to learn a language, so they can become effective and independent language learners; 3) Learners should have increasingly spaced, repeated opportunity to give attention to wanted items in a variety of contexts; 4) The language focus of a course needs to be on generalizable features of the language system; 5) A language course should progressively cover useful language items, skills and strategies; 6) The teaching of language items should take account of the most favorable sequencing of these items and should take account of when learners are most ready to learn them; 7) The course should help the learners to make the most effective use of previous knowledge; 8) 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.

Format and presentation principles

1) As much as possible, the learners should be interested and excited about learning the language and they should come to value this learning; 2) A course should include a roughly even balance of the four strands; 3)There should be substantial quantities of interesting comprehensive receptive activity in both listening and reading; 4) A language course should provide activities aimed at increasing the fluency with which the learners can use the language they already know, both receptively and productively; 5) The learners should be pushed to produce the language in both speaking and writing over a range of discourse types; 6) The course should include language-focused learning in the sound system, vocabulary, grammar and discourse areas; 7) As much time as possible should be spent using and focusing on the second language; 8) Learners should process the items to be learned as deeply and as thoughtfully as possible; 9) The course should be presented so that the learners have the most favorable attitudes to the language, users of the language, use of the language, the teacher's skill in teaching the language and their chances of success in learning the language; 10) There should be opportunity for learners to work with the learning material in ways that most suit their individual learning style.

Monitoring and assessment principles

1) The selection, gradation, presentation and assessment of the material in a language course should be based on a careful consideration of the learners and their needs, the teaching conditions, and the time and resources available; 2) Learners should receive helpful feedback which will allow them to improve the quality of their language use.

Institutional factors

A culture / ethos / environment open to implementing change - cooperative, supportive administration, problem solving, communicative, high morale, reputation for success. Established methods - textbook focused, course guidelines. Goals drive operations: monetary, professional commitment, Physical - choice of materials, role of materials, available resources,

Exercises

According to Brown, it is defined as the ways of students practicing what has been presented by the teacher. In other words, exercises are activities where students can practice what they were taught. It may be difficult to distinguish exercise from techniques, which is defined as the presentation of language to students. Brown explains that the best way to separate the two types of activities is to think of exercises as those types of activities that could probably be used to test or assess the students after the lesson or unit is finished, while techniques would probably not be usable in assessment.

Principles

According to Nation and Macalister, are the philosophical stances of a teacher that serve as the sensible basis that guides teaching and helps in the design of a course. These principles must be based on research and theory, and must be general enough to allow variety and flexibility in their application to suit the wide range of conditions in which language is taught. The authors list twenty principles based on pedagogical perspectives focusing on curriculum design and teacher training. Examples include frequency, autonomy, teachability, interference, motivation, four strands, comprehensible input, fluency, time on task, and feedback. Having a clear set of personal principles may serve as a useful compass in job interviews, aid in defending decisions about course design, and simplify the process of lesson planning.

Narrow or wide focus

According to Nation and Mcalister, it is an issue in needs analysis about what language a particular learner with clear needs should learn. The arguments in favor of a narrow focus include the faster meeting of needs, the reduction of the quantity of learning needed, and the motivation that comes from getting an immediate return from being able to apply learning. Such a focus, however, many run the risk of of not teaching the language system so that learners can be flexible and creative in their language use. The wide-focus argues if language learners have more than very short-term goals for language learning, it is important that their language learning not only satisfies immediate needs but also provides the basis for the development of control of the wider language system.

Critical needs analysis

According to Nation and Mcalister, it is an issue in needs analysis by referring to Benesch (1996) who points out that needs analysis is affected by the ideology of those in control of the analysis. Thus, the questions they ask, the areas they investigate, and the conclusions they draw are inevitably influenced by their attitudes to change and the status quo. The authors state that it is worth considering a wide range of possible viewpoints when deciding on the focus of needs analysis, and seeking others' views on where change could be made.

Common core and specialized language

According to Nation and Mcalister, it is an issue in needs analysis. It refers to the idea that learners should first focus on a common core of 2,000 words, then focus on general academic vocabulary common to a wide range of disciplines (Coxhead, 2000) if their goal is academic reading and writing, and then focus on the specialized vocabulary of their particular disciplines. If goals are very focused, it is possible to shorten each step slightly. It is likely that there is a similar progression for grammatical item as well. The authors do warn that this kind of progression should not be rigidly kept to. It is possible to focus on the content of the discipline using common core vocabulary and a few general academic and technical items. This issue also extends to other areas of linguistic knowledge (i.e. morphosyntax, pragmatics, discourse markers in speech or writing). The main idea is that unless learners have very particular needs (e.g., training air traffic controllers) it is likely best for most situations to focus on the common core of language. However, best practice would be to adjust the focus on the continuum of common core-specialized language based off the needs analysis and evaluation of a course.

Adoption factors

Advantages offered in contrast to current practices & the degree these have been communicated, compatibility with existing beliefs, organization and practices, complexity & practicality, tried and tested? Perceptions of some types being more difficult to implement and adopt new roles to vs. others. Perception of practicality for adopting methodology into materials, not just guidelines. Level of commitment and support for the change across authorities and administration.

Backward design

Backward design starts with a careful statement of the desired results or outcomes: appropriate teaching activities and content are derived from the results of learning. This is a well-established tradition in curriculum design in general education and in recent years has re-emerged as a prominent curriculum development approach in language teaching. It was sometimes described as an 'ends-means' approach, as seen in the work of Tyler (1949) and Taba (1962), who viewed instruction as the specification of ends as a prerequisite to devising the means to reach them.

Blocks and threads

Blocks: Vertical organization - how the lesson is structured and sequenced. Threads: Horizontal organization - activities that run through lessons, enabling spaced repetition and reduced classroom management

SLA principles

Content and Sequencing 1 Frequency: A language 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. 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. 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. Format and Presentation 1 Motivation: As much as 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. 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. Monitoring and Assessment 1 Ongoing needs and 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.

Behavioral objective

Defined as specific statements that describe the particular knowledge, behaviors, and/or skills that the learner will be expected to know or perform at the end of a course or program. Mager (1975) explained that objectives describe performance, or behavior, because an objective is specific rather than broad or general, and because performance, or behavior, is what we can be specific about. Tyler (1981) formalized BOs and began training teachers to write them. Three components of them are: performance, conditions, and criterion. That is, they specify who will do what, to what degree they will do it and under what constraints it will be done. Behavioral objectives clarify goals, facilitate instruction by narrowing material choices, facilitate evaluation, and makes the teacher's aims clear to all stakeholders through the creation of a public record.

The lexical syllabus

Drawing on a different type of empirical evidence - large-scale corpora of spoken and written language use - Willis also argues for a synthetic syllabus, where word and collocation are the units of analysis. Arguing against "a methodology which presents learners with a series of patterns" in a presentation, practice, production sequence, Willis proposes taking "meaningful exposure as a starting point" (1990, p. iv). Exposure should be organized in three ways: (1) language is graded in difficulty; (2) language exemplifying the commonest patterns is selected; and (3) the language syllabus is itemized to highlight important features. Exposure is thus tightly controlled. Rather than linguistically grading the content of the syllabus, Willis argues for lexically grading it, using corpora of language use to identify word frequency at the 700-word, the 1,500-word, and the 2,500-word levels. Words in the corpora are itemized as collocations exemplifying each word's typical patterns of use.

Rational-empirical change

Explaining and justifying change. Kennedy (1987), drawing on Chin and Benne (1970) describes this as another of the three major approaches to change, where change is achieved through explaining, justifying and showing the reasons why the change is good and necessary. The rational-empirical approach is typical of a research, development and diffusion model (favoured by academics who do the research).

Forward design

Forward design is based on the assumption that input, process, and output are related in a linear fashion. In other words, before decisions about methodology and output are determined, issues related to the content of instruction need to be resolved. In language teaching, forward planning is an option when the aims of learning are understood in very general terms such as in courses in 'general English' or with introductory courses at primary or secondary level where goals may be described in such terms as 'proficiency in language use across a wide range of daily situations', or 'communicative ability in the four language skills'.

Burnout

Grasse (1982) describes burnout as the exhaustion that results from excessive drain on a person's energy and resources because of overwhelming problems. Victims of burnout feel frustrated and cynical about their work and gradually lose their effectiveness on the job. She identifies three main causes for burnout: stress, frustration and low status. Ways to prevent burnout include enabling professional development, keeping teachers involved in meaningful program improvement, and encouraging reflection and progress in personal teaching practices.

Learner factors

Group dynamics, backgrounds, attitudes: individual and culturally specific, expectations of roles, beliefs and assumptions, preferred learning styles, agendas that determine what learners take away from any encounter, time available for study and participation.

A focused opportunistic approach

In a focused opportunistic approach, the format and presentation part of the curriculum design process is typically done first. That is, material is gathered or prepared to teach the course. Then, with each re-teaching of the course, one part of the curriculum design process is done thoroughly. Thus it might be that a proper needs analysis is not carried out until the third or fourth re-teaching of the course. Assessment will also be developed as the course is taught. The major reason for taking this approach is time pressure. However, Tessmer and Wedman (1990) warn against this approach, mainly from the point of view of efficiency in that working thoroughly on one aspect of curriculum design may result in wasted effort because the findings may not be able to be used in the other less-elaborated arts of the curriculum design process.

A "layers of necessity" model

In this model, curriculum design is seen initially as a choice between various layers. Each layer is complete in itself and includes the major parts of the curriculum design process. But each layer differs in detail and thoroughness with which each of these parts of curriculum design are carried out (Tessmer & Wedman, 1990).

Realistic change

It is useful to look at the change from several viewpoints: (1) the resources to support the change. The change must be feasible given the resources that are available, the amount of time, and the number of people affected by the change. Consideration should also be given to the resources and support that classroom teachers will need during the change process, which may be ongoing for a number of years (Wedell, 2003). (2) The people involved in the change. The people involved in the implementation of the change need to see that there will be benefits from the change, that it can be achieved, and that eventually, it will not make them more over-worked than they are at present. (3) The people who will receive the ultimate benefit of the change, usually the learners, are often not negotiators in the change process. At the very least, it must be clear to those involved that the learners will benefit from the change and be more satisfied as a result of it. Most curriculum change has the aim of producing better learning, and teachers will usually get involved in innovation which results in considerable work for them, if they see that there are substantial benefits for the learners. Learners may also be directly involved in curriculum change. The ideas behind the negotiated syllabus stress the benefits of learner involvement in such change.

Teacher factors

Language proficiency, experience, skill and expertise, training and qualifications, morale & motivation, teaching style, beliefs and principles, benefits offered by new design. What kind of teachers will be involved to ensure success? Responsibilities: mentoring, orienting, mainly teaching, open to new work / change, workload.

Kumaravadeivelu's macrostrategies (Swan)

Listed 10 macrostrategies which characterize postmethod language teaching, and from which teachers can generate situation-specific need-based micro strategies or teaching techniques. They are: Maximize learning opportunities Facilitate negotiated interaction Minimize perceptual mismatches Activate intuitive heuristics Foster language awareness Contextualize linguistic input Integrate language skills Promote learner autonomy Ensure social relevance Raise cultural consciousness

Methodology

Methodology is the how of teaching. But also implicated are the what, the why and the who. That is, teachers' choices of activities, tasks, and learning experiences will be influenced by their (implicit or explicit) theories of language and of learning, as well as by their assessment of the requirements, learning styles and abilities of their learners.

Environment Analysis

Nation and Mcalister define it as looking at the factors that will have a strong effect on decisions about the goals of the course, what to include in the course, and how to teach and assess it. These factors can arise from the learners, the teachers, and the teaching and learning situation. Brown labels it as situation analysis. Environment analysis is an important part of curriculum design because at its most basic level it ensures that the course will be usable. Data is collected in a similar way to NA: consult with as many parties as possible, study all relevant documents available, observe classes in context, survey and collect info from stakeholders, and review literature related to the situation (Richards, 2001; Kozlowski, 2017).

Objective needs vs. subjective needs

Objective needs are those needs determined on the basis of clear-cut, observable data gathering about the situation, the learners, the language that students must eventually acquire, their present proficiency and skill levels etc. Subjective needs are generally more difficult to determine because they have to do with wants, desires and expectations.

Goals vs. objectives

Outside of the curriculum design discussion, there is much less of a distinction between these two terms. Regarding materials design, goals refers to performances that the designer hopes the learners to be able to achieve. Some curriculum designers break goals down into smaller well-specified performance objectives (Brown, 1995). This is especially useful for monitoring and assessing learners' progress. Even if a course designer does not want to go to this level of detail, there is value in setting smaller goals for the various strands or skill subdivisions of a course. A forward designed course may develop clearer objectives after a first iteration in reaction to various needs analysis factors.

Practitioner principles

Practitioners of a method soon find a remarkable similarity between methods that are supposed to be quite different from each other, particularly in the selection and sequencing of the items that make up a course. This same similarity leads us to suspect that the various published courses are either drawing on the same findings of research and theory or are unquestioningly repeating what other courses have repeated from some previous poorly based piece of curriculum design. When we find, for example, that a "modern" course is using a syllabus that differs in only minor detail from one used by Berlitz in the 1890s and that does not agree with the findings of substantial research in this area on the frequency of grammar items (George, 1963a, 1963b), then our worst suspicions are justified.

Societal factors

Role and status of FL in the community - educational traditions, experience of teaching, resources for support. Holland in contrast to USA ; informed skepticism in contrast to less collective wisdom Impact of: government policy makers, education officials, employers, business community, politicians, tertiary education specialists, educational organizations, parents, citizens, students. A good example of societal factors is the difficulty Julien & Foster (2011) faced with visiting Burmese refugee settlements in Thailand. Visiting was strictly regulated by governments of the two countries. Also, they had to be careful when creating materials to include only content that would be acceptable to the Burmese government and applicable to the people. In Japan, a societal factor may be the academic pressure students face up until entering university. Once in university, solidifying or establishing membership in social networks seems to be a concern for many students. Thus, they may not be willing or able to devote sufficient time to their studies (Suzuki, 2017)

Product vs. process principles (Swan)

Swan argues that a bias towards communicative approaches leads an assertion that learner-directed process takes precedence over teacher-directed product. Swan contends that these assertions based on "communicative" teaching are not based on any empirical evidence as to the efficacy of the teaching approaches they promote. An important question to ask may be how important process is to get to the product. For example, Swan says learners do not come to class to be counseled or to refine their learning strategies, but to be taught the target language. Accordingly, they are more ideological in nature. Also, he criticizes the notion of prioritizing the quality of life (Allwright, 2003) in classrooms and the idea that how, not what, students learns (Ellis, 2003) is more important. As Swan points out balance is needed between teaching accuracy and fluency, the balance between product and process is also important.

The communicative bias (Swan)

Swan argues that current language learning and a large number of language teachers are being influenced by the communicative approach, which he labels as a fashionable applied linguistic theory. He finds that teachers are taking the communicative natural acquisition bias for granted. By concentrating on comprehensible input and communicative tasks incorporating incidental focus on form, language itself is no longer at the center, but replaced by the activities themselves. Swan contends that while it is necessary to defend communicative approaches, it is also equally necessary to contest it; that there is no obvious why meaning should be prioritized over form.

Synthetic Syllabus

Synthetic syllabi involve a focus on specific elements of the language system (such as grammatical structures, or language functions), often serially and in a linear sequence. These syllabi assume the learner will be able to put together, or synthesize in real-world performance, the parts of the language system they have been exposed to separately.

Project factors

Team complexion - member selection, size, experience, skills, dynamics, commitment, consensus, responsibilities Constraints - time, resources, personnel Goals - decision making, performance & progress review.

Waterfall model of curriculum design

Tessemer and Wedmen (1990). Where one stage of curriculum design, for example environment analysis, is done thoroughly, and then the next stage of needs analysis is done thoroughly, and so on in much the same way as the flow of water fills one container in a stepped-down series and then flows over to fill the next. The output of one stage becomes the input of the next.

Affective goals

The affective domain refers to the those aspects of learning that are related to feelings, emotions, degrees of acceptance, values, biases, and so forth. Affective goals would be those goals in a program that are designed to alter or increase such cognitive factors. Objectives in the affective domain often address the processes of learning rather than the language content and may be fairly general in nature.

Teaching

The choice as to the best, or the most appropriate, or the most effective, way of teaching a language is 'a clear and classic applied linguistic problem' (Cook 2003: 38), with important implications not just for classroom teaching, but for materials and curriculum design, for teacher education, and for educational policy-making in general. The way that teachers address this problem in their classroom teaching constitutes their methodology: Methodology can be characterized as the activities, tasks, and learning experiences selected by the teacher in order to achieve learning, and how they are used within the teaching/ learning process. (Richards 1990: 11) Methodology, then is the how of teaching. But also implicated are the what, the why and the who. That is, teachers' choices of activities, tasks, and learning experiences will be influenced by their (implicit or explicit) theories of language and of learning, as well as by their assessment of the requirements, learning styles and abilities of their learners.

Series units of progression vs. field units of progression

The units of progression in a course are the items that are used to grade the progress of the course. The units of progression can be classified into two types - those that progress in a definite series, such as vocabulary levels (i.e. word frequency levels which are similar to those used in grading the levels of simplified readers), and those that represent a field of knowledge that could be covered in any order, such as topics. The order of items within a field is determined by pedagogical considerations and constraints such as keeping the learners' interest, making use of available resources, and allowing for recycling of material.

Power-coercive change

This is a top down type of change. Kennedy (1987), drawing on Chin and Benne (1970) describes this as one of the three major approaches to change, where change is achieved through authority, rules and top-down pressure. Power-coercive involves less time than rational-empirical which involves less time than normative-re-educative. Change is more likely to occur if people see that it has the support of authority such as government, the education department and school administration (power-coercive). Power-coercive change is complementary to rational-empirical change and normative-re-educative change.

Authenticity

Various concepts of authenticity (and contrivance), however, Gilmore used Morrow's (1997) definition as a basis for analysis: 'a stretch of real language, produced by a real speaker or writer for a real audience and designed to convey a real message of some sort'. Further narrowed down, the goal of classroom materials is 'to produce learners who are able to communicate effectively (competently) in the TL of a particular speech community, leading to observations of the gap between authentic language and textbook language. Communicative competence research in the fields of conversation analysis, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics has produced a growing awareness of discourse, i.e. what language is and what we use it for, leading for calls for a change in syllabus and material design. The central debate is to what degree of authenticity materials can be to the advantage of learners and the SLA research-grounded theories that drive text modification and/or elaboration.

Teacher beliefs

What teachers do in the classroom is to some extent going to be determined by what they believe. The importance of examining the role that teacher beliefs play in deciding what happens in the classroom has been increasingly recognised in language education research. Introducing change to teachers, then, means addressing teacher beliefs because what teachers believe affects how they teach (Garton, 2008). At the same time, however, it is important to remember that teacher beliefs and teacher behaviour in the classroom are not necessarily the same. Contextual factors can either facilitate or constrain teaching practice based on teacher beliefs. Teacher beliefs must be addressed. Beliefs and behavior are not the same (the importance of context). Professional development can be helpful. Understanding what teachers already believe can be helpful.

Central design

With central design, curriculum development starts with the selection of teaching activities, techniques and methods rather than with the elaboration of a detailed language syllabus or specification of learning outcomes. Issues related to input and output are dealt with after a methodology has been chosen or developed or during the process of teaching itself. Rather than starting their planning processes by detailed considerations of input or output, they start by thinking about the activities they will use in the classroom. While they assume that the exercises and activities they make use of will contribute to successful learning outcomes, it is the classroom processes they seek to provide for their learners that are generally their initial focus.

Communicative Methodology

a methodology of language teaching that focuses on the communication of messages. The procedure includes activities encouraging meaningful exchanges such as information-gap tasks, role plays, and simulations. Fluency, authentic reading and listening materials are promoted, along with skills of skimming and scanning. Some scholars in the eighties argued that if communication is the aim, the major focus should be the process. Implementing this strong form of communicative language teaching led to the creation of task-based language teaching (TLBT).

The skill syllabus

a skills-based syllabus organizes materials around the language or academic skills that a teacher thinks the students will most need in order to use and continue to learn the language. For instance, a reading course might include such skills as skimming a reading for the general idea, scanning a reading for specific information, guessing vocabulary from context, using prefixes, suffixes and roots and so on. THe selection of skills is based on the author's perception of their usefulness, while their sequencing is usually based on some sense of the chronology, frequency, or relative usefulness of the skills.

The task syllabus

a task-based syllabus is organized around different types of tasks that the students might be required to perform in the language. This might include reading job ads, making appointments, writing a resume, filling out a job application and so on. An author's selection of the tasks to be included in a task-based syllabus i typically based on their perceived usefulness to the students. Practitioners of TBLT believe in the value of interaction. Most practitioners say a task is an activity where students use their own linguistic resources, focus primarily on meaning (i.e. communication), and work together to achieve a goal that is not a linguistic one, resulting in a situation that somehow reflects real world activities (Willis & Willis, 2007).

Norm-referenced test (NRT)

a test which is designed to measure how the performance of a particular student or group of students compares with the performance of another group of students whose scores are given as the norm. A student's score is therefore interpreted with reference to the scores of other students or groups of students, rather than to an agreed criterion score.

Criterion-referenced test (CRT)

a test which measures a student's performance according to a particular standard or criterion which has been agreed upon. The student must reach this level of performance to pass the test, and a student's score is therefore interpreted with reference to the criterion score, rather than to the scores of other students. A CRT is used to determine to what degree the learners have mastered the goals and objectives outlined in the course. Thus, a test with strong validity in a well-designed course will closely represent what learners covered throughout the course. CRT's come in the form of achievement tests and diagnostic tests. Though each serve different purposes, they are similar in that students know exactly what content will be on the test, though the form may differ from how they learned it in class. Achievement tests tend to produce a limited range of high scores, and thus are not ideal for programs where standard distribution is encouraged/expected by the administration. Disagreement or lack of understanding of the nature of CRTs and NRTs can cause significant friction between teachers and other parties representing the institution.

Gantt diagrams

a two-axis figure with time divisions labeled across the horizontal axis and task divisions down the vertical axis. It is a useful technique for representing the different steps involved in large-scale materials development and implementations projects. It is also useful for providing an overview that can be understood at a glance. It shows all the tasks involved and the time frames in which each task must be begun and completed.

Scope and sequence chart

a way to express a course structure. It delineates the repetitive elements of the curriculum in an efficient manner that minimizes redundancy. Given a certain time frame (often expressed in the number of hours of instruction), the syllabus should be thought out in terms of units of analysis and then in terms of curriculum scope and sequence.

Materials

according to Brown, materials is defined as any systematic description of the techniques and- exercises to be used in classroom teaching. It is broad enough to encompass lesson plans and can accommodate books, audiovisuals, games, etc., that go on in the language classroom. The key in developing sound materials is to ensure that they are described and organized well enough so that teachers can use them with no confusion and with a minimum of preparation time. The surest test of the viability of a set of materials is for a teacher to be able to implement them without any aid from their original creator. If that teacher is successful, the chances are that the materials are systematically and clearly described.

Modular approaches to sequencing

breaks a course into independent non-linear units. These units may be parts of lessons, lessons or groups of lessons. Each unit or module is complete in itself and does not usually assume knowledge of previous modules. It is not unusual for a modular approach to be accompanied by criterion-referenced testing with a high level of mastery set as the criterion.

Testing

according to Nation and Mcalister, testing is one way of gaining information about the progress of the learners as well as the effectiveness of the course. An important distinction in testing is between norm-referenced tests like proficiency tests and placement tests, which measures the learners' knowledge of the language relative to each other, and criterion-referenced tests like achievement tests and diagnosis tests, which measures what has been learned from a particular course based on a given criteria. Proficiency and placement tests may be used to measure a learner's level of language knowledge before entering a course. Students are therefore not told the contents of the test Achievement and diagnostic tests are closely related to a course and the items in the tests are based on the content of the course and the learning goals of the course. Tests can be summative when evaluation of achievement is needed, or formative, when teachers need to check what students know to fortify weak points. Testing should validly represent the goals and content of the course, and should be carefully designed to present a challenge but allow students to demonstrate their progress.

Analytic Syllabus

analytic syllabi do not divide up the language to be presented in classrooms, but involve holistic use of language to perform communicative activities. The learner's role in these syllabi is to analyze or attend to aspects of language use and structure as the communicative activities require them to, in line with: (1) their developing interlanguage systems; (2) their preferred learning style and aptitude profile; and (3) to the extent that they are motivated to develop to an accuracy level which may not be required by the communicative demands of the task.

Classroom observation

any situation in which the teacher is being observed for whatever reasons in the act of teaching. The observation may be for purposes of helping teachers grow, for needs analysis, for research, or for teacher performance evaluation. Teachers seems to prefer a mix of facilitative and authoritative observation feedback, but evaluators tend to value purely facilitative, in the form supportive comments, self-reflection (catalytic), and problem-sharing (cathartic). Thus, it may be necessary to use a blend of feedback methods after classroom observation (Yurekli, 2013). Moreover, if supportive feedback is given, it must be genuine and be balanced with giving teachers ways to improve.

Syllabuses

are a description of the contents of a course of instruction and the sequential order in which they are to be taught. Language teaching syllabuses may be based on different criteria such as (a) grammatical items and vocabulary, and (b) the language needed for different types of situations, and (c) the meanings and communicative functions which the learner needs to express in the target language, (d) the skills underlying different language behavior, and (e) the text types learners need to master.

Natural and Humanist Approaches

are approaches to language teaching originally based on Chomsky's generative grammar, where deep and abstract theories of language learning are triggered to life by simple exposure to the target language. Chomsky's claim spawned two other theories, Krashen's natural approach and Asher's total physical response, both assuming language acquisition follows a predetermined path and under the right conditions, this natural route can be activated for L2 learning. Around the same time during the seventies, humanistic education, which prioritizes personal growth and self-realizations under a positive affective environment led to other approaches such as the silent way, community language learning, and suggestopedia. Although these practices never became mainstream, these ideas of autonomy such as learner-centeredness and self-directed learning have permeated into orthodox practices.

Product Approach

are associated with high-constraint contexts where teachers are obliged to follow a comprehensive, often externally developed syllabus. Product-oriented approaches are dominant in ELT and form the foundation of most courses based on commercial textbooks as well as those that aim to develop skills and knowledge in English for academic or specific purposes. In the current educational climate, their influence appears to be strengthening.

Achievement testing/decisions

are central to any language curriculum. We are in the business of fostering achievement in the form of language learning. Well-considered achievement decisions are based on tests from which a great deal can be learned about the program. These tests should, in turn, be flexible and responsive in the sense that their results can be used to affect changes and to continually assess those changes against the program realities.

Diagnostic testing/decisions

are focused on the strengths and weaknesses of each individual vis-a-vis to the instructional objectives for purposes of correcting deficiencies "before it's too late." Diagnostic tests are typically administered at the beginning or in the middle of a course. Diagnostic decisions are aimed at fostering achievement by prompting strengths and eliminating weaknesses.

Techniques

are ways of presenting the language to the students. Techniques form a category of teaching activities that seem relatively independent from approaches and syllabuses. Techniques are typically chosen because they represent ways of presenting language material which the teacher feels are going to do the most good for the largest number of students. Techniques are often mistake for exercises or activities. In some cases, however, techniques and exercises are virtually impossible to delineate (e.g., TBLT, dictogloss, The Silent Way). Other cases are more clear, like in presentation-practice-production.

Qualitative evaluation studies

calls for information consisting of data that is more holistic; based on observations that do not necessary convert to quantities or numbers. Procedures to collect data include records analysis, literature review, letter writing, case studies, diary studies, behavior observation, individual/group interviews, opinion surveys, etc. While qualitative evaluation studies seem to lack credibility in the Western "scientific" tradition, Brown states that these data are potentially a valuable source of information that may be crucial to the decision-making of a program. In the end, the goal of qualitative research is ultimately very similar to that for quantitative research: to collect data in order to analyze them in such a way that patterns emerge so that sense can be made of the results and the quality of the program can be evaluated. Both types should be gathered periodically on each of the curriculum components so that not only each can be revised and improved, but also that the degree of overall success of the entire program can be assessed.

Quantitative evaluation studies

calls for the gathering of information using measures that produce results in the form of numbers. Procedures to collect data include proficiency tests, placement tests, diagnostic tests, achievement tests, self-ratings, etc. The importance of using quantitative data is not so much in the collection of the data, but in the analysis of the data; which should be carried out in such a way that patterns emerge. With "luck" these patterns will help to make sense of the results and assess the quality and effectiveness of the program. A classic example of an evaluation study consists of subjects (usually students) divided (preferably on a random basis) into two groups: an experimental group and a control group: The experimental group is the one that receives the treatment, while the control group receives no treatment. Effectiveness of the treatment is determined through observation (such as comparing the procedures listed above). Brown adds that these studies are generally more difficult to conduct because planners face not only the problem of designing an airtight study, but some may also misuse (or abuse) statistical knowledge in making an analysis.

The Postmethod Condition

coined by Kumaravadivelu, it calls for teachers to adapt their approach in accordance with local, contextual factors while at the same time being guided by a number of macrostrategies that are derived from current theories. Two examples include "maximize learning opportunities" and "promote learner autonomy." Although a number of scholars had announced the death of methods since, the notions of methods have not seem to have entirely disappeared. Kumaravadivelu notes that as ELT is becoming a global industry with high economic stakes, methodology, despite a nominal allegiance to CLT, is driven by the industry.

Adopt, adapt, or develop

connected to authenticity. Brown states that with at least preliminary sets of needs analyses, objectives, and tests in hand, curriculum planners are in the unusual position of being able to deal rationally with the problem of materials, that is, the decision as to which strategy to use (adopt, develop, or adapt) in putting materials in place is itself made easier. Questions such as "Can already existing materials be adopted to fill the needs of the students?" or, "if there are no ready-made materials available, should they be developed from scratch?" or "should existing materials be adapted to meet the students' needs and the program's objectives?" can be asked. In order to reach this stage, it is first necessary to have clear-cut needs analyses, objectives, and tests.

Method

describes different plans for presenting language to students in an orderly manner according to Anthony. Anthony's examples of methods include mim-mem (mimic-memorize) and pattern practice, which he further describes as two ways of presenting the material within the single aural-oral approach.

Needs Analysis

directed mainly at the goals and content of a course. It examines what the learners know already and what they need to know. Needs analysis makes sure the course will contain relevant and useful things to learn. Good needs analysis involves asking the right questions and finding the answers in the most effective way. They can take place at the beginning, during, and at the end of a course, but are essential from the outset. It is not easy to decide what to focus on, but Brown's (1995) three dimensions help: situation vs. language needs, objective vs. subjective needs, and linguistic content vs. learning processes. Sources of information include tests, observations, interviews, meetings, and questionnaires. Also, any methods of data collection need to have reliability, validity, and usability (Brown, 1995). For example, if a checklist for interaction in class is chosen as a procedure, it should be tried out a few times before full implementation to make sure the results are similar. Moreover, that checklist must closely mirror the type of things students do in class, and must be straightforward enough for teachers to implement. "There will always be tension between reliable and valid needs analysis and practical needs analysis. A compromise is necessary but validity should always be given priority" (Nation & Macalister, 2010, p. 31).

The structural syllabus

focuses on grammatical forms according to McKay. The structures that are selected for such a syllabus are usually those the author regards as important in the language. The sequencing of the structures is typically based on the idea of starting with easy structures and gradually progressing to more difficult ones. Materials based on a structural syllabus are easy to identify because the table of contents is organized around grammar points.

Cognitive goals

in a language program, the cognitive domain appropriately refers to the kinds of language knowledge and language skills the students will be learning in the program. In other words, any cognitive goals in language teaching might better be termed language goals, that is, the language learning content of the program. The cognitive domain was defined and outlined in 1956 by Bloom.

Decision-facilitation approaches

in these approaches, evaluators attempt to avoid making judgements. Instead, they favor gathering information that will help the administrators and faculty in the program make their own judgements and decision. Examples of this approach are the CIPP, CSE, and Discrepancy models of evaluation. CIPP, is an acronym for Context (rationale for objectives), Input (utilization of resources for achieving objectives), Process (periodic feedback to decision makers), and Product (measurement and interpretation of attainments during and at the end of a program). The CSE model is named after the acronym for the Center for Study of Evaluation at UCLA. Similar to the CIPP model, this is an approach designed to help in decision making. The discrepancy model as advocated by Provus (1971) was also designed with decision making. Provus defined the evaluation as follows: (1) defining program standards; (2) determining whether a discrepancy exists between some aspect of program performance and the standards governing that aspect of the program; and (3) using discrepancy information either to change performance or to change program standards.

Cascade model of diffusion

in this model, a small number of teachers attend train-the-trainer workshops in preparation to train other teachers using the information that they learned at the workshop. Younger teachers can benefit a lot from these workshops. It is a good model if you have a big staff and if teachers are in different stages of their careers.

Proficiency testing/decisions

involve tests that are general in nature (and not specific to any particular program) because proficiency decisions require general estimates of students' proficiency levels. Such decisions may be necessary in determining exit and entrance standards for a curriculum, in adjusting the level of goals and objectives to the true abilities of the students, or in making comparisons across programs. Proficiency tests are very general in detail of information, function to determine students' levels as compared to each other and are used as an external standard to determine if students qualify for entry to a program. Results of proficiency tests allow for comparison with other programs, and are often administered at the end of programs as well. Proficiency tests are designed to provide a wide range of scores and to assign students a percentile ranking. For these reasons, proficiency tests are called norm-referenced. Students must perform a range of skills and are evaluated on their proficiency compared to one another.

Summative assessment

involves the use of tasks to make-high stakes decisions concerning L2 learning. The most well-known summative assessments include mastery tests and achievement tests.

Formative assessment

involves the use of tasks to provide feedback to language learners. It is administered before completion of a course and have a much closer relationship to instruction because their results feed back into classroom teaching. Formative assessment is often done in the form of achievement or diagnostic tests (criterion-referenced), such as vocabulary quizzes or practice presentations, and serves the purpose of revealing what students' need more work on. Formative assessment may be very informal in nature as well. For instance, teachers may provide students with brief comments about their performance on daily speaking activities in a communicative course. Another example of formative assessment is when deadlines are set for drafts in a writing course, those drafts are graded, and returned with feedback.

Bloom's taxonomy

is a set of three hierarchical models used to classify educational learning objectives into levels of complexity and specificity. The three lists cover the learning objectives in cognitive, affective and sensory domains. The cognitive domain list has been the primary focus of most traditional education and is frequently used to structure curriculum learning objectives, assessments and activities. Helps set the complexity of activities: Knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

Behavioral Approach

is an approach to language teaching based on the fundamental principles from Skinner's behaviorial psychology where pattern-practice drills were done repetitively in order for habit-formation to occur. This vindicated practices such as audiolingualism and the Direct Method. However, combined with Chomsky's theory of generative grammar, audiolingualism received a fatal blow as it was found that focusing on sentence patterns at the expense of creativity impeded second language fluency.

Functional Approaches

is an approach to language teaching started in Britain in the mid-twentieth century in which teachers began to use situations to contextualize grammar items, avoiding the need for translation or explanation. Situational presentations incorporated into the PPP model design. This type of situational language teaching along with Hymes study on communicative competence led to the communicative approach, and subsequently, the redesign of syllabuses to include communicative functions and semantic notions rather than grammatical structures.

Consistent instruction

is the first of the qualities important to sound language teaching. The results of the learning process in a program should be consistent over time and between sections of the same course. An example of this would be a program in which the instruction was very effective, but only some of the time; or a pair of sections of the same course that are supposedly alike, but that have teachers who deliver completely different results.

Summative evaluation

is usually characterized as occurring at the end of a program. The purpose for gathering information in a summative evaluation is to determine the degree to which the program was successful, efficient, and effective. The decisions that result from summative evaluations tend to cause sweeping changes and are fairly large in scale.

Static-characteristic approaches

like product-oriented approaches, static-characteristic evaluation is also performed to determine the effectiveness of a particular program. This type of evaluation is conducted by outside experts who inspect a program by examining various accounting and academic records, as well as such static characteristics as the number of library books, the number and types of degrees held by the faculty, the student-to-teacher ratio, the number and seating capacity of classrooms, the parking facilities, and so forth.

Peer observation

peers are another effective resource for helping to monitor teachers in a way that contributes to the professional development of both the observer and the teacher. If each teacher is required to observe at least two other instructors who are teaching the same or similar courses, they're bound to learn something of use in terms of teaching content, style, organization, atmosphere, attitudes, or any number of other classroom characteristics. A way to implement this is to have teachers submit lessons plans several days before the observation is to take place (to avoid all-nighters), to require a self-reflection a day or two after the class, and then ask another colleague to respond to that self-reflection, thus allowing them to grade their level of criticism based on the response of the teacher they observed (Doe, 2017).

Approaches

preconceptions, assumptions, and theoretical underpinnings for what happens in the classroom. There are five different approaches. The Classical Approach - based on notions of Latin usage and belief in humanistic tradition. The Grammar-Translation Approach advocated economy of time through deductive teaching of language involving reading and translation. The Direct Approach drew on the work of Gouin, stating that language teachers believed that students needed to learn inductively by using only target language in the classroom and learning oral skills before written ones. The Audiolingual Approach focused on listening and drew on ideas from descriptive linguistics.

Orientation

preferably before the instruction period begins, but certainly as soon as possible, new teachers should be oriented to the language program in which they are working. Instructors who have already been teaching in the program for a while may also benefit from periodic reorientation - especially if the program has a dynamic, rapidly evolving curriculum. Such a meeting may take many forms. An orientation meeting might consist of nothing more than a one hour get-together during which the teachers are given the basic information they will need to accomplish their jobs.

Process Approach

process approaches advise teachers not to attempt to specify details of course content in advance of teaching and to reinterpret existing pre-specifications through shared decision making with learners. In these types of courses, the syllabus is produced retrospectively through the results from explicit negotiations with learners about their needs and wishes. Gains made by learners in their understanding of learning processes are highly valued. Teacher roles include organizer and facilitator in an open, collaborative environment, while learners take on curriculum creation and negotiation responsibilities. Process-oriented approaches are associated with courses in low-constraint contexts where teachers have considerable curriculum-making freedom and flexibility. The approach underpins task-based courses and those with a humanistic orientation.

Linear approaches to sequencing

progression begins with simple concepts that build on to greater complexity often featuring a lack of repetition of items. Such a development has the disadvantages of not easily taking account of absenteeism, learners with different styles and speeds of learning, and the need for recycling material. This can be remedied with approaches such as matrix or spiral (Bruner, 1976) sequences.

Placement testing/decisions

should be based on instruments that are either designed with a specific program in mind or, at least, seriously examined for their appropriateness to a specific program. The tests upon which placement decisions are based should either be specifically designed for a given program (and/or track within a program) or, at least, carefully examined and selected to reflect the goals and ability levels in the program.

Situation needs vs. language needs

situation needs refers to a program's human aspects, that is, the physical, social, and psychological contexts in which learning takes place. Such needs are usually related to any administrative, financial, logistical, manpower, pedagogic, religious, cultural, personal, or other factors that might have an impact on the program. Language needs are about the target linguistic behaviors that the learners must ultimately acquire. Information in this category would include details about the circumstances in which the language will be used, the dimensions of language competence involved, the learners' reasons for studying the language, their present abilities with respect to those reasons, and so forth. Brown states that this distinction is not a clear cut dichotomy since the two categories are often interrelated. In addition, when making an analysis, needs analysts must consider a balance: are language needs more important· than situation needs, or should a balance be struck between the two?

Objectives

specific statements that describe the particular knowledge, behaviors, and/or skills that the learner will be expected to know or perform at the end of a course or a program. Direct assessment of the objectives at the end of a course will provide evidence that the instructional objective, and by extension the program goals, have been achieved, or have not been achieved. It is important to make sure the different between goals and objectives is clear. Level of generality-specificity is what distinguishes goals and objectives from each other, with objectives being the more discrete of the two. Both lie on a continuum, with something like "improving presentation skills" being at the general end, and Mager's (1975) instructional objectives on the specific end.

Formative evaluation

takes place during the ongoing curriculum development processes. The aim of this type of evaluation is to collect and analyze the information that will help in improving the curriculum. The types of decisions that result from formative evaluation are usually numerous and relatively small in scale because such decisions are meant to result in modifications to and fine tuning of an existing curriculum.

Linguistic content vs. learning process

the linguistic position tends to favor needs analyzed objectively from a language needs perspective and spelled out in linguistic terms, whether they be phonemes, morphemes, grammatical structures, functions etc. The learning process position learns toward needs specified from a situation needs perspective; those tend to be more subjectively analyzed needs in the affective domain, such as motivation and self-esteem.

Informed Eclecticism

the practice of (or belief in) making informed choices among the available approaches, syllabuses, techniques, and exercises in order to adapt to (or not select it for) a particular group of students in a particular situation for the purposes of most effectively and, efficiently helping them to learn language. The word eclecticism has been negatively connotated with disorganized teaching. Thus, the term informed eclecticism has been used instead to describe rational choices made by the teacher based on knowledge and experience.

Process-oriented approaches to program evaluation

the shift to this type of evaluation was due to the realization that meeting program goals and objectives, while important, was not very helpful in facilitating curriculum revision, change, and improvements. Scriven and Stake were two of the most important advocates of process-oriented approaches. Scriven's model (1967) distinguished between formative and summative evaluation and he advocated what was called a goal-free evaluation, which limits are not set on studying the expected effects of the program vis-a-vis the goals. Stake's (1967) approach was called the countenance model.

Evaluation

the systematic collection and analysis of all relevant information necessary to promote the improvement of the curriculum and to assess its effectiveness within the context of the particular institutions involved. The evaluation process should be a sort of ongoing needs assessment, but one based on considerably more and better information. There is a constant feedback loop between evaluation and all other aspects of a systematic approach to curriculum design. Thus, a change in one may result in the necessity to adapt another. This occurs by way of evaluation, as it "includes, connects, and gives meaning to all the other elements" (Brown, 1995, p. 217). Course designers must make decisions regarding process vs. product, qualitative vs. quantitative data gathering and analysis, and formative vs. summative assessment when doing program evaluation.

Product-oriented approaches to program evaluation

when these approaches are used, the focus of evaluation is on the goals and instructional objectives with the purpose of determining whether they have been achieved. The primary advocates of this approach were scholars like Tyler, Hammond, and Merfessel and Michael.