LANGUAGE
CURRICULUM DESIGN : AN OVERVIEW
Lecturer
: Dr. Gustaman Saragih, M.Pd
|
By :
UNIVERSITAS
INDRAPRASTA PGRI
FAKULTAS
PASCASARJANA
2018
PREFACE
Thank to Almighty God who has given
His bless to the writer for finishing this paper entitled “English Curriculum
Design: An Overview”. And we would like to say thank you to Dr. Saragih. as the lecturer who always teaches
us and give much knowledge about the curriculum design.
We realized this paper is not perfect, but we hope it can be useful for us. Critics and
suggestion is needed here to make this paper be better.Hopefully, this paper can help the
readers to expand their knowledge the curriculum design.
Jakarta, October 7th 2018
Author
TABLE OF CONTENT
PREFACE...............................................................................................1
Chapter I INTRODUCTION..............................................................3
A.
BACKROUND.......................................................................................3
B.
QUESTIONS.........................................................................................4
C.
GOALS..................................................................................................4
Chapter II
DISCUSSION....................................................................5
A. Definition and Parts of the
Curriculum Design Process........5
B.
Considering
the Environments..................................................7
C.
Discovering
Needs.................................................................................8
D.
Following
Principles.............................................................................9
E.
Goals.....................................................................................................10
F.
Content and Sequencing.....................................................................11
G.
Finding a Format and Presenting
Materials.....................................13
H.
Monitoring and
Assessing...................................................................14
I.
Evaluating a
Course............................................................................15
Chapter III
CONCLUSION..............................................................16
Summary..................................................................................17
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
A. BACKROUND
Designing
a curriculum is ideally something that is first of all effective and matches
assessment with what is taught on a course. However, it also aims to give
students a broader perspective. This approach to design is not only shaped by
knowledge of your subject but by the many internal and external influences that
impact on the academic content of the University’s modules and programmes. (University of Sheffield.ac.uk)
These
influences include:
- Departmental and institutional Learning and Teaching
assessment strategies
- Broader debates in Higher
Education and assessment strategies
- Professional accreditation
requirements
For
many, an essential step in the design and development of the curriculum is an
understanding of the role of Constructive Alignment (Biggs, 1999). Its primary focus is to ensure that there is a
clear and direct relationship between the learning outcomes students are
expected to meet, the methods by which they are assessed and the learning
activities designed to enable them to achieve the Intended Learning
Outcomes. Consequently, this process needs to be both transparent to students
and across a department.
One
of the many influences in shaping the design of the curriculum is the
expectations for aSheffield Graduate. By the time they graduate, the University aims to enable all graduates
to demonstrate that they are:
- Knowledgeable in their subject
- A skilled and ethical
researcher
- A critical, analytical and
creative thinker
- An entrepreneurial problem
solver
- Information literate
- Skilled in the use of it
- An efficient planner and time
manager
- A flexible team worker
- An accomplished communicator
- An independent learner
- An active citizen who respects
diversity
- Culturally agile and able to
work in multinational settings
- Professional and adaptable
- Well rounded, reflective, self
aware and self motivated
- Competent in applying their
skills and knowledge
In
addition to providing students with specific goals, this definition can serve
as a framework for us in creating a curriculum that supports the students in
meeting these objectives. (University of Sheffield)
B. QUESTIONS
A.
What is the
defenition of Curriculum Design ?
B.
What are the parts as
a whole in Language Curriculum Design : An overview ?
C.
What are the big components in Language Curriculum Design : An overview ?
D.
How is the function
of its instrument ?
C. GOALS
A. To understand the defenition of curriculum design an
overview.
B. To get to know the parts or big
ideas about designing course an overview.
C. Know the function of each
instruments and consider the use of it.
CHAPTER 2
DISCUSSION
A. Definition and Parts of the
Curriculum Design Process
Figure 1.1 A
model of the parts ( Mercedes Symbol ) of the curriculum design process.
Curriculum
design can be seen as a kind of writing, gathering, ordering, reviewing,
editing ideas and information activity which are :
— Sistematically
arranged
— Based on
experience,and
— According to
scientifically proven concept
and as such it can usefully be studied as a process.
The typical sub-processes of the writing process (gathering ideas, ordering
ideas, ideas to text, reviewing, editing) can be applied to curriculum design,
but it makes it easier to draw on current curriculum design theory and practice
if a different set of parts is used. The curriculum design model in Figure 1.1
consists of three outside circles and a subdivided inner circle. The outer
circles (principles, environment, needs) involve practical and theoretical
considerations that will have a major effect in guiding the actual process of
course production. There is a wide range of factors to consider when designing
a course. These include the learners’ present knowledge and lacks, the
resources available including time, the skill of the teachers, the curriculum
designer’s strengths and limitations, and principles of teaching and learning.
If factors such as these are not considered then the course may be unsuited to
the situation and learners for which it is used, and may be ineffective and
inefficient as a means of encouraging learning. In the curriculum design
process these factors are considered in three sub-processes, environment
analysis, needs analysis and the application of principles. The result of environment
analysis is a ranked list of factors and a consideration of the effects of
these factors on the design. The result of needs analysis is a realistic list
of language, ideas or skill items, as a result of considering the present
proficiency, future needs and wants of the learners. The application of
principles involves first of all deciding on the most important principles to
apply and monitoring their application through the whole design process. The
result of applying principles is a course where learning is given the greatest
support. Some curriculum designers distinguish curriculum from syllabus. In the
model, both the outer circles and the inner circle make up the curriculum.
The inner
circle represents the syllabus. The inner circle has goals as its centre. This
is meant to reflect the importance of having clear general goals for a course.
The content and sequencing Chapter 1 part of the inner circle represents the
items to learn in a course, and the order in which they occur, plus the ideas
content if this is used as a vehicle for the items and not as a goal in itself.
Language courses must give consideration to the language content of a course
even if this is not presented in the course as a discrete item. Consideration
of content makes sure that there is something useful for the learners to learn
to advance their control of the language, that they are getting the best return
for learning effort in terms of the usefulness of what they will meet in the
course, and that they are covering all the things they need to cover for a
balanced knowledge of the language. The format and presentation part of the
inner circle represents the format of the lessons or units of the course,
including the techniques and types of activities that will be used to help
learning. This is the part of the course that the learners are most aware of.
It is important that it is guided by the best available principles of teaching
and learning.
The
monitoring and assessment part of the inner circle represents the need to give
attention to observing learning, testing the results of learning, and providing
feedback to the learners about their progress. It is often not a part of
commercially designed courses. It provides information that can lead to changes
at most of the other parts of the curriculum design process. It is possible to
imagine a large circle drawn completely around the whole model. This large
outer circle represents evaluation. Evaluation can involve looking at every
aspect of a course to judge if the course is adequate and where it needs
improvement. It is generally a neglected aspect of curriculum design. Chapters
2 to 8 of this book examine each of the parts of the curriculum design process
in detail, drawing on relevant theory and research. It is possible to design
courses without drawing on relevant research, theory and experience. In all but
a few fortunate cases this results in common faults in curriculum design being
made yet again. The shape of the model in Figure 1.1 is designed to make it easy
to remember. The three-part shape that occurs in each of the outer circles (the
“Mercedes” symbol) also occurs in the large inner circle, and also occurs in
the way the three outer circles connect to the inner circle. In this first
chapter of this book, we will look briefly at an overview of the parts of the
curriculum design process that will be looked at in more detail in the
following chapters of the book, with each of the early chapters focusing on a
different part of the model.
In the other hand, the list of curriculum process also
includes these following terms :
1.
Diagnosis of
needs
2.
Formulation
of objectives
3.
Selection of
content
4.
Organization
of content
5.
Selection of
learning experience
6.
Organization
of learning experiences
7.
Determinination
of what to evaluate,and the means to evaluate.
B. CONSIDERING
THE ENVIRONMENTS
Environment analysis involves considering the factors
of the situation in which the course will be used and determining how the
course should take account of them. One way of approaching environment analysis
is to work from a list of questions which focus on the nature of the learners,
the teachers and the teaching situation. There is value in spending some time
on these questions particularly if the answers are ranked according to
something like the following instructions and criterion.
Choose three factors which will have the strongest
effect on the design of the course. Rank these three from the factor which will
most determine what you should do to the one which has the least influence of
the three.
Here
are some of the top factors decided on by several teachers designing different
courses for different learners.
1.
One teacher decided that the learners’ lack of interest
in learning English should be the major factor influencing curriculum design.
Thelearners were obliged to do an English course as part of their degree but
received no credit for it. This meant that the teacher’s goal of making the
course as interesting and motivating as possible guided the design of the
course, particularly the format and presentation of lessons.
2.
One teacher decided that the learners’ plan to move on
to academic study in university or technical institute courses should have
the greatest effect on design of the
English course. This had a far-reaching effect on the language items and the
language skills focused on, and the type of learning activity.
3. One teacher decided that the externally designed and
administered test at the end of the
course should be the major factor. This meant that the course book always had to make
it obvious to the learners that the work they were doing was directly related
to the test.
Here
is a short list of some of the other factors that teachers considered
most
important.
•
The small amount of time available for the course
•
The large size of the classes
•
The wide range of proficiency in the class
•
The immediate survival needs of the learners
•
The lack of appropriate reading materials
•
The teachers’ lack of experience and training
•
The learners’ use of the first language in the classroom
•
The need for the learners to be more autonomous
There are many examples of unsuccessful curriculum
design where the
background
questions were not considered. Here are some examples :
1. The communicatively based course which was
deserted by its
Vietnamese
learners because they were not getting the grammar teaching
that
they expected. They set up their own grammar-based course.
2.
The course for Agricultural students which had a
simplified version of
The
Moonstone by Wilkie Collins as its main reading text. Some of the
learners
produced their own translation of it which they copied and sold
to
other learners. They saw no value in coming to grips with its content
through
English.
3. The adult conversation course which began with the
game “Simon
Says”.
Half the students stopped attending after the first lesson. There is
no
conversation in “Simon Says”.
Each
important factor needs to be accompanied by one or more effects. For
example,
the factor “the large size of the class” could have the following
effects
on the curriculum design.
a.
A large amount
of group work.
b.
Use of special
large class techniques like oral reproduction, blackboard
reproduction,
the pyramid procedure involving the individual–pair–
group–class
sequence (Nation and Newton, 2009).
c.
Independent work or individualised tasks.
The
importance of environment analysis is that it makes sure that the course
will
really be suitable, practical and realistic.
C. DISCOVERING NEEDS
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) make a
useful division of learners’ needs into :
1.
Necessities (what the learner has to know to function effectively).
2.
Lacks (what the learner knows and does not know
already) and
3.
Wants (what thelearners think they need).
These are discovered by a variety of means: by
testing, by questioning and interviewing, by recalling previous performance, by
consulting employers, teachers and others involved, by collecting data such as
textbooks and manuals that the learners will have to read and analysing them,
and by investigating the situations where the learners will need to use the
language. Ways of doing needs analysis can be evaluated by the same general
criteria used to evaluate tests – reliability, validity and practicality.
Necessities, lacks and wants may all involve some kind
of comparison or
reference
to lists of items which can act as the learning goals of the course. An exception to this is to base the course on
what the learners request. In this case the lists are created by the learners.
This is effective if the learners have very clear purposes for learning English
which they are aware of. For example, a course for immigrants who have been in
the country a few
months
could very effectively be based on a list of things that they suggest they want
to be able to do in English. We will look more closely at this in the chapter
on negotiated syllabuses.
D. FOLLOWING PRINCIPLES
We define the principles such as knowledge, education, experience based on
research related to the kind of course that can support the designer.
Research on language teaching and learning should be
used to guide decisions on curriculum design. There is considerable research on
the nature of language and language acquisition which can guide the choice of
what to teach and how to sequence it. There is also a lot of research on how to
encourage learning in general and language learning in particular which can be
used to guide the presentation of items to be learned. The principles derived
from
this research include principles on the importance of repetition and thoughtful
processing of material, on the importance of taking account of individual
differences and learning style, and on learner attitudes and motivation.
It is very important that curriculum design makes the
connection between the research and theory of language learning and the
practice of designing lessons and courses. There is a tendency for this
connection not to be made, with the result that curriculum design and therefore
learners do not benefit from developments in knowledge gained from research. A
striking example of this is the failure of courses to take account of the
findings regarding the interference that occurs when semantically and formally
related items, such as opposites, near synonyms and lexical sets, are presented
together. (Higa, 1963; Tinkham, 1993).
In spite of the clear findings of this research, which
is supported by a large body of research less firmly in the area of language
learning, course books continue to present names of the parts of the body,
items in the kitchen, opposites such as hot–cold, long–short, old–new, numbers,
days of the week and articles of clothing in the same lesson. As Tinkham (1993) and Higa (1963) show, this
will have the effect of making learning more difficult than it should be.
Chapter 4 of this book describes a list of 20
principles that can be used to guide curriculum design. It is not an exhaustive
list and is based to some degree on the personal prejudices of the writers.
Curriculum designers may wish to create their own lists (see Brown, 1993;
Ellis, 2005 and Jones, 1993 for examples of other short lists; see also
Richards, 2001 and Tomlinson, 2003 for discussion of the application of
principles in materials development).
What is important is that curriculum design is treated
as a normal part of the field of applied linguistics and thus draws on available
knowledge to guide it.
E. GOALS
Curriculum design has a goal as its centre. To decide
why the course is being taught and what the learners need from it.
Goals can be expressed in general terms and be given
more detail when considering the content of the course. Here are some examples
of goals that have been set for language courses.
1. The aim of communicative teaching is to encourage
students to exploit all the elements of the language that they know in order to
make their meanings clear. Students cannot be expected to master every aspect
of the language before they are allowed to use it for communicative purposes. (Orbit, Harrison and Menzies, 1986)
2.
Trio aims to
(a) Encourage students to communicate in a wide range
of everyday
Situations.
(b) Sustain interest and motivation...
(c) Help students understand and formulate the
grammatical rules of
English.
(d) Develop
students’ receptive skills beyond those of their productive
skills.
(e) Give students insights into daily life in Britain.
(f) Develop specific skills, including skills required
for examination
purposes.
(g) Contribute to the students’ personal, social and
educational development.
(Trio, Radley and Sharley, 1987).
3.
Passages extends students’ communicative competence by
developing
their
ability to:
•
Expand the range of topics they can discuss and comprehend in
English
•
Speak English fluently (express a wide range of ideas without
unnecessary
pauses or breakdowns in communication)
•
Speak English accurately (use an acceptable standard of pronunciation
and
grammar when communicating). (Passages, Richards and Sandy, 1998)
4.
Students continue to develop speaking and listening
skills necessary
for
participating in classroom discussions with an introduction to oral
presentation
and critical listening skills.
(College
Oral Communication, Roemer, 2006).
Having a clear statement of goals is important for
determining the content of the course, for deciding on the focus in
presentation, and in guiding
assessment.
F. CONTENT AND SEQUENCING
The content of language courses consists of the
language items, ideas, skills and strategies that meet the goals of the course.
The viewpoint taken in this book is that even though the units of progression
in a course might be tasks, topics or themes, it is important for the
curriculum designer to keep some check on vocabulary, grammar and discourse to
make sure that important items are being covered and repeated. If there is no
check being made, it may happen that learners are not meeting items that are
important for their later use of the language. It may also happen that items
are not being met often enough to establish them.
One way to provide a systematic and well-researched
basis for a course is to make use of frequency lists and other lists of
language items or skills. These lists should be chosen and adapted as a result
of the needs analysis in order to set the language learning content of the
course. A list may be used as a way of checking or determining the content of a
course, but this does not mean that the lessons have to consist of item by item
teaching.
Working from lists makes sure that what should be
covered is covered and is not left to chance.
Example : Frequency vocabularies and structure.
A
conversation course for example could be carefully planned to cover the
important high frequency vocabulary and structures, and still consist of a
series of very free task-based conversation activities (Joe, Nation and Newton,
1996).
Typical
lists include :
1.
Frequency-based vocabulary lists. These consist of
lists of words with indicators of their frequency of occurrence. Perhaps the
best known is
Michael West’s (1953)
General Service List of English Words which contains 2,000 high-frequency word
families. This is a good source for
Courses
at the beginner and intermediate level. Other lists include The
Cambridge English
Lexicon (Hindmarsh, 1980) and the First 1,000, Second 1,000, and Third 1,000
lists produced by the English Language
Institute
(Nation, 1984). The COBUILD dictionary (1995) indicates
the frequency levels
of higher-frequency vocabulary. At a more specialised and advanced level, the
academic word list (Coxhead, 2000)
Contains
570 word families useful for study in the upper levels of
English-medium
secondary schools and at university.
2.
Frequency lists of verb forms and verb groups. These
contain items such
as
simple past, present continuous, verb + to + stem (where the stem is
dominant)
going to + stem, and can + stem (ability) along with information about their
frequency of occurrence, mainly in written text. The most striking feature of
these lists is the very high frequency of a small number of items, such as
simple past, verb + to + stem, and the very low frequency of most of the items
studied (many of which are given unjustified prominence in many course books
and grading schemes for simplified readers). These lists can be found in George
1963a, 1963b, and 1972; see also Appendix 1 of this book. The more recent Biber
et al. (1999) grammar contains frequency information. Comparison of beginners’
books of published courses with these lists shows that the course books contain
a mixture of high-frequency and lowfrequency items and could be considerably
improved with more informed selection.
3.
Lists of functions and topics. These lists are not
frequency-based and as a result selection of items must be based on perceived
need which is less reliable
than frequency evidence. The most useful of the available lists is Van Ek and
Alexander (1980).
4.
Lists of subskills and strategies. These include the
subskills of listening, speaking,
reading and writing, and language coping and learning strategies.
5.
There are lists of tasks, topics and themes that
curriculum designers can
refer to (Munby, 1978; Van Ek and Alexander, 1980; Prabhu, 1987), but it is
better for curriculum designers to develop their own lists.
G. FINDING A FORMAT AND PRESENTING
MATERIAL
Format has dealing with presenting material.
Format is about how the
materials are arranged and formed .
In the delivery of the material
in courses for learners is delivered in the form of one such presentation. in
making a presentation have sources used as a basis for a lesson will have a
decisive effect on the ease of making lessons.
This is not only a
presentation but also aspects of the selection, such as sequencing and the
amount of time given for the smooth work, because curriculum design is not a linear process , it may be necessary to
alter the content or sequencing to suit the lesson format and to reorder the
list of environmental factors. it can be argued that the first presentation of
an item is not as important as the later repetitions of that item . This is often
neglected in courses , but it is crucial to learning . It is through repeated
meetings that items are enriched and established.
The
advantages to have a set format for lessons :
- Easier to make
because each
one does not have to be planned separately.
- Easier to monitor
It will be easy to check if all that should be include
is there and that accepted principles are being followed.
- Easier to learn
it makes the lessons easier to learn from because the
learners can predictwhat will occur and are soon familiar with the learning procedures
required by different parts of the lesson .
The sources of the material used as
a basis for the lessons will have decisive effects on the ease of making the
lessons and of the possibility of future distribution or publication of the
course . a shortcut here is simply to take suitable material from other courses
, adapting it as required .
There is a substantial set of
principles that need to be applied at this stage ( see chapter 4) . these
concern not only presentation but also selection aspects, such as sequencing
and the amount of time given to fluency work. the lesson format needs to be
checked against the environment analysis of the course to make sure that the
major environmental factors are being considered.
Because curriculum design is not a
linear process , it may be necessary to alter the content or sequencing to suit
the lesson format and to reorder the list of environmental factors. the lessons
may still require adjustment as a result of consideration of other stages of
the curriculum design . perhaps the most difficult task at this stage is making
sure that the learning goals of the course are met. that is , that the wanted
language item are well- represented and well-presented in the course .
It can be argued that the first
presentation of an item is not as important as the later repetitions of that
item .this is often neglected in courses , but it is crucial to learning . it
is through repeated meetings that items are enriched and established.
H. MONITORING AND ASSESSING
The aims of curriculum design are to
make a course that has useful goals, that achieves its goals, that satisfies
its users , and that does all this in an efficient way. an important recurring
part of the design process is to asses how well these aims are achieved .
Monitoring
is the regular observation and recording of activities taking place in a
project or programme. It is a process of routinely gathering information on all
aspects of the project.
— To monitor is to check on how project activities are progressing.
— It is observation; ─ systematic and
purposeful observation.
— Monitoring also involves giving feedback about the progress of the project
to the donors, implementors and beneficiaries of the project.
— Reporting enables the gathered information to be used in making decisions
for improving project performance.
Monitoring provides information that will be useful in:
v Analysing the situation in the community and its project;
v Determining whether the inputs in the project are well utilized;
v Identifying problems facing the community or project and finding solutions;
v Ensuring all activities are carried out properly by the right people and in
time;
v Using lessons from one project experience on to another; and
v Determining whether the way the project was planned is the most appropriate
way of solving the problem at hand.
Purpose of
Monitoring:
— Monitoring is very important in project planning and implementation.
— It is like watching where you are going while riding a bicycle; you can
adjust as you go along and ensure that you are on the right track.
Assessing is the
way to value the learner’s ability. It becomes a reflection of teacher’s succes
and what have been done in monitoring process in order to optimize the course.
Generally involves :
— The use of
test. Test is used to find the distinction of learner’s ability based on the
purpose on what level it is tested.
— Achievement
test. To measure what has been learned from a particular course.
— Proficiency
test. It maybe used to measure learners level of language knowledge before
entering a course and after a course is completed and has been assessed.
— Placement
test. To see whether the course is suitable or not for a prospective learners
or to see where in the course the learners should begin.
— Diagnostic
test. This is intended to see if the learners has particular gap in their
knowledge.
I. EVALUATING
A COURSE
The last process in designing course is
evaluating. The course will be evaluated
as a whole in evaluation process, and
information gained from assessment is one of useful source of data about
the effectiveness of a course. Basically
evaluation tries to answer the question
“ Is this a good course? “.
Program Evaluation
1.
Steps in evaluation
2.
Type and focus of
evaluation
3.
Gathering information
4.
Working with the result
Good Course determiners :
- Attracts
a lot of students
- Makes a
lot of money
- Satisfies
the learners
- Satisfies
the teachers
- Satisfies
the sponsor
- Helps
learners gain high scores in an external test.
CHAPTER III
CONCLUSION
Over
all,language curriculum design an overview has several parts of process :
1.
Environment analysis
2.
Need analysis
3.
Application of principles
4.
Goals
5.
Content and sequencing
6.
Format and presentation
7.
Monitoring and assessment
8.
Evaluation
Then
summary of the steps in designing a course,they are :
1.
Examine the environment
2.
Assess needs.
3.
Decide on principles.
4.
Set goals, and choose and sequence content.
5.
Design the lesson format.
6.
Include assessment procedures.
7.
Evaluate the course.
APPENDIX
DISCUSSION SECTION
Question-Answer
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