Emergence of a Curriculum approach in Language teaching

According to Rodgers (1989, 29) comments: Emergence of a Curriculum approach in Language teaching The term Curriculum studies, refers to a very broad field of inquiry that deals with what happens in school and other educational institutions, the planning of instruction, and the study of how curriculum plans are implemented. A curriculum refers to the whole body of knowledge that children acquire in schools. According to Rodgers (1989, 29) comments: Syllabi, which prescribe the content to be covered by a given course, form only a small part of the total school program. Curriculum is a far broader concept. Curriculum is all those activities in which children engage under the auspices of school.

One of the most important statements on the nature and process of curriculum development was made by Tayler in 1949 in a book that brought about a revival in curriculum studies throughout the 1950s. His approach is summarized on the first page: Four fundamental questions must be answered in developing any curriculum and plan of instruction: What educational purpose should be the school seek to attain? What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these purpose? How can these educational experiences be effectively organized? How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?

Simple model AIMS and OBJECTIVES CONTENT ORGANIZATION EVALUATION

As Lawton (1973) pointed out, that this rather naïve view of the curriculum process was not really intended by Tayler himself, whose book was a response to his observation that many teachers seemed unable to explain what the goals of their teaching were, except in the most general way. Tayler argued that educational objectives should describe learner behaviour and should I identify what changes have come about in learners as a result of teaching. NEED –Aims Objectives PLAN- Strategies Tactics IMPLEMENTATION- Methods Techniques REVIEW- Evaluation Consolidation.

Some critics of Tyler Model raised a number of objections, some arguing that the notion of objectives represents a limited view of knowledge (see Chapt. 5) and some criticizing the technical and rationalist approach of the model, which seemed better suited to business or industry than education. Others criticized the linear approach implied by the model, which leaves evaluation as the final stage rather than building it in at every stage. In its place they proposed a cyclical model.

According to Nicholls and Nicholls (1972,4) as he describe curriculum development as involving four stages, such as; The careful examination, drawing on all available sources of knowledge and informed judgement, of the objectives of teaching. The development and trial use in schools of those methods and materials which are judged most likely to achieve the objectives which teachers agreed upon. The assessment of the extent to which the development of work has in fact achieved its objectives. This part of the process may be expected to provoke new though about the objectives themselves. The final element is therefore feedback of all the experience gained.

It has been widely adopted in language teaching from the 1980s It has been widely adopted in language teaching from the 1980s. it has been described as an ends means model because it starts with a determination of this kinds of language skills the learner needs in order to accomplish specific roles and task and then sets out to teach the language needed to get there. In the field of curriculum studies the approach was sometimes reduced to a mechanistic set of procedures and rules known as a systems-design model.

A system in this context is an “integrated plan or meet a need” (Briggs 1977, 5). The system model belongs to an approach to educational planning that sees curriculum development as a rational and somewhat technical process. Its practitioners believed that this was the key to the design of successful educational programs.

In the 1980s, funding for large-scale curriculum projects in many parts of the world was often dependent on their being couched in this framework. Rodgers (1989, 27) observes that: The curriculum system-design model has been prescriptive and rule-driven. It describes a liner sequence of events comprising formulation of objectives, selection of content, task analysis, design of learning activities, definition of behavioural outcomes and evaluative measures for determining the achievement or non-achievement of these outcomes.

The Munby model has many of the same characteristics as a system approach and was found to be cumbersome, unrealistic, and impractical in actual practise. However, since the 1980s the view that curriculum development process are central elements in language program design has become more widely accepted in language teaching, though not in a narrow perspectives form of the systems model.

In many countries, language curriculum development units have been established in ministries of education since the 1980s with a mandate to review and develop national language teaching curriculum based on a curriculum development perspective. For example Lim (1988, 2 cited in Ho 1994) comments on such an initiative in Singapore and notes that curriculum development now includes “Needs Analysis, goal setting, syllabus design, language programme design, teacher preparation, implementation of programmes in schools, monitoring, feedback and evaluation.”

The debates over teaching methods that were common in the 1970s have been replaced by a focus on the interlinked process that composes curriculum development, of which methodology is simply one element. “Curriculum development is used in this book to refer to the range of planning and implementation processes involved in developing or renewing a curriculum. These processes focus on need analysis, situational analysis, planning learning outcomes, course organization, selecting and preparing teaching materials, providing for effective teaching, and evaluation.” These elements are viewed as forming a network of interacting system.

In this book, no attempt is made to present the classic systems approach to curriculum development. The approach taken here seeks to place teachers and language teaching professionals at the center of planning and decision-making process. While the products of these decision-making process are easy to identify and analyse because they exist in the form of policy documents, syllabuses, test, teaching materials, teaching programs, textbooks, and teaching and learning acts (Johnson 1989), the process that lead to them are more difficult to identify and analyse because they often reflect the contributions of a variety of people with different roles and goals. He (Johnson 1989) represents these different decision-making roles and products in the following diagram.

Stages, decision making roles and products in curriculum development (from Johnson 1989)

Clark (1987) emphasizes that these are often processes renewal rather than development, since some sort of curriculum is already in place. He identifies the following components of these processes of curriculum renewal: The review on principles to guide the language teaching /learning process in the light of applied linguistic theory and classroom experience. The reworking of syllabuses embodying aims, objectives, content, and a broad methodology. The review of classroom teaching/ learning strategies. The choice, adaptation, and creation of resources embodying appropriate learning experience.

The review of assessment designed to monitor, record, report and provide feedback on learner progress. The review of classroom scheme work relating all of the above together. The review and creation of strategies designed to assist teachers to evaluated classroom practises and to improve them. The review or devising of in-service education designed to assist teachers. The choice, adaptation, and creation of resources embodying appropriate learning experience.

The review of assessment designed to monitor, record, report and provide feedback on learner progress. The review of classroom scheme work relating all of the above together. The review and creation of strategies designed to assist teachers to evaluated classroom practises and to improve them. The identification of areas for research to determine possible ways forward in any of the above areas. The review or devising of in-service education designed to assist teachers.