ELT/ EYL Professional Practice Preparing a rationale Dr Sue Wharton

Extract from the assignment brief: The rationale, of approximately 3000 words, should include the following elements. An explanation of how your aims and objectives fit the needs and context of the learners A justification of your course outline, with reference to your reading on course design A discussion and justification of key features in your materials with reference to research in the field. For example, if your materials are for reading, you could discuss issues such as authenticity of texts and tasks, skills practice, reading strategies and the stages of reading. A discussion of how you might evaluate your course and assess your learners’ progress

A discourse approach to rationale: Problem – Solution patterns in TESOL texts SituationThis is where I work, both literally and in terms of an area of ELT ProblemThis is the aspect of my work on which I intend to focus ResponseThis is my preferred response, my centrally important statement Basis for Here are my reasons in principle for advocating this Responseresponse EvaluationHere are some data in support of the claims that I make. (Edge & Wharton 2002)

How does the SPRE pattern work in a PP assignment? Your Rationale sets up your Situation, your Problem, and gives the Basis for Response Your materials are the actual Response Evaluation has to remain speculative, unless you can try something out.

The illocutionary purpose of a Rationale is to justify the choices you have made in your course and materials design. So ask yourself – what are the key decisions, and how much justification do they need? What are good sources of justification?

Work with a specific article: Alhquist, S Storyline: a task based approach for young learners. ELT Journal 67 (1): This article describes a particular course and so is in some senses comparable with your assignment for PP. There are also some important ways in which it is different! Please read through it and identify the following elements: -Description of the context and students -Reasons for using the Storyline approach -Description of the Storyline topic -Reasons for specific activities in the topic -Evaluation of the approach Which of these elements are most applicable for the Rationale part of your assignment? Are any of the discourse techniques used by this author likely to be useful to you?