Reflections

A curriculum contains a broad description of

general goals by indicating an overall
educational-cultural philosophy .
A curriculum is often reflective of national
and political trends.
A syllabus is a more detailed and operational
statement of teaching and learning elements
which translates the philosophy of the
curriculum into a series of planned steps
leading towards more narrowly defined
objectives at each of its level.

PET 225 - TESOL CURRICULUM

DEVELOPMENT
Lecture no. 3 - 16 March,
2015
Curriculum development in 2nd
Language teaching.

DR. MOHAMAD JAFRE Z.A. PPIP USM

Introduction
The curriculum includes the goals, objectives, content,
processes, resources, and means of evaluation of all the
learning experiences planned for pupils both in and out of
the school and community through classroom instruction
and related programmes.

The syllabus is a statement of the plan for any part of the

curriculum excluding the element of curriculum
evaluation itself.
Robertson (1971)

Planning of courses and writing materials for

learners of English as a second language is a
part of the teaching profession. Both require
specialized background which often ignored
in studies at the university or teacher
training colleges. Many teachers are writing
and planning without proper training and
since the planning of courses and the writing
of materials is a sparsely documented area,
designers and writers have tended to work
on the basis of their best intuitions.

General Curriculum
Planning
Taba (1962) has worked out a list of curriculum processes
that has been the basic of foundation of many writers.
They are:
Diagnosis of needs
Formulation of objectives
Selection of content
Organization of content
Selection of learning experiences
Organization of learning experiences
Determination of what to evaluate, and the means to
evaluate.

Educational Ideologies that

generates a diff. type of
curriculum theory.
Classical Humanism
Progressivism
Reconstructionalism

Ideologies are ideal types in the

sense that they rarely, if ever, exist
in the pure form.

Classical Humanism
(knowledge-centred)

Oldest educational ideology, 4th century

BC Plato developed the idea of cultural
heritage a class of guardians
It associates traditional culture and values
with a small minority group the el- men
of gold (Plato), receive different type of
education from others.
20th century literary education for a
small minority and popular culture
education for the masses

Cultural heritage literature, music, history and more

recently science.
Rejected bcause against democracy & social justice
The relevance is questionable
Has lost its appeal
However it must be defined different for the new
generation.

Progressivism
Child-centred education (Jean-Jacques

Rousseau, Emile (1762)

Rejects traditional approaches to education
The need for the child to discover for itself &
follow his own impulses.
Freedom was more important than social
order.
Curriculum concerned with experiences and
discovery.

The difficulties of accepting progressivism in its

entirety as an ideology is that it is based on
over-optimistic view of human nature.
Children and society are complex mixtures of
good and evil. Ed. Encourage the good and
eliminate the evil.
Progressivism was advanced by Piaget on a
more scientific approach to childrens learning.
The motivational advantages in allowing
children some choice is now clearly established.

Recontructionism (society-centred)
Individual and society harmoniously integrated.
Social reconstruction in education improves society,
John Dewey (US), Bertrand Russell and Kurt
Manheim (UK)
Education should distinguish itself from politics,
commerce, and advertising.
Rationalize democratic processes
Elevation of teachers

Over-optimism and Utopianism are

features of some reconstructionists.
Utopianism likely to lead to totalitarianism
anyone who knows what is the best will
eventually be tempted to impose what is
best on others whose views differ from his.
A reconstructionist curriculum will be a
common curriculum based on a selection
from the culture of a society.

ELT Curriculum
Look at ELT curriculum from the Approach,
Design and Procedure viewpoint.
Approach
assumptions
beliefs
theories about the nature of language
language learning

Design
the relationship of theories of language and learning to form
and function of instructional materials

Procedure
- the classroom techniques and practices which are
consequences of particular approach and design

What are the educational

approach we have today?
1. Behavioristic
considers the human species as passive
reacting to external, environmental stimuli
structuralist view of language
stimulus-response view
audiolingual curriculum
1950 and 1960s

2. Rational cognitive
orientation
considers the human species as the source and initiator
of all acts.
Transformational-generative linguistics
Associated to the cognitive-code approach
1960s

3. Humanistic
orientation
concerns with individuals growth and
development
emphasizes affective factors.
Communicative view of language
1970s
learner-centred
task based learning
1980, 1990s

Suggestopedia
(Lazanov, 1977)
Culturally, any one of the philosophies may suit a
certain community better.
Instructional strategies
learning engages the unconscious as well as the
conscious mind
learning is better if we can use the unconscious
mind more.
S accomplishes this by a combination of intensive
time periods, a secure atmosphere, rhythmic
breathing exercises and baroque music.

Counseling- Learning (Curran,

1976)
atmosphere of security for students
understanding is the key concept
accept students without judgement or an
effort to control
believe the students are capable of
integrating
sharing personel experiences and values
when relate to classroom experience
SARD security, attention, reflection
discrimination (Comparing new knowledge
to prior knowledge)

The Silent Way (Gattegno,

1972)
teacher assumes a low profile
conscious intellectual commitment to mental action
promote independence, autonomy, and responsibility
teacher remain entirely silent

Cooperative learning
(Johnson and Johnson,
1975)

Interdependence and Cooperation are goals

of cooperative learning
Peer interaction
Group goal project work
Reward for group achievement
Physical reorganization of classroom
Assignment of responsibilities to students
Joint learning activities
Grading on mutual basis