LANGUAGE CURRICULUM DESIGN

A.INTRODUCTION

1.      General Description of Topic to be Discussed

In this  topic that will be explain in this chapter is about Language Curriculum Design: An Overview. This topic explain what will be taught is affected by who is being taught (e.g., their stage of development in age, maturity, and education). Methods of how content is taught are affected by who is being taught, their characteristics, and the setting.there are several steps that belongs to parts of curriculum design process for example need analysis,goal etc

2.      The Aim/Purpose of Writing Paper

The purpose of making this paper is to help us to comprehens abaot language curriculum design and can be apllied in the real life in teaching.

This paper also to accomplish the assignment of Curriculum Material and Development.

B. DISCUSSION

Nation and Macalister

Model of the parts of the curriculum design process:

a.      Environment Analysis

The major constraints and their effects in ranked order were:

1) Limited time to invest in learning.

2) Must be useful for a wide range of people and countries.

b.      Needs analysis

Future needs (necessities) were found by:

1)      Interviewing people previously in the situation that the learners will soon be in.

2)      Analysis the language section of guidebooks.

3)      Personal experience.

c.       Application of principles

The following principles were directly stated:

1)      Learners should get an immediate and useful return for their learning.

2)      Avoid interference

3)      Use thoughtful processing.

4)      Get fluency practice.

d.      Goals, the goal was to quickly learn a survival vocabulary.

e.       Content and sequencing, the content include approximately 120 words and phrases classified according to topic.The learner can decide on the sequence of leraning is given not to learn related items together..The section of the list are in order of usefulness.Advic the sequence of learning related items together

f.       Format and presentation

Suggestion are provided for self-study,such as using vocabularycards,using deep processing and practice

g.      Monitoring and assessement

Not death with.

h.      Evaluation

The checking of the list againts personal experience is one kind of evaluation.

Brown

Models of the parts of language curriculum design

 

     

a.      Needs analysis

Needs analysis in language programs is often viewed simply as identification of the language forms that the students will likely need to use in target language when they are required to actually understand and produce the language. Needs analysis will be defined tentatively as the systematic collection and analysis of all relevant information necessary to satisfy the language learning requirements of the students within the context of the particular institutions involved in the learning situation.

b.      Goals and objectives

Goals is general statements about what must be accomplished in order to attain and satisfy students’ needs to objectives are precise statements about what content or skills the students must master in order to attain a particular goal.

c.       Language tasting

The goals and objectives of a program may require extensive test development for widely different purposes within a program, for example, placement of student, language proficiency testing, diagnostic testing, and achievement testing of which can be very complex to develop. Test developmentrequires the use of two different types of tests: non- referenced tests intended to compare the relative performance of students to each other: and criterion- referenced tests intended to measure the amount of course material that each student has learned.

d.      Material developments

Materials can be handled rationally- whether adopted, develop, adapted- perhaps for the first time in some language programs.

e.       Language teaching

The teachers and students should be aware of what the objective for a given course. Teachers need to be intemately involved in the process of curricullum development and revision.

The primary reason for this emphasis is that most teacher, as individuals are in no position to do such task well, because they lack the time and the expertise to do an adiquite job. Hence, objective, tests and materials development should all be group efforts drawing on the expertise, time, and energy availoable for everyone involved in the program.

f.       Evaluation

Evaluation could be defined as the systhematic collection and analysis of all rellefant information necesssary to promote the improvement of the curriculum and to asses its effectifeness within context of the particular institution analysis.

Richards

Language curriculum development, like other areas of curriculum activity is concerned with principles and procedures for the planning, delivery, management, and assessment of teaching and learning. Curriculum development processes in language teaching comprise needs analysis, goal setting, syllabus design, methodology, and testing and evaluation.

a.      Needs analysis

   In language curriculum development needs analysis serves the purposes of:

1.    Providing a mechanism for obtaining a wider range of input into the content, design and implementation of language program

2.    Identifying general or specific language needs that can be addressed in developing goals, objectives and content for a language program.

3.    Providing data that can serve as the basis for reviewing and evaluating an existing program.

b.      Goals and objectives

               Curriculum goals are general statements of the intended outcomes of a language program, and represent what the curriculum planners believe to be desirable and attainable program aims based on the constraints revealed in the needs analysis. Objectives are those that can be relatively easily measured, quantified or specified with agreement by administrator and possible teachers on what constitutes define needs.

c.         Syllabus design

   In standard models of curriculum processes, curriculum planner progress systematically from need assessment to goals in objectives, to specification of the instructional content of the program. In language teaching, selection of content and organization of content are usually known as syllabus design. Syllabus design is concerned with the choice and sequencing of instructional content.

In reality, in language teaching, the syllabus has traditionally been the starting point in planning a language program, rather than an activity occurs midway in the process.

d.      Methodology

          Methodology can be characterized as the activities, tasks, and learning experiences selected by the teacher in order to achieve learning, and how these are used within the teaching/learning process. These activities are justified according to the objectives the teacher has set out to accomplish and the content he/she has set out to teach.

          Theactivity can be done through teacher preparation activities that examine attitudes, beliefs, and practices concerning five central issues:

1.      The approach or philosophy underlying the program.

2.      The role of teachers in the program.

3.      The role of the learners four the kinds of learning activities.

4.      The kinds of learning activities, tasks, and experiences that will be used in the program.

5.      The role and design of instructional materials.

e.       Testing and evaluation

Testing occupies a central role in curriculum developments, since it is often a component of both needs assessment and evaluation and has consequences for the design and delivery of instructional as well as for the administration of the program itself.

Four different kinds of tests have been distinguished in the literature on language testing according to the purposes for which they are typically used:

1.      Proficiency tests, are tested tests that measure how well learner can use a language relative to a specific part purpose before a course of instruction such as TOEFL.

2.      Placement test, are used to place students at an appropriate level within a language program.

3.      Achievement tests, measure how much of language someone has learned in a particular course of study or program of instruction.

4.      Diagnostic tests, aim to diagnose students’ particular learning problems

                

Evaluation is concern with gathering data on the dynamics, effectiveness acceptability, and efficiency of a program to facilitate decision making. Evaluation is determination of the worth of   a thing. The primary focus of evaluation is to determine whether the goals and objectives of a language program are being attained-that is whether the program is effective. Evaluation differs from educational research in that even though it shares many of the procedures of the educational research, information obtained from evaluation procedures is used to improve educational practices rather that simply describe them.

C.REFERENCES

Brown,james Dean. 1995. The Elements Language Curriculum: A Systematic Approach to Program Developlment .USA: Heinle & Heinle Publish.

Nation,I.S.P. and Macalister, John. 2010. Language Curriculum Design. New York: Taylor and Francis Group.

Richard, Jack C. 1990. The Language Teaching Matrix. USA: Cambridge University Press.

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