How to design a language curriculum

Summary

This video script offers a comprehensive guide to designing a language curriculum. It outlines five critical steps: conducting a needs analysis of students, setting clear goals and objectives, preparing teaching materials, presenting effective teaching, and planning for assessment. The process emphasizes understanding student needs, aligning goals with proficiency standards, selecting appropriate materials, engaging students in learning activities, and assessing their progress in relation to their learning process and outcomes.

Takeaways

• 📚 A language curriculum is a comprehensive plan that includes planning, developing, implementing, and evaluating teaching activities.
• 🔍 It consists of five main parts: students' needs analysis, goals and objectives, materials, teaching, and assessment.
• 👨‍🎓 Conduct a thorough students' needs analysis to understand their language proficiency, native language, prior knowledge, expectations, and needs.
• 🎯 Establish clear goals and objectives, ensuring they align with language proficiency standards and are broken down into attainable lesson outcomes.
• 📚 Prepare teaching materials by selecting appropriate textbooks, worksheets, and equipment to support the learning process.
• 🏫 Present teaching in an effective manner, activating students' prior knowledge, facilitating new information acquisition, and providing practice opportunities.
• 📊 Plan for assessment by determining the types of assessments and their timing, ensuring they are linked to the instruction and focus on the learning process.
• 🤔 Ask five types of questions during the needs analysis: problem, priority, abilities, attitudes, and solution to fully understand the students' context.
• 📝 Include both content and language objectives when defining lesson outcomes to ensure a well-rounded curriculum.
• 🔄 Consider adopting, adapting, or developing teaching materials based on the students' needs and the curriculum's goals.
• 👀 Focus on assessing what students have learned and their learning process, not just the outcome, to motivate and understand their performance.

Q & A

What is a language curriculum?

A language curriculum is an overall product of planning, developing, implementing, and evaluating teaching activities, composed of five parts: students' needs analysis, goals and objectives, materials, teaching, and assessment.

What are the five steps to design a language curriculum?

The five steps to design a language curriculum are: 1) conducting students' needs analysis, 2) writing clear goals and objectives, 3) preparing teaching materials, 4) presenting teaching effectively, and 5) planning for assessment.

What should be included in a students' needs analysis?

Students' needs analysis should include English language proficiency, native language literacy, previous schooling, prior knowledge, learner expectations from the course, and learner needs for the target language.

What are the five types of questions to ask during the gathering of information for students' needs analysis?

The five types of questions to ask are: problem to identify issues, priority to identify important learning areas, abilities to identify strengths and weaknesses, attitudes to identify feelings and attitudes towards language study, and solution to ask about cultural, linguistic, family, interest, and other related questions.

How should goals and objectives be defined in a language curriculum?

Goals should be general statements of learning outcomes, while objectives are specific statements of attainable lesson outcomes. Goals should be aligned with English language proficiency standards, and then broken down into objectives.

What types of objectives should be addressed when writing a language curriculum?

Both content objectives and language objectives should be addressed when writing a language curriculum.

What materials should be prepared for teaching in a language curriculum?

Teaching materials should include proper textbooks, worksheets for practice, and useful equipment to engage students in the teaching process.

How should teaching be presented effectively in a language curriculum?

Teaching should be presented by activating students' prior knowledge, considering useful teaching and learning activities for acquiring new information, and providing opportunities for students to practice and refine their knowledge and language skills.

What should be considered when planning for assessment in a language curriculum?

Assessment should consider the forms of assessment to use and when to use them, always linking assessment to instruction. It should focus on what students have learned, their motivation, attitude, learning performance, and achievement.

Why is it important to link assessment to instruction in a language curriculum?

Linking assessment to instruction ensures that students are assessed on what they have learned rather than what they haven't, focusing on the learning process and not just the outcome.

What is the expected outcome of following the five steps to design a language curriculum?

Following the five steps will produce an effective language curriculum that meets students' needs and supports their language learning effectively.