Overview of Curriculum Components

      Languages teacher have long been faced with a plethora of “methods” from which to choose.Each “method” has tended to claim for it self authority concerning what students need to learn,the best way to match the student’s learning styles , or in some cases the turth about how to present or practice language.The view to promote is that curriculum development is a series of activities will provide a framework that helps teachers to accomplish whatever combination of teaching activities is most suitable in their proffesional judgement for a given situation.

       Models of language curriculum design have undergone considerable evolution , an evolution reflect in the models. On the language teaching literature list above but also fits the more general models used to describe long establish systems apporoaches to curriculum design.

Four Categories of Language Teaching Activities

      Four different categories into which language teaching activities can be devided:

1.      Approaches

It’s means that ways of defining what and how the students need to learn.

  In the approaches there are 5 ways of defining what the students need to learn :

a.       Classical approach : humanism : students need to study classic

b.      Grammar-translation approach : students need to learn with economy of time effort

c.       Direct approach : students need to learn communication so they should use a second language in the the class

d.      Audiolingual approach : students need operant conditioning and behavioral modification to learn language

e.       Communicative approach : students must be able to express their intention, that is, they must learn the meaning that are importantto them.

2.      Syllabuses

It’s means that ways of organizing the course and materials.

According to McKay, structural syllabuses focus on grammatical form. In syllabuses there are 7 ways of organizing courses and materials :

a.       Structural

b.      Situational

c.       Topical

d.      Functional

e.       Notional

f.       Skills

g.      Task

3.      Techniques

It’s means that ways of presenting the materials and teaching

In the techniques there are 8 ways of presenting the language :

a.       Bridging activies

b.      Discussion

c.       Idea frame

d.      Object-centered lesson

e.       Directed dialogue

f.       Grammar  demonstration dialogue

g.      Lecturenon rules of language

h.      Verb centered lesson

4.      Exercise

It’s means that ways of practicing what has been presented.

Overview of Curriculum Components

Curriculm activities is a provide a framework that helps teachers to accomplish whatever combination of teaching activities is most suitable in their proffesional judgment for a given situation,that is, a framework that helps the students to learn as efficiently and effectively as soon as possible in the given situation. In a sense, the curriculum design process could be viewed as being made up of the peopleand the paper-moving operations that make the doing of teaching and learning possible.

There are 5 elements of language curriculum :

1.      Need Analysis

The analytical focus is on the learners, and their needs are viewed in linguistic terms. Need analysis will be defined tentatively as the sysmatic collection and analysis of all relevant information necessary to satisfy the language lerning requirements of the students within the the context of the particular institutions involved in the learning  situations.

2.      Goals and Objectives

Goals is a general statements about what must be accomlised in order to attain and satisfy students’ need. For example a group Indonesian students were doing english for as foreign language training in order to prepare for study at Oxford universities, one goal might be to prepare theme to be able to write term papers. Producing such papers is one language-related task that students might need once they start their students studies in the United Kingdom, and this task can be expressed as a goal.

           

            Objectives are precise statement about what content or skills the students must master in order to attain a particular goal.

Language Testing

Step in curriculum development is the development of test based on a program’s goals and objectives. The goals and objectives of a program may require extensive test development for widely different purposes within the program. For example, placement of students, language proficiency testing, diagnostic testing, and achievment testing-all of which can be very complex to develop. The use of two different types tests intended to comparethe relative performance of students to teach other and criterion referenced tests.So tests can be used to drive a program by shaping the expectations of the students and their teacher.

Material Development

With at least preliminary sets of needs analyses,objective,and test in hand curriculum planners are in the unusual position of being able to deal rationally with the problem of materials.It is relatively easy to adapt material for a program that is well defined in terms of needs analyses , objectives and tests.

Language Teaching

Contrary to what might at first seem to be true, the system for curriculum development allows teachers more freedom than usual in the classroom to teach as they feel appropriate.Given a reasonably high level of program support , the teacher can be left alone to concetrate on the most effective means for teaching the courses at hand.

Program Evaluation

Evaluation might be defined as the systematic collection and analysis of all relevant information necessary to promote the improvent of the curriculum and to assess its effectiveness within the context of the particular institutions involves.Program evaluation ,then ,might, be defined as the ongoing process of information gathering ,analysis,and synthesis.

Reference

The elements of language curriculum A systematic approach to program development, Brown James Dean