Principles

The aim of this part of the curriculum design process is to decide how learning can be encouraged.

Methods and Principles

A “method” approach to curriculum design seems to result in some aspects of curriculum design being well thought out and well founded on research but in many aspects being ignored or not well thought out.

The Twenty Principles

They are divided in three major groups:

1.    Content and sequencing: They are concerned with what goes into a language course and the order in which language items appear in the course. The aim of these principles is to make sure that the learners are gaining something useful from the course.

-       Frequency: A language course should provide the best possible coverage of language in use through the inclusion of items that occur frequently in the language, so that learners get the best return for their learning effort.

-       Strategies and autonomy: A language course should train learners in how to learn a language and how to monitor and be aware of their learning, so that they can become effective and independent language learners.

-       Spaced retrieval: Learners should have increasingly spaced, repeated opportunities to retrieve and give attention to wanted items in a variety of contexts.

-       Language system: The language focus of a course needs to be on the generalizable features of the language.

-       Keep moving forward: A language course should progressively cover useful language items, skills and strategies.

-       Teachability: The teaching of language items should take account of the most favorable sequencing of these items and should take account of when the learners are most ready to learn them.

-       Learning burden: The course should help learners make the most effective use of previous knowledge.

-        Interference: The items in a language course should be sequenced so that items which are learned together have a positive effect on each other for learning and so that interference effects are avoided.

2.    Format and presentation: They are concerned with what actually happens in the classroom and during the learning. Most practically, they relate to the kinds of activities used in the course and the ways in which learners’ process the course material. It is in this aspect of curriculum design that teachers may have their greatest influence on the course.

-       Motivation: As much as possible, the learners should be interested and excited about learning the language and they should come to value this learning.

-       Four strands: A course should include a roughly even balance of meaning-focused input, language-focused learning, meaning-focused output and fluency activities.

-       Comprehensible input: There should be substantial quantities of interesting comprehensible receptive activity in both listening and reading.

-       Fluency: A language course should provide activities aimed at increasing the fluency with which learners can use the language they already know, both receptively and productively.

-        Output: The learners should be pushed to produce the language in both speaking and writing over a range of discourse types.

-       Deliberate learning: The course should include language-focused learning on the sound system, spelling, vocabulary, grammar and discourse areas.

-       Time on task: As much time as possible should be spent using and focusing on the second language.

-        Depth of processing: Learners should process the items to be learned as deeply and as thoughtfully as possible.

-        Integrative motivation: A course should be presented so that the learners have the most favorable attitudes to the language, to users of the language, to the teacher’s skill in teaching the language, and to their chance of success in learning the language.

-       Learning style: There should be opportunity for learners to work with the learning material in ways that most suit their individual learning style.

3.    Monitoring and Assessment:

-       Ongoing needs and environment analysis: The selection, ordering, presentation, and assessment of the material in a language course should be based on a continuing careful consideration of the learners and their needs, the teaching conditions, and the time and resources available.

-       Feedback: Learners should receive helpful feedback which will allow them to improve the quality of their language use.

Using the list of principles

1.    It can be used to guide the design of language teaching courses and lessons.

2.    It can be used to evaluate existing courses and lessons.

3.    It can be used to help teachers integrate and contextualize information gained from keeping up with developments in their field. For example, when reading articles from journals such as TESOL Quarterly, Language Learning, Applied Linguistics or RELC Journal, teachers can try to decide what principle is being addressed by the article and how the article helps in the application of a principle.

4.     It can provide a basis for teachers to use to reflect on their practice and professional development. It may provide a basis for action research within their classrooms. It can help them answer questions like “Is this a good technique?”, “Should I use group work?”, and “Do my learners need to speak a lot in class?”

5.    It can act as one of many possible reference points in teacher training courses.