ABSTRACT
I am working with a group of teachers from three different universities in Thailand who are exploring ways to innovate their syllabus. I present my ideas of the process for curriculum design and the group agrees that it wants to embark on that process. They begin with their theoretical framework and come up with a long list of their jointly held beliefs about language and language learning. The discussion around these beliefs is quite intense, but everyone agrees on all but two items on a final list. These are “Language means the ability to analyze the language structure” and “Language is understanding the meaning of vocabulary.” Two of the ones they agree on are “Language varies according to contexts, disciplines, and workplaces” and “Language is a functional tool for communication, academic studies, and professional development.” They are university-based, teaching both university students and English in the workplace, as can be seen by some of their beliefs. Next they decide to focus on a standard for oral language that is required by their curriculum, “Students will be able to orally present information in their related field.” They then develop a list of performance indicators through which learners could demonstrate their ability, such as “can introduce the purpose of the presentation,” “can organize the information coherently,” and “can use transitional phrases to link ideas.” They next develop an assessment task for the standard: “Choose a topic of your interest only from the Internet, research into it, and use the information collected to give an oral presentation to your class.” Then they list exactly what learners are to include in their presentation. Because this is an initial workshop, they have some issues that need to be worked through in the next workshop, such as whether searching for information on the Internet should be a separate standard, taught before this one. They also realize they needed to say how long the presentation should be and also be far more explicit about the Internet search, such as how many sites students should consult. [Murray, research notes]
Task: Reflect
1. Why do you think some teachers didn’t agree that analyzing language and knowing the meaning of vocabulary were appropriate in their framework?
