ELT Curriculum Design and Assessment

1. ELT Curriculum Design and Assessment 2014/06/24 Week #8

3. Goals or objectives? • By the end of the course, the students will be able to: • Understand conversational English. • Interact with other students in English • Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. • describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans • generally follow what is said and, when necessary, can repeat back part of what someone has said to confirm mutual understanding.

4. Goals and objectives • Goals are general; objectives are more specific. Goals should be transparent. Don’t use jargon. • Objectives are statements about how the goals will be achieved. • A goal is broken down into learnable and teachable units.

5. Goals and objectives • Objectives should focus on what students will learn (e.g. students will be able to write a term paper) and/or processes associated with it (e.g. be able to make an outline), not simply on the activity (e.g. students will write a paper.) • The goals and objectives give a sense of the syllabus of the course. Objectives are like the building blocks of the syllabus.

6. Goals and objectives • A clear set of goals and objectives provides the basis for evaluation of the course (goals) and assessment of student learning (objectives). • Both goals and objectives should be stated in terms of the learner. However, you may have specific, separate goals for yourself as a teacher.

7. A description from CEFR • Independent user (B1) • Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. • Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. • Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. • Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans

8. CEFR: OVERALL SPOKEN INTERACTIONIndependent user (B1) • Can communicate with some confidence on familiar routine and non-routine matters related to his/her interests and professional field. • Can exchange, check and confirm information, deal with less routine situations and explain why something is a problem. • Can express thoughts on more abstract, cultural topics such as films, books, music etc.

9. GOAL-ORIENTED CO-OPERATION(e.g. Repairing a car, discussing a document, organising an event) • Can follow what is said, though he/she may occasionally have to ask for repetition or clarification if the other people’s talk is rapid or extended. • Can explain why something is a problem, discuss what to do next, compare and contrast alternatives. • Can give brief comments on the views of others. • Can generally follow what is said and, when necessary, can repeat back part of what someone has said to confirm mutual understanding. • Can make his/her opinions and reactions understood as regards possible solutions or the question of what to do next, giving brief reasons and explanations. • Can invite others to give their views on how to proceed

10. Goals and objectives • Goals are a way of putting into words the main purposes and intended outcomes of your course. • Analogy of a journey • the destination is the goal; the journey is the course. The objectives are the different points you pass through on the journey to the destination. • In most cases, the destination is composed of multiple goals which the course helps to weave together.

11. Setting your own goals: teachers’ reactions • Denise Lawson • “… it felt limiting, like a Tupperware container into which my course would have to fit.” • Dylan Bate • “Teaching is making choices. There are many worthy and precious things that can be done in the second language classroom, but they can’t all be done. Choices must be made, and the only appropriate arbitrator in these decisions are the goals and purposes defined by the teacher…”

12. Task: Setting goals of your course • Imagine you are going to teach one English class. Your job is to formulate the goals of the course. • Specify your contexts; • Who are the students (their cultural background, language fluency, their grade, the class size)? • How long does the course last? • Formulate five goals that you want your students to achieve by the end of the course. • Descriptors in CEFR may be helpful.

13. In formulating goals… • Are you keeping your beliefs in mind? • What sort of constraints or requirement can you think of (the national guideline, parents’ expectation, students’ needs, etc.)? • What framework or principles are you going to use or create? • KASA (knowledge, awareness, skill & attitude) • A TASK (awareness, teacher, attitude, skills) • Proficiency, Cognitive, Transfer • Language, Strategic, Socioaffective, Philosophical, Method or process

14. Next, formulate objectives • Choose a material from “Hi, friends” / junior/senior high school textbooks. • Specify the objectives which can become building blocks for your five goals.

15. From Goals to objectives • Students will be able to have a short English conversation about immediate topics with their friends. • Students will be able to talk about their hobbies and family with their friends [for 1 minute] using simple sentence structures.

16. Verbs for defining objectives (Brown, 1988: 88)