ELT/ESP/EYL Professional Practice
Week 5
Assignment strand: Preparing a Rationale
Extract from the assignment brief:
Rationale
The rationale, of approximately 3000 words, should include the following elements.
An explanation of how your aims and objectives fit the needs and context of the
learners
A justification of your course outline, with reference to your reading on course design
A discussion and justification of key features in your materials with reference to your
reading. For example, if your materials are for reading, you could discuss issues such
as authenticity of texts and tasks, skills practice, reading strategies and the stages of
reading.
A discussion of how you might evaluate your course and assess your learners’
progress
A discussion of the issues likely to affect the implementation of your new course in
your context
A discourse approach to rationale
Problem – Solution patterns in TESOL texts
Situation
This is where I work, both literally and in terms of an area of ELT
Problem
This is the aspect of my work on which I intend to focus
Response
This is my preferred response, my centrally important statement
Basis for
Response
Here are my reasons in principle for advocating this response
Evaluation
Here are some data in support of the claims that I make.
(Edge & Wharton 2002)
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Work with a specific article
Eken, A. 2003. ‘You’ve got mail’: a film workshop. ELT Journal 57/1: 51-59.
This article describes a particular course and so is in some senses comparable with
your assignment for this course. Please read through it and identify the following
elements:
-
Description of the context and students
-
General reasons for using films
-
Description of the film workshop
-
Reasons for the activities in the film workshop
-
Evaluation of the workshop
Which of these elements are most applicable for the Rationale part of your
assignment? Are any of the discourse techniques used by this author likely to be
useful to you?
A summary: elements of your rationale
What decisions do you need to justify?
What can you make reference to in order to justify those decisions?
Justify:
Refer to:
aims and objectives
needs and context of the learners, theories of course planning and
language learning, and of change. Think of knowledge, performance
and enabling objectives.
Justify:
Refer to:
the overall syllabus plan
the same issues as for aims and objectives, plus reading on syllabus
and course design. You can refer to frameworks and specific
experiences, and theoretical perspectives on methodology. Include
products and processes. Consider flexibility.
Justify:
Refer to:
key features of your materials
your reading on learning, teaching, materials. Make sure they fit with
aims, objectives and syllabus.
Justify:
Refer to:
your teachers’ notes.
your target teachers, your reading on teachers and materials.
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Some further work on ‘rationale-type’ articles:
The following four articles all have "rationale" as a significant part of their text: they
might be arguing for a particular approach, or for the value of specific materials.
You could read them and note down the techniques/ perspectives which the authors
use to provide their rationales, ie to persuade the readers that their ideas are useful.
The articles are:
Cheung KC 2001 'The use of popular culture as a stimulus to motivate
secondary students' English learning in Hong Kong' ELTJ 55/1 55-61
Davies A 2002 'Using teacher generated biography as input material' ELTJ
56/4: 368-379
Fonseca Mora C 2000 'Foreign language acquisition and melody singing'
ELTJ 54/2: 146-152
Ghosn I K 2002 'Four good reasons to use literature in primary school ELT"
ELTJ 56/2: 172-179
References
Edge, J. and Wharton, S. (2002). Genre teaching: The struggle for diversity in unity. In Unity
and Diversity in Language Use, K. Miller and P. Thompson (eds.), 22-38, London: BAAL/
Continuum.
Edge, J. and Wharton, S. (2001). Patterns of text in teacher education. In The Patterns of
Text, M. Scott and G. Thompson (eds.), 255-286, Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Wharton, S. (2006). Given and new in TESOL texts: the management of community
consensus and individual innovation IRAL 44/1: 23-48.
Wharton, S. (2007). Social identity and parallel text dynamics in the reporting of
educational action research. English for Specific Purposes 26: 485-501.
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