PRACTICE ACTIVITIES: CURRICULUM AND COURSE DESIGN GENERAL INFORMATION: The subject practice activities consist of doing four short exercises in pairs. The submitted document must fulfil the following conditions: - Length: 2-3 pages (without including cover, activities’ statements, index or appendices –if there are any). Font type: Arial or Times New Roman. Font size: 11. Spacing: 1.5. Alignment: Justified. Besides, the activities have to be presented in this Word document: keep the questions and provide an answer below them. In order to make the correction process easier, please, do not write the answers in bold, as it helps distinguishing between questions and answers. Also, the document must still fulfil the rules of presentation and format, and follow the rubric for citations and bibliographical references as detailed in the Study Guide. The final activitiy has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the “Subject Evaluation” document. Sending it to the teacher’s e-mail is not permitted. In addition to this, it is very important to read the assessment criteria, which can be found in the “Subject Evaluation” document. Full name: Victor Julio Medina Silva Group:02-2020 Date: April 30th – 2021 Curriculum and Course Design-Principles and Practice Practice Activities Task 1. Define the following words so the differences between them are clear: a) Curriculum and syllabus b) Approach and method. Task 2 Unit 2 argues that most curriculums are either knowledge-centered or personcentered. Find the book you learn English with, or a book you like using in your class and argue whether it is a knowledge-centered curriculum or person-centered curriculum. Illustrate your argument with captures from the book. Do not forget to include the full reference, as well. Task 3 Are some verb tenses more teachable than other items? List five different verb tenses in English in order of “teachability” according to your criteria. Give them a score from 1 (very easy to teach) to 5 (very difficult to teach) and justify the score. You might want to consider the students’ L1, previous experiences, or activities you have tried (either as a teacher or as a student) that worked well. Task 4 4. The following is an advert for a two-week immersion course that combines English and sports: http://www.ipcexeter.co.uk/courses/school-language-projects/theprojects/englishsports/ Considering a course like this, explain what peculiarities the syllabus design would need to consider in terms of setting goals, choosing/designing materials, teaching methodology and evaluation. Task 1. Define the following words so the differences between them are clear: a) Curriculum and syllabus The curriculum is an umbrella term incorporating all the decisions about objectives, content, methods and evaluation of a teaching program, often with an associated educational philosophy and often this follows national policies on education and learning. The Syllabus is a detailed plan or guide to achieve the objectives and cover the content decided upon in the curriculum. A curriculum holds the whole philosophy or belief of the plan of education while a syllabus is just part of that curriculum or realization of such beliefs step-by-step. “A curriculum pertains to the entire period of study in a college or school. For example, the curriculum of a certain course of study, say B. Sc chemistry, include all the subjects, including the allied subjects to be studied as part of the entire course of study. Hence, it can be said that syllabus is a subject of curriculum. In other words, it can be said that syllabus is contained in the curriculum [...]”. (Difference Between Syllabus and Curriculum | Compare the Difference Between Similar Terms) b) Approach and method. An approach is a way of designing principles to solve a problem. It is a group of assumptions or beliefs regarding the nature of language learning while a method is a plan for an organized presentation of language materials and is based on a given approach. A method is a way in which these principles are applied in the classroom, taking into consideration, the objectives, teachers and learners’ roles, and guidelines for activities in the classroom. Therefore, a method is an execution of an approach in the classroom context. “When an instructional design is quite explicit at the level of theory of language and learning, but can be applied in many different ways at the level of objectives, teacher and learner roles and activities, it is usually referred to as an approach. […] When an instructional design includes a specific level of application in terms of objectives, teacher and learner roles and classroom activities, it is referred to as a method. With a method, there are prescribed objectives, roles for teacher and learners and guidelines for activities, and, consequently, little flexibility for teachers in how the method is used”. Richards, J. C. (https://www.professorjackrichards.com/difference-between-an-approach-and-a-method/) Task 2 Unit 2 argues that most curricula are either knowledge-centered or person- centered. Find the book you learn English with, or a book you like using in your class and argue whether it is a knowledge-centered curriculum or person- centered curriculum. Illustrate your argument with captures from the book. Do not forget to include the full reference, as well. My school doesn't have a specific book that we use with our students. We do have some books that have been sent to us by editors. Generally, I do not choose to use these books because I find them limiting. Most students have a low level of English when they arrive in the pre-apprenticeship program (age 15) and the materials in the book are beyond the level of half the class. I have to review the basics and try to get the others up to speed, while maintaining the stronger student’s level. The books also seem to be made for classes that meet more often than mine do. With two hours every two weeks, it is difficult to work coherently with the book. The only book on the market for apprentices and pre-apprentices is “TIP TOP” from Foucher. It is oriented towards the accomplishment of tasks (“projects”) found at the end of each chapter. There is little to no explicit grammar explanation in the books. For low level students who find language learning confusing, this is not reassuring. The book is a mix of a knowledge and a person-centered curriculum. The initial activities have only one correct answer and requires students respond in the “correct” way. Only the “project” allows for some freedom of expression. There are not repetitive exercises either, which would signal a behaviorist undertone. The final exam required of the students is the oral presentation of an authentic text at A2 level that has been previously prepared for in class during their two years of training. These documents are provided by the teacher. They are graded on their ability to present themselves, the text including the type of text, where it is from, the theme and the main ideas. While the rubric for evaluation seems to be very person centered, it is a tool being used in a very traditional, knowledge centered school system. Task 3 Are some verb tenses more teachable than other items? List five different verb tense in English in order of “teachability” according to your criteria. Give them a score from 1 (very easy to teach) to 5 (very difficult to teach) and justify the score. You might want to consider the students’ L1, previous experiences, or activities you have tried (either as a teacher or as a student) that worked well. For this activity I have selected the following verb tenses in English: Present continuous, Past continuous, Present simple, Past simple and Present perfect. To rank these tenses by their “teachability,” it is necessary to first define the criteria that will be used to sort and rank the verb tenses. Does a similar tense exist in the students’ native language? Is it a simple tense or a compound tense? Are there a lot of irregular forms in that tense? Can the verb tense easily be explained using a diagram or some other visual aid? Present continuous- 2 / Past continuous- 2 For me, present continuous and past continuous deserve a 2 since the structure of these tenses is easier to teach but rules of spelling drive the students crazy. We play with some cards to remember when to change for instance I by E like in dance - Dancing. Present simple - 3 I gave a 3 to present simple since teaching the third person changes in this tense it carries difficulty to students and sometimes as a student, I had to worked it systematically and as a teacher I have, sometimes fallen into the same mistake. We practice this using interviews and diaries talking about members of their family. Past simple - 4 Past simple is one the hardest tenses to work with, since it is a must to learn which are the regular and which the irregular verbs, sometime the students feel frustrated about the irregular one’s long lists, because they definitely have to memorize them. Sometimes when speaking, they totally forget the use of the past and use present for past events, on the other hand they really struggle with the pronunciation of the regular ones, because they don't want to sound using present. As a teacher I have practiced the pronunciation with worksheets and taught concatenation so they do not feel that bad, in the case of irregular verbs we practice hard some of the verbs, we use them for everything and then we continue with the others. We play board games and spelling bee. Present perfect - 5 Present perfect really deserves a 5 and the main reason is to show the students the difference between past simple and present perfect, since in our L1 we use it just to talks about unfinished actions and that is it. Besides the tense use, it comes again the use of the verbs not just the irregular ones in past simple but in past participle. What I have done is showing by examples and letting the students to use the list of verbs. Practicing with some at the beginning and including more when I feel sure they know how to use the present perfect. Task 4 4. The following is an advert for a two-week immersion course that combines English and sports: http://www.ipcexeter.co.uk/courses/school-language- projects/the-projects/englishsports/ Considering a course like this, explain what peculiarities would the syllabus design need to consider in terms of setting goals, choosing/designing materials, teaching methodology and evaluation. In setting goals, choosing materials, the methodology and evaluation used with the students in the program, there is a need to consider the following factors to design the syllabus: Are all the students of a similar level? Will they be in the same class? How old are the students? What are their other interests? How long will they stay? therefore, before starting the course a questionnaire could be formed to measure the students’ proficiency level, their interests and the language they know in connection with the physical activities- that’s to elicit the information about the students’ needs. Furthermore, in this kind of a course, the language to be taught should be related to activities they will be engaged in and the language they will find in their host families and other young people. There will be a need for the emphasis of communication within the physical activities and in the classroom contexts Furthermore, in this kind of a course, the language to be taught should be related to activities they will be engaged in and the language they will find in their host families and other young people. There will be a need for the emphasis of communication within the physical activities and in the classroom contexts. Reference Difference between Syllabus and Curriculum. Retrieved from: Difference Between Syllabus and Curriculum | Compare the Difference Between Similar Terms Richards, J. C., Difference between an approach and a method. Retrieved from: https://www.professorjackrichards.com/difference-between-an-approach-and-a-method/ Practice Activities – FP015 CCD 9