A.
Definition of Course Design
Course
design is an interpretation process of the learning needs and learning theories
to produce an integrated series of teaching-learning experiences including
producing materials depending on syllabus, developing methodology for teaching,
and establishing evaluation procedure. It
aims to lead the learners to a particular state of knowledge.
All the data we have gathered -
learning needs and theories - should be interpreted in order to answer the
questions that may appear (such as: What is the learner need? What is the
learner want? etc.) to design a suitable course. This not only uses need
analysis, but also depends on external constraints (classroom facilities/time),
our own theoretical views, and experience of the classroom.
B. Three Main Types of Approach to
Course Design
There are many different approaches
to ESP course design, however, we can identify the three main types:
Language-Centred Approach, Skills-Centred Approach, and Learning-Centred
Approach.
1. Language-Centred
Approach
Language-Centred Approach is the
simplest kind and most familiar course design to English teacher. It concentrates on the performance of the
learners regarding their target situation. The purpose is to draw a connection
as direct as possible between the analysis of the target situation and the
content of the ESP course.
It
proceeds as follow:
From the chart, we can conclude that
it is logical and straight forward procedure - starts with learner, proceeds
through various stages of analysis to a syllabus, thence to materials used in
the classroom and finally evaluates the mastery of the syllabus items. However,
it has several weaknesses.
Ø It might be considered as
learner-centred approach because it starts from the learners and their needs.
But
in fact, the learners are only used to identify the target situation. Instead
of teaching the whole English as in General English, only a restricted area of
the language is taught. The learners are used only to determine the restricted
area, so they aren’t considered in other stages as they suppose to.
Ø It can be criticized for being a
static and inflexible procedure.
Once
the course designer is done with the initial analysis of the target situation,
he/she is locked into a relentless process. In other words, it cannot respond
to unsuspected or developing influences as it doesn’t have flexibility,
feedback channels, and error tolerance.
Ø Based on its systematic model, it
engenders false belief that learning is systematic
- that the systematic analysis and presentation of language data will produce
systematic learning.
The
fact that knowledge has been systematically analyzed and systematically
presented doesn’t in any way imply that it will be systematically learnt.
Learners have to make the system meaningful to themselves.
Ø It gives no acknowledgment to
factors which must inevitably play a part in the creation of any course.
Data
which is produced by need analysis is not important before it is interpreted.
And in interpreting, we make use of all sorts of knowledge that are not
revealed in the analysis. In language-centred approach, the analytical model is
also being used inappropriately as a predictive model - an analysis of what
happens in a particular situation is being used to determine the content of
pedagogic syllabuses and materials. But there are other factors that will
influence these activities. For example, one of the primary principles of good
pedagogic materials is that they should be interesting. Thus, if the materials
are based on the language-centred model, either there are other factors being
used, which are not acknowledge in the model, or, these learning factors are
not considered to be important.
Ø Its analysis of target situation
data is only at the surface level.
It
reveals very little about the competence that underlies the performance.
2.
Skills-Centred Approach
The
skills-centred approach has been widely applied in a number of countries,
particularly in Latin America. The aim
is not to present and practice language items, but rather to provide
opportunities for learners to employ and evaluate the skills and strategies
considered necessary in the target situation.
The skills-centred approach is founded on
two fundamental principles.
a.
Theoretical
The
basic theoretical hypothesis is skills and strategies, which are used by the
learners to produce or comprehend discourse, underlie any language behavior.
Unlike language-centred approach which concentrates on performance, skills-centred approach concentrates on the
competence that underlies the performance. Therefore, it will present its learning objectives of both performance and
competence.
Example:
-
General
objective (i.e. performance level)
The
students will be able to read catalogue books written in English
-
Specific
objectives (i.e. competence level)
The
students will be able to:
·
extract
the gist of a text by skimming
·
extract
relevant information from the main parts of a book
b.
Pragmatic
The basic pragmatic for the skills-centred
approach derives from a distinction made by Widdowson (1981) between
goal-oriented courses and process-oriented courses.
Goal-oriented courses just focus on the goal of the learning or the final
product, while process-oriented courses focus on the process of how to achieve
that goal.
Holmes stated that the main problem of ESP
is one of time available and learners’ experience. For example, the aim of
learning ESP is to be able to read literature, but there may be not enough time
to reach this aim during the course period, or the learners may be in their
first year of studies so they have little experience of the literature. If
these factors appear in the ESP course, the aim may not be achieved.
The process-oriented approach removes the
distinction between the ESP course and the target situation. They are seen as a
continuum of constantly developing degrees of proficiency with no cut-off point
of success or failure. The emphasis in
ESP is not on achieving a particular set of goals, but on enabling the learners
to achieve what they can.
“The process-oriented approach… is at least
realistic in concentrating on strategies and processes of making students aware
of their own abilities and potentials and motivating them to tackle target
texts on their own after the end of the course so that they can continue to
improve.” (ibid)
The
reasons why skills-centred approach is better than language-centred approach
are:
Ø It views language in terms of how
the mind of the learner processes it rather than as an entity in itself.
Ø It tries to build on the positive
factors that the learners bring to the course, rather just on the negative idea
of “lacks”.
Ø It frames its objectives in
open-ended terms, so enabling learners to achieve at least something.
The role
of needs analysis in this approach is twofold:
Ø It
provides a basis for discovering the underlying competence that enables people to perform in the target situation.
Ø It enables the course
designer to discover the potential
knowledge and abilities
that the learner bring to the ESP classroom.
In
spite of its concern for the learner, skills-centred
approach approaches the learner as a user of language rather than as a learner
of language.
Below
is the chart of skills-centred approach to course design:
3. Learning-Centred Approach
Learning is more than just a matter
of presenting language items or skills and strategies. It is not just the
content of what is learnt that is important, but also the activity through
which it is learnt (Phrabu, 1983).
Learning-centred
approach is based on the principle that course design is a negotiation process
in which both the target situation influence the features of the syllabus and
also it’s a dynamic process in which means and resources vary from time to time.
The difference between
learner-centred approach and learning-centred approach is shown below:
|
LEARNER-CENTERED
APPROACH
|
LEARNING-CENTERED
APPROACH
|
|
• It is based on the principle that learning is totally determined by the
learner even though teachers can influence what is taught.
(The learner
is one factor to consider in
the learning process, but not the
only one)
|
• It is seen as a process in which the learner use
what knowledge or skills they
have to make sense of the flow of new information.
• It is an internal
process, which is crucially dependent upon the knowledge the learner
already have and their ability and motivation to use it.
• It is a process
of negotiation between individuals and the society. Society sets the
target and the individuals must do their best to get as close to that target
as is possible.
|
This
chart shows the comparison of approaches to course design.
-
Language-centred approach is the nature
of the target situation performance.
-
Skills-centred approach looks behind the
target performance data to discover what processes enable someone to perform.
-
Learning-centred approach looks beyond
the competence that enables someone to perform, because what we really want to
discover is not the competence itself, but how someone acquire that competence.
This approach has 2 implications:
1. Course
design is a negotiated process. The ESP learning situation and the target situation
will both influence the nature of the syllabus, materials, methodologies and
evaluation procedures.
2. Course design is a dynamic process. It doesn’t move in a linear fashion. Needs
and resources vary with time. The course design, therefore, needs to have
built-in feedback channels to enable the course to respond to developments.
The learning-centred course
design process is shown in this diagram:
If we took a learning-centred approach, we
would need to ask further questions and consider other factors, before
determining the content and methodology of the course:
- What skills are necessary to be taught?
- What are the implications for methodology of having a mono-skill focus?
- How will the students react to doing tasks involving other skills?
- Do the resources in the classroom allow the use of other skills?
- How will the learners react to discussing things in the mother tongue?
- How will the students’ attitudes vary through the course? Will they feel motivated?
- How do students feel about reading as an activity?
The important point is
that these questions must be asked and the results allowed to influencing the
course design.
can you send me the original information? i cant see the images
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