BOOK REVIEW: Language Curriculum Design

Title                 : Language Curriculum Design

Author             : I.S.P. Nation & John Macalister

Publisher         : New York: Routledge. 2010

Page                : 241 pages

Introduction 

Curriculum, or course, design is largely a “how-to-do-it” activity and so a large part of this book involves description of the steps involved in the curriculum design process and the elaboration and justification of these steps. The book also provides opportunities for practising and applying the steps.

Although curriculum design is a “how-to-do-it” activity, the description of the steps needs to be done at a general level in order that they can be applied in a wide range of particular circumstances. Such a description will only come to life if there are plenty of examples of actual applications of the steps. In this book this is done in the following ways in each chapter.

1.      Examples from the writers’ experience and from published research are described.

2.      Tasks are provided which encourage the users of the book to relate the steps to their own experience.

3.      Case studies are described and further reading is suggested that will put the users of this book in touch with others’ experience.

Discussion

This book consists of 14 chapters. Generally, Chapter 1 provides an overview of Chapters 2 to 8 which are the major steps in the curriculum design process. Chapter 9 describes several ways in which these steps can be covered. Chapters 10 to 14 take up important issues in curriculum design, namely involving learners in curriculum design, choosing and modifying course books, innovation theory, retraining teachers and helping teachers and learners make use of a course. In this first chapter of this book (Language Curriculum Design: An Overview), the authors briefly present an overview of the major parts of the curriculum design process that will be looked at in more detail in the following chapters of the book, with each of the early chapters focusing on a different part of the model in the curriculum design process. As I have stated in the early writing that this book provides examples, tasks, and case studies in each chapter, and I must say that it is very useful for engaging the readers’ understanding and interest of this book. Explanations from the authors in each subchapter, which is the steps in curriculum design, are very clear since it followed by related theory, strong argument, and valuable experience. The authors also sharpen what they have explained into a brief clear conclusion. As we can see in page 11, there is a summary of the steps: examine the environment, assess needs, decide on principles, set goals, and choose and sequence content, design the lesson format, include assessment procedures, and evaluate the course. The purpose of this chapter has been to briefly describe the major parts of the curriculum design model. In the following chapters, each of the parts will be looked at in more detail. In addition, topics including evaluating course books, innovation, and designing in-service courses will be covered. Curriculum design is in essence a practical activity. Because of this the tasks which follow each chapter provide an important part of learning about curriculum design.

Chapters 2 (Environment Analysis) of this book examine one of the parts of the curriculum design process that is environment analysis in detail, drawing on relevant theory and research. It is possible to design courses without drawing on relevant research, theory and experience. In all but a few fortunate cases this results in common faults in curriculum design being made yet again. Nation and Macalister here present enlightenment about environment analysis through definitions from experts, examples, the constraints and dealing with the constraints itself, and the steps. What I can notice in this chapter is the authors deals the problems (constraints) by making the reader understand it. In page 16, it is clearly presented in table, where the reader can grab the point. 

The focus of chapter 3 (Need Analysis) is to discover what needs to be learned and the learners want to learn. Needs analysis is directed mainly at the goals and content of a course. It examines what the learners know already and what they need to know. Needs analysis makes sure that the course will contain relevant and useful things to learn. The authors emphasize the urgency of need analysis in curriculum design by explain some aspects, they are the various focuses of needs analysis, discovering needs, needs analysis tools, evaluating needs analysis, and issues in needs analysis. Needs analysis makes sure the course will be relevant and satisfying to the learners, thereby it meets the learners’ needs. Environment analysis looks at the way the course needs to fit the situation in which it occurs. Looking at principles makes sure that the course fits with what we know about teaching and learning. That is the subject of the next chapter.

Chapter 4 of this book describes a list of 20 principles that can be used to guide curriculum design. It is not an exhaustive list and is based to some degree on the personal prejudices of the writers. The purpose of this chapter is to show that a sensible basis to guide teaching and to help in the design of courses rests on following principles. These principles must be based on research and theory, and must be general enough to allow variety and flexibility in their application to suit the wide range of conditions in which language is taught. The previous discussion of the twenty principles has attempted to explain the principles and to indicate their application in curriculum design. The list of principles however has a much wider range of uses. This chapter has suggested twenty principles of teaching and learning that can provide a basis for curriculum design and evaluation, and teacher development. The selection and ranking of these principles reflect a personal view of language teaching.The authors have tried to balance this by seeking suggestions from colleagues and by comparing the list with points made in articles in professional journals and with overviews of curriculum design and language teaching and learning. One of the values in using a principle-based approach to language teaching is that developments in theory and research can be easily accommodated by altering, expanding, removing or adding a principle without having to discard all the other principles. In this way our knowledge of language teaching can grow without being subject to the blanket acceptance or rejection that is typical of methods. The information gathered by considering principles, by doing needs analysis, and by doing environment analysis provides essential input for setting course goals and deciding what goes into a course, which is the subject of the following chapter.

Chapter 5 deals with Goals, Content, and Sequencing. The authors give long clarification about them clearly and of course they complete it with examples. The unit of progression in a course is usually what the curriculum designer sees as being important for learning. This means that it has an effect on the kinds of activities used which is a part of the format and presentation part of curriculum design. We look at format and presentation in the following chapter.

In this chapter 6 (Format and Presentation) we can see the format and presentation part of the curriculum design process. For those unfamiliar with the curriculum design process, the format and presentation part is what they think of as curriculum design – designing lessons in sets of lessons. Some “methods” of language teaching like Total Physical Response (TPR) or the oral-aural approach were largely innovations solely or largely in the format and presentation area, with little or no contribution to content and sequencing or monitoring and assessment. So far, we can look the outer circles of the curriculum design model which provide valuable information to guide the application of the processes in the large inner circle. The readers can also look the goals, content and sequencing, and in this chapter, format and presentation. In the next chapter we will complete our coverage of the large inner circle by looking at how teachers can see where learners are in their learning and whether they are making progress – monitoring and assessment.

Chapter 7 is about Monitoring and Assessment. Assessment is a major source of information for the evaluation of a course and thus its gradual improvement. Assessment also contributes significantly to the teacher’s and learners’ sense of achievement in a course and thus is important for motivation. It is often neglected in curriculum design and courses are less effective as a result. Curriculum design should include the planning of a well-thought-out programme of assessment of various kinds. We now go on to look at evaluation in the next chapter.

Chapter 8 talks about Evaluation. The authors conclude that the steps in evaluation process are: Evaluation is an essential part of good curriculum design. It ensures that weaknesses in curriculum design are found and repaired. It allows for the adjustment of a course to a changing environment and changing needs. If evaluation is well planned, it can help teachers develop professionally and come to feel that the course is truly their own. We have now covered all the eight parts of the curriculum design model. In the next chapter we look at the various ways in which the whole process of curriculum design might be carried out.

In chapter 9 Approaches to Curriculum Design, the authors want the readers be able to decide on a starting point for curriculum design, and a way of covering the steps.  This chapter has looked at the meeting of the theory of curriculum design and the practical issues of putting curriculum design into practice. The approaches described here represent different ways of taking account of constraints upon curriculum design, particularly those of time, skill and the need for flexibility in using courses. With all of the compromises necessary, it is important to make sure that the various parts of the curriculum design process are given proper consideration at some point in the curriculum design activity. The main purpose of this book is to describe those parts and the steps involved in considering and applying them. An awareness of what they are should lie behind every piece of curriculum design no matter how small. In the following chapters we will look at how curriculum design applies to activities like choosing a course book, involving learners in curriculum design and teacher education.

Chapter 10 deals with Negotiated Syllabuses.  This chapter explain to us that how learners can be involved in curriculum design. The authors explain about an example of negotiated syllabuses, requirements for negotiated syllabuses, syllabuses with some elements negotiated, and advantages and disadvantages of negotiated syllabuses. In the next chapter we look at a particular kind of evaluation, evaluating a course book.

For many teachers the evaluation of course books is more important than designing courses because their teaching situation determines that they should work from a course book. It should be clear from this chapter 11 (Adopting and Adapting an Existing Course Book) that evaluating and adapting a course book draw on the same knowledge and procedures that are used when designing a course. Evaluating a course book is a small but important exercise in curriculum design. In the next chapter, we look at something which is related to choosing a new course book – getting others to accept change.

Let us conclude this chapter 12 (Introducing Change) by looking at ways of resisting change. We may recognise many of these subversive strategies from your own observation of working in teachers’ groups and of political debates.

•         Agree to everything but do nothing.

•         Accuse the change proposer of seeking personal gains. Argue that although the ideas may be good, they will not work in the local conditions.

•         Question the credentials of the change proposers. Find examples of unsuccessful change in other places or at other times.

More positively, each of these ways of resisting change can be countered by taking account of the particular steps in the change process outlined at the beginning of this chapter. In the next chapter we will look at one way in which change can occur, through in-service courses.

In this chapter 13 (Planning an In-Service Course) we look at short-term courses, and the planning that is needed for their success. The planning of short-term in-service courses is included in this book for two main reasons. First, short in-service courses represent a small-scale exercise in curriculum design. That is, planning a short in-service course involves very similar decisions to planning a language course, and the model of curriculum design used in this book is relevant. Second, in-service courses are a major way of bringing about innovative curriculum change. In the next and final chapter we will survey what has been covered in this book by underlining how the parts of the curriculum design process apply to the daily work of teachers.

Chapter 14 (Teaching and Curriculum Design) as the last chapter of this book concludes that curriculum design as a process with a variety of starting points and with continual opportunity to return to parts of the curriculum design model to revise, reconsider and re-evaluate. It has also been shown that curriculum design does not need to be a large-scale operation. The whole curriculum design process can be applied to something as small as an activity in a lesson. Alternatively, attention can be focused on just one part of the curriculum design process.

Comment

            Curriculum design involves the integration of knowledge from many of the areas in the field of Applied Linguistics, such as language acquisition research, teaching methodology, assessment, language description and materials production. In many ways, the study of curriculum design is central to the study of Applied Linguistics. Combining sound research/theory with state-of-the art practice, Language Curriculum Design is widely applicable for ESL/EFL language education courses around the world. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I.S.P. Nation and John Macalister. 2010. Language Curriculum Design. New York: Routledge.