Chapter 4 - Principles of Curriculum Design

Methods and Principles

Practitioners of a method soon find a remarkable similarity between methods that are supposed to be quite different from each other, particularly in the selection and sequencing of the items that make up a course. In this point, my opinion is that experience either will bring a perfect delivery during classes and planning, or it can produce a certain conformism to keep within the same structure and not developing new techniques. The method approach to curriculum design seems to result in some aspects of curriculum design being well thought out and well founded on research but in many aspects being ignored or not well thought out. The tendency or unwillingness to look at what is already know and to apply it to curriculum design without being distracted by the need to adhere a method. That is main reason why at the time of designing you must have a sensible basis to guide teaching and to help in the design of courses rests on following a set of principles. 

The 20 Principles

Based on a pedagogical perspective focused on the curriculum design and teacher training, and at the same time considering the nature and importance of the language, the nature of the learning and the role of the culture, we could make use of these principles. As well, it is important to highlight that none of the principles is unique to language teaching, but could equally well apply, well apply to the teaching of math or motorcycle maintenance. The principles are the following and are categorized in three groups, the first one is named Content and Sequencing which include the following: 

·         Frequency

·         Strategies and autonomy    

·         Spaced Retrieval

·         Language System

·         Keep Moving Forward

·         Teachability

·         Learning Burden

·         Interference 

The main purpose of these principles is that a language course should provide the best possible coverage of language in use through the inclusion of items that occur frequently in the language, so that learners get the best return for their learning effort. Another of the objectives is that a language course should train learners in how to learn a language so that they can become effective and independent language learners. As well, learners must have the space and time to give attention to wanted items in a variety of contexts and it should focus in the needs of the language system and to cover items, skills and strategies. The items in a language course should be sequenced so that items which are learned together have a positive effect on each other for learning and so that interference effects are avoided.

The second group is named Format and Presentation and includes the following principles: 

·         Motivation

·         Four Strands

·         Comprehensible Input

·         Fluency

·         Output

·         Deliberate Learning

·         Time on Task

·         Depth of Processing

·         Integrative Motivation

·         Learning Style

The main goal of this group of principles is that the learners should be interested and excited about learning the language and they should come to value this learning. As well, a course should include a balance of the four strands of meaning-focused input, language-focused learning, meaning focused output and fluency activities. A well-structured course should provide activities aimed at increasing the fluency with which the learners can use the language they already know, both receptively and productively. The learners should be pushed to produce the language in both speaking and writing over a range of discourse types and including language-focused learning in the sound system, vocabulary, grammar and discourse areas.  As much time as possible should be spent using and focusing on the target language, presenting the student the most favorable attitudes to the language and the importance of it. There should be opportunity for learners to work with the learning material in ways suit their individual learning style, developing each of the four skills and the multiple intelligences theory.   

The third and final group is named Monitoring and Assessment, which includes the 2 final principles which are Ongoing needs and environment analysis and Feedback. The last two principles’ main objective is to base the assessment of a language course in consideration for the learners, empathy and their needs, the teaching conditions and the time and resources available. Learners should receive helpful feedback which will allow them to improve the quality of their language use all the time.  

The main objective of the principles is to make sure that the learners are gaining something useful from the course. It is possible to run a language course which is full of interesting activities and which introduces the learners to new language items, but which provides a very poor return for the time invested in it. These principles must relate to the kinds of activities used in the course and the ways in which learners’ process the course material. Principles have been ranked in order of their importance, so that group, the second principle is the next most important and so on.