Chapter 5 - Goals, Content and Sequencing

Goals, Content and Sequencing

Content and sequencing must take account of the environment in which the course will be used, the needs of the learners, and principles of teaching and learning. 

Guidelines for deciding or checking the content and sequencing of a course. 

Reviewing the past chapters at the time of desiging curriculum we must take in account the Environment for the learners, teachers and the environment situation. The Needs is a fundamental part including and Lacks, Wants and Necessities and of course the Principles. 

Goals and Content

The goals of a language lesson can focus on one or more of the following:

·         Language

·         Ideas

·         Skills

·         Text (Discourse)

The Units of Progression in the Course

These are the items that are used to grade the progress of the course, and used to set targets and paths to those targets. These units can be used to check the adequacy of selection and ordering in a course. These can used to monitor and report on learners’ progress and achievement in the course. It is important to acknowledge the learners about the unit of progression and how they will be achieved in a final step.

These units of progression could be categorized in the following: 

·         Vocabulary

·         Grammar

·         Language and Ideas

·         Discourse

·         Situation and Roles

·         Component Skills

·         Strategies

·         Outcomes

Task Based Syllabus

When building a curriculum a lot of things must be take into consideration like, “Does this activity engage leaners’ interest, or is there a primary focus on the meaning, is there an outcome and these activities relate to real world activities.  

Sequencing the Content in a Course

The lessons or units of a course can fit together in a variety of ways. The two major divisions are whether the material in one lesson depends on the learning that has occurred in previous lessons (named a linear development) or whether each lesson is separate from the others so that the lessons can be done in any order and need not all be done (named a modular arrangement). 

These can be divided into: 

·         Linear Approach to Sequencing: Most language courses involve linear development, beginning with simple frequent items that prepare for later more complex items. The advantage of a spiral model are that it provides easily monitored recycling of material, it allows for learners who were left behind to catch up at the next cycle, and it makes sure that the full value of the most important aspects of the language are dealt with.

·         Modular Approach to Sequencing: A modular approach breaks a course into independent non-linear units. These units may be parts of lessons or group of lessons.