Chris Sheppard (Waseda, Japan)
Abstract
(English)
In order for an
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) language program to be
successful, an evidence-based approach to its curriculum design is
essential. Nation and Macalister’s (2010) curriculum design model
requires a careful consideration of learner’s needs and situation
as well as implementation of language learning principles. In this
paper, a description of a curriculum design process is provided,
then, the choices made while designing a curriculum for a large scale
ESP program are discussed with reference to this curriculum design
process.
Keywords:
ESP, curriculum design, skill based learning, complexity
Abstract
(Deutsch)
Damit ein
fachbezogenes Fremdsprachenprogramm in Englisch (ESP-Programm)
erfolgreich etabliert werden kann, ist ein evidenzbasiertes
Herangehen an das Curriculum-Design zwingend erforderlich. Das Modell
von Nation & Macalister (2010) fordert eine sorgfältige Analyse
der Lernerbedürfnisse, der Lernsituation sowie der Umsetzung der
Sprachlernprinzipien. In dem vorliegenden Beitrag wird der
Curriculum-Entwicklungsprozess für ein umfangreiches ESP-Programm in
Japan beschrieben, und die getroffenen Entscheidungen werden mit
Blick auf die Zielstellung und Zielerreichung diskutiert.
Stichwörter:
ESP, Curriculum-Design, fertigkeitsbasiertes Lernen, Komplexität
1 Introduction
The development of the field of
language teaching has availed teachers and course designers of a
large, sometimes seemingly infinite, number of choices as to how to
teach a course. In this paper, it is argued that English for Specific
Purposes (ESP) curriculum design should be approached systematically
to ensure that learners be given opportunities to develop skills and
knowledge relevant to their own contexts. Following such a systematic
design process enables pedagogical choices which are more appropriate
for learners.
Hutchinson & Waters (1987: 19)
define ESP as
an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner's reason for learning (Hutchinson & Waters 1987: 19)
Students
who are learning to be scientists and engineers require specific
language content, often called English
for Science and Technology (EST), which
is based on their need to operate effectively in their target
situation. This target situation has
quite specific language usage which is distinct from what students
learning for other pur- poses may
require. It is important to understand how language usage and skills
required differ in the various areas, and how we can teach these
skills more effectively. Curriculum design provides us with an
effective way to do so Nation & Macalister’s (2010) triadic
curriculum design framework will be described in the first part of
this paper. This description will include the factors which need to
be taken into account when designing an ESP curriculum and how
those factors contribute to the choices we are required to make. The
second part of the paper provides an example of designing a
curriculum for a large ESP program. It is hoped that through this
description of the curriculum design process, other curriculum
designers, be it for a large scale program such as this, or for a
single class course, will be enabled to approach what is a
complicated task in a systematic way, and go beyond their own
teaching experiences to make more effective choices.
2 Curriculum Design Framework
Nation
& Macalister’s (2010) triadic curriculum design framework
provides a convenient way to investigate the important factors
underlying
decisions required to formulate a
curriculum. There are three main aspects which require consideration.
The first one is the needs of the learners. The second aspect is the
situation in which the curriculum will be administered and the third
one is the selection of principles which will be central to the
creating of the curriculum. The essential factors identified in these
areas then combine to create a syllabus.
2.1 Learner
Needs
The needs of the learner are an
extremely important part of curriculum design as they essentially
determine what a learner needs to have achieved by the end of the
course. The ‘learner needs’ are made up of three parts (Figure
1):
Figure 1: The triadic
curriculum design framework
The
first part is an estimation of the skills and knowledge that the
participants will need in their target situation. This
part is usually determined by an
examination of the communication tasks that will be most commonly met
in the target environment. These can be expressed in terms of a
multitude of units, including a description of the structure of the
language used, the vocabulary, the speech acts, tasks, and pragmatic
content just to name a few. The second part is a description of the
learner’s current level. This is important as a starting point,
given both the limited amount of time, and the demotivating effects
of studying at a level which is too difficult or too easy. The third
part is an understanding of what the learners actually expect to
learn. If there is a major mismatch between the learner expectations
of the course and its content, then the program will lose face
validity, and as a result, the learners will not be motivated to work
towards the established goals of the course. The combination of the
target situation requirements and the learner’s current level helps
establish their needs.
2.2 The
Situation
Consideration
of the situation also influences the choices made in the creation of
the syllabus. There are three aspects of situation. The first one
represents
the constraints imposed by the learning environment. For example, the
resources available for learning are important in determining the
extent to which the goals of the program can be realistically met.
The characteristics of the classroom, the time available for the
learning to take place, and the budget available for the
administration of the program should all affect planning for
instance.
Learner
characteristics are also an extremely important aspect of situation.
These include the background of the learners, their learning styles,
and their collective experiences and beliefs. Their motivation and
the impact of the course on their lives, and the perceived importance
to them of the course they are taking, should also be considered
along with the number of learners participating in the program.
The
third aspect of the situation to be considered is the teacher. If the
ability of the teacher, and his or her knowledge and beliefs are not
fully taken into account, it is likely that the teachers in the
program will not
participate as completely as they could.
They will then be more likely to
teach according to their own beliefs as
to what is most appropriate for the
learners, even if this is different from the requirements of the
curriculum.
A final point is the degree to which
these factors can be changed to enable choices which are more
effective for meeting the goals of the curriculum. It is also
necessary to understand the resources, if any, which will be required
to make such changes. Some factors are resistant to change, or
require a large number of resources to prompt change. Buildings and
classroom layout are examples of this. Other factors are more
malleable or require relatively fewer resources.
The resources required to foster the
changes are highly context dependent. What is easy to change in one
context may be very difficult to change in another. The effect that
the individual factors have will also be different depending on the
educational context. Finally, altering factors which are easily
changeable may not actually have a positive influence on the choices
that can be made during the curriculum design process.
2.3 Language
Learning and Teaching Principles
The
third arm of the triadic framework for curriculum design is the
consideration of language learning and teaching principles. This is
where the results of the research from a number of fields are applied
to the choices we make in the curriculum. Interestingly, this is a
point of contention amongst both language teachers and researchers.
Many language teachers approach their teaching with the belief that
the generalization of research results to the language classroom has
little validity. Researchers also often
doubt the applicability of their or
others’ results. Robinson (1994), for example, suggested that a
language learning (or teaching) theory should be thoroughly tried and
tested before being applied to the language classroom. Ellis (1994)
responded by explaining that, while it is more desirable to have a
complete theory, in reality this development is not currently
realistic, and curriculum designers (and language teachers) need to
be able to make more effective educational choices for the classes
they teach.
Teachers left to their own resources
are only able to make choices based on their own experiences. When
teaching in a new situation, these may not necessarily provide the
choices which best match the new context. The application of the best
currently available principles to the design of the curriculum will
enable designers and teachers to go beyond their experience and make
more effective choices.
Principles
can be categorized into four types based on the area of syllabus
design they influence. They are content, sequencing, format and
presentation, and assessment principles.
Each of
these will be covered in turn.
2.3.1 Content Principles
Content
principles guide the selection of the issues which need to be covered
in the curriculum. The first and probably most important one links
‘needs’ to the content. It proposes that the content be relevant
to the target situation of the learners. They need to have the
linguistic knowledge and skills to enable them to perform effectively
in their target environment. Taking this need into account will
ensure that what learners are learning is useful to them, and
presupposes that, if learners understand that what they are learning
is relevant to their future needs, they will
probably be more motivated to learn.
The second principle focuses on
ordering the content in terms of its frequency of occurrence in the
target situation. This ensures that the time and effort spent on
learning items will be worthwhile in the target situation.
Vocabulary, for example, follows what is known as Zipf’s law of
distribution (Zipf 1949), where the most frequent items account for
the majority of the usage in the target situation. If the most
frequent 100 words account for roughly half of all running words -
and we might be lucky to meet a single occurrence of some lower
frequency words in one million running words - then time spent
learning the higher frequency words provides a much greater return
for effort.
Content should also cover instruction
in both communication strategies and language learning strategies. In
the majority of learning situations, instructional contact time is
always a major constraint. There will almost never be enough time for
students to learn all the necessary content. In order for students to
learn what is necessary to become effective in the target situation,
it is important to realize that much of the time they will spend
learning will not be in the language classroom. For this reason,
syllabi need to be designed to foster autonomy so that learners both
understand that they need to be responsible for their own learning
and have the tools to be autonomous learners.
Appropriate communication strategies
also need to be part of a well-designed curriculum. As mentioned
above, learners will rarely have the time to learn all the content
they will need to operate at an optimum level of performance in the
target situation. Communication strategies are taught so that when
learners find that they lack the appropriate knowledge, they will
have a strategy to make up the deficit.
In summary, a curriculum’s content
items need to be selected based on the needs of learners and then on
their frequency of use in the target situation. A good language
program would then also include strategies to assist with
communication and build autonomy in learning.
2.3.2 Sequencing and Ordering
Principles
After determining what content is to
be taught, the next decision is how to order it. If content can be
sequenced in such a way that it makes it easier for students to
learn, then that would make the learning process more efficient and
increase the amount of content that can be covered over the duration
of the course. Language learning theory has made various attempts to
determine what the best order of acquisition / learning is, but to
date no definitive answer has been provided, and this topic is still
the subject of extensive debate (e.g. Skehan 2001, Robinson 2001).
The following are some guiding principles for the ordering of the
content.
The
first guiding principle is that the syllabus needs to progressively
move forward in developing learners’ knowledge towards meeting
their goals. One way to do this is to order the items with gradually
increasing complexity (Skehan 2001). The idea that increasing
complexity is effective comes from research based on three theories
originating in cognitive psychology. The first theory explored the
automaticity of skills (Anderson 1982). The second one investigated
limited attentional capacity and the third one looked at the noticing
hypothesis (Schmidt 1990).
The
results of investigations into these theories suggest that learning
takes place through a
conscious noticing, which makes a
connection between the incoming noticed information and the long-term
memory, essentially creating new connections and memories. This
noticing process requires attentional resources. In Anderson’s
model of skill learning, the consciously controlled processes
gradually become automatic, requiring less conscious attention. This
is the process of automatization.
Two important
processes in language learning require attentional capacity.
Attentional mechanisms are located in working memory, and working
memory capacity is limited (Gathercole & Baddeley 1993). The
result is that the amount that can be noticed, or become automatic,
is limited. This processing limitation has implications for how the
content in a given course should be organized. Information should be
provided in such a way that learners need to process only the new
information (the learning focus of the task), and have all other
aspects of the task under their control. This can be done by
controlling for the complexity of
the task and, as the course progresses, gradually increasing the
complexity so that it approximates that of the target situation.
(Although see Robinson (2001) for a rebuttal to this idea.)
In addition to gradually increasing
the complexity of the learning tasks, based on Anderson’s (1982)
ACT theory, spaced repetition should also be incorporated to foster
successful learning. In order to automaticize new knowledge, it needs
to be processed repetitively, thus increasing the fluency of the
learning. In accordance with the principle generated from Anderson’s
theory, content should be repeated in a number of different contexts
throughout the syllabus.
Thus, in summary, and although there
is not a consensus from the field of cognitive psychology, its
complexity can be used to determine the ordering of the information
we require learners to acquire, and this information needs to be
repeated at spaced intervals.
2.3.3 Format and Presentation
Principles
The
curriculum designer will also need to make choices about exactly how
the content will be presented. This is the how
of curriculum design. Many teaching ‘methodologies’ are directed
at this aspect of curriculum design. The audio-lingual approach, the
communicative approach, and the task-based approach are all examples
of ways to format and present content1.
Nation & Macalister (2010) have again suggested several guiding
principles which will assist in the choices that need to be made
here.
The
first principle is that the content should be presented in such a way
that learners have the opportunity to focus on form as they learn the
content. Learners
should also be given the opportunity
to have both meaning-focused input and output, requiring them to
understand and process the content in a manner meaningful to them.
Finally, there needs to be the opportunity to focus on the
development of fluent (automatic) usage of the items.
The second guiding principle is that
the content should be introduced in such a way that learners are
focused on the target content as much as possible. Deep, meaningful
processing needs to be fostered to increase the chances that the
target content will be learned and to make the establishment of
form-meaning connections easier.
2.3.4 Assessment Principles
The
final aspect of curriculum design is assessment, which may be
formative or summative.
This process determines if learners have actually met their learning
goals and is often referred to as achievement
testing.
A
basic principle in assessment is that any test must be a valid and
reliable assessment of what it purports to be measuring. A valid
assessment is a good measure of what it claims to measure. If
validity is not at an acceptable level, among other things, a given
test will have two main problems. This first one is that it will not
provide important information regarding the learner’s attainment of
the goals of the course. The second one is that learners will
perceive the tests to be unfair and thus lose confidence in the
program.
A
second principle is that assessment procedures need to be designed
and timed in such a way that they ensure feedback to learners. As
noted above, there are many purposes for a test.
However, for educational purposes, it should provide feedback
to learners informing them whether or not they have attained the goal
which was being tested for, and, if not, what else they might need to
do in order to develop their knowledge or skills to attain that goal.
In addition, the feedback must be provided in a timely manner
so as to ensure that learners have time to make the
appropriate adjustments in their performance and make further
progress towards the goals of the curriculum.
In summary, it
can be stated that principles need to be applied to the
learning program in order to determine what content will be taught,
the order that the content will be taught in, how the content will be
presented and taught to the learner, and how the attainment of the
goals will be tested. The principles chosen here have been largely
adapted from Nation & Macalister (2010). It is
important to point out that there are a multitude of other principles
available for selection, many of which may contradict those that are
listed here as they are based on competing learning theories.
2.3.5 The Syllabus
The syllabus is the practical side of
the curriculum. Each aspect of the syllabus should reflect the
principles of curriculum design: the content and sequencing, the
format and presentation, and monitoring and assessment. Once the
goals have been determined, materials to convey the content must then
be designed.
The
goals are statements of course objectives, a description of the
skills and knowledge that learners are expected to attain by
participating fully in the program.
The goals are
determined by first looking at what students need and then limiting
it to the most useful content through application of the relevant
principles. Then analysis of the situation suggests what is actually
possible given the available resources. At the end of the process,
the goals will be a list of language items, attitudes and skills to
be acquired.
The sequencing principles are then
applied to this list to determine (1) the order of instruction, and
(2) which items will actually be taught. Following this, they should
be reformulated and grouped into courses and lessons. The format and
presentation of the content is determined by the selection and
application of the appropriate teaching methodology and principles.
Finally, a valid and reliable testing program should be set up which
considers both the situation and the opportunity to provide feedback
to learners.
3 Application of the Framework
This
part of the paper briefly summarizes the ESP curriculum design
process for tertiary science and engineering students at a large
private university in Japan. Following the curriculum design theory
described above, first, the needs of the students will be analyzed
and then, the situation will be described.
3.1 Students’
Needs
The needs of learners depend very much
on their target situation. According to the results of the exit
survey, shown in Figure 2 below, in 2012, roughly 90% of the students
continued in the field of science and engineering, with the majority
continuing on to graduate school. Thus, any ESP program needed to
develop English skills required in science and engineering. In
particular, many of the students needed to be able to conduct
research in science and engineering.
The
Faculty consists of seventeen different departments from a broad
range of science and engineering
disciplines, some empirical in nature and some rational.
The English required to conduct research in each of these target
fields is varied. However, there are commonalities across all of
them. These
include the ability to read, comprehend, and critically evaluate
research papers, the ability to conduct research in a group, the
ability to participate in international conferences, including giving
oral and poster presentations, and, finally, the ability to write
both proceedings and full research papers.
Figure 2: Where students
go after graduating
The
entry level of the students’ English language is another
consideration. The majority has
come through the Japanese education system, and has
learned English for at least six years, and perhaps longer. Japanese
schools spend a large amount of time working on reading and
translation skills. The best students are very proficient readers
through translation and also have a vocabulary of about 3,000 words
and a good knowledge of fairly complicated grammar. In contrast to
this, as the Japanese education system seldom focuses on productive
skills, these students cannot speak or write very well. It is
important to note, that, while the majority of students are products
of the Japanese education system, there are a small number of foreign
students and returnees who have studied in a foreign secondary
system.
Another major constraint arising from
the current knowledge of students is that their mastery of English to
date is extremely variable. Their TOEIC-IP scores vary from 10 to 990
(the average being 460). This is the full range. In addition, methods
of entry differ. Students are selected for entry to the university
and the Faculty of Science and Engineering through an entrance
examination which includes an English component. This examination
allows some control over the entry level of English. However, only
just over half of the students are admitted through the entrance
examination, and the rest are admitted by high-school recommendation
and through studying in schools affiliated to the university.
Many
of the students on the course have little understanding of their
English needs as researchers. They respond to questions about
personal goals for English with a variety of wants regarding their
future use of
English, which are
often related to
using English during overseas travel
and making friends with non-Japanese speakers. Many students also
respond that they have no particular need for English and that their
original purpose for learning English was mostly to meet university
entry requirements.
The
results of the needs analysis demonstrated that most of these
students will have a very clear necessity to operate as science and
engineering researchers in the international community and need good
English skills to achieve this. In addition, while the students
entering the university are fairly homogeneous in what they have
studied, the degree to which they have mastered the material is
widely varied. Finally, many of the students on the program have a
personal preference for learning English to make friends and travel.
3.2 The
Situation
The situation will be described in
terms of the available resources, the teachers on the program and the
learners. The first major resourcing problem is the contact time
available. Students are required to study English for two 90 minute
sessions per week for the first two years of their studies. Courses
are available in their final two years of undergraduate studies, but
they are optional.
Funding
for teachers is
also limited. This influences the number of students in classes which
average 35 students. Such large groups place major limitations on the
kinds of interaction that can take place in the classroom and the
types of assessments that can be conducted. Although teacher funds
are limited, there is access to a computer-based content delivery
system and a learner management system. The classrooms have access to
wireless Internet, DVD / CD / Blue-ray players, projectors, and
blackboards. Computers can be borrowed for classes. Photocopying
facilities are available for all teachers, and, in principle, there
is no restriction on the number of copies made. Finally, students are
charged a yearly fee that provides a budget for running the program,
and are expected to pay for textbooks.
Apart
from a small number of permanent staff, who may also teach in other
areas, the resources available only allow for hiring part-time
teachers. All have at least
a Master’s degree in language teaching or equivalent, and at least
two years of teaching experience at
tertiary institutions. In addition, an understanding of a principled
approach to language teaching and an understanding of what is
required to teach in a coordinated curriculum are necessary. Finally,
preference is given to teachers who are able to spend at least 90
minutes of preparation and grading per 90 minutes of contact time.
As
previously mentioned, many of the learners are high school graduates
who believe that they have little need for English. However, they are
very effective learners. As they have chosen their fields of study
and, thus, are interested in science and engineering, they are more
motivated to learn content related to these fields. The intake is
very large, with 1,700 to 1,800 students being accepted every year.
The implication of this is that there is great variety among
students, and a large number of personality differences. 90% to 95%
of the students are male. There are also a small number of students
with learning disabilities and social disorders. In addition,
between 5% and 10% of the students fail the courses, and are required
to retake them in order to graduate.
3.3 The
Syllabus Overview
The
syllabus was created as a result of choices that have been made
due
to the situation described above. The
needs have been organized into a set of
goals which were
ordered based on the principles. In the following section, the
syllabus will be described.
The
brief summary of the program demonstrates that it has taken into
account the analysis of the situation. First-year students take four
compulsory courses: two in their first semester and two in their
second semester. They are Communication
Strategies 1 and 2 and Academic
Listening Comprehension 1 and 2. The
course Communication Strategies
focuses on developing speaking and
discussion skills, and the course Academic
Lecture Comprehension focuses
on developing critical listening skills. Second-year students are
expected to take an additional four compulsory courses. Concept
Building and Discussion 1 and 2 is a
task-based course which requires students to design simple research
projects, collect the data, and report the results
of their studies both orally and in a research paper. In the course
Academic
Reading 1 and 2,
students
develop reading strategies and reading fluency. In their third and
fourth years of study, students are able to take elective courses
called Technical Presentation
and Technical Writing.
As their names suggest, these courses focus on developing research
presentation skills and technical writing skills. Similar courses are
also available at graduate school level for students who did not take
these courses at undergraduate level.
3.3.1 The Syllabus Goals
The
above
needs analysis demonstrated that most of these students will need the
ability to participate in international research groups. In order to
do this, they must be able to discuss, and explain their ideas, ask
and answer questions, and support their own opinions. As they have
little experience of speaking or of critical thinking, these two
goals were included in the syllabus with the aim of enabling full
participation in research-based discussion. Students also need the
ability to present information to a larger audience. In order to do
this, they must be able to create visual aids, give a comprehensible
talk to an international audience and be able to answer questions.
Thus, a presentation goal was added which has these three components.
A third skill required is the reading of technical papers, and the
critical evaluation of these papers. A reading goal aims to increase
the reading fluency of the students, and encourage the development of
other comprehension strategies than just translation. Writing
proceedings and full papers is another required skill. In order to
develop this facility, a writing goal was established. The final goal
was to improve
skills allowing students to participate fully in international
conferences. In practice, students must be able to listen critically
to oral and poster presentations. This requires a listening goal, a
critical thinking goal, and a goal aiming at the ability to ask
questions after a presentation. A second part aims at developing the
ability to interact with other researchers during conversation. The
discussion goal was adapted to include this skill as well. In total,
a list of six goals was developed. These included ‘to develop the
ability to use English to confidently take part in: scientific
discussion, technical presentation, technical writing, technical
reading, listening, and critical thinking’ (see
Figure 4). In addition, it was determined
that, while most students had a large vocabulary based on translating
the meaning of English words into Japanese, they were not really able
to use a lot of these words in communication. For that reason, a
vocabulary usage goal was also added.2
3.3.2 Content and Sequencing
Swale’s
(1990) move’s analysis suggests that texts with similar
communicative functions have common
‘moves’.
His ideas can be applied to communication of a high volume of
information when much of the information is organized in similar
ways. For example, a paragraph describing a process typically begins
with a topic sentence describing or introducing the process. Then
each subsequent sentence provides a step in the process with
predictable transitions between each of the moves (steps). The
syllabus content was built around models of common “structures”,
which occur in the presentations students give or listen to, the
discussions, and the papers they should be able to read and write.
These structures were abstracted from activities like describing a
process, supporting an opinion, solving a problem, and describing
data, to name a few.
The content was
then sequenced based on the two principles described above,
complexity and repetition. Thus,
the basic language structures were repeated several times throughout
the syllabus as the communicative tasks which required their use
increased in complexity, gradually approximating the tasks that need
to be performed in the target situation. Figure 3 below provides an
example of this, aimed at meeting writing goals. The process
structure was covered at multiple times
throughout the syllabus. It was first provided in the first year as a
task requiring a summary paragraph of a process lecture (in Academic
Lecture Comprehension).
The second repetition in this spiral format required students to
complete a spoken task following the process
structure and then write out the task
(in Concept Building
and Discussion 1).
A third repetition required students to do a research project,
including description of their research method as a process during
the class, in a progress report and in written research papers
(Concept Building and Discussion 2).
Finally, in Technical Writing 1 and 2,
students are required to describe their own research methods in a
format approximating that of their research field.
Figure 3: The development
of the process structure
Figure
4 provides a brief summary of how each of these goals is developed
through the program. The speaking / discussion goal is developed
first by beginning with spoken fluency tasks. These are designed to
get students to use the large amounts of knowledge they have built up
through their high-school years in actual communication. The next
step is to provide more structured tasks,
whose learning goal is the acquisition
of the structures discussed above. Here, students start to learn how
to express their opinion, for example. Following this, in their
second year, students are expected to develop group research projects
beginning with group discussion.
Presentation
skills are developed first by establishing
the students’ ability to ask and
answer questions. This is done by explaining common questioning
structures and also by looking at types of questions
to be asked. Advanced students begin by
presenting their opinions in their first year. In their second year,
students present their research,
first in groups, and then individually. Students are also required to
ask questions which the presenters answer. Finally, students present
their research accurately, following the genres common to their field
of study.
One
goal shown in Figure 4 is a writing one. The skills to achieve this
are built up initially by asking students to write single paragraph
summaries following a particular structure. In the second half of the
first year, this task becomes more complex, requiring multi-paragraph
summaries. In the second year, the focus moves from producing
summaries to reporting of students’ research, which combines
structures to result in a full Introduction-Method-Results-Discussion
paper. Finally in their third year, students produce a full
proceedings-style paper which approximates the papers written in
their fields of study:
Figure 4: The syllabus
goals sequenced
The
development of reading skills begins with the reading of single pages
on the same (science-based) subjects that have been listened to
in oral presentations. This process
aims to build up reading fluency. In the second year, reading
strategies are taught to provide students with more strategy choices
for text comprehension than the grammar-translation strategy most
have been taught in high school. In addition, students are taught
critical Internet search skills, and how to read an academic paper.
Technical reading is also integrated into the third-year advanced
courses.
Listening
begins with lectures and talks which are created around the model
structures.
In their
first year, each talk is built around one structure. In their
second year, students have the opportunity to listen to, and
evaluate, presentations produced by their peers. In addition to
listening, the ability to ask questions is also taught. This starts
by explaining the discourse structures and the moves required when
asking a question. Students are also taught the different types of
questions they can ask, and some sample phrases they can use to
scaffold their questions. Students
are also
required to ask questions during
presentation.
The
vocabulary learning part of the program is the most obvious
application of the frequency principle. In
their first year, students are expected to further develop their
knowledge of the most frequent 2,000
words. In their second year, the
focus is on the academic word list. Beyond this, the aim is that
students will build a general technical vocabulary and then the
technical vocabulary which is specific to their field of studies. The
vocabulary that is covered in the program is nowhere near what a
native speaker would have access to, but it is hoped that it will be
enough to begin to communicate effectively in the target situation
and allow further development in future years.
The
final goal described here is critical thinking. This goal is
developed on several fronts. The first is in expressing opinions.
Here, learners are first taught that,
when expressing an opinion,
they are required
to support it with a reason. This is further built upon by explaining
that reasons need to be evidence based. Following this,
students are taught how to evaluate the quality of evidence. Finally,
they need to integrate whatever knowledge they have acquired into an
academic discussion where they argue and support their own
interpretation of research results. A second area aimed at developing
critical thinking involves asking questions. Here, students are
taught to ask questions by focusing on the quality of evidence. They
are also taught how to express their own opinions through the use of
questions. A final area aimed at establishing critical thinking is
the development of students’ ability to evaluate published
research. This last area of the syllabus is still in development.
3.3.3
Format and Presentation
The
syllabus is supported by a combination of in-house and commercial
textbooks in conjunction with supplementary materials. The textbooks
are Communication Strategies 1 (2013) and Communication
Strategies 2 (2013), Academic Listening Comprehension
(2006) for the first year; Concept Building and Discussion:
Foundations (2009), Concept Building and Discussion:
Applications (2009) and Reading Skills for Academic Success
(2004) for the second year; and Writing Up Research in Science and
Engineering: Foundations (2011), Writing Up Research in
Science and Engineering: Developments (2012) and Presenting
Research in Science and Engineering (2009) for the advanced
courses.
The
organization of the in-house Communication Strategies
textbooks follow the four-strands principle described above, which
states that a course should equally cover focus on form,
meaning-focused input, form-focused output, and meaning-focused
output. A typical unit begins with meaning-focused input which
contains the target structures. Here, students need to process the
meaning of the input to complete a communicative task. The next step
is the provision of a section focusing on form. The form of the
target structure is explained here, with examples. In addition to the
introduction of the structure, some communication strategies are also
taught, which provide assistance in actually applying the structures
in practical communication tasks. Once the structures are taught,
students are able to check if they have understood them by listening
to examples of meaning-focused input again, this time focusing on the
form. Form-focused output is next. Students are required to create
self-contextualized role plays which allow them to integrate the
learned structure into controlled output. The final section presents
meaning-focused output. Communication tasks are provided, which can
be effectively completed by use of the structures taught in the unit.
Examples of the structures in use are also provided.
3.3.4
Assessment
The
last part of the syllabus is the assessment of the goals. Here, a
criterion-referenced approach was adapted. A criterion, or set of
criteria, was selected for each goal, and students were required to
demonstrate that they were capable of meeting
this minimum requirement before they were able to pass the
course. The criterion reference was used to ensure that students had
attained a minimum standard required to pass the course. In addition
to determining if the students had attained the criterion, each
assessment was graded based on the degree to which the goal had been
attained. This score determined their course grade.
As
the criteria are referenced to the skills that will actually need to
be demonstrated in the target situation, it is assumed that assessing
the extent to which they are met is providing valid and reliable
assessment. However, as there is a large number of teachers using
these assessments, it is difficult to determine their validity and
reliability without doing an empirical study. This is planned for the
future.
Each
criterion was measured several times during the course, and it is
hoped that teachers have provided timely feedback to students. In
this way, students would be able to see which of the criteria they
were not meeting and which overall goals they were not achieving well
on and how they could alter their performance during the next test or
task to demonstrate that they had attained the knowledge or skill
required for the course. Again, whether this is actually happening
course-wide is a subject for further research.
4 Conclusion
The
triadic ESP curriculum design process (Nation & Macalister 2010),
consists of first conducting a needs analysis and a situation
analysis. This is followed by selecting language learning and
teaching principles which are most relevant for the situation. Once
this is done, the language learning content is determined by
separating the needs into teachable units and sequencing them based
on learning principles. The resulting list
becomes a list of program goals.
Following this, the format and presentation of the syllabus
are determined, which results in textbooks and materials designed to
assist the learner to attain the goals effectively. Finally, an
assessment program is designed to both test
the student’s attainments of the goals, and to provide useful
feedback to assist in the final attainment.
This
paper has provided a brief summary of the curriculum design process.
It is hoped that by providing this example, both language teachers
and curriculum designers will be able to not only better understand
the links between language learning and teaching theory, and the
language classroom, but also be able to create better links between
theory and practice, which, in turn, will make their teaching more
effective.
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1 These approaches also inform other aspects of curriculum design,
sequencing and assessment in particular.
2 There
is also a plan to develop students’ autonomy. However, this will
be added when further resources are available.
