ELTWeekly Vol. 3 Issue#108 | December 19 | ISSN 0975-3036
Abstract
Designing a curriculum for different levels- primary, secondary and tertiary- is a big task and it involves many stakeholders. Curriculum reforms are happening from time to time in order to enrich the existing ones or to replace them with new curriculum. This review is focused on the article entitled “Curriculum Renewal and INSET in the Difficult Circumstances” by Pierre Kouraoyo. Review looks into the author’s views on curriculum and an extrapolation is done to see if the scholars in Sri Lanka either agree with the views of the writer or dissent his views.
Key words: Curriculum, English Language Teaching, English as a foreign Language, Classroom, Curriculum renewal
Introduction
Most curriculum reforms over the years have sought to make a thorough re-examination of aims, goals, objectives, methods and materials in the effective implementation of the English curriculum. There are two other perspective from which curriculum could be looked at: prescription (intended curriculum and practice (implemented curriculum).
Classroom Teaching
Obanya says that interaction which should be in form of multi-way exchanges (verbal and non-verbal) in the conduct of classroom teaching and learning activities is significantly absent. He concludes that what obtains in the classroom English language teaching and learning process, according to research and anecdotal evidence is frontal teaching characterized by :
- A heavy reliance on the textbooks as the exclusive teaching learning materials;
- Reading aloud by the teacher followed by the recitation and imitation reading round the class by the learners;
- An undue rush to finish the textbooks as a sign of covering the syllabus; and
- devotion of a considerable amount of the time practicing exam-type skill
When commenting on the course books used by English Language Teaching (ELT) teachers, Ohia and Adeosu (2002:226) states as follows:
“A single course book cannot meet the needs of learners from varied language backgrounds. Since no single courser book can equally satisfy the needs of a class of learners—students should be exposed to as many texts as possible”
In the context of teaching of ESL, teachers and teacher trainers face a lot of challenges and difficulties. The general difficulties faced by teachers and teacher trainers include the following.
- Lack of students’ handbooks, handout and stationeries in general
- Trainers and trainees are no longer supported by the supplementary payments during training
- Links between teacher training centers, schools, provincial offices of education and Ministry of education.
- Some good teachers leave the job because of low government salary.
- Teachers lack expository power.
Curriculum
It has been an unfortunate side-effect of our success in promoting good English language teaching. English department and officers attached to this always propose teaching programmes and teaching techniques different from elsewhere in the curriculum and fighting to gain for our specification as a large representation in the schedules as possible. The curriculum subsequently becomes product-oriented
In whatever linguistic context we are teaching English, we have to move toward a more liberal and comprehensive interpretation of what language education is and make common cause with our colleague in other part of the language teaching profession. Teachers sometimes become addicted to particular type of texts in the classroom which may be totally unsuitable for students. In view of this, scholars say that teachers should not enslave themselves to particular or a set of materials but they must understand and use the freedom that they have to adapt and to supplement the materials to conform to the needs and the interests of the learners.
The article ‘curriculum Renewal and INSET in the Difficult Circumstances’ by Pierre Kouraoyo supports the idea that curriculum innovation should involve the participation of everyone in the teaching and learning process. He uses a discussion of context for teacher training in Burkina Faso to illustrate a proposal for curriculum renewal and reactions to it. As has been pointed out by Pierre , at present, the notion that teachers should be empowered to play a more active role in all aspects of curriculum renewal(syllabus design, methodological innovations, implementation, evaluation, development of teaching materials ) has become a current theme in educational literature. When we permit teachers to participate in the process of curriculum renewal, we minimize the resistance that could come up from the teachers against any innovations in the education system.
In the case of syllabus design and adaptation of methodology, teachers’ contribution very essential, because it is teachers who use the syllabus and methodology transmit the knowledge to the learners. Pierre is of the view that curriculum renewal or revision should start from the bottom to the top. That is ‘ the curriculum renewal should take place from the classroom situation where the teacher is the key person who knows the classroom environment well than others who are involved the process of curriculum renewal /revision. So , Pierre emphasizes the process oriented curriculum revision.
In this article, Pierre has emphasized that the teachers should be encouraged to participate in the revision, implementation and evaluation of second language syllabuses and also said that the new approaches in the curriculum should not be imposed on teachers but should encourage teachers to share their experience and promote their own development. Pierre views syllabus as a model of progressivism. That is a syllabus should promote learners’ responsibility and their capacity how to learn.
In this article, he placed an emphasis on in-service teacher education. That is, the in-service teacher education must be more decentralized and the changes and innovations are to be spread through the gradual networks rather than being imposed from strongly centralized institutions. And all the administrative structures should support the alternate approaches which are necessary to in-service teacher education and curriculum renewal. In the process of curriculum renewal, contribution from the universities is very essential. Universities could act as agent to link pre-service and in-service teacher development and curriculum renewal (Bolak, 1983). In view of this, Pierre has pointed out the view of Hurst (1983) as follows:
“ There is no convincing evidence that participation of teachers reliably promotes the adoption of change and that on the contrary people are genuinely allowed to participate in decision concerning innovations, then they may use this opportunity to express and win support for their opposition to the change or even to veto it”.
However, he accepts the fact that teacher participation can prevent the monopolization of decision making by the group of individuals with vested interests.
In Sri Lanka, curriculum of ELT/ESL taught in universities is renewed periodically. When renewing the curriculum, university grants commission appoints a subcommittee which consists of members from various disciplines except the field of ELT. Those members normally don’t have any background knowledge in ELT but prescribe innovations and changes that are supposed to be adopted in the existing ELT curriculum. With regard to this situation, Kandiah (2008) states “ It is not irrelevant to note that throughout the several years of its existence, the chairpersons of the sub-committee have been zoologists, Microbiologists and academics in computer technology, anything but those who have a specialized understanding of English language and language education and planning”
What Pierre describes by difficult circumstances in curriculum renewal in Burkina Faso is the problems faced by teachers of English as Foreign Language (EFL) in the secondary schools. He portrays the unclear or unrealistic objectives, lack of teaching materials and varying degrees of motivation and abilities among teachers and learners in Burkina Faso. He brings out a point that teachers are considered as advanced learners of the foreign language they teach and that they have to work in the overcrowded classes that meet for only two, three or four separate hours each week and that their students have no opportunity at all to practice the English outside the class. When this situation is compared to that of Sri Lanka, the similar situation is prevailing throughout the country where English is taught as a second language at secondary and tertiary levels. While teaching the ESL, teachers themselves learn English and the students have no opportunity to make use of English outside the classroom, since most of them are very convenient with their mother tongues which may be either Sinhala or Tamil. In Burkina Faso, right now English is taught as a compulsory subject throughout the secondary education and in many departments of the University of Ouagadougou. According to Pierre, one third of public school EFL teachers do not have a university degree and they have had two years’ training at the university including the pedagogical training. This is considered as the qualification to teach English in junior secondary schools. This shows that teachers of EFL are not adequately trained and as result it may have greater impact on the learners who learn English from these teachers. In the case of teaching ESL in the secondary schools in Sri Lanka, a kind of similarity could be drawn up from the above situation. In Sri Lanka too, 65% of the secondary teachers don’t have a University degree and they just underwent a two years’ training at the teachers’ training colleges but the training does not include the pedagogical training. Consequently, they are unable to enhance the proficiency level of students. Obviously speaking, if the teachers are unable to use the workable syllabus and methodology, the learners will not be motivated and subsequently, the objectives of teaching will not be accomplished.
Perera(2008) comments on the current situation of ELT in Sri Lanka as follows:
“The available literature suggests that the teaching of English in Sri Lanka is not satisfactory and does not meet the needs of the majority of Sri Lankan students. In this context, a brief overview of the historical development of ELT in Sri Lanka may be useful.”
In this article, Pierre notes that the English Teaching service (ETS) is responsible of co-ordinating, planning and supervising seminars and work-shops for teachers, developing, adapting and disseminating teaching materials and supervising the parties appointed for revisions of objectives, syllabus and examination models. Herein, both bottom –up model is used to revise the curriculum. Though the staff if ETS supervise the entire process of revision, they don’t have any authority over the teachers who are quite free to put forward their pragmatic ideas that could be worked out in the arena of ELT. As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, National Institute of Education (NIE) is responsible of co-coordinating, planning and supervising seminars and work-shops for teachers of English developing, adapting and disseminating teaching materials and supervising the parties appointed for revisions of objectives, syllabus and examination models. To renew the existing curriculum, NIE always seeks advocacy from the experts of ELT from western countries especially from United Kingdom who always play a vital role in developing a new curriculum. They recommend a kind of curriculum without understanding the actual classroom situation in Sri Lanka. Generally, the officer of NIE and the Ministry of Education don’t refute the proposition of the foreign experts and on the contrary, they readily accept whatever proposition suggested by the so called experts. More or less, in Sri Lanka the product model curriculum is adopted to teach English language in the schools and training colleges. In view of this, Kandiah (2008) has said as follows:
“Consider, for instance, the problems of explanation raised for current approaches to planning by the less than satisfactory pedagogical practice that planning decisions cause to be adopted as persisting within Lankan ELT practice on imported packages of predetermined methods, techniques and so on, that often are not cognizant of a sensitive to the specifications of the context in which they are required to be applied.”
Conclusion
When designing the curriculum or syllabus, the feedback from everyone engaged in teaching process should be got and on the basis of the feedback need analysis should be done to find out which curriculum or syllabus is suitable for learners. Learners’ needs are theoretically important in current learner –centered approaches in teaching generally and language teaching in particular. Needs analysis is very fundamental to the planning of an effective language education programme( Richard,1990 cited in Jobowo,2005). Pierre has brought out the existing scenario of curriculum in Burkina Faso by discussing various aspects in relation to curriculum renewal and teacher development. The practices adopted in Burkina Faso to renew the curriculum and to train in- service teachers have been compared to those of Sri Lankan scenario and in Sri Lanka, practices adopted to revise the curriculum and to train the in-service teachers are found to be product-oriented which does not empower teachers to participate in the process of curriculum and syllabus design.
References
Adejimola,S.A.(n.d) ESL curriculum in secondary schools in Nigeria-issues and Challenges towards communicative competence. Ibandan; Stirlig-Horden publishers(Nig) Ltd.
Bolak,K.F.(1983). Inservice training and Teacher Effectiveness. Be.d Dissertation, Wayne state University.
Hurst,P.(1983). Implementing Educational Change: A Critical Review of the Literature. EDC Occasional papers 5. University of London Institute of Education.
Jibowo,A.V.(2005). Training Needs of English Language Teachers for Functional education In the 21st century Nigiria: Aa case study. In Dada,A,Abimbade,a and kolawole,O.O.(Ed.), Issues in Language Communication and Education.Ibandan: constellation Books.
Kandiah,T.(2008). Language Planning Scholarship Towards Adequacy. In Premakumari Dheram (Ed), Negotiating Empowerment. Orient Longman, Hyderabad, AnthraPradesah.
Obnya,p.(2002) Curriculum overload in the language Education programme for Basic education. In Adeboya,l, Isiugo-abanith,I., and Ohia,I.N.(Eds.) Perspectives on Applied linguistics in language and Literature.Ibandan; Stirlig-Horden publishers(Nig) Ltd.
Ohia,I.N. and Adeosu,N.(2002). ESL coursebooks and self- Instruction: A pedagogical evaluation. In Adebago,L.,Isiugo Abanith,I. and Ohia,I.N.(Eds.),Perspectives on Applied linguistics in language and Literature. Ibandan; Stirlig-Horden publishers(Nig) Ltd.
Perera, M. (2008). Merging of Context and Methodology: Med in the TESOL Curriculum in Sri Lanka: A pioneering Effort. In Premakumari Dheram (Eds.), Negotiating Empowerment. Orient Longman, Hyderabad, AnthraPradesah.
Pierre, K.(n.d). Curriculum Renewal and INSET in the Difficult Circumstances. In Adebago,L.,Isiugo Abanith,I. and Ohia,I.N.(Eds.),Perspectives on Applied linguistics in language and Literature. Ibandan; Stirlig-Horden publishers(Nig) Ltd.
1 comment