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UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA – UNAD Escuela de Ciencias de la Educación – Licenciatura en Inglés como Lengua Extranjera Módulo del curso Didactics of English – 551026

551026 – DIDACTICS OF ENGLISH

ANA SILVIA DIAZ BELTRÁN

NELIDA CARDENAS VERGAÑO Accreditor

OPEN AND DISTANCE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 2012

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA – UNAD Escuela de Ciencias de la Educación – Licenciatura en Inglés como Lengua Extranjera Módulo del curso Didactics of English – 551026

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1 UNIT 1 DIDACTICS AND MAIN SKILLS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING................................. 3

Chapter 1. The Language Teaching..................................................................... 4 Theories of teaching in language teaching ....................................................... 4 The nature of approaches and methods in language teaching………………

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Language learning strategies ............................................................................ 6

Chapter 2. Motivational strategies in the Language Classroom ........................... 7 Making learning stimulating and enjoyable ....................................................... 8 Presenting tasks in a motivating way and setting specific learner goals ......... 14 Protecting the learners’ self-esteem and maintaining a positive social image .. 9 Creating learner autonomy .............................................................................. 9 Promoting self-motivating learnes strategies ................................................... 9

Chapter 3. Teaching Language Skills ................................................................ 11 Listening ......................................................................................................... 11 Speaking ......................................................................................................... 12 Reading .......................................................................................................... 12 Writing............................................................................................................. 13

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA – UNAD Escuela de Ciencias de la Educación – Licenciatura en Inglés como Lengua Extranjera Módulo del curso Didactics of English – 551026

UNIT 2................................................................................................................ 14 CURRICULUM, LESSONS AND EVALUATING DESIGN IN LANGUAGE TEACHING ........................................................................................................ 14

Chapter 4. The ELT curriculum: A flexible Model for a Changing World ............ 15 Curriculum: A definition ................................................................................... 15 Models of curriculum planning ........................................................................ 15 Syllabus, design, methodology and evaluation ............................................... 16

Chapter 5. Lesson Planning .............................................................................. 16 Why plan? ....................................................................................................... 17 Models of lesson planning .............................................................................. 18 How to plan a lesson? .................................................................................... 18

Chapter 6. Approaches to Evaluation in Language Teaching ............................ 19 Purposes of evaluation .................................................................................. 21 Issues in program evaluation .......................................................................... 22 Procedures used in conducting evaluation ..................................................... 23 Discussion questions, activities and examples of program evaluations .......... 23

REFERENCES ...................................................................................................... 25

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA – UNAD Escuela de Ciencias de la Educación – Licenciatura en Inglés como Lengua Extranjera Módulo del curso Didactics of English – 551026

INTRODUCTION

Today's society is faced with the challenge of projecting and adapt to a constantly changing process that is aimed at the construction of knowledge societies, hence the importance of developing capabilities and potentials in students that allow generating and appropriating knowledge the best tool to acquire the theoretical and practical skills necessary for English language instruction and curriculum design. The study of Didactics allows the student the discussion of classroom objectives, curriculum development and pedagogical methods for teaching English. Practicing teachers will be able to update, enrich and extend their knowledge of the English as a Foreign Language and its application in the classroom.

This course is designed for students concerned with their practices in the contexts of teaching and its impact in the classroom interaction when performing the activities proposed. The Didactic in Teaching and learning is one of the disciplines that has relation with different elements in the classroom and with the formal aspects of teaching, methodology and all elements that interact within the classroom. Hence this didactic material of the course Didactics of English aims to become a valuable tool and guidelines to enhance the practice of language teachers through two units, each one consisting of three chapters: • Unit 1 – Didactics and Main Skills in Language Teaching • Unit 2 – Curriculum, lessons and Evaluation Design in Language Teaching

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The first unit presents the overall context and importance of different theories and philosophy conceptions about the language teaching, some useful strategies to maintain and protect the motivation and as well as how the students can improve their skills through a combination of extensive and intensive material and procedures.

Unit two describes the interaction of the different elements in the teaching and learning process in a foreign language classroom such as the importance of working with a flexible curriculum, the use of some models of lesson planning and some approaches to evaluation in teaching language.

The main sources of the six chapters that comprise the didactic material of this course (Didactics of English) are the online books: Methodology in language Teaching and Curriculum Development in Language Teaching by Jack C. Richards, Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom by Zoltan Dörnyei and A Course in Language Teaching Trainee Book by Penny Ur. At the end of each chapter you will find the instructions to login in UNAD virtual library and the links to the corresponding chapters in the e-books.

In completing the reading of this didactic material, it is intended that teachers will renew their ideas about teaching, value the importance of teacher development as well as identify new strategies to apply in their daily work. So, we are all invited to begin reading and enjoying it.

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UNIT 1 DIDACTICS AND MAIN SKILLS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

The first unit seeks to provide an overview of current approaches, issues, and practices in the teaching of English. This unit provides a particular focus on issues related to the teaching of English, also it offers a source of teaching principles and classroom activities which teachers can refer to in their work.

Teaching and learning are processes which have happened from ancient times. One of the disciplines in charged of the description of these processes, and the relation of them to different elements in the classroom is didactics.

According to Gutiérrez (2001), didactics is a discipline which studies the relationship between teaching and learning. Pansza (1986) also comments that didactics approaches differently to the classroom work.

It can be said that didactics may be defined in two ways, as the art of teaching or as the discipline about teaching. In the first sense, it is the teacher’s ability to communicate knowledge to others, to make easier for students to understand the content they are learning. In the second sense, didactics as the science refers to “clear, ordered and supported concept in theory” (Gutiérrez, 2001). From this perspective, it can be stated that this discipline has two objects of study • The teaching – learning process • The teaching – learning techniques and methods

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Therefore, didactics studies the teaching – learning phenomena related with the formal aspects of teaching, methodology and all elements that interact within the classroom.

Chapter 1. The Language Teaching

The language teaching can be conceived in many different ways – for example, as a science, a technology, a craft, or an art. Different views of language teaching lead to different views as to what the essential skills of teaching are, and to different approaches to the preparation of teachers. The purpose of this chapter is to examine conceptualizations of teaching and to consider the implications of different views of teaching for language teacher education.

In order to reach the goal and to clarify some aspects about the didactics and its impact in the classroom interaction it is necessary to consider the following topics:

Theories of Teaching in Language Teaching

Science-research conceptions of language teaching are derived from research and are supported by experimention and empirical investigation. Zahorik includes operationalizing learning principles, following a tested model.

This approach involves developing teaching principles from research on memory, transfer, motivation, and other factors believed to be important in learning. From this perspective we are also able to review the history of language teaching methods and to see different innovations that have prompted modern 4

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methods as the recent example of attempts to develop a teaching methodology from learning research is referred.

In an important paper on the relationship between theories of teaching and teaching skills, Zahorik (1986) classifies conceptions of teaching into three main categories: science-research conceptions, theory-philosophy conceptions, and artcraft conceptions. It will examine how each conception of teaching leads to differences in our understanding of what the essential skills of teaching are.

The nature of approaches and methods in language teaching

The changing rationale for foreign language study and the classroom techniques and procedures used to teach languages have reflected responses to a variety of historical issues and circumstances.

Tradition was for many years the guiding principle. The GrammarTranslation Method reflected a time-honored and scholarly view of language and language study. At times, the practical realities of the classroom determined both goals and procedures, as with the determination of reading as the goal in American schools and colleges in the late 1920s. At other times, theories derived from linguistics, psychology, or a mixture of both were used to develop a both philosophical and practical basis for language teaching, as with the various reformist proposals of the nineteenth century. As the study of teaching methods and procedures in language teaching assumed a more central role within applied linguistics from the 1940s on, various attempts have been made to conceptualize the nature of methods and to explore more systematically the relationship between theory and practice within a method. This chapter will clarify the relationship

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between approach and method and present a model for the description, analysis, and comparison of methods.

Language learning strategies

This chapter reviews theory and research in the realm of language learning strategies and provides implications for teaching and future research. Learning strategies are 'operations employed by the learner to aid the acquisition, storage, retrieval and use of information, specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective and more transferable to new situations '.

In order to get a deeper understanding of this chapter, The Language Teaching, let’s read it in the e-book Methodology in language teaching by Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya, the topic to emphasize about Theories of Teaching in Language Teaching. In the e-book: Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching by Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, the topic: The nature of approaches and methods in language teaching and the e-book: The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, edited by Ronald Carter and David Nunan, the topic about Language Learning Strategies.

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Directions to Download Cambridge Online Resources from eBiblioUnad 1.To download the chapters in PDF, click on the following links: http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/popups/pdf_viewer.jsf?cid=CBO9780511667190A010&ref=tru e&pubCode=CUP&urlPrefix=cambridge. Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya, (2010). Chapter 2: Theories of Teaching in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/popups/pdf_viewer.jsf?cid=CBO9780511667305A009&ref=fal se&pubCode=CUP&urlPrefix=cambridge. Jack C. Richards. (2001). The nature of approaches and methods in language teaching. Cambridge University Press. http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/popups/pdf_viewer.jsf?cid=CBO9780511667206A034&ref=fal se&pubCode=CUP&urlPrefix=cambridge.Ronald Carter. (2001). Language Learning Strategies. Cambridge University Press 2. Log in the virtual library of UNAD with your username and password of institutional email ([email protected]) 3. Or you can read the whole e-book at http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511667190 http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511667305 http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511667206

Chapter 2. Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom

The motivation to learn, just like the ability to acquire language, is an innate characteristic of the human species. Therefore, in an ideal world where the learners' curiosity and inherent motivation has not as yet been curbed or diminished by a student-unfriendly school system, all learners are eager to learn and the learning experience is a constant source of intrinsic pleasure for them.

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Making learning stimulating and enjoyable

People are usually quite willing to spend a great deal of time thinking and learning while pursuing activities they enjoy. That learning does not necessarily have to be a boring and tedious chore (which it very often is). If we could somehow make the learning process more stimulating and enjoyable, that would greatly contribute to sustained learner involvement.

Motivation is the psychological quality that leads people to achieve a goal and it is also an affective factor that usually concerns teachers because they must give clear explanations to create the basic motivational conditions to protect the interest in the class.

Presenting tasks in a motivating way and Setting specific learner goals

The motivation can be regarded as the key issue in language learning processes, thus student motivation must be preserved, elaborated or even heightened. The motivational techniques related to how to present and administer tasks come in particularly useful. It is important to find the way to present tasks in order to make a huge difference in how students perceive and approach them. Besides, it is important to evaluate the student’s performance and which mark their progress to energize the learning just as well.

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Protecting the learners' self-esteem and maintaining a positive social image

This section concerns a crucial aspect of motivational teaching practice, yet one that is very often ignored or played down in the classroom. The main message of the following pages can be summarized in two words: `Build confidence!'.

On the other hand, students' attempts to create and maintain a positive social Image, which is one of the most basic human needs, therefore, it is important to apply more specific strategies concerning what we should, and should not, do if we wish to make our classes socially desirable.

Creating learner autonomy

Learner autonomy is "a capacity for detachment, critical reflection, decision making, and independent action" (Little 1991:4). Even in this simple definition it is clear that "autonomy" is not any one specific thing - it is a capacity, and like any other capacity, it will grow with practice, or be lost through inactivity. The autonomous students take responsibility for their own work and actions, they know over what, how and when they learn.

Promoting self-motivating learner strategies

To motivate students to learn English requires the use of motivational strategies in order to improve students’ achievements. The purpose of motivational strategies is consciously to not only maintain ongoing motivated behavior and 9

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protect it from distracting or competing action tendencies but also generate and increase student motivation. That means such motivational strategies are used to increase student involvement and to “save” the action when ongoing monitoring reveals that progress is slowing, halting or backsliding. (Dornyei, 2001).

What if we apply the same self-regulating principle to the control over one's motivation? Is there a way of getting learners to take personal control of the motivational conditions and experiences that shape their own commitment to learning? In other words, can we envisage ways of getting the learners to motivate themselves? A positive answer would be of considerable practical importance because most of the discussion in the motivation literature tends to focus on the teacher's responsibility and role in stimulating student motivation and, therefore, by enlisting the students' help, the range and effectiveness of motivational strategies could be greatly increased.

Directions to Download Cambridge Online Resources from eBiblioUnad 1.To download the chapters in PDF, click on the following links: http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/popups/pdf_viewer.jsf?cid=CBO97805116673 43A024&ref=false&pubCode=CUP&urlPrefix=cambridge Zoltan Dörnyei (2010). Chapter 4 - Maintaining and protecting motivation pp. 71-116. Cambridge University Press. 2. Log in the virtual library of UNAD with your username and password of institutional email ([email protected]) 3. Or you can read the whole e-book at http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511667343

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Chapter 3. Teaching Language Skills

This chapter is dedicated to strengthening the contribution of the different skills used in English Language Teaching, to provide a better communication.

The integration of all four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) can contribute towards a more-life environment for both teachers and learners, as well as more meaningful and motivating.

Listening

The term listening is used in language teaching to refer to a complex process that allows us to understand spoken language. Listening, the most widely used language skill, is often used in conjunction with the other skills of speaking, reading and writing. Listening is not only a skill area in language performance, but is also a critical means of acquiring a second language (L2). Listening is the channel in which we process language in real time - employing pacing, units of encoding and pausing that are unique to spoken language.

As a goal-oriented activity, listening involves 'bottom-up' processing (in which listeners attend to data in the incoming speech signals) and 'top-down' processing (in which listeners utilize prior knowledge and expectations to create meaning). Both bottom-up and top-down processing are assumed to take place at various levels of cognitive organisation: phonological, grammatical, lexical and propositional. This complex process is often described as a 'parallel processing model'of language understanding: representations at these various levels create 11

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activation at other levels. The entire network of interactions serves to produce a 'best match' that fits all of the levels (McClelland 1987; Cowan 1995).

Speaking

Speaking involves the development of a particular type of communication skill. Oral language, because of its circumstances of production, tends to differ from written language in its typical grammatical, lexical and discourse patterns. In addition, some of the processing skills needed in speaking differ from those involved in reading and writing. This chapter outlines the place of speaking in oral methodology, the conceptual issues involved in oral language pedagogy, and it reviews relevant research and pedagogical implications.

Reading

Depending on the perspectives of different fields of study, it is possible, broadly speaking, to see reading as practice, product or process. The first has been the interest of anthropologists and social psychologists whose concern is with reading and writing practices as linked to their uses in everyday life, not merely within schooling. The second orientation focuses on the form and meaning of written texts and their constituent parts. The third perspective pays relatively greater attention to the role of the reader in the ongoing processing of written language and the strategies that she or he draws on in constructing meaning from text.

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Writing Writing differs from teaching other language skills in two ways. First, even as late as the 1970s, L2 writing was not viewed as a language skill to be taught to learners. Instead, it was used as a support skill in language learning to, for example, practice handwriting, write answers to grammar and reading exercises, and write dictation. In fact, while graduate programmes in TESOL regularly offered courses in other skill areas, virtually no coursework was available in teaching L2 writing.

Second, as the theory and practice of L2 composition teaching gradually developed, it followed the path of US native English speaker (NES) composition theory. Only recently has English L2 composition theory and pedagogy begun to offer English first language (LI) researchers and teachers insights and pedagogical practices (Silva et al. 1997). This chapter focuses mainly on L2 academic writing, although broader issues are also highlighted.

Directions to Download Cambridge Online Resources from eBiblioUnad 1.To download the chapters in PDF, click on the following links: http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/popups/pdf_viewer.jsf?cid=CBO978051166720 6A011&ref=false&pubCode=CUP&urlPrefix=cambridge http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/popups/pdf_viewer.jsf?cid=CBO978051166720 6A012&ref=false&pubCode=CUP&urlPrefix=cambridge http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/popups/pdf_viewer.jsf?cid=CBO978051166720 6A013&ref=false&pubCode=CUP&urlPrefix=cambridge http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/popups/pdf_viewer.jsf?cid=CBO978051166720 6A014&ref=false&pubCode=CUP&urlPrefix=cambridge Edited by Ronald Carter, David Nunan. (2010). Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing. Cambridge University Press. 2. Log in the virtual library of UNAD with your username and password of institutional email ([email protected]) 3. Or you can read the whole e-book at http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511667206 13

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UNIT 2 CURRICULUM, LESSONS AND EVALUATION DESIGN IN LANGUAGE TEACHING The second unit provides the characteristics of the curriculum, the lesson planning and the evaluation in order to help students be successful in the learning process.

The 'curriculum' is taken to mean all the factors which contribute to the teaching and learning situation, in the EFL class, planning becomes important because it guides teachers about their performance in their professional practice to reach their course goals. Evaluation is an important part in this process because it let us know how much the course objective was fulfilled. Evaluation is also used as an instrument that provides information not only about students, but also about the course organization itself.

Thus, this unit is divided in three chapters: The ELT Curriculum: A Flexible Model for a Changing World, Lesson Planning and Approaches to Evaluation in Teaching Language. These are elements that may have an impact in the teaching and learning process.

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Chapter 4. The ELT Curriculum: A Flexible Model for a Changing World

It is clear that it is no longer enough to teach merely the structures and rules of a language –the myriad approaches to curriculum design which have sprung up in the last four decades under the umbrella of ‘the communicative approach’ have illustrated the shortcomings and lack of relevance of the grammar-systems model of language teaching. Language is communication, and as teachers we must develop in our learners the ability to communicate effectively in a wide range of professional and social contexts. In this chapter, It will study briefly three dominant models of curriculum design which are rooted in educational traditions and see how they relate to the field of English language teaching (ELT).

Curriculum: A definition One of the basic components of the Didactics is the curriculum which provides the teacher the security of a coherent framework within which there is the flexibility to respond to the changing needs of learners and which recognizes learners as active participants in the language learning process who acquire the theoretical and practical skills necessary for the curriculum design.

Models of curriculum planning

Both Clark (1987) and White (1988) refer to the framework developed by Skilbeck (1982) to explore the ‘value systems’ underlying educational traditions, 15

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and relate it to language teaching. The three traditions are identified as Classical Humanism, Reconstructionism and Progressivism, which they relate to the structural grammar/systems approach, the notional functional syllabus, and the process-procedural approach, respectively.

Syllabus design, methodology and evaluation

To design a syllabus is to decide what gets taught and in what order. Course content and procedures will usually be expressed in the form of goals or learning objectives; within language teaching there are a number of different ways of expressing objectives, and indeed considerable debate on the role and nature of objectives.

Directions to Download Cambridge Online Resources from eBiblioUnad 1.To download the chapter in PDF, click on the following link: http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/popups/pdf_viewer.jsf?cid=CBO978051166719 0A018&ref=true&pubCode=CUP&urlPrefix=cambridge Edited by Jack C. Richards, Willy A. Renandya (210) The ELT Curriculum: A Flexible Model for a Changing World.

Cambridge University Press. 2. Log in the virtual library of UNAD with your username and password of institutional email ([email protected]) 3. Or you can read the whole e-book at: http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511667190

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Chapter 5. Lesson Planning

Teachers may wonder “which way they ought to go” before they enter a classroom. This usually means that teachers need to plan what they want to do in their classrooms. Most teachers engage in yearly, term, unit, weekly, and daily lesson planning (Yinger, 1980). Yearly and term planning usually involve listing the objectives for a particular program. A unit plan is a series of related lessons around a specific theme such as “The Family.” Planning daily lessons is the end result of a complex planning process that includes the yearly, term, and unit plans. A daily lesson plan is a written description of how students will move toward attaining specific objectives. It describes the teaching behavior that will result in student learning.

This chapter addresses the daily planning decisions that English language teachers make before they enter the classroom. Included in this discussion are the interactive and evaluative decisions teachers make during and after the lesson. Richards (1998) stresses the importance of lesson planning for English language teachers: “The success with which a teacher conducts a lesson is often thought to depend on the effectiveness with which the lesson was planned” (p. 103). For the purposes of this chapter, lesson planning is defined as the daily decisions a teacher makes for the successful outcome of a lesson. This chapter discusses the following issues associated with lesson planning: • Why plan? • Models of lesson planning. • How to plan a lesson.

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Why Plan?

A lesson plan is very important to describe in a detailed form the guide of a class where the details will vary depending on the preference of the teacher, subject being covered, interests and needs of the students. There are also internal and external reasons for planning lessons (McCutcheon, 1980).

The creation of a plan involves setting realistic goals, deciding how to incorporate course textbooks and other required materials, and developing activities that will promote learning.

Models of lesson planning

There are a number of approaches to lesson planning. A teacher will need to make decisions about the models that relate to the needs of his or her specific class, adapting the lesson from the book in different ways to make it better suit the class. This process of planning and adaptation is a crucial dimension of teaching because during this process the teacher makes many decisions that are essential for a successful lesson.

How to plan a lesson?

Lesson planning involves decisions about the pedagogical dimensions of the lesson. Another important aspect in a lesson planning concerns the management of learners during the lesson. Different aspects such as the development of the 18

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plan with effective, appropriate and clearly written objectives, the Implementation of the lesson plan and the final part of daily lesson planning happens after the lesson has ended, it is the evaluation of the plan, which can take place during the lesson too.

These phases provide a clear plan will also maximize time and minimize confusion of what is expected of the students, thus making classroom management easier.

Directions to Download Cambridge Online Resources from eBiblioUnad 1.To download the chapter in PDF, click on the following links: http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/popups/pdf_viewer.jsf?cid=CBO978051 1667190A012&ref=true&pubCode=CUP&urlPrefix=cambridge By Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya (2010). Lesson Planning. Cambridge University Press. 2. Log in the virtual library of UNAD with your username and password of institutional email ([email protected]) 3. Or you can read the whole e-book at: http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511667190

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Chapter 6. Approaches to Evaluation in Language Teaching

Once a curriculum is in place, a number of important questions still need to be answered. These include: • Is the curriculum achieving its goals? • What is happening in classrooms and schools where it is being implemented? • Are those affected by the curriculum (e.g., teachers, administrators, students, parents, employers) satisfied with the curriculum? •

Have those involved in developing and teaching a language course done a satisfactory job?

•

Does the curriculum compare favorably with others of its kind?

Curriculum evaluation is concerned with answering questions such as these. It focuses on collecting information about different aspects of a language program in order to understand how the program works, and how successfully it works, enabling different kinds of decisions to be made about the program, such as whether the program responds to learners' needs, whether further teacher training is required for teachers working in the program, or whether students are learning sufficiently from it.

Evaluation may focus on many different aspects of a language program, such as: • Curriculum design: to provide insights about the quality of program planning and organization.

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• The syllabus and program content: for example, how relevant and engaging it was, how easy or difficult, how successful tests and assessment procedures were. • Classroom processes: to provide insights about the extent to which a program is being implemented appropriately. • Materials of instruction: to provide insights about whether specific materials are aiding student learning. • The teachers: for example, how they conducted their teaching, what their perceptions were of the program, what they taught • Teacher training: to assess whether training teachers have received is adequate. • The students: for example, what they learned from the program, their perceptions of it, and how they participated in it. • Monitoring of pupil progress: to conduct formative (in-progress) evaluations of student learning. • Learner motivation: to provide insights about the effectiveness of teachers in aiding students to achieve goals and objectives of the school. • The institution: for example, what administrative support was provided, what resources were used, what communication networks were employed. • Learning environment: to provide insights about the extent to which students are provided with a responsive environment in terms of their educational needs. • Staff development: to provide insights about the extent to which the school system provides the staff opportunities to increase their effectiveness. • Decision making: to provide insights about how well the school staff – principals, teachers, and others – make decisions that result in learner benefits. (Sanders 1992; Weir and Roberts 1994)

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UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA – UNAD Escuela de Ciencias de la Educación – Licenciatura en Inglés como Lengua Extranjera Módulo del curso Didactics of English – 551026

In order to reach the goal and to clarify some aspects about the evaluation, it is necessary to consider the following topics:

Purposes of evaluation

Weir and Roberts (1994) distinguish between two major purposes for language program evaluation, program accountability, and program development. Accountability refers to the extent to which those involved in a program are answerable for the quality of their work. Accountability-oriented evaluation usually examines the effects of a program or project at significant end points of an educational cycle and is usually conducted for the benefit of an external audience or decision maker. Development-oriented evaluation, by contrast, is designed to improve the quality of a program as it is being implemented. It may involve staff who are involved in the program as well as others who are not and may have a teacher-development focus (Weir and Roberts 1994, 5). The different purposes for evaluation are referred to as formative, illuminative, and summative evaluation.

Issues in program evaluation

The aim is to discuss the implications in a program evaluation. Weir and Roberts (1994, 42) propose a broad view of evaluation that is characterized by: • a need for both insider and outsider commitment and involvement to ensure adequate evaluation • a central interest in improvement, as well as the demonstration of the “product value” of a program or project or their components

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UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA – UNAD Escuela de Ciencias de la Educación – Licenciatura en Inglés como Lengua Extranjera Módulo del curso Didactics of English – 551026

• an associated commitment to a deeper professional understanding of the processes of educational change, as well as the results of that change • systematic documentation for evaluation purposes both during implementation and at the beginning and end of a program or project’s life • a willingness to embrace both qualitative and quantitative methodology appropriate to the purpose of the evaluation and the context under review.

These principles will be emphasized in this topic: The audience for evaluation, participants in the evaluation process, quantitative and qualitative evaluation, the importance of documentation and the implementation

Procedures used in conducting evaluations

Many of the procedures used from the perspective of needs analysis may have different purposes in conducting evaluation. Here we will consider their role in evaluation and possible advantages or limitations of each procedure:

Tests,

Comparison

of

two

approaches

to

a

course,

Interviews,

Questionnaires, Teachers’ written evaluation, Diaries and journals, Teachers’ records, Student logs, Case study, Student evaluations, Audio- or video-recording and Observation.

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UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA – UNAD Escuela de Ciencias de la Educación – Licenciatura en Inglés como Lengua Extranjera Módulo del curso Didactics of English – 551026

Discussion questions, activities and examples of program evaluations This topic examines some questions, activities whose fundamental purpose is to guide the evaluative process of students and programs, obtain useful information, transmit them to know whether or not learned, know their strengths and weaknesses, to plan strategies for improving the teaching English.

Besides, this topic shows some examples that can guide the learning process of students, gather useful information, transmit them to know whether or not learned, that is to say, a reflective analysis of the practices that are involved in planning and teaching a language course. This has involved an examination of the context in which the program occurs, of the goals, syllabus, and structure of a course, and how these can be planned and developed during the course.

Directions to Download Cambridge Online Resources from eBiblioUnad 1.To download the chapter in PDF, click on the following link: http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/popups/pdf_viewer.jsf?cid=CBO9780511 667220A111&ref=false&pubCode=CUP&urlPrefix=cambridge By Jack C. Richards. (2010). Approaches to evaluation. Cambridge University Press. 2. Log in the virtual library of UNAD with your username and password of institutional email ([email protected]) 3. Or you can read the whole e-book at: http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2193/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511667220

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REFERENCES

Jack C. Richards, Theodore S. Rodgers. (2010). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. Jack C. Richards. (2010). Methodology in Language Teaching. An Anthology of Current Practice. Cambridge University Press. Jack C. Richards. (2010). Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms. Cambridge University Press. Jack C. Richards. (2010). Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. Ronald Carter, David Nunan. (2010). The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Cambridge University Press. Tessa Woodward. (2010). Designing Sequences of Work for the Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press Zoltan Dörnyei. (2010). Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press.

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