.COURSE DESIGN
A process where raw data abt a learning need is intepreted to produce an itegrated series of learning

The information gathered must be interpreted to answer questions the next time another course needs to be designed. There are 3 approaches to ESP course design

FIRST APPROACH : LANGUAGE CENTRED COURSE DESIGN

  • It is simple and most familiar to English teachers


  • Aims to draw connection between analysis of the target situation and the content of ESP course





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WEAKNESS :


  1. Learner is used as a way to locate restricted area which then results in learner playing no further part in the process. Therefore it is learner centered but learned restricted


  2. Language centred process can be criticized for being a static and inflexible procedure because it takes little account of the conflict and contradictions and then results in the course designer locked into a relentless process


  3. Systematic analysis endangers the false belief that learning is systematic and course designer do not know enough abt the mind while creating the internal system of knowledge


  4. Does not pay attention to factors which must play a big part in creating any course however good pedagogic materials are not made interesting enough resulting it to be boring


  5. Reveals little about the competence that underlines the importance


SECOND APPROACH - SKILLS-CENTRED COURSE DESIGN

Specific aim of developing students ability to read in English


TWO FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES :

  1. Theoretical

2.Pragmatics

  1. THEORETICAL
  • Any language behavior are certain skills and strategies where learners use to produce or understand ore interpret discourse.
  • Aims to look at the competence that underlies the performances and away from performance data

EXAMPLE :
a. General objective - performance level where studetns are able to catalogue English written books
b. Specific objective - competence level where students are able to extract the gist of a text or relevant info's by skimming through it

  1. PRAGMATICS

  • Comes between goal oriented courses and process oriented courses


  • Main problems - Available time and student experience

  • Aim - Able to read in the literature of students specialism

The process oriented approach tries to avoid failure by removing distinction between the ESP course and the target situation

ROLES OF NEEDS ANALYSIS IN SKILLS-CENTRED APPROACH (two)

  1. Enables ppl to perform in the target situation by providing a basis for discovering underlying competence


  2. Enables course designer to discover the potential knowledge and abilities that the learners bring to the ESP classroom

Skills centered approach is better than language centered approach bcuz :


a. Views language in how a learner process it in their mind rather than a whole
b. Build positive factors rather than focusing on the lacks
c. Frames objectives o n open-ended terms whereby learners are able to achieve smtg

THIRD APPROACH - LEARNING CENTRED APPROACH


  • Based on principles that learning is determined by learners
  • Learning is a process of nego between indviduals and society and not only mentally
  • To discover how someone acquires a competence

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Two implications from the figure


  1. A negotiated process - Learning situation and target sitaution will influence syllabus, materials, methodology and evaluation.


  2. Dynamic process - Needs and resources vary from time to time. Needs to have built in feedback to enable responds to developments

RESTRICTION TO ONE SKILL:
a. How will students react to task and will they appreciate more work and activity
b. Are the resources provided helping them use other skills as well?
c. How will they react if they discussed things in their mother tongue
d. Understanding learners attitude
e. How would they feel about reading activity

These answers would reinforce the idea of doing reading only or they might think that integrated skills approach is required. Most importantly, is that the results to these questions allow to influence course design

  • Register Analysis - characteristic set of language elements, including grammar


    forms and vocabulary items that people will associate with a particular situation, purpose, or social context ( Halliday, 1978 , 1989 )


  • Rhetorical (discourse) analysis - an area of research that


    has greatly informed ESP course and program design


  • Genre analysis - most important principles used in ESP today

  • a class of communicative events, the members of
    which share some set of communicative purposes


Learning and metacognitive skills

  • planning,
    selecting appropriate learning strategies, self-correcting

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  • EXAMPLE :
  • Instructors
    might use a behaviorist approach to help learners improve their pronunciation and signal transitions between slides using a few memorized phrases,
    such as “Here is the outline” and “Let me now give you the conclusion.”
  • Instructors may focus on affecttive factors to help learners such as :
    • A successful presentation
  • Giving them motivation to speak in front of others (face anxiety)
  • Helping them develop and project positive attitudes
  • Teaching them making mistakes helps them reach success

General principles of sequencing

  • Nation and Macalister (2010 : 38) suggest several general principles that
    can guide you in the sequencing of learning objectives.
  • progressively and slowly cover useful language items, skills, and strategies rather
    than trying to teach everything at once
  • sequence items to give learners increasingly spaced, repeated opportunities to retrieve and give attention to target items in a variety of contexts
  • if items are learned together, ensure that the combination contributes to
    the learning process and interference effects are avoided
  • help learners make the most effective use of previous knowledge
  • train learners how to monitor their learning gains so that they can
    become independent language learners