Book: “Curriculum renewal in School Foreign

Language Learning” by John Clark. Oxford

University Press, 1987.
Part One: The effects of different educational value systems

According to Skilbeck there are 3 major value systems:

 Classical Humanism which is knowledge-oriented and is concerned with promoting intellectual and
cultural values;

 Reconstructionism society-oriented and is concerned with the promotion of agreed social goals;

 Progressivism is concerned with the development of individuals, and with the value of diversity.
Classical Reconstructivism Progressivism
humanism
Backgroun It can be traced back to Tyler, bloom. Rousseau and Piaget
d Plato, and to the
concept of the
education of an elite of
guardians to govern the
state.

Characteri It is characterized by Education is seen as a means of A learner-centred approach to

stics the desire to promote
broad intellectual
capacities, such as
memorization and the
ability to analyze,
classify, and reconstruct
elements of knowledge,
so that these capacities
can be brought to bear
on the various
challenges likely to be
encountered in life.
Knowledge Knowledge is seen as a
set of revealed truths,
whose underlying rules
and regularities should
be studied and
consciously mastered.
Teacher The teacher is seen as
someone who possesses
knowledge and whose
task it is to pass it on to
the learners is his/her
charge.
redressing the injustices of birth
and of early upbringing.
Egalitarian forces=
comprehensive schooling, of
mixed ability classes, and of a
common core curriculum for all.
They were seen as managers
rather than instructors. (Mastery
learning). A student’s aptitude
should not be viewed as the factor
determining the level to which he
can learn, but is more accurately
education, which attempts to
promote the pupil’s development,
as an individual with intellectual
an emotional needs, and as a
social being.
Education is a means of providing
children with learning experiences
from which they can learn by their
own efforts.
‘Growth’ through experience is
the key concept.
Education is a way of enabling
learners to learn how to learn by
their own efforts.
Learning is seen as a continuum
which can be broken up into
several broad developmental
stages.
It´s not seen as a set of fixed facts,
but as creative problem-solving
capacity that depends upon an
ability to retrieve appropriate
schemata from a mental store.
It´s never static.
They are not instructors but
creators of an environment in
which learners learn and learn
how to learn.

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Learners The task of the learners
is to acquire knowledge
and to become
consciously aware of
the rules underlying it,
in order to control it and
apply it in new
contexts.
Emphasis Emphasis in the
classroom on study, on
conscious
understanding, on
reflection and
awareness, and on the
controlled application
of
knowledge.CONTENT
Results Two distinctive types of
education- a grammar
or senior secondary
school for the elite, who
are to become the
nation’s guardians, and
a secondary modern or
junior secondary school
for the masses.
Summary • The maintenance and
transmission through
education of the wisdom
and culture of the
previous generations
which led to 2 systems
of education.
• The development for the
elite of intellectual and
critical capacities.
• The maintenance of
standards through an
inspectorate and
external examinations
boards controlled by
universities.
Curriculu It’s content-driven.
m design They order them from
the simpler to ones that
are more complex.
Objectives are
expressed in terms of
conscious control.
Materials are created in
the form of a course
defined as determining the amount of
time he requires to learn a particular
behaviour to a given level in ideal
conditions.
Humans beings must be seen as
persons, as purposive agents, to
be valued as equals= equality of
opportunity. Skilled performer.
The learner had to learn to budget
their time to cover all the tasks in
the various subjects they were
studying. Learners learnt by
themselves.
On the promotion of an ability to
communicate, and thus achieve a
better understanding and unity
among groups and nations.
APPROACH, OBJECTIVES
• Effecting social change through
education planned to bring it
about.
• The equal valuing of all citizens
• Reaching a consensus on goals to
be achieved followed by a
rigorous planning of the means to
bring them about.
• Comprehensive schooling with a
common core curriculum and a
mixed-ability class.
• Promoting intranational and
international understanding
through effective communication.
It’s objectives-driven and
founded on the behavioral
outcomes that are to be worked
towards. In curriculum design
reconstructionist values have
given rise to what is termed
‘ends-means’ approach, and in
the classroom to ‘mastery
learning’ techniques.
It’s seen as a whole person. They
are active participants shaping
their own learning, with the
teacher cast in the role of guide or
facilitator.
It’s on the need for learning by
doing. METHODOLOGY
Pidginization
• Individual growth from within
through interaction with a
favourable environment.
• Learning through experience.
• A speculative view of
knowledge.
• Natural leaning processes and
stages of development.
• Sensitive to the interests of
individual learners.
• The learners as a whole person.
• The social nature of the learner
and the development of healthy
relationship with others in the
classroom community.
• The promotion of learner
responsibility and of learning
how to learn.
The process approach:
*the teacher becomes a resource
rather than the authority.
*The active engagement of the
learners in their learning and
negotiating with the teacher.
*Peer-evaluation and self-
evaluation.
*Parlett and Hamilton proposed
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 book to cover the A strictly linear view of the ‘illuminative evaluation’,
selected content. curriculum development. based on 3 stages- observation,
The whole class is Objectives were identified both further inquiry, and attempts to
expected to move as a with the kind of behaviour to be explain what had actually
block= homogeneous in developed in the student and the occurred.
achievements and in content or area of life in which
learning speed. this behaviour is to operate.
The methodology is for EXPLICIT.
the teacher to present =sequencing.
data designed to The methodology places great
highlight a particular emphasis on deliberate practice
rule. Theses are studied of part-skills and eventual
and the rule is extracted rehearsal of global end-
and explained. The objectives.
learner then applies the Assessment is through a
rule in a controlled criterion-referenced tests
situation. designed to determine to what
Assessment is norm- extent pre-specified learning
reference= rank order outcomes had been achieved at
of pupil according to the end of a course + a formative
achievement. assessment conducted regularly
Marks will be deducted during the course.
for mistakes made. Bloom proposed that pupils should
Gaussian’s curve. learn in mixed-ability groups and
move from unit to unit together, once
they had all reached the
predetermined criterion for mastery
on each unit.
The The Grammar- It’s about bringing about a better Language learning is seen as an
foreign translation approach. understanding among social implicit intuitive developmental
language The content to be taught groups, through teaching them to process for which humans beings
curriculu and learnt is expressed communicate. have a natural capacity.
m in terms of the elements It has given rise to the audio- There’s more emphasis on the
of phonology, grammar, lingual, audio-visual/situational, need for a set of methodological
and vocabulary. topic-based, and functional- principles of procedure designed
Learners need to notional approaches to foreign to set the language learning
understand the rules and language learning, as well as to process in motion and a concern
apply them. Particular the Graded Objectives in Modern for individual differences among
literary texts. Languages (GOML). learners.
The functional notional From the psycholinguistic
approach evidence it would seem that
(Nuffield)They identified a list of language acquisition is a
likely speaker intention=’ subconscious process ending to
linguistic activities’. the structures correctly in a drill
The council of Europe proposed situation. According to Krashen
an analysis of communicative the classroom should concentrate
needs, a definition of syllabus on acquisition-promoting
content following Taba´s activities. While they reject to
approach. There are rules of use control input on formal grounds
without which the rules of alone, they would encourage
grammar would be useless. learners to develop their own more
Van Ek proposed a ‘threshold conscious awareness of the
level’ of language competence system, through reflecting on the
based on: rules that seem to lie behind form-
- The situation in which an adult meaning relationships, and behind
learner might wish to use the the creation of discourse within
foreign language. the various communicative texts
- The language activities the adult encountered or created in the
learner might wish to engage in. classroom.

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- The degree of skill which the Information-processing theory
adult learner was expected to sees the human being as a
attain in the various activities.complex mechanism struggling to
The basic units of organization impose organization on
were to be semantic. For information derived through the
beginners, the exponents to be senses. ‘Bottom-up’ data-driven
taught were to be chosen on the processing permits us to attend to
basis of maximum usefulness and perceptions, organize them, and
of learnability. then extract meaning from them.
The Graded Objectives in ‘Top down’ conceptually-driven
Modern languages (GOML) processing enables us to obtain a
schemes in Britain rapid expectation of what is likely
They share the common objective to occur on the basis of previous
of wishing to break down the experience, and to match this
classical humanist gradus ad against the incoming sensory data.
Parnassum into smaller units or Having already acquired an L1,
levels to set out in some sort of foreign language learners are
sequence from the bottom aware of the intentionality of
upwards. language use and of the functions
Comenius had envisaged a four- that language serves.
stage education in a language, Evidence would seem to show that
symbolized as a journey through acquisition is not linear
the temple from the outer porch cumulative process but a gradual
to the inner sanctum. developmental one, in which
Analogy between the learning of many knowledge elements are all
a musical instrument and the growing at once, at different rates,
learning of a foreign language. and at different levels of
School foreign language learners perfection. ‘Spontaneous
seemed to have to practice capacity? Acquisition,
deliberately, carry out spontaneous initial.
communicative tasks adapted to ‘studial capacities’
their level, acquire a feel for the learning=monitoring.
language, develop deliberate Principle:
syntactic and stylistic control, and The learners must participate in
over time develop an awareness meaningful interaction in the
of the nature and function of target language.(gap-filling
languages. information).
Their methodology was ‘caretaker’ strategies- a slow rate
behaviourist relaying on the speech, comprehensible
careful building up and practice vocabulary, extra definitions and
of forms related to particular explanations, a simplified syntax,
functions, and rehearsal through discourse-facilitating strategies.
role-plays. PROPOSAL FOR A PRE-
PRODUCTION PHASE WITH
LITTLE PRODUCTION (TPR)
Provide comprehensible input;
maintain focus on message; help
lower effective filters.
THE PROCEDURAL
SYLLABUS
No focus on grammar.
THE ‘DEEP-END’ APPROACH
‘content’ materials based on
authentic foreign language data
were to be adapted to the learner’s
level and chosen through
negotiation to be appropriate to
the pupil’s ongoing needs, interest,
and motivations.
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 THE MEDIUM-OF-
INSTRUCTION APPROACH
Interlanguage
RESPONDING TO
INDIVIDUALS AND
PROMOTING
RESPONSIBILITY
Learner-centred.
Learners may vary in:
_ability or aptitude (it’s difficult
to assess but seems that it’s
necessary a good ear, a good
verbal memory, and a good ability
to perceive patterns.
_ language background and
experience(It would seem that
foreign language development is
parasitic on L1 development, and
therefore dependant on the quality
of language use In the L1in the
home.
-cognitive, affective, and social
maturity(maturity is a function of
experience and is of course related
to age.
-sex: in adolescence girls mature
earlier and tend to develop self-
confidence and outward-looking
attitudes earlier than boys. For
boys, it has little prestige+ few
male teachers.
-personality: It’s important to
leave certain amount of space for
individuals to learn according to
their own particular aspirations,
personality and learning styles.
-learning styles (individuals differ
in the way they prefer to learn,
ear-based, eyes-based, field-
dependent/ independent, holist,
serialist, support, independent).
-motivation (It’s best generated by
a feeling of successful
achievement in the classroom.
Age: It’s better to start first with
pre-adolescents avoiding their
inhibitions. Maturity of cultures).

Curriculu Its main strategy for They failed to take strategic It’s both teacher-based and school-
m Renewal effecting curriculum competence into account, since it based. Teachers may be
renewal is to change seems o be operating from the conservative, adopters, adaptors,
examinations. Change erroneous principle that it is only and innovators.
to the curriculum is through accumulating native-
brought about from speaker language norms that a
outside the school. learner can learn to communicate
The inspectorate in a foreign language. The
organizes annual in- language we use originates from
service courses to deep roots in our personality,
which heads of rather than from a predetermined
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 departments in the script. Focus on particular
appropriate subject area elements of rhetorical, semantic
are invited. and grammatical content should
arise out of language in use.
In order to learn to perform a
task, it may be better to attempt it
as a whole, gradually
approximating more and more
closely towards some native-
speaker ideal, rather than to focus
sequentially on particular
functions or notions or
grammatical features likely to be
involved.
Critique The notion of education as There is no simple one-to-one There’s no so much formal evidence
the transmitter of relationship between particular forms of its success.
immutable truths is not and the illocutionary values that The current educational climate is
sensible, since those should be attached to them. Values inimical to progressivism.
notions would not suffice must be interpreted in the light of the In terms of curriculum design,
for their lifetime. context in which the forms occur. progressivism is perhaps at its most
Schools should aim to It can be argued that mastery vulnerable when, in its extreme form,
provide learners with the learning which sets out to bring it argues that foreign language
motivation and capacity to about an equalization of achievement classroom learning should simply aim
go beyond their implies inequality of opportunity, to produce effective natural untutored
knowledge. since the high flyers are to be held learning. There’s no sufficient
‘Gradus ad Parnassum’ – back until the lower achievers catch exposure to the foreign language in
a straight and narrow path up with them. the classroom for the teacher to be
which a few can achieve. Equality of innate ability is not a fact able to rely on the spontaneous
Learners abandon foreign of nature, and any educational language learning process alone.
language learning. system founded on such beliefs is It is difficult to eradicate errors that
There is little to help the doomed to failure; equality in the have been set in.
learner to communicate. sense of being permitted to develop Regression in teachers and learners.
The norm-referenced form whatever abilities one is born with to By the time learners encounter the
of assessment provides the highest degree is quite another foreign language, they will already
little information to matter. have already have become aware to
teachers, pupils or parents Regular tests may create anxiety some extent of language as an object
as to what students can or particularly among those who to be talked about or studied.
cannot do. usually need remedial work Both Prabhu’s and Krashen’s
Confusion between ability afterwards. proposals appear to ignore the value
and achievement. Their weakness point is to believe of attempting to raise language and
“ A pernicious self- that describing the product of cultural awareness.
fulfilling prophecy”, in learning in sufficient detail will
which the instructor guide on in the choice of learning
expects some of their experiences to bring it about.
students to fail the exam. Reconstructionism assumes that
Students learn to act what works in one context will
according to these automatically work in another. The
expectations. emphasis on outcomes of learning
Elitist, top-down, rather than on the process has also
transmissive one. been criticized.
There’s a need of in-services
education designed to assist teachers
over time to make the package their
own.
Drawing on the most positive aspects of each, it seems altogether reasonable to seek through an educational system to maintain
and develop the wisdom and cultural traditions of the past, to attempt to work together in a deliberate way toward a fairer and
better world for all, and to foster diversity among individuals in the ways in which they find fulfillment now and in that better
future.