The Origins of Language Curriculum Development

ing, and evaluating language programs. By a language program I refer to any organized course of language instruction. Second and foreign language teaching is one of the world's largest educational enterprises and millions of children and adults worldwide devote large amounts of time and effort to the task of mastering a new language. Teachers too invest a great deal of their energies into planning language courses, preparing teaching materials, and teaching their classes. What educational principles are these activities ased on! What values do these principles reflect! Whose interests do they serve! "nd can our practices e improved through reviewing the principles we operate from and critically e#amining the practices that result from them! T$%e&go to this& ook is to provide some of me'T(te 'i)r [Link]*a)s& of review )d'+$,ectionr fh)gTi-.)riculum development and)e#aminlng ways of addressing theissues that arise $nc)fi'[Link].d evaluating )g&ua/e programs and language teaching ma0teria$s)1anguage curriculum deveIopment2deais with the following'*ues) tions, which provide the framework for this ook3 4 What procedures can e used to determine the content of language program. 4 What are learners' needs! 4 5ow can learners' needs e determined! 4 '')S-pnfe1tu)/)or/)ee-2t e considered in planning a language program! & 4 ' What is the nature of aims and o 'ectives in teaching and how can these e developed! 4 What factors are involved in planning the sylla us and the units of organization in a course! 4 5ow can good teaching e provided in a program! 4 What issues are involved in selecting, adapting, and designing instructional materials!.........................................22'.......22'....' 222 4 25owcan one measure the effectiveness of a language program! 6

7 Chapter 1 8anguage curriculum development is an aspect of a roader field of educational activity known as curriculum development or curriculum studies. 9urriculum development focuses on determining what knowledge, skills, and values students learn in schools, what e#periences should e provided to ring a out intended learning outcomes, and how teaching and learning in schools or educational systems can e planned, measured, and evaluated. 8anguage curriculum development refers to the field of applied linguistics that addresses these issues. It descri es an interrelated set of processes that focuses on designing, revising, implementing, and evaluating language programs.

Historical background The history of curriculum development in language teaching starts with the notion of sylla us design. Sylla us design is one aspect of curriculum development ut is not identical with it. " sylla us is a [Link] the content of a course of instruction and lists what will e taught and tested. Thus the sylla us for a speaking course might specify the kinds of oral skills that will e taught and practiced during the course, the functions, topics, or other aspects of conversation that will e taught, and the order in which they will appear in the course. Sylla us design is the process of developing a sylla us. 9urrent approaches to sylla us design will e discussed in 9hapter :. 9urriculum development is a more comprehensive process than sylla us design. It includes the processes that are used to determine the needs of a group of learners, to develop aims or'o 'ectives for a program to address those needs)'o)deterrnine ,an appropriate sylla us, course structure, teaching methods, and materials, and to carry out an evaluation of the language program that results from these processes. 9urriculum development in lan0 guage teaching as we know it today really egan in the 6;:<s, though issues of sylla us design emerged as a ma'or factor in language teaching much earlier. In this chapter we will look at the approaches to sylla us design that emerged in the first part of the twentieth century and that laid the foundations for more roadly ased curriculum approaches that are used in language teaching today. If we look ack at die history of language teaching throughout the twentieth century, much of the impetus for changes in approaches to language teaching came a out from changes in teaching methods. The method concept in teaching 0 the notion of a systematic set of teaching practices ased on a particular theory of language and language learning 0 is a powerful one and the *uest for etter methods has een a preoccupation of many teach0

The origins of language curriculum development ers and applied linguists since the eginning of the twentieth century. =any methods have come and gone in the last 6<< years in pursuit of the 2 est metiiod,2 as the following chronology illustrates, with dates suggesting periods of greatest dominance3 >rammar Translation =ethod ?6@<<0 6;<<A Birect =ethod ?6@;<06;-<A Structural =ethod ?6;-<06;:<A Ceading =ethod ?6;7<06;D<A "udiolingual =ethod ?6;D<06;E<A Situational =ethod ?6;D<06;E<A 9ommunicative "pproach ?6;E<0presentA =ackey ?6;:D,6D6A commented that although there has een a preference for particular methods at different times,, methods often continue in some form long after they have fallen out of favorF this o servation is still true today, with grammar translation still alive and well in some parts of the world. 9ommon to&each method is the& 'ue'8that6the teaching practices it supr'prte)rpvide,.a more effective and theoretically sound asis2'or teaching man'he methods thatpreced5)Tfie)hluttcteristics of many of the methods listed a ove have T'een descri ed elsewhere and need not concern us further here ?e.g., Cichards and Codgers 6;@:A. But it is important to recognize that although methods are sr)cificado'is'of)eproc)es.o struction in language teaching)0 that, is, Guestions of how - they&also'nake&assumptions a out what needs to e ))))5i)He)2000)G)S0S5I);D0 Jor e#ample, the oral0 ased method2 known as the Birect =ethod, which developed in opposition to the >rammar Translation =ethod in the late nineteenth century, prescri es not only the way a language should e taught, with an emphasis on the e#clusive use of the target language, intensive *uestion0and0answer teaching techni*ues, and demonstration and dramatization to communicate meanings of wordsF it also prescri es the voca ulary and grammar to e taught and the order in which it should e presented. The Birect =ethod hence assumes a particular type of sylla us. 5owever, as new methods emerged to replace the >rammar Translation =ethod, theKinitial concern was not with sylla us)*uestions& ut with approaches to teaching and methodological principles) that .could e used'o support an oralK ased..target0language00'driven methodology. 5arold Lalmer, mepf minent British applied linguist who laid the foundations for the Structural =ethod in the 6;7<s, summarized the principles of language teaching methodology at that time as follows3 6. Initial preparation 0 orienting the students towards language learning 7. 5a it0forming 0 esta lishing correct ha its

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Chapter 1

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-. "ccuracy M avoiding inaccurate language .. P. >radation 0 each stage prepares the student for the ne#t D. Lroportion0each aspect of language given emphasis 0 :. 9oncreteness 0 movement from the concrete to the a stract E. Interest 0 arousing the student's interest at all times @. (rder of progression 0 hearing efore speaking, and oth efore writing ;. =ultiple line of approach 0 many different ways used to teach the language ?Lalmer ,6;77. 6;:@,-@0-;A (nce a consensus had emerged concerning the principles underlying an oral0 ased methodology, applied linguists then turned their attention to issues of the content and sylla us design underlying the2 Structural =ethod. Initial steps in this direction centered on approaches to determining the vo0 ' ca ulary and grammatical content of a language course. This led to proce0., dures that were known as selection and gradation. In any language program a limited amount of time is availa le for teaching. (ne of the'first pro lems to e solved is deciding what should e selected fipm'het tal corpus of the language and incorporated in te#t ooks and teaching maTerials'.This came to e known as the pro lem of selection. =ackey ?6;:D, 6:Q6A comments3 2Selection is an'imerent characteristic of 4 all methods. Since it is impossi le to teacfTthe whole of a language, all Q methods must in some way or other, whether intentionally or not, select the part of it they intend to teach.2 The field of selection in language teaching 2 deals with the choice of appropriate units of the language for teaching purposes and witii the development of techni*ues and procedures y which the language can e reduced to that which is most useful to the learner ?=ackey 6;:DA. "ll teaching, of course, demands a choice of what will e taught from the total field of the su 'ect, and the teaching of a language at any level and under any circumstances re*uires the selection of certain features of the language and the intentional or unintentional e#clusion of others. Two aspects of selectipn..[Link] primary attention in die first few decades of the twen0 tizfaj !nta"#$caf%ufor% selection and grdmrnar selection. "pproaches to [Link] aspects of selection laid the foundations for sylla us design in language teaching. Vocabulary selection Roca ulary is one of the most o vious components of language and one of the first things applied linguists turned their attention to. What words should

The origins of language curriculum development D e taught in a second language! This depends on the o 'ectives of the course and the amo&unuNftime availa le for teaching. Sducated native speakers areI' thought to have a recognition voca ulary of some 6E,<<< words, ut this is a much larger num er of words than can e taught in a language course. Tot all the wor))at'iS$[Link]'cnow&&are necessarily )seful)for)second2 language learners who have only a limited time availa le for learning. 2 2Should they 'set out to learn2 D<<,2I.(( for D,<<< words! "nd if so, 2which2 ones! This is the issue of voca ulary selection in language teaching. Is selection somedu'ng that should e left entirely to the intuitions of te#t ook writers and course planners or are there principles that can e used to produce a more o 'ective and rational approach! 8eaving selection issues to the intuitions of te#t ook writers can lead to very unrelia le results. Jor e#ample, 8i and Cichards ?6;;DA e#amined five introductory te#t ooks used for teaching 9antonese ?the language spoken in 5ong VongA in order to determine what words the te#t ook compilers considered essential for foreigners to learn and the e#tent to which te#t ook writers agreed on what constitutes the asic voca ulary of 9antonese as a second language. Sach of the ooks was designed for a similar type of student and assumed no ackground knowledge of the language. Sach set out to teach asic communicative skills, though the methodology of each ook varied. It was found that the five ooks introduced a total of appro#imately 6,@<< different words, although not all of these words occurred in each of the five te#ts. The distri ution of words in the five ooks is as follows3 Words occurring in one of the te#ts 6,6P6 words 0 :-.PW Words occurring in two of the te#ts -6- words [Link] Words occurring in three of the te#ts 6DD words X @.:W Words occurring in four of the te#ts 66P words 0 :.-W Words occurring in all of the te#ts EE words X P.-W ?8i and Cichards 6;;DA Jrom these figures it can e seen that a su stantial percentage of the corpus ?:-.P percentA consists of words that occurred in only one of the five te#ts. These words could not therefore e considered to elong to the essential voca ulary of 9antonese for second language learners and would not e worth learning. =any are pro a ly items that are specific to the topic of a dialogue or situation that was used to practice a particular grammatical item or structure..The same could e said of words occurring in only two of the te#ts, which constituted a further 6E.P percent of the corpus. (rPy w)rds'hat&oo0& curred in three or. more of the te#ts could reasona ly e descri ed as eing important voca ulary,, ecause .tr'ree pr )pre'pf 2m'e'te#l ook 'writers included them in their te#t *pks.&This list contains -P: worcts)'f some'27<per022''Q2

: Chapter 1 cent of the corpus.&Thec*[Link] can e drawn is that a studentstudy0ing from any of the ooks in this study would spend a large amount of time && trying to understand and use voca ulary that is pro a ly of little importance.22 It was to avoid this kind of pro lem with regard to Snglish that applied lin0" guists in the first few decades of the twentieth century turned to the issue of voca ulary selection. The goals of early approaches to selection are descri ed in the foreword to West ?6;D-A3 '#( language is so comple# that selection from it is always one of the first and most difficult pro lems of anyone who wishes to teach it systematically. It has ) come to e more and more generally realized that random selection is a wasteful Y approach, and that only a complete system capa le of continuous enlargement ) can form a satisfactory o 'ective for the first stage in any attempt to grasp as ) much as possi le of the entire language as may ultimately e necessary. Coughly j a language system may e considered as consisting of words entering into Z grammatical constructions spoken with conventional stress and intonation. To find the minimum num er of words that could operate together'#)consmctions capa le of entering into the greatest variety of conte#ts has therefore een the chief aim of those trying to simplify Snglish for the learner. Rarious criteria have20 een employed in choosing the words, ut the dominant activity throughout the 3# period among all those concerned with systematic teaching of Snglish has een R1 voca ulary selection. ?$effery, in West 6;D-, vA Some of the earliest approaches to voca ulary selection involved counting large collections of te#ts to determine the fre*uency with which words occurred, since it would seem o vious that words of highest fre*uency should e taught first But what kinds of material should e analyzed! ( viously, a fre*uency count ased on children's ooks might identify a different set of words than an analysis of words used in Time *agazine. The earliest fre*uency counts undertaken for language teaching were ased on analysis of popular reading materials and resulted in a word fre$uenc% list. ?This was in me days efore tape recorders made possi le the analysis of words used in the spoken language and efore computers could e used to analyze the words used, in printed sources.A Word fre*uency research revealed some interesting facts a out voca ulary usage. Jor e#ample, it was discovered that a small class of words ?around -,<<<A accounted for up to @D percent of the words used in everyday te#ts ut that it would take an e#tra :,<<< words to increase this y 6 percent It was also found that a out half the words in a te#t occur only once. 5owever, recognizing @D percent of the words in a te#t is not the same as understanding @D percent of the te#t (ne or two words per line will still not e understood, and these are often the key words in the te#t since they reflect the topic of the te#t and the new information in it Ran

R The origins of language curriculum development# # Sls, Bongaerts, S#tra, Ran (s, and $anssen0van Bieten ?6;@P, 7<:A also point out3 [0 uQ) )e#t comprehension is n'o')'u''t ')=c'io'i 'rf')e propoi'ioi#.gf femiliar words, ut Z .[Link] er..ot (ther. factors .as well, such as the su 'ect matter oQ\;ie $).,He&[Link],w ich#he'wnte#vapproaches)eF su 'ect, and the e#tent to which the reader is8already familiar with the su 'ect. 22...2 "z+s!'" ))fre*uencies are important in planning word lists for language teach0 Z ing.,But$re)*uency is not necessarily the same thing as usefulness ecause .''' the fre*uency of words depends on the .types)of lang)age)samples't5arafe' v. 2a5aTyzedv'Themost fre*uent words occurring in samples 2of sports writing will not e the same as those occurring in fiction. In order to ensure that the fre*uency of occurrence of words in a corpus corresponds to their relative importance for language learners, the te#ts or language samples chosen as the asis for the corpus must e relevant to the needs of target learners and words must e fre*uent in a wide range of different language samples.$,h'\i=&w indicates a&wofd's range or dispersion in a corpus. Words with the highest fre*uency and the widest range are considered to e the most useful ones for the purposes of language teaching. The following figures illustrate the difference etween fre*uency and range in a 6 million0word corpus ?cited in =c9arthy 6;;<, @P0@DA. Jor every word, the first column gives the fre*uency of the word in the corpus, die second column descri es die num er of te#t types the word occurred in ?e.g., sports writing, film reviews, newspaper editorialsA out of a total of 6D. The third column tells the num er of individual te#t samples a word occurred in3 the ma#imum num er is D<< samples, each of which is 7<< words long. Sections Jarmers Worship earnings huge address conscious protest dependent comfort e#citing P; P; P; P; P@ P@ PE PE PE P: P: @ @' @0 E 66' 66 6P 6'<E 6P 6-: 7P 77 6D -; -: -P --< -; -E

It was soon realized, however, that fre*uency and range were not sufficient as a asis for developing word lists, ecause words with high fre*uency and wide range in written te#ts are not necessarily the most teacha le words in

@ Chapter 1 an introductory language course. Words such as ,oo-. pen. des-. dictionar%. for e#ample, are not fre*uent words yet might e needed early on in a language course. (ther criteria were therefore also used in determining word ]sts. These included3 /eacha,ilit% In a course taught following the Birect =ethod or a method , such as Total Lhysical Cesponse, concrete voca ulary is taught early on ecause it can easily e illustrated through pictures or y demonstration. 0imilarit%1 .0ams items may e selected ecause they are similar to words in the native language. Jor e#ample, Snglish and Jrench have many cognates such. 2s ta,le. page. and nation. and this may 'ustify their inclusion in a word list for Jrench0speaking learners. "[Link] words may not e fre*uent ut are readily 2availa le2 in2t5esense that they come *uickly to mind when certain topics are thought of. Jor e#ample, classroom calls to mind des-. chair. teacher. and pupil. and these words might therefore e worth teaching early in a course. Coverage.3. Words that cover or include the meaning of other words may also e useful. Jor e#ample, seat might e taught ecause it includes the meanings of stool. ,ench. and chair. 4efining. power Some words could e selected ecause they are useful in defining other words, even though they are not among the most fre*uent words in the language. Jor e#ample, container might e useful ecause it can help define ,uc-et. jar. and carton. The procedures of voca ulary selection lead to die compilation of a ,asic voca,ular% ?or what is now called a le5ical s%lla,us63####7##.# .ca 'n)a)$)a&langu&age)course usually grouped&or&graded into levels, such as the first D<< words, the second D<< words, and so on. Word fre*uency re)2 search has een an active area of language research since the 6;7<s and continues to e so ecause of the ease with which word fre*uencies and patterns of word distri ution can e identified using computers. (ne of the most important le#ical sylla uses in language teaching was =ichael West's 8 9eneral 0ervice :ist of ;nglish <ords ?6;D-A, which contains a list of some 7,<<< "general service words considered suita le as die asis for learning Snglish as a foreign language2 ?viiA. The list also presents information on the fre*uencies of different meanings of each word ased on a semantic fre*uency count ?see "ppendi# 6A. The 9eneral 0ervice :ist incorporated die findings of a ma'or study on voca ulary selection y die then e#perts in the field3 The =nterim >eport on ?oca,ular% 0election. pu lished in 6;-: ?Jaucett, Lalmer, West, andThorndike 6;-:A. (ne o 'ective of this report was die simplification of teaching, as opposed to the simplification of the Snglish language. It was ased on the findings of almost all of the re0

The origins of language curriculum development ; search done up to die 6;-<s and also utilized the empirical studies made y some prominent applied linguists in the decade prior to its pu lication. The 9eneral 0ervice :ist was for many years a standard reference in making decisions a out what words to use in course ooks, graded readers, and other teaching materials. 5indmarsh ?6;@<A is another important voca ulary list and contains P,D<< words grouped into E levels ?see "ppendi# 7A. Grammar selection and gradation The need for a systematic approach to selecting grammar for teaching purposes was also a priority for applied linguists from the 6;7<s. The num er of syntactic structures in a language is large, as is seen from the contents of any grammar ook, and a num er of attempts have een made to develop asic structure lists for language teaching ?e.g., Jries 6;D7F 5orn y 6;DPF "le#ander, "llen, 9lose, and ('Teill 6;EDA. The need for grammatical selection is seen in the following e#amples fromWilkins ?6;E:,D;A, which are some of the structures that can e used for the speech act of 2asking permission.2 9anZmay I use your telephone, please! Llease let me use your telephone. Is it all right to use your telephone! If it's all right with you, I'll use your telephone. "m I allowed to use your telephone! Bo you mind if I use your telephone! Bo you mind me using your telephone! Would you mind if I used your telephone! Uou don't mind if I use your telephone ?do youA! I wonder if you have any o 'ection to me using your telephone! Would you permit me to use your telephone! Would you e so kind as to allow me to use your telephone! Would it e possi le for me to use your telephone! Bo you think you could let me use your telephone! 5ow can one determinewhich of these structures would e useful to teach! Tra5aonaily me0grammar items included in a'c )ursTwer'e2de)rmme-' y2 the teaching mediod in use and mere was conse*uentiy a great deal of variation in what items were taught and when. The ma'ority..of co''rses&s&tarted with,finites of ,e and statements of identification ?Tn'is is a pen',2etc.A. 9ourses that gave prominence to reading presenteS'tSeT'2'' 0Simple Tenses ?essential for narrativeA early, ut 2those \hat clalme5 t 'iise' a ' '

6< Chapter 1 'Birect0(ral =ethod' presented the Lrogressive ?or 9ontinuousA Tense first and postponed the Simple tenses. ?5orn y 6;D;E vivyK 2......K M The same is sometimes true today particularly for the less commonly taught languages. Jor e#ample, in the study of the content of introductory te#t ooks for teaching 9antonese referred to earlier ?8i and Cichards 6;;DA, the grammatical structures included in the five ooks were analyzed. The five ooks were found to introduce a total of 776 different grammatical items, though they varied greatly in the num er of grammatical items introduced, which no dou t influences learnersQ perceptions of the ease or difficulty of each ook. The num er of different grammatical items in each ook is as follows3 Te#t Te#t Te#t Te#t Te#t ook " ook B ook 9 ook B ook S 6<< 6P@ EP ;6 @P

5owever, not all of the same grammatical items occurred in each of the five te#ts. The distri ution of grammatical items was as follows3 Total grammatical items in the five te#ts 776 Items occurring in one of the te#ts X;7P6.:W Items occurring in two of the te#ts X DP [Link] Items occurring in three of the te#ts X-: 6:.-W Items occurring in four of the te#ts X 6E [Link] Items occurring in five of the te#ts X 77 6<W ?8i and Cichards 6;;DA "s&was fount%, with)yoca ulary distri ution in the five course ooks, a su stantial portion of the grammatical items occurred in only one of the&te#ts ?P6.: percentA suggesting mat the authors of the te#ishave very different intuitions a out which grarnmatical items'learners of 9antonese need to know. In regard to the teaching of Snglish, from the 6;-<s applied linguists egan applying principles of selection to the design of grammatical sylla uses. But in die case of grammar, selection is closely linked to the issue of gradation. >radation is concerned with the grouping and se*uencing of teaching items in a sylla us. " grammatical sylla us specifies oth the set of grammatical structures tdK eKtaught and the order in which they' sho2uldKKK0 'eiaught Lalmer, a pioneer in work on voca ulary and grammar selectionF e#plains die principle of gradation in this way ?,6;77., 6;:S, :@A3

The origins of language curriculum development6 66 The grammatical material must e graded. 9ertain moods and tenses are more useful than othersF let us therefore concentrate on the useful ones first. In a language possessing a num er of cases, we will not learn off the whole set of prepositions, their uses and re*uirements, ut we will select them in accordance with their degree of importance. "s for lists of rules and e#ceptions, if we leam them at all we will learn them in strict order of necessity. In most languages we @' shall pro a ly find certain fundamental laws of grammar and synta# upon which ' the whole structure of the language dependsF if our course is to comprise the ) conscious study of me mechanism of a given language, then, in accordance wim the principle of gradation, let us first leam these essentials and leave the details to a later stage. O2Q O But whereas those working on voca ulary selection arrived at their word lists through empirical means starting with word fre*uency lists, grammat ical sylla uses have generally een developed from different principles ased not on the fre*uency of occurrence of grammatical items in te#ts ut on intuitive critena'!f simplid The goal has een to de0 velopinist of structures, graded into a logical progression, which would provide an accessi le and gradual introduction to the grammar of Snglish. T$ie'aggroach useci has een analytic. The following principles have een used or suggested as a asis for developing grammatical sylla uses. . -/Aimpliczt%*nd centralit% This recommends choosing structures that are simple and more central to the' lisiRstrucmre that are comple# and peripheral. By these criteria the following would occur in an introductory0level Snglish course3 The train arrived. ?Su 'ect Rer A 0he is a journalist. ?Su 'ect Rer 9omplementA The children are in the ,edroom. ?Su 'ect Rer "dver A <e ate the fruit. ?Su 'ect Rer ( 'ectA = put the ,oo- in the ,ag. ?Su 'ect Rer ( 'ect "dver A The following would e e#cluded y the same criteria3 Baving neither mone% nor time. we decided ,u%ing a tic-et to the opera was out of the $uestion. Cor her to spea- to us li-e that was something we had never anticipated Cre$uenc% Jre*uency of occurrence has also een proposed in developing grammatical sylla uses, utrelatively littleprogress was made in this area for some time ecause of the difficulty, of decid,mg,,on. appropriate)gram) malScat'umts to count and the difficulty of coding grammatical)structures for analysis2. It is only

recently that computer corpuses have ena led the Bis20

67 Chapterl tri ution of structures in real language to e e#amined. Tot surprisingly, there are often significant differences etween die lists of grammatical structures developed intuitively y applied linguists and the information revealed in analyses of corpuses of real language. =c9arthy and 9arter ?6;;DA, for e#ample, report on data taken from a corpus of conversational language and identify a num er of features of spoken grammar, not typically included in standard teaching sylla uses3 Jor e#ample3 0u,ject and ver, ellipsis. such as 2Bon't know2 instead of 2I don't know.2 Topic highlighting. such as 2That house on the comer, is that where you live!2 Tails. such as the following phrases at the end of sentences3 2you know,2 2don't they!2 >eporting ver,s. such as 2I was saying,2 2They were telling me.2 . :earna,ilit% It has sometimes een argued that grammatical sylla uses 2 shoT))emto account the order in which grammatical items are ac*uired in second language learning. Jor e#ample, Bulay and Burt ?6;E-, 6;EPA proposed the following order of development of grammatical items, ased on data elicited during interviews with second language learners at different proficiency levels3 6. nouns 66. wft0*uestions 7. ver s 67. present continuous -. ad'ectives 6-. directions P. ver ,e 6P. possessive ad'ectives D. possessive pronouns 6D. comparatives :. personalpronouns 6:. offers E. adver s of time 6E. simple future @. re*uests 6@. simple past ;. simple present 6;. infinitivesZgerunds 6<. futures 7<. first conditional "lthough the validity of this ac*uisition se*uence has een *uestioned ?e.g., Vwfan'6;;7, 6-@A, the idea that grammatical structures are ac*uired iira natural order and that this order should inform teaching has een proposed y a num er of applied linguists' ?e.g., Lienemann 6;@;A. 5owever little relia le information on ac*uisition se*uences has een'produced that could e of practical enefit in planning a grammar sylla us. In addition to decisions a out which grammatical items to include in a sylla us, the se*uencing or gradation of grammatical items has to e determined. The need to se*uence course content in a systematic way is y no

The origins of language curriculum development means a recent concern. The seventeenth0century scholar 9omenius ?summarized y =ackey 6;:D, 7<DA argued3 The'wg')nmg, should. . e^[Link]))

6-

immediately tested. ]nless the first layer is firm, nodiing should e uilt on itF for the whole? structure wiirHe 2developed from'the foundations. "ll parts should e 2 ound2' Y together soThat 2one flowf ut of the other, and later units include earlier ones. I 2Whatever precedes forms a step to what follows and the last step should e^.^)0) tracea le to'the first y a clear chain of connection. The following approaches to gradation are possi le3 :inguistic distance 8ado ?6;DEA proposed that structures that are similar to those in the native language should e taught first. 2Those elements that are similar to ,the learner's. native language will e simple for him and those elements that are different will e difficult2 ?8ado 6;DE,7A. This assumption underlay the approach to language comparison known as con-trastive anal%sis. =ntrinsic difficult% This principle argues that simple structures should e taugBr e'foTe'T(mple# ones and is the commonest criterion used to 'ustify the se*uence of grammatical items in a sylla us. Communicative need # Some structures will e needed early on and can0not' e postponed, despite their difficulty, such as the simple past in Snglish, since it is difficult to avoid making reference to past events for very long in a course. Cre$uenc% The fre*uency of occurrence of structures and grammatical items in the target language may also affect the order in which they appear in a sylla us, although as we noted, little information of this sort is availa le to sylla us planners. Jre*uency may also compete with other criteria. The present continuous is not one of the most fre*uent ver forms in Snglish, yet it is often introduced early in a language course ecause it is relatively easy to demonstrate and practice in a classroom conte#t /5i addition to these factors, in designing a course one is also faced with a choice .. etween. tw*approaches to the se*uencing of items in the course, namely, a linear or a c%clical or spiral gradation. With a linear gradaSon,2' the items are introduced one. at .a. time.,and practiced intensively +$*re 2the' ne#t items appears. With a cyclical gradation, items are reintroduced throughout the course. ' ' 'Q' ' '#'#'##D #+-E- In a course in which the material is ordered cyclically the individual items are not presented and discussed e#haustively, as in stricdy linear gradation, ut only essentTal'aspects2 of the item in *uestion are presented initially. TheseTtems then keep reining inthe )course, and every time new aspects will e introduced2 which

6P Chapter 1 will e related to and integrated with what has already een learned. ?Ran Sls et at2T;@P',277@-2 2 ' ' ................ "lthough few would dou t the advantages of cyclical over linear gradation, in practice such recycling is usually left to die teacher ecause cyclical gradation would often result in te#t ooks that were e#cessively long. In the 6;P<s, eginners' courses in Snglish egan to appear in'which principles of voca ulary and grammatical control were evident and in which grammatical structures were organized into graded se*uences. The methods in use at the time placed a ma'or emphasis on the learning of 2structures.2 The ].S. linguist Jries outlined the ma'or structures he thought foreign students needed to learn in his ooks Teaching and :earning ;nglis- as a Coreign :anguage ?6;P:A and The 0tructure of ;nglish ?6;D7A and these formed the grammar component for courses and materials developed at the influential Snglish 8anguage Institute of the ]niversity of =ichigan. The =ichigan materials with their focus on the core grammatical structures of Snglish soon came to influence all materials developed in the ]nited States for teaching SS8 students and ecame the dominant methodology in the ]nited States for more than 7< years ?Barian 6;E7A. In Britain 5orn y uilt on the prewar efforts of Lalmer on the grading of sentence patterns and developed a comprehensive grammatical sylla us ?together with a structural approach to teaching SnglishA in his ooks 9uide to Fatterns and Gsage in ;nglish ?6;DPA and The Teaching of 0tructural <ords and 0entence Fatterns ?6;D;A. These set out me asic grammatical structures needed in Snglish0 language sylla uses and courses at different levels. The resulting pedagogical grammar of Snglish ?or variations on itA formed the asis for the grammatical sylla us of most teaching materials produced at that time ?see "ppendi# -A. Since then other language teaching specialists have refined and further developed grammatical sylla us specifications as a asis for course design and materials development ?e.g., "le#ander et al. 6;EDA. "lthough oth le#ical and grammatical sylla uses have provided important guidelines for the development of language teaching te#t ooks and ma0 K terials since the first such sylla uses appeared in the 6;7<s, it is grammar sylla uses that have een regarded as the core of a language course or program. Wilkins notes ?6;E:,EA3 The use of a grammatical sylla us can e regarded as the conventional approach to language teaching since die ma'ority of sylla uses and pu lished courses have as their core an ordered list of grammatical structures. The voca ulary content is secondary in importance and certainly rarely provides the asic structure of a course. The view is widely held that until the ma'or part of the grammatical system has een learned, the voca ulary load should e held down to what is

The origins of language curriculum development 6D pedagogically necessary and to what is desira le for the sake of ensuring ade*uate variety in the content of learning. Assumptions underlying early approaches to syllabus design 'We can now e#amine the assumptions ehind the approaches to sylla us design that emerged in the first part of the twentieth century and in the process reveal the limitations that su se*uent directions in sylla us design sought to address.
3

i ijThe ,asic units of language are voca,ular% and grammar Those working in the traditions discussed in this chapter approached the teaching of Snglish largely through its voca ulary and grammar. "lthough the role of speaking and pronunciation were not ignored during the actual teaching of the language, the priority in planning was voca ulary and gram mar and diese were seen as the main uilding locks of language develop ment. (nce some system and order could e introduced into, diese areas through careful sylla us planning .and specification it was elieved diat lan guage teaching could e put on a more rational and sound asis. 22 2

? ,v :earners ever%where have the same needs The focus in language teaching was on 2general2 Snglish, hence the title of West's word list. It was elieved that the core voca ulary of the 9eneral 0ervice :ist together with a grammatical sylla us of the type 5orn y ela orated would serve as the asis for almost all language courses. F '".8:earners' needs are identified. e5clusivel%Ain terms '( Ht'language'needs' To matter who the learners are or the circumstances of their learning, it is assumed that mastery of Snglish will solve their pro lems. The goal of [Link] teaching is to teach them Snglish 0 not to teach them how to solve their pro lems through Snglish. .#/ The process of learning a language is largel% deteIrfiihe#d'',%the'ie5md,#'' The primary input learners received to the language learning process was the te#t ook, hence the importance of the principles of selection and gra0

6: Chapter 1 dation as ways of controlling the content of the te#t ook and facilitating language learning. jhe conte5t of teaching is ;nglish as a foreign language =ost of the early work y Lalmer, West, and 5orn y on the development of le#ical and grammatical sylla uses was done in conte#ts where Snglish was a foreign language, that is, where students studied Snglish as a formal su 'ect in school ut had no immediate need for it outside of the classroom. The classroom and the te#t ook provided the primary input to the language learning process, hence the goal of sylla us developers was to simplify and rationalize this input as far as possi le through the processes of selection and gradation. 9hanges in the status of Snglish around the world, and in the purposes for which Snglish was studied from the 6;P<s on led to the ne#t phase in the development of language curriculum development These changes and the approaches to language curriculum development that resulted from them are the focus of 9hapter 7. Biscussion *uestions and activities 6. This ook is a out planning and implementing language courses and materials. What are three aspects of these processes that are of greatest interest to you! 8ist these in the form of *uestions and compare with others. 7. What is the difference etween sylla us design and curriculum development! -. 5ow are sylla uses developed in language programs you are familiar with! P. What are the characteristics of a language teaching method! In what ways do methods raise issues related to curriculum development! D. 5ow relevant are the issues of selection and gradation to language teaching today! What factors influence current views of selection and gradation! :. S#amine a low0level language teaching te#t What factors influence the selection and gradation of grammatical items in the te#t! E. "re the concepts of selection and gradation compati le with the use of authentic te#ts or sources in language teaching! @. 5ow useful are word lists such as those illustrated in "ppendi#es 6 and 7 today!

The origins of language curriculum development 6E Appendix 1 Entries from A General Service List of English Words The list ?from West 6;D-A identifies a core 7,<<<0word voca ulary and also the fre*uency of different meanings of each word. J8(W SC flower, n. ?laA ?l A Fhra :<De !" Jpan of a plant6 Lick flowers Ja flowering plant6 Jlowers and vegeta les In flower JE in ,loom6 Jfigurative6 The flower of J- ,est specimens6 In the flower of his youth JE ,est pan6 Jlower0garden, etc. The roses are flowering 4% 6W <.E W PW

flower0Z flower, v. J8U fly. v. @<De

flying, ad'.

fly. n. J(8B fold, v.

9B Jtravel through the air6 Birds flyF Jly an aeroplane, a kite 0pecial use Jly a flag ?7A Jgo $uic-l%6 5e flew to the rescue ?-A JFhrases impl%ing sudden motion6 By to armsF fly atF fly in the face of Jly into a rageF ,fly out at. Sent it flyingF the door flew Jlying0 oat, 0fish, 0'umpF column l#fle , :.-W. The word Jlee, fled, 7<7e is not included in the >eport. Jfl%ing insect. especiall% housefl%6 6;:e Jold a piece of paper Jold up one's cloches Jold it up in paper Jold one's arms

-; -.DW 6P 6P W P.@W 6.-W 6.:W 6PW

66W

43%

6@ Chapter 1 "ppendi# 7 Sntries from Cam,ridge ;nglish :e5icon " P,D<<0word voca ulary list grouped into E levels ?5indmarsh 6;@<A. 6 a y 6 n. a young child : n. youngest3 which of %ou is the ,a,%K .E adj. not fully developed3 ,a,% marrows P a y0sitter n. 6 ack 6 adv. towards the rear3 head winds drove them ,ac6 n. part of the ody or of an o 'ect, opposite of front3 the ,ac- of his head 7 adv. to a former state3 ,acto life 7 adv. in return3 to have the mone% ,ac- adv. of time3 ,ac- in the *iddle 8ges P adv. in retaliation3 answer ,ac-3 hit ,acP v. reverse3 he ,ac-ed the car awa% : v. gam le on3 ,ac- a cause D ack out of v. withdraw 6 adly 6 adv. roughly, untidily3 ,adl% made 7 adv. much3 ,adl% in need of repair D adv. very much3 she wants it ,adl% : adv. poor3 ,adl% off L adge n. sign of occupation, office, mem ership 6 ag 6 n. container for carrying solid things E n. lots of3 ,ags of mone% E v. get y hunting3 ,ag some duc- aggage n. luggage 7 ake 7 v. cook - v. harden3 these pots were ,a-ed in our -iln E v. warm one's ody3 ,a-ing in the sun at the resort 7 aker n. - alance - v. cause to e steady3 ,alance a ruler on one finger D n. instrument for weighing : v. e*uate3 ,alance the accounts : n. state of e*uili rium3 ,alance of power E n. outstanding amount3 hand in the ,alance D alcony D n. platform on e#terior of uilding E n. raised level of seating in theatre P ald adj. without hair on head 6 all P n. round o 'ect3 cric-et ,all3 meat,all3 a ,all of wool : n. dance3 *a% Mall D allet n. 7 alloon n. ag or envelope filled with air P allpoint n. = anana n. - and - n. group of persons, generally musicians P n. connecting piece3 ru er ands : v. 'oin together : n. strip3 a ,and of colour D andage n. L ack up v. support D ack one D n. spine E n. main strength3 ,ac-,one of the crew

The origins of language curriculum development 6; P ackground P n. part of a view E n. setting3 the ,ac-ground to the report D ackwards D adv. away from front3 go ,acwards D adv. reverse order3 sa% the letters ,ac-wards D ackyard n. I ad 6 adj. useless3 a ,ad wor-er 6 adj. unpleasant, incorrect3 ,ad manners 6 adj. immoral3 a ,ad man. ,ad ,ehaviour 1 adj. painful3 ='ve got a ,ad head P adj. rotten3 go ,ad L ang D n. sudden loud noise : n. a violent low : v. strike3 ,ang in that nail with a hammer 7 ank 7 n. esta lishment for handling money D n. a ridge3 ,an- of earth : v. place securely3 to ,anone's mone% - Bank 5oliday n. D anker n. L ankrupt adj. 2 ar 7 n. a drinking place P n. a rod of wood or metal3 a ,ar of gold D v. o struct3 to ,ar the door L n. o stacle3 a ,ar across the road E ft. place in court3 prisoner at the ,ar P ar er ft. are - adj. naked3 ,are s-in3 ,are head : adj. mere3 -ill with %our ,are hands : adj. veiy slight3 a ,are majorit% E v. make naked3 ,are one's head - argain - v. negotiate y argument3 %ou have to ,argain in a Fersian ,azaar L ft. thing ought cheaply D +. agreement3 stri-e a ,argain - ark - v. cry ?dogs, fo#esA - n. ciy so made : v. shout sharply3 he ,ar-ed his orders D arman ft. P arrel P ft. round container3 a ,arrel of ,eer E ft. tu e3 ,arrel of a rifle P ase P ft. foundation3 ,ase of a pillar D v. esta lish on foundation3 ,ase the argument : ft. head*uarters, main office3 go ,ac- to ,ase for supplies E adj. dishonoura le3 acting from ,ase motives P asement ft.

7< Chapter 1 "ppendi# - Lart of an early Snglish grammatical sylla us ?from 5orn y 6;D;A This is $ohn ?=aryA =r. ?=rs., =issA a an my ?yourA Brown ?>reen, WhiteA. stone ?cow, horse, desk, ookA. apple ?egg, inkpot, um rellaA. ag ?desk, pen, head, mouthA. stones ?cows, trees, desks, ooks, eggs, um rellasA. ooks ?pens, pencilsA. left right hand ?eye, earA.

That

These Those This That

are is is my ?yourA my your

What is What's What are

this! that! these! those! ook. pen. pencil. ooks. pens. pencils.

It is It's They are They're

a my your ?0A my your

The origins of language curriculum development 76 Is this that diese those a pen or a pencil! a ag or a o#! my ook or your ook! pens or pencils! ags or o#es! my ooks or your ooks!

"re

Is

this that it

cow! ird! OO horse! my ook! your o#! a cows! irds! horses! ooks! o#es!

a Ues, it's my your

cow. ird. horse. ook. o#. cows. irds. horses.

To, it isn't

"re

these those they my your

Ues, they're my your

To, they aren't

ooks. o#es.

77 Chapter 1 Ceferences "le#ander, 8. >., W. Stannard "llen, C. ". 9lose, and C. $. ('Teill. 6;ED. ;nglish grammatical structure. 8ondon3 8ongman. Barian, S. 6;E7. ;nglish as a foreign language Bistor%. development. and methods of teaching. Torman3 ]niversity of (klahoma Lress. Bulay, 5., and =. Burt. 6;E-. Should we teach children synta#! :anguage :earning 7-3 7PD07D@. Bulay, 5., and =. Burt. 6;EP. Tatural se*uences in child second language ac*uisition. :anguage :earning. 7P3 -E0D-. Jaucett, 8., 5. Lalmer, =. West, and S. 8. Thorndike. 6;-:. =nterim report on voca,ular% selection. 8ondon3 L. S. Ving. Jries, 9. 6;P:. Teaching and learning ;nglish as a foreign language. "nn "r or3 ]niversity of =ichigan Lress. Jries, 9. 6;D7. The structure of ;nglish. Tew Uork3 5arcourt Brace. 5indmarsh, C. 6;@<. Cam,ridge ;nglish le5icon. 9am ridge3 9am ridge ]niversity Lress. 5om y, ". S. 6;DP. 9uide to patterns and usage in ;nglish. (#ford3 (#ford ]niversity Lress. 5om y, ". S. 6;D;. The teaching of structural words and sentence patterns. (#ford3 (#ford ]niversity Lress. 8ado, C. 6;DE. :inguistics across cultures. "nn "r or3 ]niversity of =ichigan Lress. 8i, B., and $. 9. Cichards. 6;;D. Cantonese as a second language 8 stud% of learner needs and Cantonese course ,oo-s. Cesearch =onograph 7, Snglish Bepartment, 9ity ]niversity of 5ong Vong. =ackey, W. J. 6;:D. :anguage teaching anal%sis. 8ondon3 8ongman. =c9arthy, =. 6;;<. ?oca,ular%. (#ford3 (#ford ]niversity Lress.. =c9arthy, =., and C. 9arter. 6;;D. Spoken grammar. What is it and how can we teach it! ;:T /ournal P;?-A3 7<E076@. Tunan, B, 6;;7. >esearch methods in language teaching. 9am ridge3 9am ridge ]niversity Lress. Lalmer, 5. S. 6;:@ ,6;77.. The principles of language stud%. (#ford3 (#ford ]niversity Lress. Lienemann, =. 6;@;. Is language teacha le! 8pplied :inguistics :3 6@:076P. Cichards, $. 9, and T. Codgers. 6;@:. 8pproaches and methods in language teaching. Tew Uork3 9am ridge ]niversity Lress. Ran Sls, T^ T. Bongaerts, >. S#tra, 9. Ran (s, and ". $anssen0van Bieten. 6;@P. 8pplied linguistics and the learning and teaching of foreign languages. 8ondon3 "rnold. West,=. 6;D-. " general service list of ;nglish words. 8ondon3 8ongman. Wilkins, B. 6;E:. Notional s%lla,uses. (#ford3 (#ford ]niversity Lress.