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PLANNING AND ORGANIZING THE SECOND LANGUAGE CURRICULUM

Mark MidenskyMasters of Education

Second Language Acquisition

Affiliations:

Centennial CollegeSchool of Advancement

Centre for Academic Excellence

St. Stephen’s Community House

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education Alumnus

INTRODUCTION

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The LINC 5-7 Curriculum Guideline

•by Anne Hajer, Anne-Marie, Kaskens and Margaret Stasiak

Funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada

Developed by the Toronto District Catholic School Board

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As the simplest of the starting points, let us use this diagram as a model for comparison.

Goals:

Principles:

Needs:

Environment:

Content and Sequencing

Format and Presentation

Monitoring and Assessing

Nation, I.S.P. & Macalister, J., (2010), p.3.

UNDERSTANDING THAT THIS CURRICULUM MEETS CANADIAN LANGUAGE BENCHMARKS FOR THE CANADIAN CONTEXT WITH OUTCOMES AND SOCIO-CULTURAL ELEMENTS TYPICAL OF A LANGUAGE CONTEXT WHICH IS EMBEDDED. THIS GUIDELINE WAS DESIGNED FOR NEWCOMERS TO ONTARIO SPECIFICALLY. IT COULD BE USED IN ANY LANGUAGE EMBEDDED PROGRAM WITH MINOR ADJUSTED TO NATION AND PROVINCE.

GRAVES, THE LANGUAGE CURRICULUM: A SOCIAL CONTEXTUAL PERSPECTIVE, LANGUAGE TEACHING (APRIL 2008), 41 (2), PG. 147-181 

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Hajer et al, (2006) Page I

Principles, needs and environments clearly stated in the curriculum guide.

Nation Canada

Province Ontario

Community Newcomers

Educational Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada

Classroom Public and private environs which are federally funded

“The LINC 5-7 Curriculum Guidelines is meant to assist instructors in program planning by providing ideas for curriculum content that: • is consistent with the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) 2000, • is task-based and learner-centred, and • meets the objective of the LINC program, which is to provide language instruction that facilitates social, cultural and economic integration into Canada.”

THEORETICAL SECOND LANGUAGE ASSUMPTIONS

“ The LINC 5-7 Curriculum Guidelines is based on the theory of communicative competence, a theory of second language acquisition which assumes that five areas of communication must be achieved in order for a learner to be proficient in a language.” Hajer et al, (2006), p. 5

Competencies for this Guideline

Linguistic competence including form-focused instruction

Discourse competence linking oral and written skills

Functional competence as in recognizing tone and purpose

Socio-cultural competence

Strategic competences including ways to avoid misunderstandings

Content, principles and needs stated clearly as related to goals

COTTERRAL’S SIMPLIFIED PLANNING MODEL

THE LINC 5-7 SIMPLIFIED PLANNING MODEL

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Guidelines

Hajer et al, (2006), p. 5

Format of lessons

Presentation style.

Monitoring and assessment.

Learner-Centered Approach Negotiated learning and teaching for

planning, content, activities and materials

Meaningful and relevant plans for short and long term

Task-Based Approach Relate to specific CLB competencies

that learners would perform in the real world

Interactive communication and link classroom learning to the world beyond the classroom.

Spiraling Initial and ongoing needs assessment Spiraling approach where competencies

are repeated in different contexts within a particular level in different units and themes which are graduated by level.

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The guideline indicates clear format and presentation styles that are communicative, negotiated, and modern.

The question of ongoing monitoring and assessment is more complex because of the spiraling and over lapping outcomes and objectives during enactment of the curriculum. It has been my experience that this becomes a more complex problem in multi-leveled classes which is more the case than not in the LINC classroom reality.

Nation & Macalister (2010) (p.118) brought up the point that testing has to satisfy three criteria. In this case, we are concerned with initial entrance testing.

Reliability which statistically measures the same things for

each level. In the LINC program these tests are done through a

variety of testing centers that are usually community based and

federally funded. For example, the YMCA Toronto has testing

appointments that follow strict guideline. Teaching professionals

in the field often complain that although great effort is made to

qualify assessors, benchmarking is sometimes uneven.

Validity which include face validity and content validity. Face

validity concern testing reading for reading and not mixing the

skills in testing. Content validity which measures that what was

taught is tested. These issues are administered in class and for

this reasons are well addressed in the guide.

Practicality of the test which measure cost, time restraints,

format, and ease of marking. Since the guideline uses task-based

assessments that can be included in class based tasks and be

discreetly marked, there is a good bases for meeting this

requirement.

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Here are some examples of the resources provided for evaluation of the students. In this guideline, there are only a few examples that can be used by the teacher. There is a companion handbook with templates which is available but on it’s own the guideline does not provide them.

Many older teachers found them difficult to implement because they were less familiar with task-based assessments. Some teachers were uncomfortable with less formal testing methods.

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As an example of a assessment activity and using one of the templates which has an explanation of the task, rubric for performance, and grading/ratings.

Easily done in class and with the students feedback, this example could also include peer feedback to create a more constructivist approach to building a curriculum which is negotiated continuously.

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This curriculum guide orients the planner with clear learner goals that are focused and allow for a variety of outcomes. The curriculum gives the teacher a direction or starting point. Hajer et al, (2006) p. 17.

Final Outcomes/Objectives

1.Enhanced Language Training Program

2.Bridge training program

3.Direct employment

4.Employment Counseling

5.ESL Program

THE LINC 5 -7 CURRICULUM GUIDELINE USES THE TEACHER-BASED ASSESSMENT MODEL AS PRESENTED BY DAVISON & LEUNG, CURRENT ISSUES IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER-BASED ASSESSMENT, (2009)

GRAVES’ MODEL FOR CURRICULUM DESIGN OVERVIEW

THE LINC 5 – 7 CURRICULUM RESOURCE OVERVIEW Contents Introduction Planning and Assessment Theory Learner Goals: Essential Skills: Planning: Long-term, short-term

and assessment Assessment: Learner Profiles: At-a-Glance: 20 Units based different skills

needed for academic reading, writing, listening and speaking

12 themed contexts. For example, English skills needed for note taking in at college or university

Additional Resources: Spiraling grids which present the

level outcomes at each of the LINC levels by skill using CLB competencies for LINC levels 5 to 7.

Grammar Items. Pronunciation Items. Computer lessons to complement

language activities/tasks. Classroom Resources listing of

sample books, LINC licensed software and websites suitable for LINC levels 5 to 7.

Glossary of terms

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM GUIDELINE COMPARED WITH THE PROCESS OF CURRICULUM DESIGN PROPOSED BY NATION, I.S.P. & MACALISTER, J.. LANGUAGE CURRICULUM AND DESIGN (2010), P.143.

Nation & Macalister’s plan List goals Decide on content and

sequencing as in the number of units an divide content into themes

Format and presentation as in using the four strands with various resources

Monitoring and assessment with needs assessment, evaluation, and level outcomes.

The curriculum shows in its overview a curriculum that is based on carefully planned units with corresponding themes relevant to student goals. The output of one level in this case level 6 is integrated into the design to flow into the next level. This is an example of the “waterfall” method. There are elements of the “focused opportunistic approach”, as well, which allows for ongoing changes to fit the needs of the students while centering the main part of the curriculum on a foundation of a well thought out plan. An example of this is seen in the following slides. The At-a-glance pages for LINC 6 and LINC 7 show the teacher how this plays out in planning,

Hajer et al, (2006) p. 19.

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The focus for this review will be writing competencies as as a entry and exit measure of objectives and outcomes

To have an overview of elements to plan a

course could lead to the production of a quality

curriculum. In terms of language outcomes, we

will look at how writing competencies with a

view to larger units of language, such as in

presentation skills and group projects,

combined with functional social conventions of

language use can be integrated through out a

curriculum. As a special note, an effort has

been made to show how to design activities

that layer the learner’s progress from smaller

groups to larger presentations as well as one-

on-one interview scenarios.

Hajer et al, (2006) p. 62

Hajer et al, (2006) p. 68.

WRITING OUTCOMES FOR LINC 6 & 7

CLB 6 CLB 7

LINC 6Convey a short

message such as an email or letter of

apology

Convey a short message such as an

email or letter of apology

Write a business message that is

grammatically correct and appropriate in tone

and register

Write a business message that is

grammatically correct and appropriate in tone

and register

LINC 7

Write a personal and formal message on a more complex theme

that resolves conflict or resolves an issue

Write a personal and formal message on a more complex theme

that resolves conflict or resolves an issue

Write a business message that is an

official memorandum, meetings notes or request a change.

Write a business message that is an

official memorandum, meetings notes or request a change.

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To show how this guideline can be used to plan for specific purpose and for purposes that are close to the target group of the curriculum guideline which is based on theoretical principles and benchmark level of the Canadian Language Benchmarks.

To give examples of actual daily lessons and long term plans

In this curriculum review, we will go over the

steps for planning that are offered by the

guidelines and show how they can be applied

practically. The guideline overview offers

explanations for planning student-centre

instruction, design lessons to encourage

students to indentify topics, promote the study

of English through various types of media, and

facilitate and encourage self-guided study. The

review offered here will include the analysis of

topical themes related to academic study and

business, academic realia, hands-on internet

activities, real world job scenarios, presentation

skills, skills for change, and suggest material

topics for fieldwork study for the real world

planning of lessons.

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As previously stated the guideline gives concrete example of ways to integrate resources in sequencing lessons that meet the project goals for providing training and academic English for newcomers from a variety of countries. Here is an example of how the guide suggests putting it together to form a valid task with clear assessed outcomes that meet the objective goals of the a eighteen week course.

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A full-week of themed lessons which include:

Needs Assessment

Learners Centered Activities

Tasked-based lessons.

Spiraling competencies

Objectives by level

Grammatical accuracy

Fluency in sentence structure

Contextual vocabulary

Pronunciation and spelling

My examples for planning take the

prompts offered in the guideline to plan

each an 18 week session of full-time

week of study, which includes needs

assessment, learner centered activities,

task-based lessons, and spiraling

competencies with repeated themes

and objectives at different levels

throughout the syllabus. Grammatical

accuracy, fluency in sentence structure,

vocabulary use, contextual language,

pronunciation and spelling are all

covered with outcomes offered in the

guidelines based on the demands of the

academic and business world.

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Each week has the following lesson content:

Theme

Objective

Part 1 – CLB 6

Part 2 – CLB 6/7

Part 3 – CLB 7

Grammar Focus

Computer Skills

Assessment

Needs Assessment

Special Skills

The following slides demonstrate the

kind of long-term plan that can be

made to affect a program for LINC 6

and LINC 7. The long-term plan that I

wrote uses the resources and

planning suggestions for putting it

together. Each week is themed and

uses one of the units from the

guideline. Each week plan is meant

to serve a combined class of LINC 6

and LINC 7 with two outcomes. One

to bring student up from level 6 to

level 7. The other to bring the level 7

student to level 8.

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18 week course with a focus on academic and business English in a Canadian context.

content:ThemeObjectivePart 1 – CLB 6Part 2 – CLB 6/7Part 3 – CLB 7Grammar FocusComputer SkillsAssessmentNeeds AssessmentSpecial Skills

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By using the themes and adapting them to the learners needs, different aspects of contextual life in Canada could be used to facilitate greater learning power for the students. Needs assessment would include negotiating these themes as suggested in this planning guideline.

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Some examples for comparison of formal language, test preparation, and academic skills.

Formal language use and test preparation

using lessons that focus on the writing of

English for academic purpose, test taking, note

taking, memoranda, blogging, journal writing,

business writing and electronic communication

skills on par with college preparatory course

are a fundamental component of this syllabus.

In the same way, reading skills that focus on

reading for main ideas, scanning, skimming

and focused reading combined with analytical

and critical skills development in order to make

the students aware of unity, coherence and the

linking of ideas in English.

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Planning lessons that promote useable and doable computer skills appropriate to the level of the student.

Computers and internet search lessons

adapted to the level of the class are

provided to facilitate English language

learning. Each lesson includes a

component part that is presented to

provide basic functionality in basic office

computer programs, special knowledge

needs for business, academic internet

research skills, internet job search skills,

social networking, data retrieval and

storage, basic accounting, and online

self-study.

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Several of the ways that the guideline promotes learner autonomy discussed earlier included negotiated tasks and content based on needs assessments, student feedback, peer to peer feedback and teacher input. One additional feature of the guideline is to promote a computer skill in every class, integrate tasks that go beyond the classroom, and presentations/projects that include using search engines, social networking, wikis, and blogs

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Assessment

Planning

Evaluation

Reporting/Reflection

Using the guidelines offered here each weekly

session includes a lesson at level 6, a combined

lesson for levels 6/7, and a lesson at level 7.

Student progress is measured weekly with a

lesson presented as assessment tool for the

instructor. Using the CLB criteria, students given

a variety of activities that measure all the

competencies and scored using the offered

template can tender the necessary data for

progress reports and a basic needs assessment

based on student performance. This is an

important tool for the instructor to gauge the

objectives and outcomes of the following

lessons. We will examine in more detail each of

these components and attempt to reconcile

them with the principles of curriculum

development discussed in this class.

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One week of eighteen focus on academic and business writing in a Canadian context:

Theme

Objective

Part 1 – CLB 6

Part 2 – CLB 6/7

Part 3 – CLB 7

Grammar Focus

Computer Skills

Assessment

Needs Assessment

Special Skills

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One week of eighteen focus on academic and business writing in a Canadian context:

Theme

Objective

Part 1 – CLB 6

Part 2 – CLB 6/7

Part 3 – CLB 7

Grammar Focus

Computer Skills

Assessment

Needs Assessment

Special Skills

One week of eighteen focus on academic and business writing in a Canadian context:

Theme

Objective

Part 1 – CLB 6

Part 2 – CLB 6/7

Part 3 – CLB 7

Grammar Focus

Computer Skills

Assessment

Needs Assessment

Special Skills

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The final objectives are varied enough to provide for level appropriateness and discrepancies in learner knowledge and language awareness.

Theme: TOEFL Test LESSON OBJECTIVE(S) Research and read text about college entrance exams.

Make a 10 minute oral presentations on the writing process.

Listen to a student news story and summarize. Write a paragraph or two, revise, peer edit and final copy.

Summarize longer texts. Research using an online encyclopedia to research and

essay topic. Pair work - Student swill prepare and research a 10

minute presentation, take notes and compare. Answer questions that they have written. Complete practice tests from the TOEFL test. Use a TOEFL prep manual to write a essay based on a

reading and a listening. Prepare a feedback survey for writing partner. Self-evaluation and correction.

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Graduated level outcomes CLB 6, CLB 6/7, and CLB 7.

TOPIC-BASED OUTCOMES OR CLB COMPETENCIES

Write one of two paragraphs to relate/narrate a sequence of events, describe a person, object, scene, picture, procedure, or to explain reasons.

Write an outline or a summary of longer texts. Write a two or three paragraphs to describe an event,

story or description that is familiar. Write three or four paragraphs to on a familiar abstract

topic as in the TOEFL exam. Read a paragraph and listen to a recording and write a

summary of both. Present a short explanation on writing style

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Language structures that can be easily made level appropriate

LANGUAGE Vocabulary nouns related to paragraphs and essays

including: footnotes, bibliography, quotations, thesis statement, controlling idea, main idea and supporting ideas.

Grammar usage of linking words, prefixes and suffixes. Time clause, cause and effect, conditional sentences and reported speech. Transitions, coordination, conjunctions, subject verb agreement, and word order.

Pronunciation focusing on low rise intonation. Reading aloud to help editing for grammatical correctness and tone.

Capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and bibliographical styles.

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Material and resources that come largely from the guideline included in the week plan with supplemental more current online materials available simply.

MATERIALS/RESOURCES American Headway 4 – Student Book – Linking Ideas p.

116 – Photocopied Developing Compositions Skills – Rhetoric and Grammar,

p. 2 – 9. Delta’s Key to the Next Generation TOEFL Test p. 410 -

413 Google Search News Podcasts – cnnstudentnews.com Ontario College Writing Exemplars: www.hol.on.ca/ocwe Ohio ESL @ Ohio University:

www.ohiou.edu/esl/english/writing/activites.html University of Toronto Advice on Academic Writing:

www.utoronto.ca/writing/advise.html Teaching Points – WWCCUnit2-

HowtouseEnglishPunctuationProperly

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Learner autonomous computer skills, computer program skills, and needs based research are all a part of the week’s plan and final objectives.

COMPUTER SKILLS Google Search Microsoft Word – Tracking Changes  

COMMUNITY CONNECTION Universities, Colleges and Training entrance requirements

for study.

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Developing activities to teach.

Warmer for levels 6 and 7.

Warmer Ask the students to look at the photographs on

page 2 of Developing Compositions Skills – Rhetoric and Grammar, Introducing the Paragraph.

Discuss what is happening in each picture. Ask the student is they have written a letter

recently. Who did you write to? What did you write about? •Ask the students to read “Reading Across the Gap: How I write.” in DCS p. 3. Some of the words may need to be looked up. Have the students work in pairs.

In pairs, have the students answers the comprehension questions DCS on p, 4.

Follow with discussion questions. Examples: Do you remember learning how to write? Do you remember your first school essay? Have you ever regularly written to anyone anything larger than a quick message? If you write to someone who has a different background or experience than you what do you have to remember?

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CLB 6 Writing Activity

Activity One Students write a letter to a friend in a different

country than their own or distant family member and tell them about life in Canada over the last few months.

In pairs, have the students read the letter to a partner. Ask the students to ask each other one or two follow up questions.

If there are enough students in the class post the letters around the room. Change the pairs of students to different pairs and have the students read the different letters and discuss the changes. Monitor and correct.

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CLB 6

Reading and Grammar Activity

Activity Two Students read the Parts of the Paragraph from

Developing Compositions Skills – Rhetoric and Grammar, p. 5. Exercise 1.

Ask them to find the three main parts of the paragraph in the sample.

Talk about main idea, controlling idea and support in paragraphs.

Ask the students to find the topic sentence and controlling idea in the exercise on p.6.

Correct in pairs. Monitor and answer any questions.

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CLB 6

Reading and Speaking Activity

Activity Three Students read the Parts of the Paragraph from

Developing Compositions Skills – Rhetoric and Grammar, p. 7. Exercise 2.

Ask them to notice the different possible locations of topic sentences and choose the better one.

Correct in pairs. Monitor and answer any questions.

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CLB 6

Reading, Writing and Speaking Activity

Activity Four Students study the Parts of the Paragraph from

Developing Compositions Skills – Rhetoric and Grammar, p. 7 - 8. Exercise 3.

Ask the students to find the main idea/topic sentence and controlling ideas in each paragraph.

Ask the students in pairs to compare their answers.

Have the students write the sentences that they have decided upon on the board.

Compare and correct as a class.

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CLB 6

Reading and Writing Activity

Activity Five Students take the letter they have written in the

first part of the class and rewrite it in full paragraphs.

Each student letter should be two or three paragraphs long.

Ask the students to compare the revised version with a partner and make any other changes.

Students read the final version aloud to the class.

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CLB 6/7

Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing Activity

Activity Six Group Discussion [3-4 per group] Ask the student to think of any aspect of their

education experiences with regards to test taking. How many kinds of tests have you taken? What was the longest test? What was the hardest test? Do you like writing in test or do you prefer multiple

choice test. Brainstorm 10 tests that you can take in Canada

after high school. Compare the answers of the different groups..

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CLB 6/7

Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing Activity

Learner Autonomous

Negotiated

Computer Skills

Real World Outcomes

Activity Seven Student news listening in the computer lab Students start a research project starting with the

following websites. Monitor that the students have listen to and read

at least one news story from each source. Each student find a video news story to

summarizes in one paragraph www.cnnstudentnews.com www.cbcnews.com

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CLB 6/7

Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing Activity

Learner Autonomous

Negotiated

Computer Skills

Real World Outcomes

Student centered activity

Learner Independent Activity

Research resources

Activity Eight Online Research Ask the students to find 2 or 3 colleges,

universities or training centers on line and find out what tests they need to take as second language learners.

Find out what the test are like using Google, Blogs, and other search engines.

The TOEFL test – Ask the students to find out where, why, what, when and how about the TOEFL Test.

Students compare their answers and discuss options.

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CLB 6/7

Assessment

Peer Evaluation

Learner Autonomous

Negotiated

Real World Outcomes

Student centered activity

Learner Independent Activity

Research resources

Newscast Presentation Each participant will be given an issue of a

newspaper. After 30 minutes of preparation, students must

deliver from an original manuscript a 4 minute 'top of the hour' radio news broadcast.

Peer evaluation: Judging will be on the basis-2-of the selection of

news, clarity of presentation, originality, use of voice, credibility and adherence to time.

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CLB 7

Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking

Peer Evaluation

Learner Autonomous

Negotiated

Real World Outcomes

Student centered activity

Learner Independent Activity

Research resources

LINC 7 – EXTENSION LESSON Warmer Ask the students to use the conjunctions in the

exercise one from American Headway 4 – Student Book – Linking Ideas p. 116

Discuss what they know about the movie star Marilyn Monroe.

Read about the life and death of Marilyn Monroe. In the article there are two choices of conjunctions.

Choose the correct one. Reading out load have the students self-correct.

Monitor answers. Using a 5 paragraphs style choose a famous

person that you would like to write about.

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CLB 7

Listening and Speaking

LINC 7 – EXTENSION LESSON Activity One Explain basic concepts of the TOEFL test. Four skills testing. Writing an essay for TOEFL exam Time frame. Basic requirements.

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CLB 7

Reading and Speaking

Research resources

LINC 7 – EXTENSION LESSON Activity Two Vocabulary and Reading Students read from Delta’s Key to the Next

Generation TOEFL Test, Exercise 1.1 A Discussing facts and details.

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CLB 7

Reading and Speaking

Research resources

Using the Delta Guide.

Learner Autonomous

Activity Three Topic and Main Idea Students listen from Delta’s Key to the Next

Generation TOEFL Test, Section 2.1 A, B, C p. 215 from listening tape or have the students read it out loud.

Activity Four Cohesion and Grammar: •Independent Writing –

Pre-writing – p. 410 – 412

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CLB 7

Writing

Research resources

Using the Delta Guide.

Learner Autonomous

Activity Five Delta’s Key to the Next Generation TOEFL Test, p.

413 Exercise 4.6A Students choose an essay topic to write an

opinion essay.

Activity Six Speaking Activity from Delta’s Key to the Next

Generation TOEFL Test, Introduction p. 294

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CLB 7

Speaking and Listening

Research resources

Using the Delta Guide.

Learner Autonomous

Activity Six Delta’s Key to the Next Generation TOEFL Test,

Introduction p. 294

Activity Seven Ask the students to work in pairs and ask each

other the question and time the responses.

Activity Eight Students correct each other and help each other

to develop the responses.

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Writing and Reading

Research resources

Computer Skills

Learner Autonomous

The plan was designed to follow the suggestions of the guideline for sequencing, content, learner input, real word objectives, business content and academic content.

Activity Nine Students open a word document Free writing from one of the previous topics that

they choose. 5 paragraph style, linking word, main idea, time

limit exercise 30 minutes. Students spell check and grammar checking using

Microsoft Word. Students prepare a questionnaire for each others

teams and from their own research. Self-guided assessment monitored by teacher.

Cool Down Hot Seat Vocabulary Charades in two teams with

words on the board from the class. Two teams giving clues for the student in the hot seat to guess. Review the words used to explain and teach writing, revising and editing.

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Task-based assessment

Recorded by teacher

Marked against the CLB

Reported to students with additional feedback

Grammar

Vocabulary

Reading

Writing

Listening

Speaking

Activity Ten Assessment TOEFL TEST VOCABULARY IDIOM CARDS FOR

MEANINGS AND DEFINITIONS. IDIOMS WITH ‘GET Teacher’s Notes: Hand out the idiom table photocopied back to

back. Ask the students to match the idioms, sample

sentences and definitions without using a dictionary.

In pairs, have the students compare results and peer correct.

Check with a dictionary. Further explanation, if necessary from the teacher.

Teacher models some new sentences on the blackboard.

Students write one new sentence for each idiom. Students write the sentences on the board. Group correction. Use these idioms in your TOEFL preparation Assess the students discreetly for all four skills

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Reflecting on planning success is an important part to the process. Teacher reflection and self-evaluation is always encourage and templates are provided in the guideline.

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Reflecting on planning success is an important part to the process. Teacher reflection and self-evaluation is always encourage and templates are provided in the guideline.

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Textbooks that the guideline recommends for use at levels 5 – 7. More resources could be added. A recommendation could be to create accurate data bases with ratings by students and teachers so that information about the relevance and usefulness of textbooks could be analyzed and update. Often LINC sites have outdated materials. Using the texts that are currently in use at the entrance level to colleges or university in appropriate subjects might help with the acceptability of the materials to students.

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Finding materials that are current and business related and North American in origin.

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Readings from varied sources for teaching and practicing reading skills.

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Lists of level appropriate writing tasks that should be negotiated, level appropriate, and current.

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There are several problem that we encounter when using textbooks that are assigned for one level. They can be mismatch. The guideline’s classroom resources are varied enough to be adaptable for any learner group. Suggestion to improve adaptability and negotiated content is to expand the resources by compiling a updated database of textbooks, reading materials, writing activities, and listening sources.

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i. Timeii. Uneven entry

level evaluationiii. Mixed cultural

groups make it difficult to negotiate ongoing curriculum changes

iv. Difference in teacher training

v. Resistance to change by teachers

vi. Institutional incompetence and ignorance

vii. Shareholder indifference

viii. Reporting inconsistence between LINC centers.

ix. Complicated and repetitious guideline content takes time to unravel.

x. Resources and textbooks may not be available at every.

xi. Access to computers is not always guaranteed

ADJUSTING THE OUTCOMES AND OBJECTIVES

Knowing the starting point requires pre-assessing the students as the key to planning a curriculum that works. Graves (2008) (p.148) indicates stripping target language concepts to design a base platform for planning, enacting and evaluating match more or less my theoretical rather than practical experience in curriculum design and planning. Using the curriculum guideline without knowing exactly who the students are does leave some room for mismatching. This is where negotiating curriculum with the students would be advantageous. The guide gives a solid framework for planning objectives that can be easily modified in an ongoing basis. The thumbnail sketch for the start of planning that follows illustrates the broad strokes. Since the baseline of the students is not always consistent, using teacher-based assessment is a prominent part of this curriculum guide including, discrete, tasked-based, self-assessment, peer assessment and exit assessment to form planning goals and evaluate outcomes. Davidson and Leung (2009) (p. 397) list these steps embedding the goals, sharing these goals with student input, receiving and giving feedback about the goals, self-assessment, using self-assessment, instilling confidence, and reflecting student/teacher on the data of the outcomes.

SUGGESTIONS FOR CURRICULUM CHANGES

1 Modeling and presenting peer role models within the classroom.

2 Plan to teach the value of learning the language.

3 Promote positive values related to the L2 by positive comparison

when planning.

4 Include a socio-cultural component in the curriculum.

5 Encourage research by students in the L2 language and culture.

6 In tasks, make sure that students understand the value and

consider whether they would enjoy the outcome.

7 Formulate and negotiate outcomes that the students will

understand and appreciate.

  

PREPARATION, ENACTING AND PLANNING

Practical strategies for organizing programs to meet learner needs

need to include the assessment of the learners by age, group, status,

L2, gender, professional development, education, experience, marital

status, profession and every other detail that make up the learner’s

identity. Teaching intercultural competencies with a mixed L2 class

and negotiating between teacher and student in context embedded

classroom or context stripped classroom. In the initial planning

stages, it would be difficult to address these learner issues to

negotiate what some have referred to as a differentiate curriculum. A

curriculum that is initially well planned and structure would need to

have ongoing changes made to fit the initial needs of the student so

as to plot a course to the planned objectives and outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

In our Canadian socio-cultural context, education is increasingly privately controlled. Most language centers provide education in a variety of communities that are government funded private not-for-profit organizations or private businesses. -Assessment standards need to evolve- Patchwork quilt of testing centers throughout the LINC, ESL, EAP, community colleges and universities “system” makes it difficult for teachers to identify outcomes-Perhaps more government standards need to be set for entrance and exit testing. Some functions of society are better handled by government than the private sector. The deregulation of the banking system can provide some recent evidence of shoddy standards.-Ongoing monitoring and assessment is more complex because of the spiraling and over lapping outcomes and objectives during enactment of the curriculum. -Guideline provides many helpful templates and models that might be used systemically.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONSTeacher training and years of experience often hamper enacting curriculum planning in the best of situations and language centers. Teaching prep time and planning has to be funded. In my own experience the planning of the course that I used as an example took over a hundred hours to prepare which I was compensated for at a fair rate, but below the average for mainstream teaching and planning. It was a contract job, as well, so there were not any benefits.

Funding programs and supporting students to learn could not be seriously consider to succeed without funding the teachers, training of teachers, and production of materials outside the classroom. Is cheap always good? In her book “Cheap” (2009), Ellen Ruppel Shell comments about quality, price and the value of brand saying, “technology-driven globalization has pushed real prices/wages to rock bottom in almost every category – a trend that verged on the desperate in late 2008 when even tony retailers such as Saks and Nordstrom engaged in an orgy of price slashing so extreme that it threatened to tarnish the reputations of their own brands.” The reputations of educational institutions themselves and the quality of the product is in jeopardy when we cut funding for teachers, especially in unpaid preparation time and planning curriculum.

BIBLIOGRAPHY