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Date Posted: 20:03:36 06/13/03 Fri
Author: Ronaldo G.M. Rosa
Subject: Task 6 - Design

Task 6

SIXTH CLASS June 9th to 13th

DESIGN

A course design implies objectives, learner roles, teacher roles, activities, etc.

YOUR TASK IS:

Describe the design of a prototypical communicative course.

===


DESIGN

According to J.Mora, a course's design can be schematically described as:

- General & specific objectives
- A course sequence or progression
- Types of learning & teaching activities
- Learner roles
- Teacher roles
- Role of instructional materials

The design of a prototypical communicative course will be probably much alike what is described in "Tick It English - Our approach":

"We believe in a strong form communicative approach to language teaching, using the learners as the main focus of the class. We strive to create conditions that give learners the opportunity to use the language to learn it and we're very adaptable in that we are able to use a blend of different teaching techniques to suit the students' needs."

Such a design will include a strong emphasis on speaking, providing an English language learning environment where students have many opportunities to develop their communicative skills. As said in "Tick It English", "within and between tasks we plan input, which is based on student production and possibly listening or reading activities".

Besides these speaking-oriented activities, the teaching of grammar will be included, through deductive and inductive approaches.

About the roles of the teacher in this process, the presentation of "Tick It English" explains:

"We see our role as teachers in these approaches to facilitate students' intake of grammatical features by providing meaningful, contextual representations of the grammar point, which are relevant to students' needs and interests. Through contextual examples it is possible to attach the new grammar point onto something that students have learnt before.
We think it is important to show students typical mistakes or during guided discovery tasks invite students to make typical mistakes. It is just as important to show students what you can't do as well as what you can. Making mistakes is a vital part of the learning process and we work hard with students, using a variety of error correction techniques, to iron out those problems."

And about the student's role:

"We believe the starting point of any course or scheme of work needs to be you, the learner. We carry out needs analyses, which are the best way of being able to identify a set of objectives for the course, and this can involve decisions about the choice of coursebook and materials to be used. We continually talk to our students about their learning experiences, attitudes, beliefs and preferences to language learning. We will help you learn how to learn a language."

Regarding to the didactical material employed, it will include not only books, but also other resources of reading, besides audio-visual stuff (cds, cassetes, videos, etc). An interesting view is established in the "Tick It English approach", where qualitative use of resources prevails over the mere quantitatative ammount of material:

"Through experience we have learnt not to let the materials drive the lesson and get in the way of any classroom interaction between students and students and myself. One way we do this is to use fewer materials and do more with them. We exploit small pieces of material and use the materials to set up contexts where you can express yourself and discuss your attitudes, feelings, ideas, opinions and beliefs. Some materials lend themselves more to a communicative approach to language learning and when this is not the case we adapt and exploit them."



Bibliography and references:


AU TESOL Program. "Designing Communicative Lessons"
http://www.american.edu/tesol/Lessonplans.htm

Larsen-Freeman, D. (1986). Techniques and principles in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

MORA, Jill Kerper. "English Language Development - Approaches, Methods & Techniques"
http://coe.sdsu.edu/people/jmora/L2MethodsMMdl/sld001.htm

RICHARDS, J. & RODGERS, T. Approaches and methods in Language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Tick It English. "Tick It English - Our approach"
http://www.tickit.com/english/approach.html


Ronaldo GM Rosa

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