“Language Curriculum Development: Concepts and Models”

Aidil Fitra1, Fadila Turrahmi2, Fira Safitri3, Indah Zalita4, Mutiara Ikhsani5, Resi Khothori6,
Wahyudi Asri7

Faculty of Tarbiyah and Science Teacher Training, IAIN Batusangkar

fitraaidil29@gmail.com

Abstract

This paper aims at describing the language curriculum development: concepts and models. It
includes of curriculum, curriculum development, currriculum design, language curriculum
development, history of language curriculum development, and model of language curriculum
development by Richard. Curriculum as a multifaceted concept, constructed, negotiated and
renegotiated at a variety of levels and in a variety of arenas. Curriculum development is “a
collection of plans about teaching” and “the ability to plan effective curricula is a crucial skill
for all teachers”. Curriculum design consist of two words, the term “ design” is used as a verb
to designate a process (as in “designing a curriculum”), or as a noun to denote a particular
plan resulting from a design process (as in a curriculum design”). Language curriculum
development is an aspect of a broader field of educational activity known as curriculum
development or curriculum studies.

Keywords: curriculum, curriculum development, curriculum design, language currriculum

development

A. INTRODUCTION

The history of English Language Teaching is linked with developments in many

fields and especially with curriculum, curriculum development, and language curriculum
development. Language curriculum development is an aspect of a broader field of
education activity known as curriculum development or curriculum studies. Curriculum
development focuses on determining what knowledge, skill, and values students learn in
schools, what experiences should be provided to bring about intended learning outcomes,
and how teaching and learning in school or educational system can be planned, measured,
and evaluated. Educational development refers to the field of language curriculum
 development which addresses these issues. This illustrates a series of interrelated process
that focus on explanation, history, and design models in language curriculum development.

B. DISCUSSION
1. Definition of Curriculum, Curriculum Development, and Curriculum Design
a. Definition of curriculum
According Su (2012: 153) “Curriculum” seems to be considered greatly as
what teachers are going to teach and, in other words, what learners are going to
learn. In fact, “curriculum” is also closely related to how well the learners learn—
the outcomes. Thus, as an umbrella term, “curriculum” includes a lot of issues, for
example, teaching curriculum, learning curriculum, testing curriculum,
administrative curriculum and the hidden curriculum.
According to Pratt, Barrow and Milburn in Su (2012: 153), the word
“curriculum” is derived from the Latin verb currere, “to run.” “Currere” became a
diminutive noun and meant a “racing chariot” or “race track.” An extension was
made by Cicero who associated the term with curriculum vitae that means “the
course of one’s life.” He also associated it with curricula mentis that metaphorically
refers to “the (educational) course of the mind.” It was not until the nineteenth
century that the term was commonly used in the educational field.
A great number of researchers or educators (e.g. Barrow & Milburn, 1990;
Beauchamp, 1977; Goodson, 1994; Longstreet & Shane, 1993; Marsh, 1997; Wood
& Davis, 1978) in Su (2012: 153) have shed light on what curriculum is through
their reviews of, or critical comments on, this term. An example is what Goodson
in Su (2012: 153) describes of curriculum “as a multifaceted concept, constructed,
negotiated and renegotiated at a variety of levels and in a variety of arenas”. This
view reflects the complex and interactive nature of curriculum. Longstreet and
Shane in Su (2012: 153) reveal another side of curriculum which requires decision
making: Curriculum is a historical accident—it has not been deliberately developed
to accomplish a clear set of purposes. Rather, it has evolved as a response to the
increasing complexity of educational decision making. Barrow and Milburn (1990)
and Beauchamp (1977) in Su (2012: 153) note how the term “curriculum” is in
some cases used in very limited contexts, but in other cases very broadly.
b. Definition of curriculum development
For Jacobs in Preez and Simmonds (2014: 4) curriculum development is “a
collection of plans about teaching” and “the ability to plan effective curricula is a
crucial skill for all teachers”. In particular, curriculum development involves “…
consulting curriculum statements issued by the government, defining objectives,
finding information about topics, deciding on suitable teaching methods and
choosing ways in which the learning would be assessed”.
For Tyler in Preez and Simmonds (2014: 4) curriculum development is a
technical production procedure. It is therefore interested in technical questions that
approach curriculum development as objective, scientific and driven by “means-
end reasoning” or “rational decision making”
For Stenhouse in Preez and Simmonds (2014: 4-5), however, curriculum
development is a process and is socially constructed. Teachers are involved in the
process of developing a curriculum that takes account of contextual factors rather
than pre-specifying objectives. In contrast, for Freire in Preez and Simmonds (2014:
5), curriculum development involves critical reflection, problem posing and
dialogue. One way of developing a curriculum from a critical approach is to use
themes addressing social, economical and/or political issues and use these to
embrace hegemonic and ideological curriculum questions within a critical interest.
These different approaches to curriculum development further accentuate that
curriculum development presupposes curriculum change.
c. Definition of curriculum design
1) The term “ design” is used as a verb to designate a process (as in “designing a
curriculum”), or as a noun to denote a particular plan resulting from a design
process (as in a curriculum design”).
2) According to O’neill (2015: 7) the term ‘programme’ and ‘curriculum’ are also
used interchangeably, where curriculum is often used to describe a wider
conceptual process and context. In the UK, fraser and bosanquet (2006)
highlighted that staff working in higher education have very different
understandings of the term ‘curriculum, as various as:
a) The structure and content of a unit (subject)
b) The structure and content of a programme of study
c) The student ‘experience of learning
d) A dynamic and interactive process of teaching and learning
 In the USA, lattuce and stark (2009) in their extensive work on curriculum,
highlighted that staff used similar breakdowns of this term.

2. Definition of Language Curriculum Development

According to Richard (1995: 1) language curriculum development, like other
areas of curriculum activity, is concerned with principles and procedures for the
planning, delivery, management, and assessment of teaching and learning. But whreas
in general educational practice, curriculum development has a spawned a major
educational industry, what is understood by curriculum development in language
teaching has often been rather narrowly conceived.
According to Ma (2017: 192) in language teaching, the development has a close
relationship with theoretical development of applied linguistics, which basically has
been developed synchronously with applied linguistics, and suggest that people pay
much attention to language researches and language teaching and have a deeper
understanding to it, too.
According to Richards (2001) language curriculum development is an aspect of
a broader field of educational activity known as curriculum development or curriculum
studies. Language curriculum development refers to the field of applied linguistics that
addresses the issues. It describes an interrelated set of processes that focuses on
designing, revising, implementing, and evaluating language programs.
3. History of Language Curriculum Development
In order to understand the ongoing debates regarding curriculum development
and implementation, one should have a brief account of the educational methods of
teaching and learning from a historical point of view.
Richards (2001) summarizes the relative dominance of the teaching methods in
education during the past two centuries as follows:
a. Grammar Translation Method (1800-1900)
b. Direct Method (1890-1930)
c. Structural Method (1930-1960)
d. Reading Method (1920-1950)
e. Audiolingual Method (1950-1970)
f. Situational Method (1950-1970)
g. Communicative Approach (1970-present)
 These methods had a direct effect on how the studies of curriculum have
surfaced in the twentieth century’s philosophical and educational debates. It could be
said that the publications of the two American educationists Taba “Curriculum
Development: Theory and Practice” (1962) and Tyler “Basic Principles of Curriculum
and Instruction” (1949) laid the foundation of curriculum studies as a branch of
education in the last century (White, 1988). Richards (2001) declares that the later book
by Ralph Tyler “brought about a revival in curriculum studies throughout the 1950s”
through his approach in developing curriculum which could be reduced to the following
simple model:

Aims and Objectives  Content  Organization  Evaluation (p. 39)

Furthermore, Richards (2001) holds that the notion of syllabus design was the
starting point for the history of curriculum development in language teaching.
Likewise, White (1988) argues that the English language teaching (ELT) had been
generally isolated from curriculum studies because of several reasons. These reasons
included the development of ELT out of the applied linguistics field, the late emergent
of ELT as a profession with its own identity and the previous tendency of ELT practices
to take place in private language schools and colonial education system away from the
mainstream education. Thus, it was not a surprise that only during the 1990s, James
Brown (1995) was able to describe his book “The Elements of Language Curriculum:
A systematic Approach to program Development” as “the first book that examines
language teaching in detail from a systematic curriculum perspective”.

4. Models of Language Curriculum Development by Richard Model (1995)

a. Needs Analysis
Needs assesment refers to an array of procedures for identifying and
validating needs, and establishing priorities among them (pratt 1980:79).
In language curriculum development, need analysis serves the purposes of :
1) Providing a mechanism for obtaining a wider range of input into the content,
design, and implementation of a language program through involving such
people as learners, teachers, administrators, and employer in the planning
process.
2) Identifying general or specific language needs that can be addressed in
developing goals, objectives, and content for a language program.
 3) Providing data that can serve as the basis for reviewing and evaluating an
existing program.
Needs analysis procedures generate a considerable amount of data including
information about the context of the language program, the learners, tachers, and
administrative factors that affect the program.
b. Goals and Objectives
Curriculum goals are general statements of the intended putcomes of a
languuage program, and represent what the curriculum planners believe to be
desirable and attainable program aims based on the constraints revealed in the needs
analysis.
In language teaching, a number of different ways of stating program
objectives are commonly employed, including behavioral, skills-based, content-
based, and proficiency-based objectivies. The most familiar way to state objectives
is in terms of behavior. Four justification are commonly made to support the use of
behavioral objectives in curriculum planning :
1) They help teachers to clarify their goals.
2) They facilitate instruction by highlighting the skills and subskills underlying
different instructional content.
3) They make the evaluation process easier.
4) They provide a form of accountability.
c. Syllabus Design

In standard models of curriculum processes, curriculum planners progress

systemically from needs assesment, to goals and objectives, to specification of the
instructional content of the program. Taba’s model of curriculum processes
(1962:12) consists of:

Step 1: Diagnosis of needs

Step 2: Formulation of objectives

Step 3: Selection of content

Step 4: Organization of content

Step 5: Selection of learning experiences

Step 6: Organization of learning experiences

 Step 7: determination of what to evaluate snd means to evaluate

In language teaching, step 3 and 4 are usually know as syllabus design.

Syllabus design (the product of which is usually referred to as a syllabus in British
usage and a curriculum in American usage) is concerned with the choice nd
sequencingof intrutional content. If the Tabam model were followed, the
procedures for developing a syllabus would involve examining instuctional
content. In reality, in language teaching the syllabus has a traditionally been the
starting point of planning a language program, rather than an activity that occurs
midway in the process.

The following kinds of syllabuses (or variants and combination of them) are
commonly found in current English as a second language (ESL) courses and
materials, particulary those dealing with speaking and listening.

1) Stuctural (organized primarily arround grammar and sentences patterns)

2) Functional (organized arround communicative functions such as indentifying,
reporting, correcting, describing)
3) Notional (organized arround conceptual categories, such as duration, quantity,
location)
4) Topical (organized arround thems or topics, such as health, food, clothing)
5) Situational (organized arround speech settings and the transactions associated
with them , such shopping, at the bank, at the supermarket)
6) Skills (organized arround skills, such as listening for gist, listening for specific
informstion, listening for interences)
7) Task or activity-based (organized arround activities, such as drawing maps,
following directions, following instructions)
A syllabus is essentially a job specification and as such it should set our
clearly and precisely what is to be done and the standards or criteria to be met by
those who do it.
d. Methodology
Appropriate teaching methodology is not predetermined, nor cn it be
imposed on teachers and learners. Methodology can be characterized as the
activities , tasks, and learning experiences selected by the teachers in order to
achieve learning, and how these are used within the teaching/learning process.
 These activities are justified according to the objectives the teacher has set out to
accomplish and the content he or she has set out to teach. They also relate to the
philosophy of the program, to the view of language and language learning that the
program embodies and to the roles of teachers, learners, and instructional materials
in the program. Since the assumptions underlying methodology are not necessarily
shared by teachers, administrators, and learners, it is a useful exercise exercise for
all who are involved in a language program to clarify their assumptions about the
kind of teaching and learning the program will try to exemplify. This can be done
thourgh teacher preparation activities that examine attitudes, beliefs, and practices
concerning five central issues:
1) The approach of philosophy underlying the progam
2) The role of teachers in the program
3) The role of the learners
4) The kinds of learning activties, tasks, and experiences, thta will be used in the
program
5) The role and design of intructional materials.
e. Testing and Evaluation
Testing occupies a central a role in curriculum development, since it is often
a component of both need assesment and evaluation, and has consequencies for the
design and delivery of instruction as well as for the administration of the program
it self. A criterion referenced approach to testing is often thought to be more
appropriate to the proficiency based few of language teaching increasingly being
advocatic incurrence discussion of language teaching, since tests should reveal
wether students have developed the specific skills and proficiencies identified in the
program objectives, rather than show how student performances compare to each
other. Evaluation is concerned with the gathering data on the dynamics,
effectiveness, acceptablity, and efficiency of a program to facilitate decision
making (Popham:1975; Jarvis and Adams; 1979). The primary focus of evaluation
is to determine rather the goals and objectives of language program are being wheter
that is, whether the program is effective.
C. CONCLUSION
Curriculum as a multifaceted concept, constructed, negotiated and renegotiated at a
variety of levels and in a variety of arena. Thus, as an umbrella term, “curriculum” includes
a lot of issues, for example, teaching curriculum, learning curriculum, testing curriculum,
administrative curriculum and the hidden curriculum. Curriculum development involves
consulting curriculum statements issued by the government, defining objectives, finding
information about topics, deciding on suitable teaching methods and choosing ways in
which the learning would be assessed. Language curriculum development is an aspect of a
broader field of educational activity known as curriculum development or curriculum
studies. Model of language curriculum development by Richard (1995) includes need
analysis, goals and objectives, syllabus design, methodology, and testing and evaluation.
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