Standards-Based Curriculum for English Language

Standards-Based Curriculum

for English Language as a Second Language

Standards-Based Curriculum for English Language as a Second Language

According to Farah and Ridge, authors of Challenges to Curriculum Development in the UAE, "

the term curriculum can be said to encompass the principles, underlying educational philosophy, goals, content and concrete functioning of the 'instructional program' in the classroom, as well as the written and other materials needed to support the educational system" (Farah and Ridge, 2009). Farah and Ridge go on to break this curriculum down into the following three components:

Intended curriculum, consisting of what should be taught and when;

Implemented curriculum, consisting of the classroom experience; and

Attained curriculum, consisting of the knowledge students absorb and the practical skills they learn.

The purpose of an curriculum, therefore, is to equip students with the knowledge required for the development of practical skills.

Questions and Significance of Study

In this broadest sense of the term curriculum, the methods of conveying knowledge and the practical application of knowledge remains to be specified; however, traditionally, curriculum in the United Arab Emirate (UAE) context is rooted in memorization and highly limited in application. A standards-based curriculum, on the other hand, primarily focuses on the application of memorized knowledge and development of skills. In order to successfully make the transition from memorization to a standards-based curriculum, the following questions must be addressed and answered in detail:

1. What should students know, and what should they be able to do with what they know?

2. What tools of assessment should be used to determine what students know, and how they are able to apply what they know?

3. What should teachers know, and how should they be able to convey what they know to the students?

The first question refers to the established standards themselves. While the UAE endeavored to introduce a more student-centered curriculum in 2009, in which students are encouraged to apply their knowledge to practical situations in a hands-on way, there is still no outline of prescribed standards and/or goals for this curriculum, and no corresponding reforms of assessment methods. For this reason, many UAE teachers tend to revert to traditional memory-based methods of teaching and assessment, as they lack the necessary tools to properly implement a standards-based curriculum.

The first step to rectifying this problem is to establish a national body designed to develop an outline for national curriculum standards, such as the one in the United States. For example, national U.S. standards for English as a Second Language (ESL) stipulate that all students must listen and speak in English on a daily basis, read a certain number of books in English every year-25 in New York state -- and write a certain number of words in English every month-1,000 in New York. The essential goal of the U.S. standards-based curriculum for ESL is to "use language to learn language" by creating opportunities for authentic discourse, which in turn promotes the building of the language skills necessary for academic and social success (NYSED.gov, 2009).

Literature Review

From 1985 until very recently in 2009, UAE curriculum was solely based on official textbooks, as opposed to any clearly defined standards such as those defined in a standards-based curriculum. Rather than focus on factual memorization, a standards-based curriculum seeks to engage students in doing, as a means of increasing their understanding of the underlying 'how's' and 'why's' of what they do. For example, teachers of mathematics encourage students to apply mathematics to practical problems, as opposed to simply memorizing the answer to 2+2 and 7x9. Similarly, teachers of language seek to engage students in the application of language via the practical components of listening, speaking, reading and writing on a regular basis.

The move away from memory or textbook-based to curriculum to a standards-based curriculum is the result of the failure of the traditional textbook learning system. If students are not taught to apply memorized knowledge to practical situations, this knowledge is of little use to them in the real world, which in turn is discouraging to students. Indeed, the crux of standards-based curriculum is the belief that students "construct their own understanding through their experiences with [practical] problems and discussions with teachers, parents, and peers," and that they are "naturally driven to use their current knowledge and understanding to make sense of situations and to work toward accurate and efficient problem solving" (Goldsmith, Mark and Kantrov, 2005).

The realization of the failure of the textbook-based learning system led to the U.S. President Reagan's 1983 report, a Nation at Risk, which denounced the public education system as "being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity," and the development of such programs as No Child Left Behind, implemented in 2002 (USA Today). The purpose of No Child Left Behind was to raise the bar for public education by requiring each state to develop standardized assessment tests by subject and grade level, such as the New York State ESL Achievement Test (NYSESLAT) and the Language Assessment Battery-Revised (LAB-R). These particular tests are designed to assess the initial language proficiency of non-English speaking students, as broken down into Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced levels. More specifically, the purpose of these tests is to assess students' proficiency in the four major areas of language-to include listening, speaking, reading and writing-towards the objective of identifying the particular strengths and weaknesses of each student. While some students enter the ESL program with high proficiency in their native language-in which case, the tools for learning a new language are already in place-other students enter the program with very limited proficiency in their native language, such as young children who've yet to fully develop the cognitive tools to understand and apply language to practical situations. Similarly, it is not uncommon for students to be more proficient in one area-they might be able to speak and understand the language, but unable to read or write it-hence the necessity of the breakdown of assessment levels into sub-levels.

As an example of the sub-level breakdown, consider the Beginner ESL level for listening:

Low Beginner: students can recognize a very limited number of words and phrases, such as greetings and simple command phrases. Students at the Low Beginner level "require extensive assistance to make language comprehensible" (NYSED.gov, 2009).

Mid Beginner: students can understand several words and common phrases, however they still struggle with simple commands and rely heavily on visual and contextual support, in addition to rephrasing, repetition, and modified speech.

High Beginner: students understand a wide variety of keywords, common social phrases, and some formulaic phrases, in addition to questions regarding personal information and immediate circumstances. Students at this level might even be able to converse with other students in a predictable manner, such as 'Hi, how are you, today?' And 'I'm very well, thank you, how are you?'