IELTS Course Project - The Intent of Needs Analysis As Regards Curriculum Development - Assignment Example

IELTS Project Section Context The preparation described herein is for Kurdish who are sent to learn abroad. Lately, the Kurdistan regional government (based north of Iraq) established the Human Capacity Development Program (HCDP, scholarship) in Higher Education. This aims to develop the young generation in Kurdistan region in the field of higher education. Yearly, the Iraq government sends thousands of students abroad, and it has established an institution for the preparation of students to be familiar with the English language Exam (IELTS). The institution’s name is Academic General Training. Based at the capital city of Kurdistan (Erbil), there is a good atmosphere for learning; the classrooms are modern with a single chair for each student, a living room with comfortable sofa where students can take a rest during breaks. The fee payable is $350. There are weekly exams for skills such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking but at the end of the course, students have an exam very similar the IELTS exam. These are practice exams to help students familiarize with the main IELTS exam. This course helps them to improve their English ability skills such as speaking, listening, writing, and reading, but with more focus on writing and speaking skills. Kurdish students have difficulties with these two skills more than other skills. They do not know how to write an academic essay and how to manage their time to write essay in the IELTS exam because in this exam time is limited. To be sent abroad, the students must achieve an undergraduate average grade point of not less than 65%, they should be employed, and have at least two years of working experience, IELTS score should not be less than 5 score in overall and each skill should not be less than 4.5. This may not be enough but with IELTS 5 the government provides at least six months English language or pre-seasonal courses for those students who are sent to study abroad. In each class, there are 15 students; major subjects include law, accounting, computer science, medicine, psychology, history, and English. Course length is four years at the university to achieve a bachelors degree. The class includes both males and females aged between 22-30 years of Kurdish nationality whose first language is Kurdish .The preparation course lasts for one month and runs three days a week. The program runs during the evenings from 5-6 because all the students have day jobs. Section 2 Introduction Curriculum defined According to Stenhouse (1975), curriculum is defined as the desire to communicate the fundamental principles and features of an educational proposal in such a form that it is open to factual scrutiny and capable of effective translation. A curriculum ought to present a foundation for setting up a course, studying it empirically and allowing for the grounds of its validation. The Course and Syllabus Design approaches and models can be varied according to taste. According to Hargreaves (1989), a curriculum can also be described as a process or a, product or a program. According to Johnson (2002), the second language curriculum a program is the full organized range of courses offered. Curriculum, being a second language in schools, universities and other language programs it is both the process of designing a program and its components. Moreover, it is also used in providing a document’ that provides the goals and overall specification of what is to be taught or learnt based on that process. As a product, curriculum can be described as a body of knowledge to be transmitted. On the other hand, as a process it is the communication of designers, instructors, leaners and knowledge (Johnson, 2002). For example, it entails what goes on in the classroom and all that needs to be done in order for that to happen (Graves, 2000). Designing language courses: A guide for teachers, Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle describes the elements of curriculum design to include the many things that include environment or Situation analysis, Needs analysis, Articulation of beliefs/principles guiding teaching and learning. Elements of curriculum design are also reported to include formulation of goals, Syllabus design – content and sequencing, Materials design and implementation and Monitoring or assessment Evaluation (Graves, 2000). This article attempts to analyze the element of needs analysis. The elements of language curriculum. Brown (1995) argues that Curriculum Design and Project Planning go hand in hand because most curricular models draw on general project planning and design models. These have traditionally more the domain of project managers and administrators Includes key stages of planning/designing, implementing and evaluating (Brown, 1995). The role of principles/beliefs about learning Anything that guides my understanding of and decisions regarding learning and teaching language can be based on own learning experience (Soriano, 1995). Conducting Needs Assessments: A Multidisciplinary Approach Soriano argues that classroom teaching experiences, experience of seeing children develop their knowledge gained from course, literature, or research. The last two decades have seen tremendous changes in the way people’s communication levels are affected by language with many interests in languages many and many students and people alike are getting more and more interested in the language study. However, while these developments a have brought many benefits to the world, it can be argued that future interest I English as a language is even becoming more interesting and will produce more positive effects. As an onset, these developments have brought many benefits to the lives of many (Gergusan, 1996). The English Language has made communication, in particular overseas, simpler and faster, resulting in several benefits for commerce, education, and business. Furthermore, the World Wide Web means that many and many more students will benefit from online courses it is evident that this has made life far easier and more convenient for large numbers of students and people alike. Needs analysis Graves (2000) describes needs analysis as “… a systematic and on-going process of gathering information about students’ needs and preferences, interpreting that information, and then making course decisions based on the interpretation in order to meet the needs. Goals, aims and outcomes of need analysis are; to find out what language skills a learner needs in order to perform a particular role, such as sales manager, tour guide, or university student; to identify a change of direction that learners, teachers and other stakeholders feel is important. This is important in identifying a gap between what students are able to do and what they need to be able to do and to collect information about a particular problem learners are experiencing. The three elements of C&SD are as outlined below Needs, Wants and Lacks students often find it hard to describe what language needs they have and are not able to distinguish between needs, wants and lacks. It was Allwright (1982, cited in Lekatompessy, 2010) that made a distinction between needs (the skills which a learner sees as being relevant), wants (needs on which learners put a higher stake in the available, limited time ), and lacks (the distinction between the students present proficiency and the desired proficiency. There is need to perform this because it’s important to discover out what language skills a student needs in order to undertake a particular task. The need to help establish if an existing course satisfactorily addresses the language needs of future learners, and to establish which learners from a section are largely in need of instructions in a particular language. The students have specific needs of living and working in an English speaking nation. And therefore to assist the students the teachers and instructors need to set a direction that is important. There is also the need to spot a gap between what the learners are able to do against what they need to be able to perform.overal the teachers need to be able to collect information regarding a particular problem learners are going through. The students want to able to communicate effectively and be able to interact with peers, employers, fellow employees and the entire audience The students lack an understanding in the basics of the English language they lack the grammatical applications of the language and they lack the principles that exist in the English language, lack of being able to express oneself confidently before others and also the lack of writing proper English Lack of linguistic information, technical vocabulary, lack of spelling power and lack of correct pronunciations. Section 3 Needs Analysis The intent of Needs Analysis as regards Curriculum Development Richards (2001) on his discussion toward needs analysis argues that the initial step in performing a needs analysis is to choose exactly what its intent or purposes are. Fundamentally, needs analysis in language teaching may be used for a variety of different aims, e.g.: To find determine what language skills a learner requires so as to undertake a particular task , such as a tour guide, or teacher. To help establish if an existing course effectively satisfies the needs of probable Students To establish which students from a group are most in need of training in a particular skill. To spot a change of bearing that people in a reference group feel is significant To identify a gap between what the learners are able to do and what they needs to be able to do To gather information concerning a particular problem learners are experiencing (Richards), (2001) Evaluating a needs analysis scheme Need Analysis can be described as the practice of identifying and evaluating needs in a community or other defined population of people. The identification of needs is a process of describing the problems of a target population and possible solutions to these problems. Graves (2000) describes needs analysis as a systematic and on-going process of gathering information about students’ needs and preferences, interpreting that information, and then making course decisions based on the interpretation in order to meet the needs. I have identified a need in the Kurdish region where students have difficulty in English grammar and therefore are not able to communicate well. Needs analysis models The models as described in Nation & Macalister try to answer the following questions (a) The elements or questions in the NA models that map onto necessities, lacks, and wants (a) The elements that are more about environment (b) Any additional elements or questions not easily categorized into necessities, lacks or wants or environment, What they focus on and whether they are important (c) To what extent the content and focus of needs analysis is affected by access to/knowledge of the learners prior to syllabus design stage. Needs analysis for the course (a). Generating a list of questions or information required for needs analysis. (b). Deciding where, when and from whom one will look to find the information. (c). Listing at least three ways to gather the information for the course. (d) Picking one item from the list and preparing some sample items and describing the procedure to be used to administer the needs analysis. Role and process of need analysis include the following. It’s a dialogue between stakeholders i.e. the Teachers, administrators, students and parents its role depends on the participants understanding their roles in and the value of needs analysis it’s also the Process of reconciliation of differences i.e. the ‘perceived needs’ versus ‘felt needs’. The Role and Process undertaken is to decide what to gather and why, how to gather it, and where, when and from whom secondly, collect that is gathering information organizing, interpret the information, and thirdly Act, goals and syllabus design finally evaluate: how it did work. The Principles and Beliefs about language instruction and learning involve Aims i.e. to consider how our beliefs on language learning and training relate to Course and Syllabus design. To consider the range of principles and beliefs that can guide the decisions we make in the classroom, to develop your own set of principles to guide your course design project. The beliefs and principles involve Anything that guides your understanding of and decisions regarding learning and teaching language can be based on own learning experience, classroom teaching experiences, experience of seeing children develop their L1, knowledge gained from course/ literature/ research. There can be multiple ways of designing a course, implementing it in terms of syllabus, teaching, materials and assessment the beliefs, whether well-articulated or not, influence the choices and decisions people make, and can help to justify the decisions so the key is having confidence in the principles and using them to achieve success (Stern, 1983). Needs analysis A table presenting an analysis of the learners language-related needs (necessities, wants, lacks) Table 1: analysis of learner’s language related needs A sample questionnaire designed to elicit information about the student’s opinion on various aspects of the English language. Dear participant, Thank you for agreeing to complete this questionnaire about language learning at this institution. My aim is to find out about the environmental constraints within which we learn, and consider how this might affect the design of other language modules. Your replies are very anonymous. Much thanks for your responses Source: Marshall (2002). Figure 2: questionnaire designed to elicit information about the student’s opinion on various aspects of the English language. A table showing a need analysis TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS (TNA) STUDENT NAME: TNA DONE BY: Major tasks of position Training/skills development required? If yes, identify what training needs exist How will this be achieved? When? Who to organise? Training provider? Y N Language   Grammar understanding Through a three hour exam December 2014 Curriculum instructor Grammar   Writing   Reporting   What do we want to achieve in the period ahead? Master report writing Master communication skills Where do you/we see your career progressing in the next two years? Becoming an English instructor in my country How are we going to make this happen? Through learning and passing IELTS What will you need from the institution to help you to reach your pass rate? Commitment. And dedication Table 2: needs Analysis table. Aspect of situation Analysis Institutional interests and policies: Kurdish programmes very small-only 15 students per class. Quality requirements for modules at each level By no means official in fact, a less commonly taught language Paid programme- so expectations of both students and often parents coughing up the money to support them Language setting Very few speakers Of English in Iraq Patterns of language use Very few opportunities to English use language outside of classroom Table 3: wider Analysis of Situation following (Dubin & Olshtain, 1987). . Table of ranked major constraints and solutions/effects on course design Ranked major constraint Solution/effect on course design 1. lack of exposure to, access to and possibility of using language outside of the classroom, including lack of audio and video and other resources for language practice (language resources, use and setting constraint) Expectations need to be low for amount of content to be covered Repetition and in-class practise built in and ranked above number of syllabus items covered, within constraints of institutional quality assurance Set and incorporate tasks for students to access Swedish outside of the classroom for extra credit. Look for avenues to obtain or get access to CALL and other audio, video and visual materials 2. time and resources for materials development (time constraint, materials constraint) As much as possible, recycle activity and task types with different types of content to reduce time Use projectiles to present syllabus content rather than hand-outs Re-use/adapt old materials and textbooks from my own Swedish classes Look for avenues to obtain or get access to a range of textbooks 3. to motivate the classes Classes need to be sparkling and include extracurricular activities; Classes need to be fascinating and entertaining. Section 4: Goals, Aims and Outcomes Goals can best be described at different levels at the curriculum level, goals are the translation of needs into desirable and attainable program purposes they are Future oriented and should focus on what learners should be able to do when they leave the Program. It is worth understanding to respond to a few questions such as did they meet their objective or did they achieve the main objective that they had desired (Brown, 1995). The Basis of Constraining courses through goals involve many laudable potential goals for a language classroom. Deciding on goals is therefore partly a process of deciding what is realistically appropriate and achievable given the time, resource and other situation constraints that may exist in the entire process of goal identification (Brown, 1995). What is desirable and needed in terms of necessities, wants, and lacks? What about the objectives? Objectives are the points one passes along the way to the destination he or she desires it involves the Statements about how goals will be achieved. Break goals down into learnable and teachable units (Graves, 2000). Instructional objectives involve the specific knowledge, behaviors, or skills the learner will be and is expected to know or perform–specificity key Nunan (1998) also distinguishes between real-world and pedagogic objectives for example in a shop, learners will be able to ask the price of a given item. Aims can be described as being general or being specific outcomes may be used instead of or accompanying goals or aims. The various Ways of specifying goals and objectives involve different frameworks There are numerous approaches to, and therefore frameworks for, specifying goals and objectives Indeed, Brown’s definition of performance objectives is itself a framework Can be more broadly educational. Bloom’s taxonomy is one of the major broadly educational frameworks Bloom’s Taxonomy explains the various Levels of intellectual activity. Section 5: Evaluation Evaluation can be described as “the systematic gathering of information for purposes of making decisions” Richards et al., 1985), cited in Brown (1995, ch.7) “a formal assessment of the worth of educational phenomena” (Popham Programme Evaluation involves the students monitoring of pupil progress learner motivation the institution learning environment and staff development Richards, (2001, p. 286). It May also focus on many different aspects of a programme. Steps in the process are as follows; Discover the purpose and type of the evaluation, Assess the time and money needed, Decide what kinds of information to gather, Gain the support of the people involved, Gather the information, Present the findings, Apply what has been learned from the evaluation, Do a follow-up evaluation. There are mainly three types of evaluation: that is Large-scale (with financial backing, usually an agenda, aim of major innovations, often government-led), Teacher-led (usually teaching and learning focus), Management-led (often commercial/economic/resource focus or for e.g. accreditation, purposes. Evaluation holds negative connotations of ‘weaknesses’ and ‘blame’ the desire and Need to get people on board positively so that the data given is honest and therefore the information gathered is valid Also need to consider the time and effort involved for those evaluating as well as those evaluated. The two types of evaluation measure different things i.e. qualitative and quantitative evaluation. Quantitative measures numerical while qualitative measurement refers to measurement of something that cannot be expressed numerically and that depends more on subjective judgment or observation. Different audiences might be interested in the evaluation process i.e. Students may want to answer What they did learn, How well they do compare to others, How well they rate this course, How this will help them in the future, and whether they will need another course. For Teachers they may ask how well did I teach? What did my students learn? Were my students satisfied with the course? How useful were the materials and course work? How effective was the course organization? The audience for evaluation may include the following Administrators i.e. were the management and monitoring of the course successful in identifying and rectifying problems? Were clients expectations met? We’re testing and assessment procedures adequate? Were resources made use of? Curriculum developers will also be interested in the evaluation process is the design of the course and materials appropriate? What aspects of the course need replacing or revising? Do teachers and students respond favourably to the course? Do teachers need additional support with the course? and Sponsors/external stakeholders/accrediting bodies may be interested in whether the cost of the course justified, whether the course delivered what was promised, if the course was well managed and whether the reporting of the course was adequate Richards, (2001, p. 295)The various approaches to evaluation as described by (Brown, 1995) are Product-oriented i.e. Linked to goals and objectives, Static-characteristic (outside evaluator comes to assess),Linked to environment, resources for instance, accreditation process-oriented (more open to wider processes) Linked to course revision and improvement Decision-facilitation (non-evaluative) Avoids judgment by evaluators collect descriptive information Presented objectively to enable teachers, managers and Judge on their own (Brown, 1995). Types of Evaluation are Formative evaluation, involves knowing whether teachers or students are having difficulties with any aspect of the course, if the students are enjoying the program. Also whether the pacing of the material is adequate and Illuminative evaluation this requires the teachers as evaluators Illuminative evaluation involves the type of teacher-student interaction patterns as it occurs in class, What reading strategies students use with different kinds of texts, How students understand the teachers intentions during lessons Summative evaluation involve a Summary or judgement about the quality or adequacy of a course/ programme for comparison or decision-making it seeks to answer How effective the course was, if it did achieve its aims, What the students learnt and how well the course was received by students and teachers. Section 6: Reflection and Evaluation This course is designed to assist student and learners alike to improve on their ability and to master the English language, the course is purely designed to equip powerful knowledge on grammar and writing the language in a format that is easily understood and in a way that reflect the language principles and goals. This course will investigate the extent of mastery of the language and the proficiency in its use it will help predict the English language behavior in every student. The learning of this course will ascertain the adequacy of the student’s ability to pass and learn well .the teachers will have a predictive ability on what the students are saying There may also be value in the public profiles of individual who take the IELTS course assistance. The broader learning and the description of each proficiency level, language skill, would without doubt aid the interpretation of scores for the students the training Institutions should heed the advice about making decisions about course entry points for this course so as to admit competitive students and so as not to compromise on the particular language needs and demands of individuals. What will not work is the admission of students who do not master the language well and who will end up not passing on their final paper To avoid this there is need to do the following; (i) Form the link between proficiency level and course difficulty. (ii) Understand the language skills required for discipline-specific tasks, and to (iii) Understand what it is that contributes to the failure of students who are thought to be ‘not coping’ in their tasks. Looking at the steps involved in evaluation, the kinds of information gathered and ways of gathering It its worth considering the importance of the audience and purpose of evaluation in designing appropriate evaluation tools there are forms of evaluation that do help here and they include for example formative evaluation as well as illuminative evaluation and summative evaluation Richards et al. (1985) describes Evaluation as the systematic gathering of information for purposes of making decisions” Richards et al. (1985, cited in Brown (1995 ch.7) or Popham (1975) describes it as “a formal assessment of the worth of educational phenomena”Program evaluation does involve the following a focus on many different aspects of a programme, for example curriculum design, the syllabus and program content, classroom processes, staff development and materials of instructions among others (Popham, 1975). The steps in the evaluation process also involve looking at the following processes; discovering the purpose and type of the evaluation, Assessing the time and money needed, Deciding what kinds of information to gather. Gaining the support of the people involved, Gathering the information, presenting the findings, Applying what has been learned from the evaluation and doing a follow-up evaluation. References Brown, J. D., 1995. The elements of language curriculum. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Newbury House. Graves, K., 2000. Designing language courses: A guide for teachers. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle. Hargreaves, P., 1989. An evaluators checklist. London: Cengage. Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A., 1987. English for specific purposes: A learning-centered approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Hutchinson. Johnson, R., 2002. The Second Language Curriculum. Cambridge: Cambridge University. Macalister, J., 2010. Language Curriculum Design. New York & London: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Nation. McKillip, J., 1998. Need Analysis. In Bickman, L and Rog, D.J. (Eds). Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods. Sage Publications. Reviere, R., Berkowitz, S., Carter, C.C., & Gergusan, C.G., 1996. Needs Assessment: A Creative and Practical Guide for Social Scientists. London: Cengage. Richards, J., 2001. Curriculum development in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Soriano, F., 1995. Conducting Needs Assessments: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Taylor and Francis, 2002. The analysis of needs assessment. Washington, DC: Cengage. Read More