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1. Introduction
1.1 What is curriculum?
The four commonplaces of education are that someone teaches something to someone somewhere(Schwab, 1978). Some people define the "something", the curriculum, as what is found in the textbook or teacher's guide. Others broaden the definition of curriculum to mean everything that happens with the support of the school.
At one end, curriculum is seen merely as a course of study; at the other end, curriculum is more broadly defined as everything that occurs under the auspices of the school.
1.2 What is the teacher's relationship to the curriculum process?
In accordance with the definition of curriculum, the teacher plays a very important role which is called the decision-maker in the curriculum process.
While research on how teachers actually implement curriculum is limited, Remillard(1999) proposes this model of a teacher's role in curriculum development at the classroom level. It includes three areas: design area , construction area and the Mapping area
To clarify the teacher's role, as a decision-maker, in the curriculum process of TEFL in China, a course, the extensive reading of College English which I taught last year, will be selected to be an example.
2. The teaching context
The context for language program are diverse and the particular variables that come into play in a specific situation are often the key determinants of the success of a program.
2.1 Societal situation
China's leaders have realized that to achieve the four modernizations (industry, agriculture, military, and science and technology), China must learn from the West. Toward this end, English language learning has been mandated by the Chinese government at all levels. As a result of some 20 years' economic reform and an open door policy, a fast-growing prosperous middle class has emerged, wanting access to the wider world, and therefore wanting to speak English (Boyle, 2000).
2.2 Work culture
Harbin University of Commerce, which I am working in, is the first university whose major is in commerce and founded in 1950 in China. The number of students has increased fast and greatly since 1996, and continues to do so. The total number of students has already been over 20,000, more than 95% of which are EFL (English as Foreign Language) students. The responsibility of the 60 teachers in the Foreign Language department is to teach English to such a large number of students. Therefore, the class size is very big. All teachers teach the same textbook.
2.3 Teaching environment
Because of the great difficulty of teaching English in such large classes in our university, teachers tend to view themselves as knowledge transmitters or class controllers. Those who are excellent transmitters of knowledge are considered great performers. Naturally these performers are to be emulated in our university. In support of this teaching philosophy, Paine (1992) argues: "Teaching puts teachers in the role of masters and students in the role of disciples. Instruction is a unilateral process as professors expound on texts" (Paine, 1992, p. 190). The role of the students is to expend great effort in memorization and analysis of a text chosen by their teachers.
3. The student group
There are more than 20,000 students in my university, and nearly 95% of them are the EFL students. All of these students have begun to learn English since Junior Middle school or much earlier. Because of various motivations, learning environments, learning styles, socioeconomic backgrounds and some other factors, the English competence of these students veries considerably. Motivation is the most important factor which put the students into different groups. The analysis of motivations can tell us the needs of EFL learners, which help us to develop and modify curriculums in order to suit the learners the best.
Why do you want to learn Enlgish?
Many students in China have a weak-instrumental motivation for studying English. They just want to pass the CET-4 so they can get their bachelor's degree. Others have a strong-instrumental motivation. They study because they want to acquire a good job or study abroad. Some study English for integrative reasons. They simply enjoy it and want to make new friends. My survey produced the following results:
[12.12% of both successful and non-successful learners cl-aimed they studied for "no reason".]
In this study, it appears that students with an integrative motivation are most likely to be successful.
4. Teacher has been decision-makers in different areas of the curriculum
The following table provides an overview of the decisions made by teachers in an established extensive reading program.
5. Evaluation of the impact of these decisions on student's learning
When supplementing graded readers, student interest is one of the strongest considerations, so that student motivation is high. At our university, the most popular genres are Romances (especially with young, contemporary characters), Mysteries, and Action stories. All these supplementary materials will stim-ulate students'interest in English study, promote their reading skills and broaden their knowledge of language and culture.
6. Conclusion
Teachers are central to curriculum implementation. They design how they will teach a lesson and they construct the actual lesson with students as they teach, based on how students seem to understand a lesson. Based on decisions about design and construction over the course of the year teachers map out the actual taught curriculum. The ways in which teachers use textbooks in this process are complex and varied and require careful consideration.
References:
[1]Boyle,J.(2000).Education for teachers of English in China.Journal of Education for Teaching,26(2).
[2]Paine, L.(1992).Teaching and modernization in contemporary China.In R.Hayhoe(Ed.).Education and modernization:The Chinese experience.
[3]Remillard,J.T.(1999).Curriculum materials in mathematics education reform:A framework for examining teachers'curriculum development.Curriculum Inquiry .
[4]Schwab,J.J.(1978).Science,curriculum,and liberal education(Westbury & N.J.Wilkof, Eds.)Chicago:University of Chicago Press.
1.1 What is curriculum?
The four commonplaces of education are that someone teaches something to someone somewhere(Schwab, 1978). Some people define the "something", the curriculum, as what is found in the textbook or teacher's guide. Others broaden the definition of curriculum to mean everything that happens with the support of the school.
At one end, curriculum is seen merely as a course of study; at the other end, curriculum is more broadly defined as everything that occurs under the auspices of the school.
1.2 What is the teacher's relationship to the curriculum process?
In accordance with the definition of curriculum, the teacher plays a very important role which is called the decision-maker in the curriculum process.
While research on how teachers actually implement curriculum is limited, Remillard(1999) proposes this model of a teacher's role in curriculum development at the classroom level. It includes three areas: design area , construction area and the Mapping area
To clarify the teacher's role, as a decision-maker, in the curriculum process of TEFL in China, a course, the extensive reading of College English which I taught last year, will be selected to be an example.
2. The teaching context
The context for language program are diverse and the particular variables that come into play in a specific situation are often the key determinants of the success of a program.
2.1 Societal situation
China's leaders have realized that to achieve the four modernizations (industry, agriculture, military, and science and technology), China must learn from the West. Toward this end, English language learning has been mandated by the Chinese government at all levels. As a result of some 20 years' economic reform and an open door policy, a fast-growing prosperous middle class has emerged, wanting access to the wider world, and therefore wanting to speak English (Boyle, 2000).
2.2 Work culture
Harbin University of Commerce, which I am working in, is the first university whose major is in commerce and founded in 1950 in China. The number of students has increased fast and greatly since 1996, and continues to do so. The total number of students has already been over 20,000, more than 95% of which are EFL (English as Foreign Language) students. The responsibility of the 60 teachers in the Foreign Language department is to teach English to such a large number of students. Therefore, the class size is very big. All teachers teach the same textbook.
2.3 Teaching environment
Because of the great difficulty of teaching English in such large classes in our university, teachers tend to view themselves as knowledge transmitters or class controllers. Those who are excellent transmitters of knowledge are considered great performers. Naturally these performers are to be emulated in our university. In support of this teaching philosophy, Paine (1992) argues: "Teaching puts teachers in the role of masters and students in the role of disciples. Instruction is a unilateral process as professors expound on texts" (Paine, 1992, p. 190). The role of the students is to expend great effort in memorization and analysis of a text chosen by their teachers.
3. The student group
There are more than 20,000 students in my university, and nearly 95% of them are the EFL students. All of these students have begun to learn English since Junior Middle school or much earlier. Because of various motivations, learning environments, learning styles, socioeconomic backgrounds and some other factors, the English competence of these students veries considerably. Motivation is the most important factor which put the students into different groups. The analysis of motivations can tell us the needs of EFL learners, which help us to develop and modify curriculums in order to suit the learners the best.
Why do you want to learn Enlgish?
Many students in China have a weak-instrumental motivation for studying English. They just want to pass the CET-4 so they can get their bachelor's degree. Others have a strong-instrumental motivation. They study because they want to acquire a good job or study abroad. Some study English for integrative reasons. They simply enjoy it and want to make new friends. My survey produced the following results:
[12.12% of both successful and non-successful learners cl-aimed they studied for "no reason".]
In this study, it appears that students with an integrative motivation are most likely to be successful.
4. Teacher has been decision-makers in different areas of the curriculum
The following table provides an overview of the decisions made by teachers in an established extensive reading program.
5. Evaluation of the impact of these decisions on student's learning
When supplementing graded readers, student interest is one of the strongest considerations, so that student motivation is high. At our university, the most popular genres are Romances (especially with young, contemporary characters), Mysteries, and Action stories. All these supplementary materials will stim-ulate students'interest in English study, promote their reading skills and broaden their knowledge of language and culture.
6. Conclusion
Teachers are central to curriculum implementation. They design how they will teach a lesson and they construct the actual lesson with students as they teach, based on how students seem to understand a lesson. Based on decisions about design and construction over the course of the year teachers map out the actual taught curriculum. The ways in which teachers use textbooks in this process are complex and varied and require careful consideration.
References:
[1]Boyle,J.(2000).Education for teachers of English in China.Journal of Education for Teaching,26(2).
[2]Paine, L.(1992).Teaching and modernization in contemporary China.In R.Hayhoe(Ed.).Education and modernization:The Chinese experience.
[3]Remillard,J.T.(1999).Curriculum materials in mathematics education reform:A framework for examining teachers'curriculum development.Curriculum Inquiry .
[4]Schwab,J.J.(1978).Science,curriculum,and liberal education(Westbury & N.J.Wilkof, Eds.)Chicago:University of Chicago Press.