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.An experienced teacher does not have to think very deeply about most environment analysis decisions, because such a teacher knows what has worked in the past and is aware of what the difficulties may be.One danger, however, of relying solely on experience is that the teacher may be reluctant to try new things or may not consider trying new things.Research on vocabulary knowledge suggests that teachers tend to underestimate their learners’ vocabulary size, and if we extend this research to other areas of knowledge, it could be that teachers tend to have conservative views of what their learners are capable of doing.This means that it is probably worthwhile for a teacher to occasionally be a little adventurous in trying something which will stretch the learners in their language use.The results might be surprising.It is important to remember when doing environment analysis, that it is done to see its effect on the language course.Teachers can either work within an environmental constraint, or they can try to overcome the constraint.If an activity is not likely to be interesting for the learners, then that activity could be avoided.On the other hand, the teacher could ask: How can I make this activity interesting? What do I need to change in the activity to involve the learners? Most problems like this do have solutions.Needs AnalysisOne of the most common problems in teaching is suiting the activities and material in lessons to a class with a wide range of proficiency.Every day teachers have to consider questions like the following:•Is this material too difficult for my learners?•Is there something new for my learners to learn in this activity?•Will everyone in the class be able to cope with this activity?All of these questions relate to needs analysis.Needs analysis involves looking at what the learners know now, what they need to know by the end of the course, and what they want to know.It has been suggested several times in this book that doing needs analysis is like doing research or assessment.Because of this, good needs analysis is reliable, valid andTeaching and Curriculum Design199practical.Teachers themselves are very good sources of needs analysis information because they typically know their learners well, have seen them perform various tasks and have seen the results of those tasks.Teachers’intuitions can be reliable, valid and practical.It is always good in research and in needs analysis however to draw on more than one source ofinformation.There are now many web-based tools that can be used in needs analysis.It is now possible to run texts through a vocabulary-level checker to see what the vocabulary load is going to be.A very good example of this can be found on Tom Cobb’s website (www.lextutor.ca); on the same website there are various tests that can be used to measure where learners are in their vocabulary knowledge.It is important that teachers keep checking their own intuitions of learners’ language knowledge against the results of tests and careful observation of the learners using language.PrinciplesEvery day teachers have to consider questions like the following:•Will this be a good activity for my learners?•Are my learners doing enough reading?•Is it good to get learners to memorise words and phrases?•Should I do the same activity again?•Should my learners be doing homework?All of these questions can be answered by looking at principles of teaching and learning.Information about teaching and learning can come from research, but such information can also come from teachers’ experience and observation of teaching and learning.It is always good to check these two sources against each other.On some occasions, what seems to be good teaching practice may actually have a negative effect on learning.The research on interference (Nation, 2000) is a good example of this.Teaching a group of closely related words together actually makes learning 50 per cent to 100 per cent more difficult, even though intuitively we feel that is a good idea to bring similar items together.On the other hand, teachers’ intuitions about the importance of repetition and meaningful input are well supported by research.Part of the professional development of teachers involves keeping up with current research findings.It is thus useful for teachers to attend conferences, take part in workshops, and be familiar with at least one professional journal.There are now several very good professional journals that are available free on the web.You can find links on this web site: http://iteslj.org/links/TESL/Journals_on_the_Web/.200Teaching and Curriculum DesignA good goal to have when reading articles from such journals is to ask the question, what principles of teaching can I draw from this article? The next question is, of course, how can I apply this principle in my teaching?A very pleasing development in the field of applied linguistics over the last 10 to 20 years has been the reduction in the advocacy of “methods” of language teaching.This is clearly a sign of maturity in the field.There is no one right answer to how languages should be taught or learnt.Different environments require different approaches, and different teachers and learners are comfortable with different approaches.Rather than looking for the magic method, it is better to work at the level of principle, seeing how the same principles can apply in different situations.If research or experience shows that a principle is no longer valid, then this does not require the abandonment of the whole way of teaching, but simply requires some adjustments to what is being done.Environment analysis, needs analysis and principles make up the three outer circles of the curriculum design diagram.These three parts of the curriculum design process provide data and guidance for the parts of the inner circle of the diagram.Without the information from the outer circles, setting goals, deciding on the content and sequencing of items in the course, deciding what activities and lesson formats to use, and monitoring and assessing, learners’ progress would be uninformed, ad hoc processes
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