What is a Curriculum?

Curriculum

 A curriculum is more than a list of topics to be covered by an educational program, for which the
more commonly accepted word is a ‘syllabus’. A curriculum is first of all a policy statement about
a piece of education, and secondly an indication as to the ways in which that policy is to be
realized through a program of action. It is the sum of all the activities, experiences and learning
opportunities for which an institution (such as the Society) or a teacher (such as a faculty member)
takes responsibility – either deliberately or by default (Coles, 2003).

What is a Curriculum Guide?

A curriculum guide is a structured document that delineates the philosophy, goals, objectives,
learning experiences, instructional resources and assessments that comprise a specific educational
program.

Additionally, it represents an articulation of what students should know and be able to do and supports
teachers in knowing how to achieve these goals. K to 12 Basic Education Framework.

K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum Framework (English)

I. PHILOSOPHY AND RATIONALE

Language is the basis of all communication and the primary instrument of thought. Thinking,
learning, and language are interrelated. Language is governed by rules and systems (language
conventions) which are used to explore and communicate meaning. It defines culture which is essential in
understanding oneself (personal identity), forming interpersonal relationships (socialization), extending
experiences, reflecting on thought and action, and contributing to a better society.

Language is the foundation of all human relationships. All human relationships are established
on the ability of people to communicate effectively with each other. Our thoughts, values and
understandings are developed and expressed through language. This process allows students to
understand better the world in which they live and contributes to the development of their personal
perspectives of the global community.

II. GUIDING PRINCIPLES

All languages are interrelated and interdependent. Facility in the first language (L1) strengthens
and supports the learning of other languages (L2). Acquisition of sets of skills and implicit metalinguistic
knowledge in one language (common underlying proficiency or CUP) provides the base for the
development of both the first language (L1) and the second language (L2)2. It follows that any expansion
of CUP that takes place in one language will have a beneficial effect on the other language(s). This
principle serves to explain why it becomes easier and easier to learn additional languages.

Language acquisition and learning is an active process that begins at birth and continues
throughout life. It is continuous and recursive throughout students’ lives. Students enhance their
language
abilities by using what they know in new and more complex contexts and with increasing sophistication
(spiral progression).
Learning requires meaning. We learn when we use what we know to understand what is new. Start
with what the students know; use that to introduce new concepts. They use language to examine new
experiences and knowledge in relation to their prior knowledge, experiences, and beliefs. They make
connections, anticipate possibilities, reflect upon ideas, and determine courses of action.

Learners learn about language and how to use it effectively through their engagement with
and study of texts. The term ‘text’ refers to any form of written (reading and writing), oral (listening and
speaking) and visual communication involving language. The texts through which students learn about
language are wide-ranging and varied, from brief conversations to lengthy and complex forms of writing.

Successful language learning involves viewing, listening, speaking, reading and writing
activities. Language learning should include a plethora of strategies and activities that helps students
focus on both MEANING and ACCURACY.

Language learning involves recognizing, accepting, valuing and building on students’

existing language competence, including the use of non-standard forms of the language, and
extending the range of language available to students. Through language learning, learners develop
functional and critical literacy skills. They learn to control and understand the conventions of the target
language that are valued and rewarded by society and to reflect on and critically analyze their own use of
language and the language of others.

III. NEEDS OF THE LEARNERS: THE CONTEXT

1. Communicative Competence

Communicative Competence is a synthesis of knowledge of basic grammatical principles, knowledge of

how language is used in social settings to perform communicative functions, and how knowledge of
utterances and communicative functions can be combined according to the principles of discourse.
Communicative competence is classified into the following competencies.

1. Grammatical/Linguistic Competence means the acquisition of phonological rules,

morphological words, syntactic rules, semantic rules and lexical items.

2. Sociolinguistic Competence refers to the learning of pragmatic aspect of various speech

acts, namely, the cultural values, norms, and other sociocultural conventions in social contexts. They are
the context and topic of discourse, the participant’s social status, sex, age, and other factors which
influence styles and registers of speech.

3. Discourse Competence is the knowledge of rules regarding the cohesion (grammatical links) and
coherence (appropriate combination of communicative actions) of various types of discourse (oral and
written). Sociolinguistic rules of use and rules of discourse are crucial in interpreting utterances for
social
meaning, particularly when the literal meaning of an utterance does not lead to the speaker’s intention
easily.

4. Strategic Competence is to DO with the knowledge of verbal and non-verbal strategies to

compensate for breakdown such as self-correction and at the same time to enhance the effectiveness of
communication such as recognizing discourse structure, activating background knowledge, contextual
guessing, and tolerating ambiguity.
 2. Multiliteracies

Multiliteracies (multi literacy practices) recognize that there are many kinds of literacy at work within
our society. These include traditional literacy practices using texts as well as new literacy practices using
texts of popular culture such as films. Social literacy encompasses how we communicate and exchange
meaning in our society while professional literacy links with the notion of literacy for school of the
workplace.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

COMPONENT 1: Language Learning Process

For effective language acquisition and learning to take place, language teachers must be guided by
the six (6) language teaching principles. These principles explain the natural process of language
development.

1. Spiral Progression
Skills, grammatical items, structures and various types of texts will be taught, revised and revisited
at increasing levels of difficulty and sophistication. This will allow students to progress from the
foundational
level to higher levels of language use.

2. Interaction
Language learning will be situated in the context of communication (oral and written). Activities that
simulate real-life situations of varying language demands (purposes, topics, and audiences) will be
employed to help students interact with others thereby improve their socialization skills.

3. Integration
The areas of language learning – the receptive skills, the productive skills, and grammar and
vocabulary will be taught in an integrated way, together with the use of relevant print and non-print
resources, to provide multiple perspectives and meaningful connections. Integration may come in
different types either implicitly or explicitly (skills, content, theme, topic, and values integration).

4. Learner-Centeredness

Learners are at the center of the teaching-learning process. Teaching will be differentiated according
to students’ needs, abilities and interests. Effective pedagogies will be used to engage them and to
strengthen their language development.

5. Contextualization
Learning tasks and activities will be designed for learners to acquire the language in authentic and
meaningful contexts of use. For example, lessons will be planned around learning outcomes, a theme, or a
type of text to help learners use related language skills, grammatical items/structures and vocabulary
appropriately in spoken and written language to suit the purpose, audience, context and culture. Learning
points will be reinforced through explicit instruction and related follow-up practice.

6. Construction
Making meaning is the heart of language learning and use. Learning tasks and activities will be
designed for learners in such a way that they will have time to reflect on and respond to ideas and
information. Learners will be provided with sufficient scaffolding so that they will be able to reach their
full cognitive, affective, and psychomotor potentials and become independent learners who are good
consumers and constructors of meaning.

COMPONENT 2: Effective Language Use

1. UNDERSTANDING CULTURES. Learning language through text types and literary appreciation
exposes learners to different cultures of the world, including one’s culture.

2. UNDERSTANDING LANGUAGE. Learners apply their knowledge of the system of the language to
assist them to make meaning and to create meaning.

3. PROCESS AND STRATEGIES. Learners select from a repertoire of processes and strategies by
reflecting on their understanding of the way language works for a variety of purposes in a range of
contexts.

COMPONENT 3: Making Meaning through Language

Language is the major instrument in communication (oral and written) and the heart of which is the
exchange of meaning. Language learning should focus on guiding students make meaning through
language for different purposes on a range of topics and with a variety of audiences. Students must be
able to adapt to various situations where communication demands greatly vary.

COMPONENT 4: HOLISTIC ASSESSMENT

Holistic assessment refers to the ongoing gathering of information on different facets of a child from
various sources, with the aim of providing qualitative and quantitative feedback to support and guide the
child's development. Holistic assessment informs our teachers of their teaching practices and guides them
in the design and delivery of student learning. It will also enable parents to support their children's
development and growth.

Characteristics of Assessment

1. Proximity to actual language use and performance

Assessment procedures should be based on activities that have authentic communicative function
rather than ones with little or no intrinsic communicative value. These activities are based on actual
performance in authentic situations which the learner is likely to encounter in his or her daily life. \

2. A holistic view of language

Assessment procedures are based on the notion that the interrelationships among the various
aspects of language, such as phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, among others cannot be ignored. Also
the four skills of language-listening, speaking, reading, and writing-are seen to be parts of a structurally
integrated whole.

3. An integrative view of learning

Assessment attempts to capture the learner’s total array of skills and abilities. It measures language
proficiency in the context of specific subject matter.

4. Developmental appropriateness
Assessment procedures set expectations that are appropriate within the cognitive, social, and
academic development of the learner. This characteristic of assessment makes it particularly valuable for
second language learners who come from culturally diverse backgrounds and who may have atypical
educational experiences.

5. Multiple referencing

Assessment entails obtaining information about the learner from numerous sources and through
various means.

LESSON 2:
21st Century Communicative Skills

Authenticity

 materials are produced by real speakers or writers for a real audience and for a real purpose; the
learning tasks are designed to engage students in genuine communications with real audience;
emphasizes an authentic context or discourse, not just a "native" speaker

Collaboration

 engaging students in working and communicating with one another to accomplish a learning task
together (e.g., students learn to communicate effectively for group work and assume shared
responsibility)

Communicative Competence

 language learners' ability to understand and use language effectively to communicate in authentic
learning environments that allow them to connect what they learn to real-life situations

LESSON 3:
Learning Activities To Develop Viewing, Listening, Speaking, Reading And Writing Skills.

1. TEACHING GRAMMAR

Kahoot: Some basic drills (but not too much!) on grammatical structures are necessary. After you
introduce a grammatical structure, it is a good idea to allow students practice the grammar structure
before moving to applying the grammar knowledge in communicative tasks.

Google Docs (https://edtechbooks.org/-tV): Google docs has long been seen as one of the most
powerful tools for student collaboration. By using google docs, you can encourage students to engage in
pair editing one another’s grammar errors and use the chat window on google doc to have silent
conversations on how to correct the grammar mistakes.

Wordreference: Anyone learning a foreign language needs to know this website. This is one of the
most powerful and essential referencing tools for learning a foreign language.

Corpora: Corpora is another critical and powerful tool for improving students’ lexical and syntactic
understanding. Through corpora, students are able to see how a word is used in authentic communicative
contexts and how the word should be placed in a sentence. Many studies have pointed out The use of
corpora.

2. TEACHING LISTENING

BBC (https://edtechbooks.org/-YUk): If you work with advanced language learners, BBC offers news
articles, videos and audios in various languages. This is a great place for finding authentic resources for
listening and reading practice.

Yabla: Yabla offers authentic videos for improving listening in six languages: Chinese, Italian,
Spanish, French, German and English.

Innovative Language (https://edtechbooks.org/-rK): Innovative Language offers integrated language

lessons for over 30 languages. They offer audio and video lessons that learners can view on laptops or on
the mobile app.

Pocoyo: If you work with young kids, Pocoyo offers cartoon videos for educational purposes in 6
languages: English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish, and Russian. They are great materials for
delivering meaningful and authentic content-based language lessons for students of young age.

Lyrics Training: Who doesn’t love music? Language instructors have been using songs as a way
for training language learners’ listening comprehension.

3. TEACHING SPEAKING

Flipgrid: Flipgrid is a great way to ignite student discussions. Basically, a teacher creates a grid with
a central discussion question or task. Then, students respond to the prompt by interacting with one
another in the form similar to making video diary but in a collaborative and safe social community.

Mango (https://edtechbooks.org/-Ne): Mango offers language lessons in a great variety of languages

as well. This website situates language learning in conversational contexts. With each language lesson,
they list out the conversation goals and grammar goals. This website can be a great supplementary
activity for students to practice and enhance their conversational skills.

My Language Exchange (https://edtechbooks.org/-jKv): One of the best way to practice speaking a

foreign language is through language exchange. My Language Exchange is an effective platform for
finding a language exchange partner to practice speaking.

Video Conferencing tools: It goes without saying that video conferencing tools are game changers
for foreign language learning. Foreign languages teachers are now using video conferencing tools to
connect their students to the world.

 Skype
 Zoom
 Google Hangout

Video and audio recording tools: Using video conferencing tools allows students to practice
communications in the interpersonal mode (see ACTFL’s World-Readiness Standards). On the other
hand, having students make videos or audio recordings allows them to practice communications in the
presentational mode through multimodal and creative ways.
 iMovie
 Biteable
 Shadow Puppet

4. TEACHING READING

Vocabulary: Learning vocabulary is almost the first step for language learners to start learning a new
language as words are what delivers meaning and used to present ideas. Without lexical knowledge,
students would not be able to understand other language speakers or texts, and to make themselves
understood.

Memrise is a self-learning website that offers a variety of courses for different purposes or at different
levels. Its language courses mainly focus on vocabulary, presenting and reinforcing content through
multimodal ways repeatedly while providing exercises for learners to check their progress.

Quizlet is a powerful tool for both teaching and learning vocabulary. Teachers can create vocabulary sets
for students to practice and can monitor their study progress online. Meanwhile, students can also create
their own flash cards for reviewing vocabulary.

Rewordify: There must be times when we wish to use an article in our class but find the vocabulary too
challenging or inappropriate for the students’ level.

Creating word clouds: Word Sift or Wordle are great resources for creating word clouds.

Dictionary or reference tools: Lingro offers vocabulary translation in 11 language. Shahi is a really cool
interactive visual English dictionary that gives you Flickr images according to your search. Snappy
Words, YourDictionary, and Lexipedia are similar tools that help visualize English vocabulary words.

Graphic organizers: Using graphic organizers is a great way to help student learn vocabulary
words. To create graphic organizers, Popplet and Inspiration are two great tools.

Read aloud tools: One of the key methods to teach reading to your students and to help develop
reading comprehension is to read aloud to them.

Newsela: To improve students’ reading skills, we often try to find outside reading for them
because simply having students read the textbook would not be adequate. Newsela is a website that
provides articles of current issues tailored for students of different levels.

5. TEACHING CULTURE

Skype in the Classroom (https://edtechbooks.org/-fV): A great way to teach culture is to bring

your students to where the target culture is, but if this does not sound realistic, now you have options like
Skpe in the Classroom, which can bring your students in contact with that culture too without having to
physically go to the place.

Videos: Nothing can beat authentic materials when it comes to teaching the culture of a
language. We are lucky to live in an digital age when all kinds of authentic videos are available just a few
clicks away
  FluentU: One of the best site providing language immersion videos, FluentU makes a variety of
authentic videos like news, talks, music videos, or movie trailers accessible to you and your
students, and even better, with interactive subtitles. The site currently has a collection of videos in
nine popular foreign languages.

 YouTube: We are sure that many of you have come to Youtube to be entertained. Though
Youtube videos are not all made for learning purposes, you can select a few channels for your
students to subscribe according to their levels.

 World stories: Listening to stories originates in a foreign culture is one way to immerse in that
culture because stories carry cultural messages.

Scholastic.com (https://edtechbooks.org/-nqH): Not all of us were born in multilingual and

multicultural families.