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The article explores the relationship between psychosocial learning environment factors and deep learning in English classrooms in schools of the Telangana State, India. Topics discussed include information on using constructivism-based approach for encouraging student participation in decision-making about the curriculum content and processes; discussions on significance of English learning; and the information on the efforts of the government for providing facilitating learning environment.

This paper investigates the language of examination reports for senior secondary English courses in New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. A combination of Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is used to examine the types of knowledge and knower that are valued in examinations; and how language is used to describe successful and less successful writing, and the candidates who produce these texts. The analysis suggests that subject English values an élite code (at least, in examination settings), in which both an 'insightful' approach to texts and skilled writing justifying analysis is valued; and that students who are unable to take up these discursive practices are imagined as lazy and callow. The paper concludes with implications for teachers and examiners, arguing that teachers must make students aware of the 'dual-sided' nature of subject English, and that examiners should be cognisant of potential bias in their view of responses and their writers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curriculum and its associated assessment are at the heart of educational systems worldwide. In light of perceived national educational stagnation or decline, as well as of performance in international league tables such as Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), countries have embarked on curriculum and assessment reforms. This is particularly true in England, where currently wholesale changes are being introduced throughout the system. The curriculum and qualification system in England privileges that which is tested over any other expression of knowledge, which leads teachers to concentrate on teaching what is assessed, either externally through examination papers or internally through coursework. In the summer of 2012, following curriculum and assessment reforms to General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) qualifications, serious concerns were raised about the marking and awarding processes for GCSE English, culminating in legal action. Using that experience as an example of assessment policy and practice gone awry, this article explores the ramifications of rapid qualifications changes and posits that some of the problems that plagued GCSE English in 2012 could be repeated, albeit in different guises, after revised qualifications are introduced in 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Zealand secondary students study a wide variety of novels for English as part of the National Certificate of Educational Attainment (NCEA). The New Zealand Curriculum has devolved responsibility for text choice to individual teachers, but teachers are not given sufficient guidelines or general principles to help them choose appropriate novels. This paper considers teacher attitudes about the suitability of novels studied for NCEA English in terms of text difficulty, themes and reputation or literary merit, and concludes that there is no consensus. Teachers have widely differing views about the appropriateness of various novels and the year level at which particular titles should be studied, which has lead to inconsistencies and inequity in the types and difficulty of novels studied in schools across New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author explores the balance of responsibilityfor effective formative reading assessment between classroom teachers and the curricular structure within which they work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An innovative proposal is developed for teaching English at secondary education, specifically in the operative curriculum. That is, the curriculum that takes place between the teacher and their students in the classroom. Such proposal aims to reach the objectives that have already been assigned to schools at the secondary education. These schools have been given the power to shape, train, evaluate and instruct students, so that secondary education students really acquire the English language in such a way that they will have the capacity to communicate through the use of this language. This proposal takes into account the necessary instruments for teaching English; including assessment and its indicators to determine the level of proficiency each student has as well as the activities planned to develop the different skills in order to acquire this language. These instruments offer as significant curricular contributions for the implementation of this proposal by English teachers since it provides them with the necessary information to determine the student's level of English proficiency and the activities these teenagers can successfully perform in order to improve their level. It is relevant to highlight that those instruments develop four English language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. As it is established in the English Syllabus by the Ministry of Public Education in Costa Rica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the challenges that English must consider in order to develop intellectual flexibility in its post 16 year old students. It goes on to consider the relationship that modern syllabuses - and in particular, the syllabus that directs the education of students in NSW Australia - form between student and syllabus. The article investigates the theoretical investments of such a syllabus, all designed to invoke flexibility in its learners, and yet suggests that a phenomenological consideration of the document's influence on the classroom reveals the opposite effect. Finally, the article suggests a rhetorical model of teaching is necessary to meet the complex demands of the wider civic sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A national survey of senior secondary English curriculum content has confirmed that contemporary literature predominates among set texts, being seen as an 'essential' category for study because of its 'relevance' in helping students 'understand the world in which they live.' Perhaps uncontentious - depending on the meaning of that phrase 'contemporary literature': is it what's written in our own time, or also set in our own time? Too much of the latter could mean that students' reading confines them narrowly to the here and now. Part of our responsibility as educators is to help our students go beyond the familiar, and to reframe their experience of the world in which they live by introducing them to worlds elsewhere. Their understanding needs to move across time as well as across different places. In considering what these principles imply in practice for the selection and interpretation of texts, this article combines the perspectives of teacher, curriculum designer and fiction writer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to show how e-mail tandem (Brammerts & Little, 1996; Gläsmann & Calvert, 2001; Stickler & Lewis, 2003) has been integrated in the English curriculum of a Diversificación Curricular Programme (3rd and 4th grade of Secondary Education) to promote linguistic, intercultural, learning to learn and digital competences (LOE, 2006). The first part will be devoted to explaining the main characteristics of email tandem and its close relationship with the aforementioned four competences, as well as with the Common European Framework of Reference (2001) and the European Language Portfolio (ELP) (Little & Perclová, 2001; Cassany, 2006). The second part will deal with the main characteristics of the students involved and the instruments used to practise the linguistic, intercultural, learning to learn, and digital competences, i.e. e-mails written by the students, learning diaries (Nunan, 1992; Otto, 2003; Oxford, 1996) and reflections on the ELP (Palacios, 2006). Finally, examples of student performance will be presented, together with the main conclusions derived from their work, including some suggestions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curriculum guidelines, including the emergent Australian curriculum (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2009-10), indicate expectations that teachers will support their students' interpretation and creation of multimodal texts. However, English curriculum guidelines are yet to advise on a detailed metalanguage to support teacher and student discussion of the meaning-making dimensions of multimodal texts. Theoretical work on the development of multimodal metalanguage is in its early stages, lacking ready application for use in diverse classroom contexts. This article reports on research into applications of a framework designed to help teachers add depth and breadth to teaching and learning about multimodal meanings through development of a metalanguage (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000). While application of this framework in middle-years classrooms was initially found to be problematic, working in collaboration with teachers this framework was adapted and enriched for classroom use. This resulted in a refined framework which can be used in classrooms for stimulating metalanguage to describe multimodal texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on a study which explores the issues that constrain the implementation of the 2011 English curriculum for primary and secondary school classrooms in China. The method used in the study was the analysis of data from interviews with English teachers from various primary and secondary schools. Result shows that changing the curriculum to a more communicative one does not provide a solution to effective language teaching problems.

While perceptions that the roles of teacher and teacher educator as an oppositional binary are being challenged, sustaining and incorporating both professional identities has presented challenges. This paper presents a narrative account of my professional identity journey, including a description of a partnership that enabled boundaries to be spanned between a school and university and the teacher and teacher educator roles. As an English curriculum pre-service teacher educator, I have tried to maintain my connection to English classroom teaching, however, an absence from the classroom of eleven years left me vulnerable to the criticism that teacher educators lack relevant classroom practice. To retain my English teacher identity I sought partnerships to balance the theory-practice nexus. I returned to an English classroom, interacting with secondary students and pre-service teachers, working with former graduates as colleagues in enriching professional learning experiences. This paper proposes that new modes of professional collaboration, involving communities of practice, are needed to bring together schools and universities as sites of learning, but that changed attitudes are necessary within all areas of the profession to achieve this. The paper concludes with a discussion of perceived barriers threatening the sustainability of collaborative models of teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diverse needs of English as another language/dialect (EAL/D) students have been conceived of in ways that are often tokenistic in various subject English curricula in Australia. This article highlights the importance of moving beyond 'motherhood statements' regarding inclusivity to developing an English curriculum that genuinely supports and enables non native speakers. Reporting on a case study undertaken in a Queensland secondary school in 2008, this article presents an empirical text-based analysis of both native and non native speaker texts as written for the purposes of assessment in senior subject English. The study sought to move beyond the surface features of writing by detailing the topical structures of the students' critical essays. The data reported sheds some light on the complexities posed by critical literacy for EAL/D students in a mainstream setting. The data also has a range of implications for the National Curriculum in English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that investigates the washback effects of the English National Examination (ENE) to the learning of students and classroom teaching of English teachers in Indonesia. It offers information on the advantages and disadvantages of ENE to the secondary education of students in the country. Moreover, it also features the impact of ENE on teachers.

Research data gathered from a sequence of English lessons in a London secondary school are used to interrogate the ways in which reading is conceptualized in policy and realized in practice. Analysis of a PowerPoint presentation, created by two 13-year-old students, suggests the students’ ability to operate as sophisticated, multimodal sign-makers, using the resources of digital technologies in ways that are not acknowledged within the domain of schooled literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

"One size its all"; a statement that precisely describes the Malaysian current education system where the school system and the curriculum are centralized under the Ministry of Education (MoE). Hence, teachers are prescribed by the ministry with the curriculum, syllabi, textbooks and materials for them to use in class. In other words, it can be safely concluded that the current education system is purely centralized as teachers act as implementors of the curriculum provided by the MoE. Without devaluing the importance, benefits and success of the centralized system of education, there is however undeniably a need to review the role of teachers in curriculum development to ensure that the curriculum is able to produce competent students and that are able to compete in the global world too. In order to achieve this, a change in the teacher's role is required and one of the ways that can be done is by providing more autonomy to teachers in curriculum development. Unlike the current system, teachers should be given more autonomy to decide among others, the content of curriculum, materials to be brought into class and methods of evaluating and assessing students. Nevertheless, it must be noted that transforming a 52-year-old tradition is no easy feat. Many factors must be addressed namely teachers, parents, students, curriculum decision makers and the MoE. Hence, the purpose of this study is to propose a framework that can be used as a guideline to transform the current practice of a centralized curriculum to a decentralized one by involving teachers in the process of curriculum development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to what has usually been asserted, the 'New English' that became a near-orthodoxy in the later 1960s and '70s had its essential origins in the apparently less promising setting of the later 1950s. Current research into English teaching in three postwar London secondary schools is revealing that in at least one working-class school in Southwark the pupils' experience of their urban environment came in a quite new way to constitute the matter for talking and writing in English lessons. The vigorous reconstruction of English that took place in Walworth School was one fruit of the London County Council's idealistic creation in 1946 of five 'experimental comprehensive schools'. The article argues for the historic significance of the local and environmental focus of English at Walworth between 1956 and 1963. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relationship between the teaching of Literature-in-English and the students' performance in the English Language in the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations. Some selected secondary schools in Akoko North-East, Akoko South-West, Akoko South-East and Akoko South-West were used as samples. A total number of three hundred and forty questionnaires were administered to teachers and students. Data were collected using the Likert type of questionnaires: 4-point-scale questionnaires: Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Strongly Disagree (SD) and Disagree (D). The data collected were analysed using percentages as well as T-Test. Only hypothesis two was tested at 0.05 level of significance while percentage was used for hypothesis one. The findings of the study revealed, among others, that there was a serious decline in the performance of students in the English language at the West African Examinations Council: Senior School Certificate Examinations (WAECSSCE) between 2001 and 2003 years of the study. Also, the study indicated that there was significant difference between the performance of students that offered the English Language alone and those that combined Literature-in-English with English in the WAEC SSCE. The study equally revealed that effective teaching of Literature-in-English improved the students' performance in the English Language in secondary schools. In view of the outcome of this study, some recommendations are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the Hong Kong's New Senior Secondary (NSS) English language curriculum and discusses potential implications for using corpus linguistics (CL) in a pedagogical context. While spoken and written corpora have mainly been used to facilitate language description, they can also have a place in the language-teaching context by providing learners with typical patterns of language use some of which are not open to intuition. Specifically, this paper discusses how corpora might aid the teaching of formulaic sequences and workplace English in the classroom, which is of prime concern in the task-based, learner-centred teaching approach upheld in the new curriculum for English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I draw on interviews with two colleagues, student comments and my own experiences of leading and developing a two day residential course for A Level English Language students at the beginning of Year 12 to explore the role that out-of-school learning can have in ‘setting free the spirit of English’. I argue that not only is it possible to use creative and imaginative approaches to learning in English within the constraints of the curriculum but also that these approaches are valuable experiences which can underpin and enhance pupils’ learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The context for this teacher narrative is a multicultural South Australian secondary school with over 50 nationalities represented, where many of the older students are disengaged from English. A transformative moment for the writer occurred following research for here doctoral thesis, which unexpectedly challenged her thinking about the English curriculum, the ever-changing world of the young people in her school and the need to make English more accessible and meaningful for here students. That transformative experience prompted a decision to make the writer's English classroom more interactive, and to link the curriculum more directly to the students' realities. This was done by letting go of the set text and developing a unit of work on "Othering", which involved a variety of media and drew on the experiences of all students. In this way the writer aimed to challenge her Year 11 students, as she herself had been, to undergo a process of transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the evolution of the English language curriculum for senior secondary school in China from 1949 against the background of national developments in China. The latest English language curriculum (2003) is then introduced and discussed in comparison with the 1993 syllabus. The comparison suggests that the 2003 curriculum recognizes the humanistic value of English as a foreign language in fostering students' cognitive and personal growth beyond its traditional instrumental value in providing access to scientific knowledge and economic development. This calls for a concomitant fundamental change in teachers with its associated difficulties for teachers in curricular implementation and the need for new teacher development programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of assessment on teaching and learning is commonly described as 'Washback' in language testing and 'Backwash' in the literature on education. Since the time Alderson and Wall (1993) published their article, "Does Washback Exist?", numerous studies have proved the existence of washback and its influence/impact on teaching and learning. This study sets out to verify whether the Public Higher Secondary English Examinations (an assessment conducted by the Directorate of Examinations, State Board of Tamil Nadu) have an impact on the teaching and learning of English in the schools in Chennai. The study also aims at determining the nature of this impact. Data was collected through a detailed questionnaire survey. The findings indicate that tests do influence the teaching and learning of English, and it is imperative for this impact to be desired, intended or positive, failing which the goals of the curriculum would remain just in theory, while in practice the demands of the examination would continue to be met. The effects are detrimental in that it leads to an enormous waste of various teaching-learning resources, besides making school leavers incompetent in English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While it is widely acknowledged that classroom practice is shaped by its context, the dynamics of that shaping remain elusive. This study conceptualizes the ways in which changing social conditions and national priorities enter into US curriculum practice. Initially, the focus was on the US Census 2000 results showing an increasingly diverse population. After 2001, the terrorist attacks and subsequent events came to overshadow most others. US secondary-school social studies and English teachers were interviewed about changes in their teaching and their reasons for any changes. It was found that social climates do shape curriculum practices but not directly, to the same extent, or in the same manner across classrooms. External trends and events interact with local school conditions and teacher biographies in a historically situated network of mediations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Content-area instruction for English-language learners (ELLs) represents a growing area of instructional need in U.S. high schools. In this article, the authors focus on diverse approaches to developing an effective instructional environment for teaching secondary-level social studies curriculum to ELLs. The authors participated in a school-university partnership to support content-area teachers' efforts to increase ELLs' comprehension skills. The authors propose a multitiered approach to meet the needs of ELLs in the mainstream social studies classrooms by (1) providing social and cultural support during the process of acculturation, (2) providing explicit instruction in academic strategies necessary for successful comprehension of in-depth content using the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach, and (3) making social studies curriculum more accessible through strategies for reducing cognitive load without reducing content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on establishing and running a Self-Access Centre (SAC) in a secondary school in Hong Kong. The impetus for establishing the SAC came from new government curriculum guidelines with a focus on promoting greater autonomy for school students in their English language education. The approach taken in establishing the SAC was to include as many staff as possible in discussions about how to develop autonomy in the school; to ensure teacher development was part of the process of creating the SAC; and to allow students to share in helping to develop, stock, and run the SAC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary argues that Joseph Zins' work can contribute and enhance university-based teacher preparation programs. Focusing on secondary English Education, it examines how SEL competencies can improve the curricula and field experiences to support pre-service teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article shows the differentiated instructional structure of the junior English course of Western Springs College for Year 9 in Auckland, New Zealand. The course aims to explore the mystery/crime genre through the study of books, stories and film. The objectives, core skills and concepts of the course are listed. An overview of the junior English module is presented.

In this article, I argue that 9th-grade English can be a fertile environment for demonstrating that students who come to high school with diverse skill levels and from racially and socioeconomically diverse communities can learn with and from each other. It is not enough, however, that the 9th-grade English teacher believes that all students can succeed with challenging tasks and that she has a moral commitment to academic equity. Teachers must provide a focused, rigorous, and supportive curriculum that acknowledges and builds on the skills of high and middle achievers and establishes for low achievers a strong foundation that provides the scaffold for their taking on identities as readers and writers. I describe the 9th-grade English reading and writing curriculum developed as a detracking advocate and discuss the theoretical foundations for that curriculum. I also argue that if students are to be apprenticed into the academic life of a high school, detracking efforts must go beyond 9th-grade English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the significance of teaching queer-inclusive English language arts, and how this system can be taught, in schools. Even when they provide for physical safety and espouse respect for diversity, few secondary schools advocate studying literature that addresses sexual diversity. The English language arts (ELA) curricula in U.S. public high schools often either ignore or reject the connection between same-sex desire and literature. ELA curricula are not, in other words, queer inclusive. Queer theory works against the oppression that comes with being named, labeled, and tagged, an oppression that GLBT youth experience all too often in schools.

This paper provides an outline of the development and trialling during 2004 of the Literature Study Programme (LSP), a literature programme designed for use in the junior secondary classes of Seychelles. The programme was developed as a teaching and learning component concerned with the study of literature within the English language programme in the Seychelles, which had been hitherto absent in both the enacted and intended English language curriculum of the country. This paper reports on the structure and organisation of the LSP, its design philosophy, the assessment procedures employed, the results of the evaluation, and the implications for teaching literature at the junior secondary level in Seychelles. The results of the evaluation show a high level of support for literature as an area of study by both students and teachers. The programme as an initial design for teaching literature has also received a high level of approval from participants. Recommendations for the programme are also highlighted in this paper. The writer concludes with a word of caution against relegating literature study to the background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the role of English in secondary education in Scotland during 1900-1939. Background on the growth of secondary schooling; Development of English as a university discipline in Scotland; Lessons from secondary courses in English.

This study examines three middle school and secondary school English teachers' attempts to adapt and enact the principles and practices of the 'Fostering a Community of Learners' (FCL) model. As a systemic pedagogical model designed to foster authentic dialogue and inquiry, FCL challenges deeply held traditions of English as both a school subject and academic discipline. Three critical incidents, selected from separate extended case studies, reveal the conceptual challenges teachers face when bringing to life practices consistent with constructivist learning principles. The study shows that through simplification of the model and gradual experimentation, the teachers began to approximate the systemic integrity of FCL. The study identifies key curriculum-planning strategies employed by the teachers that led to pedagogical innovation (e.g. double-planning, renaming, isolation, retrenchment, and fusion). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets out to document the process of state intervention into the curriculum content and pedagogical practices of the teaching of English in England. It contains an analysis of the key elements of the National Literacy Strategy, a national programme designed to raise standards of literacy for secondary school pupils in England and Wales. The key elements of the strategy are outlined; in particular, the oppositional stance of the Strategy to established practices in English education curriculum practice in the areas of Speaking and Listening, Reading and Writing are documented. The paper concludes with a consideration of the potential (and unintended?) consequences of centralized state control of curriculum and pedagogy for teachers' sense of professionalism and their ability to meet the demands that 21st century communicative practices will make on their students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the creation of multimedia production `Postcards From America,' which engaged students in learning English language skills through workshops on photography, creative writing and drama, at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island. Background information on the project; Description of various contributions by teaching participants; How communities intersected in support of the project.

Argues the inclusion of English elective courses in secondary education curriculum. Value and relevance of electives in teaching basic English skills; Central characteristic of elective curriculum.

The article outlines the development of a collaborative evaluation model and its application to a curricular innovation project within the secondary school system in Hong Kong. The authors tackles the limits of collaboration in long-term evaluation projects with multiple stakeholders. They point out that the idea of collaboration between various stakeholders in the evaluation process which is new in the field of language program evaluation.

Examines the integration of speech with English in the high school curriculum. Need for speech training in the high school; Importance of speech in everyday life; Interrelation of oral and written work in grammar work.

Provides information on the curriculum for teaching the English language in secondary schools of France in the 1930s. Course outline for the study of foreign literature; General instructions in the study of foreign languages in secondary schools; Suggestions for vocabulary learning.

Candor characterizes the manner in which Mr. Murphy analyzes a conventional program of preparation to teach English in high school. He castigates the system which produces a young college graduate who enters his first high-school teaching position with a complacent readiness to ‘do unto others’ as he was treated in his concluding college experiences. The author, who is Associate Professor of Education, The Pennsylvania State College, State College, now on detached assignment with the Citizenship Education Project, Teachers College, Columbia University, concentrates his attention upon one field. Might there be a basis for equally valid criticism of beginning high-school teachers of other subjects? Is the teacher-education process in our institutions susceptible of improvement here? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights regarding their proposal to adopt the book of Mark Haddon, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," into the curriculum. She mentions that she and her colleague believe that the book would be important in teaching tenth graders wherein they considered the guideline of National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). She notes that the demographic reports of the school were used in bolstering her argument.

The article focuses on the factors contributing to an enjoyable secondary English classroom experience. The author, who presented a paper on the subject, cites the work of Martino & Pallota-Chiarolli, in which they discussed the importance of including the student voice in the classroom. She also cites the work of Manual & Robinson pertaining to English syllabuses. Literature about boys and English is also considered by the author.

The article presents the curriculum statement of Peter Smart for his English Department at Christ's College in 1974. Smart was an English teacher and head of the English department until his death. The statement describes Smart's teaching strategies from 3rd year to 7th year. It presents Smart's ten objectives for his students.

The article discusses the role of the committees of the National Education Association (NEA) and the National Council of Teachers of English in the reorganization of secondary English in the U.S. It cites the collaboration between the NEA and the council. It lists the appointed members of committees for the NEA which include Emma J. Breck and for the National Council including Franklin T. Baker. The committee seeks to become an instrument for effective expression of secondary English.

The article relates the author's experience in teaching ninth grade English in the United States. She was firmly convinced that in teaching English one should proceed from the known to the unknown. The author presents a course of study she used to help the students find out what makes a story go and then construct successful stories of their own. The only regret of the author is that no Teachers College has yet established a chair of mind reading.