Search

At its core, a curriculum is what happens among learners and teachers in the classroom. TESOL's Language Curriculum Development Series describes how teachers, curriculum developers, and administrators have developed, adapted, or renewed a language curriculum. In doing so, they have responded creatively and realistically to learners' needs. The contributors to this volume used creative approaches to breathe life into outdated or underdeveloped curricula for school-age English learners. Through collaborative work with students, other teachers, administrators, and researchers, the contributors enhanced English learning through language arts, math, technology, and other subject areas. Sometimes their work required stepping back from cultural norms to innovate the way that their students learn English. Each chapter in this volume provides inspiration as well as practical ideas to educators who want to view their curricula in a different light. Following the Series Editor's Preface, are thirteen chapters: (1) Introduction-Revitalizing a Curriculum for School-Age Learners: A Multidirectional, Regenerative Dynamic (David Hayes and Judy Sharkey); (2) Revitalizing Curriculum: A United Arab Emirates Perspective (Matthew Clarke and Kay Gallagher); (3) High Hopes for Self-Access Learning at Two Secondary Schools in Thailand (Richard Watson Todd, Sonthida Keyuravong, and Kullakan Suthidara); (4) Weaving Meaning Into ESOL Curriculum Using Thematic Matrices (Janet L. Pierce); (5) Revitalizing Language Learning Through Cross-Curricular Integration (Carla Johnson and Suzanne Webster); (6) A Mosaic of Change: An ESL Program's Journey to Meet the Challenges of Educating NNES Students (Barbara Fagan and Deanna Benavides); (7) From a Spectrum of Language Learners to a Rainbow of Harmony: The International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (Diane S. Pressman and Eileen N. Whelan Ariza); (8) Learning From Families for Curricular Change (Margaret Hawkins, Caroline Johnson, Kelly Jones, and Lynn Legler); (9) Living Things Are Interdependent: An Ecological Perspective on Curriculum Revitalization (Judy Sharkey and Lynn Cade); (10) Curriculum Revitalization in a Japanese High School: Teacher--Teacher and Teacher--University Collaboration (Kazuyoshi Sato and Keiko Takahashi); (11) Despacito por las Piedras--Slowly Among the Stones: Implementing Innovative Classroom Projects in Chile (Penny Kinnear, Jane Hill, Monique Pigeon-Abolins, Maria Andrea Arancibia, Karen Candia Hormazabal, and Nayaret Toro Soto); (12) Reviving, Revising, or Revolutionising? Supplementing Coursebook Teaching with Internet-Based Instruction (Jaroslaw Krajka); and (13) Learning English in China for Today: Revitalizing a Curriculum through Task-Based Learning (Ronggan Zhang). Also included are References, a section about the editors and contributors, and an Index.

An openness to new ways of teaching and learning is vital for growth among English language teachers, teacher educators, teachers in training, and students. This volume in the Language Teacher Research Series (Thomas S. C. Farrell, series editor) shares the studies and reflections of teacher researchers working in Middle Eastern countries with students from a variety of cultural backgrounds. These teachers explore aspects of their own practice in university settings, secondary school classrooms, and professional language training institutes. Despite the varied settings, the authors all have a common desire to improve their practice by looking critically at their teaching approaches and their students' attitudes toward learning. These studies unearth assumptions made in different teaching contexts, and shine a light on factors of perception and motivation. Some of the topics covered in these chapters are: (1) How students' perceptions of teachers' language expertise can affect the learning environment; (2) How interaction among students using technology, small groups, or peer feedback can promote new insights; (3) What roles personal anxiety and culturally imposed norms play in classroom dynamics; and (4) Ways to facilitate metacognition, responsibility, and motivation among students so that they learn how to learn more effectively. Each chapter examines a specific teaching and learning environment and analyzes avenues for improvement in that particular context. However, the overall goal of this volume and the series is to share teacher researchers' findings so that colleagues can extract their own interpretations and plan action steps for improving student learning in other contexts throughout the Middle East and the world. The following chapters are included: (1) Language Teacher Research in the Middle East (Christine Coombe and Lisa Barlow); (2) How Does Language Anxiety Affect Performance in the English Language Classroom? (United Arab Emirates) (Margaret Agbalizu); (3) L2 Learners and Student Evaluations of Teaching: Issues of Language Comprehension (United Arab Emirates) (Ahmad Al-Issa and Hana Sulieman); (4) Spelling Errors of Arab Learners: Evidence for Intergraphemic Mapping (Saudi Arabia) (Maher Bahloul); (5) What Makes a Good Teacher? Investigating the Native-Nonnative Speaker Issue in the Arabian Gulf (Kuwait and United Arab Emirates) (Christine Coombe and Mashael Al-Hamly); (6) Multicultural, Coeducational Group Work Experiences: Creative Collaboration or Problematic Partnership? (United Arab Emirates) (Cindy Gunn); (7) To Mediate or Not to Mediate: Surviving in an Exam-Based EFL Context (United Arab Emirates) (Naziha Ali Jafri); (8) The Effectiveness of Learning Contracts With Arab Learners of English (United Arab Emirates) (Paul MacLeod); (9) Six Hats for Discussion and Writing (United Arab Emirates) (David Palfreyman and Fran Turner); (10) Teacher and Student Perceptions of Best Practices in Teaching (Tunisia) (Ali H. Raddaoui); (11) The Effect of Group and Individual Peer Feedback on Student Writing in an EFL Gulf Context (Saudi Arabia) (Ali Shehadeh); (12) Negotiating With Multiple Repeaters (United Arab Emirates) (Salah Troudi); and (13) Moodling in the Middle East (United Arab Emirates). References and an index are included.

Curriculum innovations succeed or fail according to the extent to which teachers, and to some extent students, feel that they are meaningfully involved in the process of change. For change to be effective, it cannot be simply imposed from above; rather it depends absolutely on the people who implement it. The innovations described in this book have all resulted in improvements in the quality of language education and in opportunities for the students. The chapters in this volume cross a variety of educational contexts in countries around the world, including Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, and the United States. Some programs were built where no program existed before, whereas others arose because developers looked critically at existing programs and decided to rebuild from the base up. Yet there is a unifying theme that runs through all chapters: The importance of one of more people with a strong vision of what the program might be, as well as effective communication among the various stakeholders, cannot be overemphasized. The book includes ten chapters: (1) Creating a New Program: Leadership and Communication (Michael Carroll); (2) From Back Door to Center Stage: The Evolution of an ESL Program (Anne Bollati); (3) Engulfed in the Gulf: Procedures and Complications in Starting an Intensive English Program in the United Arab Emirates (John Shannon); (4) The Development and Features of a Multidimensional Curriculum With Integrated Assessment (Jean Turner and Jon Phillips); (5) Please Don't Shake the Mouse: A CALL Curriculum for Adults With Zero and Low Levels of Computer Literacy (Audrey Kucia); (6) Pulling a Curriculum Together: Addressing Content and Skills Across English and Japanese (Tamara Swenson and Steve Cornwell); (7) Building Out and Building Within: The Development of a Communicative English Program (Juanita Heigham); (8) Curriculum Design: Furniture for a College EFL Program (Gregory Strong); (9) Focusing on Teaching From the Get-Go: An Experience From Brazil (Denise M. de Abreu-e-Lima, Luciana C. de Oliveira, and Eliane H. Augusto-Navarro); and (10) Building Teacher Preparation Programs for TESL/TEFL (Klaus Gomlich, Sarah Rilling, and Karl Uhrig). Also included are references, a section about the editors and contributors, and an index.