A presentation on Situation Analysis based on "Curriculum Development in Language Teaching" by Jack. C.Richards

1. CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT IN LANGUAGE
TEACHING
Jack C. Richards

2. INTRODUCTION
• Context for language programs are diverse
• In some situations, teachers are well trained and have
time for lesson planning
• In other situations, teachers may have little time
for lesson planning, thus teach straight from the textbook
• Each context for a curriculum change contains factor that
can facilitate the change or hinder its successful
implementation
• Therefore, it is important to determine these factors
when planning a curriculum change

3. DEFINITION
Situation analysis is an analysis of factors in
the context of a planned or present curriculum
project that is made in order to assess their
potential impact on the project.
These factors may be political, social,
economic, or institutional. Situation analysis
complements the information gathered during
needs analysis.

4. THE GOAL
The goal of situation analysis is to identify key
factors that might positively or negatively affect the
implementation of a curriculum plan.
This is sometimes known as a SWOT analysis because
it involves an examination of "a language program's internal
strengths and weaknesses in addition to external
opportunities and threats to the existence or successful
operation of the language program" (Klinghammer 1997, 65).

5. THE FUNCTION
Situation analysis serves to help identify
potential obstacles to implementing a curriculum
project and factors that need to be considered
when planning the parameters of a project.

6. THE PROCEDURES
a. Consultation
b. Study analysis
c. Observation
d. Survey
e. Review

7. AN EXAMPLE OF INADEQUATE SITUATION
ANALYSIS IN CURRICULUM PLANNING
A team of foreign experts under contract to an international
funding body is given a contract to write a new series of English textbooks for the
state school system in an EFL country. They base themselves in an attractive small
town in a rural setting and set up their writing project. They do a series of interviews
with educational officials and teachers to determine students' language needs and
make use of the latest thinking on language teaching and textbook design to produce
an oral-based language course that reflects me recommended language teaching
methodology of the time - Audiolingualism.
Textbooks are developed and provided to secondary schools at no cost and
teachers are given the choice of using the new books or their old outdated
government textbooks. After a period of initial enthusiasm, however, very few
teachers end up using the new course and most revert to using the old government-
provided textbooks.

8. AN EXAMPLE OF INADEQUATE SITUATION
ANALYSIS IN CURRICULUM PLANNING
COMMENTS
• The project team members spent insufficient time familiarizing
themselves with the local school situation.
• Most of the English teachers had limited command of English.
• Teachers found the new materials difficult to teach because they
required a high level of oral fluency in English and an English-only
methodology that was difficult to implement in large classes.
• A more successful reception might have occurred if the introduction of
new materials had been gradual, so that problems were addressed as
they occurred.
• There could have been more provision for teacher training.

9. AN EXAMPLE OF INADEQUATE SITUATION
ANALYSIS IN CURRICULUM PLANNING
The example illustrates the kinds of factors that can have an
impact of a curriculum project.
This chapter will consider the following factors :
• Societal Factors
• Project Factors
• Institutional Factors
• Teacher Factors
• Learner Factors
• Adoption Factors

10. SOCIETAL FACTORS
Van Els. T. Bongaerts, G. Extra, C. Van Os, and A.
Janssen-van Dieten (1984, 156) stated that second or
foreign language teaching is a fact of life in almost every
country in the world. Yet countries differ greatly in terms
of the role of foreign languages in the community, their
status in the curriculum, educational traditions and
experience in language teaching, and the expectations
that members of the community have for language
teaching and learning

11. SOCIETAL FACTORS
In examining the impact of societal factors on language
teaching, the aim is to determine the impact of groups in
the community or society at large on the program. These
groups include:
 Policy maker in goverment
 Educational and other goverment official
 Employers
 The bussiness community

12. SOCIETAL FACTORS
 Politicians
 Tertiary education specialist
 Education organitation
 Parents
 Citizens
 Students

13. SOCIETAL FACTORS
In the case of project of communtiy or national scope, the followings may
be relevant:
- The current language teaching policies exist and how they are viewed
- The underlying reasons for the project and who supports it
- The impact it has on different sector of society
- The language teaching experience and tradition exist in the country
- The view of second languages and second language teaching to
members of the public

14. SOCIETAL FACTORS
- The views of relevant prossesional such as academis and
teacher trainers
- The profesional organization such as teachers’ unions think of
the project?
- The views of parents and students
- The views of employers and the bussiness comunity
- The community resources available to support the innovation,
such as radio, television, and the media

15. PROJECT FACTORS
Curriculum projects are typically produced by a
team of people. Members of the team may be specialists
or classroom teachers seconded to the project for a fixed
period of time, or the project may be carried out by
teachers and other staff of a teaching intitution as part of
their regular duties.
Projects are completed under different constraints
of time, resources and personnel, and each of these
variables can have a significant impact on a project.

16. PROJECT FACTORS
The following project factors need to considered:
 Who constitutes the project group and how are they selected?
 What are the management and other responsibilities of the team?
 How are goals and procedures determined?
 Who reviews the progress of the project and the performance of
its members?

17. PROJECT FACTORS
 What experience do members of the team have?
 How do members of the team regard each other?
 What resources do they have available and what budget to
acquire needed resources?
 What is the time frame of the project? Is it realistic, or is more
or less time needed?

18. INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
A language teaching program is typically
delivered in an institution such as a university,
school, or language institute. Different types of
institutions create their own "culture," that is,
settings where people interact and where patterns
emerge for communication, decision making, role
relations, and conduct. Morris (1994, 109).

19. INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
A teaching institution
• is a collection of teachers, groups, and departements,
functioning in unison, independently, or sometimes with
components in a confrontational relationship;
• may have a strong and positive climate to support
innovation, one where there is effective and possitive
leadership and where change is received positively;

20. INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
• may consider textbook the core of the curriculum and all
teachers must use the prescribed texts;
• may have teachers that are not paid for lesson preparation
time and consequently teach their classes and then
depart for their next teaching assignment, perhaps in
another school.

21. INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
Institutional factors thus relate to the following kinds of questions:
• What leadership is available within the school to support change
and to help teachers cope with change?
• What are the school’s physical resources, including classroom
facilities, media and other technological resources, and library
resources?
• What is the role of textbooks and other instructional materials?
• What is staff morale like among English teachers?

22. INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
• What problems do teachers face and what is being done about
them?
• What administrative support is available within the school and
what is communication like between teachers and the
administration?
• What kind of reputation does the institution have for delivering
successful language programs?
• How committed is the institution to attaining excellence?

23. TEACHER FACTORS
Teachers are a key factor in the successful implementation of
curriculum changes. In any institution, teachers may vary according
to the following dimensions:
• Language proficiency
• Teaching experience
• Skill and expertise
• Training and qualifications
• Morale and motivation
• Teaching style
• Beliefs and principles

24. TEACHER FACTORS
Among the teacher factors that need to be considered in
situation analysis are the following:
• What kinds of teachers currently teach in the target schools or
institutions? What is their typical background, training,
experience, and motivation?
• How proficiency are they English?
• What kinds of beliefs do the teachers typically hold concerning
key issues in teaching?
• What teaching loads do teachers have and what resources do
they make use of?

25. TEACHER FACTORS
• What are the typical teaching methods teachers use and believe
in?
• To what extent are teachers open to change?
• What opportunities do they have for retraining through in-
service or other kinds of opportunities?
• What benefits are the proposed new syllabus, curriculum, or
materials likely to offer teachers?

26. LEARNER FACTORS
Learners are the key participant in curriculum
development project and it is essential to collect as
much information as possible about them before the
project begin. It focuses on the learners’ background,
expectation, belief, preferred learning style.
Learner may affect the outcomes of a project in
unexpected ways.

27. LEARNER FACTORS
Nunan (1989) comments:
The effectiveness of language program will be dictated
as much by the attitude and expectation of the
learners as by the specification of the official
curriculum… Learners have their own agendas in
language lesson they attend. These agendas as much
as the teacher’s objective, determine what learners
take from any given teaching/learning encounter.

28. LEARNER FACTORS
The followings are the relevant learner factors :
1. The learner’s experience in learning English
2. The learner’s motivation to learn English
3. The learner’s expectation about the program
4. The learner’s point of view on language teaching reflects any
culturally specific factor
5. The learner’s kind of group learning (whether homogenous or
heterogeneous)

29. LEARNER FACTORS
6. The learner’s preferences about learning approach (e.g.,
teacher-led, student-focused, or small group work)
7. The learner’s preferences about type of content
8. The learner’s expectation for the roles of teacher, learners,
and instructional materials.
9. The learner's expectation about the time duration for
program
10. The learner’s resource or guidance book should learners have

30. ADOPTION FACTORS
• A language teaching approach that requires teachers to
adopt new roles in the classroom, such as needs analyst,
resource person, and language tutor, might not be
compatible with learners' expectations for the role of
teachers.
• The complexity and clarity of a curriculum change might
also be crucial in its successful adoption.
• Any attempt to introduce a new curriculum, syllabus, or
set of materials must take into account the relative ease or
difficulty of introducing change into system.

31. ADOPTION FACTORS
• The curriculum changes may affect teacher’s pedagogical
values and beliefs, their understanding of the nature of
language or second language learning, or their class room
practices and use of teaching materials.
• Some changes may be readily accepted while others might be
resisted.

32. ADOPTION FACTORS
Some questions of the curriculum innovation :
1. The advantages of curriculum change
2. How compatible is the change?
3. Is the innovation very complicated and difficult to understand?
4. Has it been used and tested out in some school before all school
are expected use it?
5. Have the benefits of the innovation been clearly communicated
to teachers and institutions?
6. How clear and practical is it ?

33. CONCLUSION
Curriculum is changing in line with the challenging of
contemporary era. Curriculum as a set of education should
be prepared by considering some factors that influence the
curriculum itself. The goals of a project might need to be
modified to reflect the realities of the situation in which the
curriculum is implemented.
Situation analysis thus serves to help identify
potential obstacles to implementing a curriculum project and
factors needed to be considered when planning parameters
of a project.

34. REFERENCES

35. REFERENCES