Material Adaptation for High School English at Dimensional Curriculum Level

Abstract This paper， based on the New Curriculum Standards， researched the content of the curriculum for the newly edited material for High school English and gave suggestion on material adaptation for both curriculum designers and classroom teachers.

Key words material adaptation， dimensional curriculum

中圖分類號：G424 文獻(xiàn)標(biāo)識碼：A

0 Introduction

The New English Curriculum Standards （NECS） provides five objectives， which includes linguistic knowledge， language skills， cultural awareness， learning strategies and affective factors. NECS also holds the opinion that English is a tool of communication and a way of getting to know the world. NECS takes topics as its outline， integrates the communicative function and linguistic structure， and leads students to finish meaningful tasks by using the target language. We can say that the curriculum manifested in the NECS is a multi one. The newly edited materials for High School English are based on such a standard， and thus the contents， activities and methods of teaching should be open and flexible. As a result， some necessary adaptation for the materials is necessary.

1 Curriculum

1.1 Definition of Curriculum

The term “curriculum” or syllabus， on the one hand， was used to describe the substance of what was taught in a given subject， on the other hand， it was used to define objectives， determine the teaching contents， and indicate some sort of sequence or progression. Those two aspects mentioned above constituted the essential minimum of what was meant by curriculum. At its most comprehensive， curriculum was a full and detailed covering every aspect and phase of teaching a language.

1.2 Definition of Dimensional Curriculum

Stern put together all the priorities of the profession in language teaching and learning that proposed by experts at a meeting in Boston in 1980 under the name of Multidimensional Curriculum with components which termed language syllabus， the communicative activities syllabus， culture syllabus and the general language education syllabus. The first two areas implied the systematic study of language and culture， while the third syllabus represented integrated activities which involve the use of language in a specific situation. The last one required the learners a wider and detached view of their involvement and reflection of a generalized way about languages， cultures， and learning.

1.3 Curriculum Developing and Teaching

The relationship between curriculum and teaching， generally speaking， includes three patterns. In the first pattern， intentions are formed and set the direction and the constraints for curriculum planning. Curriculum provides the aims， the content， and the resources which the teacher uses to transform intentions and curriculum materials into classroom conditions that promote learning. In the second pattern， that teaching always has content and interacts with curriculum and actions was the initiating agent that leads to the formation of intentions， which in turn leads to curriculum planning. The third pattern is a circular one in which one could enter the circle at any point of the circle， teaching， intentions， curriculum planning， and curriculum for both curriculum planning and providing the content and structure for teaching. Through the course of action， it leads to the formation of new intentions. Such kind of pattern is more scientific and authentic.

2 Material Adaptation

According to the New English Curriculum Standards， teachers should consider both the material and the authentic classroom teaching when adapting the material into use.

2.1 Omitting and Supplementing for the Material

Some necessary omitting and supplementing for the material would make the material more suitable and closer to the students and their real life， but such kind of adaptation shouldn’t effect the completeness and systematicness. What’s more， some adaptation from impression should be avoided and consulted with students themselves if possible.

2.2 Replacing the Teaching Content and Activities

The improper content and unsuitable activities to suit the classroom teaching situation should be replaced. For example， if a teacher considers that a discourse for reading is suitable while the exercise for the passage is misfit， he or she could replace the old exercise with the one designed by him of her. And if a teacher believes that some part of the material lack of normative and authenticity， he or she could choose other material which is suitable to students’ needs.

2.3 Extending Teaching Content and Activity Steps

The phenomena that the material is above and under students’ language level happened to us frequently. If the content or activity is too difficult to be finished by students， the teacher could lower down the level by adding a few indicative steps for preparing， a further discussion or debating， doing vocabulary exercise， writing skill training are needed for students if the activity is easy， vice versa.

2.4 Reordering the Sequence of the Content and Material

Usually， rearranging the order of the material would help increase the effectiveness of teaching. For instance， if there is something important happened around us and these is also a topic or content concerning the incident， and students have no difficult in learning this unit， we could learn the topic at first and relate the topic with real life to motivate students and increase students interests.

Additionally， when the teaching method suggested in the NECS are misfit to the real classroom teaching， teacher can change their approaches to meet the needs of teaching.

3 Material Adaptation at a Dimensional Level

Each content category requires one syllabus or several syllabuses to another or among topics， and， there would be shifts of emphasis from one syllabus to another or among topics or areas within each syllabus. Moreover， we should envisage different ways of integrating the syllabuses so that we every part of the content would never be seen as a separate part but a unified system to help students learn.

3.1 Material Adaptation in a Language Syllabus

3.1.1 Adaptation of Pronunciation Teaching

Following aspects should be considered when adapting pronunciation teaching：

Firstly， order of presentation. The earlier debating was on the sequence of presentation pronunciation， whether we should begin with vowels or consonants and paid litter attention to stress and intonation. Nowadays， in pronunciation courses it is not uncommon to find the treatment of vowels and consonants at a later stage in the presentation， while the earlier units deal with intonation， syllables， stress， and rhythm.

Secondly， approaches for pronunciation teaching. Teachers shouldn’t tie their mind on the adaptation of the traditional or the new way of pronunciation teaching. On the contrary， what they should consider is whether a particular order has specific pedagogical advantages or disadvantages. Teachers couldn’t deal successfully with particular sound segments without being able to relate them regularly to the way these sounds manifest themselves in the stream of speech.

Thirdly， perception and production. According to Krashen’s Input Hypothesis Theory， adequate input is the basis for output； same to pronunciation teaching， a lengthy period of listening to authentic speech samples and making observations about them may be a better introduction to the sound system than an early insistence on imitating particular sounds out of context. So， teacher should offer enough exposure of listening material about all kinds of speakers in as more situations as possible for students.

3.1.2 Grammar

Grammar is very important for a L2 learner to understand， standardize and use of the target language. In order to achieve a successful learning a L2， teachers should pay attention on the following items in their teaching：

The first is contextualization. When coping with grammatical problems， teachers should give a specific grammatical item a contextualized situation in order to facilitate understanding and using of the target language. When teachers encountered the grammatical activity lack of such a feature， they could make some adaptation to encourage students’ learning.

The next one is the gradual and cyclical development of grammatical system in the NECS. In the new material for high school English， the grammatical items were edited by a cyclical way， in other words， some necessary repletion are needed to enforce the grammatical competence. So， teachers could organize an additional activity for wherever lack of necessary repetition.

The thirds one is the rules， explanations and terminology of grammar. The new material gave its focus on task-based activities and ignored the grammatical explanations on rules and terminology， and when teachers adapt the material， they could use the techniques mentioned above to omit the meaningless or unnecessary and design some activities for this field.

The Forth one is grammar practice. One thing teachers should keep I mind is that the structure of grammar was introduced not according to the teachers’ estimation but students’ needs. To consolidate the grammar， it is a good way of benefiting learners to link form and function together. And teachers are encouraged to practice an inductive way of grammar teaching， that is， from examples to practice and then， to grammar rules. Meanwhile， teachers should 1） elicit information from class， not give lectures， rules or explain； 2） elicit peer or self-correction， not correct by the teacher detractively； 3） conduct meaningful practice of problematic form， not conduct mechanical drill of problematic form； 4） correct selectively， not correct everything.

Functional analysis has an impact on the overall design of language curriculum and made the most decisive influence on teaching content， methodology， and materials. We could make full use the above knowledge of functional analysis to guide our teaching and material adaptation.

3.2 Material Adaptation in a Communicative Activity Syllabus

Communicative activities are used to motivated activities， topics， and themes involving the learners in authentic communication. In adapting the teaching material into a communicative activity， there are several components or essential characteristics that should be paid attention to.

To design access， in which includes building a friendly communicative atmosphere， offering students colorful activities and arousing students’ interests and providing for the learners activities that offer students opportunities for authentic language of the target language. The second factor is to involve most learners in activity， including learners in the classroom by different patterns， dialogue between teacher and student or student and student， pair work， and group work. In addition teachers need to focus on the activities themselves.

3.3 Material Adaptation in a Cultural Syllabus

The objectives in the NSEC consist of cross-cultural communication and awareness and capability， cultural knowledge and understanding. Teachers should know about the content of culture teaching when they adapt for this area of activity. Six aspects of contents are included in this process， places， individual persons and way of life， people and society in general， history， institutions， and art， music， literature， other major achievements. The techniques to the adapting of teaching material are suggested as following， providing cultural information， cultural problem solving； the audio-motor unit， dramatization， mini-drama， role-play and simulation from the behavioral and affective aspect； Cognitive approaches； Real-life exposure to the target culture： pen-pals and tape-pals.

The cultural syllabus deliberately sets out to change the focus of attention towards the people and culture of the target language， and makes great contribution to second or foreign language pedagogy. So， permeating culture component in the teacher’s class is the first thing a teacher needs to do in adapting.

3.4 Material Adaptation in a General Language Education Syllabus

The general language education syllabus is used to understand and develop the qualities mentioned in the above three curricula， make the learning of a specific language more valuable and effective， what’s more， introduce to a language course and help to put second language learning in perspective. It is learner-centered. When teachers design the activities， on the one hand， they should realize that students must learn to function independently， that the more the students know about language， culture， and language learning， the better. On the other hand， teachers should take the subjects and the individual differences into consideration.

The writer holds the opinion that there are two objectives in the NSEC manifested in this syllabus， learning strategies and cultural awareness. So， the content of the activities related to the above two aspects should， 1）give a broad orientation to the language and put the target language into a social， political， historical and geographical context； 2） understand the historical evolution of the target language and the concept of language change over time； 3） comprehend the concepts of standard， dialect， and social varieties of language；4） make it clear the relationship between different aspects of the target language； 5） acquire a feeling for the systematicity of the language； 6） understand the relationship between the four skills； 7） encourage students to explore the similarities and differences between the target language and mother tongue. As a matter of fact， not all the aspects are needed to be put into consideration in one activity or lesson planning， maybe one or only a few of them would be involved in.

Five strategies related to language learning are proposed by Stern， management and planning strategies， cognitive strategies， communicative-experiential strategies， inter personal strategies and affective strategies. The first two strategies are about learning while the third one， which refers to the strategies such as circumlocution， gesturing， paraphrase， asking for repetition and explanation， contributes to encourage learner to use the target language in a real situation in ways like listening to the music， watching movies， etc. The forth strategy refers to monitoring progress， evaluating learners performance by themselves and the ability of language learners to learn from error correction and monitoring by teachers or peers. The last strategy offers suggestions to learners as language learning is a work that could be challenging and frustrating. Teachers， however， should help student know that there are difficulties in language learning and that language is arbitrary.

4 Conclusion

The investigation made by Kathleen Graves [2] told us that material adaptation was a key point to design a situation that involved students in learning by doing Stern’s dimensional curriculum theory is not only a systematic theory for ELT and L2 teachers， but also a tool for the teachers to cope with material adaptation problems. While the suggestions offered above were just examples， teachers should take all aspects that influence teaching into consideration for their designing of activities， including the students， educational settings， material source， personal stuff， and the quality of the teachers themselves. The dimensional theory is a framework while the aspects related to teaching is the local implementing， only if we combine those two system together， could we get our students into a favorable situation for learning.

Bibliography

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