Articulating beliefs in Language teaching. Subject: Curriculum and material design

1. ARTICULATING BELIEFS
IN EFL TEACHING
SUBJECT: CURRICULUM AND MATERIAL DESIGN
MADE BY
YOLANDA BUSTAMANTE AND VICTOR ALEXANDER MENDIETA
LICENCIATURA EN LENGUA EXTRANJERA INGLÉS. UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMAS ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA VUAD

2. According to the chapter 3 “Articulating Beliefs” from “Designingn Language
Courses: A guide for Teachers” by Katheleen Graves, we come accross the
following aspects:
• VIEW OF LANGUAGE
• VIEW OF SOCIAL CONTEXT OF LANGUAGE
• VIEW OF LEARNING AND LEARNERS
• VIEW OF TEACHING
• OTHER IMPORTANT BELIEFS
• HOW DO BELIEFS AFFECT THE WAY WEDESIGN A COURSE
CONTENT

3. Language is our mean of communication, interaction and self-expression.
It is rule governed but also changes and develops through the time as
fundamental tool we use to structure our social and cultural contexts.
Since it is articulated in different ways, according to the context and
through different purposes, it constructs our collective thinking and even
our reality.
Our view of language may differ and it is tied to our beliefs of how the
language functions for our own purposes and needs. Based on that, how
language should be learnt and what emphasis should be applied when
learning it plays a very important role in defining what our view of
language is.
VIEW OF LANGUAGE

4. Language should adjust to the social context where is being used,for that
reason social contexts themselves involve linguistic, cultural, political
factors, among others. According to this, the language learning and
teaching deals also with sociolinguistic, sociocultural and sociopolitical
issues.
Larson and Smalley (1972) already described culture as a “Blueprint” that
“guides the behavior of people in a Community” . That precept leads to
deduct that language would not make sense without context because the
language develops and can only exist into a certain context. Because of
that, the context of a language should be analized to define the nature of
language.
VIEW OF SOCIAL CONTEXT OF LANGUAGE

5. • How language adjusts and functions into the social context. It deals
with issues such as whom a messaje is give to (address codes), roles
and purposes when communicating and interacting through language.
Sociolinguistic
• How language adjusts into the culture, which also has to do with
habits, customs, social beliefs, attitudes, gender, religión, etc, as well.
Sociocultural
• How language from a certain social group or community is seen by
another one. It deals with how language should be used when
participating in the target language`s Community and be aware of
how the social system works.
Sociopolitical
IN ORDER TO ANALYZE CONTEXT OF LANGUAGE, SOCIOLINGUISTIC,
SOCIOCULTURAL AND SOCIOPOLITICAL ISSUES SHOULD BE DEFINED AS WELL:

6. In this aspect we need to consider first the belief we have about how people
learn and the role of a learner. According to Graves, it could be inductive,
which is a learning process based on learner self-discovery on his own and as
individual or deductive, which is learning collaboratively as a process of
acquiring knowledge by means of interaction with others. Learning is a
cognitive process that involves important factors such as mental, affective
and social needs. Also it involves what is being called multiple intelligences:
visual, kinesthetic and auditory (Gardner 1983).
Since learners have two different roles: decision makers and also directions
followers, there must be an intelligent mixture of both in learning to take
place effectively: metacognitive and critical thinking skills.
VIEW OF LEARNING AND LEARNERS

7. VIEW OF TEACHING
It is connected to the view of learning and how learning processes are
conceived. Teaching can be seen as a negotiation between learners and
teacher about the process of how to acquire knowledge of a certain subject
matter. The teacher undertakes a role of transmitter of knowledge and
manager of learning process, in which he/she decides how and what to teach
through methods and models of learning. Also it is seen as a collaborator,
guide and element that orchestrates the learning process but it can not be
just on his/her own, it also needs to be conducted by the type of role of
learners and how they determine being active their own learning process
making decisions as well.

8. OTHER IMPORTANT BELIEFS REGARDING CURRICULUM TO TAKE
INTO ACCOUNT ARE THE ONES PROVIDED BY DENISE LAWSON:
LEARNER-CENTERED CURRICULUM
Focuses on learners as active in their own learning process and assessment.
They support and collaborate each other
MEANING-CENTERED CURRICULUM
Sociocultural aspects are also taken into account, as well as the learners particular interests and needs,
when it comes to designing the course content.
PROCESS-CENTERED CURRICULUM
Assessment is being developed by learner, peers, teacher and the participation and performance in different
Aspects is also valued.
ARTICULATION BETWEEN TEACHER AND LEARNER ROLES.

9. .
HOW DO BELIEFS AFFECT THE WAY WE DESIGN A COURSE?
Since beliefs are thoughts that we keep thinking and are born through experience,
they play a fundamental role on every aspect of a human life, especially in
education.
In this case, in order to design a course, not only the context, which is an external
factor, but also the beliefs, which is intrinsic and experiential, determine at every
stage what it is going to be implemented for organizing the course and decision to
be taken for the content and materials. However, not all beliefs regarding teaching,
context or learning are suitable for every course and learner, so it is also important
to consider the core beliefs or principles, which are terms implemented by David
Markus and Denise Lawson, where it is explained that it is a challenge identifying
beliefs most of the times and in order to facilitate its determination, we should
clear out their relevance when designing a course by looking for essential beliefs
and finding out also when something is missing in the process of teaching and
learning to be able to detect that we may probably have uncovered a belief.

11. References:
Kathleen Graves . (2000). DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES: A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS . U.S.A: Heinle & Heinle.