bab 7

4.     APPROACHES TO COURSE DESIGN

They must have the defects of their qualities

(translated from Honore de Balzae : Le Lys dans La Valle)

 Course design is the process by which the raw data about a learning need is interpreted in order to produce an integrated series of teaching learning experiences, whose ultimate aim is to lead the learners to particular state of knowledge.

There are probably as many different approaches to ESP course design as there are course designers. We can, however, identify three main types:

1.      Language-centre course design

The language-centre course design process aim to draws as direct a connection as possible between the analysis of the target situation and the content of the ESP course.

Logical and straight forward as it may seem, it has a number of weaknesses:

a)    It start from the learners and their needs, and thus it might be considered a learner-centre approach, but it is, in fact, not learner-centre in any meaningful sense of the term. The learner is simply used as a means of identifying the target situation.

b)   The language-centre process can also be criticized for being a static and inflexibility procedure, which can take little account of the conflicts and contradiction that are inherent in any human.

c)    One of the alluring features of this model is that it appears to be systematic.

d)   The language-centre model gives no acknowledgment to factors which must inevitably play a part in the creation of any course.

e)    The language-centre analysis of target situation data is only at the surface level. It reveals very little about the competence that underlies the performance.

2.      Skills-centred course design

The skills-centre approach to ESP has been widely applied in a number of countries, particularly in Latin America.

The skills-centre approach is founded on two fundamental principles, one theoretical, the other pragmatic:

a)    The basic theoretical hypothesis is that underlying any language behavior are certain skills and strategies, which the learner uses in order to produce or comprehend discourse.

b)   The pragmatic basis for the skills-centre approach derives from a distinction made by Widdowson (1981) between goal-oriented courses and process-oriented courses.

The skill-centre models, therefore, is a reaction both to the idea of specific registers of English as a basis for ESP and to the practical constraints on learning imposed by limited time and resource. In essence it sees the ESP course as helping learners to develop skills and strategies which will continue to develop after the ESR course itself.

The skills-centre approach, therefore, can certainly claim to take the learner more into account than the language-centre approach:

a)    It views language in term of how the mind o the learner processes it rather than as an entity in itself.

b)   It tries to build on the positive factors that the learners bring to the course, rather than just on the negative idea of ‘lack’

3.      A learning-centre approach

The learner-centre approach *is based on the principle that learning is totally determined by the learned. Learning is seen as a process in which the learners use what knowledge or skills they have in order to make sense of the flow of new information.

A learning-centre approach says: that’s not enough either. We must look beyond the competence that enable someone to perform, because what we really to discover is not the competence itself, but how someone acquires that competence.

A learning-centre approach to course design takes account of the learner at every stage of the design process. This has two implication:

a)    Course design is a negotiated. There is no single factor which has an outright determining influence on the content of the course. The ESP learning situation and the target situation will both influence the nature of the syllabus, materials, methodology and evaluation procedures.

b)   Course design is a dynamic process. It does not move in a linear fashion from initial analysis to completed course. Needs and resources vary with time.

COMMENTS

In this chapter, we have looked at the question of how the data of a needs analysis can be used to design an effective ESP course. Traditionally the target situation analysis has had a direct determining influence on the development of syllabus, material, methodology and test. We have argued that the course design process should be much more dynamic and interactive.

We have called this a learning-centre approach-an approach with the avowed aim of the potential of the learning situation.