Curriculum
Content
The curriculum designers and language
teachers should indicate what skills and
which aspects of the language are to be
concentrated upon at a particular stage.
Curriculum content should be designed in
sequenced, meaningful order, or clustered
coherent concepts.
Examine your content and note whether
the following characteristics as they relate to
sequencing or clustering concepts are
present:
When fit together, do the sequenced or
clustered concepts reflect the “big picture”
of the content area under study?
Is the content going to be, or is it
currently of specific value and meaning to
your students? Is this value stated in your
material?
In the educational environment in which
it is being engaged, is the curriculum
content relevant to your students?
To what extent is the content presented in
an interesting and appealing manner geared
toward a diversity of learners?
Principles for the selection of content-what
is to be learned and taught?
Principles for the development of a
teaching strategy-how it is to be learned and
taught.
Principles for the making of decisions
about sequence.
Content Selection
Content-knowledge consisting of a collection
of facts, concepts, generalizations, principles
and theories.
How should students learn content
•Content transmitted
behaviorism.
•Content constructed
constructivism.
•Content consists of product and process.
According to cognitive psychologists:
Contentdeclarative knowledge (factsconcepts).
process- procedural knowledge (procedures,
thinking skills, methods).
How should content be selected?
Criteria to guide the selection of content:
•Significance- based on one’s favor (in terms
of concepts, needs, interests).
•Utility- usefulness of content .
•Validity- authenticity of information.
•Learnability - difficulty level.
•Feasibility- consider time constraints,
expertise of staffs, funding, educational
resources.
Critical Analysis of the Contents
A critical analysis of the lists of contents of Saudi
Arabia curricula reflects usefulness and
relevance of the themes and topics included in
the Intermediate school textbooks and highlights
the selection of vocabulary, structures and
grammatical items suitable for the Saudi EFL
learners at Intermediate level. One may question
the utility of certain words at this level and may
challenge the selection of certain grammatical
points and their order of presentation in the
book but, by and large ,
everything appears to be in order and is in line
with the determined goals of teaching EFL in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
No textbooks can be said as final and no series
are developed for permanent use. They are
supposed to be revised from time to time in the
light of the experiences and observation made by
teachers. It is therefore imperative that we draw
the general principles and develop broad
categories of language functions, situations,
grammatical items and topics which could serve
as guidelines for the textbook writers and
curriculum designers of the future.
Best of luck
Dr. Nissrein Abdel
Bassett El-Enany