1

!
 for language programs are diverse.

In some situations, 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
contains factor that can facilitate the change or
hinder its successful implementation.

Therefore, it is to determine these

factors when planning a curriculum
change.
 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.
 The goal of situation analysis is

that might positively or negatively

affect the implementation of a
curriculum plan.
 -SWOT Analysis-
It involves an examination of a
language program’s strengths and
weaknesses;
In addition to external opportunities and
threats to the existence or successful
operation of the language program.
 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.
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
EXAMPLE OF
IN CURRICULUM PLANNING

14
 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books or their old outdated government textbooks.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.
 :|
The spent insufficient time
familiarizing themselves with the local school
situation.
had
limited command of English.
Teachers found the
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 might have
occurred if the introduction of new
materials had been gradual, so that
problems were addressed as they occurred.

There could have been

for teacher training.
FACTORS IN SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

•1 •2 •3 •4 •5
Societal Project Institution Teacher Learner
Factors Factors Factors Factors
al Factors

6.
Adoption
Factors
•1
 is
a fact of life in almost
every
country in the world.
 Yet countries in terms of:
The role of foreign languages in the community,
Their status in the curriculum,
Educational traditions and experience in language
teaching,
The expectations that members of the community
have for language teaching and learning.
In 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 government
Educational and other government official
Employers
The business community
 Politicians
Tertiary education specialist
Education organization
Parents
Citizens
Students
In the case of
, the followings may be relevant:

- The exist and

how they are viewed;
- The and
who supports it;
 - The it has on different sector of society;

- The
exist in the country;

- The and second

language teaching to members of the public;
- The such as
academics and teacher trainers;
- The such as
teachers’ unions think of the project;
- The views of ;
 - The
; and,

- The
, such as radio, television, and
the media.
Example:
A new English curriculum has been prepared for
English at secondary level in an EFL context.
The new curriculum is described as a
communicative curriculum and downplays the
importance of grammar, which traditionally
received a strong focus in the English curriculum.
When text-books to support the new curriculum
are published, concerns are expressed by parents
and parents’ groups because they feel that their
children “are not being taught the basics” and the
textbooks will not provide sufficient preparation for
school exams.
•2
 are typically produced
by a team of people.

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 institution as part of their regular
duties.
 under different constraints of time,
resources and personnel, and each of
these variables can have a significant
impact on a project.
The following :
• 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?
The following :
• 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?
Example:
A private institute decides to develop a set of
course materials for some of its major sources. A
group of teachers is assigned to the task and given
release time to work on the project as materials
writers. One of the senior teachers is put in charge.
However, the team members cannot agree on
the goals of the project or the best approach to
take in writing the materials. There is constant
tension within the team and a rapid turn-over of
writers. Consequently, the project takes much
longer to accomplish than planned.
•3
 A 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.
A :

A collection of teachers, groups, and

departments, functioning in unison,
independently, or sometimes with
components in a confrontational
relationship;
A :

May have a to
support innovation, one where there is
effective and positive leadership and where
change is received positively;
A :

May
and all teachers must use
the prescribed texts;
A :

May have
and consequently
teach their classes and then depart for
their next teaching assignment, perhaps in
another school.
 thus relate to the following kinds of
questions:

• What is available within the school to

support change and to help teachers cope with
change?
• What are the ’ ,
including classroom facilities, media and other
technological resources, and library resources?
 thus relate to the following kinds of
questions:

• What is the
?
• What staff morale like among
is
English teachers?
 thus relate to the following kinds of
questions:

• 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?
 thus relate to the following kinds of
questions:

• What kind of
for delivering successful language programs?
• How is the institution to
attaining excellence?
Example:
A new director is appointed to a private language
institute. The owners of the institute are concerned at
falling student enrollment and feel that the institute’s
programs need to be reviewed to make them more
competitive and attractive to potential clients.
The director prepares an excellent rationale for
revamping existing courses, for replacing the textbooks
currently in use with more up-to-date texts, and develops a
plan for marketing new courses.
However, she meets a wall of resistance from teachers
who feel that they are undervalued, underpaid, and that
proposed changes will not bring any benefits to them.
•4
 are a key factor in the successful
implementation of curriculum changes.
In any institution,
according to the following dimensions:
• Language proficiency
• Teaching experience
• Skill and expertise
•Training and qualifications
•Morale and motivation
•Teaching style
•Beliefs and principles
•Training and qualifications
•Morale and motivation
•Teaching style
•Beliefs and principles
Among the that need to be
considered in situation analysis are the following:

• What currently teach in the target

schools or institutions?
• What is , ,
, ? How proficienct are
they English?
Among the that need to be
considered in situation analysis are the following:

• What kindsof 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?
Among the that need to be
considered in situation analysis are the following:

• What are the

teachers use and believe in?
• To what extent are teachers open to
change?
Among the that need to be
considered in situation analysis are the following:

• What opportunities do they have for re-training

through in service or other kinds of opportunities?
• What new syllabus,
curriculum, or materials likely to offer teachers?
Example:
As part of an overall reform of the school curriculum, the
curriculum department in an EFL country decides to implement a new
task-based approach for teaching across the whole curriculum in all
subject areas.
The new curriculum involves a greater use of teacher-made
criterion-referenced tests that are linked to graded tasks in different
subject areas. However, when the plan is introduced to teachers, it
meets with great resistance.
Teachers are happy with the current curriculum; they have great
difficulty understanding the philosophy of the new approach and see it
as creating a much heavier workload. The teachers’ union organizes a
number of teachers’ meetings to discuss and criticize the new
curriculum.
In the face of public opposition, the curriculum department
decides to delay the introduction of the new curriculum and to modify it,
despite having spent a large sum of money in developing the curriculum
and supporting materials.
•5
 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.
Learners may affect the outcomes of a project in
unexpected ways.
Nunan (1989) comments:

“The
will be dictated as much by the attitude
and expectation of the learners as by the
specification of the official curriculum.”
Nunan (1989) comments:

“
in language lesson they attend. These
agenda as much as the teacher’s
objective, determine what learners take
from any given teaching/learning encounter.”
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.
Example:
A private institute in an EFL country offers an
intermediate-level conversation course. Teachers in the
course make extensive use of fluency activities, including
pair and group activities, role plays, songs and games, and
discussion activities. These activities are thought to reflect
current views on second language acquisition.
However, the first cohort of learners through the
program are very critical of it because they cannot see the
point of many of the classroom activities they were asked
to take part in. They request more teacher-directed
activities and more error correction. “We don’t want to
come to class to clap and sing” is a typical student
comment.
•6
 A 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 of a curriculum
change might also be crucial in its
successful adoption.
Any attempt to ,
, or set of materials must take into
account the relative ease or difficulty of
introducing change into system.
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.
may be readilyaccepted while
others might be resisted.
Some questions of the curriculum innovation :
1. What are 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 ?
Example:
English is being introduced at the elementary level for
the first time in a country. A teacher-training program is set
in place to prepare teachers for teaching at this level. To
provide the training, local teacher trainers are hired and
given a “training-of-trainers course” by a foreign expert.
However, a number of the local trainers are found to
have very traditional views about teacher education and
are opposed to the training model being used in the
training course.
Once they return to their own training centers, they try
to use their own training principles that are not consistent
with the philosophy of the new course.
Conclusion

67
 is changing in line with the challenging
of contemporary era.

as a set of education should be

prepared by considering some factors that
influence the curriculum itself.

The 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.
Sample Tools

70
-Fin-

74
References

75
REFERENCES
REFERENCES