Syllabus Design: The Chilean Context 8th Grade Level: 3rd Quarter

Textbook: Travelers 8 Unit 3: Different Lives

Vanessa Armand & Aarika Floyd March 27, 2012

In keeping with our research of the Chilean EFL context and our knowledge of the Chilean Ministry of Education guidelines for all schools nationwide, this syllabus follows the mandated curriculum framework for the 8th grade level. This framework focuses on the

language skills that students need in preparation for their English language studies at the 1 Medio level (1st year high school). Goals for the 8th grade are a combination of learning abilities and the expected outcome for students at this level. These goals are in line with the Ministry guidelines, and as expressed in the nationally implemented textbook, Travelers 8. We created the following diagram for our selected unit with these overarching goals in mind to create our syllabus design.

The learning activities for our unit syllabus were selected based on Unit 3 of Travelers 8, and were constructed in three ways: (1) as they appear in the textbook, (2) as adapted from the textbook, and (3) as created/adapted from realia collected to fit the theme of the lesson. This syllabus design aligns with the third quarter of the Chilean scholastic calendar (July 30-October 5). We chose this quarter as the focus for our syllabus design because this quarter explicitly introduces students to foreign perspectives on universal issues and to the use of English as a tool for international communication. The quarter is ten weeks long, and includes one week for the national holiday celebration of the Fiestas Patrias including Da de las Glorias del Ejrcito (the Chilean government independence celebration and Armed Forces Day). For the purposes of this assignment, we integrated the fact that this current academic year also coincides as an Olympic year for the Summer Games. We believe this syllabus could be easily adapted to fit a non-Olympic season context, as the activities used are more largely focused on English language use in the study and presentation of student-chosen target countries. The unit for this quarter, as dictated in Travelers 8, is theme-based and comprised of five lessons: Experiences in a Foreign Country, International English, Jokes & Humor, Festivals around the World, and Study Habits. The nationwide curriculum framework utilizes this text and during the creation of this syllabus, we did not allow it specifically to dictate all the content we featured during this unit. The textbook was also needed to correlate with the cooperating Chilean schools content so the pen-pal activity email discussions focused on the same content and language focuses between schools, as well as being a needs assessment strategy for students. Supporting our decision for textbook utilization with our own modification is this statement by Kathleen Graves (2000) stating, when you teach with [a textbook], you can make changes in

how you use it. The changes stem from your beliefs and understandings, your goals and objectives, your students needs, and the requirements of your context (p. 173). We decided to spread these lessons equally over the 10-week quarter, amounting to roughly two weeks per lesson. There is a slight shortening and overlapping of lessons four and five due to the weeklong school hiatus for Fiestas Patrias and for the final week of school, which functions as time for review, final assessment, and student feedback. Meeting only for an hour three days a week, we tried to create cohesion with the weekly design by having each day contain activities correlating with the day of the week. We have Manic Mondays that

comprise of review the previous week material to refresh the students memories or introducing new grammar and language points. Many times these days utilize the textbook more than Wednesdays or Fridays. A majority of the Wednesdays throughout the unit take place in a computer lab. With this planned, students are able to meet the Ministry of Educations guideline of technology use for this content area. For Fridays, we planned seemingly fun activities for Fun Fridays so that students are able to practice and review content in a fun way or learning with other means than with the textbook or on a computer. These days allow the teachers to create their own applicable activities for a change of pace to student learning. The layout of this syllabus is by no means definitive, and we acknowledge that the pacing of lessons needs to be largely contingent on learner needs and grasp of the presented unit material. The attitudes featured in our goal diagram reflect the overarching attitudes by the Ministry and attitudes specifically for Unit 3. These attitudes are for learners to (1) learn about and respect life in other countries, and (2) learn about and reflect on the importance of English around the world and in their own lives. The overarching goals of the nationwide curriculum, and thus of this syllabus, are most easily identified in the Attitudes section of each unit in

Travelers 8 teacher manual. These attitudes encourage the learners to (1) appreciate the importance and value of different cultures, and (2) appreciate the importance of English as an effective means of communication (Teaching Guide, Jantus, p. 106). In addition to these maxims, the textbook also spells out precise learning objectives for the four skills, placing primary focus on the receptive skills, reading and listening. This is in keeping with the notion that input is paramount in the early stages of language acquisition, and the general belief in Chile that strong receptive skills will be of more use to students throughout their scholastic career than productive skills (Jantus, 2009). It is our belief, however, that productive language skills are just as, if not more so, important for communication in the international spherea major goal of the curriculum reformand thus, we have focused our supplemental materials primarily on writing and speaking. These supplemental materials highlight certain aspects present in the reform that we felt will be most relevant and applicable to students lives and continued use of English as an International Language. As previously stated, these aspects are knowledge of and sensitivity toward other cultures and the skills needed in order to communicate internationally. We have highlighted oral and written communication in discussing cultural differences, written expression of personal reflection and cultural sensitivity, and written and oral problem solving of communication breakdowns. We attempt to both implicitly and explicitly introduce learners to the types of experiences that students will encounter in using English as an international language. By weaving into the unit certain content and activity strands that we feel reflect these aspects, we aim to continuously recycle content in an entertaining manner, and provide just enough structure to help learners move towards autonomy and ownership of their English language learning. Ideally, this approach will aid students in the improvement of their

communicative competencies but also help them gain a multifaceted knowledge of various cultures (both inside and outside of Chile). These content and activity strands include various group projects focusing on a student-chosen country of interest, an online pen-pal activity, and a blog-style journal reflection that joins pen-pal communication, country-of-interest activities, and thematic and grammatical in-class work. For this units theme, Different Lives, we decided to implement with our usual student groupings called pods the idea of the classroom as a League of Nations. The pods are merely groups of four students who comprise their own nation. Each pod will choose from a provided list the English-speaking country of their choice. The countries on the list are not homogenously English, but countries in which English is spoken generally as well as a countrys native language, for example, Germany. Throughout the unit, students work with other members of their pod countries to complete projects and assignments together as a means for interaction and negotiation of meaning. The structure of the syllabus can be viewed as a combination of cycle and matrix organizational methods. Graves (2000) categorizes this blend as the following: Within a unit, there is predictable sequence of learning activities (i.e. begin each unit with same activity and end with second same activity, obviously addressing different content with each unit, but with matrix activities (or individual activities that are chosen to fit specific content) in the middle (p.141). Each day, classes begin with an oral introduction of daily activities; they end with time allotted to a listening/speaking activity that focuses on student feedback, and with question & answer time, (not added into syllabus grid since it is utilized in every class). This organizational syllabus includes specific language skills that are the target for the lesson or activity. Although different skills are targeted for each task, more than one language skill is actually used per task.

For example, the primary focus of one task may be speaking for students, but listening is also a language skill used in the same task. Creating the syllabus design for this unit was a challenging task taking into account the nationally mandated textbook that is needed in order for nationwide assessment strategies in English to be properly useful to all English language learners throughout the country, (standardization of language proficiency content for all learners and levels). After researching our educational context, creating needs assessment tools for the learners in this context, and finally creating a syllabus for the 8th grade level, we feel properly aware and educated of the process in which to carry out our own curriculum design in the future if necessary. This syllabus design is unique to our specifically chosen context; however, the learned process in which to create a curriculum in any given context is definitely internalized for these two curriculum designers.

References Graves, Kathleen. (2000). Designing Language Courses. Heinle & Heinle. Jantus, L. (2009). Gua Didctica para el Profesor Travelers: 8 . [Teaching Guide for the Teacher Travelers: 8 Basic] Santiago, Chile: Eds. Cal y Canto. Jantus, L. (2009). Travelers: 8 Appendix Attached Syllabus Design grid for 3rd Quarter 2012: English as a Foreign Language in Chile Unit 3: Different Lives . Santiago, Chile: Eds. Cal y Canto.