Goals, Content and

Sequencing
FE T. CANOY
Presenter
 Objectives
O Familiarize and discuss the guidelines for
deciding or checking the
content and sequencing of a course
O Discuss the objectives, types and purpose
of unit of progression
O Explain the major division of content
sequencing
“The aim of this part of
the curriculum design
process is to make a list
of the items to teach in
the order in which they
will be taught.”

Nation & Macalister, 2010)

 Guidelines for Deciding or
Checking the
Content and Sequencing of a
Course
 Environment

Learner Teacher Situation

 Learner
O It must provide appropriate ideas
that would help in the learning
process.
O It must be fit to the age and
proficiency of the learners.
O It must be suitable to the
expectations ad interests of the
learners.
 Teacher
O Ensure that the content can be
modelled and comprehended
by the teachers.
 Situation
O The number of lessons in the
course must be suitable to the
length of allotted learning time.
O The ideas of the course must be
practical and useful outside of
the classroom.
 Needs
O Lacks
O The content must suit the proficiency
level of the learners.
O Wants
O The content must take into account
what the learners want.
O Necessities
O The content must be what the learners
need.
 Goals
O It should focus on language, ideas,
skills or discourse.
O The activities should aid the
language, ideas, skills or discourse
that it will focus on.
Sequencing the content of
the course
O Environment O Needs
O Learners O Lacks
O Teachers O Wants
O Situation O Necessiti
es
O Goals
 Goals and Content
“If poor content is chosen, then excellent teaching
and learning result in poor return for learning effort”
(Nation & Macalister, 2010)
Contents must be planed or
evaluated according to:

O Language
O Ideas
O Skills
O Discourse or text
Units of Progression in
the Course
 Unit of Progression
O These are the tools that are used to
assess the progress of the course.

Example:
Sound  Words Phrases  Sentences  Paragraphs

O Unit of analysis (Longman and

Crookes, 1993)
 Objectives of Units
Progression
O Grade progress
O Monitor student progress
Types of Units Progression
O The ones that progress in a
definite series – vocabulary
levels.
O The ones that represent a field
of knowledge – topics.
Purpose of Units Progression
O Set targets and paths to those
targets
O Check the adequacy of
selection and ordering in a
course
O Monitor and report on learners´
progress and achievement in
the course
 Units of Progression
O Vocabulary
O Grammar
O Functions
O Discourse
O Skills, Subskills and Strategies
O Ideas
Task-based Syllabus
 Task-based Syllabus
O It is based on task-based learning
O The language learnt comes out of
the linguistic demands of the
activity
O It is structured around a series of
these tasks.
Guide Questions in Crafting
Task-based Syllabus
O Does the activity engage learners’
interest?
O Is success judged in terms of outcome of
tasks?
Sequencing the Content in
a Course
“The lessons of a course can fit together in a variety of
ways.”
(Nation & Macalister, 2010)
Major Division in Sequencing
O Linear Development
O It starts from simpler to more
complex.
O Modular Development
O It breaks a course into
independent non-linear units
(Nation and Macalister, 2010).
 Linear Development
O Spiral Curriculum
O The contents are arranged from
simple to more complex.
O It is progressive
O It lets that students that were left
behind can catch up in the next
learning session
 Linear Development
O Matrix Model
O “The change when meeting an old
material again is one of diversity rather
than complexity (Nation & Macalister,
2010).”
O Revision Units
O It should be done not with repeating the
items but including activities that can help
to enrich the knowledge students already
have
 Linear Development
O Field Approach
O It involves:
O decisions of what items need to be
covered,
O providing different opportunities to
reach those items, and
O checking that the most relevant items
are studied enough.
 Modular Development
O The modules could be skill-based
with different modules for each
skill, and sub-skills of these larger
skills (Nation and Macalister, 2010).
 Summary
(Nation and Macalister, 2010)
O Describe the goals of the course.
O Decide on the unit of progression
for the course.
O Choose and sequence the content of
the course.
O Check the content against lists of
other items to ensure coverage
 References
Nation, I., & Macalister, J. (2010). Language Curriculum Design. New York:

Routledge.

Overbaugh, R. C., & Schultz, L. (s.f.). Bloom's Taxonomy. Retrieved on August

8, of 2014, from Old Dominion University:

http://ww2.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm

TeachBytes. Bloom´s Taxonomy & Pinterest. Bloom´s Taxonomy & Pinterest.

http://introductiontocurriculum-catafonseca.blogspot.com/2014/08/blog-

entry-5-goals-content-sequencing.html