Berfin KARAÇÖL

201910214046
Fatih YAVUZ
ELT Programs and Approaches
17.06.2021

AIMS, OBJECTİVES, AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

According to early English language courses, the goal of a course was to teach English.
However, movements such as Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and the English for
Specific Purposes (ESP) brought ford the question of ‘what kind of English?’ and ‘for what
purposes?’. The answers to these questions can be answered by an important part of the decision-
making in curriculum design: determination of aims, objectives, and learning outcomes.
In a curriculum design firstly the aims of the course should be determined. Aims simply refer
to the general purposes of a curriculum. Aims seek to provide information about the target
learners, the content of the course, and the type of teaching and learning that will take place.
(Richards, 2017) The aims will also give information about the beliefs, values, and course
philosophy. The functions of aims are as follows stated by Richards (2017):
 To provide a clear definition of the purposes of a language program.
 To provide guidelines for teachers, learners, and materials writers.
 To help provide a focus for instruction.
 To determine important and realizable changes in learning.
Therefore, an aim for a tourist guide English course can be as follows:
 To develop the communication skills needed to present and explain touristic, historical,
or natural places.
Since aims are general, they are usually accompanied by objectives to give them a more
specific focus for program aims. (Richards, 2017) Objectives are ‘’statements that describe the
end-points or desired outcomes of the curriculum, a unit, a lesson plan, or learning activity.’’
(Behar-Horenstein, 2010). Objectives are the starting points of planning and they also direct the
planning procedure. Aims provide measurable outcomes and accountability because their success
and failure to teach can be measured.
The characteristics of objectives are described by Richards (2017) as follows:
 Objectives describe an intended learning outcome.
 Objectives should be consistent with the curriculum aim.
 Objectives should describe what learners will learn to do as a result of instruction.
 Objectives should be precise.
  Objectives should be feasible.
Objectives for a tourist guide English course can be as follows:
 Learners will be able to answer questions from guests.
 Learners will be able to ask for clarifications to maintain understanding.
Aims and objectives focus on learning purposes. The statements about the result of learning
are called learning outcomes. Learning outcomes refer to the learners’ ability to demonstrate
what they learned at the end of the units through performance or practices. They are based on
objectives. ‘’ Outcomes provide a standard for assessment or testing for teachers. For students,
they provide a map, detailing interim progression, or milestones towards a goal, as well as a
sense of making progress as they experience achievement through participation in practices.’’
(Mickan, 2013, 46-47)
A learning outcome can be as follows:
 Learners will give a five-minute presentation to the class presenting a historical place.
To summarize, aims are the general purposes of a curriculum, objectives are aim-based and
give them specific purposes and learning outcomes are objective-based statements that are
concerned with the results of learning. The aims, objectives, and learning outcomes ‘’ lay out a
destination but not the means to arrive at the destination.’’ (Richards, 2017)

REFERENCES
Richards, J. (2017). Curriculum Development in Language Teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge
University Press.
Behar-Horenstein, L. (2010). Objectives in curriculum planning. In C. Kridel
(Ed.), Encyclopedia of curriculum studies (pp. 615-616). SAGE Publications, Inc.,
https://www.doi.org/10.4135/9781412958806.n331