2.

Individual work 
a. Write a 500–800-word essay to reflect on your experience in this class:
Language teaching activities have been viewed from various perspectives. Through the curriculum
development course, we have learned a wide range of knowledge about this field and the theories of the
curriculum. The series of curriculum development includes: 
First is the introduction to Curriculum Development. Curriculum development is the process of creating
curriculum materials by teachers for the students to learn curriculum planning. Curriculum Development
is affected by the context in which it takes place.  
The second is the origin of Curriculum Development. In this part, Curriculum Development is introduced
beginning in the 1960s. Besides, the approaches to the syllabus design that emerged in the first part of the
20th century are focused on in this part.  
The third chapter is about the current approaches to Curriculum Development. The sequences of the
contents are the quest for new methods, changing needs for foreign languages in Europe, English for
specific purposes, Need analysis in ESP, communication in language teaching, and the emergence of
curriculum approach in language teaching. 
In all the classes above, we were divided into groups. Each group will discuss a small part of the lessons
to answer the questions from the guiding teacher. Then the teacher will show us the correct response to
the problems and add some necessary details that we should bear in mind. 
The fourth part of the course is Need Analysis. In this chapter, we focus on the nature of needs, Learners
without specific needs, Larger-scale needs analysis, The goals of need analysis, The users of need
analysis, The target populations, Procedures for large-scale needs analysis, making use of information
obtained, and applying the findings of need analysis. After reading the guidelines of need analysis
carefully, we would work in a group to make a list of questionnaires for our guided teacher. The aim of
making a list of questionnaires is to better understand students’ needs so that we can start designing the
syllabus for them. 
When finishing with the Need Analysis guideline, we will examine Chapter 5: Context and the
curriculum. The following aspects considered in this chapter are the sociocultural environment, the
learners, the teachers, the institution, means of delivery, adoption factors, and profiling of the factor
identified in the situation analysis. During this class, we will analyze the case study to better understand
the knowledge in group work. After that, we had the chance to present our group work with the correction
from the teachers. 
At this stage, we have learned the necessary knowledge that would help us enhance our Need Analysis
report. In the report, we would include some elements, for example, the context of the course (school,
teacher, learner); the goals of the teacher and the learners; teaching methods, preferred activities;
materials; language skills and components, assessment. The guide teachers will help us correct our
mistakes and remind us to focus on important parts.  
Chapter 6 of the course is Curriculum aims and objectives. In this lesson, the guiding teacher informs us
about these aspects: Goal setting in backward design, Aims and objectives, Learning outcomes,
Competencies, Standards, and Process outcomes. After learning this lesson, we can start writing Aims
and objectives reports to better understand the purpose of planning a curriculum. The teacher would let us
work in a group for about 2 weeks for this project and send us feedback later. 
Now we are moving to Course planning and Chapter 7. In this part, we will learn about Determining the
level of the course, Choosing a syllabus framework, Content-based syllabus and CLIL, Competency-
based syllabus, Task-based syllabus, and Text-based syllabus. Besides, this chapter also examines several
types of the syllabus that including Skill-based syllabus, Functional syllabus, Grammatical syllabus,
Vocabulary syllabus, Situational syllabus, Determining the scope and sequence, and development of
instructional segments. This lesson helped us to choose the suitable types of the syllabus so that we can
start working on the Course planning project. About our group, we decided to choose the skill-based
approach that focuses on speaking and listening skills. The guiding teacher gave us a week to finish our
project and we had an in-person meeting to talk about our project: the good points and some errors that
need correction. 
In the next lesson, we learned about the Functional syllabus. In this class, we would watch the
presentation from a teacher and list some points with which we are impressed. In this presentation, we
could learn more about: Examples of Functional Syllabus, Content-based syllabus, TBLT, Competency-
based approaches, and Standard-based or skilled-based syllabus. 
The following part concentrates on the issue: Curriculum as process. This aspect focuses on an alternative
understanding of curriculum, what teachers bring to teaching, how teachers think about lesson purpose,
and what happens during lessons (this part includes some aspects following: personal values and
principal, improvisational teaching, own materials, the role of teacher, reflective and exploratory practice,
learner’s perspective, leaners become autonomous learners.). After learning the theories, the teacher let us
examine the case study to understand what we had learned. 
The final theory in this course we must learn is Curriculum evaluation. This part will include the focus of
evaluation, Audience for evaluation, Quantitative and qualitative approaches, product-focused evaluation,
Formative and summative evaluation, Process-focused evaluation, Descriptive evaluation, reflective
evaluation, and implementing reflective evaluation. Curriculum evaluation is an essential and critical
aspect of the educational system. It provides the basis for curriculum policy decisions, feedback on the
processes of curriculum adjustments, and processes of curriculum implementation. This part will be
included in our group project. 
The last activity of the course was Showcase. During the showcase, we should present our project (which
consists of all the theories that we have learned so far). The showcase would include these elements: The
rationale for designing the curriculum, Context of the curriculum, Aims and objectives of the curriculum,
Approach for the curriculum, The organization of the course, Learning and teaching methods, Materials,
Course planning assessment, Plans for curriculum evaluation, Difficulties. After the presentation is done,
the guiding teacher will give us feedback to improve and correct our mistakes. 
During the course, we have developed group-working skills as well as revealed individual thoughts.
Every opinion should be appreciated whether it is correct or not. Besides, we could practice our time
management skills when dealing with a load of work so that we can finish the project on time. On of that,
our reading skills have developed gradually, and our knowledge becomes solid at the end of the course.
 
b. Designing a curriculum requires you to take into consideration some contextual factors. Look at the list
below:
1. The context of the course: Human resources, including teachers and administrative/support staff.
In this task, I will play the role of a curriculum designer for 30 students at Que Minh primary
school. The targeted students are learners in grade 4 whose first or dominant language is not
English, and they are studying to achieve level 1 in Vietnam's 6-level language proficiency
framework. Based on the needs analysis, I find out that the learners lack opportunities to practice
listening and speaking skills both inside and outside the class. Therefore, they lack
communication skills and are afraid of communicating with their teacher and their friends. This
course will mainly focus on communicative competence. The main purpose of this syllabus is to
help students feel comfortable and confident while talking and listening to various familiar simple
topics such as family, friends, school, etc. Therefore, the language focus of our curriculum is
relevant vocabulary, grammar points, and pronunciation in the field of those topics, and listening
and speaking are two prominent skills. 

2. The aims and objectives of the course

Speaking skills:
 Aims: The students will find it comfortable to communicate some familiar and
simple topics.
 Objectives: Students will be able to:
 - Conversation:
+ Understand and use familiar structures.
+ Create simple conversations based on the information they had learned.
- Pronunciation (stress, intonation, sounds): students will be able to
pronounce the word correctly.
- Grammar: students will be able to understand some simple grammar
structures.
- Vocabulary
+ Students can understand and use the vocabulary depending on the specific
topics.
+ Students can identify new words and repeat those words.
+ Students can at least memorize 400 words belonging to CEFR level A1
Listening:
 Aims: Enables students to hear and understand simple daily conversations.
 Objectives: Students will be able to:
- Hear and recognize the word stress.
- Identify the main ideas of very simple short stories.
- Distinguish more important ideas from less important ones.
- Listen and respond to simple questions about familiar topics;
- Listen and understand short dialogues, monologues, simple structure, and
simple vocabulary related to the topics.

3. Approaches to the curriculum

The curriculum I am going to design is based on a skill-based approach. In this curriculum, I will
focus on Listening and Speaking Skills. This curriculum is designed to help the students of fourth
grade apply these skills effectively in their learning and communicative situations. Therefore, I
would like to list some suitable approaches to make the curriculum more comfortable:
- Students should have basic knowledge of English including phonetics, vocabulary, and
vocabulary, grammar; through English, there is an understanding to know the country, people,
and culture of a language-speaking country and the rest of the world.
- Students should have a cheerful outlook toward learning English; know how to be proud, love,
and respectful. to value the culture and language of the people
- Teachers should form effective English learning methods for the students, creating a foundation
for learning foreign languages frequently in the future.
- Teachers should develop positive attitudes toward English language learning in the students;
guild the students to have pride in and appreciation of their own culture and language.

4. Designing a curriculum
The curriculum of 12 weeks in the first semester of grade 4. (English Grade 4, part 1, Vietnam
Education Publishing House).

Macro Type Micro Type

Listening Speaking Grammar Pronunciation Vocabulary
Week Listen and Greeting and Good morning/ Phonics: morning,
1,2 tick the responding to Good afternoon/ Linda afternoon,
Nice to correct box greetings Good evening. night evening,
see you according to formally. Nice to see you night,
the audio. Saying and again. tomorrow,
again
 Listen and responding to Goodbye/Bye/Good later, again,
number the goodbye. night. see, meet,
picture See you Viet Nam,
according to tomorrow/See you England
the audio. later.
Listen and
repeat
sentences.
Week Listen and Asking and Where are you Phonics: America,
3,4 tick the answering from? Japan American,
I’m from correct box questions I’m from... Vietnamese Australia,
Japan according to about where What nationality are Australian,
the audio. someone is you? England.
Listen and from. I’m... English,
number the Asking and Japan,
picture answering Japanese,
according to questions Malaysia,
the audio. about one’s Malaysian,
Listen and nationality. Vietnam,
repeat and
sentences. Vietnamese.
Week Listen and Asking and What day is it Phonics: Today.
5,6 tick the answering today? First Monday,
What day correct box questions It’s... Thursday Tuesday,
is it according to about the What do you do on Her Wednesday,
today? the audio. days of the + (name of the Thursday,
Listen and week. day)? Friday,
number the Asking and I ... in the morning/ Saturday,
picture answering in the afternoon. Sunday,
according to questions English.
the audio. about weekly
Listen and activities.
repeat
sentences.
Week 7 Predict, Ask and
Review identify, and answer about
1 recognize the main
the specific ideas from
information each unit
characters 1,2,3 with the
and their available
activities. structures
Week Listen and Asking and What is the date Phonics: January,
8,9 repeat answering today? Fourth February,
When’s sentences. questions It’s ... March March,
your Listen and about the When’s your April, May,
birthday? number the dates. birthday? June, July,
picture Asking and It’s on the ... August,
according to answering September,
the audio. questions October,
 about November,
someone’s December,
birthday. Ordinal
numbers.
Week Listen and Asking and What can you do? Phonics: Can, ride,
10,11 tick the answering I can ... Sing cook, skate,
Can you correct box questions Can you ...? swim skip, sing,
swim? according to about what Yes, I can. /No, I swim,
the audio. someone can’t. swing,
Listen and can/cannot dance, play,
number the do. guitar,
picture Asking and piano,
according to answering volleyball,
the audio. questions table tennis,
Listen and about chess.
repeat whether
sentences. someone can
do
something.
Week 12 Predict, Ask and
Review 2 identify, and answer about
recognize the main
the specific ideas from
information each unit 4,5
characters with the
and their available
activities. structures

5. Teaching methods
 Audio lingual method can be used in teaching speaking skills in the class. In the course
book of the first semester of grade 4, language is taught through dialogues to make
vocabulary easier to remember and practice. Teachers can use oral drills when students
mimic the teacher or a tape listening carefully to all features of the spoken target
language. It helps students memorize the dialogue, make their statements based on the
learned one, and practice pronunciation.
Moreover, Communicative language teaching is also used in our course. Students are
expected to interact with other classmates through pair work, group work, role-play, or
information gap activities.
 Now I am mentioning teaching listening skills. When teaching listening skills, the Direct
Method and Communicative language teaching can be used frequently. The students need
to hear and understand the dialog. They need to hear how the language is used, how it is
pronounced, and how to incorporate it into their oral communication. Therefore, teachers
can apply the Direct method. The teacher also facilitates students when they do listen to
activities by giving students feedback students while those activities was finished.
 Teachers can incorporate a grammar or vocabulary lesson with the skills. During class
hours, the teacher can reduce his/ her supervision by assigning speaking or writing tasks
to the learners. Teachers apply various techniques in presenting one language to make
 sure that learners of distinctive styles can actively profit from lessons. Tasks for
practicing skills also vary through lessons to engage students in the class.

6. Availability of materials
In the 21st century, teaching materials will have many changes and improvements. With the
appearance of e-books, YouTube, or other Internet channels, both students and teachers
nowadays have more options in choosing the necessary materials.
Besides, using traditional materials and resources such as the availability of textbooks, classroom
resources, and school resources.
Here are some materials and sources that teachers could include in the lessons to make them more
interesting:

 Availability of the textbooks.

 Availability of technology
 Classroom resources.
 School resources such as DVDs, whiteboards, photocopy machines, library, ...
 Access to and use of the Internet.
 Modes of teaching and learning.
 educational link from the internet, some educational games
 YouTube channels

7. Assessment activities in the course

 Formative assessment: Observation, presentation, informal questions 
The teacher can observe while the class is working and contribute to their participation in
given tasks (small talks, listening exercises) to see the students’ engagement with the
content and provide help to them if necessary. When students have finished the task, the
teacher can ask students to present their reports to the whole class. After that, the teacher
can ask these students some questions about their opinions concerning the given topic.
Students will be evaluated many times in each lesson.
 Summative assessment:
Reviews 1 and 2: Students take review 1 (covering units 1,2,3) and review 2 (covering
units 4,5).  The reviews focus on listening and speaking skills.

8. Examinations: At the end of the curriculum, students will have an oral test.
Answering the following questions:
i. Besides the contextual factors mentioned above, do you think of any factors that affect
the design of your curriculum?
A factor that affects the design of my curriculum is the assessment activities in the course. During the
course, if the teacher just lets the student listen to the tape and repeats it all the time, the lesson will
become boring and prevent the autonomous state of the students. Therefore, the teacher should
provide the student with more activities that let them interact with their classmates to make the
lessons more interesting.
ii. Can you select from the list above, as well as the one(s) you have just suggested, and
rank the most five important contextual factors that affect the design of your curriculum?

Most 1. Learner factors such as proficiency level

important/influential and educational background.
contextual factors 2. Human resources, including teachers
and administrative/support staff.
Least 3. The educational environment (i.e., fit
important/influential with other courses going on).
contextual factors 4. Teachers’ experience and preferred
teaching style.
5. Availability of materials.

The reason I ranked “Learner factors such as proficiency level and educational background” the
most important is because the teacher must consider learners’ level of proficiency so that they can
provide the best option that is suitable for the student learning process. Learner factors also play
the most important part because each student must have responsibility for their study, under the
supervision of the teacher. Depending on the need analysis report that had been carefully
examined through the group work, I produced the Aims and Objectives of the curriculum. This
way, I will know the level of the students so that I can design a curriculum that they receive the
most value. The second important is “Human resources, including teachers and
administrative/support staff”’. It is undeniable that human resources are an important part when
building a curriculum. If a student wants to have a good learning process, they should have the
teacher’s guidance. With the guidance of the teachers, the students can boost their best potential
and achieve a higher level. This element appears clearly in the context of the curriculum where
teachers help students with their learning or in the teaching methods of the teacher. “The
educational environment (i.e., fit with other courses going on)’ is also important but less than the
student factor and teacher factor. In this situation, the more comfortable the educational
environment is, the better the student studies. However, it is not so important because the teacher
will have to find ways to make students find studying understandable under no circumstances.
Besides, the curriculum is designed close to the guidance of the government, therefore, it is
suitable for the students. The fourth is “Teachers’ experience and preferred teaching style.”
Teachers’ experience and teaching style are important. Therefore, this part is contributed to the
approach to the curriculum and teaching methods. This may require the teacher lots of practice,
but if the teacher carefully prepares the lessons, then the difficulties will be lessened. The least
important is “Availability of materials” because the materials (I list some kinds of materials
above) are optional. The curriculum is enough to help the student with their studying. However,
with more types of materials, the lessons will be more interesting, and the students will become
more enthusiastic during the classes.