HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

GRADUATE SCHOOL

Course title: CDMD

Week 2: Overview of course

development
FROM PRINCIPLES TO LEARNERS’ NEEDS

Objectives as
learning outcomes

Needs Analysis

Principles of second
language
acquisition

(McDonough, 2013)
Principles as Scientific Bases
• “… we prepare and use teaching materials and classroom methods
and techniques based on similar, or at least comparable, PRINCIPLES.”
• “By perceiving or internalizing connections between practice (choices
you make in the classroom and theory (principles derived from
research), … will be better able to see why you have chosen to use a
particular classroom technique … to carry out with confidence, and to
evaluate its utility …”

(McDonough, 2013)
Principles of
Second Language Acquisition (SLA)

(Tomlinson, 2011)
BLOOM’S TAXONOMY FOR
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES
 COURSE DEVELOPMENT
• grammar (e.g., using the present tense in
descriptions)
• functions (e.g., describing likes and dislikes)
FROM • topics (e.g., writing about world issues)
OBJECTIVES TO
COURSE • skills (e.g., developing topic sentences, opening and
CONTENT closing conversations, turn taking)
• processes (e.g., using prewriting strategies)
• texts (e.g., writing a business letter)

(McDonough, 2013)
 Vocab &
Pronunciation
Language
features as
NEEDS Functions
(Language Grammar
use)
Skills as Listening-
Speaking-
Sub-
NEEDS Reading-Writing
skills/Strategies
 Topics (E.g.
Films & TV
Programmes)
Ideas as
NEEDS
Roles (E.g. Situations
Role play) (E.g. TBL)
 Topic
Discourse types
types as
NEEDS
Texts Genre
TWO ASPECTS OF CONTENT SELECTION

M&M

Materials Methods

(Richards, 2001)
PRACTICE
• Is there an explicit statement of the goals of the
language programme on which you work? If so, what
are its primary aims?

• If there is not such a statement, try to draft one that

represents your own understanding of the goals.
EXAMPLE OBJECTIVES (1)
EXAMPLE OBJECTIVES (2)

• THE TEXT: “It’s time the Prime Minister listened more carefully to her
critics.”
• STUDENTS’ PROBLEM: The students are puzzled and ask for
explanation and further examples.

The verb “Listened”

Teacher responds on ‘It’s time …’ as an
expression involving hypothesis

LANGUAGE
GRAMMAR
FOCUS TO
(Conditionals)
EXPLORE
EXAMPLE OBJECTIVES (3)

Textbook: ENGLISH FILE

See THE TEXTBOOK

See THE COURSE SYLLABUS
See Unit 4B: Fashion & Shopping
References
• Brown, H. D. (2007). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to
Language Pedagogy. Cambridge University Press.
• Johnson, K. R. (1989).The Second language Curriculum. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
• McDonough, J.; Shaw, C., and Masuhara, H. (2013). Materials and methods
in ELT. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Nunan, D. (2008). Syllabus Design. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Richards, C. J. (2001). Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. New
York: Cambridge Language Education.
• Tomlinson, B. (2011). Introduction. In Tomlinson, B. (1998). Materials
development in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
(pp. 8-24).