APPROACHES

TO COURSE
DESIGN
 WHAT IS A “COURSE DESIGN”?
It is the process by which the raw data about a learning need is interpreted to
produce an integrated series of teaching-learning experiences.

WHAT IS ITS AIM?

To lead the learners to a particular state of knowledge. This entails the use of the
theoretical and empirical information available to produce a syllabus, to develop a
methodology for teaching those materials and to establish evaluation procedures by
which progress towards the specified goals will be measured.

What learners need and want may conflict. We must

remember that there are external constraints (classroom facilities/
time) that will restrict what is possible.
We also have to take into account our own theoretical views
and experiences of the classroom.
There are many different approaches to ESP course design.
 1. LG-CENTRED COURSE
DESIGN
It is the simplest and more familiar kind to English teachers (Ts). It aims to draw as direct
a connection as possible between the analysis of the target situation and the content of the
ESP course. It proceeds as follows:
However, it has a number of weaknesses:
1. It starts from the learner and their needs. It might be considered a learner-
centred approach. The learner is simply used as a means of identifying the
target situation.

2. It is a static and inflexible procedure, which can take little account of the
conflicts and contradictions that are inherent in any human endeavour.

3. It appears to be systematic.

4. It gives no acknowledgement to factors which must inevitably play a part in

the creation of any course. Data is not important in itself.

5. The lg-centred analysis of target situation data is only at the surface level. It
reveals very little about the competence that underlies the performance.

This course design fails to recognise the fact that, learners being people,
learning is not a straightforward, logical process.
A lg-centred approach says:
‘This is the nature of the target situation performance and that will determine
the ESP course.’
 2. SKILLS-CENTRED COURSE
DESIGN
It is a reaction both to the idea of specific registers of English as a basis for ESP and to
the practical constraints on learning imposed by limited time and resources. Its aim
is not to provide a specified corpus of linguistic knowledge but to make the learners
into better processors of information.

It is founded on 2 fundamental principles, one theoretical, the other pragmatic:

1. Underlying any lg behaviour are certain skills and strategies, which the learner uses
to produce or comprehend discourse.

2. The pragmatic basis for the skills-centred approach derives from a distinction made
by Widdowson (1981) between goal-oriented courses and process-oriented ones.

The emphasis in the ESP course in not on achieving a particular set

of goals, but on enabling the learners to achieve what they can within the
given constraint.
The role of needs analysis in this approach is twofold:
1. it provides a basis for discovering the underlying competence that enables
people to perform in the target situation.
2. it enables the course designer to discover the potential knowledge and abilities
that the learner bring to the ESP classroom.

This approach takes the learner more into account:

• it reviews lg in terms of how the mind of the learner processes it rather
than as an entity in itself
• it tries to build on the positive factors that the learners bring to the
course (previous knowledge), rather that just on the negative idea of
‘lacks’.
• It frames its objectives in open-ended terms, so enabling learners to
achieve at least something.

This approach still approaches the learner as a user of

lg rather than as a learner of lg. The processes it is concerned with are the
processes of lg use not of lg learning.
 A skills-centred approach says: ‘we must look behind the target
performance data to discover what processes enable sb to perform.
Those processes will determine the ESP course.’

Theoretical
views of lg

Analyse skills/ Select texts Establish

strategies and write evaluation
Identify target required to Write exercises to procedures
situation cope in target syllabus focus on skills/ which require
situation strategies in the use of skills
syllabus / strategies in
syllabus

Theoretical
views of
learning
 3. LEARNING-CENTERED
APPROACH
LEARNER-CENTERED LEARNING-CENTERED
APPROACH APPROACH
•It is based on the principle that •It is seen as a process in which the
learning is totally determined by the learner use what knowledge or skills
learner even though Ts can influence they have to make sense of the flow
what is taught of new information.
•The learner is one factor to •It is an internal process, which is
consider in the learning process, but crucially dependent upon the
not the only one. knowledge the learner already have
and their ability an motivation to
use it.
•It is a process of negotiation
between individuals and the society.
Society sets the target and the
individuals must do their best to get
as close to that target as is possible.
 A learning-centred approach says: ‘we must look beyond the
competence that enables sb to perform, because what we really want to
discover is not the competence itself, but how s acquires that
competence.’
Identify target situation
A lg- centred approach considers
the learner to here.
Analyse target situation

Analyse learning situation A skills- centred approach

considers the learner to here.

Write syllabus

Write materials

Teach materials

Evaluate learner achievements

A learning- centred approach must
consider the learner at every stage
This approach has 2 implications:
1. Course design is a negotiated process. The ESP learning situation and the
target situation will both influence the nature of the syllabus, materials,
methodology and evaluation procedures.

2. Course design is a dynamic process. It doesn’t move in a linear fashion. Needs

and resources vary with time. The course design, therefore, needs to have
built-in feedback channels to enable the course to respond to developments.

If we took a learning-centred approach, we would need to ask further questions and

consider other factors, before determining the content and methodology of the
course:
1. What skills are necessary to be taught?
2. What are the implications for methodology of having a mono-skill focus?
3. How will the sts react to doing tasks involving other skills?
4. Do the resources in the classroom allow the use of other skills?
5. How will the learners react to discussing things in the mother tongue?
6. How will the sts’ attitudes vary through the course? Will thy feel motivated?
7. How do sts feel about reading as an activity?

The important point is that these questions must be asked and the
results allowed to influence the course design.
The learning-centred course design process is shown in this diagram:
Identify
learners

Theoretical Analyse learning Analyse target Theoretical

views of learning situation situation view of lg

Identify attitudes/ Identify skills and

wants/ potential of knowledge needed
learners to function in the
target situation
dentify needs/
potential/ constraints
of learning/ teaching
situation

Write syllabus/ materials to exploit

the potential of the learning
Evaluation situation in the acquisition of the Evaluation
skills and knowledge required by
the target situation.
 5 practices that need to be changed to achieve
learning-centered approach (Weimer, 2002) :

The functions of content

The role of the teacher

The responsibility for learning

The processes and purposes of evaluation

The balance of power