Curriculum Studies

Format and
Presentation (2)
Mohammad Qushoy - 0201618014
Following a Set Format
When designing the format of a lesson, the curriculum designer
needs to consider :

• environment factors such as the length of time

1 available for each lesson.

• The teachers’ skill and role in the lesson, and the

2 size of a typical class.

• Deciding on the format of a lesson involves

3 combining practical and principled considerations.
Example:

Listening input Language- Meaning-

usually with a focused focused
meaning focus learning taking output, mainly
up points from speaking, often
the listening involving pair
and group
work and a
game-like
activity
The principles at work in this lesson
format seem to be:

There should be learning from Language-focused learning will

comprehensible input as a basis for contribute to the production of
later activities. output.

Learners should have to produce Repetition is an important aid to

language with a focus on the learning and material should be
message. recycled in a lesson.

Learners’ interest can be engaged

through short activities, attractive
Learners need not know why they
presentation using pictures, and a
are doing a particular activity.
degree of unpredictability regarding
the types of exercises.
 Blocks and Threads
Planning from Lesson to Lesson, 1995 by
Woodward and Lindstromberg
“Block the lesson which has a set
Lesson”
format and is a separate block
largely complete within itself.

involves an experience-
providing stage, a guided
practice stage, and then a
fluency-development stage.
“threads” activities that run through a
series of lessons.

activities that can be used again

and again with minimal planning
and only small changes.
There can be threads within threads.

Threads can be part of blocks

The use of threads and blocks reduces

the need for detailed planning and
organization.
Techniques and Activities

Experiences Activities

Shared Activities

Guided Activities

Independent Activities
 Experience activities
The teacher, curriculum designer or materials writer
carefully controls the language, ideas, skills, etc. so that
they will be largely already familiar to the learners.
try to keep as
much as The knowledge needed to do the activity is provided through
possible of the previous lessons or previous activities within a lesson. Speaking
knowledge activities near the end of a lesson, or the listening activities at the
needed to beginning of a lesson may be like this. This results in a lesson
format that builds up to a final activity or set of activities that are
perform the the main point of the lesson.
activity within
the learners’ The teacher helps the learners to share and recall previous
previous experience to make the following activity easier. This results
experience. in a lesson format that may begin with teacher-led
discussion or group work and ends with what otherwise
may have been quite a demanding task. Examples include
discussion of a topic followed by each learner writing
about it, and semantic mapping of a topic followed by
speaking about it.
Shared activities
Nation (1989b) describes four major kinds of group work

the learners in a group have equal access to the

same information;
involve the
learners
each learner has a different piece of information
achieving essential to the completion of the task;
through group
work what they
one or more learners have all the information
could not that the others need;
achieve by
working alone.
the learners share the same information but each
has a different task to do.
 Guided activities
The presentation of the model piece of language. The
presentation may be meaning-focused, but the
fundamental purpose of the model is to provide a look
involve the learners at the goal of the lesson and suggest items for learning
doing already partly and practice.
completed tasks. 
completion
activities, The learners do guided tasks on parts of the model to
prepare for the next section of the lesson.
substitution
activities, matching
activities, repetition
activities, etc. The learners do activities like role plays or discussions
resulting in meaning-focused production of language
that is like the model.
 Independent Activities (ultimate goal of others three)

the learners work with The four types of activities can all be used in a
no assistance or course and it is desirable that they are. This is
preparation. They can because each provides a different kind of
draw on their skills learning goal and means of learning. Each kind
and make use of other of activity makes use of a different set of
resources, but principles and it is useful to look carefully at
essentially they are in major activity types within a course to examine
control of their own these principles and see if they agree with
learning. principles based on research and theory.
Tasks and Presentation

task-supported syllabus, the task is likely to be the final

stage in a conventional Present–Practise–Produce unit of
work; the task may be designed to focus on the language
structure that has been presented.
• task-supported syllabus

a task-based syllabus, however, the task is likely to be the

unit. Willis (1996) describes the task-based learning
framework as consisting of three phases – pre-task, the
task cycle and language focus
• a task-based syllabus
Summary of the Steps
• Decide on the main teaching techniques and
1 activities.

• Plan the format of the lessons.

2

• Check the format against principles.

3

• Write the lessons.

4
Conclusion
The most important principle to consider in format
and presentation is the provision of a balance of
learning opportunities across the four strands of
meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output,
language-focused learning and fluency development

The most important job of the language teacher is to

plan, and the second most important kind of planning
is to provide a balance of opportunities for learning
across the four strands

Classroom activities can be of several types and in this

chapter we have looked at experience, shared, guided
and independent activities. There is no need to have a
balance of these types, but it is useful to understand
how each of them helps learning.
THANK YOU