An integrated approach to foreign language

Language, Culture and Curriculum

ISSN: 0790-8318 (Print) 1747-7573 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rlcc20

An integrated approach to foreign language learning in Lebanon Kassim Shaaban & Ghazi Ghaith To cite this article: Kassim Shaaban & Ghazi Ghaith (1997) An integrated approach to foreign language learning in Lebanon, Language, Culture and Curriculum, 10:3, 200-207, DOI: 10.1080/07908319709525252 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07908319709525252

Published online: 14 Sep 2009.

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An Integrated Approach to Foreign Language Learning in Lebanon Kassim Shaaban and Ghazi Ghaith American University of Beirut 850 Third Avenue, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10022, USA

This article describes the procedures followed in developing a theme-based English as a Foreign Language (EFL) curriculum to be implemented nation-wide in the Republic of Lebanon. The description covers the procedures followed in forming curricular objectives, developing perspectives on instruction, setting criteria for material selection and adaptation, and devising evaluation guidelines. These objectives were grounded in some national policy initiatives and based on a variety of curricular plans. Similarly, the perspectives on instruction, material development, and evaluation guidelines were developed based on widely accepted theoretical views and effective applications in foreign language education. This article describes the authors' experience in developing a theme-based English as a foreign language (EFL) curriculum to be implemented nation-wide in the Republic of Lebanon. In contemporary Lebanon, EFL instruction starts with the beginning of schooling (kindergarten), and English gradually replaces the native language, Arabic, as the medium of instruction in many of the country's major institutions of higher learning. The authors served as coordinators of the work of a committee set by the National Center for Educational Research and Development (NCERD) and entrusted with the responsibility of developing an EFL curriculum along the lines of the principles of a new educational policy. These principles were grounded in the 1989 Taif Accord that ended the Lebanese civil war (1975-1989) and were later explicated in the Plan for Educational Reform (1994) and The New Framework for

Education (1995). In the area of foreign language education, the principles underscored the goals of developing English language proficiency, promoting cultural understanding, and enhancing ability to work with others. There was also emphasis on learning English for academic purposes (EAP). Consequently, we aimed at translating these principles into a working curriculum that espouses modern theories of foreign language acquisition and recent trends in curriculum design and teaching methodologies. What follows in the subsequent pages is a description of the procedures we followed in developing curriculum objectives, perspectives on instruction, material selection and adaptation, and evaluation guidelines. The Curriculum Guided by the principles of the new educational policy, we opted for a thematic content-based approach to language teaching. A basic premise behind this option was that integrating and organising instruction around meaningful themes would be effective in achieving the communicative, social, and academic 0790-8318/97/03 0200-08 $10.00/0 LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND CURRICULUM

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goals set for teaching English in the country. In addition, the new curriculum aimed at involving learners in their own learning by engaging them in meaningful and interactive performance tasks as they acquire a wide range of language forms, structures, and functions needed for immediate success in an all-English curriculum at all levels of instruction. Thus, we attempted to create maximum opportunities for contextualised and motivating language practice by providing redundant, accurate, and 'comprehensible input' as described by Krashen (1985,1988) without undermining the role of the learners' 'output' in the process of language acquisition. This was made possible through organising the curriculum around developmentally appropriate themes that draw on the learners' immediate environment, such as the self, the family, and the neighbourhood at the lower levels of proficiency, and gradually decentring those themes into more comprehensive ones that constitute part of the learners' expanding world, such as human communication, recent discoveries, human rights and so forth at the higher levels of proficiency. In setting the objectives of the new curriculum, we studied a variety of curricular plans such as the English National Curriculum in England and Wales (Carter, 1991), the Threshold Level for Modern Language Learning in Schools (Van Ek,

1991), and the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) proficiency guidelines. Following those curricular plans and guidelines, we identified three major goals of teaching EFL, namely, using English as a medium of instruction in content areas; using English for communication in social settings; and using correct and appropriate English academically, socially, and culturally. These goals were in turn translated into general goal statements (instructional objectives) and then into more specific outcome statements (performance tasks) for each grade level, focusing on the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in addition to critical thinking, study skills, and cultural awareness. For example, the listening skill objectives ranged from 'understanding a set of common words' in Grade 1 to 'inference and interpretation of the various elements of spoken discourse and speaking situations' in Grade 12. These objectives correspond to the generic ACTFL descriptors of 'novice low' and 'superior'. Similarly, the instructional objectives of the other skills followed the same pattern of moving from simple to more complex objectives depending on the grade level. All objectives were then further explicated into specific performance tasks. For example, the aforementioned listening objective of 'Understanding a set of common words' included the following performance tasks: • Match spoken words to print. • Relate spoken words to objects and/or pictures. • Respond physically or verbally to simple and high frequency commands. These performance tasks were then used as the basis for developing instructional units and classroom applications. Teaching methods

In developing perspectives on instruction, we considered the interdisciplinary approach for integrating language and content as desirable but difficult to implement, due to some rigidity in the structures of school management in some

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private as well as public schools in the country. Consequently, we adopted the two approaches of parallel scheduling and thematic units proposed by Block (1993) as ways of integration. Unlike the interdisciplinary approach, parallel scheduling and thematic units do not necessitate a lot of teacher coordination in order to achieve integration, as teachers may schedule similar topics of study and still assess each subject separately; thus, enabling learners to develop denser background knowledge, read and write from multiple perspectives, and achieve more linguistic and content area gains. Similarly, we reasoned that organising the curriculum around thematic units would provide further opportunities for achieving the objectives of the curriculum as students learn meaningful information, explore topics in depth, participate in their own learning, and develop inter-cultural understanding. In order to enable mixed-ability groups of students to successfully achieve the objectives set in the curriculum, we adopted cooperative learning as a framework for managing classroom interaction. Essentially, cooperative learning constitutes a series of pro-social learning structures, which involve learners' working together in order to achieve some common goals according to the principles of simultaneous interaction, positive interdependence, individual accountability, and team reward. These structures have been proven to be effective in promoting academic achievement (Slavin, 1990), developing cross-racial friendship (Slavin & Oickle, 1981), and encouraging inter-ethnic positive attitudes (Sharan et ah, 1984). Of the three cooperative learning schools of (a) Curriculum Specific Packages, (b) Learning Together, and (c) The Structural School, we adopted the last two in

order to address the objectives set in the curriculum and still utilise a wide variety of materials and text-types in planning instruction. From the 'Learning Together' school we adopted the generic frameworks of Students Teams Achievements Divisions (STAD) and Teams Games Tournaments

(TGT) in addition to the Jigsaw variations I and II. This choice is premised on the principle that both STAD and TGT are appropriate for teaching subject matter that may be divided into discrete units and well-defined objectives such as language usage and mechanics at all levels of instruction. Similarly, the Jigsaw variations are appropriate for teaching materials in a narrative form. A detailed description of the dynamics of these structures may be found in Slavin (1990). Furthermore, we used other cooperative learning structures such as Find Someone Who, Inside-Outside Circle, Numbered Heads, Mixer Review, Round Robin, Round Table, Think-Pair Share, Three-Way Interview and so forth. All of these

structures are content-free ways of organising classroom interaction for enhancing academic achievement and linguistic growth as well cognitive and social development in a stress-reduced environment. A detailed description of these structures and the procedures of their applications may be found in Kagan (1992). In addition, we used instructional techniques from the comprehension-based approaches to foreign language teaching such as the Total Physical Response (TPR), Silent Way (SW), and the Language Experience Approach (LEA) due to the important

role of input in the acquisition and mastery of all skill modalities, especially at the lower levels of proficiency. Along similar lines, we drew on the humanisticaffective methodologies of Suggestopedia, Community Language Learning, and the


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communicative approach in order to encourage learners' referential and exploratory talk in a print-rich and stress-reduced environment. Implementation Listening The stages of instruction and modes of presentations were determined, based on the pedagogical implications of some widely accepted theoretical views (models) of the language skills, and in line with optimal conditions for language acquisition. For example, we viewed the receptive skill of listening as an interactive communication process during which learners transform auditory input into intelligible and useful comprehension. The pedagogical implication of this view is that learners need to be trained in a variety of text-processing, schema building and/or activation strategies; in developing their sub-skills of auditory discrimination, auditory analysis; and in memory enhancement, distinguishing main ideas and supporting details as well as differentiating between fact and fiction. Once these skills are mastered by students, the curriculum moves to training students in a variety of academic listening tasks such as note-taking, organisation, interpretation, and critical evaluation of what is heard. Instruction is planned according to the proficiency levels of learners, and gradually moves from deriving direct meaning to making inference and critical judgment based on a wide variety of authentic materials such as recordings, radio broadcasts, songs, TV shows, lectures, and so forth. The stages of instruction include pre-listening, listening, and post-listening activities in order to help learners build/activate relevant background knowledge, comprehend, and finally interpret and reflect on their comprehension. Speaking Likewise, oral fluency instruction aims at engaging learners in meaningful, referential, and exploratory talk as they express their needs, feelings, and intellectual positions in a relaxed and supportive environment. Instruction is organised according to the proficiency levels of learners as they gradually develop their skills of using formulaic expressions, information routines (describing, comparing, telling stories, and giving instructions), and transactional routines (telephone conversations, interviews, and discussions) to negotiate and construct meaning. The stages of instruction proceed from pre-speaking to speaking and post-speaking activities in order to describe objects in the immediate environment, fill in information gaps, debate controversial issues, and convey intellectual positions, observing the systematics of turn-taking and culturally appropriate behaviour. Reading Reading is also perceived in the new curriculum as an active process of constructing meaning as a result of interaction between the reader and the text; that is, interaction between textual input (content and form) and existing background knowledge (experience and prior knowledge). As such, learners are trained in a variety of text-processing and background activation and/or building strategies according to three stages of lesson planning, i.e. pre-reading, reading, and post-reading. As learners go through these stages, they develop and

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integrate their language and reading skills through practising a variety of strategies to acquire the semantic and syntactic systems of English, use advance organisers, preview materials and so forth. They also enrich their requisite background knowledge for comprehension, set expectations for reading, confirm their expectations, and finally critique and evaluate their comprehension. Writing Regarding the writing skill, the new curriculum proclaims a process-oriented view of composing which involves having learners go through the following stages: pre-wriring, writing, revising, and publishing. Instruction is organised to help learners manage their acts of composing, develop authentic voices as writers, and self-sponsor their written products. During pre-writing, learners explore and conceptualise their topics through a variety of heuristic procedures, such as free writing, observing, interviewing, reading and so forth, following which they write multiple drafts of their ideas and finally revise and share their written products with the rest of the class through bulletin boards and school magazines. Furthermore, at the advanced levels of proficiency, learners develop their skills of academic writing in a variety of assignment formats such as reports and research papers according to the expectations of an academic audience in the various fields of study. Besides emphasis on the four language skills, the new curriculum promotes critical thinking, study skills, and cultural awareness. Of particular importance in this regard is helping learners assess their own use of language and develop their awareness of the linguistic and organisation features of a wide variety of oral and written text types. Similarly, the new curriculum underscores the importance of learning strategies and effective study habits as well as curiosity and empathy toward other cultures. Materials development The materials we selected and/or adapted in order to prepare instructional units encompassed a wide variety of text-types and realia. Of particular concern to us was the development of theme-based packages of instructional materials that are authentic, exploitable and relevant to the theme under study (Brinton et ah, 1989). Consequently, we selected materials that were not generated specifically for any language teaching purposes and that included a good range of language functions and structures as well as reflected up-to-date and developmentally appropriate and interesting content. For example, to cover the theme of 'Human Communication' in Grade 10 we used materials from the content-areas of literature, psychology, and sociology. Selected materials were first photocopied, typed, and then sequenced and matched with instructional objectives. Materials which deviated from 'good' writing were adapted by deletion of extraneous text features such as unnecessary remarks and/or examples. On other occasions, we added sentence connectors and supporting evidence in order to clarify difficult texts without falling into oversimplification as defined by Honyfield (1977) whereby the text loses its authenticity, which contradicts the basic principles of theme-based language instruction. Likewise, we attempted to help learners process difficult texts by utilising existing schemata and by


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providing learning 'crutches' such as grids, graphic organisers, semantic maps, study guides, and the like. Evaluation

The new curriculum considered evaluation as an integral part of the educational learning/teaching process, in the sense that tests were intended to reflect both curriculum and classroom activities. Furthermore, evaluation was dealt with as a continuous operation that employs various formal and informal tools of assessment such as oral and written tests, peer evaluation, self evaluation, portfolios, observations, interviews, and conferences. These tools were intended to reflect the questioning and answering schemes and strategies adopted in the new curriculum, a practice in agreement with current views in testing which hold that 'in constructing tests it is important to include texts and activities which mirror as closely as possible those which students have been exposed to and/or are likely to meet in their future target situations' (Weir, 1993: 65). In addition, questioning routines such as cloze procedure, wait-time (for oral work), wonder questions, think-pair-share (TPS), and positive-interesting-neutral (PIN) as well as questioning frameworks such as description, personal interpretation, and critical and creative questions were also reflected in the designed tests. Similarly, the new curriculum proposed a variety of answering frameworks adapted from Olsen's (1996) taxonomy of the stages of language acquisition and learners' response task-types. In this sense, the four stages of speech pre-production, early speech, speech emergence, and fluency emergence necessitated four corresponding performance indicators (responses), namely (1) kinesthetic, (2) kinesthetic, one or two word utterances, (3) kinesthetic, one or two word utterances, and phrase utterances, and (4) kinesthetic, phrases and complete sentences. These various response indicators enables learners to respond to teachers' questions according to their proficiency levels by pointing out, circling, matching, naming, describing, explaining, and/or justifying and debating their statements and positions as they gradually go through the various stages of language acquisition. Similarly, learners may recognise, replicate, and/or reorganise information in response to questions. Language tests

Along similar lines, the new curriculum underscored the importance of clarifying the conditions and operations of writing tests through determining the skills and content to be measured, and under what circumstances the tests will be administered (Weir, 1993). In this regard, the operations and conditions of the language skills involving comprehension (listening and reading) differed slightly from those involved in the communication skills of speaking and writing. For instance, the listening and reading skills involved the operations of deriving direct meaning (main ideas, supporting details, attitude) as well as inferred meaning (situation, writer, speaker, discourse function), in addition to linguistic and organisational features of the text. On the other hand, the operational considerations for speaking and writing included informational skills (narration, description, definition, instruction, comparison, explanation, presentation), interactional skills (expressing, eliciting, responding, directing, decision mak-

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ing), and improvisational skills (negotiation of meaning, argumentation, and management of interaction). In like manner, the conditions considerations for listening and reading included the purpose, nature of text, organisation, lexical range, topic, status of speaker/writer, schemata, size of input, and textual complexity. On the other hand, conditions considerations for speaking and writing included the purpose, text type/discourse output required, functioning under normal time constraints, interlocutors/audience, organisation, lexical range, type of information, cognitive demands, setting, channel, and size of output. As for developing evaluation guidelines, we adopted the context-adaptive model for developing language achievement tests (Turner, 1992). This model fits the characteristics of theme-based language instruction as it divides the process of test-writing into stages during which teachers clarify instructional objectives, determine and describe appropriate test formats, and ensure the clarity, practicality, reliability, and validity of those formats. Test format

In order to clarify instructional objectives, we suggested that evaluators examine the objectives and performance tasks set in the curriculum and targeted in the various instructional units. Evaluators may then determine the test formats (what the test will look like) in light of the nature of those objectives and performance task, following which they may write test specifications in order to guide the process of test writing through specifying the purpose, source, and scoring procedure of each test. For example, they may use the formats of matching, and/or cloze-type exercises to assess vocabulary acquisition by scoring such tests objectively based on an answer key. Similarly, they may use essay-type questions and score responses subjectively in order to measure content knowledge and writing proficiency. Other test formats may also include ratings of learners' responses according to some established criteria in order to measure analytical skills as well as using observation forms in order to assess the learners level of participation and engagement in class activities such as journal writing, free writing, questioning, role playing, and so forth. Upon specifying test formats and corresponding specifications, evaluators may set acceptable performance standards for achieving the instructional objectives under consideration. These standards may take the form of numerical scores of accurate answers (80% or 85%) or letter grades (A, B, or C) whereby non-numerical assessments may be translated into numbers and/or letters. Furthermore, evaluators need to pilot their tests in order to ensure the clarity and appropriate difficulty levels of all test items; thus, deleting and/or rewriting problematic ones. Likewise, they need to ensure appropriate reliability and validity levels of all test items by checking for inter-rater reliability with colleagues or by scoring the same test more than once. In like manner, they may check with colleagues and programme coordinators in order to establish the validity of their tests: that is, the tests comprehensively measure what they are intended to measure.


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Conclusion This article has described the procedures followed in developing an EFL curriculum to be implemented nation-wide in the Republic of Lebanon. The procedures covered the processes of developing auricular objectives, perspectives on instruction, criteria for material selection and adaptation, and evaluation guidelines. These procedures were based on the principles of a new educational policy in post-war Lebanon as well as contemporary thoughts in the fields of curriculum planning and foreign language education. The procedures are suggestive and not definitive in nature as the curriculum will be piloted and revised in order to ensure proper implementation. References Block, C. (1993) Teaching the Language Arts: Expanding Thinking Through Student Centered Instruction. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Brinton D.M., Snow M.A. and Wesche M.B. (1989) Content-Based Second Language Instruction.Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers. Carter, R. (1991) The National Curriculumfor English. London: The British Council. Honeyfield, J. (1977) Simplification. TESOL Quarterly 11 (4), 431-10. Kagan, S. (1992) Cooperative Learning. San Juan Capistrano, CA: Resources for Teachers. Inc. Krashen, S.D. (1985) The Input Hypothesis Issues and Implications. London: Longman. Krashen, S.D. (1988) Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Englewood Cliffs. NJ: Prentice Hall. NCERD (National Council for Educational Research and Development) (1985) New Frameworkfor Education in Lebanon. Beirut: NCERD. NCERD (National Council for Educational Research and Development) (1994) Plan for Educational Reform. Beirut: NCERD. Olsen, R. (1996) Classroom Questioning, Classroom Talk. Handouts given at the AUB ESL Workshop, Larnaca, Cyprus. Sharan, S., Kussel, P., Hertz-Lazarowitz, R., Bejarano, Y., Ravis, S. and Sharan, Y. (1984) Cooperative Learning in the Classroom: Research in Desegregated Schools. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Slavin, R. (1990) Cooperative Learning Theory, Research, and Practice. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Slavin, R. and Oickle, E. (1981) Effects of co-operative learning on student achievement and race relations: Treatment by Race Interactions. Sociology of Education 54, 174-80. Turner J.L. (1992) Creating content-based language tests: Guidelines for teachers. The CATESOL Journal 5 (1), 43-58. Van Ek. J.A. (1991) The Threshold Level for Modern Language Learning in Schools. Malaysia: Longman. Weir, C. (1993) Understanding and Developing Language Tests. New York: Prentice Hall.