ENGLISH FOR SPESIFIC PURPOSES

COURSE DESIGN

APPROACHES TO COURSE DESIGN

LANGUAGE CENTRED COURSE DESIGN, SKILLS-CENTRED COURSE

DESIGN, A LEARNING-CENTRED COURSE DESIGN

NAME : SALWA ZHAFIRAH BERNANDA (1704410006)

REXY BUDIANTORO SALIM (1704410015)

FACULTY : FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION

MAJORS : ENGLISH EDUCATION

SEMESTER : IV (FOUR)

FKIP TRIDINANTI

2019
COURSE DESIGN

Course design is the process by which the raw data about a learning is interpreted in
order to produce an intergrated series of teaching-learning experiences, whose ultimate aim
is to lead the leaners to a particular state of knowledge. In practical terms this entails the
use of the theoretical and empirical information available to produce a syllabus, to select,
adapt or write materials in accordance with the syllabus, to develop a methodology for
teaching those materials and to establish evaluation procedures by which progress towards
the specified goals will be measured.

So let us assume we have completed our needs analysis and reviewed the theoretical
models of learning and language available. There are probably as many different
approaches to ESP course design as there are course designers. We can, however, identify
three main types: language-centred, skill-centreed and learning-centred.

APPROACHES TO COURSE DESIGN

1. Language Centred Approach

2. Skills Centred Approach
3. Learning Centred Approach

1. Language Centered Approach

 It is the simplest and more familiar kind to English teachers.
 It is particularly common in ESP
 It aims to draw as direct a connection as possible between the analysis of the
target situation and the content of the ESP course
 A language centered approach says : this the nature of the target situation
performance determines ESP course.
 It has a number a weakness :

- It might be considered a learner centered approach because it starts from the

learners and their needs but in reality its not learner centered. The learner is simply
used as a means of identifying the target situation.
- The language centered process can also be criticizied for being a static and
inflexible procedure.
- The language centered analysis of target situation data is only at the surface level. It
reveals very little about the competence that underlined the performance.

In summary, then, the logical, straightforward appeal of the language-centred approach is,
im effect, its weakness. It fails to recognise the fact that, learners being people, learning is
not a straightforward, logical process.

2. SKILLS CENTERED APPROACH

This approach aimed to help leaners for developing skills and strategies which
continue after the ESP course by making leaners better processors of information.

A skills centered approach says : we must look behind target performance data to
discover what processes enable someone to perform. Those processes will
determine the ESP course.

The skills centered approach based on two fundamental principles:

 The basic theoretical is that underlying any language behavior are certain
skills and strategies, which the learner uses in order to procedure.
This example from a Brazilian ESP syllabus for Library Science students is
given in Maciel et al. (1983) (our brackets):
General objective (i.e. performance level:
The student will be able to catalogue books written in English.
Specific objectives (i.e. competence level):
The student will able to:
- Extract the gist of a text by skimming through it.
- Extract relevant information from the main parts of a book.
  The paragmatic basis for the skills centered approach derives from a
distinction made by Widdowson(1981) between goal oriented courses and
process oriented courses.

The role of needs analysis in a skills-centred approach is twofold. Firstly, it

provides a basis for discovering the underlying competence that enables people to
perform in the target situation. Secondly, it enables the course designer to discover
the potential knowledge and abilities that the learners bring to the ESP classroom.

The skills-centred approach, therefore, can certainly claim to take the learner
more into account than the language-centred approach:

a) It views language in terms of how the mind of the leaner processes it rather
than as an entity in itself.
b) It tries to build on the positive factors that the learners bring to the course,
rather than just on the negative idea of ‘lacks’.
c) It frames its objectives in open-ended terms, so enabling learners to achieves
at least something.

Yet, in spite of its concern for the learner, the skills-centred approach still approaches the
leaner as a user of language rather than as a leaner of language. The processes it is
concerned with are the processes of language use not of language learning. It is with this
distinction in mind that we turn to the third approach to course design.

3. LEARNING CENTERED APPROACH

This approach is based on the principle that learning is tottaly determined by
the learner. As theachers we can influence what we teach, but what leaners learn is
determined by learners alone.
In this approach learning is seen as a process in which the leaners use what
knowledge or skills they have in order to make sense of the flow of new
information. Learning is not just a mental procces, it is a procces of negotiation
between individals and society.

A learning centered approach says: we must look beyond the competence that
enables someone to perform, because what we really want to discover is not the
competence itself, but how someone acquires that competence

SUMMARY
Language centered approach concentrates on performance.
Skills centered approach concentrates on competence.
Learning centered approach concentrances on how to get competence.