LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:8 August 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIAL

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2012
M. S. Thirumalai
Custom Search

Evaluating the communicative Effectiveness of the English
Curriculum of a Language School in Myanmar

Nang Ji, M.A. (TESOL)

Abstract

As the Myanmar presidential government is changing their policy from close door policy to open door policy, the requirement of communicative English language ability is becoming more essential in education, politics, and economics due to the vital role it plays in communication chain throughout the world. Thus, the language curriculum that use in a language school needs to meet the language learners’ needs.

The focus of this study is on the evaluation of communicative effectiveness of English curriculum of a language school in Yangon, Myanmar. Curriculum evaluation is to investigate its communicative effectiveness and to find out strengths and weakness that focus on the curriculum activities: objectives, contents, materials, teaching, and testing (assessment and evaluation process) of the syllabi. The term curriculum in this study refers to an English language course. In this study, six instruments, questionnaires, interviews, pre and post communicative ability test, observation, syllabus evaluation, and school achievement test results, were administered. The data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, percentage, coding measure, and content analysis. This study concludes with the recommendation for implementing modification for the better curriculum and its materials.

Keywords: Curriculum evaluation, English curriculum, Communicative effectiveness, Communicative language ability.

Introduction

The demand of English language ability in Myanmar focuses on communicative language ability which can be attained by communicative language teaching (CLT) approach. CLT involves many different teaching methods such as active teaching, learner centered teaching, corporative teaching-learning, and group or pair works with authentic and meaningful interactions that provide the language learners opportunities to use the English language in real life (Richards, 2006). This study attempt to assess the communicative effectiveness of an English curriculum that focuses on its curriculum activities: objectives, contents, materials, teaching, and testing. The objectives of this study were 1) to evaluate the English curriculum of the target school, 2) to investigate the communicative effectiveness of the curriculum in enhancing the students’ communicative ability, and 3) to identify the students’ opinion toward the curriculum.

Firstly, I will present literature review on a brief theoretical introduction about the concept of curriculum evaluation, elements of systematic curriculum design, communicative language teaching (CLT), and the evaluation model used in this research study. Secondly, I will discuss the methodology of this research study. Thirdly, the results of this research study and discussion of the results will be discussed. Finally, the recommendation and suggestion for the better curriculum in the future and limitation of the study will be discussed.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Nang Ji, M.A. TESOL
Payap University
Chiang Mai
Thailand
kojilahpai@gmail.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.