Teaching and Curriculum

This document discusses the importance of teaching and curriculum in education. It explores topics such as cultural appropriateness, teacher cognition, resources, teaching methodology, and student development. The document provides insights into the role of these factors in effective learning and teaching practices.

Running head: TEACHING AND CURRICULUM
TEACHING AND CURRICULUM
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1TEACHING AND CURRICULUM
Table of Contents
Section 1: Teaching as a context.....................................................................................................2
Section 2: Analysis and Evaluation.................................................................................................6
A. Resources................................................................................................................................6
B. Teaching Methodology...........................................................................................................7
C. Student Development..............................................................................................................8
References:....................................................................................................................................10

2TEACHING AND CURRICULUM
Section 1: Teaching as a context
An important aspect of language teaching is the use of the cultural appropriateness. The
use of the correct text in the classroom is one of the most essential features of teaching English. I
as an English teacher believe that using the right text can help in the right knowledge and
imparting the right education to the students. I believe that it can be very easy to use an
inaccessible text and make things difficult for the student. The use of the inaccessible text on the
other hand, leads to imparting the wrong education to the students whom I teach. This can have a
negative impact on the students in the future. As I am involved in teaching profession for a long
time now, I have been observing the school textbooks for a long period of time. I go through the
contents of the books every year and assess the positives and negatives of the following books.
Recently when I was going through the English textbook of standard eight I noticed a striking
thing. There were use of words like Pie man and pennies as well as snow and mittens. This was
understandable as it was one of the necessary things for the board of education to use these
words as a part of the UK educational system. The presence of works of prominent writers like
Shakespeare and Mark Twain along with some Australian writers was seen in the books.

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Language teaching contexts and experiences have generally led to the emergence of two
views that is in regard to the culture of the society. One of the most common views is that, the
culture of the target language should be included in the texts of the school and colleges. Apart
from these additional measures like implementation of separate cultural classes is recommended
personally by me. This type of cultural classes helps to develop positive benefits that are useful
for the educational system. On the other hand, the opposite view is that the exposure of students
to the western culture has a clear damaging effect to the local cultures of the society.
Another important area which needs to be considered is the teacher cognition. According
to me teacher cognition can be said to be as one of the major areas of social context involving
teacher and the students. The study of teacher cognition is generally characterized by means of
multiplicity of labels which have been posited to describe either wholly or by part, the
psychological context of the teaching (Borg, 2003). As mentioned earlier I am an English teacher
at high school. In my school English has been provided the status of a foreign language and thus
thjere is no opportunities to speak English outside the classroom. Therefore all that students
speak is inside the classroom during my classes. I use the grammar translation Method to teach
the students and students as well as the teachers are both from the same context which means
that their first language is the same. The teachers like me are clearly responsible for the teaching
and thus are responsible for the development of the students. I have seen two major school
divisions. One of the them is private and the other is the public schools. I teach in a public school
where all the teachers are basically from the same background, culture and the same country.
Only one textbook is followed for each of the subjects. Except English all the subjects are taught
by L1. On the other hand there are the private schools most of the English teachers are native
speakers and all of the subjects are taught in English, with the students paying fees for the

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tuitions. Apart from such rules, the teachers are also not allowed to change textbooks. The role of
the teachers is to use the assigned textbook and to teach students according to the objectives and
outcomes of the book. The classroom where I teach is not so big and consists of approximately
35-40 students overall. The absence of communication skill leads to majority of students using
the L1 skills to participate in the class. The duration of my class is 45 minutes and the majority
of the time is spent mostly to organize the lesson. Most of the other teachers along with me are
bachelors and lack proper training in modern teaching activity. This leads the student to have low
level of English and also a low level of communication skills. The parents who are well off opts
for private schools while the ones who are not financially stable opts for private schools to
impart education to their children.
Pronunciation issues were significant issues that I came across during teaching. In an
article that concerned the teaching of English of Greek teachers of EFL it was found that some
essential factors guide the perceptions of teachers in regards to language teaching. A significant
factor was that the teachers often have a sense of being the custodians of the language.
Additionally, the sociocultural linguistic background of the place is an important determinant of
teaching (Sifakis & Sougari, 2005). The relationship between the students and the teachers need
to be that of mutual understanding and coordination. Students should cooperate with the teachers
as and when required. Additionally, it becomes important that teachers learn and develop their
pronunciation skills along with the students. Only by learning the right ways can the teachers
teach the right ways to the students. Teachers need to set expectations for language
improvements and students have to essentially agree with the same. The development of
effective student teacher relationships becomes central to the effectiveness of the course.As an
example it can be said that pronunciation enhancement is one such significant factor.

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Pronunciation teaching requires development of interactive session that help the students identify
the ways in which to learn the actual pronunciation of English words. Pronunciation is deemed to
be important for two reasons. Firstly, it helps in the development of mutual intelligibility.
Secondly, it helps in the development of better socio-cultural perspectives that can be createdof a
person (Sifakis & Sougari, 2005). As students mostly learn English as a foreign language, it
becomes important that they develop standards that are almost equal to that of a native language
speaker. This helps in gaining the most mutual language communication.

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Section 2: Analysis and Evaluation
The information provided by the teachers in a classroom environment to the students in
the form of knowledge, can be imparted in a variety of ways. The main intention of a teacher is
to ensure that the students are able to learn something (Li & Baldauf, 2011). In this sense, they
try to take recourse to a variety of different methods and measures which helps to ensure that the
students are able to learn in an effective manner. For the effective understanding of the students,
it is essential that the teachers are able to teach in an efficient manner. For this purpose, much
attention is being paid to the methods of teaching in the contemporary world (Borg, 2003). For
instance, the ancient method of teaching in the lecture mode has proved to be ineffective to a
considerable extent. In this sense, tin he modern time period, the methods of presentation and
demonstration has emerged to be the effective means of teaching. In this context, this section
seeks to analyze the three contextual factors that are important because of their influence in the
effectiveness of learning in the social context.
A. Resources
Resources form the basic requirement in the process of teaching. The primary obligation
of the teachers is to provide information to the students. This information is mentioned in a
collected form in books and articles (Liu et al., 2004). There is a popular belief that the
knowledge contained in the form of hard copy is the only type of knowledge which is worth
reading. However, in the contemporary world, this is not true. Many different forms of platforms
exist which contain important knowledge. For instance, in the modern time period, the virtual
platform of internet has emerged to be the most significant repository of knowledge. The world

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of the internet is so vast that it contains information from all over the world, with regard to any
field of interest.
The effectiveness of the resources as an important contextual factor is that it aids the
students in imbibing significant information (Sifakis & Sougari, 2005). Moreover, this is also
helpful in the context of the teachers, especially my teaching in the subject of English as books
enable to back my teachings with the help of information from different scholars. Resources in
the form of books, journals and that which is available in the virtual platform, all helps the
people of the world to be aware about the existence of certain facts. The teachers use the books
and the sources of information available in the virtual platform to teach the students.
B. Teaching Methodology
The method of teaching is extremely important in the course of education. The available
information can only be effectively learnt by the students if they are taught in a manner that can
be understood by the students (Kirkpatrick, 2006). For instance, the traditional lecture method
has proved to be extremely ineffective due to the monotonous nature of the teachers trying to
impart knowledge to the students. In this scenario, the teachers speak for a considerable length of
time without knowing if the students understand anything. As a result, it is significant to pay
considerable attention to the methods of teaching.
The effectiveness of the methodology teaching as a contextual factor is that the teaching
method can be significant in the imbibing of knowledge by the students. Effective knowledge
can only be imbibed if the method of teaching is efficient. For instance, the teaching method
through the mode of demonstration is important as it helps the students to visualize the
knowledge. In the context of teaching English, for instance, if a student is made to teach a poem

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or a short story, it would prove to be helpful if the students were showed photos of the European
countries during that time. Moreover, the method of presentation is also significant as it provides
a visual aid to what is being taught in the classrooms by the teachers.
C. Student Development
Student development becomes one of the essential focuses on any teaching plan. Without
student development the effectiveness of the teaching methods and procedures cannot be known.
Student development have traditionally been traced through the various types of assessments that
have been conducted among the students of a given classroom environment. The development of
students in accordance with the English learning aspects are related to how much verbal and
written language effectiveness the students are able to develop. As pointed out through various
studies the English language over many years of its history has developed into a number of
dialects. Authors have called this phenomenon the creation of the many Englishes. This is a
factor that needs to be essentially kept in mind while focusing on student development
(Kirkpatrick, 2006). The problems that teachers face while introducing native-speaker models in
classes are many. The teachers while providing teaching in this type of model lose self-
confidence as they themselves do not speak the language at the native level. Moreover, the
cultural and linguistic resources are also ignored.
A significant issue in student development is also concerning pronunciation. The major
problem is that not much data is available in relation to pronunciation problems that students
develop despite being taught the language. However, pronunciation is a significant factor that
affects the development of the students as far as developing language learnings are concerned.
The mutual communication between students can be hampered due to this factor affecting the

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development of students. The task based language teaching can improve the written aspects of
the language. However, for effective development of the students this needs to be balanced
through the usage of the communication based teaching practices. Communicative language
teaching is one such teaching procedure that can help students to develop high level of
communication competence in regards to the English language learning (Kumaravadivelu, 2006).
The factor that is given more prominence in this regards is improving the social interactivity
competence of the English language speakers. It is certain that for the optimal language
development of the students effective level of communication development is required. Hence,
teaching techniques should be more focused towards improving the communication levels of
students. The contextual factors depending on the learning of the students can determine how
effectively student development can be implemented by the teachers. This helps to understand
the best ways to improve the development of the students. The teachers can apply the techniques
that can contribute towards improving the communication and interactive aspects of students.
Essentially, the analysis points to the methods that can be used to imbibe better development
within the students.Teachers can utilize the concept towards emphasizing more on improving
students’ communication aspects in the future.

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References:
(2019).Retrievedfromhttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/
273145047_The_Context_of_English_Teaching
Borg, S. (2003). Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what language
teachers think, know, believe, and do. Language teaching, 36(2), 81-109.
Kirkpatrick, T. A. (2006). Setting attainable and appropriate language targets in multilingual
settings.
Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006). TESOL methods: Changing tracks, challenging trends. Tesol
Quarterly, 40(1), 59-81.
Li, M., & Baldauf, R. (2011). Beyond the curriculum: A Chinese example of issues constraining
effective English language teaching. Tesol Quarterly, 45(4), 793-803.
Liu, D., AHN, G. S., BAEK, K. S., & HAN, N. O. (2004). South Korean high school English
teachers' code switching: Questions and challenges in the drive for maximal use of
English in teaching. Tesol Quarterly, 38(4), 605-638.
Sifakis, N. C., & Sougari, A. M. (2005). Pronunciation issues and EIL pedagogy in the
periphery: A survey of Greek state school teachers' beliefs. Tesol Quarterly, 39(3), 467-
488.