Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages: Curriculum and Resources

Running head: TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
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1TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES
The Different Curricula
The curriculum in 10362NAT Certificate I of the Spoken and Writing English has
been purposefully planned and developed in order to teach English to the non-English
speaking learners. The curriculum is divided into seven modules, one of them is compulsory,
and the other six are elective modules include one written and one spoken text modules. The
purpose of Module A, which is the compulsory module, is to teach the students learning
strategies of basic level. While twenty hours’ time has been allocated for the teaching of
Module A, eighty hours have been allocated for the rest of the modules. The spoken text
elective has six modules namely Modules B, C, D, E, F, and G. Each of these six modules
consists different learning topics, and the speaking section focuses on the listening as well as
speaking skills of the students. The written text elective, on the other hand, has five modules,
namely Modules H, I, J, K, and L. These five modules have cover different learning areas,
and the writing section puts focus on the reading and writing abilities of the students. The
numeracy elective has two modules – Module M and Module N. Each of these two modules
is based on three separate features. While Module B is focused on improving the productive
skills of the students by making them participate in small interactive sessions, Module C
concentrates on enhancing the receptive skills of the learners through small conversations.
The written elective modules are also focused on improving the productive and receptive
skills of the learners. Therefore, it can be said that obtaining the Certificate I in Spoken and
Written English requires the students to succeed in the completion of these seven modules.
The CSWE I curriculum is focused on addressing the general requirements of the
learners. The purpose of the modules of this curriculum is to focus on four basic skills of
learners, such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The modules have been set in way
that they attract the interests of the learners and focus to improve a specific skill of the

2TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES
learners. As opined by De Silva and Hood (2009), the diverse objectives of the curriculum
should align with the basic needs of the students. Nonetheless, the diverse curriculum of these
modules may not always with all the needs of the students, as each person is unique in his
own way and also the students have different backgrounds of education and language.
Furthermore, these modules of English learning curriculum are designed to cover an
extensive range of knowledge and topics, such as community, health, education, transport,
and law, that the students, who are willing to stay and settle in Australia, must procure. The
usefulness of these topics is that they help the learners to increase their English vocabulary
and make it easier for them to take part in conversations with English speaking persons.
Nevertheless, the teachers need to verify that the chosen topics are in accordance with the
skills of the learners that need to be developed and improved. In addition to this, the teachers
should also be provided with the options to allocate further tools based on their individual
requirements of their own distinct teaching areas (Ansary & Babaii, 2002). However, this
process does not clarify whether the topics chose by the teachers would interest the students
and match their specific needs. Therefore, the teachers should discuss with the students about
their interests and needs before selecting the topics. According to De Silva and Hood (2009),
the teachers must select the areas, which they would cover in their teaching, according to the
needs and interests of the students.
On this context, it should be mentioned that each student is unique, and therefore has
different set of skills and needs. Thereafter, it is possible that the topics of the curriculum do
not cover all the needs of each student. As observed by Kumaravadivelu (2006), the
communication between the learners and teachers are crucial. The researcher further pointed
out that, in order to address the needs of the students, the teachers could suggest various
learning activities that make the students attentive and motivated. As these students have less
confidence and are detached from learning process, it is required from the teachers to