Designing a scheme of work in EFL Classroom Essay Example
Designing a scheme of work in an EFL classroom
What issues need to be considered when designing schemes of work?
When designing a scheme of work the following components need to be considered and included:
Focus of the course outline: Integrated skills, functional skills, grammar focussed, situational English syllabus, topic/theme based or working to a coursebook.
The aims of the students: are they working towards a formal examination such as PET, CAE, IELTs etc, ESP, EAP or General English?
If no formal exam at the end of the course, then decisions need to be made as to how the students will be informally assessed. The possibilities for this include periodic performance based or portfolio assessments. Will there be tutorials with the students to talk about how they view their progress as well as their overall feelings about the course and it’s content? Will there be checklists and rating sheets based on teachers’ observations?
Practical issues to include: availability of classroom resources, ie: IWB, internet connection and PC/laptop access. Size of classrooms available and maximum number of students in each class.
The length of the course and lesson timings: what is the duration of the course and how long will each lesson be? Are the lessons taking place during the day or in the evenings and will teacher availability affect this?
Individual learner profiles and student needs and ways of making sure that these are addressed.
If coursebooks are to be used then which ones? Will teachers be expected to religiously adhere to the coursebook or will they have autonomy in lesson planning? - with the syllabus being seen as a proposal for action, rather than a lesson blueprint (Harmer 2004).
Are the classes mono-lingual or multi-ilingual. Will this have any effect on the types of tasks and activities involved in lessons ie: pair work and group work, effectiveness of oral fluency tasks with mono-lingual classes.
Placement tests and needs analyses
What issues need to be considered when designing schemes of work?
When designing a scheme of work the following components need to be considered and included:
Focus of the course outline: Integrated skills, functional skills, grammar focussed, situational English syllabus, topic/theme based or working to a coursebook.
The aims of the students: are they working towards a formal examination such as PET, CAE, IELTs etc, ESP, EAP or General English?
If no formal exam at the end of the course, then decisions need to be made as to how the students will be informally assessed. The possibilities for this include periodic performance based or portfolio assessments. Will there be tutorials with the students to talk about how they view their progress as well as their overall feelings about the course and it’s content? Will there be checklists and rating sheets based on teachers’ observations?
Practical issues to include: availability of classroom resources, ie: IWB, internet connection and PC/laptop access. Size of classrooms available and maximum number of students in each class.
The length of the course and lesson timings: what is the duration of the course and how long will each lesson be? Are the lessons taking place during the day or in the evenings and will teacher availability affect this?
Individual learner profiles and student needs and ways of making sure that these are addressed.
If coursebooks are to be used then which ones? Will teachers be expected to religiously adhere to the coursebook or will they have autonomy in lesson planning? - with the syllabus being seen as a proposal for action, rather than a lesson blueprint (Harmer 2004).
Are the classes mono-lingual or multi-ilingual. Will this have any effect on the types of tasks and activities involved in lessons ie: pair work and group work, effectiveness of oral fluency tasks with mono-lingual classes.
Placement tests and needs analyses