DEVELOPING

THE
CURRICULUM
Chapter 2 1
DEVELOPING THE
CURRICULUM
 Decisions have to be made about the ESP course →→ Who is the course for
and what will it focus on? What will the syllabus contain and what types of
instruction and materials will it provide? How can the course be evaluated?

 This chapter discusses considerations in course design and materials

development that are of particular importance in ESP.
 The chapter examines aspects in ESP course development and introduces a
number of contrasts related to this including wide- and narrow-angled
course designs, real and carrier content and authentic and non-
authentic texts. 2
4.1 FOCUSING THE COURSE
4.1.1 Wide- and narrow-angled course designs:
 One of the key issues in ESP course development is the question of how specific
the course should be in terms of target audience.
 A distinction is drawn between:
1. courses that are ‘wide angled’ (designed for a more general group of learners).
e.g. Courses titled Business English including marketing, accounting and
management.
2. courses that are ‘narrow angled’ (designed for a very specific group of
learners).
e.g. Courses titled English for Nursing Studies and English for Accountants
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4.1 FOCUSING THE COURSE
4.1.1 Wide- and narrow-angled course designs:
 Courses can be even more specific. For example, accountants often
distinguish between two areas, financial accountancy and
management accountancy.
 Some ESP courses are developed for groups of learners with very
similar needs and some for learners with only somewhat similar needs.
Some ESP courses are developed for disciplines or occupations as broad
fields and some for specialities within them.
 Determining the focus of a course may be based on findings from
needs analysis.
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4.1 FOCUSING THE COURSE
4.1.1 Wide- and narrow-angled course designs:
 We may find a clear divide→→between health care professionals who need
to develop their oral communication skills for dealing with patients and those
who need to develop their written communication for various types of
reports.
 The choice of a wide- or narrow-angled course design can also be based on
decisions about grouping learners →→if 30 health professionals were to
come to a language school, which approach would be better: to divide them
into three groups according to proficiency levels and teach a wide-angled
English Skills for Health Professionals or Medical English course at all three
levels, or to group them according to their roles in the health care sector.
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4.1 FOCUSING THE
COURSE
4.1.1 Wide- and narrow-angled course designs:
The terms ‘wide- and narrow-angled’ course designs might suggest a two-way divide.
A courses can be more or less narrow or wide and can be seen as existing on a continuum
of specificity.
At one end of this continuum are the most general ESP courses→→courses that focus on a
register
e.g. Business English or Academic English and courses that focus on a generic set of skills
in an area, such as Business English Skills or EGAP.
 Towards the other end of the continuum are courses focusing on specific needs and
language use of a particular area of work or study
e.g. English for Accountants (and the narrower option, English for Financial Accountants),
or English for Social Science Studies (and the narrower option, English for Sociology
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Studies).
4.1 FOCUSING THE COURSE
4.1.1 Wide- and narrow-angled course designs:
 Some ESP courses are devised for a very specific group of learners.
e.g. English for Auditors (auditing is a branch of financial accounting)

 A narrower option, a course organized at the request of a particular

workplace or division within a workplace.
e.g. a course for the financial accountants in the auditing division of a
particular accountancy firm.

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4.1 FOCUSING THE COURSE
4.1.1 Wide- and narrow-angled course designs:

Wide angled
1a. Business English
1b. Business English Skills 2a. English
for Accountants 2b. English for
Financial Accountants
3a. English for Financial Auditors
3b English for Financial Auditors
at Xco.
Narrow angled

Figure 4.1 The wide- and narrow-angled continuum 8

4.1 FOCUSING THE COURSE
4.1.1 Wide- and narrow-angled course designs:
 Determining the focus of an ESP course (more or less wide or narrow
angled) depends largely on circumstances.
 Belcher (2006) argues that for many ESP practitioners the wide versus
narrow approach debate is a ‘nonissue because instructional decisions should
have more to do with the learners themselves than with instructor preference
or beliefs
e.g. undergraduate students without majors may suggest a wide-angled
approach and postgraduate students such as nurses and pilots may suggest a
narrow-angled approach.
 What drives the decision about course design is the situation in which
teachers/course designers find themselves. 9
4.1 FOCUSING THE COURSE
4.1.1 Wide- and narrow-angled course designs:
Level 1: Wide-angled
Level 1a courses focus on a variety of language such as, Business English or
Academic English.
They are not based on an analysis of needs of a particular group of learners
but on description of language use in a field or discipline.
Learners do not necessarily need a high level of proficiency in English for a
course such as this. They can learn the basic forms (the ‘common core’) of a
language through a specific variety as well as through the usual ‘language
classroom variety.
Level 1b courses focus on a set of generic skills such as writing skills in
Business English. 10
4.1 FOCUSING THE COURSE
4.1.1 Wide- and narrow-angled course designs:

 Level 1 type courses have some advantages.

 They can be developed to cater for a range of learners including post-, pre- or
during-experience learners.
 Learners may enjoy topics and texts in the general area of interest, not just topics
and texts from their own specific area.
 E.g. a student of sociology may be interested in topics from psychology and
somebody working in management may be interested in topics from marketing and
finance.

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4.1 FOCUSING THE COURSE
4.1.1 Wide- and narrow-angled course designs:
Level 2
Level 2 courses focus on the needs of a fairly specific groups of learners.
Advantageous in terms of practicality and economy – different courses do not
need to be developed for each and every group.
Some disadvantages: Level 2 courses, based as they are on the perceived
communicative needs in target disciplines of study or workplaces, are often
unsuitable for learners with limited proficiency. Communicative needs in
disciplines and workplaces are generally linguistically complex and thus demand a
certain level of language proficiency.
E.g. writing in a profession or a discipline generally requires a fairly extensive
vocabulary and knowledge of grammatical structures as well as familiarity with
genres and conventions of communication. 12
4.1 FOCUSING THE COURSE
4.1.1 Wide- and narrow-angled course designs:
 Level 3: Narrow angled
 Level 3 courses are tailored to the specific needs of a particular group of
learners with the idea that course content will fit their needs very precisely
and thus efficiently prepare them to meet the demands of their target
situations. The notion of specificity can be linked to a social constructivist
perspective of language.

 According to this perspective, disciplines and professions are constructed and

reproduced through their discursive practices and language is construed not
as a general code but as form of situated action.
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4.1 FOCUSING THE COURSE
4.1.1 Wide- and narrow-angled course designs:

 Hyland (2002b) summarizes the tenets of this theory as follows:

 Language is not just a means for self-expression, it is how we construct
and sustain reality, and we do this as members of communities, using
the language of those communities. The features of a text are therefore
influenced by the community for which it was written and so are best
understood, and taught, through the specific genres of communities.

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4.1 FOCUSING THE COURSE
4.1.1 Wide- and narrow-angled course designs:

 The perspective is reflected in many genre-based ESP course designs. In

such designs, genres are seen as the means by which the target
discourse communities enact their everyday work and by which they are
defined. Although members of these communities know how to
reproduce these genres, their knowledge of the genres is often
procedural or implicit rather than declarative or explicit, and the ESP
course aims to make the knowledge explicit.

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4.1 FOCUSING THE COURSE
4.1.1 Wide- and narrow-angled course designs:
 There are disadvantages of highly specific courses.
 Firstly, such courses can be argued to present a restricted language and
thus only help learners function in very limited circumstances. They
might be seen as a form of ‘language training’ that provides learners
with surface linguistic forms conventionally used in target situations
rather than ‘language education’ that provides knowledge of how the
language works at a deep level and which is needed for the creative use
of language (Widdowson, 1983).

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4.1 FOCUSING THE COURSE
4.1.1 Wide- and narrow-angled course designs:
 Secondly, students in narrow-angled ESP courses are not likely to have
identical needs and at least some of the course content is bound to be
more relevant to some individuals than others. Thirdly, the variety of
roles in workplaces and courses in academic programmes is simply too
diverse for any one ESP course to deal with in depth.

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4.1 FOCUSING THE COURSE
4.1.1 Wide- and narrow-angled course designs:
 Finally, the amount of research and preparation required for highly
specific ESP course designs is considerable. Teachers and course
developers need preparation time in which to investigate discourse and
communication in a specific discipline or workplace.
 Access to workplaces can be problematic and members of disciplines
and workplaces are busy people with limited time to discuss language
use and communication. Although such investigations are of great
value, there are probably only some situations when the amount of time
and cost for research and preparation can be justified.
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4.2 DETERMINING COURSE CONTENT
4.2.1 Real and carrier content
In ESP a distinction is drawn between real content and carrier content.
Real content denotes pedagogical aims, such as the features of
language the learners will hopefully become more aware of or be better
able to produce or the language skills they gain control of.
Carrier content denotes, as its name suggests, the means of delivering
the real content. These means include the use of texts or activities.
For example, if we were teaching an ESP class for financial
accountants, and if one of our pedagogic aims was to familiarize our
learners with vocabulary used in financial reporting, we might use a
company’s annual report as a text to ‘carry’ the content of interest.
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4.2 DETERMINING COURSE
CONTENT
4.2.1 Real and carrier content
 The text in Figure 4.2. could be used as carrier content in an ESP class focusing
on vocabulary related to finance. In the lesson, students may be asked to read the
text and identify how the items ‘cash’, ‘capital’ and ‘debt’ are used. For example,
they could be asked to discuss the meaning of collocations involving ‘capital’,
such as ‘capital expenditure’, ‘capital raising’ and ‘capital notes’.
 Alternatively, we might use a combination of texts as carrier content. For example,
we might develop an integrated skills activity in which students read company
annual reports and make notes on the types of assets (intellectual, physical and
financial) listed. The students could use the notes to prepare an oral report. See the
example simulation activity in Figure 4.3.

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4.2 DETERMINING COURSE
CONTENT
4.2.2 Planning the syllabus
 A major consideration in planning a syllabus is the question of what
content should be included in the course.
 How the course has been focused impacts on what will be included in
the syllabus.
e.g. if the focus of the course is wide-angled EGAP, we might decide to
teach the most common academic words.
 Syllabus is generally organized in units. The units might be construed as
areas of grammar and/or vocabulary, genres, language functions (speech
acts), notions, skills or strategies. The course might involve a
combination of types of units. 21
4.2 DETERMINING COURSE
4.2.2 Planning the syllabus CONTENT
Cowling describes how findings from a needs analysis were used to plan the syllabus for a
series of workplace-based courses in Japan.
The needs analysis involved multiple methods and sources of information and suggested
that the course needed to provide a communicative component in which students would be
able to adapt their current general English into English knowledge for business situations.
The course also needed to consider cultural issues in communication with foreign business
people and provide realistic or authentic samples of language use (Cowling, p. 434).
These requirements suggested a syllabus that was partly content based and included a
cultural focus.
e.g. one unit in the course is titled ‘Describing Products and Services’. The syllabus specifies
discourse/language items for this unit (such as, the notions of weights and measures and the
function of ‘giving opinions’), content items (such as, ‘engaging the customer’ and
‘presenting selling points’) and cultural content on ‘directness’ and ‘gestures’. 22
4.2 DETERMINING COURSE
4.2.2 Planning the syllabus CONTENT
In planning the syllabus, teachers/course developers make decisions about what to
include in terms of:
types of units
such as: skills, vocabulary, genres, functions, notions and disciplinary, professional or
cultural content
items in the units
such as: which genres, semantic sets and functions
sequencing – what should come first, second and so forth and decisions made
according to considerations
such as: immediate and less immediate need, level of difficulty with easier items
before more difficult items and logical flow – for instance, in Business English,
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opening meetings before closing meetings.
4.2 DETERMINING COURSE
4.2.2 Planning the syllabus CONTENT
Needs analysis plays an important role in determining course content in ESP
but it is not necessarily the only consideration.
Parkinson et al. (2007) report the development of a reading and writing course
for foundation year students in a South African University.
The course focuses on developing academic literacies and, as Table 4.1
shows, is organized around four genres including the laboratory report and the
essay. The report explains the choices made by the course developers.
The developers were guided in part by findings from needs analysis
 The developers were also guided by theoretical considerations such as the
value of integrating reading and writing – ‘it is only when students read with
comprehension that they can write effectively’. 24
4.3 DEVELOPING MATERIALS
4.3.1 Authentic and non-authentic texts
One of the key characteristics of ESP is that teachers and course
developers value the use of authentic texts and tasks.
The term ‘authentic’ denotes that the texts were written for
purposes other than language teaching and learning. E.g. example,
should we be developing a course for financial accountants, we
would probably try to include texts written by accountants and
those in related financial sectors (such as, the financial section of
a company annual report shown in Figure 4.2).
Finding suitable authentic texts is not always easy.
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4.3 DEVELOPING MATERIALS
4.3.1 Authentic and non-authentic texts
Finding suitable authentic texts is not always easy.
Swales makes a case for the occasional use of ‘instructor-written’ materials and
provides two suggestions for how these materials can be developed.
The first suggestion is for the materials writer to create texts.
The second suggestion was to create an imaginary student’s response to the materials.
The suggestions highlight an important issue concerning the use of authentic texts.
Although authentic texts are generally the preferred option in ESP, they can sometimes
be too complex, either linguistically or in terms of content.
If the information in them is beyond the understanding of our students, this will
inevitably make for frustration and hinder the effectiveness of the instruction. Such
cases may lead teachers and course developers to edit or adapt authentic texts or create
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ones of their own.
4.4 EVALUATING COURSES
AND
4.4 Evaluating courses MATERIALS
and materials
 Curriculum development involves planning a course at the outset but it also
involves ongoing course revision.
 Perceptions of effectiveness →→ the developer first needs to know how effective
the present version of the course is.
 One key source of information is student course evaluation. Teachers in many
contexts around the world will be familiar with the end-of-course evaluations that
are used, often questionnaires or interviews eliciting end users’, students’ and
sometimes teachers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the course.

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4.4 EVALUATING COURSES
AND MATERIALS
4.4 Evaluating courses and materials
 Students’ response to the course and learning from it.
 The course developer needs to consider did the students like the course
and did they learn anything from it?
 Gillet and Wray argue that there has been little discussion of success in
EAP, specifically the extent to which EAP programmes actually help
their students to succeed in their chosen fields. These writers argue
there is a need to ‘fill the gap by looking at research that has attempted
to provide evidence that EAP courses are helpful’.

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4.5 SUMMARY
Four areas of curriculum development have been discussed in this
chapter – focusing the course, determining course content,
developing materials and evaluating courses and materials. The
discussion centred on the kinds of decisions that set the work of ESP
course development apart from general language course
development. The chapter has argued that there is no ready formula
for determining ESP curricula; rather there are issues to be
considered in each area of curriculum development.

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THANK YOU
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