Publication: Analysing The Theoretical Foundation Aligmnet Of The Malaysian Secondary School EFL Speaking Curriculum
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Date
2017
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Global Academic Excellence
Abstract
Every language curriculum is designed based on a particular theoretical orientation. Thus, when a language curriculum is designed based on specific theory, it is imperative that the contents presented in that curriculum align with its theoretical underpinning. This is to ensure the effectiveness of the curriculum. If the curriculum is not coherent, then the overall goals of the curriculum will not be achieved. The present Malaysian English language curriculum is developed and designed based on the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT).
In line with its label, the contents presented are expected to be coherent and in alignment with its communicative label including at its theoretical level. Thus, it is the aim of this current study to investigate if the theoretical grounding of the Malaysian form 4 English language curriculum, in particular, the speaking curriculum, is in alignment with its communicative label. The focus of the study is on the Malaysian form 4 English language speaking curriculum. Hence, data were collected from the form 4 English language curriculum specifications document and the form 4 English language textbook. Speaking-related statements were extracted from the documents and categorized under major Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories and second language (L2) speaking theories in order to identify their alignment with the communicative approach. The findings show that the socio-cognitive and sociocultural (SCT) theories, the two theories which were merged to represent the SLA theory for communicative instructional approaches, were highly reflected in the Malaysian form 4 English language speaking curriculum. Results also exhibit that both the Interaction Hypothesis (IH) and Output Hypothesis (OH) which made up the Interactive L2 speaking theory were reflected
in the data analysed. This confirms that the Malaysian form 4 English language speaking curriculum is primarily in alignment with its communicative label as reflected in the two main documents analysed. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that the Malaysian English language speaking curriculum for Form Four is coherent with its communicative label at the Approach level.
Description
International Journal of Education, Psychology and Counseling
Volume: 2 Issues: 5 Page(70-82)
Keywords
Citation
Baharun, H., Sidek, H. M., Harun, H., Abdullah, N., & Zakaria, Z. A. (2017). Analysing the Theoretical Foundation Alignment of the Malaysian Secondary School EFL Speaking Curriculum. International Journal of Education, Psychology and Counseling, 2(5), 70-82.