Research On English Curriculum Organization

Curriculum organization or the selection and organization of the curriculum content, means the process of selecting curriculum elements from the subject, the current social life and the students' experience, then designing the selected curriculum elements appropriately so that they can form the curriculum structure and type. Curriculum elements are the basic components of the curriculum, and also the basic organizing stretches or lines of the curriculum. They include concepts, principles, skills, methodology and values.In June 2001, the eighth Curriculum Reform of Basic Education started in China.Following that, Curriculum Standards for English Curriculum of CompulsoryEducation (called the Standards for short in this dissertation) was issued. Comparedwith the previous syllabuses, the Standards convey more comprehensible concepts offoreign language ability and curriculum. This change of concepts demands that thecurriculum organization change correspondingly. Therefore, how to select and organizethe curriculum content so that it can reflect the new concepts of curriculum andlanguage ability has become the decisive factor in the success of the new curriculumreform. Meanwhile, the new ideas of this curriculum reform provide an opportunity forthe diversity of curriculum organization. There has long existed a contradiction betweenthe single curriculum organization and the diversified backgrounds of qualified Englishteacher and the different English environment and learning motivations of the students,which has been constraining the development of the English curriculum in China.'Curriculum Standards' have taken the place of 'Syllabus' in this curriculum reform,and it also conveys the change of perspectives. The basic ideas of the Standards offeran opportunity for the development of the curriculum organization. However, due to thesystem of curriculum management, the academic background and qualification of theresearchers, the researches on English language teaching are confined to the narrowsubject perspective. Researches on methodology are taken highly important whileresearches on curriculum content are neglected. Thus, the new curriculum reformprovides a wide scope for researches on curriculum organization and at the same timemakes them confronted with challenges. Researches on curriculum organization are notonly of practical significance, but also of theoretical significance, for they can promotethe development of language teaching theory.This dissertation concerns English curriculum organization in basic education. It ismade up of eight parts:In the part of Introduction, the dissertation introduces the backgrounds and significance of the research, defines the main concepts, introduces the research methods used in the dissertation and introduces the structures of the dissertation.Chapter 1 reviews the development of the researches on foreign language curriculum organization abroad and the English curriculum organization at home.Chapter 2 analyzes and expounds the basic theories of the English curriculum organization. The dissertation first analyzes different concepts of curriculum, language and language learning. Then it further explores the basic positions the curriculum developer should take.Chapter 3 presents a thorough analysis of the English curriculum organization. It is stressed that English curriculum should be based not only on some principles, but on the reality as well. Thus this chapter analyzes the influence of some factors on English curriculum organization. These factors include the government's foreign language policy, natural English language environment, English curriculum resources, the present system of evaluation, and the backgrounds of teachers and students. The dissertation points out that the curriculum developers should coordinate the relationship between the reality and the ideal, the tradition and innovation.Chapter 4 explores the orientations of English curriculum organization based on the previous chapters. It ana...