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EST Reading Curriculum & Instruction: An Alignment Analysis
Abstract
In order for a curriculum to achieve its goals, it is imperative that the curriculum is coherent at all levels. In order to determine the coherency of a curriculum, the alignment of its theoretical underpinning and the label of a curriculum is one of the aspects that can be examined. The purpose of the current study was to examine if the theoretical grounding of the Yemeni EST senior secondary curriculum is in alignment with its communicative-based curriculum label. In line with its label, the reading curriculum embedded in the EST curriculum should be developed and designed based on the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), which should be reflected in the EST reading instructional practice. In analysing the alignment of the communicative language teaching approach in the EST senior secondary school reading curriculum, the primary focus of the analysis was on the major SLA theories and L2 reading theories and the related instructional approaches. The data for this study were collected via an ESP textbook review as well as from the observation of the EST reading classroom instruction. The findings show that the EST senior secondary reading curriculum was not developed based on the socio-cognitive and socio-cultural theories which are the grounding principles of the communicative approach. Instead, the findings show that the EST senior secondary reading curriculum was primarily developed based on the cognitive information processing theory, in which teaching instruction reflects the student as an individual information processor and the focus on teaching vocabulary and grammatical rules using reading texts in non-communicative manner.
Keywords: Communicative Approach, SLA Theories, L2 Reading Theories
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