Standpoints towards Curriculum Change: Attitudes and Experiences of High School English Teachers Regarding the New Literature Module of the English National Matriculation
Keywords:
High school English teachers; English Matriculation; English as a Foreign Language; curriculum change; Literature ModuleAbstract
The goal of this research paper was to explore the experiences
and attitudes of high school English teachers in a peripheral Southern
Israeli town regarding the new Literature Module of the English National
Matriculation. Twenty-six English teachers from three different
comprehensive high schools were given a questionnaire with seven
open-ended questions regarding their experiences and opinions of the
new Literature Module. The research was conducted with a qualitative
method, grouping together the open answers into categories,
subsequently analyzed in order to understand the attitudes of the
teachers. The results show that the teachers had mixed feelings about the
program, highlighting both the positive and constructive elements as
well as discussing the more negative aspects of the program. In
conclusion, the Literature Module is seen as a curriculum with potential
that encourages higher-level thinking, learning, and teaching, but must
undergo changes in order to make it more teacher and student-friendly,
especially in the aspects of organizational and structural frameworks.
References
Brown, D. (2002) English Language Teaching in the "Post-Method" Era: Toward Better
Diagnosis, Treatment, and Assessment. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press.
Collie, J., & Slater, S. (1987). Literature in the Language Classroom. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press.
Criscuola, M. (1994). Read, discuss, and reread: Insights from the Junior Great Books program.
Educational Leadership, 5. 58–61.
Ghosn, I. (2002). Four good reasons to use literature in primary school ELT. ELT Journal, 56,
(2), 172-179.
Hansen, R. E. (1995). Five Principles for Guiding Curriculum Development Practice: The Case
of Technological Teacher Education. Journal of Industrial Teacher Education.
Winter, Vol. 32, Num. 2.
Jenkins, J. (2006), Current Perspectives on Teaching World Englishes and English as a Lingua
Franca. TESOL Quarterly, 40: 157–181.
Khatib, M. Rezaei, S. & Derakhshan, A. (2011). Literature in EFL/ESL Classroom, Vol. 4,
No. 1, 201-208.
Langer, J. (1997). Literacy acquisition through literature. Journal of Adolescent and Adult
Literacy, 40, 602-614.
Levi, Y. (1990). Changes in matriculation exams in Israel, Jerusalem: Ministry of Education.
Leshem, S. & Markovits, Z. (2013). Journal of Education and Learning; Vol. 2, No. 1211-.
.221
Maley, A., & Moulding, S. (1985). Poem into poem. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Richards, J.C. and Rodgers, T. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (2nd
edition). N.Y: Cambridge University Press.
Savvidou, C. (2004). An integrated approach to the teaching of literature in the EFL classroom.
The Internet TESL Journal, 12 http://iteslj.org/
Schiak, D. (2003).A scrutiny of the matriculation exams over time and their goals, Jerusalem:
Knesset, Information center.
Shmida, A. (1987). Between equality and excellence, Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University.
Shrestah, P. N. (2008). Using stories with young learners.
Van, T.T.M. (2009). The relevance of literary analysis to teaching literature in the EFL
classroom. English Teaching Forum, 3, 2-9.
Documents
Compatibility document (2013). State of Israel: Ministry of Education, Pedagogical
Affairs, Language Department & English Inspectorate, June, 2013.
Explanations of the Changes in the Literature Program, 2014). State of Israel: Ministry
of Education, Pedagogical Secretariat Language Department & English
Inspectorate.
Teachers' Literature Handbook, (2008, 2013) English Inspectorate of the Ministry of
Education, Israel.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2014 Sara Zamir, Shlomit Gilor, Rachel Sarah Ouaknine
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
All articles published by IJLTER are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivatives 4.0 International License (CCBY-NC-ND4.0).
