duction to Delta Module

Three aims to develop candidates' knowledge of and i'nnete'nce in:

a chosen specialist area

curriculum and syllabus design principles -. , ... ',. different types of syllabus

approaches to needs analysis

course design and evaluation

assessment of learners.

these aims, candidates need to:

. .: research a chosen specialist area

understand and apply key principles underpinning syllabus design and course planning

understand and use appropriate methods of needs analysis for a specific group oflearners

• consider learner assessment and course evaluation

• synthesise aU their learning into a project which can be coherently presented to a third party.

• Business English

• Teaching young learners/young adults (specified age

group required with S-year range e.g, 8-13, 14-19)

• English for Special Purposes

• English for Academic Purposes

• ESOL learners with clear specialist needs e.g. literacy needs

• CLlUEmbedded ESOL (teaching English through

subject/work-based learning)

• Teaching examination classes

• Teaching one-to-one

• Teaching monolingual classes

• Teaching multilingual classes

• Teaching in an English-speaking environment

• Teaching in a non-English-speaking environment.

EXTENDING PRACTICE AND ELT SPECIALISM

DELTA HANDBOOK I MODULE THREE III

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Extended Assignment

specifications

Candidates should select a specialism which is relevant to their current or intended teaching context and ensure that the centre at which they are enrolled is prepared to supervise it. Candidates' work should demonstrate a sound grasp of general principles and their implications for the specialised area concerned. Candidates should also demonstrate in-depth knowledge and understanding of their specialism.

The candidate should carry out an independent investigation leading to the design of a course programme relating to the specialism, making clear any assumptions that they are making about the learner or learners involved. Candidates should consider how they would assess and evaluate the programme. The project will be reported in the form of an Extended Assignment (4,000-4,500 words, excluding appendices) which includes:

• a review of key issues informing the approach to be proposed

• an analysis of the learners' needs, motivations and learning styles and diagnostic assessment data

• the design of a short course programme (minimum 20 hours)

• a rationale for the design of the course, drawing on and embodying principles derived from discriminating reading of relevant literature, and including evidence drawn from experience and observation

• an explanation of how the course will be assessed and evaluated, a rationale for these choices and a critical analysis of sample assessment material.

• Outline for candidates

The following outline and guidance notes refer to a group of learners. However, an individual learner may be chosen as a specialist subject for this assignment. (See list of specialisms on page 63.)

The paper win consist of five main parts, plus appendices:

Introduction: a review of the key issues which prompted your choice of specialism. This will include a discriminating review of relevant literature and a consideration of the implication of key issues for your proposed specialism.

Needs analysis and commentary; an explanation of how you identified the needs, motivations and learning styles of your specialist learner group, and how you used the diagnostic tests to establish priorities.

Course proposal: the rationale for the course, the learning goals, the content and outline of the course. (This should not simply be a duplication or summary of coursebook content.)

Assessment: drawing on relevant reading on assessment, in this section you will explain the role of different types of assessment in the proposed course and demonstrate how

iii DELTA HANDBOOK J MODULE THREE

the key principles - validity, reliability, practicality and impact - and roles of assessment - formative and summative - apply to the way you will monitor progress and assess learning outcomes of the proposed course, and how the course will be evaluated. A sample(s) of the assessments you will use will be provided in the appendices.

Conclusion: showing how your proposed course design is linked to the key issues you outlined in your introduction.

• Appendices

• Needs analysis material, diagnostic test and results

• Course outline

• Course evaluation materials and/or outline of procedure

• Sample materials or summary of materials

• Draft assessments.

Below is an indication of suggested length for each part. The total length may be between 4,000 and 4,500 words, but the proportion of words in each part should be approxima.teJyas indicated below (plus or minus 10%), regardless of the total word length.

Part

Length 1,100 800 1,100 1,100 400

4,500

Introduction

Needs analysis and commentary Course proposal

Assessment

Conclusion t

What follows is a set of questions for each part.

• Part 1 Topic area/Introduction Length: 1,100 words

• Why did you choose this specialism?

• What theories and principles in the academic and professional literature have you found relevant, useful or challenging?

• What ideas from observation and experience have you drawn on?

• What are the implications of these ideas for designing or developing a course?

• Part 2 Needs analysis and commentary Length: 800 words

• Who is your specialist group? What are their main characteristics? e.g. age, educational and language level, nationality, learning style(s), motivations,job, etc.

• How did you identify the needs of your specialist group?

For example: Did you use a questionnaire, interviews, examination results?

• What form of diagnostic testing did you use?

'( "

J or group tutorials or online packages. If candidates wish to

fI!\..

receive individual support, they will need to ensure that the

centre where they are registered is able to provide this for their chosen specialism and check the centre's arrangements

• What were the results of the diagnostic test(s)? How did you use these in clarifying the learners' needs and identifying language areas requiring attention? What aspects did you focus on and why?

• What priorities have you identified from the above?

• Part 3 Course proposal

Length: 1,100 words

• In what ways is your proposed course based on or influenced by ideas and information from parts 1 and 2?

• What are the learning aims and objectives you hope to

achieve?

• What is the content of the proposed course?

• What approach to teaching will be used?

• What materials will be used? If you propose using published materials, how do these match the aims of the course?

• What institutional requirements or other constraints have you taken into account? e.g. availability of teachers with the relevant skills and experience, availability of materials and resources, timetabling.

• Part 4 Assessment

Length: 1,100 words

• How will you monitor learning progress?

• How will you assess learning outcomes?

.• What are the assessment principles outlined in the testing literature which will be applied to the assessments?

• How have these principles influenced your choice of assessments?

• In what ways, if any, are your choices of assessments constrained?

• How fit for purpose are the assessments in relation to your learner group and the proposed course?

• What constraints and opportunities affect the proposed assessment procedures?

• How will the course be evaluated for future use?

• Part 5 Conclusion

Length: 400 words

• How has your course proposal applied the principles you discussed in part 1?

• What do you expect to be the benefits for the learners of your course proposal?

• What do you consider to be some of the limitations of your proposal?

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Guidance for tutors and candidates

• General

Candidates are not required to follow a course to prepare for the Delta Module Three Extended Assignment. However, candidates who do receive support from their centres will benefit from having a structured approach to their preparation for the assignment. The following information may be used by centres/tutors providing support for the Delta Module Three Extended Assignment or by candidates preparing independently. Such support may be in the form of a course, individual or group tutorials or online packages, and may be provided in parallel with or separately from Delta Modules One and Two,

Where the Extended Assignment is supervised as part of a course, each centre is advised to develop and make explicit their approach to the module. It may be that a whole group chooses the same specialist area, e.g. ESP or young learners, in which case the same input can be provided for all candidates. If a range of specialist areas is chosen, then input may be given by tutors with some expertise in the specialist area. Candidates could advise centres of their specialist area, and

receive advice, guidance and support in the form of individual

for this provision.

For the Extended Assignment, candidates need to have a breadth and depth of knowledge and awareness of issues related to their chosen specialism. For this reason it is important that candidates read widely before starting the assignment. Candidates should also read and be familiar with the key principles and issues in the following areas:

• needs analysis and diagnostic testing

• course and syllabus design

• assessment.

• Choice of topic for the assignment

The focus of the assignment will be on a specialism chosen by the candidate in consultation with the centre. It is the prerogative of the centre to decide if they are able/willing to supervise a particular specialism, which could be one where the candidate already has experience or one which they would like to explore for future employment. In either case, the candidate will need to have access to the type of learners chosen as a focus for the assignment.

The topic area Teaching young leamers, for example, includes a wide range of ages. There would need to be a focus on a particular age group for the research into discussion of theories and principles, and a specified class would be needed .

DELTA HANDBOOK I MODULE THREE III

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for the course design and assessment elements of the research project.

Candidates must choose a specialism from the list provided.

• Staging and planning

It is recommended that candidates be advised to address the various stages of the assignment separately, and that a study plan be drawn up so that candidates dearly carry out the necessary background work for each stage before moving on to the subsequent stage. Tutorials may be built into this planning to provide more structured guidance.

• Presentation of the assignment

Advice to candidates

• The assignment is to be submitted electronically as one document using this format:

- Word 2003 or 2007 document, 2.5" margins

- Entitled as follows: centre number_candi~ate

number_surname_Delta3_month year. doc e.g,

11111_001_smith_Delta3_1208.doc ... ."

_ All appendices should be included in the document itself.

- Any materials should be scanned electronically and added to the main document to enable them to be submitted electronically.

• Candidates are expected to check their assignments for language errors.

• The title page should contain details of centre and candidate number and the word count.

• A contents page, listing headings/sub-headings and including page numbers should be provided immediately after the cover page.

• Pages should be numbered by using the' insert page number function in Word.

• A running footer should be inserted with candidate name and assignment title.

• Headings should be used for sections in the body of the assignment. Sub-headings should be used where appropriate for sub-sections.

• The word count is very important as it provides a form of standardisation for the assignment. Candidates must adhere to the word count, so they should plan their assignment to cover the criteria within the word count. Assignments which exceed the word limit will be penalised during marking. Suggested word counts for each section will help candidates organise themselves accordingly.

DELTA HANDBOOK ! MODULE THREE

• Reading, bibliography and referencing

Advice to candidates

• Candidates should show an extensive range of reading resources.

e Candidates are expected to do appropriate research into their specialism, needs analysis, course design and testing. Appropriate terminology should be used and sources referred to where necessary. These should be clearly referenced in the text, e.g. Richards (2001). If specific quotes are used, they should be referenced using author(s)' surname(s}, year of publication and page numbers quoted, e.g. (Richards 2001:98).

• The bibliography needs to be presented appropriately in alphabetical order of author's surname. Year of publication and publisher should be included. This should be presented after the assignment and before the appendices, and should only include publications referred to in the text itself.

• References should be formatted consistently. It is recommended that this be done according to the APA Publication Manual, (5th ed., 2001); for more information see www.apastyle.org. Examples of several references are given below.

Single author book:

Richards, J.C. (2001). Curriculum development in language teaching. Cambridge; New York: CUP.

TournaI artide:

Chapelle, C. (1999). Validity in language assessment. Annual Review of Applied linguistics 19,254-272.

Edited book:

Graves, K. (Ed.) (1996). Teachers as coursedeveIopers. Cambridge; New York: CUP.

Section of edited book:

Messick, S. (1989). Validity. In R. Linn (Ed.), Educational measurement (pp. 13-103). New York: Macmillan.

Electronic source:

British Educational Research Association. (1992). Ethical guidelines. Retrieved 22 May, 2004, from: http://www.bera.ac. uk/guidelines.html

Associations and corporate authors:

American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

• Note on plagiarism

Plagiarised work will not be accepted. Candidates should be advised on what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it. Plagiarism includes:

• copying another's language or ideas as if they were your own

• unauthorised collusion

• quoting directly without making it clear by standard referencing and the use of quotation marks and/or layout (indented paragraphs, for example) that you are doing so

• using text downloaded from the internet without referencing the source conventionally

• closely paraphrasing a text

• submitting work which has been undertaken wholly or in part by someone else.

• Part 1 Topic area/Introduction

to candidates

• Candidates should choose a specialism where they already have experience or which they would like to explore for future employment.

• Candidates'should have access to the type oflearners chosen as a focus for the assignment.

• The assignment should be written for a real, rather than imaginary group of learners, Candidates should provide a reason for choosing this particular group of learners and give some information on their own experience of teaching them if appropriate.

• It is recommended that candidates research their chosen topic area by doing relevant reading before planning/finalising the second stage of the assignment.

• Candidates are expected to show understanding of the key issues related to their topic area using relevant terminology.

Part 2 Needs analysis and commentary

to candidates

• A portrait of the group of learners is needed with emphasis on language learning background, motivation, learning styles, learning needs and level, and should include comments on the candidate's assessment of their strengths and weaknesses. Questionnaires and/or

interviews may be used here. In order to adhere to the word count candidates need to provide brief, relevant information.

Candidates are expected to show awareness of principles of needs analysis and diagnostic testing. Terminology should be used and referenced to its sources. Understanding of principles of needs analysis and diagnostic testing does not mean purely stating lists of factors. Candidates need to show how awareness of

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these principles has influenced their choice of diagnostic assessment procedures.

• Candidates are expected to choose appropriate diagnostic test(s) to diagnose the group's strengths and weaknesses. Simply using off-the-shelf placement tests is unlikely to be sufficient. The diagnostic test(s) should address language and skills areas (e.g. grammar, lexis, discourse, phonology, reading, listening, writing and speaking) as appropriate to the learners' needs and goals and the objectives of the course.

• It is essential that candidates show how they have used the needs analysis and diagnostic test data to identify learners' needs and language areas which require attention. This needs to be highlighted here in brief and then used to form the basis of the course proposal in the next section.

• Part 3 Course proposal

Advice to candidates

• Candidates are expected to show awareness of principles of course and syllabus design. Terminology should be used and referenced to its sources. Understanding of principles of syllabus and course design does not mean purely stating lists of factors. Candidates need to show how awareness of these principles has influenced the design of the course.

• It is essential that the proposed course is dearly influenced by the needs analysis and analysis of the diagnostic test(s) from the previous stage of the assignment.

• The course proposal needs to clearly state the learning aims and objectives, approach to teaching, course content and teaching materials which will be used.

• The course proposal needs to be realistic and should acknowledge relevant institutional constraints where appropriate.

• Candidates are expected to design a course for at least 20 hours of teaching. While it is acceptable to design a longer course, candidates should bear in mind that sufficient detail in terms of course content is required. Therefore, designing a longer course proposal will inevitably require more time and effort on the part of candidates.

• While tables or charts may be used to summarise the course proposal, sufficient prose is required to expand details and provide explanations.

• Candidates may (but are not required to) present samples of teaching materials to be used, in which case they should be added to the appendix and clearly referenced.

• Published materials from coursebooks may be used, but candidates still need to justify their use in relation to the aims of the course and learners' needs.

DELTA HANDBOOK I MODULE THREE III

II Part 4 Assessment

Advice to candidates

• Candidates are expected to show awareness of principles of assessment. Terminology should be used and referenced to its sources. Understanding of assessment principles does not mean purely stating lists of factors. Candidates need to relate these factors to their choice of assessment and show how awareness of these principles has influenced their choice of assessment procedures.

• Candidates may choose already published tests from examining bodies or coursebooks. This is appropriate as long as they are relevant to the assessment of the course and the learners.

• Candidates must provide a clear rationale for the assessment types chosen. This must include both formative assessment to monitor learners' progress during the course, and summative assessment to assess learning outcomes at the end of the course.

• Candidates should also indicate briefly how they intend to evaluate the effectiveness of the course with reference to any questionnaires or other materials used.

o The link between the course and the assessment is paramount. The rationale for the assessment must show awareness of the group's perceived language learning priorities as well as the course content and suggested teaching methodology.

• The assessment needs to be realistic and should acknowledge relevant institutional constraints where appropriate.

II Conclusion

Advice to candidates

9 In this section, candidates should summarise how the course proposal and accompanying assessment procedures will achieve the learning objectives identified for the specific group of learners chosen.

• This should not simply be a regurgitation of everything that has been said in the assignment Some indication should be given of the expected benefits of the course proposal to the group of learners and some of its limitations.

III DELTA HAN0600K I MODULE THREE

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II Appendices

Advice to candidates

• The appendices can only be used for samples of questionnaires and diagnostic test results, and for copies of resources, materials and tests.

• Appendices should be numbered and included in the contents page. They should also state what they contain, e.g. Appendix 1 Needs Analysis QUestionnaire.

Assessment

Candidates' assignments are assessed with reference to a detailed Mark Scheme. The Mark Scheme is based on the guidelines for each part of the assignment, and includes instructions for markers concerning the number of marks available for each of five assessment categories (grasp of topic, needs analysis, course proposal, assessment, presentation and organisation). Marks are awarded for each category using a band system, and these are then totalled to form an overall grade.

II Marking

A Principal Examiner guides and monitors the marking process. The process begins with a co-ordination meeting at which the Principal Examiner and a team of examiners establish a common standard of assessment through the selection and marking of sam ple assignments. These are chosen to represent a range of performance across different specialisms. During marking, each examiner is apportioned randomly chosen assignments. A rigorous process of coordination and checking is carried out before, during and after the marking process.

DESCRIPTION

Excellent piece of work which shows a very high level of understanding, analysis and application, and which displays originality and critical insight Very high standard in all of the following areas:

• Understanding of: the topic area; principles of needs analysis and diagnostic testing; principles of syllabus and course design; principles of assessment

• Analysis of key issues in the topic area, and learner needs; justification of learning aims, teaching approach, course content and assessment procedures

• Identification of key issues and learning priorities; design of course and assessment

• Academic writing. presentation and organisation, clarity of argument and quality of ideas.

Very good piece of work which shows a high leve! of understanding. analysis and application, and which displays some originality and critical insight. High standard in mostofthe following areas, but with some room for improvement:

• Understanding of: the topic area; principles of needs analysis and diagnostic testing; principles of syllabus and course design; principles of assessment

• Analysis of key issues in the topic area, and learner needs; justification of learning aims, teaching approach, course content and assessment procedures

• Identification of key issues and learning priorities; design of course and assessment

• Academic writing. presentation and organisation, clarity of argument and quality of ideas.

Satisfactory piece of work which shows an acceptable level of understanding, analysis and application, and which meets the requirements of the assignment. Good standard in some areas, but some room for improvement in most of the following areas:

• Understanding of: the topic area; principles of needs analysis and diagnostic testing; principles of syllabus and course design; principles of assessment

• Analysis of key issues in the topic area, and learner needs; justification of learning aims, teaching approach. course content and assessment procedures

• Identification of key issues and learning priorities; design of course and assessment

• Academic writing, presentation and organisation, clarity of argument and quality of ideas.

Inadequate piece of work which fails to show an acceptable level of understanding, analysis and application. Substantial room for improvement in some or all of the following areas:

• Understanding of: the topic area; principles of needs analysis and diagnostic testing; principles of syllabus and course design; principles of assessment

• Analysis of key issues in the topic area, and learner needs; justification of learning aims, teaching approach, course content and assessment procedures

• Identification of key issues and learning priorities; design of course and assessment

• Academic writing, presentation and organisation, clarity of argument and quality of ideas.

OELTA HANOBOOK I MODULE THREE Ell

How are assignments for Module '!\va graded? Language Systems and Skills Assignments

overall grade is given for each Language Systems/Skills Weighting is given to the teaching and the ";;"'~""-b grade is therefore primary. However, both the

essay and the teaching must pass in order for the to achieve an overall Pass (or above) for the

is a one-grade difference between the teaching and

background essay, the teaching grade is awarded as the grade (provided the background essay is a Pass). So for sxample, a Systems Assignment with a Merit for the teaching a Pass for the background essay would be graded as Merit.

two-grade difference i.e, a Distinction for teaching and a for the background essay is a Merit overall.

the teaching grade is only a Pass, then the overall grade be higher than a Pass; so a Pass for teaching and a

or Distinction for the background essay is a Pass overall.

The Professional Development Assignment This assignment is graded as Pass or Fail.

Is a first degree essential for enrolment onto Module '!\va? No, many candidates will have a first degree but it is not a requirement However, centres should advise candidates that Delta Modules are at Masters level.

Do candidates have to include tests and samples for analysis ofleamers' strengths as well as weaknesses?

Yes, they need to comment on strengths as well as weaknesses in order to justify the course programme e.g. there might be less of an emphasis on a particular skill if this has identified as a strength or is irrelevant to the learners'

or the focus of the course.

candidates do one diagnostic test or can they do

the test{s) only be on language or on the four skills

Candidates should test what needs to be tested according to the needs and the purpose for which their learners are learning English. If the course had a very specific focus e.g. academic writing skills exclusively then the focus of the

would be on writing skills and subskills, The narrower the range of diagnostic assessment, the more detail of analysis Would be expected i.e. less breadth and more depth of analysis if the topic chosen is narrow in terms of skills/language area.

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Should the results include areas such as pronunciation and discourse features or only lexical and grammatical needs?

As in answer to the previous question, it depends on the nature of the course.

Should candidates include issues such as class management (e.g. in the case ofYLs which may influence their choice of activities in the course plan) or cultural taboos in monolingual classes in their analysis or only language learning needs?

Yes, these issues should be included if relevant.

How do candidates go about justifying how they have prioritised the areas they are going to focus on? Presumably they can't do detailed annotated scripts and samples for each student, so how do they show the evidence for their choices?

Candidates cannot analyse all the diagnostic assessments in depth if their course is for a whole class (but more detail would be expected for a one-to-one study). Candidates should do what would be realistic in a real situation e.g. collating and commenting on results, interviewing students or using interview notes or application information.

In the appendices, do the candidates submit copies of completed needs analyses and diagnostic tests for each student or for just a cross section or for none and just in the form of collated results?

Results should be collated and samples do not need to be submitted. Candidates must, however, keep the samples on which the collation is based until their result is issued. Cambridge ESOL may ask to see evidence from some candidates and/or ask the centre to verify that they have seen it.

Is the Extended Assignment submitted by the candidate to Cambridge E50L or should it go via the centre?

Candidates must register and submit the Extended Assignment through a centre. If the candidate is not following a course at the centre, then the centre win charge the Cambridge ESOL entry fee plus their own administration fee for processing the entry.

DELTA HANDBOOK I SUPPORT III