Investigating English as a Foreign Language in Planning, Designing and Developing Curriculum at Kurdistan Universities
Tazhan Kamal Omer
College of Basic Education, English Department, University of Sulaimani
Abbas Mustafa Abbas
College of Basic Education, English Department, University of Sulaimani
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25130/jls.6.4.1.22
Keywords: curriculum design, developing curricula, planning curriculum
Abstract
This is an extracted study from a PhD thesis which aims at investigating curriculum planning, designing, and developing at Kurdistan universities. This paper sheds light on the most common and important theoretical background and literature review in the field as well as applying one of the most well-known approaches in curriculum design by Nation and Macalister (2010). The data has been collected from 247 undergraduate students who filled in the questionnaire in the University of Sulaimani, Salahhadin and Duhok. The study’s findings indicated some strengths and weaknesses of the program, and to some extent, it fulfills the needs of the students. Also, teachers as real practitioners inside classes, have complained about the current curricula regarding the academic level of students and devoted time for courses. In this regard, the learning environment is not productive as it should be based on the outcomes of the study, and there is no planning and designing procedure for the current program. Only the development process exists randomly. The changes in the program from its establishment have yet to be documented formally. Moreover, some workshops were held but were fruitless due to the lack of implementing the changes in the real classes.
