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  • CLT-based Curricula and Pedagogical Recommendations in EFL Contexts: A Textual Analysis of the 10th-grade English Curriculum in Burkina Faso

    J. Somé Kountiala

    This study critically evaluates the 10th-grade English as a Foreign Language (EFL) curriculum in Burkina Faso to understand some of the implementation challenges reported in most empirical research about teachers’ use of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) principles. For this purpose, the article reviewed the literature on CLT principles, its theoretical background, and the pedagogical implications in multilingual contexts. Empirical research on implementing CLT-based curricula in different EFL contexts was also reviewed to identify common issues highlighted regarding CLT curricula implementation in EFL contexts. These reviews helped define the methodological guideline for this critical assessment of the CLT-based grade 10 EFL curriculum in Burkina Faso. It leads to a thorough examination of the grade 10 curriculum, whose findings indicate a lack of contextualization of CLT principles in the curriculum to reflect the national and local teaching and learning realities in Burkina Faso. The analysis reveals that the 10th-grade EFL curriculum prescribes specific topics, lesson content, and instruction time, leaving teachers with little autonomy to adapt lessons to students’ needs and community realities. The control of what teachers can do regarding teaching and learning planning reduces teachers to policy implementers rather than facilitators of learning. To address these challenges, the article recommends a collaborative approach to curriculum design and implementation in which teachers serve as the last-mile planners. Granting this role to teachers can ensure that students’ needs and local realities are considered in curriculum planning, implementation, and assessment.

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  • Technology Mediated Learning in Higher Education: Orthodoxy of The Era

    M. Chandrasena Rajeswaran

    The English language classrooms have seen changes in teaching learning theories, approaches and methods. There was a shift from Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) of the eighties to Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) in the nineties. It was considered a shift from one pedagogy to another, but technology mediation in education in general is considered an external force that shapes our pedagogic principles and approaches. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) which started serving educational sector by 1995, has evolved so tremendously that education without it is impossible. In the globalised context of English teaching and learning, the language classes operate on many theories and approaches with no specific focus on any one of them, because various theories and approaches seamlessly merge in a language classroom with technology as a catalyst, which, while strengthening the teaching learning process ensures learning outcome. This is a boon to higher education portals where digital natives are stakeholders. The ubiquitous presence of technology mediation in language learning makes it the orthodoxy of the era. This article studies the pedagogical perspectives of technology mediation in the language classrooms.

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