Methodology and Design Philosophy
Course development methodology & design philosophy
Designing new content can be a challenge. Over the past few years we have developed and refined the V.I.T.A.L.-approach to content development which proves to be efficient and practical. The V.I.T.A.L.-approach consists of the following stages:
V - Verify ideas: liaising with experts to ensure we understand trends, expectations, and needs.
I - Initiate design: meticulous planning lies at the core of this stage.
T - Transform content: turning concepts into reality; creating new content and converting existing content.
A - Assure quality: benchmark, improve, review.
L - Launch product!
We actively promote comprehensive language awareness by ensuring that our courses contain most of the following elements:
- Language Skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking)
- Language knowledge (explicit vocabulary, grammar, topics)
- Attitudes to Learning (motivation, self-confidence, international view)
- Learning strategies (improve effectiveness of students learning)
- Cultural awareness (cross-cultural communication)
We also follow the 10 principles for developing language courses recommended by Prof. Rod Ellis:
- Ensure learners develop rich repertoire of formulaic expressions & rule based competence
- Focus predominantly on meaning
- Also focus on form
- Developing implicit knowledge without neglecting explicit knowledge
- Take into account learner’s ‘built-in-syllabus’
- Requires extensive L2 input
- Also requires opportunities for output
- Interaction in the L2 as a means to develop proficiency
- Take into account individual learning styles
- Assess free as well as controlled production
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