What is involved in developing an entire curriculum with a GE focus? The ideal situation is where administrators of a school or program find that GE concepts and values resonate with their own beliefs about English language learning and use, and they wish to adopt a GE focus throughout the program. But even being able to develop a GE-focused curriculum for just one course is an excellent opportunity.
The following is a set of considerations that could help you to develop a GE curriculum and guide decision making.
Needs analysis and benefits analysis. Needs analysis is an attempt to identify the ways that learners will need to use the L2 in the future, and the specific language they will need to succeed. Experts recommend focusing on the local context when determining which Englishes to expose learners to and to determine the most likely situations where they'll use Englishes in the future. However, in reality, it is often impossible to clearly identify specific future global uses of Englishes. Another valuable tool is a "benefits analysis", working with stakeholders to brainstorm the benefits of knowing and being able to use Englishes at the global level.
Goals, objectives, and learning outcomes. For each course in the program, it’s helpful to have a set of goals and objectives (perhaps framed as student learning outcomes, which focus on what students should be able to do after completing the course). These goals help guide choices about specific content and expectations for the kinds of tasks and projects students can handle. They also take into account assumptions about what students should already know, be able to do, or have been exposed to.
Selecting an instructional variety. While one of GE’s goals is to raise students’ awareness about the multitude of English varieties in the world, it is impossible to teach or introduce all of them. Programs should instead choose an instructional variety for introducing new grammatical structures, vocabulary, and phrases that is most appropriate for the local context (whether that is American, British, Singaporean English, etc.). Although teachers focus on the instructional variety, they should also give regular reminders that other ways of saying the same thing are equally legitimate.
Course content and materials:
GE as content. What is GE? What are its aims and how might they be manifested in global uses of Englishes? What does it mean to be an effective GE user? GE content could also include stories and tips from GE users. Through learning about and discussing GE content, learners can critically examine and compare GE’s ideology and the ideology of native speakerism so they can make informed choices about how they want to learn English, which English(es) they want to learn, and how they want to use Englishes in the future.
Exposure to speakers of Englishes used around the world, with the aims of (a) raising learners’ awareness that there are, indeed, many Englishes used globally, (b) helping learners gain familiarity with an expanding range of Englishes, and (c) helping learners develop openness to the fluidity involved in global use of Englishes. Important to include with exposure are discussions and reflection about ways to gain more familiarity with users from different places, and how to successfully communicate with them.
Introduction to and practice with an expanding number of interactional strategies, so users can accommodate and gain accommodation from other GE users, and enhance personal and professional relationships.
Opportunities for learners to develop their ability to be effective GE users via meaningful activities, tasks, and projects involving communication and development of relationships.
Use of Englishes to explore, discuss, and clarify about different cultures, including the ability to talk about their own cultures. “Cultures” can be a plural, influenced by where one has been as well as where one is from, and “where one is from” can be more localized than a country as well as more diverse than their hometown.
Expansion of learners’ linguistic knowledge of Englishes, partly via exposure, and partly via the instructional variety, to help them expand their ability to express themselves and to participate in a wider range of interactional situations with an expanding number of people from around the world.
Textbooks and other materials. GE scholars have highlighted the current lack of published textbooks that take a GE approach, and mention that other readily available materials are also in very short supply. This is exacerbated by the focus on tailoring GE-focused materials and instruction to the local context. There is a tendency to expect teachers to find materials and create their own context-specific lessons. This website aims to help ease that burden by providing links to video and audio clips of a wide range of users of Englishes across the globe, plus downloadable lesson plans for each of the content areas above (see GE Materials). However, we encourage programs to provide time and resources to teachers to devote to development of their own set of materials.
How to decide levels, and what to include at each level, if there are multiple courses offered in a school or program.
Plan for assessing student “learning” and use. This can include guidelines and tools for assessing students’ development as effective GE users, as well as noting evolution of their attitudes toward GE aims and concepts. It can also include plans for integrating student self-assessment and reflection.
Plans for ongoing evaluation of the curriculum. A curriculum is a living, evolving entity, so it makes sense to evaluate its effectiveness on a regular basis. This can include: review of students’ achievement of goals, objectives, and learning outcomes when they finish a course (or a series of courses); how students’ and teachers’ attitudes evolve; materials, lesson plans, and assessment tools; revisiting your student population's needs and benefits, as well as your choice of instructional variety; and looking at effects your program has had on views of GE held by the local community.
Other institutional considerations:
Plans for instructors, student advisors, and other staff.
Hiring issues. How do you want to promote that your hiring practices reflect GE values, focusing on the qualities of effective GE teachers rather than whether or not they are native speakers? Are the qualities of effective GE advisors similar? How well-versed in GE concepts do you expect newly hired teachers to be? How about advisors and staff?
Teacher/staff orientation to GE. What aspects of a GE approach are essential for teachers to be aware of and trained in? What GE values and concepts are important to provide as training for advisors and other staff?
Ongoing professional development. What kinds of professional development opportunities make sense for teachers in your program? (Examples may include opportunities to take classes or attend workshops related to GE, develop GE-related teaching materials, and attend and/or present at conferences.) What would be useful for advisors and other staff?
Marketing GE to potential students and other stakeholders. In your context, what is the prevailing attitude about English language learning and use? How can GE be presented to win over stakeholders and ensure robust enrollment?
The ideas presented in this section came from and were influenced by the following sources: Matsuda (2012), Matsuda & Friedrich (2012), Matsuda & Matsuda (2010), McKay & Brown (2016), Rose & Galloway (2019), Rose et al (2020), Selvi & Yazan, (2021), Sifakis, (2019). If you are interested in reading more, you can find them on our References & Links page.