Curriculum design and Material Development
I feel as if the customer is being overshadowed by the stakeholder; if you look at the customer as the educator and learners and the stakeholders as the political agencies. Political agencies seem to have a much greater say in the curriculum than the educator and learner. I believe this is especially prevalent to language learning. Political agenda is getting in the way of making and upholding proper and realistic standards for English language learners. I know that the reason that the political agencies have such a huge say in things is because they not only control the rules but can also influence spending. If the Board of Education votes in favor for a certain rule or regulation then they might receive more money or increase their budget. But at what point does the end justify the means.
Out of the constant changes we do get many different methods like, content-based, process-based and product-based. Content-based refers to what the learner is learning about; ie: the material. Process-based is how the learning processes and learns the information presented to them. Product-based shows what the learner has retained from the information. using the curriculum and syllabus should make these processes easier. Curriculum shows the teacher what information the students should be learning and the syllabus helps to present and process the information. It is important to be able to contextualize these domains. the learner has to feel like the information the information the are learning is important and valid in their everyday life. Having an appropriate context can make a big difference in how the students learn, process and retain the information.
Website that I stumbled upon about the rules of commas and semi colons.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon
