MOVING TO A NEW SYLLABUS

When something arrives to our lives and changes the status quo it generates not only resistance, negativity, and preoccupation but also challenge, enthusiasm, and improvement. These have been just some of the different reactions experienced by Costa Rican teachers when the new syllabus was introduced two years ago.

English in primary school was first accepted in 1994 as a pilot program. Since then, many changes have been done. When I started teaching in 2000, a teaching guide was given to me in which instructions were written in Spanish and I basically have to teach a list of vocabulary and encourage students to say phrases and short sentences with that. Everything was so basic and the syllabus was grammar and content based. There were not many materials available just that guide.

Then, a new syllabus arrived in 2005 as a proposal to improve the students’ skills in the target language. An eclectic approach was the base of this syllabus integrating the Communicative Approach, Total Physical Response, Cooperative Learning, Multiple Intelligence Theory and Learning Styles. It focuses the attention in developing the Speaking and Listening skills in primary. Many efforts were done to support teachers and improve the English proficiency in students such as the digital materials in the MEPplatform such as Cyberkids and Cyberlab, teachers’ workshops by MEP-CONARE, Interactive English programs for multigrade schools and Interactive Radio

However, in spite of the effort done to improve the syllabus, the students exit profile either in primary or in secondary was not as it was expected. As a consequence, a nationwide diagnostic was done and some of its results were that students needed an updated curriculum; that students were not reaching the expected English proficiency levels after eleven or twelve years of studying English in primary and secondary; and that students needed to learn and possess a number of competences to succeed in the 21^st century. Besides this, the Instituto de Desarrollo Profesional (IDP) mentioned in 2008 that only 33, 7% of the English teachers were part of the highest proficiency levels described by the Common European Framework of Reference for languages.

As a result, and after more than ten years later, on 2016 a new syllabus was presented and new workshops have been done with teachers. In the case of the English teachers proficiency levels, the IDP says that by 2015 59, 3% were part of the highest proficiency levels described by the CEFR standards. This represents and improvement in the teachers’ proficiency levels, but it still shows a deficiency in the teachers’ preparation. That’s why TOEIC tests are applied to diagnose and hire personnel as well as workshops to update teachers are developed all over the country.  

In like manner, some of the new syllabus goals are the development of communicative competence, advances and extended coverage in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), make students speak English fluently having the new curriculum sequenced so that learners reach a minimum level of English proficiency according to the levels described by CEFR standards.

Besides that, there are more positive changes in the new program. Some of the aspects that are proposed in this new syllabus are compared in the next chart.

COMPARING COSTA RICAN ENGLISH SYLLABUS
OLD SYLLABUS (2005)	NEW SYLLABUS (2017)
Communicative Approach	Action-Oriented Approach
Based on linguistic abilities	Based on integrated competences to the development of the communicative competence
Linguistic Objectives	Can do Descriptors per linguistic competence
It does not have international reference	It is correlated and contextualized to the CEFR standards
It does not have a communicative competence exit profile as a national reference	It defines a national exit profile for primary and secondary
It does not have an articulation between cycles	It includes an articulation among all the cycles from preschool to Diversified Education
Curricular elements are correlated neither vertically nor horizontally	There is a vertical and horizontal coherence in all the elements of the program
Made based on cognitive goals	Made based on domains (socio-interpersonal, Transactional, Academic, Professional)
It has decontextualized thematic units	It has a holistic setting within authentic and updated situations or domains
There are proposed some values and attitudes with few or any relationship with other elements of the curriculum.	It proposes an essential question to create long lasting knowledge
It suggests vocabulary and example of phrases without any sequence	It clearly defines the grammatical structures, the phonologic awareness and the vocabulary related to each topic knowledge
It proposes communicative functions without any pedagogical sequence and without any reference	It proposes communicative functions in sequence and based on the CEFR standards
It does not include the use of TIC’s	It includes the use of TIC’s as a support tool
The pedagogic mediation suggests general strategies	The pedagogic mediation is enriched with specific strategies and technical methodologies for each performance descriptor.
It does not include any task to integrate the pedagogic mediation and the goal achievement	It includes an integrated mini-project at the end of unit
The assessment strategies are so general	The assessment is teaching oriented. It includes indicators to each performance descriptor within the domains and scenarios. It promotes the self-assessment and peer-assessment.
The teacher’s role is being a facilitator who participates in the learning process as an expert.	The teacher’s role is being a facilitator who helps the learner to be autonomous. The teachers is an expert who shares his/her expertise with the learners.
The student is the center of the learning process	The student is an agent for social change through the use of general and specific competences.

In sum, moving to the actual syllabus has been a long journey. Great efforts have being made to have this new proposal which main purpose is to create bilingual citizen in Costa Rica. It is a reality that this theory, when started to be applied, shows that there are some aspects to be improved (like the amount of contents per week) and others that need to be included (such as specific assessment guidelines). Nevertheless, it is our duty as English teachers to take this syllabus and make it works. To do so, English teachers require to be conscious not only of their own weakness to improve what is required but also of their own strengths to organize purposeful and scaffolded learning experiences.

How have your experience been with this new syllabus? I will wait for your comments. 

REFERENCES LINKS 

• Campos, A., Ramírez, Y.,Chaves, Y. & Granados, M. (2016). Propuesta de los nuevos programas de estudio de Inglés Primero y Segundo Ciclos, Tercer Ciclo y Educación Diversificada al Consejo Superior de Educación
• Ministerio de Educación Pública (2005) Programa de Estudio de Inglés Primer y Segundo Ciclos.
• Ministerio de Educación Pública (2016) Programa de Estudio de Inglés Primer y Segundo Ciclos.