K to 12 English Curriculum - Philippines PDF

**CHAPTER 1** **The K to 12 English Curriculum** **[LESSON 1:]** **[The K to 12 English Curriculum Philosophy, Framework, and Rationale]** Republic Act 10533 entitled *An Act Enhancing the Philippines Basic Education System by Strengthening its Curriculum and Increasing the Number of Years for Ba...

**CHAPTER 1** **The K to 12 English Curriculum** **[LESSON 1:]** **[The K to 12 English Curriculum Philosophy, Framework, and Rationale]** Republic Act 10533 entitled *An Act Enhancing the Philippines Basic Education System by Strengthening its Curriculum and Increasing the Number of Years for Basic Education, Appropriating Funds Therefor and Other Purposes,* also known as the *Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013,* firmly grounds the implementation of the K to 12 Curriculum in the Philippines. With it, came several changes in the way teaching and learning are done in the country. The teaching of English is no exception. The curriculum is an embodiment of how the nation wishes to address its needs and achieve its aspirations through its people. In this lesson, you will learn about the K to 12 English curriculum framework, the philosophy behind it, and its rationale. What made human civilization possible is language. As a tool, we use it to express complex and abstract ideas in order for us to cooperate, create ideas, and preserve them. The K to 12 English Curriculum or the **Language Arts and Multiliteracies Curriculum** views language as the "primary instrument of thought," which we use to bring our ideas into the world around us and make meaning out of the human experience. Rules of a language refer to the principles that govern word formation, syntax, pronunciation, and several other features of the language. It may also refer to the grammar or the so called "correct" or conventional forms of the language. These conventions facilitate the way language users construct meaningful utterances to convey ideas. These rules differ from one language to another as they are defined by the people using the language, at the same time how the conventions change over time. However, leaners of a second language need to familiarize themselves with these conventions for them to converse in the language in meaningful ways. As language is used by people to convey everyday ideas, it also carries with it the culture of the people using it. Guessabi (2017) points out that "culture is a language itself.\" As such, meanings of a particular language carry with it the meaning that refers to more than the language, but also to the culture that uses that language. Learning a language therefore is not only to read, speak, and write in another language, but to learn of another culture. This understanding of language also consequently comes with the understanding of society. Through interaction with members of the society, language evolves and becomes richer. Learning another language enables one to take part as a member of a larger speech community, creating a bigger world for the learner. Such understanding in turn makes one understand ones' self and establishes personal identity, wherein one can have a better grasp of one's role in the community and in the larger society. This view establishes language as the "foundation of human relationships" from which we draw meaning in life. The K to 12 English Curriculum recognizes this power of language as to make people come together. Learning a language establishes an understanding of the users of the language, opening the bigger world for the leaners. Furthermore, greater understanding of the language also enables the learners to be a functional contributor to the development of the community to which he or she belongs. The following principles guide the K to 12 English Curriculum: - All languages are interrelated and independent. - Language acquisition and learning is an active process that begins at birth and continues throughout life. - Learning requires meaning. - Learners learn about language and how to use it effectively through their engagement with and study of texts. - Successful language learning involves viewing, listening, reading, and writing activities. - Language learning involves recognizing, accepting, valuing, and building on learners\' existing language competence, including the use of nonstandard forms of the language, and extending the range of language available to learners\'. **[Lesson 2:]** [ **The Learners in the Eyes of the K to 12 Curriculum**] We live in the so-called "digital age" where technology is a part of our everyday lives. From the moment we wake up in morning until we go to bed at night, we are surrounded by our computers, mobile phones, and many other forms of technology. It is hard to imagine life nowadays without our trusted electronics with us. Our modern society has been brought about the digital revolution that started between the 1950s to the 1970s as digital computers and other electronic media proliferated, and began to permeate the lives of people. As technology began to become a bigger part of our lives, more and more of our learners are exposed to technology. It comes as no surprise that learners nowadays are able to adapt to technology easier than ever before. Therefore, the K to 12 Curriculum takes into account the learner born in such a world. In order to become a better teacher to these learners, we need to understand them and the world they live in. The term \"Generation Z" was popularized by William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book *Generations* published in September 1992. The term describes a cohort of people born after the year 1997. Learners born in this generation are generally described as to have used technology and social media at a very young age. They are comfortable in using these technologies compared with most of the members of other generations. They can easily use emails, send text messages, and event, adapt to new and emerging technologies with little to no difficulty. Marc Wensky (2001) calls them "digital natives" who have been exposed to technologies at a very young age and are having a greater understanding of their basic concepts. From here stems one of the more pressing problems in education in our time. More and more digital natives flock our classrooms run by "digital immigrants," those who were born before the digital technologies have become mainstream to the public. As these Generation Z learners are more comfortable with the use of technology in their everyday lives, they have adapted some practices and mindsets of their own. These types of learners mostly think in a nonlinear way, preferring to take on tasks on their own. They can also be multiprocessing and multitasking, and taking on several tasks or activities at once. However, these multitasking practices may have led to some bad habits to learners, including but not limited to shortened attention span and lack of complete focus to tasks. This means they may be able to process complex information but not for a very long time. A classroom can also have a multitude of learners. They can have very different backgrounds, interests, preconceptions, and perspectives with them. They can have very different styles of engagement and may have different takes on the tasks assigned to them. Teachers in the modern age need to accede to the challenge of addressing these in their practice. Bernice McCarthy proposes a model that describes four types of learners that teachers may encounter in the classroom: Type 1 learner is what she calls the imaginative learner. These types of learner are more feeling and reflective, preferring to speak about their experiences, listening to others, and responding to them. They work well with others discussing ideas, brainstorming, and examining relationships. They focus more on finding out "why" should this be learned. Type 2 learner is the analytical learner. They prefer to reflect and to think. They are knowledge-oriented, pondering over concepts and acquiring facts. They have a knack for analyzing and organizing experiences into concepts and useful information. They would prefer to be left alone to their own devices as they objectively look though solving problems in a systematic manner. They would often find it difficult to work with large groups or talk about their feelings. They favor quiet environment to accomplish tasks. Type 3 learner is referred to as the common-sense learner. They prefer to think and learn by doing. The like to "get their hands dirty," and dive into problems head-on. As active problem-solvers, they love to manipulate stuff, experiment ways of doing things, and share these through demonstrations. They often have difficulty in verbal complexities and other abstract concepts that they cannot manipulate. The last type, Type 4, is called the dynamic learner. They tend to favor creating and acting as their way to learn. They do not simply like to learn for the sake of learning, but rather find meaning in the experiences they have. They often look for creative ways to tackle problems through trial and error and they believe they can influence what happens. Many more literatures have made cases to other learning styles and types of learners. What we need to understand is that there are as diverse and varied learners as there are learners. Adapting to these learners is one of the challenges teachers in the modern age is having. **LESSON 3:** **Goals of the K to 12 Curriculum** The primary goal of teaching is to ensure that knowledge is passed on to the next generation of humans. Primarily, it is a reflection of what we value as a specie. We teach our learners the skills and knowledge needed to function in our society. As we progress as a specie, our means to communicate becomes more complex and thus, require more and more complex sets of skills. The challenge most teachers of language is facing is how to ensure that communication skills are taught to learners. Teachers in the early grades are perhaps more burdened with this task as learners in this level are in the formative years in their lives. In this lesson, we shall look into the goals of language education of the K to 12 Curriculum and its perception of how competence could be taught. As a language curriculum, the K to 12 English Curriculum focuses on more than just instilling the capacities to use language to the learners. Beyond teaching the conventions, principles, or skills, it also looks into the needs of the learners of the language. Being a learner-centered curriculum, it aims to create learners with skills in: 1. interpersonal communication; 2. understanding and learning content from other learning areas; and 3. academic independence. In order to attain this, the curriculum focuses on two major concepts, communicative competence and multiliteracies. Learning a language is more than just simply having the knowledge of the language's grammar, syntax, morphology, phonology, and lexicon among others. Oftentimes, when language teachers are asked what their goal in teaching is, their common response is to impart the aforementioned skills to the learners. This in itself is not wrong. Understanding what makes the language work and how to properly construct utterances is an important step in learning. However, when learners are asked what their goal is in learning a language, one would hear them say "to communicate in that language." This here is perhaps the most important aspect of teaching and learning a language. Learners would want to learn a language in order to communicate to a larger audience in this medium. This competence is called **communicative competence,** coined by Dell Hymes in 1966. This does not only give emphasis to the competence of the learner in the grammar and rules of the language, but also to the social knowledge of the use of these rules in communication. Communicative competence is composed of several other competencies stipulated in the communicative competence framework from the work of Canale and Swain in 1980.. **Grammatical/Linguistic Competence.** In order to meaningfully communicate in a particular language, one must be able to understand the rules of the language. Grammatical or linguistic competence refers to one's understanding of the rules of language. This refers to grammar, lexicon, phonology (sounds created to make words), morphology (creation of smallest units of meaning), and syntax (combination of words and phrases to form sentences), among others. This is commonly the focus of many basic language classes whose main goal is to teach these skills to learners. **Sociolinguistic Competence.** As a language speaker, one can understand that it is not enough to simply have the understanding of the grammatical rules and structure of language. To be a more effective communicator, one has to have knowledge of the sociocultural use of language. Sociolinguistic competence refers to the knowledge of the appropriateness of the language to be used in particular situations (formal, friendly, courteous, sarcastic, etc.), and the appropriate responses to these situations. Knowing what the taboos are, what is rude or what is polite, must be taken into account as one engages in communication. **Discourse Competence.** Being able to comprehend and produce oral and/or written texts in various modes of communication (speaking/listening and reading/ writing) is the focus of discourse competence. This means that one must be able to combine and organize words, phrases, and sentences in order to create conversations, talks, speeches, literature, text messages, emails, articles, and other forms of communication. This skill enables the communicator to become more eloquent in his/her engagement in the use of language. **Strategic Competence.** There will be times when the line of communication would breakdown. This could be caused by a number of factors including distractions, background noise, and interruptions among others. An effective communicator would be able to determine these breakdowns before, during, or even after they occur in the situation. Strategic competence enables a speaker to keep the communication channel open through the use of various strategies including requests for clarification, repetition, slowing down of speech, or the use of hand or facial gestures. Language teaching in the K to 12 Curriculum does not only focus on the development of communicative competence, but also on the improvement of multiliteracy in the learners. Multiliteracy is a term coined in the 1990s by the New London Group, referring to an approach to literacy pedagogy. This is in response to the ever-growing paradigm shift of the education, encompassing multiple channels of communication and media, and the increasing cultural and linguistic diversity. The approach takes in to account multiple modalities to enable learners to learn and understand from a variety of sources. As the 21st Century learner is bombarded with a lot of information from a plethora of sources, the idea becomes more relevant today. Multiliteracy approach takes on various modes to implement in the classroom including linguistic (words, speech, or texts), audio (sounds, music, etc.), spatial (placements, buildings, or locations), gestures (movements), tactile (touch and feel), and visual (pictures, videos, or colors). **LESSON 4:** **Components of the K to 12 English Curriculum** The K to 12 English Curriculum framework has described the major elements that contribute to the learning of language. It coherently stipulates how these elements work together to ensure that the curriculum ultimately attains it goal. As teachers, we need to understand these components if we are to become efficient in instilling these skills to our learners, and ultimately make meaning through language. Notice that at the core of the framework is \"making meaning through language," which highlights the main goal of the curriculum. In a world where knowledge and information could be acquired though a simple click or tap of a button. The attainment of this ultimate goal comes by the harmonious interaction of the following components: 1. Language learning process 2. Effective language use 3. Making meaning through language 4. Holistic assessment **Language Learning Process** Understanding of the language learning process is important in order for teachers to teach language to young learners. The following principles espoused by the K to 12 English Curriculum guide this language learning process: 1. **Spiral progression.** Based on the work of Bruner (1960) on the spiral curriculum following the hypothesis that even complex topics can be taught to learners at any stage of development when structures are presented in an organized manner. Key features of this approach include: a. the student revisits a topic, theme, or subject several times throughout their school career; b. the complexity of the topic or theme increases with each revisit; and c. new learning has a relationship with old learning and is put in context with the old information. 2. **Interaction.** As language is used in various forms of communication (oral and 3. written), activities promoting interaction among learners solidifies concepts learned. These could be more effective when activities are framed to emulate real-life situations with real-life language demands such as purpose, topics, and audiences, which place the learners in communicative situations using authentic socialization skills. 4. **Integration.** Creating authentic class activities in the teaching of language skills could be more effective if they are integrated with other skills and values. Furthermore, integrating language lessons with other concepts from other learning areas and discipline also help learners in creating meaning. 5. **Learner-centeredness.** As the curriculum focuses on the learner, teachers would be able to engage them with the use of differentiated instruction. This should be based on the learners' needs, skills, abilities, and interests. 6. **Contextualization.** As mentioned, language learning is more effective if activities are designed around the appropriate contexts. Lessons could be planned around learning outcomes, themes, or an appropriate text. Context makes learners think about language use to suit the audience, the situation, culture, or purpose. 7. **Construction.** As the core of the curriculum is meaning-making, learning tasks and activities designed around self-reflection, critical thinking, and creation should take place in language lessons. 8. **Effective Language Use** Applications of the language macroskills focus on understanding cultures, understanding language, and processes and strategies. The use of language under these areas describe how the language learners could demonstrate their skills. 1. **Understanding cultures.** Learning another language gives one another perspective of the world. One gets to view the things around from the lens of another culture through literature and communication. As such, sociolinguistic skill, the ability to use language appropriately, is one of the main focus of the curriculum. This could be expressed in the learners\' capacity to apply language in a plethora of complex social situations, and to aptly respond to these situations using varied strategies including verbal and nonverbal means. 2. **Understanding language.** In order to create meaning, learners need to understand the intricacies of the language. This involves understanding of how words are formed, the structure of sentences, and how the little nuances in language use, accompanied by nonverbal gestures contribute to meaning. Learners can also use their understanding of their mother tongue in order to learn a new language. 3. **Process and strategies.** As learner get to be exposed to the more opportunities to use language, they get use a number of processes and strategies to adapt to situations depending to audience, context, and purpose. They may come up with novel ways to solve problems and adjust to difficulties. They may experiment on various ways to find answers such as asking questions, reading, or searching the internet. They may engage in discussions and brainstorming with others through conversations or technologies like chat or SMS. They may then use strategies to assess the validity of the information they get, and evaluate how this information could be useful in their endeavors. They could then combine and synthesize the information and present them in a multitude of ways like graphic organizers, charts, or even essays to get their ideas into the world. **Making Meaning through Language** As language is the major tool for communication, teachers should ensure that activities presented to learners should engage them to use language in varied purposes and topics. As such, every opportunity must be given to the learners to use language in contexts, in which they could practice developing their own understanding and sharing them with others using the five sub-strands of the curriculum namely listening, reading, speaking, writing, and viewing. **Holistic Assessment** Assessment is an important part of the teaching and learning process. It helps the teachers gauge the learners' progress and development. Furthermore, when done right, assessment results could provide teachers some fee[dba]ck to adjust their teaching to suit the needs of the learners. The K to 12 Curriculum describes the following characteristics of effective assessment:. 1. **Proximity to actual language use and performance.** As described before, activities in the classroom should consider authentic contexts of language use. Assessments in classroom should also help learners apply their understanding of language in situations mirroring real-life exercise of language. 2. **Holistic view of language.** As language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) are not used purely in isolation, assessment strategies should reflect their integrative nature. These approaches should also take into consideration the holistic nature of the learners as well in terms of their academic, social, and physical contexts. 3. **Integrative view of learning.** Assessment should not only look into the academic performance of learner. Since language is taken as in such an integrative approach, learning it should also consider the multitude of ways learners learn. Assessment should attempt to capture the different skills and abilities of the learners, and at the same time help them express themselves in the best ways they can. 4. **Developmental appropriateness.** Steps must also be taken to ensure that assessment activities are appropriate to the learners' cognitive, social, and academic abilities with their level. 5. **Multiple referencing.** Lastly, assessments developed for the leaner should have been designed based on various information about the learners. Again, the assessments should be based on understanding the learners' needs and abilities.