Abstract

Evaluation is an important process in any language program curriculum to determine whether the program is meeting the needs of students, teachers and others who are involved in the program. The English Language Center (ELC) at Brigham Young University (BYU) is a unique institution that functions as 1) a language school for students from different backgrounds and with various purposes of learning English and 2) as a lab school for undergraduate and graduate students studying TESOL at BYU to have practical teaching experiences. Because of these two purposes, there are constant changes to the curriculum at the ELC. Evaluation is done to measure the effectiveness of such changes in the curriculum. This project is the development of a systematic evaluation model, specifically applies to the ELC context, which will provide organization and direction in conducting effective evaluations. The three major purposes of this project are to 1) increase awareness in evaluations, which leads to professional development in teachers and administrators, 2)reduce the time spent on evaluations with the proposed evaluation model, and 3) unify the evaluation projects at the ELC based on the ELC curriculum philosophy and principles. The main focus of this evaluation model is on the ELC Curriculum Philosophy and the guiding principles, which define what a successful curriculum should include. In-depth study of this philosophy, definitions and principles of the ELC curriculum, combined with the study of the evaluation models previously introduced in the field of language program evaluation were done to develop this ELC curriculum evaluation model. The process included the participation and support from the Executive Council who makes the majority of the decisions at the ELC. This model was developed using Microsoft Word 2007. It is intended to function as a reference guide for those who are interested in conducting evaluations at the ELC. This reference book includes the evaluation model and other practical worksheets and documents for conducting the evaluations at the ELC.

Degree

MA

College and Department

Humanities; Linguistics and English Language

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2010-03-15

Document Type

Selected Project

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd3481

Keywords

Evaluation, curriculum development, ESL, TESOL, evaluation model

Language

English

Included in

Linguistics Commons

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