INTERLINK Curriculum Guide
14. Curriculum Capsule
For the sake of convenience, a reiteration of program principles and features of each level (with links) are presented in chart form.
Program Principles:
| 1. Our ultimate goal is to promote successful learning and the well-being of every student. |
| 2. Our focus is not teaching language but enabling students to acquire language; therefore, the teacher is primarily a facilitator of learning, not a dispenser of information. |
| 3. Since the ultimate goal is for students to be able to use English and not just to know about English, we assess progress not by measuring what is taught but by what students can do. |
| 4. Students are more likely to gain lasting language skills by doing, by discovery, by actively participating and by reflecting on what has been learned than by passively listening to rules and explanations. |
| 5. Core Project activities serve as language learning opportunities and their value is not in what is produced at the end (product) but in what is gained along the way (process). |
| 6. It is more important to be true to the principles and goals of the curriculum than to carry out particular activities or adhere to a particular methodology. |
| 7. Every activity should have a meaningful purpose and serve as a vehicle to engage students in learning and promote linguistic and/or academic and/or cross-cultural skills. |
| 8. It is essential that students use as much English as possible outside as well as inside the classroom and we must engineer and orchestrate ways to make that happen. |
| 9. Students' needs and progress must be assessed constantly - every day and in every activity - and strategies for correcting deficiencies and overcoming obstacles to learning must be devised and implemented. |
| 10. Feedback to students should be positive, encourage self-esteem and confidence, promote enjoyment of language use, and motivate learning. |
| 11. Learning is a natural human propensity; the teacher's role is to stimulate and nurture curiosity and interest in learning and not to impose information on students or provide answers that students are capable of finding it or for themselves. |
| 12. The key to successful teaching is not "to teach." |
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
READING and WRITING