The Second Language Curriculum in the New Millenium

David Nunan

This is a paper that was presented at the Féderation Internationale des Professeurs des Langues Vivantes(FIPLV), Paris, France, July 2000.

In this paper, I want to do two things. Firstly, I want to look back at the trends and issues that have started to change the face of second language curricula and which I believe will have an important impact over the next few years. Secondly, I want to highlight some emerging trends that will, I believe, be central to our pedagogical endeavors as we head into the 21st century.

1. What is "curriculum" ?

Curriculum is a large messy concept that can be looked at in a number of ways. A very broad definition is that it includes all of the planned learning experiences of an educational system.

I like to draw a distinction between the planned curriculum, the implemented curriculum, and the realized curriculum. The planned curriculum includes everything that is done prior to the delivery of instruction. The implemented curriculum refers to what happens in the moment-by-moment realities of the classroom. The realized curriculum refers to the skills and knowledge that learners actually acquire as a result of instruction. Recently, it was assumed that these three dimensions would be isomorphic.

2. Philosophical and practical shifts

There have been many trends in language curriculum development over the last thirty years. Some of these have "taken root", and some have not. For example, the "methods" movement - the search for the one best method, would seem to be well and truly dead.

Here, I would like to highlight one philosophical shift that has taken root, and that is having a profound effect on all aspects of the curriculum. This is a shift from transmission model of education to an experiential model. Proponents of an experiential philosophy believe that the function of an educational system is to create the conditions whereby learners might recreate their own knowledge and skills.

3. Emerging trends

Predicting the future is notoriously difficult. As Bernstein has noted, "The view that we can reach out to the future to bring it under control is one of the most audacious advances in the history of humanity... The gods are still so unkind as to deny us knowledge of what the future holds..." (Bernstein, p. 2000. The enlightening struggle against uncertainty. Financial Times, April 25, 2000).

Here are some famous predictions that didn't come true - by people who might have been expected to know better.

"The phonograph... is not of any commercial value.(Thomas Edison, inventor of the phonograph in 1880.)

Flight by machines heavier that air are unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible. (Simon Newcomb, an important astronomer, 1902.)

Who the hell wants to hear actors talk? (Harry Warner, Chairman of Warner Brothers Pictures, 1927.)

There is a world market for about five computers. (Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943.)

There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home. (Ken Olsen, President of Digital Corporation, 1977.)

If these experts in their respective fields could have gotten it so wrong, what hope is there for us? Is it not either arrogant or foolhardy to make predictions?

Despite the fact that making predictions about the future is notoriously difficult, it is an activity that we humans constantly engage in - both in our personal and professional lives. I may appear to be foolhardy in writing such a speculative piece about the future of language teaching, that may be so, but it is a tempting prospect, and, like Oscar Wilde, I am one of those people who can resist anything except temptation.

There are three trends that I believe will have a profound impact on language teaching as we enter the new millennium. Each offers opportunities, but also threats. The first is the emergence of a limited number of world languages. The second is the impact on technology. The third is the large-scale movements of peoples from one speech community to another.

The emergence of a limited number of world languages

Much has been written about the emergence of English as a world language.

The rapid growth in the number of people learning and using English through global communications in multilingual workplaces has created many questions. A key research priority identified by the TESOL Research Agenda Task Force is "What are the implications of the changing nature of work, communication, and global economies for the teaching, learning, assessment and use of English in the information era?"

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