To make curriculum "sticky," as it is taught at the Arizona State University’s online TESOL certification, language-teaching professionals employ various strategies and techniques aimed at enhancing students' ability to recall, utilize, and retain information effectively. Here you have some of my reflective journaling notes around the need for stickiness in a language program.

Crafting Sticky Curriculum

Strategies for Effective Teaching

Presenting Information and Modeling

Language teachers employ a variety of instructional methods to engage students and foster deep understanding depending on the focus of the program in which they work has. For instance, Project-Based Learning (PBL) immerses students in real-world speaking scenarios, prompting them to tackle complex problems collaboratively and finding ways to respond correctly in the target language to various speech events. Experiential learning emphasizes hands-on experiences, allowing students to apply theoretical knowledge (grammar and vocabulary) in practical and real-world speaking contexts and scenarios to be functional in them. Case studies offer in-depth analysis of real-life speaking situations such as (panel) discussions, encouraging critical thinking and problem-solving skills. And nowadays, online self-directed language learning empowers students to take ownership of their learning journey, exploring topics at their own pace and in their preferred format, anytime, anywhere. However, the method does not cast the stickiness in a language program, does it?

The Sticky Criteria

In the search for ways to make curriculum sticky in the learners’ minds and to develop target language in all students, language professionals must focus on three key dimensions: memorability, usability, and durability (also known as MUD). Memorable content is presented in ways that capture students' attention and facilitate information retention through engaging activities, anecdotes, or multimedia resources. Usable content equips students with practical skills and knowledge applicable to real-world scenarios, fostering competence, mastery, and confidence. Durable content is designed to withstand the test of time, facilitating long-term retention and application beyond the classroom setting in true real-world speech events. MUD is the ELT’s “blazing torch” that needs to guide teachers in the design and production of activities for their lesson plans.

Breaking Down Effective Presenting

A language curriculum becomes ideally sticky when teachers employ a range of cunning strategies to enhance the content retention of their language presentations. Here you are presented with two possible strategies:

Tip 1 - Emphasize the importance of clear communication and active engagement. By using teacher talk effectively, educators ensure that key concepts are reiterated, illustrated clearly on the board, and linked to students' prior knowledge. Metaphors and analogies are employed to make abstract concepts more tangible and memorable, while sweat equity (hard work) is invested in crafting instructional materials that resonate with learners’ prior knowledge. At this point, the language instructor must wonder what area of communicative teaching is being eaten up by teacher talk time (TTT) that is not aiming at boosting student learning. If TTT is focused on the teacher, content won’t be that sticky.

Tip 2 - Encourage a conversational approach to teaching, where you facilitate dialogue and interaction rather than delivering monologues. This approach fosters a collaborative learning environment where students feel empowered to ask questions, provide feedback, and participate actively in their own learning process. Once again, do ask yourself how you are currently handling your TTT as opposed to student talking time (STT). The maxim one is to keep in mind is the 20/80 distribution of “talking” in the classroom: 20 minutes for the teacher to quickly explain, guide, give instructions and feedback, and wrap up lesson sections and 80 minutes for students to exercise with new content among themselves.

Teacher Talk and Conversational Teaching

Effective communication is at the heart of sticky teaching. As mentioned above, the 80/20 talking time balance should be aimed at in any language lesson. Teachers, by far, need to strike a balance between conveying lexical and grammatical information and eliciting student participation evenly, ensuring that classroom interactions are dynamic, memorable, engaging, usable, and conducive to durability. If there’s dialogue and discussion, language instructors also help foster critical thinking skills and deepen students' understanding of the material from textbooks and the language-practicing platform. But once again, it’s imperative that one, as a language teacher, wonders how one’s balance of TTT vs. STT is to ensure the latter and its stickiness.

Stimulating Learners through Activities

Have you ever thought how your board work stimulates or confuses student understanding? Well, visual aids such as board work, diagrams, and illustrations need to be employed to enhance understanding and retention of key concepts. These visual representations serve as valuable tools for scaffolding learning, providing students with clear visual cues to aid lexical and grammatical comprehension. Visual aids can help establish clear guidelines for engagement; they can help to maintain focus and structure during activities because what needs to be achieved in an activity becomes a more concrete object, ensuring that students remain actively involved in their learning process.

Language (controlled, semi-controlled, or free production) activities need to walk, side by side, with the MUD principle for the sake of curriculum stickiness. Activities become memorable because they can reflect what the language student will encounter in the real world (like going into a convenience store to buy a toothbrush). These activities also need to be usable when the time comes. That is, speaking tasks, for example, need to reflect what learners may truly find in real-life speech events. And the language being learned can be easily used in that context. Finally, these activities need to reinforce durability because it can then be used by learners when lexical or grammatical units are needed in “the same context in which they were practiced” or in similar speech events where the students realize they fit in the conversation.

Structuring the Learning Experience

A well-structured learning experience in a traditional context where CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) prevails follows a logical sequence, beginning with the explanation of grammatical and lexical rules and concepts. Through modeling and examples, language instructors provide concrete illustrations of abstract concepts, making them more accessible to learners. Questioning techniques are used to assess students' comprehension (concept checking) and encourage critical thinking, prompting deeper engagement with the material.

This ABC in CLT also needs to be “embellished” and must “embody” the idea of MUD. Language presentations and activities need to be aligned with the concept of memorability because they will leave a permanent imprint in the mind of the students. Through modeling (role plays) and examples (presentation of true cases where the language is used) can reflect the usability of what is being learned. The stickiness of the language learning process will simply reflect the durability of what is being acquired since it can be used to communicate in target language real-life scenarios with confidence and effectiveness.

Teaching via Inductive Reasoning

Inductive reasoning involves guiding students through a process of discovery, allowing them to derive general principles from specific examples. The self-discovery of lexical and grammatical rules also reinforces the idea of MUD. By presenting examples on the board and prompting students to identify patterns and formulate rules, language professionals facilitate active learning and conceptual understanding. Elaborating on students' ideas and contributions helps to reinforce learning and deepen understanding through meaningful dialogue and reflection.

The stickiness of a language curriculum and its delivery in class time by teachers can also line up with the idea of MUD. Self-discovery or what I like to call “language epiphanies” are by far the most memorable moments when one is learning a language. Understanding how something works in the target language empowers one to use it accurately and specific and give speech events practiced in the classroom or on the language platform. One’s constant in-class or out-of-class practice will lead to durability.

My Personal (Reflective Journaling) Conclusion

In my personal quest for the crafting of a sticky language curriculum, I find myself wielding a diverse array of strategies and techniques, anchoring their pedagogy in principles of engagement, dialogue, and active learning under the umbrella concept of MUD. By embracing these methodologies or approaches to language teaching, I expect I’m guiding my learners to become empowered students who not only retain information but also apply it meaningfully in real-world contexts, fostering a culture of lifelong learning and intellectual curiosity in their minds.

Crafting sticky curriculum with MUD requires a multifaceted approach that encompasses engaging presentation techniques, interactive teaching strategies, and structured learning experiences. By prioritizing memorability, usability, and durability, I expect to empower students to become active participants in their own learning journey, equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in an ever-changing world.

The secret to success in our language-teaching lives lies in harnessing the power of MUD to make the results of our teaching sticky in the minds of our learners. MUD will never sorely disappoint our learners because it becomes the bedrock of our teaching reflecting the exit profile of the language programs where we work.

Reference

Acuña, J. (2021, October 5). Making Curriculum Sticky: Arizona State University TESOL Certificate. Personal Reflective Journal 2021, 10(1). 1-3.

Reflective Task

To reflect on the content provided in the text, you might consider the following reflective questions or prompts to mull over your own teaching practice so far:

a)    What are the key dimensions of stickiness in language education?

b)    How do you employ instructional methods such as Project-Based Learning, Experiential Learning, and Case Studies to engage students effectively?

c)    What strategies are recommended for making language curriculum sticky in terms of memorability, usability, and durability?

d)    How can you balance teacher talk time (TTT) and student talking time (STT) to foster a more interactive and engaging learning environment?

e)    What role do visual aids and activities play in stimulating learner engagement and comprehension in language education?

f)      How does the concept of memorability, usability, and durability (MUD) align with the principles of communicative language teaching (CLT)?

g)    In what ways can you facilitate active learning and conceptual understanding through inductive reasoning?

h)    Reflecting on your own teaching practices, how do you currently incorporate strategies to make your language curriculum sticky?

i)      What adjustments or enhancements could you make to your teaching approach to better align with the principles of stickiness?

j)      How do you envision the implementation of MUD principles enhancing student learning outcomes and fostering a culture of lifelong learning and intellectual curiosity in language education?

These reflective questions can help you analyze and evaluate your teaching practices, identify areas for improvement, and develop strategies to create a more engaging and effective language curriculum.

Crafting Sticky Curriculum ... by Jonathan Acuña

Crafting Sticky Curriculum ... by Jonathan Acuña