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The material covered in Unit 3 will be most helpful to me when I eventually begin working with adult learners in a corporate setting (quite possibly in the next 2-3 weeks from now). It is important to understand what experience, if any, my students would bring with them to the classroom; before embarking upon a suitable course of instruction. I agree that it would make sense to administer both a level placement test and a needs analysis questionnaire during the first class meeting; so that I may better understand how to group the students and the particular areas of English that are most relevant to their job positions. Once I had determined where best to place my students and the particular areas I would need to cover, I could then develop my syllabus. Because the needs of the students in any particular class setting could vary from one class to the next; I think I would be more inclined to use a situational syllabus that incorporates the necessary grammatical concepts and vocabulary for each situation. For example, if the majority of my students wanted to improve their ability to give presentations about new products or services; I would include a lesson on the use of adjectives, comparatives, and superlatives, as well as nouns and transitive/intransitive verbs. One thing that I have learned from previous classroom experience is that things can often go wrong: a class may be canceled or postponed, a number of students may be absent due to a schedule conflict with a field trip, etc. For that reason, it is a good idea to set aside at least one class period during which missed work could be made up. If I were designing a course that has a total of 20 classroom periods, I would set aside 4 periods to cover the following: 1. The first or introductory class, wherein students are given a placement test and a needs assessment (the finished syllabus would be given at the start of the second class meeting). 2. One class period for administering a progress test. In a course consisting of 20 class periods, this could be given during after 8 class periods have finished. 3. One flexible review class period, for making up missed work and reviewing for either the progress test or final exam (see #4). 4. One class period (most likely the very last one in the course) during which the final exam may be given. Depending on the length of the exam (30 minutes vs. one hour), it may be possible to give back the exam papers before the students are dismissed. Otherwise, the results would have to be posted online or by mail after the end of the course. With regard to the design and administration of the different types of tests described in Unit 3, the ALTE (Association of Language Testers in Europe) provides a wealth of online and print resources that can help take the guesswork out of determining which tests are best used in a particular course of instruction. Educators can also rest assured that the materials have passed rigorous standards for accreditation.
