DEVELOPING A CEF BASED CURRICULUM: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

The common purposes of the studies conducted in language program evaluations are to examine the match between what is desired for the programme versus the actual state of the programme, to make judgments about learners' level of skills and knowledge, and to make suggestions for improvement. However, it is not currently common practice in Turkey either to develop language teaching programmes based on the Common European Framework as a reference, or to introduce improvements in these programmes based on an evaluation of their effectiveness. This study aims to describe the process of developing a new teaching programme, taking CEF into consideration, at the Preparatory Programme at the School of Foreign Languages, Izmir University of Economics, and also to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme. 236 Freshman students and 48 faculty members from 5 different faculties participated in the study. The results indicated a significant relationship between students' proficiency scores and perception of their own competencies and a significant difference in perception of their own competence in terms of levels at the preparatory program. Although faculty members stated that Preparatory Program, in general, meets the needs of the students, students still have difficulty in practising some tasks requiring higher order thinking skills. The study suggests a series of learner training sessions to raise the awareness of the students, extending duration of the modules, reviewing the order of objectives in Intermediate and Upper-Intermediate, and working in cooperation with Faculties in order to increase awareness of mutual expectations.