Chapter 2: The new textbooks - An analysis and

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(MOET 2006: 5)
In other words, ELT should train students in communicative competence so that 
they can perform basic language functions receptively and productively, using correct 
language forms and structures. Besides, it should also “educate students into both 
good national and international citizens who are knowledgeable about the target 
culture as well as their own national culture” (Le, 2007:4). 
Methodologically, the new curriculum is claimed to adopt the communicative 
approach to language teaching as its guiding principles and specifies that 
1. Communication skills be the goal of the teaching and learning process; 
linguistic knowledge be the means by which communication skills are formed 
and developed.
2. Students play an active role in the teaching and learning process and teachers 
be only organizers and guides.
3. Teaching contents be selected and organized according to themes to 
guarantee a high level of communicativeness while catering to the accuracy of 
the modern language system.
4. Textbook writing, management of teaching and learning, testing, assessment 
and evaluation follow the curriculum guidelines.
(MOET 2006: 6)

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The curriculum also specifies the teaching contents and class time allocation for each 
grade. As mentioned earlier, the teaching contents are organized according to themes 
in order to provide contexts for language skills, language elements and socio-cultural 
knowledge to be taught and developed in an integrated manner. These themes are all 
drawn from the contexts of students’ daily life such as home and school, health, 
recreation, community and the world. The themes are recycled from grade to grade in 
a cumulative and spiral manner, which means they are repeated at each higher grade 
with increasing levels of difficulty to suit students’ intellectual and cognitive maturity 
levels. Table 1 illustrates how the themes are introduced into Grade 6 through to 
Grade 12. Table 2 describes the general objectives to achieve in each of these grades 
(the detailed syllabus for each grade can be found in Appendix 3). 
The curriculum guidelines specifies the following principles for the selection and 
sequencing of topics, skills, language elements, instructional units, exercises and tasks 
in ELT syllabuses:
 Contextualizing language via realistic communicative situations.
 Using materials that are authentic and applicable in real world communication.
 Ensuring an integration between the four language skills and integration 
between language skills and language elements.
 Recycling language sufficiently and in a spiral manner.

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 Tailoring teaching contents to suit learners’ ages, levels of general knowledge, 
needs and preferences.
 Using materials and tasks that are stimulating and at students’ levels of 
proficiency while still challenging enough.
(MOET 2006: 17)
Table 1: Themes covered in the new English curriculum

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