Judy Steiner, Chief Inspector for English Language Education, brings us up-to-date news..... 

There are two major issues I would like to relate to: the Bagrut examinations and the new National English Curriculum.

Bagrut Examinations 

I would first like to thank teachers for giving me feedback about the Bagrut examinations. All in all, the feedback was extremely positive. There were, however, two points that kept coming up, so I thought I would respond to them:

1. The five point Bagrut examination was too easy.

One of the aims of the new format of the five point Bagrut examination was to raise the level of reading comprehension. However, it needs to be taken into consideration that we do not expect our pupils to raise their level of reading comprehension in one year. Achieving higher levels of reading comprehension requires that more reading is done both in the classroom and at home. It is a process that needs to be started, not in the twelfth grade, but much earlier. Therefore, the level of the reading passages on the Bagrut examination will gradually become more difficult each year. It should be noted that this year’s passage about the Drummer Girl was more difficult than the reading passage in prior Bagrut examinations.

2. It was not fair that the two shorter reading passages were the same for the four and five point Bagrut examinations.

According to the bulletin, English Bagrut Exams, November, 1996:

1. For the four point exam, there will be two shorter passages of approximately 200 words each. The level of the passages will be similar to the level of the passage answered in English as on previous examinations (p. 11).
2. For the five point exam, there will be two shorter passages of approximately 200 words each. The level of the passages will be similar to the level of the passages in previous examinations.

 

While I am on the subject of the Bagrut examinations, the feedback that we received from you about the Oral Bagrut was extremely helpful. Thank you for taking the time to fill in the questionnaires. We are presently in the process of reviewing the exam and deciding what changes to make. Please do not worry - we are trying our best to make the changes as minimal as possible! We are doing our best to notify teachers of what the format for the Oral Bagrut will be next year as soon as possible. Once the decision is final and receives approval from the Ministry, we will publish it via ETNI, in addition to sending it out to schools.

The New National English Curriculum:

Standards for Pupils of English: A Curriculum for Israeli Schools 

I am very happy to announce that the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport has approved the new National English Curriculum. We now have the very important task of introducing the document to teachers, counselors, principals, inspectors, teacher trainers and material writers. Some of you may be familiar with the document, as we had sent out draft copies last year in order to get feedback from the field. We hope to put the approved draft copy up on ETNI before September. At the ETAI Conference, the Writing Committee of the Curriculum will be introducing the document during a two part presentation on Tuesday and Wednesday. In the meantime, in order to give you an idea about what the new curriculum is about, below is the Introduction to the new Curriculum. Any comments or questions are always welcome!

Judy Steiner.

Rationale for New Curriculum

As we approach the beginning of the twenty first century, English is without question the major language in the world, with 350,000,000 native speakers, another 350,000,000 second language speakers, and 100,000,000 fluent foreign language speakers. English is now solidly entrenched in Israel as the "first foreign language," as it is labeled in the Policy on Language Education in Israeli schools . For Israelis, whatever other languages they may use, it is the customary language for international communication and for what the Council of Europe describes as "overcoming barriers to the flow of information and goods and people across national boundaries.” English is the language most generally associated with international trade and tourism, with higher education and research, and with the electronic media. It is the language that, after Hebrew and Arabic, is considered the most valuable asset of a plurilingual citizen. For all these reasons it is the language for which there is strongest local demand. In such a state of affairs, it is imperative to set the highest achievable standards of excellence for the teaching of English in Israeli schools. That is the goal of this document: to set the standards for the teaching of English in Israel, in schools under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport.

What is a national curriculum? It is a blueprint for constructing coursebooks, syllabuses, teaching materials and lesson plans. It is a document that represents a consensus of views of professionals in the field, and that will be refined and shaped as professional teachers and textbook writers add their interpretations.

When, a decade ago, the present curriculum was written, it was still reasonable to assume that the vast majority of Israeli pupils had their earliest contact with English in their fifth grade classes, and that their main exposure to the language was in school. It was therefore feasible and appropriate to write a curriculum, a major part of which was a list of the structural items (the grammar and the vocabulary), that would provide pupils with a useful basic control of the language. The circumstances today, and even more in the foreseeable future, are quite different. More and more pupils have extensive contact with English before beginning formal English instruction or outside of school, whether through radio, ortelevision, or computers, or family, or travel, or meeting overseas visitors. Most pupils, at whatever age they start learning English in school, have already learned words and phrases of the language. Any simple listing of items to be taught will therefore be arbitrary and over-rigid.

Swayed bythis principles these considerations and also by concerns for functional communication, we have taken a different approach. The comprehensive discussions that led to the present document began with a two-day meeting of the English Advisory Committee in 1994 at which a list of proficiency guidelines was drafted. Organized more or less following the traditional division of language proficiency into the four skills of speaking, understanding speech, reading and writing, these guidelines provided an invaluable map for the revisions of the matriculation examinations, (Bagrut), that were published in June 1996. They served also as a starting point for the work of the Curriculum Committee, which began its thorough study under the chair of Professor Elite Olshtain. 

After extensive investigation of curricular models used in other countries, the committee has devised anew model it believes to be best suited to Israeli pupils. It incorporates principles that have been refined in recent efforts by national educational systems to develop higher standards of excellence in foreign language teaching and in other fields.

As a consequence of our studies, discussions and debates among the committee members and with colleagues, and debates, we have adopted a framework intended to set out as clearly as possible the goals of the curriculum and to make as explicit as we can the ways in which we believe the goals can be met. We have left to coursebook writers, schools and teachers as much freedom as we can in determining the exact methodology and the order of the elements of the curriculum, and we confidently leave it to them to add the creative imagination that will bring the teaching of English alive. 

Standards, Domains, Parameters and Benchmarks

In the definitiof the new standards, we first present the four domains of foreign language learning: social interaction, access to information, presentation and appreciation of culture, literature and language. For each domain there are standardslist the standards for the four domains which, in our belief, constitute the knowledge content and desired competence of the English language curriculum for Israeli schoolspupils. In these standards, we specify as precisely and explicitly as we can what pupils of English should know. These standards for knowledge of English pertain to the four domains: social interaction, access to knowledge and information, presentation or information, and appreciation of culture, literature, and language. 

By using the term standards, we accept the need to define carefully a cumulative body of knowledge and set of competencies that is that is the basis for quality education. We affirm the national need to raise standards, to equip the pupil finishing an Israeli high school with the knowledge of English that the modern world demands.

The four domains, or areas, into which we divide English teaching provide a different classification from the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing that have for many years been used to organize ideas of foreign language learning. proficiency. The four domains represent a tapestry of interwoven aspects of language learning. That is, the four domains operate interrelatedly and not in isolation. The This change allows us to characterize more clearly the goals and levels that we believe have become the basis of the curriculum for English teaching in Israel. 

None of the domains is new. The first domain, of social interaction was added to the curriculum some twenty years ago when the English Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport recognized that English is a language for communication. The standard for this domain is fixed defined for English as a foreign language and not as a second language. It assumes a classroom where English is taught in English, and it aims to produce graduates who can conduct conversations and informal electronic and written communication with other speakers of English wherever they live and whatever their native language. It does not take on the false goal of producing near-native speakers of English, but rather speakers of Hebrew,or Arabic, or other languages who can function comfortably in English when needed.

The next two standards refer to receptive and productive domains in formal spoken and written English. For reception, the emphasis is on the use of English to gain access to knowledge and information. This may be through a spoken medium like radio or a lecture, or a written medium like a book or an article, or a combined medium like television or computers. Here, the standard at its highest level aims to produce prepare pupils who are ready for tertiary education in Israel, meeting the demands set by Israeli institutions for access to knowledge information in English. 

For production, the standard is concerned with the presentation of information and opinions in speech and writing in more formal settings an organized manner.. The standard for presentation is geared to an English as a foreign language setting. To meet this standard, pupils need to acquire tools for organizing spoken or written English in different formats on a variety of topics.

The standard for the fourth domain, appreciation, scovers knowledge that has traditionally been part of the Israeli English curriculum but is here given a new focus. The three components of appreciation: literature, culture and language are intertwined and the learning of one component contributes to and enhances the learning of the others.

The description of the standard for appreciation of culture and of literature recognizes first that literature written in English is no longer the sole possession of one or two nations, but is shared by a great number of first and second language speakers throughout the world. It accepts the redefinition currently being made of the canon of English literature, and leaves freedom of choice to coursebook writers and teachers on the specific works to be read. 

Since culture is embedded in language, the standard for appreciation of culture addresses the importance of fostering understanding and developing cultural sensitivity to people of various cultural backgrounds.

The section pertaining to appreciation of language awareness and appreciation is based on the principle that when a student is learning a new language, this is that learning a new language provides an ideal opportunity tolearn about grammar and about how become aware of the nature of language, how languages are structured. and the differences among languages. In doing so, pupils can gain additional insights into the nature of their mother tongue. While the teaching of practical grammar is a necessary part of the first three standards, its inclusion in a domain alongside literature and culture draws attention to the value for all students of knowledge of the nature of language and the differences between languages. 

For each domain, relevant criteria were identified and presented on a continuum. These parameters are used in order to set the standards and the benchmarks. 

For each standard, we list benchmarks, indicators of progress, divided according to level. These benchmarks are cumulative and interrelated, but not exhaustive. Taking note of the growing heterogeneity of pupils in Israeli schools, we have designated the three levels not by grade (except of course in the case of the final Bagrut level), but as stages marked by the accumulation of formal school instruction.: the foundation level is achieved by the end of sixth grade; the intermediate level at the end of ninth grade; and the proficiency level at the end of twelfth grade. At each of the three levels, we assume that pupils have mastered benchmarks at lower levels. Although the levels are defined according to grade levels, these are just guidelines and should be adjusted accordingly to the needs of the pupils. Similarly, individual pupils may be at different levels in different domains. In a later section, we will deal with students pupils for whom these levels need to be adjusted.

In sum, the goal of this new curriculum is to raise standards in four domains of language learning: social interaction, access to information, presentation and appreciation of literature, culture and language. Our ideal pupil, at the end of twelfth grade, should be able to:

communicate freely in English, orally and/or in writing; 

use English to obtain information;

present information in an organized manner and 

have an appreciation of literature written in English, of other cultures and of the nature of language and the differences among languages. 

 The first section defines The definition of the the standards for the domains and the specification of the benchmarks. These form the core of the curriculum. This is followed by an exposition of certain principles that we believe underlie teaching, In a third part, The second section deals with principles that underlie the learning - teaching process and the criteria for the selection of materials. The third section deals with the we deal with a number of important topics. First, we describe the complex process of assessment that is needed to ensure that pupils reach these standards. We give details on different methods of testing and assessing, and stipulate which of the benchmarks are included in the various forms of the matriculation examination. We go on to consider other topics. The fourth section focuses on special issues such as teaching pupils having difficulty learning English, English for native speakers, English for challenged learners and integrating the use of computer-mediated-communication in language teaching and learning. The fifth section deals with staff development frameworks and school policy procedures needed for the implementation of the curriculum. The last section provides a list of resources for teachers and curriculum developers.

In Writing this Document ...

To develop this document, the committee has made use of a number of sources. In particular, the committee was influenced by the "CAN-DO" notion developed some years ago by John L. D. Clark , by the notional function syllabus and the later Council of Europe Threshold program , by the Netherlands National Foreign Language Program , by the U.S. development of national standards for educational excellence as especially exemplified in the ESL Standards developed by the Center of Applied Linguistics for TESOL , by various versions of the Foreign Language Standards and by the National Foreign Language Attainment Goals of the British Department of Education. These sources have been drawn on freely, sometimes for framework, sometimes as a check list, sometimes for felicitous wording of a standard or benchmark that had already been sketched out. But in all this work, our guiding principle has been to cater to the specific needs of the Israeli pupil to capture and express the reality of the Israeli educational system. policy laid down by the Ministry for Israeli schools and In doing so, we have drawn on the combined experience and wisdom of those who are involved in teaching English in Israel.

An earlier draft of this document was reviewed has been open for discussion by inspectors of English and other subject areas, teacher trainers, university teachers, coursebook writers and publishers, and, especially, practicing teachers. All comments have been were carefully considered by the Writing Curriculum Committee and this revised document is now submitted to the English Advisory Committee for its approval. and the document was revised accordingly.