Designing Courses that Entertain Multi-Goals: Rationale and Practice

Abstract

The present century is characterized by the speed and influx of information. Given that everyday life both at home and work is flowing at head-spinning speed, the time comes fore as a crucial entity to process mountains of information produced and transmitted to the furthest places in the world with a simple click. In brief, time is a precious treasure that needs to be kept safe and spent wisely. This article reports on a study that explored the possibilities as to how teaching time and the course content could be designed more efficiently in a freshman conversation skills course offered to the prospective English language teachers at a state university in Turkey. The course content was constructed based on an initial needs analysis conducted by their searcher. As a partial requirement of the final exam, the students were asked to prepare a five-minute oral presentation on a quotation or a universal code of values of their choice. The rubric for evaluation and the outline of the oral presentation were both negotiated with the students in detail. Following their presentation, the students were asked to answer two open-ended questions eliciting their opinions about their experiences. The content analysis of the collected data revealed that the students improved research and digital literacy skills. They also established collaboration with their classmates, retained vocabulary items and overcame anxiety issues.