IMPROVEMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE CURRICULUM FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL: LINGUISTIC ASPECT

Abstract

Curriculum is a document that represents the overall content of a particular course. It determines qualitative and quantitative aspects of the course as well as sequencing of material. Curriculum should comply with the principle of consistency, and be based on students’ intellectual abilities. Within the framework of the article the author analyzes English language curriculum for secondary school in Ukraine with special emphasis on approaches to representing grammatical material. Grammar is deemed as a component that defines students’ communicative skills. In the process of research the author contrasted the Ukrainian English language curriculum with CERF as well as numerous popular FL textbooks. The obtained data made it possible to suggest a set of recommendations for improving FL curriculum in Ukraine (grammatical aspect). According to the obtained results the author deems the 5th form as a period to concentrate on systematization of material that was learned in primary school, whereas the 6th form is more appropriate for introducing new grammatical material. Communicative value of grammatical material and students’ intellectual ability to learn and apply it to practice should be the core principles in the process of materials selection for each year of study. Moreover, curriculum developers should avoid vague statements in this document, otherwise this will cause inconveniences for textbook authors, teachers and in the process of monitoring academic performance of students.