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Running Head: SETTING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Setting Goals and Objectives for Language and Literature Students: Meliksah University
Example
Baki Dusun
Meliksah University

Setting Goal and Objectives in an ELL Program

SETTING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Goals and objectives sound like very similar terms and sometimes in some real life
situations we use them interchangeably. Is this also the case in curriculum development? As a
curriculum designer, after defining the needs of the program, you should act upon those needs
revealed from the data. What are you going to do with those needs? How are you going to meet
the needs? Here, goals and objectives take their turn. With this very important section in
curriculum design, we try to set our aims from both general and specific perspectives. While the
general perspective constitutes our goals, the more specific perspective refers to our objectives. If
you have goals, then there should be some specific ways to reach them, I mean objectives. As
mentioned above, objectives are more specific than goals which are like, to my knowledge, the
ladders to reach to the top-goals. Have you ever tried to make an acronym by using Goals and
Objectives? For me, goals and objectives are the initiators of a program, which is also clear
from the acronym- GO-.
They initiate all the teaching related processes like materials, teaching and testing with
this GO command. With the clear goals and objectives, all the teaching processes will be much
easier because you will know what to do in each step. Along with the needs analysis, if you can
set accurate and measurable objectives, the learning outcomes will be more efficient.
If it is needed to talk in academic language objectives are statements which describe
what the learner is going to acquire in the end of an instruction. In my case, I have evaluated
Meliksah University English Language and Literature programs needs and therefore I will base
goals and objectives on those needs. However, a major problem occurs here: How to set effective
objectives?

According to Mager (1962), the ideal learning objective has three parts;

SETTING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

a- A measurable verb
b- The important condition (if any) under which performance is to occur
c- The criterion of acceptable performance
Bearing these rules in mind, as shown in below, the goals and objectives were set on the
needs analysis results.
Student Needs Analysis Survey Results
Q1. Why do you learn English?
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

Number of the Students

SETTING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Figure 1. Results of Question 1


According to this needs analysis, most of the students are learning English for
practical purposes. Job opportunities, going abroad, and the most prominent result improving
the skills can be related to improving four basic skills of English which can be put as having a
good command of English in all the skills. Figure 2 shows, what can be the possible goals and
objectives based on these needs.
Goals

Objectives

To use spoken and written English


effectively to express themselves in
academic, social, professional
communication.

Speaking in a natural way with an


accepted fluency and accuracy and
writing in formal and semi-formal
language within academic, social or
professional context.
Figure 2. Goals and Objectives Based on Needs Analysis Result 1
Figure 2 demonstrates a close connection among the needs and goals and objectives. If a
student wants to get a job at the end of the program, professional communication is important or
if a student wants to improve his/her skills having competence in both speaking and writing
should be key components of this process.
Q2. What do you feel would be the best ratio of Literature oriented to Language oriented
English in your first year of study?

SETTING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

16
14
12
10
8
6
4

Number of the students

2
0

Figure 3. Results of the Question 2

As shown in Figure 3, a great number of the students want to study a balanced program.
Though some ELL programs have tendency to be more Language or Literature oriented, the
students prefer a more balanced approach. Therefore, in the following figures, Figure 4 and
Figure 5, I will try to set more balanced goals and objectives which merge both language and
literature.
Goals
To have a general framework of
English Literature with the major
themes and writers

Objectives
Analyzing and interpreting the works of
English literature from major themes with
a specific emphasis on the literary
movements.
Figure 4. Literature Oriented Goals and Objectives

SETTING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Figure 5. Language Oriented Goals and Objectives

In sum, I have tried to base the goals and objectives on the students needs. It is apparent
from the data that students need to develop their skills for multiple purposes such as academic,
Good command of semantics, syntax
and other features of both languages.

To analyze and compare English sentence


structure with Turkish with an emphasis
on the difference of Syntax, Morphology
and Semantics.
professional and social situations. In addition, they want a more balanced program which
emphasizes both language and literature. Therefore, I have designed two different goals and
objectives to meet this requirement.

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