TeachingEnglish
questions that need answers
Submitted by cilia on 22 March, 2009 - 08:57
Hello
As a teacher of English I have always asked myself these questions... what is the difference:
- between curriculum and syllabus?
- between a learner and a student?
- between assessment and evaluation?
Could you please help me to find answers to these questions. THANK YOU
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Hello,
My first advice would be to check with a decent dictionary. You are posting online so clearly you have internet access- the OED is online, take a look. Do you expect somone else to do the work for you?
I know that sometimes it is helpful to have personal responses, but in cases like this you are going to get biased usages, or the dictionary usages that could look up yourself. If you are unhappy with dictionaries that give synonamous definitions, find better dictionaries. If the best dictionaries give synonamous defintions, then they are synonyms. In which case they may have different common uses, or collocations.
I can give you my opinions;
a curriculum is for a year/ a course of schooling across all subjects, while a syllabus is the content of one subject.
a learner is an independent individual while a student is enrolled/ subject to an institution. (i would talk about english learners in general and the students in my class)
an assessment is a test based on a specific bit of work, while an evaluation is on a range of work.
the opinions are based on my usage of the terms, but are by no means the only uses. I may be wrong! With terminology like this, if it really matters to you, check with a dictionary, but be aware that others may not be as exact as you.
Check the OED online!
Sa