Curriculum+Updates

A. Lexis
- end of Foundation Level: receptive and productive knowledge of BAND I and receptive knowledge of BAND II; - end of Intermediate Level: productive knowledge of BAND II; receptive and productive knowledge of BAND III and receptive knowledge of BAND IV; - The knowledge of a lexical item includes knowing its form (pronunciation, spelling, and recognizable parts); its meaning (concept and associations); and its use (grammatical function, collocations, and constraints of use (frequency and register). Therefore, learners need to internalize all aspects of lexical knowledge.   - Lexical items must be studied in multiple contexts. Lexical items may also be introduced in a decontextualized manner (word and its translation to establish the link between the item’s form and its meaning).    - New lexical items should be recycled within short intervals to ensure they become part of learners' active vocabulary.    - Continual exposure to language allows for incidental acquisition and enrichment of lexical items.
 * The lists of lexical items to be taught at each level are based on the criteria of word frequency and expert judgment by academics and practicing teachers. All items have been cross-referenced across the following corpora: British National Corpus (BNC), Corpus of Contemporay American English (COCA), Lexical Syllabus for the Common European Framework for English (LexiCLIL), General Service List (GSL), and Academic Word List (AWL). Also included in the lists are frequent phrasal expressions and chunks based on the work done by Martinez & Schmitt (2010).
 * The list does not provide an exhaustive list of all the words which may appear in course books and/or national exams.
 * Lexical items that are considered important to the local context (community, culture, background, religion, etc.) may be added by teachers at their discretion.
 * Lexical items in each level are presented in alphabetical order.
 * Lexical items are presented using American spelling conventions, however British spelling conventions may also be introduced.
 * The teaching of lexical items is cumulative, i.e. as students progress up the levels, their productive knowledge will include the items from all the previous levels and is based on the following breakdown:
 * The teaching and learning of lexical items is based on the following principles:

B. Grammar
The lists of grammatical structures to be taught at each level are based on the criteria of frequency and expert judgment by academics and practicing teachers. Grammar instruction is recognized as essential for efficient language acquisition. It is incorporated into the larger context of language teaching and learning. The learning of grammar includes learning the form, meaning and use of grammatical structures which promotes the learners' understanding of what they hear or read, and enables them to convey meaning in speaking and writing. This grammatical knowledge allows learners to achieve the benchmarks in each of the four domains. There is a distinction between receptive and productive knowledge. Receptive knowledge enables students to access information from written and spoken texts. Productive knowledge enables students to convey their ideas, thoughts, etc. in writing and speaking. In general the learning of grammar is seen as on a continuum from receptive to productive knowledge. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The following principles apply to the teaching and learning of grammar: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is impossible to provide an exhaustive list of all grammatical structures. For each of the levels, grammatical structures were chosen for the Israeli EFL learner. The teaching of the grammar structures is **cumulative** i.e. all structures taught at the Foundation Level are included within the Intermediate Level, and all those taught at the Intermediate Level are included in the Proficiency Level. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Grammatical knowledge has been divided into the following components: syntax, verb, nouns, adjectives/adverbs and prepositions.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Grammar is taught in context and enables the student to complete a task.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The learning of grammar enhances thinking skills, encourages logical thinking and improves reading, writing, listening and speaking skills.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Students should be offered multiple, meaningful and contextualized opportunities for learning and developing their grammatical knowledge.