The Construction of Transcurricular Competencies in Algerian EFL Course: A Textbook Analysis

Abstract

This paper looks into the implementation of the interdisciplinary curriculum in Algerian EFL course from the perspectives of both broad areas of learning and learning process. It analyses two textbooks, Spotlight on English Book 3 and Getting Through, belonging respectively to the middle and secondary school levels. The analysis shows that the designers have adopted the Interpretation, Constructivist Design (ICON) Model (O’Mallet and Chamot 1990) and restricted its use to the strategy of generating and testing hypotheses. Our main findings underscore the constructivist orientation of the curriculum and underline three important flaws in the textbooks: one, the activities are not purposive in questioning for information and cooperation; two, the generating strategy serves as a learning strategy rather than as a learning process; three, the stages of multiple interpretations and manifestations are rarely attained, leaving little opportunity for knowledge transfer to real life contexts.