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DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.58.10.11
How to Cite:
Celik, B., & Kapukaya, K. (2022). Comparative analysis of short-term intensive and long-term adaptive language teaching
curriculum. Amazonia Investiga, 11(58), 104-111. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.58.10.11
Comparative analysis of short-term intensive and long-term adaptive
language teaching curriculum
Kısa Süreli Yoğun ve Uzun Vadeli Uyarlanabilir Dil Öğretimi Müfredatının
Karşılaştırmalı Analizi
Received: September 27, 2022 Accepted: November 19, 2022
Written by:
Bunyamin Celik47
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1595-7273
Kenan Kapukaya48
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9304-3410
Abstract
Teaching and learning a foreign language are
challenging and time-consuming endeavors.
Being proficient in a foreign language takes hard
work for learners.
This qualitative research was conducted at
Language Preparatory School (LPS) in Tishk
International University (TIU), a private
university in Erbil in Iraq where teachers
currently follow a short-term intensive teaching
program for English as a Foreign Language
(EFL) learners. To collect data, a survey was
created and sent to 15 teachers at Tishk
International University Language Preparatory
School (TIULPS) through Google form. Three
open-ended questions and five Likert-scale items
were used in the qualitative research and
subsequently the data was analyzed. According
to research findings, it is suggested that EFL
students in TIULPS should be taught in a long-
term adaptive language teaching schedule.
Therefore, there is an emergency to set up a new
curriculum for language learners at language
preparatory schools due to the allocated duration
for proficiency level. These research findings
can suggest a change in language teaching
programs at education institutions at tertiary
level in general.
Keywords: Curriculum, Language Preparatory
School, Language Proficiency, Long-Term
Adaptive Language Teaching Curriculum, Short-
Term Intensive language Teaching Curriculum.
47
Ph.D., Lecturer, English Language Teaching Department, Faculty of Education, Tishk International University, Erbil, Iraq.
48
Ph.D., Associate Professor, English Language Teaching Department, Faculty of Education, Tishk International University, Erbil,
Iraq.
Celik, B., & Kapukaya, K. / Volume 11 - Issue 58: 104-111 / October, 2022
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Introduction
Foreign language teaching and learning is a
process that requires the implementation of either
short-term intensive (STI) or long-term adaptive
(LTA) language teaching curriculum.
There is a difference between the study periods
of the education systems of Iraq and European
countries. The academic year in Iraq for
sophomore, junior, and senior students in public
and private universities starts earlier than first-
year students; it usually starts on the first week of
October. On the other hand, the academic year
for first-year students commences after the
ministry of higher education announces the state
exam results publicly, which are generally
finalized in the middle of September. After all, it
takes students almost two months to submit the
required documents and apply to universities.
Students' education at universities starts in late
November or early December.
There are two terms for first-year students, 14
weeks in the first term and 12 weeks in the
second term. However, there is a considerable
number of public holidays, such as Christmas
and new year (1 week at least) and Newroz
(2 weeks at least) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Because of the holidays mentioned above,
students cannot have 26 weeks of education. As
there is a curriculum mandated by the ministry of
higher education to be executed for students at
universities in these very short and intensive
weeks, taking freshman English learners to the
proficiency level is a big challenge for language
teachers in a non-English speaking country. In
the end, instructors get exhausted and nervous,
and students usually complain about the intensity
of the teaching program in LPS. Hence, it is
advised that the teaching curriculum should be
flexible or adaptive (Yildiz, 2019) for effective
education.
In today's globalizing world, learning a foreign
language, especially English, has become
necessary in educational institutions (Kapukaya,
2020). For instance, the medium of instruction in
Iraqi universities is English. Therefore,
university students need to know English to study
their majors successfully. Language students
expect to achieve a degree of proficiency in
communicating in a foreign language at an
academic level (Daskan & Yildiz, 2020). Richard
et al. as cited in Kapukaya (2020) claim that
10,000 hours of practice in any work is a must to
reach a mastery level of a specific skill.
Proficiency Time for Learning a Language
It is unreasonable and impossible for a student to
master English in a year (Adams & Jones, 2006).
Language learning largely depends on three
factors from the students' perspective: the
student's attitude, the student's time spent on the
language, and the student's attentiveness
(Oroujlou & Vahedi, 2011). In addition, learning
a language in a limited time differs from nation
to nation, from education system to education
system and from person to person. It is a fact that
learning a language takes time and effort, and
consequently, how quickly one can learn a
language depends on several variables: first, the
language one wants to study, and then the level
s/he aims to achieve (Schirber, 2013). If a person
is born in a country where people are bilingual,
that person may take the necessary steps quickly
to learn another language. However, if only one
language is the main spoken language in the area,
then that may depend on the learner's skills and
the teacher's teaching approach. Jackson and
Kaplan (2001) argue that learning a foreign
language takes between 400 and 2200 hours of
study and much practice. The FSI (Foreign
Service Institute) anticipates that learning a new
language requires approximately 2,200 class
hours, with at least half of that time being spent
in immersion (Okura, 2016).
Short-Term Intensive Language Teaching
Curriculum
The definition of a short-term program is to
follow various activities to be implemented in a
limited time. Hence, a short-term curriculum is
where course materials are delivered over a short
period compared to standard courses through
compressed teaching formats (Karaksha et al.,
2013). TIULPS has a short-term curriculum to
follow between 22 or 26-week of language
education due to the late beginning of the
academic year in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
In the short-term language teaching program,
students take lessons in relevant classes to reach
the desired level in a communicative
environment. Courses are generally designed
with various interesting and fast-paced activities
to develop learners' reading and listening skills.
Short-term language courses aim to help a learner
to reach a certain level in a short time. One of the
benefits of a short-term intensive curriculum is
that the class size is comparatively smaller.
Subsequently, more practice with fewer students
allows teachers to devote more time to students
and expose students to more language practice.
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Long-Term Adaptive Language Teaching
Curriculum
A long-term adaptive language teaching
curriculum is designed to extend the educational
period with more extracurricular activities. In
this system, students are expected to spend less
time in class, however, longer time out of class
on language-oriented extracurricular activities
(Yildiz, 2015a, 2015b, 2016a). In other words,
learning and teaching occur long-term (Volodina
et al., 2014). Learners in long-term adaptive
language teaching programs are less busy than
short-term program learners (Moran & Myringer,
2002). For instance, some private and semi-
private international universities, such as the
American University in Sulaymaniyah and
Kurdistan Hewlêr University (UKH) in Erbil in
Kurdistan, offer language-level assessment tests
at the beginning of the academic year to students
who will study their department courses in
English. A long-term language teaching program
of up to two years or 38 weeks is applied
depending on the student's language level test.
However, not only is this teaching period in those
institutions long, but it is also intensive.
Therefore, students may feel exhausted and
burned out throughout the academic year.
According to Fabio and Towey (2018), students'
practice increases their concentration skills and
affects their working memory, visual search
abilities and cognitive flexibility in the long term.
Throughout such a lengthy time frame, the
students' progress in reading, writing, speaking,
listening, vocabulary, motivation, self-esteem,
and empathy becomes clearer. Students in the
long-term adaptive language learning program
tend to develop a greater sense of independence
in their linguistic pursuits (Oxford, 2015). A
student's academic success is a direct reflection
of his or her motivation and commitment to the
course of study and the tasks at hand (Celik &
Yildiz, 2017). The more they communicate and
interact with people in a foreign language, the
more successful they will be in comprehension
and speaking.
Methodology
This study was conducted at TIULPS in Iraq,
where students and teachers had a short-term
intensive curriculum. It was experienced that
exhaustion was inevitable in the middle of the
academic year for both teachers and students.
The main study point of the questionnaire was
the proposal to change the teaching program
(instead of following the short-term intensive
program, switching to the long-term adaptive
language teaching program) for EFL learners.
The questions in the survey were administrated
to the teachers at the LPS of the ELT department
by Google form. The research included eight data
chart figures, and the authors interpreted them.
Participants
The 15 participants in the survey were the LPS
instructors of TIU. They responded to 8 survey
questions in the research. There were five female
and ten male respondents.
Four respondents were novice teachers between
the ages of 21 and 30, and others were in the 31-
40 age groups. The left was over the age of 41.
Five teachers of them have been teaching English
for about three years now. The others were
categorized in the experienced group because
they had been teaching English for over three
years.
Table 1.
The number of male and female teachers
Participants` Frequency in Terms of Gender
Variable(s)
Option
F
%
Gender
Female
5
33.3
Male
10
66.6
Total
15
100
Result and Discussion
The results of the instruments applied in this study are presented below.
Data Analysis
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Figure 1. Prospective English Learners’ Level in Language Classes.
Regarding the first question about the English
level of students, most teachers responded that
students who come to LPS are mostly at the A1
level because they could not pass the university's
proficiency exam to continue their studies
directly at their departments. However, among
students, some better learners could prefer to
learn English from the basics.
Figure 2. Learners’ End Year Level of English.
According to figure 2, almost half of the teachers
claim that the students who graduate from the
LPS reach the B1 level. On the other hand, less
than half of the teachers think that students need
to reach the expected level, and they are at the A2
level in their graduation, which is not enough to
follow departmental subjects.
Figure 3. The sufficiency of the short-term language course.
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
A1
A2
B1
Question 1: What level of students do you meet at the language preparatory school
according to CEFR at the beginning of the academic year?
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
A1
A2
B1
B2
Question 2: What is the highest level the learners can reach when the academic year ends at
Language Preparatory School?
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Agree
Disagree
Neutral
Totally agree
Totally disagree
Statement 1: The language teaching program of total 5 hours a day, 25 hours per week, 600
hours a year is sufficient for the learners of English language.
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Surprisingly, figure 3 shows that almost half of
the teachers think the 600 hours of language
learning period students receive in a year is
sufficient. On the other hand, some teachers think
this language teaching schedule needs to be
revised for EFL learners.
Figure 4. The 26-week short-term course sufficiency in LPS.
It is interpreted that half of the teachers think the
26 weeks of short-term language teaching
received by the students is enough. On the other
hand, the other half of the respondents think this
curriculum needs a change because of
insufficient time to learn a foreign language in
LPS.
Figure 5. The length of the LPS education.
Most teachers think learners' language education
should be expanded to longer weeks with fewer
hours daily within the same curriculum.
However, less than half of the respondents think
the program should stay the same.
Figure 6. Education in summer term.
0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 4 4,5
Agree
Disagree
Neutral
Totally agree
Totally disagree
Statement 2: The 26-week short-term language curriculum is sufficient for English learners.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Agree
Disagree
Neutral
Totally agree
Statement 3: The 26 week short term language teaching program should be conducted in
longer period with less hours daily with the same curriculum than it is now.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Agree
Disagree
Neutral
Totally agree
Statement 4: Language preparatory school students should continue their language learning
in summer term after the teachers' vacation ends.
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It is interpreted that almost all teachers think the language education the learners take should be expanded
in the summer term.
Figure 7. The Duration of the Language Teaching Program.
This part is significant because almost all teachers in LPS think the language course the learners take should
be longer than it is now.
Figure 8. Reaching to academic proficiency.
Figure 8 explains that almost all teachers of LPS
think the language course learners take is not
enough for academic proficiency to study in their
departments. Half of the teachers think students
must have 1000 hours of exposition to the
English language within and outside of school
activities.
In this research, teachers working at TIULPS
were asked to answer a google form statements
through an online questionnaire about whether
they preferred the intensive short-term or long-
term adaptive curriculum. Based on the research
findings, it has emerged that students who have
chosen TIULPS to learn English as a foreign
language should have a long-term adaptive
language teaching curriculum. There was a
significant correlation between the answers LPS
teachers responded to in the survey. The results
for each Likert scale statement and open-ended
question were formulated in interpreted graphs.
English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students
are offered the opportunity to participate in a
short-term intensive curriculum during their
language education year at Tishk International
University Language Preparatory School, so
language teachers need a tremendous amount of
time and effort to bring learners of English as a
foreign language to the expected level of
proficiency. According to research findings, the
time it takes to become an expert in any field, a
person needs about 10,000 hours of practice.
Therefore, considering this fact, an updated
curriculum should be arranged for foreign
language learners studying in language
preparatory schools. This research will be useful
012345678
Agree
Disagree
Totally agree
Statement 5: Language teaching program should last more than 26 weeks for the learners of
English language.
012345678
25 weeks*25 hours=625
30 weeks*25 hours= 750
36 weeks*25 hours=900
40 weeks*25 hours= 1000
Question 3: How many hours of English language education in an academic year do
students need to achieve academic proficiency (in and out of classroom)?
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for those who prepare language teaching
programs in universities because it has been
understood that the curriculum followed by
private institutions needs some adjustments.
Conclusion
The difficulty of language teachers working in
LPS is to teach students the English language in
a limited time. Teaching English is the art of
language teachers to transfer reading, writing,
listening, and speaking skills to students. Yildiz
(2016b) argues that language instructors can
provide students with language skills and ensure
their oral and written communication at the
desired level of success.
Teaching and learning a foreign language is a
process, not a product. According to findings,
language teaching to EFL students at LPS should
include at least 40 weeks to reach academic
proficiency. Implementing the language teaching
curriculum requires the hard work, patience, and
cooperation of staff in language schools. Based
on the data from the survey, it was understood
that language learners should spend more than
625 hours in general English. This learning
process should span a period longer than the 26-
week academic year. Students should be
encouraged to participate in English-based
extracurricular activities inside and outside the
school. Therefore, language-based
extracurricular activities and a long-term
adaptive language teaching program are
recommended for students who wish to improve
their English knowledge at the end of the
academic year.
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