English Curriculum

In PAREF Southridge, English is taught as the First Language.

English is the language of instruction and communication. The department recognizes that language is not learned in a school vacuum and that language is a socially situated practice. When students enter the classroom, they bring with them their own experiences. Using the contexts of local and global experiences, the teachers utilize this rich source of information to improve students’ content-area and cultural literacy. The language learned becomes significant and real. The department also recognizes how proficiency in the language arts determines success in academic and practical life. Through the discrete instruction of reading and writing and proper integration of other language arts skills - listening, speaking, and thinking - learning becomes meaningful and purposeful.

The student should be an active participant for learning to succeed. The English teacher is a facilitator of learning; that is, he promotes the opportunities and situations that encourage communication by providing occasions for students to construct meaning through exposure to various texts, both print and non-print, enabling the students to establish connections with real-life experiences. This is achieved by emphasizing word recognition, proper articulation and enunciation, creative and technical expression, sound textual analysis and appreciation. Hand-in-hand with varied activities and alternative forms of assessment, the real-life experiences provide opportunities for the effective communication of ideas, enabling students to become men of integrity, and to participate as reflective and critical thinkers of society.

The English Program aims to develop in the students the following:

1. Mastery of basic language structure;
2. Proficiency in understanding print and non-print materials;
3. effective and creative communication of ideas in both spoken and written forms in different sociolinguistic situations;
4. the ability to relate well with significant human experiences from both local and global cultures as seen in different forms of media;
5. competence in the use of multimedia presentations to effectively communicate ideas;
6. critical appreciation of texts;
7. a healthy sense of curiosity which will enable them to engage in meaningful dialogue;
8. the habit of reading various texts appropriate for their developmental level;
9. genuine love for reading and writing; and
10. content-area and cultural literacy.