There is a term out there among the new batches of ways of thinking coming out of the current national think tanks (because it’s all about thinking and if we just figure it all out we can become a happy nation again, right?) – but this one actually has some practical merit. What is it? It’s called Design Thinking.
There are many variations of the design thinking process, but at its heart design thinking is built on empathy and iteration. People involved in “thinking by design” design solutions based on the end users actual needs and we create and test many different versions of the solution before it is deployed.
Here are some links:
Now if it is true that design thinking is first and foremost based on empathy, and happens when people put their heads together and figure out the actual needs of the user (as opposed to the needs of the provider of the product), I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that those who have been in charge of curriculum design in foreign languages for the past fifty years or so have probably not taken into consideration the end use needs of the actual consumers of their product, but rather their own needs. I don’t know – that’s just a guess. As in, how much money could I get for this textbook? Or, how can I teach these kids the language without actually teaching it to 96% of them so that I can only teach the ones who are like me?
Considering the end use needs of the consumer and not the end use needs of the provider of the product. What a novel concept when applied to foreign language education!