Sociocultural Dimension of Hidden Content in a Professional Language Curriculum

Abstract

Introduction: studying curriculum as a pedagogical problem has traditionally been reduced to the analysis of its explicit content, set in official educational documents. However, a much less studied hidden content plays a significant role in education. So, what is the role of the hidden curriculum during professional language training? The purpose of the article is to determine the potential impact of hidden curriculum on students’ conceptual worldview. Comparing the worldview presented in textbooks with students’ one has allowed us to estimate the rate of influence of hidden curr iculum. Materials and Methods: the methodological basis of the work is the cultural concept of personalityoriented education. The methodology for studying the role of hidden curriculum includes four stages: at the first stage, the authors set the criteria for selecting textbooks for analysis and do the selection; at the second stage, the authors select sociocultural concepts for analysis; at the third stage, the scheme of analysis is designed and the analysis of textbooks is done; at the fourth stage, the authors identify the potential influence of hidden curriculum on students’ conceptual worldview. Results: the structure of hidden curriculum has been determined and the scheme for analysing its subject component has been developed. The authors have identified a significant influence of hidden curriculum on students’ worldview, which represents the scientific novelty of the article. Discussion and Conclusions: the article gives the definition of a hidden curriculum which is new for Russian pedagogy and presents a methodology for its analysis in EFL textbooks. That analysis is recommended to be conducted when selecting teaching materials both i n languages and other humanities.

Keywords

• hidden curriculum
• sociocultural concepts
• professional language training
• discourse analysis
• selection of teaching materials