Making Sandwiches Libro Versión Revisada (2)

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Moss, G. (forthcoming): Making Sandwiches: A combined approach to course design for

English teachers. Barranquilla: Ediciones Uninorte

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SECTION 1: APPROACHES

Chapter 1: The ESP or Needs-based approach to course design.

In the contemporary world of global relations and numerous local or regional conflicts,we, as educators, have a special responsibility for the formation of world citizens withthe ability to respect diversity and coexist peacefully with others, though they be ofdiffering race, culture and persuasion. Developing the capacity to overcome greed andintolerance, and the violence they engender, constitutes our only hope for survival.The future of the planet depends then, in part, on the way in which we teachersapproach our task. In this context, the topic of curriculum design takes on special

relevance, in that we can no longer safely assume that imported, “universallyapplicable” approaches will serve our purposes.

In this section, I shall be making the case for a needs-analysis-based approach tocourse1 design for the teaching of English as a Foreign Language. I shall start, in thischapter, by looking briefly at the reasons for basing design on needs. Then, in chapter2, I will go on to consider the advantages and possible disadvantages of two well-established approaches to needs-based course design in order to put forward acombined or “sandwich” approach and describe an example of how it may be put intopractice.

Why, then, do I start from the assumption that course design should be based onneeds analysis? In this respect, Widdowson (1990: 26) cites the Greek myth ofProcrustes, an inn-keeper who had only one size of bed; on receiving a guest whowas too tall for the bed, he would cut off his feet and, on receiving one who was tooshort, he would stretch him on a rack to make him fit the bed (Figure 1.1 depicts amodern-day Procrustes). As teachers of English, says Widdowson, we have atendency to be procrustean and attempt to make the student fit the course instead ofmaking the course fit the student. It is my belief that, in order to make a meaningfulcontribution to the education of citizens who are aware of, and responsive to, theneeds of their fellow humans and their environment, it is necessary for us to take the

1 Throughout this book I shall be using the term „course‟ to refer to the content, method and assessmentof English teaching programmes, in opposition to “curriculum” which I reserve for the school oruniversity programme as a whole.





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Figure 1.1 A modern-day Procrustes





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lead by creating educational environments which are responsive to the diverse needsof the individuals within them.

Needs analysis, historically, has been considered characteristic of English for SpecificPurposes as opposed to “General English” (See, for example, Hutchinson and Waters1987, McDonough 1984). It grew out of the recognition in the post-Second-World-Warcontext, of the fact that particular individuals or groups of people needed to learnEnglish for different reasons and that, therefore, they needed to learn different aspectsof the English language and to develop different skills in using it. Parallel to this„specialized‟ approach, the majority of English teaching institutions continued to offer“General English” courses which were intended to answer the needs of the majority oflearners. This tradition was largely based on the notion, reinforced by followers ofChomsky in the 1960s and 1970s, that there exists an abstract language system,independent of the particularities of instances of use, and that it is this system whichlearners need to become acquainted with.

It is my contention that General English does not exist, except as a procrustean

attempt to fit all students willy-nilly into the same mould. Chomsky himself intended hisdistinction between competence and performance to be used as an analytical linguistictool, not as a basis for pedagogical practice. Most language learners do not intend toengage in theoretical linguistics. They wish and/or need to learn the language in orderto engage in some kind of communicative processes, whether through the reading ofvarious kinds of texts, keeping in touch with friends and colleagues through writingletters or emails, chatting on the telephone or computer, attending conferences, or amyriad other activities which we humans like to engage in. Language which can beused for this kind of meaningful human interaction must, of necessity, be context-sensitive, taking “context” in the broad Hallidayan sense of “context of situation”, madeup of participants and their relations (tenor), the topic and activity concerned (field)

and the role of language (mode) (Halliday and Hasan, 1985).

When we consider that nowadays the English being taught in all parts of the world isinevitably aimed at international, intercultural communication, with all the risks ofmisunderstanding and misinterpretation which this entails, the need for this kind ofcontext-sensitivity becomes doubly clear. If people from widely differing cultural andlinguistic backgrounds are to have any hope of communicating successfully with eachother, they must have some understanding of the relation between language andcontext, of how to express themselves appropriately according to the characteristics oftheir interlocutor(s) and the kind of communicative situation in which they findthemselves. Given that it is not feasible to teach about every possible imaginable

context of situation and the language associated with it, it thus behoves us asteachers, to attempt to discover as much as we can about our students‟ needs andwishes and attempt to orient our courses accordingly. Thus, all processes of coursedesign benefit from an ESP-style approach. Table 1.1 summarizes the principaldifferences between the ESP-style approach to course design and the GeneralEnglish approach.





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ESP-STYLE APPROACH GENERAL ENGLISH APPROACH

Makes the course fit the student Makes the student fit the courseIs closely related to context of situation Is independent of context

Aims at ability to use language incontext Aims at knowledge of “universal”system of English Aims to understand and fulfil students‟needs

Assumes all students have the sameneeds

The procedures and techniques of Needs Analysis as described and discussed in theliterature will be summarized in Chapter 3. My aim in this brief chapter has been toclarify the reasons why I consider ESP to be a broad approach to course design andnot a specific methodology for dealing with a limited number of students. I wouldencourage all teachers to adopt an ESP approach to course design. In the nextchapter, I will go on to describe the particular approach which I recommend and whichI have dubbed “The Sandwich Approach”.





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Chapter 2: The Sandwich Approach

Within the ESP-style, needs-based approach outlined above, we may distinguish tworelatively well-established sub-approaches which may be broadly described as top-down and bottom-up. The top-down approach, represented diagramatically in Figure2.12, takes the analysis of target needs as its point of departure. By target needs, weunderstand the activities which the student will need to carry out in English after thecompletion of formal studies, and the type of language knowledge and skills necessaryin order to perform them successfully (Munby 1978). This analysis is combined withthat of wants, understood as that which the student desires to learn irrespective ofnecessity, and input from sources such as theories of language and learning,alternatives for classroom management, the results of classroom and theoreticalresearch and examples taken from other courses designed for similar situations. Allthese sources of information combine to provide a general overview of the situation,the students, the course and the alternatives for its realisation, from which we may

derive course goals and objectives. Once having defined objectives, we then proceedto specify teaching points, that is to say, what exactly is to be taught. Teaching pointsmay include, as well as aspects of language knowledge and skills, such areas asawareness-raising and learning skills and strategies. At this stage in the process, wealso go about selecting the materials (texts, films, dialogues, images, problems, andso forth) which will be used in developing our teaching points. The next step is toarrange the points in sequence following the criteria for sequencing and structuringwhich our prior analysis of the situation indicates to be appropriate. After sequencingand structuring have been decided upon, we may proceed to write the materials forthe course. The course should then be implemented with a pilot group withsubsequent modification and adaptation until results are deemed to be satisfactory, at

which point the course may be fully implemented. In this way, we move from the topdown, from the most general view of the course - its goals and theoretical orientation -to its specific realisation in the form of teaching points and materials.

The other major tendency in needs-based course design may be designated asbottom-up in that it proceeds largely in reverse order. Figure 2.2 is David Nunan‟s(1990) representation of this approach. Here too, the process begins with needsanalysis, but of a rather different type. In this case, we look not to the future but to thepresent and ask: Who are my students? What are their characteristics and feelings?

Where are they now and where do they think they are going? Having got to know ourstudents on the ground, we can then organise them in groups according to suchcriteria as proficiency in English, interests, goals and so forth. On the basis of thisacquaintance with our students, we then proceed to select and sequence the kinds ofactivities, tasks and problems which we consider it would be productive for them to

2 I am indebted to Mike Scott of the University of Liverpool for this representation of the steps in the top-down approach to LSP course design.





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Figure 2.1 The top-down approach





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Figure 2.2: The bottom-up approach





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address. At this point in the process, we also need to make reference to theories oflanguage and learning. The next step is to decide which language items are relevantto the activities selected and write materials for teaching them. We then proceed tothe development of assessment and evaluation instruments and procedures whichwill actively involve the learner in the process of assessing the success of the course

and of his/her individual learning process. This approach can be termed bottom-up inthat it proceeds from very specific, individual data about students towards the moregeneral concerns of goals, content, methodology and evaluation.

Both of the approaches outlined above have been used with a great measure ofsuccess in the design of courses for specific situations and groups of students.However, they have their drawbacks. The top-down approach can, on occasion, leadto a certain lack of flexibility and fail to take into account individual learning styles,wants and so forth. On the other hand, the bottom-up approach may, at times, give theimpression of lacking a sense of direction and also runs the risk of over-emphasisingpresent concerns to the detriment of target situation needs. It is for this reason that Ishall now propose a combined approach.

The approach which I have termed the “Sandwich Approach” is representeddiagrammatically in Figure 2.3. The model is simultaneously data-driven and theory-driven, making a sandwich on the horizontal plane of the figure. Data are drawn fromboth types of needs analysis. On the “top”, we go into analysis of target needs andsituational constraints. Target needs, as mentioned above, refer to the types of activitythe student will need to carry out in English after completing formal instruction and thelanguage knowledge and skills necessary to perform these activities successfully.Situational constraints are those factors which, in some way, limit what it is possiblefor us to do in our courses. That is to say, a target needs analysis will result in a profileof aims and activities which, in many cases, it is not practically feasible to carry out. In

tracing our course goals, therefore, it is necessary to take into account not only what isdesirable, but also what is feasible. More detail about the collection of data regardingtarget needs and situational constraints will be provided in Chapter 3.

At the same time, at the “bottom” of the model, we carry out learning needs analysis,looking at our students current levels of competence, their learning styles and so on.This process will also be described in more detail in Chapter 3. By comparing this“where we are now” analysis with the “where we want to get to” analysis of targetneeds, we can derive a set of teaching points which need to be covered in our course.We have thus started from top and bottom simultaneously in order to arrive at ourcourse goals and the teaching points necessary to achieve them.

However, it is also essential that our decisions be informed by a clear theoreticalorientation in order to give sense, coherence and direction to what might otherwisebecome a hotchpotch of particular activities with no clear guiding principle. 3 On thetheory side of the sandwich, we find approaches to education, to language and to

3 Also known as the “Sancocho Approach” (María Stella Martínez, personal communication, 1995)





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Figure 2.3: The Sandwich Approach





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learning which are vital elements in the overall coherence of our design. Theseapproaches will be discussed in detail in Chapter 4.

In this model, then, we take input simultaneously from top and bottom, from data andtheory, to make up the bread and butter of our course. The syllabus design as suchthen becomes the filling in the sandwich, whose nature is determined by the inputfactors. I have stressed as outcomes of data and theoretical input, the course goalsand teaching points. If we know where we are going and what we need to do in orderto get there and are aware of our students‟ learning styles and preferences, thendecisions relating to sequence and structure and selection of materials are more easilyarrived at. The model also shows the writing of general and specific objectives. This isa moot point in current educational debate. There are those who believe thatspecifying objectives implies rigidity and presupposes that all students start and end atthe same point, regardless of individual characteristics. My own view is that clearlystated objectives are a useful guide for teachers, learners and institutional authoritiesand can be used with flexibility rather than in strait-jacket terms. This, again, is adecision which needs to be consciously considered and taken on the basis of the inputfrom data and theory, rather than simply adopted as tradition. I shall be consideringthis question in more depth in Chapter 6. The final stages in the process: piloting,revision, implementation and evaluation are common to all models of course designand are amply treated in the literature.

I should like, now, to describe a concrete example of the sandwich model in action.The example, shown in Figure 2.4 is taken from a programme in English for AcademicPurposes for university undergraduates. I have chosen this example because it is onethat I was closely involved with some years ago but I should like to stress that themodel is equally applicable to any other kind of course. In fact, students on thePostgraduate Diploma in Teaching English at Universidad del Norte have applied it to

the design of courses for pre-school, primary and high school as well as at universitylevel.

The example, then, is one aspect of an undergraduate English programme which wasdesigned and implemented at Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla, Colombia in themid 1990s.. I should like to fill in a little of the background in order to make theexample as clear as possible. As from the 1970s, when Uninorte participated in the“Reading and Thinking in English” project, up until 1994, we worked with the nowestablished model of ESP for Latin American countries - three semesters of Englishdevoted exclusively to reading comprehension. Initially, this approach was amply

justified. Time available did not permit working on more than one skill, and the vast

majority of Colombian professionals had no need of English other than as a means ofobtaining up-to-date information about their field. Times have changed. Colombia, inthe 1990s went through a process of opening up to international commerce andcommunications in all fields and it was no longer acceptable for us to condemn futureColombian professionals to a passive role on the world stage. We needed people whowould go out and participate actively for Colombia; most especially we neededgraduates who could undertake postgraduate studies in any country of the world andreturn to put their new knowledge and skills to the benefit of a new Colombia.





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Figure 2.4 The Sandwich Approach: an example





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Therefore, in 1995, the Universidad del Norte created its Language Institute, whoseprincipal responsibility is to ensure that Uninorte graduates are able to participate ingraduate studies round the world. To this end, a new eight-semester four-skillsprogramme was designed and implemented, using the sandwich approach.

The example presented in Figure 2.4 refers to one particular aspect of the design ofthe undergraduate programme and serves to illustrate how the different aspects ofinput (bread and butter) come together to decide on the filling.

At the “top” of the model, we found, in regard to target needs, the fact that ourgraduates, as postgraduate students, would need, among other things, to readacademic texts and attend lectures. At the same time, on the theory side, ourapproach to education was hermeneutic: we believed that it was our duty to aim atforming individuals with a critical awareness of the socio-cultural processes involved inactive citizenship and that education for critical citizenship implies critical discourseskills. These two complementary sources of input combined to indicate that one of ourmajor goals should be the development of critical reading and listening skills.

At the “bottom” end of the model, contact with our students told us that the majorityhad poor L1 reading skills and that their most immediate need in English was forreading: not only books and journals but, ever more frequently, Internet, internationaldatabases and so forth. At the same time, they told us that they wanted to be able tounderstand films received over cable and satellite TV, songs and so on. On the theoryside, our functional systemic approach to language suggested that listening andreading skills are closely intertwined and our Vygotskian view of learning suggestedthat some degree of awareness of the processes involved is necessary to ensureassimilation. We thus arrived at the conclusion that our teaching points should includeawareness-raising with regard to language and learning, as well as a variety of

reading and listening strategies. This also tied in with the comprehensible input theoryput forward by Krashen (1985), which stresses the importance of exposure to thetarget language before being required to produce it. We hoped that by attending tostudents‟ current needs and wants we would achieve higher levels of engagement(van Lier 1996) in the process on the part of our students.

Finally, as a result of the study of all these different types of data and theoreticalconsiderations, when we came to putting the filling in the sandwich, it was decidedthat, while all levels of the programme should deal to some extent with all four skills,the first level should emphasise above all the development of reading strategies; in thesecond and third levels these strategies were extended to listening comprehension,

while levels four and five worked intensively on writing and speaking. Levels six, sevenand eight dealt with research skills in the student‟s field of study. A similar processwas gone through for decision-making about all the different aspects of the course, inan attempt to ensure that everything we did was coherent both with our students‟needs and with our theoretical orientation.





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The Sandwich Approach to course design outlined in this chapter is an attemptsystematically to involve knowledge of students, context and theory in the decision-making processes which make up the essence of course design. Section 2 of thisbook will provide further information about sources of input to the sandwich model – both from data and from theory – and Section 3 will describe, step-by-step, the

procedures to be followed in working through a course design process.





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SECTION 2: INPUT

Chapter 4: Input from theory

4.1 The importance of defining approaches

As I mentioned in the first chapter of this book, it is my belief that in the contemporaryworld of global relations and numerous local or regional conflicts, we, as educators,have a special responsibility to play our part in the development of world citizens withthe ability to respect diversity and coexist peacefully with others, though they be ofdiffering race, culture and persuasion. The will to overcome intolerance and combat

injustice constitutes our only hope for survival. Similarly, the development of citizenswho take seriously their responsibility towards the non-human environment is a taskwhich cannot be postponed. The future of humanity and of the planet depends then, inpart, on the way in which we teachers approach our task.

In some contexts, English teachers tend to think of themselves simply as languageinstructors, limiting their horizons to the four walls of their classroom and assumingthat their responsibility goes no further than the development of certain clearly definedlanguage skills. We believe that this attitude is untenable. The learning of English,nowadays, is a politically and culturally charged activity with repercussions not only forteachers and learners but also for families, communities and national governments.

We cannot assume, therefore, that data from students and situation provide sufficientinformation for all the decisions we need to take in the course design process. It isalso essential that our decisions be informed by a clear theoretical and philosophicalorientation to give sense, coherence and direction to what might otherwise become ahotchpotch of particular activities with no clear guiding principle.4 On the theory side ofthe sandwich model, then, we find approaches to education and to language learningwhich are vital elements in the overall coherence of our design. As regards approachto education, it is indispensable for the teacher to have a clear notion of the aims ofthe educational process in which s/he is participating. If we do not have a clearconception of the kind of human being we hope will emerge from the educationalprocess, then none of our actions as teachers can hope to make sense. Every singleone of the decisions we make (and we are, according to Shön (1983), theprofessionals who must most frequently take decisions) whether they be at the microlevel of classroom interaction or at the macro level of course goals or anywhere in-between, should be guided by this conception of human development. It is essential,then, for example, to know whether we are aiming towards efficient, productive

4 Also known as the “Sancocho Approach” (María Stella Martínez, personal communication, 1995)





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members of an obedient workforce or critical, questioning individuals (in Rorty‟s (1980)terms, between epistemology and hermeneutics).

The second aspect of theory shown on the model is approach to language learning.This, in reality, covers two interrelated but distinct points: approach to language andapproach to learning. As regards approach to language, the two main schools are thestructuralist view of language as a set of syntactic structures stored in memory, andthe functionalist view of language as the negotiation of meaning between participantsin specific discourse situations. Our decision in this respect will obviously haveimportant repercussions for the content, materials and methodology of our courses.

As regards approach to learning, the principal dichotomy is between the behaviourist,stimulus-response view which informed the audio-lingual methods popular in the1960s and 70s and the cognitive school, derived from Vygotsky and Bruner, which liesat the heart of the currently favoured constructivist methodologies in education.

In the sections which follow, we will discuss further the nature of the choices involvedin defining approaches to education, to language and to learning.

4.2 Approaches to Education

As suggested above, it is convenient, for the purposes of illustration, to considerapproaches to education in a rather simplified fashion, as falling into two classes,which may roughly be compared with what Rorty (1980) describes as epistemologicaland hermeneutic. The epistemological approach relates to the idea of education associalization into a particular cultural and scientific tradition, preparation for takingone‟s place as a useful, conventional member of society. The hermeneutic approach,on the other hand, relates to notions of critical citizenship, of learning to questionconventions, take autonomous decisions and contribute creatively to processes ofchange. The two approaches are outlined in synoptic form in table 4.1.

EPISTEMOLOGICAL HERMENEUTIC

Socialization AutonomyBanking Construction of knowledgeInformation FormationProfessional training Human development

Table 4.1: Summary of epistemological and hermeneutic approaches to education

Socialization is generally defined as the process by which human beings or animalslearn to adopt the behavior patterns of the community in which they live. While it is





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clearly one of the purposes of education to enable people to live in society, theconcept of socialization has been criticized by many educators because it suggestscasting people in a pre-designed mould leaving little or no room for individualcreativity, critical thinking or questioning of established norms. In this respect it isinteresting to note that a search for “Socialization” on the Google search engine,

throws up more or less equal numbers of pages referring to children and pagesreferring to puppies. The connotation of training to obey is evident.

On the other side of the table, we find the notion of autonomy. It would be idle toattempt a full definition of autonomy here. It is, after all, a question which has stretchedthe minds of philosophers for centuries. In this context, we are using the term to referto the ability to think differently, to “break the crust of convention” (Dewey, cited byRorty, 1980: 379). This thinking differently involves developing “a sense of therelativity of descriptive vocabularies to periods, traditions, and historical accidents”(362); that is to say, an understanding of the fact that statements which we, in our

context, consider to be simple statements of fact would not be considered as such inother cultures or at other periods in history. A simple example of this might be astatement such as “Human beings and chimpanzees have evolved from a commonancestor.” For most early twenty-first century biology teachers this is a statement offact; however, certain religious groups would challenge its status as such, suggestingthat it is only one of several possible points of view. Similarly, before Charles Darwin‟stime, it would have been considered nonsense. In this sense, “breaking the crust ofconvention” also involves questioning the traditional distinction between facts andvalues. Autonomy, then, involves the ability to think independently. It also involves thecapacity to use that independent thinking as the basis for making decisions and toaccept responsibility for the consequences of those decisions. All of this contrasts with

the idea of socialization with its emphasis on conformity and obedience.

In the second contrasting pair in the table, we find “banking” versus “construction ofknowledge”. The term banking is borrowed from Paulo Freire (1968), the greatBrazilian educator and champion of education as a facilitator for the emancipation ofdisadvantaged groups of people. The practice of education as banking, according toFreire, involves treating students as empty receptacles to be filled by teachers withknowledge which may be stored and then withdrawn for use at a later time. Theexperiential knowledge which students bring with them to the classroom is ignored or

treated as irrelevant. The academic knowledge provided by the teacher is stored bymeans of memorization and is not related to the learners‟ experiences of life in theircontext. The „use‟ of the knowledge at a later time is largely in the form of repetition forexamination purposes. This approach contrasts with the constructivist approach,based on the work of psychologists such as Vygotsky (1934/1986) and Bruner (1986),which proposes recognition of the value of the experiential knowledge which studentsbring to the learning task and providing learners with cognitive tools to allow them tobuild more scientific knowledge on the basis of what they already know. We will return





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to this point in our discussion of approaches to learning in section 2.2.3 below.Learners in this approach are seen as interlocutors in a conversation, as activeparticipants in their own learning process, not simply as passive recipients of receivedknowledge. The banking approach relates to the epistemological side of our tablebecause it assumes that knowledge consists of a set of established facts which should

be learned without questioning. The constructivist approach relates to hermeneutics inthat it assumes that knowledge is personal, culture-sensitive and context-related.

Along the same lines, we find an emphasis on information contrasted with anemphasis on formation. In epistemological, banking approaches to education, it isconsidered to be of paramount importance that students acquire large amounts ofinformation about a particular range of topics to be determined by the educationalinstitution and / or by national governments in the form of national curricula which willthen be tested in state controlled examinations. On the other hand, in a morehermeneutic approach, we would expect the emphasis to fall on the formation of

human beings with certain cognitive, metacognitive and socio-affective skills whichmay be applied at different times in a person‟s life to the acquisition of whateverinformation may be necessary for the task in hand. This kind of learning is, of course,much more difficult to evaluate and almost impossible to measure in objective tests.

Finally, and in close association with the previous point, we find “professional training”contrasted with “human development”. The professional training approach suggeststhat the purpose of education is to fit students for the job market. The humandevelopment approach, by contrast, gives priority to the development of each

individual‟s particular talents, interests and potential, together with her/hisinterpersonal skills.

It will be apparent from the comments above that we, ourselves, favour thehermeneutic approach to education. We believe that both individual learners andsocieties are better served by the development of well-rounded human beings,equipped with competences for thinking and learning, communicating and cooperatingin flexible and unpredictable ways, questioning traditional habits of thought and actionand proposing new and original ones. However, it should also be evident that it is not

always easy for institutions, or for individual teachers within them, to adhere to thisapproach. Parents expect their children to do well in exams and later to be successfulin the job market. Schools and universities are compared in league tables based onstate exam results. Sponsors may not always look favourably on the development ofcritical thinking.





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There exists a danger, then, of falling into the trap of expressing, in documents anddiscussions, a commitment to hermeneutic education while, in reality, cultivatingpractices more characteristic of epistemological education. We would suggest a three-pronged approach to living with this dilemma. Firstly, the two sides of the table shouldnot be seen as mutually exclusive opposites but rather as two ends of a cline on which

it is possible to situate oneself somewhere in-between the two extremes. Secondly,institutional documents, such as mission statements and educational projects, andgovernment policy documents should be read with our critical filter “switched on” andcompared with the evidence of actions and decisions. Finally, if our personalconvictions as educators are not entirely in accord with the policies of the institutionsin which we work or those of our national governments, we need not despair nor seethe situation necessarily in ter ms of conflict, but rather of conversation. “Hermeneutics”asserts Rorty, “sees the relations between various discourses as those of strands in apossible conversation (…) where the hope of agreement is never lost so long as theconversation lasts (…) or, at least, exciting and fruitful disagreement.” (1980: 318)

A complementary view of approaches to education is that of Askew and Carnell (1998,chapter 6) who posit four educational frameworks: liberatory, client-centred, social

justice and functionalist. These four frameworks are mapped on two clines: intrinsicversus extrinsic knowledge and radical change versus social regulation. The liberatoryframework combines intrinsic knowledge with radical change; the client-centred,intrinsic knowledge with social regulation; the social justice, extrinsic knowledge withradical change; and the functionalist, extrinsic knowledge with social regulation (p.84).If we compare these frameworks with the epistemological – hermeneutic contrastestablished above, we find that the “most hermeneutic” framework is the liberatory andthe “most epistemological” framework is the functionalist. It is not surprising, then, that

Askew and Carnell comment that “It is difficult to conceive of [the liberatory] modelbeing adopted in any form within the current educational climate, since teachers andeducational establishments have less autonomy and are faced with increasingdirection on how or what to teach.” (pp. 90-91). They make a similar comment aboutthe social justice model. Once again then, we may find ourselves in a situation wherewe need to embrace “exciting and fruitful disagreement”, as suggested above.

4.3 Approaches to language

The second half of the twentieth century produced two radically different approachesto language, roughly based on two streams of linguistics which we referred to aboveas „structuralist‟ and „functionalist‟ and which have also been referred to as „isolating‟and „integrating‟ (e.g. Thompson and Collins, 2001). The first, whose most well-knownexponent is Noam Chomsky, sees language as rule-based behaviour and assumesthat its object of study is the abstract language system, independent of data relating tospecific contexts or specific language users. The second, whose best-known exponentis Michael Halliday, conceives of language as a meaning-making resource and takes





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as its object of study the complex relations between the language system, texts,contexts and users. Thompson refers to these strands as „isolating‟ and „integrating‟because structuralist linguistics sees the language system as separate from contextand from use and therefore spawns a variety of sub-disciplines in order to deal withthese other aspects: sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, pragmatics, text linguistics and

so forth. Functionalist linguistics, on the other hand, integrates social, cognitive,pragmatic and discourse features into its theory of the language system.

Language teaching based on these two different strands of linguistics, therefore,emphasises different aspects of the language to be taught and has differing goals andobjectives. Table 4.2 sets out some of these differences of approach.

Approach tolanguage

Aspects

Structuralist Functionalist

Nature of language Rule-based behaviour Meaning-making resourceObject of study Morphology and syntax Communicative functions and

skillsGoal of teaching andlearning

Linguistic competence;learning language

Communicative competence;learning language, learningabout language, learningthrough language

Behaviour expected oflearners

Production of correctsentences

Negotiation of meaning

Criterion for evaluation Accuracy Appropriacy to context andfunction

Table 4.2: Contrasting approaches to language and their relation to teachingpractices

It is worth noting that the functionalist approach, because of its „integrating‟ nature,does not see the study of language – whether mother tongue or second/foreignlanguage – as an isolated discipline but as an integral part of the curriculum,intimately related to other subject areas. Hence we find that practitioners followingthis approach stress not only the need to learn language, but also the need to learnabout language and to learn through language.

As with the approaches to education discussed in the previous section, it is wise to

see these two approaches, at least in their educational applications, as oppositeends of a cline rather than as mutually exclusive. It may thus be possible toemphasise language as meaning-making resource while still giving someclassroom attention to rule-based behaviour. It is, however, important to establishpriorities and to bear them in mind throughout the process of curriculum andmaterials design. Traditional language teaching has followed the structuralist pathand it is all too easy to pay lip service to the fashionable notions of communicativecompetence while, in fact, organizing classroom activities around purely structural





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notions and basing assessment on matters of accuracy. A decision to go with thefunctionalist stream requires willingness to reassess our traditional activities andpriorities in the light of real communicative processes, which empower students toexpress their own thoughts and feelings rather than simply manipulating thelanguage used to express ideas provided by teachers and / or text-book writers.

4.4 Approaches to learning

The principal approaches to learning may be summarized under the headings ofbehaviourist, cognitivist and sociocultural. Behaviourist theories emphasisechanges in behaviour which can be achieved through the use of activities based onstimulus-response and reinforcement. They focus on the observable evidence oflearning outcomes. Cognitive approaches, on the other hand, emphasise theprocesses of learning, the conscious ways in which human individuals constructknowledge. Sociocultural approaches have much in common with cognitivistapproaches but stress the importance of learning through interaction with othersand with the environment. Leading proponents of behaviourism are Skinner andWatson, the most important figure in the cognitivist field is Piaget, while Vygotskyand Bruner are the leading theorists of the sociocultural approach. Table 4.3presents some contrasting characteristics of the three approaches.

Approach tolearning

Aspects

Behaviourist Cognitivist Sociocultural

Theory of learning Stimulus andresponse

Consciousconstruction of

knowledge

Co-construction ofknowledge

Effective learningtechniques

Rote learning Use of strategies: cognitive metacognitive socio-affective

Participation incommunities ofknowledge

Pedagogicalpractice

Mechanization ofroutines

Interaction: learner-learner learner-teacher learner-

materials learner-context

Interaction: learner-learner learner-teacher learner-

materials learner-context

Table 4.3: Approaches to learning

In the case of approaches to learning, even more than in the cases of approachesto education and to language, it is important to bear in mind that the extreme casespresented in the table are exactly that – extreme cases. It is perfectly possible inreal teaching and learning situations to situate oneself somewhere in-between andmake use of the more effective aspects of each. Language learning is one of themost complex areas of educational endeavour and it would be unwise to limit our





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range of possible activities by adhering strictly to one approach or another. Onceagain, however, it is advisable to have clear priorities and to make use of elementsof other approaches only when they are coherent and compatible with thosepriorities. It should also be evident from the table that the cognitive andsociocultural approaches are more easily compatible with each other than is either

one of them with the behaviourist approach.In aligning ourselves with approaches to education, language and learning, it isimportant to take an overall view of our situation and ensure that our choices arecoherent with each other. In broad terms, we may observe a tendency forhermeneutic approaches to education to combine with functional approaches tolanguage and cognitivist or sociocultural approaches to learning. The emphasis onindependent thinking in hermeneutic approaches to education would be difficult toreconcile with the rote learning and mechanization characteristic of behaviouristapproaches to learning. Similarly, the importance of sensitivity to context infunctional approaches to language could not easily be learnt through behaviouristmethods which emphasise uniformity rather than difference. On the other hand, anepistemological approach to education, with its emphasis on fulfilling expectationsand conforming to norms may be well served by memorization and a focus on rulesas in behaviourist and structuralist approaches.

These combinations, however, should not be taken as hard and fast rules or, evenworse, as formulae with predictable outcomes. Every situation is different and it isalways worthwhile to think deeply about each set of alternatives and their possiblecombinations.

4.5 Putting theory into practiceWork through Worksheet 1.

4.6 SummaryThis section has considered the theoretical input for course design decisions. It hasstressed the importance for educators of reflection on questions relating to whateducation is for and what kind of people we hope to see come out at the end of theprocess. Such reflection should consider not only our personal convictions but alsothe characteristics, needs and constraints of the particular situation in which wework. For language curricula, we need to take into account approaches toeducation, approaches to language and approaches to learning. In each case, weneed to situate ourselves somewhere on a cline between two extremes:epistemological and hermeneutic approaches to education; structuralist andfunctionalist approaches to language and behaviourist and cognitivist approachesto learning. In any particular teaching situation, it may be necessary to steer amiddle course or to enter into conversation with differing approaches.

4.7 Further reading

4.7.1 Approaches to educationDelors, J. (ed.) (1996): Learning: The Treasure Within. Paris: UNESCO





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Gómez Buendía, H. (1998): Educación: La agenda del siglo XXI. Hacia undesarrollo humano. Colombia: PNUD / Tercer Mundo Editores

Rorty, R. (1980): Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Oxford: Blackwell. (Chapters7 and 8 are relevant for educational purposes.)

4.7.2 Approaches to languageChomsky, N. (1976): Reflections on Language. Glasgow: Fontana/Collins

Cook, G. (1989): Discourse. Oxford University Press

Eggins, S. (1994): An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics London: Pinter

Halliday, M.A.K. And Hasan, R. (1989): Language, Context and Text : Aspects ofLanguage in a Social-Semiotic Perspective. Oxford University Press.

Moss, G., Mizuno, J., Avila, D., Barletta, N., Carreño, S., Chamorro, D., Tapia, C.(2003 ): Urdimbre del Texto Escolar . Barranquilla: Ediciones Uninorte.

Thompson, G. (1996): Introducing Functional Grammar . London: Arnold.

Unsworth, L. (ed.) (2000): Researching language in schools and communities:functional linguistic perspectives London: Cassell

4.7.3 Approaches to learningMoll, L.C. (ed.) (1990): Vygotsky and Education. Cambridge University Press

(traducción al español. Vygotsky y la educación. Buenos Aires: Aique)

Van Lier, L. (1996): Interaction in the Language Curriculum: Awareness, autonomyand authenticity. London: Longman

___________ (2004): The ecology and semiotics of language learning: Asociocultural approach. Kluwer Academic Press

Vygotsky, L. S. (1979): El desarrollo de los procesos psicológicos superiores Barcelona: Editorial Crítica

______________ (1986): Thought and Language. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press

(original in Russian, 1934)Wertsch, J.V. (1988): Vygotsky y la formación social de la mente. Barcelona:

Paidós





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SECTION 3: DESIGN

Like most complex processes, course design can best be handled by dividing itinto a series of steps and dealing with them one by one. In this section, I will workthrough the steps presented in the sandwich model providing definitions andrecommendations for each one so that you can gradually build up your ownsandwich. Each step will also be illustrated with examples taken from monographswritten by students of the Postgraduate Diploma in English Teaching at theUniversidad del Norte in Barranquilla, Colombia. After reading the examples, youwill be invited to work on your own design by using the Worksheets in Section 5. Atthe end of each chapter, I will provide a brief summary and suggestions for furtherreading.

Chapter 5: Procedural recommendations

Course design is a complex process involving many interlocking decisions whichall need to be coherent with each other if the resulting design is to produce theresults we expect of it. It is easy to get lost or confused in the process. I wouldtherefore like to suggest some strategies for keeping track of your work andavoiding unnecessary confusion.

5.1 Draft and re-draftOnce again, the complex nature of the course design process makes it unlikely thatyou will get everything right (i.e. to your satisfaction) on the first attempt. As you gothrough the decision-making processes you will need to go back to earlier stagesand redraft your ideas in the light of later reflections. In some cases, you may needto redraft three or four times before reaching a “final” version. It is useful to think ofcourse design as an on-going process which you will keep redrafting even afteryou begin implementation of your course. Feedback from the classroom will thenbe input for further redrafting. Try not to become too enamoured of your early ideasand drafts; you need to be able to let them go if they are either not coherent withlater decisions or clearly not working in the classroom.

5.2 The use of a portfolioI strongly recommend the use of a portfolio or loose-leaf folder in which you cankeep succeeding drafts of each step in your design process. It is important to keepall the drafts, and to keep them in order, so that you can look back and see how

your ideas have progressed and developed as you work through the process. Youmay at some point wish to restore some aspect of an earlier version. So,remember: Number your drafts Label them clearly with the topic (e.g. goals and general objectives) and the

date on which you wrote them.





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If you want to write comments on them at a later stage, or have someoneelse comment on them for you, remember to use different colours todifferentiate the comments from the original.

Keep them in separate sections of your portfolio, clearly labelled accordingto topic. This way it is easy to find what you need when you need it.

5.3 Your own sandwichIt can be useful to build up your own version of the sandwich model, filling in theboxes with key ideas from your needs analysis, your reflection on approaches andyour decision-making process. This gives you an overview of your design and ishelpful for assessing the degree of coherence which you have achieved betweenthe different aspects. You will probably also want to make several drafts of this andkeep it in your portfolio. On the next page you will find an example of what it mightlook like and then a “blank” model for you to fill in as you go along. I suggest youalso keep this in your portfolio.





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COURSE DESIGN: THE SANDWICH APPROACH

Data-driven COURSE DESIGN Theory-driven

TARGET NEEDS

Students will need toread academic textsand attend lectures.

A COURSE GOALDevelopment of critical reading APPROACH TO

and listening skills EDUCATION

Critical citizenshipimplies critical discourse skills.

sequence of skills to be emphasised:

1. reading2. listening

3. speaking and writing

APPROACH TO

LANGUAGE and LEARNING

Functional, cognitivist: awareness;exposure; engagement

SOME TEACHING POINTS

language and learning awareness; reading and listening strategies

LEARNING NEEDS

many poor L1 readers

immediate need for reading

desire for listening





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COURSE DESIGN: THE SANDWICH APPROACH

Data-driven COURSE DESIGN Theory-driven

TARGET NEEDS

________________ ________________

A COURSE GOAL ________________________ APPROACH TO

EDUCATION

_____________________

____________________________:

________________________________

________________________________

________________________________

________________________________

APPROACH TO

LANGUAGE and LEARNING

__________________________ __________________________

SOME TEACHING POINTS

_______________________________________________________

LEARNING NEEDS

____________________________

____________________________

____________________________





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CHAPTER 6: Setting goals, general objectives and competences

A course is unlikely to be successful if nobody knows what it is trying to achieve. Itis important for all the interested parties - designers, teachers, students,institutional authorities, sponsors and governmental bodies – to know what thecourse is intended to accomplish. This facilitates all the stages in the process:planning, implementation and evaluation. There are a number of different ways ofdefining and stating these ideas about what we are trying to achieve or where weare going with a course. There has also been a great deal of discussion recentlyabout the relative merits of describing desired student behaviour in terms ofobjectives or competences. As a general rule, I have found it useful to work withgoals, general objectives and competences. At a later stage, general objectives willthen be broken down into specific objectives. I will first define what I mean bygoals, general objectives and competences.

6.1 DefinitionsGoal: may be variously defined as: Our final destination, The outcome of our efforts, The situation we desire at the end of the course, The ball in the net!

The last of those definitions makes reference, of course, to the origin of the termwhich is a metaphor from sport, particularly football. Notice that these definitions allstress the goal as a final situation or state. The goal describes what we hope willbe the result at the end of the course. It says nothing about how we will get there.This is where objectives come in.

Objectives: in their turn may be defined as: The realization of goals, The necessary moves to make in order to achieve a goal, The way to get the ball into the net!

So, continuing with the football metaphor, objectives tell us something about whatthe players need to do in order to score the goal. They describe behaviours, notresults. Obviously, since they are the means to achieve the goals, they are veryclosely related to the goals and can only be defined once the goals are clear.General objectives relate directly to goals; specific objectives break down generalobjectives into their component parts and relate to teaching points. Now, just as theobjectives specify the behaviour which is necessary in order to achieve the goals,we also need particular types of know-how, in order to perform that behaviour. Andthis is where competences are important.





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Competences: may be defined as: The know-how which enables us to make appropriate moves:

o Knowledge of the ruleso Skillso The ability to make decisions, choose moves, apply skills according

to the needs of the momentCompetences, then, are essential bases for achieving objectives and goals. Theyinvolve both theoretical knowledge about what to do and the practical skills neededfor doing it. They also involve more general abilities to relate generalizedknowledge and skills to the requirements of specific contexts, situations and tasks.

So, is it really necessary to work with all three? The current trend in mosteducational circles is towards working with competences. Why not concentrate oncompetences and forget about goals and objectives?

I believe that it is useful to work with all three and that each one has a ratherdifferent function or purpose to fulfil. This is the topic of the next section.

6.2 Types and purposesGoals, to use a different metaphor, are like a guiding star. We need to keep oureye on them and make sure that we are moving towards them in order to avoidgetting lost. Everything that we do needs to help us in some way to move closertowards them. For course design purposes, it is useful to distinguish between threetypes of goal, as shown in Figure 6.1.

Figure 6.1 Types of goal

GOALS

TARGET LEARNING HUMAN

Values

Relations

Attitude Awareness Strategies

Language Learning

Language

Subject

Skills





29

Target goals: These are goals which relate to the acquisition of the knowledgeand skills required by the target situation as defined in our analysis of target needs(see Chapter 3). They are basically cognitive in nature. The knowledge and skillsrequired may relate to the English language or to a particular subject area or both.

Learning goals: These are goals which relate to becoming a better learner, tolearning to learn. They are basically metacognitive in nature and are extremelyimportant in helping students to develop as learners in ways which will help toachieve the target goals not only of their English course but also of any learningprocess which they may wish to undertake. They can be subdivided into threemajor areas: attitude, awareness and strategies, with awareness being furtherdefined as language awareness and/or learning awareness. Attitude goals relate tothings like motivation, interest in the subject or understanding of its importance.Language awareness goals cover such issues as understanding that differentlanguages have different structures or being aware of appropriacy to context whilelearning awareness has to do with recognizing one‟s own cognitive style orlearning preferences, identifying one‟s strengths and weaknesses as a learner.Finally, strategies are particular techniques chosen and applied for solving specificlearning problems. A great deal has been written about learning strategies over thelast two decades (e.g. Oxford, 1990; O‟Malley and Chamot, 1990) and there isample literature to support our choices in this field.

Human goals: These are goals which relate to human development and arebasically socio-affective in nature. They are included here in coherence with mybelief that, as English teachers, we are educators and not just languageinstructors. Particularly in situations where we are dealing with children,adolescents or young adults, these goals are of vital importance in terms ofeducation for citizenship. Now, many teachers would argue that although they donot specify this type of goals in their course documents, they are always workingon them. I believe that this is rarely the case. Going back to the metaphor of theguiding star, if you can‟t see the star, you won‟t follow it! What is not specified incourse outlines is always in danger of being marginalized or even forgottencompletely. I firmly believe that if we have the serious intention of devoting timeand energy in class to working on these goals, then it is essential for them to bemade explicit and to be contemplated in our evaluation processes.

Objectives specify the actions we need to take in order successfully to follow ourguiding stars. They serve as guidelines for:

Writers Teachers Students Sponsors Evaluators

These guidelines give each one of these participants information about what kindof behaviour is expected of them and/or what kind of behaviour they can expectfrom the other participants. This information is essential when it comes to





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evaluating the degree of success or failure of a course or of any of the participantsin it. We can only judge success by comparing actual performance with expectedperformance. Evaluation criteria, then, are closely based on objectives. For thisreason, there are a number of different kinds of objectives, depending on theirexact purpose and on who is going to use them. Firstly, objectives may be

conceived from different points of view, as we can see in Figure 6.2.

Figure 6.2 Types of objectives, by point of view

Thus, institutional objectives state what the institution aims to do as, for instance, ina mission statement. For example,

This institution seeks to train its students as independent and analytical thinkers, with solidethical principles, who can conceive innovative ideas in such a way that they participate in anactive, leading, responsible, honest, critical and pragmatic way in the process of social,economic, political and cultural development of the community. (Universidad del Nortehomepage)

Course objectives state what a course or programme hopes to achieve; this kind ofobjective is frequently found in programme prospectuses. For example,

To provide the basic foundations of a research-based approach to teaching, emphasisingneeds analysis in the participants‟ teaching environment in such a way that they will becomeagents of change and promoters of new ideas for the benefit of their professional context andof the community at large. (Postgraduate Diploma in English Teaching, Universidad delNorte)

Within an individual course, we usually work either with teacher-centred orstudent-centred objectives. Teacher-centred objectives look something likethis:

To provide students with practice in vocabulary relating to their field of study.

where the subject or actor of the action „to provide‟ is the teacher. Student-centred objectives look like this:

To identify, interpret and use, in appropriate ways, vocabulary relating to computer science.

where the subject or actor of the actions „to identify, interpret and use‟ is thestudent.

Objectives

Institution Course Teacher Learner





31

Each designer needs to choose which type of objectives is most appropriate to suitthe purposes of the course which s/he is designing. However, as a general rule,most designers nowadays tend to feel that the most important outcome of a courseis what the learner learns rather than what the teacher teaches. It is therefore more

common to find objectives stated in terms of hoped-for student behaviour.One of the purposes of writing objectives from these different points of view is toensure institutional coherence. It is to be hoped that the objectives of a particularcourse will be coherent with those of the programme to which the course belongsand that these, in turn, will be coherent with the mission of the institution whichoffers the programme.

I stated above that objectives are of two types, general and specific, generalobjectives relating directly to goals and specific objectives breaking down generalobjectives into their component parts. We will see later that these component partsare directly related to teaching points, as can be seen in Figure 6.3.

Figure 6.3 Types of objective, by scope

Both general and specific objectives can be stated from the course, teacher orstudent points of view. Similarly, both general and specific objectives may relate todifferent types of behaviour: knowledge, performance or attitude. Figure 6.4 showsthis classification.

Objectives

General

(relate to goals)

Specific

(relate to teachingpoints)





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Figure 6.4 Types of objective, by content

Knowledge-based objectives are of the following type:

Students will know the meaning of specified terminology.

This looks very clear and may indeed be the objective which the designer hasin mind. However, this kind of objective is impossible to evaluate sinceknowing is something which happens inside people‟s heads and thereforecannot be observed. I do not therefore recommend the use of this type ofobjectives. Since knowledge cannot be observed, we need to infer it fromobservable behaviour. The objective above could be restated in performanceterms, thus:

Students will identify and interpret specified terminology in context.

This can be observed and is therefore susceptible to evaluation. The thirdtype of objectives, attitude objectives, is less clear-cut. Many people wouldsay that attitudes cannot be evaluated and should not therefore be included inobjectives. While it is clear that attitudes cannot be objectively measured andquantified, they can be observed. So it is possible to include them inevaluation if we are working within a qualitative, descriptive evaluationframework. As stated with respect to the inclusion of human goals in coursespecifications, I believe that it is important to include these types of objectivesexplicitly, in order to ensure that they are in fact dealt with and assigned timeand resources in class. An example of this type of objective might be:

Students should show enhanced awareness of the importance of English for their futureprofessional lives.

Competences are the resources that we need, the equipment that we needto acquire in order to be able to take the actions which, in turn, make itpossible for us to follow our guiding star. This is a field which has been amplyresearched and written on in recent years (Paulston, 1992; Savignon, 1997)and this is not the place to go into a detailed discussion. Suffice it say, for themoment, that specifying competences in a course design helps us to visualize

Objectives

Knowledge Performance Attitude





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the result we are aiming at in all its complexity, combining knowledge, skills,context and practice. In other words, it helps us to imagine the kind of humanindividual towards whose development we hope to be working. A competencespecification might read something like this:

A graduate with excellent communicative competence in several languages is a citizen whowill handle language skills (speaking, listening, writing and reading) appropriately, in a varietyof contexts, adapting to the circumstances and cultural milieus in which s/he findsher/himself; that is to say, a person with a level of language awareness which permits her/himto take a critical stance in relation to the discourse which s/he produces and receives, and theability effectively to handle a wide range of genres and registers. (Universidad del Norte,International Relations programme.)

Objectives and/or competences?In recent years, there has been considerable controversy about thedesirability of specifying objectives, which many people see as being toorestrictive. It is said that objectives try to impose an artificially createduniformity in learning processes and do not recognise individual differencesbetween students which inevitably lead to different outcomes for each learner.This point of view may be seen as a reaction against the extremes of the„instructional design‟ movement which specified expected student behaviourin minute detail and tended to become a strait-jacket constraining creativityand individuality in both teachers and learners. An objective of this type mightlook something like this:

The student will be able to read a text of 2000 words describing the structure and behaviourof a plant and produce, in 20 minutes, a written summary of 200 words containing the

relevant main ideas and with minimal grammatical and lexical errors.

It should be evident that this kind of over-specification would sit mostuncomfortably with an approach to education which favours individual humandevelopment or with an approach to learning centred on social construction ofknowledge.

It is possible, however, to write objectives which are clear and precise withouthaving to specify exact measurements and characteristics of outcomes. It isimportant for educators to use objectives to suit their particular context andpurposes and not allow themselves to be controlled and limited by them. One

way of making objectives more “learner -friendly” is by modalizing them.Instead of saying “The student will …”, we can say “The student should …”, or“It is hoped that the student will…”. These modalizations make it clear that theoutcomes are not entirely predictable, that not all students can be expected toachieve the same, that we can never be certain of what will happen ineducational processes. If we make sure that our objectives are coherent withour approaches and with our other design decisions then they can be a veryuseful tool indeed and I see no reason to avoid them.





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Competences, for their part, stress process rather than product, awareness ofcontext, complex task-related problem-solving skills. As suggested above, weconsider them to be complementary with goals and objectives, notcontradictory.

6.3 SourcesThe question then arises, When we are designing a course, how do wedecide what our goals, general objectives and competences should be? Herewe need to refer once again to the Sandwich Model (Chapter 2). There aretwo basic sources of information which we need to take into account inmaking these decisions, one from data and the other from theory. The datasource is our Needs Analysis and, in particular, the target needs andsituational constraints. The theory source is our chosen approach toeducation. These sources of input will help us to define goals; we can thenderive general objectives and competences from our goals.

Target needs tell us what our students will need to know and to be able to dowith their English after they have finished the course. This information isessential input for deciding our goals. It tells us which way our students needto go and therefore which way the course needs to go.

Situational constraints are an essential element at this point in order toensure that we set ourselves goals which are attainable. Setting unattainablegoals can only lead to frustration, anger and disappointment since the result,inevitably, is failure. If we set our goals considering only the target needs wehave identified we are almost sure to set our sights too high. For example, letus imagine a situation in which a university teacher is designing a course fornurses. The target needs include, among other things, the ability to conversewith English-speaking patients in an appropriately sympathetic yetprofessional register. However, the situational constraints include the fact thatthe programme has only one semester of English with two hours of class perweek and there are forty students in the class. In these circumstances, itwould be unwise to include professional carer speaking abilities in the goalsof the course. Setting goals, then, almost inevitably involves finding acompromise between the ideal goals as dictated by the target needs analysisand the realities of the situation.

Approach to education, as suggested above, relates to the type of humanindividual we hope will come out at the end of the education process and istherefore vital input for defining goals, especially learning and human goals.

Once goals have been defined, we then need to ask ourselves what actionsneed to be taken in order to achieve them. The answers to this question willform the basis of our general objectives. The next question is “What kind of





35

know-how do people need in order to carry out these actions?” The answersto this question will form the basis of our competences.

6.4 Wordings

Because of the characteristics of each one of the three elements we aredealing with, their typical wording is different in each case as illustrated inTable 6.1.

ELEMENT CHARACTERISTIC WORDING

Goal The goal is our destination.It refers to a state of events.

Nouns describingknowledge, skillsor processes

Objectives The objectives are theactions we need to take to

get there.

Verbs describingobservable

behaviourCompetences The competences are whatwe need to know and whatwe need to be able to do inorder to take those actions.

Descriptors and/orPropositions

Table 6.1 Elements, characteristics and wordings

In addition we need to make sure that our wordings of objectives have thefollowing characteristics: coherence clarity precision observability

The first of these characteristics refers to the classification of objectives bypoint of view (see Figure 6.2 above) and means that, if we choose, forexample, to write student-centred objectives, then all of our objectives shouldbe student-centred. Mixing different points of view in the same design canlead to confusion.

„Clarity‟ means that we should make sure that the wording of objectives isunderstandable for all the participants in the process. The best way to ensurethis is by showing a draft to a sample of different participants and asking themhow they understand the objectives. If their answers coincide with each otherand with your understanding, then all is well (at least, as regards clarity). Ifnot, then some redrafting may be necessary.

„Precision‟ means that we need to say exactly what we expect people to do. Ifour objectives are vague, then they will not fulfil their purpose of acting asguidelines for writers, teachers, students, authorities and sponsors. Ifobjectives are not precise, materials writers will not know how to design theiractivities; teachers and students will not know what they are expected to





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achieve and therefore will be unable to evaluate their attainment; authoritiesand sponsors will not know what results to expect and will also be unable toevaluate objectively. This type of precision does not necessarily imply forcingeveryone into the same mould. As mentioned above, it is a good idea tomodalize the wordings of objectives by means of modal verbs such as

„should‟ or „may‟, in order to indicate that not every learner will reach exactlythe same outcomes.

„Observability‟, as explained above, means that our objectives should specifybehaviour which we can observe and assess. Observation and assessmentmay be qualitative (description and interpretation) or quantitative (measuringand counting).

6. 5 ExamplesThe examples presented in this section are of goals, general objectives andcompetences. Detailed information on the writing of specific objectives will beprovided in Chapter 9.

6.5.1 An example from an elementary schoolPaola Rodgers (2006) working with 3rd grade at the Montessori school inCartagena discovered in her needs analysis that both target and learningneeds of her students indicated the importance of reading in English in otherschool subjects such as Science and Social Studies. As regards the approachto education, the school authorities are also interested in strengthening therelation between linguistic competence and cultural awareness and in workingtowards the international Montessori goal of “education for peace”. Based onthis information, Rodgers set the following goals for her course:

Target goal: Development of reading comprehension skillsLearning goal: Awareness of learning through written languageHuman goal: Respect for each other(Rodgers, 2006: 61)

From these goals, she derived the general objectives she would work with:

Students should be able to read and comprehend descriptive or narrativetexts about daily activities and topics of interest.Students should be able to value the importance of reading in English for theirperformance in related subjects.

Students should be able to respect their turns during the development of theclass activities.(Rodgers, 2006: 63)

The underlying competence for all three goals and their respective objectivesis communicative competence.





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6.5.2 An example from a secondary schoolMariluz Torrenegra (2006) was designing a writing course for her 6 th gradecourse at the German School in Barranquilla. This school offers theInternational Baccalaureate and therefore, among the students‟ target needs,

is a sufficient level of writing skill in English to pass the Cambridge FirstCertificate Exam. Additionally, her students expressed their interest increative writing and in using writing as a way to learn and practice English.The institution works within a social constructivist educational framework, soTorrenegra took the same framework as her approach to education. Withthese factors in mind, she set the following goals for her course:

Development of writing skills. (Target goal)Encouragement of planning, monitoring and self-correction. (Learning goal)Encouragement for cooperative work. (Human goal)(Torrenegra, 2006: 57)

In line with these goals, she defined her general objectives as follows:

Students should be able to write different kinds of composition, such as personalnarrative, descriptive writing, comparative writing, persuasive writing and creative writing.Students should be able to plan and monitor their own work.Students should be able to help partners improve their work.(Torrenegra, 2006: 57)

The competences to be developed in relation with these objectives were,respectively:

Communicative competenceSelf-assessment competenceCollaborative competence(Torrenegra, 2006: 58)


6.7 SummaryThis chapter has set out to describe the nature of goals, objectives andcompetences and the ways in which they relate to and complement eachother. We saw that goals may be compared to a guiding star, objectives to the

route taken in order to follow it and competences to the resources we need inorder to be able to cover the route. We also saw that there are three maintypes of goal: target, learning and human. Objectives were classified indifferent ways according to their point of view, scope and content. The secondpart of the chapter looked at ways of using input from data and theory todefine goals, objectives and competences.





38

6.8 Further readingNunan, D. (1990): “Using Learner Data in Curriculum Development”, English for

Specific Purposes, vol. 9, pp. 17-32O‟Malley, J. M. and Chamot, A. (1990): Learning Strategies in Second Language

Acquisition. Cambridge University PressOxford, R. L. (1990): Language learning strategies :What every teacher shouldknow . Boston, Mass. : Heinle & Heinle Publishers

Paulston, C. B. (1992): Linguistic And Communicative Competence: Topics In ESLClevedon : Multilingual Matters

Savignon, S. J. (1997): Communicative competence: theory and classroom practice: texts and contexts in second language learning . NewYork: McGraw-Hill

Van Lier, L. (1996): Interaction in the Language Curriculum: Awareness, autonomyand authenticity . London: Longman





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CHAPTER 7: Selecting a syllabus focus

7.1 What is a syllabus?Before looking at the options for syllabus focus and the criteria we might takeinto account in order to choose the most appropriate option for our particular

case, we need to ask ourselves two fundamental questions:What is a syllabus?What is a syllabus for?

These may look like very simple questions but they cover a multiplicity ofcomplex issues. The situation is further complicated by the fact that when youbegin to investigate in the literature you will find that every author has her orhis own particular definition of syllabus. Add to this that within each teaching-learning situation, the syllabus will be seen differently by materials writers,teachers, learners, sponsors, institutions and governmental bodies, and youbegin to get some notion of the enormous complexity of these two apparentlysimple questions.

So how can we make sense of all this and arrive at some manageableworking definitions which will be useful to us as we go through the process ofcourse design. It may be helpful to take the second question first. What is asyllabus for? Or, in other words, why do we need a syllabus at all? Why notsimply choose materials and activities related to the goals, objectives andcompetences we have specified and get on with the job?

Language-learning, as we have said before, is one of the most complexactivities that human beings engage in, involving a network of cognitive,metacognitive and socio-affective processes. Language itself is an extremely

complex phenomenon. The linguist Michael Halliday, mentioned above as theforemost exponent of the functionalist approach to language, has stated thatsemiotic systems (systems of meaning) are the most complex systems knownto human science, being at the same time physical, biological and social(Halliday and Martin, 1993: 16). Language is our means of understandingreality, both internal and external, and of managing our relations with both thenatural world and the social world which surround us. Learning a newlanguage is therefore an enormous undertaking. A syllabus is useful as a wayof breaking this enormity down into manageable chunks which can be dealtwith, lesson by lesson, learning experience by learning experience, withoutoverwhelming the learner. It also serves to establish priorities. No languagecurriculum can possibly cover all aspects of the language; the syllabusenables us to focus on those aspects which we have concluded – from ourneeds analysis and our reflections on theory – are the most important in ourparticular teaching context.

Going back, then, to our first question – What is a syllabus? – a workingdefinition might run something like this: “A syllabus is a statement of what isto be taught and learnt in a particular course (teaching points) and in whatorder the points are to be dealt with.” Both aspects of the definition, teaching





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points and the order in which to tackle them, imply decisions about whatneeds to be learnt and about how learning can best take place. That is to saythey require input from reflections on the nature of language and the nature oflearning; that is why we need to define our approaches to language and tolearning, as described in Chapter 4, before attempting to design a syllabus.

At the same time, priorities for syllabusing should also respond to the targetneeds and situational constraints – including availability of resources – identified in the needs analysis.

We have found it useful to divide our decisions on syllabus into two aspects:syllabus focus and syllabus sequence and structure. Syllabus focusdetermines which aspects of language and learning will be concentrated on.Syllabus sequence and structure determine the order in which teaching pointswill be dealt with and the ways in which they will be related to each other. Werecommend taking the syllabus focus decision at this point, after defininggoals, objectives and competences and before specifying teaching points.Syllabus sequence and structure can then be decided on after teaching pointshave been listed.

7.2 Options for syllabus focus Again, different authors map out the various types of syllabus focus indifferent ways. I have found it useful to use some aspects of the classificationpresented by Robinson (1991: 35) expanding it to include the learning-centred approach (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987: 92) and content-basedfocuses. I propose five categories as shown in Figure 3.5.

I will now give a brief description of the principal characteristics of eachsyllabus focus. However, it is important to bear in mind that, just as we saidthat approaches are more in the nature of a cline than a binary opposition,choosing a syllabus focus means deciding where the centre of attention of acourse will be. It does not mean excluding everything else; many syllabisuccessfully combine characteristics of two or more categories.





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Figure 3.5: Options for syllabus focus

7.2.1 Skills-basedSkills-based syllabi emphasize the acquisition of one or more skills, usuallyone or more of the four macro language skills: reading, writing, listening and

speaking. In the 1980s, this type of syllabus became very popular in Englishfor Specific Purposes and English for Academic Purposes (see, for example,McDonough, 1984; Robinson, 1991; Swales, 1988). All over Latin America,for example, university students who needed access to written information inEnglish but whose English courses were restricted to one or two semesterswith two or three hours of class a week, were taught (and in many cases stillare taught) exclusively reading skills in English. Skills-based syllabi may alsoof course develop all four skills, as is the case with a number of well-knownpublished courses.

In addition, skills-based courses may emphasize learning skills as well as

language skills, focussing on the development of cognitive, metacognitive andsocio-affective strategies for learning (see, for example, Oxford, 1990) as wellas the ability of learners to choose and apply those strategies which are bestsuited to their cognitive style and the learning task in hand.

7.2.2 Learner-centredLearner-centred courses are also sometimes called process syllabi since theyare characterized by on-going design in collaboration between teacher and

Syllabusfocus

Skills-based

(languageand/or

learningskills)

Learner-centred

(process)

Learning-centred

(task-based,

procedural)

Content-based

Language-based

(structures,functions,

vocabulary)





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learners in contrast to other types of syllabus which are typically designedbefore the course begins. The learner-centred syllabus unfolds and takesshape through interaction in the class, basing decisions on interests anddesires of the students who are encouraged to find their own voice and followtheir own learning paths. Choices of topics, materials and activities are

subject to negotiation among all participants and the emphasis is on humandevelopment and growing autonomy. More detailed descriptions of this typeof syllabus may be found in Breen (1984), Ellis and Sinclair (1989) and Nunan(2001)

7.2.3 Learning-centredThis type of syllabus focuses on cognitive processes and the development oflearning skills and strategies. One of the most frequent types of learning-centred syllabus is the task-based syllabus in which learning of the languagetakes place through using the language in order to carry out a task or project.Specific language points are dealt with as and when they are necessary forthe successful completion of the task. This type of syllabus also emphasizescollaborative learning as the tasks or projects are usually designed to beworked on in groups. A detailed description of an example of a task-basedsyllabus can be found in Prabhu (1987).

7.2.4 Content-based As the name suggests, content-based syllabi focus on content, particularly onthe content of a subject other than English. The syllabus is organized aroundtopics; materials and activities are chosen for their relevance to the topicrather than according to language criteria. As in the case of the task-basedsyllabus, language points are dealt with as and when they become necessaryfor working with the topics specified in the syllabus (Mohan et al, 2001;Stryker and Leaver, 1997).

7.2.5 Language-basedThe language based syllabus focuses its attention on the forms of thelanguage, both morphosyntactic and lexical. Topics, materials and activitiesare selected in order to illustrate and practice language points such as verbtenses, modals or tag questions. Emphasis is placed on achieving accuracyin language use. Language-based syllabi may be structural, emphasisinggrammatical points, or notional-functional, emphasising lexis and specificfunctions such as requesting information or making a complaint. This type ofsyllabus is overwhelmingly the most frequently found in published Englishlanguage textbooks, regardless of what authors and/or publishers may say intheir introductions!

We said at the beginning of this section that choosing a syllabus focus relatesnot only to the needs and constraints of our teaching situation but also to ourapproaches to education, language and learning. Similarly, there is atendency to find that a particular type of syllabus focus encourages or isassociated with certain pedagogical practices with regard to the roles of





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teachers, learners and materials and the type of evaluation engaged in. Table3.2 provides a summary of these relationships.

7.3 Selecting a suitable syllabus focusThe essential question, of course, is how to choose the most appropriate

syllabus type for our particular teaching-learning situation. Referring oncemore to the Sandwich Model, we can see that the decision regarding syllabusfocus derives from theoretical considerations of approaches to education,language and learning, on the one hand and from data regarding target needsand situational constraints on the other. In addition, decisions already takenwith respect to course goals, general objectives and competences are also animportant guide when selecting the syllabus focus.

7.3.1 ApproachesThus, if we study Table 3.2, we can see that an epistemological approach toeducation is likely to guide us in the direction of a skills-based or language-based syllabus while a hermeneutic approach tends more towards a learner-centred syllabus. Learning-centred and content-based syllabi maysuccessfully fit in with different approaches. With regard to approaches tolanguage, most of our syllabus types favour the functionalist approach,emphasising meaning rather than form. The exception is the language-basedsyllabus which is essentially structuralist, even when it is labelled as notional-functional. This statement may sound contradictory and therefore meritssome explanation. The reason is that notional-functional syllabi generallyteach formulae for what to say in certain situation types, regardless of the realsituations in which learners find themselves and without taking intoconsideration the real thoughts and feelings which learners may wish toexpress. It is not unusual, therefore, to find, for example, role-play activitiesin which learners are instructed to play roles which they are highly unlikelyever to play outside the classroom, such as the mayor of a U.S. city or thewriter of a bestselling novel. Or “information gap” activities in which all theinformation is provided by the textbook and/or the teacher and learners aresimply required to supply the correct grammatical framework for expressing it.In these circumstances, learners are not developing communicativecompetence, which would involve expressing their own thoughts and feelings,but simply practicing the correct formulation of different types of sentence,using ideas which have been determined by the teacher or textbook.



Moss, G. (forthcoming): Making Sandwiches: A combined approach to course design for English teachers. Barranquilla: Ediciones

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Syllabusfocus

Aspects

Skills-centred Learning-centred

Learner-centred Content-based

Language-oriented

Approach toeducation

EpistemologicalFunctionalist

May beadapted todifferentapproaches

HermeneuticClient-centred

May beadapted todifferentapproaches

Epistemological

Approach tolanguage

Functionalist Functionalist Functionalist Functionalist Structuralist

Approach tolearning

Cognitivist Cognitivist Cognitivist Sociocultural BehaviouristCognitivist

Goalsemphasized

Learning Learning Learning andHuman

All types Target(Language)

Content CommunicativefunctionsSkillsStrategies

Variety of topicsStrategiesTasks,problems andprojects

Variety of topicsNegotiatedSubject-specificand language

SubjectspecificcontentLanguagerelated tocontent

Languageforms andstructures

Methodology Interaction withauthenticmaterialsTasksExercises

Problem-solvingTasksGroup work

NegotiatedProblem-posing

Dialogic inquiryDiscourseanalysisProjects,debates, etc.

Grammar-translation AudiolingualExercises anddrills

Table 3.2: Typical characteristics of the major syllabus types (part 1)




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Syllabusfocus

Aspects

Skills-centred Learning-centred

Learner-centred Content-based Language-based

Teacher’srole

Provider ofknowledgeFacilitator

ResourcerFacilitatorGuide

GuideNegotiator

MediatorFacilitatorModeratorResourcer

ActiveLanguagemodelControllerProvider ofknowledge

Students’

role Activelanguage user

ActiveparticipantDiscovererProblem-solverIncreasinglyautonomous

Active participantProblem-poserIncreasinglyautonomous

Activeconstructor ofknowledge Analyst

PassiverecipientListenerRepeaterMemorizerImitator

Materials Textbook assyllabus plusauthenticmaterialsMaterialselected by

students

Authenticmaterials asinput forproblems andtasks

Variety of sourcesNegotiatedMaterial selectedby students

Subject specificmaterials assources of inputfor inquiry anddebate

Textbook asbackbone ofsyllabusSource ofknowledgeProvider of

activitiesAssessment Exams

PresentationsReportsPortfolios

Task-basedSelf- and peer-assessment

Self-assessmentPortfolios

ProjectsPortfoliosPresentationsSelf-assessment

ExamsTests

Table 3.2: Typical characteristics of the major syllabus types (part 2)





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This is further evidenced by the fact that evaluation of student performance incourses using this type of syllabus is generally based on language accuracy,

not on the successful communication of ideas. Thus a non sequitur such asthe statement “I‟m going to Mexico to learn Spanish” uttered by a nativespeaker of Spanish, may be positively evaluated because it involves the“correct” use of the present continuous tense to express a plan, whilst asensible statement such as “I go to England to learn English” uttered by thesame student is negatively assessed because it employs the “wrong” verbtense. This is clear indication that what is of primary importance in theseclasses is the form of the language used and not the communication ofmeaning.

I have gone into some detail in this explanation because a large number of

commercially available textbooks claim to be functional or evencommunicative but analysis of the syllabus structure and activities containedin them makes it clear that the guiding principles at work are in factstructuralist. This does not of course, of itself, make them “bad books”; theremay be many circumstances in which they are very useful. However, I do feelthat it is helpful to give things their proper name in order to be clear aboutwhat we are doing and why. These are important points to be borne in mindwhen selecting a syllabus focus and later when writing materials. It is all tooeasy, when conceiving a syllabus, to pay lip-service to the currently favouredcommunicative, functional approach but then, when planning activities anddesigning materials, to fall back into the traditional structuralist approaches in

which most teachers, even those of the younger generation, were themselvestaught. This kind of mismatch between stated principles and pedagogicalpractice leads to misunderstandings and frustration and should be avoided asfar as possible.

Finally, with regard to approaches to learning, skills-based, learning-centredand learner-centred are essentially cognitivist, seeing learning as a process ofactive construction and internalization of knowledge, centred in the individual.Content-based syllabi, with their emphasis on dialogic inquiry, debate andtextual analysis tend to favour a more sociocultural theory of learning as asocial activity. In some cases, task-based learning-centred syllabi may also

be compatible with a sociocultural approach. The language-based syllabusmay be either cognitivist or behaviourist. Here the question of methodologyenters into the picture. The traditional grammar-translation methods arebasically cognitivist in approach as they involve conscious analysis andapplication of grammatical rules together with comparison and contrastbetween L1 and L2. The audiolingual methods which were popular in the1960s and 1970s, based on repetition drills and the mechanisation ofstructures and phrases are basically behaviourist.





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7.3.2 Target needs and situational constraintsIt is impossible to over-emphasise the importance of data regarding target

needs and situational constraints for the selection of an appropriate syllabustype. A syllabus which does not prepare learners to use English for thepurposes for which they will need it in their target situation can hardly beconsidered to be successful or even satisfactory. Similarly, a syllabus whichlooks wonderful on paper and which, if it were implemented would meetlearners‟ target needs, but which is impossible to implement within thesituational constraints of the particular context in which you are working isequally disastrous and can only lead to frustration.

It is not possible here, for reasons of space, to go into all the possiblevariations on this. However, a couple of examples will help to illustrate my

meaning.

Imagine, if you will, a situation in which a teacher is dealing with a group ofadolescent learners who have enormous enthusiasm for pop music in Englishand for all kinds of game-like activities. Fortunately, the school has a state-of-the-art computer lab and all kinds of audiovisual equipment. The teacher,wishing to fulfil the students‟ learning needs and following a communicativeapproach to language and a sociocultural approach to learning, opts for atask-based syllabus, incorporating singing, song-writing, research aboutperformers, guessing games, karaoke competitions and so on. The studentsare delighted and a wonderful time is had by all. However, at the end of the

year, the students have to sit a state exam which is based on academicreading skills and they all fail! This is a clear case of not giving sufficientconsideration to target needs.

Now, for our second scenario, imagine a situation in which the majority ofstudents come from difficult home backgrounds, work part-time as well asstudying and have little or no professional or academic ambition, therefore noclearly defined target needs. The teacher feels drawn to a learner-centredsyllabus, wishing to concentrate her efforts on developing learning skills,autonomy and self-esteem. The match between syllabus and learners‟ needswould be excellent. However, there are 40 students in the class, the teacher

works all hours at three different institutions, the library and internet resourcesto which she has access are extremely limited and the school‟s only tape-recorder is available only once a fortnight. Now, a learner-centred syllabusimplies negotiation of content, materials and activities between teacher andlearner. This means that nothing can be pre-planned; everything must beprepared as the course proceeds, which inevitably requires a great deal oftime on the part of the teacher, plus access to sources of material for bothteacher and learners. Add to that the difficulty of negotiating with 40





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individuals and making sure that every voice is heard and it should becomeclear that this syllabus type would not be a feasible choice in thecircumstances described above.

7.3.3 Goals, general objectives and competencesCarefully formulated goals, general objectives and competences should helpthe novice designer to avoid the some of the kinds of mismatch which I havedescribed in the imagined scenarios in the previous section. If the teacher inthe first scenario, taking into account the target needs of his learners, hadincluded “Development of academic reading skills” as one of his goals, withits corresponding general objective, for example, “At the end of the course,students should be able to read, interpret and react to short academic texts inthe fields of Natural or Social Sciences”, and “Reading comprehension” asone of the competences to be developed, he could surely have avoided the

exam catastrophe. He might have opted for a combination of task-based andskills-based syllabus designs in order to meet both learning and target needs.Or he might have persisted in his choice of task-based syllabus but madesure that a proportion of the tasks were reading tasks. This is furtherindication of the usefulness and advisability of following the design processstep by step.

In the case of the second scenario, the situation is less clear-cut. The lack ofan evident target situation makes it difficult to define goals; they have to bedefined on the basis of approaches and in relation to learning needs and thisrecourse to learning needs inevitably leads to thoughts of a learner-centred

syllabus. The solution, again, is almost certainly to opt for a hybrid syllabus,combining some elements of learner-centred with another more manageabletype such as skills-based.

7.4 An example of a university undergraduate courseMarieta Ruiz and Ana Maria Sagre, working at the University of Córdoba inthe north west of Colombia and planning a writing course for students in pre-service teacher education, chose a learning-centred syllabus. Here are someof their reasons:

A syllabus of this type will serve as a tool for students to analyse and select

strategies that promote active, purposeful, and effective learning;In this kind of syllabus, attention to skills is also paid and as our course is based onthe development of the writing skill in students, the choice becomes even morenecessary;The syllabus promotes interaction among learners, as it suggests pairwork [which is]highly important because it fosters cooperative work;

A learning-centered syllabus broadens the context for learning since it enhancesautonomous learning. As a result of this, learners are bound to use their acquiredknowledge in their future performance as students and in-service teachers.(Ruiz and Sagre, 2006)





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7.6 SummaryIn this chapter, I began by considering the reasons why it is important to havea syllabus and then proposed a working definition of syllabus as “a statementof what is to be taught and learnt in a particular course (teaching points) andin what order the points are to be dealt with.” I then went on to look at ways ofcategorizing syllabi with reference to the aspect which they take as theirguiding principle, suggesting a five category classification: skills-centred,learning-centred, learner-centred, content-based, language-based. It wasstressed that while it is important to choose a syllabus focus in order toensure coherence in decisions about content and methodology, this decision

does not necessarily mean concentrating exclusively on one aspect to theexclusion of all others. Finally, I looked at ways in which we can make aninformed choice of syllabus focus taking into account the results of needsanalysis, decisions on approaches to education, language and learning andthe goals and objectives stated for the course.

7.7 Further readingBreen, M. P. 1984. “Process Syllabuses for the Language Classroom” in Brumfit

1984, 47-60Brumfit, C. J. 1984. General English Syllabus Design. Curriculum and syllabus

design for the general English classroom. ELT Documents 118. Oxford: The

British Council / Pergamon PressJohnson, R. K. (ed.) (1989): The Second Language Curriculum. Cambridge:

Cambridge University PressMcDonough, J. (1984): ESP in Perspective: a practical guide. London: Collins

Educational.Nunan, D. (2001): The Learner-Centred Curriculum. Cambridge: Cambridge

University PressPrabhu, N. S. (1987): Second Language Pedagogy . Oxford: Oxford University

PressRobinson, P. (1991): ESP Today: A Practitioner’s Guide. New York: Prentice HallSwales, J. M. 1988. Episodes in ESP. A source and reference book on the

development of English for Science and Technology . New York: PrenticeHall





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CHAPTER 8: Identifying teaching points

8.1 A method for identifying teaching pointsIn this step, we decide what will actually go into the course in terms ofcontent. What exactly is it that we are going to teach? What exactly is it thatwe hope students will learn? These are daunting questions and inevitably alarge part of the effort of course design is devoted to this phase. However, ifyou follow a method which I have called constituent analysis, you should findthat it is less difficult than you might at first imagine. The method depends onits place in the sequence of design decisions and steps which I amrecommending. This is therefore a good moment to stop and look back andmake sure that you have filled in all the previous steps. If you consult the

sandwich model, you will see that we are now concerned with the lower,bottom-up part of the design. That is to say, for the first time in the designprocess, you will need to make use of the results from your analysis oflearning needs. You should have at your fingertips for beginning constituentanalysis the following information: Your course goals and general objectives; Information about your students learning needs, including their current

level of knowledge or competence.You will also need to have recourse to your own pedagogical knowledge, yourexperience and your knowledge of the field of language and languagelearning, of what it is necessary to know in order to achieve a particular goal

and of what it is necessary to be able to do in order to achieve that samegoal. This is closely related to what Giordan and de Vecchi (1995) refer to asthe conceptual aura, the set of ideas which surround a concept under studyand which it is necessary to be acquainted with in order to gain a thoroughunderstanding of the concept. The reason for this will become clear shortly.

8.2 What is constituent analysis?The basic principle of constituent analysis is very simple. It means takingeach one of our course goals and listing exactly what knowledge and whichskills are necessary for achieving it. We then compare this list with what ourstudents already know and are already able to do. Once we have ticked off

those points which our learners have already mastered, we are left with a listof what we have to teach in order to achieve our goals; that is, a list ofteaching points. The logic of this is quite simple: the content of the course isthe difference between our students‟ level of competence when they beginthe course and the level of competence which we hope they will achieve bythe end of the course.





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The success of the technique, as is so often the case, depends on the qualityof the input: if you have carefully described your students current level ofcompetence and if you are prepared to put some time and effort, probably

also some additional reading and discussion with colleagues, into theconstituent analysis then success in specifying appropriate teaching points isalmost guaranteed. If on the other hand, you base these decisions ontraditional notions of “what all students of English should learn”, then you mayeasily find yourself teaching your students points of language which are of nointerest or importance to them and that is a sure way to lose motivation. Istress this point as I have so often seen teachers include teaching pointswhich bear no relation to their needs analysis and which they justify “becausethey need to know that”. It is not easy to let go of a traditional mindset whichassumes, a priori , that there are certain aspects of language – particularlygrammar, vocabulary and pronunciation – which everyone needs to know

irrespective of their context, situation or reasons for learning English.However, if you really wish to design more relevant and motivating coursesfor your students, it is important to make the effort. Remember, at every pointin the process, to keep asking yourself: “Why am I including this point? Howdoes it relate to my goals? Why do my students need to learn this?”

On the other side of the coin, it is equally important to make sure that we areincluding all the knowledge and skills which are essential to achieving thegoal. This may often include aspects of language use which you haveperhaps not paid much attention to in the past and which may be neglected inmost mainstream textbooks. For example, in dealing with written language,

whether in terms of reading or writing, it is important to include work on thestructure and organization of texts. If we ask students to write an essay, forexample, without teaching them what an essay is, how it is constructed andhow to write it, then the results will inevitably be poor. A grammaticalknowledge of sentence structure does not automatically lead to an ability toproduce coherent texts. Similarly, students are unlikely to be successfulreaders unless they are given guidance as to how to recognize different typesof text and the functions of the different parts of a text.

The same goes for all types of goal. It is particularly important, then, that atthis stage of the design process, we devote some time and effort to

questioning our own understanding of what each one of our goals involvesand be prepared to do some additional research in order to complement ourconceptual aura (see above, the introduction to this section and Giordan andde Vecchi, 1995).





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8.3 Examples of constituent analysisIn order for the principles of constituent analysis to be clearer, let‟s take a lookat three examples, one for each type of goal. In each case, we begin from two

key questions: What do people need to know in order to …? What do people need to be able to do in order to …?

The first question leads us to define the knowledge constituents of the goal sothe points listed are expressed as entities („vocabulary‟, „conjunctions‟, etc.) orpropositions („that learning is an active process‟, etc.); the second questionleads us to define the skills constituents of the goal so the points listed areexpressed in terms of actions or processes („spell the words‟, „identifystrategies‟, etc.). When defining constituents, it is worth going right back tothe beginning, to the basic building blocks of knowledge and skills. That way

we can be better assured that we have not forgotten anything nor taken forgranted anything which our students do not in fact know or are unable to do. Itis surprising how often teachers assume knowledge or skills which theirstudents do not in fact possess and it is important to do everything in ourpower to avoid this pitfall.

The examples appear on pages 53-55.

8.4 From constituent analysis to teaching pointsOnce we have carried out the constituent analysis, the next stage is tocompare the lists of constituent knowledge and constituent skills with the

results of our Needs Analysis, with respect to our students‟ level of knowledgeand skills on entering the course. We can use a three option code for this: = My students already know this / already know how to do this.½ = My students have some knowledge of this or some degree of skill butthey need more practice.X = My students do not know this / do not know how to do this.On this basis of this coding, we can then make out a list of teaching pointswhich should include those constituents, both knowledge and skills, whichhave been marked either „1/2‟ or „X‟.





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CONSTITUENT A NALYSIS OF A T ARGET GOAL

Goal: Development of written competence.General objective: Students should be able to write a shortnarrative text.Starting questions:

1. What do people need to know in order to write a narrativetext?

2. What do people need to be able to do in order to write anarrative text?

What do people need to know in order to write a narrativetext? Constituent knowledge

The letters of the English language The lexical items related to the topic to be narrated Grammatical items typical of narratives: past tense, relative

clauses, conjunctions Cohesive devices typical of narratives: anaphoric and cataphoric

reference, connectors of sequence The elements of narratives: actors, settings, events The structure of narratives: orientation, complicating action,

resolution, coda

What do people need to be able to do in order to write a

narrative text? Constituent skills

To form the letters To choose appropriate words and spell them correctly To select and apply appropriate grammatical structures To make use of appropriate cohesive devices To describe the actors, events and settings involved in the

narrative To organize the ideas and information in a coherent narrative

structure.





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CONSTITUENT A NALYSIS OF A LEARNING GOAL

Goal: Development of autonomy in learningGeneral objective: Students should be able to choose learningstrategies suited to their cognitive style and the task in handStarting questions:

1. What do people need to know in order to becomeautonomous learners?

2. What do people need to be able to do in order to becomeautonomous learners?

What do people need to know in order to become

autonomous learners? Constituent knowledge

That autonomy can be developed. That learning is an active process. That there exists a variety of learning strategies. That each learner can choose his/her strategies according to

needs and preferences. That learning involves processes such as informationgathering, analysis, interpretation, selection, comparing withprior knowledge, evaluating, etc.

What do people need to be able to do in order to become

autonomous learners? Constituent skills

To identify different learning strategies To choose learning strategies according to the task in hand To identify sources of information To select relevant information To analyse information: categorise, classify, compare and

contrast To interpret information: make sense of new information in

relation to old To evaluate information critically To evaluate appropriacy of choices against outcomes To trust in their own judgement





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CONSTITUENT A NALYSIS OF A HUMAN GOAL

Goal: Development of respect for diversityGeneral objective: Students should be able to recognize the value ofdiverse abilities and opinions.Starting questions:

1. What do people need to know in order to recognize the valueof diverse abilities and opinions?

2. What do people need to be able to do in order to recognizethe value of diverse abilities and opinions?

What do people need to know in order to develop respect for

diversity? Constituent knowledge

That there exist different cultures, races, religions, politicalbeliefs.

That different cultures and belief systems are equally valid. That there exist individual differences in physical and

psychological make-up. That all individuals have both strengths and weaknesses. That diversity exists between people from the same family or

community. That human beings can only be happy if they live in harmony

with each other and their environment.

What do people need to be able to do in order to develop

respect for diversity? Constituent skills

To listen carefully to others in order to understand them To put ourselves in someone else’s shoes To de-centralise ourselves To recognize and respect other ideas and views even if we

don’t agree with those ideas or views. To understand ourselves in order to be able to understand our

differences with others. To express our views without offending others. To recognise the dangers of conflict and the benefits of

harmony





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At this point, it is important to look back once more at your situationalconstraints. If you have a very long list of teaching points and only very limitedtime and resources available, you are probably being too ambitious in your

goals and will need to modify them in order to produce a shorter list ofconstituents and therefore a shorter list of teaching points. It is also possiblethat the opposite may have happened; you may have more time andresources available than are necessary for working with your list of teachingpoints. If this happens then you need to amplify your goals in order to extendthe constituents and teaching points so that you can take full advantage of thetime and resources you have at your disposal. In either case, it means youneed to take a deep breath, go back to the beginning and go through thewhole process again!

A final point to mention here is that I strongly recommend specifying teaching

points which will take up a little less time than the total you have available.For example, if you are teaching a course of 16 weeks‟ duration, it is a goodidea to design a syllabus for 14 weeks. This will allow leeway for adding extramaterial or activities if certain teaching points need more practice, allowingstudents to bring their own materials and ideas for activities, and any otherunforeseen occurrence. In the real world, if you design a syllabus to fill everyavailable class hour you are unlikely to finish it, or if you do, you may well findthat your students feel stressed or frustrated because you have pushed themthrough with no space to breathe.

8.5 Putting theory into practice

Work through Worksheet 4.

8.6 SummaryIn this chapter, I have presented the technique of constituent analysis for thepurposes of making out a list of teaching points for inclusion in the syllabus.The technique involves analysing what people need to know (constituentknowledge) and what they need to be able to do (constituent skills) in order toachieve each one of the goals of the course. From the list of constituents, weerase those constituents which our students have already mastered and theresult is the list of teaching points.

8.7 Further readingGiordan, A. and G. de Vecchi (1995): Los Orígenes del Saber: De las

concepciones personales a los conceptos científicos Sevilla: Díada Editora





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CHAPTER 9: Setting specific objectives

9.1 What are specific objectives?Specific objectives are closely related to two elements of course structurewhich you have already worked on: general objectives and teaching points.

As such, the writing of specific objectives is a good moment for making sureonce again that everything in your course design is coherent.

In relation to general objectives, specific objectives identify concrete andparticular actions or behaviours which go to make up the behaviour describedin the general objective. To take the example of the target goal analysedabove, the general objective states that students should be able to write ashort narrative text. The corresponding specific objectives will state what

precise actions go into the writing of a narrative text.

In relation to teaching points, specific objectives do for them what generalobjectives do for goals; they tell us what actions are carried out in thepursuance, or putting into effect, of each point.

9.2 What is the purpose of writing specific objectives? As mentioned above, objectives, particularly procedural objectives, haveearned a rather bad name in some educational circles in recent years, sincesome people feel that they restrict the possibilities for individual students tolearn at different paces and to achieve different learning outcomes. There is

some truth in this accusation and it is useful to bear it in mind, in order toavoid writing objectives in such a way that they become a straitjacket.However, as was pointed out above, in section 6.2, objectives are extremelyuseful as guidelines for the various participants in teaching learningprocesses and as a basis for evaluation of different aspects of thoseprocesses. I strongly recommend that you look back now at section 6.2 andrevise what was said there about purposes and types of objectives.

To recap, we can say that specific objectives are “in -house”; they are for theuse of teachers, learners and materials writers and there is no need foranyone else to use them. They serve as a guide to learners with regard to

what is expected of them and as a kind of checklist against which they cancompare their progress. This will provide a sense of achievement and/or thestimulus to work harder if necessary. They serve as a guide to materialswriters as each activity in the materials should relate to at least one objectiveand, conversely, all objectives must be worked on in the materials. They arean aid to teachers in planning class activities, choosing appropriate materialsand designing evaluation procedures and instruments.





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In sum, my recommendation is to write specific objectives, making sure thatthey describe observable behaviour but remembering that they do notnecessarily need to be measurable and should not be allowed to become a

straitjacket. They should provide unity and coherence for the course withouteliminating all possibility for individual differences.

9.3 Writing specific objectivesIn writing specific objectives, we need to bear several points in mind: the focus of the objectives, the clarity and precision of the wording, their relation to teaching points and general objectives.

If you look back at the discussion of objectives in section 6.2 and at Figure6.2, you will remember that objectives can be written from the point of view ofthe institution, the course, the teacher or the learner. You will also remember

that I pointed out there that most educationalists nowadays consider thatlearning is the principal aim of educational processes and therefore that it isconsidered most relevant to express both general and specific objectives interms of the learner. This also makes them more useful to learners as a guideto what they are expected to achieve and, at the same time, more useful toteachers as a basis for evaluating both the learners and the course as awhole.

As regards clarity and precision, it is important to remember that, if they are toserve the purposes outlined above, objectives must state expectations clearlyand in terms of identifiable and observable outcomes. In the next section, I

will suggest the use of a grid to help with filling in possible gaps in theinformation necessary for achieving this precision.

Finally, you need to bear in mind the role of specific objectives in the overallcoherence and unity of the course design. This means, in the first place,deriving objectives directly from teaching points and not from any othersources such as tradition, habit, intuition or other courses. Secondly, it meansmaking sure that all your specific objectives relate to your general objectivesand that all of your general objectives have been broken down into theircomponent elements by means of specific objectives. This can be checked byuse of a chart which you will find in Worksheet 4.

Before presenting the grid, there is one more point I should like to make aboutobjectives. Remember what the word means. Remember that it means aresult or outcome that we are aiming towards; something – a type ofknowledge, a skill, a competence - that we hope students will take with themand make use of after they have finished the course. This means that classactivities which are used by the teacher as a pedagogical tool should not beincluded as objectives – they are the means to achieving objectives. For





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example, I have sometimes seen novice designers include as objectivesthings like “to sing songs with names of parts of the body” or “to carry out arole play about likes and dislikes”. The song-singing and the role play are

pedagogical strategies, not objectives; they are used in order to facilitatelearning the names of the parts of the body in the first case and learning toexpress likes and dislikes in the second. The corresponding objectives, then,would be “to identify and name parts of the body” and “to express likes anddislikes”.

9.3.1 The GridThe grid is an instrument which can be extremely useful in moving from goalsand teaching points to specific objectives. It is also another tool for ensuringthe coherence and unity of the course. Have a look at the example in Table9.1. Let‟s analyse the information in this example. First of all, let‟s look at the

structure of the grid, which is divided into seven columns: goal, task, topic,genre, context, skills and lexicogrammar. We will take them one by one andlook at what type of information they contain and where the informationcomes from.

Goal: This is the easiest column to fill in. You have already set your goals, soit is simply a matter of copying them into the grid. Notice that the goalsspecified in the example are the same goals which appeared in the examplesof constituent analysis presented above. Remember that this example is justan extract from a course grid. When you come to fill in your own grid you willneed to repeat each goal several times as you will need to carry out a number

of activities for each one.

Task: Here you specify what you are going to ask your students to do in orderto work towards the goal. You can choose tasks by reference to your ownexperience and by referring to the literature on task-based syllabi which youwill find recommended in the Further Reading section at the end of thechapter. In the case of the example, the tasks have been chosen incoherence with the goals. Thus the task for developing written competence isto write a text.5

Topic: In this column, you specify what topic will be dealt with in carrying out

each task. The choice of topics will largely be derived from your Needs Analysis, both from Target Needs which will tell you something about thetypes of topic your students will need to be able to deal with in their future

5 Naturally, when you come to designing materials, a task like writing a text will implypreparatory work on reading and analysis of similar texts, so that students are aware of thecharacteristics of the text which they are being asked to write.





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careers and from Learning Needs which will tell you what topics your studentsare most interested in dealing with. The balance between topics from TargetNeeds and topics from Learning Needs will depend on the nature of your

course and the characteristics of your learners. In a university course inEnglish for Academic Purposes, the majority of the topics should be related toTarget Needs. In a heterogeneous adult evening class, topics will probably bealmost entirely Learning Needs related. In high schools, it‟s advisable to strikea balance – making sure you attend to students future academic needs whilstmaintaining motivation by catering to their current interests as well. In thecase of the example, the topic of famous places was taken from an interest inlearning about other countries expressed by students in the needs analysis.

Genre: Here you will state what genres of text you expect your students toanalyse and/or produce at each point in the course. A genre is a

communicative event which may be written or spoken; it is directed towardsachieving a recognizable purpose and has identifiable patterns of structure,content and intended audience. You will find recommendations for furtherreading on the topic of genre at the end of the chapter. Your decisions asregards genres will depend largely on the tasks and topics which you havechosen and the results of your Target Needs analysis. In the example, thegenres correspond to the goals and their constituent skills.

Context: In this column, you specify where you expect your students to carryout the task set; this will usually be in the classroom or at home, but may alsoinvolve settings such as the library or computer lab or some outside context

such as a supermarket, cinema, park or other public place. Thinking aboutthis in advance will allow you to plan for some diversity of settings in yourcourse.

Skills: This is the place to specify what skills you hope your students will bedeveloping throughout the course. The skills you identified in your constituentanalysis and incorporated in your list of teaching points should be includedhere in this column. In addition, there should be coherence between thiscolumn and the task column; certain types of task require certain skills fortheir completion. Notice that in the example, the skills specified in the gridcorrespond to those specified in the constituent analysis.

Lexicogrammar : This column will contain your specification of the languagepoints that are necessary for achieving your goals. As in the case of the skillscolumn, you should include here the language points from your constituentanalysis which were incorporated into your list of teaching points. This columnis also closely related to the topic and genre columns. Certain types oflanguage are associated with particular topics and genres.





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How to fill in the gridThis big empty table probably looks daunting at first. Take it step by step.

1. The first step is to fill in your goals.

2. The next step depends on your choice of syllabus focus. Rememberthat your chosen syllabus focus is the guiding principle of your design.It is therefore the next point you need to fill in on your grid, as shown inTable 9.2. Let us suppose for a moment that you have chosen a skills-based syllabus. That means that the skills to be developed constitutethe guiding principle of your course. Therefore, you should first fill inthe skills from your list of teaching points in relation to each goal.Repeat the goals as often as you need to in order to deal with all theskills which you have included in your teaching points.

3. Choose tasks and genres which you consider appropriate fordeveloping these skills. You can complement your own ideas on this

by consulting the recommended texts on tasks and genres.4. Choose topics related to the results of your needs analysis as

described above.5. Derive the information for the lexicogrammar column from your choice

of topics (lexis) and genre (grammar) and from the language itemswhich you have included in your list of teaching points.

6. Consider which context or contexts would be suitable for carrying outthe tasks you have specified and fill them in.

7. Make sure that all your teaching points have been includedsomewhere on your grid.

If you have chosen a learning-centred syllabus, then the guiding principle isthe type of task your students need to carry out in order to develop theircognitive processes and achieve the stated goals. You will therefore fill in thetasks column first. Once you have decided on the types of task, then you cango on to choose topics, genres and contexts and to specify the relevantlexicogrammar in the same way as described above for the skills-basedsyllabus.

If your syllabus focus is content-based, then logically the topic will be yourpoint of entry to the grid. Your needs analysis results will help you to specifythe necessary topics. Then fill in appropriate, tasks, genres, contexts and

lexicogrammar.

If your chosen syllabus is language-based, then language points are theguiding principle of your course. Therefore, you fill in the lexicogrammaticalteaching points which you have included in your list in relation to each goal.You can then chose topics, tasks and genres which you consider appropriatefor developing these language points.





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Finally, if you have opted for a learner-centred syllabus, you will not be able tofill in the grid in detail at this stage. In this case, the design is essentiallynegotiated with the students so it cannot be predetermined by the teacher.

However, this does not mean approaching the course with no ideawhatsoever of what will happen. I would suggest filling in some aspects of thegrid which can then be presented to students as a proposal which will formthe basis of negotiation. It is, after all, unlikely that many students will arriveon the first day of a course with a very clear idea of what they wish to learnand how they wish to learn it, much less of how what they wish to learn couldbe organized into a course.




Uninorte

63

GOAL TASK TOPIC GENRE CONTEXT SKILLS LEXICOGRAMMAR

Development

of written

competence

Write a textrelating anoccasion whenyou visited a

famous place

A visit to afamous place

Narrative -Classroom-Computerroom-Home

-Use cohesivedevices- Describe actors,settings and events

-Organize ideascoherently

-Lexical itemsrelated to places,adjectives-Past tense

Greater

autonomy in

learning

Presentationabout yourfavouritefamous placein the world,expressingreasons for thechoice

My favouritefamous placein the world

Description, Argumentation

-Classroom-Library

-Identify sources ofinformation-Identify and selectlearning strategies-Select, analyze andinterpret info-Evaluate info.-Justify own choices

-Lexical itemsrelated to places,adjectives-Present tense-Vocabulary toexpress reasons fora choice

Respect for

diversity

Presentationabout people‟sfavouritefamous places,

acceptingother‟schoices,

My favouriteplace in theworld

Description Argumentation

-Classroom -Listen carefully andcritically to eachintervention.-Be prepared to

analyze reasonspresented forchoices made.-Be prepared toexpress agreementand disagreementrespectfully.

-Lexical itemsrelated to places,adjectives-Present tense

-Vocabulary toexpress reasons fora choice-Expressions ofagreement anddisagreement

Table 9.1: An extract from a course design grid





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SYLLABUS FOCUS GRID STARTING POINT

Skills SkillsLearning Task

Content TopicLanguage LexicogrammarLearner To be negotiated with studentsTable 9.2: Grid starting point in relation to syllabus focus

9.3.2 Pen to paperOnce you have your grid filled out, then the specific objectives will practicallywrite themselves. All you have to do is write them out using the types ofwordings which were discussed above. Let‟s continue with the example.

Taking the goal of developing written competence, we have as our generalobjective “Students should be able to write a short narrative text”. If we nowlook at our grid, we can see that we have specified a task and a number ofskills and lexicogrammatical items in relation to it. Once again, we take oursyllabus focus as the point of entry. This would give us four possible versionsof specific objectives as you can see in Table 9.3.

SYLLABUS FOCUS SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE(S)

Skills Students should be able to: Use appropriate cohesive devices in writing a

narrative text. Describe actors, settings and events in

writing a narrative text. Organize ideas coherently in writing a

narrative text.Learning Students should be able to write a short narrative

text making use of appropriate rhetorical andlexicogrammatical choices.

Content Students should be able to describe a visit to afamous place by writing a short narrative text andmaking use of appropriate rhetorical andlexicogrammatical choices.

Language Students should be able to: Use lexical items related to place

descriptions in writing a short text. Use the past tense of verbs in writing a short

text.Table 9.3: Specific objectives according to syllabus focus





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There are several points to note here. Firstly, notice how the focus of theobjectives differs according to the chosen syllabus focus. The content is thesame but the emphasis is different and this different emphasis in the

objectives will be reflected in different emphasis in classroom practice. Notice,for example, that the only case in which the topic of the text to be written isspecified in the objective is for the Content-based syllabus. In the otherfocuses, the topic is not of central importance. Similarly, the objectives for thelanguage-based syllabus do not specify the genre of the text to be written.

Another interesting difference is that the skills-based and language-basedsyllabi have two and three specific objectives whereas the learning andcontent-based syllabi have only one. This is in line with the more holisticapproach to language and learning which is typical of these types of syllabus.Finally, you will have notices that I have not included the learner-centredfocus in this table. Due to the negotiated nature of this syllabus, it is unlikely

that you will want to write specific objectives if you have chosen this syllabustype.

9.4 Putting theory into practiceWork through Worksheet 5. At several points in the Worksheet, you will findthat I have suggested that you make reference to the literature recommendedin the Further Reading section. You may feel that this is a very time-consuming process. However, the grid is an essential tool for moving on tospecific objectives and materials design. If you fill it out in detail and with dueconsideration and consultation, then once it is done, it will provide you with aconcept map of your whole course. It is therefore well worth the time and

effort invested in it. Don‟t skimp it!

9.5 SummaryIn this chapter, I have discussed the reasons for writing specific objectives,suggesting that they are useful as a guide to teachers, learners and materialswriters. They help teachers to design classes and evaluation strategies; theyhelp learners to understand what they are doing and what is expected ofthem; and they help materials writers to select suitable texts and tasks. As atechnique for defining specific objectives, I proposed the use of a grid whichbrings together all the decisions taken so far in the course design processand from which specific objectives may be directly derived.

9.6 Further reading9.6.1 Task-based teaching and learning.

Crookes, G. and S. M. Gass (1993): Task and Language Learning :IntegratingTheory and Practice Clevedon: Multilingual Matters

Nunan, D. (2004): Task-based language teaching Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press





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Nunan, D (1989): Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Prabhu, N. S. (1987): Second Language Pedagogy . Oxford University Press

9.6.2 GenreChristie F and J.R. Martin (Eds) (1997): Genre and Institutions :Social Processes in

the Workplace and School London: Cassell Swales, J M. (1990):Genre Analysis :English in Academic and Research Settings

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

.





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Syllabussequencing

options

Grading

(Easydifficult)

Importance

(Urgency,frequency)

Topic

developmentNegotiated

CHAPTER 10: Selecting syllabus sequence and structure

10.1 Taking stock of progressBefore continuing, I suggest you look back for a moment at the SandwichModel and tick off those points which you have already defined and workedon. This should be an encouraging activity: you have already achieved agreat deal. Your goals and objectives, both general and specific, have beendefined, as also have the competences which you will be working on and thefocus of your syllabus. Furthermore, you have a list of teaching points and agrid showing how they related to each other in the overall plan of yoursyllabus. All that remains to be done now is to decide in what order to work onyour teaching points and how they should be related to each other. That is tosay, you need to decide on the sequence and structure of your syllabus. Let‟s

look at sequence first.

10.2 SequenceSo far, you have thought about teaching points in relation to each one of yourgoals but you have not thought about what to teach first and what to leave tilllater. There are a number of options for syllabus sequencing which I will nowdescribe.

10.2.1 Sequencing optionsThe principal options for sequencing teaching points within your syllabus areshown in Figure 10.1.

Figure 10.1: Options for syllabus sequencing





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Grading is traditionally the most frequently used criterion for syllabussequencing, especially in language-based syllabi. There is an intuitive logic inteaching and learning first what is easiest and then moving on to more difficult

learning tasks. The problem is: Who decides what is easy and what isdifficult? How do you know what is easy or difficult for your learners? All toofrequently, grading is based on an unquestioning acceptance of traditionalassumptions about ease and difficulty which are not based on research andmay not be relevant for your students. A good example of this is the questionof vocabulary. There is an implicit assumption in the English-speaking worldthat short words are “easier” than long words, an assumption probably basedon observation of small children learning to speak and later to read and writeEnglish as their mother tongue. It is therefore assumed, for example, that„speed‟ is easier than „velocity‟ or that „mend‟ is easier than „repair‟. If you areteaching Spanish-speaking students, then it is immediately obvious that the

reverse is true, as the longer words are cognates with Spanish. Somethingsimilar occurs with grammar. In what sense is the present tense “easier” thanthe past? Any experienced teacher of English will tell you that one of the mostpersistent grammatical mistakes, even among advanced learners, is theomission of the third person „-s‟ ending in the present simple tense. The pastsimple, however, has no endings to be learnt.

If you are using other types of syllabus, the question is equally problematical.In skills-based, for example, is reading more difficult than writing or viceversa? The answer will depend to a large extent on the learning styles andexperience of your students. Within reading, are top-down strategies, such as

prediction, skimming and scanning, more difficult than bottom-up reading fordetail? Again, it depends on the students, the text and the task. And so on forthe other syllabus types.

The question of grading, then, is not as simple as you might at first imagineand requires knowledge of your students‟ learning styles, their previouslearning experience, their motivation to learn and their L1.

Importance is a sequencing criterion which is very closely based on theresults of needs analysis. It means teaching and learning first those teachingpoints which the students are in most need of, either because they are

necessary immediately for the students to be able to carry out their activities,or because they occur very frequently in the types of text which the studentsneed to comprehend and/or produce. Many academic or technical coursesmay benefit from this kind of sequencing. For example, students on atechnical course may have an immediate need for reading instructionmanuals, making it desirable to include this point at the beginning of thecourse. Students on academic courses will probably need to read specialist

journal articles which use a lot of technical terminology and make frequent





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use of the passive voice; these lexicogrammatical points will therefore featureon such courses earlier than they would do in a traditionally graded course.This sequencing criterion has the advantage that the information necessary

for its application can be derived directly from the results of Needs Analysisand does not require you to undertake other types of research.

Topic development is most frequently used as a sequencing criterion incontent-based syllabus design. It means that the material to be taught isorganized according to the knowledge structures (cf. Mohan et al ., 2001)characteristic of the discipline which is being taught along with the Englishlanguage. In such cases, it is advisable to consult with the specialist teachersof the discipline in question before deciding on a definitive sequence for yourteaching points.

A negotiated sequencing of teaching points is particularly suitable forlearner-centred syllabi. The idea is that you present your students with a listof options, rather like a restaurant menu, and negotiate with them the order inwhich they would like to address the points. In this case, of course, the list ofpoints will be less detailed than in the case of the other syllabus types, asmany of the details of content will also be negotiated with the students. Themetaphor should perhaps be that of a buffet or a salad bar rather than amenu, thus allowing each student to pick and choose her or his owncombination of ingredients. The advantages of this in terms of studentmotivation are obvious. However, it is all too easy to fall into the trap ofspending so much time negotiating and discussing what to do, that you have

very little time left in which to do the chosen activities! The larger the numberof students in your class, the greater will this problem be. It also, inevitably,means that some people will not be satisfied and may feel discriminatedagainst because their preferences have not prevailed.


10.4 StructureIn choosing a criterion for sequencing, you have decided in general termswhat should come first and what should come later in your syllabus. It is now

time to make the final syllabus decision which is the structure; that is to say,within the syllabus how are the teaching points organized? How do they relateto one another? The possibilities here for individual creativity are endless andas you become more experienced you will certainly want to experiment withyour own ideas. However, for the first-time designer, it is probably best tochoose one of the established types of syllabus structure which I will describebelow.







71

F

E

D

C

B

A

Figure 10.3: A linear syllabus

The spiral or cyclical syllabus is an attempt to address the shortcomings of thelinear syllabus. It considers learning from a more holistic point of view andtherefore treats teaching points as interrelated one with another. Thus teachingpoints are returned to on a number of occasions during the course, each time withgreater depth and in relation to those points which have been dealt with since theprevious occasion. The major advantages of this type of syllabus are: it helps students to develop a more organic knowledge base, establishing

relations between different aspects of their knowledge; it allows students who had difficulty with a particular point to make a second

and third attempt to understand and assimilate the point.Its major disadvantages are:

it is complex and time-consuming to design; the faster learners may feel frustrated by the recycling process.

This syllabus has been represented graphically in Figure 10.4.





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Figure 10.4: A spiral syllabus

A popular option in published materials is the matrix syllabus which, as its namesuggests may be visually represented as a matrix, or table of intersecting columnsand rows. Typically the rows refer to units or chapters in the course book, whichmay or may not correspond to particular topics or themes, and the columns presentspecify aspects to be studied or practised, such as skills, grammar etc. An extractfrom a typical matrix syllabus is presented in Table 10.1. This model lends itself

particularly well to a skills-based syllabus.

Reading Writing ListeningandSpeaking

GrammarandVocabulary

Unit 1: TheFamily

Extract from MyFamily and Other Animals by GeraldDurrell

A descriptionof themembers ofmy family.

Listen to areport on one-parentfamilies.Discussion.

Members of thefamily.Descriptiveadjectives (people).Expressingopinions

Unit 2:Holidays Postcards fromabroad What did youdo on yourholiday?

Describingfavouriteplaces.Discussion ofholidaydestinations

Past tenses.Descriptiveadjectives (places).

Unit 3: AtWork

A jobdescription

Writing a letterof application

An interview for a job

Present and futuretenses.Modal verbs

Table 10.1: A matrix syllabus

A B C

A B C

D

A DB

C AD





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The modular syllabus design is particularly appropriate for the learner-centredsyllabus. It involves presenting a list of potential topics for study which forms the

starting point for negotiation with students as to which topics will be studied and inwhat order. In order for this to work successfully, each topic needs to be self-contained and not dependent on prior knowledge of any of the other topics. Thismeans that, although it is an attractive idea, it is not easy to handle in practice, noris it easy to ensure that students feel that they are progressing. An extract from anexample modular syllabus is shown in Figure 10.5.

TOPICS

The FamilyHoliday DestinationsThe Workplace

The EnvironmentLove Stories

Figure 10.5: An extract from a Modular syllabus

The storyline syllabus involves creating a set of characters and following theiradventures through a number of situations, rather in the style of a soap opera. Thishas the advantage of being motivating, especially for adolescent students, but thegreat disadvantage that all the texts are necessarily inauthentic, created for thepurposes of the course and, in practice, usually created in order to illustrate aparticular grammatical point. This type of syllabus was popular in the 1970s duringthe fashion for audio-lingual methods, when it was considered good practice to

invent artificial dialogues as a basis for grammatical substitution drills. Nowadays, itis almost universally considered preferable that as many texts as possible beauthentic so I would not recommend the use of the storyline. I have included it heresimply for information.

What is sometimes called the proportional syllabus is a useful way of combiningtwo different types of syllabus focus. It is particularly appropriate in long-termsyllabus design, that is to say in designing courses for a programme of severalyears of study, during which time it is anticipated that the students‟ learning needswill change as they develop intellectually and grow in competence. The example inFigure 10.6 shows a proportional progression from a skills-based to a task-based

syllabus focus over a period of 8 semesters.





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0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%80%

90%

100%

1 s t S

e m

2 n d S e

m

3 r d S e m

4 t h

S e m

5 t h S e

m

6 t h

S e m

7 t h

S e m

8 t h

S e m

Skills

Tasks

Figure 10.6: A proportional syllabus

The lexical syllabus was born at the beginning of the 1990s. It grew out of theresearch carried out by the COBUILD team at the University of Birmingham in theUK. One of the principal finding of this research programme has been thatgrammar is much more intimately related to and dependent on lexis than waspreviously imagined. Within traditional (Latin-based) sentence syntax, which is afairly blunt instrument in that it recognizes a very limited number of clause types,we can identify a large number of patterns in smaller chunks of language, centredaround particular lexical items. From this discovery, the COBUILD linguiststheorize a very different type of sentence construction process from that based on

sentence syntax, which basically supposes that speakers and writers first choose aclause structure which they then fill out by inserting lexical items in the varioussyntactic slots such as subject, verb and object. The Pattern Grammar proposedby the COBUILD linguists (Hunston and Francis, 2000) suggests that, on thecontrary, the grammar is lexis-driven; that the speaker or writer first chooses thenecessary lexis for the message to be communicated and that this lexical choicethen constrains the range of patterns available. This, then, is also the logic for thesyllabus writer who would initially choose the lexis needed by his/her students,according to needs analysis, and then set about selecting materials which wouldillustrate the patterns and meanings associated with these lexical items. The theoryof pattern grammar is extremely convincing, based as it is on detailed analysis of a

very large corpus of naturally occurring English. However, if you wish to base yoursyllabus on it, it is recommendable to make sure that you are thoroughlyconversant with the theory.

10.5 Relating sequence and structureSome of the advantages and disadvantages of the various options for syllabusstructure have been outlined above in the brief descriptions of each type ofstructure. In addition to considering these advantages and disadvantages and





comparing the description of the structures with the results of your needs analysis,it is obviously important to ensure coherence between your chosen sequencingcriterion and your chosen structure. For example, grading has traditionally been

associated with the step-by-step syllabus structure, but it is also frequently usedwith matrix and spiral syllabi. It is not suitable for use with a modular structure as itrequires determining the sequence before commencing the course. In fact, it isprobably safe to say that the only suitable sequencing criterion for a modularcourse is negotiation; all the others require pre-planning on the part of thedesigner. A topic based sequence matches most happily with matrix structure butcan also be used with step-by-step or lexical structures. The important thing is togive careful consideration to the way in which you will combine your sequencingand structuring decisions in order to ensure coherence.

10.6 Putting theory into practiceWork through Worksheets 7 and 8.

10.7 SummaryThis chapter has dealt with the final stages in course design: choosing acriterion for sequencing and a model for structuring the contents of thesyllabus. Both the sequencing criterion and the structuring model need to bechosen bearing in mind your previous decisions, especially the syllabusfocus, in order to ensure coherence. You should also bear in mind the resultsof your needs analysis, particularly as regards learning needs and situational

constraints. Some types of sequence and structure are more suitable thanothers for particular groups of students; similarly, some types are difficult todeal with in situations where classes are very numerous or resources scarce.There is no ideal combination of sequence and structure. As with all yourcourse design decisions, these last two decisions should be based on thecharacteristics of your particular teaching-learning context.

10.8 Further reading

Dubin, F. and E. Olshtain (1986): Course Design: Developing Programmes and