WEEK 2 Lecture Syllabus Design

7/28/2019 WEEK 2 Lecture Syllabus Design

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WEEK 2

Course Overview & Introduction

Concepts and definitions

Reasons for having a syllabus

Traditions in ELT SD


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Pre-test 1 What do you understand by the terms

syllabus and curriculum?

Write a short definition of the terms.


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IntroductionThe question of terminology

The title of this course is Syllabus Design. Whysyllabus designand not curriculumor course, or

even programme design?

Discuss with your neighbour(s) what youunderstand by:

Syllabus DesignCurriculum DesignCourse Design

Programme Design


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Some concepts and terminology..2 Three aspects of a curriculum/syllabus are

usually under discussion: its objectives, the

content, and the sequential arrangements.......for example, .....the specif ication of the

what of instruction/its content, the def ini tion

of a subject, the ends of instruction, what is

to be achieved, and what wil l be taught.


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Some concepts and terminology..3 What is the distinction between the term curriculum

and syllabus?

In the United States, it is customary to use the termcurriculum, rather than syllabus, to refer to all aspects ofthe planning, implementation and evaluation of cur r iculum.The term is also used for a particular course of instruction.

In Britain, the term syllabus is used to denote that part of

curr iculum activity concerned with the specif ication andorder ing of course content or input. In other words, it isconcerned with the what of the curriculum.


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Some concepts and terminology..4 Within the literature, there is some confusion over

the termssyllabus and curriculum. According to Candlin (1984):

Curriculaare concerned with making general statementsabout language learning, learning purpose and experience,evaluation, and the role relationships of teachers and learners.

Also contain banks of learning items and suggestions abouthow these might be used in the class.

Syllabusare more localized and are based on accounts andrecords of what actually happens at the classroom level asteachers and learners apply a given curriculum to their ownsituation.


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Some concepts and terminology..5 According to Krahnke (1987):

Curriculum includes syllabus, but not vice versa.

A syllabus is more specific and more concrete than acurriculum, and a curriculum may contain a numberof syllabi.

A curriculum specify only the goals (what the

learners will be able to do at the end of theinstruction), while the syllabus specifies the contentof the lessons used to move the learners towards thegoals.


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Some concepts and terminology..5 Nunan (1988) in his book, The Learner-

Centred Curriculum, uses the term

curriculum to incorporate those elementsdesignated by the term syllabus along

with considerations of methodology and

evaluation.


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Some concepts and terminology..6Nunan lists the following as key elements for considerationwithin the curriculum:

initial planning including needs analysis

grouping learners goal and objectives setting

selection and grading of content

methodology (which includes materials and learning

activities) learning arrangements (incorporating learning modes and

environments)

assessment and evaluation


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Syllabus vs. curriculum debate

Several conflicting views

Some disagreement about the nature of

syllabus Lets examine the range and diversity of

opinion on syllabus design (Brumfit, 1984 in

Nunan 1988:5-6)


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Syllabus vs. curriculum debate..21. I would like to draw attention to a distinction

between curriculum or syllabus, that is its content,structure, parts and organization, and, what in

curriculum theory is often called curriculumprocesses, that is curriculum development,implementation, dissemination and evaluation. Theformer is concerned with the WHAT of curriculum:what the curriculum is like or should be like; the

latter is concerned with the WHO and HOW ofestablishing the curriculum.

(Stern 1984:10-11)


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Syllabus vs. curriculum debate..3

2. [The syllabus] replaces the concept ofmethod, and the syllabus is now seen as aninstrument by which the teacher, with thehelp of the syllabus designer, can achieve adegree of fit between the needs and aims ofthe learner (as social being and as individual)

and the activities which will take place in theclassroom.

(Yalden 1984: 14)


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the syllabus is simply a framework within

which activities can be carried out: a

teaching device to facilitate learning. It onlybecomes a threat to pedagogy when it is

regarded as absolute rules for determining

what is to be learned rather than points of

reference from which bearings can be taken.

(Widdowson 1984: 26)


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We might ask whether it is possible to

separate so easily what we have been calling

content from what we have been callingmethod or procedure, or indeed whether we

can avoid bringing evaluation into the debate?

(Candlin 1984: 32)


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Any syllabus will express however

indirectlycertain assumptions about

language, about the psychological process oflearning, and about the pedagogic and social

processes within a classroom.

(Breen 1984: 32)


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curriculum is a very general concept whichinvolves consideration of the whole complex of

philosophical, social and administrative factors

which contribute to the planning of an educationalprogram. Syllabus, on the other hand, refers to thatsubpart of curriculum which is concerned with aspecification of what units will be taught (as distinct

from how they will be taught, which is matter formethodology)

(Allen 1984: 61)


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Since language is highly complex and cannot

be taught all at the same time, successful

teaching requires that there should be aselection of material depending on the prior

definition of objectives, proficiency level,

and duration of course. This selection takes

place at the syllabus planning stage.

(op. cit.: 65)


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As you can see, some language specialists

believe that syllabus(the selection and

grading of content) and methodologyshouldbe kept separate (hence the narrow view);

others think otherwise (broad view)


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Defining Syllabus/Curriculum Narrow vs. broad view of syllabus?,

narrow view makes a clear distinction betweensyllabus design and methodology, with syllabus

design being seen as concerned essentially withthe selection and grading of content, whilemethodology is concerned with the selection oflearning tasks and activities.

The broad view questions this separation,arguing that the distinction between content andtask is difficult to sustain (based on thecurrentapproaches to language teaching)


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Defining Syllabus/Curriculum

Throughout this course of Syllabus Design, we shall

adopt a narrow view of syllabus for the purpose of

analyzing the what aspects of SD i.e., 'syllabus as

a statement of content which is used as the basis

for planning courses of various kinds, and that

the task of the syllabus designer is to selectand

gradethis content' but the main thrust of the coursecertainly embraces the broad view of curriculum

development.


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Defining Syllabus/Curriculum

Thus, the traditional view of syllabus

design is seen as a subsidiary of curriculum

design. Syllabus focuses on the selection and grading

of content, (or focus on, selection, sub-

division, and sequencing) whereascurriculum has a broader focus including

planning, implementation, evaluation,

management and administration.


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Task 1Before we go on, you might like to pause and think a little about yourown teaching context, and the place of the syllabus.

Questions:

Who has defined your syllabus?

yourself (as teacher),

your department,

your school,

a higher authority e.g. a Ministry of Education

the coursebook you use

Look around. Check your neighbours' replies to the abovequestions. Compare your situations and discuss them briefly.


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Task 2

Study the following list of planning tasks.

In which of the following, according to your

experience, do classroom teachers haveprimary responsibility?

Rate each task on a scale from 0

(no responsibil i ty) to 5 (total responsibil i ty).

Again, compare your results with those ofyour neighbours'. Any similarities?


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0 1 2 3 4 5

1. Identifying learners needs

2. Selecting and grading syllabus content

3. Grouping learners into different classes

4. Selecting/creating materials

5. selecting/creating learning activities

6. monitoring and assessing learnerprogress

7. Evaluating the course


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Some teachers may feel they have (some) responsibility forselecting and creating learning activities as well asmonitoring and assessing learner progress, but not much else.

For them, the syllabus/course is decided in advance - perhapseven by the selection of a coursebook which acts as syllabus -and the learners are grouped according to their results in a

placement test.

Teachers may feel quite happy with this arrangement, feeling

that syllabus development should remain the role of thosewith specialist expertise, and not confident in undertakingtasks for which they have not been specially trained.


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Why do we need a syllabus?

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) identify 8

reasons why a syllabus might be needed.

Download Tutorial 1 from the LMS andanswer it.


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Traditions in ELT SD 1

In the introduction we defined Syllabus design as -the deciding of what to teach - the focus on,selection, sub-division and grading or sequencing

of items -and, as such, it formed part of theplanning stage of curriculum development.

What, then, is the starting point for decisions aboutcontent?

Any decisions made at this stage are not value-free.Breen (1984) says the decisions taken usually -reflect our beliefs about language and learning.


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2. if the syllabus represents a functional view oflanguage, then the criteria for sequencing will be:usefulness or frequency - starting with the more

common or generalisable vocabulary, speech acts orcommunication events and moving on to the lessfrequent, rather specialized uses of language.

3. if the syllabus is based on a particular view of

learning, it may start with the easy to learn or morefamiliar to the learner before moving onto to theharder to learn or unfamiliar.


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4. if the syllabus is to be sensitive to rather

specialized social or professional needs,

then the focus may be initially on what ismost urgent before moving on to what is less

urgent.


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Even the criteria can not be considered strictlyobjective - there is often disagreement aboutwhat is simple/complex, easy to learn/ harderto learn, urgent/less urgent.

Nevertheless some decisions regardingcontent have to be made.

We shall look at the procedures that werefollowed in the last couple of decades, untilfairly recently.


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Tasksheet 2: Adapted from Nunan (1988: 11)

Until recently, most syllabus designers drew up lists ofgrammatical, phonological and ( 1 ) items. They then gradedthem according to ( 2 ) and usefulness.

However, during the 1970s, communicative views of

language teaching began to be incorporated into syllabusdesign and the most important questions for designers

became What does the learner want to ( 3 ) with thelanguage? rather than What are the ( 4 ) elements thelearner needs to master?

Syllabuses began to appear in which the content wasspecified not in terms of ( 5 ) items, but also in terms of (6 )skills the learners were expected to master in order tocommunicate successfully.


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Traditionally, both linguistically-oriented syllabuses,together with so-called ( 7 ) syllabuses, tended tofocus on things that learners should know or be ableto do as a result of instruction. These syllabuses, inwhich content is stated in terms of the ( 8 ) ofinstruction are known as product-oriented.

As we have seen earlier, a distinction is drawnbetween syllabus design, which is concerned with

outcomes, and methodology, which is concernedwith the ( 9 ) through which these outcomes arebrought about.


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Recently syllabus designers have suggested

that syllabus content might be specified interms of learning ( 10 ) and activities,

justifying this suggestion on the grounds that

communication is a ( 11 ) rather than a set of

products. The resulting syllabuses are referred

to as ( 12 ) -oriented syllabuses.

(Adapted from Nunan 1988:11)


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Keys

1. vocabulary

2. difficulty

3. do4. linguistics

5. grammatical

6. functional

7. communicative

8. outcomes

9. process10. tasks

11. process

12. process


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Conclusion

Looked at:

1. Concepts and definitions

2. Reasons for having a syllabus

3. Traditions in ELT SD

Documents

WEEK 2 Lecture Syllabus Design