Syllabus Design

1. What is a Syllabus? (Ronald White, The ELT Curriculum)

• A syllabus is the specification of the work of a particular
department in a school or college, organized in subsections
defining the work of a particular group or class; It is often
linked to time, and will specify a starting point and ultimate
goal.
2. Difference between Syllabus and Curriculum (Ronald White,
Page 4, First Para)
3. What is Curriculum? (Ronald White, Page 4, 5)
4. How to establish a curriculum Model? (David Nunan, Page 3, 4)
Candlin (1984) suggests that curricula are concerned with making
general statements about language learning, learning purpose
and experience, evaluation, and the role relationships of teachers
and learners. According to Candlin, they will also contain banks of
learning items and suggestions about how these might be used in
class. Syllabuses, on the other hand, are more localized and are
based on accounts and records of what actually happens at the
classroom level as teachers and learners apply a given curriculum
to their own situation. These accounts can be used to make
subsequent modifications to the curriculum, so that the
developmental process is ongoing and cyclical.

It is possible to study ‘the curriculum’ of an educational institution

from a number of different perspectives.

In the first instance we can look at curriculum planning, that is at

decision making, in relation to identifying learners’ needs and
purposes; establishing goals and objectives; selecting and grading
content; organizing appropriate learning arrangements and
learner groupings; selecting, adapting, or developing appropriate
materials, learning tasks, and assessment and evaluation tools.

Alternatively, we can study the curriculum ‘in action’ as it were.

This second perspective takes us into the classroom itself. Here
we can observe the teaching/learning process and study the ways
in which the intentions of the curriculum planners, which were
developed during the planning phase, are translated into action.

Yet another perspective relates to assessment and evaluation.

From this perspective, we would try and find out what students
had learned and what they had failed to learn in relation to what
had been planned. Additionally, we might want to find out
whether they had learned anything which had not been planned.
We would also want to account for our findings, to make
judgements about why some things had succeeded and others
had failed, and perhaps to make recommendations about what
changes might be made to improve things in the future.

Finally, we might want to study the management of the teaching

institution, looking at the resources available and how these are
utilized, how the institution relates to and responds to the wider
community, how constraints imposed by limited resources and
the decisions of administrators affect what happens in the
classroom, and so on. All of these perspectives taken together
 represent the field of curriculum study. As we can see, the field is
a large and complex one.

5. What is Syllabus Design?

Syllabus Design demonstrates, in a practical way, the principles
involved in planning and designing an effective syllabus.
6. Types of Syllabus:
Generally two types:

Product Syllabus (Goal Oriented)

It is divided into three types namely

• Grammatical/Structural Syllabus
• Notional-Functional Syllabus
• Situational Syllabus (What Syllabus)

Process Syllabus (Process Oriented)

It is divided into five types namely

• Content/Topic Syllabus
• Task-Based Syllabus
• Skill-Based Syllabus
• Communicative Syllabus
• Multistrand Syllabus(What+How)
7. Steps of Syllabus Design:
i) Statement of General Goals (Analysis the scope and nature
of the subject)
ii) Needs Analysis (Munby Model, Hutchinson and Waters’
model)
iii) Identifying Objectives (David Nunan)
 iv) Selecting Content (David Nunan)
v) Grading Content (David Nunan)
vi) Identifying and organizing learning-teaching experience
(Roger Elis Part 5)
vii) learner’s styles and strategies (Same)
viii) learner’s beliefs and expectations (Same)
ix) Recommending methods for teaching and testing

1-5: Steps of Product Syllabus Design

1-9: Steps of Process Syllabus Design

1. Discuss the steps of syllabus design and the considerations for

each step.
2. Discuss the difference between syllabus and curriculum.
3. Discuss the processes of the establishment of a good
curriculum model.
4. What is Syllabus Design? Why is Needs Analysis so important in
syllabus design?

Product Syllabus

Product syllabuses are those in which the focus is on the knowledge

and skills which learners should gain as a result of instruction. A
product-oriented syllabus focuses on things learnt at the end of the
learning process (outcomes) rather than the process itself. (What
Syllabus)
Example:
Grammatical, functional and lexical syllabi are product-oriented as they
focus on grammatical, functional and lexical outcomes.

Process Syllabus

A process-oriented syllabus focuses on the skills and processes

involved in learning language. It can be compared with a product-
oriented syllabus, which focuses on completed acts of communication,
the outputs.

Example:
A process-writing syllabus would focus on the processes writers use to
complete their tasks, such as collecting information, organising ideas,
drafting and revising, rather than just the features of the products of
writing, such as letters, compositions, notes, reports etc.

Differences Between Product And Process Syllabus: Ronald White (The

ELT Curriculum) (Chapter 4, Page 44-45, Type A (Product Syllabus)
Type B (Process Syllabus)

Classifications of Product Syllabus:

Grammatical/Structural Syllabus

The most common syllabus type was, and probably still is, one in which
syllabus input is selected and graded according to grammatical notions
of simplicity and complexity. Grammatical complexity does not
necessarily equate with learning difficulty. In other words, what is
grammatically complex will not necessarily be that which is difficult to
learn, and that which is grammatically simple will not necessarily be
that which is easy to learn. The most rigid grammatical syllabuses
supposedly introduce one item at a time and require mastery of that
item before moving on to the next.
The assumption behind most grammatical syllabuses seems to be that
language consists of a finite set of rules which can be combined in
various ways to make meaning. It is further assumed that these rules
can be learned one by one, in an additive fashion, each item being
mastered on its own before being incorporated into the learner’s pre-
existing stock of knowledge. The principal purpose of language teaching
is to help learners to ‘crack the code’. Rutherford (1987) calls this the
‘accumulated entities’ view of language learning.
During the 1970s, the use of structural syllabuses came under
increasing criticism. In this section we shall look at some of these
criticisms. One early criticism was that structurally-graded syllabuses
misrepresented the nature of that complex phenomenon, language.
They did so in tending to focus on only one aspect of language, that is,
formal grammar. In reality, there is more than one aspect of language.

Functional-Notional Syllabus

The broader view of language provided by philosophers of language

and sociolinguists was taken up during the 1970s by those involved in
language teaching, and began to be reflected in syllabuses and
coursebooks. This is not to say that functional and situational aspects of
language use did not exist in earlier syllabuses, but that for the first
time there was a large-scale attempt to incorporate this broader view
of language systematically into the language syllabus. In particular, it
gave rise to what became known as functional-notional syllabus design.
Many teachers, on first encountering the terms ‘function’ and ‘notion’
find them confusing. In general, functions may be described as the
communicative purposes for which we use language, while notions are
the conceptual meanings (objects, entities, states of affairs, logical
relationships, and so on) expressed through language.

Many of the criticisms which were made of grammatical syllabuses

have also been made of functional-notional syllabuses. Widdowson
pointed out as long ago as 1979 that inventories of functions and
notions do not necessarily reflect the way languages are learned any
more than do inventories of grammatical points and lexical items. He
also claims that dividing language into discrete units of whatever type
misrepresents the nature of language as communication.

Situational Syllabus

The formulation of a new type of syllabus became inevitable when

dissatisfaction was targeted to the Grammatical Syllabus. Even though
the Grammatical Syllabus has been used with considerable success over
a long period of time, many modern linguists have come to see
grammar as the wrong organising principle for a syllabus, since
effective language use cannot be ensured unless it is contextualised,
involving ample social interaction. Therefore, the most commonly
proposed alternative is to take situational needs as the starting point
and thereby to construct a Situational Syllabus to replace the
Grammatical Syllabus. The Situational Syllabus did a lot to fill the
vacuum that was caused by the drawbacks of the Grammatical Syllabus.
The Situational Syllabus, however, is not as firmly based as the
Grammatical Syllabus on any well-formulated view of language.

MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS

The major characteristics of the Situational Syllabus are as follows:

Theoretical Bases

The central argument for the Situational Syllabus is that language is

always used in a social context and cannot be fully understood without
reference to the contextual settings. According to Wilkins, the
Situational Syllabus is constructed on the analyses of situations and
behaviours. The Situational analysis can enable the syllabus designers
to predict in what situations the learners are likely to use the language
and teach accordingly. The Behavioural analysis aims to consider the
likely behaviours or activities that the learners may conduct in different
situations.

Contents/Selecting & Sequencing the Contents

In the Situational Syllabus, the content is specified and ordered in non-

linguistic terms (i.e. excluding grammatical items, vocabulary topics, or
functions). The content of language teaching is a collection of real or
imaginary situations in which language occurs or is used. It (the
content) often takes the form of dialogues and conversations. The
learners are expected to practice the dialogues and memorise useful
expressions and patterns. The grammar and the vocabulary derived
from the situations are not themselves the driving force behind the
selection. However, the grammar and the vocabulary are also taken
into account when the language forms in situations are selected since
these two components receive primary attention in almost all types of
syllabus design and development. Thus the main components of the
Situational Syllabus can be analysed in the following order:

I. a list of language situations, and

II. description of the grammatical and lexical items of each of these
situations.
Objectives

Situations are the organizing principle of the situational syllabus. A

situation usually involves some kinds of transactions in a specific
setting. The language occurring in the situation involves a number of a
probable segment of discourse/dialogue. The primary purpose of a
situational language teaching syllabus is, thus to teach the language
that occurs in the situations. Examples of such probable situations
include:

• At the hotel,
• At the travel agent,
• At the post office,
• At the restaurant,
• At the garage,
• At the airport,
• At the shopping mall,
• At school, and so on.

ADVANTAGES

The Situational Syllabus offers guidelines for organising language

teaching materials on a relatively limited scope, yet it has proven to be
beneficial in several ways:

1. Wilkins considers this type of syllabus more efficient and more

motivating than the Grammatical Syllabus because it hinges
around practical needs rather than abstract analysis.
2. It is a learner-centred syllabus since it takes account of the learner
and his needs.
3. It enables the learners to behave appropriately in various social
contexts.
 4. It pays more attention to learners’ speaking ability in contrast to
the Grammatical Syllabus.

WEAKNESSES

Even though the Situational Syllabus is widely used as a replacement

for the Grammatical Syllabus to organise language teaching materials,
there is still strong criticism against this model:

1. The main disadvantage of the Situational Syllabus is that it is less

appropriate for the students of general English since it tries to
teach language in the context of some specific linguistic
situations, which cannot be considered as an all-encompassing
yardstick for fulfilling the learners’ general language needs. That is
because it is difficult to guarantee that one specific situation will
be useful in another.
2. Although some situations have a predictable script, unanticipated
things can happen in any situation, requiring a change of script or
topic. Wilkins points out, that a physical situational setting such as
“At the Post Office” or “In a Restaurant” does not necessarily
predict the language forms that will be used. One may go into a
restaurant not to order a meal but to ask directions to a nearby
museum or to change money for a telephone call. While certain
language functions will most likely occur in certain situational
settings, the physical setting cannot really predict language use. It
depends on who the students are and where they are learning.
Thus determining the appropriate list of situations for a general
class is difficult.
3. Grammar is dealt with incidentally, so the Situational Syllabus may
result in gaps in learners’ grammatical knowledge.
4. The Situational Syllabus does not provide us with clearly defined
criteria for the sequencing of teaching items. Little is known about
the language used in different situations, so the selection of
teaching items is typically based on intuition.
 5. The Situational Syllabus is probably most appropriate for short-
term special-purpose courses: giving prospective tourists survival
skills or preparing service personnel, such as waiters or
waitresses, to deal with routine requests or firefighters to handle
emergency situations. It has limited potential for the language
learner interested in acquiring global language proficiency. For
this reason, it is generally used as the component of a Multi
Syllabus rather than as the central organising principle for a
general language syllabus design.

Classifications of Process Syllabus

Topic/Content Syllabus

# The primary purpose of the instruction is to teach some content or

information using the language that the students are also learning.

# The students are simultaneously language students and students of

whatever content is being taught.

#The subject matter is primary, and language learning occurs

incidentally to content learning. The content teaching is not organized
around the language teaching, but vice-versa.

#Content-based language teaching is concerned with information, while

task-based language teaching is concerned with communicative and
cognitive processes.

#An example of content-based language teaching is a science class

taught in the language the students need or want to learn, possibly
with linguistic adjustment to make the science more comprehensible.
Task-Based Syllabus

A syllabus which is organised around tasks, rather than in terms of

grammar or vocabulary. For example the syllabus may suggest a variety
of different kinds of tasks which the learners are expected to carry out
in the language, such as using the telephone to obtain information;
drawing maps based on oral instructions; performing actions based on
commands given in the target language; giving orders and instructions
to others, etc. It has been argued that this is a more effective way of
learning a language since it provides a purpose for the use and learning
of a language other than simply learning language items for their own
sake. (Richards, Platt, and Weber 1985: 289)

Importance

With the task-based Syllabus, the learners get a much more diverse
exposure to the target language. For instance, students are exposed to
a wider range of juxtapositions, lexical phrases, and language patterns,
and language forms.

Demerits:
Fluency over Correctness
Student’s participation
Evaluation is difficult

Skill-Based Syllabus
It is one in which the content of language teaching is a collection of
specific abilities that may play a part in using language. Skills are things
that people must be able to do to be competent in a language,
relatively independently of the situation or setting in which the
language use can occur. While situational syllabi group functions
together into specific settings of language use, skill-based syllabi group
linguistic competencies (pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar,
sociolinguistic, and discourse) together into generalized types of
behavior, such as listening to spoken language for the main idea,
writing well-formed paragraphs, giving effective oral presentations,
taking language tests, reading texts for main ideas or supporting
details, and so on. The primary purpose of skill-based instruction is to
learn a specific language skill. A possible secondary purpose is to
develop more general competence in the language, learning only
incidentally any information that may be available while applying the
language skills.

i) Communicative Syllabus: Participation+Interaction

ii) Multistrand Syllabus: Fusion of all these four types

1. Discuss different types of product and process

syllabuses/syllabi
2. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Grammatical, Task-
Based and Situational syllabuses.

Language is a “doing” thing.

1. What are the differences between Product and Process

Syllabuses? (Ronald White, Chapter-4)