TOPIC 4:

Principles in ELT Syllabus

Design
Dr. Harbinder Singh
• Selection and grading of content
• Selection and grading of tasks
• Sequencing of content and tasks
• Recycling of content and tasks
 A Syllabus
• Is a document that briefly states the theoretical basis and the approach that
form the framework for the organisation of the subject-based work to be
done;
• Guides and directs teaching as an accountable act for a particular context or
situation;
• - it is negotiable and adjustable;
• - it specifies aims and objectives;
• it suggests content;
• - it provides for the grading of content;
• - it indicates teaching-learning opportunities,
• it states implications for assessment
Designing a Language Syllabus
• To design a language syllabus is to decide what gets taught
and in what order. For this reason, the theory of language
explicitly or implicitly underlying the language teaching
method will play a major role in determining what syllabus is
adopted.
Types if Syllabi
• Need to decide the type of syllabus
• A language teaching syllabi can range from the more
or less purely linguistic, where the content of
instruction is the grammatical and lexical forms of the
language, to the purely semantic or content-based
(Science, Maths) where the content of instruction is
some skill or information and only incidentally the
form of the language.
Sequence in Process of Syllabus Design
• needs analysis,
• content specification (selection) and
• syllabus organization
Defining the Needs of the Learner
Content Selection
After having determined the language needs of the learner,
the next step would be to decide on the content of the
syllabus.
Whatever principle is used to design the syllabus, coursebook
writers and course designers have to decide how authentic
the language included in the book should be, language
varieties or variety the book will present, activities they are
going to add, etc.
Selection of Content
Developing initial ideas for course content often takes place
simultaneously with syllabus planning because the content of a course
will often depend on the type of syllabus framework that will be used
as the basis for organising the course.
Decisions about the course content reflect the planners’ assumptions
about the nature of language, language use and language learning,
what the most essential elements or units of language are, and how
these can be organised as an efficient bases for second language
learning.
For example, a writing course could be potentially be
planned around any of the following types of content:
• Grammar (e.g. using the present tense in descriptions)
• Functions (e.g. describing likes and dislikes)
• Topics (e.g. writing about world issues)
• Skills (e.g. developing topic sentences and paragraphs)
• Processes (using pre, while and post writing
strategies)
• Texts (e.g. writing a business letter)
Similarly, the speaking sections of a course could be
organised around:
• Functions (expressing opinions)
• Interaction skills (opening and closing conversations,
turn taking)
• Topics (current affairs, science and technology)
Factors to consider when selecting content:
• Subject-matter knowledge
• Learners’ proficiency levels
• Current views on second language learning and teaching
• Information gathered during needs analysis
Content can also be selected on the criteria of learner needs.
• i. which is needed most immediately by the learner,
• ii. which has high surrender value, that is, of most use to the
learner,
• iii. which is necessary to avoid a communication breakdown,
• iv. which is flexible, that is, can be used most widely, and
• v. which is most frequently used by the learner.
Selection of topics
• Finally, to decide different topics that are to be included in the
coursebook. Selection of topics needs to follow certain criteria.
• Perceptions of what students find engaging,
• what research shows in this area,
• potential for interesting exploitation of the topics
• Appropriate culture the material - appropriate balance in terms of
gender and the representation of different groups in society, racial,
ethnic and socioeconomic. (Harmer, 2001, p. 295)
Selection of topics – other considerations
• If you are designing your content around TOPICS, the topics will have
to be carefully reviewed.
• Are the suggested topics current?
• Are the suggested topics necessary?
• Are the suggested topics compliant with themes suggested in the
curriculum?
• Has sufficient emphasis been given to different aspects of the topics?
• Will the topics provide sufficient design possibilities to enable
students to attain the stated learning outcomes?
Other considerations when selecting content
• Available resources online and in books, references
materials, etc
• Published materials
• Review of similar courses offered elsewhere
• Review of current tests and exams
• Analysis of student needs and problems
• Consultations with experts in the area.
Process of selecting content for a syllabus
includes
• Noting down initial ideas and adding through brainstorming
• Define aims and objectives of the course
• Generating a possible topics, units, skills and other units of
course organisation until clearer ideas about the content is
agreed upon.
• Refer continuously to the aims and objectives of the course
to check content alignment.
• revise and fine-tune course aims and objectives.
Grading of Language Content in the
Syllabus
Many textbooks use graded language. Graded language
is classroom language that is adapted to the level of the
learners in some way. It can be compared with
authentic language, which is not changed in any way.
Example
• An intermediate level class are using graded readers,
reading works of literature but written in simplified
English.
Applying the CEFR Scale in the Grading of Language
Content
Language learning textbooks in the market often have CEFR Levels
indicated to show the level at which the language is pitched.
• How do I know whether a course-book is properly aligned to the CEFR?
• It is not easy for those involved with teaching to judge whether a
publication or an exam is properly aligned to the CEFR. There is no
validation body to check that such claims are well-founded. Teachers
don’t have the time to check claims themselves and so it can be a
confusing situation.
• Our one comment on this is that aligning materials or tests to the CEFR
requires a lot of work and research capability to do in any reliable form,
and if CEFR alignment is important to you, you should ask about the
level of research undertaken by the publisher or test developer.
• In Malaysia, the syllabus and content of the textbooks have graded
language content aligned to the CEFR.
Grading of Language Content in your Teaching Context
• If you are responsible for working out what is going to be taught in
a class – just your own or for the whole school – it is very helpful to
use the CEFR as a broad framework.
• Look carefully at the descriptors for the levels you need – not just
the Global Scale, but component scales as well where relevant.
• What do you want your students to achieve in each course on their
path to the target level? This can be further elaborated by looking
at the information coming from English Profile.
• Most teachers do not need to create their own curriculum. By
choosing a course book that is aligned to the CEFR, you have a
syllabus created by experts – which you may then choose to adapt
for your own circumstances.
Determining Scope and Sequence of
Content
• Decisions about content also needs to address the distribution of
content throughout the course. This is known as planning the scope
and sequence of the content. Scope is concerned with the breadth
and depth of coverage of items in the course. Questions about
determining scope include:
• What range of content will be covered? (Width)
• To what extent will be content be covered? (Depth)
• For example if a listening and speaking skill section deals with
“describing experience” – how much will be included within a given
topic? 2, or 4 or 6 periods?
• The sequencing of the content of the course also needs to be
planned. This involves deciding which content is needed earlier in the
course and will provide a basis for things that will be learned later.
Principles for Sequencing Content
Simple to Complex
• Most common way is to sequence content by level of difficulty. Content
presented earlier is thought to be simpler than later items. This is related
typically to grammar but any kind of course content can be graded according to
level of difficulty. For example in a reading course, reading texts may be
simplified at the beginning and authentic texts which are unsimplified can be
used at the end. Skills, for example can be arranged from “literal
comprehension” to “inferencing” at a later stage.
Process
• Content may be sequenced according to the order in which processes occur. For
example, in a writing course, it might be sequenced according to composition
processes – 1) brainstorming, 2) outlining, 3) drafting, 3) revising, 4) editing. In a
language proficiency course designed around a skills syllabus, it might be
sequenced according to acquisition sequence: 1) listening, 2) speaking, 3)
reading, 4) writing.
Principles for Sequencing Content
Pre-Requisite Learning
• Sequencing of content may reflect what is necessary at one point as a
foundation for the next step in the learning process. For example, a certain se of
grammatical items may be taught as a prerequisite to paragraph writing. Or, in a
reading course, word attack skills may be taught early on as a prerequisite to
reading more difficult texts at later stages of the course.
Whole to part or part to whole
• In some cases, material at the beginning of a course may focus on the overall
structure or organisation of a topic before considering the individual
components that make it up. Alternatively, the course might focus on practicing
the parts before the whole. For example, students might read short stories and
respond to then as whole texts before considering what the elements that
constitute an effective short story. Or students study how to write a paragraph
before going on to practice putting paragraphs together to form an essay.
Principles for Sequencing Content
Spiral sequencing
• This approach involves the recycling of items to ensure that learners
have repeated opportunities to learn them throughout the course.
 Selection of Tasks
To consider when selecting tasks:
• Real World /Authentic or Pedagogic tasks?
Real World / Authentic Task Pedagogic Tasks
Nunan (2001) states that “real-world tasks require Pedagogical tasks are things that learners undertake
learners to approximate, in class, the sorts of in order to acquire language in instructional settings.
behavior required of them in the world beyond the  
classroom. When learners do an authentic task they In pedagogic tasks, learners are required to do things
are doing something that puts real communicative which it is unlikely they would be called upon to do
demands on them. outside of the classroom.
Example Example
The learners need to plan a trip around their country Completing one half of a dialogue, filling in the
for a group of students on an exchange trip. blanks in a story and working out the meaning of ten
nonsense words from clues in a text would be
examples of pedagogic tasks
Real World / Authentic Task Pedagogic Tasks

Authentic tasks are easy to identify as Pedagogical tasks describe what

they are what we do with our own learners do in the classroom to
language all the time. Examples activate and develop their language
include phoning for information, skills. Although these tasks are
preparing a party, planning a holiday, designed for the classroom, there
answering e-mail, preparing reports, should also be a connection, however
holding a meeting and filling in tenuous, to corresponding real-world
application forms. or target tasks. It is particularly
  important that the students are able
to see a connection between the
work they do in the classroom, and
the world beyond the classroom
(Nunan, 2010).
Authentic Task - six guidelines proposed by Mishan (2005)
with regard to task authenticity:
1. Reflect the original communicative purpose of the text on which they are
based.
2. Be appropriate to the text on which they are based.
3. Elicit response to/engagement with the text on which they are based.
4. Approximate real-life tasks.
5. Activate learners’ existing knowledge of the target language and culture.
6. Involve purposeful communication between learners.
Example of a real-world task:
• Carry out an online search and find options for travelling from Singapore to
Hong Kong during the school break. Find out about available flights, identify
the cheapest options, and find out which have hotel packages.
Source: [Link]
TASK SELECTION: Willis and Willis (2007:12-14)
• Will the activity engage learners' interest?
• Is there a primary focus on meaning?
• Is there a goal or an outcome?
• Is success judged in terms of outcome?
• Is completion a priority?
• Does the activity relate to real world activities?’
Task selection: Balancing meaning and form
A fundamental tension in communicative language
teaching is that it tries to bring together form
(grammar/ structure) and meaning.
Range of tasks - Sufficient balance between focus on
meaning and focus on form?
Other Considerations for Task Selection:
• What will my students be needing English for? Will the task be relevant
to their needs? There can also be great value getting to do tasks that
are not directly relevant but are interesting and can generate lots of
interaction e.g. variations of the famous ‘You will be living on a desert
island for the next year. Which ten items would you bring?’. However,
using tasks that are observably relevant to the learner can bring about
greater levels of satisfaction.
• Is the task motivating? Will it engage students in authentic interaction?
• Will it generate discussion? Or is it a task where everyone would work
on their own in silence?
• What type of discourse does the task lend itself to? Is it a roleplay that
will generate a lot of typical language used at a restaurant? Is it a
debate that will see lots of opinion-stating, agreeing and disagreeing?
• Is it a collaborative task where students have to negotiate
their roles and/or instruct each other to do certain things?
And more importantly, will practice of such a discourse be of
use to the students?
• Is there a model to guide students?
• Will students have the language to do the task? If not, what
language might you have to pre-teach? Can you limit pre-
teaching to five language items?
Syllabus Considerations for Sequencing
Tasks
• A crucial aspect of task-based second language teaching and
syllabus design is that tasks must be graded and sequenced
and presented to learners at the appropriate stage of their
interlanguage development.
• Language acquisition is believed to take place by means of
the development of a ‘series of systems, known as
interlanguages, which are gradually grammaticised and
restructured’ as new language features are added (Ellis,
2003: 29).
• Designing a syllabus inherently implies sequencing content with the
goal of maximizing language learning.
• Today, syllabus content is sequenced based on some notion of
linguistic complexity, as this is assumed to affect the ease with which
structures can be learned. More complex structures being optimally
learned only after simpler structures have been mastered. Long
(2007, pp. 126-127) has argued that this is problematic and
ineffective. The claim that one grammatical form (e.g., relative
clauses) is more complex than another (e.g., conditionals) is often
based on intuition rather than any empirical evidence.
Criteria for Sequencing
• As stated by Baralt, Gilabert, and Robinson (2014, p. 1), ‘To date …,
there is still no widely agreed-upon set of criteria that can be used to
grade and sequence tasks.’ At the same time, establishing
theoretically driven, pedagogically sound and researchable criteria for
sequencing tasks is of vital importance both for learners’ immediate
(production) and long-term (acquisition) goals in a second language.
• To date, there is still no widely agreed-upon set of criteria that can be
used to grade and sequence tasks (although some have been
proposed, and are the subject of current research, as we describe
later in this chapter). This is important because at the level of
curriculum or lesson plan, tasks do not exist in a vacuum (Baralt,
Gilabert and Robinson, 2014).
Pedagogical Sequencing
• This is also known as “pedagogical layering”. Sequencing
activities teaches students that language learning is an
incremental, step-by-step process that cannot be rushed.
Regardless of the particular module (e.g., speaking, reading,
pragmatics, grammar, etc.), instructors stress the importance
of sequencing activities to form a logical progression.
• Despite its importance for learning, teachers find the
concept of pedagogical sequencing, or layering, challenging
at times because it requires the teacher to have the big
picture—how the pieces of each activity build on previous
activities and lead to a final whole.
• A benefit of sequencing multiple activities into a single
integrated lesson is that it allows the teacher to demonstrate
how the whole (language) is built from many separate pieces
(vocabulary, grammar, pragmatics, etc.).
• Each activity should logically build on what has been
previously studied and lead naturally to a subsequent
activity.
• Such a careful sequence helps to create pedagogical
coherence that in turn helps students stay on task.
 Consider the complexity of the task
Here 'complexity' has to be understood in terms of the 'demands
placed upon the learner'. Those demands, will derive from:
•the identification and selection of adequate linguistic forms,
•the difficulty of those forms. measured especially in relation to the
mother tongue (how
•'far' they are from regular and usual patterns in the Ll)
•the number of formal linguistic elements required by the task,
•the difficulty in arranging those formal elements,
•the amount of ideas or semantic units the learners will have to
manipulate or control,
•the cognitive demands that the elicitation of those ideas will require
from the learners,
•the degree of efficiency and accuracy needed for communicating
those ideas to others.
It is not a simple and easy matter to consider that a task may
consist of just one or many activities.
• Moreover, a task may involve some other tasks or sub-tasks as well. 'Buying
a ticket' may imply calling the travel agent, catching the bus and paying the
fare, discussing the options available, comparing prices, describing holiday
resorts, or looking for different options on the internet, reading the types of
tickets available, etc.
• A simple, one-activity task fits any syllabus or classroom with no problem
(linguistic resources needed for its performance are easy to define);
• a task that consists of several activities, or tasks involving other tasks or
'subtasks', may be extremely demanding in terms of words and structures
required for their implementation.
• Learners will have to cope with a relatively easy communicative situation
when a task requires only one activity, but the requirements will overcome
them when facing a more complex chain of communicative sequences.
Sequencing according to Cognitive Complexity
• This involves providing increased planning time at the
beginning of a course, which allow for increased
automatization of a learner’s linguistic resources.
• Also involves increasing a task’s complexity by simulating
the processing conditions that learners may encounter
in the real world- but increasing the level of complexity.
• Increasing the cognitive demands of tasks will push
learners to greater accuracy and complexity, and
promote interaction and heightened attention to, uptake
of and memory for input.
Sequencing Tasks (Jane Willis)
• How to adapt a text book unit to build up a task sequence which gives
rich exposure to language in use and opportunities for learners to use
English for themselves.
• In many cases this will mean changing the order of the unit sections
and doing the grammar sections later, after you have done a set of
tasks on the topic.
• Step 1: Focus on meaning - It is really important to let learners do the
tasks, expressing their meanings as best they can with the language
they have already acquired, even if they make mistakes.
• Step 2: Focus on form - Then, after the task sequence, to use the
Grammar sections to focus on form and help them build on what they
know.

[Link]
• If learners do the grammar first, they will be worrying
about using the new forms and getting them right,
rather than focusing on what they want to mean. This
will have a negative effect on their confidence. It takes
time to absorb grammar - it is rarely learnt quickly
enough for them to put to immediate use in
spontaneous interactive talk.
• Pre-task/Priming phase
• The aim of this stage is to prepare learners for doing the main target task. For this
they will need vocabulary to express the meanings they may wish to express when
doing the target task. Any of the suggestions above for teacher-led tasks could be
used at this stage.
• Most textbook units start with some vocabulary building activities to introduce the
words and phrases that are useful for the new theme or topic. These can often be
made into mini-tasks that are more engaging than just ‘listen and repeat'. If there
are pictures, use them for ‘Correct the teacher' / True or False games (teacher-led
or with learners in pairs or groups) or memory challenge tasks.
For example:
• With your partner, look at the picture of the house for one minute and try to
remember the names of the furniture in each room. Close your books. You now
have two minutes to draw / write a list of things in each room. How many things
have you got in each room? Now say / read your list to another pair and see who
got the most... Finally ask your teacher if she/he can remember what furniture is
TASK CYCLE: PLANNING STAGE TO REPORT STAGE
• In many of the tasks illustrated in my second article, the final
instructions were "Now tell another pair your story / what
you have done / Tell the class who you chose and say your
reasons". This is what is often called the Report stage.
• At this (report) stage, because they are ‘going public' and
talking to a wider audience, learners naturally want to use
their best language - they will feel the need to plan well, use
the right words, speak as fluently as they can and avoid
mistakes. But most learners will need help to prepare for
this.
 So, include a planning stage.
• If you incorporate a Planning stage between the task and the report back
stage, learners will have a chance to focus on the language they want to use
and improve it. They can check out words in a dictionary, and ask you to
help them say what they want to mean. They can even rehearse their report
in pairs. So you as teacher will be acting as language advisor, and learners
will each be working at their own level, building on, improving and
extending the language they already have. Thus, we achieve a learner-
centred focus on language in the context of the task.
• During the final Report phase, there is a simultaneous focus on fluency and
accuracy, and the Planning stage helps them to prepare for this.
 Focus on Form: At the end of the task cycle
• Now is the time to turn to the grammar sections in your textbook. Learners
will now have experienced quite a lot of this language in use, and the
grammar exercises can often be done quickly as consolidation exercises. To
save time, start each exercise off in class and let them finish them at home
working at their own pace. Some books have grammar reference and/or
review pages - use these as a basis for a grammar quiz prepared by learners
at home.
Recycling of Content and Tasks
• Recycling involves practising language that learners have seen previously.
The recycled language will be re-introduced in a different context, or
through a different skill. This helps the student extend their application
and range of use of the new language structures and vocabulary.
Example
• On the last lesson, the learners were introduced to functional language
of greetings and introductions. This lesson, they do a quick
communicative activity where they recycle this language.
In the language classroom recycling is an important part of the
consolidation of learning. It is often included in course and course book
structures. Teachers can look for opportunities to recycle new language
through varying the skills throughout the term.
Recycling in one lesson or sequences of lessons
• In our opinion the best way of building in recycling opportunities
within lessons is by using the same language in different, varied
activities.
• Every repetition gives the students' brains more chance to form long
term memories of sounds, vocabulary and structures which can form
the basis of independent use at a later time.
• Within the PPP model (Presentation – Practice - Production) this is
easy, as you provide examples of new language through listening or
reading, practise them though controlled oral and written exercises,
then further recycle them in free writing, for example as a homework
task.
• You can return to the same language, and maybe a bit more, in a
subsequent lesson, either re-using similar activities (because
familiarity is important to students) or with new ones (because
students also enjoy variety). Below are a range of tasks which could
be used within a single lesson or lesson sequence when presenting
and practising the past tense.
• Each task might take only a few minutes. You will note how the same
language is recycled multiple times, even though the precise activity
changes. Every repetition gives the students' brains more chance to
form long term memories of sounds, vocabulary and structures which
can form the basis of independent use at a later time.
 Recycling over a whole course
•  A well-planned course will have built in numerous opportunities to recycle language,
especially high frequency language. In the so-called spiral curriculum model used by
many textbooks, an area of vocabulary or grammar will be revisited at least once a
year, perhaps more often.
• One criticism levelled at this model is that the gap between each ‘revisit’ is so long that
many students have forgotten what they previously learned, so, in effect, you need to
start teaching the whole thing again. This is a common complaint of language teachers.
• The solution is to ensure that from week to week you attempt to incorporate key
language as often as possible in new contexts and also to recycle it in classroom talk by,
for instance, asking students in L2 what they did at the weekend in order to revise the
past/perfect tense.
• If you do not recycle and just move on to a new topic, leaving the previous one behind
completely, students are more likely to forget what they have done. If you have your
own classroom, retaining key elements of each point taught throughout the year on a
‘teaching wall’ could enable you to ensure that knowledge is retained.
Example of Recycling
• Here’s one simple example of how using familiar language to introduce new
language can help students learn more effectively.
• If you teach without recycling familiar language, this looks like a dense lesson
– eight new vocabulary words and two question and answer patterns.
• However, actively recycling previously learned language can make the lesson
more manageable.
• For example, students have already learned the concept of plurals, and how
to add an –s to the end of words to indicate more than one item. They may
need to be reminded, but they don’t need to learn it again. That reduces the
vocabulary load to four new words (and their plurals). What’s this? It’s a (CD)
is also a very familiar pattern. It’s the first question students learned to ask
and answer in the first book of the series to which this page belongs (Let’s
Begin). It was recycled in a lesson two units prior to this lesson.
Listening to teacher while watching a sequence of pictures (or flashcards) depicting
activities (e.g. I played tennis, I watched a movie, I listened to music, I sang a song).
Repeating the same language while watching the pictures.
Hiding the picture while students guess what it was, re-using the language already heard.
Revealing the written version of the language used.
Having the whole class read it aloud together.
Putting the whole sequence together and reading it aloud.
Hiding the language, then the teacher reads aloud the sequence with gaps for the students to
complete orally or in writing.
Revealing the written version once more and giving false statements about it for students to
correct.
Asking questions about the sequence in L2.
Hiding the language and dictating phrases for students to write on paper or mini-whiteboards. 
Revealing the text and asking students to try to explain in L1. Then give students some new
verbs which follow the same pattern and ask them to make up new phrases or whole sentences.
Present a longer narrative with further meaningful examples of the verb.
It is worth noting how tightly controlled the release of language is, how carefully the language is
selected for difficulty. By limiting the focus in this way, the cognitive demand for students is
reduced and they can focus on the key elements being taught.
Tutorial Task – Sequence the Tasks
Planning a Road Trip
• For this activity, you should have enough maps for each
group in your class. Because your students are likely more
familiar with their home country than the country whose
language they are studying, you should be sure to have local
maps—and everyone should work under the assumption
that this is going to be a true “road trip,” meaning that you
will be driving.
• Design and sequence a series of tasks that will enable your
learners to apply language in planning a road trip.
Additional Notes – TASK SEQUENCING
• Robinson, (2010):The SSARC model of pedagogic task sequencing.
• See following slides.
Robinson, (2010):The SSARC model of pedagogic task
sequencing
Task Sequencing Principle 1. Only the cognitive demands of tasks contributing
to their intrinsic conceptual and cognitive processing complexity are
sequenced
• Following this principle, for example, tasks that do not require intentional
reasoning are performed before those that require it.
• In contrast, the interactive demands of tasks (such as whether they require
one-way or two-way information exchange) are replicated each time
pedagogic task versions are performed so as to help ensure deep semantic
processing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972; Hulstijn, 2001, 2003) rehearsal in
memory (Robinson, 2003a) and elaboration and successful transfer of the
particular ‘schema’ for interactive or monologic task performance to real-
world contexts of use (Schank, 1999; Schank & Abelson, 1977). The theory
placing the sole emphasis for task sequencing on Task Complexity.
Task Sequencing Principle 2. Increase resource-dispersing dimensions of complexity first (e.g.,
from + to − planning time), and then increase resource-directing dimensions (e.g., from − to +
intentional reasoning) The rationale for this can be described in the following way.
• First (Step 1), tasks simple on all dimensions are performed (e.g. + planning, − intentional
reasoning). Task performance thus draws on the simple, stable (SS) ‘attractor state’ of current
interlanguage (cf. Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2007; van Geert, 2008).
• Next (Step 2), complexity on 248 Peter Robinson resource-dispersing dimensions is increased
(e.g., − planning, − intentional reasoning). This promotes speedier access to, and so
automatization (A) of, the current interlanguage system (cf. Bialystok,1994; DeKeyser, 2001,
2007; Robinson, 1997; Robinson & Ha, 1993; Segalowitz, 2003).
• Finally (Step 3), complexity on both resource-dispersing and resource directing dimensions is
increased (e.g., − planning, + intentional reasoning). This promotes restructuring (R) of the
current interlanguage system and the development of new form-function/concept mappings
along resource-directing dimensions of task demands (cf. Andersen, 1984; Andersen & Shirai,
1996; Doughty, 2001; Karmiloff-Smith, 1992; Li & Shirai, 2000; Meisel, 1987; Sato, 1990; von
Stutterheim & Klein, 1987; von Stutterheim & Nuse, 2003) and introduces maximum
complexity (C) destabilizing the current interlanguage system (cf. Long, 2003).
 Intentional reasoning explained
• Intentional reasoning requires explanation of people's intentions.
Robinson(2007)defines IR as “understanding and explaining the motives,
beliefs and thoughts which cause others to perform certain actions” (p.194).
• performing complex tasks that require IR will amplify focus on form and
push L2 learners to produce language that is characterized with higher
syntactic complexity, lexical complexity and accuracy at the expense of
fluency (ibid).
• IR demands may require learners to read the thoughts of others, explain
their desires, predict their actions, justify their decision-making and draw
true conclusions about the consequences of their intentions (Bratman,
1987). This complicated process is assumed to pose substantial burdens on
learners’ various resources including attention and working memory with a
direct impact on the characteristics of the language used to elucidate IR
requirements.
• Leighton (2004) defines IR as the process of drawing conclusions
about people’s intentions which can be linked to strategies of
problem-solving or decision-making which others employ.
• Bratman (1987) defines intentional reasoning as a state of mind,
which allows us to characterize actions as done intentionally, or
with some intention, or unintentionally. Therefore, the main
components of intentionality are argued to be beliefs, desires,
planning and coordination. Whenever someone intends to do
something, this act will be intended to satisfy a current desire,
which in turn, needs to be consistent with one’s beliefs to
guarantee effective planning and successful execution of the
intended act
Robinson divides variables along two
dimensions.
• Resource-directing Variables
• Resource-dispersing Variables
Resource-directing Variables Resource-dispersing Variables
First are resource-directing variables, i.e. Second are ëresource-dispersingí variables,
those which help attentional focus through which are affected, for example, by task
the amount of contextual support and structure, planning time or amount of prior
reasoning demands. knowledge.

Robinson (2007) argues that increasing task By contrast, a task involving resource-
complexity along the resource-directing dispersing variables (e.g., less planning
dimension, e.g. increasing the need for time), increases the demands on
intentional reasoning (IR), directs learners performance causing depletion of
attention to a range of linguistic and attentional resources; this results in less
functional requirements, leading learners attention being available for processing, and
attention to improve both aspects of the therefore may negatively affect speech
linguistic form, i.e. complexity and accuracy performance across the three aspects of
of performance. performance, i.e. complexity (syntactic
and/or lexical), accuracy and fluency.

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