Designing a topic-based syllabus

for young learners

James M. Bourke

In recent years there has been a good deal of debate on the teaching of English to
young learners. Although the article looks at the teaching of English to lower
primary children in an E S L context in Southeast Asia, it is not specific to one
region. The young learners in question are aged 6 to 8 years. The main focus of the
article is how best to design a syllabus and classwork materials suitable for young
learners wherever they may be. The writer stresses the need for appropriate target-
setting and makes the case for a topic- based/task-based syllabus. The underlying
rationale is that a second language syllabus should reflect the world of the child
and facilitate the bringing of acquisition into the classroom.

Introduction Although it is clear that different young learners have different English
language needs, priorities, and motivations, it is now generally agreed that
an early start is desirable and beneficial. Language acquisition seems to be
one of the things that young children are particularly good at. The question
is how best to get acquisition into the second language classroom and to
provide the necessary conditions for its growth and development across the
primary curriculum. One of the major considerations is the matter of a
syllabus. The syllabus is much more than an inventory of teaching items. It
also defines the approach to teaching/learning. Every syllabus has to take
account of contextual variables and constraints, and at the same time pay
due regard to the principles of second language learning. In this paper it will
be argued that there is a strong case for a topic-based/task-based approach
to designing English language programmes for young learners.

Syllabus design: Second language syllabus design is an inexact science. Language syllabi are
goals and content written with the specifics of a particular situation in mind. It is difficult to
define linguistic outcomes precisely for learners of different age groups,
different socio-linguistic backgrounds, and different curricular experiences.
Clearly, however, one needs overall goals within which specific outcomes or
objectives can be set. For instance the goals of an English language syllabus
for young learners might be the following (adapted from the primary
English syllabus for Brunei):
n to help pupils communicate effectively in English, in order to discuss
personal experiences, and to meet the demands of the school
curriculum

E LT Journal Volume 60/3 July 2006; doi:10.1093/elt/ccl008 279

ª The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.
 n to facilitate the acquisition of fluency and accuracy through active
participation in a range of appropriate tasks
n to develop emergent reading and to inculcate in pupils a fondness for
reading
n to introduce language items (e.g. structures, vocabulary) within the
context of appropriate topics which can be talked about, read about, and
written about.
Assuming that the function of a syllabus is to generate appropriate units of
work for a specific group of learners, one can see that a syllabus constructed
to implement the four broad goals above would have the following
characteristics:
n communicative activities such as games, cued dialogues, role-play,
information gap exercises, and various other interactive tasks
n communicative tasks supported by ‘enabling’ (i.e. language-oriented)
tasks. The rationale here is that children will acquire the language as a by-
product of the activities in which they are engaged
n gradual introduction of pupils to reading in English by means of the
shared reading of Big Books, using both ‘look and say’ and phonic
approaches
n topic-related units of work derived from the syllabus. The topics provide
the scaffolding around which the language grows and develops. They also
provide the motivation for personal and group writing tasks.
In all of this the needs and experiences of the learner are paramount. The
aim is not so much to teach them the new language, but rather to provide the
necessary conditions and motivating experiences for the target language to
be acquired by the pupils themselves.

Minimizing Based on the communicative agenda above, it could be argued that the best
mismatches type of syllabus for young learners of English is one which makes it possible
for them to acquire the target language within the acquisition-poor
environment of the classroom. The problem with skills-based, structural,
lexical, and other ‘itemized’ syllabi is that they are needlessly prescriptive
and uni-directional. They are based on the false assumption that there is a
simple, one-to-one relationship between teaching and learning. Nunan
(1994) pointed out that learning is mutually constructed as a collaborative
experience between teachers and learners. He went on to outline the
mismatches that may occur between the agendas of teachers and learners in
three important domains: a) the experiential domain, b) the learning
process domain, and c) the language content domain.

The experiential In relation to this domain, language teaching should relate to the child’s world.
domain It is necessary to re-discover and inhabit the world of the child. Children live
in a world of fantasy and make-believe, a world of dragons and monsters,
talking animals, and alien beings. In their world there are no tenses, nouns,
or adjectives; there are no schemas labelled ‘grammar’, ‘lexis’, ‘phonology’, or
‘discourse’. It follows that when we plan a syllabus for young learners we
should make sure it is experientially appropriate. It should contain:
n topics of interest to children
n stories of all kinds

280 James M. Bourke

 n games and fun activities
n doing and making activities
n songs, chants, and rhymes
n pairwork and groupwork tasks
n Big Books
n materials from the Web
n children’s literature
n any activity that brings acquisition into the classroom.
There is still a place for language games and meaningful drills, but only in
so far as these ‘language experiences’ act as a pivot point to more genuine
communication.

The learning process Itemized syllabi typically focus on the product and not on the learning
domain process. They ignore the fact that language is made in the mind and
requires active processing on the part of the learner. In contrast, a
‘process’ type syllabus requires learners to notice features of the input
and process them in various ways in order to convert ‘input’ into ‘intake’.
The main objection to skills-based, structural, and other ‘itemized’
syllabi is that they are unnatural. They intervene in and interfere with
the learner’s emerging interlanguage, which is often described as
a ‘built-in syllabus’. Naturalness in second language learning implies
a commitment to acquisition-like activities in acquisition-rich
environments and the adoption of a ‘minimal teaching strategy’,
a viewpoint expressed by Von Humboldt: ’ We cannot teach a language;
we can only create the conditions under which it will be learned’
(Dakin 1973: 11).
What those optimal conditions are is still an open question, but different
researchers have suggested the following:
n comprehensible input
n a stress-free environment
n the right to be silent
n copious interaction
n some focus on form.
Research also indicates that language learning is a complex, non-linear, and
rather chaotic process.
Learning linguistic items is not a linear process—learners do not master
one item and then move on to another. In fact the learning curve for a
single item is not linear either (Larsen-Freeman 1997: 151).

The language Some syllabi and coursebooks adopt a multi-strand approach to language
content domain content by listing language content under headings such as language input
(grammar, language functions, lexical items) and skills development (the
four skills). This division of labour results in a series of lessons where the
main teaching point is grammar, or reading comprehension, or writing, etc.
What happens is that teachers blindly follow the sequence of teaching items
in the syllabus in the hope that learners will somehow re-combine these
discrete items once they are inside the head. Sadly, this does not seem to
happen.

Designing a topic-based syllabus for young learners 281

 What is needed is ‘roughly tuned’ language input, not ‘finely tuned’ input.
The language has to be packaged in a way that makes sense to children.
Hence the relevance of topics as vehicles in which language can be
contextualized. The language input must be not only comprehensible, it
must also be memorable. Children need exposure to ‘whole instances of
language use’ and not a series of disjointed bits of language. It is the author’s
contention that topics provide a natural context for the integration of
language input and skills development.

Why topics and Hudelson (1991: 2–5) describes four basic principles of learning and
tasks? language learning that are embedded in a topic-based/task-based approach:
1 Young learners are in the ‘concrete operations’ stage of cognitive
development. This means that they learn through hands-on experiences.
It follows that in language classes children ‘need to be active rather than
passive; they need to be engaged in activities of which language is a part;
they need to be working on meaningful tasks and use language to
accomplish those tasks’ (Hudelson, op. cit.).
2 In a group situation some members know more than others. Those
who know less can learn from those who know more. Hence, children
need to interact with and learn from each other. Teachers too need to
interact with the children in order to challenge them to go beyond
their present level of expression. This kind of contextual support is known
as ‘scaffolding’ (Ellis 1997: 48).
3 Acquisition is a discovery process. Learners have to figure out how the
language works. ‘In terms of the classroom context, an implication is that
learners need opportunities to use and to experiment with the new
language.’ (Hudelson op. cit.). Learners must be free to make errors so
they can re-structure their emerging language system.
4 Acquisition occurs through social interaction. Meaning is constructed
jointly as learners work together and exchange messages. They need to
talk to each other in order to negotiate meaning.

Putting it together The design of a topic-based syllabus is fairly straightforward. A topic

is selected as the hub for a unit of work which may extend over one or
two weeks. It is the topic that ‘selects’ the new language items, be they
structures, language functions, or vocabulary. The topic also suggests
relevant listening and speaking tasks, interactive activities, (for
example, games, information-gap, etc.), reading texts, and a variety of
writing tasks keyed to the topic. The aim is not to give pupils all available
information on a specific topic, but rather to use the topic as a form of
instructional scaffolding in order to let learners themselves explore
certain aspects of a particular topic and the language associated with it.
The number and type of activities planned around a topic depend on
various contextual constraints, such as time, resources, class size,
proficiency level, etc., but they also depend crucially on the willingness
of the teacher to set up and involve learners in motivating learning
experiences.
By way of example, let us suppose that our topic is ‘Animals around us’. We
might begin by naming some common animals, such as monkeys, snakes,
spiders, and frogs.

282 James M. Bourke

 We show a large-size cut-out of the each animal to elicit what pupils already
know, for example:
Monkeys have fur and long tails.
They live in the jungle.
This one is a macaque.
The teacher may ‘feed in’ some new words or ideas, for example, ‘troop’,
‘agile’, ‘chatter’, ‘naughty’, etc. Then pupils discuss the size, food, covering
and habitat of the other animals.
As Hudelson (op. cit.) suggests, the language focus of the unit of work may
be any one or more of the following:
n identify each animal by name (‘This is. . .’/‘That’s a. . .’)
n describe animals according to their size (‘It’s big/small/bigger/smaller/
fatter.’)
n colour (‘It’s brown/green.’); appendages (‘It has a long trail, eight
legs’); kind of skin (‘The . . .has fur/scales/feathers.’); how they move
(‘The . . . runs/hops/crawls/flies.’)
n classify animals according to their habitat. (‘The . . .lives in water/in the
jungle/in trees.’)
n Making comparisons: (‘The monkey has ears. The mouse-deer has ears.
Both have ears.’/‘The frog does not have wings. The snake does not have
wings. Neither has wings.’/‘All birds have beaks. All butterflies have
wings. All ants have six legs.’)
n Ability: (‘Frogs can swim, but they can’t fly.’).
Follow-up tasks may be any of the following:
a On a large picture poster, find the four animals; name them, using
labels.
b In pairs, talk about each animal.
c Listen to and sing the animal song. (on cassette)
d In groups play the game—Do you know this animal?
e Shared Reading from a Big Book about animals, e.g. ‘Have you ever
seen. . .?’
f Group writing: Write five sentences about any one of the animals.
The unit of work on ‘Animals Around Us’ may take one or two weeks
depending on the amount of time set aside for English. Each lesson will be a
seamless whole, with flexible stages, and with the language focus integrated
within the various activities.

From topic to task A topic on its own is not of much use. It is what one does with it that matters.
The topic provides the inspiration for a variety of tasks that pupils engage
in. In the present context a ‘task’ is a structured activity involving learners
in some form of real interaction, which may or may not be supported by
pre-selected language items.

figure 1
Topic as interface
between interaction and
language focus

Designing a topic-based syllabus for young learners 283

 In the case of young learners, two kinds of task are especially relevant, viz.
1 Communication tasks (objective: fluency through interaction)
According to Estaire and Zanon (1994: 13) a communication task is a piece
of classroom work which has the following traits. It involves the learner in
n the comprehension of the second language (spoken or written),
n the production of the second language (spoken or written), and
n oral interaction in the second language.
Learners’ attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form. It
resembles activities which students carry out in everyday life and it may
involve all four skills.
2 Enabling tasks (objective: accuracy through focus-on-form)
An enabling task is a language-oriented activity designed to provide
students with the necessary linguistic tools to carry out a communication
task. It may take the form of a great variety of activities which focus on
language analysis, language awareness, or language practice. Enabling
tasks may come before or after a communication task even though Willis
(1996) insists that they should come last.
A task-based syllabus presupposes that pupils already have a working
knowledge of the second language. How could they possibly solve problems,
play games, or do information-gap tasks without a reasonable degree of
second language proficiency? But young learners do not normally have that
prior knowledge. Hence, at the lower primary level there has to be some
preliminary work on building up a repertoire of enabling language so as to
facilitate real interaction at a later stage. Not surprisingly, some teachers feel
that any talk of task-based learning in its strong form at lower primary
is premature. Pupils may not be ready to stay afloat, communicatively
speaking, until they are at upper primary level. Many teachers are quite
reluctant to accept that TB L on its own is the only way to go, a viewpoint
advocated by Nunan (2002: 23):
I think task based learning is the only way to go for younger learners
because it is entirely natural to get someone learning something by doing
rather than by memorising sentence patterns or whatever.
The writer takes the view that much depends on the learners’ readiness. If
they already know some English, one can plunge them into a structured
communicative task. However, if they do not, then some time will need to be
spent on building a linguistic platform.

Total integration One of the major challenges in constructing an E S L syllabus for young
learners is integrating language input and skills development. In the
context of Communicative Language Teaching, integration is the name of
the game. There is no longer any justification for an obsolete itemized
syllabus. Nobody wants to return to the bad old days of ‘grammar
bashing’—the traditional teaching of discrete points of grammar external
to the learner. Not everyone accepts Krashen’s viewpoint (Krashen 1981)
that children acquire language in only one way—when they understand
messages, i.e. receive comprehensible input. However, the provision of

284 James M. Bourke

comprehensible input is crucial in the case of young learners. We have
already seen how grammar and vocabulary might be linked to the topic
‘Animals around us’. Likewise, phonology should grow out of the topic.
Sometimes phonemic awareness, and a phonics approach to early reading,
are taught as grammar used to be taught, in discrete units (see Lloyd 1992).
A topic-based approach however would integrate both phonemic awareness
and phonics into the topic as a ‘speechwork’ activity, which might be
presented as a jingle, nursery rhyme, and various games such as mimicking
the sounds animals make, etc. While oral language can be easily linked to
the topic of the week, reading and writing are more problematic in the sense
that lower primary pupils cannot normally read or write even in their
mother tongue. For this reason, reading and writing call for special
attention.
As regards reading, the use of Big Books makes it possible to go from
discussing a topic to reading a story about, or at least related to, the same
topic. In Primary 1 the focus has to be on emergent reading, with a gradual
progression from reading aloud to silent individual reading (in Primary 3).
Big Books keyed to the topics should be part of the reading programme
in Primary 1 and 2. It seems desirable also that Big Books should be
contextually appropriate. However, just reading and re-reading Big Books
aloud is not enough. There has to be:
n a focus on building sight vocabulary
n a focus on phonics and word attack skills
n Word Bank activities, especially a focus on word families
n word and phrase recognition
n making predictions prior to reading
n responding to the text.
As with reading, the topic provides the motivation, ideas, and most of the
language needed for writing. Pupils in lower primary classes are not
linguistically ready for group and individual story writing. Writing develops
slowly and lags some way behind speaking. It should not be rushed. In
Primary 1 the main writing activity should be handwriting, learning the
alphabet, writing common words and phrases, transcription, and some very
basic controlled exercises. In Primary 2 writing tasks can be more guided
than controlled. Various techniques can be used such as the W SQ A
technique developed by Burgess (1994) in Malaysia. WS QA is an acronym
for Word, Sentence, Question, Answer. It is a simple language game
designed to give structured practice in recycling a word in a self-generated
sentence, question, and answer. Other simple topic-related writing activities
can be found in Hadfield and Hadfield (2000). In Primary 3 one can
move on to the beginning of ‘free’ writing. Work here too should be related
to the topic of the week.
Young learners are by definition ‘struggling writers’ and teachers have to
provide the instructional scaffolding necessary for them to write in the
second language, English. There is nothing wrong with explicit teaching at
lower primary level. Pupils have to learn basic skills (such as handwriting,
spelling, and punctuation) before a process approach can be adopted at
upper primary level. It is not being suggested that young learners should not
write in English until they have mastered English grammar, spelling, and

Designing a topic-based syllabus for young learners 285

 discourse structure. Rather, it is proposed that young children need a lot of
time and practice in order to learn the craft of writing, and that it may be
counter-productive to introduce them to the process model of writing too
soon.

Conclusion The case for a topic-based/task-based syllabus for young learners is based on
the belief that children learn best by doing—in the sense of exploring topics
and engaging in meaningful tasks—in a stress-free and supportive learning
environment. When topics are allied to tasks one has a very effective
mechanism for planning and implementing English language instruction
at the lower primary level. The basic assumption here is that language
learning is easy when the child is actively involved in the learning process.
An old-fashioned ‘itemized’ syllabus seems hopelessly out of step with the
notion of Communicative Language Teaching. It adopts a linear and
atomistic approach to the specification of content and it engenders a dreary
drill-based approach to teaching methodology. A topic-based/task-based
approach is based on the simple fact that it is the learner who does the
learning and that the teacher’s role is to facilitate the learning process.
However, all learning has to be structured in some way. Topics and matching
tasks provide a structured framework for getting young learners actively
involved in the learning of a second language. A topic-based/task-based
syllabus can yield very stimulating units of work for young learners and
remove many of the roadblocks to successful second language learning.
Revised version received November 2004

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Burgess, P. 1994. ‘Achieving accuracy in oral learning process’. Paper given at 28th IAT EFL
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Dakin, J. 1973. The Language Laboratory and Language Nunan’. The Teachers and Educators SIG Newsletter
Learning. Harlow: Longman. 2002/3: 22–3.
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Estaire, S. and J. Zanon. 1994. Planning Classwork:
A Task-based Approach. Oxford: Heinemann. The author
Hadfield, J. and C. Hadfield. 2000. Simple Writing James M. Bourke is a Senior Lecturer in the
Activities. Oxford : Oxford University Press. Department of Language Education at the
Hudelson, S. 1991. ‘EFL teaching and children: University of Brunei where he teaches courses in
a topic-based approach’. English Teaching Forum language awareness, grammar, phonology, and
October 1991. syllabus design. He has published numerous articles
Krashen, S. 1981. Second Language Acquisition and on task-based learning, form-focused instruction,
Second Language Learning. Oxford: Pergamon Press. and communicative interactive techniques. His
Larsen-Freeman, D. 1997. ‘Chaos/Complexity main research interest is ‘linguistic problem-
science and second language acquisition’. Applied solving’.
Linguistics 18/2. Email: [email protected]
Lloyd, S. 1992. The Phonics Handbook (3rd edition).
Chigwell, UK: Jolly Learning.

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