TYPES OF SYLLABUSES

1
 A syllabus
• is a description of the contents of a course of
instruction and the order in which they are to
be taught.
(Richards, Platt and Platt)

• will be defined narrowly as the specification

and ordering of content of a course or
courses.
(Graves)

2
 A syllabus
• …is seen as an instrument by which the
teacher, with the help of a syllabus designer,
can achieve a degree of ‘fit’ between the
needs and aims of the learner (as social beings
and as individuals) and the activities which
take place in the classroom.
(Yalden, 1984)

3
 A syllabus
• is a statement of content which is used as the
basis for planning courses of various kinds,
and the task of the syllabus designer is to
select and grade this content.
(Nunan, 1988)

4
Elements in a language syllabus
Richards and Rogers (1986) mentioned that
learning a language, it was assumed, entails
mastering the elements or building blocks of
the language and learning the rules by which
these elements are combined, from phoneme
to morpheme to word to phrase to sentence.

5
Elements in a language syllabus
Grammatical structures
Functions
Notions
Topics
Themes
Subjects
Activities
Tasks
(Richards & Rogers, 1986)

6
 Curriculum is
• the totality of learning experiences
undertaken by a student under the
guidance of an educational
institution
• an interrelated set of plans and
experiences that a student
undertakes under the guidance of
the school
7
 CURRICULUM/SYLLABUS
CURRICULUM SYLLABUS

A very general concept which The subpart of curriculum

involves consideration of the which is concerned with a
whole complex of philosophical, specification of what units
social and administrative factors will be taught (as distinct
which contribute to the planning from how they will be
of an educational programme. taught, which is a matter of
methodology).

8
 CURRICULUM/SYLLABUS
CURRICULUM SYLLABUS

Concerned with the planning, Focuses more narrowly on the

implementation, evaluation, selection and grading of
management and content. May contain all or
administration of education any of the following;
programmes. Enhances phonology, grammar,
syllabus design and functions, notions, topics,
methodology themes, tasks.

9
 Concept of syllabus
Each belief system about what students need
to learn in the language classroom depends
on organising a global order of presentation.
Regardless of the approach a teacher adopts,
she must plan and organise, make decisions
about what should be taught first, second,
third and so on.

10
 Concept of syllabus
Many language teachers, syllabus designers
and testers tend to think in terms of units of
language. They tend also to think of these
units as being organised in some way, with
similar language bits being grouped together,
on the grounds that a well-marshalled
inventory will be more comprehensible to the
learner (and the teacher) than an
unorganised list.

11
 Concept of syllabus
Syllabus designers tend to list things which
can be easily systematised. To put it the other
way round, things which cannot easily be
systematised cannot really be listed, and this
is the problem with some of the more holistic
approaches to syllabus design.

12
 Types of syllabuses
For a long time, 3 major types of syllabuses
were identified:

• Structural
• Situational
• Notional

13
 Types of syllabuses
Syllabuses can also be categorised into:
• Product-oriented
- Content is stated in terms of the outcomes of
instruction (eg. grammatical items)
- Product is the end of a series of actions
• Process based
- Content is specified in terms of learning tasks and
activities (eg. functional skills)
- Process is a series of actions directed to some end

14
 Types of syllabuses
A) Structural
• Focus on grammatical forms (as basis/useful).
• Organizing principles - grammatical structures,
sequenced from easy to difficult or frequent to less
frequent.
• Table of contents is organized around grammar
points.
• Cognitive method of language teaching (audio-
lingual, grammar translation method

15
• separate and discrete items introduced one a at a
time
• previous lesson prepares ground for the next
• assumes language consists of finite set of rules which
can be combined in various ways to make meanings
• assumes rule can be combined one by one
• once internalized, learners will automatically be able
to use in genuine communication outside the
classroom (referring to lang. transfer)
 Strengths
• The strength of the structural syllabus is that it
can account for all the forms of language and
relate them to each other in a coherent and
finite system.

17
 Criticisms
• Difficult to isolate and present discrete item one
at a time
• Learning doesn’t occur in a simple additive
fashion; language learning is not linear but
global; different aspects of grammar are
mastered simultaneously rather than one
structure at a time
• Difficult to control input and language samples
which have semblance to communication outside
classroom. Tend to limit to sentence level

18
• a single structure can fulfill several functions; a
single function can be fulfilled by several structures;
lack of one-to-one fit between form and function
• acquisition of grammatical structures not
determined by simplicity or complexity in
grammatical ordering
• certain grammatical structures are immediately
needed
• structurally graded syllabus focuses on one aspect
of language, not the complex phenomenon called
language; there is more to language than just
grammar

19
Example of Structural Syllabus from Contents page:
Manual of English Grammar & Composition,
J. C. Nesfield & F. T. Wood
Chapter
3. NOUNS :
Section 1. The Kinds of Nouns
2. Gender
3. Number
4. Case
4. ADJECTIVES :
Section 1. Personal Pronouns
2. Demonstrative Pronouns
3. Relative or Conjunctive Pronouns
4. Interrogative Pronouns

20
 Types of Syllabuses
B) Situational
• Organizing principle – situations/settings ,
sequenced by the likelihood student will encounter
them or based on chronology.
• E.g. : At the office, seeing the landlord, meeting a
new student, at the book store etc
• Dialogues: situational materials in many forms
provide comprehensible input
• Well-prepared situations show how native speakers
act and what they talk about; sets of structures and
vocabulary items are learned
• Imaginary or real situations
21
 Strengths
• Explicit attention is paid to the influence of
social factors on language choice (i.e. when to
be formal versus informal).
• It may motivate learners to see that what
they are learning is “real-life” language that
actually meets their most pressing everyday
communication needs.

22
 Shortcomings
• While certain language functions will most likely
occur in certain physical situational settings such as
“At the Post Office” or “In a Restaurant” ”, this does
not necessarily mean that all the language forms
that will be used can be predicted. (One may go into
a restaurant, not to order a meal, but only to ask for
directions to a nearby museum.) Hence, a situational
syllabus will be limited for students whose needs are
not encompassed by the situations in the syllabus.
Simply said, language users are real people – not
just robots in situations.

23
• The presence of “artificial” dialogues in many existing
materials, which both illustrate recurrent grammatical
patterns and present practical phrases for a situational
context, often include discourse that would never be used
in natural language. Thus, language as practised in the
classroom and language as spoken in the real world will
often have little in common.
• A situational syllabus is probably most appropriate for
short-term special-purpose courses as in giving
prospective tourists survival skills or preparing service
personnel, such as waiters or waitresses, to deal with
routine requests or fire fighters to handle emergency
situations. It has limited potential for the language learner
interested in acquiring global language proficiency.

24
 Example
RETURNING DEFECTIVE ITEMS TO STORES
Objective: To improve grammar, build vocabulary and develop
listening and speaking skills associated with a particular topic
or situation & to develop assertiveness techniques for
returning defective items to stores.

25
Situation:
Mrs. Lopez bought a pair of shoes on sale. She wore
them one week and noticed the sewing was starting to
come out. She took them back to the shoe store and
this is what happened:
• Salesman: Can I help you?
• Lopez: Yes, I bought these shoes last week and now
they are starting to fall apart. I would like my money
back. (x2)
• S: Do you have the sales receipt?
• L: No, I don't, but I want my money back. (x2)
• M: (Sigh) O.K., come with me and I will see that you
get it back.

26
 Types of Syllabuses
C) Skills-based
• Language skills (e.g. listening for gist, main ideas) are
sequenced by some sense of chronology or usefulness of each
skill
• Using language that combines structural and functional
abilities but exist independently of specific settings and
situations
e.g. reading skills (skim and scan)
writing skills (reports, memos)
• Skills are developed broadly, with varied applications e.g.
intensive reading of various text types

27
 Example
• To enable students:
A to infer meaning from content
B to skim and scan effectively
C to improve reading speed
D not to worry in the face of difficulties
E to use a dictionary efficiently

28
 Weaknesses
• Lacks traditional grammar and vocabulary teaching.
• No guidance in choice of texts for student practice.
• What constitute successful learning.
• List of skills may not be understood in the same way.
Amorphous aim e.g. “to deal efficiently with
customer complaints on the telephone.”

29
 Types of Syllabuses
D) Task-based
• Purposeful tasks that students need to perform using
L2
• Activities that learners have to do, in such a way that
develops L2 ability
• Students draw on resources to complete a piece of
work; draw on variety of language forms, functions,
skills.
• E.g. applying for a job, getting information on rental

30
 Types of Syllabuses
E) Functional and notional
• Functions: specific purpose for a speaker in a given
context (communicative act); function describes the
communicative purposes for which we use language.
• Notion (meaning): notions are the conceptual
meaning expressed through language (e.g. objects,
entities, state of affairs, logical relationships)

31
The essential components found in functional-notional
syllabus are as follows:
1. The situations in which the foreign language will be used.
A situation will always include the following: the
participants, the place, & the time.
2. Topics, and what the learner will be able to do with
these, for example, everyday interactions, such as buying
food, giving directions, are offering advice, etc.
3. The language activities in which the learner will engage.
4. The language functions which the learner will perform.
For example: personal, interpersonal, directive,
referential, imaginative,

32
Examples of grammatical notions:
- time (time relation: past tense, present
tense; duration: until, since)
- quantity (countable, uncountable)
- space (dimensions, locations, motion)

33
Check the following to determine whether it is function or
notion:
• Identifying (function)
• Size ( )
• Time (notion)
• Ownership ( )
• Agreeing ( )
• Frequency ( )
• Direction ( )
• Apologizing ( )
• Offering ( )
• Existence ( )
• Enquiring ( )
• Duration ( )
• Advising ( )
• Equality ( )
• Warning ( )

34
 Strengths
• The learners learn how to use language to express
authentic communicative purposes.
• Learners may be motivated by the opportunity to
use real-world language to express their own
purposes, ideas and emotions.
• The syllabus is easily expandable and admission of
students into the syllabus is possible at any time.
• It promotes language variation since students may
choose a variety of expressions and a number of
grammatical patterns for each communicative
function.
35
 Shortcomings
• Problems in defining and specifying such a syllabus - due to
the enormous complexity of the task of planning the content
of language syllabuses in this way
• List of functions (e.g. requesting information, greeting people,
etc) – difficulty in defining functions with precision and
clarity. Absence of set conditions (or contextual factors)
which limit or determine interpretation of a given function
means that there is at best some ambiguity, and, at worst, a
total misunderstanding over what is meant by such functions
as, for example, expressing intention, expressing one is/is not
obliged to do something or expressing dissatisfaction.

36
 Shortcomings
• A single language function, for instance,
“inviting” may be expressed in many different
ways by using different exponents for different
contexts; e.g. formal vs. informal contexts. For
learners, this sometimes causes confusion and
frustration which results from their inability to
determine which exponent to use in a given
situation, especially at the beginning levels.

37
 Shortcomings
• There are also difficulties of selecting and grading function and
form. Clearly, the task of deciding whether a given function (i.e.
persuading), is easier or more difficult than another (i.e.
approving), is not an easy task. In an attempt to sequence the
functions in an organized manner, one leaves grammatical
structures unsequenced.
• The finite inventories of functions in functional-notional
syllabuses are not different from inventories of grammar items;
for example, instead of learning “the simple past”, learners
might now be required to “talk about the things you did last
weekend”. Being able to perform certain functions does not
equal language competence as a whole.

38
 Types of Syllabuses
G) Topical
• Organized by topics or themes rather than situations
• Selected by textbook authors on the basis of his
sense of the importance of the topics or themes to
the lives of the students for whom the text is
designed.
• The topics are sequenced on the basis of their
perceived importance or on the basis of the relative
difficulty of the reading passages involved

39
 Example… Form 4: 1978
Page Title
1 Here is a special announcement
9 Arranging a visit
17 A visitor is expected

40
 Types of Syllabuses
H) Mixed/layered syllabus
• Mixed syllabus - organization of materials may
involve interspersing elements from 2 or more types
of syllabuses. Eg. situational-topical
• Layered syllabus - secondary/tertiary syllabuses that
operate underneath the primary syllabus

Most materials have some sort of structural syllabus

somewhere below the primary syllabus

41
 Types of syllabuses
Structural Focus on grammatical forms.
Organizing principles- grammatical and phonological
structures, sequenced from easy to difficult or
frequent to less frequent.
Table of contents is organized around grammar
points.
Situational Organizing principle- situations, sequenced by the
likelihood student will encounter them (structural
sequence may be in the background). Could be
based on chronology.
Table of contents: Introductions
Getting acquainted
At the office etc.

42
 Types of syllabuses
Skills-based Basis – language skills (eg. listening for gist, main
ideas) is sequenced by some sense of chronology
or usefulness of each skill (structural and
situational sequences may be in background)
Table of contents: Scanning
Key words

Topic sentences

43
 Types of syllabuses
Task-based Organizing principle – task or activity-based
categories (eg. Drawing maps, following
directions, instructions) – sequenced by some
sense of chronology or usefulness or notions
(structural and situational sequences may be in
background)
Table of contents:
Writing notes and memos
Writing descriptions

44
 Types of syllabuses
Functional Organising principle – functions, (eg. identifying,
reporting) sequenced by some sense of
chronology or usefulness of each function
(structural and situational sequences may be in
background)

Notional Organizing principle – conceptual categories

(notions) – sequenced by some sense of
chronology or usefulness of each notion
(structural and situational sequences may be in
background)

45
 Types of syllabuses
Topical Organizing principle – topics/themes like health,
food, sequenced by the likelihood that student
will encounter them (structural sequence may be
in the background)
Table of content: Trends of living
Being on time
Working hard
Mixed Organizing principle - two or more types of
syllabuses are mixed together into one e.g.
situational + topical syllabuses
Layered Organizing principle – has a primary syllabus + a
secondary syllabus buried underneath e.g. a
underneath overall skills-based syllabus (scanning,
topic sentences) is a secondary topical syllabus
(Leaving Home, Falling in Love)
46
 Types of syllabuses
• Structural
• Situational
• Skills-based
• Task-based
• Functional
• Notional
• Topical
• Mixed/layered
47
 Tutorial
Q1 Do you agree with the following statement: “The
ideal syllabus is the mixed/layered syllabus.” Justify
your answer. (bring along samples of content pages
of various English language coursebooks)
Q2 “The best syllabus is one in which the learners are
given an active part in deciding what is to be taught
and how learning can be effected.” Explain such a
syllabus. Do you agree with the statement? Why?
Q3 What guidelines would you recommend when
organizing or combining different syllabus types?

48
Dubin, F. & Olshtain, E. 1986. Course Design.
Cambridge University Press.
Nunan, D. 1988. Syllabus Design. OUP.
White, R. 1988. The ELT Curriculum: Design,
Innovation & Management. Oxford:
Blackwell.

49