Syllabus Design

Part One

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A Methodology for Syllabus Design

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 Definition of ‘a syllabus’
The difference between the two terms,
“syllabus” and “curriculum”
Curriculum is “all the relevant decision-making
processes of all the participants”
Curriculum includes the goals, objectives,
content, processes, resources, and means of
evaluation of all the learning experiences
planned for pupils both in and out of the
school and community through classroom
instruction and related programs.

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A Syllabus
A syllabus provides a focus for what
should be studied, along with a
rationale for how that content
should be selected and ordered.
A syllabus is “A specification of the
content of a course of instruction
[which] lists what will be taught and
tested”
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A syllabus is a statement of the plan for any
part of the curriculum, excluding the element
of curriculum evaluation itself.

A syllabus can also be seen as “the selection

and grading of linguistic teaching objectives”,
while a plan is what to be achieved through our
teaching and our students’ learning

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 Types of Syllabi
Syllabus design is thought to be based essentially on
a decision about the 'units' of classroom activity, and
the sequence in which they are to be performed

Syllabi can be divided into two different types:

Product-Oriented Syllabi and Process Oriented
Syllabi.

Product oriented syllabi focus on what learners will

know as a result of instruction and they typically list
a selection of graded items to be 'learnt' by the
learners.

.
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In the process-oriented syllabuses, however,
the focus shifts from the 'outcomes of
instruction, i.e., the knowledge and skills to be
gained by the learner, to the processes through
which knowledge and skills might be gained.
The procedural and task-based syllabuses are
considered examples of process-oriented
syllabuses.

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Product-Oriented Syllabi
 Examples of Product-oriented syllabuses are:
 Structural syllabus
 Situational syllabus
 Lexical syllabus
 The notional/ functional syllabus
 Topic- based syllabus

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The Structural Syllabus

Structural syllabi are one of the most common types of

syllabi and still today we can see the contents pages of
many course books set out according to grammatical items.

The grammatical syllabus has been defined as one which

consists of a list of grammatical items selected and graded
in terms of simplicity and complexity.

The structures are generally presented one by one, usually,

but not always, in contrasting pairs, for example, simple
present versus simple past or singular nouns versus plural
nouns.

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The approach to design structurally-
based syllabus
The design approach to structural syllabus is
known as the synthetic approach:
A synthetic language teaching strategy is one
in which the different parts of the language
are taught separately and step-by step so that
acquisition (students’ gain) is a process of
gradual accumulation of the parts until the
whole structure of the language has been built
up.

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The Structural Syllabus is based on a theory of
language which assumes that the grammatical
or structural aspects of language forms are the
most basic or useful items in learning
languages.
This syllabus can be said to embrace a theory
of learning which holds that functional
ability arises from structural knowledge of the
language. Structural syllabus is based on the
assumption that language rules are learned in
a linear fashion and learners should
demonstrate complete mastery of one rule
before moving on to the next.

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Objectives of the Structural Syllabus

Explicit knowledge gained through grammar instruction

helps learners in three ways:
First, it helps them monitor their utterances before and after
they are produced.
Secondly, it helps learners notice certain features in the input.
Thirdly, the learners would be able to detect the difference
between what they themselves are saying and how the feature
is used in the input they are exposed to.

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The following example illustrates how
knowledge of grammar will help
listeners to understand the difference in
meaning between the following sentences:
1. John is studying medicine.
2. Omar studied medicine.
3. Sami has been studying medicine for five
years.
4. Jane will study medicine.

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The tenses used in these
sentences help us to know that
Sami is the one who started to
study medicine and is still
studying it now, whereas Omar
finished studying medicine and
Jane is still planning to study
medicine.

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Grading and sequencing of structurally
based syllabus
Grading and sequencing, are two terms
very related to structural syllabus
design.
This means that the items in each list
of grammar and lexicon are often
arranged in order showing which are to
be taught first in the course, which
comes in the second place
and so on.
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Criteria of sequencing and grading

Staging and sequencing are carried out

according to the following criteria:
1. Simplicity (simple structures are taught first)
2. Regularity (generalizable and productive
structures are taught first)
3. Frequency (most common structures are
taught first)
4. Contrastive difficulty (structures not found
in the L1 are emphasized) and
5. Social and pedagogical utility.

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Shortcomings of the structural syllabus

1. Meaning of words are taught separately from

context. They are taught in a list of isolated
lexicon.
2. As grammar is taught in rules, there is no
teaching of the way in which grammar is used
in an utterance to express a social context.
3. Teaching grammar is overemphasized
through drilling exercises.
4. Structural syllabus may make students feel
bored or demotivated.

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Situational Syllabus
Both Situational Syllabus and Notional Syllabus are types of
semantic syllabus.

Linguistic underpinning of this syllabus is that language is

always used in context, never in isolation.

A situational syllabus is defined as a syllabus in which the

contents are organized according to situations in which
certain language is likely to be employed.

The situational model will comprise units indicating specific

situations, such as 'At the Post Office', 'Buying an Airline
Ticket', or 'The Job Interview'.

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Types of situational syllabus
There are three types of situational syllabus
differentiated by their informational content and
linguistic content.
1. Limbo: (depends on circumstances)
Specific setting of the situation is of little or no
importance. What is important is the
particular language focus involved.
2. Concrete: Situations are enacted to specific
settings and the language associated with it.
3. Mythical: Situations depend on a fictional cast of
characters in a fictional place.

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How situations are presented:
The most familiar way of presenting a situation is as a dialogue,
usually at the beginning of a lesson and the topics, settings,
participants in situations can vary infinitely. Well-prepared
situations can show how native speakers act and what they talk
about and are concerned about.

In situational language teaching, structures are always taught

within sentences, and vocabulary is chosen according to how well
it enables sentences patterns to be taught.

The course will consist of a list of sentence patterns, statement

patterns, question patterns, and request or command patterns,
will include as many structural words as possible, and sufficient
content words to provide us with material upon which to base
our language practice.

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The shortcomings of the situational
syllabus
One of the shortcomings is that the different
situations created in Situational Syllabuses
exclusively determine the language structures
to be learnt.

Moreover, the situations presented within the

course, do not necessarily determine all
of what we want or need to say in life
situations that are varied and unpredictable.

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Lexical Syllabus

Design of Lexical Syllabus.

-The cornerstone of this type of syllabus is

vocabulary. Lexical syllabuses build up vocabulary

areas based on a detailed analysis of high frequency
vocabulary and phrases of a selected corpus
of language used in language communication.

- Grammar, in lexical syllabuses is connected to the

different patterns of words, expressions of notions
and functions.

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The merits of the lexical syllabus:
 The organizational principle of the lexical

syllabus can allow for a wide range of

selective texts that present a more thorough
coverage of the language of the target
discourse situation than other syllabus types.

 Thelexical syllabus is that it is clear,

unambiguous in the sense that everybody can
recognize what word, phrases and patterns
are handled in the units of the course.

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Notional Syllabi
The Notional Syllabi, are examples of the synthetic
approach to syllabus.

A synthetic language teaching strategy is one

in which the different parts of language are
taught separately and step-by-step so that
acquisition is a process of gradual
accumulation of the parts until the whole
structure of the language has been built up.

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 Notions are meaning elements that may be
expressed through nouns, pronouns, verbs,
prepositions, conjunctions, adjectives or
adverbs. Notions are general concepts such as,
time, aspect, space, cause and effect.

The Notional Syllabus was developed in direct

response to the shortcomings of both the
grammatical and situational syllabuses. The
syllabus is organized in terms of content rather
than the form of the language.

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The Notional Syllabus has as its focus the
semantic content of the target language.
Students must learn to express different types of
meanings. Underpinning this syllabus is the idea
that language is cyclic, rather than linear.

Therefore, there was really no ordered approach

to the grammar. It also recognized that a variety
of forms are used to express the same meaning.

The notional syllabus helps learners to use

language communicatively, leading to better
learners’ competence.

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Functional / Notional Syllabus
In the very late of the 70s and 80s,
there was an attack on the structural
syllabuses. As a result of the challenges
that the structural syllabuses include,
there emerged a new type of
syllabuses, namely the functional-
notional syllabuses on the one hand
and English for Specific Purposes
movement on the other.

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The proponents of this syllabus redefine the
language content of the structural syllabuses,
and introduce the following items to them:
a. The notions or concepts the learners need to
talk about (what meanings people wanted to
convey (notions)
b. The functional purposes for which language
is used, “what people wanted to do with the
language (functions).
c. The situations in which language would be
used.
d. The roles the learners might possibly play.

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A notional-functional syllabus should comprise
three categories of meaning:
1. Semantic-grammatical meaning (including
time and quantity),
2. modal meaning (including an indication of
the certainty and attitude of the speaker)
3. and communicative function (including
requests, complaints, and compliments,
among a vast array of others).

The major emphasis of the Functional-Notional

Approach is on the communicative purpose(s)
of a speech act.

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The functional view emphasizes the semantic
and communicative aspects rather than the
grammatical characteristics of language.

The communicative approach to foreign

language learning is used the Functional/
notional syllabus which includes the topics,
notions and concepts the learner needs to
communicate. It is primarily based on an
analysis of learners' social and/or vocational
communicative needs.

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Design of Notional Functional
Syllabus
A notional-functional syllabus is based on the premise that
communication is a meaningful
behaviour in a social and cultural context that requires
creative language use rather than synthetic sentence
building.

Grammatical structures are taught not as an end in

themselves but as a means of carrying out communicative
functions.

A typical unit might be Giving Advice. The content of the unit

would include: I think you should. Why don't you . . . If I were
you, I would . . . You'd better

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 Sentence
Function forms Realization
imperative Please, finish that letter, Miss
Jones
conditional Perhaps it would be best if
you finish that letter

infinitive We do expect you to finish

that
Ordering letter
modal You must finish that
letter ,I’m afraid

You should have no difficulty

Participle in finishing that letter.

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Other examples of functions include: asking for directions,
telling stories about the past, talking
about rules, and requesting information evaluating,
persuading, arguing, informing, agreeing, questioning,
requesting, and expressing emotions.
The syllabus also deals with semantic grammatical
notions such as time, quantity, space, location, motion, and
agent.
As the syllabus relates forms to functions, it is normal to see
a few structures used to perform many functions in a
Notional/ Functional textbook. There are also many formulaic
utterances generally used to perform some specific function
such as “No, thank you!” for polite refusal.

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The characteristics of notional functional approaches

1. A functional view of language focusing on doing something through

language;
2. A semantic base, as opposed to a grammatical or a situational base;
3. A learner-centred view of language learning;
4. A basis in the analysis of learner needs for using language that is
reflected in goals, content selection and sequencing, methodology, and
evaluation;
5. Learner-centred goals, objectives, and content organization reflecting
authentic language behaviour and offering a spiralling development of
content;
6. Learning activities involving authentic language use; and
7. Testing focused on ability to use language to react to and operate on the
environment.

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Topic-Based Syllabus
This syllabus is the third type of Semantic Syllabi besides the
Lexical and Situational Syllabi. Often, this syllabus is built around
certain topics and themes, such as:
Travel, drugs, religious Persuasion, advertising, modern
architecture, sport as so on.

The topic-based textbook units start with a variety of exercises that

stimulate students’ interest in the theme and develop the student’s
ability to manipulate the language that is appropriate to the
situation, and use the language of the theme.

The rest of the thematic unit includes activities that

elaborate the theme, such as key ideas, including cultural, cross-
cultural and linguistic, listening comprehension; speaking, reading,
writing, and vocabulary.

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