Syllabus Design
Introduction
Syllabus design is important part of English
Language Teaching and also for the all the educational institution. Syllabus
designs means to design the course of particular standard and are to develop
the hidden strength of learner. With the use of syllabus design learner can
develop its self and this is very important. With the help of syllabus design
one can do research in particular area and field of any work or in any
educational field.
So lets’ discuss some area of syllabus design with
it various types of trends…
A Syllabus design may be formally documented, as in
the aims and content of a national or institutional syllabus for particular groups
of learners or in the content material of published textbooks. Every teacher follows
a syllabus, but it may vary from being a pre-designed document to a day-to-day
choice of content which the teacher regards as serving a course’s particular
aims. In the latter case, the syllabus unfolds as lessons progress.
Any
syllabus ideally should provide:
ü A Clear framework
of knowledge and capabilities selected to be appropriate to overall aims;
ü Continuity and a
sense of direction in classroom work for teacher and students;
ü A record for
other teacher of what has been in the course;
ü A Basis for evaluating
students’ progress;
ü A basis for evaluating
the appropriateness of the course in the
relation to overall aims and students needs identified both before and during
the course;
ü Content
appropriate to the broader language curriculum, the particulars class of
learners, and the educational situation and wider society in which the course
is located.
To meet these requirement, syllabus designer –
including teachers who develop their own syllabuses – apply principles to the
organization of the content which they intend the syllabus to cover. These
principles can be expressed as question:
1.
What
knowledge and capabilities should be focused upon? A syllabus may give priority
to linguistic or broader communicative knowledge and focus upon one or all four
skills (Reading, Speaking, Writing and Listening) or, more broadly,
problem-solving or negotiation capabilities.
2.
What
should be selected as appropriate content? Given a linguistic focus, which
particular structure and vocabulary should be covered or given a communicative focus,
which particular use of language or types of tasks should be selected?
3.
How
should the content be subdivided so that it can be dealt with in manageable units?
In other words, what is selected as content may be broken down to contributory
or constituent parts for ease of teaching and learning in real time.
4.
How
should the content be sequenced along a path of development? A syllabus may
adopt a step-by-step progression from less to more complex knowledge and capabilities,
or it may be cyclic where earlier knowledge and capabilities are revisited and fined
at later points.
These four principal of organization defined a
syllabus. In the history of language teaching, the last 20 years in particular
have revealed significant developments in syllabus design that have led to the
application of each of these principles in alternative ways.
Background
Generally speaking, there are four types of syllabus
currently used in the language teaching. Syllabus designers, textbook writer,
and teachers have evolved versions of these, but their main characteristics
usefully revel the development of syllabus design over the last 20 years or so.
Before describing the types of syllabus, I give brief history of their emergence
to illustrate their differences.
Before the advent of communicative language teaching
in the late 1970s, it was widely accepted that the syllabus should focus upon
linguistic knowledge and the skills of listening, reading, speaking and
writing, usually in that order. In the 1970s, research in the social and
conversional use of the language, coupled with growing dissatisfaction with
learner’s apparent failure to use the linguistics knowledge outside the
classroom which they had gained within it, initiated a major change in syllabus
design. Applied linguistic advocated a focus upon language use rather than the
formal aspects of language. The initial phase of this transition was
exemplified in the development of functional syllabuses focusing upon
particular purposes of language and how these would be expressed
linguistically. At this same time – in response to the particular needs of
certain groups of learners – special purpose syllabuses and teaching materials
were quickly developed focusing upon language knowledge and skill needed for
academic study or specific occupations e.g. engineering or medicine.
The second challenge echoed earlier doubts
expressed about formal syllabuses. Both types of syllabus would be seen as ‘synthetic’
in that learner were expected gradually to accumulate separated bits of knowledge,
be they forms or functions, largely through de-contextualized language
focused. Activities before applying such a knowledge as typically
synthesized in real communication. They were also seen as partial because either
formal of functional knowledge of linguistic structure of utterances were just
two elements within broader communicative competence.
Task based syllabus had their origin in research on second
language acquisition during the 1980s. Building upon discoveries from first
language acquisition and Krashen’s influential view that language was best
acquired through the learners focus upon meaning in the input provided to the
learner. The goal of the syllabus designer or teacher therefore, become the provision
of suitable task to encourage interaction and through it negotiation and
meaning.
There are four types
of syllabus.
v Language syllabus
v Culture syllabus
v Communicative activities syllabus
v General language education syllabus
v Language syllabus
Major goal: Proficiency,
Content: The systematic study of the language in terms
of its formal and functional characteristics.
v Culture syllabus
Major goal:
Knowledge,
Content: The
systematic study of people who usd the language in term of their society,
history, values, etc.
v Communicative activities syllabus
Major
goal: Proficiency,
Content: use of language in its socio cultural
context, both inside and outside the classroom.
v General language education syllabus
Major
goal: transfer of knowledge and experience.
Content: reflecting on language, culture, and learning.
Conclusion
So we can say that Syllabus design is important t
for learner and teacher. In general, therefore, there are four main trends in
current syllabus design.
1)
Communication
2)
Sociocultural
3)
Learning
– how – to – learn
4)
Language
and cultural awareness
5)
General
knowledge.
With
the help of it we can easily understand the syllabus and it design very well. It
is very useful in study and also in learning process for both learner and
teacher.