Syllabus Design

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.