Curriculum Development

Syllabus Design
Process and Product Oriented Syllabus
 Infographic Style
Product-oriented Process-oriented
Syllabuses Syllabuses
Analytic and synthetic syllabus planning Process-oriented syllabuses
Analytic syllabuses Procedural syllabuses

Grammatical syllabus Task-based syllabuses

Criticizing grammatical syllabuses Content syllabuses

Functional-notion syllabuses The natural approach
Criticizing functional-notional syllabuses Syllabuses design and methodology

Grading tasks
Meaning

Meaning of Product-oriented syllabuses

Meaning of process-oriented syllabuses

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 A synthetic language teaching strategy is

Analytic and
one in which the different parts of language
are taught separately and step by step· so
that acquisition is a process of gradual

synthetic syllabus accumulation of parts until the whole

structure of language has been built up.
(Wilkins 1976: 2)

planning analytic syllabuses: are organised in terms

of the purposes for which people are
learning language and the kinds of
language performance that are necessary
to meet those purposes. (Wilkins 1975: 13)
 Grammatical syllabuses
The most common syllabus type was one in which syllabus input is selected
and graded according to grammatical notions of simplicity and complexity.
grammatically complex will not necessarily be that which is difficult to
learn, and that which is grammatically simple will not necessarily be that
which is easy to learn.

The transition from lesson to lesson is intended to

enable material in one lesson to prepare the ground
for the next; and conversely for material in the next
to appear to grow out of the previous one.
(AJcDonough 1981: 21)
 The Assumption
 The assumption behind most grammatical  Assumptions are also made about
syllabuses, language consists of a finite set of language transfer. It is generally
rules which can be combined in various ways to
assumed that once learners have
make meaning. these rules can be learned one
by one, in an additive fashion, each item being internalized the formal aspects of a
mastered on its own before being incorporated given piece of language, they will
into the learner's pre-existing stock of automatically be able to use it in
knowledge .. The principal purpose of language genuine communication outside the
teaching is to help learners to 'crack the code' classroom.
Rutherford (1987) calls this the 'accumulated
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 The difficulties and the way to solve the
problem
The Way to solve the problem
The Difficulties
 abandon any attempt at structural grading.
 One of the difficulties in designing grammatical
 use the list of graded structures, not to
'chains' in which discrete grammatical items are
linked is that the links can be rather tenuous determine the language to which learners are
exposed, but to determine the items which will
 It is also difficult to isolate and present one be the pedagogic focus in class.
discrete item at a time, panicularly if one wants
 learners would be exposed to naturalistic
to provide some sort of context for the language.
samples of text which were only roughly graded,
and which provided a richer context, but they
would only be expected formally to master those
items which had been isolated, graded, and set
out in the syllabus.
 focus on what learners are expected to do with
the language (i.e. learning tasks), rather than on
the language itself. With this alternative, it is the
tasks rather than the language which are
graded.
CRITICIZING GRAMMATICAL
SYLLABUSES

STRUCTURALLY GRADED SYLLABUSES

MISREPRESENTED THE NATURE OF THAT
COMPLEX PHENOMENON, LANGUAGE. THEY DID
SO IN TENDING TO FOCUS ON ONLY ONE ASPECT
OF LANGUAGE, THAT IS, FORMAL GRAMMAR
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Function described as the communicative purposes
for which we use language, while notions are
conceptual meaning (objects, entities, states of
affairs, logical relationships, and so on) expressed
through language.

Examples of function :
Identifying, Advising,
Denying.
Example of notion :
Time, Size, Duration
 Syllabus

Synthetic Analytic
Syllabus Syllabus
 Syllabus designer concern:

1. the selection of items for

the syllabus and the grading

2. sequencing of these
items.
 Functional-Notional Syllabuses
The selection and
grading of items become
much more complex
Necessary to carry
out some form of
needs analysis
Look beyond linguistic
notions of simplicity and
difficulty
Procedural and Task-Based Syllabus
Both task-based and procedural
syllabuses share a concern with the
classroom processes which stimulate
learning.
 Prabhu provides the 01 Information-gap
following three task activity
'types' which were used
in the project:
02 Reasoning-gap
activity

03 Opinion-gap
activity
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Two recent definitions of 'task' are provided below:

. . . a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others, freely or

for some reward. Thus, examples of tasks include painting a
fence, dressing a child, filling out a form, buying a pair of shoes,
making an airline reservation . . . In other words, by "task" is
meant the hundred and one things people do in everyday life.
(Long 1 985: 89)

. . . an activity or action which is carried out as the result of

processing or understanding language (i.e. as a response). For
example, drawing a map while listening to an instruction and
performing a command . . . A task usually requires the teacher to
specify what will be regarded as successful completion of the
task. (Richards, Platt, and Weber 1 985: 289)
Candlin offers the
following criteria for
judging the worth of tasks
 Doyle (1979; 1983), working
within a general educational
context, was one of the first to
suggest that the curriculum could
be viewed as a collection of
academic tasks.

A similar, though more

comprehensive set of elements, is
proposed by Shavelson and Stern
(1981).
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Long, who uses needs analysis as his point of departure, offers

procedure for developing a task-based syllabus.
The steps in this process are as follows:
1. Conduct a needs analysis to obtain an inventory of target
tasks.
2. Classify the target tasks into task types.
3. From the task types, derive pedagogical tasks.
4. Select and sequence the pedagogical tasks to form a task
syllabus.
(Long 1985: 91)
Long's final step raises the issue of grading, which, as we have
seen, is one of the central steps in syllabus construction.
 The development of
process and task-
.

based syllabuses
represents a change
of focus rather than a
revolution in syllabus
design.
 Content Syllabus

 The content syllabus is yet another realization of the analytic approach to syllabus design.
 Whether content syllabuses exemplify product or process syllabuses is a matter for
conjecture. In fact, most of them would probably be located at the centre of the
product/process continuum.
 The syllabus is given a logic and coherence which might be missing from analytic
syllabuses which are little more than a random collection of tasks. In addition, the logic of
the subject may provide a non-linguistic rationale for selecting and grading content.
 In a recent publication, Mohan (1986) argues for content-based syllabuses on the
grounds that they facilitate learning not merely through language but with language.
 Mohan develops a knowledge framework which can be used for organizing knowledge
and learning activities. The knowledge framework consists of a specific, practical side and
a general, theoretical side.
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 The natural approach
The principles underpinning the approach are claimed to be
based on empirical research and can be summarized as
follows:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
The goal of the Comprehension Production Activities which The affective
Natural precedes emerges (Le. promote filter is
Approach is production. learners are subconscious lowered.
communication not forced to acquisition rather
skills. respond). than conscious
learning are
central.
The authors of the approach claim that:
01

The Natural Approach is

02
designed to develop basic
personal communication skills - How things are done and why they are
both oral and written. It was not done have particular psychological
developed specifically to teach significance for the individual and for
academic learning skills, the group. The particular culture of a
although it appears reasonable language class will socially act in
to assume that a good basis in certain ways, but these actions are
the former will lead to greater extensions or manifestations of the
success in the latter (Krashen psychology of the group. What is
and Terrell 1983: 67). significant for learners (and a teacher)
in a classroom is not only their
individual thinking and behaviour, nor,
for instance, their longer-term mastery
of a syllabus, but the day-to-day
interpersonal rationalisation of what is
to be done, why, and how. (Breen 1985:
149).
Syllabus design and methodology
• It would seem, with the development of process, task-based, and content
syllabuses, that the traditional distinction between syllabus design (specifying
the 'what') and methodology (specifying the 'how') has become blurred.
• Widdowson takes a rather traditional line on this matter, suggesting that a
syllabus is the specification of a teaching programme or pedagogic agenda
which defines a particular subject for a particular group of learners. Such a
specification provides not only a characterization of content, the formalization
in pedagogic terms of an area of knowledge or behaviour, but also arranges
this content as a succession of interim objectives. (Widdowson 1987: 65).

Widdowson proposes the following methodological solution:

the methodology would engage the learners in problem-
solving tasks as purposeful activities but without the
rehearsal requirement that they should be realistic or
'authentic' as natural social behaviour.
 In contrast with Widdowson's view that process
considerations belong to methodology, Breen claims that
process considerations (i.e. the means rather than the ends)
can properly be considered the province of syllabus design.

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 Grading Task
Standard text on languange teaching
have tended to categorize classroom
activities according to demands they
make on the learner.

Nunan(1985) presents typology of activity

types in which difficulty is determined by the
cognitive and performance demand made
upon the learner.
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The following
example illustrates
the way in which a
given text is
processed at
increasing levels
of sophistication
following
suggested by
Nunan.
Brown and Yule (1983) devote considerable attention to task
difficulty. They suggest that listening tasks can be graded
with reference to speaker, intended listener, and content.
When listening to a tape, the fewer the speakers, the easier
the text will be to follow. Following one speaker will be
easier than following two, following two will be easier than
following three, and so on. According to Brown and Yule,
even native speakers have difficulty following a taped
conversation which involves four or more participants.
In relation to the intended listener, they suggest
that texts, particularly ‘authentic’ texts which are
not addressed to listener, may be boring to the
learner and therefore difficult to process. They go
on to state that:
.. . it is, in principle not possible to find material
which would interest everyone. It follows that the
emphasis should be moved from attempting to
provide intrinsically interesting materials, which we
have just claimed is generally impossible, to doing
interesting things.which materials . . . these
materials should be chosen, not so much on the
basis of their own interest, but for what they can
be used to do. (Brown and Yule 1983:83)
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In relation to speaking task, Brown and Yule suggest that:

Taking short is generally easier than long turns. Talking to a familiar, sympathetic
individuals is less demanding than talking to an unfamiliar, uninvolved individual or
group. Something one knows about and has well- organized in memory is naturally
easier to talk about than a new topic or experience which has little internal
organization in itself. (op. cit.:107)
 We have looked at proposals which
Conclusion focus on learning process rather
than on the end products of these
processes. This does not mean that
all such syllabuses do not, at some
stage, include a specification of hat
learners should be able to do as a
result of instruction. With the
adoption of procedural, task- based,
content- based, and other non-
linguistic approaches to syllabus
design, the distinction between
syllabus design and methodology
becomes blurred.
THANK YOU
For your attention and participation