SYLLABUS DESIGN & MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

THE TYPES OF SYLLABUSES

The Syllabus is the outline of language to be taught to a class over a particular course (term, semester, etc).

Types of syllabus

Outcomes and activities

Product

Process

Teaching Strategy

Synthetic

Analytic

Structural SyllabusThis was very common in the past. Essentially the grammar of English was divided up and taught over the course with each step of the syllabus corresponding to a grammatical item. So, for example, part of a structural syllabus might look like this:the Past Simplethe Past ContinuousSecond ConditionalSecondly the whole syllabus is very biased towards grammar as though this was the only important area of language. Vocabulary, for example, barely gets a mention

Product

Situational SyllabusHere the syllabus concentrates on the needs of the students outside the classroom and gives the students the right language to handle those situations.For example, a syllabus for a group of immigrants might include:giving personal informationasking directionsshopping in a supermarketordering a meal

Functional-Notional Syllabus This came out of the need to give students useful language which could be applied to many different situations (not as restricted as just,asking directions or at the cinema from the situational syllabus above).Here, various language functions were addressed, e.g.:

apologizingpersuading

arguingthanking

Skill-based Syllabus

Language skills are acquired for the purpose of situational or use in context. Merges pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar with listening to language with a purpose: writing and speaking.The purpose of this syllabus is for the ELL to develop language skills

Process

Designed and reorganized according to students wants or designed in an ongoing way.

Provides opportunities for alternative procedures and activities for the classroom group.

“It explicitly attends to teaching and learning and particularly the possible interrelationships between

subject matter, learning and the potential contributions of a classroom” (Mohseni, 2008).

Process Syllabus

Task-based Syllabus

Tasks and activities are used to promote language learning.

Application and practice of language. “Tasks are best defined as activities with a purpose

other than language learning so as to develop second language ability” (Mohseni, 2008).

“The most important point is that tasks must be relevant to the real world language needs of the learner. It should be a

meaningful task so as to enhance learning” (Mohseni, 2008).

Synthetic syllabuses

They synthetic syllabus relies on learners' assumed ability to learn a language in parts (e.g., structures, lexis, functions, and notions) which are independent of one another, and also to integrate, or synthesize, the pieces then the time comes to use them for communicative purposes. Lexical, structural, notional, and functional syllabuses are synthetic. So are most so-called topical and situation syllabuses, for examination of teaching materials shows that topics and situation have traditionally been used as vehicles for structural syllabuses.

Analytic, that is, again refers not to what the syllabus designer does, but to the operations required of the learner.. Analytic syllabuses present the target language whole chunks at a time, without linguistic interference or control. They rely on learner's assumed ability to perceive regularities in the input and to induce rules....Procedural, process, and task syllabuses are all examples of the analytic syllabus types.

Analytic syllabuses