Syllabuses and coursebooks
- 1. Syllabuses and Coursebooks Chapter 21, Jeremy Harmer (2001)”The Practice of ELT”. Practice II, Prof. Braun (2010)
- 2. COURSE DESIGNERS They have a clear idea about how theories and beliefs about language learning will affect the process. These beliefs will be translated into ACTIVITIES. The ACTIVITIES will be embedded into TOPICS. TOPICS will have to be engaging (KOW; VAKOG). CULTURE will be considered so as to present an appropriate balance in terms of : gender, different groups in society, racial, ethnic and socioeconomic issues. ,
- 3. Authenticity Course designers will have to decide which LANGUAGE VARIETIES they would like to include and how AUTHENTIC language should be especially at beginner levels. After taking these decisions
- 4. Syllabus and Curriculum David Nunan (1988): Syllabus concerns the selection of items to be learnt and the grading of those items into an appropriate sequence. Curriculum design is also about the planning, implementation, evaluation, management and administration of education programmes.
- 5. SYLLABUS DESIGN CRITERIA Learnability: Some structural or lexical aspects are easier for students to learn than others. Am/is/are; Was/Were and not the 3rd type of conditional. Frequency: Include the items which are more frequent in the language, and not the ones that are only used occasionally by native speakers. E.g.: “Oh, I see” is more common than “I understand”. Or Use of the subjunctive by American speakers.
- 6. Coverage: Some words and structures have greater coverage (scope for use) than other items. E.g. : GOING TO / WILL. Usefulness: We concentrate a lot on classroom vocabulary; What about situations for everyday life?We should think of usefulness in terms of what stuents are linguistically able to talk about. (Adults: parts of the house: reading and writing ads, telephone conversation in order to rent a flat).
- 7. DIFFERENT SYLLABUSES The Grammar Syllabus: Grammar is the organizing principle for the syllabus. The Lexical Syllabus: Based on vocabulary/lexis. CORPORA: Birmingham University. COBUILD textbooks. Problem: relationship between lexis and grammar and length of such a syllabus.
- 8. The Functional Syllabus: David Wilkins (1976). Language organized according to language functions such as: • Requesting • Offering • Inviting • Agreeing/Disagreeing The syllabus designer has to choose a wide spectrum of exponents for each function. The teaching and learning of functions is an important part of a wider syllabus.
- 9. The Situational Syllabus: Selecting and sequencing different real-life situations: • At the bank. • At an airport. • At the supermarket. • At a travel agency.(Survival English course)
- 10. The Topic-based Syllabus: Topics provide a welcome organizing principle because they are based on what students will be interested in. • The weather. • Sports. • Music. Practical: Following examples and materials provided,design a syllabus for Grades 5th or 6th Primary School.
- 11. The Task-based Syllabus: Prahbu, Bangalore, India: also called “procedural syllabus”. Willis provides six main task types: • LISTING. • ORDERING. • COMPARING. • PROBLEM SOLVING. • SHARING PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. • CREATIVE TASKS.
- 12. The Multi-functional Syllabus: This is the approach which is most often used. “Map of the book”. Grammar, Vocabulary and Pronunciation, Functions, Macroskills. None of the elements predominates. All have to shift to accommodate to others.