Syllabus Design

Teaching-English as a Second or Foreign Language, Celce-Murcia. Fourth edition. Chapter

4
As teachers, we will design syllabi and curriculum plans. Curriculum and syllabus are similar
because both involve similar planning processes, although at different levels of scale.

A ​syllabus​ describes what will be taught in a course.

Each syllabus provides information about the course, the learners, their purposes for
learning and the context.
Syllabus design requires a good understanding of the learners, their purposes for learning,
and the resources and constraints of the context in which they are learning. These
understandings allow us to set goals as to what will be learned, how and why; these
understandings will also allow us to choose or design materials, activities, and assessments
tasks; and will allow us to organize them within the time frame available as well.
In the field of language teaching, the term syllabus has both practical and theoretical
meanings. In a practical sense, a syllabus is an actual plan of a course. In a theoretical
sense, it refers to a specific way to conceptualize what language is and how language is
learned so that materials can be selected or prepared for the classroom.

A ​curriculum​ is a dynamic system of interconnected, interrelated, and overlapping

processes. These processes are planning, enacting –implementing-, and evaluating.
Curriculum is a broader concept than syllabus because it goes beyond planning and beyond
the course level.
It applies to the program level, which subsumes courses, units and lessons; and it is more
comprehensive than a syllabus because it includes not only planning but also enacting and
evaluating.

The three curricular processes (planning, enacting and evaluating) are in play at every
curricular level, whether it is lesson, unit, course, or program. The process of lesson
planning, for example, can result in a detailed written plan, a set of notes in the textbook or a
mental plan. Then, the teacher enact the lesson which may go according to plan or may
diverge from it, depending on a variety of factors. As the lesson is enacted, the teacher can
make adjustments depending on what happens in the classroom. During and after the
lesson, the teacher evaluates its effectiveness and makes decisions that affect the planning
and enactment of the next lesson or future lessons.

Syllabus types
In the field of language teaching, the complex phenomenon of language can be defined in
different ways. The different ways it has been defined emerge in different types of
syllabuses.
Grammatical, formal or structural syllabuses
The grammatical syllabus is organised around the grammatical structures of the language:
verb tenses, question formation, types of clauses, and so on. It focuses on grammatical
patterns as the building block of language, usually at the sentence level.
The grammatical syllabus has been criticised because learners learn ​about​ the language
and its systems, not ​how to use t​ he language to express themselves, construct knowledge,
communicate.
Notional-functional syllabus
The notional-functional syllabus is organised around the communicative purposes, called
functions, for which people use language. For the notional-functional syllabus it is important
to find out about the learners’ needs for using the language-with whom, where, and why.
Task-based syllabus
The task-based syllabus is organised around tasks. By doing tasks together, learners use
whatever language they have to negotiate the task, and through that negotiation, they
acquire the language. Tasks can range from real-world tasks to pedagogical tasks, from
open-ended tasks to tasks that have one solution, and from tasks that target certain
language use to those that encourage general language use.
Skills-based approaches
Skills-based approaches are organised around the four macro skills of speaking, listening,
reading, and writing. This approaches give special focus on using the skills in context and on
authentic language as well. The syllabus is built around situations and communicative
interactions as well as around tasks that enable learners to learn the skills.
Lexical syllabus
A lexical syllabus is based on a mini-corpus of common, pragmatically useful language items
and language patterns drawn from spoken and written language corpora. The learners learn
lexical items which are embedded in authentic language texts.This enables learners to
understand the patterns of usage.
Genre or text-based syllabus
The text-based syllabus is organised around genres. Genres are spoken or written texts
structured in particular ways to achieve particular social purposes. Texts are selected
according to learners’ educational and social needs.Learners analyse texts to identify
particular linguistic moves, specialised vocabulary and so on to produce or participate in the
texts effectively.
Project-based language learning
Project-based language learning uses project or projects as the backbone of the syllabus.
Learners engage in production-based tasks to complete a project and the teacher acts as a
resource. The projects result in an end product such as a research report, a performance, or
a presentation.
Content-based instruction and content and language integrated learning
These syllabus are organised around subject-specific content (e.g. history or science) in
addition to or as a means to learning language. The emphasis can be placed on content or
language. When content is emphasised, learners are expected to learn the content in the
target language and may be assessed on their mastery of the content. Whereas, when
language is emphasised, the content is a means for language learning, not an end in itself.
Negotiated syllabus
The negotiated or process syllabus grew out of the task-based syllabus, in the sense that it
is through processes of negotiation in interaction with others that one uses and acquires
language. The negotiated syllabus has itself shifted to an educational process in which
teacher and learners negotiate and share decision making in the classroom.
Teaching-English as a Second or Foreign Language, Celce-Murcia. Fourth edition. Chapter
17
1. What is grammar?
Grammar is not a static but dynamic system of rules and patterns used to communicate.
Grammar is an instrument used to convey meaning.
Grammar is one of the elements in language learning which allows learners to express
themselves accurately and meaningfully. For students to realise it as a dynamic system,
students have to experience lessons in which grammar is used in meaningful and
psychologically authentic ways. Drills will not be appropriate in language lessons because
these rob students of the experience of using the system to negotiate their own identities
and to express what they want to say.
In sum, grammar is a system of lexicogrammatical patterns that are used to make meaning
in appropriate ways.

2. Explain the three dimensional grammar framework

Since our goal should be to help our students use the language accurately, meaningfully and
appropriately, it is useful to have a frame with the three dimensions of grammar.
The three-dimensional grammar framework takes the form of a pie chart. 1) The pie chart
implicitly claims that all constructions can be characterized to different degrees by the three
dimensions of: A) structure or form; B) semantics or meaning; and C) use or the pragmatic
conditions governing appropriate usage.
FORM wedge: it contains lexicogrammatical patterns and morphosyntactic forms that tell us
how a particular construction is put together and how it is sequenced with other
constructions in a sentence or text. With certain constructions, it is also important to note the
sound (phonemic) and writing (graphemic) patterns.
(How form sounds and looks)
SEMANTIC wedge: here we deal with what a grammar construction means. The meaning
can be lexical (a dictionary definition for a word) or it can be grammatical (e.g. the
conditional states both a condition and an outcome or result).
(Language in context will give us the meaning)
USE/ PRAGMATIC wedge: here we deal with the use of language in context. The context
can be social (i.e., a context created by speakers, their relationship to one another, or the
setting), or it can be a linguistic discourse context (i.e., the language that precedes or follows
a particular structures in the discourse, or how a particular genre or register affects the use
of a construction).
The influence of pragmatics may be ascertained by asking two questions:
1) When or why does a speaker/ writer choose a particular grammar construction over
another that could express the same meaning or accomplish the same purpose? For
example, ​what factors in the social context​ might explain a paradigmatic choice such
as a speaker choosing a ​yes/no​ questions rather than an imperative to serve as a
request for information (e.g., ​Do you have the time? v​ ersus ​Please tell me the time​).
2) When or why does a speaker/ writer vary the form of a particular linguistic
construction? For instance, what ​linguistic discourse factors​ will result in a
syntagmatic or word sequence choice such as the indirect object being placed before
the direct object (e.g., ​Jenny have Hank a brand-new comb v​ ersus ​Jenny gave a
brand-new comb to Hank​)?
Despite the permeable boundaries between the dimensions, which is indicated by the
bidirectional arrows, it can be very useful to view grammar from these three perspectives.

3. What questions do you ask when implementing this model?

The questions that we should ask when implementing this model is 1. How a particular
construction is formed? 2. What does the construction mean? and 3. When/Why is the
construction used?

4. Exemplify how to work with the model

One common construction to be taught in EFL classroom is the ‘s possessive form. We can
implement the three dimensional grammar framework to teach this English construction. We
should ask ourselves which is the form and the meaning of the possessive as well as in
which situations this construction is used.
Form of the possessive. The way to form possessives in English is to add ‘s to regular
singular nouns and noncount nouns and irregular plural nouns not ending in s or to add an
apostrophe after the s ending of regular plural nouns and after singular/noncount nouns
ending in the sound /s/ to form s’. This form of the possessive has three allomorphs [z], [s]
and [ z].
Meaning of the possessive. In addition to possession, the possessive or genitive form can
indicate description (a debtor’s prison), amount (two weeks’ holiday), relationship (Jack’s
wife), part to the whole (the woman’s hand), and origin/agent (Shakespeare’s tragedies).
Use of the possessive. We should ask when the ‘s is used to express possession as
opposed to other constructions that can be used to convey the same meaning.

5. Describe the learning process of the grammatical component

6. What is grammaring?
7. What is the role of form, meaning and use in this process?
8. How can grammar instruction proceed according to the process of grammaring?
9. In what ways can the teacher provide feedback?
10. Is sequencing an issue in the process of grammaring?
11. What should be preferred: inductive or deductive presentation?