Subject: Syllabus design and material development
Topics:
Principles and process of syllabus Design
kinds
conducting Needs Analysis
Syllabus
According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987) ◦ “ A syllabus is an expression of opinion on the
nature of language and learning, it acts as a guide for both teacher and learner by providing
some goals to be attained. ”
A syllabus is intended for the teacher or academic supervisor and it’s a statement of intentions.
Desired results, evidence of understanding and language and learning progression.
It ensures some continuity in the program.
It helps the teacher to build a foundation where he/she could plan lessons more effectively.
Difference between syllabus and
Curriculum
“Syllabus is connected with learner’s need and aims”. ◦ The main point of a syllabus is to share
information. . It is also used in more specific purposes such as planning tool or course plan. ◦
Difference between Syllabus and Curriculum: ◦ Syllabus: ◦ . A subject syllabus is a unit of the
curriculum. ◦ .
Syllabus covers the portion of what topics should be taught in particular subject. ◦
Curriculum: ◦ Whereas Curriculum is a combination of some factors which helps in the planning
of an educational program.
What to take into account when designing a
syllabus.
The needs, wants, interests of the students.
The learners’ learning styles.
Setting out achievable objectives, which should provide a clear focus for the course and
be laid out in achievable steps.
Having a clear idea/statement of global goals, i.e. why the course is being run and what
the end goals are.
The nature of the course, e.g. if it’s a Business English course.
The demands of the institution and maybe government framework.
The order of the syllabus elements.
Students would like to know the main objectives of a lesson (in terms of skills/language), this is a
good motivator.
To know how to balance skills/ systems
What to include
The rules, course descriptors, textbooks used, a calendar, grading policy, your goals, how you
plan to achieve them, in what order and how to evaluate them.
Needs, purpose, syllabus type, language to be used, testing, methodology, evaluation, teacher
training, recycle stage.
Outcomes or expressive objectives, possible learning objects, expectations, rubrics (a heading or
a category in a chart, or a rule of conduct.) , key assessment or performance tasks.
The instructor’s personal goals of what is to be taught.
A list of what the students could expect from the teacher.
Development of teaching, learning and testing approaches.
Features of a well-designed
syllabus
It should include very good and clear measurable objectives.
It should reflect students’ needs and be realistic about what they can achieve.
A syllabus needs variety, i.e. focusing on all skills and systems, language areas, functions, tasks,
materials, input and output.
It should be flexible, informative and informing.
It should allow space to adapt lessons or deviate from the initial syllabus but factors like the
school should be considered.
Skills needed.
The teacher should be able to communicate the objectives. This is an important skill but difficult
to achieve.
Being able to identify and describe objectives. Objective setting isn’t an easy thing to do well.
To be flexible enough in order to accommodate the student’s needs in contrast to the school
management or government requirements.
Being able to pay attention to detail, necessary for clarity in defining objectives but also have
knowledge of the big picture.
Who designs a syllabus.
In some schools, a general syllabus is designed by the academic department for each class at the
start of the year. This is considered to be THE syllabus.
Test designers were also mentioned as people who tend to be good syllabus writers.
It is difficult for new teachers to design a syllabus before they have the experience of writing
achievable aims.
Not all teachers are required to be syllabus designers, that’s why it’s a special skill and paid well.
Questions to ask
1. Who is the syllabus for?
2. Which areas of student fluency do you most need to focus on?
3. What are the required target levels and will you mention
them?
4. How will you organize it? Function, Form, Theme, Topic ?
5. How will you organize all this into a coherent, communicable
whole?
6. How will you sequence the items?
7. How will you plan for modification revision and assessment?
The content of language teaching
• The collection of grammatical forms and structures of the language
being taught.
• Examples: nouns, verbs, adjectives, statements, questions, complex
sentences, subordinate clauses, past tense, and so on.
• The formal syllabi may also include other aspects of language form
such as pronunciation or morphology
Steps to design a grammar
syllabus:
•The teacher chooses the structures that the students have to learn according to the level and the goals
proposed in the course.
• The teacher chooses a set of vocabulary to be learned together with forms and structures.
• The teacher decides the main words according to the topics to be learned,
for example: simple past tense: adverbs of time (yesterday, last night, last month, etc.), the use of the
auxiliary “did”, the auxiliary verbs: was, were, and so on.
• The teacher designs exercises to put in practice the structures, vocabulary and sentences pattern (complete,
translate, rewrite, etc ).
In this sense, students learn from the simpler to more complex structures and they may learn the structures
more easily; however, students get worried about grammar in communicative activities because they feel
afraid to make mistakes.
words and their meanings and
exemplifies and categorises the
patterns in which they occur.
A functional syllabus for language teaching is based in a socio- linguistic view of
language as purposeful, meaningful behavior. The subject matter is language
use. The goal of teaching is for students to be able to use English for their own
purposes in the situations in which they are likely to find themselves.
Steps to design a notional-
functional syllabus:
• The teacher makes a list of communication functions of the language that students will learn (expressing
agreement and disagreements, greeting people, apologizing, etc).
• The teacher writes a list of the semantic notions (meanings) based on the culture and the context of the
speakers of the language (likes and dislikes, formal and informal greetings, values, etc).
• The teacher applies the functions and the notions together into learning tasks.
for instance, introducing yourself; expressing likes and dislikes; giving personal information, describing
family members. An important aspect of the notional/functional syllabus is that students learn how to use
the target language to express their own ideas, notions and points of views.
This syllabus promotes language learners using the target language.
At the restaurant → ordering a meal
At the bank → applying for a loan
Steps to design a situational
syllabus:
• The teacher makes a list of communication situations that will take place (the weather, food and drinks,
family life, free time activities and so on).
• The teacher makes a list of topics, grammatical forms and vocabulary and sequence them (simple present
tense, frequency adverbs).
• The teacher classifies the topics, forms and structures and fit them with communication situations (One
day on the beach, at the restaurant). The teaching units below are language materials that have been
developed based on situational syllabus.
Unit 1. At the library.
Unit 2. At the office.
Unit 3. At the park.
Unit 4. At the restaurant.
Unit 5. Traveling.
Unit 6. At a party.
An important advantage of a situational syllabus is that students learn how to use the target
language in an authentic communication. This syllabus is good for language learners who are
preparing to go to a country where the language is spoken. This situational teaching has the goal
of teaching specific language content that occurs in situations.
Steps to design a content-
based syllabus:
• The teacher chooses the topics from the content (subject), for example in Biology: ecosystem, cell,
human body, etc.
• The teacher makes a list of topics, grammatical forms and vocabulary and adjusts them to the topics.
For example: Subject: biology.
Topic: cell.
Vocabulary: parts of the cell.
Structure: simple present and present continuous tense.
The teacher organizes the forms and structures and adjusts them to the topics. The benefit of a content-
based syllabus is that students feel satisfied with the purpose of learning the target language and at the
same time, they are acquiring new information. Finally, this syllabus is often used in immersion programs.
Steps to design a skill-based
syllabus:
• The teacher makes a list of language skills that students need to acquire.
• The teacher makes a list of topics, grammatical forms, structures and vocabulary and sequences
according to language skills.
The following is an example of a skill-based syllabus:
Listening: listening for specific information.
Reading: reading and answering a questionnaire.
Writing: writing and replying to invitations.
Speaking: talking about past events.
This is a syllabus where the students can develop their communicative competence using different
resources.
Steps to design a task-based
syllabus
• The teacher makes a list of abilities or tasks that students need to develop.
• The teacher writes a list of topics, grammatical forms and vocabulary and sequences them.
• The teacher organizes the topics, forms and structures and fit them with the tasks. Example:
Second unit: reading: All in the memory
Task:
Preparation for tasks. Listen to descriptions of childhood memories.
Task: describe a childhood memory (extended, speaking and writing).
After task. Ask questions and present an oral report (pronunciation, using intonation).
One important advantage of the task-based syllabus is that students learn to carry out activities
using the target language. Language teaching through task-based syllabus arises during the
performance of a given task. The disadvantage is that students often learn to perform tasks and
language learning is less emphasized.
All Syllabus Types are Important
• Each syllabus type is of great significance.
• Keeping in mind the learners’ needs, contexts and situations, a
subtle and pragmatic approach is required in the implementation of
language teaching syllabus.
• ELT syllabus involves a combination of two practical questions
regarding subject matter (what to teach) and linguistic matter (how to
teach).
• These two crucial questions can be answered satisfactorily by
applying a viable syllabus design
3-Conducting Needs Analysis
3-Conducting Needs Analysis
3-Conducting Needs Analysis
Needs Analysis in language teaching and language programme design, can be defined as a systematic
process which helps teachers to collect information and get an accurate and complete picture of their
students’ needs and preferences.
Then they interpret the information collected and they make decisions about what to include in their
programme, based on the interpretations in order to meet the students’ needs.
Three main stages in the process of a language syllabus. The first one is
The needs analysis,
content specification
syllabus organization.
Syllabus design procedures are required for deciding what is going to be taught in a language programme. A
basic step prior to syllabus design is need analysis. Knowing exactly what to your students want, and why
they want to learn English is a basic feature in a syllabus design. Generally, a right syllabus is designed into
manageable chunks that can be followed and interact into each other. It is important that the effectiveness
of the teacher’s class will be largely depending on how the lessons develop over time.
Then, the teacher has to decide the content of his syllabus. He needs to make sure what to include in the
syllabus so that it is relevant to what the students need. When it comes to organize the syllabus, the teacher
designs his syllabus based on his list of prioritized topics or areas of his study. He has to make sure that his
selected topics build up on others, but also that he uses a broad variety of resources and activities.
Furthermore, the teacher has to be sure on which of the four skills (listening, speaking, writing, reading) to
focus on, and which ones are the most important for his students.
As you have read above, there have been identified three main stages in the process of a language syllabus.
The first one is the needs analysis, then content specification and then syllabus organization.
The Users of Need Analysis
A needs analysis may be conducted for a variety of different users. For example, in conducting a needs
analysis to help revise the secondary school English curriculum in a country, the end users include:
curriculum officers in the ministry of education, who may wish to use the information to evaluate the
adequacy of existing syllabus, curriculum, and materials.
teachers who will teach from the new curriculum
learners, who will be taught from the curriculum
writers, who are preparing new textbooks
testing personnel, who are involved in developing end-of-school assessments •
staff of tertiary institutions, who are interested in knowing what the expected level will be of students
exiting the schools and what problems they face
The Target Population
The target population in a needs analysis refers to the people about whom information will be
collected.
Typically, in language programs these will be language learners or potential language
learners, but others are also often involved depending on whether they can provide
information useful in meeting the purposes of the needs analysis.
For example, in conducting a needs analysis to determine the focus of an English program in
public secondary schools in an EFL context, the target population might include:
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