Formulating the Syllabus Pt 2

Course Design Formulating the Syllabus(Part Two) : 

Course Design Formulating the Syllabus(Part Two)

Type A and Type B Syllabuses : 

Type A and Type B Syllabuses Type A – eg mainstream Interventionist – doing things to the learner External to the learner Directed by authority Teacher as decision maker Content/evaluation - expert determined, T. as knower. Emphasis on mastery Subject emphasis A priori objectives A summary of White, R. (1998 : 44) The ELT Curriculum, Blackwell Type B – eg Dogme Internal to the learner Inner directed or self-fulfilling Negotiated between learners and teachers. Joint decision making – doing things with the learner. Content/evaluation learner determined with learner’s criteria Process emphasis A posteriori objectives

Formulating objectives : 

Formulating objectives Course objectives may be formulated in various ways … As behavioural objectives In a roleplay situation, Ss will be able to make, accept or refuse requests for simple actions (eg open a window). Their utterances will be comprehensible to and would not cause offence to someone not used to speaking to second language speakers. Given a 500 word text of no more than 4 paragraphs, Ss will be able to identify the topic of the text as a whole, and the topic of the individual paragraphs in no more than 10 minutes Behavioural objectives specify the behaviour, the conditions under which it will be performed, and the criteria for success.

Formulating objectives : 

Formulating objectives In EFL, behavioural objectives are often “reduced” to subskill objectives ? Ss will be able to make, accept or refuse requests Ss will be able to identify text and paragraph topic

Formulating objectives : 

Formulating objectives Content/Topic objectives Ss will be able to talk about health and common ailments, specifically : Enquire about the health of people they meet and respond to similar enquiries. Describe common ailments (headache, sore throat, backache … etc) and ask for an OTC remedy in a chemist’s (aspirin, cough medicine, etc).

Formulating Objectives : 

Formulating Objectives Task based objectives – a procedural syllabus The learners will : Plan a sightseeing tour of their town for a visitor Select the best candidate for a job

Procedure and Process : 

Procedure and Process The procedural syllabus – associated with Prabhu and the Bangalore Project The same as or different from a “process” syllabus ?

Does process mean different things to different people? : 

Does process mean different things to different people? Process writing = teaching writing as process – ie learning to carry out the process is the content/product of the course. By this definition all subskills-based skills courses focus on skill as process – different from a process syllabus understood as itemising assumptions about the learning process and their consequent methodological implications.

Does process mean different things to different people? : 

Does process mean different things to different people? A Process Syllabus Model – Breen 1984 A negotiated syllabus – T and Ss agree on … Who does what … with whom … on what content … with what resources… when … how … And why. … and choose procedures, activities and tasks for learning. On-going evaluation means that the negotiation is cyclical – decisions may be changed as the course progresses and based on what happens

The Negotiated Syllabus … : 

The Negotiated Syllabus … Has its roots in a humanistic approach to education which aims to recognise and foster learners’ ability to take control of their learning and make meaningful choices about what, when, how etc to learn.

Does process mean different things to different people? : 

Does process mean different things to different people? … the Type B tradition, which represents a move… from content to the processes of learning – in other words to methodology. White (op.cit) p. 94 As used in syllabus development, process refers to how instruction is carried out and learning is achieved…. All approaches to language learning have placed some degree of emphasis on process, but each viewed the concept of process differently. Thus the audio-lingual approach singled out pattern practice leading to automatic use as the most important feature of process. Dubin, F. and Olshtain E. (1986 : 46) Course Design CUP

Product and process : not necessarily either / or ? : 

Product and process : not necessarily either / or ? A further useful distinction, found in Breen (1983), related to the product/process one, is between a syllabus of of “ends” and of “means”. According to Breen, the process syllabus does not supplant the product version but is seen as creating a framework for it; the process syllabus interrelates with a syllabus of subject matter (product). Johnson, K. (2009 : 322) Foreign Language Syllabus Design in Knapp,K. and Seidlhofer, B. Handbook of Foreign Language Communication and Learning, Mouton de Gruyter

The Process Dimension : 

The Process Dimension Process results from three major areas: The organisation of the language content which brings about certain activities The roles that teachers and learners take on during the learning process The types of activities and tasks in which learners are engaged …. Decisions relating to the organization of course content, the presentation of new topics, and their sequence and scope of treatment, all depend on the underlying educational and linguistic assumptions and our concurrent understanding of the learning process. Dubin, F. and Olshtain E. (1986 : 46) Course Design CUP

Extracts from a process syllabus? : 

Extracts from a process syllabus? Learners will have the opportunity to : acquire language from “roughly-tuned input” at the i +1 level engage in meaningful output which will involve the negotiation of meaning develop their ability to “notice” language and to infer generalised rules from linguistic data develop their ability to infer the meaning of unknown words from context

Has process become product???? : 

Has process become product???? develop their ability to “notice” language and to infer generalised rules from linguistic data develop their ability to infer the meaning of unknown words from context What as well as how?

So … : 

So … A syllabus for a process writing course, with content such as brainstorming info, selecting and organising info etc is different from a learning process syllabus??? Subskills activities, including those focusing on learning strategies may often be product as well as process - what the students are learning as well as how they are learning??? Breen’s process syllabus is a framework for creating a process syllabus, not a process syllabus itself, and is not the only possibility??? Each teacher/materials writer’s process syllabus will depend on his/her own assumptions about the language learning process???

Slide 17: 

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