Page 1

The last decade has seen lots of changes in many fields of education. The field of syllabus design
in foreign language instruction is no exception. The main purpose of this paper is thus to
examine critically the recent approaches in syllabus design.
Syllabus design has been seen as a subsidiary component of curriculum design.
Curriculum is concerned with the planning, implementation, evaluation management, and
administration of education programs. Syllabus, on the other hand, focuses more narrowly on
the selection and grading of content. Nunan. D: 1988

Defining Curriculum
Curriculum refers to the means and materials with which students will interact for the purpose
of achieving identified educational outcomes. Arising in medieval Europe was the trivium, an
educational curriculum based upon the study of grammar, rhetoric, and logic. The
later quadrivium (referring to four subjects rather than three as represented by the trivium)
emphasized the study of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. These seven liberal arts
should sound a lot like what you experienced during your formal education.
The emphasis on single subjects persists even today. Very likely you moved from classroom to
classroom, particularly throughout your secondary education, studying a different subject with
each teacher. Yet there was more to your education. Perhaps you participated in athletics, or the
band, or clubs, or student government, or made the choice not to participate in any
extracurricular activities. All of these (including the option not to participate) are part of what we
might call the contemporary curriculum. But there is more.
Page 2

Some educators would say that the curriculum consists of all the planned experiences that the
school offers as part of its educational responsibility. Then there are those who contend that the
curriculum includes not only the planned, but also the unplanned experiences as well. For
example, incidents of violence that have occurred at a number of schools across the nation are
hardly a planned component of the curriculum. However, the manner in which violence is
addressed before, during, and after the actual event sends a very definite message about how
people in our culture interact and how the laws of our nation are applied.
Another perspective suggests that curriculum involves organized rather than planned experiences
because any event must flow of its own accord, the outcome not being certain beforehand. For
instance, competitions, whether academic or athletic, can be organized, but the outcomes will
depend on a myriad of factors that cannot be planned.
Which brings us to the notion of emphasizing outcomes versus experiences. This shift to the
notion of outcomes is very much in keeping with the current movement toward accountability in
the public schools, that is, the perspective that there are indeed specific things that the schools
are supposed to accomplish with children. District personnel, school administrators, and you as
one of many teachers are to be held accountable by the public/taxpayers for ensuring that those
objectives are met.
Curriculum, it turns out, is indeed much more than the idea of specific subjects as represented by
the trivium or the quadrivium. And, as we will see in the next section, it can be characterized not
only by what it does include but also by what it intentionally excludes.
A key concept to keep in mind is that the curriculum is only that part of the plan that directly
affects students. Anything in the plan that does not reach the students constitutes an educational
wish, but not a curriculum. Half a century ago Bruner (1960) wrote, "Many curricula are
Page 3

originally planned with a guiding idea . . . But as curricula are actually executed, as they grow
and change, they often lose their original form and suffer a relapse into a certain shapelessness"
(p. 54). Curriculumhowever grand the plans may becan only be that portion of the plan that
actually reaches the student. Planning that keeps that point in focus can be expected to result in a
more focused curriculum.-

The Purpose of Curriculum
We have suggested that curriculum refers to the means and materials with which the student
interacts. To determine what will constitute those means and materials, we must decide what we
want the curriculum to yield. What will constitute the "educated" individual in our society? In
other words, what purpose does the curriculum serve?
The things that teachers teach represent what the larger society wants children to learn. However,
beyond teaching reading and writing, what are the necessary things that they should be taught? Is
it really necessary to teach science? Does teaching mathematics really lead to logical thinking, or
does it just provide students with some basic computational skills that may or may not come in
handy at some future time? You may feel that answering such questions is not something a
teacher has to be able to do, but rest assured that at some point a parent will ask you questions
like these. As a teacher, you will be the representative of "the curriculum" to whom parents and
students turn for answers. The purpose of the curriculum is to prepare the student to thrive within
the society as it isand that includes the capacity for positive change and growth.
Page 4

You Actually Have Four Curriculums
There are essentially four curriculums at work in most educational settings: the explicit, implicit,
null, and extra-, or cocurriculum. You are probably familiar with the notions of explicit
curriculum and extracurricular activities. The real intrigue of curriculum debate and design
comes into play with the implicit and null curriculums.
There are four curriculums:
Explicit curriculum: subjects that will be taught, the identified "mission" of the school,
and the knowledge and skills that the school expects successful students to acquire
Implicit curriculum: lessons that arise from the culture of the school and the behaviors,
attitudes, and expectations that characterize that culture
Null curriculum: topics or perspectives that are specifically excluded from the curriculum
Extra curriculum: school-sponsored programs that are intended to supplement the
academic aspect of the school experience
The Explicit Curriculum
Explicit means "obvious" or "apparent," and that's just what the explicit curriculum is all about:
the subjects that will be taught, the identified "mission" of the school, and the knowledge and
skills that the school expects successful students to acquire. If you speak with an administrator at
your school or where you do your observations or practicum work, ask about the curriculum; it is
this publicly announced (and publicly sanctioned) explanation of the message of school that will
be explained to you. The explicit curriculum can be discussed in terms of time on task, contact
hours, or Carnegie units (high school credit courses). It can be qualified in terms of specific
observable, measurable learning objectives.
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The Implicit Curriculum
Sometimes referred to as the hidden curriculum, the implicit curriculum refers to the lessons that
arise from the culture of the school and the behaviors, attitudes, and expectations that
characterize that culture. While good citizenship may be part of the explicit curriculum, a
particular ethos that promotes, for example, multiethnic acceptance and cooperation may also
characterize a particular school. This is not to say that parents, teachers, and administrators sat
around a table and said, "Hey, let's promote acceptance of diverse ethnic values in the context of
the American experience." That would be nice, of course, but then it tends to fall into the
category of the explicit curriculum. By virtue of a high multiethnic enrollment, a particular
school may have a culture of multiethnic cooperation. Another school, isolated in that its
enrollment is primarily that of one ethnic group, would develop a different sort of culture.
Individual schools within a district, or even classrooms within a school that share a common
explicit curriculum, can differ greatly with regard to the implicit curriculum. This is not an
altogether bad situation, but to a great degree the implicit curriculum is subjected to less scrutiny
than is the explicit curriculum.
There are other aspects to the implicit curriculum, and interestingly enough it is the students who
pick up on these messages. Notice how the classrooms and common areas are decorated. These
decorations will demonstrate what the implicit curriculum of the school values. Watch the
children to see how they interact with each other within the class and throughout the building.
Does the school display student work throughout the building? Is there an unwritten rule that
children are to be seen and not heard? All of these contribute to a very particular message sent to
students about expectations, demands, and codes of conduct.
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If you want to investigate the notion of the implicit curriculum further, speak with some
elementary school students. Ask them what is required to get good grades or the approval of the
teacher. Don't be surprised when rather than telling you about studying for an hour every night or
completing homework correctly, they tell you things like "sit up straight" or "be quiet in class" or
"be on time." The implicit curriculum, difficult as it is to identify and articulate, is something
that students understand very quickly. When young children explain the expectations for a
student in school, it will likely be the implicit curriculum that they discuss.
The Null Curriculum
Just as compelling as the notion of the implicit curriculum is Eisner's (1994) concept of the null
curriculum. This aspect of curriculum refers to "the options students are not afforded, the
perspectives they may never know about, much less be able to use, the concepts and skills that
are not a part of their intellectual repertoire" (p. 106-107). The teaching of evolution provides an
example. For more than seventy-five years this topic has been an issue of debate. The decision
by individual states or school districts within states not to include this topic within its explicit
curriculum places it in the category of the null curriculum. In other words, the decision to
exclude particular topics or subjects from a curriculum nonetheless affects the curriculum by its
very omission.
Another example would be the topic of sex education. Sex education has long been an issue with
regard to the degree to which it should be included in the school curriculum, but the newer issues
of gender orientation, alternative lifestyles, and alternative family configurationsjust to
mention a fewexemplify how exclusion from the explicit or implicit curriculum, and thus
inclusion in the null curriculum, affects the overall educational experience.
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Extracurricular Programs
The fourth aspect of curriculum is that of the extra curriculum or co-curriculum. This curriculum
represents all of those school-sponsored programs that are intended to supplement the academic
aspect of the school experience. Athletics, band, drama, student government, clubs, honor
societies and student organizations, and school dances and social events all fall under the
heading of extracurricular activities. Participation in these activities is purely voluntary and does
not contribute to grades or credits earned toward advancement from one grade to the next or to
graduation. Extracurricular activities are typically open to all, though participation often depends
on skill level.

While some experts opine that higher education needs to be defined by quality, others say that
technology will further percolate into classrooms.
The coming decade will see a 'phenomenal evolution in the school education landscape', say
experts. While some opine that higher education needs to be defined by quality, others say that
technology will further percolate into classrooms.
Syed Sultan Ahmed, Managing Director of Edumedia India Pvt Ltd, said, "One clear area of
evolution I see for schools will be a shift of focus from 'marks based' academic curriculum to
'life based' overall development. Schools talk a lot about it these days but do very little. In the
coming years, colleges and universities will start enrolling students on the basis of their overall
development and not just grades. This will change the obsession of schools towards exams and
marks".
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Ahmed opined that, schools in general care very little about standards and quality. "In the
coming years, with increasing competition and expectations from parents, they will be forced to
deliver better quality education at competitive fees," he added.
Ahmed also observed that, at present there is a huge disconnect between what children study and
what the industry and the world require from them. "In the future, there will be a larger say of the
industry in the curriculum that schools teach. Several skill based learning modules will be
introduced by schools, making education a lot more relevant to the world. Creativity and
innovation will be one of the most priced qualities in the future, and schools will have to gear up
to create thinking individuals with a capacity to make sense of the abundant information that
they are exposed to," he said.
The biggest educational challenge in India, is the failure of the government to provide good
quality primary and secondary education through government schools, he said. "Privatization of
government schools through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, seems like a possibility in
the coming years. Indias dream of becoming a developed nation, depends a lot on its school
education," he said.
He added that another trend that seems like a real possibility, is personalised distance learning,
enabled by technology and home schooling.
According to K S Badarinarayan, principal of MVJ College of Engineering, the education sector
is something that is constantly evolving. By 2020, education will be more or less virtual in
nature. "What we have right now, is a classroom culture. But, the growing presence of internet
means that students in Bangalore will be able to choose subjects and courses from across the
world. Imagine being able to take one course from America and another from Europe," he said.
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However, the decline of classroom culture can also have its set of disadvantages. Nevertheless, if
employed the right way, expertise from across the world can be mobilised. "I also think that, the
future will have students being more competitive and creative. The education sector should also
ensure that students are industry ready. Right now, only 25% of all students graduating from
engineering colleges are really employable. What happens to the rest? By 2020, hopefully
colleges will be able to provide multi-skill development for its students, like technical skills and
soft skills put together," he said.
Anitha Kurup, a professor at School of Social Sciences and anchor of the education programme
at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), felt that the primary education in the
country has grown tremendously in the past decade, which means the higher education has to
grow to meet the needs of the primary education. "What the higher education needs to do in the
next few years, is to define itself by quality. We need to look at the kind of skills that need to be
developed, and the kind of courses you provide to the students. We also need to learn from other
countries that have expanded their higher education and gain lessons from their experiences," she
said.
There is a need for giving importance to basic sciences, socials science and humanities. In her
opinion, the reason these fields are suffering right now as opposed to engineering and
professional courses, is because these courses are not linked to the kind of job options people are
looking for. "Ultimately, private players will be have a big role in the growth of higher
education.
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We need to work out models that are feasible. The government should find a way to engage with
the private players, without completely withdrawing, to realise the kind of growth we are looking
for," she added.
Different Types of Language Syllabus

A number of different kinds of syllabuses are used in foreign language teaching. A list of
these is provided below; it is not, of course, exhaustive, but includes the main types that you may
come across in practice or in your reading. Each is briefly explained; some also include
references to sources of more detailed information on content or rationale.
Types of syllabuses
1. Grammatical
A list of grammatical structures, such as the present tense, comparison of adjectives, relative
clauses, usually divided into sections graded according to difficulty and/or importance.
2. Lexical
A list of lexical items (girl, boy, go away...) with associated collocations and idioms, usually
divided into graded sections. One such syllabus, based on a corpus (a computerized collection of
samples of authentic language) is described
in Willis, 1990.
3. Grammatical-lexical
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A very common kind of syllabus: both structures and lexis are specified: either together, in
sections that correspond to the units of a course, or in two separate lists.
4. Situational
These syllabuses take the real-life contexts of language uses as their basis:
sections would be headed by names of situations or locations such as Eating a meal or In
the street.
5. Topic-based
This is rather like the situational syllabus, except that the headings are broadly topic-based,
including things like Food or The family; these usually indicate a fairly clear set of
vocabulary items, which may be specified.
6. Notional
Notions are concepts that language can express. General notions may include number,
for example, or time, place, colour; specific notions look more like vocabulary items:
man, woman, afternoon. For an introduction to the topic of notional syllabuses see Wilkins,
1976.
7. Functional-notional
Functions are things you can do with language, as distinct from notions you can express:
examples are identifying, denying, promising. Purely functional syllabuses are rare: usually
both functions and notions are combined, as for example in Van Eli, 1990.
8. Mixed or multi-strand
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Increasingly, modem syllabuses are combining different aspects in order to be maximally
comprehensive and helpful to teachers and learners; in these you may find specification of
topics, tasks, functions and notions, as well as grammar and vocabulary.
9. Procedural
These syllabuses specify the learning tasks to be done rather than the language itself or even
its meanings. Examples of tasks might be: map reading, doing scientific experiments, story-
writing. The most well-known procedural syllabus is that associated with the Bangalore Project
(Prabhu, 1987).
10. Process
This is the only syllabus which is not pre-set. The content of the course is negotiated with
the learners at the beginning of the course and during it, and actually listed only retrospectively
(Candlin, 1984; Clarke, 1991).


Current Trends in Education in India: Are you ready to acclimatize and succeed?


Once a time was there, when food, shelter and clothing formed the basic needs of human beings.
However, with the development in the industrial age, another important factor that got added up
to the list of basic needs was education. Currently, one of the important industries worldwide is
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definitely the education industry. Its through education only that transmission of tradition and
culture, running of politics and economy is made possible.
With a number of educational options existing before the students at present, newer trends are
seen to emerge in the field of education that has entirely changed the traditional system of
education prevalent in India. Many career alternatives, which were previously not regarded as
important or popular are now among the sought after career options for students. Among these
are radio management, radio jockeying, program anchoring, news anchoring, news reporting,
fashion designing, event management, content writing, hospital management, medical
transcription and many more that have opened up new vistas for education. Though many
traditional courses such as engineering and medicine are still in high demand, yet in keeping with
the changing trends at the national and global economic scenario, new educational programs are
emerging fast, thereby depicting the deviation from the older trends.
Online Education has become an important mode of education. Since the regular courses in
India are getting very expensive and highly competitive, distance and online education is fast
developing as an amazing option for the students. E-learning opportunities are immense in
India. Even the distance education programs are serving wonderfully, by offering a chance of
getting educated, especially for the less advantaged segment of people. Distance learning can be
availed through various types such as postal correspondence programs, pocket PC or mobile
learning programs, interactive CD-ROM programs, tele-courses or broadcast course via
television or radio and many more.
Recent trends and developments in education highlight the vital and salient role of education
in effectively meeting the growing political and socio-economic challenges in the society. With
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the fast developments and many variations, conflicting trends can be noticed in the educational
system in India.
One of the major conflicting trends that can be noticed is the cost of education. As the expense
of formal education in the educational institutes is increasing very fast, the expense of education
via the internet is comparatively low and affordable. Students can have an easy and cheap access
to Internet with the help of cyber cafes and the various other cheap internet home connection
schemes available these days. Students here also get the scope to download many e-books, free
of cost.
Another differing trend can be traced in the methodology of education. With lots of information
to gather and more and more books to study, now students are found more burdened with
studying, learning and grasping the materials and the lectures. On a contrasting note however, so
much efforts are being put into making the learning process an enjoyable one.
Yet another conflicting tendency can be found in the results. Roughly in every part of the
country a problem that has been raised is that the type of education followed by the educational
system in India does not always result in offering jobs to the graduates. Our education system
does not provide the students with any assurance that they will get a job on completion of their
educational degree. However, jobs are definitely being generated by the medium of internet.
Writing articles, web designing, programming, writing reviews etc are among the many job
opportunities offered by the internet.
The education sector in India has received significant attention from different quarters like the
investors, policymakers and media. It is filled with passion and all the enthusiasm on one hand
and many anxieties on the other.
Internationalization of the Education Process
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As one of the strategies for building up of reputation, Internationalization will get more
importance. It may consist of international collaborations for the faculty members and also the
students, joint research tasks or offshore campuses. Since many European universities are
anticipated to show their interest in India, so the collaborations will not only e restricted to
American institutes and Universities only.
Stress on Quality above Quantity
Quality of the education system in India has been lagging for quite some times now in
comparison to the quantity. In the coming time few changes are expected regarding the matters
of transparency and norms. The educational institutes in India would need to fulfill certain basic
norms. The institutions are expected to participate more into information sharing and of course
accountability. The upcoming educational institutes are expected to be trend setters in adopting
several standards related to the quality of education.
Increase in the Adoption of Technologies
With the increase in the number of institutions, there will be growing need for reorganization and
the process of controlling. Different technology based solutions such as the campus managing
software packages is expected to gain prominence. Program management tools will also gain
prominence among the faculty members who look forward to efficiently organize the class.
Increase in the Need for Professional Talent
Indian education industry lacks both in quality and quantity when it comes to administrative
staffs and faculty members. This might pose serious threats regarding the availability of good
faculty members. The expansion of the educational institutes as announced by the Government
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of India would demand for more faculty members. If the shortage of talented and efficient
faculty members persists, then quality of education will suffer immensely.
Although the ways of education is witnessing a change, the old conventional setting of the
education system has definitely not changed. The same classroom concept is still being used by
majority of the schools and other educational institutes in India. Rigid curriculums and huge
syllabus still characterize the educational scenario in India. However, with the entrance of the
online education system in the picture, things are expected to change for the better. Some of the
greatest challenges are being posed by the online educational system towards the traditional way
of learning!
Education is the groundwork based on which any country can progress and develop. Without
educated personnel, sustenance of a vibrant economy is not possible. Some of the recent trends
in education are quite apparent while others are still to make its presence felt. Some are yet to
emerge and therefore subject to evolution and change. One way you can master the change is by
spotting the trends and keeping yourself flexible enough to get ready for the changes. So here are
for you the Current Trends in Education in India: Are you ready to acclimatize and
succeed?

Defining Curriculum
Curriculum refers to the means and materials with which students will interact for the purpose
of achieving identified educational outcomes. Arising in medieval Europe was the trivium, an
educational curriculum based upon the study of grammar, rhetoric, and logic. The
later quadrivium (referring to four subjects rather than three as represented by the trivium)
Page 17

emphasized the study of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. These seven liberal arts
should sound a lot like what you experienced during your formal education.
The emphasis on single subjects persists even today. Very likely you moved from classroom to
classroom, particularly throughout your secondary education, studying a different subject with
each teacher. Yet there was more to your education. Perhaps you participated in athletics, or the
band, or clubs, or student government, or made the choice not to participate in any
extracurricular activities. All of these (including the option not to participate) are part of what we
might call the contemporary curriculum. But there is more.
Some educators would say that the curriculum consists of all theplanned experiences that the
school offers as part of its educational responsibility. Then there are those who contend that the
curriculum includes not only the planned, but also theunplanned experiences as well. For
example, incidents of violence that have occurred at a number of schools across the nation are
hardly a planned component of the curriculum. However, the manner in which violence is
addressed before, during, and after the actual event sends a very definite message about how
people in our culture interact and how the laws of our nation are applied.
Another perspective suggests that curriculum involves organizedrather than planned experiences
because any event must flow of its own accord, the outcome not being certain beforehand. For
instance, competitions, whether academic or athletic, can be organized, but the outcomes will
depend on a myriad of factors that cannot be planned.
Which brings us to the notion of emphasizing outcomes versusexperiences. This shift to the
notion of outcomes is very much in keeping with the current movement toward accountability in
the public schools, that is, the perspective that there are indeed specific things that the schools
are supposed to accomplish with children. District personnel, school administrators, and you as
Page 18

one of many teachers are to be held accountable by the public/taxpayers for ensuring that those
objectives are met.
Curriculum, it turns out, is indeed much more than the idea of specific subjects as represented by
the trivium or the quadrivium. And, as we will see in the next section, it can be characterized not
only by what it does include but also by what it intentionally excludes.
A key concept to keep in mind is that the curriculum is only that part of the plan that directly
affects students. Anything in the plan that does not reach the students constitutes an educational
wish, but not a curriculum. Half a century ago Bruner (1960) wrote, "Many curricula are
originally planned with a guiding idea . . . But as curricula are actually executed, as they grow
and change, they often lose their original form and suffer a relapse into a certain shapelessness"
(p. 54). Curriculumhowever grand the plans may becan only be that portion of the plan that
actually reaches the student. Planning that keeps that point in focus can be expected to result in a
more focused curriculum.

The Purpose of Curriculum
We have suggested that curriculum refers to the means and materials with which the student
interacts. To determine what will constitute those means and materials, we must decide what we
want the curriculum to yield. What will constitute the "educated" individual in our society? In
other words, what purpose does the curriculum serve?
The things that teachers teach represent what the larger society wants children to learn. However,
beyond teaching reading and writing, what are the necessary things that they should be taught? Is
Page 19

it really necessary to teach science? Does teaching mathematics really lead to logical thinking, or
does it just provide students with some basic computational skills that may or may not come in
handy at some future time? You may feel that answering such questions is not something a
teacher has to be able to do, but rest assured that at some point a parent will ask you questions
like these. As a teacher, you will be the representative of "the curriculum" to whom parents and
students turn for answers. The purpose of the curriculum is to prepare the student to thrive within
the society as it isand that includes the capacity for positive change and growth.



Types of curriculum
Definitions of the different types of curriculum
When I asked my students what curriculum means to them, they always indicated that it means
the overt or written curriculum thinking of a curriculum manual with goals and objectives, or
their textbooks. However, the word curriculum as it is defined from its early Latin origins
means literally to run a course. If one thinks of a marathon with mile and direction markers,
signposts, water stations, and officials and coaches along the route, this beginning definition is a
metaphor for what the curriculum has become in the education of our children.
Here are multiple definitions of curriculum, from Oliva (1997) (4)
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Curriculum is:
That which is taught in schools
A set of subjects.
Content
A program of studies.
A set of materials
A sequence of courses.
A set of performance objectives
A course of study
Is everything that goes on within the school, including extra-class activities, guidance, and
interpersonal relationships.
Everything that is planned by school personnel.
A series of experiences undergone by learners in a school.
That which an individual learner experiences as a result of schooling. p 4
What are the different kinds of curriculum?
Obviously the answer to this question is subject to interpretation. Since curriculum reflects the
models of instructional delivery chosen and used, some might indicate that curriculum could be
categorized according to the common psychological classifications of the four families of
learning theories Social, Information Processing, Personalist, and Behavioral.Longstreet
and Shane have dubbed divisions in curricular orientations as: child-centered, society-centered,
knowledge-centered, or eclectic. Common philosophical orientations of curriculum parallel
those beliefs espoused by different philosophical orientations Idealism, Realism,
Page 21

Perennialism, Essentialism, Experimentalism, Existentialism, Constructivism,
Reconstructivism and the like.
Whatever classification one gravitates to, the fact remains that at one time or another curriculum
in the United States has, at some level, been impacted by all of the above. In essence, American
curriculum is hard to pin down because it is multi-layered and highly eclectic.
My personal definition (Wilson, 1990) of curriculum is:
Anything and everything that teaches a lesson, planned or otherwise. Humans are born learning,
thus the learned curriculum actually encompasses a combination of all of the following the
hidden, null, written, political and societal etc.. Since students learn all the time through
exposure and modeled behaviors, this means that they learn important social and emotional
lessons from everyone who inhabits a school from the janitorial staff, the secretary, the
cafeteria workers, their peers, as well as from the deportment, conduct and attitudes expressed
and modeled by their teachers. Many educators are unaware of the strong lessons imparted to
youth by these everyday contacts.
The following represent the many different types of curricula used in schools today
Type of
Curriculum
Definition
1. Overt,
explicit, or
Is simply that which is written as part of formal instruction of schooling
experiences. It may refer to a curriculum document, texts, films, and
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written
curriculum
supportive teaching materials that are overtly chosen to support
the intentional instructional agenda of a school. Thus, the overt curriculum
is usually confined to those written understandings and directions formally
designated and reviewed by administrators, curriculum directors and teachers,
often collectively.
2. Societal
curriculum
(or social
curricula)
As defined by Cortes (1981). Cortes defines this curriculum as:[the] massive,
ongoing, informal curriculum of family, peer groups, neighborhoods, churches
organizations, occupations, mas, media and other socializing forces that
educate all of us throughout our lives. 24
This type of curricula can now be expanded to include the powerful effects of
social media (YouTube; Facebook; Twitter; Pinterest, etc) and how it actively
helps create new perspectives.
3. The
hidden or
covert
curriculum
That which is implied by the very structure and nature of schools, much of what
revolves around daily or established routines.
Longstreet and Shane (1993) offer a commonly accepted definition for this term
the hidden curriculum, which refers to the kinds of learnings children derive
from the very nature and organizational design of the public school, as well as
from the behaviors and attitudes of teachers and administrators. 46
Examples of the hidden curriculum might include the messages and lessons
Page 23

derived from the mere organization of schools the emphasis on: sequential
room arrangements; the cellular, timed segments of formal instruction; an
annual schedule that is still arranged to accommodate an agrarian age;
disciplined messages where concentration equates to student behaviors were
they are sitting up straight and are continually quiet; students getting in and
standing in line silently; students quietly raising their hands to be called on; the
endless competition for grades, and so on. The hidden curriculum may include
both positive or negative messages, depending on the models provided and the
perspectives of the learner or the observer.
In what I term floating quotes, popularized quotes that have no direct, cited
sources, David P. Gardner is reported to have said: We learn simply by the
exposure of living. Much that passes for education is not education at all but
ritual. The fact is that we are being educated when we know it least.
4. The null
curriculum
That which we do not teach, thus giving students the message that these
elements are not important in their educational experiences or in our society.
Eisner offers some major points as he concludes his discussion of the null
curriculum. The major point I have been trying to make thus far is that schools
have consequences not only by virtue of what they do teach, but also by virtue of
what they neglect to teach. What students cannot consider, what they dont
processes they are unable to use, have consequences for the kinds of lives they
Page 24

lead. 103
Eisner (1985, 1994) first described and defined aspects of this curriculum. He
states: There is something of a paradox involved in writing about a curriculum
that does not exist. Yet, if we are concerned with the consequences of school
programs and the role of curriculum in shaping those consequences, then it
seems to me that we are well advised to consider not only the explicit and
implicit curricula of schools but also what schools do not teach. It is my thesis
that what schools do not teach may be as important as what they do teach. I
argue this position because ignorance is not simply a neutral void; it has
important effects on the kinds of options one is able to consider, the alternatives
that one can examine, and the perspectives from which one can view a situation
or problems. 97
From Eisners perspective the null curriculum is simply that which is not taught
in schools. Somehow, somewhere, some people are empowered to make
conscious decisions as to what is to be included and what is to be excluded from
the overt (written) curriculum. Since it is physically impossible to teach
everything in schools, many topics and subject areas must be intentionally
excluded from the written curriculum. But Eisners position on the null
curriculum is that when certain subjects or topics are left out of the overt
curriculum, school personnel are sending messages to students that certain
content and processes are not important enough to study. Unfortunately, without
Page 25

some level of awareness that there is also a well-defined implicit agenda in
schools, school personnel send this same type of message via the hidden
curriculum. These are important to consider when making choices. We teach
about wars but not peace, we teach about certain select cultures and histories but
not about others. Both our choices and our omissions send messages to students.
5. Phantom
curriculum
The messages prevalent in and through exposure to any type of media. These
components and messages play a major part in the enculturation of students
into the predominant meta-culture, or in acculturating students into narrower
or generational subcultures.
6.
Concomitant
curriculum
What is taught, or emphasized at home, or those experiences that are part of a
familys experiences, or related experiences sanctioned by the family. (This type
of curriculum may be received at church, in the context of religious expression,
lessons on values, ethics or morals, molded behaviors, or social experiences
based on the familys preferences.)
7. Rhetorical
curriculum
Elements from the rhetorical curriculum are comprised from ideas offered by
policymakers, school officials, administrators, or politicians. This curriculum
may also come from those professionals involved in concept formation and
content changes; or from those educational initiatives resulting from
decisions based on national and state reports, public speeches, or from texts
critiquing outdated educational practices. The rhetorical curriculum may also
Page 26

come from the publicized works offering updates in pedagogical knowledge.
8.
Curriculum-
in-use
The formal curriculum (written or overt) comprises those things in textbooks,
and content and concepts in the district curriculum guides. However, those
formal elements are frequently not taught. The curriculum-in-use is the actual
curriculum that is delivered and presented by each teacher.
9. Received
curriculum
Those things that students actually take out of classroom; those concepts and
content that are truly learned and remembered.
10. The
internal
curriculum
Processes, content, knowledge combined with the experiences and realities of
the learner to create new knowledge. While educators should be aware of this
curriculum, they have little control over the internal curriculum since it is
unique to each student.
11. The
electronic
curriculum
Those lessons learned through searching the Internet for information, or
through using e-forms of communication. (Wilson, 2004) This type of
curriculum may be either formal or informal, and inherent lessons may be
overt or covert, good or bad, correct or incorrect depending on ones views.
Students who use the Internet on a regular basis, both for recreational
purposes (as in blogs, wikis, chatrooms, listserves, through instant messenger,
on-line conversations, or through personal e-mails and sites like Twitter,
Facebook, or Youtube) and from personal online research and information are
Page 27

bombarded with all types of media and messages. Much of this information
may be factually correct, informative, or even entertaining or inspirational.
But there is also a great deal of other information that may be very incorrect,
dated, pass, biased, perverse, or even manipulative. The implications of the
electronic curriculum for educational practices are that part of the overt
curriculum needs to include lessons onhow to be wise consumers of
information, how to critically appraise the accuracy and correctness of e-
information, as well as the reliability of electronic sources. Also, students
need to learn how to be artfully discerning about the usefulness and
appropriateness of certain types of information. And, like other forms of
social interaction, students need to know that there are inherent lessons to be
learned about appropriate and acceptable netiquette and online
behavior, to include the differences between fair usage, legitimate
citations, and overt plagiarism.


An Overview of Syllabuses in English Language Teaching
by Mohammad Mohseni Far, M.A., Shahid Chamran University, Iran.

Introduction
Page 28

The purpose of this article is to briefly introduce and study the influential types of syllabuses
utilized in the domain of ELT. Accordingly, the essentials and issues central to each syllabus are
dealt with and examined.
To begin with, it seems of great importance to define the term syllabus in order to have a better
understanding of what it actually means and to which aspects and dimensions of ELT it is
related. Of course, it should be noted that there are many challenges to proper defining and
elaborating on the concept syllabus. For example, in recent years, the focus of syllabuses has
shifted away from structure to situations, functions and notions to topics and tasks. That is why,
as Nunan (1988:52) highlights, with the development of the latter obviously "the traditional
distinction between syllabus design and methodology has become blurred". Accordingly, though
it is a little difficult on initial appearance to describe syllabus, it seems possible to make an
attempt to define syllabus at least in an understandable way. In Wilkins' (1981) words, syllabuses
are "specifications of the content of language teaching which have been submitted to some
degree of structuring or ordering with the aim of making teaching and learning a more effective
process." A syllabus can also be seen as "a plan of what is to be achieved through our teaching
and our students' learning" (Breen, 1984a) while its function is "to specify what is to be taught
and in what order" (Prabhu, 1984). Hutchinson and Waters (1987:80) define syllabus as at its
simplest level as a statement of what is to be learnt. They further add that it reflects of
language and linguistic performance. Yalden (1987: 87) also refers to syllabus as a "summary of
the content to which learners will be exposed". Candlin (1984) suggests a different perspective
implying that syllabuses are "social constructions, produced interdependently in classrooms by
teachers and learnersThey are concerned with the specification and planning of what is to be
learned, frequently set down in some written form as prescriptions for action by teachers and
Page 29

learners." Finally, in simple words, a language teaching syllabus involves the combination of
subject matter (what to teach) and linguistic matter (how to teach). It actually performs as a
guide for both teacher and learner by providing some goals to be accomplished. Syllabus, in fact,
deals with linguistic theory and theories of language learning and how they are utilized in the
classroom.

Syllabuses in ELT
Syllabi are not totally distinct from each other. All actual language teaching syllabuses are
integrated product of two or more of the types of syllabi presented here. In other words, although
different language teaching syllabuses are introduced here as though each can be employed on its
own, in practice, these syllabuses rarely occur independently of each other. For a particular
course, one type of syllabus usually dominates, while other types of content might be integrated
with it. For instance, there is minimal distinction between the skill-based and task-based
syllabuses. In fact, the way in which the instructional content is employed in the real teaching
procedure is the determining element in choosing a syllabus. The characteristics, advantages, and
disadvantages of individual syllabuses are investigated in a nutshell as follows.
1. A procedural syllabus
The procedural syllabus was proposed by Prabhu (1980). Prabhus 'Bangalore Project' was based
on the premise that structure can be best learned when attention is concentrated on meaning. The
focus shifts from the linguistic aspect to the pedagogical one focusing on learning or the learner.
The tasks and activities are designed and planned in advance but not the linguistic content. In
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this syllabus tasks are graded conceptually and grouped by similarity. Within such a framework
the selection, ordering and grading of content is not so much considerable for the syllabus
designer. Arranging the course around tasks such as information- and opinion-gap activities
helps the learner perceive the language subconsciously while consciously focusing on solving the
meaning behind the tasks.
2. A cultural syllabus
Stern (1992) introduces cultural syllabus to be incorporated into second/foreign language
education. There are many challenges regarding defining the concept of culture. Seelye
(1984:26) refused to define culture, calling it a broad concept that embraces all aspects of the
life of man, and Brown (1994) calls it the glue that binds a group of people together. In order
to have a better understanding of the term culture, Stern (1992:208) suggests that writers have
tried to reduce the vast and amorphous nature of the culture concept to manageable proportions
by preparing lists of items or by indicating a few broad categories. Stern keeps on by
discounting such lists as presented by Brooks and Chastain as providing only cultural titbits.
Nostrands (1978) emergent model is praised by Stern as an attempt to overcome this, as is
Seelyes observation that all of mankind have the same needs, and that different groups will
satisfy these needs in different ways, as this gives a viewpoint for studying culture. However,
Stern also implies that although both Nostrands and Seelyes work give a viewpoint, they are
difficult to be put in practice. Hammerly (1982) suggests a mix of anthropological culture and
classical culture. He highlights three areas, i.e. information culture, behavioural
culture and achievement culture. Stern believes this to be valuable, but claims that it does not
solve the problem of the range of cultural topics.
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Believing in the fact that there is a consensus on the objectives of teaching culture, Stern (1992)
indicates that aims should be:
A research-minded outlook
The learners own country
Knowledge about the target culture
Affective goals; interest, intellectual curiosity, and empathy.
Awareness of its characteristics and of differences between the target culture
Emphasis on the understanding socio-cultural implications of language and language use
3. A situational syllabus
With this type of syllabus, the essential component of organization is a non-linguistic category,
i.e. the situation. The underlying premise is that language is related to the situational contexts in
which it occurs. The designer of a situational syllabus tries to predict those situations in which
the learner will find him/herself, and applies these situations, for instance; seeing the dentist,
going to the cinema and meeting a new student, as a basis for selecting and presenting language
content. The content of language teaching is a collection of real or imaginary situations in which
language occurs or is used. A situation usually includes several participants who are involved in
some activity in a particular setting. The language used in the situation comprises a number of
functions combined into a plausible part of available discourse. The main principle of a
situational language teaching syllabus is to teach the language that occurs in the situations.
In this syllabus, situational needs are important rather than grammatical units. The major
organizing feature is a list of situations which reflects the way language and behavior are used
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everyday outside the classroom. Thus, by connecting structural theory to situations the learner is
able to induce the meaning from a relevant context. One advantage of the situational approach is
that motivation will be heightened since it is "learner- rather than subject-centered"
(Wilkins.1976: 16).
4. A skill-based syllabus
Skills are abilities that people must be able to do to be competent enough in a language, rather
independently of the situation or context in which the language use can occur. In this syllabus,
the content of the language teaching involves a collection of particular skills that may play a role
in using language. Although situational syllabuses combine functions together into specific
settings of language use, skill-based syllabi merge linguistic competencies (pronunciation,
vocabulary, grammar, and discourse) together into generalized types of behavior, such as
listening to spoken language for the main idea, writing well-formed paragraphs, delivering
effective lectures, and so forth. The chief rationale behind skill-based instruction is to learn the
specific language skill. Another less important objective might be to develop more general
competence in the language, learning only incidentally any information that may be available
while utilizing the language skills.
5. A structural or formal syllabus
This is recognized as the traditional syllabus which is often organized along grammatical lines
giving primacy to language form. The focus is on the outcomes or the product. It is, in fact,
a grammatical syllabus in which the selection and grading of the content is on the basis of
the complexity and simplicity of grammatical items. In other words, it specifies structural
Page 33

patterns as the basic units of learning and organizes these according to such criteria as structural
complexity, difficulty, regularity, utility and frequency. The learner is expected to master each
structural step and add it to his/her grammar collection. It makes ample use of highly controlled,
tightly structured and sequenced pattern practice drills.
6. A multi-dimensional syllabus
Since there is no serious rationale behind the selection of only one of the inventory item types
necessary to be chosen as a unit of organization. It is possible to design a syllabus involving
lessons of varying orientation; for example, some including important functions, others dealing
with situations and topics, and yet others with notions and structures. The underlying principle is
that there should be flexibility to change the central point of the teaching material as the course
unfolds. This will lead to a syllabus design which is flexible, less rigid and more responsive to
the various student language needs.
7. A task-based syllabus
A task-based syllabus supports using tasks and activities to encourage learners to utilize the
language communicatively so as to achieve a purpose. It indicates that speaking a language is a
skill best perfected through interaction and practice. 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. The content of the teaching is a series of multifaceted and focused tasks that
the students want or need to perform with the aid of the language they are learning. Tasks
combine language and other skills in specific contexts of language use.
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Since language learning is considered subordinate to task performance and language teaching
also occurs just as the need arises during the performance of a particular task, the tasks are best
defined as activities with a purpose other than language learning so as to develop second
language ability.
8. A process syllabus
The actual syllabus is designed as the teaching and learning proceeds. This type of syllabus was
supported by Breen (1984a:1984b) whereby a framework can be provided within which either a
pre-designed content syllabus can be publicly analyzed and evaluated by the classroom group, or
a developing content syllabus can be designed in an on-going way. It supports a frame for
decisions and alternative procedures, activities and tasks 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.
9. A learner-led syllabuses
Breen and Candlin (1984) were the first ones proposed the belief of basing an approach on how
learners learn. The emphasis is upon the learner, who it is hoped will be engaged in the
implementation of the syllabus design as far as that is practically possible. The learners
awareness of the course they are studying helps them increase their interest and motivation,
attached with the positive effect of developing the skills required to learn.
A predetermined and prearranged syllabus provides support and guidance for the instructor and
should not be so simply dismissed. The opponents of this view indicate that a learner-led
syllabus seems far-reaching, radical and utopian in that it will be complicated to follow as the
Page 35

direction of the syllabus will be mostly the responsibility of the students. Moreover, without the
support of a course book, a lack of aims may come about.
10. A proportional syllabus
This type of syllabus is basically practical and its focus is upon flexibility and spiral technique of
language sequencing leading to the recycling of language. The proportional syllabus mainly tries
to develop an overall competence. It seems appropriate and applicable for learners who lack
exposure to the target language beyond the classroom.
Specifically speaking, this syllabus comprises a variety of elements with theme playing a linking
part through the units. This theme is chosen by the learners. At first, the form is of essential
value, but later the emphasis will turn towards interactional elements. The shift from form to
interaction can occur at any time and is not restricted to a particular level of learner ability. The
dominant view in designing a proportional syllabus centers around the premise that a syllabus
has to indicate explicitly what will be taught, rather than what will be learned. In closing, the
rationale behind designing such a syllabus is to develop a type of syllabus that is dynamic with
ample opportunity for feedback and flexibility.
11. A content-based syllabus
This syllabus is intended to design a type of instruction in which the crucial goal is to teach
specific information and content using the language that the learners are also learning. Although
the subject matter is of primary and vital importance, language learning occurs concurrently with
the content learning. The learners are at the same time language students and learners of
whatever content and information is being taught. As compared with the task-based approach of
Page 36

language teaching that is connected with communicative and cognitive processes, content-based
language teaching deals with information. This syllabus can be exemplified by assuming a
chemistry class in which chemistry is taught in the language the learners need or want to learn,
possibly with linguistic adjustment to make the chemistry more understandable.
12. A notional/functional syllabus
The chief emphasis of this syllabus is upon the communicative purpose and conceptual meaning
of language i.e. notions and functions. In other words, the content of the language teaching is a
number of the functions that are performed on using the language, or of the notions that language
is utilized to express. Functions can be exemplified by instances such as inviting, requesting,
agreeing, apologizing; and notions embrace age, color, size, comparison, time, etc. Besides,
grammatical items and situational elements are considered at subsidiary level of importance. As
ppposed to the hypothesis of structural and situational syllabuses which lies in the fact that it is
most often in search of how or when and where of language (Brumfit and Johnson,
1979:84), the functional/notional syllabus seeks for what is a learner communicates through
language.
An important point regarding notional-functional syllabus is that the needs of the students have
to be explored and analyzed by different types of interaction and communication a learner may
be involved in. Accordingly, needs analysis is central to the design of notional-functional
syllabuses. Needs analysis should be taken into account so as to establish the necessary
objectives. Apart from needs analysis that has an implicit focus on the learner, this type of
syllabus proposes a new list consisting of notions and functions that become the main focus in a
Page 37

syllabus. White (1988:77) argues that "language functions do not usually occur in isolation" and
there are also difficulties of selecting and grading function and form.
13. A lexical syllabus
As one of the advocates of the lexical syllabus, Willis (1990, 129-130) asserts that taking lexis
as a starting point enabled us to identify the commonest meanings and patterns in English, and to
offer students a picture which is typical of the way English is used. He continued to claim that
they were able to follow through the work of Wilkins and his colleagues in their attempt to
establish a notional syllabus. They also were able to suggest to students a way of referencing the
language they had experienced. Thus learners were able to use their corpus in the same way as
grammarians and lexicographers use a corpus in order to make valid and relevant generalizations
about the language under study.
Specifically speaking, Willis lexical syllabus is firmly based on real language. It draws on the
COBUILD research which provides an analysis of a corpus of natural language of twenty million
words. The COBUILD corpus provides the content of the lexical syllabus, the commonest words
and phrases in English and their meanings. It also provides some insights into that content which
modifies and shapes the way syllabus designers treat the language in the course books. Thus, the
picture of the language one pictures in designing such a syllabus is quite distinct from what one
might present intuitively. In fact, intuition on its own cannot identify the most frequent words
and phrases of the language, or even recognize their importance. Previously the course writers
reliance on intuition has resulted in misrepresentations in the handling with the language. The
proposed lexical syllabus is actually based on a body of research into natural language rather
Page 38

than other pedagogic grammars. The result is to put forward a more complete pedagogic
description of the language and a better balanced description as well.
One of the most significant features of designing such a syllabus is the shift of responsibility for
learning onto the learner. Instead of offering discrete patterns to the learner, we enabled the
learner to experience a corpus of language which is in many ways typical of the language as a
whole, and to learn from examining and analyzing this corpus. By exposing learners to carefully
selected language, and by arming them with analyzing that language for themselves, the syllabus
helps the learners successfully achieve their goals. Specifically speaking, it is the issue of a
dynamic element in the process that is the learner's creativity. In fact, by exploiting the creativity,
the learning is vastly made more efficient.

Conclusion
There are many essential points when considering a syllabus to be designed and implemented.
The various syllabi touched upon in this investigation all present valuable insights into creating a
language program and course. Although the thirteen types of syllabus were examined and
defined here as if in isolated contexts, it is uncommon for one type of syllabus to be utilized fully
in actual teaching settings. Syllabuses are frequently combined in more or less integrated ways
with one type as the organizing starting point around which the others are arranged and
connected. To put it another way, in arguing about syllabus choice and design, it should be kept
in mind that the question is not which type to choose but which types and how to connect them
with each other. Finally, and perhaps preferably, a hybrid syllabus needs to be constructed and
Page 39

designed due to pragmatic reasons. As Hutchinson and Waters (1987:51) state it is wise to take
an eclectic approach, taking what is useful from each theory and trusting also in the evidence of
your own experience as a teacher.
In closing, it is of great importance to note that no single type of syllabus is appropriate for all
teaching settings. This is due to the fact that the needs and conditions of each setting are so
characteristic and idiosyncratic that particular proposals for integration are not easily possible.
The possibility and practicality aspects of a particular syllabus to be developed and implemented
are of great significance while processing the issue. To put in more tangible terms, in making
practical decisions about syllabus design, one must take into account all the potential factors that
may affect the teachability of a specific syllabus. By beginning with an assessment and
investigation over each syllabus type, keeping track of the choice and integration of the different
types according to local needs, one may find a principled and practical solution to the problem of
suitability and efficiency in syllabus design and implementation. The investigation on how subtly
and carefully a syllabus can be designed and implemented opens a new horizon for future
research.


Syllabus:
A syllabus (pl. syllabuses, or syllabi as a hypercorrection;
[1][2]
from modern
Latin syllabus "list", in turn from a misreading ( sillubos) of the Greek
sittubas"parchment label, table of contents"),
[3][4]
is an outline and summary of topics to
be covered in an education or training course. It is descriptive (unlike the prescriptive or
Page 40

specificcurriculum). A syllabus is often either set out by an exam board, or prepared by
the professor who supervises or controls the course quality. It may be provided in paper form or
online.
Both syllabus and curriculum are often fused, and usually given to each student during the first
class session so that the objectives and the means of obtaining them are clear. A syllabus usually
contains specific information about the course, such as information on how, where and when to
contact the lecturer and teaching assistants; an outline of what will be covered in the course; a
schedule of test dates and the due dates for assignments; the grading policy for the course;
specific classroom rules; etc.
[citation needed]

Within many courses concluding in an exam, syllabuses are used to ensure consistency between
schools and that all teachers know what must be taught and what is not required (extraneous).
Exams can only test knowledge based on information included in the syllabus.




Current Trends in Syllabus Design
and Materials Development

Cheng Xiaotang
School of Foreign Languages and Literature, Beijing Normal University
Page 41


1. Introduction

1.1 A clarification of terms: curriculumand syllabus

In the existing literature on language education, the terms curriculum and syllabus are sometimes
used interchangeably, sometimes differentiated, and sometimes misused and misunderstood.
Likewise, the terms syllabus design and curriculum development are causing confusion among
both researchers and practitioners. There are at least two reasons for this chaotic use of the terms.
One reason is that both of the two terms are used differently in British English and American
English. The other is that the concept of curriculum has changed in the past years. Stern (1983)
provides an attempt to clarify these two terms:

The term curriculum is commonly used in two related senses. It refers, first, to the
substance of a programme of studies of an educational institution or system. Thus, we
can speak of the school curriculum, the university curriculum, the curriculum of French
Schools, or the curriculum of Soviet education. In a more restricted sense, it refers to
the course of study or content in a particular subject, such as the mathematics
curriculum or the history curriculum. It is, therefore, used as a synonym of what in
British universities and schools is sometimes referred to as the syllabus for a given
subject or course of studies. In recent years, however, the term curriculum has come
Page 42

to refer not only to the subject matter or content, but also to the entire instructional
process including materials, equipment, examinations, and the training of teachers, in
short all pedagogical measures related to schooling or to the substance of a course of
studies (p. 434).

Following Stern, Nunan (1988:3) suggests that a curriculum is concerned with making general
statements about language learning, learning purpose, and experience, and the relationship
between teachers and learners, whereas a syllabus is more localized and is based on the accounts
and records of what actually happens at the classroom level as teachers and students apply a
curriculum to their situation.

Rodgers (1989:26, cited in Richards, 2001:39) makes a similar distinction between a syllabus
and a curriculum. According to Rodgers, syllabi, which prescribe the content to be covered by a
given course, form only a small part of the total school program. Curriculum is a far broader
concept. Curriculum is all those activities in which children engage under the auspices of the
school. This includes not only what pupils learn, but how they learn it, how teachers help them
learn, using what supporting materials, styles and methods of assessment, and in what kind of
facilities.

Since the 1980s the view that curriculum development processes are central elements in
language program design has become more widely accepted in language teaching. In many
Page 43

countries, language curriculum development units have been established in ministries of
education since the 1980s with a mandate to review and develop national language teaching
curriculum based on a curriculum development perspective (Richards, 2001:41). Consequently,
the kind of document that used to be called syllabus is now called curriculum.

In this paper, syllabus and curriculum are differentiated based on the distinctions outlined above.
A syllabus is a specification of what takes place in the classroom, which usually contains the
aims and contents of teaching and sometimes contains suggestions of methodology. A
curriculum, however, provides (1) general statements about the rationale about language,
language learning and language teaching, (2) detailed specification of aims, objectives and
targets learning purpose, and (3) implementation of a program. In some sense, a syllabus is part
of a curriculum.

Another difference worth note is that syllabus is often used to refer to something similar to a
language teaching approach, whereas curriculum refers to a specific document of a language
program developed for a particular country or region. Therefore, we can talk about a
grammatical syllabus or a task-based syllabus, but we dont have a grammatical curriculum or a
task-based curriculum. Based on this distinction, we assume that syllabus design is more of a
pedagogical nature, whereas curriculum is a more planning issue.

1.2 The relationship between syllabus and materials
Page 44


In many parts of the world, language education programs are designed following a syllabus-
driven approach, that is, the syllabus determines what kind of materials will be adopted and in
what ways they will be exploited for the classroom teaching. In certain educational contexts, the
syllabus even determines how materials should be designed in the first place. Therefore, the
materials are not seen as an alternative to the syllabus, but an instrument among others used to
fulfil the goals of the syllabus. Materials, whether commercially developed or home-made, are an
important element within the curriculum, and are often the most tangible and visible aspect of the
curriculum. While the syllabus defines the goals and objectives, the linguistic and experiential
content, instructional materials can put flesh on the bones of these specifications (Nunan,
1991:208, cited in McGrath, 2002:214).

2. Current trends in syllabus design

2.1 An overview of types of syllabuses

In theory, a language teaching syllabus can be designed in many different ways, depending on
the designers view of language and view of language learning and teaching. In the past few
decades, the grammatical syllabus, the lexical syllabus, the skills syllabus, the functional-
notional syllabus, the content syllabus and the task-based syllabus have been proposed and
attracted more or less attention. Below is a brief description of some of the influential types of
syllabuses:
Page 45


Grammatical syllabuses: The underlying assumption behind grammatical syllabuses is
that language is a system which consists of a set of grammatical rules; learning
language means learning these rules and then applying them to practical language
use. The syllabus input is selected and graded according to grammatical notions of
simplicity and complexity. These syllabuses introduce one item at a time and
require mastery of that item before moving on to the next.
Lexical syllabuses: Lexical syllabuses identify a target vocabulary to be taught
normally arranged according to levels such as the first 500, 1000, 1500, 2000
words. Lexical syllabuses were among the first types of syllabuses to be developed
in language teaching (Richards, 2001:154).
Skills syllabuses: Skills syllabuses are organized around the different underlying
abilities that are involved in using a language for purposes such as reading, writing,
listening, or speaking. Approaching a language through skills is based on the belief
that learning a complex activity such as listening to a lecture involves mastery of
a number of individual skills or microskills that together make up the activity.
Functional-notional syllabuses: In functional-notional syllabuses, the input is selected
and graded according to the communicative functions (such as requesting,
complaining, suggesting, agreeing) that language learners need to perform at the
end of the language programme. The functional-notional syllabuses reflect a
broader view of language provided by philosophers of language and
sociolinguistics.
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Content syllabuses: In content syllabuses, the content of language learning might be
defined in terms of situations, topics, themes, or other academic or school subjects. The
stimulus for content-syllabuses is the notion that, unlike science, history, or
mathematics, language is not a subject in its own right, but merely a vehicle for
communicating about something else. These syllabuses are also called topical
syllabuses.
Task-based syllabuses: Task-based syllabuses are more concerned with the classroom
processes which stimulate learning than with the language knowledge or skills that
students are supposed to master. These syllabuses consist of a list of specification of
the tasks and activities that the learners will engage in in class in the target language.

Obviously, each of the above types of syllabuses has its merits and drawbacks (c.f., Nunan,
1988; Richards, 2001). Each was developed with inspirations from linguistic and/or educational
studies. Some of these have been used longer and more widely than the others.



ABSTRACT : NEEDED
English occupies a place of prestige in our country, even after more than four decades since
Britishers left India. No indigenous language however has come up to replace English, either as a
medium of communication or as an official language. With the Independence in spite of many a
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movement against the teaching of English in India under the influence of nationalistic feeling
and emotional hostility English began to reassert its position but, surprisingly, the number of
people who can speak and write English as intelligibly and correctly as native speakers of the
language do is receding day by day.
The way English is taught in our colleges today is to a great extent responsible for the
deterioration of the standard of English in India. The problem of declining standards of English
in India is very much due to the aims of English Education in general and English Language
Teaching in particular. The aims of English Education and Teaching are certainly very lofty and
there are inadequate means to realize them. The policy makers have forgotten that English is not
the Mother- Tongue of Indians. We must accept that the standard of its teaching has deteriorated
vastly and that is why it is essential to know the problems of teaching English in India at
undergraduate level in the colleges.
This paper is an attempt to trace the problems faced by both the Teacher and the student in
the English teaching and learning process at undergraduate level. This paper reports the
experiences of the staff involved in the design and operation of a method of teaching problem-
solving to undergraduates. The paper aims at presenting the contemporary situations in India
with regard to English and suggesting remedies where these are called for.
English occupies a place of prestige in our country, even after more than four decades since
Britishers left India. No indigenous language however has come up to replace English, either as a
medium of communication or as an official language. Though Gandhiji was totally against
English Education, but he also appreciated the importance of foreign language especially
English. In his book, Young India he said:
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I do not want my house to be walled in on al l sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want
the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. I would have our
young men and young women with literary tastes to learn as much of English and other world
languages as they like and expect them to give the benefits of their learning to India and to the
world.1
The Secondary Education Commission (1952) found that teaching of English continue
vigorously. The commission recorded evidences to the effect that it was through a study of
English language and literature that India became united and that she attained freedom from the
British. The Report of the Secondary Education Commission says:
Many eminent educationalists and scientists have, therefore, expressed the opinion that under
no circumstances should we sacrifice the many advantages that we have gained by the study of
English. They hold that in matters pertaining to education sentiment should not be the ruling
factor and that what was most urgently needed was that our youth acquire knowledge from all
sources and contribute their share to its expansion and development. In the attainment of this
objective, the study of English was bound to play an important part. 2
The knowledge of English will enable us to establish intellectual, cultural, economic,
commercial and political relations with the rest of the world and its knowledge is essential for
higher legal, technical and scientific education and research in almost all branches of learning. It
is also necessary for those writers who wish to reach a bigger audience, for diplomats, editors,
lawyers, politicians in fact almost everyone under the sky.
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The attitudes of the people are also changing towards learning English. V.K.Gokak in his
book English in India: Its Present and Future very aptly sums up the attitude of the people as
follows:
The English language has lined India with the world outside to India and from India to the
world. We are blessed with the two way traffic that English has afforded us. We have paid a
heavy price in the past for this privilege. But in our indignation over the price that has been paid,
let us not throw away the privilege that is already ours.3

India needs a language of the outside world and English language stands relatively on a better
position than any other foreign language like French, German, etc. At present many people like
to send their children to English medium Schools and Colleges, which are establishing in full
swing all around India. But the standard of English teaching kin Schools and Colleges has
deteriorated quickly.
Our late Prime Minister of India Mrs. Indira Gandhi often emphasized the importance of
English language teaching in our Schools and Colleges. She expressed her anxiety at the poor
standard of its teaching. The Ministry of Education and Youth Services urged the Study Group
on Teaching of English (1971) to prepare a practical programme for improving the teaching of
English both at school and college level. The teaching of English in India has a many-
sided problem and the problems and their remedies will find place in detail in the following lines
of the study.
The Problems of Teaching English Language at Under-Graduate level :
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Little understanding of the aims of teachin g English: The primary aim of teaching English
at this stage should be to concentrate on the fundamental skills of the language ability of the
students namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. It is of paramount importance that the
teacher should know what his task is and what he is trying to achieve by teaching English. In the
syllabuses of colleges, we do not have a specific plan of what to teach and when to teach, as it is
there in syllabus of school. It is for the teacher to decide how and when to teach a particular
teaching item. Thus, they want to cover the whole course without reading its aims and objectives.
They believe to go on with their job of teaching without knowing the difficulties of the learner.
The teacher should be fully aware of the fact that his students proficiency in English is not up to
mark owing to the deteriorating standard of teaching in schools. Our objectives of teaching
English should be practical and in keeping with the standard of proficiency achieved by our
students. We should emphasize on the main aims of teaching English is to develop the ability of
students to read and understand books, journals and reference materials in English.
Dearth of competent Teachers: The teacher o f English is incompetent to realize the need
for and significance of English in the new perspective. They fail to revise their aims in the new
setting and also to teach English most effectively within a short time. We Teachers should realize
that a lot of responsibility rests on our shoulders. T.P.Reddi in his presidential Address said in
October 1977,
We, the teachers of English, are keenly aliv e to the responsibility that rests on us. We have
to see that English is taught at all levels and taught well and its standards are properly
maintained.4
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The teachers of English of colleges do not keep themselves abreast with the recent
developments in the field of linguistics and theories of learning and teaching, without which they
cannot teach their students effectively. The problem of dearth of competent teachers arises due to
the lack of teachers who are specialized in the method of Teaching English.
Defective textbooks and curriculum: The nex t important problem of teaching English in
colleges is bad Textbooks. There is a mistaken idea that the standard of English is raised by the
prescription of difficult books. Speed in reading can be achieved only through the provision of
books which students can read with comprehension. Where books are beyond the ready
comprehension of students, distaste for reading is created. This unfortunate attitude is one of the
obstacles which the college teacher has to overcome. University syllabus does not fully satisfy
the present objectives of the teaching of English. Books are often prescribed which reflect
English life and culture and are less understood and appreciated by students. Books containing
common vocabulary and common themes would have been more useful. The prose book about
physical and social sciences may be more useful. The purpose of any prose book is to enable the
students to develop the stock of words and thus such words can be used in our daily lives are
certainly more useful. For e.g. the introduction of Shakespeares plays at degree level is not
practical, because to teach Shakespeare to the students who are not sound in linguistic skills is
nothing but to try to make a super-structure on the sandy foundations.
Faulty Examination system: One of the facto rs responsible for the deterioration is the
pattern of question-setting. It is easy to predict what questions would be asked on what books in
which examinations. The students simply have to memorize. The teacher also teaches only those
aspects which are important for the examinations. Students, teachers are not given proper
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orientation and teachers are to be blamed for this. Students of English Honours are expected to
be proficient in spoken English as well. They are unable to posses the ability to develop the
power of written and oral expression in a classroom situation. Some marks should be reserved
for internal tests also, which is also lacking in the evaluation system. It has been seen that such
teachers who are engaged in private tuition or associated
with coaching classes or institutions on commercial lines encourage the penetration of corrupt
and dishonest practices into the academic life on the campus. It is mostly these teachers who
reduce centralized evaluation of answer books to a state of farce. They can never be serious
examiners. They even evaluate their part of answerbooks without caring for the merit and the
demerit of the answer scripts. Such examiners should be debarred permanently from examination
and evaluation work.
Wrong Methods of Teaching: The methods and techniques used by the Teacher are faulty
and out of date. The programme of teaching is carried out by inefficient methods in classroom.
Of course, good teachers are more important than good methods, but an efficient teacher can
improve remarkably the quality of teaching by applying good methods and techniques of
teachings. Most teachers in Bihar use the grammar translation method. For e.g. A teacher comes
to class, picks up a textbook of the prescribed syllabus, opens it and starts reading himself and
then tells the meaning of some lines or all lines in Hindi. Everything cannot be translated as it is
in Hindi. For instance, if a teacher in Maharashtra asks her student to translate the following
sentence of Marathi into English: Maaza Gala Baslay then the students will try to translate the
sentence as their teacher teaches them; they might give the answer as: My neck is Si tting or
My neck sat. The actual and correct answer is: My throat is upset or I have a sore throat.
Some teachers are very conservative in their approach and they are not ready to learn any new
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methods and techniques of Teaching English. In other places we often witness teachers using the
lecture method and they are very much comfortable using it and they ignore the other methods of
teaching.
Insufficient provision of audio-visual aids: Many teachers are unable to teach English
effectively because they face a lot of problems due to the lack ofTeaching-Aids. There are very
few audio-visual aids available and it is insufficient for the teachers to use it effectively. Some
are so costly that the colleges can only afford to buy few.
Shortage of time: We have four lectures per week for the teaching of English in colleges,
but in most of the colleges, classes are not held owing to the lack of adequate number of teaching
staff. Sometimes teachers rush for the syllabus completion. They are in lack of time for doing
other activities including different methods of teaching English like Role play, Play-
way, Dramatization, etc. in the class. Most of the Teachers practice the Grammar Translation
method, and out of 50 minutes of per lecture. We discover half the time i.e. 25 minutes are gone
in
translation and students gets just 25 minutes or less to listen to English Language. There may be
a better understanding of the passage being studied this way, but the students, in fact, learn less
English then they would have done if the teacher had taught the passage by techniques which use
questions, illustrations and simple practice drills. The teacher also doesnt have time to carry out
the interaction with the students in English.
Unsatisfactory supervision: The next proble m is due to the unsatisfactory supervision by the
teachers. The teachers in most of the colleges are least bothered about the students. They only
guide the clever students, who are always very active in the class, and for others they develop a
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negative attitude. Most of the teachers fail to supervise the students homework or their
potentials. The teacher should try to help the students who are weak and should try to sort out
their learning disabilities by supervising them from time to time. For e.g. Film- Tare Zameen par.
Crowded classes: The size of the classes ev erywhere was considerably large and thus,
students participation in the class work was quite impossible. The ratio of students in relation to
teachers was not proportional. This is one of the reasons why individual attention is not possible
to the students. For individual attention, there is a provision of Tutorial classes but the number of
students in Tutorials also is again very large, because most of the college can afford neither so
many rooms for this purpose, nor so many teachers to conduct effective teaching of English. It
should also be recognized that the practical work in the teaching of English
demands that the number of students in the class be limited.
Inability of the Teacher to solve the Stude nts Problems: The teachers of English also faced
difficulties to solve the problems of students. They had to teach fundamental elements of
language and the conceptual concept of the prescribed texts. The conceptual concept of the texts
often had no limitations in the life of students. Therefore, they reflect more on the notebooks
which are published in the different parts of the country.
Socio-psychological problems: The next problem is due to the Socio- Psychological
Problems, which influences the teaching of English in their own respective Ways:
1. Lack of Motivation: In learning a second or a foreign language, motivation is the crucial
force which determines whether the learner embarks on a task at all, how much energy he
devotes to it, and how long he perseveres. It is known as a
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complex phenomenon and includes many components, such as, the individuals drive, need for
achievement and success, curiosity, desire for stimulation and new experience, and so on.
2. Lack of Communicative Need: The primary motive for learning a language is that it
provides a means of communication. A person is, therefore, most likely to be drawn towards
learning a second language if he perceives a clear communicative need for it. The extent of this
communicative need depends upon the nature of the social community in which the person lives.
Inability of the Teacher to understand the difference between the teaching of literature and
the teaching of language skills: One of the reasons for the declining standards of teaching
English is the inability of teachers to understand the difference between the teaching of literature
and the teaching of language skills. Everybody knows that the study of a language is not an end
in itself, it is a means to develop ones power of expression and comprehension can be achieved
by mastering stylistic elements of the language. According to A.K.Sharma:
English language teaching in India, you will agree with me, has suffered a lot
so much that our students who pass intermediate o r degree examinations with English either as
a compulsory or as an elective subject, can neither speak nor write correct English. May be,
because the emphasis in our schools and colleges has always been on the conceptual content and
the stylistic content has been neglected so far.5
Lack of creativity in students: Students ar e generally to a great extent handicapped in the
power of self expression; therefore, great emphasis should be given on language courses, which
may consist of essay writing, letter writing, prcis writing, grammar and syntax. Most of the
students prefer to refer to age oldready-made notes either distributed by the teacher or available
at a book depot. They refer and write the same answer, which the notes contain. The students
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lack in creativity and are unaware of critically appreciating a poem. Tej Bahadur Sapru told the
Sadler commission :
What is known as a critical study of any aut hor really means nothing more than picking up
a few telling sentences or striking phrases from some book of criticism without real attempt at
entering into the spirit of the author or appreciating his point of view.6
Laid back attitude of both the teacher and the student: The next problem is
due to the laid back attitude of both the teacher and the student. The teacher in most of the
colleges as so lazy that they neither come to the class well prepared to give notes nor do they
give the list of reference books to the students. Some times they too are very much lazy to get the
text from the library for themselves. They usually carry the age old printed notes to the class and
try to read it and explain from that notes itself and later they pass the same to their students. The
students are also lazy, so they try to get the easiest way out to get through the examinations by
collecting and referring to the notes given by teachers or incase teachers dont provide notes,
then they purchase the notes from the book depot. Its observed that the students hardly climb up
the stairs of library for referring books or taking notes.
Problem of correlation of English with other subjects and life: Most of the teachers are
unable to correlate the English language with other subjects like History, Geography, etc. The
teachers face the problem of correlation as they are very confused to correlate the unit neither
with our lives nor with the other subjects. Because of this the students do face difficulties in
comprehending the text.
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Teachers and students Regional Dialect af fecting proper pronunciation: This is a very
crucial problem with most of the teachers teaching English. When the teachers try to speak
English, they carry their own regional dialects into English. They have difficulty in
pronunciations and are not cautious about the stress and intonation of their own speech. They
teach incorrect phonetic transcriptions, pronunciations, stress and intonations to the students. For
e.g. a teacher whosemother-tongue is Malayalam, mostly pronounces the alphabet M as Yum.
Same way a Teacher who is Bengali uses her regional dialects to pronounce Anurag as
Onurag.
Mother-tongue interference: Most of the Problem arises due to the interference of mother-
tongue in speaking English. Both the teachers and the students are very fluent in talking in their
own mother-tongue. But they forget the essence of pure language. When they speak in
their mother-tongue they sometimes use English words in the midst of the sentences. They forget
that the every language differs in stress, intonation and pronunciation. For instance when a child
asks her mother Pen in her mother-tongue (Marathi). i.e. Aai mala Pen de the
word Pen is not a Marathi word it is purely an En glish word but when it is used in Marathi, the
stress and intonation of the Marathi language is also put on Pen, which sounds to us as pain in
English. Here pain is a completely a different word
and posses a different meaning. This is the finest example of first language interference
i.e. Mother-tongue. The most commonly used English word is Hello,
it is also pronounced In different types.

Culture related difficulties: The word culture denotes a characteristic way
of
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perceiving things or relationships between things. Every people have a tendency to see the
relationships between things in one way, not in the other. Take, for example, the relationship
between time and place in English.-time adverbs are always preceded by place adverbs. Culture-
related ways of perception when they differ from those of the native speakers of English can be a
problem demanding much patience and understanding for English language teachers to tackle
effectively. If the French students of English use question-tags wrongly, it may be due to the
influence of their mother-tongue. The same mistake is made by Indian students of English, and
for the same reason, too. It is fairly easy to teach question- tag. Just tell the students that the
structure of the question-tag is operator followed by the pronoun of the subject of the statement
and the operator is negative for positive statements andvice-versa. It is as simple as that! But
owing to the force of habit they might occasionally relapse. However, when it comes to culture-
related differences in perception whose causes may be traced deep into people's racial memories
or experiences, the teachers of English may be facing a serious difficulty. Some times the
teachers are the carries of the culture. Researchers have brought to light the link between a
language and the culture of its native speakers. By culture we mean the characteristic way a
people thinks and feels about the things that affect them. It profoundly colors their language. It
is, therefore, impossible to separate a language from the culture of its native speakers. While
teaching English in a second language situation the teachers are confronted with this problem of
cultural divide which they often wrongly diagnose as mother- tongue interference.
While mother-tongueinterference can be easily identified as a problem area in English language
teaching and remedial action taken, cultural interference acts at a deeper level and frustrates
teachers' attempts to teach them to write and speak good English. This seemingly invincible
barrier has to be demolished with proper knowledge and understanding of the problem.
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Problem of concretizing the abstract idea: The Teachers faces a serious problem of
concretizing the abstractness of the novel, poem, passage, words, etc. They face difficulty in
creating live pictures in the eyes of the students. The Teachers sometimes mix up the ideas and
create jumbled pictures in their students eyes. They have insufficient audio-visual aids for
teaching English. So they sometimes get scared with such problems and try to skip those ideas
and looks
forward to their syllabus completion. The students find it difficult to understand the abstract idea
and so they are unable to comprehend the lectures given by their teachers in English.
Teachers failure in arousing emotions in students: Most of the teachers fail in arousing
emotions in the minds of their students. If a poem on sadness is going on in the class, the teacher
should teach it so effectively that the students get tears in their eyes, and really the emotions like
pity and sorrow arouses in the hearts of the students and they get moved by the poem. Sometimes
the students feels free to share their sorrowful experiences of sadness in their past. This type of
experience is hardly found in classroom teaching at present. In fact the teacher is always in a
hurry to complete the portion and feels that it is waste of time to arouse emotions and interact
with the students.
Difference in English: English is pronounced in a very different way from almost all other
languages of the world. Every region of the world where English is spoken has a different accent.
People who are not used to English find these accents quite intimidating. There are too many
kinds of English. When you are teaching English as a second language, you must bear in mind
that your students will not know the difference between US English, Queen's English and the
entire sundry Englishs of the world. This could lead to confusions.
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CURRENT TRENDS IN EDUCATION

Once a time was there, when food, shelter and clothing formed the basic needs of human
beings. However, with the development in the industrial age, another important factor that
got added up to the list of basic needs was education. Currently, one of the important
industries worldwide is definitely the education industry. Its through education only that
transmission of tradition and culture, running of politics and economy is made possible.

With a number of educational options existing before the students at present, newer trends
are seen to emerge in the field of education that has entirely changed the traditional
system of education prevalent in India. Many career alternatives, which were previously not
regarded as important or popular are now among the sought after career options for students.
Among these are radio management, radio jockeying, program anchoring, news anchoring,
news reporting, fashion designing, event management, content writing, hospital
management, medical transcription and many more that have opened up new vistas for
education. Though many traditional courses such as engineering and medicine are still in high
demand, yet in keeping with the changing trends at the national and global economic
scenario, new educational programs are emerging fast, thereby depicting the deviation from
the older trends.

Online Education has become an important mode of education. Since the regular courses in
India are getting very expensive and highly competitive, distance and online education is fast
developing as an amazing option for the students. E-learning opportunities are immense in
India. Even the distance education programs are serving wonderfully, by offering a chance of
getting educated, especially for the less advantaged segment of people. Distance learning can
be availed through various types such as postal correspondence programs, pocket PC or
mobile learning programs, interactive CD-ROM programs, tele-courses or broadcast course via
television or radio and many more.

Recent trends and developments in education highlight the vital and salient role of
education in effectively meeting the growing political and socio-economic challenges in the
society. With the fast developments and many variations, conflicting trends can be noticed in
the educational system in India.

One of the major conflicting trends that can be noticed is the cost of education. As the
expense of formal education in the educational institutes is increasing very fast, the expense
of education via the internet is comparatively low and affordable. Students can have an easy
and cheap access to Internet with the help of cyber cafes and the various other cheap
internet home connection schemes available these days. Students here also get the scope to
download many e-books, free of cost.



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Another differing trend can be traced in the methodology of education. With lots of
information to gather and more and more books to study, now students are found more
burdened with studying, learning and grasping the materials and the lectures. On a
contrasting note however, so much efforts are being put into making the learning process an
enjoyable one.

Yet another conflicting tendency can be found in the results. Roughly in every part of the
country a problem that has been raised is that the type of education followed by
the educational system in India does not always result in offering jobs to the graduates. Our
education system does not provide the students with any assurance that they will get a job on
completion of their educational degree. However, jobs are definitely being generated by the
medium of internet. Writing articles, web designing, programming, writing reviews etc are
among the many job opportunities offered by the internet.

The education sector in India has received significant attention from different quarters like
the investors, policymakers and media. It is filled with passion and all the enthusiasm on one
hand and many anxieties on the other.

The computer and the internet's evolution these past few years have been staggeringly fast. A
computer that used to fill an entire building in 1965 has about the same computing power as
a modern-day cell phone. Most of the popular forms of media like TV, radio, and print are
slowly being nudged from their pedestal by the internet. Everything seems to have changed
drastically these years.
Thankfully, educators are starting to change with the times. The trend in education these
days is that learning institutions should try their best to keep up with the recent advances in
technology to better teach their students.

Here are some of the more popular trends in education today:
The Use of the Internet and Social Media as a Teaching Tool
All students these days know how to use a computer and the internet, and most of them are
using social media networks to share their thoughts and to support each other. Educators
these days know how to harness the power of the internet and social media to get in touch
with their students, and hear their thoughts.
How the Condition of Educational Facilities Affect Performance
Basically the better the building's condition, the better the students and their teachers
perform. There was a survey done with different schools in the US as subjects, they sought to
find out just how much of an impact a school building's condition and facilities affect the
students and teachers. Some results point out that better facilities led to less truancy,
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smoking, and substance abuse in the students. It was also determined that with better school
buildings test scores rose up significantly. And even the behavior of the teachers and how
well they instruct their students seem to increase along with improvements in the school.
Students Teaching Teachers
Students perform better when they have the opportunity to tell their teachers what things in
the classroom needs improvement. Contrary to the old belief that students are too young to
know what they need, new education systems now give the students the opportunity to give
pointers to their teachers on how they can better deliver their lessons so that the students
can understand.
It was also found that giving the students the chance in contributing and even revising the
classroom rules actually make the students abide to them; it gives them the feeling that they
actually have a say on what goes in the classroom. Students tend to follow the class rules now
since they had a role in making the rules and regulations.
Paying Close Attention to Each Students' Needs
Educators are not looking at their class as a collective; they see them as different individuals
with different needs, which is why some students lag behind the others when it comes to the
lectures. Educators can help these students keep up by giving them personalized attention.
These are just some of the recent trends in the education system. These are promising signs
that show the educational system in the country is improving and no longer stagnant.

Today, the demand for secondary education worldwide is soaring due to progress towards
universal primary school completion, large cohorts of young people searching for the key to a
better life, and the global demand for an increasingly sophisticated labor force. This heightened
demand for secondary education is accompanied by the need to respond to the twin challenges of
increasing access to and, at the same time, improving quality and relevance of secondary
education. These two overarching themes run through all other issues in secondary education.
One of the main challenges for policymakers is to ensure that secondary education is accessible
to young people. In many countries, inequity in access to secondary education is a major barrier
to human development, and therefore to economic growth and poverty reduction. Despite
significant growth in secondary school enrollments in recent years, developing countries still
face enormous challenges. Whereas the primary school completion gap between rich and poor
countries has diminished, the gap in the proportion of the population with secondary education
has widened in the past 40 years.
Quality and Relevance
As the demand for secondary education increases, there must be an accompanying emphasis on
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increasing the quality and relevance of that education. The demand for higher skilled workers to
actively and effectively participate in the global economy is driving the push for quality and
relevance. Policymakers and educators must reexamine every facet of the secondary education
system to ensure that young people are gaining the skills and knowledge that they need to be
successful in todays world. Only through increasing quality and relevance can secondary
education truly serve as a catalyst to economic growth and poverty reduction.
Curriculum
Within the context of the knowledge economy, changing work patterns are leading to radical
new approaches in the way curriculum knowledge is selected, organized, and sequenced. In
addition, greater emphasis on the democratization of access to knowledge and on the formation
of social capital, as well as better understanding of youth issues and how adolescents learn, are
greatly impacting curriculum design.
Today, in many countries, adults and young people share a feeling that secondary education
curriculum is profoundly inadequate. It is commonly asserted that there is a knowledge gap
between the subject matter currently being taught and the knowledge and skills that are required
if individuals and countries are to be competitive in the globalized world. There is a demand for
a much closer intertwining of theoretical and practical learning, as well as general and vocational
education, to prepare students to take full advantage of educational and employment
opportunities.

Assessment
In the effort to expand secondary education and improve its quality the role of national
examinations cannot be taken for granted. Examinations can be used to distribute opportunities
for further education and as a condition for accessing labor markets. They are a powerful tool
for influencing and shaping secondary school curriculum. Broadly speaking, entrance
examinations to secondary education are disappearing or are being used for purposes other than
competitive selection. On the other hand, concern about global competitiveness has sparked an
increased interest in nationwide student achievement testing. Good assessment tools provide
policymakers with critical decision-making information to evaluate the quality and cost-
effectiveness of educational interventions.
Teaching
The teaching profession is charged with the immense task of building human skills and
capacities necessary for economic growth, poverty reduction, social well-being, and individual
development. It is no surprise that teachers are considered the most important element in
education systems everywhere. Reform efforts in both developed and developing countries
assume that the most direct and effective way of raising instructional quality is to introduce
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changes in teacher education and recruitment, improve the knowledge and pedagogical skills of
teachers, and to ensure that organizational conditions promote effective instruction.
Globalization and the shift to the knowledge economy have had a profound impact on teacher
recruitment, training, and support. There is an increasing demand for teachers who are
knowledge workers, designers of creative and relevant learning environments to help move
students towards the growing opportunities in higher education and employment.
Technology
Globalization, the increased importance of knowledge as a driving force in economic
development, and the skill-biased nature of technological changes in the workplace are putting
additional pressures on national governments to modernize and revamp their secondary
education systems in order to produce graduates who are well prepared to enter the work force or
institutions of higher learning. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are
transforming teaching and learning processes in educational systems worldwide.
For some decades now technologies have been seen as tools for expanding access to education at
reduced costs. Indeed, distance education has contributed to expanded educational access,
particularly at the tertiary level. However, ICTs also introduce substantial and recurring new
costs, as school systems struggle to stay current with technology. The mere presence of
computers in classrooms does not guarantee that student learning will improve. Effective use of
ICTs requires accompanying, and often difficult, changes in curriculum, teaching, and school
organization. In addition, sophisticated technologies are not always introduced equitably,
resulting in the exclusion of some students based on location, gender, income, or other factors.
Financing
The escalating demand for secondary education increases the pressure on national budgets in an
already constrained financial environment. Significantly increasing access to secondary
education requires new financial resources. There is little evidence, however, that increases in
funding alone lead to improvements in the quality of education. The financial reality is that
many developing countries and transition economies lack the capacity to raise the additional
resources necessary to address the new challenges in secondary education. Nations must find
new ways of increasing funding for secondary education through public, private, or community
sources, and at the same time, maximizing efficiency and effectiveness in resource allocation and
utilization.
Governance
In the 21st century, traditional modes of organizing and governing secondary education are no
longer relevant. Long-established forms of governance based on a system of publicly
authorized, publicly funded, and publicly operated schools supported by centrally defined norms
and regulations are being replaced by an array of governance arrangements in which the central
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government continues to play a central role in steering and monitoring the system, but lower-
level governments and private sector share in the funding and operation of schools. Countries
that have had reasonable success in providing most of their young people with good secondary
education share four common elements in governance: transparent, well-known regulations; a
sharp definition of responsibilities; strong public management; and a precise definition of
outcomes and measurement of results. Moreover, secondary education systems today must be
flexible and responsive to the rapidly changing environment, balancing student needs with
management issues in the global information age.