ESL/EFL Syllabus Design

Md. Afaz Uddin

Lecturer
Department of English
Jahangirnagar University
Savar, Dhaka 1342
Cell Phone: 01725487850
Email: afazju@yahoo.com
 Syllabus and Curriculum
In Britain, syllabus is quite a common educational
term associated with the widespread British
institution of the external examination.
The North American counterpart curriculum,
program, course of study etc. cover more or less
the same ground.
Conflicting views on the distinction between the
terms Syllabus Design and Curriculum
Development.
Brumfit (1984) states:
The European term syllabus and its north American
counterpart curriculum sometimes appear to be very
close in meaning and sometimes further apart,
depending on the context in which they are used.
 Curriculum
What is curriculum?
Curriculum is an aspect of a broader field of
educational activity known as curriculum
development or curriculum studies.
An educational program which states:
a) The goals and objectives of the programme.
b) The means used to achieve these ends, that is, the

content, teaching procedures and learning

experiences
which are necessary to achieve this purpose.
c) The means used to assess whether or not the
educational ends have been achieved.
 Curriculum
It focuses on determining
what knowledge, skills, and values students
learn in institutions
what experiences should be provided to bring
about intended learning outcomes
how teaching and learning in schools or
educational systems can be planned,
measured, and evaluated.
Curriculum Development is a more
comprehensive process than syllabus design.
 Curriculum
It includes the processes that are used
to determine the needs of a group of learners
to develop aims or objectives for a program to
address those needs
to determine an appropriate syllabus, course
structure, teaching methods, and materials.
to carry out an evaluation of the language
program that results from these processes.
 Curriculum
According to Dubin and Olshtain (1986) a
curriculum contains a broad description of general
goals by indicating an over-all educational-cultural
philosophy which applies across subjects together
with a theoretical orientation to language and
language learning with respect to the subject
matter at hand. A curriculum is often reflective of
national and political trends as well.
Dubin and Olshtain (1986) maintain that a
single curriculum can be the basis for
developing a variety of specific syllabuses
which are concerned with locally defined
audience, particular needs and intermediate
objectives.
 Curriculum
A.M. Shaw (1977) maintains the
curriculum includes the goals, objectives,
contents, processes, resources, and means of
evaluation of all learning experiences planned
for pupils both in and out of school and
community through classroom instruction and
related programs
A curriculum is an all-inclusive term having a
very general goal.
It entails planning, implementation,
evaluation, management, administration of
education programs and so on.
 Curriculum
Curriculum is considered to be a broader term
used in an institution to cover
Ideology

Politics

Plans

Teaching

Learning items
Materials

Equipment

Evaluation

Logistics

Everything
Curriculum Development Process
Problems Identification and General Needs
Assessment
Needs Assessment of Targeted Learners

Goals and Objectives Setting

Syllabus Design

Methodology

Testing and Evaluation

Feedback
 Syllabus
What is a syllabus?
A syllabus is a specification of the content of a
course of instruction and lists what will be
taught and tested.
Description of the content of a course of an
instruction
Selection of the content
Grading the content, that is, the order in
which they are to be taught.
 Syllabus
A.M. Shaw (1977) states ... a statement of
the plan for any part of the curriculum,
excluding the element of curriculum
evaluation itself.
Dubin and Olshtain (1986) maintain a
syllabus is more detailed and operational
statement of teaching and learning elements
which translates the philosophy of the
curriculum into a series of planned steps
leading towards more narrowly defined
objectives at each level.
 Syllabus
A syllabus must specify
1. what components, or learning items, must be
available,
or learned by a certain time;
2. what is the most efficient sequence in which
they are
learned;
3. what items can be learned simultaneously;
4. what items are available from the stock.
The whole process is determined by
consideration of how long it takes to produce or
learn a component or item.
The process is under continual scrutiny by means
of stock checks, or tests and examinations.
 Syllabus
The syllabus for a speaking course might
specify
The kinds of oral skills that will be taught and
practiced during the course,
The functions, topics, or other aspects of
conversation that will be taught,
The order in which they will appear in the
course.
 Syllabus
Faculty information
General description and goal of course
Course objectives
Course schedule /calendar
Instructional strategies/methodologies
Required text or materials
Evaluation procedures and criteria
Relevant institutional policies
 Importance of Syllabus in SL/FL
Learning
Syllabus represents a linguistically and
psychologically optional instruction to the target
language.
Language is complex and pervasive all of it can
not be taught at a time.
All the phenomena related to the language might
not be relevant and/or necessary to be taught.
Syllabus is now viewed as an instrument by which
the teacher can achieve a degree of fit between
the needs and aims of the learner and the
activities which will occur in the classroom.
A syllabus is an idealized schematic construct
which serves as reference for teaching.
 Importance of Syllabus in SL/FL
Learning
A syllabus is required in order to produce
efficiency of two kinds:
Pragmatic efficiency: This kind of efficiency
means the economy of time and money.
Pedagogical efficiency: This means the
economy in the management of the learning
process.
Instruction provided in an institutional setting
is assumed to be more efficient method of
dealing with learning than allowing the learner
to proceed in a non-structured environment.