The course rationale.- This course answers the following questions: who is this course for?, What is the course for? and What kind of teaching and learning will take place in the course. Their answers describe he beliefs, values and goals that underlie the course.
To develop a course rationale , the course planners have to give careful consideration to the goals of the course, the kind of teaching and learning they want to exemplify, the roles of teachers and learners.
Describing the entry and exit level
To plan a language course, it is necessary to know the level at which the program will start and the level learners may be expected to reach at the end of the course. Language programs usually are divided in elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. Also there are specially designed proficiency tests to determine the level of students’ language skills, such as TOEFL or IELTS.
Choosing course content.- The contain that a course should have is important, so the choice of a particular approach to content selection will depend on subject-matter knowledge, the learners’ proficiency levels, current views on second language learning and teaching. It is convenient to generate a list of possible topics, units, skills, and other units. Developing initial ideas for course content often takes place simultaneously with syllabus planning.
Determining the scope and sequence
Scope is concerned with the breadth and depth of coverage of items in the course, that is, with the following questions: What range of content will be covered? and To what extent should each topic be studied? The sequencing of content in the course also needs to be determined. Sequencing may be based under the following criteria:
Simple to Complex, the content should be presented from the simpler to the more difficult stage. this means any type of course content can be graded in terms of difficulty.
Chronology.- Content may be sequenced according to the order in which events occur in the real word.
Need.- Content may be sequenced according to when learners are most likely to need it outside of the classroom. This means topics that are useful for the learners (personal identification, money shopping, telephone, etc.)
Prerequisite learning.- The sequence of content may reflect what is necessary at one point as a foundation for the next step in the learning process. For instance to write a paragraph it is necessary to give learners previously a certain set of grammar.
Whole to part or part to whole. Each material given at the beginning of the course, it will be useful to the learners when he has to practice or structure it like a whole. For example, students might study how to write paragraphs before going on to practice putting paragraphs together to make an essay.
The course development includes mapping the course structure into form and sequence that provide a suitable basis for teaching. Two aspects of this process require more detailed planning: selecting a syllabus framework and developing instructional blocks.
Selecting a syllabus framework: a syllabus describes the major elements that will be used in planning a language course and provides the basis for its instructional focus and content the syllabus could be: situational, topical, functional, and task-based. In choosing a syllabus framework planers are influenced by: knowledge and beliefs about the subject area, research and theory, common practice, and trends.
Many different syllabus frameworks can make a claim to be versions of communicative syllabus: foe example, competency-based, text-based, and task-based-syllabus.
Grammatical syllabus: it is organized around grammatical items this syllabus has been used as the basis for planning courses especially for beginning-level learners. Choice and sequencing of grammatical items in a grammar syllabus reflect the intrinsic ease or difficulty of items but their relationship to other aspects of a syllabus that may be being developed simultaneously. Grammatical syllabuses are seen as one stream of an integrated syllabus.
Lexical syllabus: it identifies a target vocabulary to be taught normally arranged according to levels such as the first 500, 1000, 1500, 2000 words. A lexical syllabus can only be considered as one strand of a more comprehensive syllabus.
Functional syllabus: it is organized around communicative functions such as requesting, complaining, suggesting, agreeing. A functional syllabus seeks to analyze the concept of communicative competence into its different components on the assumption that mastery of individual functions will result in overall communicative ability. Functional syllabuses have been popular for organizing courses and materials because they reflect a more comprehensive view of language than grammar syllabuses and focus on the use of language. They can be linked to other type of syllabus content. They provide a convenient framework for the design of teaching materials, particularly in listening and speaking.
Situational syllabus: it is organized around the language needed for different situations such as at the airport or at the hotel. A situation is a setting in which particular communicative acts typically occur. A situational syllabus identifies the situations in which the learner will use the language and the typical communicative acts and language in that setting. Situational syllabuses are used in travel books. Situational syllabuses have the advantage of presenting language in context and teaching language of immediate practical use.
Topical or content-based syllabus: it is organized around themes, topics, or other units of content. With a topical syllabus content is the starting point is syllabus design. Content is incidental as serves as the vehicle for practicing language structures, functions, or skills.
Competency-based syllabus: it is based on a specification of the competencies learners are expected to master in relation to specific situations and activities. Competencies are a description of the essential skills, knowledge, and attitudes required for effective performance of particular tasks and activities.
Skills syllabus: it is organized around the different underlying abilities that are involved in using a language for purposes such as reading, listening, writing, and speaking. Approaching a language through skills is based on the belief that learning a complex activity such as “listening to a lecture” involves a number of individual skills that together make up the activity. These syllabuses focus on performance, they teach skills that can transfer to other situations, and they identify teachable and learnable units.
Task-based syllabus: it is organized around tasks that students will complete in the target language. A task in an activity that is carried out using language such as finding a solution to a puzzle, reading a map and giving directions, and so on. A task-based syllabus is based on tasks that have been design to facilitate second language learning and one in which tasks are the basic units of syllabus design.
Two kinds of tasks: pedagogical tasks and real-world tasks. Pedagogical tasks are based on SLA theory and are design to trigger second language learning processes and strategies.
Text-based syllabus: this is built around texts and samples of extended discourse this can be regarded as a kind of situational approach because the starting point in planning a syllabus is analysis of the context in which the learners will use the language. A text-based syllabus is a type of integrated syllabus because it combines elements of different types of syllabuses.
An integrated syllabus: Decisions about a suitable syllabus framework for a course reflect different priorities in teaching. In most courses there will be a number of different syllabus strands and the course planners need to decide between macrolevel and microlevel planning units in the course.
Developing instructional blocks: A course needs to be mapped out in terms of instructional blocks or sections. An instructional block is a self-contained learning sequence that has its own goals and objectives, and reflects the overall objectives for the course. Planning the organizational structure in a course involves selecting appropriate blocks and deciding on the sequence in which these will appear. Instructional blocks are planning by models and by units. A model is a self-contained and independent learning sequence with its own objectives. A unit is normally longer than a single lesson but shorter that a module and is the more common way of organizing courses and teaching materials. The factors that account for a successful unit are: length, development, coherence, pacing, and outcome.
Preparing the scope and sequence plan
If the course has been planned and organized, it can be described. One form which can be described is as a scope and sequence plan. It might consist of a listing of the modules or units and their contents and an indication of how much teaching time each block will require. In the case of a text book consists of a unit by unit description of the course cross-referenced to the syllabus items included. Having considered the process involved in planning and developing a language program we turn to issues in creating conditions for effective teaching of the course.
AIHLIIN DAVILA PEREZ & LOURDES
VILLEGAS
REREFENCE
Richards, Jack (2002) Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. Pp. 145-167.
