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Outline Difference between a syllabus and a curriculum. An account of the salient factors we have to consider for constructing a syllabus. 1. Introduction. 2. Syllabus and curriculum A. Definition of syllabus B. Definition of curriculum C.
Difference between syllabus and curriculum a. Basic difference b. Differences in detail approaches 3. Factors to construct a syllabus A. Type A: What is to be learn B. Type B.
How is to be learn C. Van Ek's necessary component D. Selection of the content E. Organization of the content F. Components to design a syllabus a. Set A b.
Set B c. Set C d. Set D G. McDonough about syllabus design H. Criteria for selection and grading a.
Structural b. Topic c. Functional 4. The need for a syllabus A. Should a syllabus be explicit, and if so, to whom? B.
Basic organizing principles 5. Creating and reinterpreting a syllabus 6. Conclusion Introduction: Throughout the 1970 s while language teaching theorists and practitioners excited themselves with course design for Specific Purpose language teaching, and while needs of adult migrants and private sectors or industrial language learners were extensively examined, the majority of learners of English continued to struggle with large classes, limited text books, few contact hours, and years of un intensive study. The work of many teachers had either been ignored by syllabus or curriculum designers, or had been interfered with by insensitive and too rapid application of ideas from ESP theory or Council of Europe discussion by administrations who did not fully realize the implications of the innovations so proudly presented.
As a result, several national educational systems have gone communicative or gone functional-notional, and then retreated after a brief trial period whatever they had before. It seemed worthwhile, therefore, to convene a symposium at TESOL Convention in Toronto in 1983 specifically to examine the role of syllabuses in normal state education. And it is also seemed worthwhile not to rush too quickly into arguments about the detailed design of syllabuses, but to clear the ground first on the definition, function and purpose of the syllabuses, for many of the difficulties in discussion of (for example) Wilkins influential Notional Syllabuses (1976) result from the enormously varying interpretations of the term syllabus. Since a language is highly complex and pervasive, all of it (which can hardly be determined) cannot be taught at a time.
Moreover al the phenomena related to the language might not be relevant or necessary to be taught to the learner / group of learners. Therefore, successful teaching of the language evidently requires a selection and then an arrangement of the teaching items / materials depending on the prior definition of the objective (s), proficiency level to be developed in the learner, duration of the program, and the like, on the one hand, and on the other, upon the consideration of the learners needs, lacks, aptitudes, motivation, age, personality memory transfer of training, cognitive style, and so forth. The selection and the sequencing absolutely take place in the syllabus planning stage. With the advent of much complicate theories of language and language learning, as well as recognition of the diversity of the learners needs, wants, and aspirations, the concept of syllabus for SL/FL teaching has taken on new importance. It has also become highly elaborated, and has been examined at length, particularly in the context of ESP programs, and generally ELT planning. Thus the syllabus is now viewed as an instrument by which the teacher, with the help of the syllabus designer, can achieve a degree of fit between the needs and aims of the learner (as social being and as individual) and the activities, which will occur in the classroom.
A syllabus is required to produce efficiency of two kinds-pragmatic and pedagogical. The former is concerned with the economy of time and money. It needs the setting of instructions to be planned, and that not all learners are to be given the same treatment. So syllabuses differ according to the practical factors present in given situation. The latter kind of efficiency is related to the economy in the management of the learning process. Instruction provided in an institutional setting is assumed to be a more efficient method of dealing with learning than allowing the learner to proceed in a non-structured environment.
It is then clear that the syllabus of any kind is viewed as providing a better control of the learning process, generally by the institution and / or the teacher, but in some instance control can be and should be exercised also by the learner himself / herself . The degree and the type of control that the syllabus exercises depend on the institution-as-society. That is, in a highly democratic institution, the syllabus has to be determined and constructed by consensus. Definition of syllabus: This term covers the teaching learning items, materials, equipments and the evaluation tools. A finished syllabus is an overall plan the learning process.
It must specify what components, or learning items, must be available, or learned by a certain time; what is the most efficient sequence in which the are learned; what items can be learned simultaneously; what items are available from the stock, and 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. If we point out the main ideas of syllabus it comes as follows: 1. A syllabus is a specification of work of a particular department in a school or college, and it might be broken down into subsections, which will define the work of a particular group or class. 2. In practice, it is often linked to time semesters, terms, weeks, or courses, which are tied to these. But this link is not essential, and may be counter productive in that the time is teacher based rather than learner based.
But a syllabus must specify a starting point, which should be related to a realistic assessment of the level of beginning students, and ultimate goals, which may or may not be realized by the end of the course, depending on the abilities of the learners and their progress in a particular course. 3. It will specify some kind of sequence based on- a. Sequencing intrinsic to a theory of language learning or to the structure of specified material relatable to language acquisition; b. Sequencing constrained by administrative needs, materials. 4. A syllabus is a document of administrative convenience and will only be partly justified on theoretical grounds. Hence it will be negotiable and adjustable, enshrining the most useful experience of the past in order to ease the workload of the present. 5.
A syllabus can only specify what is taught; it cannot organize what is learnt. It can, methodologically, allow for opportunities for acquisition and / or learning, but such opportunities cannot spelt out in detail as they will reflect the personalities of learners and continuing relationships established as the class progresses. 6. Not to have a syllabus is to refuse to allow ones assumptions to be scrutinized or to enable different teachers to relate their work to each others. It is consequently an essential feature of work in a democratic profession or as part of democratic education.
Definition of curriculum: It is considered to be a broader term used in a institution to cover politics, plans, teaching, learning items, materials, equipments, logistics everything. The first view of curriculum shows a concern with objectives and content, which are two of four elements in the traditional model of the curriculum. The second view of adds methods to the model. The methods are the means by which the ends-the objectives-are to be achieved and this forms the basis of a process view of a curriculum. The third perspective adds a fourth and final element evaluation. This brings to us the situational model of curriculum.
Evaluation, as feedback, will also form a component of the construction systems model, since quality control will be an important element of any production system. It is through monitoring and feedback that planned and actual outcomes can be compared and appropriate remedial action taken to repair failures or deficits. Thus feedback will have a formative effect on action. The third perspective may represent a more realistic approach, since it takes accounts of existing systems before initiating proposals for change. The systematic changes and the installation of the new elements will, of course, require planning and the effective use of systems in order to realize new objectives, so that each of the first two approaches will make important contributions to an overall process of curriculum development.
Difference between curriculum and syllabus: Some confusion exists over the distinction between syllabus and curriculum, since the terms are used differently on either side of the Atlantic. Curriculum is a very general concept, which involves consideration of the whole complex of philosophical, social and administrative factors, which contribute to the planning of an educational programme. Syllabus, on the other hand, refers the subpart of curriculum, which is concerned with a specification of what units will be taught. The European term syllabus and its North American counterpart curriculum often seem to be very close in meaning and sometimes further apart, depending on the context in which they are used.
In a distinction that is commonly drawn in Britain, syllabus refers to the content or subject matter of an individual subject, whereas curriculum stands for the totality of content to be taught and aims to be realized within one school or educational system. In the USA curriculum tends the synonymous with syllabus in the British sense. Curriculum should not simply be seen as a kind of super syllabus because there is a qualitative difference between the two. On the one hand, curriculum may be viewed as the programme of activities, the course to learn by pupils in being educated. On the other, curriculum may be defined as all learning, which is planned and guided by the school, whether it is carried on in groups or individually, inside or outside the school. That is one school of thought regards the curriculum as a plan, while the other views it as activities.
Allen distinguishes at least six aspects of levels of curriculum: 1. Concept formation 2. Administrative decision making 3. Syllabus planning 4.
Materials design 5. Classroom activities 6. Evaluation Shaw confidently makes a line of distinction between the curriculum and the syllabus as he defines syllabus as a statement of the plan for any part of curriculum, excluding the element of curriculum evaluation itself. And he concludes that the syllabus should be viewed in the context of an ongoing curriculum development process. Therefore, the terms are synonymous in USA, but in Britain a syllabus is a part of a curriculum made of many parts. But I should take the term syllabus as a part of a curriculum when the language is learned or taught as an integrated or supporting subject with others, or in a department of a different subject for example, Business Administration or Drama and Dramatics.
And I would like to consider the syllabus as an independent framework when an SL/FL is taught or learned autonomously as a subject in a department or an institution. Here any syllabus is most typically a plan of what is to be achieved through teaching and students learning. Factors to construct a syllabus: The distinction and association occurs in the sector of syllabus are important to explain the factors of syllabub designing. The syllabus is a form of support for the teaching activity that is planned in the classroom and a form of guidance in the construction of appropriate teaching materials. It is concerned, from this point of view, with what is to be done in the classroom, not necessarily with what is perceived to be taught or learnt thereby; its role is essentially to make it possible of one teacher to draw the experience of another. All these important aspects come when we have to design a syllabus with the necessary materials.
And certainly there is a process to design a syllabus in a proper way. The two main approaches of syllabus, which are considered for constructing it, are summarized below that are suggested by Davies (1976): Type A: What is to be learnt? Interventionist External to the learner Other directed Determined by authority Teacher as decision maker Content = what...
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