1. Syllabuses and
Coursebooks
Chapter 21, Jeremy Harmer
(2001)”The Practice of ELT”.
Practice II, Prof. Braun (2010)

2. COURSE DESIGNERS
 They have a clear idea about how theories and beliefs
about language learning will affect the process.
 These beliefs will be translated into ACTIVITIES.
 The ACTIVITIES will be embedded into TOPICS.
 TOPICS will have to be engaging (KOW; VAKOG).
 CULTURE will be considered so as to present an
appropriate balance in terms of : gender, different
groups in society, racial, ethnic and socioeconomic
issues.
 ,

3. Authenticity
 Course designers will have to decide
which LANGUAGE VARIETIES they
would like to include and how
AUTHENTIC language should be
especially at beginner levels.
 After taking these decisions

4. Syllabus and Curriculum
 David Nunan (1988):
 Syllabus concerns the selection of items
to be learnt and the grading of those items
into an appropriate sequence.
 Curriculum design is also about the
planning, implementation, evaluation,
management and administration of
education programmes.

5. SYLLABUS DESIGN CRITERIA
 Learnability:
 Some structural or lexical aspects are
easier for students to learn than others.
Am/is/are; Was/Were and not the 3rd type
of conditional.
 Frequency:
 Include the items which are more frequent
in the language, and not the ones that are
only used occasionally by native speakers.
E.g.: “Oh, I see” is more common than “I
understand”. Or Use of the subjunctive by
American speakers.

6. Coverage:
 Some words and structures have greater
coverage (scope for use) than other items.
E.g. : GOING TO / WILL.
 Usefulness:
 We concentrate a lot on classroom
vocabulary; What about situations for
everyday life?We should think of
usefulness in terms of what stuents are
linguistically able to talk about. (Adults:
parts of the house: reading and writing
ads, telephone conversation in order to
rent a flat).

7. DIFFERENT SYLLABUSES

The Grammar Syllabus:
 Grammar is the organizing principle
for the syllabus.

The Lexical Syllabus:
 Based on vocabulary/lexis. CORPORA:
Birmingham University. COBUILD
textbooks.
 Problem: relationship between lexis and
grammar and length of such a syllabus.

8. The Functional Syllabus:
 David Wilkins (1976). Language organized
according to language functions such as:
• Requesting
• Offering
• Inviting
• Agreeing/Disagreeing
 The syllabus designer has to choose a
wide spectrum of exponents for each
function. The teaching and learning of
functions is an important part of a wider
syllabus.

9. The Situational Syllabus:
 Selecting and sequencing different
real-life situations:
• At the bank.
• At an airport.
• At the supermarket.
• At a travel agency.(Survival English course)

10. The Topic-based Syllabus:
 Topics provide a welcome organizing
principle because they are based on
what students will be interested in.
• The weather.
• Sports.
• Music.
Practical: Following examples and materials
provided,design a syllabus for Grades 5th or 6th
Primary School.

11. The Task-based Syllabus:
 Prahbu, Bangalore, India: also called
“procedural syllabus”.
 Willis provides six main task types:
• LISTING.
• ORDERING.
• COMPARING.
• PROBLEM SOLVING.
• SHARING PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
• CREATIVE TASKS.

12. The Multi-functional Syllabus:
 This is the approach which is most
often used. “Map of the book”.
Grammar, Vocabulary and
Pronunciation, Functions,
Macroskills.
 None of the elements predominates.
All have to shift to accommodate to
others.