Syllabus and

Course Design
in ESP
 OVERVIEW

• COURSE DESIGN
• SYLLABUS
• QUESTION REGARDING SYLLABUS
• CONCLUSION
• Q/A

2
 COURSE DESIGN
What is a course design?
•interpretation on learning needs data to
produce an integrated series of
teaching- learning experience.

What is the aim of course design?

•Lead learner to a particular state of
knowledge

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TYPES OF COURSE DESIGN:

• Language-centered course design

• Skill-centered course design
• Learning-centered approach

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 Language-Centered
Course Design
• Drawing connection between
analysis of target situation and the
content of ESP courses

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 Language-Centered
Course Design (2)
• Weaknesses :
– Not learner centered approach
– Static and inflexible
– Appears to be systematic
– No acknowledgment to data analysis.
– Only at the surface level of learning

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Language-centered approach to course design:
Procedure

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 Skill-Centered Course
Design
•SCA are founded on two principles
- Theoretical
- Pragmatic

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Theoretical Principle:

Iceberg theory
-Underlying any language are skills and
strategies used by learners to produce
or understand discourse
-Thus, SCA will combine the
performance and competence when
presenting its learning objective

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• Pragmatic Principle :
Based on goal oriented and process
oriented course ( Widdowson, 1981)
Problem :
- Time : Not enough time to master
intended subject
- Experience : 1st year student
have little
experience
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 SCA in General :
• SCA is not about achieving set of goals.
• It lets the learners achieve what they
can with own experience and time
constraint
• It is a (continuum process) which
means there is no cut of point of success and
failure.
• Learner will simultaneously learn and develop
degree of proficiency
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SCA: Conclusion

•Take more of learners into account than LCA

• Still take the learner as the user of language
instead of a learner
•Still concern with the process of language use not
of language learning

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Skill-centered approach to course design:
Procedure

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Comparison of Learner- and Learning-centered approaches

•(Other factors)

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 LEARNING-CENTRED
APPROACH
• Focuses on students’ learning.
• Determined by the learner.
• Builds on prior knowledge and skills.

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Diagram 1 : Learning-centered approach to
course design

Theoretical Analyse Analyse Theoretical

Views of Target views of
Learning Learning Situation language

Situation
Identify attitudes/ wants/
potential of learners Identify skills and
knowledge needed
Identify needs/ potential/ to function in the
constraints of learning/ target situation
teaching situation

Write syllabus/ materials

to exploit the potential of
Evaluatio the learning situation in Evaluation
n the acquisition of the skills
and knowledge required
by the target situation
5 practices that need to be changed
to achieve learning-centered
approach (Weimer, 2002) :

 The functions of content

 The role of the teacher
 The responsibility for learning
 The processes and purposes of evaluation
 The balance of power

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SYLLABUS

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 SYLLABUS: DEFINITION
• An expression of opinion on the
nature of language and
learning
• Acts as a guide for teachers and
learners by providing goals to
be attained

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TYPES OF SYLLABUS:

• Evaluation syllabus
• Organizational syllabus
• Materials syllabus
• The Teacher syllabus
• The Classroom syllabus
• The Learner syllabus

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 EVALUATION SYLLABUS
• To put on record the basis on which
success or failure will be
evaluated.
• To reflect an official assumption as to
the nature of language and linguistic
performance.

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 ORGANIZATIONAL
SYLLABUS
• A list of what should be learnt will be
organized
• Factors which depend upon a view of
how people learn will be considered in
order to determine the order of terms.

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 MATERIALS
• SYLLABUS
Additional assumptions about the nature of
language in terms of :

i. Contexts of language
ii.Relative weightings and integration of skills
iii.Number and type of exercises
iv.Degree of recycling or revision will be
decided by the author.

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 THE TEACHER
• SYLLABUS
Teacher influence the clarity, intensity
and frequency of any item, and
thereby affect the image that the
learners receive

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 THE CLASSROOM
SYLLABUS
• Is a planned lesson done by the
teacher.
• Although it is well planned by the
teacher, it can be affected by all sorts
of unexpected conditions while
conducting the lesson.

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THE LEARNER SYLLABUS
• Also known as the internal syllabus.
• The network of knowledge that
develops in the learner’s brain,
enables learner to comprehend and
store the later information.

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QUESTIONS REGARDING
SYLLABUS

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WHY IS A
SYLLABUS
REQUIRED?

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Why is a syllabus required?
According to Parkes and Harris(2002);
• As a contract
• As a permanent record
• As a learning tool

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Why is a syllabus required? (2)
According to Hutchinson and
Waters(1987);
• Better management of study time,
assessments, and reading materials
• Provides moral support
• Reassures sponsors and students
• Acts as a road maps

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Why is a syllabus required? (3)
• Emphasizes the most important
aspect of language
• A set of criteria in selecting and
producing materials
• Assures uniformity
• Basis for evaluating students

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 ON WHAT CRITERIA
SHOULD A SYLLABUS BE
ORGANIZED?

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Criteria of organising syllabus
• Focus
- To identify which and what materials to be
focused on
• Select
- To select materials to be taught
• Subdivide
- To puts things into subtopics
• Sequence
- To decide which comes first and what
comes next
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TYPES OF SYLLABUS
• Topic/theme syllabus (e.g. health/pollution)
• Notional/functional syllabus (e.g. notional:
time/space; functional: request/apology)
• A situational syllabus (e.g. classroom/post
office/night market)
• A skill-based syllabus (e.g. negotiation/being
interviewed/interviewing)
• A task-based syllabus (e.g. organizing an
event/writing a report)
• A content-based syllabus (e.g. English for air traffic
control/ english for banking)

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WHAT ROLE SHOULD A
SYLLABUS PLAY IN THE
APPROACHES TO
COURSE DESIGN?

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Approaches to course design
• A Language-centred approach
• A Skills-centred approach
• A Learning-centred approach
• A Learner-centred approach

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 A LANGUAGE-CENTRED
APPROACH
- Generates teaching materials
1. analyse target situation
2. write syllabus
3. write/select texts to illustrate items in syllabus
4. write exercises to practise items in syllabus
5. devise tests for assessing knowledge of terms
in syllabus

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 SKILLS-CENTRED
APPROACH (Holmes, 1981)
- Presents opportunities for students to
practise and evaluate skills and
strategies
1. analyze target needs
2. select interesting and representative texts
3. devise a hierarchy of skills to exploit
the texts

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SKILLS-CENTRED APPROACH
(Holmes, 1981) (2)

4.order and adapt the texts as necessary to

enable a focus on the required skills
5. devise activities/techniques to teach
those skills
6. devise a system to assess the
acquisition of the skills

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 A LEARNING-CENTRED
APPROACH
- Focus on learning process
- instead of a linear approach, divides
the design process into two levels
L1. analysis –
a)actual learning situation,
b)target situation

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 A LEARNING-CENTRED
APPROACH (2)
L2. generation of :
c) language syllabus based on (a)
d) skills syllabus based on (b)
e)complement results of each analysis
to form new syllabus

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 A LEARNER-CENTRED
APPROACH
- Focus on the learners
1. identify the purpose of the course
2. develop learner-centered objectives
3. structure course according to
objectives - course outline
4. structure course according to goals -
build lessons
5. calendar
6. support pieces
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 QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS
1. What is course design?
2. What is a syllabus?
3. In your opinion, which one is the best
approach in the course design
mentioned previously?
4. Briefly describe the criteria of how a
syllabus should be organized in
general.
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 Summary
• COURSE DESIGN
• SYLLABUS
• QUESTIONS REGARDING SYLLABUS
• CONCLUSION
• Q/A

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