Bernard M. Paderes UG2010125154 TESOL 109 (Language Materials Preparation & Evaluation) Ms.

Manicio A curriculum is broadly defined as the sum of all the planned experiences of an educational system. Tyler specifies what educators should consider in developing a curriculum, namely: syllabus design, the teaching methodology that should be used, as well as methods on how to assess and evaluate learning. In language teaching, designing a syllabus includes the selecting, sequencing, and justifying of the content such as linguistic features, topics, and even themes. In the reading, Nunan presented the different existing language syllabuses such as grammatical, notional-functional, content-based and integrated curriculum. A grammatical syllabus operates under the assumption that language has fixed set of rules that could be combined to convey different meanings. The role of the learner is to master rules according to how they are arranged in the syllabus. However, this type of syllabus has been under attack especially when the communicative language teaching was introduced. First, language is too complex to be structurally arranged. Secondly, researches in second language acquisition showed that language is not necessarily acquired in the order specified by the grammatical syllabus. Other critics argue that a particular grammar item is not acquired according to its grammatical complexity, but by how the learners use them in terms of speech. However, grammatical syllabus shouldnt be so linear. The reading made mention of the organic approach to the teaching grammar. This approach is based on the idea that learners do not acquire each grammatical item perfectly, one at a time, but numerous items imperfectly, all at once. A notional-functional syllabus is not that different from grammatical syllabus except that in this kind of syllabus the grammatical item is taken in context. For example, instead of teaching the learners about the simple past tense, learners may be taught about how to talk about what they did last weekend. In a content-based syllabus, language is not explicitly taught, but it is taught through the content of other subjects such as science, history, and mathematics. Learners acquire the language by learning other things. Advocates of this approach believe that active engagement in communicating in the target language is the best way to acquire it. A task-based syllabus provides learners with a lot of communicative tasks. These tasks are divided into two categories, namely: target tasks and

pedagogical tasks. A target task is something that a learner might do outside of the classroom such as filling up forms or ordering in a restaurant. On the other hand, a pedagogical task is done inside the classroom in order to fuel the acquisition of the language. In addition to this, tasks are also classified into reproductive and creative tasks. A reproductive task is something that a learner should reproduce following a model such as a teacher, a textbook, or a tape recorder. Such tasks are predetermined and predictable and not necessarily communicative in nature. On the other hand, there are also creative tasks in which less predictable. Finally, theres an integrated syllabus. This type of syllabus combines the teaching of grammar structures and the situation which specific structures might b needed. For example, in introducing oneself, the learners must be able to know and make use of the simple present tense and wh-questions, or in introducing other people learners must be able to know and make use of the demonstratives this and that. Aside from the different syllabus designs, the reading also discusses the importance of needs analysis and competence-based language teaching. It stresses out the importance of determining the learners communicative needs or the situations in which they would apply the language they would be studying like language-for-tourism, language-for-clerical workers, language-for-engineers, etc. However, this needs-based design was criticized for being limited to specific situations. Therefore such syllabus is more of training than educating since learners are only taught do things they are specifically prepared. The reading also mentioned something about the competency-based language teaching. This approach to language teaching stresses out the use of competencies or what a learner is expected to do at the end of instruction than what should they achieve in relation to a group. However, because of the hairline boundary between objectives and competencies, these two terms are simply referred to as standards. These standards are based on indicators and descriptors.

Reflection

I think I would still stick with the traditional grammatical syllabus. I think that, up to now, its the only systematic way of teaching the language. Although, in my work, I also try to integrate notions and functions with grammar teaching since context is very important for the learners to make learning more meaningful. However, I also believe the content-based would be effective provided that they set a clear standards and procedure approach since learning a language for EFL learners would be more interesting if it is taken in the context of their respective field of interest. I think that the part about needs analysis is a must-read for every EFL teacher because the book provided a good sample on how to survey the learners communicative needs. In terms of the part about competency-based language teaching, I agree with the critics that this type of approach is too specific and even limiting. I agree that it is more of training learners to do specific tasks than educating them what they need to know. But in a way, CBLT approach might be more meaningful for EFL learners who have immediate and specific needs for the language.