Syllabus Design

What is syllabus?
A document which says what should be or will be
learnt.
 Why should we have a syllabus

1) To make the material manageable.

2) To give moral support to the teacher and learner.
3) To give a cosmetic role.
4) Returning to our analogy of learning as a journey, the syllabus can
be seen as a statement of projected routes, so that teacher and
learner not only have an idea of where they are going, but how
they might get there.
5) A syllabus is an implicit statement of views on the nature of
language and learning
6) A syllabus provides a set of criteria for materials selection and/or
writing.
7) Uniformity is a necessary condition of any institutionalized activity,
such as education.
8) In that teaching is intended to lead a learner to a particular state
of knowledge, there need to be criteria against which success or
failure in reaching that state will be assessed.
 Note:
• a. We should be aware of why we want a
syllabus and what we will use it for.
• b. A syllabus is a model – a statement of an
ideal. A syllabus is not therefore, a statement of
what will be learnt.
• c. Syllabuses cannot express the intangible
factors that are so crucial to learning: emotions,
personalities, subjective views, motivation.
• d. Syllabuses cannot take account of individual
differences.
On what criteria can a syllabus be
organized?
• Structural: Grammar
• Situational: situation (place, people, topic, time)
• In this syllabus, a “notion” is a particular context in which the
learner engages in, and a “function” is a specific purpose for
the learner in a given context.
• Wilkins (1976) wanted to identify the meanings that learners
might need to express (the notions) and the communicative
acts they would wish to engage in (the functions).
Skills Syllabus
Skills are defined as abilities that people must be able
to mastering order to be more proficient in a language.
Skimming to obtain '
• the gist of the text
• a general impression of the text
Scanning to locate specifically required information on
a single point
more than one point
a whole topic
Note-taking skills
• completing note-frames
• deletions
• use of diagrams
(Yalden (1983) the teaching of study skills)
 Situational Syllabus
English for traveller Passport (Buckingham and Whitney
1995):
1. On an airplane 10. In a restaurant
2. At an immigration counter 11. In a cafe
3. At a bank 12. In a bar
4. On the telephone 13. On a bus
5. On the street 14. In a store
6. In the city 15. At the post office
7. At home 16. At the cinema
8. At the doctors' 17. In a hotel
9. In an office 18. At the airport
A situational syllabus is often defined as one in which the
contents are organized according to situations in which certain
language is likely to be employed (Richards, et al, 1985:260; Ur,
2000:178; Schulz, 2005).
According to Skehan (1998:268), a task is an activity that should According
to Skehan (1998:268), a task is an activity that should adhere to the
following criteria:
I. Meaning is primary.
2. There is a goal which needs to be worked towards.
3. The activity is outcome-:evaluated.
4. There is a real-world relationship.
 Integrated Syllabus
Topic Grammar/Structure Situation/Notion Function

Airplane .Basic sentences in Simple Requesting for Making a Request

Passengers Present Tense drinks to flight cabin
.Interrogative form of crews
Simple Present Tense Asking questions to Asking questions
.Using could, can, please, flight cabin crews
and would
Offering help to Expressing
other passengers intentions

Classroom Complex sentences Asking for more Making a request

Interaction explanation to
Professors
Compound Sentences Answering Answering
Lecturer’s question questions
• Design a Syllabus based on the following
needs analysis. Choose one criterion to
organize the syllabus.
 Personal Information
• With regard to the gender factor, the majority
is females (5/7, 71%). The majority 71% (5/7)
are in college (aged 19-23), while 2 (29%) have
graduated from college (aged 24-27). The
majority 71% (5/7) have been doing English
for 10 years and the rest (29%) for 7 years.
They major in Bahasa Indonesia Department
and come to you to learn English for the
purpose of working abroad as Bahasa
Indonesia teacher.