structural syllabus -- funtional syllabus
TRANSCRIPT
English Syllabus and Classroom Instructional Design
Taught by Dr. Enny Irawati
Six types of SyllabusStructural SyllabusNotional/ Functional Syllabus
Presented by:
Atik Sri Rahayu Luki Emiliya HidayatFajar Ningtyas Masrurin LailiyahIda Prasetyaning Jati NurohmanJazilatur Rizqiyah Suhandoko
Six Types of Syllabus1.Structural Syllabus2.Functional/ Notional Syllabus3.Situational syllabus4.Skill- based syllabus5.Task- based syllabus6.Content based syllabus
1. Structural/ Formal Syllabus
This type of syllabus contains a collection of the forms and structures, usually grammatical of the language.
It covers nouns, verbs, adjectives, statements, questions, complex sentences, subordinate clauses, past tense and other aspects of language form such as pronunciation or morphology.
2. A notional / functional syllabus
This type of syllabus contains a collection of the functions that are performed when language is used.
It includes: informing, agreeing, apologizing, requesting, promising, and so on. Examples of notions include size, age, color, comparison, time, etc.
3. A Situational Syllabus
A situational syllabus contains a collection of real or imaginary situations in which language occurs or is used.
It usually involves several participants who are engaged in some activities in a specific setting. The primary purpose : to teach the language that occurs in the situations. For examples: Seeing the dentist, buying a book at the book store, meeting a new student, asking directions in a new town, etc.
4. A Skill-based Syllabus
A skill-based syllabus contains a collection of specific abilities that may play a part in using language. Skills are things that people must be able to do to be competent in a language, relatively independently of the situation or setting in which the language use can occur.
The main purpose : to learn the specific language skills.
5. A Task-based Syllabus
This type of syllabus is similar with Content-based Syllabus. Both of these syllabus do not organized the teaching with the linguistics features of the language being learned.
It contains a series of complex and purposeful tasks that the students want or need to perform with the language they are learning.
6. A Content-based Syllabus
Krahnke (1987) stated that this type of syllabus is not really a language teaching syllabus at all.
The primary purpose: to teach some extent content or information using the language that the students are learning.
The content teaching is not organized around the language teaching, but vice versa.
A content-based language teaching is concerned with information, while task-based language teaching is concerned with communicative and cognitive process.
STRUCTURAL
Definition Structural syllabus focuses on grammatical forms.
Structural syllabus is constructed based on the theory that assumes that the grammatical or structural aspects of lan-
guage form are the basic or useful. Structural syllabi has most been associated with
Grammar Translation Method, Audiolingualism, Silent Way. (McKay in Brown, 1995:7)
SYLLABUS
Theoretical Base Language is a system which consists of a set of grammatical
rules (learning them and apply to practical language use) The syllabus input is selected and graded according to
grammatical notions of simplicity and complexity.
This type of syllabus maintains that it is easier for students
to learn a language if they are exposed to one part of the
grammatical system at a time.
STRUCTURAL
ContentTop priority to teaching the grammar or struc-ture of the target language. A list of linguistic structures (noun, verb, pronoun, adjective,
singular, plural, present tense, past tense and so on) A list of words, that is, the lexicon to be taught (singular plural
markings, the forms marking the tense system of the lan-guage, and special morphology such as determiners and arti-cles, prepositions, and so on)
SYLLABUS
Cont
Key features The key features of structural syllabus is synthetic
(requires analysis of language/ content i.e. word frequency, grammatical analysis, and discourse analysis.
In synthetic syllabus, different parts of language are
taught separately and step by step. So that learners’ acquisition on the language is gradually the accumulation of parts until the whole structure
STRUCTURAL
Consideration for sequencing or grading the contentS
YLLABUS
Cont
Typically, the consideration for sequencing or grading the content in structural syllabus is starting with easy structures and gradually progressing to the difficult ones or from the most frequently used structures to the less frequently used ones. (J.D. Brown, 1995:8)
Selection and sequencing of vocabulary in a structural syllabus are done with the help of the criteria mentioned by Michael West (1953):a) Frequency: The number of times the word appears in our use of
language.b) Range: The number of texts / areas in which the item is found.c) Availability: Most appropriate and necessary for certain
situations.d) Familiarity: Most familiar words.e) Coverage: The degree to which a word covers other words.f) Learnability: Easily learnable.
Krahnke (1987) claimed that there is no ultimate way to solve the sequencing problem. Even if it exists, it is lack of empirical evidence.
Example of Structural SyllabusThe following sample headings are taken from Azar’ Understanding and Using English Grammar
Chapter 1 Verb Tense1-1 The simple tenses1-2 The progressive tenses1-3 The perfect tense1-4 The perfect progressive tense1-5 Summary chart of verb tenses1-6 Spelling of –ing and –ed formsChapter 2 Modal Auxiliaries and similar expressions …..Chapter 3 The Passive…Chapter 4 Gerunds and Infinitive …..
THE NEGATIVE CHAR-ACTERISTICS OF
STRUCTURAL SYLLABI
The most important of these is the usability, applicability, or transferability of structural knowledge.
Studies of the relationship of teaching of language form to writing ability in the learners' first language, for example, have shown that it has no measurableeffect on any aspect of their writing ability(Hartwell,1985).
The second major drawback to structure-based instruction is that it can mislead learners into thinking they are learning a language when, in fact, they are learning facts or information about a language
The third drawback to struc-tural syllabi is a result of the sequencing or grading prob-lems referred to earlier. A strictly structural syllabus prevents students from producing structures they have not been taught.
CriticismDuring the 1970s, the use of structural syllabuses came under increasing criticism. Let us look at some of the criticisms:1. One early criticism was that structurally graded syllabuses
misrepresented the nature of that complex phenomenon
of language.
2. SLA researchers state that grammatical grading of content
interferes with language acquisition which is more a global than a linear process.
3. Form and meaning are emphasized and therefore, functional aspect of meaning is ignored.
4. Meaning of words and sentences is taught in isolation within a particular grammatical form.
5. What is taught within this view is items present in a structure.6. The attack on grammatical syllabus is in part an attack on the view
that language must be taught as a body of knowledge, a
package that the teacher passes to the learner.
Functional/ Notional SyllabusNotional/ functionalism defines them in two ways.1. Notions (categories of meaning)
Semanticogrammatical categories which are usually charac
terized by interaction between categories of meaning
and grammatical forms in most languages (Wilkins:1978) (time, duration, quantity, agent, instrument, place, and many others
2. Functions
The uses to which language forms are put on com-municative purposes. (agreement, greeting, approval, predict ion, requesting, directions, apologizing, and so on).
Differing relationships between form and function
Functional/ Notional SyllabusCont.
• The determination of what notions, functions, and forms to include in a teaching syllabus is often regarded as part of notional/ functionalism.
• Actually, notional/ functionalism is a procedure for designing a syllabus or choosing content for a specific syllabus, but it is not a part of the content of the syllabus itself.
• Determining specific syllabus content involves 1.examining the type of discourse the learners are going
to need to engage in,2.noting the notions and functions and the specific forms
that are used to express them in the types of discourse involved,
3.putting them together into a language-teaching syl-labus
Sequencing and grading
Sequencing and grading of language material do not seem to be of major concern to notional/functional syllabus designers. Little in the literature discusses principles for sequencing material, and the question is raised.The notional syllabus, it is claimed, develops students' ability to do this [become communicatively competent] by accounting for communicative competence within the actual design of the syllabus itself. (Widdowson, 1979)
POSITIVE CHARACTERISTICS• Including information about how language is used in the
teaching syllabus potentially increases the usefulness of language instruction (Finocchiaro & Brumfit, 1983)
• Students will be better able to function in written and spoken interaction
• Students will have more experience with.• Students will have more knowledge about which language
forms do what in new language• Students will have had exposure to at least some
real or simulated interaction in the language• Students may view the language more as a communica
tive system
Example Function: Giving orderCan be done by, for example:• Shut the door• Let the AC on• I’m having dinner at home (means: prepare
for it)• I need to go to the airport (means: tell the
driver to take me there)• I will join the party tonight (means: give me
my tuxedo)
Keyword: Function, experience, interaction, exposure
This school needs better trash
management and I dedicate myself to be part of it. Let’s collect the trash after school
and then classify them into three
categories.
Seriously?Hm...
Interesting!
Exclude me. I have many tasks to do.
NEGATIVE CHARACTERISTICS• It will do little to develop interactional and
communicative ability if the isolated- functions are not synthesized into discourse.
• The instruction is less generalizable than Structural syllabus
• If it is presented entirely in short utterances/exchanges and units of discourse, students may be unable to handle the new language in longer, connected discourse
• It can become primarily a vehicle for teaching ‘routines’ and ‘patterns’
• Role of ‘routines’ and ‘pattern’ is open to dispute
Routines Short formulaic utterances generally used to perform specific function E.g.: No, thank you --- polite refusalA: Hello, how are you?B: Hi, I’m fine, and you?A: I’m fine too. Thanks.A week later in different occasion:C: Hi, how are you doing?B: ??? (don’t know what to say)
Patterns Utterances with open slots into which various lexical items can be insertedE.g.: Would you like to ___________? Have you ever _________?I learn English because _______ I don’t like _______What do you think of _______?
Solution • Avoid teaching relatively frozen phrases• Avoid unanalyzed ‘routines’• Use productive structures• Use appropriate instructional techniques
APPLICATION• In the development of specific teaching programs for specific
purposes, notional/functional syllabus may be appropriately used to define the content of such courses
• Littlewood (1981) claimed that it will lead to more ‘communicative ability’ ---- > (but it is not empirically validated)
• Learners have to synthesize pieces of information about the new language by their own
• When combined with a more interactional methodolology and an acquisition-based theory of language, notional/functional instructional content may lead to more functional ability
• For instructional programs whose goals are structural knowledge, it is still a possible choice
• It may be an excellent way to impart conscious knowledge of the structure and function of a language
Mini Curriculum with Function as Organizing Principle
Title or Function Apologizing Situation Department store (returning
something)Communicative expressions or formula
I’m sorry. Would it possible if___?
Structures Simple past; present perfectNouns Shirt Verbs Buy; wearAdjectives Small Adverbs Too Structure words You Miscellaneous Dates Activities Aural comprehension; Indirect speech;
Changing register
That’s it...
References
Brown, James Dean. 1995. The Elements of Language Cur-riculum: A Systematic to Program Development. Heinle & Heinle Publishers: USA
Krahnke, Karl. 1987. Approaches to Syllabus Design For Foreign Language Teaching. Language and Education: Theory and Practice. Prentice Hall. NY
West, Michael. 1953. The General Service List. Cambridge University Press.