Chapter 6 & 10 syllabuses

Chapter 6 Course planning and syllabus design

Richards, Jack C. 2001, Curriculum development in language teaching. Course planning
And syllabus designing, pp. 145-197. Cambridge University Press.

Summary:

This chapter focused on course development using several processes including the development of instructional materials. The dimensions include the course rational, describing entry and exit levels, choosing course content, sequencing course content, planning the course content, and preparing scope and sequence plan. The chapter gave many examples of grammatical syllabuses and appendixes.
Reflections, questions, and connections
Reading this chapter has helped me to understand how curriculum development is established using processes that can be revised as they are used in instructional materials. And that aims and objectives are used as bases for any language program. I would like to learn more in depth about this language planning. I would like to make improvements and possibly make changes to some of our bilingual curriculum. Doing so, with the help of others, will make the Yup’ik program a little meaningful for the students and teachers.
I recommend this book for all bilingual instructors who need it to make improvements for their school programs and materials development.

The First 10 Syllabus Types
1. Lexical syllabus is focused on target vocabulary. It was originally used to develop in language teaching, but became a concern with the uses of textbooks, various levels, and material writings. This is similar to our course design in the bilingual curriculum.
2. Functional syllabus is focused on communicative competencies or skills. (complaining or suggesting) Functional syllabus was considered to be popular for organizing courses, but has become partially important for communicative syllabus due to several objections. Similar to teaching Yup’ik phrases and dialogue to the learners, but this did not support their communication skills.
3, Situational syllabus focused on the use of communicative acts in a setting. (at, in, on) Situational syllabus was criticized for several reasons, but, due to the approach of curriculum development, it returned to language teaching. This is no similarities or differences to our course design in Yup’ik.
4. Topical or content-based syllabus is focused on content units, themes, and topics. Topical or content-based syllabus has advantages of courses but, issues like unresolved questions and difficulties to develop such curriculum came about to challenge that. This is similar in our course design in bilingual, like we are trying ways to teach Yup’ik but, there are not enough materials.
5. Competency-based syllabus is where a learner is expected to master a task in a specific situation and activity. (building a sled or job seeking) The advantages of competency-based syllabus are learning trades to work and complete successfully in a real-world setting. The critics state that there are no valid procedures for competency development and hides values underlying the competency development.
6. Skills syllabus is the plan to teach the ability to use language in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The advantage of skills syllabus is to have focus on performing tasks and can teach it to others. The critics believe there is no seriousness for having skills. Our course design in bilingual is to teach the skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
7.Task-based syllabus is teaching an activity or a task for second language learning or for real-life tasks. The positive elements of task-based syllabus are that both are important for the needs analysis and useful in the real world. One of the concerns was that some task definitions are too broad for learners. For our course design, this task is very important and similar to teach second language learning.
8. Text- based syllabus is a study unit taken from the context for learners to use in the skills. One positive element for the text-based syllabus is helping students to develop their language skills. Critics say this focuses too much on skills rather than on language proficiency. This is similar with the course design in the bilingual curriculum.
9.Intergrated syllabus is deciding which syllabus is best for teaching when using different priorities for instruction. There are no underlying assumptions for this type of syllabus. We use different syllabuses to teach a second language.
10. Grammatical (or structural ) syllabus is in grammar items and sequences courses in the beginning-level learners. With grammatical syllabus, planners look for solutions to solve difficulties in their teachings. Focusing on “form rather than meaning” was one of the syllabuses being criticized. This is similar to our course design in Yup’ik.