What is a Syllabus? A syllabus is reflects a view of language and learning; it acts as a guide for both teacher and learner by providing some goals to be attained. Hutchinson and Waters (1987:80) define syllabus as follows: At its simplest level a syllabus can be described as a statement of what is to be learnt. It reflects views of language and linguistic performance. There are two kinds of syllabus Analytic and Synthetic

Synthetic Syllabuses (Product-Oriented) Synthetic syllabuses divide language into small units. A grammar based approach (common in the past) is an example of a synthetic syllabus. Here the whole of the language is divided into separate grammar points and successive lessons focus almost entirely on the grammar points. The learners’ task in a synthetic syllabus is to synthesize the separate language items together to form a picture of the whole language. Three Examples of synthetic syllabuses:

1 The Structural Approach Historically, the common syllabus type is perhaps the grammatical syllabus. Selection and grading of the content is based on the complexity and simplicity of grammatical items. The learner is moves from one step to the next as he or she masters it. The focus is on the outcomes or the product. 2 The Situational Approach Limitations associated with the structural approach led to an alternative where the point of departure became situational needs rather than grammatical units. Here, the principal organizing characteristic is a list of situations which reflects language and behavior outside the classroom (i.e., in everyday life). 3 The Notional/Functional Approach Wilkins' criticized the structural and situational approaches. He enquires "what it is they communicate through language“? Thus, the starting point for a syllabus is the communicative purpose and conceptual meaning of language i.e. notions and functions, as opposed to grammatical items and situational elements which remain but are no longer the most important focus.

Analytic Syllabuses (Process-Oriented) Analytic syllabuses treat language holistically. The language is presented as a whole, and learners have to analyze it for discrete points themselves. There are no explicit language foci in analytic syllabuses. Analytic or (Process-Oriented) Syllabuses developed as a result of a sense of failure in product-oriented courses to enhance communicative language skills. It embodies process (as well as some product) rather than considering product alone. The focus is not on what the student will have accomplished on completion of the program, but on the specification of learning tasks and activities that s/he will undertake during the course. We will examine three types of analytic syllabus. 1. Procedural, 2. process and 3. task-based syllabuses.

Procedural syllabuses derive from the Bangalore Project where the syllabus was constructed around a series of problem-solving tasks. Sequencing in the syllabus was based on the amount of reasoning required to solve the task, and teacher feedback focused solely on meaning not on language. Process syllabuses are associated with the work of Breen and Candlin. As with procedural syllabuses, process courses revolve around a series of problem-solving tasks. In contrast, however, process syllabuses place a heavy emphasis on procedural knowledge rather than declarative knowledge (i.e. how to learn, not what to learn). Task-based syllabuses view tasks as a necessary for presenting appropriate language to learners. Tasks can be selected according to the extent to which they reflect the real-world behaviors that learners will have to engage in. As with procedural and process syllabuses, the language needed to complete the task is not emphasized in task selection and sequencing. Tasks must be relate to the real world language needs of the student. The underlying theory of task based and communicative language teaching seems to suggest that activities in which language is employed to communicate to complete meaningful tasks, enhances learning.

Analytic syllabuses, then, are more reflective of current theories of language learning (including language viewed as discourse) Language is not simply viewed as a collection of analyzable sentences. The growth of interest in analytic syllabuses at the expense of synthetic syllabuses is therefore perhaps unsurprising.

Managing Curricular Information Markee Ch 2 TBLT is a superordinate term that subsumes three distinct analytic syllabuses: procedural syllabus process syllabus task-based syllabus

Markee’s description of TBLT is an overview of the more general term What are the main characteristics of TBLT? How has it spread (diffusion issues)? Why do teachers accept or reject variations of it? E.g. The Procedural approach (Prabhu’s Bangalore project) used teacher led tasks, whereas SLA theory inspired TBLT (narrow meaning) employed small group tasks

Nonetheless all variants within TBLT pose problems which require learners to communicate in the target language to arrive at a solution to said problems Example: The following task will be completed in 20 minutes. One student who does not know what a certain picture looks like stands at the board. The rest of the class divided into five groups of four must describe the picture to the student at the board. He or she then has to draw it to a pre-specified level of accuracy (gist vs. photographic exactitude) in the allotted time.

This task is analytic and specified in behavioral terms (draw a picture of a given level of accuracy in the time available) rather than organizing language in preset linguistic (grammatical or notional/functional) categories. The task is likely to elicit certain specific notions (e.g. spatial relationships) and functions (giving directions) demonstrating the coexistence of both synthetic and analytic features.

Markee suggests synthetic and analytic approaches form a continuum of syllabus design. Tasks don’t have to be exclusively analytic constructs. They can be used to teach preselected linguistic categories. The drawing task uses two common task type activities. information gap information transfer between mediums (e.g. speech to writing)

Managing Curricular Information Markee 97 Ch 4 What exactly is a task? There are a number of definitions ranging from real world to pedagogical. Long and Crooks argue that pedagogical tasks should be derived from real world tasks. This is logical given that in an analytic syllabus, behavioral needs in the real world provide the impetus for the students’ learning. How do we define pedagogical tasks?

Prabhu’s definition (for example) makes no reference to the real world and includes three kinds of tasks. Opinion gap Reasoning gap Information transfer

In sum: Pedagogical tasks derive from sociolinguistic analysis of real world tasks Psycholinguistically, learners have to interact and produce chunks of language & modify their language to get comprehensible input while communicating to solve the pedagogical problem. Learners generate and receive negotiated input and output thereby expanding their current level of communicative competence.

What is TBLT? Certainly there is as much focus on the process of learning as there is on the product. For Markee (1994) TBLT is An analytic approach to methodology and syllabus design which gathers information, solves problems and evaluates tasks in order to organize language teaching and learning. The tasks should stimulate the growth of language appropriate to communicative events from specific second language learning environments.

How do we select, grade and sequence tasks? This is a problem for all types of language teaching (Long and Crookes 92) Long 85 – sociolinguistic needs Brindley 84 – psycholinguistic wants Nunan 84 – authenticity Johnson 82 – Task dependency (teacher determines that task a feeds into task b which feeds into task c) Let us consider in more detail Candlin’s (87) sequencing principles

Candlin’s (independent) sequences 1. Cognitive load – clear chronological sequence, simple actions 2. Communicative stress – numbers, topic, language levels, organization 3. Particularity and generalizability – how original or ritualized is the interaction. E.g. telling a story about known past events vs hypothetical future events 4. Code complexity and interpretive density – simple language can conceal complex meanings and interpretations 5. Content continuity – authenticity of pedagogic tasks in relation to target (real world) task (implies needs analysis) 6. Process continuity – students establish what skills (forms, functions, discourse strategies) are needed to organize task sequence. Like Johnson’s task dependency except students evaluate rather than teachers.

Other criteria for grading & sequencing tasks. Perceived difficulty of written & spoken language skills Psycholinguistic difficulty (Pica’s typology 91), The amount, the complexity, the number of steps, & the accuracy requirements of the information the students must manipulate (Prabhu 87)