Syllabus Design

SYLLABUS DESIGN
In order to understand the importance that a syllabus has in the teaching-learning

process we should know that “A syllabus is a framework of what is going to be learnt
on the nature of language and learning; it acts as a guide for both teacher and learner by
providing some goals to be attained. It can also be seen as a ‘summary of the content to
which learners will be exposed’.” (Yalden, 1987. p.87).
With the purpose of offering an appropriate syllabus which responds the students’
needs, we consider the two approaches that Nunan (1993) proposes on the subject:
Product-Oriented Syllabuses and Process-Oriented Syllabuses, and their most important
subtypes. ProductOriented Syllabuses focus on the knowledge and skills which learners
should gain as a result of instruction. While Process-Oriented Syllabuses focus on the
learning experiences themselves; that is, tasks and activities that will be carried out
throughout the course.
One of the approaches from Product-Oriented Syllabuses is the Functional-Notional
Syllabus, in which “functions may be described as the communicative purposes for
which we use the language, while notions are the conceptual meanings (objects, entities,
states of affairs, logical relationships, and so on) expressed through language” (Nunan,
1993, p.35). So that, this syllabus approaches the interrelation between the
communicative purpose and the conceptual meaning of the language, that is to say the
connection between functions and notions is relevant. Some functional examples may
include: apologizing, giving an opinion, asking for permission and requesting. Notional
examples include: number, time, place, color, size, etc. This sense, we considered this
kind of syllabus in this course design because it is the most suitable, taking into account
that assumes that speaking a language is a skill best perfected through practice and
interaction, and uses tasks and activities to encourage learners to use the language
communicatively in order to achieve a purpose.
On the other hand, Task-Based syllabus, an approach from Process-Oriented Syllabuses,
points out that tasks are a more salient unit of planning for teachers than objectives. This
emphasizes an activity which is carried out as a result of processing or understanding
language (i.e. as a response). Therefore, we also took into consideration some principles
of Task-Based approach to design the syllabus that we applied in the development of the
English language course, because an appropriate syllabus not only includes one
approach, but also the combination of some approaches, since the teacher should know
that comprehension precedes production and that is advisable to prepare activities that
promote subconscious acquisition rather than conscious learning in order to develop
basic personal communicative skills, both oral and written.
According to the Study Program elaborated for primary level students by the
Educational Ministry, which is an official document in Bolivia since 2014, named
“Educación Primaria Comunitaria Vocacional”, a syllabus should have the following
structure:
Dimension, which refers to the acquisition of four competences: Being, Know, Do and
Decide.
Holistic objectives, which refers to pedagogical orientations related to the competences
of Being, Know, Do and to Decide.
Contents and articulating axis, which refers to educational areas, such as Community
and Society; Life and Territory; Science, Technology and Production; and Cosmos and
Thought.
Methodological orientations, which refers to four elements in the educational process,
which are: practice, theory, assessment and production.
Evaluation, refers to the information about achievements and difficulties of the
different competences (Being, Know, Do and Decide) during the educational process in
order to overcome.
Products, which refer to obtained results because of the implementation of an
educational process.
In order to develop a syllabus design, some elements of the above structure will be
taken into account by adapting and contextualizing at the official content of English
language some elements proposed by Chura Silvia on her guided work (2017, pg.52),
has been considered.
General aspects:
 Subject: It refers to English language at an elementary level.
 Level: The English program was addressed to beginner level (Basic users or
Breakthrough).
 Days: The English project was applied from Monday to friday
 Schedule: English classes were developed from 8:00 to 9:30
Main aspects:
 Topic: It refers to eighteen lessons divided into three stages.
 Stages: The syllabus was divided into three stages, and every stage had 6
lessons.
 Indicators for each lesson: Here were described some tasks that students should
do.
 Conceptual Content: Here it was stablished the content of the lesson.
 Procedural Content: As the strategical methodology was based on TPR method
and games, here it was explained the game to be used to learn in each lesson.
 Attitudinal Content: Here it was explained social emotional indicators to be
achieved.
 Activities: Here it was explained different activities to carry out.
 Evaluation: Here it was explained how the lesson should be evaluated.
Lesson Plan
In the educational field, the lesson plan is like a map with some steps to follow in order
to achieve linguistic and functional objectives. Thus, this tool guides the teacher to
develop the whole class, because it has descriptions to carry out the lesson. In applying
this project, the lesson plan guided the steps to follow in the process of English
language teaching to children. In addition, all lesson plans were based on the
methodological strategy of TPR combined with games. Then, a lesson plan had the
following steps:
General aspects:
 Level: Here it was described the level of students, who were beginners (basic
users).
 Number of students: It was referred to 36 students.
 Days: Each lesson is planned from Monday to Friday for about 1 ½ hours per
day.
 Students were divided into two groups, young learners needed much more time
to learn and eldest ones learned faster; also they needed extra oral and written
exercises using games with different materials.
Objectives and vocabulary:
 Linguistic objective: It contained the grammar structure to be taught.
 Functional objective: Here it is stablished the reason that students should learn
any lesson, for example to greet people, to recognize names of useful school
materials, and so on.
 Vocabulary to learn: It isimportant to delimit what vocabulary students were
going to learn, which would serve as learning indicators.
Learning and teaching process
 Time: Here it was described the time that each activity lasted. It was important
to control the time in order to develop the whole lesson plan.
 Activity description: This part referred to different activities which helped to
achieve the objectives of the lesson plan.
 Interaction: It was important to describe the interaction between teacher and
student (T-S), teacher and the class (T-class), or among students (S-S).
 Skills: Here it was described what skill has been developed in each activity.
 Resources: This point referred to different materials and resources to use. For
example flash cards, realia, photocopies, color papers, drawings, etc.
 Stage: There were three stages in the learning and teaching process:
a) Warm up:
Introduction was a very important step to develop the learning and teaching process. In
this step children were motivated to learn by showing them flash cards, pictures,
images, charts or realia, or acting and making gestures. Some suspense and surprise was
added in showing didactic resources, which motivated children to learn more and more.
This step had the objective to generate students´ interest and expectation to learn. Here
it was introduced some new vocabulary through games and flash cards, which was the
way to produce positive emotions, which would facilitate new information learning.
In this step teacher had a class routine before to begin the current lesson. It consisted on
having some prepared questions or orders in little pieces of paper about the previous
lessons, which students were allowed to pick up and answer. No more than five
questions were done to some students, but they all were ready to answer. Some of
questions or orders were; What is your favorite … (color, animal, fruit, food, day,
month)? Where do you live? Also, some orders were useful to practice Speaking and
Listening skills, for example: Sing a song, smile, spell your name, write “housewife”,
draw two balloons or other things or animals, etc.
b) Main activity:
This step was used to transfer children new knowledge, they experimented how to
develop the skills, focusing on listening and speaking at the very beginning and writing
and reading skills later. It had the objective to provide intensive practice in order
students to appropriate knowledge about
the lesson, it means linguistic and functional objectives proposed for the lesson as well
as to teach vocabulary and reach indicators.
This step allowed students to practice the new language a certain time during the class.
Practice and language production were chances for students to use and refine their
understanding; then, students could practice in pairs and then in smalls groups. In this
step some mistakes and doubts were clarified and once students were helped, they were
ready to practice what they have learned. In this stage children begun to construct their
new knowledge.
Many activities were developed in this stage, including many games and other
educational strategies like songs with full physical movements and mimic, with
different materials and resources. It is important to mention that grammar structures as
well as new vocabulary were easier to learn using educational and joyful games.
c) Follow up:
This step had the objective to reinforce students learning. In this step children were
ready to be evaluated about the learned lesson (the four skills, vocabulary and grammar
structures), thus teacher could know student´s weaknesses, help them and know their
learning progress. It was important to test students by using different games and
resources; students though that they were playing, but in fact they were being evaluated.
Therefore, this type of evaluation was not a stressing factor, but an enjoyable
educational aspect. Also it was important to have written tests in order to know
students` progress in writing and reading skills.

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SYLLABUS DESIGN

In order to understand the importance that a syllabus has in the teaching-learning

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