Syllabus design is
concerned with the selection, sequencing and justification of the content of
the curriculum. Traditional approaches to syllabus developed were concerned
with selecting lists of linguistic features such as grammar, pronunciation, and
vocabulary as well as experiential content such as topics and themes. These
sequenced and integrated lists were then presented to the methodologist, whose
task it was to develop learning activities to facilitate the learning of the
prespecified content.
NEEDS ANALYSIS
Task base syllabuses
require a needs analysis to be conducted in teams of target task and learner
are preparing to undertake, such as taking part in a job interview , two
pictures or texts to find the difference, solving a problem, designing a brochure.
This will be achieved
through attempting to find the results of a needs analysis, which investigated
the English language needs of students in HSC level into task based syllabus
design. The assignment is divided into four sections. Section one provides a
needs analysis for task-based syllabus design. Section two provides goals and
objectives of the task based syllabus design. Section Three shows how the
syllabus of the task based course was designed, and section four provides
insights in relation to the limitations of the proposed syllabus.
When needs analysis and
course design is linked in a systematic way a number of issues arise three of
these will be highlighted below. One crucial question is how to
conceptualize learner needs for the purposes of any given course design. The
concept of language needs has never been clearly defined and remains at best
ambiguous. This is because needs are not abstract entities, with their own
objective existence. It
means that it is possible for different people involved in the same course to
arrive at different conclusions depending on their views on language, learning
and teaching. It can also mean, however, that needs analysis findings will be
abandoned during course design. There
have been many attempts to differentiate between needs types, and there has
been a wide acceptance of the view that 'needs' is an umbrella term. There have
two needs groups (1) target needs i.e. what the learner needs to do in the
target situation and (2) learning needs. It
is the teacher's and the learners' needs that can be taken into account in the
case of General English courses.
Needs analysis were
collected from a college student. English needed for a brief inventory of
facilities for language learning and teaching. The following section includes
the HSC level student perceptions concerning goals and expectations for the HSC
level English program. Goals and expectations for the HSC English program from the
beginning of the first year. Before the in-service HSC English program actually
I had contacted as an instructor with many students in the HSC level and asked them about the goals and
expectations for HSC level English program. I asked my students, why they are interested
and why want to learn. They wanted to help themselves to learn proper English
so that they can be a proficient teacher of second language learner. So that
they can work in real world, which creating activities that are meaningful and
relevant to students. They also want learning grammatical
structure and different kinds of essay, paragraph, and story. I expected the participants
to be able to present as a L2 speaker and proper writers the end of the program
or after two years. According to me, the emphasis of the lessons should be placed
on oral proficiency. Also, I agreed that pre-developed text materials could be
As a result, a class was
arranged where the instructor would be able to have more information from the
management people and some of the actual participants in his class before instruction
started. The class was arranged and it was decided that instruction would begin
while assessing the participants’ English proficiency, grammar and adapting
pre-developed text materials. Information about the learners was collected from
four sources. These are given below
(1) Individual learners’ brief personal
history and goal for learning English;
(2) Questionnaire 1
administered before the HSC program started;
(3) Questionnaire 2 administered shortly
after the outset of the program;
(4) Oral interview in English followed by an interview
in Head examiner.
The first source provides learners’
background. The items on the first questionnaire were designed for collecting
information about learners’ brief bio-data and difficulties they had in
speaking, listening, reading and writing in English. The second questionnaire
was designed to collect information about learners’ previous English learning experiences,
self-rating of their proficiency, and the similar questions concerning the
difficulties in speaking, listening, reading, and writing in English. The
following section presents a brief description of the participants, their major
problems in using English, and the language learning experiences in the past.
Especially, the needs analysis
showed repeated use of skills for avoiding misunderstanding. The participants
in the program would need them in their interaction in a group as their proficiency
and grammar improved. Now I present the communicative skills used for avoiding
misunderstanding in the data. These are giving feedbacks, interrupting for
clarifying meaning, asking for focused repetition, asking for focused explanation,
asking for meaning. Confirming presented information by summarizing, repeating
information, if other members have not understood, and eliciting additional
information by asking specific questions, confirming and going back to topic. Each
participant was given a notebook at the outset of the program to write down
their work. Their skills needed for intercultural communication based on their
past experiences, grammatical points and vocabulary which the participants had
trouble with, or requests concerning their class.
Task Based Syllabus
Design
The task based syllabus
is the communicative task as a piece of classroom work which involves learners
in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target task
while their attention is primarily focused on meaning rather than form.
Goals
and Objective
This task based model
for designing and teaching a task based syllabus for HSC. As a teacher I
developing the syllabus for Higher Secondary Certificate on task based
syllabus. I set up it according national
Curriculum and Textbook Board. Higher Secondary Certificate Examination level
syllabus divided into five parts. After completing this course they will be
able to reach thier destination. There goals and objectives on these four.
The
Goals and Objectives part lists the goals enabling skill and objectives based
on student needs assessments.
The following points
are representative of typical student objectives listed in the goals and
objectives part;
Listening
Skills
After completing HSC
who should be able to:
·
Recognize tone of voice which is stress
and intonation and body language as clues for attitudes, feeling and register.
When
they complete their course they will be able to find out their problem and they
able to solve. They will understand their teacher communication what he/she is
saying and why they are not over come from this problem.
·
Make references as to time, place,
personal characteristics, movies, previous or successive events, case and
effect.
When
learners will able to complete listening skill they can understand second
language movies, there characteristics and why producer produce this movies.
Learners can speak with foreigner.
·
Develop an awareness of good listening
strategies such as predicting and guessing, confirming and disconfirming.
Communicative
skills
Students
should be able to:
·
Ask for and give factual information.
·
Express and ask about feeling,
attitudes, opinion, ideas etc.
·
Describe people, objects, places,
sequences of events.
·
Socialize that means learner main goal
and objective in this section which they can communicate very easily with any
other.
Target language needs
were defined in accordance with the theoretical framework outlined above, where
language is looked at as part of human activities. Since human activities are
characterized by their context as well as the motives and goals of the
participants it was not possible to predict and list every activity in which
the use of English is possibly are needed by the students. What was possible,
however, is to arrive at a list of real‑life
tasks which the students needed to be able to fulfill! By “task” I mean the description
of what needs to be done as opposed to what is actually done. In this sense,
tasks are schematic in nature, and they come to life in the form of activities.
Target language needs were investigated in the form of tasks within our needs
survey
Reading
Skills
Students
should be able to read for the following purposes:
·
To be current with world events
·
To understand functional materials such
as forms, labels, notices
·
To their work such as instructions,
letters, reports, manuals etc.
·
To recognize and use words and patters
that signal relationships of time and order, listening, cause/effect and comparison
or contrast.
·
To distinguish fact, fiction, opinion,
propaganda etc.
The above statements
formed part of the theoretical framework for the task-based course design and,
therefore, were relevant in terms of designing the task-based syllabus. On the
basis of these statements, it was possible to determine how to conceptualize
language for teaching purposes, which in turn made it possible to decide in
what form target language needs should be conceptualized.
Grammar Section:
Learners learn grammar
so that they can write, read, speak clearly and fluently. They will able to
learn how to correct errors, transformation of sentence. At this point, it is
possible to argue that the analysts themselves should investigate the target
domains in order to carry out the linguistic analysis and base the syllabus
design on the results.
Writing Skills
In
writing skills, learner goals and objectives are given below
·
Generate and organize ideas in
descriptive and narrative modes
·
Use advanced level grammatical
structures appropriately
·
Revise content for meaning such as
clarity, organization, elaboration of ideas in order to communicate effectively
with the reader
·
Use paragraph, dialogue and parts of the
composition these must include introduction, discussion, conclusion
appropriately.
Having specified target
and pedagogical tasks, the syllabus I analyze these in order to identify the
knowledge and skills that the learner will need to have in order to carry out
the tasks. The next step is to sequence and integrate the tasks with enabling
exercises designed to develop the requisite knowledge and skills. As I have
already indicated, one key distinction between an exercise and a task is that
exercises will have purely language related outcomes, while tasks will have
non-language related outcomes, as well as language related ones.
These are the steps
that I follow in designing language programs.
1. Select and sequence
real-world / target tasks
2. Create pedagogical
tasks (rehearsal / activation)
3. Identify enabling
skills: create communicative activities and language exercises
4. Sequence and
integrate pedagogical tasks, communicative activities and language exercises
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