Syllabus design for the general class: what happens to theory when you apply it Katie Gray

The first part of this article looks at what aspects of the current interest in syllabus design are likely to filter down to the classroom. Then the article describes the successes and failures of an attempt at the Centre for English Language Teaching at Stirling University to implement a negotiated process syllabus.

Current trends in syllabus design

New attitudes to syllabus design are in. the air as a result of changing frames of reference: our views on language, teaching methodology, and learner contributions are all changing. Teachers are well aware of the shift away from product-oriented syllabuses. In his state-of-the-art article, Breen (1987) gives a theoretical overview of these new approaches in syllabus design. He identifies a conventional paradigm of propositional plans. represented by what he calls the formal (i.e. structural) and the functional syllabuses which map out the knowledge of the language and the conventions of language performance. Then he proposes an alternative paradigm of process plans - task-based and process syllabuses, which move the emphasis from the language system to the learners cognitive processes. He stresses that the most important new insight in syllabus design relates to how we may plan for teaching and learning, especially as classroom-oriented research has shown how little direct effect teaching has. The classroom context and the learners contribution to the learning process are to be the new focus. Breens use of the word process as both cover term and one of his two specific terms is. however. potentially confusing. More usually, the taskbased syllabus developed at Lancaster by Breen and his colleagues is distinguished from the procedural type of syllabus developed by Prabhu in Southern India. Both types are process plans and share a focus on the learning process, on how something is done and a consequent emphasis on task-based learning. The Lancaster proposals allow the learner to generate the syllabus and are therefore to some extent a development of individualized learning; indeed. Breens task-based syllabus exploits both the learners current competence and his learning difficulties as dual means towards competence in a new language. Prabhus project in a secondary school context maximizes the classroom community and is teacher-led.
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Here the making of the syllabus is one of the main classroom activities. In both cases, the focus is clearly on broad pedagogical development, rather than on narrow linguistic training, and the assumption is that learning is both communicative and metacommunicative. An emphasis on the learning process rather than the target language per se means that the classroom comes into its own; classroom experiences are to be conscious means to learning outcomes. Process syllabuses and communicative techniques Process syllabuses still allow for communicative techniques and activities, especially the least language-specific ones; information-gap, reasoninggap, and opinion-gap activities are at the heart of Prabhus syllabus, for instance. However, a process syllabus is not the same as a communicative syllabus. The communicative label has been over-used in the past, and confusingly applied to both syllabus and methodology. Nevertheless, the prime focus of a communicative approach is on meaningful social interaction achieved through a series of communicative activities which are evaluated in terms of their communicative effectiveness rather than their grammatical accuracy. With a process syllabus, and more particularly with a task-based one which is probably more suited to adults, clear divisions between syllabus, content, and methodology seem to have gone. Selection and grading of communicative activities has been replaced by negotiating and planning of larger tasks which dictate their own content and the specific enabling skills that each student will need to achieve the task. The methodology to achieve this will inevitably be eclectic and will reflect, among other things, the learners own preferred learning styles. No longer is the content of the syllabus a selection of aspects of the target language, but the learning process itself gives content and meaning. White (1988: 45) offers a useful summary of syllabus types, which I substantially reproduce below. He highlights how the shift away from an emphasis on the subject to be learnt (Breens propositional paradigm), towards an emphasis on the learning process itself (Breens process paradigm). brings with it other consequences - in terms of negotiation, assessment, and retrospective planning. What is to be learnt? Subject emphasis External to the learner Determined by authority Teacher as decision-maker How is it to be learnt? Process emphasis Internal to the learner Negotiated between learners and teachers Learner and teacher as joint decision-makers Content=what the subject is to the learner Objectives described afterwards Achievement in relation to learners criteria of success Doing things for or with the learner

A shift of emphasis

Content=what the subject is to the expert Objectives defined in advance Assessment by achievement or by mastery Doing things to the learner

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Another book in a long and recent line on the subject of syllabus design is Nunans Syllabus Design (1988). Revealingly, the series to which this book belongs uses a task-based approach throughout. Nunan is at pains to point out that the new focus on learning does not necessarily exclude other alternatives. The syllabus designer will usually incorporate the what linguistic elements should be answers to three key questions: taught? (a linguistic perspective); what does the learner want to do with the language? (a learner perspective); and what activities will stimulate and promote language acquisition? (a learning perspective). So what is actually new about all this? The move away from the target language itself as the basis of the course content is not new: but the emphasis on the learning process and the way in which it automatically defines the methodology is. In particular, the involvement of the learner in decision making is new and exciting. The generative educational aim is to make the students understand, maximize, and control their cognitive powers and cognitive weaknesses. Learner differences which teachers have always been aware of are now a valuable resource to exploit. Selfdirection, learner-autonomy, and negotiation are the order of the day.

Rethinking the general class syllabus

These trends seemed to provide possible answers to problems that had been bothering me. At the Centre for English Language Teaching (CELT) we see students as falling into two categories. On the one hand, there are those who apply to join specific courses (for example, English for University Studies [EUS]) and those who ask for tailor-made courses (for example, Bangladeshi fish-farm personnel). On the other hand, there are those who come as individuals with no specific aims and who are slotted into the general class. The syllabuses have reflected this split. The EUS courses specify objectives to be met over a fixed period of weeks, whereas for the four levels of the general classes, there is a vague skills- and strategies-based syllabus. Because the centre is small, for the general classes, there is a policy of continuous enrolment (every Monday), and we also accept part-time students. General students can be with us for as little as a month, or as much as a year or more. Inevitably, there is a problem in giving these classes a sense of progression and of progress. Teachers tend to see their listening class, or their oral skills class, at best as isolated from everything else on the timetable, at worst as a one-off. I was concerned to establish some principled guidelines for the syllabus of the general class.

Three questions

I asked myself three questions: 1 What should be the aims and objectives of a general class? The students themselves usually offer general improvement reason for coming; the Centre more often than not persuades do external exams if the timing is right. Is this enough?
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2 What should be the content of a general class? Is it enough to use the latest course book and make sure that there is a good balance between the four skills? 3 What about methodology? Is the communicative approach enough? Does it allow for differences in learning goals and learning styles? Is enough accurate written work produced? I felt that one possible answer to these questions was to be found in a negotiated process syllabus, with a strong emphasis on tasks. The tasks would dictate the content and the methodology. The aims would become process aims. But would the teachers and students find this solution satisfactory?

The planning stage

An examination of the background of the last years general-class intake indicated that a large proportion of the students had either been university students in their own country or were about to do a university course. So an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) emphasis, rather than a General Purposes English (GPE) emphasis, seemed to provide a rationale for initiating change. In this way, I could suggest to the teachers that they treat their language students as people with an academic background, who could fairly be expected to take responsibility for their own learning and who would want to develop specific study skills. This would have a knock-on effect on the content and the methodology. The teaching and learning would need to be much more individualized in the fifteen hours of morning classes each week (two one and a half-hour sessions each morning). The teachers would start by helping the students to identify their learning styles and learning problems. Through task-based project work - which would be negotiated with individuals, with groups, or with the whole class, as appropriate - the students would be helped to perceive in which areas they needed to do more specific language work. In groups, or as individuals, they could once again work on these problem areas, returning to the teacher with those problems they could not solve for themselves. Thus, the teachers input would no longer be restricted to each one and a half-hour session. The teacher would link several periods into a module. which would last as many weeks as was needed. Full-time students also chose two two-hour afternoon options from the eight or so on offer. In contrast to the negotiated mornings, I encouraged the teachers to offer subjects that interested the teachers themselves, or that they felt they did not normally get a chance to teach: English for Cookery, Practical Video Making, the Media in Britain, Varieties of English, and Pronunciation for Spanish Speakers were all eventually suggested. English for Business had to be included, because we advertise it, and so did Exam Practice, since we did not anticipate having enough entries for any one exam to make up a full class. We included another option, Guided Study, as a bridge between morning and afternoon classes. In these classes, students could study whatever they wanted with some guidance from the teacher. This gave two doctors the opportunity

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to do some medical English. for example. On their other free afternoons, the students were to be encouraged to use the self-access room. Anticipated problems for the teachers I anticipated several major problems at this stage. I wanted to pair teachers up (providing a mix of age. teaching style, etc.) and then give each pair responsibility for a class. But would the teachers see me as abdicating my role if I asked them to flesh out their timetables? I found a solution in Candlin and Murphy (1987). The curriculum (which was my the syllabus retrospective (an responsibility) would be prospective. account provided by the teachers after the terms work); and the means of accountability - which had been signally lacking in the old system would be provided by the tasks. However, this would require radical rethinking from teachers. They would have to be very flexible, drawing back from establishing what was to happen in the class, waiting to see what was wanted. They would be constantly involved in creating material as appropriate, rather than relying on a textbook. The satisfaction of more efficient learning would, I hoped, compensate for the hard work. In the event, the teachers produced a large amount of material which is now held in a central file; they also wrote lengthy accounts of the terms work. An abbreviated version of one such retrospective syllabus is included in the Appendix. Anticipated problems for the students For the students. the main problem was going to be accountability and assessment. The new syllabus plans did not seem to answer my problem about direction. and the abandonment of forward planning makes it difficult to keep track of what is happening. The students might not all appreciate making decisions that traditionally have been for teachers to make; nor would students necessarily agree that their goal should and must be the process and not the product. As a result, I determined to draw up forms for progress charts, to be used in class by students and teachers; student records. to be used by the students as an account of the work done in the self-access room: and learner contracts, to be used by myself and the teachers for individual interviews with the students. I also determined to encourage the teachers to get the students to hand in tangible and well-produced end-products as a very simple way of recording progress and progression. The ideal would be to fire the students with intrinsic motivation and the need for self-fulfilment and enable them to go away as independent learners, with an understanding of their languagelearning problems and an awareness of how to go about solving them. If I was going to involve some acknowledgement beginning of the autumn staff meeting for a whole the teachers in the planning and responsibility, of their new status was necessary. So, as the term drew near, I set up, as the first change, a afternoon.

Teachers reactions at the planning stage

In the event. the teachers were very positive. They were pleased to be paired. The pairs were delighted to be able to decide themselves on how the fifteen hours morning teaching should be divided between them. They realized that until they met the students they could only divide the
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content of their timetables into broad areas like project work and language work. So they had accepted the value of negotiation. At the same time, they had tentative ideas for initial tasks and projects which would enable the students to be more independent in their learning. Examples included designing a guide to the university, and devising instructions for the word processor and language laboratory. The teachers accepted that some of the conventional lockstep work (on grammar, for instance) could be done by students working on their own and were already suggesting follow-up workshops and discussion groups to deal with problems that the students might come up with. Successes and failures in the first term From the students point of view

Probably the greatest success was the self-access room. The teachers had set each student at least an hours homework (based on self-assessment) to be done in the self-access room every week. This ensured that every student at the Centre made some use of the self-access facility. It was very poorly stocked at the beginning of the term and the students were asked to make suggestions for inclusion of materials they personally wanted to study from. This was both helpful to the teacher who had responsibility for building up the resources, and also made the students see that we were very positively supportive of their self-study. Students wanted more background reading for project work. Teachers were able to put their own books into short loan for this. The students also asked for listening materials of all kinds; vocabulary worksheets (we found a good source at the local ESL resources centre); and for more advanced reading material (we all brought unwanted books from home, and I also ordered triple copies of every book set for the Cambridge First Certificate and Proficiency examinations). The fact that they could also go into the language lab or the video room in their free afternoons and listen to or watch tapes again was much appreciated by students. The idea of tangible end-products was also very successful. One class of mainly Japanese students visited a local primary school as part of their education project and spent the morning teaching a primary class about aspects of Japanese life. The visual display that they made subsequently showed the hard work and enthusiasm that had gone into the undertaking. Each student had chosen a different aspect of Japanese culture to tell or teach the children about. One class, in which two students had wanted to do some in-depth work on Shakespeare, had a wall-to-wall display on what they had discovered. There had been an exhibition in the local museum and a performance at the local theatre of A Midsummer-Nights Dream and they had been able to get the rest of the class interested. A group of Tunisian teachers went on a visit to Culzean Castle and produced a very interesting project about their experiences there. In another class, a life-styles project involved an attempt to get a class of ten out into the community on individual projects learning about British culture. Taking into account each students personal interests, the teacher paired each one with people she knew: for example, her doctor, a local

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councillor, a crche leader, an unemployed friend, and so on. The idea was that each student would spend a day following his or her counterpart. Inevitably, the visits could not all be organized for the same day, so the preparation for them was often individualized. This involved appropriate background reading, class-work on communications skills and notetaking, and individual guidance. After their Day with . . ., there was a report to be written and a presentation to be made to the others. In general feedback sessions, the students discussed what they had learnt about British life-styles. Once again, the standard of work produced was excitingly high. Although activities worked well at small-group level, in the end it was the individualized projects that had the greatest face validity for the students. They were delighted to find that they could work on anything that interested them. This showed us that negotiating the tasks did indeed lead to very positive developments of study skills, and led students to produce far more written work (often word-processed) than is normal in our general class. There were problems too: inevitably, as an individualized approach was emphasized, the individuals pulled strongly away from one another on occasions. It was particularly difficult to get the balance right between time spent on discussion, self-study, and presentations. On the other hand, it was interesting to hear students complain about unnecessary grammar classes.

From the teachers point of view

The teaching pairs idea worked very well. In nearly all cases, one teacher in the pair developed the task-based process approach, and the other used a more formal, linguistic approach. This allowed the pair to capitalize on their different teaching styles, interests, and talents. This was motivating for the teachers and reassuring for the students. All the teachers worked very hard on creating materials and are beginning to build up a materials bank of recyclable ideas. One major and unexpected problem involved having to replace a teacher who was taking time off. The problem entailed helping the replacement teacher not only to understand the way in which the original teacher had integrated her lessons, but also to identify the best way in which she, as the new teacher, could bring her own skills and abilities to the situation. This was particularly challenging for a negotiated situation, since the replacement teacher was not familiar with all the earlier discussions and evolving plans.

From the course directors point of view

I managed to see most students every month in the course of my Friday morning interviews. These were invaluable both for the students and the teachers perception of my involvement with the new initiatives, and provided me with a great deal of feedback on the way the classes were going. In the case of short-stay students, the interviews were particularly helpful, because I could go over the rationale for the less-than-conventional
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approach and ensure that, by the end of the first week, students had completed an analysis of their wants, needs. and preferred learning styles. Face validity was provided by the way I was seen to act on problems that arose in the interviews. In the beginning, the students sometimes found it easier to voice their desire for a change in the syllabus to me, rather than the teachers (suggesting more authentic listening, or questioning the value of working in groups on a project, for instance); once they saw that this was passed on to the teachers who were quite prepared to negotiate on the issue, they quickly opened direct lines of communication. I tried to provide the equivalent help to the teachers by being prepared to find and fetch whatever they decided at the last minute they needed. I also encouraged them to pass their information-retrieval problems on to the students. So instead of a teacher having to spend an evening finding out about something or someone. the students were encouraged to do their own research. Not surprisingly. perhaps. it was only by the end of term that the learner contracts really began to work. Initially, the students were unable to analyse their difficulties below the level of the four skills. Now, however, the feeling is that with increased experience and expertise the teachers themselves will be able to help students assess their own learning difficulties more rapidly. On a general rather than an individual level, the main problem that both students and teachers commented on was the preponderance of students of just one nationality (Japanese) in the classes, and the difficulty this caused in oral and discussion work. Comments on this point came not just from the other students, but from the Japanese students themselves. One interesting initiative in this direction was an afternoon option slot. originally offered as Practical Video Making. Gradually. the option turned into a linked series of drama techniques. confidence-building exercises, and a final presentation. All the Japanese students who took this option commented on how useful they found it and were pleased that they had been able to determine the final shape of the option.

The future

In planning for the future. there are certain a part of our way of doing things:

things that look set to become

1 A continued development of the self-access facilities is planned. The room serves the purpose of an intimate library where the students can act on their self-assessment of their language needs. 2 The teaching pairs will work with the assumption that they have the first responsibility for creating the timetable and for deciding when each one of them should teach, what they should teach, and how. Then they come and discuss their timetables with me. (See the outline timetable in the Appendix.) 3 The timetables will show linked modules, where, for example, a writing workshop or a grammar workshop is linked to project support.
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4 We will continue to make the syllabus more visits, research, etc. 5 We anticipate. as a consequence iture on course books.

less classroom-oriented,

with

of the above,

less use of and expend-

6 I will continue with the Friday morning student interviews, the teachers now spend much more time with students assessment.
Conclusion

although on self-

It is still too early to gauge how successful either the learning or the teaching has been. I am confident, though, that we have found the solution to many of our problems. We have looked at current theories in syllabus design and have found new inspiration for what should be the aims, the content, and the methodology of the general class. We have not come up with an ideal, but with a good practical compromise. Our syllabus is negotiated with the students; it does draw on their individual learning processes. At the same time, by encouraging our students to work towards successful end-products, we have provided them with a mechanism for seeing themselves make progress.
Received May 1989

Note This article is a revised and updated version of a paper presented at the TESOL Scotland Conference in Edinburgh, on 5 November 1988. References Breen, M. 1987. Contemporary paradigms in syllabus design Language Teaching 20/2; 20/3.

Candlin, C. and D. Murphy. (eds.) 1987. Language Learning Tasks Lancaster Practical Papers in English Language Education, Vol. 7. Nunan, D. 1988. Syllabus Design Oxford: Oxford University Press. Prabhu, N. 1987. Second Language Pedagogy Oxford: Oxford University Press. White, R. 1988. The ELT Curriculum: Design, Innovation, and Management Oxford: Blackwell.

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Appendix This is an outline timetable for the advanced general class. Worked out by the teachers timetable is an attempt to combine a balance of skills with self-directed learning. The morning timetable Each of the ten sessions lasted for 1 hours. MONDAY Language awareness TUESDAY Background to Britain 3 5 WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY Oral presentation 9 paired for this class, the

Writing

Project 7

1
Study skills 2

Listening 4 V 6 8 V 10 V

Explanatory Sessions

notes and 8 were taught by one teacher: Comments: The topics were chosen by the students, or arose from a local event, so motivation and interest were generally high. The least successful was the history of the Church which followed on neatly from Bonfire Night and explored the issues raised by a recent national news item. but was not a topic which seemed to interest this group. Therefore, I curtailed it and limited it to one week. Students kept a folder of their work, which was handed in for me to read and comment on from time to time. I would like to organize more group end-products like the display on the Shakespeare work. but these are not easy to arrange or think of. The students particularly enjoyed their visits even though the material was a little beyond them. They seemed to gain satisfaction from wrestling with authentic. difficult English and I feel that at this stage they benefit from being stretched. I sometimes felt I would like the students to do more of their own research but it didnt seem appropriate when they were already doing a project. So I concentrated on the more specific skills of extracting information from various sources and then analysing and reconstituting it. The formula seems successful so I shall stick to it next term but perhaps a little more research/preparatory work should be done out of class. Session 5: (No notes available, Ed.)

1,2,6,7,

Session I: This was a workshop session based on needs perceived by teacher and students from Thursand from work done in days project work. self-access. Session 2: Again, this was a feed-in/feedback from the project slot. It was fairly structured, and used textbooks regularly. session though,

Session 6: Despite the extra preparation required, this evolved into an authentic listening slot, due to pressure from the students; part-timers invariably chose this slot since it was discrete. Sessions 7 and 8: Whether the project was to be produced by one individual or a group, the students spent the first part of Thursday morning working individually in the University library or the Centres self-access room reading and note-taking. They then came back (again individually) to report on their progress to the teacher. Project titles included: Media treatment of Hirohitos funeral; the rise of Scottish Nationalism: Tess of the dUrbervilles; and Varieties of English. Sessions 3, 4, 5, 9, and 10 were taught by the other teacher. Here are some extracts from her retrospective syllabus: Sessions 3 and 4: Background to Britain What: Introduction to TV news and newspapers. Shakespeare and the Dream, the legal system, Bonfire Night, the history of the Church, Parliament, pantomime. How: Reading/listening/note-taking, sheets, discussion, writing, visits theatre, law courts. 270 video/workto exhibitions.

Sessions 9 and 10: Oral Presentation What: Individual talks. discussions, radio play, exam preparation. How: Input and preparation, tion and comment. news broadcasts, by presenta-

followed

Comments: On the whole, the students were fairly accurate but lacked fluency and the ability to project

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themselves especially in discussion. So I concentrated on confidence-building and interpersonal skills. These improved dramatically as term progressed, and as students got to know each other. I would have liked to do more work on pronunciation and intonation, but several of the group already attended my afternoon pronunciation option and I did not want to repeat myself. Perhaps next term I could tackle this aspect of the course through the production of a short play. Sometimes, I worried that the course seemed bitty and related the Oral presentation topic to Session 3 (Background to Britain). The students. however, preferred the difference of Friday morning. so I reverted to keeping the Oral

presentation a separate entity. Students very much appreciated the specific exam practice; from the video in particular, they gained useful insights into the qualities of good speech, especially the value of fluency and interpersonal skills. The author Katie Gray has worked at the Centre for English Language Teaching, University of Stirling, since 1983. She is particularly interested in teacher education and teacher development. Since September 1988, she has been in charge of the staffing and teaching for all the courses run within the Centre.

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