Selection and Grading of Content

Main Source:

Cunningsworth, A. (1995). Choosing Your Coursebook.

Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann.

Presented by: Course Instructor:

Ali Gamil Professor Marwan At-Tayyar
1. The Syllabus Base

Activity 1

What is a Syllabus?
 The Syllabus Base – Cont’d

A syllabus can be broadly defined as “a

specification of the work to be covered
over a period of time, with a starting point
and a final goal.”
The Syllabus Base – Cont’d

Activity 2

What are the two dominant approaches

to Syllabus Design?
 The Syllabus Base – Cont’d
Product-oriented Syllabuses
The focus of a product-oriented syllabus is on what is taught and in
what order it is taught. Thus, the content is specified in advance
and there are predetermined goals.

There is a strong implication that what is taught is also learned,

and both selection and sequencing of content will aim to facilitate
learning.

The mainstream concept of the syllabus has little more to say

about the learning processes involved and does not specify the
approach to teaching or the methods to be employed.
 The Syllabus Base – Cont’d
Process-oriented Syllabuses
Process-oriented syllabuses, on the other hand, are based on the
learning process rather than on the content. That is, the content is
not specified in advance and there are no predetermined goals.
The process syllabus grows naturally out of the learning situation.
There is also considerable scope for on-going negotiation among
learners and between learners and teachers as the direction of a
particular course develops.
The emphasis is on process rather than product, on how learning
develops naturally rather than on the prior selection and
sequencing of what is to be taught.
 Open Discussion

 The Two Views of Syllabus Design:

Broad vs. Narrow
 The Two Approaches to Syllabus Design:
Synthetic vs. Analytic
 Examples of:
Product-oriented Syllabuses and Process-
oriented Syllabuses
Main Criteria for SELECTING THE CONTENT

 1. Learnability/ teachability
 2. Frequency
 3. Coverage
 4. Usefulness
 5. Complexity
2. Content-based Syllabuses

White (1988) identifies four types of content base

in syllabus design. These are:

o Form (with a structural focus)

o Function (with a notional/functional basis)
o Situation (with a contextual focus)
o Topic (with an informational focus).
2. Content-based Syllabuses – Cont’d

It should be borne in mind, however, that the

actual content of coursebooks will be based on
a combination of these factors.

Coursebook writers have to balance the

competing demands of different approaches
to syllabus design and produce a version
which is best suited to the users’ needs.
3. Structural and Functional Syllabuses
The Structural Syllabus is probably the most traditional
approach and is based on the internal structure of the
language being taught with particular emphasis on
grammatical structure (e.g., nouns, verbs, adverbs,
etc.)

Lexis, morphology and possibly phonology will also

be taken into account, but the foundation of the
structural syllabus is grammar.
3. Structural and Functional Syllabuses - Cont’d
The selection and sequencing of language items in a
structural syllabus is based on no firm theory or
principle, but is determined by writers in a pragmatic
fashion with reliance on practical experience and
common sense.

The main criteria affecting the selection and

sequencing of grammar items tend to be:
 Complexity of structure,
 Learnability, and
 Usefulness.
3. Structural and Functional Syllabuses - Cont’d
Complexity and learnability appear to be connected, in that
more complex structures are more difficult to learn. For example,
the past perfect continuous is considered to be more difficult to
learn than the present simple because it is more complex in
structure.
Another factor affecting learnability is the use, or underlying
meaning of grammatical forms, especially where there are not
similar forms in the learner’s native language. For example, the
form of the present perfect in English is not complex, but its use
can give rise to difficulty because of the relatively difficult
meaning concepts involved.
3. Structural and Functional Syllabuses - Cont’d
Usefulness as a concept for selection of language items is
relatively subjective, especially in the case of mass-produced
coursebooks.

There is, however, a pragmatic perception among

coursebook writers of what is more useful at the early stages
of a course.

Coverage is a major criterion affecting usefulness. For

example, the present continuous allows the learner to talk
about the immediate present, the immediate future,
intentions, etc. Therefore, it is not surprising that this item
usually occurs early on in a course and is given prominence.
3. Structural and Functional Syllabuses - Cont’d
In the case of coursebooks which are designed for speakers of
the same mother tongue, Contrastive Analysis will provide a
further guide for selection of language items. It can be a useful
tool for predicting and explaining ease and difficulty of learning
different items.
 The strength of a structural syllabus is that it can account for
all the forms of a language and relate them to one another
in a coherent way.
 A serious limitation of a purely structural syllabus, on the
other hand, would be the scant regard paid to meaning,
and especially to the communicative potential of what is
taught.
3. Structural and Functional Syllabuses - Cont’d
The Functional Syllabus is based on the identification of the
conceptual meanings/notions (e.g., time, space, and quantity)
expressed through language and the communicative purposes
(i.e., functions) for which we use language (e.g., greetings,
requests, apologies, description, comparisons, etc.).

In this approach to syllabus design, communicative functions

are selected and sequenced according to usefulness to the
learner, the extent to which they meet the learner’s
communicative needs.
3. Structural and Functional Syllabuses - Cont’d
So, the earliest items on the syllabus will be those that learners
will need most in the situations in which they will use the
language. But predicting those situations is problematic for
coursebook writers as there is no straightforward mechanism for
doing it.

As in the case of the structural syllabus, the selection and

sequencing of language content in a functional syllabus is
based on no firm theory or principle, but is determined by
writers in a pragmatic fashion with reliance on practical
experience and common sense. Ultimately the choices are to
a considerable extent subjective.
3. Structural and Functional Syllabuses - Cont’d
 An advantage of a functional base to coursebook design is
that the learning goals can be identified in terms which make
sense to the learners themselves – that is, it increases learners’
motivation.
 Another advantage is that students are exposed to some real
or simulated interaction in the language and can use what
they have learned outside the classroom at a relatively early
stage.
 A major disadvantage of a functional syllabus is that,
unlike grammar, functions do not form a finite system, nor
have they been fully and comprehensively described.
3. Structural and Functional Syllabuses - Cont’d
Neither Structural nor Functional syllabus can fully account for
communicative competence because they do not contain the
strategies necessary for using linguistic elements for
communicative purposes.

Structural and Functional syllabuses are not opposed to each

other, but are complementary. Hence, syllabuses of this
multi-dimensional kind must establish links between form and
function, showing how communicative functions are realized
through language form.
4. Situational and Topic-based Syllabuses
A Situational Syllabus is often defined as one in which the
contents are organized according to situations in which certain
language is likely to be employed.

Language is always used in context, never in isolation and the

choice of linguistic forms are restricted by social situations.

The Situational Syllabus takes ‘real-world’ situations as an

organizing principle in selecting and grading what is to be
taught. The factor that come into play in a situation are:

 Participants,
 Setting, and
 Communicative goal.
4. Situational and Topic-based Syllabuses - Cont’d

A situational syllabus aims to teach the language that

occurs in situations which are relevant to the present or
future needs of language learners (e.g., seeing the
dentist, buying a book at the bookstore, asking
directions in a new town, etc.).

Grammar, vocabulary, etc. derive from the situations

selected and are not themselves the driving force
behind selection.
4. Situational and Topic-based Syllabuses - Cont’d

 Positive Aspects of Situational Syllabuses:

 Situational syllabi can lead more directly than others to

learners' ability to communicate in specific settings,
especially for highly specific and predictable settings.

 Situations provide contexts of discourse in which form and

meaning coincide, and the form-meaning relationship
can be reinforced (i.e., going beyond sentence level to
discourse level)
4. Situational and Topic-based Syllabuses - Cont’d
 Negative Aspects of Situational Syllabuses:
 Use of predetermined and artificial situations lead the
students to rely on pre-learned routines rather than creative
use of language (i.e., closely tied to the specific situations
being selected).
 It is difficult to create authentic language for instructional
purposes.
 There is a problem of sequencing. Few criteria are
available to determine the difficulty of situations and
grade them.
4. Situational and Topic-based Syllabuses - Cont’d
Topic-based Syllabuses take information content as the main
principle of selecting and organizing the syllabus content.
It is the type of syllabus that is organized around themes, topics,
or other units of particular content.
Topics provide a focus for the language input contained in he
course and help to create a sense of coherence within
individual units.
There is also evidence that some students may learn better
when they are focusing on content material presented
through language (e.g., English), rather than focusing on the
language itself (The inclusion of literature in some courses is
an example of shifting the focus from the language to topic-
based content).
4. Situational and Topic-based Syllabuses - Cont’d
 Positive Aspects of Topic-based Syllabuses:
 They address learner needs; more learner-centered.

 They motivate learners.

 Autonomous learning is there.

4. Situational and Topic-based Syllabuses - Cont’d
 Negative Aspects of Topic-based Syllabuses:
 They do not focus on two key questions:
o What content?
o How much content?

 A topic-based syllabus is one that is merely a list of topics.

4. Situational and Topic-based Syllabuses - Cont’d
Two of the stated principles behind Connect (Revel 1990), a
course designed for students at upper secondary level,
emphasize the importance attached to topic and subject
content:

 Students should be able to learn about other things as they

learn English: English should be linked to other subjects in
the school curriculum and to the world outside the school.
 A coursebook should provide interesting content: it should
be challenging and appropriate for the age group, and not
offer childish content just because the learners’ language
skills are low.
Checklist for Selection of Content
 To what extent is the content selected according to:
• Structure
• Functions
• Situations
• Topics?
 Is any one of the above predominant as the basis
of selection of content?
 How well does the coursebook balance the above
factors in selecting content and to what extent is it
successful in integrating the different approaches?
 Is any of the material suitable for use as a resource
in a negotiated (process) syllabus?
 5. Grading: Sequencing and Staging
Grading refers to the way in which the content is organized in the
syllabus or coursebook, involving the ordering of items and the
speed with which the students progress through the course.

A useful distinction has been made between sequencing and

staging.

 Sequencing refers to the order in which new items are

taught, how the components fit with one another and
how the range of language taught develops as
learners progress through the course.
5. Grading: Sequencing and Staging – Cont’d
Although sequencing may implicitly involve the concept of
progression, there are few recognized principles for the
guidance of writers, beyond the pragmatic considerations of
practical experience and common sense.
In practice, there is a substantial degree of similarity in the way
structural syllabuses are sequenced, as writers draw on the
cumulative experience of language teachers and the feedback
received from learners. Based on this, there is a consensus that
some language items are clearly perceived as being more
complex, more difficult to learn or less useful than others.

Thus, competing coursebooks sequence their material with

remarkable similarity.
5. Grading: Sequencing and Staging – Cont’d

o Within the sequencing of material, recycling is an important

consideration.
o It is not enough to present and practice a language item once
only. Learners need to meet items on several occasions in
order to fix them in them in memory, and come to a full
understanding of their meanings.

o We therefore need to check that new items are recycled

sufficiently frequently in the course. This applies to grammar
and particularly to vocabulary items.
5. Grading: Sequencing and Staging – Cont’d

 Staging refers to the way a course is divided into units,

how much material each unit contains, the speed of
progression and the size of the learning load.

Staging is to some extent a function of the time spent in

learning and the amount learned. So it concerns how
much new material is introduced in a given number of
hours, how close together or how far apart new grammar
items are in relation to one another, how much new
vocabulary is introduced in each unit, and so on.
5. Grading: Sequencing and Staging – Cont’d
 Staging is of two types:

 Steeply staged courses vs. Shallowly staged courses

o A steeply staged course might introduce, for example, a

substantial new grammar item with 4 or 5 practice activities in
each unit , and a short reading passage with between 20 and 30
new vocabulary items. Such a course would be most
appropriate for intermediate and advanced students.
o A shallowly staged course might devote, for example, 4 units to
the verb to be in the present tense and introduce between 10
and 15 new words per unit. Such a course would be most
suitable for beginners who had had no previous contact with
English.
5. Grading: Sequencing and Staging – Cont’d
 Connected with staging is the concept of progression. That is, we
should also check whether the coursebook has a linear or
cyclical progression.
o A course with linear progression adopts an order of progression
which deals with each language item exhaustively before
passing on to the next item.
o A course with cyclical progression moves fairly quickly from
one language item to another, and then progressively returns to
each item later in the course.
o When deciding between a linear or cyclical progression, we
need to be aware of the individual and cultural preferences of
the learners, the length of the course, its goals and whether the
students will follow the course to its end.
 Checklist for Grading
 Is there any evident basis for the sequencing of the content?

 If so, is it structural? Is the sequencing based on complexity,

learnability, usefulness, etc?
 Is there any other basis for sequencing – e.g., functional or
situational organization, organization according to topic, etc?
 If several influences come to play on the sequencing, how
well are they balanced?
 Are new language items adequately recycled?
 Is the staging of the language content shallow, average, or steep?
 Are the staging and sequencing suitable for the learners?
 Is the progression of the course linear or cyclical?
Thank you for your
Attention!