Process syllabus

Prepared by :Asma Abas

• Process syllabus : a syllabus which focuses on the means by which communicative skills will be brought about . (Nunan : 159 )

• The aims center around the processes of learning rather than the product’’ (Bruner:1960)

• The focus is on the processes of learning and procedures of teaching (methodology) .

• Teaching process syllabus is associated with Breen 1984.

• He acknowledges a role for ‘’the syllabus as plan ‘’ because learners need plans to have a sense of direction and continuity in their works.

• Syllabus is rather than a prescription of content and its order of presentation , it might provide a checklist by which learner progress can be measured .

• It deals with capacity for communication .

• The emphasis is ‘’upon the capability of applying , reinterpreting , and adapting the knowledge during communication by means of underlying skills and abilities’’ . (Johnson and Johnson,1999:255-56)

• Processes syllabus = procedural syllabus = task-based syllabus

Richards, platt, and Weber 1985( Nunan,1989:42-47)

Procedural syllabuses

• They define it as:• ‘’ …a syllabus which is organized around tasks ,

rather than in terms of grammar or vocabulary’’ . Like using the telephone to obtain information .

• Both syllabus share concern with the classroom processes which stimulate learning . It consists of a list of specification of the tasks and activities that learner will engage in in class.

The tasks

1. Information – gap activity 2. Reasoning - gab activity involve deriving some new information from given

information through processes of inference , deduction , practical reasoning , or perception of relationships .

3. Opinion – gap activity Involve identifying and articulating a personal

preference , feeling or attitude in response to a given situation .

Definition of “a task” :

… an activity or action which is carried out as the result of processing or understanding language 。 For example, drawing a map while listening to an instruction and performing a command… A task usually requires the teacher to specify what will be regarded as successful completion of the task.

Richards, platt, and Weber 1985

Good tasks• Candlin ststes that good tasks should :• Promote attention to meaning , purpose , negotiation • Encourage attention to relevant data • Draw objectives from the communicative needs of learners• Allow for flexible approach to the task , offering different routes , media ,

modes of participation , procedure• Allow for different solutions depending on the skills and strategies drawn

on by learners• Be challenging• Involve learning contribution • .................etc (Nunan :46)

Steps of designing

1. Conduct needs analysis to obtain an inventory of target tasks.

2. Classify the target tasks into task types .3. From the task types , derive pedagogical

tasks .4. Select and sequence the pedagogical tasks to

form a task syllabus . (Long 1985:91)

Criticizing task-based Syllabus• no guidance is provided on the selection of tasks• no guidance is provided on how tasks might be

related to the real-world language needs of the learners.

• there are usually a variety of factors which will interact to determine task difficulty.

• some of the factors will be dependent on the characteristics of the learner, what is difficult for learner A may not necessarily be difficult for learner B.

Content syllabus • A content-based-syllabus." The primary purpose of instruction

is to teach some content or information using the language that the students are also learning. The students are simultaneously language students and students of whatever content is being taught. The subject matter is primary, and language learning occurs incidentally to the content learning. The content teaching is not organized around the language teaching, but vice-versa. Content-based language teaching is concerned with information, while task-based language teaching is concerned with communicative and cognitive processes. An example of content-based language teaching is a science class taught in the language the students need or want to learn, possibly with linguistic adjustment to make the science more comprehensible.