Course planning and syllabus design

Course planning and syllabus design

1. It involves different dimensions that do not necessarily occur in a linear order.

   • The course rationale
     • A brief written description of the reasons for the course and the nature of it.
     • It seeks to answer the following questions: Who is this course for? What is the course about? What kind of teaching and learning will take place in the course?
     • The course rationale answers these questions by describing the beliefs, values and goals that underlie the course
     • It is developed by those involved in planning, and teaching a course and that serves to provide the justification for the type of teaching and learning that will take place in the course.
     • guiding the planning of the various components of the course • emphasizing the kinds of teaching and learning the course should exemplify • providing a check on the consistency of the various course components in terms of the course values and goals
   • Describing the entry and exit level
     • it is necessary to know the levefat which the program will start and the level learners may be expected to reach at the end of uhe course.
     • Information may be available on students' entry level from their results on international proficiency tests such as TOEFL or IELT
     • This info will enable the target level of the program to be assessed and may require adjustment of the program's objectives if they appear to be aimed at too high or too low a level.
     • These describe what a student is able to do at different stages in a language program
     • "[a] series of descriptions of proficiency levels for speaking, listening, reading, writing, and culture in a foreign language.
   • Choosing course content
     • This needs to address specific needs and cover different objctives
     • It reflects the planners assumptions about the nature of language, use and learning
     • It stablish an order for most essential units of language
     • Information gathered during needs analysis contributes to the planning of course content,
     • grammar (e.g., using the present tense in descriptions) • functions (e.g., describing likes and dislikes) • topics (e.g., writing about world issues) • skills (e.g., developing topic sentences) • processes (e.g., using prewriting strategies) • texts (e.g.-,''writing a business letter)
   • Determining the scope and sequence
     • This address the distribution of content throughout the course, What range of content will be covered? To what extent should each topic be studied?
     • How much time will be devoted to content?
     • This sequence is based on:
       • Simple to complex: sequencing material is by difficulty level
       • Chronology : sequencing according to the order in which events occur in the real world
       • Need: Sequencing "in order of importance to students* lives, ease of contextualization and their relationship to other topics and cross-topics
       • Prerequisite learning: what is necessary at one point as a foundation for the next step in the learning process
       • Whole to part or part to whole: From the general to specific
       • Spiral sequencing: involves the recycling of items to ensure that learners have repeated opportunities to learn them.
   • Planning the course structure
     • Selecting a syllabus framework: provides the basis for its instructional focus and content
       • Situational, Topical, Junctional, Task-based
       • Developing instructional blocks: planning by modules and by units (Module 120h) (Unit: single instructional focus)
     • It involves these factors:
       • • knowledge and beliefs about the subject area:
       • research and theory:
       • common practice
     • It reflects national or international trends ( communicative, Grammatical, Lexical, Functional, Competency-baed, Content-based, skill, Task-based, Integrated syllabus)
   • Preparing the scope and sequence plan
     • consist of a listing of the module or units and their contents and an indication of how much teaching time each block in the course will require.
     • In the case of a textbook it usually consists of a unit-by-unit description of the course cross-referenced to the syllabus items included.