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Lesson planning and syllabus design is somewhat a controversial topic in the tefl community. “On the one hand, it makes no sense to go into any situation without having thought about what we are going to do. Yet at the same time, if we pre-determine what is going to happen before it has taken place, we may be in danger not only of missing what is right in front of us but, more importantly, we may also be closing off avenues of possible evolution and development.” (Jeremy Harmer, P 364).
I am a proponent of planning and design. I support this because I personally teach optimally when I have a plan (course wise - syllabus, and lesson wise – lesson plan). To use exercise/schooling as an analogy, I feel the person that has a plan going into any fitness/schooling regimen has a higher chance of reaching his/her goals than those that just “wing it.” Further, having a plan is by no means equal to having no flexibility. Quite the opposite, I feel having a plan is the base for productive adaptation.
Since lesson plan has been covered expensively in this course, I will focus on Syllabus Design in this research paper. Fundamentally syllabus design is the planning of a sequence of lessons, with one building on/supporting the other to achieve students' learning objective. Syllabus can be grammatically based (e.g. tense – present simple), functionally based (e.g. doing - apologies), and situationally based (places –bank). The current thinking is the hybrid approach – one which incorporates grammar, function, and situation.
The activity of organizing of a syllabus should ensure that material is grouped into manageable chunks and at the same time provide for opportunities to review, apply projects, and facilitate assessment (http://www.englishraven.com/ttools_syllabus.html). As such syllabus design is not the simple process of diving number of pages to be taught by the number of days in the session.
In organizing a syllabus, the following questions should be serious examined:
1. What are the needs of students?
2. Which parts of the textbook are appropriate for meeting the needs?
3. How can organization of material create a rhythm by week/time slots?
4. How to give sufficient time for production based activities?
5. How to provide pre-test revision and post-test reflection?
6. Does can the syllabus be easy to read, understand, and follow?
7. How can the syllabus be clear to substitute teachers?
8. How to ensure that lessons build on top of each other?
One of the ways of tailoring a text book into a clear, flexible, and effective syllabus is to shown below. This organization guides teachers in understanding what they need to focus on each day within the board context of what is being covered in a week and the month. ((http://www.englishraven.com/ttools_syllabus_parade.html)
In summary, syllabus design is necessary, should not be complicated, but should take into consideration the issues listed above. In particular, the units in the syllabus should be arranged in a sequence such that students learning objectives are reached while providing teachers (regular and substitute) with a clear road map for doing so.
