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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2024
The big picture
A language lesson is the product of a complex synthesis of factors that extend way beyond the immediate lesson itself. These include the curriculum, its materials and methodology, the learners’ needs and their learning goals, and the teacher's own preferred practices that are themselves an effect of their personal beliefs and values. Lesson design requires that these big picture factors be taken into account.
1 Curriculum, syllabus and lesson
2 Teacher thinking
3 Methods
4 Cultures of learning
5 Needs analysis
6 Syllabus design
7 Types of syllabus
8 Competencies and the CEFR
9 Coursebooks
10 Learner autonomy and out-of-class learning
Curriculum, syllabus and lesson
To understand the bigger picture behind lesson design, we need to consider how lessons are related to syllabuses and to the broader curriculum.
A teacher, Ana, is scheduled to teach an elementary EFL class at 11 am next Tuesday. In planning the lesson, this is not the sum total of the knowledge she brings to bear. The lesson presumably is part of a sequence of lessons (or scheme of work, see 59) that is one way of realizing the requirements of a syllabus. The syllabus may be tagged to, or even the product of, a specific coursebook. The syllabus and coursebook will, in turn, realize the overall goals of the curriculum.
The terms curriculum and syllabus are often used interchangeably, but it is important to differentiate them. Here are some definitions:
1. A curriculum contains a broad description of general goals by indicating an overall educational-cultural philosophy which applies across subjects together with a theoretical orientation to language and language learning with respect to the subject matter at hand. A curriculum is often reflective of national and political trends as well.
2. A syllabus is a more detailed and operational statement of teaching and learning elements which translates the philosophy of the curriculum into a series of planned steps leading towards more narrowly defined objectives (Dubin and Olshtain, 1986, pp. 34–35).
Important words associated with curriculum to note in these definitions are: broad, general, philosophy, theoretical. For syllabus, however, these words stand out: detailed, operational, planned steps.
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