Academic literature on the topic 'Task-based syllabus design'

Writing is viewed as the most complex skill to learn and to teach. Beside learner factors, teacher, materials and syllabus may also affect the process of learning language as foreign language. Syllabus, in general, can be defined as a set of what is taught (content) and the way it is taught (procedure. This current research aims to design a task-based syllabus for writing class at university level. This study was conducted by qualitative descriptive design with 92 students and 4 lecturers as respondents. As part of research and development project in one private university in Jakarta, a developed task-based syllabus was based on need analysis and the principles of task-based language teaching. Students’ proficiency levels are fair with sentence patterns and grammar as the most difficult aspects. Academic writing is more preferable orientation with the small portions of creative writing. Then, the developed task-based syllabus has been proposed for writing class which covers the components of goal (learning outcome), course description and objectives, a set of writing tasks, features of content focus and language focus and course evaluation. The developed syllabus, then, can guide the lecturers in designing lesson plan and selecting materials for writing class.

The needs of the ICT competences in education become the consideration in infusing ICT to the process of teaching and learning. This study was conducted to design the ICT competences- integrated syllabuses of Practical Key Teaching Competences for English Language Education Study Program. The analysis of ICT competences used UNESCO ICT Competences Framework, European Profiling Grid and International Society for Technology in Education. The design employed Richey and Klein, Borg and Gall, and Wademan model of DDR which were modified into four steps; need analysis, prototype syllabus design, evaluation and revision. Eight existing syllabuses of Practical Key Teaching Competence were analyzed. They are the syllabuses of Lesson Course Planning, Teaching Practicum and Classroom Management from some Universities in Indonesia. The findings showed that most of the existing syllabuses were not completely ICT competences integrated. ICT competences appeared only in learning outcomes, course learning outcomes, indicator, materials, teaching method, media of learning and assessment but not in basic information, course description, policy, grading and reference. The dominant level of ICT competences applied in the existing syllabuses was Technology Literacy. Then, it was found eleven steps of procedure to design syllabuses of Practical Key Teaching Competence integrated ICT competences. The prototype syllabuses integrated ICT competences were designed. The entire components of the designed syllabus infused ICT competences except Time Allocation. The proposed syllabuses implemented types of integrated syllabus for Lesson Course Planning and Classroom Management. Then, task based syllabus was used for Teaching Practicum that integrated by ICT. Keyword : ICT- Competences, Practical key teaching Competence Syllabuses, EPG, UNESCO ICT Competences Framework for Teacher

Recently task-based language teaching has attracted many researchers’, testers’ and syllabus designers’ attention and consequently a lot of studies are carried out in this field. This study was conducted in the task-based realm too. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of teacher’s presence on learners’ performance in doing task with and without teacher presence. The participants of this were forty (40) EFL intermediate male and female English learners who were chosen randomly. The results of statistical analysis of the collected data revealed that teacher’s presence affected the participants’ oral performance in terms of fluency but not their accuracy and complexity. The findings of this study have implications for language teaching, testing and syllabus design.

The industry of BIPA (Indonesian for foreigners) has extensively increased both at home and overseas. As a result, its teaching needs to be well-planned and organized. Supported by the view that no best method for all, eclecticism can be selected as approach to teaching. This paper is purposed to describe the initial stages of syllabus design particularly for one-to-one teaching Indonesian using eclectic approach. Carried out by descriptive research as part of research and development design, non-structured interview, observation, and open-ended questionnaire were as instruments to collect the information about learner and previous teaching process. Using a framework of syllabus development by Graves, need analysis and first draft syllabus were taken place. The need analysis reveals the learner characteristics and need of learning, such as age, gender, motivation and expectation. Moreover, grounded by the result of gathered information from need analysis, the developed syllabus is then a combination of task-based approach of language learning and structural-based syllabus which embraces accuracy and fluency as well as covers the features of eclectic system.

This paper reviews recent research that has manipulated task complexity variables to gauge their effects on L2 learning. This review draws upon Robinson’s Triadic Componential Framework for task design (2001a) which suggests that increases in task complexity levels should be an important consideration when designing and sequencing a task-based language syllabus. Most of the studies discussed support Robinson’s contention that more complex tasks result in greater accuracy and complexity in L2 learners’ language production. This would imply the need to consider task complexity variables in selecting, designing and administering tasks in the second language classroom to achieve optimum effects on the learning process. Teachers would also have to be conscientious in evaluating cognitive loads of tasks to ensure heightened attention to meaning and forms. Also, the potential of using task complexity level as an organising principle for a second-language syllabus needs to be further explored and investigated.

The research was purpose at finding out the need analysis of English for the Health Analyst students, and also designing the syllabus based on the students need. The research was conducted at Academy Health analyst Muhammadiyah Makassar. This research is descriptive research. Data were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods. Information on the needs of students is obtained through the provision of questionnaires and interviews to students, alumni, lecturers and stake holder. The findings based on the data analysis indicate that the students state that they need English for communicative competence, the priority in speaking and reading skill in order able to communication and read materials related their field and the student’s purpose in learning English to support to getting a job in the health service institution. By the students need in this study shows that the students give positive response in the health analyst related topic, grammar items and interesting task, method to be consider in apply suggested syllabus design.

Abstract This study examines learners’ perceptions of an approach for improving Chinese-as-a-Foreign-Language learners’ language proficiency, especially their speaking ability. Built upon the Distributed Design Model, a wiki-enhanced, Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) approach was designed at the syllabus level, taking into consideration various learning contexts. The approach was implemented and evaluated. Findings show that the overall design of this approach and most of the different components of the pre-task, core-task (interviews with native speakers, wiki-writing, and in-class presentations), and post-task activities were very positively perceived by the students. All students liked this design and enjoyed the class. The main reasons include (1) Students valued the opportunity to interact with native speakers outside the classroom; (2) The in-class presentations gave them an opportunity to express their personalities; (3) They liked the fact that the wiki-essay writing was connected to the in-class presentation because this helped them prepare the content of their presentation, also enabled them to develop writing and speaking on a single topic so they could become more advanced in that topic; (4) They also liked the consistency in organization and the eight units being procedurally similar. The learners held varying views on a few components of the pre-task and post-task activities.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2011.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this thesis is to present an isiXhosa task-based syllabus design for police communication. The aim is to provide a theory-based rationale for syllabus design to teach English- and Afrikaans-speaking police officials isiXhosa as a second language in order to communicate with the isiXhosa mother tongue police officials inside the police station (internal), as well as with the isiXhosa speaking community (external). For this purpose, a needs analysis is conducted, i.e. the communication needs and objectives of the police officials are determined. Therefore, the aim is to determine the proficiency level of the police officials in terms of their knowledge about isiXhosa. The thesis undertakes this investigation in order to determine the type of communication used by the police officials. Communicative tasks, appropriate for police officials on an intermediate level, were constructed accordingly for the purpose of identifying central task types. An analysis of each dialogue is done in order to determine the level of cognitive, as well as syntactic complexity. Each of these dialogues can be scaled in terms of their complexity, i.e. the complexity can either be increased or decreased. The aim of the communicative tasks is to teach learners various ways in which different parts of texts relate to one another. Furthermore, the purpose of this thesis is to determine the way in which Task-based Language Teaching can be incorporated into a syllabus design in order to teach isiXhosa to police officials as a second language. The aim of Task-based Language Teaching is to create natural contexts in which communicative tasks can be performed. The communicative tasks should enable the police officials to use the language in order to communicate in the world outside the classroom. The study concludes that specific purpose syllabus design is a multi-faceted process, hence it requires a multi-perspective approach as demonstrated in this thesis.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie tesis is om 'n Taakgebaseerde Sillabusontwerp vir polisiekommunikasie voor te stel. Die mikpunt is om 'n teoreties-gebaseerde rasionaal vir sillabusontwerp te verskaf om sodoende Engels- en Afrikaanssprekende polisielede isiXhosa as tweede taal te leer sodat hulle in staat is om met polisielede in die polisiestasie (intern), asook met die gemeenskap (ekstern) te kommunikeer. Vir hierdie doeleinde is dit nodig om 'n behoefte-analise saam te stel, met ander woorde die kommunikasiebehoeftes en -doelwitte van die polisielede. Die doel is dus om die bevoegdheidsvlak van die polisielede te bepaal in terme van hul kennis rakende isiXhosa. Dit sluit 'n ondersoek in om vas te stel watter tipe kommunikasie deur die polisielede gebruik word. Kommunikatiewe take, geskik vir polisielede op 'n intermediere vlak, is daarvolgens saamgestel om sodoende sentrale taaktipes te identifiseer. Elke dialoog is geanaliseer in terme van kognitiewe, asook sintaktiese kompleksiteit. Elkeen van hierdie dialoe kan georden word in terme van hul kompleksiteit, met ander woorde die kompleksiteit kan of verhoog of verlaag word. Die doel van die kommunikatiewe take is om leerders verskeie maniere te wys waarop verskillende dele van tekste verband hou met mekaar. Verder is die doel van hierdie tesis om te bepaal hoe Taakgebaseerde Taalonderrig in 'n sillabusontwerp inkorporeer kan word om sodoende isiXhosa as tweede taal aan polisielede te leer. Die mikpunt van Taakgebaseerde Taalonderrig is om natuurlike kontekste te skep waarin kommunikatiewe take uitgevoer kan word. Die kommunikatiewe take is veronderstel om polisielede in staat te stel om die taal te gebruik sodat hulle in die wereld buite die klaskamer kan kommunikeer. Die gevolgtrekking van die studie is dat 'n sillabusontwerp vir spesifieke doeleindes, 'n multi-kenmerkende proses is, en dus 'n multi-perspektiewe benadering vereis soos wat demonstreer is in hierdie tesis.

English is the second language of almost 89,9% of all South Africans (Bull, 1990:3). A concern about the low levels of proficiency in English in South African primary schools prompted this study. The majority of pupils (both in schools that use English as medium of instruction and schools that offer English as a subject only), as well as many teachers of English are not proficient in English. The aim of this study is to design a task-based syllabus for English in South African primary schools that will address this problem through its potential to provide extensive support for the teaching and learning of English. The syllabus is the single most influential document all English Second Language (ESL) teachers receive, as it directs and guides teaching. In order to propose a syllabus for ESL in primary schools, the following aspects were investigated in this study: the teaching and learning of ESL in the primary school approaches to syllabus design, task-based approaches to syllabus design, current language syllabuses and the present situation in South African primary schools. Task-based approaches to language learning are increasingly proposed as a viable option for syllabus design. There is a firm theoretical rationale for task-based approaches to language learning. Task-based models proposed by Prabhu, Breen and Candlin and Long and Crookes have been influential in the design of task-based syllabuses for language learning. A survey was undertaken to ascertain to what extent language syllabuses from various countries can be regarded as task-based, and what information they specify. Seven representative task-based syllabuses were studied, namely Graded Levels of Achievement for Foreign Language Learning (GLAFLL), the Alabama Course of Study - English Language Arts and the Alaska Model Curriculum Guide: Language Arts (both for English as L1), and the Dutch Syllabus for ESL, the Botswana Syllabus for ESL, the Australian Language Levels (ALL) Project and the Target Oriented curriculum (TOC) of Hong Kong. The Target Oriented Curriculum (TOC) of Hong Kong is regarded as the most suitable model on which to base a task-based model for language teaching and learning in South African primary schools. Not only does it provide firm support for classroom practice in a teacher-friendly and concise manner, but it also provides examples of how the various components of the syllabus can be integrated in the planning of a scheme of work. A core task-based syllabus for English in South African primary schools is proposed. It consists of a situation analysis, the aims and objectives of the course, its content, teaching-learning opportunities and guidelines for assessment.
Proefskrif (PhD (Vakdidaktiek))--PU vir CHO, 1997