Designing an English syllabus for the third year students at FLD, Nghe An Teacher Training College = Thiết kế chương trình môn Văn học Anh cho sinh viên năm thứ

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES
*********************


THÁI THỊ MAI LIÊN


DESIGNING AN ENGLISH SYLLABUS FOR THE THIRD
YEAR STUDENTS AT FLD, NGHE AN TEACHER
TRAINING COLLEGE

(Thiết kế chương trình môn Văn học Anh cho sinh viên năm thứ ba Khoa
Ngoại ngữ trường CĐSP Nghệ An.)


M.A Minor Program Thesis


Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 601410






Hanoi, 2010
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES
*********************


THÁI THỊ MAI LIÊN


DESIGNING AN ENGLISH SYLLABUS FOR THE THIRD
YEAR STUDENTS AT FLD, NGHE AN TEACHER
TRAINING COLLEGE

(Thiết kế chương trình môn Văn học Anh cho sinh viên năm thứ ba Khoa
Ngoại ngữ trường CĐSP Nghệ An.)


M.A Minor Program Thesis


Field: Methodology
Code: 601410
Supervisor: Assoc. Professor Nguyễn Xuân Thơm





Hanoi, 2010


v

Declaration i
Acknowledgements ii
Abstract iii
List of figures and tables iv
Table of content v
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale for the topic 1
2. Aims and objectives 3
3. Scope of research 3
4. Significance of the study 3
5. Methodology 4
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5
1.1. Definition of Literature 5
1.1.1. Literature and language teaching 5
1.1.2. Poetry and language learning 6
1.1.3. Prose and language learning 6
1.1.4. Drama and language learning 7
1.2. Curriculum and syllabus 8
1.3. Syllabus design 9
1.3.1. Needs analysis 10
1.3.2. Content specification 11
1.3.3. Syllabus Organization 12
1.4. Types of Syllabus 12
1.4.1. A structural (formal) syllabus 13
1.4.2. A situational syllabus 13
1.4.3. A notional/functional syllabus 14
1.4.4. A skill-based syllabus 15
1.4.5. A task-based syllabus 15

vi
1.4.6. A content-based-syllabus 16
CHAPTER 2: DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS 18
2.1. The questionnaires 18
2.1.1. Objectives of the course 18
2.1.2. Contents of the course 20
2.1.2.1. Situations of teaching English Literature at the FLD 20
2.1.2.2. Students’ needs 21
2.1.3. Teaching methodology and assessment 24
2.1.3.1. Situations of teaching English Literature at the FLD 24
2.1.3.2. Students’ needs 24
2.2. The interviews 26
2.2.1. Objectives of the course 27
2.2.2. Contents of the course 27
2.2.3. Teaching methodology and assessment 28
2.3. Discussion 29
2.3.1. Situations of teaching English Literature at the FLD 29
2.3.2. Students’ needs 30
2.3.3. Teachers’ opinions 30
CHAPTER 3: THE PROPOSED ENGLISH LITERATURE SYLLABUS 32
3.1. Aims and Objectives of the course 32
3.2. Contents of the course 32
3.3. Teaching methodology and assessment of the course 36
PART C: CONCLUSION 39
References 41
Appendices I
Appendix 1 I
Appendix 2 V

iv
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLE

Table 2.1: The uses of English Literature
Table 2.2: Important items that English Literature subject support to students’ study
Table 2.3: People who decided the contents of the syllabus
Table 2.4: People who should decide the contents of the syllabus
Table 2.5: The order of syllabus contents
Table 2.6: Old or Modern English Literature
Table 2.7: The most favorite of students’ studying
Table 2.8: The order of the contents to be taught
Table 2.9: The activities carried in the past
Table 2.10: The activities should be carried during the course
Table 2.11: The ways students should be assessed





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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale for the topic
Together with the recent political and economic development, English has become a means to
help strengthen the understanding and promote communication between countries. English has
been taught and emphasized greatly in grammatical rules, phonetics and vocabulary in
Vietnam. Consequently, Vietnamese learners of English, despite their perfect grammar often
fail to understand English speakers who come from a culture different from their own. This

leads to a consideration into the social and cultural in English Language acquisition.

English Literature as well as many other subjects for the last year students at Nghe An Teacher
Training College helps them develop English language skills at advanced level. Most of the
English-majored-students at Nghe An Teacher Training College spend their first two years to
further their knowledge on English language skills and language competence. In their last year
at the college, they have a chance to study English Literature and Country Study considered as
the two cultural subjects when they are in their last year. English Literature subject focuses on
the history development and outstanding works composed in English Language. Literature is
art, a special form of art. Literature is the art of exploiting words. Culture is expressed through
language. Thus, the subject does not only help improve general language skills but also
provides our learners with cultural knowledge of native country of the English language.

The name of the subject “A glimpse of English Literature” as well as the allocation of time (30
periods in 15 weeks, in the 1
st
or 2
nd
term of three year degree) introduced at the curriculum
causes the teaching and learning confused. There is no further instruction, either on the aims,
the objectives of the course, contents, and methodology or evaluation techniques. Presently,
books on English Literature subject are rare in Viet Nam, the best one “A history of English
and American Literature” written by Nguyen Xuan Thom has shown its advantages, positive
aspects in both contents and construction. That it has been used as the textbook for students at
many universities in all over Viet Nam is understandable. However, to some extent, it is not
suitable to choose this course book for the college students because of the specific conditions
such as students’ language proficiency; the aims and objectives as well as the time allocation
and many other factors. (The students at the universities spend three terms dealing with this

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subject where as the college students have just one term for the subject). Hence, the teachers
of this subject at all the colleges in Vietnam have to decide themselves what and how to teach
their students. That the teaching is completely left to individual teachers leads to the fact that
the teachers teach what ever they consider necessary or capable in terms of convenience and
the availability of materials.

Being one of the teachers of the subject, seeing the burning situation, the thought of doing
something to improve this situation has risen in the mind of the author of this study. In present
time to do some changes to the fixed curriculum seems to be impossible. The only one thing
that a teacher could do is to develop syllabus based on students’ needs in order to give
students a chance to understand the history development of English Literature and approach to
a special kind of text: novels, poems, and plays which they are really interested in. There is
also a hope that the learners can be more confident in using English to express their
understandings of their own country literature.

From all the reasons given above, the author of this paper is strongly believed that if the minor
thesis “Designing an English Literature Syllabus for the 3
rd
year students at Nghe An Teacher
Training College” is completed, the situation will be improved, the teaching and learning
English Literature subject at Nghe An Teacher Training College will be more effective to both
teachers and learners. The author of the research expects that the study would be a necessity
and of great significance to the teachers of the subject who have been at sea for a long time
working out how to make the teaching and studying of English Literature subject clearer, more
interesting and more effective.



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2. Aims and objectives
The study aims to have a deep understand into the student’s needs and teacher’s ability
concerning English Literature. It draws the experiences of ex-students and the situation of
teaching and learning English Literature at NA TTC. It also carries a hope to build an English
Literature syllabus for the last year students in FLD at NA TTC from the detailed aspects of
aims and objectives of the course, contents of the lectures as well as teaching methodology
and assessment. The syllabus is designed for a three-month teaching time (15 weeks) with a
schedule of two hours per week per class.

The syllabus mainly focuses on the contents of the syllabus. This should be the most important
for the subject. It is not only a “day-to-day guide to the teacher” but also the specification of
“what is to be taught and in what order” (Prabhu, 1984).
3. Scope of research
According to many curriculum developers’ theory, from seeing syllabus as “a course of study
or the content of a particular course or program” (Stern. 1983) to a more detailed definition “a
day-to-day guide to the teacher, partly a statement of what is to be taught and how, sometimes
partly a statement of an approach.” (Strevens. 1977) or “to specify what is to be taught and in
what order” (Prabhu, 1984). Hence, within the scope and due to the quandary of time and
resources, this study is limited to the search out of the need of English majored students and
the teachers’ opinions about the objectives, contents, teaching methodology and evaluation of
English Literature in FLD at Nghe An Teacher Training College.
4. Significance of the study
The study carries a hope of providing clear objectives, detailed contents in an order as well as
the teaching methodology and evaluation to the English Literature subject for the last year
students in FLD at NTTC.

It would give the teachers of the subject a good chance to clarify the difference between a
detailed syllabus and the training curriculum. The study would also help students with an
obvious sight at what they are going to achieve after finishing the subject.
5. Methodology

4
Since the study attempts to analyze the students’ need and teachers’ opinions in finding out
what should be presented in English Literature syllabus for the last year students at the
college, a survey has been conducted. Descriptive and analytical methodology is applied to
analyze the collected data from the questionnaires and the interviews. Because the number of
second year students in the department is not big, thus a decision of taking all of them as
sample for the study is a probability within the researcher’s time.

Questionnaires have been employed to the second year students and the students who have
completed the course at FLD. The survey elicits the second year students’ expectation from
the subject in their last year and it also seeks for the situation and the experiences of ex-
students of the teaching and learning English Literature at Nghe An Teacher Training College.
In addition, interviews have been carried out to teachers in the FLD to get help and opinions
from them in the field.


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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1. Definition of Literature
There are many definitions on Literature from unscientific to scientific view points. Oxford
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7
th
edition defines Literature as “pieces of writing that are
valued as works of art, especially novels, plays and poems.” Lazar (1993) introduces
Literature as “feelings and thoughts in black and white”, “the use of language to evoke a
personal response in the reader or listener”, and “means to meet a lot of people, to know other
different points of view, ideas, thoughts, minds to know ourselves better”. Selden (1989)

sees Literature as “a special use of language which achieves its distinctness by deviating and
distorting practical language”.

Literature as defined above is the term used to describe written or spoken material. Broadly
speaking, “Literature” is used to describe anything from creative writing to more technical or
scientific works, the term is more commonly used to refer to works of the creative
imagination, including works of poetry, drama, fiction and non-fiction.
1.1.1. Literature and language teaching
Literature on the one hand provides texts of different genres like novels, short stories, poems
and plays, which mainly discuss the human life from all aspects. On the other hand, it offers
culture and life styles all around the world, and more than that, it transcends the time and
culture to speak directly to a reader of a different culture at different periods of time. In other
words, Literature can be said to have a communication task from people to people regarding
time, space and culture. Seeing this important role of Literature, the constructors of many
course books as well as text books all over the world have been bringing a variety of reading
texts into the books. Literary texts are now considered the valuable authentic material, which
plays a very important part in student’s cultural enrichment, language enrichment as well as
personal involvement. Having this subject at the college for the students who want to become
teachers of English is a necessity for the fact that the course can provide them with a deep
understanding into different forms of Literature. As a result, they should have a basic
knowledge for their teaching of different genres of Literature designed in many course books
and text books.


6
1.1.2. Poetry and language learning
The role of the Poetry has been evaluated currently in the process of second language teaching
and learning. The use of songs is a prodigious aid in foreign language learning. The English is
no exception. Poetry is an excellent selected aid in learning and practicing English as a second
language. Hess (2003) derives that “the entry into a poem, under the guidance of appropriate

teaching, brings about the kind of participation that almost no other text can produce”. Poetry
often uses particular forms and conventions to suggest alternative meanings in the words, or to
evoke emotional or sensual responses. Devices such as assonance, alliteration, rhythm, and
rhyme are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity,
symbolism, irony, and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to
multiple interpretation. That provides learners of the language different ways to interpret the
language in a wider range of understanding. That is the reason why Poetry has sometime been
defined as a fundamental creative act using language.

When learning a language through poems, by reading, analyzing, and interpreting them,
students’ strong feelings and emotion could be awakened and positive reactions to what they
are dealing with would be aroused. According to Nilsen (2004) “poetry can contribute so
much to making any language class enjoyable, but it has even more to offer the ESL
classroom in terms of poetry – centered language activities”. “The whole poem or story says
something that none of its words say or can say”. Through poetry, students can enter a
different world of meanings behind the words themselves. They would know more how to use
the words with feelings, emotions, thus their communication should be more colourful and
attractive to the speakers of the language.
1.1.3. Prose and language learning
Prose is the most typical form of language; we can see prose all around us in the figure of
newspapers, magazines, films, literature and many other forms of communication. Prose is
considered one of the two major literary structures. Prose lacks the more formal metrical
structure of verse that is almost always found in poetry. Prose comprises full grammatical
sentences, which then constitutes paragraphs and overlook aesthetic appeal. Prose helps to
develop vocabulary and cultural knowledge as well as greater proficiency in critical reading
and creative writing skills. Further more, the language used in different forms of prose is the


7
most reflective of ordinary and conversational speech. Reading poetry provides students a

chance to approach the language of everyday life that most different from the grammar rules
they study in class that many learners of a second or foreign language fail to communicate in
real situations with native speakers.
1.1.4. Drama and language learning
The word Drama used here means the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. It
is called play acted in theatre by actors on a stage before an audience. The structure of
dramatic texts, unlike other forms of literature, is directly influenced by collaborative
production and collective reception. When analyzing drama, readers or audience should focus
on words, phrases, lines, or scenes that really struck them. Drama provides one means of
engaging students in the contextual or sub-textual level of a text; it locates text level study of
text within the broader social and structural context in which the text is made, used and
understood. The language used in composing plays is conversational descriptive language,
thus provide the learners of drama a better use of the language in having wonderful
conversation in class as well as outside the classroom.

Drama seeing as above is not comfortable for the starters of any language learning. The
subject here is supposed to apply for the last year English Language majored-students, hence
this is a chance for them to “develop decoding skills, fluency, vocabulary, syntactic
knowledge, discourse knowledge, and metacognitive thinking” (Sun, 2003). Chauhan (2004)
says that Drama also gives the learners “a context for listening and meaningful language
production”, provides “opportunities for reading and writing development”. In addition to the
development coordination skills, creative expression and thinking, social interaction, problem
solving can be enhanced.


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1.2. Curriculum and syllabus
Linguists have been spending a great deal of time explaining the two confusable terms
“syllabus” and “curriculum”. According to Stern (1983) the field of curriculum studies is part
of the discipline of educational studies. In its broadest sense, it refers to the study of goals,

content, implementation and evaluation of an educational system. In its restricted sense,
curriculum refers to a course of study or the content of a particular course or program. It is in
this narrower sense of curriculum that the term “syllabus” is employed. According to Stern,
“syllabus design” is just one phase in a system of interrelated curriculum development
activities.

Through his survey of literature on second language syllabus development, Shaw’s (1975)
sees that “ the curriculum includes the goals, objectives, content, processes, resources, and
means of evaluation of all the learning experiences planned for pupils both in and out of the
school and community, through classroom instruction and related programs”. He then defines
“syllabus” as “a statement of the plan for any part of the curriculum, excluding the element of
curriculum evaluation itself.”

Syllabus is also defined as “partly an administrative instrument, partly a day-to-day guide to
the teacher, partly a statement of what is to be taught and how, sometimes partly a statement
of an approach.” (Strevens.1977). He adds “The syllabus embodies that part of the language
which is to be taught, broken down into items, or otherwise processed for teaching purposes.”

According to Wilkins (1981), syllabuses mean “specifications of the content of language
teaching which have been submitted to some degree of structuring or ordering with the aim of
making teaching and learning a more effective process.” Mackey (1980) adds that besides
specifying the content of learning, a syllabus provides a rationale of how that content should
be selected and ordered. Basically, a syllabus can be seen as “a plan of what is to be achieved
through our teaching and our students’ learning” while its function is “to specify what is to be
taught and in what order” (Prabhu, 1984).



9
Yalden (1983) states that a syllabus should be a specification of content based on the learners’

purposes of studying the target language, and that it represents a plan to implement this
content at the classroom level. She confirms that a syllabus should also include an approach to
testing.
1.3. Syllabus design
The term syllabus now has a separated meaning to curriculum. It is time to discuss the term
“syllabus design”. Language syllabus design and development is considered to be the most
complex and notoriously controversial areas of applied linguistics. Nowadays, there are many
different trends in language syllabus design. Some linguists draw a clear distinction between
syllabus design and methodology. They maintain that syllabus design is concerned essentially
with the selection and grading of content, while methodology is concerned with the selection
of learning tasks and activities.

Nunan are among the linguists who dropt a broader view question this strict separation. They
argue that with the advent of the communicative language teaching the distinction between
content and tasks is difficult to sustain. Nunan (2001) argues “with the development of
process, task-based and content syllabuses the traditional distinction between syllabus design
(specifying the “what”) and methodology (specifying the “how”) has become blurred”. From
this point of view, it is clear that the separation of syllabus design and methodology becomes
problematic. There should be a need for an integrated view of syllabus design and
methodology.

Designing a language syllabus is no doubt a complex process. Webb (1976) implies that
syllabus design is understood as the organization of the selected contents into an ordered and
practical sequence for teaching purposes. Here are the criteria for syllabus designed introduced
by him:
 progress from known to unknown matter
 appropriate size of teaching units
 a proper variety of activity
 teachability
 creating a sense of purpose for the student.

10

According to Munby (1984), syllabus design is seen as “a matter of specifying the content that
needs to be taught and then organizing it into a teaching syllabus of appropriate learning
units.”

From the above explanations on syllabus design, it can be concluded that syllabus design
involves a logical sequence of three main stages, that is, i) needs analysis, ii) content
specification, and iii) syllabus organization. This follows very closely the general model
advocated by Taba (1962) which gave the following steps:
 needs analysis
 formulation of objectives
 selection of content
 organization of content
 selection of learning activities
 organization of learning activities
 decisions about what needs evaluating and how to evaluate.

Three main stages have been identified in the process of designing a language syllabus,
namely needs analysis, content specification and syllabus organization.
1.3.1. Needs analysis
According to Nunan (2001), the reason for conducting need analysis is to provide the input
which is relevant to the needs of given learners that “need analysis is a set of procedures for
specifying the parameters of a course of study”. There are two different types of need analysis:
learner analysis and task analysis. Learner analysis is based on information about learners. The
central question of concern to the syllabus designer is: “For what purpose or purposes us the
learner learning?”. Except this main question, there are many other subsidiary questions from
which the syllabus designer can collect a wide range of information about the learner. The

information about the learner’s need should be collected in a form of surveys or
questionnaires. The second type of need analysis is task analysis. It is employed to specify and
categorize the language skill required by the learner and often follows the learner analysis.



11
The concept of needs analysis enables us to discriminate between various learner types and to
produce syllabus inventories specifically geared to their needs. But this only holds true as long
as the learner groups dealt with have the same needs. However, the language teacher is usually
in a completely different predicament altogether.
1.3.2. Content specification
After having determined the language needs of the learner, the next step would be to decide on
the content of the syllabus. This is a difficult task that has caused a great deal of contention
and controversy over the years. One of the problems in developing general courses for adults,
in Nunan’s opinion (2001) is that the interests of learners in a group differ. What interesting to
one learner can be uninteresting to another. However, this problem can be overcome through
need analysis.

According to Allen (1984), there are basically three approaches which can be utilized to
sequence and organize content: the traditional, structural-analytic approach in which the
highest priority is given to formal grammatical criteria; the functional-analytical approach
which defines objectives in terms of categories of communicative language use; and a non-
analytic, experiential, or “natural growth” approach, which aims to immerse learners in real-
life communication without any artificial pre-selection or arrangement of items.

Most language syllabus content is drawn from inventories or lists which may be word
frequency lists, inventories of functions or lists of specific topics. Content can be also be
specified through a series of checklists which deal with communicative functions, discourse
skills, and study skills. From the objectives, elements of the subject matter are focused upon,

for example, particular structures, sets of functions, or a range of communicative events. The
selection of content and objectives is “something which is shaped and refined during the initial
stages of a learning arrangement rather than being completely pre-determined” (Nunan, 2001).
1.3.3. Syllabus Organization
The objective of organizing a syllabus should be to promote learning, and not just to provide a
description of the language. Therefore, the content matter should be organized in such a way
so as to facilitate teaching and learning. The unit of organization should also suit the particular
purpose of learning.


12

The syllabus may be structured on the basis of a gradual move from the more general to the
more particular, a statement of a general rule to a statement of particular rules or exceptions
which incorporates the deductive process. The material can also be organized so that the
direction is from the particular to the general which is the inductive process.

If language is viewed as learned, then the logic of grammar rules imposes a sequence. If
language is viewed as acquired, then there is no linguistic content restriction. If a syllabus is
based on language use, a needs analysis would be required. The identified needs would impose
the choice of syllabus content. The organization of content is complex as it has formal and
functional components.
1.4. Types of Syllabus
Almost all actual language teaching syllabi are combinations of the types defined here. For a
given course, one type of syllabus usually dominates, while other types of content may be
combined with it. Furthermore, the types of syllabi are not entirely distinct from each other.
For example, the distinction between skill-based and task-based syllabi may be minimal. In
such cases, the distinguishing factor is often the way in which the instructional content is used
in the actual teaching procedure.
1.4.1. A structural (formal) syllabus

The structural syllabus specifies structural patterns as the basis units of learning and organizes
these according to criteria such as structural complexity, difficulty, regularity, utility and
frequency. Structural syllabus has traditionally organized along grammatical lines with
learning units, bearing labels such as “articles”, “future simple” or “relative clauses” which
reflect an emphasis on language form. According to Yalden (1983) the content of the syllabus
has been determined by giving top priority to teaching the grammar or “structure” of the
language.

The structural syllabus is very familiar to language teachers, and it has several advantages.
Structural syllabus “allows us to present element of an orderly system in an orderly way, to
proceed from known to unknown, and from the less to more complex in a principled fashion”.



13
However, this type of syllabus has its shortcomings. In teaching approaches based on
structural syllabus “meaning has been taught, of course, but it has been primarily the meaning
of words and sentences as isolated, and not their meaning within stretches of discourse”
(Yalden, 1983). Another weakness is the result of sequencing or grading problems. A strictly
structural syllabus may prevent students from producing structures they have not been taught.
As a result, students are severely limited or controlled in using the new language until the
needed structures have been taught. Structural syllabus, therefore, may be easier to teach but it
is not always effective approach to learning. In other words, structural syllabus may, in fact,
constitute a teacher-centered rather than a learner-centered approach.
1.4.2. A situational syllabus
The content of language teaching is a collection of real or imaginary situations in which
language occurs or is used. A situation usually involves several participants who are engaged
in some activity in a specific setting. The language occurring in the situation involves a
number of functions, combined into a plausible segment of discourse. The primary purpose of
a situational language teaching syllabus is to teach the language that occurs in the situations.

Examples of situations include: seeing the dentist, complaining to the landlord, buying a book
at the book store, meeting a new student, and so on. Therefore, situational syllabus is proved
to have some advantages, which structural syllabus lack. In implementing situational syllabus,
learners are given the situations in which they are likely to need the language (Wilkins, 1976).

Situational syllabus also has limitation. The most difficult problem the situational syllabus
designer may face when designing and implementing is what is meant by “situation”. Further
more, in some physical situations, language does not always have to be related to the situation.
For example, one person may go to a hospital, not to receive a treatment for him but to
complain about the garbage from the hospital destroying some plants in his garden. Making
complaint is not typical intention of one’s going to the hospital.
1.4.3. A notional-functional syllabus
The notional-functional syllabus represents a shift in focus from the formal to the
communicative properties of language; its central concern is with the teaching of meaning and
the communicative use of patterns.



14
The notional-functional syllabus emerged from the notional one. It came into focus in the
early seventies and placed the semantic unit in the center of syllabus organization which is
organized around themes in relation to broad areas of meaning such as space, time, obligation,
etc (Wilkins, 1976). However, sometimes the concepts “function” and “notion” have been
confused. Nunan (2001) suggests that the designer of notional-functional syllabus ensures to
understand the distinction between functional and notions by listing the terms as follows:
 Functions: are the ones to be described as communicative purposes for which we
use language. (ie. Identifying, apologizing, enquiring, etc.)
 Notions: are conceptual meanings such as objects, entities, state of affairs and so
on. (ie. Time, equality, directions, existence, etc.)
It is suggested that in designing a notional-functional syllabus the linguistic content should be

selected and graded in accordance with the semantic demands of the learners. Forms and
functions of the language contents should be taken into consideration to meet both learners’
need of language grammar system and communication.

However, it does not mean that there are no problems needed to be solved in designing and
implementing notional syllabus. The construction of a syllabus along semantic and functional
lines may lead to, to some extent, structural disorganization; because structures are introduced
in the same learning units may not be structurally linked. For example, requests can be
considered as high frequency in communication, so they should be presented early in a
language program.
1.4.4. A skill-based syllabus
Skills are things that people must be able to do to be competent in a language, relatively
independently of the situation or setting in which the language use can occur. While
situational syllabi group functions together into specific settings of language use, skill-based
syllabi group linguistic competencies (pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and discourse)
together into generalized types of behavior, such as listening to spoken language for the main
idea, writing well-formed paragraphs, giving effective oral presentations, and so on. The
primary purpose of skill-based instruction is to learn the specific language skill. A possible
secondary purpose is to develop more general competence in the language, learning only
incidentally any information that may be available while applying the language skills.


15
1.4.5. A task-based syllabus
This type of teaching syllabus consists of a series of complex and purposeful tasks that the
students want or need to perform with the language they are learning. The tasks are defined as
activities with a purpose other than language learning, but, as in a content-based syllabus, the
performance of the tasks is approached in a way that is intended to develop second language
ability. Language learning is subordinate to task performance, and language teaching occurs
only as the need arises during the performance of a given task. Tasks integrate language (and

other) skills in specific settings of language use. Task-based teaching differs from situation-
based teaching in that while situational teaching has the goal of teaching the specific language
content that occurs in the situation (a predefined product), task-based teaching has the goal of
teaching students to draw on resources to complete some piece of work (a process). The
students draw on a variety of language forms, functions, and skills, often in an individual and
unpredictable way, in completing the tasks. Tasks that can be used for language learning are,
generally, tasks that the learners actually have to perform in any case. Examples include:
applying for a job, talking with a social worker, getting housing information over the
telephone, and so on.
Task-based syllabus also has its drawback. It derives from Nunan (2001) that difficulty is the
key factor in determining the ordering of items in a task-based syllabus. All things being
equal, items are presented to learners according to their degree of difficulty. The problem for
the task-based syllabus designer is that a variety of factors will interact to determine task
difficulty. In addition, as some of these factors will be dependant on characteristics of the
learner, what is difficult for Learner A may not be difficult for Learner B.
1.4.6. 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


16
the science more comprehensible. One of the great advantages of a content-based syllabus is
that it frees teacher from having to follow any one method of language instruction.

With content-based instruction learners are helped to acquire language through the study of a
series of relevant topics, each topic exploited in systematic ways and from different angles, as
outlined in Mohan's "knowledge framework", (Nunan, 2001). Mohan develops a knowledge
framework which can be used for organizing knowledge and learning activities. The
knowledge framework consists of a specific, practical side and a general, theoretical side. The
specific side is divided into classification, principles, and evaluation. It is suggested that any
topic can be exploited in terms of these six categories, and that the knowledge structure of a
topic is revealed through the following types of questions:
(A) Specific practical aspect
(particular examples, specific cases within the topic)
1. Description: Who? What, where? What person?, materials, equipment,
items, settings?
2. Sequence: What happens? What happens next? What is the plot? What
are the processes, procedures or routines?
3. Choice: What are the choices, conflicts, alternative, dilemmas, and
decisions?
(B) General theoretical aspects
(What are the general concepts, principles, and values in the topic material?)
1. Classification: What concepts apply? How are they related to each
other?
2. Principles: What principles are there? (Cause-effect, means-end,
methods and techniques, rules, norms, strategies?)
3. Evaluation: What values and standards are appropriate? What counts as
good or bad?

Content syllabuses certainly give learners a lot of exposure to the language. In concept,
content-based teaching is simple: It is the teaching of content or information in the language
being learned with little or no direct or explicit effort to teach the language itself separately

17
from the content being taught. In practice, many programs using a content-based approach
have also included on instructional component specifically focusing on the target language,
but such specific language instruction is not regarded as the primary contributor to target
language acquisition.

In conclusion, there are many types of syllabi, the six one presented above begin with the one
based most on structure, and ending with the one based most on language use. Each of the
above mentioned syllabi has its own strengths and weaknesses. That is why a harmonization
of different approaches should be taken into consideration. Selection of a particular syllabus
type or how to combine different types of syllabus into one should be based on a number of
factors, which relate to both features of the syllabus itself and the educational setting in which
it is to be used.


18
CHAPTER 2: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
2.1. The questionnaires
The survey was conducted using a questionnaires adapted from Nunan (2001) “Sample needs
analysis survey form”. The questionnaire for graduated students aims to examine the situation
and the experiences of the teaching and learning English Literature at Nghe An Teacher
Training College. It consists of 13 questions divided into three parts: Objectives, Contents, and
Teaching methodology and assessment of the course. The questionnaire for the second year
students at the college is divided into the same three parts with 9 questions. The second
questionnaire seeks for the students’ expectations from English Literature course.

The first questionnaire was applied to 30 students who graduated from the FLD of the college
three years or more. All of them are now working as teachers of English at Lower Secondary
Schools in many districts in Nghe An province. The latter was delivered to 92 second year
English majored students at FLD in NATTC. They are going to take English Literature course

in their fifth term at the college.

The analysis of the data was based on the contents of the questionnaires. Two types of data
were obtained from the students’ reflections. The multiple choice questions provide
quantitative data while qualitative data come from open-ended questions that the students were
asked to add more ideas. The data of each item will be discussed in the following section.
2.1.1. Objectives of the course
Question: What are the purposes of English Literature? – It is aimed
This question aims at eliciting how the students define the objectives of English Literature
course. The students are asked to tick one of the given ideas; there is also a space for those
who wish to add some more opinions. Their ideas are obtained as follows:


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No.
Choices
Graduated students
Second year students
Raw data
Percentage
Raw data
Percentage
1
to entertain
5
16,7%
13
14,1%
2

to know more about English
culture
6
20%
14
15,2%
3
to enrich knowledge of English
society
3
10%

13
14,1%
4
to further English Language
skills
3
10%
11
12%
5
to get acquaintance with
English Language
4
13,3%
12
13,0%
6
all of the above

9
30%
29
31,6%
7
Other: develop vocabulary,
grammar
15
50%
0
0%
Table 2.1: The uses of English Literature

The results show that 14,1% of the students think the subject help students to entertain, 15,2%
decide that it help students to know more about English culture, 14,1% agree that it promote
students’ knowledge of English society, 12% desire that they can further English Language
skills, 13,0% want to get acquaintance with English Language through the course. And 31,6%
think that all of the above are what they hope the subject should provide students. The
percentages between the choices are relativity equal. The second year students give no other
ideas for the uses of the subject but 20% of the graduated ones add other focuses of the course
is to develop vocabulary, grammar.

Question: Tick the most important item that English Literature subject support to your study



20

No.
Focus

Items
Graduated students
Second year students
Raw data
Percentage
Raw data
Percentage
1
Language
Competence
Grammar
7
23,3%
28
30,4%
Vocabulary
18
60,1 %
50
54%
Phonetics
5
16,6%
14
15,6%
2
Language
Skills
Listening
4

13,3%
10
10,9%
Speaking
6
20%
16
17,4%
Reading
11
36,7%
37
40,2%
Writing
9
30%
29
31,5%
Table 2.2: Important items that English Literature subject support to students’ study

From the table, it is undeniable that English Literature subject help to promote students’
vocabulary with 54%. The second language competence they think the subject can improve is
grammar with 30% where as phonetics takes 15,6% of the choices. The graduated students
have a same feeling to those items with 60,1% for Vocabulary, 23,3% for Grammar, and
16,6% for Phonetics.

It is clear that students hope English Literature could provide them a chance to read many
kinds of text. With 40% agree that the subject would improve their reading skills, 31% think
they can be better at writing after finishing the course. There is a small belief that the subject
could help to develop students’ Listening (10,9%) and Speaking skills (17%).

2.1.2. Contents of the course
2.1.2.1. Situations of teaching English Literature at the FLD
Question: Who decided the contents of the syllabus?
No.
Choices
Graduated students
Raw data
Percentage
1
Teacher
30
100%
2
Teacher and students
0
0%
Table 2.3: People who decided the contents of the syllabus
Question: What did the teacher let you know before the lesson?
Name of the lesson, handouts for reading at home one week before the lesson