Course Planning and Syllabus Design
The Course Rationale
Language courses are offered in practically every country in the world. They are offered by different kinds of institutions, from national universities having thousands of students to small local institutes with just a few students. Some of these courses are truly successful, while others do not really stand to their expectations. The reasons for success or lack of it may probably be found in good course planning and syllabus design or plain improvisation, among other reasons.
The benefits of planning ahead any activity are quite evident. According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (2008), planning refers to “a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something” This definition obviously includes course planning as well.
How to plan a language course may not be left to improvisation. A well designed course is one that considers all factors, from the reasons and basis to offer the course, to the contents to be included.
According to Richards (2005), there are five levels of planning and development involved in developing a course, namely:
· Developing a course rationale
· Describing entry and exit levels
· Choosing course content
· Sequencing course content
· Planning the course content (syllabus and instructional blocks)
· Preparing the scope and sequence plan
If we are to consider the course rationale as the starting point, it is a good idea to understand what it refers to. According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (2008), rationale refers to “a set of reasons or a logical basis for a course of action or a belief” Thus, the course rationale refers to the reasons and logical basis for the course itself, or as Richards (2005) puts it, “This is a brief written description of the reasons for the course and the nature of it. The course rationale 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?”
Probable answers to these questions would include the kind of students that would take the course, their age, level of language command, cultural background, and possible interests, whether they’re possible clients, staff members, teachers, or students, and any other information about those who might take the course that can be considered relevant. It also would include the syllabus, defining what to teach, with clearly stated contents, the elements to be included, its various components, students’ needs, and sequencing of activities. Finally, it would have to include main and general goals, and how teaching and learning would take place in the classroom and beyond, including planning and teaching taking into account the roles of teachers and students, the level at which the program will start and the levels of students at the end of the course, plus the principles the coursed is based on.
According to Richards (2005), “The course rationale answers these questions by describing the beliefs, values and goals that underlie the course. It would normally be a two- or three-paragraph statement that has been 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. It provides a succinct statement of the course philosophy for anyone who may need such information, including students, teachers, and potential clients. Developing a rationale also helps provide focus and direction to some of the deliberations involved in course planning. The rationale thus serves the purposes of:
• 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”
References
RICHARDS, Jack. (2005) “Curriculum Development in Language Teaching”. Cambridge U. Press. Pages 145-167.
