Reconceptualizing language teaching: an in-service teacher education course in uzbekistan

Syllabus design: classroom applications. Graves (2014, p. 50) notes 
that the term syllabus has practical and theoretical meanings. She iden-
tifies practical meaning as “an actual plan for a course,” and theoretical as 
“a specific way to conceptualize what language is and how language is 
learned so that materials can be selected or prepared for the classroom” 
(Graves, 2008, p. 161). In contrast to other subjects like history or biology, 
language is “a tool that humans use to express themselves” (Graves, 2014, 
p. 50) the complexity of which resulted in emerging various syllabus types. 
Table 15. Syllabus Types, based on Graves (2014) pp. 50-51.
Syllabus 
type
Main features
Grammati-
cal, formal, 
or structural 
syllabuses
The grammatical syllabus is organized around the grammatical 
structures of the language: verb tenses, question formation, 
types of clauses, and so on. …The grammatical syllabus has 
been criticized because learners learn about the language and 
its system, not to use the language to express themselves, con-
struct knowledge, communicate and so on. (Breen 1875a)
Notion-
al-functional 
syllabuses
The notional-functional syllabus (Wilkins, 1976) is organized 
around the communicative purposes, called functions, for 
which people use language (e.g., to obtain information or apol-
ogize) and the notions that are being communicated.
Task-based 
syllabuses
The task-based syllabus is organized around tasks. By doing tasks 
together, learners use whatever language they have to negotiate 
the task, through that negotiation, they acquire the language 
(Breen, 1987a, 1987b; Nunan, 1989a). Tasks can range from 
real-world tasks to pedagogical tasks, from open-ended tasks to 
tasks that have one solution, and from certain language use to 
those that encourage general language use. (J. R. Willis, 2004)
Skills-based 
approaches
Skills-based approaches are organized around the four macro 
skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing. A focus on 
using the skills in context so learners can cope with authen-
tic language is the basis for proficiency-oriented instruction 
(Omaggio Hadley, 2001)
Lexical sylla-
bus
A lexical syllabus is based on a mini-corpus of common, prag-
matically useful language items and language patterns drawn 
from spoken and written language corpora. The lexical items 
in the corpus are embedded in authentic language texts, and 
learners work inductively to understand the patterns of usage.

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RECONCEPTUALIZING LANGUAGE TEACHING