Design of syllabi , materials and lesson plans: A case study of two age groups learning english as a foreign language

النوع : Mémoire

The thesis aims to introduce the readers to the major elements of teaching: syllabus, materials, and lesson plans, in an attempt to make available a summary of how teachers can design, evaluate, and adapt these elements. A second, yet as important, aim of the thesis is to highlight the different aspects of the generally-accepted assumption that children are better learners than adults. To what extent is this statement true? What role do the factors of motivation, style, experience, exposure and other factors play in language learning? To what extent can a teacher remain loyal to the lesson plans and/or to the syllabus? Does the age of learners enforce deviation from a predesigned syllabus and prepared lesson plans? Why? In brief, this thesis throws light on the ongoing argument of adopting a communicative syllabus and denouncing a structural one, based on the shift in education from grammatical approaches to functional approaches. Once the perspective of this structural vs. communicative controversy is explained, inclusive of the major advantages and disadvantages of each approach and the reasons that led to defend one approach and reject the other, the thesis discusses the different syllabus types and dwells on each type’s definition and characteristics to understand and learn about the structure of the various types of syllabi that serve the different approaches in education. The thesis also refers to the syllabus planning principles and the various shapes of syllabi. The presentation of the integrated model of the syllabus concludes this section stating that such a model can establish a common ground which combines the communicative approaches with the structural and allows learners to attain both fluency and accuracy in language use. A syllabus is designed to be translated into actual activities or explanations carried on in the classroom. The translation tools are the materials used for teaching/learning and the lesson plans. Thus, the selection of materials and the preparation of lesson plans are at the core of implementing the syllabus in the classroom. It is, therefore, important that teachers accumulate an idea of the framework of materials and methods and understand the variables that play a major role in the teaching/ learning environment. For this reason, the thesis includes a section that introduces the framework of materials and methods and discusses the contextual factors (the setting, the learners, and the teachers), material preparation and creation, and material evaluation. It also highlights the context, reasons, principles and procedures, and the framework of adapting materials. In lesson planning, teachers translate syllabus guidelines, institutional expectations, and their own beliefs of education into actual action in the classroom. To understand the advantages and benefits of lesson planning, the first section of this thesis presents an elaborated discussion of the different types of lesson plans, the stages of planning, and the advantages of planning. Finally, it provides a set of lesson plan samples for illustration. Once the elements of the teaching/ learning environment are illuminated under three sections: syllabus, materials, and lesson plans, a case study, undertaken for this thesis specifically, hypothesizes that learning a language is independent of the age factor, a factor that has constituted one of the most recent focus of discussion in education. The case study shows that we cannot assume that there is a one-to-one relationship between the age group and the syllabus type. At first, young learners seem to cope better with a structural syllabus as opposed to a communicative syllabus, but does this imply that we should use only the structural syllabus with young learners? Or, should we force them to get accustomed to an integrated model and encourage them to participate and elicit discussion from them? This would imply that strategies and styles can be seen as a factor that highly affects language learning. Among other aspects of discussion in the case study is the type of lesson plan to be used for each age group and the materials to be selected. Is there one type of lesson plan preferable for one age group rather than another? Answers to these questions are implied in the findings and analysis of the case study and in the conclusions and recommendations presented in the last two chapters of the thesis (Chapters 5 and 6). These two chapters thoroughly discuss the materials used in the case study, the lesson plans prepared, and the findings and analysis of the case study. To validate the findings and confirm them, the same case study has been carried for two consecutive years with four groups each of the two groups belonging to the same age range. However, some limitations were inevitable and they are listed in the final chapter of this thesis.