Examining the Approaches to Syllabus Design in English Language Teaching in Indonesia

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to examine critically the recent approaches in syllabus design. The role of the syllabus in foreign language teaching is to describe, distinguish and to implement the six major types of syllabi in various teaching situations. A review of the literature on six different syllabus types is done as part of an analysis of foreign language syllabus design, and the method for selecting and integrating syllabi for use in the classroom is covered as well. These six syllabus types; structural, notional-functional, situational, skill-based, task-based, and content-based are distinguished from one another by giving more attention to language practice and less attention to language form. Each idea is reviewed, along with the potential applications for each type. The designers cover the criteria for selecting a syllabus type as well as different combinations and implementation strategies in a program for teaching foreign languages. Because there is a wealth of literature on the subject and it is simple to extrapolate it to education in other languages, the discussion is centered on teaching English as a foreign language.