Course name

Course name:

Materials Design and Analysis

------New Standard English

Test question:

1.

What

kind

of

syllabus

is

the

material

based

on?

Illustrate

your identification.

2.

What

claims

does

the

material

make

about

its

design

and

characters? Are these claims true after your evaluation?

3.

How communicative the course book is according to Grant

’

s

communication tests?

Student Name:

高志慧

Student No: 2

Class:

外国语言学及应用语言学

Scores:

I. Introduction

Teaching material is the important part of the implementation of the new English

Curriculum.

Choosing

and

using

the

proper

teaching

material

is

the

premise

of

finishing the teaching content and achieving the objectives of teaching. A high level

and quality teaching material can take an active effect on teachers, students, teaching

process

and

the

teaching

results.

Along

with

the

implement

of

a

new

round

of

the

curriculum

reform,

there

appeared

different

versions

of

English

teaching

materials.

How

to

choose

a

teaching

material

and

which

teaching

material

can

be

used

are

problems we must focus on. Therefore, a scientific analysis and systematic evaluation

of the teaching material

is

much more important

when we facing different

kinds of

teaching material. It is obviously that we can see the significance of the analysis of the

teaching materials. It is useful for the educational administration department, schools

and

the

teachers

to

make

the

right

decision

for

choosing

the

teaching

material.

Anymore,

it

also

does

well

to

the

teachers

on

how

to

use

or

adjust

the

teaching

material in the actual teaching process.

II. Understanding course syllabus

1. Defining syllabus

The courses teachers teach or intend to teach, are likely to be based on some kind

of written syllabus. A syllabus may consist of an independent publication---a book or

booklet---if it is intended to cover all the courses in a particular context regardless of

the

actual

materials

used.

A

country

’

s

national

syllabus

for

schools

is

a

typical

example.

However, a course book that is

designed to

cover an

entire course should

also provide its own syllabus through the introduction and contents page or index.

According to Ur (2000:176), a syllabus is a document which consists, essentially,

of a list. That list specifies all the things that are to be taught in the course for which

syllabus is designed; it is therefore comprehensive. The actual components of the list

may be either content items or process ones. The former is the more common one.

2. Characteristics of a syllabus

The items of the list are ordered, usually having components that are considered

easier or more essential earlier, and more difficult and less important ones later. That

ordering

may

be

fairly

detailed

and

rigid,

or

general

and

flexible.

The

syllabus

generally has explicit objectives, usually declared at the beginning of the document,

on the basis of which the components of the list are selected and ordered.

Another characteristic of the syllabus is that it is a public document. It is available

for scrutiny not only by the teachers who are expected to implement it, but also by the

consumers, by representatives of the relevant authorities, by other interested members

of the public.

There are other, optional features displayed by some syllabuses and not others. A

time schedule is one; some syllabuses delimit the time framework of their components,

prescribing, for example, that some items should be dealt with the first month, those

in the second; the class should complete that much by the end of the year.

3. Major syllabuses

3.1 Notional-functional

A

notional-functional

syllabus

is

a

way

of

organizing

a

language-learning

curriculum, rather than a method or an approach to teaching. In a notional-functional

syllabus, instruction is not organized in terms of grammatical structure, as had often

been

done

with

the

audio-lingual

method

(ALM),

but

instead

in

terms

of

and

In

this

model,

a

is

a

particular

context

in

which

people

communicate. A

example, the

asking

about

prices

or

features

of

a

product

and

ents

of

the

notional- functional

syllabus claimed that it addressed

the deficiencies they found in

the

ALM

by

helping

students

develop

their

ability

to

effectively

communicate

in

a

variety of real-life contexts.

3.2 Other types

Grammatical syllabus

?

Lexical syllabus

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

Situational syllabus

Text-based syllabus

Skill-based syllabus

Task- based syllabus

Learner-generated syllabus

Mixed syllabus

Online course syllabus

4. The multi-syllabus course design in New Standard English

Rather than using a single syllabus

such as

a

grammatical

syllabus or a

lexical

syllabus, the scope and sequence of New Standard English is made up of a number of

syllabuses or syllabus strands, referred to as a

“

multi- syllabus course design

”

. These

syllabus strands include:

Themes

Lexis

Grammar and functions

Skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing

Pronunciation

Learner training

Socio- cultural awareness

All of these syllabus strands are informed by the specifications in the Ministry of

Education documents and are signposted in a clear way in the Student

’

s Book. Their

integration into the teaching materials is described in the next section.

III. Design and characters of

New Standard English

1.

The role and responsibility of the

New Standard English

course

The

primary

role

of

New

Standard

English

is

to

organize

a

course

of

English

instruction for both the students and teachers. It does so by adopting a multi-syllabus

course design which reflects the full extent and true nature of the language which a

leaner

needs

to

acquire

in

Chinese

middle

schools,

and

by

dividing

this

body

of

language into manageable leaning chunks.