Moving away from a coursebook-driven grammar syllabus

Although I have spent many years of my teaching life using coursebooks and following their systematic grammar syllabi, I have in the past ten years experimented with different options in the hope of making learning more effective.

By Vicky Saumell

What have I done to change this aspect? Well, I have moved into project-based learning and reorganised the whole syllabus for each course. I have taken into account the levels in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and used their level descriptors to check the language appropriate for each level without necessarily following the traditional language grading found in coursebooks.

I would argue that language is used in a much more holistic way and feeding language graded in a fixed order may hinder faster progress. For example, the use of past simple should come early on any beginner’s course as it is indeed the most useful verb tense.

You can read more about traditional and holistic syllabi in this article Which syllabus: The traditional and the holistic syllabus by Vanessa Steele

So going back to the way I decided to organise the syllabus, I designed projects that would require students to develop certain language (lexis, grammar, functions) within a particular level in the CEFR, even if these aspects of language were not usually taught together or consecutively.

Here are a few examples:

ELEMENTARY level

PROJECT: Getting to know each other

Grammar: Present Simple and Continuous; Have got/ Can, Past Simple

Vocabulary: Adjectives to describe appearance and personality, family members, lifestyle and leisure.

Functions: Introducing yourself, describing people, describing personal experiences, emotions and feelings.

In this project students are expected to record a video and upload it to Flipgrid (a video wall tool). They are asked to introduce themselves so we can get to know each other at the beginning of the year. They can talk about themselves, their physical appearance and personality, their family, their pets, where they live, what they like doing. Usually they want to say when they were born and a few things about their childhood, and that’s where the past simple emerges as a need to be taught early.

PRE-INTERMEDIATE level

PROJECT: The School of the Future

Grammar: Future with WILL and GOING TO; modal verbs (can, could, may, might, would), the time.

Vocabulary: Education, school facilities and equipment, subjects.

Functions: Describing places, expressing opinions and abstract ideas about the future.

In this project students are expected to create an interactive presentation or video about their ideal school of the future. They are encouraged to redesign the current school system and building to show their preferences in a critical way. They can talk about the ideal timetable, subjects to be taught, school building, rules, etc.

INTERMEDIATE level

PROJECT: Controversial issues

Grammar: Verb tenses integration, modal verbs, connectors, passive voice.

Vocabulary: Expressions of opinion, specific vocabulary for the issues chosen.

Functions: Posing an argument, debating, justifying an opinion, discussing solutions.

In this project students are expected to voice their personal opinions about controversial issues they choose. We first debate the issues orally in class under my moderation, and then they write up an argumentative piece posing the argument and justifying their opinions.

In practice, students are presented with the task first and when they start working on it, the language they realise they need is taught and practised as they move on with the task itself. The balance of language work and specific task work is decided according to the group needs. Sometimes, things can turn out differently than planned. Some language you expect to emerge doesn’t, or students find a different way of expressing their ideas. Other language you did not expect to emerge, sometimes appears and needs to be dealt with at an appropriate level of complexity. This process is more natural since students learn what they feel they need to be able to solve the tasks.

It is definitely hard to measure the impact this has had in comparison to the previous traditional syllabi. At least it hasn’t been worse and motivation levels and engagement have increased considerably.

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