Syllabus Design: An Overview of Theoretical Issues and Practical Implications

Abstract

It is not a simple matter to determine the contours of syllabus design for second/foreign languages in the late 1980s. Definitions are disparate, the field diffuse. For example, in the abstracrs in Language Teaching over the last five years, the area which was traditionally thought of as syllabus design (cf., Shaw 1982:78) is treated under Theory and Principles, Curriculum Planning, Syllabus/Course Design, Materials Design, and even Teaching Methods. This is not surprising, for there is no longer a standard definition of syllabus Accordingly, I shall begin this survey of the state of syllabus design in the late 1980s with the question of definition, then look at the growing literature on syllabus types, their implementation and evaluation, and conclude with some notes on applications of theory.