Structural Syllabi by

Definition

tugbasu2012 — 2025-03-11 19:25:08 UTC

Structural syllabi, which are product-oriented syllabi, are the most common types of syllabi. They are arranged by grammatical items, and they include a grammatical items list that is selected and graded from simple to complex. These items should be internalized by learners before moving to the next ones. In general, structures are shown one at a time and often, however not always in contrasting pairs (Sabbah, 2018).

According to structural, or in other words, grammatical or formal syllabi. A range of forms and structures is language teaching, and grammatical items are the contents of the structural syllabus (Smriti & Jha, 2015). Also, lists of grammar, structures, lexis, and phonological features are often included in this type of syllabus to be presented (Teflconcourse, n.d.).

Advantages

tugbasu2012 — 2025-03-11 19:27:02 UTC

First of all, it is easier to define and grade grammatical concepts rather than functional concepts based on this kind of syllabus. Second of all, learners develop explicit knowledge with grammar instruction. This ends up causing some advantages for learners. These are:

1. The utterances are supervised by learners before & after production.

2. Specific aspects in the input are spotted by learners.

3. Learners get better at seeing the difference in what they are saying and how that feature is used in the input they take by learning specific aspects.

4. To mean what they want learners have to count on lexis, the other prosodic and nonverbal features if they do not know any grammar.

Disadvantages

tugbasu2012 — 2025-03-11 19:27:40 UTC

Just like advantages, there are also disadvantages. These are:

1. Context and meanings of words are isolated. A list of isolated lexicons is how they are presented.

2. Drill activities cause over-teaching of the grammar.

3. Learners may feel unmotivated and bored.

4. Since grammar is presented through rules, its function of conveying social context in an utterance is not included (Sabbah, 2018).

Reflection

tugbasu2012 — 2025-03-11 19:32:40 UTC

While reading, I have learned quite a bit about syllabi types, and while doing our task, I had to paraphrase and write. Not just that, but also while creating the word cloud, I had to check on ChatGPT to see if it succeeded with the instructions, so in short, all these steps made what I have learned much more permanent. Also, now that I have word clouds, it is easier to remember and put what I have learned into sentences thanks to the keywords.

References

tugbasu2012 — 2025-03-11 19:34:04 UTC

Sabbah, S. S. (2018). English language syllabuses: Definition, types, design, and selection. Arab World English Journal, 9(2), 127–142. https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol9no2.9

Smriti, K., & Jha, S. K. (2015). An overview of ELT syllabi. International Journal of Innovations in TESOL and Applied Linguistics, 1(1), 1–6. Amity University.

Teflconcourse. (n.d.). Syllabus design. TEFL Concourse. Retrieved March 11, 2025, from https://teflconcourse.com/training/inservice/background/syllabusdesign#syllabus