Language Teaching. A Scheme for Teacher's Education. Syllabus Design

Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher Education

by David Nunan

Syllabus Design demonstrates, in a practical way, the principles involved in planning and designing an effective syllabus. It examines important concepts such as needs analysis, goal-setting, and content specification, and serves as an excellent introduction for teachers who want to gain a better understanding of syllabus design in order to evaluate, modify, and adapt the syllabuses with which they work.

Genres: Teaching, Nonfiction, Linguistics, Language, Education

169 pages, Paperback

First published July 7, 1988

About the author

David Nunan is an Australian linguist who has focused on the teaching of English. His ELT textbook series "Go For It!" is the largest selling textbook series in the world with sales exceeding 1 billion copies.

Nunan's academic and student textbooks are published by Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and the EFL publishing division of Cengage Learning. Nunan is Academic President of Anaheim University based in Anaheim, California. Nunan serves in a concurrent role as Dean of the Graduate School of Education and Professor of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at Anaheim University where he has worked since 1996.

In 2000, Nunan served as President of TESOL Inc., the world's largest language teaching association, and was the first person to serve as President from outside North America. Previously Nunan has served as Chair and Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Hong Kong and has been involved in the teaching of graduate programs for such institutions as Columbia University, the University of Hawaii, Monterey Institute for International Studies, and others.

Nunan began his career in Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, where he learned Thai. Nunan has received numerous awards throughout his career for his contributions to the field of English Language Teaching.

Awards:

In 2002 Nunan received a congressional citation from the United States House of Representatives for his services to English language education through his pioneering work in online education through Anaheim University. In 2003 he was ranked the 7th most influential Australian in Asia by Business Review Weekly, and in 2005 he was named one of the top "50 Australians who Matter". In November 2006 Nunan was awarded the Convocation medal for outstanding achievement and contribution internationally to the profession of Teaching English as a second language, from Flinders University, where he earned his Ph.D. in Education and Linguistics. In December 2006 Nunan was invited by the Australian Prime Minister to attend the Advance Leading 100 Global Australians Summit in Sydney, Australia. Nunan is a distinguished advisor to the [Asian EFL Journal].

Reviews

[Amin Abootalebi Yazdi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Regardless of the scale of the material you want to teach, each teacher in the field of language should be aware of different concepts about curriculum development and syllabus designing and this book is a really good place to start.

[Andreas Aris · Rating 5 out of 5]

My "weapon" when I was in charged as Head of Research and Development at Centre for Language Training, Soegijapranata Catholic University, Semarang. Using this book, I wrote almost 20 modules. Great!

[Mohammad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for curriculum development

[Dominic Neesam · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a key text for DELTA M3 but it has aged a little; the layout isn't particularly attractive but it's still a "must-read". There are places where you have to jump back and forth and double-check the explanations. Overall, the text is a bit "dry".

[Derek Dewitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Invaluable., but just for syllabus design, but also the crafting of test items and analysing coursebook talks. If you are lucky enough to get the chance to create your oqn syllabus from scratch (including materials), you need this book. If, like many of us, you are stuck with a syllabus designed by others (often wholly materials-derived - as in "this is the coursebook, now teach it"), then this book can help you tailor what you do to your particular teaching context and learners.