CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT

1. CONCEPTUALIZING
CONTENT

2. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO
CONCEPTUALIZE CONTENT?
The process involves:
 Thinking about what you want your students to
learn in the course, given who they are, their needs
and the purpose of the course;
 Making decisions about what to include and
emphasize and what to drop;
 Organizing the content in a way that help you to see
the relationship among various elements so that you
can make decisions about objectives, materials,
sequence and evaluation.

3. QUESTIONS THAT GUIDE
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT
1- What do I want my students to learn in this
course, given who they are, their needs, and
purpose of the course?
2- What are my options as to what they can
learn?
3- What are the resources and constraints of my
course that can help me narrow my options?

4. QUESTIONS …. (cont.)
4- What are the relationship among the
options I have selected?
5- How can I organize the options into a
working plan or syllabus?
6- What is the organizing principle that will
pull my syllabus together? (there may be
more than one organizing principle)

5. WHAT MAKES UP THE CONTENT
OF LANGUAGE LEARNING?
Graves’ framework using Stern’s concepts (1992)
 Focus on Language
 Focus on Learning and Learners
 Focus on Social Context

6. Graves’ Framework (cont.)
 Focus on Language
- Linguistic skills - Topics/Themes
- Competencies - Content
- Situation - Communicative
functions
- Tasks - Speaking
- Reading - Listening
- Writing - Genre

7. Graves’ Framework (cont.)
 Focus on Learning and Learners
- Affective goals
- Interpersonal skills
- Learning strategies

8. Graves’ Framework (cont.)
Focus on Social Context
-Sociolinguistic skills
-Socio-cultural skills
-Sociopolitical skills

9. Graves’ Framework (cont.)
 Remember:
1- Many of these areas overlap or connect to each others,
which means that when deciding what to include in the
syllabus one component will include other components.
For example:
you can not focus on topics without including vocabulary
and probably some kind of situation or communicative
function. You can not focus on speaking without
including listening…
2- The category “LANGUAGE” includes both “WHAT’
= knowledge and “HOW” = skills or activities.

10. FOCUS ON LANGUAGE
(More details)
 Linguistic skills
- Linguistic skills focus on the systems that
underlie the way language is structured =
grammar + pronunciation + lexicon
(vocabulary)
- A syllabus organized around these elements of
language is called “Structural Syllabus” or a
“Formal Syllabus”

11. FOCUS ON LANGUAGE
(More details)
 Situation
- Situation is the context one uses language
- A syllabus built around situations is called
“Situational Syllabus”
- Situation overlaps with communicative
functions because a situation syllabus includes
the type of transaction or interaction that will
occur in that situation.
- Situation also overlaps with topics.

12. FOCUS ON LANGUAGE
(More details)
 Topics/Themes
- The term “topics” or “ Themes” are usually used
interchangeably. However “theme” may be a
group of topics together.
- A syllabus built around topics is called “Topical
Syllabus”

13. FOCUS ON LANGUAGE
(More details)
 Communicative Functions
- Communicative functions = the purposes for which
one uses language
E.g. persuading, explaining, requesting, apologizing…
- CF could also be expanded to mean any kind of
transaction or interaction such as “buying
something” or “making small talks”
- Functions are sometimes paired with “notions”
(quantity, distance, measurement…)
- A syllabus built around functions/notions is called
“Functional/ Notional Syllabus”.

14. FOCUS ON LANGUAGE
(More details)
 Competencies
- Competencies unite situations, linguistic skills,
and functions
- Competency attempts to specify and to teach
the language & behavior needed to perform in a
given situation. Competency-based syllabus are
particularly popular in contexts where the
sponsor or funder wants to see measurable
results.

15. FOCUS ON LANGUAGE
(More details)
 Tasks
- Tasks can be defined in a number of ways. It could
be understood as “interactions whose purpose is to
get something done” or “a way to promote
classroom learning that focuses on PROCESSES of
using language rather than PRODUCT and on
MEANING as opposed to FORM.
- A syllabus built around tasks is called “Task-based
syllabus”

16. FOCUS ON LANGUAGE
(More details)
 Content
- Content is subject matter other than language itself.
For example a course in which students learn
Business through English is called a “Content-based
Syllabus”.
 Four skills: S - L – R – W
- A syllabus organized around one or more of the
four skills is called a “Skill-based Syllabus”
 Genre:
- Language at the discourse level can be viewed in
term of genre, communicative events or whole texts
which accomplish certain purposes within a social
context.

17. FOCUS ON LEARNING AND
THE LEARNERS
 Affective goals
- Concerned with the learners’ attitudes toward
themselves, learning, the target language and
culture.
- Course designer should encourage learners to
develop a positive and confident attitude toward
oneself as a learner, learning to take risks and to
learn from one’s mistakes, and develop positive
attitude toward the target language and culture.

18. FOCUS ON LEARNING AND
THE LEARNERS (cont.)
 Interpersonal skills
- skills the learners develop to interact with other
learners and with the teacher in the classroom to
promote learning. These skills are the basis for
effective group work and cooperative learning.
 Learning strategies
- They are the cognitive and metal cognitive strategies
we use to learn effectively and efficiently such as
self- monitoring or memorizing strategy

19. FOCUS ON SOCIAL CONTEXT
 Sociolinguistic Skills
- Skills of choosing and using appropriate language and
extra-linguistic behavior for the setting, the purpose,
the role and the relationship.
- E.g.: knowing the level of politeness to use, exhibiting
appropriate extra-linguistic behavior such as how close
to be, using appropriate spoken or written formulaic
phrases for certain situation.
- Sociolinguistic skills are context-dependent and
generally are learned through and alongside situations,
four skills or specific content.

20. FOCUS ON SOCIAL CONTEXT
(cont.)
 Socio-cultural Skills
- Skills involve understanding cultural aspects of identity,
values, norms and customs.
- These skills enable us to interpret explicit and implicit
messages and behave and speak in a culturally
appropriate way.
 Sociopolitical Skills
- Skills involve learning to think critically and take action
for effective change in order to participate effectively in
one’s community.
- These skills include learning how to navigate systems
such as medical, school, and employment systems, to
know one’s rights and responsibilities within them.