Syllabus Design in the Action-oriented Curriculum

Abstract

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) introduces a new goal for language teaching, that of training social actors rather than mere communicators. Thus, social action as a new reference action corresponding to this new reference goal in English language teaching necessitates a departure from taking interaction or communication as the ultimate goal in an ELT curriculum. This paper argues that mini-projects, which are the best models of social action compatible with the constraints of school education, should be the basic units in an action-oriented curriculum. Syllabus in such an action-oriented curriculum functions primarily as linguistic resources needed by the students to be able to carry out the proposed mini-projects. Thus, the task of the syllabus designer is to select and grade the language content according to the mini-projects proposed in an action-oriented curriculum, even in a second phase, a posteriori control of this content and its progression must be carried out, which may lead, in a third phase, to modify the mini-projects or even their chronological order.