FOCUSING ON LANGUAGE CONTENT IN A COMMUNICATIVE SYLLABUS

FOCUSING ON LANGUAGE CONTENT IN A COMMUNICATIVE SYLLABUS

Overview

In a communicative syllabus, the language content dimension has expanded to include notional and functional meaning along with structures, situation, and themes. In section 61, integrating national and functional meaning with grammar, thematic content, and lexis, suggestions are presented on how to integrated the various elements o the expanded content of communicative syllabus.

            What is needed is to develop separate inventories of form, notions, functions, themes and lexis for a particular audience. In section 62, Discrete and holistic view: The horns of a dilemma it is pointed out that the dilemma exists in ail three of dimensions of a syllabus: language content, process, and product. Further, this dilemma has implications which go far beyond the field of language pedagogy.

A.       Integrating Notional and Functional Meaning with Grammar, Thematic Content And Lexis

A major difficulty in syllabus design is the fact that learning a language can not be explained as learning single unit of any kind, be they notions, functions, structures, or lexis. It is some combination of all these together, along with the earlier experience that the learners brings to the task which accounts for language learning. ESL/EFL learners already posses a solid knowledge of notions, functions, & lexis which underlie their first language. What seems important to teach, therefore as Refers (1980) points out are the inter lingual contrast between the notions in L1 & the target language.

The idea of gender, for example, possibly understood both by a speaker of English as well as a speaker of French, yet the way gender is used in these language is so different that learners from both backgrounds have difficulties adjusting to the technique used in another language. The information about how the new language works is significant & can not be taken lightly in designing the coursework. This is true even if the scholars final aim for the coursework of study is not ideal accuracy in the new language but only interpretive ability.

Similarly, the way time is marked in a language by the tense process perhaps different o cause difficulty for the learner. In English, for example, there is a basic, comprehensive distinction between action & even viewed internally as having a beginning, middle, & finish (durative or progressive), & events or actions perceived in their totality (non progressive). Speakers of another language who understand the basic notion of time & period will have difficulty with the English aspect process if their language does not make significant, marked distinction between durative & non-durative. Here, again, this distinction relates not only to expressing self in language but also to interpreting language to produce by others. As refers (1980:53) claims much more attention ought to be paid in classroom teaching to the comprehensive & through assimilation of these essential conceptual differences between language so that students are learning to operate within the total language process, than picking up minor skills in its application.

The state of the art appears to be such that there is an immediate necessity find new ways of teaching form & use together (Eskey 1983). Coursework designers require to the following:

·               Present linguistic form systematically to enable learners to express the basic notions of language. Furthermore, special emphasis needs to be placed on Interlingua differences relating to the realization of notions.

·               Use communicative context to permit learners to interact within a variety of communicative language function. Here again, emphasis must be placed on social cultural language specific features in order to produced utterances which are appreciate to the cultural setting among the lots of feasible choice available for expressing functions material must start with those which are highly frequent in native speech & only gradually expanded to include the less frequent two times (Canale & Swain 1980).

·               Use a variety of text types both in the oral & written form in order to create communicative proficiency in all language skills, unless a specific calls for emphasis on or language skills than on all.

A.    1.  Developing Inventories

What is needed for course development is to combine forms, notions, functions, lexis and language skills.

1.      Inventory A: Notions and Grammar

Inventory A consist of two separate lists:

a)         All the grammatical topics to be thought during the course,organized in a sequence suitable for systematic learning and for generalization that can be developed along the way.

b)         A list of notional categories to be thought during the course.

These two separate lists are then combined into units comprising notion and structures in a way that allow us to show how notional categories and grammatical categories interact.

As an example of a combined teaching unit of notions and grammar, consider the notion time and its interaction with the tense-aspect system in English. This unit has to be broken down into teachable portions which may have to spread throughout the course, creating a type of spiraling plan where the unit of time and tense-aspect recurs within expanded topics every few weeks or so. Thus the planes might decide that the most logical place to begin this unit is with the durative aspect which in English is probably different from all other languages, requiring special focus in the materials.

Alternatively, planners may decide to begin with a description of time-less, static statements such as factual information, routine activities and the like which are non-durative. The decisions on sequence will be based on both linguistic generalizations, similarity, difference for L1, and other didactic variables such as teachers’ abilities to provide examples and contexts for the particular topic, availability of such a relevant context in the immediate environment, and other similar considerations. The important point is that by working with combined units of notions and structures, designers should be able to ensure the inclusion of both types of categories throughout the syllabus.     

2.      Inventory B: Themes and Topic

Inventory B is a list of themes and topics. Its main purpose is twofold:

-  to provide appropriate cultural contextualization for the language material in the syllabus;

-  to motivate interest by using topics that are relevant and appealing to a particular group of learners.

This inventory is of vital importance and may ultimately make or break the course in terms of its success in the classroom. The topics to be included may come from questionnaires administered to potential students of similar age groups and interests as well as from open discussions with students at a similar level.

Another strategy for topics selection is to integrate content from other subject matter areas in the course curriculum. For example, major topics in history, geography, social studies, or sciences. In the language pedagogy literature, this approach has been called 'language in the content area'.

3.      Inventory C: Sociocultural Function

Inventory C is a list of communicative, sociocultural functions which the planners decide to include in the course of study. However, planners are faced with serious difficulties since there is no reference text that provides a comprehensive description of speech act behavior in English much less for the first languages of the learners. What designers would need to know from such a reference text would be following information about each speech act that they decide to include in the course plan:

v   The typical situations in which each speech act is used by native speakers. For example, what are some typical situations in which native speakers of English tend to apologize, complain, or compliment the hearer?

v   The extent to which the speech act changes in form / selection of particular utterance according to the participants taking part.

v  The most frequent utterances that native speakers use to carry out this speech act in formal and informal settings.

Sociolingustic research seems to be a long way from having comprehensive answers to these questions. Designers may have to consult their intuitions about these matters or consult with native speakers, if they are not themselves speakers of the TL. What is important, however, is that planners try to look for answers to these questions before embarking on incorporating speech acts into materials.

Too many recent texts have devoted long pages to 'making suggestions' or 'giving advice', randomly listing dated or infrequently used forms along with useful ones. But learners have no way of distinguishing among them; moreover, such units often contain endless list of options when learners have no tools or criteria for making choices the way native speakers do. Although there are no perfect answers today on speech act behavior, by trying to answer the above three questions for every speech act that is included in a syllabus, designers may be able to come up with more useful materials.

4.      Combining The Three Inventories

The most difficult task in focus selection is combining the three inventories. The goal is to create course plans which will consist of a theme (including related sub-topics), a list of notions and grammatical structures, and a selection of functions. The first concern is: which inventory should be the basic one? Here the answer depends entirely on course goal: the linguistic inventory has traditionally been organized in a certain sequence so it fits everyone’s cultural expectations.

It seems easy, therefore, to use inventory A for skeletal planning and then provide the padding and the flesh of the units from inventories B and C. Whether the planners choose to begin with Inventory A, B, or C as the pivotal core of the course will depend entirely on the goals and the audiences they have in mind.

A.    2.  The Choice of Lexis

In merging Inventories A and B, an issue arises that has not been discussed so far, namely the choice of lexis or the stock of vocabulary items. This merger is a crucial step since from it decisions are made within the thematic unit concerning the lexical items, to be included. These lexical decisions must override other considerations, giving lexis the proper emphasis and suitable focus it richly deserves within the thematic unit, otherwise learners may not be able to take full advantage of the elements of the theme.

By using the inventory system, designers are able to choose new lexical items which draw on the selected theme. As a result, semantically related words can be presented in varied contexts, all deriving from that theme. Then, when learners come across unfamiliar words they are able to make hypotheses about their meanings which they can realistically test. In this way, the lexical content forms the input upon which learner work. But input alone is far from sufficient. The next task is for materials writers to produce effective workouts for classroom practice which foster the mastery of new lexical items.

B.        Discrete and Holistic View: the horns of a dilemma

B.     1.  The Holistic View

The holistic view has been in the limelight in the recent, communicative period wtih three distinct strands contributing to its upturn. First, it has gained prominence throigh the influence of a humanistically- oriented philosophy of education in which the development of the whole person is stresssed. This view emphasizes the total individual and his/her needs for using language as the basic goal to be met by the curriculum. Second, the unit of anlysis of language inself has come to be viewed by linguistic scholars and those in related disciplones not as a single sentence, but rather as longer spans of language or discourse.

A third influence which has brought holistic practices into wide acceptance can be traced to the influence of mother-tongue intruction, or the language arts field typified by practices which foster language development in young children. These practices seem 'right' to teachers because they come closer to real communication. However, they go againts specialists ideas of what is exact or precise becausse they fail to include discrete analyses of language.

B.     2.  The Discrete View

In contrast, second and foreign language instruction has to a great extent, incorporated the discrete elements view of language, particularly in audiolingual and cognitive-code approach. Even in the recent period, whether the content has been grammatical sructures or semantic concepts expressed as notions, we have relied on analyses of language in constructing inventories which depend for their discovery procedures on processes of issecting and segmenting into elements : IN linguistic science these discrete entities are given names such as phonemes, morphemes and sentence. When we work with illocutionary meaning, speeech acts, or functions in language, we tend to seek ways of putting such elements into similiar categories. Moreover, the fact that we lack refernce texts which describe language functions leaves us feeling dissatisfied.

B.     3.  Evidence of The Discrete vs. Holistic Paradox in Language Content, Process and

                    Product

Holistic education is the practice of freedom for creativity and productivity or 'work'. Work is meaningful when motivation is stimulated by natural curiosity. This makes it Motivating at all ages. "... It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiostiy of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom;  without this it goes to rack and ruin without fail. "(Albert Einstein).

Holistic education by Jeremy Henzell-Thomas referred to under Latifah (2008) is an effort to build a full and balanced on each student in all aspects of learning, including spiritual, moral, imaginative, intellectual, cultural, aesthetic, emotional, and physical aspects of directing all -aspects towards achieving an awareness of the relationship with God which is the ultimate goal of all life on earth.

Each area, the contents of the language, processes and products can be viewed both from the point of view of discrete and holistic perspective, creating a continuum with discrete perspectives on the end of one and a holistic perspective on the other. Discrete point (discrete) focuses on the shape (form), accuracy and analysis while the holistic point focuses on the function fluency, and use.

Form and Function

(Sapir 1921), or grammatical form as distinct form function, has been accepted as a basic understanding about the nature of language for a very long time. Also from Sapir’s writings, we understand that human languages differ in the manner in which forms represent functions. In the way we have used the term, language content includes both formal properties (grammar) and all types of meaning (notions, functions, social norms for use, etc.)

On the other hand, topical and thematic approaches to organizing language instruction appear to be quite holistic, composed as they are stuff which does not lend itself to being set out in any kind of sequential fashion, based on criteria of internal organization.

Accuracy and Fluency

Fluency, on the other hand, has been associated with communicating one’s idea, getting the meaning across, or in the terms of the dichotomy, using language either holistically or comprehensively.

Accuracy process is aspects of language content that are conducive to analysis through dissection. Holistic process, on the other hand, hold out the promise of drawing on ways to look at language which are instead based on larger, more complex systems.

But it is a mistake to assume that all fluency workouts fail to consider the systematic properties of language. It is possible to create holistic workouts which attend to cultural and social norms that are outside the language code, but which still focus on communicative characteristics of the target language.

Analysis and Use

The holistic vs. discrete dichotomy appears in the domain of product/out-comes as the fluctuation between courses which has emphasized analysis and those which emphasized use, particularly when viewed historically  or, as the concept has been personified recently (Rivers 1981), the dichotomy which exists between the views of ‘formalists’, those who stress knowing the formal properties of language as proper outcome for learners in a language course, and ‘activist’, those who stress using language actively.

B.     4.  Reconciling Opposites in The Instructional Plans

Faced with the dilemma of integrating discrete elements or analyses of language content with holistic, comprehensive use of it, various sequential plans have been proposed for course designs:

1.         A holistic approach is adopted with emphasis on thematic, meaningful interaction which is   self-motivating. In addition to holistic language experiences for the whole group, there are workbooks for use by individuals which concentrate on grammatical points and specific skills.

2.         A more structural/notional approach is adopted in the syllabus with emphasis on the skills that have been selected as most important for the course. To meet individual needs, other materials are in use in a learning center or a language laboratory in which there is emphasis on thematic and communicative use of language.

3.         The early phase of the course is structural. Later, as learners progress in their basic acquisition of grammatical competence, they move on to a more holistic approach, utilizing global language in communicative workouts.

4.         The course follows a thematic, communicative tone, similar to a language arts course for native-speaker children. At a later stage, more attention is given to accuracy and form. In this instance, Gestalt learning comes first and discrete-point elements are added later.

Which of these designs seems to be suitable will depend on the particular situation and the group of students. However, writers who must plan for large numbers of learners, for example people who write text book series, are faced with serious questions which, if they are to be successfully answered, require a great deal of keen intuition, skill, plus a bit of luck at balancing trends in the field with topical interests and outlooks which will appeal to a maximally general audience.

B.     5.  Other System, Other Worlds

Are there additional ways to analyze language that advance the discussion beyond the issue of the discrete vs. the holistic? Are there other glasses we might try on through which to perceive things from another perspective? Materials writers who want to shed the constraints of discrete point analyses, yet who realize that language content for course design purposes must be based on some kind of orderly presentation, would do well to look to other fields that study human language as a communication process.

What are the complex systems of language which other social have determined? An interesting trip of the iceberg is mentioned by Morrow (1981:62) regarding ‘information gaps’, a concept that comes from communication theory. From this source we realize that our materials might incorporate, through workouts, ways which get learners to use language holistically by seeking withheld information with which to successfully accomplish a given task.

Other suggestions have been made for utilization of language content based on analyses that are less tied to discreteness since they draw on systemic characteristics. As already mentioned, from the field of philosophy the communicative approach has incorporated speech act theory, a way of looking at categories of language use which relies more on complex relationships than on discrete elements.

From the field of ethno methodology have come significant insight into how users employ language to carry out their everyday, mundane business. For example, ethno methodology have described how people take turns in conversation, how they organize their speaking in relation to each other, how they punctuate their talk through employing tactics for signaling openings and closings, starting and breaking-off point (Schegloff 1968, Sacks 1972). The starting point for ethno methodology is not language, per se, but rather the constructs of sociology: norms, values, roles, interest coalitions, and the like.

While grappling with the discrete point vs. holistic dilemma in our work as course designers and materials writers, we recognize, too, that the questions has a much larger scope. When we take a moment off to poke out heads outside our own cave, we note that the issue shows up in many of the disciplines which western science pursues. From physics to biology to geology, and in other related areas, the dilemma is a central theoretical issue of recent time. Traditionally, western science has been largely influenced by a Cartesian view which ‘believed that complex phenomena could always be understood by reducing them to their basic building blocks and by looking at the mechanism through which these interacted. This attitude, known as reductionism, has become so deeply ingrained in our culture that it has often been identified with the scientific method’ (Capra 1982:47).

Capra goes on to pint out that ‘in the twentieth century …. the universe is no longer seen as a machine, made up of a multitude of separate objects, but appears as a harmonious indivisible whole; a network of dynamic relationships that include the human observer and his or her consciousness in an essential way.’ Such an approach to the study of human language might provide course designers a framework which brings about a synthesis of discrete and holistic views.

Overview

In a communicative syllabus, the language content dimension has expanded to include notional and functional meaning along with structures, situation, and themes. In section 61, integrating national and functional meaning with grammar, thematic content, and lexis, suggestions are presented on how to integrated the various elements o the expanded content of communicative syllabus.

            What is needed is to develop separate inventories of form, notions, functions, themes and lexis for a particular audience. In section 62, Discrete and holistic view: The horns of a dilemma it is pointed out that the dilemma exists in ail three of dimensions of a syllabus: language content, process, and product. Further, this dilemma has implications which go far beyond the field of language pedagogy.

A.       Integrating Notional and Functional Meaning with Grammar, Thematic Content And Lexis

A major difficulty in syllabus design is the fact that learning a language can not be explained as learning single unit of any kind, be they notions, functions, structures, or lexis. It is some combination of all these together, along with the earlier experience that the learners brings to the task which accounts for language learning. ESL/EFL learners already posses a solid knowledge of notions, functions, & lexis which underlie their first language. What seems important to teach, therefore as Refers (1980) points out are the inter lingual contrast between the notions in L1 & the target language.

The idea of gender, for example, possibly understood both by a speaker of English as well as a speaker of French, yet the way gender is used in these language is so different that learners from both backgrounds have difficulties adjusting to the technique used in another language. The information about how the new language works is significant & can not be taken lightly in designing the coursework. This is true even if the scholars final aim for the coursework of study is not ideal accuracy in the new language but only interpretive ability.

Similarly, the way time is marked in a language by the tense process perhaps different o cause difficulty for the learner. In English, for example, there is a basic, comprehensive distinction between action & even viewed internally as having a beginning, middle, & finish (durative or progressive), & events or actions perceived in their totality (non progressive). Speakers of another language who understand the basic notion of time & period will have difficulty with the English aspect process if their language does not make significant, marked distinction between durative & non-durative. Here, again, this distinction relates not only to expressing self in language but also to interpreting language to produce by others. As refers (1980:53) claims much more attention ought to be paid in classroom teaching to the comprehensive & through assimilation of these essential conceptual differences between language so that students are learning to operate within the total language process, than picking up minor skills in its application.

The state of the art appears to be such that there is an immediate necessity find new ways of teaching form & use together (Eskey 1983). Coursework designers require to the following:

·               Present linguistic form systematically to enable learners to express the basic notions of language. Furthermore, special emphasis needs to be placed on Interlingua differences relating to the realization of notions.

·               Use communicative context to permit learners to interact within a variety of communicative language function. Here again, emphasis must be placed on social cultural language specific features in order to produced utterances which are appreciate to the cultural setting among the lots of feasible choice available for expressing functions material must start with those which are highly frequent in native speech & only gradually expanded to include the less frequent two times (Canale & Swain 1980).

·               Use a variety of text types both in the oral & written form in order to create communicative proficiency in all language skills, unless a specific calls for emphasis on or language skills than on all.

A.    1.  Developing Inventories

What is needed for course development is to combine forms, notions, functions, lexis and language skills.

1.      Inventory A: Notions and Grammar

Inventory A consist of two separate lists:

a)         All the grammatical topics to be thought during the course,organized in a sequence suitable for systematic learning and for generalization that can be developed along the way.

b)         A list of notional categories to be thought during the course.

These two separate lists are then combined into units comprising notion and structures in a way that allow us to show how notional categories and grammatical categories interact.

As an example of a combined teaching unit of notions and grammar, consider the notion time and its interaction with the tense-aspect system in English. This unit has to be broken down into teachable portions which may have to spread throughout the course, creating a type of spiraling plan where the unit of time and tense-aspect recurs within expanded topics every few weeks or so. Thus the planes might decide that the most logical place to begin this unit is with the durative aspect which in English is probably different from all other languages, requiring special focus in the materials.

Alternatively, planners may decide to begin with a description of time-less, static statements such as factual information, routine activities and the like which are non-durative. The decisions on sequence will be based on both linguistic generalizations, similarity, difference for L1, and other didactic variables such as teachers’ abilities to provide examples and contexts for the particular topic, availability of such a relevant context in the immediate environment, and other similar considerations. The important point is that by working with combined units of notions and structures, designers should be able to ensure the inclusion of both types of categories throughout the syllabus.     

2.      Inventory B: Themes and Topic

Inventory B is a list of themes and topics. Its main purpose is twofold:

-  to provide appropriate cultural contextualization for the language material in the syllabus;

-  to motivate interest by using topics that are relevant and appealing to a particular group of learners.

This inventory is of vital importance and may ultimately make or break the course in terms of its success in the classroom. The topics to be included may come from questionnaires administered to potential students of similar age groups and interests as well as from open discussions with students at a similar level.

Another strategy for topics selection is to integrate content from other subject matter areas in the course curriculum. For example, major topics in history, geography, social studies, or sciences. In the language pedagogy literature, this approach has been called 'language in the content area'.

3.      Inventory C: Sociocultural Function

Inventory C is a list of communicative, sociocultural functions which the planners decide to include in the course of study. However, planners are faced with serious difficulties since there is no reference text that provides a comprehensive description of speech act behavior in English much less for the first languages of the learners. What designers would need to know from such a reference text would be following information about each speech act that they decide to include in the course plan:

v   The typical situations in which each speech act is used by native speakers. For example, what are some typical situations in which native speakers of English tend to apologize, complain, or compliment the hearer?

v   The extent to which the speech act changes in form / selection of particular utterance according to the participants taking part.

v  The most frequent utterances that native speakers use to carry out this speech act in formal and informal settings.

Sociolingustic research seems to be a long way from having comprehensive answers to these questions. Designers may have to consult their intuitions about these matters or consult with native speakers, if they are not themselves speakers of the TL. What is important, however, is that planners try to look for answers to these questions before embarking on incorporating speech acts into materials.

Too many recent texts have devoted long pages to 'making suggestions' or 'giving advice', randomly listing dated or infrequently used forms along with useful ones. But learners have no way of distinguishing among them; moreover, such units often contain endless list of options when learners have no tools or criteria for making choices the way native speakers do. Although there are no perfect answers today on speech act behavior, by trying to answer the above three questions for every speech act that is included in a syllabus, designers may be able to come up with more useful materials.

4.      Combining The Three Inventories

The most difficult task in focus selection is combining the three inventories. The goal is to create course plans which will consist of a theme (including related sub-topics), a list of notions and grammatical structures, and a selection of functions. The first concern is: which inventory should be the basic one? Here the answer depends entirely on course goal: the linguistic inventory has traditionally been organized in a certain sequence so it fits everyone’s cultural expectations.

It seems easy, therefore, to use inventory A for skeletal planning and then provide the padding and the flesh of the units from inventories B and C. Whether the planners choose to begin with Inventory A, B, or C as the pivotal core of the course will depend entirely on the goals and the audiences they have in mind.

A.    2.  The Choice of Lexis

In merging Inventories A and B, an issue arises that has not been discussed so far, namely the choice of lexis or the stock of vocabulary items. This merger is a crucial step since from it decisions are made within the thematic unit concerning the lexical items, to be included. These lexical decisions must override other considerations, giving lexis the proper emphasis and suitable focus it richly deserves within the thematic unit, otherwise learners may not be able to take full advantage of the elements of the theme.

By using the inventory system, designers are able to choose new lexical items which draw on the selected theme. As a result, semantically related words can be presented in varied contexts, all deriving from that theme. Then, when learners come across unfamiliar words they are able to make hypotheses about their meanings which they can realistically test. In this way, the lexical content forms the input upon which learner work. But input alone is far from sufficient. The next task is for materials writers to produce effective workouts for classroom practice which foster the mastery of new lexical items.

B.        Discrete and Holistic View: the horns of a dilemma

B.     1.  The Holistic View

The holistic view has been in the limelight in the recent, communicative period wtih three distinct strands contributing to its upturn. First, it has gained prominence throigh the influence of a humanistically- oriented philosophy of education in which the development of the whole person is stresssed. This view emphasizes the total individual and his/her needs for using language as the basic goal to be met by the curriculum. Second, the unit of anlysis of language inself has come to be viewed by linguistic scholars and those in related disciplones not as a single sentence, but rather as longer spans of language or discourse.

A third influence which has brought holistic practices into wide acceptance can be traced to the influence of mother-tongue intruction, or the language arts field typified by practices which foster language development in young children. These practices seem 'right' to teachers because they come closer to real communication. However, they go againts specialists ideas of what is exact or precise becausse they fail to include discrete analyses of language.

B.     2.  The Discrete View

In contrast, second and foreign language instruction has to a great extent, incorporated the discrete elements view of language, particularly in audiolingual and cognitive-code approach. Even in the recent period, whether the content has been grammatical sructures or semantic concepts expressed as notions, we have relied on analyses of language in constructing inventories which depend for their discovery procedures on processes of issecting and segmenting into elements : IN linguistic science these discrete entities are given names such as phonemes, morphemes and sentence. When we work with illocutionary meaning, speeech acts, or functions in language, we tend to seek ways of putting such elements into similiar categories. Moreover, the fact that we lack refernce texts which describe language functions leaves us feeling dissatisfied.

B.     3.  Evidence of The Discrete vs. Holistic Paradox in Language Content, Process and

                    Product

Holistic education is the practice of freedom for creativity and productivity or 'work'. Work is meaningful when motivation is stimulated by natural curiosity. This makes it Motivating at all ages. "... It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiostiy of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom;  without this it goes to rack and ruin without fail. "(Albert Einstein).

Holistic education by Jeremy Henzell-Thomas referred to under Latifah (2008) is an effort to build a full and balanced on each student in all aspects of learning, including spiritual, moral, imaginative, intellectual, cultural, aesthetic, emotional, and physical aspects of directing all -aspects towards achieving an awareness of the relationship with God which is the ultimate goal of all life on earth.

Each area, the contents of the language, processes and products can be viewed both from the point of view of discrete and holistic perspective, creating a continuum with discrete perspectives on the end of one and a holistic perspective on the other. Discrete point (discrete) focuses on the shape (form), accuracy and analysis while the holistic point focuses on the function fluency, and use.

Form and Function

(Sapir 1921), or grammatical form as distinct form function, has been accepted as a basic understanding about the nature of language for a very long time. Also from Sapir’s writings, we understand that human languages differ in the manner in which forms represent functions. In the way we have used the term, language content includes both formal properties (grammar) and all types of meaning (notions, functions, social norms for use, etc.)

On the other hand, topical and thematic approaches to organizing language instruction appear to be quite holistic, composed as they are stuff which does not lend itself to being set out in any kind of sequential fashion, based on criteria of internal organization.

Accuracy and Fluency

Fluency, on the other hand, has been associated with communicating one’s idea, getting the meaning across, or in the terms of the dichotomy, using language either holistically or comprehensively.

Accuracy process is aspects of language content that are conducive to analysis through dissection. Holistic process, on the other hand, hold out the promise of drawing on ways to look at language which are instead based on larger, more complex systems.

But it is a mistake to assume that all fluency workouts fail to consider the systematic properties of language. It is possible to create holistic workouts which attend to cultural and social norms that are outside the language code, but which still focus on communicative characteristics of the target language.

Analysis and Use

The holistic vs. discrete dichotomy appears in the domain of product/out-comes as the fluctuation between courses which has emphasized analysis and those which emphasized use, particularly when viewed historically  or, as the concept has been personified recently (Rivers 1981), the dichotomy which exists between the views of ‘formalists’, those who stress knowing the formal properties of language as proper outcome for learners in a language course, and ‘activist’, those who stress using language actively.

B.     4.  Reconciling Opposites in The Instructional Plans

Faced with the dilemma of integrating discrete elements or analyses of language content with holistic, comprehensive use of it, various sequential plans have been proposed for course designs:

1.         A holistic approach is adopted with emphasis on thematic, meaningful interaction which is   self-motivating. In addition to holistic language experiences for the whole group, there are workbooks for use by individuals which concentrate on grammatical points and specific skills.

2.         A more structural/notional approach is adopted in the syllabus with emphasis on the skills that have been selected as most important for the course. To meet individual needs, other materials are in use in a learning center or a language laboratory in which there is emphasis on thematic and communicative use of language.

3.         The early phase of the course is structural. Later, as learners progress in their basic acquisition of grammatical competence, they move on to a more holistic approach, utilizing global language in communicative workouts.

4.         The course follows a thematic, communicative tone, similar to a language arts course for native-speaker children. At a later stage, more attention is given to accuracy and form. In this instance, Gestalt learning comes first and discrete-point elements are added later.

Which of these designs seems to be suitable will depend on the particular situation and the group of students. However, writers who must plan for large numbers of learners, for example people who write text book series, are faced with serious questions which, if they are to be successfully answered, require a great deal of keen intuition, skill, plus a bit of luck at balancing trends in the field with topical interests and outlooks which will appeal to a maximally general audience.

B.     5.  Other System, Other Worlds

Are there additional ways to analyze language that advance the discussion beyond the issue of the discrete vs. the holistic? Are there other glasses we might try on through which to perceive things from another perspective? Materials writers who want to shed the constraints of discrete point analyses, yet who realize that language content for course design purposes must be based on some kind of orderly presentation, would do well to look to other fields that study human language as a communication process.

What are the complex systems of language which other social have determined? An interesting trip of the iceberg is mentioned by Morrow (1981:62) regarding ‘information gaps’, a concept that comes from communication theory. From this source we realize that our materials might incorporate, through workouts, ways which get learners to use language holistically by seeking withheld information with which to successfully accomplish a given task.

Other suggestions have been made for utilization of language content based on analyses that are less tied to discreteness since they draw on systemic characteristics. As already mentioned, from the field of philosophy the communicative approach has incorporated speech act theory, a way of looking at categories of language use which relies more on complex relationships than on discrete elements.

From the field of ethno methodology have come significant insight into how users employ language to carry out their everyday, mundane business. For example, ethno methodology have described how people take turns in conversation, how they organize their speaking in relation to each other, how they punctuate their talk through employing tactics for signaling openings and closings, starting and breaking-off point (Schegloff 1968, Sacks 1972). The starting point for ethno methodology is not language, per se, but rather the constructs of sociology: norms, values, roles, interest coalitions, and the like.

While grappling with the discrete point vs. holistic dilemma in our work as course designers and materials writers, we recognize, too, that the questions has a much larger scope. When we take a moment off to poke out heads outside our own cave, we note that the issue shows up in many of the disciplines which western science pursues. From physics to biology to geology, and in other related areas, the dilemma is a central theoretical issue of recent time. Traditionally, western science has been largely influenced by a Cartesian view which ‘believed that complex phenomena could always be understood by reducing them to their basic building blocks and by looking at the mechanism through which these interacted. This attitude, known as reductionism, has become so deeply ingrained in our culture that it has often been identified with the scientific method’ (Capra 1982:47).

Capra goes on to pint out that ‘in the twentieth century …. the universe is no longer seen as a machine, made up of a multitude of separate objects, but appears as a harmonious indivisible whole; a network of dynamic relationships that include the human observer and his or her consciousness in an essential way.’ Such an approach to the study of human language might provide course designers a framework which brings about a synthesis of discrete and holistic views.

Overview

In a communicative syllabus, the language content dimension has expanded to include notional and functional meaning along with structures, situation, and themes. In section 61, integrating national and functional meaning with grammar, thematic content, and lexis, suggestions are presented on how to integrated the various elements o the expanded content of communicative syllabus.

            What is needed is to develop separate inventories of form, notions, functions, themes and lexis for a particular audience. In section 62, Discrete and holistic view: The horns of a dilemma it is pointed out that the dilemma exists in ail three of dimensions of a syllabus: language content, process, and product. Further, this dilemma has implications which go far beyond the field of language pedagogy.

A.       Integrating Notional and Functional Meaning with Grammar, Thematic Content And Lexis

A major difficulty in syllabus design is the fact that learning a language can not be explained as learning single unit of any kind, be they notions, functions, structures, or lexis. It is some combination of all these together, along with the earlier experience that the learners brings to the task which accounts for language learning. ESL/EFL learners already posses a solid knowledge of notions, functions, & lexis which underlie their first language. What seems important to teach, therefore as Refers (1980) points out are the inter lingual contrast between the notions in L1 & the target language.

The idea of gender, for example, possibly understood both by a speaker of English as well as a speaker of French, yet the way gender is used in these language is so different that learners from both backgrounds have difficulties adjusting to the technique used in another language. The information about how the new language works is significant & can not be taken lightly in designing the coursework. This is true even if the scholars final aim for the coursework of study is not ideal accuracy in the new language but only interpretive ability.

Similarly, the way time is marked in a language by the tense process perhaps different o cause difficulty for the learner. In English, for example, there is a basic, comprehensive distinction between action & even viewed internally as having a beginning, middle, & finish (durative or progressive), & events or actions perceived in their totality (non progressive). Speakers of another language who understand the basic notion of time & period will have difficulty with the English aspect process if their language does not make significant, marked distinction between durative & non-durative. Here, again, this distinction relates not only to expressing self in language but also to interpreting language to produce by others. As refers (1980:53) claims much more attention ought to be paid in classroom teaching to the comprehensive & through assimilation of these essential conceptual differences between language so that students are learning to operate within the total language process, than picking up minor skills in its application.

The state of the art appears to be such that there is an immediate necessity find new ways of teaching form & use together (Eskey 1983). Coursework designers require to the following:

·               Present linguistic form systematically to enable learners to express the basic notions of language. Furthermore, special emphasis needs to be placed on Interlingua differences relating to the realization of notions.

·               Use communicative context to permit learners to interact within a variety of communicative language function. Here again, emphasis must be placed on social cultural language specific features in order to produced utterances which are appreciate to the cultural setting among the lots of feasible choice available for expressing functions material must start with those which are highly frequent in native speech & only gradually expanded to include the less frequent two times (Canale & Swain 1980).

·               Use a variety of text types both in the oral & written form in order to create communicative proficiency in all language skills, unless a specific calls for emphasis on or language skills than on all.

A.    1.  Developing Inventories

What is needed for course development is to combine forms, notions, functions, lexis and language skills.

1.      Inventory A: Notions and Grammar

Inventory A consist of two separate lists:

a)         All the grammatical topics to be thought during the course,organized in a sequence suitable for systematic learning and for generalization that can be developed along the way.

b)         A list of notional categories to be thought during the course.

These two separate lists are then combined into units comprising notion and structures in a way that allow us to show how notional categories and grammatical categories interact.

As an example of a combined teaching unit of notions and grammar, consider the notion time and its interaction with the tense-aspect system in English. This unit has to be broken down into teachable portions which may have to spread throughout the course, creating a type of spiraling plan where the unit of time and tense-aspect recurs within expanded topics every few weeks or so. Thus the planes might decide that the most logical place to begin this unit is with the durative aspect which in English is probably different from all other languages, requiring special focus in the materials.

Alternatively, planners may decide to begin with a description of time-less, static statements such as factual information, routine activities and the like which are non-durative. The decisions on sequence will be based on both linguistic generalizations, similarity, difference for L1, and other didactic variables such as teachers’ abilities to provide examples and contexts for the particular topic, availability of such a relevant context in the immediate environment, and other similar considerations. The important point is that by working with combined units of notions and structures, designers should be able to ensure the inclusion of both types of categories throughout the syllabus.     

2.      Inventory B: Themes and Topic

Inventory B is a list of themes and topics. Its main purpose is twofold:

-  to provide appropriate cultural contextualization for the language material in the syllabus;

-  to motivate interest by using topics that are relevant and appealing to a particular group of learners.

This inventory is of vital importance and may ultimately make or break the course in terms of its success in the classroom. The topics to be included may come from questionnaires administered to potential students of similar age groups and interests as well as from open discussions with students at a similar level.

Another strategy for topics selection is to integrate content from other subject matter areas in the course curriculum. For example, major topics in history, geography, social studies, or sciences. In the language pedagogy literature, this approach has been called 'language in the content area'.

3.      Inventory C: Sociocultural Function

Inventory C is a list of communicative, sociocultural functions which the planners decide to include in the course of study. However, planners are faced with serious difficulties since there is no reference text that provides a comprehensive description of speech act behavior in English much less for the first languages of the learners. What designers would need to know from such a reference text would be following information about each speech act that they decide to include in the course plan:

v   The typical situations in which each speech act is used by native speakers. For example, what are some typical situations in which native speakers of English tend to apologize, complain, or compliment the hearer?

v   The extent to which the speech act changes in form / selection of particular utterance according to the participants taking part.

v  The most frequent utterances that native speakers use to carry out this speech act in formal and informal settings.

Sociolingustic research seems to be a long way from having comprehensive answers to these questions. Designers may have to consult their intuitions about these matters or consult with native speakers, if they are not themselves speakers of the TL. What is important, however, is that planners try to look for answers to these questions before embarking on incorporating speech acts into materials.

Too many recent texts have devoted long pages to 'making suggestions' or 'giving advice', randomly listing dated or infrequently used forms along with useful ones. But learners have no way of distinguishing among them; moreover, such units often contain endless list of options when learners have no tools or criteria for making choices the way native speakers do. Although there are no perfect answers today on speech act behavior, by trying to answer the above three questions for every speech act that is included in a syllabus, designers may be able to come up with more useful materials.

4.      Combining The Three Inventories

The most difficult task in focus selection is combining the three inventories. The goal is to create course plans which will consist of a theme (including related sub-topics), a list of notions and grammatical structures, and a selection of functions. The first concern is: which inventory should be the basic one? Here the answer depends entirely on course goal: the linguistic inventory has traditionally been organized in a certain sequence so it fits everyone’s cultural expectations.

It seems easy, therefore, to use inventory A for skeletal planning and then provide the padding and the flesh of the units from inventories B and C. Whether the planners choose to begin with Inventory A, B, or C as the pivotal core of the course will depend entirely on the goals and the audiences they have in mind.

A.    2.  The Choice of Lexis

In merging Inventories A and B, an issue arises that has not been discussed so far, namely the choice of lexis or the stock of vocabulary items. This merger is a crucial step since from it decisions are made within the thematic unit concerning the lexical items, to be included. These lexical decisions must override other considerations, giving lexis the proper emphasis and suitable focus it richly deserves within the thematic unit, otherwise learners may not be able to take full advantage of the elements of the theme.

By using the inventory system, designers are able to choose new lexical items which draw on the selected theme. As a result, semantically related words can be presented in varied contexts, all deriving from that theme. Then, when learners come across unfamiliar words they are able to make hypotheses about their meanings which they can realistically test. In this way, the lexical content forms the input upon which learner work. But input alone is far from sufficient. The next task is for materials writers to produce effective workouts for classroom practice which foster the mastery of new lexical items.

B.        Discrete and Holistic View: the horns of a dilemma

B.     1.  The Holistic View

The holistic view has been in the limelight in the recent, communicative period wtih three distinct strands contributing to its upturn. First, it has gained prominence throigh the influence of a humanistically- oriented philosophy of education in which the development of the whole person is stresssed. This view emphasizes the total individual and his/her needs for using language as the basic goal to be met by the curriculum. Second, the unit of anlysis of language inself has come to be viewed by linguistic scholars and those in related disciplones not as a single sentence, but rather as longer spans of language or discourse.

A third influence which has brought holistic practices into wide acceptance can be traced to the influence of mother-tongue intruction, or the language arts field typified by practices which foster language development in young children. These practices seem 'right' to teachers because they come closer to real communication. However, they go againts specialists ideas of what is exact or precise becausse they fail to include discrete analyses of language.

B.     2.  The Discrete View

In contrast, second and foreign language instruction has to a great extent, incorporated the discrete elements view of language, particularly in audiolingual and cognitive-code approach. Even in the recent period, whether the content has been grammatical sructures or semantic concepts expressed as notions, we have relied on analyses of language in constructing inventories which depend for their discovery procedures on processes of issecting and segmenting into elements : IN linguistic science these discrete entities are given names such as phonemes, morphemes and sentence. When we work with illocutionary meaning, speeech acts, or functions in language, we tend to seek ways of putting such elements into similiar categories. Moreover, the fact that we lack refernce texts which describe language functions leaves us feeling dissatisfied.

B.     3.  Evidence of The Discrete vs. Holistic Paradox in Language Content, Process and

                    Product

Holistic education is the practice of freedom for creativity and productivity or 'work'. Work is meaningful when motivation is stimulated by natural curiosity. This makes it Motivating at all ages. "... It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiostiy of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom;  without this it goes to rack and ruin without fail. "(Albert Einstein).

Holistic education by Jeremy Henzell-Thomas referred to under Latifah (2008) is an effort to build a full and balanced on each student in all aspects of learning, including spiritual, moral, imaginative, intellectual, cultural, aesthetic, emotional, and physical aspects of directing all -aspects towards achieving an awareness of the relationship with God which is the ultimate goal of all life on earth.

Each area, the contents of the language, processes and products can be viewed both from the point of view of discrete and holistic perspective, creating a continuum with discrete perspectives on the end of one and a holistic perspective on the other. Discrete point (discrete) focuses on the shape (form), accuracy and analysis while the holistic point focuses on the function fluency, and use.

Form and Function

(Sapir 1921), or grammatical form as distinct form function, has been accepted as a basic understanding about the nature of language for a very long time. Also from Sapir’s writings, we understand that human languages differ in the manner in which forms represent functions. In the way we have used the term, language content includes both formal properties (grammar) and all types of meaning (notions, functions, social norms for use, etc.)

On the other hand, topical and thematic approaches to organizing language instruction appear to be quite holistic, composed as they are stuff which does not lend itself to being set out in any kind of sequential fashion, based on criteria of internal organization.

Accuracy and Fluency

Fluency, on the other hand, has been associated with communicating one’s idea, getting the meaning across, or in the terms of the dichotomy, using language either holistically or comprehensively.

Accuracy process is aspects of language content that are conducive to analysis through dissection. Holistic process, on the other hand, hold out the promise of drawing on ways to look at language which are instead based on larger, more complex systems.

But it is a mistake to assume that all fluency workouts fail to consider the systematic properties of language. It is possible to create holistic workouts which attend to cultural and social norms that are outside the language code, but which still focus on communicative characteristics of the target language.

Analysis and Use

The holistic vs. discrete dichotomy appears in the domain of product/out-comes as the fluctuation between courses which has emphasized analysis and those which emphasized use, particularly when viewed historically  or, as the concept has been personified recently (Rivers 1981), the dichotomy which exists between the views of ‘formalists’, those who stress knowing the formal properties of language as proper outcome for learners in a language course, and ‘activist’, those who stress using language actively.

B.     4.  Reconciling Opposites in The Instructional Plans

Faced with the dilemma of integrating discrete elements or analyses of language content with holistic, comprehensive use of it, various sequential plans have been proposed for course designs:

1.         A holistic approach is adopted with emphasis on thematic, meaningful interaction which is   self-motivating. In addition to holistic language experiences for the whole group, there are workbooks for use by individuals which concentrate on grammatical points and specific skills.

2.         A more structural/notional approach is adopted in the syllabus with emphasis on the skills that have been selected as most important for the course. To meet individual needs, other materials are in use in a learning center or a language laboratory in which there is emphasis on thematic and communicative use of language.

3.         The early phase of the course is structural. Later, as learners progress in their basic acquisition of grammatical competence, they move on to a more holistic approach, utilizing global language in communicative workouts.

4.         The course follows a thematic, communicative tone, similar to a language arts course for native-speaker children. At a later stage, more attention is given to accuracy and form. In this instance, Gestalt learning comes first and discrete-point elements are added later.

Which of these designs seems to be suitable will depend on the particular situation and the group of students. However, writers who must plan for large numbers of learners, for example people who write text book series, are faced with serious questions which, if they are to be successfully answered, require a great deal of keen intuition, skill, plus a bit of luck at balancing trends in the field with topical interests and outlooks which will appeal to a maximally general audience.

B.     5.  Other System, Other Worlds

Are there additional ways to analyze language that advance the discussion beyond the issue of the discrete vs. the holistic? Are there other glasses we might try on through which to perceive things from another perspective? Materials writers who want to shed the constraints of discrete point analyses, yet who realize that language content for course design purposes must be based on some kind of orderly presentation, would do well to look to other fields that study human language as a communication process.

What are the complex systems of language which other social have determined? An interesting trip of the iceberg is mentioned by Morrow (1981:62) regarding ‘information gaps’, a concept that comes from communication theory. From this source we realize that our materials might incorporate, through workouts, ways which get learners to use language holistically by seeking withheld information with which to successfully accomplish a given task.

Other suggestions have been made for utilization of language content based on analyses that are less tied to discreteness since they draw on systemic characteristics. As already mentioned, from the field of philosophy the communicative approach has incorporated speech act theory, a way of looking at categories of language use which relies more on complex relationships than on discrete elements.

From the field of ethno methodology have come significant insight into how users employ language to carry out their everyday, mundane business. For example, ethno methodology have described how people take turns in conversation, how they organize their speaking in relation to each other, how they punctuate their talk through employing tactics for signaling openings and closings, starting and breaking-off point (Schegloff 1968, Sacks 1972). The starting point for ethno methodology is not language, per se, but rather the constructs of sociology: norms, values, roles, interest coalitions, and the like.

While grappling with the discrete point vs. holistic dilemma in our work as course designers and materials writers, we recognize, too, that the questions has a much larger scope. When we take a moment off to poke out heads outside our own cave, we note that the issue shows up in many of the disciplines which western science pursues. From physics to biology to geology, and in other related areas, the dilemma is a central theoretical issue of recent time. Traditionally, western science has been largely influenced by a Cartesian view which ‘believed that complex phenomena could always be understood by reducing them to their basic building blocks and by looking at the mechanism through which these interacted. This attitude, known as reductionism, has become so deeply ingrained in our culture that it has often been identified with the scientific method’ (Capra 1982:47).

Capra goes on to pint out that ‘in the twentieth century …. the universe is no longer seen as a machine, made up of a multitude of separate objects, but appears as a harmonious indivisible whole; a network of dynamic relationships that include the human observer and his or her consciousness in an essential way.’ Such an approach to the study of human language might provide course designers a framework which brings about a synthesis of discrete and holistic views.