Section A - Assignment 1 – Essay – Evaluation of a Syllabus.

In this syllabus lecturer Svetlana Burdina used Communicative Methodology or Communicative

Language Teaching (CLT) to design this Business English Course. The aim of this method is
teaching communicative competences.
It is necessary to know the difference between Grammatical Competence and Communicative
Competence. Grammatical competence is focused on rules of grammar, exercises to practice them,
verbal tenses, sentence patterns, clauses, etc. This is an important aspect of language learning and
we need it in order to use the language accurately but Communicative competences are essential
to meaningful communication. They involve learning the different purposes and functions of the
language, learning the use of formal and informal speech, learning to produce and understand
different types of texts and be able to communicate with fluency. Traditional approaches in the 60s,
were based on grammatical competence. Teachers presented grammar rules to the students and
they practiced using them with controlled practice. One of the characteristics of this traditional
method is that teachers paid special attention to correcting mistakes in pronunciation and grammar
from the beginning stages, because it was thought that when the students make errors, these
mistakes become root in the learner.
I have to say that I agree with this point. In my opinion errors must be corrected, but teachers should
have different techniques to do it, without, for example, interrupting a reading. A good way is let the
student finishes to read and then the teacher reads the text again correctly.
Methodologies based on traditional approaches include Audiolingual or Aural-Oral Method in North
America, Structural-Situational Approach or Situational Language Teaching in the UK. PPP lessons
(Presentation-Practice-Production) were used in its former and conventional format.
In the 70s these traditional methodologies were questioned, arguing that learning a language
involved much more than grammatical competence and that the base was communication. This
began a movement which started to change the vision of how the language was acquired. With the
new concept of ‘communicative competence’, syllabuses changed too, and they included purposes,
settings, roles, communicative events, language functions, notions, varieties, grammatical content
and lexical content. These changes occurred between 70s and 80s.
Since the 90s this method has improved, increased, consolidated and spread. I think the most
important changes that communication in teaching brought are learner autonomy, thinking skills,
learning as a social activity, focus on meaning and the new role of teachers as co-learners.
Some of the CLT principles are the ‘real life’ communication as focus of language learning; give the
students the opportunity to experiment, practice and demonstrate what they learn; be tolerant of
students’ mistakes; help learners to develop and improve both accuracy and fluency; work with the
different skills as they occur in the real world; lead students to discover and learn grammar by
themselves.
CLT modified the way of teaching, lessons which at the beginning were focused on controlled
activities like memorization and drills, now are using pair or group work activities, role plays and
project works.
The methods have changed, now students learn from their errors and interacting with teachers and
other students. Consequently, learners and teachers have new roles nowadays. Learners have a
participative, collaborative and active role in classroom and teachers have assumed the roles of
facilitator, monitor and co-learner. The student doesn’t have the teacher as the unique model
anymore.
I think this course has been designed with the principles required by CLT; looking at the lecturer
Burdina’s syllabus, it is evident that it meets the aspects a syllabus should follow: the purpose to
acquire the language, in this case Business purpose, the setting in which students will use it, for
example a company, the communicative events in which they will participate, in this course is
establish their own business, the language functions, for example trading, the skills needed, here
covered the four skills but focused on writing and grammatical and lexical content as a revise of
some specific points of grammar and vocabulary.

She included language revision with new items, names and places, spelling, intonation of tag
questions, homonyms, homophones, contracted verb forms, Future Perfect and Future Continuous
Tenses.
In order to work their writing skills students practiced writing letters of application, analysing essays,
writing articles, thesis and designing advertisements.
They were encouraged to read on their own and use textbooks. Lecturer Burdina used thought-
provoking listening activities on marketing ethics to keep the class interested. For speaking they set
out the scene in which they established their business, discussed advertisings, situations, worked
on launch products, supported arguments and she made them practice spelling. It was not
necessary to introduce new grammar because they were advanced students.
With CLT it was recognized that students need to use the language in specific settings, this is known
as English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and it is seen clearly in this syllabus. Svetlana Burdina asked
students to prepare to set out the scene in which they establish their own business, she included a
role play on improving brand image via launching new advertising projects, besides of writing
activities focused on business as writing articles and advertisements.
I think many teachers, as me, learnt with old methodologies, in my case as a self-taught, with
grammar books, dictionaries, grammar rules and hours and hours or reading, deeply rooted
methods from which we can take a lot of necessary and useful aspects, but I believe we have to be
open to these new changes that help to acquire languages in a better way. CLT is considered a
movement which made a change that put away traditional models where learning was under the
control of the teachers and knowledge was passed on to the students with mechanical activities.
Maybe the key of CLT is ‘interaction’, not only between students but between students and teachers.
Teaching today is interaction, communication, collaboration, it is about sharing and lessons are
more relaxed, not structured as they used to be. In general students feel more comfortable and
motivated speaking a second language and they are more confident and independent.