Syllabus Design and Curriculum Development: Revisiting Structural Syllabus

The structural syllabus is the most general types of syllabus design. It has been in use by language instructors for a long time now. It seems that the majority of grammatical syllabuses assume that language has a limited set of rules, which can be learned sequentially. We will discuss the researchers perspective on the structural syllabus in the following English language Teaching Methods. The Silent Way and TPR (Total Physical Response) are examples of additional ways based on the standard syllabus design process known as Structural Syllabus or Grammatical Syllabus. It has been characterized as a syllabus that includes a list of grammatical elements rated based on their frequency or difficulty (Nunan, 1988). A list of grammatical elements, generally organized in the sequence in which they are to be taught, says Rod Ellis (1993). Grammatical structures are typically provided in pairs, such as simple present vs simple past or single nouns vs multiple nouns. However, this is not always the case (Long Crookes, 1993, quoted by Baleghizadeh 2010). Grammar syllabus textbooks, according to Brown (1995), may be ordered either according to the easy-to-hard (complexity) principle or the more common to less common (frequency) approach.Although numerous works have focused on the notion of syllabus design, very few research articles have had an inclusive and concise look upon the structural syllabus. This paper examines the structural syllabus in the light of second language acquisition research. Also, we will explore the characteristics, rationale, merits, criticisms and drawbacks attributed to the structural syllabus.