Module teaching and integrating language skills lesson 1

Activity 1 Curriculum and syllabus
Objective: to raise students’ awareness of difference between curriculum and syllabus
Time: 15 minutes
Materials: Handouts 1 and 2.
Procedure:

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  Write the terms “curriculum” and “syllabus” on the board. Ask the following questions:
  

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  What is the curriculum and syllabus? Is there any difference between them?
  

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  Distribute Handouts 1 and 2. Ask students to note similarities and differences in these documents, their purposes, which of them can be called curriculum and which one is syllabus.
  
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  Establish that these terms are widely used but mean different things to British and American writers and are thus potentially confusing. We usually follow British usage, in which "syllabus" refers to the content or subject matter of an individual subject, whereas "curriculum" refers to the totality of content to be taught and aims to be realized within one educational system" (White 1988:4). Thus, a curriculum includes several syllabuses. In our educational system there is ‘uquv reja’ which describes subjects and hours that are to be taught over a period of time, for example in an University 4 years. The curriculum might also outline main aims and objectives of a whole programme.
  
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  Handout 2 is a syllabus for this course, Materials Evaluation and Design. Teachers usually work with uquv dastur (ishchi, or taqvimiy-mavzuviy reja) for a specific course, for example, Grammar or Integrated Skills.