RATIONALE COURSE REPORT
By Dennis de Jesús Velázquez Ovando and Virgilio de Jesús Vázquez Hernández
As English teacher trainees, it is very important to be aware not only of how to design
a language program but also how to adapt one already made and take it to the
classroom. It can be possible to cite Nunan (1988), who wrote about the reason for
a teacher to do so. “While it is realized that few teachers are in the position of being
able to design their own syllabuses, it is hoped that most are in a position to interpret
and modify their syllabuses in the process of translating them into action.” (p.8)
Thus, taking into consideration the message previously presented, in the following
report, some aspects of the required language program to be made are going to be
briefly described, as well as stablish some objectives
To start, it is important that the context of the target students of the language program
be described. Nunan (1980) explained how these work “Learners’ purposes will vary
according to how specific they are and how immediately learners wish to employ
their developing language skills.” (p.13)
Therefore, assuming that our students are workers of the hotel or tourism industry,
they might need language that is suitable and useful to communicate in their work
environment, such as customer service, addressing clients in a formal and
professional style, how to greet people, etc. They expect that at the end of the course
they could master the ability to comprehend and produce the target language in a
professional way.
This program can fit adult students who already have some knowledge on the target
language as well as beginner students. It is designed to reflect the English culture in
an inductive way, as it should be very important to have certain knowledge on this
topic.
Following with the possible methodology that is going to be used to develop this
program, as it is a situational syllabus, the way in which it is going to be designed is
going to be based first on identifying the specific language required and second on
integrating useful activities that include any kind of material that mirrors real-life
interactions in a hotel environment.
To finish, the contents that are going to be presented are organized in 6 units,
reaching from easy or common to hard or very rare situations. Grammatical points
could be taught in an inductive way, using material that could be authentic and not
authentic, depending on the purpose of each unit.
REFERENCE
Nunan, D. (1988). Syllabus Design: Language Teaching: A Scheme. for Teacher
Education (C. N. Callan & D. H. G. Widdowson, Eds.). Oxford University
Press. [Link]
Design-by-D.-[Link]
