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EUROPEAN SYLLABUSES IN ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE 1
Author(s) -
Currie William B.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
language learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.882
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1467-9922
pISSN - 0023-8333
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-1770.1975.tb00250.x
Subject(s) - notional amount , syllabus , linguistics , psychology , situational ethics , selection (genetic algorithm) , grammar , communicative language teaching , agreement , function (biology) , language education , pedagogy , computer science , social psychology , artificial intelligence , philosophy , finance , evolutionary biology , economics , biology
Characteristic movements in European traditional EFL teaching show a closer link with communication approaches than is found in America, and a rejection of linguistic selection of items. The Council of Europe movement is linked with function, with communication and, indeed, with traditional rhetoric. A broadly semantic, or “notional” syllabus has been proposed, based on the semiotic act. An inventory of language functions has been devised and a threshold defined below which the learner can not function successfully in the language. The threshold inventory and subsequent units form a common core of language functions to be learnEd. Following Wilkins (1972), common core proposals distinguish semantico‐grammatical categories and categories of communicative function, both of which a syllabus must embrace. The methods implied in the teaching are situational, inductive and communicative. There is clear evidence that these proposals will succeed at both lower levels (elementary) and at the upper levels, but the middle ranges at present seem to resist the notional approach, in theory. There are serious implications for teacher training. The strong socio‐linguistic tone of communicative teaching involves teachers in judgements of items, materials, and methods which emphasise the richness and the responsibility of the teaching art.