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The Syllabus is Dead, Long Live the Syllabus: Thoughts on the State of Language Curriculum, Content, Language, Tasks, Projects, Materials, Wikis, Blogs and the World Wide Web
Author(s) -
Shaw Peter A.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
language and linguistics compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.619
H-Index - 44
ISSN - 1749-818X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-818x.2009.00154.x
Subject(s) - syllabus , curriculum , computer science , focus (optics) , foreign language , language education , language acquisition , focus on form , pedagogy , multimedia , world wide web , linguistics , mathematics education , sociology , psychology , grammar , philosophy , physics , optics
In the 1990s, second and foreign language education entered the so‐called post‐method condition, marking the end of the search for a global pedagogy applicable to all learning contexts. Just as language pedagogy – the design and implementation of learning tasks – became flexible and localised, so have corresponding curricular concepts and procedures followed suit, leading to the beginning of a post‐syllabus condition. Supported by developments in CALL (Computer‐Assisted Language Learning), the move to a learner‐centred focus, and the deployment of authentic target language texts and artefacts, language learning and teaching are becoming increasingly local, nimble, relevant and specific. At the same time, the latest educational and communication technologies (wikis, blogs, Skype, Second Life and the like) are having a strong impact on what constitutes the local in terms of a particular learning community.