Introduction

Any syllabus is a plan of what is to be achieved through teaching and learning. It is part of an overall language curriculum or course which is made up of four elements: aims, content, methodology and evaluation. The syllabus identifies what will be worked upon by the teacher and students in terms of content selected to be appropriate to overall aims. Methodology refers to how teachers and learners work upon the content, whilst evaluation is the process of assessing outcomes from the learning and judging the appropriateness of other elements of the curriculum.

A syllabus may be formally documented, as in the aims and content of a national or institutional syllabus for particular groups of learners or (less explicitly perhaps) in the content material of published textbooks. Every teacher follows a syllabus, but it may vary from being a pre-designed document to a day-to-day choice of content which the teacher regards as serving a course's particular aims. In the latter case, the syllabus unfolds as lessons progress.

Any syllabus ideally should provide: