Situational Syllabi

Kranka, 1987

Mahsa Farahanynia2016

What is a situational syllabus? A situational syllabus is one in which the content of language

teaching is a collection of real or imaginary situations in which language occurs or is used. A situation usually involves several participants who are engaged in some activity in a specific setting.

What is the purpose of situational syllabi?

The primary purpose of a situational language teaching syllabus

is to teach the language that occurs in the situations. Sometimes

the situations are purposely relevant to the present or future needs

of the language learners, preparing them to use the new language

in the kinds of situations that make up the syllabus.

Different typologies of situationsA) Based on the type of information: The limbo situation is one in which the specific setting of the

situation is of little or no importance, and what is important is the particular language focus involved.

Example: Introductions at a party. The concrete situation is one in which the situations are enacted

against specific settings; and what is important is the setting and the language associated with it.

Example: Ordering a meal in a restaurant and going through customs

The mythical situation is one that depends on some sort of fictional story line, frequently with a fictional cast of characters in a fictional place.

Different typologies of situations (cont.)

B) Based on linguistic focuses: Situations are presented in such a

way that there are

Grammatical focus

Pronunciation focus

Lexical focus

Functional/notional focus

Discoursal/ interactional focus

Different typologies of situations (cont.)

C) Based on static/dynamic nature of situation

Situations are presented to students in the form of completed discourse

The students are expected to modify parts or all of it. Many situations are

presented in full, and students are then asked to play out the same situation

using their own language and, possibly, settings.

The students are expected to create parts or all of it situations. For example,

role plays.

Different typologies of situations (cont.)D) Based on the type of situation Dialogue as the most familiar way of presenting a situation which

include passive listening, active listening, and memorization. Role plays in which learners act out or perform roles in defined

situations. DiPietro't scenarios as a more sophisticated version of situation

in which learners are required to play out roles in a particular dramatic situation, usually a complex problem-solving setting with elements that the participants do not anticipate. The situation is provided to the learner without dialogue or language, and the learners, usually in a group, write or prepare the language and perform the scenario.

With any language instructional content that attempts to incorporate some sort of language use, the important distinction between “real” and “realistic” must be kept in mind.

Realistic language use: Language that is created for the classroom but intended to mirror actual occasions of language use.

Real language use: Language that actually occurs outside of the classroom, with few artificial constraints

Most classroom dialogues semirealistic.

Because of the wide variety of types and applications of situational

content, it is not associated with any specific theory of learning.

Situational content has been used with audio-lingual (behaviorist),

cognitive, and experiential (acquisition-based) instruction.

Situational syllabi are also associated with various theories of

language. For example, a syllabus that relied almost exclusively on

realistic situations is broadly communicative view of language and

an experiential theory of learning.

Examples of Situational Syllabi Examples of situations include: seeing the dentist, complaining to the

landlord, buying a book at the bookstore, meeting a new student, asking directions in a new town, and so on.

A representative list of the situations used in the continuing story is as follows:

Another representative list of situations is taken from a supplementary conversation text:

Positive Characteristics of Situational Syllabi

Situational syllabi can lead more directly than others to learners' ability to

communicate in specific settings, especially for highly specific and predictable

settings.

Situations provide contexts of discourse in which form and meaning coincide,

and the form-meaning relationship can be reinforced. (going beyond sentence

level to discourse level)

The use of situations in language teaching can help to provide some social and

cultural information about the language and its users in a nondidactic way; well-

prepared situations can show how native speakers act and what they talk about

and are concerned about.

Negative Characteristics of Situational Syllabi

1. Too great a use of predetermined and artificial situations can lead to lack of transfer to real language use, as students are led to overreliance on pre-learned routines and patterns or language use which can interfere with productive language learning.

2. Situational syllabi present sequencing problems. Few criteria are available for determining the difficulty of situations and sequencing them in instructional syllabi. Sequencing can reflect some natural chain of events (buying the ticket, getting on the train) but it is difficult to control language that might occur in such sequences without, again, resorting to artificiality.

Negative Characteristics of Situational Syllabi

3. A reliance on situational content can cause problems where the learners or the instructional setting do not want cultural values to accompany the language.

4. It is extremely difficult to create authentic language for instructional purposes.

a) The actual patterns of use of native speakers in many situations are still unknown, an intuition is not a reliable guide.

b) Even when accurate native speaker norms are available, a special type of talent is required to write focused-and natural dialogue, rarely found in published texts.

c) The tendency of authenticity in situational content become outdate & the more specific and accurate the language associated with a situation, the more likely it will become inappropriate quickly.

Applications Situational syllabi rarely carry the entire content weight of an

instructional program. Many "methods" from grammar-translation to Berlitz to modern integrated textbooks, have used examples of the language being learned in situations and settings. Many collections of conversation or communication activities are organized in terms of situations.

Another case is the conversational course whose objective is limited conversational ability with specific topics.

Another one is the instruction intended for learners with specific situations, where the language that will occur is highly predictable (e.g., with waiters in restaurants).

Another case is as a corrective tool for learners who have already received a great deal of formal instruction but who have weak functional ability in the language.

Applications Situational content is usable with learners of all ages, though it is

especially useful for children who neither want nor are ready for formal analysis.

Situational material in many forms may be used simply

1. To present new material, providing examples of the phenomena being taught,

2. To practice material that has been presented in more isolated form in realistic ways

3. To provide comprehensible input and a continuous story line through some set of materials or a course

4. To provide opportunities for learners to create their own discourse in defined situations