Introduction

The following document outlines a twenty-hour course designed for an identified group of advanced learners who are preparing to sit the examination for the Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English at the end of the term. It is divided into two parts. The first provides a rationale for the course, the process by which the course content has been selected and sequenced, as well as a brief examination of the principles of syllabus planning and how these were applied when planning the course. How this course reflects the learning needs of this particular group is also addressed, as well as how these needs were determined. The second part consists of a course outline (appendix A) and a detailed timetable of the course plan. (appendix B)

The duration of the course was fifteen one and a half hour lessons, over the course of eight weeks, and is representative of the larger, eight month long syllabus which most of this group has been taking part in. This portion of the larger syllabus begins just after returning from Christmas break, and runs through into the end of February. The class consists of eight students, many of whom are young professionals, who meet twice a week. Their initial level was determined by a written entrance exam, which is standard at International House, where I teach, and additionally by an oral interview with a trained teacher.

Course rationale

This syllabus, as mentioned, was designed to prepare and train students to pass the Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English, and places particular emphasis on the skills they will need and the topics they will likely encounter in this exam. The CAE was introduced in December 1991 and is designed to offer a high-level qualification to those wishing to use English for professional or study purposes.

The examination consists of five papers: Reading, Writing, English in Use, Listening and Speaking.

The Cambridge CAE handbook (2001:7) breaks down the necessary skills and expectations for each section, and are as follows:

Reading
Learners at this level are expected to be able to read and understand text taken from a wide range of authentic sources. They should demonstrate a variety of reading skills including skimming, scanning, deduction of meaning from context and selection of relevant information to complete the given task.

Writing
Learners are expected to complete non-specialist writing tasks in response to the stimuli provided (input text and task descriptions). The input texts are taken from a wide range of authentic sources. Both audience and purpose are made clear in the task descriptions.

English in Use
Learners are expected to demonstrate the ability to apply their knowledge of the language system by completing tasks based on authentic passages. The tasks include: cloze exercise types, gap filling, proof-reading exercises, word formation exercises and text completion.

Listening
Learners are expected to understand each text as a whole, gain detailed understanding and appreciate gist and the attitude of the speaker. They must also be able to identify and interpret the context. Texts take the form of announcements, speeches, radio broadcasts, etc.

Speaking
Learners must be able to demonstrate a range of oral skills: interactional, social, transactional, negotiation and collaboration.

Due to the amount and breadth of reading and writing involved in this exam, this syllabus places an emphasis on the skills required to succeed in these areas. Specific training in how to approach these tasks is given and ample exposure to a wide range of authentic texts is provided for as well.

Listening and speaking skills are also practiced regularly and are an integral part of this course as they are also tested in a variety of ways.

Building a sufficiently large active and passive vocabulary is a constant concern at this level and it is focused on continually throughout this course.

Although grammar is not overtly tested in CAE, this course provides ample opportunity to revise, and structural accuracy is a permanent focus of the tasks laid out in this course.

The units prepared are based on a theme containing likely topics to be found in the exam, and a continuous thread runs through each lesson as different aspects of the theme are explored.

The main aim of this syllabus is to give the students in this group ample training representative of all the exam tasks they will meet and at the same time taking into consideration their particular needs, strengths, weaknesses and interests.

Although passing the exam is obviously its main focus, this syllabus was designed to be relevant and interesting to the students at a personal level outside of the exam perimeter and relevant to their social needs as well.

Planning a course syllabus: Choosing and sequencing course content

As Richards points out in 'Curriculum Development in language teaching', (2001:148) a course, to be successful, must be developed to address a specific set of needs and to cover a given set of objectives. I concur that considerations of students' needs should play a part in planning a course as well as the objectives and proposed outcomes for the group. He signals that:

"The choice of a particular approach to content selection will depend on subject matter knowledge, the learners' proficiency levels, current views on second language learning and teaching, conventional wisdom, and convention."

Breen, (1987) in turn, suggests that:

Syllabus design is a decision-making process which has to be responsive to a range of requirements including its sensitivity to the curriculum, classroom, and educational contexts for which it is designed. In order to meet these requirements, the designer creates a syllabus on the basis of the four organizing principles of focus, selection, subdivision and sequencing. The particular way in which the designer applies these principles will never be neutral or objective but will reflect views on language, upon using language, and upon the teaching and learning of language which the designer shares with the wider community of specialists in language education.

In choosing the content and sequence of content in this twenty-hour course, the objectives of the group were taken into consideration (passing a specific exam), as well as their current proficiency level. Also taken into consideration were the task types they will meet in the exam, their learning styles and a certain amount of conventional wisdom based on my previous experience of having prepared other students for this exam, and through conferencing with other teacher who have done the same.

In order to assess the specific needs of the students in this group in relation to their exam preparation and their current rate of progress, I administered a combination retrospective and prospective needs analysis (appendix C). This was done in order to gain the insight needed to better understand how my students perceived the course they had been involved in up to then, their perception of their progress, and any adjustments that they felt were needed to better prepare them for the exam. This, as well as any special needs or problems that they might be having that I, as their teacher, was not aware of.

The results of the survey were largely positive as the majority of the class felt that their needs as learners, as well as their expectations of the course were being met. Many expressed interest in doing more practice examinations as part of their preparation but found the course book and supplementary materials relevant and interesting as well.

As expected, there were discernable discrepancies among the learners' own perceived strengths and weaknesses. The balance of skills and systems work selected for the course reflects an attempt to take into account this wide range of needs. Content was chosen with the learners' needs in mind although my experience, and the experience of colleagues who have prepared others for this exam, also played a part in the selection and sequence of the course material.

Performance objectives for the group

Nunan (1988:63) defines performance objectives as, what learners should be able to do as a result of instruction, and states:

"Most syllabus planners who advocate the use of performance objectives suggest that they should contain three components. The first of these, the performance component, describes what the learner is to be able to do, the second, the conditions component, specifies the conditions under which the learner will perform, and the final component, the standards component, indicates how well the learner is to perform".

Gronlund (1981 in Nunan 1988:65) argues in favor of specifying objectives:

"The effort to specify objectives in performance terms forces us to be realistic about what it is feasible to achieve, and they greatly facilitate student assessment".

In relation to this course plan for advanced learners, the ideas behind these two statements can be clearly linked to the goal of passing an official exam and are reflected in the content of their coursework laid out in the timetable in part two of this paper.

The performance component is broken down into the specific tasks they are expected to do, such as in writing a transactional letter or completing a set of notes after listening to a related monologue.

The conditions are in a classroom situation and are practiced in such a way to prepare for a future exam situation.

The standard expected, as well as being at Cambridge Level Four, also falls within Level four of the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE).

A description of a "competent user" at this level, (although not being a specification for the examination content but referring to language activities in real-world, non-examination contexts) is found in Appendix D (Cambridge CAE handbook: 2001:6).

Additionally, performance sub-goals within the classroom can be stated from a success-in-the-task perspective; its desired outcome being continued motivation. In my experience, sustaining motivation, especially on the Cambridge examination preparation courses, is clearly important as the courses are quite intensive, the standard is high, and the learners are continually being challenged. As Dr. Littlejohn (2001) points out:

"While both teachers and school systems have drawn on both intrinsic satisfaction and extrinsic reward as sources of motivation in learning, the third source, success in the task: the combination of satisfaction and reward, is perhaps under exploited in teaching. This is the simple fact of success, and the effect that it has on our view of what we do. As human beings, we generally like what we do well, and are therefore more likely to do it again and put in more effort. If we put in more effort, we generally get better, and so this sustains our motivation".

Taking this on board when designing a syllabus necessarily has as much or more to do with grading tasks, as selecting and sequencing content. This course is pitched at the advanced level throughout although there is an appreciable progression in the exam tasks leading to fuller exam-type tasks as the course progresses. This is especially evident in the tasks leading up to and forming part of a mock exam and the subsequent tasks, which make up the lessons coming afterwards.

In summary, it should be evident that this particular syllabus has been designed with very specific goals in mind. However, in achieving these goals, it has been taken into consideration that maintaining motivation throughout the learning process, though grading and projected success in the inherent tasks, is of great importance.

Selecting a syllabus framework

Richards (2001:152) describes a syllabus as:

"The major elements that will be used in planning a language course and which provides the basis for its instructional focus and content."

Reilly, (1988) lists six types of syllabi (see appendix E for a full description)
and goes on to say this about choosing and integrating syllabi:

"Although the six types of syllabus content are defined here in isolated contexts, it is rare for one type of syllabus or content to be used exclusively in actual teaching settings. Syllabi or content types are usually combined in more or less integrated ways, with one type as the organizing basis around with the others are arranged and related. In discussing syllabus choice and design, it should be kept in mind that the issue is not which type to choose but which types, and how to relate them to each other."

In designing this course, my point of departure was the course book that is set for this group of learners by the larger curriculum of the school (CAE Masterclass 1999), the students' needs collected by means of a needs analysis survey, and the performance objectives set out above.

Supplementary materials are also used throughout the course and come in several forms. Some example are news articles from 'The Independent' (A British daily broadsheet) which are relevant to the current classroom theme and adapted to practice exam related skills such as reading for gist and detail, or for work on noticing and recording lexis and structures. Authentic video from the BBC with worksheets adapted to practice listening comprehension skills, and adapted transcripts to work on system related skills are used as well. Published Cambridge practice exams are also included for exam practice specifically under 'real' exam conditions.

The overall organizing principle is largely skills-based, concentrating on the four basic skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking with structure being integrated as an internal element of the tasks set, which in turn practice each skill. Discrete grammar points are also revised and practiced.

Evaluation and conclusion

The evaluation of this course is based primarily on student feedback, through counseling, mock examination results and reflection on the part of the teacher and students.

From the student needs analysis it was apparent that although some individually perceived needs were not fully being met, overall - the general collective class needs were largely being met. The teacher and the course were seen in a positive light, the students perceived class time being used wisely and felt they were being provided appropriate materials for their present level and goals.

A mock exam was administered over two days and included representative sampling of all areas of the Advanced Certificate Exam including; reading, listening, use of English, and writing. All were subject to an appropriate time limit.

Seven of the nine students in class did well enough to warrant a pass while two others did not. A full class feedback session was held after the exams, as well as individual counseling, in order to get an authentic response from each student on their progress and the course, and to give any necessary advice to the student.

The majority of the responses were favorable in that everyone felt they were improving although many felt they did not have enough time to spend outside of class on their studies. In the exam results it was clear, however, that everyone could benefit from more work on proof-reading and syntactical grammar exercises. The need to practice with exam level listening exercises was evident, while reading was a strong point for all and writing was generally good. The necessary changes will be implemented in the rest of the course to follow, to adjust to these results.

Through exam results and the outcome of teacher-student counseling, I feel that the course planned was quite successful in reaching its objectives. The students are positive about their time spent and their progress. While it is apparent that changes in emphasis will be implemented in the future, a well balanced course focusing on the different skills and exercise types needed in the exam has been largely successful for the majority of the class.

Bibliography

Richards, J.C. (2001) Curriculum Development in Language Teaching, CUP

Nunan, D. (1988) Syllabus Design, OUP

Nunan, D. (1991) Language Teaching Methodology, Prentice Hall International, Edinburgh

Breen, M.P. (1987) Contemporary Paradigms in Syllabus Design, Language Teaching, 20/3 1987

Reilly, T. (1988) Approaches to Foreign Language Syllabus Design, Eric Digests 1988

Littlejohn, A. (2001) Motivation: Where does it come from? Where does it go?. English Teaching Professional issue 19 April 2001.

Richards, J. C. (1990)The Language Teaching Matrix, CUP

Gray, K. (1990) "Syllabus design for the general class: what happens to theory when you apply it. ELT Journal Volume 44 October, 1990

Richards, J.C. & Rodgers, T. S. (1986) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching , CUP

Biodata

Scott Shelton has been involved in EFL teaching since 1991 and has taught adults from all over the world. Currently residing and teaching in New Zealand, Scott has also taught multilingual groups at St. Giles College in San Francisco and Spanish speaking learners at International House Madrid, Spain. He was awarded the Cambridge Diploma (DELTA) in 2002, having followed the course at the British Language Centre in Madrid, and earned his CELTA from St. Giles College International a very long time ago.

Appendix A - Course Outline

Appendix B - the course timetable

Appendix C - Needs analysis

Appendix D - of a "competent user" at this level

Appendix - E Reilly, (1988) lists six types of syllabi

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