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According to Breen (1984), there are two major paradigms for designing a syllabus: A traditional and well
established paradigm which includes Structural and Functional syllabuses, and the recent paradigm which includes Task-
based and Process syllabuses. This part of Breens article distinguishes between Structural and functional syllabuses based
on six questions:
1. What are they?
The structural syllabus is mainly organized in terms of grammatical structure and lexical items that form the language
while the functional syllabus is organized around language functions (offering, apologizing, advising) and notions
(numbers, weather, colors). Both of the two syllabuses are of Type A syllabuses. Also, they are classified as product-
oriented syllabuses that focus on the outcomes learnt at the end of the learning process rather than the process itself.
Moreover, both are based on a linguistic view of the language.
On the other hand, there are three arguments in support of the functional syllabus:
1- The arising motivation and need to get rid of the mechanism old methodology of grammar-translation and
audiolingualisim and to apply the new view of language offered by linguists.
2- The concern for meaningfulness as an important element in the language learning experience.
3- The wish to enable learners to use language from their classroom to achieve things in their social life.
Name: ID:
Question1:
Although the Structural and Functional syllabuses are always contrasted as different syllabuses,
the author has put them under the same paradigm. Why?
Name: ID:
Question 2
Put [ S ] if the statement is related to Structural Syllabus and [ F ] if the statement is related to the
Functional Syllabus:
Although the Structural and Functional syllabuses are always contrasted as different syllabuses,
the author has put them under the same paradigm. Why?
Also, they are classified as product-oriented syllabuses that focus on the outcomes learnt at the end of the
learning process rather than the process itself.