A Practical Approach to EFL Lesson Planning: the Versatile Syllabus

Authors

  • Sureepong Phothongsunan

Abstract

In the majority of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) courses offered at tertiary level around the world including in Thailand, a strong emphasis is always placed on lesson or material planning and developing a detailed, prescriptive course outline that is to be systematically followed by the instructor throughout the course to purportedly ensure successful teaching and learning as evidenced in the TQF 3 (Thai Qualification Framework 3) for Thailand’s higher education quality standard. In this paper, it is thus argued that detailed, strict lesson planning in EFL lessons can actually be detrimental to the language teaching process as well as teacher professional development. In addition, an alternative approach, the non-rigid syllabus, is proposed to develop more effective and efficient EFL university instructors especially in the era of change or the new normal where EFL learners as well as teachers are able to readily access information and resources in cyberspace at their fingertips.

Keywords- Lesson planning, versatile syllabuses, EFL university lecturers

Published

2021-01-22

Issue

Section

Articles