ANALYSIS OF SYLLABUS GOLDEN ENGLISH TRAINING SIDOARJO

A PAPER SUBMITTED FOR SEMESTER TEST REQUIREMENT

Lecturer: Mauly Halwat Hikmat, M. Hum, Ph. D

By:

Khoirul Bariyyah

1st Semester of Magister Language Study Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta

MAGISTER OF LANGUAGE STUDIES

MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF SURAKARTA
2016
ANALYSIS OF SYLLABUS GOLDEN ENGLISH TRAINING SIDOARJO

A PAPER SUBMITTED FOR SEMESTER TEST REQUIREMENT

Khoirul Barriyah, 1st Semester of Magister Language Study Muhammadiyah

University of Surakarta

Lecturer, Mauly Halwat Hikmat, M. Hum, Ph. D

Abstract

In Indonesia, there are lots of English courses that run two purposes at the same time.
They provide EAP and ESP at the same time. It depends on the needs of the students to
learn. As there are many courses, it delivers many kinds of syllabus design. Every course
has different tendency and different syllabus. To design syllabus needs to see the learning
purposes and it is based what is course talking about or concerning about. There are two
major kinds of syllabus. They are analytic and synthetic syllabus that both of them have
been common in ELT. In the current study, analytic syllabus is more reflective to current
theories of language. Although there are many kinds of syllabus, the principles are same
that syllabus need to have selection, focus, subdivision and sequencing (or grading). This
paper tries to analyze syllabus of Golden English Training Sidoarjo.

Keyword: English course, synthetic syllabus, analytic syllabus, principles of syllabus.

A. INTRODUCTION
In Indonesia, there are many parents who want their children active
and good in English score. It may not be the first time we are hearing
about parents complaining the English score of their children. What makes
them complain a lot on score because of the examination test that actually
cannot measure well all the competences of the students? In text
examination, there are only three skills needed to answer all of questions.
Although, speaking test is still conducted in practical examination, it's still
not enough to measure how successful the English teaching and learning
went. If we should ask the students especially high school students for
what they learn English, they may answer that they want to refine their
score in school.
 Meanwhile, learning language is not only to get good score but to
be able to master the ability to listen, speak, read and write in English.
Thus, when people have a goal to be able to speak in English, it may be
not enough to learn at school. They usually will go to English Course to
get more lessons to speak in English. The English course basically comes
from the view of the existence of English for Academic Purpose and
English for Specific Purpose.
Hyland (2006:1) EAP is usually defined as teaching English with
the aim of assisting learners' study or research in that language. EAP
courses provide language instruction for academic study in universities.
Language skills addresses include: listening comprehension, fluency
development, oral intelligibility, reading, grammar, writing and vocabulary
development. EAP courses are very often taken before the students' main
academic courses starts.

ESP is different from EAP. The global English has made variety in
English in context of sociolinguistic and socio-culture. Thus ESP is used to teach
English for certain purpose and this view can also be seen as the communicative
function of English in written or spoken form. That is why ESP is only seen as
approach, concept and method to design effective teaching and learning English
to find the needs of the learners. Dudley Evan in Alina (2012:225) states that ESP
is defined to meet specific needs of the learners. In English for business
communication, it's clearly seen that the goal of the teaching ESP for business
communication is to be able to communicate in English in their business area. As
ESP shares underlying methodology and activities of the discipline taken for
business communication and appropriate grammar, lexis, register, study skills,
discourse and genre, English for business communication should be sensitive to
the key issues on the business concerned for the English course.

The difference between EAP and ESP is pretty clear. We have found
the tendencies of two purposes. EAP has tendency on academic purpose. EAP in
common is mostly taken by students living in a country where English is the
foreign language that want to continue their study. It is also taken by native
students before academic season starts. In Indonesia, there are lots of English
 courses that run two purposes at the same time. They provide EAP and ESP at the
same time. It depends on the needs of the students to learn. As there are many
courses, it delivers many kinds of syllabus design. Every course has different
tendency and different syllabus.

This paper is trying to analyze a syllabus from an English course in East

Java, Indonesia called Golden English Training. It is a course that is located in
Sidoarjo, East Java. This paper is trying to analyze a syllabus from an English
course in East Java, Indonesia called Golden English Training. It is a course that
is located in Sidoarjo, East Java. In their site, they publish the syllabus on
purpose. They want to show to the students or parents (target audience) and want
them to review the syllabus so they can review and have wide consideration
whether they want to join the course or not.

B. SYLLABUS DESIGN
1. Difference between synthetic and analytic syllabus
Nunan (1988:27) states that synthetic syllabus is the one in
which the different parts of language is taught separately and step
by step in additive fashion. So that the learners acquisition faces a
process of gradual accumulation of parts until the whole structure
of the language has been built up. Grammatical criterions are used
to break the language into discrete units. These items are graded
according to their (1) grammatical contexts (2) fluency of
occurrence (3) contrastive difficulty in relation to L1 (4) situation
need and (5) pedagogic convenience. Some applied linguists
assume that the synthetic syllabuses should not be restricted to only
grammatical syllabus rather it can be applied to any syllabus whose
content is product-oriented.

Analytic syllabus is organized in terms of the purposes for

which the learner is learning the language and the kind of
performance that are necessary to meet these purposes. The starting
point for syllabus design is not the grammatical system of the
language but the communicative purpose for which language is
 used. The language and content are drawn from the input and are
selected and graded primarily according to what the learners need
to do the real world communicative task. In the task, linguistic
knowledge that is built through the unit is applied to the solving of
a communicative problem. The content in the analytic syllabus is
defined in terms of situation, topics, items and other academic or
school subjects.

The distinction between the synthetic and analytic syllabus is

that the former views that nature of learning is additive while later
views that the nature of learning is holistic (having regard to the
whole of something rather than just to parts of it.

2. Principles of designing syllabus

Abdous (2008) submits that a well-designed syllabus

provides students with a roadmap for an engaging and successful
learning experience, whereas a poorly designed syllabus impeded
communication between faculty and students, increases student
anxiety and potential complaints, and reduces overall teaching
effectiveness. It means that when the teacher or course does not
have ideal and good syllabus, the goals and objectives of the ELT
will be hard to achieve and the worst effect of bad syllabus is to
make students feel stressed and dont enjoy the language teaching.

Thus, it is important to follow the principles of syllabus

design. Thus, it is important to follow the principles of syllabus
design. Breen in Brumfit (1984:47) submits that the principles of
organization which are applied in the construction of a syllabus are
selection, focus, subdivision and sequencing (or grading). The
selection in syllabus is based on needs analysis and learning goals
of the students. A good syllabus has to have focus to ensure that the
course of ELT can help students to achieve the goals so the process
 of ELT can be in proper track. The subdivision in syllabus is meant
for keeping the materials, task or assessment in the main focus that
is in line for every activities or class proposed. While the
sequencing and grading is meant for keeping students in good
motivation to learn English, it is important for course to ensure that
the materials and task are sequenced and graded to give ease
students in acquire English.

C. DESCRIPTION OF GOLDEN ENGLISH TRAINING SIDOARJO

Golden English Training is located at Sidoarjo. They provide both

EAP and ESP. They provide courses for TOEFL, IELTS, TOEIC for
students that want to have good score in those tests. They also provide
private English for business communication. There have been many
students listed in their sites and there are little description about the class
view. One of the examples of their syllabus is:
 Figure 1. Syllabus of Golden English Training

In their site, its written that the course should be taken in 24

classes and each class has to be in 130 minutes.
D. ANALYSIS
Synthetic syllabus

Figure 2. Synthetic syllabus found in golden English trainings syllabus

The first class that is offered by the Golden English

Training is based on synthetic syllabus where the focus on
grammar. The tenses material proposed by the course is tended to
product-oriented syllabus by seeing the present simple tense,
present continuous tense and so on. If we see that synthetic
syllabus should be step by step, the syllabus given in the course is
not pretty well-sequenced. There is no coherent between one
materials to another material. ELT in synthetic syllabus should be
step by step. If the ideal sequence seen by the course is reading,
writing,
Analytic syllabus

Figure 3. Analytic syllabus found in golden English trainings syllabus

 In the previous section, we have stated that the starting
point for syllabus design is not the grammatical system of the
language but the communicative purpose for which language is
used. The language and content are drawn from the input and are
selected and graded primarily according to what the learners need
to do the real world communicative task. The class proposed by the
Golden English Training in the number 13 to 25 classes are tended
to communicative class where the students might be asked to talk
and then the trainer or teacher will make evaluation on the
pronunciation and the stressing. It is not described clearly what
task that might be in speaking class in 13 to 25 classes but if they
teach directly to communication. This can tend to analytic syllabus.
Although, it is still far from ideal from what analytic syllabus
should be.
Is the syllabus of Golden English Training Ideal?

In reminding the basic principles in constructing syllabus,

there have to be selection, focus, subdivision and sequencing (or
grading). Its clearly seen that there is no sequencing and clear
selection. What makes it chaos is because of the absence of the
goals and objective of the learning that can be called as focus.
There is no main focus seen. If the goal of the course is grammar
ability for students, there should be comprehensive syllabus on the
grammar. Is it learned inductively or deductively? If we see the
syllabus above, it seems that the grammar is taught deductively.

In the selection, sequencing and grading of the syllabus,

Golden English Training seems taking the material randomly
without focus. It is clearly seen from the coherence of the material,
which is bad. If there is supposed to be sequencing, selecting and
grading, it might be in the subdivision of the focuses in the number
 of materials. It is only if there is selecting and grading. The fact is
that there is no subdivision too in this syllabus.

E. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

The syllabus of Golden English Training publish on their official
site is pretty messy. There is no clear draw of focus, goals, and activities.
If it is seen through basic principles of syllabus construction, the syllabus
is far from ideal. There is no grading task, selection and it is just too
random. If we see from the general purpose of this English course where
they also provide ESP in business communication, it is not clearly
described in the syllabus. So, the syllabus of Golden English Training
might be better if:
a. There is clear goal and objectives of the learning
b. They separate EAP and ESP syllabuses
c. There are sequence, selecting and grading materials for both EAP and
ESP
d. There is coherence between one class to another class
e. There is subdivision for each material or focus
f. There is exact time allocation for each subdivision

F. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abdous, M'hammed:He, Wu. 2008. A Design Framework for Syllabus
Generator. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, Old
Dominion University.
Brumfit, Christopher. 1984. General English Syllabus. Oxford. Pergamon
Press
Guga Cotea, Alina. 2012. General Issues in Teaching English for Specific
Purpose. Analele: Universitatii Maritime Constanta.
Nunan, David. 1988. Syllabus Design. Oxford: Oxford University Press