同学们，本栏目是对你们学过的知识和生活中常见问题的归纳。其中，有一些共性问题，也许你会需要哦！

让我来帮你解决常见问题！

Question1: What are the advantages and defects of the structural syllabus?

Answer:

The structural syllabus has its advantages and defects. Its advantage is that it is economical. Learning a limited set of rules can lead to production of a very large number of sentences. Its serious defect lies in the fact that sentences are units of linguistic analysis but not of natural language use. Although learners may be able to construct grammatical sentences, they are often at a loss in real situations, wondering what it is appropriate to say.

Question2: Give a brief introduction of the communicative syllabus.

Answer:

In the early 1970s, the theory of communicative competence was proposed by DII Hymes. Functional linguists and pragmatists began to exert a stronger influence in the study of language. Since then communicative views of language teaching have been the foundation of syllabus design. The central question for proponents of a communicative was: “what does the learner need/want to do with the target language?” syllabi began to appear in which content was specified, not only in terms of the grammatical element, but also in terms of the functional items students would need to master in order to communicate successfully. The starting point in designing a communicative syllabus is the analysis of learner’s needs.

Question3: What are the roles that the teacher needs to fulfill in communicative language teaching?

Answer:

In communicative language teaching, the teacher needs to fulfill at least the roles of communicator. The teacher communicates with the students in the target language. His /her His/her proficiency in the language is absolutely a pre-requisite in fulfilling the role of communicator. At the same time, he/she sets the students a model in using the target language. The younger the learners are, the more important the role of model is. He/she is a designer of the tasks and activities that engage the students, and he/she is an organizer of these. Finally, he/she diagnoses students’ errors and problems in the process of learning and gives advice accordingly.