Eden 213 Spring 2022

Curriculum Design
The Notional/Functional
Approach
The Notional/Functional Approach
A notional-functional approach is concerned with analyzing language in terms
of its communicative uses in specific contexts.
Synthetic approach: Structural Syllabus (synthesize)
Analytic approach: notional/functional (analyze)
● semantic (meaning making) demands determine linguistic content.
What is it that learners communicate through language?
● communicative functions: such as asking for directions, asking for help,
greeting others, and giving personal information.
The Notional/Functional Approach
The Notional/Functional Approach: Definition
Notions and Functions

Idea: transfer functions and notions to acts of communication

Notion: A notion is basically a concept or an idea: quantity, location, time,

size, movement, or emotion.

Example: The notion of time: a competent and effective user of any language
requires an understanding of the notion of time and how it is expressed in a
new language.

Past tense, words and phrases to express time

The Notional/Functional Approach
Notions and Functions
Functions: a language function is a type of communicative act that is used to
achieve a purpose and most often involves at least two people.
● Example language functions include requesting help, giving suggestions,
making promises, and offering apologies.
Context: Context determines the relative importance of specific notions and
functions.
● When context changes, the people, the location, the time, or even the
activity may change, thereby affecting how language is used.
Major Characteristics of a Notional-Functional Approach
● Semantically-based:functional view of language with a focus on doing
something with language as opposed to simply studying language
structure.
● learner centered: starts with learner needs (learning goals, content
selection, the sequencing of content, the methodology chosen, and how
learning is evaluated)
● Authentic language use in context
● Discourse is the basic unit of teaching (instead of sentence forms)
● Fluency over accuracy
Curriculum for a Notional-Functional Approach
Areas of consideration:

(a) the creation of a notional- functional syllabus

(b) the classification of functional categories

(c) the identification of language functions

A Notional-Functional Syllabus
A Notional-Functional Syllabus
Functional Categories
Functional Categories
Language Functions
Designing Instructional Materials
Experienced teachers vs novice teacher?

How do they handle this type of syllabus approach?

● The readiness of teachers to implement any type of curriculum is always a

concern for curriculum designers, and it is one reason why the Curriculum
Design Process (see Table 6.1) includes designing professional
development as a necessary component of curriculum design.
● Textbooks?
Issues in a Notional-Functional Curriculum - Strengths
● it emphasizes the communicative purposes of language, so learners are
introduced to sociocultural situations, as well as grammatical and cultural
knowledge.
● recognizes that there is real purpose for using language
● learners’ needs are at the very core of what is to be taught;
● it is likely that learners will be more motivated to learn than they would be
with a decontextualized approach.
Issues in a Notional-Functional Curriculum - Weaknesses
● it is hard to decide which functions or notions require more coverage or
frequency than others
● it is difficult to determine how to sequence the functions.
● it is not easy to carry out a learner needs analysis in real life.
● it is difficult to conduct a needs analysis with a group of multilingual
learners who have minimal language proficiency in English.
● the grammatical structures that are derived from the functions are not
offered to learners in a systematic order.
The end