The Perfect Syllabus

on Tuesday, October 2, 2012
For language teachers (well, at least for me) the words "perfect syllabus" sound mystical, as if from inside the pages of a fairy tale or a magical quest. In fact, the perfect syllabus may indeed be compared to the linguists' Holy Grail or Fountain of Youth.
So, the question arises: is it real? Or otherwise, can it actually be created. I, for one, have developed a fancy in this topic and lean towards the affirmative. Simply put, the study of language, Linguistics, is only a few decades old and is now only beginning to reach a juvenile age. I believe that there is still much to learn, and much to discover about languages, in particular the English language.
One person, who's views I have become acquainted with, is Manfred Pienemann. Again, since Linguistics is so relatively new, we can genuinely say that he is at the forefront of a great discovery. In a nutshell, his research indicates that the English language is learned in stages, and that all students pass through the same stages when learning English; these stages include correct utterances as well as interlanguage and many errors. For more information see the document titled Second Language Acquisition: A First Introduction by Manfred Pienemann.
At the moment, I am acquiring more of Pienemann's works as well as researching what other Linguists have to say in regards to his studies. But, I believe that this is definitely a great stepping stone towards discovering the perfect syllabus.
If you have read Pienemann's studies and have some input, please comment below. Or if you have your own theories regarding a perfect syllabus please do not hesitate to comment.I am eager to know your thoughts.
Cheers!

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