Abstract:

The Language Centre, which is part of the University of Defence in Brno, runs English language courses as part of lifelong military education at the elementary (approximately level 1, corresponding to CEFR level A2), intermediate (approximately level 2, corresponding to CEFR level B1), and upper-intermediate (approximately level 3, corresponding to CEFR level B2+/C1) levels. The teachers of English are fully aware of the fact that students are adult learners facing high-stakes language examinations, which may decisively influence their future career prospects. Therefore, they try to modify the existing syllabi of the courses based on their teaching experience, accompanied by a robust emphasis on helping students achieve their desired final exam results at the end of the courses.

As military professionals in other NATO countries are also required to take final examinations, teachers of English in foreign military language institutions encounter similar problems related to the effectiveness of preparation for them. In order to further improve the whole teaching process, we decided to find out how English language syllabi are designed by the workplaces of our international colleagues.

The presented research, focused only on the highest required level, aimed to identify and compare the different approaches to the syllabus design of English language courses currently in use at six military language centres of NATO countries in which the authors maintain professional contacts (the Slovak Republic, Poland, Croatia, Bulgaria, Hungary, and the Czech Republic). The specific research questions focused on who participated in the design of the English language syllabi presently in use as well as on which key aspects of syllabus design the creators took into consideration when compiling the syllabi.

Having considered the research objective and questions, the authors opted for a quantitative approach using a questionnaire as a research instrument to ensure smooth and timely data collection from the respondents. No pre-existing questionnaire suited to their research aims could be found, so one was created.

The results show that the course syllabi are exclusively product-oriented and teacher-led. In almost all workplaces included in the research, in-house teachers worked in teams. The collaborative effort to create syllabi at the various institutions was characterised by mutual trust, open communication, and the creative input of all team members. Course designers in all the studied countries took the learners’ entrance level, previous syllabus, facilities and resources available at the institution, exit requirements, and the length of the course into consideration when creating the syllabi. Overall, the research shows that the syllabi in the studied countries were designed in very similar ways; however, slight differences remain.

Keywords:

Military, language education, syllabus design, empirical research.