Sports Syllabus
SAMPLE SYLLABUS – SPORT
WHO IS THIS SYLLABUS FOR?
This Sport syllabus is suitable for second language learners working in the sports industry, who want to improve their competence in the target language, using meaningful real-world contexts relevant to their professional working lives.
Actual course content and training format will be tailor-made after a process of consultation. The sample outline below gives an idea of what may be covered. The language levels are based on the Common European Framework.
SAMPLE COURSE OUTLINE
Level B2-C2 (Intermediate-Advanced Level)
1. Communicative/Thematic content may include:
• Professional and non- professional sports
• Action and extreme sports
• Sporting Goods, equipment, and apparel
• Describing players in action
• Training, fitness and health
• Motivational language
• Match/ game vocabulary
• Dealing with match/ game officials
• Explaining training objectives
• Short term and long term strategies
• News and current events
• Sporting events - values and themes, cultural projects and ceremonies
• Sports Marketing and Sponsorships
• Working in the sporting industry - Team and league jobs, Sports Internships, Athlete Representation - Sports Agent Jobs, Journalism and Broadcasting
• Sports Facilities
• Social interaction
• Professional Development
• Ethics & values
2. Key functional content
• Communication: with team, coaches, manager, press
• Communicating – by phone, email and letter
• Expressing an opinion
• Giving praise
• Planning
• Expressing ideas & opinions
• Making comparisons: sporting trends in different countries
• Conversational strategies: turn-taking, interrupting, clarification and confirmation etc
• Register: formal vs. informal
• Negotiating
• Disagreement & Dissent
• Assigning, accepting & denying blame
• Criticizing with tact
• Summarizing complex information
• Advising colleagues/ clients
• Social language (bars, restaurants)
• Travel
3. Pronunciation
• Key sounds/phonemes
• Word and sentence stress & intonation
• Common Problems
4. Structural Content / Grammar
• Tenses: present & past (walk verb in its base form/ irregular verb walked)
• Perfect aspect: progressive & perfective (be + ing/ have + been past participle)
• Modal Verb structures: use of modals in discourse (I think I may…)
• Imperatives: the base form of the verb typically used to issue orders (stop!)
• Word order
• Building longer sentences
5. Non-thematic Vocabulary
• Complex prepositions: phrasal & mixed types (over & above)
• Linking words: (because, so, however, therefore, etc.)
• Word-building (prefix and suffix patterns)
• Common business related idioms (to pull one’s socks up)
6. Cultural content
• Everyday conventions: greetings, time-keeping, making phone calls, meals, etc
• Body language and gestures
• National traditions/customs & culture
• ‘Do’s & Taboos’
• Intercultural Communication
• Business Culture
• Social Life