Which term refers to a syllabus organized around general areas of meaning used in most grammars, such as frequency, location, duration and possibility?

• A. Notional Syllabus
• B. Deixis
• C. Phoneme
• D. Polysemy

Answer: (A)

This question tests understanding of organizing a syllabus by semantic notions—meanings or functions that language expresses—rather than by grammatical form. When a course is built around notions like frequency, location, duration, and possibility, it aims to teach language through the ideas these notions convey and how they’re used in real communication. This is exactly what a Notional Syllabus does: it groups content by meaning to help learners express and interpret language in context.

Deixis, on the other hand, deals with context-dependent reference (this/that, here/there), not a whole syllabus organized around broad meanings. Phoneme is a unit of sound, and polysemy is when a word has multiple related meanings. Those concepts describe different linguistic ideas, not a syllabus organized around semantic notions.