DELTA?

[fluffyhamster]

Sorry for the delay in responding, TT - it's easy to miss posts on some of the less-frequented forums!

You are aware of the following link
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/v ... php?t=2494

because you posted on a thread where I've already mentioned it ( http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/v ... php?t=2615 ).

I don't think you can beat having good general language (grammar) awareness and staying up on issues in ELT generally, but if the likes of White's The ELT Curriculum isn't enough, then perhaps some of the following books will whet your appetitey more...

There are actually quite a few books on syllabus design and materials development:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 51-2587166 (seems very approachable, but maybe not enough depth ultimately? (Then again, the likes of Munby, or the EU's CEFRL - see below - are a bit daunting!). I should take another look at this book...). There's also:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 51-2587166


There are many books in the following link that could prove interesting even if they are not immediately useful (namely the *Blundell et al, Brown and Yule, *Brumfit and Johnson, Bygate, *Carter and McCarthy, *Carter and Nunan, said Council of Europe thingy, Cowie, Hatch, Hatch and Brown, *Hollet et al, *Howatt, Hughes, Kenworthy, Leech et al, *Lewis, Lightbrown and Spada, *Nation, Nattinger and DeCarrico, *Richards, *Schmitt, *Schmitt and McCarthy, *Tomlinson, Wilberg, Willis, Willis and Willis, and *Yalden, phew!); particularly relevant ones are in bold, super-doopr relevant, in my opinion, bold plus asterix!
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/v ... 2619#12619

I mention several Business English textbooks in the essay that precedes the booklist (take note particularly of the Goodale - I've mentioned him elsewhere on Dave's - use the search function to find out more).

As you will no doubt be able to gather, I think there are strong links (implications, uses, parallels) between vocabulary studies and syllabus design.

The Willis can be downloaded for free from a link in the following thread on task-based learning (not saying you need to adopt a TBL approach):
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/v ... 4749#14749

Lastly, the Woodward book mentioned in the following thread will help you recover from all the above (it's nice and light! LOL):
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/v ... 4749#14749

You can "search inside" it on amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/05216 ... eader-link

There are probably some good courses out there, but like you say, you want tools not a piece of paper, and there is always the risk that the average course won't be equipping you with what you really want and need. Anyway, I hope that somebody with the experience of being pleasantly surprised and impressed by a decent, valuable course gets back to you with some details!