Volume 19 No. 1 January 2012 TESOL Arabia Perspectives www.tesolarabia.org 23 Feature Articles Considering the fact that the selection and ordering of what is to be taught are of great concern to teachers, a considerable number of syllabi have been proposed in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) to give shape to instruction. These syllabi have been designed in terms of structures, notions, functions, topics, or tasks, to facilitate language learning. Traditional procedures for syllabus design primarily involved the selection and sequencing of integrated linguistic features like grammar and vocabulary as well as notions, functions, and topics. Nevertheless, these approaches to syllabus design were criticized for their failure to satisfy learners’ communicative needs, and also for misrepresenting the process of second language acquisition as linear (Baleghizadeh, 2008). It was not until recently that a range of alternative syllabi were devised, including procedural and task-based, whose focus was primarily on meaning, the learning process, and the learner. In fact, the task-based syllabus has been the latest attempt to tackle the process of language teaching and learning. In a groundbreaking article, Pishghadam (2011) introduced a new type of syllabus which directed English teachers to give priority to life issues rather than language in class. This implies that the language syllabus must be planned according to the principles of the syllabus of life. This is not to suggest that language learning should be ignored in ELT contexts, but that it should not be considered the end product of a language class. Rather, primacy ought to be given to the improvement of learners’ life qualities through the development and application of life syllabi in ELT classes. This study aimed to illuminate the concept of the life syllabus, presenting it as a new research agenda for second/foreign language studies. According to the life syllabus theory, language learners should become empowered in language class to tackle the problems they may encounter in life. In this way, language learning class becomes a site for enhancing life qualities. The following section provides a brief overview of the philosophy behind the notion of “education for life,” followed by an introduction to ELT for life. Education for Life Although a nation’s annual income as measured by the Gross Domestic Product, may be considered an indicator of life quality and well-being, there are numerous other factors which can be looked at and enhanced in order to improve the quality of life. These indicators include social relations, safety, physical health, freedom, human rights, success in marriage, happiness, emotional abilities, job satisfaction, and so on. Education is one area in which such broad factors are dealt with and are supposed to be improved. Accordingly, humanistic educators assert that students should be empowered to lead a good life. In fact, the core principle of humanistic education is that “there is only one subject-matter for education, and that is life in all its manifestations” (Whitehead, 1929, p. 6). That is to say, if the curriculum is to be developed based on life and all of its manifestations, then teaching should not only comprise mathematics, chemistry, or literature, but also emotions, relationships, attitudes, thinking styles, feelings, and states of mind. The importance of life issues in education has been highlighted by educational philosophers such as Dewey (1897), Freire (1998), Krishnamurti (1981), and Walters (1997), who firmly believed that any system of education has an obligation to prepare people for meeting life’s challenges in advance of Life Syllabus: A New Research Agenda in English Language Teaching Reza Zabihi University of Isfahan, Iran Reza Pishghadam Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran