Learning and Teaching Languages

Description

This is a 30-credit 0.25 EFTS Level 8 course, running from November – February. This course is suitable for language teachers or those who plan to teach languages, especially those who are teaching English as a second or foreign language or other languages without having a specialist language teaching qualification, or those who qualified long ago or in a very different kind of educational system.

There will be real-time meetings in class on campus and online at 4:00 - 5:30 pm on Tuesday.  

Key contents are:
• Critical exploration of contemporary approaches to instructed language acquisition
• Critical reading and evaluation of recent research in language teaching and language pedagogy
• Language teaching theories and principles
• Syllabus design and lesson planning
• Focus on form verses focus on forms
• Teaching and assessing vocabulary, speaking, listening, writing and reading
• Task-based language learning and integrated skills
• Language testing and assessment
• Individual factors affecting language learning
• Language teacher professional development
• Critical examination of teaching materials


Learning Outcomes
On a completion of the course students will be able to:
• Analyse and evaluate research in the field of learning and teaching of languages in order to identify pedagogical, cultural and social issues involved in language learning and/or teaching
• Demonstrate advanced knowledge of current thinking in instructed learning and teaching of languages
• Critically evaluate resources used in the learning and teaching of languages
• Integrate knowledge of a target language with knowledge about learning and teaching languages to effectively plan and evaluate teaching and assessment of that language for a particular educational setting
• Explain and demonstrate successful language teaching strategies in the context of a specific language teaching curriculum