English I

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

• 4. Quality education

Objectives

The course aims to deepen and broaden students' existing language skills through ongoing exposure to authentic written and oral materials, and systematic reflection on language usage.

The specific objectives of this subject are to:

• Develop lexical competence to express a range of ideas about social and cultural issues.
• Enhance grammatical competence to prevent interference in communication encounters.
• Promote strategies for students to monitor and enhance their own language skills.
• Promote sociolinguistic competence.
• Develop students' autonomy as learners.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes for Early Childhood Education

• Use appropriate strategies to express themselves, orally and in writing, in English. (LO4)
• Use grammatical structures and vocabulary that are appropriate to an academic context. (LO4, LO5)
• Understand and contrast elements of the vocabulary and grammar of the English language. (LO4)
• Write various kinds of text using appropriate registers. (LO6)

Learning outcomes for Primary School Teaching

• Use appropriate strategies to express themselves, orally and in writing, in English. (LO8)
• Use grammatical structures and vocabulary that are appropriate to an academic context. (LO4, LO5)
• Understand and contrast elements of the vocabulary and grammar of the English language. (LO5)
• Write various kinds of text using appropriate registers. (LO7)

Competencies

Specific skills

• Design and plan learning environments and sequences that enable development of the curriculum through adaptation of materials and promotion of play.
• Design, plan and assess teaching proposals for different areas of the curriculum, consistent with theories of learning and encouraging cooperative work.
• Develop and adapt educational resources for different curricular purposes, using information and communication technology as basic tools for learning.
• Develop processes for assessment of learning, individually and in groups, through techniques and strategies of teaching observation and documentation.
• Promote language learning in early childhood education and in multilingual environments through strategies and resources to promote literary sensitivity and communication skills.
• Promote the development of global communicative competence in multilingual contexts by using different strategies and linguistic and literary resources.

Core skills

• Exercise active citizenship and individual responsibility with a commitment to the values of democracy, sustainability and universal design, through practice based on learning, service and social inclusion.
• Use oral, written and audiovisual forms of communication, in one's own language and in foreign languages, with a high standard of use, form and content.

Content

1. Rethinking the concept of 'correctness' in English
2. Identifying (and correcting) personal and collective common errors
3. Re-examining some of the things students are taught about the language
4. Examining English as it is used, in various oral and written registers
5. Developing strategies for ongoing autonomous learning
6. Oral and written reception and production
7. Group work: preparing a 'teaching session'

Evaluation

This course is continuously assessed. Students will carry out various tasks inside and outside the classroom that will be graded. All assessed tasks MUST BE PASSED before the student will be awarded a final mark.

This final mark will be calculated in the following way:

• 2 exams: 25% each
• 2 pieces of individual coursework: 10% each
• Groupwork: 20%
• Active participation in class: 10%

Methodology

This course aims to improve the students' communication skills, and therefore the methodology will be interactive and student oriented. Attending regularly and completing all the tasks on time is essential to achieve the course objectives. Students can refer to the course programme which will be provided during the first few weeks of the course.

The course will be taught entirely in English.

Bibliography

Key references

• '-' (2022). Merriam Webster Dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/
• '-' (2022). Oxford Learners Dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/
• Bragg, M. (2003). The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language. Retrieved from https://books.google.es/books/about/The_Adventure_of_English.html?id=bvVtJTdHfbAC&redir_esc=y
• Kolln, Gray & Salvatore (2015). Understanding English Grammar (10 ed.). Pearson.
• Łyda & Szcześniak (2013). Awareness in Action: The Role of Consciousness in Language Acquisition: Second Language Learning and Teaching. Retrieved from https://books.google.es/books/about/Awareness_in_Action.html?id=NsB7mwEACAAJ&redir_esc=y

Further reading

Teachers will provide complementary bibliography and compulsory reading throughout the course via the Virtual Campus.