Approaches and Methods for Teaching English

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

• 4. Quality education
• 5. Gender equality

Objectives

• Introducing applied linguistics concepts for foreign language acquisition.
• Improving in English as a foreign language pedagogy by using new teaching materials, as well as project work in Early Childhood Education and Primary School Teaching.
• Considering different methods and their implications on teaching.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes for Early Childhood Education (MEI)

• Create and/or adapt teaching materials. (LO2)
• Adapt the methodologies on the teaching of English to the corresponding educational stage. (LO5)
• Reflect on theories of teaching and learning foreign languages. (LO3)
• Use the necessary strategies for the programming of a didactic unit related to a methodology. (LO5)
• Reflect on different working methods and apply them in the classroom. (LO7, LO8)

Learning outcomes for Primary School Teaching (MEP)

• Create and/or adapt teaching materials. (LO2)
• Adapt the methodologies on the teaching of English to the corresponding educational stage. (LO5)
• Reflect on theories of teaching and learning foreign languages. (LO3)
• Use the necessary strategies for the programming of a didactic unit related to a methodology. (LO5)
• Reflect on different working methods and apply them in the classroom. (LO7, LO8)

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 processes for assessment of learning, individually and in groups, through techniques and strategies of teaching observation and documentation.
• Manage and promote teaching and learning processes through tutoring in the early childhood classroom in a climate of tolerance and affective communication.
• Manage learning spaces in contexts of diversity and inclusion, taking into account the needs arising from disorders and learning difficulties, in order to establish appropriate guidelines for intervention in collaboration with other services, professionals and families.
• 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.

Basic skills

• Students have developed the learning skills necessary to undertake further studies with a high degree of independent learning.

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. Motivation
   1. Interdisciplinary projects
   2. Emotion, creativity, interest
2. Theories and approaches
   1. The Grammar-Translation Method
   2. The Phonetic Method
   3. The Direct Method
   4. The Audio-Lingual Method
   5. Community Language Learning
   6. Suggestopedia
   7. The Silent Way
   8. Total Physical Response
   9. The Natural Approach
   10. Self-access
   11. Task-based learning
3. What to teach. Ways and means
   1. Visual materials
   2. Recorded materials
   3. Uses of the blackboard and the digital board
   4. Realia
   5. Digital and online resources. Technology
   6. Testing
4. The error friendly classroom

Evaluation

Students will be regularly assessed by the instructor with practice tests and class activities.

The assessment will include:

• Exam (45%)
• Writing a paper related to one of the methods presented in class (20%)
• Implementing a method through different ways and means along with schoolchildren (20%)
• Watching a film (15%)

The students are required to get a pass mark 5 in all the exams and activities to be able to pass the subject. The students must sit all the exams and hand in all the essays during the year in order to have the chance of a second sitting.

The students are allowed to hand in the tasks a second time during the "closing week". They can resit the exams on the "recuperation week" in January.

Assessment will account not only for theoretical knowledge but also for the English language level, according to an established rubric given to the students at the beginning of the year.

It will not be allowed to resit exams or hand in papers to improve the mark.

It will be required to pass every single assessed element with a 5. The students who fail any of the different elements either during the year or in the "recuperation week", will have to repeat the subject.

The students will be required to attend to both Monday STD sessions (Directed Training Sessions) from 8.30h to 11.30h, for 6 sessions throughout the term. These sessions form part of the School-University programme. The unattendance to these sessions will imply a failure of the subject.

Methodology

In order to achieve the course objectives and competencies, it is essential on the part of the students to attend all class sessions regularly and submit the required tasks following the recommendations and deadlines of the instructor. Since the flipped classroom approach will be used, the student will be asked to prepare all the required tasks before attending the sessions. The autonomy of the student is thus, essential.

This subject forms part of the School-University program, so the University students will practice along with schoolchildren coming at the UVic premisses.

The subject will follow a blended model:

• A theoretical part, on foreign language acquisition and how to teach English as a foreign language in Early Years and in Primary.
• A practical part, where the student will consider the different teaching methods and the ways and means to use them, that will take place in class with schoolchildren. 

The students will read articles related to the different methods and will prepare a session that will implement in class with schoolchildren.

Bibliography

Key references

• Brown, S., Larson-Hall, J. (2012). Second Language Acquisition Myths. University of Michigan.
• Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching Languages to Young Learners. Cambridge University Press.
• Cook, G. (2003). Applied Linguistics. Oxford University Press.
• Enever, J. (2015). Teaching English to Young Learners: Critical Issues in Language Teaching with 3-12 Years old. Bloomsbury Academic.
• Read, C. (2020). 101 Tips for Teaching Primary Children. Cambridge.

Further reading

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