Admission requirements
You need to have passed Language Acquisition 1 and Language Acquisition 3.
Description
In this course, the field of language learning as well as language teaching is described. The history of the field, the current situation, as well as future possibilities. The course has a didactic component (teaching methods) but also a theoretical one (theories on how languages are learned). The latter component focuses on the various aspects of language learning: teaching grammar, writing, pronunciation, and the art of presentation.
Course objectives
Students of English Language and Culture are likely to end up in a professional field in which they are expected to teach a second language, help with translations, or perhaps write or edit a text. They may end up in publishing, teaching, journalism, or in the field of translation. These are all fields where second language use is common. Students taking this course benefit from a critical attitude towards language teaching and learning, which is mainly driven by traditional approaches, ideologies, and goals. This course helps students develop such an attitude. In addition, it will help them become modern language teachers, journalists, translators, and editors.
In this course, students study a text that explains theories and methods related to language learning and language teaching, with a strong emphasis on second languages. Furthermore, they attend lectures that present existing research in the field and provide critical analyses of language learning and teaching in a world that is changing. The text and the lectures together teach students to become more aware of the current situation at schools, the public space, and other places where second languages are learned in traditional and less traditional ways, and they learn to think analytically and critically about these.
Students are provided with the analytical tools to notice problems in teaching/learning spaces and generate solutions to solve these problems. They can revisit the way they were themselves taught a second language and reflect on the successes and missed opportunities of the approaches that they were subjected to. Through reflecting independently, students learn to develop a critical attitude on the basis of realities rather then traditional ideologies.
During the course, students need to write a critical research paper in which they combine all the information and insights they were provided and use them to define a problem and provide solutions, which could potentially help understand issues in this field and, consequently, the situation in the postmodern/future classroom.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Lecture (twelve sessions of 45 minutes)
Assessment method
Assessment
Final Multiple-choice Exam (3-hours)
Course Paper
Weighing
Multiple-choice Exam (70%)
Course Paper (30%)
The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average. To pass the course, the weighted average of the partial grades must be 5.5 or higher.
Resit
Students can retake the Multiple-choice Exam (new version) and write a Course Paper (new topic).
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
Cook, Vivian (2016) Second Language Learning and Language Teaching (5th edition). Abingdon: Routledge.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal
Remarks
None.