Course syllabus

SEMESTER 2, 2017
Course Information

• Course convenor and Lecturer 
  

Associate Prof Tan Bee Tin 

• Course delivery format

weekly lectures

tutorials (only in some weeks: week 3, week 5, week 10, week 11) 

(Timetable and room details can be viewed on Student Services Online)

Summary of Course Description              

Description

This course aims to develop a critical understanding of principles and practices of teaching a second/foreign language in various contexts with a particular focus on teaching language systems and skills. Various issues and puzzles related to language teaching explored include:

• How are language teachers’ practices (or what we regard as "good practices") shaped by different sets of principles and ideas? Where do those ideas about language teaching/learning practices come from?
• What are the various diverse social contexts in which language teaching takes place and what effect might it have on our language teaching practices?
• What cognitive processes are we also developing when we teach language and how might they contribute to language learning?
• What affective aspects need to be taken into account when conducting a language lesson? How do we stimulate students’ interest in language learning? (e.g. How do we help students who don’t like reading become interested in reading in a language classroom?)

 By the end of this course students will be able to

1. describe principles involved in teaching language systems and skills
2. explain the rationale behind language teaching activities and tasks
3. develop a critical awareness of various language teaching practices and theories proposed in the field of language teaching

Assessment in this course is a series of activities and tasks related to various aspects of language teaching (sociocultural, cognitive and affective aspects). Those activities could help not only with your future career as a language teacher but also with some presentation skills - transferable to not just teaching but also non-teaching related tasks.

Course teaching format

The course is taught through a combination of lectures, group discussions and group presentations in class. In addition to regular participation in all classes, students are required to arrange meetings in small groups with the lecturer for their presentations on topics related to various aspects of language teaching.

Course outcomes

A student who successfully completes this course will have the opportunity to:

• acquire knowledge of and apply it to various language teaching situations
• understand and carry out language teaching and oral presentations in an interesting and effective manner 
• acquire skills in report writing, critical thinking,  academic literacy and oral presentation

Weekly Topics

Prescribed Texts:

Recommended Texts:

Workload:

The University of Auckland's expectation on 15-point courses, is that students spend 10 hours per week on the course. Students manage their academic workload and other commitments accordingly. Students attend two hours of lectures each week and participate in a one-hour tutorial in some weeks (tutorials will be announced later).

Deadlines and submission of coursework:

Deadlines for coursework are non-negotiable. In extreme circumstances, such as illness, you may seek an extension but you will be required to provide a doctor's certificate before the assignment is due. All late assignments without a pre-approved extension will be penalised (see the course outline for further instructions).

Further details about the course will be available later (one week before the semester begins).