Licence - Seminars

Outline of programme

Students will be asked to look at class-room text-books of different levels and by different authors. They will be expected to compare the different levels, and to try to identify whether there is a progression from one level to the next, and to compare the different approaches in the light of the Official Instructions (IO).

Week 1 :

Introduction. We will open by giving students an opportunity to ask any questions they may have about the course. Students will then be asked to talk about how they learned their FL(s) - in school class-rooms, through visits to other countries, through conversations with native speakers, listening to the radio, watching films and so on. How did teachers help them, and how did they help themselves to acquire the language.

Work-groups will be formed, and students will begin to reflect on their seminar project.

Students may find it useful to read one or two chapters of Earl Stevick's book on successful language learning, Success with Foreign Languages, which can be found here

 

Week 2 :

Lesson Structure. This week we will begin to look at how to construct a learning sequence. You will need to consult the IO, which will provide you with the objectives that pupils are expected to achieve at each different level, and which give you some idea of how to set about achieving them.

At the end of the seminar, students should be able to give an account of the three main objectives ; using language, thinking about language, and understanding other cultures. They should be beginning to reflect upon how to include the three objectives in their learning sequence.

Students may compare the Ed Nat objectives for foreign languages with those of another state by clicking here.

 

Week 3 :

Planning a project. Members of each group will have looked at a specific text-book, consulting the outline of the programme as it has been conceived by the book's authors. They will present the book to other members of the group, and attempt to see how well it fits in with the three main objectives.

We will look at the concepts underlying the Functional Approach to language teaching and how it is related to the Spiral Curriculum. With this in mind, students will return to the text-books and discuss whether they do or do not help the teacher to implement a spiral curriculum. Work-groups will attempt to apply what they have learnt to the construction of their project.

 

Week 4 :

The Four Skills. Students will have sought material in a variety of text-books which relate to the objectives targeted in their projects. Groups will discuss using the different material, and begin to make a selection.

We will look at the Four Skills - Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. Students will see how each of these is addressed in the text-books they have looked at, and what kinds of activities are proposed. Work-groups will begin to see how the material they have collected can be used for the different kinds of activities, and how they intend to cover the four skills in their project.

 

Week 5 :

Evaluation. In this seminar we will consider how to test whether pupils are acquiring what is being taught to them. We will need to consider what testing is for, and who it is for. How do we distinguish between testing done before, during and after each learning sequence? How do we test each of the four skills?

Work-groups will be asked to consider how they intend to test whether the objectives they have targeted have been achieved or not.

 

Week 6 :

Grammar and Language. How do pupils acquire the grammatical structures that they need in order to communicate? Working from the IO, and the concept of PRL (Pratique Raisonnée de la Langue) we will consider what kinds of classroom exercises can aid young people to assimilate and use the grammar of English.

Students will study the text-books to see what kind of exercises are used by the authors to target the acquisition of grammar. They will consider whether these exercises do, in fact, follow the aims of the IO. Work-groups will plan how to include opportunities for the acquisition of grammatical structure in their project.

 

Week 7 :

Culture and Language. What do we mean by culture, and how can we help pupils investigate and understand both cultural differences and cultural similarities? Students will examine and present the ways in which culture is dealt with in the text-books, in the light of what the IO say about 'cultural benchmarks'.

Work-groups will see that they have integrated the study of culture into their project. Some time will be given to an exchange between the different groups ; students will be asked to present their projects as they stand to members of other groups.

 

Week 8 :

Using the Language : pupils are held to be learning a foreign language in order to use it. We shall consider what this means about classroom practice ; how can we set up and have pupils carry out activities which involve meaningful use of English? Students will need to consider what is meant by the 'communication gap', and will see whether they can find any genuinely communicative activities in the text-books they have been using.

Work-groups will ensure that the activities that they put forward in their project aim at both preparing pupils for meaningful use of language and allowing them to engage in such use.

 

Week 9 :

Listening to English. What strategies do people use when listening to a foreign language? What kind of language should we expect pupils to listen to? Under what conditions should they be listening, and what activities should accompany the listening itself? Students should consider and evaluate the listening activities they find in the text-books, and should examine closely the activities that they will implement in their projects.

The first set of micro-teaching exercises will take place during this seminar.

 

Week 10 :

Speaking English. We will examine the different approaches that teachers use in order to get their pupils to speak the language : repetition, guided production, free expression. Oral production in full-class, group-work or pair-work will be considered. Work-groups will ensure that they have provided opportunities for both controlled and free production in the course of their project, bearing in mind the whys and wherefores of talk in an FL class.

There will be another session of micro-teaching during this seminar.

 

Week 11 :

Reading English. We will look at reading both as a learning activity (how pupils may learn language through texts) and as a skill - or rather a set of skills - to be acquired. Students will think about skimming, scanning, reading to learn and reading for pleasure. (Françoise Grellet's 'Developing Reading Skills' will be of use here)

There will be a third session of micro-teaching during this seminar.

 

Week 12 :

Writing English. Probably the most difficult of the four skills to master. Students will follow the progression in written work expected of pupils at the different levels, and will look at the different kinds of exercise that pupils are to carry out.

We will conclude with a look back at what we have discovered over the last twelve weeks, and what practical lessons we may draw from our experience for classroom language teaching.

Here are some useful links for Language teachers :

FLTeach, a Web-site and discussion list for (mainly) American Foreign Language teachers is here. I don't advise you to join the list until you have had a look through the archives - Americans, who may be on-line 24 hrs a day, have a different way of using e-mail. But look for the notes for new teachers by Marilyn Baruetta which give good sensible practical advice to anyone who is taking classes for the first time.

E.L. Easton's 'The Language Classroom' is at http://eleaston.com/methods123.html

Si vous avez des suggestions ou des questions, vous pouvez me contacter à tmason@timothyjpmason.com