Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the place of English as a world language
• the importance of feeder disciplines (linguistics, applied linguistics, psychology, etc.) to language teaching
• the role of the teacher
• communicative language teaching
• teaching English for specific purposes
• the good language learner
• the nature of needs analysis
• principles of syllabus design

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• plan and organise your own learning schedule
• prepare and deliver oral presentations
• work effectively in a team

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• evaluate a current programme and say whether it meets certain criteria
• describe how the learner’s own approach to the language class affects the learning outcomes
• apply theoretical models to case studies.

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• plan a language programme based on sound pedagogical principles and on an analysis of students’ needs

In this module, you will learn about key issues, concepts and methods involved in teaching English as a second/foreign language. Topics to be covered will range from the broader aspects of the place of English as a world language through more specific teaching issues of the roles of the teacher and learner in the language classroom, the nature of communicative competence and its relationship to communicative language teaching, and programme design and the needs of language students. By the end of the module, you will have a good overview of the field and be in a position to relate your knowledge of the central concerns of teaching and learning to your subsequent study of language.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include

 seminars

 workshops

Learning activities include

 individual study

 preparing presentations and discussions in small groups

 conducting observations/interviews and small research projects

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Harmer, J. (1998). How to teach English. Harlow: Longman.

Crystal, D. (1997). English as a global language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Harmer, J. (2001). The practice of English language teaching. Harlow: Longman.

Graddol, D (1997). The future of English?. London: British Council.

Carter, R. & D. Nunan (2001). The Cambridge guide to teaching English to speakers of other languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Assessment strategy

Assessments designed to provide informal, on-module feedback

 guidance on oral presentations

 discussion of written assignments (in advance and after completion)

Summative

Summative assessment description

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External