MA TESOL / Course details

Year of entry: 2024

Course unit details:
Language Awareness for TESOL

Course unit fact file
Unit code EDUC70151
Credit rating 15
Unit level FHEQ
Teaching period(s) Semester 1
Available as a free choice unit? Yes

Overview

This unit aims to develop awareness and knowledge of different aspects language itself, language in use, and learner language, of relevance to teachers of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL).

 

Aims

To develop awareness and knowledge of different aspects of language itself, language in use, and learner language, of relevance to teachers of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL).

Syllabus

This course unit introduces the participants to a number of themes focused on language, each of which has a particular relevance to language teachers and TESOL. The themes may vary somewhat from year to year, but will typically include:

Theme 1: The Elements of Language: Vocabulary and Lexis

· What does it mean to “know” a word?

· Lexis and Formulaic Language

Theme 2: The Structure of Language: Grammar

· Pedagogical grammar (form versus meaning)

· Cognitive and Functional Grammar

Theme 3: The Sounds of Language: Phonetics and Phonology

· The sounds of speech

· Suprasegmental features

· Accent

Theme 4: Learner Language: Interlanguage

· Error Analysis

· The Interlanguage Hypothesis

Theme 5: Language In Context: The Genre of Academic English

· Genres, stylistics and cohesion

· Intertextuality & academic writing

Teaching and learning methods

  

Each theme is covered by two lectures. The lecturers will consist of whole-class lecture input, interactivity provided by technological feedback tools, group work to deepen participants’ engagement and knowledge, as well as opportunities for Q&A.

Each theme culminates in an individual or group task, and a report on this task in the Blackboard virtual learning environment. The task will focus on aspects of language, language use, and/or language change, as informed by the participants own professional experience, and as specified by the focus of each theme. The tasks may, among other, involve reporting on professional experience, and small-scale descriptions/analyses of language data. The tasks will also engage the participants with up-to-date technological tools for describing and analyzing language. Participants will give feedback, as per guidance provided by the course unit tutors, on other students’ reports.

The participants will be expected to complete two hours of directed reading before each lecture, and a further two hours of independent study/reading each week. In addition, for each theme, students should expect to do around 10 hours of work on an individual or group task, the reporting on this task in Blackboard, and giving feedback to other students’ reports. The final assignment (see section 5) is expected to take an additional 33 hours of independent work.

Knowledge and understanding

Demonstrate awareness and knowledge of aspects of language itself, language in use, and learner language of relevance to teachers of English to speakers of other languages;

Demonstrate familiarity with key theories and literatures focused on approaches to language itself, language in use, and learner language;

Structure the writing and presentation of small scale reports, and a final written assignment.

 

 

 

 

 

Intellectual skills

Purposefully critique published perspectives on language itself, language in use, and learner language:

Understand key concepts used to describe aspects of language itself, language in use, and learner language

Process and present information in an appropriate format.

 

Practical skills

Effectively contribute to debates about language itself, language in use, and learner language of relevance to teachers of English to speakers of other languages;

Make effective use of software technologies for describing and analyzing language itself, language in use, and learner language;

Conduct purposeful literature review to support own academic writing.

 

 

Transferable skills and personal qualities

Conceptual and analytical skills.

Information handling.

Group working.

Employability skills

Analytical skills
Group/team working
Innovation/creativity
Oral communication
Written communication

Assessment methods

Method Weight
Other 20%
Report 80%

Participation in the five tasks, including submitting these tasks in Blackboard, and offering feedback to others in Blackboard, will be assessed, and will receive a 20% weighting in the final mark of the course unit. This is an assessment of participation (as informed by a parallel assessment by the tutor(s) of whether the relevant participation reaches a minimum threshold of effort and quality). 1000 Equivalent

The final assignment asks the participants to further develop one of their five task-reports (see section 4), thereby focusing their independent work towards the assignment on one of the five themes of the course unit. This final assignment is written, and receives an 80% weighting in the final mark for the course unit. 2500 Words.

Feedback methods

Participants are provided with formative feedback via tutorials during the course unit. Both oral and written feedback will be given to students on group assignments. Written feedback is also provided to students on the submitted final assignment.

Recommended reading

 

Andrews, S. (2007). Teacher language awareness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ellis, R. & Barkhuizen, G. (2005). Analysing learner language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Keck, C. (2012). Corpus linguistics in language teaching. The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics

Han, Z., & Tarone, E. (2014). Interlanguage : forty years later. John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Carr, P. (2019). English phonetics and phonology : an introduction (Third edition.). Wiley Blackwell.

Munro, M. (2008) Foreign accent and speech intelligibility. In Hansen, E. J. G., & Zampini, M. L. (Eds.). Phonology and second language acquisition. John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Nation, P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

O'Keefe, A., McCarthy, M., & Carter, R. (2007). From corpus to classroom: Language use and language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Park-Johnson, S. & Shin, S. (2020) Linguistics for Language teachers. Routledge.

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures 22
Practical classes & workshops 50
Tutorials 1
Work based learning 22
Independent study hours
Independent study 55

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Juurd Stelma Unit coordinator
Edmund Aspbury-Miyanishi Unit coordinator

Additional notes

 

 

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