THEORIES OF LANGUAGE EDUCATION

The course is one of the main activities of the degree course in Language Sciences which contributes towards building up students’ knowledge and understanding of the main principles in the field of the teaching of foreign languages. The goal of the course is to develop knowledge and understanding about Language Education and its most recent developments in Europe (and Italy) and to promote the ability to critically analyse specific situations so as to allow students to develop those competences that will allow them to autonomously elaborate well-founded and original foreign language teaching proposals (mini paths) suitable for different typologies of students and be able to present these appropriately using English.

The student will acquire knowledge and awareness of the concept of plurilingual language education and of its evolution overtime in order to grasp its ever-growing complexity in today’s globalised and international society.

Knowledge and understanding
The student will acquire knowledge and understanding regarding: the historical origins of language education in Europe and Italy; language education today: changing situations, new orientations – CLIL, intercomprehension, language(s) in and for education, formal, informal and non-formal language education; curriculum issues in the creation of integrated plurilingual language education programmes.

Applying knowledge and understanding
The student will acquire skills to elaborate foreign language curricula/learning units which take into account: the different language skills; the learning objectives; the learners/school levels; the languages involved; the different language teaching approaches possible, the learning context.

Making judgements
The student will know how make informed and autonomous judgements as to the validity and feasibility of different proposals for foreign language teaching and understand the effects of these on language learning outcomes.

Communication skills
The student will be able to communicate clearly and unambiguously his reasoning, his opinions and ideas.

Basic knowledge in Language teaching methodology/language education.
Those without any previous basic knowledge of Language Teaching Didactics can consult the video lessons and relative self-assessment sheets on the site of the MEAL project: www.unive.it/meal.
For non-Italian speakers a document of introductory reading is available on the Moodle platform of the course.
Competence in English (preferably B2 level)

A variety of topics will be covered: the historical development of the concept of Language Education in Italy and Europe; current European policy with respect to Language Education; programmes of language education for the development of plurilinguism: Language Awareness; Eveil aux langues; Intercomprehension; Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and Language Across the Curriculum (LAC). Curriculum issues and plurilingual language education: planning and development of language skills – instruments and methods.

Main references

Aase, L. (2006) Aims in the Teaching/Learning of Language(s) of Education (LE), Strasbourg, Language Policy Division, Council of Europe.*
Council of Europe, Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, Strasbourg, Language Policy Unit, Council of Europe.*
AA.VV. (2009) Language as subject, Languages in Education. Languages for Education, Language Policy Division, Council of Europe.*
Fleming, M. (2006) The Teaching of Language as School Subject: Theoretical Influences, Language Policy Division, Strasbourg, Council of Europe.*
Fleming, M. (2010), The Aims of Language Teaching and Learning, Strasbourg, Language Policy Division, Council of Europe.*
van den Akker, J., Fasoglio, D., Mulder H. (2008), A curriculum perspective on plurilingual education, SLO, Netherlands institute for curriculum development.*
Richards, J. (2013), “Curriculum Approaches in Language Teaching: Forward, Central, and Backward Design”, RELC Journal, 44,1.*
Nunan, D (1988), The learner-centred curriculum: a study in second language teaching, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Further reading

Aase, L., Fleming, M., Ongstad, S., Pieper, I., Samihaian, F. (2009) Writing, Strasbourg, Language Policy Division, Council of Europe.*
Aase, L., Fleming, M., Ongstad, S., Pieper, I., Samihaian, F. (2009) Reading, Strasbourg, Language Policy division, Council of Europe.*
Grellet F. ( 1990) Developing reading skills : a practical guide to reading comprehension exercises, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Hawkins, E. (1999), “Foreign Language Study and Language Awareness”, Language Awareness, 8, 3, July 1999.*
Sheils, J. (1993), Communication in the Modern Language Classroom, Council for Cultural Cooperation, Strasbourg, Council of Europe Press.*
Svalberg, A. (2007), “Language awareness and language learning”, Language Teaching, 40, 04, October 2007 (Published online: 07 September 2007).*
Vandergriff, I. (2016), Second-language discourse in the digital world: linguistic and social practices in and beyond the networked classroom, Amsterdam, John Benjamins Publishing Company.*
Vollmer, H. (2006), Language Across the Curriculum Strasbourg, Language Policy Division, Council of Europe.*

*Those publications marked by an asterisk will be made available on the Moodle platform of the Course.

The exam is made up of two parts:
- Paper (tesina) (50%)
- Written exam* (50%)

* Throughout the period of emergency, the written exam will be transformed into an oral exam.

The student must reach 18/30 on each part.
The student can only sit the written part of the exam if s/he has already handed in the paper/tesina.
The student can keep the mark of one part of the exam and re-sit the other part of the exam if this was not passed or the mark is refused

Added to the final mark:
Attendance on-line lessons: 5 lessons (done within the time indicated) for a maximum of 2 marks (0,4 marks for each lesson)

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The paper, a maximum of 8 pages, aims to assess the ability to elaborate an original language education path for a given group of students with specific characteristics. It also aims to assess the student’s written argumentative skills.
Criteria for assessment 1. Pertinence (with respect to the question being answered) 2. Originality, suitability and feasability of didactic proposal 3. Suitability of explanations in support of the proposal 4. Organisational aspects of paper (n° pp., bibliographic references, table of contents)

The written exam, made up of 11 multiple choice questions and 10 open questions, aims to assess knowledge and understanding of developments in the field of language education.

The forum-lessons focus on developing awareness of problems and on developing skills in elaborating language teaching proposals

Mixed: the Course is blended, asynchronous: 5 lessons are delivered on-line. The students will be required participate actively in the class discussions and in the on-line forums.

English

Those who do not attend lessons are kindly requested to contact the lecturer to receive the access key to the Moodle platform of the course where all the materials used during the lessons are to be found: carmel.coonan@unive.it, writing as subject: ACCESS KEY

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development