Focus on Classrooms: Planning and Supporting Language Learning

Catalog description

Develops a critical awareness of one's teaching practice and highlights instructional planning and classroom interactions with adult English language learners. This course will guide candidates to analyze the interactional patterns and discourse of diverse instructional settings and the factors that impinge upon planning and supporting effective instruction for adult English language learners. Students will: a) examine their own beliefs and knowledge about language learning and language teaching and become aware of the impact of such knowledge and beliefs on instructional practices; b) recognize the highly situated nature of teachers' instructional decisions and practices and develop an awareness of instructional language & classroom discourse that supports English language development; c) devise, select, and/or adapt a wide range of curricular resources to meet the linguistic, social, cultural and educational needs and goals of English language learners; d) develop lesson plans, evaluate curricular units and write teaching objectives; e) connect instruction to local and global activities and problem-solving using the imagination, collaboration, computer and other technological resources. Students will observe several English language instructional settings, recognize instructional models and classroom interactional patterns, review and adapt textbooks, and develop their own materials using authentic language texts. A focus will be on writing clear teaching objectives and lesson plans and the use of new technologies to support adult English language learning. This course is one of four required courses in the Post-Baccalaureate Credit Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).