The Fundamentals of English Language Teaching

The course is comprised of two compulsory sections:
1. The Fundamentals of ELT Methodology
2. Lesson observations and reflective analysis

1.
Principles of language learning and teaching (cognitive, affective, linguistic).
Fundamental Concepts of ELT Methodology.
- Communicative competence and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
- A paradigm shift (from teacher-centredness to learner-centredness).
- Distinction between L1 terms & L2 terms (implications for teaching).
- Bilingualism, multilingualism, plurilingualism.
- Learning vs. acquisition.
Learner-/learning-centred teaching.
- Learner variables/characteristics: motivation, aptitude, age, learning styles and strategies, multiple intelligence theory, etc.
- Attitudes to errors and error correction strategies. Interlanguage.
Class management (different interaction patterns: lockstep, pairwork, groupwork, individual work).
Developing language skills and subskills:
- teaching listening
- teaching reading
- teaching speaking
- teaching writing
- teaching and learning vocabulary
- teaching and learning grammar
- The integration of skills.
A hierarchical system: techniques, methods & approaches.
- Language teaching methods (principle features): grammar-translation method, direct method, audiolingual method, oral-situational method; communicative approach.
- A short historical sketch of language teaching.
- The notion of methods and the break with the method concept. Principled eclecticism.
Exploring theories of language learning (e.g. Krashen’s Monitor Model).

2.
The student teachers will be provided with experience and practice in selecting an observation focus and appropriate observation tool (i.e. task) for observing lessons. With the help of observation tasks, the trainees will learn how to observe different aspects of a lesson: the structure of a language lesson (opening, sequencing, pacing, closure), the lesson content, the aims of the lesson, the use of teaching aids, learner level, checking learning, managing interactive patterns, the teacher’s rapport with the students, student talking time vs. teacher talking time, asking questions, the skill of eliciting, dealing with errors, the use of the mother tongue, etc.