Welcome!

This course is designed to assist you in becoming more aware of and practiced in various methods of language teaching so that you will be able to develop and reflect upon your teaching style and the teaching style of others. As you encounter, practice, and reflect upon these methods of language teaching, you will expand and hone your repertoire of teaching techniques and thus become a more effective teacher. Training and development will occur in four areas:

Knowledge: understand a variety of language teaching methods, the philosophy behind them and the techniques associated with them
Awareness: reflect upon one's beliefs in terms of eight important educational questions, evaluate the reasons behind different approaches, methods and techniques in terms of best practices (that is what helps and hinders student learning), and identify which approaches, method and techniques best fit different educational situations
Skills: put into practice different techniques from the various methods
Attitude: appreciate the underlying philosophy behind a method before judging the method so that one can see that no matter how much you dislike the method there is something in every method that could be useful in one's teaching

Course Overview

The goal of this course is twofold. First we will examine our beliefs and actions in a young learner context. Second, we will discuss various methods that are relevant in the young learner context. The rationale is that an understanding and awareness of theory facilitates the development of critical, reflective practice; that is, it helps you develop the ability to evaluate and improve you own teaching practices. To accomplish this you will encounter, practice, and reflect upon a variety of language teaching methods, techniques and strategies and the principles and theories that underlie them.

The text for this course will be pdfs. I will make them available online in the table with the semester schedule.
Additional resources will also be made available online.

Grading Criteria

10% Attendance and Participation
10% Reading Homework
10% Belief Statement
20% Lesson Plan
20% Micro-Teaching
10% Reflection on Micro-teaching
20% Final Learning Statement

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Expectations

Attendance/Participation
Attendance is mandatory: Participants who arrive to class 10 minutes or more after class begins will be considered late. Participants who are late 3 times will receive 1 absence. Any participant who misses 1/4 of all class meetings will receive an F. Mastery of the ideas and concepts of this course requires engagement and discussion. If you are not in class, you miss that opportunity to exchange ideas. Moreover, participation is also essential. Just coming to class is not enough. I expect all participants to be active in class discussion and lectures as well as to complete all oral and written assignments.

Reading Homework
You will have weekly reading on Methods each week, but there will be only 5 graded reading assignments over the course of the semester. These reading don't directly deal with the methods we will be discussing in class, but provide important inforamtion about young learners, activities, and lesson planning.
Week 3: Understanding Young Learners
Week 5: The EIF Framework
Week 7: Games
Week 9: The PDP Framework
Week 11: Task-based Learning Framework

Belief Statement
Reflect on your experience as both a learner and/or a teacher. Think about each question (handout). Write at least one well-developed paragraph for each question (4-5 lines or sentences at least). DO NOT USE RESOURCE MATERIALS. Just tell me what you currently believe about each question. This is DUE WEEK 2.
Write a paragraph for each of the following questions:
1. What is the teacher's role in language learning? What are the students' roles?
2. What are some important characteristics/traits of the teaching / learning process?
3. Describe what the interaction patterns should look like in a lesson plan, and why?
4. How should the feelings of students be dealt with?
5. What is language and how should it be viewed?
6. What is culture and how should it be viewed?
7. What kind of evaluation/assessment should be used and why?
8. How should student errors be handled?

Lesson Plan & Micro-Teaching
Participants will be asked to develop a 15 - 20 minute lesson that applies the theories that they have studied in the class. You will teach your lesson to the class. You will teach it like an actual lesson. DO NOT explain it, just go ahead and teach the lesson as if your classmates were your students. (Micro-Teaching Lesson Plan Template)

Reflection on Microteaching
Use the feedback that you received from your peers and from your trainer to help you reflect on your Micro-Teaching experience. You will answer the three question about the lesson you taught. (Reflection template).

Final Learning Statement
Use the feedback from you belief statemne to re-answer the questions (see below). Your job is to evaluate your original answers, think about the feedback I gave on the original paper and provide better answers and reasons for your beliefs. You will need to submit BOTH your original Class Description and Belief Statement and your Final Learning Statement TOGETHER.
1. What is the teacher's role in language learning? What are the students' roles?
2. What are some important characteristics/traits of the teaching / learning process?
3. Describe what the interaction patterns should look like in a lesson plan, and why?
4. How should the feelings of students be dealt with?
5. What is language and how should it be viewed?
6. What is culture and how should it be viewed?
7. What kind of evaluation/assessment should be used and why?
8. How should student errors be handled?

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Additional Resources

Frameworks
PPP Framework
EIF - ECRIF
Method Classification

Tentative Semester Schedule

This is a tentative schedule because I will adjust the course of study based on your needs. We may spend more time on some aspects an less time on others based on your individual stregnths and weaknesses.

Time	Topic
Week 1	Course Overview - Syllabus - Dicussing Belief Statement Questions in Groups (Workbook Week 1-2)
Week 2	Key Terms - Class Description & Belief Statement Due
Week 3	Critical Period Hypothesis & Immersion - Direct Method introduction (Workbook Week 3-4)
Week 4	DM continued - Sample Lesson (inductive techniques - questioning techniques)
Week 5	Audio-Lingual Method - Park Sample Lesson (aural-oral approach)
Week 6	Workshop on Controlled Games
Week 7	Natural Approach & Comprehensible Input - Introduction to Storytelling Techniques
Week 8	TPR & TPRS (Big Toe TPRS demonstration)
Week 9	Communicative Language Teaching (strong vs. weak)
Week 10	CBI and CLIL
Week 11	Project-based Learning & Task-based Learning
Week 12	Principles Eclecticism & Using Best Practices
Week 13	Review & Microteaching Preparation
Week 14	Microteaching
Week 15	Microteaching
Week 16	Reflection on Micro-teaching & Final Learning Statement Due

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