LANGTCHG 740

Language Analysis for Teachers


Please note: this is archived course information from 2023 for LANGTCHG 740.

Description

Whatever approach that language teachers adopt in teaching their classes, it is essential for them to have a good knowledge of the structural system of the language they are teaching, even when they are not formally engaged in giving lessons on grammar or vocabulary or pronunciation. This knowledge is very useful in analysing the kind of errors that learners make and in giving them feedback that will help them to improve their language usage. Native-speaking teachers in particular have often not studied formal grammar as part of their own schooling, so it is important for them to complement their implicit knowledge and intuitions with an explicit framework for analysing linguistic structures.

LANGTCHG 740 is not simply an introductory linguistics course. Although obviously it draws on concepts and classification systems taken from descriptive linguistics, it adopts a pedagogical perspective which gives attention to the kinds of errors that learners make and to aspects of the language system that are often difficult for learners to master.

Course outcomes:

At the end of the course the student should be able to

  • Analyse the key elements and structures of the language
  • Identify the difficulties that learners may have with particular structural aspects of English
  • Discuss strategies for teaching various language forms

Availability 2023

Not taught in 2023

Lecturer(s)

TBA

Points

LANGTCHG 740: 15 points