Introduction to Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Young Learners

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Introduction to Teaching English as a Foreign
Language to Young Learners
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Teaching English as a Foreign Language

• Those who can, do
• Those who cant, teach
• Those who cant teach,
• . . . do pedagogy

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Context . . .

• English as a Modern Language
• Modern language as opposed to Classical languages
  (Latin, Greek)?
• Part of Humanities (literature, the arts,
  history)?

• English as a Foreign Language
• Foreign language as opposed to native language
  (e.g., French)?
• Part of Linguistics (study of language) and
  Social Sciences (education, psychology)?

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Goals
EFL
Modern Language

• Study High Culture of English language
• Read English literature
• Learn about English-speaking civilisations
• Learn about English linguistics and phonetics

• Acquire the English language
• Understand contemporary usage
• Speak and write English (productive skills)?
• Use English fluently and accurately

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• Etudes anglophones
• Learning about English
• Studying High Culture
• Studying the language through
• literary criticism
• translation
• grammatical analysis
• pronunciation rules

• EFL
• Learning to use English
• Studying samples of contemporary language
• Acquiring the language through communication as
  opposed to explicit learning of grammatical
  rules, for example

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EFL, FLE . . .

• EFL (English as a Foreign Language) is like FLE
  (Français langue étrangère)?
• Both belong to the discipline of Linguistics
• Both use tools not of English studies, but social
  science fields such as psychology and education
• Both are concerned with how languages are
  learned, and so how they are taught

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Why should I care?

• If I understand how languages work, and how they
  are learned, I can become a better language
  learner
• I might like to teach languages in the future
  (primary, secondary, private EFL/FLE) this
  course is relevant
• Language acquisition offers a window on the mind
  this stuff is interesting . . .

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OK, so what about this class?

• How young children learn a foreign language
• French primary school context (6-11 year olds)?
• Linguistic background (nature of language,
  acquisition) and education theory (language
  pedagogy)
• Hands-on experience (analysis of materials,
  school visits)?

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Classes
Evaluation continuous assessment grade based on
regular short assignments and quizzes. Resit 45
minute written test

• Sem 5 Learning theory and second language
  acquisition
• main theories of learning (behaviorism,
  cognitivism, constructivism) for FL
• second language acquisition
• roles of learner and teacher in the foreign
  language classroom.
• personal experiences of teaching and learning
  foreign languages
• support materials online

• Sem 6 Principles and practice of second language
  teaching
• different methods of foreign language teaching
• principles and teaching practices.
• English as a foreign language (EFL) in French
  primary schools.
• observations of primary EFL classrooms
• online support materials

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Contact

• http//www.unice.fr/whyte
• Shona WHYTE
• whyte_at_unice.fr