COURSE SYLLABUS
SCOPE OF COURSE SYLLABUS
Intended for students enrolling in T.E.S.O.L. Theory and Practice, this syllabus contains information specific to the course. It is a definitive record of the course's primary characteristics and the learning outcomes that a typical student can reasonably be expected to achieve if he/she takes full advantage of the available learning opportunities. This document also serves as a reference for academic and support staff, internal and external examiners, and for future course monitoring and review.
COURSE AT A GLANCE
Course Title
T.E.S.O.L. Theory and Practice
Subject Area
Teaching English as a Foreign Language
Course Code
TEFL 70011
Course Level
Graduate
Credits
5.0
Prerequisites
None
Methods of Delivery
Face-to-face
Online
Expected Length
5.0 Weeks
Class Meetings
Dependent on the choice made during enrollment
Faculty
TBD
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Computer Software: Any computer software that aids learning.
TEXT(S)
Text 1: HLL
Title: How Languages are Learned
Author(s): Patsy M. Lightbown and Nina Spada
Edition: 5th
ISBN: 9780194406291
Text 2: CTEL
Title: A Course for Teaching English Learners
Author(s): Lynne T. Diaz-Rico
Edition: 3rd
ISBN: 9780137413270
Text 3: IETT
Title: Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching
Author(s): Joan E. Hughes and M D. Roblyer
Edition: 9th
ISBN: 9780137544578
SYNOPSIS
This course is designed to familiarize students with key concepts and theories in the field of T.E.S.O.L. and their implications for classroom teaching. These key concepts and theories will be approached critically through the asking of questions that challenge some ‘common sense’ and established theories of language acquisition. Research on effective instruction and assessment for English learners and how these ideas are translated into classroom practice will be discussed in detail. Also, the relationship between English language learning and unequal societal dynamics and how teachers and learners have navigated these in various contexts will be examined.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Upon completion of the course, students are expected to be able to:
Reflect on how second languages are acquired.
Critically read research articles.
Explore the psychological and sociocultural contexts of second language acquisition.
Become familiar with and critically question theories in T.E.S.O.L.
Critique established notions surrounding language learning, language competence, and multilingualism.
Consider the implications of the theories of second-language acquisition on language learning and acquisition inside and outside classrooms.
Integrate various theories of second-language acquisition with current pedagogical philosophy.
Identify topics within T.E.S.O.L. of particular interest.
Understand current research on the delivery of instruction and assessment of English learners.
Acknowledge the culture's profound influence on people's perceptions, feelings, and actions and how instruction developed through the lens of multiculturalism empowers students from diverse backgrounds as it promotes community building and an acceptance of diversity.
Identify English learners' unique characteristics and how to address their specific socio-emotional and cognitive needs effectively.
Reflect on complex issues and concerns that impact English learners and their families.
WEEK 1
Module 1
English Language Learners and Educators
Reference(s): CTEL Ch1 and Ch4
Module 2
Theories of Second Language Acquisition
Reference(s): CTEL Ch3 | HLL Ch1-2
Module 3
Language Structure and Second Language Learning Explanation
Reference(s): CTEL Ch2 | HLL Ch4
WEEK 2
Module 4
Individual Differences and Language Socialization in Multilingual Contexts
Reference(s): HLL Ch3
Module 5
Problematizing the NNES/NES Dichotomy
Reference(s): Articles
Module 6
The Language Classroom: Observations and Teaching Strategies
Reference(s): HLL Ch5 & Ch6
WEEK 3
Module 7
Lesson Planning and Specially Designed Academic Instruction
Reference(s): CTEL Ch5
Module 8
Culturally Inclusive Instruction
Reference(s): CTEL Ch9-10
Module 9
English-Language Literacy Development
Reference(s): CTEL Ch7
WEEK 4
Module 10
English-Language Oracy Development
Reference(s): CTEL Ch6
Module 11
Assessment of English Learners
Reference(s): CTEL Ch8
Module 12
Working with Published Materials
Reference(s): Articles
WEEK 5
Module 13
Integrating Educational Technology into T.E.S.O.L.
Reference(s): IETT Ch1-3 and Ch11
Module 14
Critical Media Analysis
Reference(s): Articles
Module 15
Critical Applied Linguistics
Reference(s): Articles
PROFESSIONALISM
WEIGHT: 10.0%
DEADLINE: Sunday at 23:59 (GMT+0) of Week 5
All students are expected to participate in all types of classroom activities. Regular attendance is required in order to maximize the number of opportunities to engage in classroom activities. Marks are based on the quality of the contributions made rather than the quantity of posts submitted, comments made in class, etc.
Students are encouraged to exchange contact information and support one another should any classes be missed. They are advised to contact the course instructor about any concerns they may have.
LINGUISTICS AUTOBIOGRAPHY
WEIGHT: 10.0%
DEADLINE: Sunday at 23:59 (GMT+0) of Week 2
General Information
At the beginning of the course, students should start working on their “linguistics autobiography,” which may include a reflective narrative piece rooted in students’ personal experience. All written parts must be four pages (approximately one thousand words) not including references, title page, or appendix. This assessment should integrate your personal experiences with class readings, your reflections on these readings, and class discussions and is to determine the level of comprehension and mastery of the material covered over five weeks, focusing on the practical aspects of the course. The deadline to submit this assessment is always on Sunday at 23:59 (GMT+0) of Week 2. The grade is stored in the online grade book. As only one attempt per piece of coursework is allowed, it is highly recommended that students review all course materials and complete some test preparation tasks before attempting the graded assessment.
Description
Autobiography is awfully seductive; it's wonderful. Once I got into it, I realized … I was speaking in the first-person singular, talking about the first-person plural, always saying 'I,' meaning 'we.'
~ Maya Angelou
It is not enough to know thyself. Teachers must also know the content of their fields and which issues are historically important and currently unresolved …That includes the theories of teaching, knowledge of teaching and communication skills, subject matter knowledge, pedagogical reasoning and decision-making skills, and knowledge of the context of teaching … curricular knowledge, [and] knowledge of educational purposes and philosophies.
~Chris Casanave, 2004, p.15
“The theme you choose may change or simply elude you, but being your own story means you can always choose the tone. It also means that you can invent the language to say who you are and what you mean. But then, I am a teller of stories and therefore an optimist, a believer in the ethical bend of the human heart, a believer in the mind’s disgust with fraud and its appetite for truth, a believer in the ferocity of beauty. So, from my point of view, which is that of a storyteller, I see your life as already artful, waiting, just waiting and ready for you to make it art.”
~Toni Morrison
Central to the perspectives from which this course is taught is a belief that teachers are theorizers who practice and write from their own positionalities and experiences, and furthermore that it is only by engaging with the deep and difficult work of personal reflection about the power and privilege surrounding our identities that we will be able to take up questions of pedagogy and responsibility. As Yolanda Sealy-Ruiz puts it: “You can’t understand your students if you don’t understand yourself. In order to understand other people’s stories, you have to know your own story.” What is the story of your language identity? How does your language socialization live in relationship with the messages that are deeply threaded through our institutions and society?
In this assignment, which is designed to create a space that supports connections between teachers’ lives and teachers’ intellectual theorizing, you are asked to write about your experience of connecting your languaging to your identity. This paper should be a reflective narrative piece rooted in your personal experience. You might write about your language history, heritage, or loss; your experiences learning a language; your experiences teaching a language; or any other related subject. For an example of an integration of biography and linguistic identity, see the following readings included on the course website:
Vandrick, S. (2002). ESL and the colonial legacy: A teacher faces her ‘missionary kid’ past. In V. Zamel and R. Spack (eds). Enriching ESOL Pedagogy: Readings and Activities for Engagement, Reflection, and Inquiry. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Canagarajah, A.S. (2012). Teacher Development in a Global Profession: An Autoethnography. TESOL Quarterly 46(2), 258-279.
The story of your experiences using language is never simply a story of language use. All stories of language teaching, learning, and use are also stories of identity learning and unlearning, of questioning, of social remaking, of racial exploration, of self-discovery. Which of the theories from this quarter have been helpful to you? Rewrite the paper you submitted at the beginning of the course about your linguistic autobiography, this time allowing your experiences to enter into conversation with what you have learned in this course. Your paper should integrate your personal experiences with class readings, your reflections on these readings, and class discussions. You should include at least 5 references from class readings. This assignment does not need to take the form of a traditional paper. It could be written as a poem, a chapbook, a children’s book, a documentary, a digital story, a zine, a play or piece of reader’s theater.
Required Readings
Vandrick, S. (2002). ESL and the colonial legacy: A teacher faces her ‘missionary kid’ past. In V. Zamel and R. Spack (eds). Enriching ESOL Pedagogy: Readings and Activities for Engagement, Reflection, and Inquiry. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Canagarajah, A.S. (2012). Teacher Development in a Global Profession: An Autoethnography. TESOL Quarterly 46(2), 258-279.
Assignment Requirements
What two or three concepts or questions did this writing assignment highlight for you?
4 full pages (approximately 1000 words), double-spaced.
Upload to Nebula according to the deadline.
Include at least 5 references from class readings in your text.
Include a list of references in APA style.
Share a 5-minute informal summary follow by the lesson plan.
Evaluation Criteria
(10.0%) Thoughtfully discuss your personal experience of language learning, teaching, or use
(10.0%) Reflect upon the significance of your experiences.
(10.0%) Raise questions about your language experiences.
(10.0%) Include a critical examination of personal experience.
(10.0%) Demonstrate reflection on class readings.
(10.0%) Situate your experience within a larger sociocultural context.
(10.0%) Artfully integrate biography and linguistic identity.
(10.0%) Write clearly, compellingly, and elegantly.
(10.0%) Share a thoughtful, interesting 2-minute spoken précis of your narrative with your classmates.
(5.0%) Include at least 5 well-integrated references to class readings/videos.
(5.0%) Use APA style, including an appropriately cited list of references.
DEBATE
WEIGHT: 20.0%
DEADLINE: Sunday at 23:59 (GMT+0) of Week 3
General Information
In the debate, students will need to form a team with classmates and take one side and argue either for or against the pre-determined topic. In addition, this assessment is a platform for genuine and unscripted communication between a student and an instructor/examiner, giving the student the opportunity for communication about professional/academic matters in a context that is akin to being in the workplace.
Description
In the debate, students will need to form a team with classmates and take one side and argue either for or against the pre-determined topic. In addition, this assessment is a platform for genuine and unscripted communication between a student and an instructor/examiner, giving the student the opportunity for communication about professional/academic matters in a context that is akin to being in the workplace.
Required Readings
Dekeyser, R., Alfi-Shabtay, I., & Ravid, D. (2010). Cross-linguistic evidence for the nature of age effects in second language acquisition. Applied Psycholinguistics, 31(3), 413-438. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716410000056
Evaluation Criteria
(40.0%) Demonstrate that you have thoroughly read and processed the assigned readings.
(40.0%) Present a thoughtful and cogent argument.
(20.0%) Listen and respond convincingly to your classmates.
THEORETICAL RESEARCH PAPER
WEIGHT: 60.0%
DEADLINE: Sunday at 23:59 (GMT+0) of Week 5
General Information
This must be eight pages (approximately two thousand words) not including references, title page, and appendix. The purpose of this assessment is to determine the level of comprehension and mastery of the material covered over five weeks, focusing on the practical aspects of the course. The deadline to submit this assessment is always on Sunday at 23:59 (GMT+0) of Week 5. The grade is stored in the online grade book. As only one attempt per piece of coursework is allowed, it is highly recommended that students review all course materials and complete some test preparation tasks before attempting the graded assessment.
Description
Choose one issue that you found compelling during this semester and explore it in greater depth. Your paper should demonstrate a thorough understanding of class readings and should include well-integrated readings/videos from class (reference at least 5), additional readings (at least 5 references beyond class readings, which can include up to 2 “further readings”), your personal experience, and your reflections and theorizing, including your ideas about pedagogical implications. If you find that the number of references isn’t making sense for the particular line of inquiry you’re pursuing, let me know, I can be flexible. One goal of this assignment is to support your library literacy skills and provide you with good experience poking around in library databases and making choices about what sources suit your needs best, out of the millions of articles and books out there. You will give a 10-minute presentation of your theoretical research paper at the research symposium.
Assignment Requirements
8 full pages (approximately 2000 words), double-spaced.
Include at least 5 references from class readings in your text.
Include at least 5 references beyond class readings, (can include up to 2 “further readings”).
Include a list of references in APA style.
Present a 10-minute overview of your paper in class.
Evaluation Criteria
(5.0%) Explore a topic that reflects the scope and content of the course.
(10.0%) Integrate and demonstrate a thorough understanding of class readings, referencing at least 5 class readings.
(10.0%) Reference and demonstrate an understanding of at least 5 additional readings beyond class readings (can include up to 2 “further readings”).
(10.0%) Integrate personal experience.
(10.0%) Discuss pedagogical implications.
(20.0%) Include insightful reflection and personal theorizing.
(20.0%) Write clearly, compellingly, and elegantly.
(10.0%) Give an instructive and clear 10-minute presentation.
(5.0%) Use APA style with consistency, including an appropriately cited list of references.
PARTICIPATION POLICY
All students are required to participate in all classroom activities, attend classes regularly, and prepare before classes for classroom activities that require advance preparation. Students need to fully appreciate that good attendance results in more opportunities to engage in quality participation, which, in turn, results in a more thorough acquisition of subject knowledge and higher participation grades.
Participation in classroom discussions and other types of activities indicates that students have read the assigned readings. Grades will not be based on the number of posts submitted or comments made in the classroom but on the overall quality of contributions to discussions.
If a student is unable to attend 3 or more classes, he/she may be asked to complete additional assignments to complete the course.
Modes of Attendance
For the portions of the course that take place over Microsoft Teams: Students are required to arrive on time and engage appropriately with their fellow students, their teacher(s) and course materials. They must attend with a functional web camera and microphone, have the latest version of Microsoft Teams installed on their computers, avoid attending via a mobile phone or web browser, and have all necessary materials to hand. Also, their cameras must be always switched on, except for occasions when privacy becomes a necessity. In addition, they must be appropriately attired, attend in an environment that will not distract them, their fellow students or their teacher(s), especially avoiding attending while in a vehicle, whether moving or stationary.
For the on-campus portions of the course: The mandatory on-campus session meets as per the AUS Campus Schedule. Good attendance is required to earn credits and pass the course. Students are not permitted to arrive late for class or leave class early. Students traveling from far away locations must plan accordingly, giving themselves plenty of time to arrive by the start of class.
Classroom Expectations
Classes start and end on time, with late entry or reentry allowed only under exceptional circumstances. All phones and electronic devices must be turned off for the duration of a class.
GRADING
Students are expected to read assigned materials prior to class. Class discussions are based on their reading of these materials and their reflections on what they have learned and how these relate to their experiences. Assignments are intended to encourage students’ reflection on and synthesis of assigned topics and course discussions.
Assessments are listed in the course syllabus and are due by the stipulated deadlines. No assessment will be accepted after the day following the day it is due. If an assessment submission is one day late, it will receive an automatic reduction in grade of one letter (for example from an A to a B). After that, no late work will be accepted, and the student will receive an F grade for the assessment.
Late submission of papers must be approved in advance.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY
Students are responsible for understanding the University Policies and how to use resources appropriately. Violations of academic integrity are taken very seriously. Students should revisit the materials on the Orientation session to review important information pertaining to academic citation and referencing rules.
STUDENT WELFARE AND PRIVACY POLICY
The university is committed to student welfare and accommodates students with disabilities and those who fall ill. Disability Services (DS) is responsible for accommodating students with disabilities. A student who wishes to be granted a special arrangement due to a disability or illness must request it through DS. Instructors cannot grant such requests without prior DS approval. DS should be contacted as soon as possible to avoid delays in the provision of such an arrangement.
Because the university takes student privacy very seriously, any medical documentation to support a request for an arrangement to accommodate any special needs connected with a disability or illness should be provided directly to DS. If a student misses any classes due to a short-term illness, he/she should notify his/her instructor, but avoid the inclusion of a doctor's note. Academic staff will not request, accept, or review doctor's notes or other forms of medical documentation. For more information, email DS@TheAUS.us.
USE OF COURSE MATERIALS AND LECTURES
Ethical considerations restrict how course materials and lectures may be used. Students may not post, publish, sell, or otherwise publicly distribute course materials without the written permission of the course instructor. Such materials include, but are not limited to, lecture notes, lecture slides, video and audio recordings, various types of assignments, examinations, other students’ work, and answer keys. In addition, students are not permitted to use materials prepared by faculty or students for courses that have previously taken place. These materials include, but are not limited to, case write-ups, Research Papers, summaries of readings, answers to Problem Sets, and answers to Academic Discussion topics. Furthermore, making video or audio recordings of class sessions for one’s own use without written permission from the instructor is not permitted. Infringements of the above-listed rules are taken seriously and may lead to disciplinary action, including a requirement to withdraw.
WEEKLY CLASS MEETINGS AND SYLLABUS
Additional information can be found on the course website.
Please note: the syllabus may be modified prior to and during a course, including updates to assignments and additional material.
OFFICE OF ACADEMIC AFFAIRS