The Learning Technologies Unit website

LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING explores the interface between language learning theory and language teaching practice, and is relevant to language teachers in a variety of contexts around the world. It is often said (and more often simply assumed) that the effective language teacher is able to manage classroom activity in a way which stimulates the students' learning processes. Although this is easy enough to say, achieving it is another matter, since the relationship between the practice of teaching and the process of learning is complex.

The aims of this module are:

• to help participants to understand key concepts and terms both in language pedagogy (syllabus design and methodology) and in selected theories of language learning;
• to critically consider the relationship between the theoretical rationale for language teaching and the practice of language teaching;
• to throw light on the extent to which learning theory can help us to understand the purpose, effectiveness and the limitations of language teaching practices.

By the end of the module, participants should be able to:

• relate their own teaching practice both to learning theory and to broader ideas about language pedagogy;
• identify strengths and weaknesses in particular proposals for language teaching (both at the level of syllabus and of methodology) in reference to particular ideas in learning theory;
• identify in specific cases the relevance and the limitations of learning theory in helping us to understand the relationship between language teaching and language learning.
  

Sessions will be organised around a combination of lectures and group discussions. In some cases group discussions will be led by student.

Students receive a printed volume which contain tasks for each week.  Many of the tasks include readings for the module, which are supplied in a separate printed volume. Each week the outcome of some of the tasks are postings to the VLE, and usually at least one of the tasks includes commenting on other students' postings. The tutor posts one comment on the postings for each task.

Varied tasks are given; e.g. (1) pedagogical tasks which enable students to check their understanding, e.g. 'to check your understanding of working memory, complete the gapped summary / draw a picture to illustrate Riding's working memory test; (2) (pedagogical tasks which encourage students to reflect on what they have read and/or apply it to a teaching context that they are familiar with, e.g., 'read chapter x and choose 5 terms which would enable you to describe to an intelligent but uninformed lay person the state of play in this field'; 'is there anything in this reading that runs counter to your classroom experience?' 'before reading the article, write down the differences between individual learners that you think might have an impact on the second language learning experience'; 'go to http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/ILSpage.html, read the introduction and take the ILS questionnaire.  Then post the answers to these questions to the group:...; (3) tasks to force students to become familiar with the electronic resources that the Institute makes available to them, e.g. 'access the online version of Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson (2000) from the Institute of Education website.

To gain credit for this module, students must complete one 1,000-word critique of a research article, on which they will receive formative feedback, and one assessed 5,000-word essay.

Students must choose what they consider their three best postings and submit them as a portfolio with a short commentary. This task is compulsory for passing the module, but does not receive a mark. It is part of the evaluation in order to make some participation compulsory, since Institute policy is inequitable here: in a face-to-face session, students must attend 80% of classes to pass a module, but DL students in a module where the only assessment is an essay, can not log on a single time and still be eligible for credit for the module.

The second part of the assessment is a 5,000-word essay, submitted electronically and in hard copy.

Staff and learners communicate mainly via email or the VLE

All students will have followed at least one module by distance learning using this VLE before taking the course.

Module tutor: all academic matters.

Course administrator: all administrative matters.

No electronic learning materials except via the links supplied for some sessions.

Main content formats

Main content producers

Main delivery formats

Most communication takes place between staff and the leaners via email correspondence and the VLE

FirstClass is visually unattractive, unwieldy and lacks some functionalities that I would find useful.

Note: The module has switched to Moodle as a VLE since the interview. A revision of this case study will follow.