Universitat Internacional de Catalunya - BarcelonaTeaching English As a Foreign Language
Main language of instruction: English
Other languages of instruction: Catalan, Spanish
English teaching is one of the activities which brings about a debate and arouses expectations the most in a school. Nowadays being able to communicate in English is a requirement, a key qualification. However, English is becoming a L3 in multilingual contexts. Therefore learning and teaching English as a L3 needs further and different reflections since it coexists with one or other languages.
Understanding how multilingual speakers and learners use, communicate and learn languages, teaching English as a L3 expects to establish the teaching strategies from traditional methodologies and approaches as starting point, to develop new ways which are reflections from methodological changes, new technologies, and so on.
The main objective of the subject is to revise the mainstays of foreign language teaching, and go further in multilingual teaching and learning contexts, creating debates and new materials for the students’ own classrooms.
To have achieved at least B1+ in English according to the CEFRL standards in all communicative skills (reading, listening, speaking, and writing).
- To acquire the fundamental theoretical basis and teaching techniques that are needed to teach English as an additional language effectively.
- To explore the potential of reading and analysing research and theoretical papers in order to enrich teaching practices.
- To acquire the necessary criteria and techniques to select/adapt/create suitable materials for different levels in multilingual milieus.
- To explore the potential of ICT for teaching, communicating and collaborating in English in pre-school, primary and secondary education.
- To stop to reflect/revise one’s own teaching practices in order to create better ones.
- To work in groups and with groups from other disciplines/ subjects/ education stages.
Students will be able to:
Identify several approaches, methodologies and strategies in multilingual contexts
Understand the different factor of English as a L3
Be familiar with research literature in teaching foreign languages
Analyse, assess and integrate pedagogical resources in their own practices
Participate actively in debates, forums and activities by means of critical thinking, sharing and building their own knowledge
Observe and analyse teaching practices (even their own one)
Plan, design, assess and present resources, create their own resource bank
Show ability to work autonomously on the readings
Be able to work in cooperative groups
Approaches and methods in foreign language (FL) teaching
(Ellis, Nunan, Skehan, and others)
Teaching English as a third language
The L3 teaching and learning environment
The old PELE and the new PILE
Curriculum dessign
The student is the protagonist in the process of learning, and it is under this focus that this module has been planned. The teacher’s role is based on providing and facilitating information, sources and resources which help to guide the learning process of the attendees. Monitoring and guiding students’ reflections and tasks are also on the same basis of an active learning approach. Simultaneously, students will be required to relate and combine theoretical explanations, provided by the teacher, with practical exercises in which students must think critically about their own practices in order to develop their own background and notions about teaching languages through innovative methods.
Assessment is based on the design and presentation of activities and projects which stand for the 50% of the overall mark, and the reflections/assignments and forum participation in a BLOG on Moodle, which represent 40%. The remaining 10% is based on self and peer assessment.