SYLLABUS
Discipline: Psychology of Foreign Language Teaching
Number of credits:2
Term: 5
| Time of class and room | Contact information | |||
| Contact hours | TSIS (office hours) | Tel: | ||
| Svetlana Lukashova, Senior Lecturer | 338-57-88 | svet-lukashova@yandex.ru |
Course description.
The course Psychology of Foreign Language Teaching provides a current psychological framework that will help Language teachers to make informed decisions about what to do in their classrooms based on a psychological theory. There are a number of different areas that are currently of interest to language teachers which are highlighted in this course. An example is the area of learner training, which looks at how learners can be helped to acquire appropriate strategies for learning languages. This in turn involves an understanding of the cognitive and metacognitive strategies that learners bring to any learning task. Another example is the complex issue of motivation: what motivates learners to learn a language. The course gives practical views on possible implications of educational psychology for language teachers. The course is recommended for future teachers of a foreign language at primary, secondary or tertiary levels.
Course aims.
The course aims to provide language teachers with an introduction to a number of key issues and recent developments in psychology that will help them to understand better the ways in which their learners learn and which will provide a fund of knowledge from which to draw to inform their classroom practices.
The course methods and techniques are as follows:
- Lectures
- Seminars
- Group-discussion
- Doing psychological tests
- Writing essays and reflections
- Case-study
- Presentations
- Demo lessons
- Survey
- Observation
- Analysis
Prerequisites:Self-knowledge, Psychology and Human Development,Pedagogy
Postrequisites: Methodology of Teaching
ETHICS OF THE COURSE:
- Attendance of contact sessions is obligatory and will be checked thoroughly.
- All assignments should be done by deadlines, otherwise scores will be reduced.
- Cheating is prohibited and will be punished.
- Students must come to classes on time.
- Mobile phones during the sessions should be switched off.
- Language of instruction is English.
It is the student’s responsibility to attend the classes regularly. The attendance record will be kept. Attendance is very important to follow the topics being discussed and to understand how they are interrelated to one another. If you miss 3 classes you will lose your attendance points.
Readings and course materials.
MAIN.
- Psychology for Language Teachers: a Social Constructivist Approach. Marion Williams and Robert L. Burden. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
- Psychology of Teaching Foreign Languages: учебное пособие для студентов филологических специальностей / А.А. Кудышева– Павлодар:Кереку, 2010
ADDITIONAL.
- Principles of Language learning and Teaching. H. Douglas Brown. San Francisco State University, 1994.
COURSE OUTLINE
| Topic | Objectives/ readings | IWST | ||
| Personality factors in second language learning and teaching. |
| Test /reflection “Eysenck Temperamant test”, identify your temperament and its influence on their success in teaching | ||
| Personality factors in second language learning and teaching. |
| Test /reflection ‘MBPI’ – indentifying students’ personality indicator and its influence on their success in learning and teaching a language. | ||
| Intelligence and its contribution to SLA. | Relationship between intelligence, left and right brain dominance and second lang. acquisition. Readings: ‘Principles of Lang. Learning and Teaching’. Ch.5, pp 103-113. Seminar: Glossary quiz 1 | Test/reflection: indentify your left/ right dominance/locus of control /multiple intelligence and application to FLT | ||
| Cognitive styles, their contribution to SLA. |
| Test/reflection:identify yourlearning and communication style and application to FLT | ||
| How does the learner deal with the process of learning? Language learning strategies | 1. Description of a good learner. 2. Learning and communication strategies 3. Metacognitive, affective and social strategies. 4. Memory, cognitive and compensation strategies. 5. ‘Ten commandments’ for good language learning. Seminar: Glossary quiz 2 | TeamResearch projects Demo-lesson: a lesson plan meeting the needs and preferences of different personalities, types of intelligence and cognitive styles | ||
| Motivation. What makes a person want to learn? | 1. 3 stage model of motivation. 2. Arousal 3. Achievement/ effectiveness motivation 4. Motivational styles. Readings: Psychology for teachers’ ch.6, pp 111-120. Seminar: Demo-lesson (Turkish/Chinese departments) | Test: identify your motivation /emotional intelligence and career values and their application to FLT. | ||
| Motivation in language learning |
| Case –study: drama about various reasons for losing motivation to learn English. | ||
| Mid term. TEST: lectures 1-7 | ||||
| Schools of thought in psychology: humanism and social interactionism | 1.Humanistic approaches (Erik Erikson, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers) 2.Humanism in English Language Teaching. 3. Social interactionism (Lev Vigotsky) Readings: ‘Psychology for teachers’ Ch.2, pp30-44 | Teacher personality portfolio Report 1: Behavioristic approach in FLT Reinforcement and punishment as external motivators. | ||
| Schools of thought in psychology: social constructivism. | 1.A constructivist view of education. 2.Feuerstein’s theory of mediation 3.Investigating mediation in Language classrooms. Readings: ‘Psychology for teachers’ Ch.2, pp30-44 | Article critique Report 2: Cognitive approach in FLT.David Ausubel’s meaningful theory | ||
| What do teachers bring to the teaching- learning process? | 1.Studies in effective teaching 2.The teacher as reflective practitioner. 3.Teachers’ beliefs about learning and learners 4.Teachers’ beliefs about themselves. 5. Teacher-student models of communication Psychology for teachers. Ch.3, pp 46-63. | Article critique Report 3: The main Conditions necessary for the acquisition of language. Characteristics of the successive stages of speech development in childhood | ||
| What can teachers do to promote learning? | 1.Feuerstein’s theory of mediation 2.Investigating mediation in Language classrooms. Psychology for teachers. Ch.3, pp 46-63. . | Report 4: Theories of first language acquisition. Foreign language acquisition vs native language acquisition Interference Between First and Second Languages. | ||
| Theories of second language acquisition. | Krashen’s input Hypothesis Readings: Principles of Language Learning and teaching. Ch.11 pp 272-298 | Report 5: Specific linguistic abilities to mastering a foreign language (linguistic talents) Diagnostics and development of language abilities. | ||
| Actual and Ideal Classroom Structure |
| Report 6: Psychology of correction. The problems of heavy corrector and non-corrector. | ||
| Psychological profile of teachers | Students’ team research project PFLT comics | Intellectual Project Creative Project | ||
GRADING AND EVALUATION POLICY
Distribution of the grades:
Midterm I:
demo/lesson(5) /case-study(5) +participation in seminars(cards/quizzes)(7 weeks)(5) + MT test(20)- 30%
Midterm II:
Portfolio(10) + Presentation(5)+ article critique (10)+quizzes(5) - 30%
Final examination – 40%
GRADING AND EVALUATION POLICY
| N | Control type | weeks | points | ||||||||||||||
| Attendance | x | x | X | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | bonus | ||||||
| Quizzes, MT test, participation | d | u | r | I | n | g | t | h | e | t | e | r | m | ||||
| Research article, portfolio and drama | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||||||||
| Individual and group presentation | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||||||||||
| Midterm | x | x | |||||||||||||||
| Final exam | |||||||||||||||||
| Total |
“Psychology of foreign language teaching” portfolio contents:
1. Laboratory work (tests+reflections):
a. C. Jung personality test
b. Eysenck Temperament test
c. Locus of control
d. Learning /Cognitive style inventory
e. Left/right brain dominance
f. Multiple intelligence test
g. Emotional Intelligence inventory
h. Communication style
i. Values/motivation test
j. Career value test
2. group presentations
a. a lesson plan meeting the needs and preferences of different personalities, types of intelligence and cognitive styles.
b. a summary of a case –study: drama about various reasons for losing motivation to learn English.
c. presentation handout
d. article critique
(Submission days: week 12)
Team Research projects
Demo-lesson: a lesson plan meeting the needs and preferences of different personalities, types of intelligence and cognitive styles
Step1. Read Brown, H. Dourglas, USA, 1994 ‘Principles of Language Learning and Teaching’ pp 103-163.
Step 2.
a. Do ‘Jung Typology Test’ in order to identify your personality indicator and analyze your learning preferences, strengths and weaknesses in SLA. (www.humanmetrics.com)
b. Do ‘Right and Left Brain Dominance Test and Learning Style Test (visual, kinesthetic, auditory)
Step 3.
Prepare a team presentation of a lesson-plan with activities meeting the preferences of different cognitive styles.
Lesson Plan Presentation (sample) time allowed: 15-20 min.
I Theme of the lesson;
Age group; number of students; language level
II The aims and objectives (introduction/ improvement/consolidation/ control/ training which skills; educational aims).
III Activities (warm-up/ brainstorming/ listening/ speaking/ writing/ reading/ vocabulary and grammar exercises)
Explain how these activities and methods you choose can/should
- Improve self-esteem
- Reduce inhibition
- Encourage risk-taking
- Promote facilitating anxiety
- Exercise empathy
- Meet extraversion/introversion preferences
- Enable different personality types (thinking/feeling, sensing/intuitive, judging/perceiving) to use their strengths;
- Promote motivation;
- Meet the preferences of field dependent/independent style learners;
- Provide optimal participation of left and right hemispheres;
- Exercise certain tolerance of ambiguity
2. Case –study: drama about various reasons for losing motivation to learn English.
Step 1. Read ‘Psychology for language teachers: a social constructivist approach. ’Marion Williams and Robert Burden, 2005, Cambridge University. Ch. 6, pp 111-141.
Step 2.
Make a team of 5-6 participants: mother, son, 2 teachers, principal of school, psychologist + 10 witnesses (parents, colleagues, pupils). Appoint a role to every student in the group.
Step 3.
a. Write a script of your role-play:
- Mother’s speech (blaming the teacher + English because her son has stopped learning English)
- Son’s speech (giving explanation of his behavior)
- Psychologist’s speech (asking the mother and the son questions to find the truth from psychological point of view)
- Teacher (explaining the situation from her point of view)
- Principal of school (describing the situation to the teacher’s advantage but promising to improve the matter)
- Teacher’s college (supporting the teacher but giving some recommendation)
- Psychologist(giving a summary from psychological point of view)
b. Make a good rehearsal of the presentation.
c. Perform the presentation at the seminar.
Individual work
