Hauptseminar Linguistics in the EFL Classroom

Even when disregarding organizational and managerial classroom work, one comes to the conclusion that teaching English as a foreign language is a very demanding and complex task: On the one hand, a teacher needs a broad knowledge in multiple academic disciplines, such as English linguistics as well as literary and cultural studies. On the other hand, expertise in EFL didactics is necessary in order to ensure a high quality of teaching and thus increase the likelihood of students' successful learning. Furthermore, teachers have to be able to access these different sources of knowledge spontaneously and whenever required during the teaching process. In order to assist prospective teachers with their challenging task, this seminar is going to explore the interrelatedness of the two academic branches of English linguistics and EFL didactics on a theoretical and a practical level. It is meant to provide a focused repetition of relevant concepts with regards to the levels of linguistics (such as phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, etc.) on the basis of which we will go on to evaluate the resulting implications for the language classroom in detail. In the course of the semester, we will analyse learners' linguistic difficulties by examining samples of oral and written learner language (class tests and reading performances, for instance) and also take a look at how schoolbooks deal with the linguistic issues we identified beforehand. Further course and assessment details as well as information on required readings will be supplied in the first session. Anglistik Universität Duisburg-Essen SS 2010 alle Lehrämter, alle Lehrämter Dr. Rumlich Dominik