Understanding researching and designing ELT Working with words in secondary school EFL classrooms Vorbereitungsseminar Praxissemester GymGe

This seminar will prepare Master students who want to become teachers of English at German grammar schools for their -Begleitseminar” to the new -Praxissemester”. Since words are undoubtedly the centre of any language, they do indeed deserve special attention in research- and educational contexts. In everyday life we use hundreds and thousands of words without paying special attention to them, but as (future) foreign language teachers there is the great need to uncover the depth of vocabulary, the mechanisms of (Second Language) vocabulary acquisition and what we as teachers can learn from it in order to enhance our own teaching and thus enable our students to learn English more productively and sustainably. In this seminar, attention will be paid to how words are learnt and how teachers and students are working with them in secondary school. Throughout the seminar, students will get to know teaching methods and activities that promote the productive use of vocabulary and language in the EFL classroom. These can then be used, enhanced and evaluated throughout the students’ -Unterrichtsvorhaben” and their following -Begleitseminar”. We will investigate different tools, procedures and methods available in the EFL classroom and we will discuss and develop ways in which students can conduct research into these processes and areas during their -Praxissemester”. This course is designed in a way that it combines theoretical background on the one hand and practical implications on the other. Furthermore it provides various stimuli for developing research questions in different areas. Anglistik - Didaktik der englischen Sprache Universität Siegen WiSe 2015/16 Wehren Marvin Martin