ELT Methods and Practices
This is a core course which all students of the Faculty are required to take during their third year of study. The overall aim of this course is to provide students with a critical awareness of ELT practices and to develop their theoretical and practical knowledge related to the teaching and learning of languages, particularly English as a foreign language. It is a core course, like the Applied Linguistics to ELT course, which is its prerequisite. An equally important general aim of the course is to prepare students as future teachers of English. To this end, the course has the following goals:
- to provide a basic understanding of recent developments in ELT approaches, methods and techniques and their underlying principles, particularly in view of the position of English today as a "world" language.
- to raise awareness of how developments and research in theoretical linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, educational linguistics and discourse analysis have informed language teaching/learning approaches, classroom practices, assessment and materials design.
- to become familiar with critical trends in the mainstream ELT field and begin thinking of alternative ways of teaching languages in a European setting which aspires to promote plurilingual citizenry.
- to introduce students to ways in which language teaching/learning/assessment approaches and methods can be employed in ELT programmes (i.e., in the classroom, in self-directed learning, in EFL teaching materials).
- to build an understanding of the perception and production skills that are involved when dealing with oral and written texts so as to realize the implications for the development of these skills in an ELT programme.
- to become familiar with the underlying principles of techniques for the teaching/testing of the lexicogrammatical elements of language.
- to demonstrate to students how to apply these techniques in various teaching/learning situations.
- to provide opportunities to students for controlled practice teaching.
- to promote a positive and open attitude to teaching and assessment, and to sensitise students to factors affecting the teaching and learning environment.
Students are encouraged to do reading and practical work on their own, guided project work, and to undertake peer-teaching sessions. Students enrolled in the course can find useful course material for support and self-access learning through our e-class, accessed with a special password.