Syllabus Information

1.1. Introduction

This elective 4th year module is intended to improve and develop the students' ability to teach English, and particularly to understand and make themselves understood orally in botch cycles of nursery education. The module, therefore, aims to provide future nursery teachers with a range of tools and theoretical principles enabling them to teach English in this context, as well as the methods and procedures that they are expected to develop to attain the proposed objectives.

1.2. Recommendations to take this course

This module requires a B2 level of communicative competence in English (according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages; CEFR). Students enrolled in this module are also advised to take "English in Infant Education III".

1.3. Context and importance of this course in the degree

Context, scope, relevance and general objectives of the module

The subject aims to meet the following principles and objectives:

Language and oral communication in the bilingual classroom must take account of both segmental (i.e. pronunciation) and suprasegmental features of speech (i.e. rhythm, stress and intonation), as present in materials from the oral tradition which may be useful, culture-relevant and understandable to nursery school pupils, such as poems, short stories and tales.

The module also involves the acquisition of procedures and strategies useful for the development of communicative competence, with a special emphasis on the strategic sub-competence and on all those aspects relevant to the acquisition of the foreign language and some of its basic communicative functions at an early age.

Context and scope of the module within the degree

This module aims to provide future nursery school teachers not only with the essential tools to do their job, but also with skills to actively and critically reflect on the range of uses to which oral  texts and tasks may be put in the classroom. In this way, students will become acquainted with the pedagogical options offered by these materials while getting ready to devise their own proposals.

1.4. Activities and key dates

The calendar of activities will be announced on the ADD (Anillo Digital Docente), on Moodle or through any other means chosen by the lecturer, such as the class notice board or a handout given at the beginning of the module. The dates of the final exams will be published on the website of each of the faculties offering the degree (Zaragoza, Huesca and Teruel).

2.1. Learning goals

In order to pass this module, students should demonstrate achievement of the following learning outcomes:

1: Ability to communicate in English, and particularly to understand and make themselves understood orally.
2: Ability to interpret and make use of the range of communicative strategies and functions useful for EFL teaching in nursery education.
3: Knowledge about the features of students' language development in early childhood and their effect on the teaching-learning process in EFL nursery classrooms.
4: Ability to foster interaction and the use of formulaic language.
5: Use of the ICTs to practice the language orally and to develop their autonomous learning skills both inside and outside the classroom.

2.2. Importance of learning goals

It is essential for future nursery school teachers in an English-Spanish bilingual  context  to express themselves appropriately and fluently in English, and to show a good command of oral discourse in classroom-related communicative situations, as teachers are models that pupils will imitate.

3.1. Aims of the course

The subject aims to meet the following principles and objectives:

Language and oral communication in the bilingual classroom must take account of both segmental (i.e. pronunciation) and suprasegmental features of speech (i.e. rhythm, stress and intonation), as present in materials from the oral tradition which may be useful, culture-relevant and understandable to nursery school pupils, such as poems, short stories and tales.

The module also involves the acquisition of procedures and strategies useful for the development of communicative competence, with a special emphasis on the strategic sub-competence and on all those aspects relevant to the acquisition of the foreign language and some of its basic communicative functions at an early age.

3.2. Competences

2: Analyse teaching practices to learn how to innovate and improve their own teaching skills; to develop autonomous and cooperative learning skills and habits that may then be promoted in the teaching community; and to select the optimal educational resources for each situation.

3: Communicate and teach in English, including identification of verbal and non-verbal forms of communication and assessment of adequacy in their use.

4: Understand how language is produced; to recognise and articulate the phonemes of English adequately; to identify phonetic symbols; and to show an appropriate understanding and use of the suprasegmental features of English speech (i.e. stress, rhythm and intonation).

5: Use the ICTs in academic and educational settings

4.1. Assessment tasks (description of tasks, marking system and assessment criteria)

Assessment activities

The following assessment activities will be used to test attainment of the objectives proposed:

1: Assessment type A (requirement: attending at least 85% of the teaching hours):

1. English oral presentation in class on a topic of general interest for the students' personal and professional development, with an approximate duration of 10 minutes followed by a short debate with the class.
2. Continuous assessment activities (e.g. phonetic transcription, phonetic reading and identification, set readings, role plays, debates, etc.).
3. Final oral exam, consisting of:

- Pronunciation test (e.g. reading of short texts, stories or poems)                                                                                                

- Simulation or role-play based on a given communicative situation (e.g. a classroom-based context).                                              

- Short questions on the module's contents (e.g. phonology, communicative strategies, etc.).                                                                                                                                      - - 

2: Assessment type B:

Those students opting for assessment type B (or those who, having chosen assessment type A, do not comply with the attendance requirement) will have to sit a global test consisting of the oral presentation and the final exam, but they will have no right to enter the continuous assessment.

3: The students who have chosen assessment type A (complying with the attendance requirement) can change to assessment type B after informing the lecturer. They will make an oral presentation during the final oral exam. If they have already made a presentation in class, the one for the exam should deal with a different topic. In this case, the mark obtained will be the higher of the two.

Assessment criteria

1. English oral presentation: pronunciation, emphasis, rhythm, intonation; projection of the voice; body language; fluency, independence from a script; grammatical accuracy and understandability; organization.
2. Pronunciation test: acceptable production of the most troublesome phonemes for native speakers of Spanish; appropriate stress, rhythm and intonation.
3. Simulation or role-play based on a given communicative situation: use of adequate communicative resources; pronunciation, emphasis, rhythm, intonation; grammatical, lexical and discourse accuracy; fluency; appropriate use of language functions and speech acts (definitions, descriptions, instructions) in the language classroom.
4. Short questions on the module's contents: understanding of the phonetic features and structure of speech; accurate analyses of communication strategies given specific contexts and situations; the answers given by students will have to be phonetically, lexically and grammatically accurate in a coherent discourse.

Grading criteria, weightings and requirements for passing

Students must achieve at least 60% of the total final mark, and at least 50% in each of the assessment activities, to pass this module.

1: Assessment type A (requirement: attending at least 85% of the teaching hours):

1. English oral presentation in class (20%)
2. Continuous assessment activities (20%)
3. Final oral exam, consisting of:

           -Pronunciation test (20%)

           -Simulation or role-play based on a given communicative situation (20%)

           -Short questions on the module's contents (20%)

2: Assessment type B: Global assessment

This includes all the activities of assessment type A, except for the continuous assessment. The weightings applied in this case are:

1. English oral presentation (25%)
2. Final oral exam, consisting of:

        -  Pronunciation test (25%)

        -  Simulation or role-play based on a given communicative situation (25%)

        -  Short questions on the module’s contents (25%)

Global assessment (Assessment type B students) and second sitting

For both Assessment type B students and those resitting the module in June, the exam format and weightings applied are those of Assessment type B students. No marks will be kept from the first sitting, which means that, should students fail the module (with less than 60%) in February, they will have to resit all four parts of the Global assessment in June or September (depending on each of the three faculties official dates).

5.1. Methodological overview

The learning process designed for this module is, whenever possible, based on: An inductive approach, even though practical activities are higher in number.

5.2. Learning tasks

Learning programmed activities (Programme included)

The programme offered to students to achieve the intended learning outcomes consists of the following activities …

1:  Lectures and debate and analysis sessions on the contents of the module.

- Listening activities of oral discourse to identify segmental and suprasegmental features of pronunciation.

- Oral language production activities focused on the self-improvement of the difficulties in the pronunciation of a Spanish speaker.

- Oral language production and activities based on rhymes, rhymes games, pronunciation guessing-games, phonetic children jokes, easy tongue-twisters, rhythm chants, traditional and modern songs, tales …

- Analysis and discussion of oral and written texts on the different communicative functions of English.

- Students’ simulations on verbal and non-verbal communicative strategies in nursery classrooms.

- Oral presentations and posterior debates

5.3. Syllabus

1. Classroom management: teacher talk, teacher and learner roles, classroom interaction.
2. Young learners' language.
3. Spoken language and communicative strategies.
4. Pronunciation: phonetics, phonology, stress, rhythm, intonation

5.4. Course planning and calendar

Session calendar and submission deadlines for assignments

The schedule of theoretical and practical sessions will be established by each of  the  thee faculties involved. The deadlines for assignments will be agreed on with the students at the beginning of the teaching period.

5.5. Bibliography and recommended resources

[BB: Basic Bibliography / BC: Complementary Bibliography]