Syllabus Information

1.1. Introduction

The main objective of this course is for the student to continue to improve his or her oral and written communication skills in English, consolidating an intermediate-high level of competence, especially in those areas where deficiencies are detected (such as pronunciation and the language functions that are necessary to activate higher order cognitive skills, as well as the development of metalinguistic and metapragmatic awareness), while reflecting on classroom practices and the processes and strategies that contribute to improving learning and developing a specific knowledge of the English language in the professional field of Education.

1.2. Recommendations to take this course

 The student will be required to adopt an active role to take part in the different activities to be done in and out of class (oral comprehension and interaction, reading and writing), as well as in those activities focused on reflecting on metacognitive strategies and the learning process itself.

1.3. Context and importance of this course in the degree

This course responds to the necessity of the Primary Education teacher to communicate effectively both in oral and written form in English. This competence in the foreign language is a key tool for the learners’ future continuous professional development.

On the other hand, this course will help learners to acquire and develop skills that will allow them to reflect both on their own process of learning of the foreign language and on classroom dynamics and practices, with a view to contributing to their professional development.

Finally, the communicative, content-based approach to the learning of the foreign language will facilitate a significant exchange of ideas and opinions on Education (adopting an intercultural perspective), which will have a positive effect on general competence development of the future teacher.

1.4. Activities and key dates

Activities and key dates will be made known to students on Moodle or through a written document handed out when the course starts. Final exam dates are available at the site of each of the three Faculties where the Degree in Primary Education is taught.

2.1. Learning goals

The learner can

1. Read and understand texts in English at an intermediate level on subjects specific to Primary Education (such as those described in the presentation section of the subject).

2. Listen and understand both main ideas and specific details in oral texts of different nature and speakers from different backgrounds

3. Express themselves orally and interact with other English-speaking interlocutors on topics of his or her specialty as well as on topics relevant to the Primary school teacher.

4. Identify, describe and evaluate classroom practices (procedures, techniques, methodological resources and didactic sequences) typical of an L2 teaching-learning process based on the development of communicative competence; Acquire habits and skills for autonomous and cooperative learning, and develop tools for self-evaluation and reflection on the learning of a second language.

2.2. Importance of learning goals

Future teachers will acquire and develop the knowledge and skills required to communicate in the foreign language, and to share knowledge with their peers of various cultures and countries

Future teachers will be able to make use of materials and resources of their professional interest in the foreign language

Society demands a high level of communicative competence in the foreign language so that teachers can use it as the vehicle of instruction in the English as a Foreign Language classroom, as well as to teach content subjects in the foreign language, in order to contribute to their potential learners’ development of communicative competence.

3.1. Aims of the course

Since the main objective of the course is that learners should develop communicative competence in English, at the same time as they reflect on their own learning process, expected learning outcomes are both the development of oral and written skills and of the learners’ capacity to describe and evaluate classroom practices and procedures.

3.2. Competences

1: Interact in oral and written form in the target language.

2: Effectively deal with varied learning situations in multicultural and multilingual contexts.

3: Reflect on classroom practices to innovate and improve teaching. Acquire habits and skills for autonomous and cooperative learning, as well as to develop thinking skills and promote them among their future students.

4: Take ownership of their own learning.

5: Effectively work in teams, adopting different roles when necessary.

6: Use and apply ICT for their own learning, for communication and for knowledge sharing in varied contexts.

7: Manage their own continuous professional development and encourage quality education.

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

1: Assessment with take the form of two tests, a written test and an oral test, each one containing several activities (see below), which will be focused on the following skills (note percentages in brackets):

1.  Written test:

a. Reading comprehension activities (15%)

b. Listening comprehension activities (15%)

c. Writing activities (20%)

d. Use of English activities (20%)

e. Analysis and evaluation of classroom practices and skills development and strategies (10%)
2. Oral test:

Oral interaction activities (20%). Note that, since it is an individual test, it is scheduled on a different time and place.
Reflection on classroom practices will be addressed in both, oral and written, tests.

Evaluation criteria

- Participate in a conversation about subjects of his specialty, showing a specialized register in the use of the language applied to their field of specialization, using an intelligible pronunciation, with linguistic correction, and a certain degree of creativity and complexity, taking into account the specific communicative context.

- Written production: students should be able to: write texts on subjects of their specialty,

- Oral comprehension: students should be able to: understand the main ideas and extract the concrete information in specific texts of the field of Education and the teaching of foreign languages,

- Written comprehension: students should be able to extract the main ideas of a text on specific subjects of the specialty,

- Use of English: students must demonstrate competence equivalent to an intermediate-high level in the use of specific vocabulary in the field of Education as well as lexical-grammatical and discursive structures.

- Activities of analysis and evaluation of classroom practices and development of skills and strategies: students should be able to identify, describe and evaluate procedures, techniques and methodological resources used in the classroom, as well as applied processes and strategies that lead to the development of communicative competence in English as a foreign language using metalanguage in an appropriate manner.

Assessment criteria and requirements to pass the subject

Given the instrumental character of a foreign language, the following hurdle requirements are mandatory:

A mark of at least 60% in the sum of all the activities is required for passing, on condition that the student gets a mark of at least 50% in the Use of English section and in each of the four skills listed above.
If students do not get a 50% mark in the Use of English section and in each of the four skills listed above, or a 60% mark in the sum of all the activities, they will be given a fail mark.

To calculate the final mark the following formula will be used:
If N is the mark out of 10 in the sum of the oral and written text, and CF is the final mark, the latter is calculated with this formula:
- If N is lower than 6, CF=N*5/6
- If N is higher than or equal to 6, CF=(N-6)*5/4 + 5

When you pass one of the two tests as a whole (oral or written) with at least 60% of the maximum grade in first call, it is not necessary to retake it in second call.

Overall test and second call

In September the tests and the hurdle requirements will be the same as in June, but the students will only have to re-sit the test they failed. The marks of the test they passed will be kept.

Fifth and sixth retake

In fifth and sixth retake, the tests and the hurdle requirements will be the same as in all previous retakes, but the tests will be assessed by an examining board.

5.1. Methodological overview

-The task-based approach such that students must perform tasks using the language for a given communicative purpose and working collaboratively and cooperatively in groups in which students acquire specific roles and responsibilities.

-The use of authentic materials that are relevant and meaningful to Education students.

-The use of technology in and outside the classroom as a motivating element for students and to promote autonomy in the learning of a foreign language.

-Autonomous guided learning in the development of linguistic competence outside the classroom (flipped learning).

-The development of thinking skills to promote a deep and meaningful learning of the language and of the specific themes developed.

5.2. Learning tasks

1. Oral and written practice of the language through the integration of the skills and the use of the language with a clear communicative purpose for the resolution of significant and relevant tasks for Education students.

2. Extensive reading outside the classroom and intensive reading in the classroom to develop effective reading strategies
3. Viewing of video sequences and audio listening for comprehension and analysis.

4. Oral activities for identification and discrimination of segmentals and suprasegmentals; controlled and guided practice oral production activities for the improvement of pronunciation with a view to ensuring the students’ oral intelligibility.
5. Activities that integrate reading and writing for the identification and accurate use of discourse markers and structure
6. Role-plays and simulation activities
7. Debates and oral presentations
8. Writing as product through the use of models; writing as cognitive process; collaborative writing
9. Online activities
10. Creative writing activities (stories, rhymes, poems)
11. Self- and peer- assessment activities through checklists
12 Participation in cooperative groups where members take specific roles and responsibilities

5.3. Syllabus

Learning activities will turn around the following specific topics of interest for the Primary teacher

- Bilingual education (e.g. benefits and challenges, language immersion, CLIL in the Primary classroom, English-Medium Instruction [EMI])

- Physical Education (e.g. physical activity, healthy habits, sports rules, school action plans)

- Natural and social sciences (e.g. the natural world, the scientific method, reporting science)

- Arts and literature (e.g. creative writing, music and songs, arts and crafts, visual literacy)