Course Objectives

Course Objectives/Goals

  • To demonstrate the relationships between theory and practice so that course participants may understand the underlying rationale of mainstream and alternative foreign language pedagogy. 
  • To introduce course participants to theories of language and theories of language learning which have influenced the development of current thought regarding foreign language teaching and learning practices and approaches to curriculum/syllabus design, to materials development and to the development of tools for the assessment of linguistic and communicative competence. 
  • To familiarize them with curriculum/syllabus documents for the teaching of English in Greek schools, with the national curricula for languages in other member states and with European language curricula guidelines. 
  • To enable them to evaluate teaching/learning approaches and methodology in relation to the pedagogic, the political and the social goals that these fulfill. 
  • To enable them to assess pedagogic aims and suggested classroom practices in connection with educational and language policy aims. 
  • To build a framework for conceptualising approaches to language teaching and learning that serve the needs of their prospective students operating in particular sociocultural contexts. 
  • To introduce them to recent methodological approaches to the teaching of English as a foreign language including experiential learning, differentiated instruction etc. 

Instructor

Instructors

Evdokia Karavas

Specialising in the area of Applied Linguistics, Dr Karavas is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Language and Linguistics of the Faculty of English Language and Literature at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and co-coordinator of the Pre-service teacher education programme. She is also tutor for the Hellenic Open University on the MA programme in ELT where she teaches the Course design and Evaluation module. She has also coordinated the development of and co-authored material for open and distance learning of the Hellenic Open University.

A graduate of the Faculty where she currently teaches, Dr Karavas completed her postgraduate studies in the UK in the area of TEFL. She holds a doctorate from the University of Warwick where she specialized in the evaluation of ELT curricula educational research methods and English language teacher education. She has experience in the evaluation of ELT programmes (in Europe and elsewhere) and in the management of post-service teacher education programmes. For a number of years, she was a lecturer at the Centre for English Language Teacher Education at the  University of Warwick where she taught postgraduate courses for EFL teachers. She has taken part in conferences within and outside Greece and her research interests include curriculum/ programme evaluation, EFL didactics, educational research methods, teacher education and development. She has publications in these areas in local and international journals.

Within the wider context of the research, evaluation and development work for the KPG, Dr Karavas is responsible for issues related to the oral component of the KPG in English- development and design of speaking module and responsible for the training of oral examiners and markers for the KPG exam.

Textbook

Textbooks

The Applied Linguistics Reader and Workbook. (2008). Athens: University of Athens. 

Bibliography

Bibliography

  • Brown D. (1994). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. New York: Prentice Hall. 
  • Cook G. and Seidlhofer B. (1995) Principles and Practice in Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University press. 
  • Council of Europe (2001). Common European Framework for Languages: Teaching, Learning and Assessment. 
  • Dendrinos, B. (1992). The EFL Textbook and Ideology. Athens: N.C. Grivas Publications. 
  • Dendrinos, B. (2001). The Politics of ELT. The University of Athens Publications. 
  • Johnson, K. (2001) An Introduction to Foreign Language Learning and Teaching. London and New York: Longman-Pearson Education. (Chapters 2-12) 
  • Kohonen, Viljo et al. (2001). Experiential learning in Foreign Language Education. London and New York: Longman-Pearson Education. 
  • Lantolf, J.P. (ed). (2000). Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
  • Macedo, D., Dendrinos, B. & Gounari, P. (2003). The Hegemony of English. Boulder, Colorado: Paradigm Publishers. 
  • Morrow, K. (ed). (2004). Insights from the Common European Framework. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
  • Papakonstantinou, A. (1991) Suggestopedia. An art of teaching, an art of living. Athens: Hellenika Grammata. 
  • Papakonstantinou, Α. (1997) Creating the Whole Person in New Age. Athens: A. Kardamitsa. 
  • Papaefthymiou-Lytra S. (1987a) Communicating and Learning Strategies in English as a Foreign Language with Particular Reference to the Greek Learner of English. Athens: University of Athens press 
  • Papaefthymiou-Lytra S. (1987b) Language, Language Awareness and Foreign Language Learning. Athens: Athens University Press. 
  • Papaefthymiou-Lytra S. (1990) Explorations in Foreign Language Classroom Discourse. Athens: Athens University Press. 
  • Richards, J.C. & Rodgers, T.S. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 
  • Τοκατλίδου, Β. (2003). Γλώσσα, Επικοινωνία και Γλωσσική Εκπαίδευση. Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Πατάκη. 
  • Willis, J. (1996). A Framework for Task-Based Learning, London and New York: Longman. 

Course Syllabus

Course Syllabus

  1. What is applied linguistics
  2. Approaches and methods for foreign language teaching and learning
  3. Theories of language and their influence on foreign language pedagogy
  4. What does knowledge of a foreign language involve? Communicative competence
  5. Foreign language curriculum developmet and syllabus design.Tha of the Integrated Foreign Languages Curriculum
  6. Theories of language learning and their influence on foreign language pedagogy
  7. Focus on learning and the language learner: Individual differences in foreign language learning
  8. Recent developments in foreign language teaching and learning

Prerequisites/Prior Knowledge

Prerequisites/Prior Knowledge

There are no prerequisites for taking this course.