Course Descriptions

Methods of Foreign Language Teaching offers a foundation in approaches, methods, and materials for the teaching of second and foreign languages from the perspectives of second language acquisition (SLA) research. We begin by reviewing the history of language teaching methods and basic concepts pertaining to the field and then focus on specific communicative modes, planning, motivation and strategies, and other pertinent topics. In particular, we focus on implementing communicative and task-based approaches to promoting language skills and language learning strategies. Designed for pre-service and in-service teachers of any language, this course emphasizes the development of effective decision making by constantly drawing connections between theory and practice and encouraging reflection on students’ language learning and teaching experience. The major tasks for this course include writing a critical review of currently available teaching materials and a teaching philosophy, both grounded in current research and practice.

This fully-online course has 7 modules. These modules, consisting of instructor videos, readings, useful links, published videos, and assignments, can be accessed through the course page on Michigan State University’s learning management system, D2L (http://d2l.msu.edu). This course requires online participation, weekly quizzes, four written assignments, and a final exam.

The field of second language acquisition (SLA) seeks to understand and explain the development of proficiency in multiple or additional languages as a cognitive and social process. This course provides an overview of the major concepts, theories, and research methods that have emerged in the forty years or so since SLA began to be identified as a field.

The extensive and widely-varied work of scholars in this field informs the research-based practices to which language teachers aspire in their classrooms. However, the links between the results of research and the “real world” practice of teaching are not always immediately apparent or accessible. Not all SLA scholars believe that language learning really occurs as a result of teaching, and most agree that instruction is not necessary. Certainly other kinds of exposure to language will lead to learning.

However, this course centers around instructed second language acquisition (ISLA), which deals with development of proficiency in a second or foreign language that occurs in a classroom or otherwise as a result of a deliberate effort to manipulate and manage the learning process.
As the author of our main textbook points out, there are two main questions that drive inquiry in this field: “(1) Is instruction beneficial for second language (L2) learning, and (2) if so, How can the effectiveness of instruction be optimized?” (Loewen, 2015, p. 1).

The structure of this course includes twelve content modules divided in to three sections. In the first section, we will begin by learning about the broader scope of different approaches to SLA, from more traditional cognitive approaches to emerging “alternative approaches” (Atkinson, 2011), and where ISLA fits into that spectrum. In the second section, we will focus on ISLA and research that has been conducted in this area. In the third section, we will consider a number of influences other than actual instruction that may impact how languages are learned, including context and learner differences. Along the way, we will discuss how second language learning differs from learning our first languages, what it means to know a language, the roles of input and output in the target language, the influence of interaction with other users, the importance of differences among target languages, sequences in which learning tends to occur, and the impact of social and cultural factors on the language learning process.

In addition to informing you about these theories and issues, this course is intended to strengthen and expand your ability to process the findings of academic research and determine how they should inform your own classroom practices. As an aspiring master teacher, you need to be confident in your ability to draw connections between theory and practice and even to conduct your own investigations. To that end, you will be presenting critiques of published articles to your classmates and designing your own ISLA research project.

As many scholars in foreign language education and applied linguistics have noted, culture is one of the most widely-used and least agreed-upon concepts in our field. This course is intended to embrace that complexity but also lead toward some clarity in the principles that can guide our pedagogical decisions and practices in regard to teaching culture and intercultural competence. To that end, the course begins with overviews of the many definitions and facets of culture and provides opportunities to reflect on your own understandings of culture. We will then delve into the theoretical underpinnings of culture and intercultural communication. Following that, we will explore frameworks for teaching not only cultural knowledge but also intercultural competence and discuss current national and international standards for teaching culture. Throughout the semester, we will consider the implications of these issues for teaching and assessing culture and intercultural competence in foreign language courses.

The tasks for this course, which parallel the components of Byram and Zarate’s (1997) intercultural competence framework, include reflective tasks, observation tasks, activity design tasks, and an investigative task in which you will use ethnographic interviews to engage with the themes of this course as they relate to specific individuals and contexts.

The Language Concepts course in the MA in Foreign Language Teaching program aims to provide current and aspiring language teachers with the foundational knowledge of linguistics that is necessary to support planning, instruction, and evaluation in our courses and programs. Many instructors and advanced learners of additional languages are driven by their admiration for linguistic forms, their curiosity about how language represents the world, and their interest in comparing patterns across languages. This course aims to deepen teachers’ knowledge of linguistic forms so that they can be better equipped to describe, promote, and assess learners’ use of those forms. To that end, this course begins like a traditional Introduction to Linguistics course in that it addresses the primary categories of language description: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. We will also touch on language typology, language variation, and various writing systems. Teacher-learners in this course will also develop skills for investigating language in use through corpus analysis. Corpus-based tools allow us to locate linguistic features in authentic contexts, identify lexicogrammatical patterns, and explore variation among genres and registers.

Given that the aim of this course, like all FLT courses, is to promote excellence in language teaching, we will consistently draw connections from our study of language description to pedagogical practices for teaching pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and pragmatic competence. Throughout the course, we will emphasize approaches to instruction in linguistic features that are implicit, inductive, learner-centered, and compatible with contemporary communicative methods and standards. As Kumaravadivelu (2001) advocates in Beyond Methods, we will strive to enhance language awareness in order to “activate the learners’ intuitive heuristics, ultimately enhancing their state of readiness to internalize the grammatical system of their L2” (p. 175). Teacher-learners in this course will develop skills and strategies for leading learners through a process of discovery that can improve their language use and enhance their appreciation for languages and linguistics.

This fully-online course includes 12 content modules to be completed each week, each consisting of instructor presentation videos, readings, discussion prompts, exercises, and supplemental materials. This course also involves a series of more extensive assignments in which we will synthesize and apply the course content. These will involve creating visuals and presentations that explain features of our target languages; exploring research that has investigated the learning of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation in foreign languages; analyzing authentic texts and learner language; and designing instructional materials to develop language awareness. As the semester proceeds, these assignments will be incorporated into a collaborative Language Concepts website that can be shared with language learners and fellow teachers.

What does it really mean to speak a language fluently? In order to become fully competent in an additional language, learners must not only gain mastery of the grammatical system and vocabulary of the target language but also learn to use the language appropriately and effectively in various contexts and with various people. They must develop communicative competence, which involves mastery of the sociolinguistic, pragmatic, discourse features of the language as well as strategic competence for managing bilingual and multilingual encounters. If we intend to teach language communicatively, then we must understand that language itself is “inseparable from individual identity and social behavior. Not only does language define a community; a community, in turn, defines the forms and uses of language” (Savignon, 2007, p. 217). The field of sociolinguistics explores these forms, uses, and communities. This course, then, seeks to provide current and aspiring language teachers with the tools to understand and address the needs of language learners as they relate to sociolinguistic competence. We will cover language variation and change, the use of language to define individual identities and group membership, and the influence of power and policies on languages themselves and their users. In addition, we will explore the sociolinguistic features of the languages that we teach, develop pedagogical approaches that take these features into account, especially in the teaching of spoken language skills, and consider the impact of policy and power on our learners and their use of the language.

This course takes a broad view of literacy in one’s first language and in second and foreign languages, ranging from the cognitive processes of reading to the roles that reading and writing play in our lives. Topics will include components of literacy skills in multiple languages and writing systems; sociocultural approaches to literacy and literacy practices; ways of analyzing the increasingly wide range of texts that language learners will need to interpret and produce; digital literacies; and specific pedagogical approaches for developing reading and writing in language courses. In addition to reading about and working with important theoretical concepts related to literacy and the pedagogy of reading and writing through discussions and weekly tasks, students will engage in observations of literacy practices, collaborate on the design of activities and lessons, and develop a major writing task for language learners that draws on principles of process writing, peer interaction, corrective feedback, strategies, and assessment.

Reading is one of the most complex tasks that human minds have learned to do over the last several thousand years, and yet we often take it for granted. Learning to read again in an additional language brings us back to the precise and demanding levels of identification and awareness that allow us to decode writing into meaningful text. We can transfer some of our reading skills into the new language, but we must also resist interference and develop new skills. This course covers the processes and pedagogy of reading in second and foreign languages, ranging from the cognitive processes of reading to the roles that literacy plays in our lives. Topics will include components of literacy skills in multiple languages and writing systems; sociocultural approaches to literacy and literacy practices; ways of analyzing the increasingly wide range of texts that language learners will need to interpret and produce; digital literacies; and specific pedagogical approaches for developing reading and other aspects of literacy in language courses. The topics we discuss will be relevant for learners of various target languages, from young beginning readers to highly proficient users of multiple languages. In addition to weekly discussions and tasks, students in this course will design activities and lessons for teaching reading, analyze texts in the target language, critique current research on literacy and biliteracy, and conduct a case study of reading development in language learners.

This course focuses on reflective teaching and teacher inquiry. Whereas most courses focus on the how and the what of teaching a foreign language, this course focuses on the who – the teacher’s and the learner’s identity, beliefs, values, and roles. To that end, this course brings together, reflective practice, and teacher research. The course readings focus attention on many different aspects of language teaching, and they move from research on teachers to research by teachers. The theory component will cover research and scholarship that brings together identity and learning as well as motivation. The reflective component will provide guidance as teacher-learners build a practice of reflection that can lead to greater confidence, more effective teaching, and better change management. The research component is intended to introduce teacher-learners to theory forms of research that can be and frequently are implemented by teachers in their own classrooms. These approaches seek to decrease the distance between theory and practice, to empower teachers to become researchers in their own right, and to help teachers add to the field’s body of knowledge about teaching and learning in specific contexts and communities.