English: Comprehension and Oral Expression

GENERAL
a. Train students as future teachers in the learning and practice of oral skills: listening, speaking, and interacting in daily communicative and academic contexts.
b. Understand the skills listed in the previous section and to be able to teach them at primary school level.
Moreover, this subject is also intended to train students in:

DECLARATIVE KNOWLEDGE
a. Know how to teach and learn foreign language oral skills in multilingual contexts.
b. Understand the nature of multilingual situations in the class and their relation to the teaching and learning of languages according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
c. Master the basic contents of language methodology from a multilingual perspective.
d. Better their knowledge of the English language, especially their oral skills in English, starting from B1.2 and trying to reach B2.1.

SKILLS AND KNOW-HOW
a. Be able to apply language theoretical knowledge and functions in listening, speaking and interaction.
b. Analyze multilingual educational models and apply the knowledge obtained to concrete situations.
c. Solve problems related the teaching and learning of oral and listening comprehension skills in English.
d. Encourage foreign language communicative skills in their students.

EXISTENTIAL COMPETENCE
a. Show a respectful and positive attitude towards linguistic diversity as an expression of cultural heritage.
b. Value the importance of these attitudes in the teaching of languages and their cultures.

Conceptual, procedural, and attitudinal contents will be introduced and developed throughout the course. As regards conceptual contents, the receptive and productive skills of listening-speaking-interacting will be developed taking linguistic, sociolinguistic, pragmatic, and strategic competence into account.
Within linguistic competence, attention will be paid to the introduction, revision and acquisition of a deeper knowledge of grammatical structures (verb tenses, frequency adverbs, relative clauses, questions, the passive voice, reported speech, conditionals, non-finite clauses, and such)so as to enable students to do things with language by using their oral skills (describe and narrate, ask for and transmit information, express modality, express opinions, preferences and wishes, and so on). In addition, a variety of semantic fields (tourism and leisure, mass media, the Arts, science and technology, etc.) as well as topics of morphological and semantic interest (word classes, false friends, idioms, stylistic and geographical variation, register etc.) will be considered in order to help the students further develop and interiorize this vocabulary. Finally, the phonological and phonetic nature of the English language, as well as differences in dialect and accent, intonation patterns, weak and strong forms, elision, assimilation will also be reviewed.
Sociolinguistic competence will be developed through the acquisition of knowledge about set formulae for everyday interaction, differences in register, social relations (use and choice of greetings, use and choice of address forms, conventions for turn taking, use and choice of expletives), how to express politeness, how to recognize stylistic and geographical variation, and such.
Pragmatic and strategic competence will be achieved by training students so that they will be able to construct, organize, and connect oral utterances, use strategies to enhance verbal and nonverbal communication (body language, pause fillers, among others), recognize genres and subgenres (narrations, descriptions, instructions, and so on.)
Concerning procedural contents or skills, students will develop both productive (speaking and interacting) and receptive (listening comprehension) skills in an integrated way in order to reach the expected level of communicative competence. Lastly, as regards attitudinal contents, students will learn to appreciate linguistic diversity, to trust their possibilities for self-learning and learn from their errors so as to develop open-minded, collaborative, and respectful attitudes about learning and teaching.

METHODOLOGICAL CONTENT
Students will be acquainted with the basic approaches and methodology for ELT in the primary classroom. Within this general framework, special attention will be paid to the teaching and learning of the oral productive and receptive skills, classroom management, planning and assessing, teaching units, the use of didactic materials, and ICT resources.

BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY
Latham, C. et al. (2014). English File. 3rd Ed. Upper-intermediate. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Jeffries, Lesley. 1998. Meaning in English: An Introduction to Language Study. London: Macmillan.
Leech, Geoffrey, N. 2004. Meaning and the English Verb. 3rd Ed. London: Longman
Leech, Geoffrey, and Jan Svartvik. 1988. A Communicative Grammar of English. 14th reprint. Harlow: Longman.
McCarthy, Michael and Felicity O’Dell. 1998. 8th printing. English Vocabulary in Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pridham, Francesca. 2001. The Language of Conversation. London: Routledge.
Thorne, Sara. 1997. Mastering Advanced English Language. Houndmills: Macmillan.

COMPLEMENTARY BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bland, Janice. Ed. 2015. Teaching English to young learners: critical issues in language teaching with 3-12-year-olds. London; New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, Plc.
Ellis, Sue, and Elspeth McCartney. Eds. 2011. Applied Linguistics and Primary School Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Emery, Helen, and Sarah Rich. Eds. 2015. Teaching English to young learners
Alexandria, Virginia: TESOL Press.
Galton, Maurice. 1999. 2nd Edition. Inside the primary classroom: 20 years on. London; New York: Routledge.
Glazzard, Jonathan and Samuel Stones, Eds. 2020. Relationships education for primary schools (2020): a critical toolkit for teachers. St. Albans, England: Critical Publishing.
Grugeon, Elizabeth et al. 2000. Teaching speaking & listening in the primary school. 3rd ed. Abingdon, Oxon: David Fulton Publishers.
Halliwell, Susan. 1992. Teaching English in the primary classroom. 3rd Ed. London; New York: Longman.
Hood, Philip, and Kristina Tobutt. Eds. 2016. Teaching Languages in the Primary School. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.
Maynard, Sally et al. 2012. Teaching Foreign Languages in the Primary School. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, N.Y.: Routledge.
Owen, David and Cathy Burnett, Eds. 2014. Getting into primary teaching. Northwich: Critical Publishing Ltd.

DICTIONARIES & GRAMMAR RESOURCES
dictionary.cambridge.org
www.oed.com
www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com
wordreference.com

Close, R.A. 1975. Reference Grammar for Students of English. London: Longman.
Eastwood, J. 2006. Oxford Practice Grammar (Intermediate) with Key and CD Rom. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Hewings, M. 1999. Advanced Grammar in Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Jackson, H. 1990. Grammar and Meaning: A Semantic Approach to English Grammar. London: Longman.
Murphy, R. 1999. Essential Grammar in Use. Cassette set. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Murphy, R. 2004. English Grammar in Use: A Self-Study Reference and Practice book for Intermediate Students of English. 3rd. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Murphy, R. 2004. English Grammar in Use (with Answers and CD Rom). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Shepher, J. et al. 1990. Ways to Grammar. London: Macmillan Publishers.
Thomson, a.J. & Martinet, A. V. 1983. A Practical Grammar of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

3.- Electronic resources
American English
https://americanenglish.state.gov/forum
Cambridge
https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/teaching-english/resources-for-teacher…
Cervantes.org (formácion de profesores)
https://cfp.cervantes.es/recursos/bibliografia_de_referencia.htm
E-Grid
https://egrid.epg-project.eu/en?language=en
Oxford
https://elt.oup.com/learning_resources/?cc=global&selLan

GENERAL
G1 - Capacity to show the acquisition of knowledge of curricular areas, relationships, assessment criteria and teaching in Primary Education.
G3 - Capacity to cope in multicultural and multilingual situations of language teaching and learning.
G11 - Capacity to become acquainted with, select and use ICTs in the classroom.

SPECIFIC
E1 - Capacity to understand the learning processes in the primary school period in the family, social and school context.
E2 - Capacity to know the students’ characteristics as well as the motivational and social context characteristics.
E52 - Linguistic competence: Capacity for written and oral communication in a foreign language.
E53 - Didactic competence: Capacity to develop and assess curricular contents using appropriate devices, as well as to promote the development of students’ communicative competence.

BASIC
CB1 - Capacity to show the acquisition of knowledge, particularly concerning the students’ field of study.
CB2 - Capacity to apply the knowledge thus acquired to their professional field.
CB4 - Capacity to convey information in both specialized and non-specialized fields view to developing arguments and solving problems.

TRANSVERSAL
T1 - Instrumental knowledge of foreign languages.

The teaching sessions will be held in English. Activities carried out during these class sessions may be individual, or in small or medium-sized groups. General lectures will present and consider the development of the competences related to the process of teaching and learning a foreign language in Primary Education, by way of the professor’s presentations as well as in the content summarized and presented in oral presentations done by the students themselves.
Students will also improve their communicative competence by dealing with lexical, morphological, and syntactic aspects of the foreign language. This will be done by means of various types of activities (drills, multiple-choice, true-false, rewriting or gap-filling exercises, and so on). Interactive sessions (for medium-sized groups) will also be focused on the development of the students’ communicative competence, particularly as regards listening and speaking skills, by means of activities devised to check the students’ comprehension of oral texts, debates, role-plays, and dictations among others. Individual and group assessment will be focused on verifying the acquisition of both linguistic competence and methodological knowledge. Tutorials (for small groups or single students) will be monitoring sessions devoted to the students’ supervision and the encouragement of autonomous learning.

Assessment will be based in part on the continuous evaluation of the student throughout the semester and in accordance with the assessment periods as listed below.
PLEASE NOTE: In all of the cases listed here, and for all the assessment periods, students must pass each one of the sections in order to receive a passing final grade for this subject.

FIRST PERIOD OF ASSESSMENT
(A) For the students who regularly attend classes:* (see below)
--Active participation in class and on time completion of tasks: 10%
--Oral presentations and assigned homework: 40%
--Final specific tests (including an oral and a listening component): 50%
* A minimum attendance of 80% is compulsory. The date on which the final specific tests and the student presentations take place will be established at some point during the semester.

(B) For those students who are legally exempt from attending classes:** (see below)
--Preparation of the continuous evaluation tasks assigned: 30%
--Final oral test: 35%
--Final listening test: 35%
**These students must get in touch with the professor in charge during the first two weeks of the semester and come to do the final tests on the date announced in class.

In addition, all the activities turned in for grading must include the consulted bibliographic sources used in the documentation of the work and these sources must be cited according to academic standards for bibliographic and digital citation*. See IMPORTANT NOTICE below.

*IMPORTANT NOTICE: In the USC Rules for Academic Performance (DOG 21 from 21 July, 2011, Art. 16) presenting fraudulent academic work for any type of final evaluation is penalized with a “Fail” in the corresponding exam period. Turning in this type of work may also result in a disciplinary process for the offender. Hence, any detection of plagiarism in any of the academic work turned in for grading in this subject will be penalized with a “Fail” in this subject, even when the student has passing marks in other areas of evaluation. As “plagiarism” we understand when an academic paper includes any partial or complete copy, in literal form or not, of content, or ideas published in other academic papers or in any other type of published format (paper or Internet), and where the student does not cite the source from which the said content or idea was taken. Students who fail because of plagiarism will not be allowed to take part in the second chance exam period.

SECOND PERIOD OF ASSESSMENT
The students who have passed a section during the first period of assessment may retain it for the second period of assessment; in any case, the evaluation system is the same as above*.

STUDENTS WHO ARE RETAKING THE COURSE
Students who need to redo this course, and who have passed the continuous evaluation part of the course from the work done in class during the academic term may keep this part of their mark accordingly. However, if they have not passed the continuous evaluation part of the course, they will need to redo the entire subject.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:
In the event of fraudulent or plagiarized work or submissions in tests or exercises, the terms stated in art. 16 of the “Normativa de avaliación do rendemento académico dos estudantes e de revision de cualificacións” will be applied.

As specified in the official study program for this degree program, this 4.5 ECTS-credit subject will require 112.5 hours of work by the students: 36 class hours and 76.5 hours of autonomous learning. For further information about students’ work, see the sections titled “Assessment” and “Recommendations for the study of this subject”.

The work carried out for this subject should be done according to the standards and specifications set out by the professors. Since this course is part of students’ preparation for their professional future, all assigned tasks must be completed as instructed and turned in on time.

In addition, all the activities turned in for grading must include the consulted bibliographic sources used in the documentation of the work and these sources must be cited according to academic standards for bibliographic and digital citation.

With respect to the students’ workload, apart from the orientations and suggestions provided by the professors in charge during the class period, see also RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE STUDY OF THIS SUBJECT (below).

PREREQUISITES & FORMAL REQUIREMENTS:
Although there are no prerequisites, or formal requirements, for this course, students should have a high intermediate level (B1.2/B2) of English language skills. If you are unsure that you have reached this level, you may contact the professor in charge for more information.
Students should also have already passed the compulsory subject “Teaching and Learning Communicative Competence: English”.
In addition, students must have access to a computer and/or smartphone with audio and video capability to be able to access the on-line classroom and to complete certain activities assigned in this course.

CLASS ATTENDANCE:
Class attendance is mandatory; moreover, students ought to be capable of doing the work involved in this course on their own. Thus, those students who do not attend class must turn in the work assigned in class as part of their continuous evaluation mark. In order to favor continuous evaluation, a certain percentage of the Final Mark will reflect students' attendance to and active participation in class. In addition, emphasis will be placed on oral work done throughout the course and this oral work is best done in the classroom itself. In any case, as a University student you are responsible for preparing the work assigned in class whether you attend class or not.

CLASS WORK & HOME STUDY:
Active participation in class will help the students to improve their performance in both written and oral English. After the completion of an area of study, students are expected to continue their preparation of the vocabulary and/ or tasks assigned. During the academic year some written work be assigned to allow for the practice of this skill. In order for this practice to be evaluated, ALL WRITTEN WORK MUST BE TYPEWRITTEN, DOUBLE-SPACED, AND TURNED IN ON TIME.

--If plagiarism/cheating is detected, in either the activities or the exam, the sanctions laid out in “Normativa de avaliación do rendemento académico dos estudantes e de revisión de cualificacións” will be applied. See IMPORTANT NOTICE above in the “ASSESSMENT SYSTEM” section above.