Teaching and Learning Communicative Skills (English)

1. General Objectives
This subject is focused on the development of the students’ productive and receptive skills for communication in a foreign language. Besides, students are expected to become acquainted with notions and tools related to ELT in Primary Education. The ultimate objective of the course is to enable students to incorporate both types of knowledge (linguistic and didactic) into their future teaching practice.

2. Specific Objectives
Specific objectives comprise the development of the competences mentioned in the corresponding section (see below).
As already mentioned, two types of contents (linguistic and didactic) will be covered in this course. As regards linguistic contents, students will consolidate and update their knowledge of the foreign language by means of the study of grammar, the acquisition of vocabulary and the practice of the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), with a view to reaching a common level of communicative competence – from intermediate (CEFR B1 or Cambridge PET) to upper-intermediate (B.2.1). Concerning didactic contents, students will be acquainted with basic notions, strategies and resources related to ELT in the period of Primary Education (see following section).

1. Linguistic contents (conceptual, procedural, attitudinal):
The students’s communicative competence will be developed in an integrated way. As regards conceptual contents, attention will be paid, on the one hand, to the introduction, revision and acquisition of a deeper knowledge about basic grammatical structures and notions (verb tenses, frequency adverbs, relative clauses, questions, the passive voice, reported speech, conditionals, etc.) with a view to helping students to do things with language (describe and narrate, ask for and convey information, express opinions and preferences, etc.). Besides, the development of the students’ lexicon will be achieved by covering a variety of semantic fields (tourism and leisure, work and education, human relationships, etc.). Sociolinguistic competence will be developed through the acquisition of knowledge about set formulae for everyday interaction, as well as strategies for verbal and non-verbal communication. Students will also learn to build and connect their oral and written discourse in a coherent and organized way. Concerning procedural contents or skills, students will develop both productive (writing, speaking) and receptive (reading, listening) skills in an integrated way in order to reach the expected level of communicative competence. Lastly, as regards attitudinal contents, students will be trained to appreciate linguistic diversity, trust their possibilities for self-learning, learn from their errors and develop open-minded, collaborative and respectful attitudes.

2. Didactic contents:
-Methods and approaches for ELT in the primary classroom.
-Classroom management
-Teaching the four skills
-Didactic materials and resources
-Planning and assessment

Basic references:

1. Linguistic module
Heyderman, E., & May, P. (2019). Complete Preliminary B1: For the Revised Exam from 2020: English for Spanish Speakers. Student's Book with Answers. CUP.

2. Didactic module
Council of Europe (2020), Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment – Companion volume, Council of Europe Publishing, available at www.coe.int/lang-cefr
Council of Europe (2001). The Common European framework for the Teaching and Learning of Languages. Cambridge University Press. [http://rm.coe.int/1680459f97]

Complementary references:

1. Linguistic module
Eastwood, J. (2006). Oxford Practice Grammar (Intermediate) with Key and CD Rom. O.U.P.
Murphy, R. (2004). English Grammar in Use (with Answers and CD Rom). C.U.P.
Redman, S. (1997). English Vocabulary in Use (Pre-intermediate and Intermediate). C.U.P.
Swan, M. & Walter, C. (1997). How English Works. A Grammar Practice Book with Answers. O.U.P.

2. Didactic module
Enever, J. (2016). Primary ELT. In The Routledge Handbook of English Language Teaching (pp. 353-366). Routledge.
Ellis, R., Skehan, P., Li, S., Shintani, N., & Lambert, C. (2020). Task-based language teaching: Theory and practice. CUP.
Larsen-Freeman, D. & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in language teaching. OUP.
Martín-Macho Harrison, A. & Guadamillas Gómez, M. V. (2022). Mediación lingüística en la enseñanza de lenguas: aportaciones del volumen complementario y recursos para el aula. Ediciones Octaedro.
Slattery, M. & Willis, J. (2001). English for Primary Teachers. A Handbook of Activities and Classroom Language. OUP.
Ur, P. (2012). A course in English language teaching. CUP.
Walsh, S. (2013). Classroom discourse and teacher development. EUP.
Woodward, T. (2001). Planning lessons and courses: Designing sequences of work for the language classroom. CUP.
Phillips, S. (1994). Young Learners. OUP.
Vale, D. & Feunteun, A. (1995). Teaching children English: A training course for teachers of English to children. CUP.

3. Electronic resources
3.1. Linguistic module:
https://www.englishclub.com/
http://www.mansioningles.com/
http://www.esl-lab.com
http://elllo.org/
https://www.learnenglish.de/englishchat.htm
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/
https://dictionary.cambridge.org
https://www.thefreedictionary.com
https://www.wordreference.com

3.2.Didactic module:
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/
https://www.onestopenglish.com/
https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/
https://www.coe.int

GENERAL
G.1. Capacity to show the acquisition of knowledge of curricular areas, relationships, assessment criteria and didactics in Primary Education.
G.2. Capacity to design, plan and assess teaching and learning processes, individually or in a group.
G.3. Capacity to face multicultural and multilingual situations of language teaching and learning.
G.4. Capacity to design and handle teaching and learning situations considering the principles of equality and respect for diversity.

SPECIFIC
E.52. Linguistic competence: Capacity for written and oral communication in a foreign language.
E.53. Didactic competence: Capacity to develop and assess curricular contents using appropriate devices, as well as to promote the development of students’ communicative competence.

BASIC
B.1. Capacity to show the acquisition of knowledge, particularly concerning the students’ field of study.
B.2. Capacity to apply the knowledge thus acquired to their professional field, with a view to developing arguments and solving problems.
B.3. Capacity to gather, interpret and assess information, particularly concerning the students’ field of study.
B.4. Capacity to convey information in both specialized and non-specialized fields
B.5. Capacity to develop autonomous learning.

TRANSVERSAL
T.1. Instrumental knowledge of foreign languages.
T.3. Instrumental knowledge of ICTs.

The teaching sessions will be held in English. Concerning the types of groupings to carry out classroom tasks, activities will be done in big, medium-sized or small groups, and also individually. General lectures (for big groups) will be devoted to the development of the competences related to the process of teaching and learning a foreign language in Primary Education, particularly through the lecturer’s presentation of contents and students’ oral presentations. On the other hand, students will improve their communicative competence by dealing with lexical, morphological and syntactic aspects of the foreign language. This will be done by means of activities of different formats (drills; multiple-choice, true-false, rewriting or gap-filling exercises, etc.). 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 students’ comprehension of oral texts, debates, role-plays or dictations. Practical tasks related to written production, error correction and cooperative learning activities will also be carried out in these sessions. Individual and group assessment will be focused on verifying the acquisition of both linguistic competence and didactic knowledge. Tutorials (for small groups or single students) will be monitoring sessions devoted to the students’ supervision and the encouragement of autonomous learning. Lastly, the activities to be done outside the classroom will also be focused on the development of both communicative and didactic skills. When carrying out those activities, students will apply and consolidate the knowledge acquired in the classroom while exercising autonomous learning.
The necessary materials to follow each session will be available on the e-Learning platform (virtual campus), which will also be used to upload group or individual assignments.

-Final Exam/Project: 50% of the final mark.
-Participation and (individual and/or group) assignments: 35% of the final mark.
-Development and presentation of a teaching proposal in groups: 15% of the final mark

REMARKS:
1.- In order to pass this course a minimum of 4 out of 10 in the final exam is required. If a student fails to obtain a mark of 4 out of 10 in the final exam, the mark that will be entered into the official record (‘Acta’) will be the mark obtained in the final exam.
2.- July call: the assignments and presentations prepared during the semester will again count 50% of the final mark. Students who did not prepare these assignments for the seminars during the course will lose the corresponding percentage in their final mark.
3.- Students who are exempt from class attendance and those resitting examination will be assessed on the basis of one exam which will count 100% of the final mark.

As shown in the Degree Report, students are expected to devote at least 150 hours to the subject. This amount of time will be distributed as follows: 51 hours of classwork and 99 hours of work outside the classroom. For further information about students’ work, see the sections of “Assessment” and “Recommendations for the study of the subject”

There are no official prerequisites for this subject. However, an intermediate or close to intermediate level of English (CEFR B1 or Cambridge PET) is strongly recommended, as well as an acceptable level as regards written and oral communication in the students’ L1 (Spanish /Galician).
Regular attendance at sessions and private tutorials is strongly advised. In that way, the lecturer will be able to monitor the students’ progress and solve possible difficulties. Students should play an active part in classroom activities, do their homework and hand in their assignments before the deadlines. They should work constantly throughout the course, plan their activities and devote some time every week to study and to the practice of the four skills. They should also revise or expand their knowledge by using the supplementary references and the Centre’s resources.

1) Being environmentally friendly is one of the major concerns that our world is facing nowadays. So, as human beings we must show responsibility in this regard in order to reduce our impact on the environment and preserve our natural resources. We encourage our students to be enviromentally responsible in their academic context, avoiding overuse of plastic, ink, paper etc.

2) Assuming that gender-based violence is a human rights violation, we must fight harder to stop it understanding that a good education starting early in life should be essential to prevent it.

3) Students are required to use their institutional email account when contacting the teachers in charge of this course.

4) Institutional technological tools are mandatory: Virtual Campus, Microsoft Office 365, and other tools provided by the faculty and officially recognized as institutional tools by the University (Lifesize, etc). Students' assignment musb be sent, preferably, through the eLearning platform.

5) Mobile phones should not be used, unless required as a learning tool following lecturer’s indications. Any legal or academic consequence derived from a non-appropriate use shall be the student’s responsibility. The teaching-learning process (class / office hours) is a private event, as it involves communication and exchange between the lecturer and the student.

6) Legal rules on data protection are mandatory: https://www.usc.gal/es/politica-privacidad-proteccion-datos.

7) If fraudulent practices are detected in assignments or exams of any kind, this will bring about a direct fail in the subject, in application of article 16 of “Normativa de avaliación do rendemento académico dos estudantes e de revisión de cualificacións”.