English Seminar I

Recommended Prerequisites

Completion of all the 1st-year courses of the program.

Teaching Methods

The teaching methods are mostly interactive and include oral presentations, discussion of texts on FL or EL teaching, discussion of practical problems related to the students' teaching practice, and weekly tasks of writing and research carried out by students.

Learning Outcomes

This seminar aims to enable students to
1. Deepen methodological, deontological and empirical knowledge in English-language teaching and didactics;
2. Acquire research methods and tools that are essential for both their teaching practice and the production of the final MA report;
3. Develop the ability to
– mobilize relevant knowledge for the analysis of pedagogic and didactic issues;
– apply their knowledge and understanding to new issues using the conceptual instruments of this field;
– make critical use of methods and theories;
– apply research skills and relevant methodological procedures in their field of study;
– communicate clearly their findings, and engage in critical debate and argumentation.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. The teacher training practice in school.
2. Definition of the research project on a pedagogical-didactic topic in interconnection with the supervising school teacher.
3. Data collection methods and tools, and identification of problems and appropriate actions to address them.
4. Guidelines for structuring and producing the final MA report: organization of information, documentation techniques, reference and citation norms.
5. Presentation and discussion of the work carried out by each student on the pedagogical-didactic topic they chose, including preliminary hypotheses and identification of actions to be implemented, at the level of both research and teaching.

Head Lecturer(s)

Ana Alexandra Ribeiro Luís

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Active participation in seminar discussions: 20.0%
Critical summary of sources for the thematic part of the report, presented orally and in writing: 30.0%
Synthesis work: 50.0%

Bibliography

Bibliografia geral/General References:
Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching, 4th ed. London: Pearson Longman.
Mackay, C. (2019). Learning to Plan Modern Languages Lessons. Understanding the Basic Ingredients. London: Routledge.
Scrivener, J. (2011). Learning Teaching, 3rd ed. Oxford: Macmillan Education.
Thornbury, S. (2006) An A-Z of ELT. Oxford: Macmillan Education.
Wajnryb, R. (1993). Classroom Observation Tasks. A Resource Book for LanguageTeachers and Trainers. Cambridge: CUP
Wallace, Michael (1998). Action Research for Language Teachers. Cambridge: CUP.
Wallace, M.; Tzong-Ho, Bau; Denis, Fred Simon (1991). Training Foreign Language Teachers: A Reflective Approach. Cambridge: CUP.
A bibliografia específica para as apresentações e trabalhos dependerá dos temas de relatório escolhidos pelos/as estudantes.
More detailed references will be provided depending on the specific research topics chosen by the students.