Theory and reflexive practice in the didactics of Germanic languages
[GERM2222]
[22.5h + 50h] 7 credits
This course is taught in the 1st semester.
Teacher(s): Pierre Godin(coord.), Fanny Meunier
Language: French
Level: Second
Aims
To help student teachers analyze, build and improve teaching and assessment procedures in Germanic languages, whilst taking into account the official teaching curricula and the recommendations from the Council of Europe.
The future teachers will demonstrate the acquired competencies in the framework of classroom teaching practice sessions (observation and active classroom teaching sessions).
Main themes
After a brief introduction on teaching in general and on foreign language teaching in particular, the various components of instructed learning will be reviewed: the learner (age, learning styles, motivation, etc), the classroom setting (group management and discipline), the school setting (choice of programmes and sections), the language teacher, and finally the language per se (second vs foreign languages, linguistic vs extra-linguistic knowledge, communicative competence, etc). Keeping in mind the objectives of foreign language learning and teaching at secondary school level, the students will adopt a reflexive attitude towards the teaching, learning and assessment of foreign languages.
The various teaching and learning methodologies will also be presented critically (translation method, direct method, audio-oral and audio-visual methods, notional-functional method, communicative approach, natural approach, receptive, cultural and mixed approaches).
The legal decrees, descriptions of threshold and expected competences, together with the FESEC teaching curricula will also be presented and analyzed critically, taking into account the recent publications and recommendations from the Council of Europe and the Common European Framework for languages (Strasburg, Council of Europe, 2000).
The student teachers will have the opportunity to practice actual teaching on site in the framework of observation (stage d'observation) and active classroom teaching sessions (stages actifs) carried out in upper-secondary schools of the French-speaking community of Belgium (see practical part).
Practical part (50h).
The 50 hours include the observation (10h) and active (40h) classroom teaching sessions (stages d'enseignement). These sessions will take place in upper-secondary school sections (2nd and 3rd degree) of Belgian. French-speaking community schools.
Content and teaching methods
The practical part aims to put the objectives of the course into practice in the framework of classroom teaching practice.
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)
Prerequisites : students' reflexive approach will be encouraged through incentives to (i) read reference books, articles, or textbooks and (ii) consult specific web sites such as le Secrétariat de l'Enseignement Catholique - http://www.segec.be/FESeC/Secteurs/LanguesModernes/http://www.uclouvain.be/index.htm - and the Council of Europe web sites where various documents can be downloaded http://culture2.coe.int/portfolio/documents/cadrecommun.pdf et http://www.coe.int/T/E/Cultural_Co-operation/education/Languages/Language_Policy /Portfolio/portfolio.asp#TopOfPage.
Assessment.
[A] The assessment of the theoretical part will only take place after students have done their stage d'observation (see below). The assessment will be written in January and June, and oral in September. It will include (i) the integrated knowledge of notions, principles, approaches, objectives and methods of foreign language teaching seen in class will be tested, (ii) a paper on one of the themes proposed in class.
The assessment will also include a report on the observation classroom teaching sessions ('stage d'observation') carried out in upper-secondary sections of the Belgian French-speaking community schools.
[B] The classroom teaching sessions ('stages actifs') will be assessed by in-service teachers and didactic collaborators in Germanic foreign language teaching. Detailed and commented written assessment reports (available on the didactic unit web site) will be given to the future teachers.