English 470 Syllabus: Content

 Course Description pdf

Note: Topics will not always be covered in the order given below, although a serious attempt will be made to follow this order.

Syllabus pdf

 

Note: Various general topics will form the initial focus of each class session, but the intention is also to discuss and recycle various topics as they come up in the course of discussing how concepts relate to one another and to the materials presented for discussion.

 

* = Not in packet; that is, it is just for reference.

 

Conversation partners & Lab reports (Conversation Partner & SLA Lab Reports.)

0. Introduction

A shared experience: Elementary Amharic: (Amharic - A language learning experience)

 

Elementary Amharic is a fresh language learning experience as a starting point for our exploration of the theory and practice of second language learning. (Although it is of minor importance, the learning experience will be done using Gattegno's Silent Way. What is of importance is what we can learn from observing the techniques used, rather than the specifics of the method itself.)

1. Second language acquisition

1.1 The sounds of English

 Haas transcription

Preparation for Lab Report #1, which involves phonetic transcription:

 

Phonology basic transcription (Transcription 1),(Transcription 2), (Transcription 3)

-- related to the transcription quiz

-- the English spelling system and how it works

-- Contrastive Analysis: Hmong and English (Hmong)

 

1.2 Listening

 

· Kits/Keats (A puzzle with a listening and a speaking component.)

· Listening - The two little girls (Listening exercises with a simple picture)

 

1.3 Speaking (and listening)

 

· The movie problem (The Movies)

· Talking dog (The Talking Dog)

· Gossip and the truth (Gossip and the truth)

 

1.4 And the structures of English

· First language acquisition. 

Milestones and patterns in development

Early childhood bilingualism

Developmental sequences

Grammatical morphemes (Brown's 1973 sequence) 

2. Second language acquisition research

2.1 Second language acquisition and TESOL 

· Theories: Behaviorism, innativism, interactionism (Behaviorism, nativism and interactionism)

Behaviorism

Innativism

Interactionism

Information processing

Connectionism

 

· James Cummins - defining language proficiency (James Cummins The nature of Language Proficiency)

 

· Stephen Krashen - (Krashen SLA notions)

 

2.2 SL Developmental sequences

Developmental sequences

Negation (Negation sequences)

External negation

Preverbal (sometimes with don't, sometimes with no, not)

Post-auxiliary, not fully analyzed

Post-auxiliary with subject-verb agreement, tense, person, and number

Questions (Question sequences) (from 371)

 

· Intonation only (single words, fragments, formulae)

· Intonation only (declarative word order but longer utterances)

· Fronting:

Wh-word fronting with no subject-verb inversion

Where the little children are?

do-fronting: Does in this picture there is four astronauts?

other fronting: Is the picture has two planets on top?

· Inversion in wh- + copula and Y/N questions

Where is the sun?

Is there a fish in the water?

· Inversion in wh- questions:

with do: How do you say [proche]?

with other auxiliaries: What's the boy doing?

· Complex questions:

question tags: It's better, isn't it?

negative questions: Why can't you tell me?

embedded questions: Can you tell me what the date is today?

 

Practice Sets (Developmental Sets)

 

· Relative clauses (Relative clauses)

 

· Tenses basic English tenses (Overview of Tenses in Narrative)

 

2.2 Classroom research methodology

 

· Audiolingualism

 

· five slogans (Moulton) (Audiolingual Slogans)

 

Overview lecture. contrastive analysis, error analysis, focus on form, and so on. (Contrastive analysis: An overview)

 

2.3 Structuralism > CA > CAH > Interlanguage

 

· Morphology

-- inflection versus derivational

-- contrasts with several languages

-- countables versus uncountables

· Culture

-- Deborah Tannen. Cross-cultural communication (Tannen's Cross-country communication: and Tannen's "The Athenian":)

 

2.4 Classroom research and interaction

 

Teacher-student interaction.

Language classroom research.

 

4. Psychological considerations: motivation, memory,

 

4.1 Maturational constraints (my notes)

 

Critical period hypothesis; sensitive period hypothesis.

(see differential success, immediately below)

 

4.2 Differential success: Motivation and so on (Explanations for differential success)

 

Research on learner characteristics

Intelligence

Aptitude

Personality

Motivation and attitudes

Learner beliefs

Age of acquisition

 

4.3 Memory: storage and retrieval

 

· article containing most of the notes ( The Integrated Memory and the Integrated Syllabus)

 

5. Pedagogical approaches to second language acquisition

 

5.1 Communicative approaches

· defining "communicative" in functional terms

· `Who am I?' or `Animal, vegetable, or mineral?' (Animal, vegetable, or mineral?)

5.2 Audiolingual approach, again

 

· Burling's assumptions (Burling's questionable assumptions:)

5.3 TPR

· Commands TPR (Trying a Total Physical Response activity!)

· Terrell hierarchy (Natural Way Activities)

· Questioning techniques (Tapescript of "He said what?")

6. Error Correction

 

 

7. Reading: Schema theory

 

· Pet dog (The parts of a reading passage.)

· Reader's theater (The ant and the grasshopper)

· Tolstoy reading (A cooperative reading activity: Tolstoy)

· Presenting texts (The clever thief and the foolish waiter)

· Bertrand Russell (Bertrand Russell - Teaching tips)

· Literature and reading (Reading theory: Pre-reading activities)

 

8. Vocabulary

 

· Vocabulary (Vocabulary)

9. Writing and rhetorical structures

 

· Dicto-comp (Dicto-Comp)

· Bower reading (Bower Reading)

· Rhetorical types (Rhetorical types)

· Asimov (Asimov's "Fuel forever" )

· Writing (Writing)

· Finland (Finland and New Zealand)

· Product and process (Process and product)

· Holistic grading (Holistic Scoring)

 

10. Grammar (Focus on form)

 

-- focus on form

· passives (Introducing and practicing the passive)

· Pyramids (Pryamids: Are you honest?)

 

Materials:

· If only she... (The Third Conditional)

· Inf. gap & present perfect (An information gap and the present perfect)

 

11. Critical thinking

 

· Simple riddles (Simple Riddles)

· Jalan Terasek (Jalan Terasek)

12. Testing

 

· Morrow on testing (Testing: Morrow)