Course overview; introduction to classroom research

1. Masters in Teaching
English
MEEF 2 Anglais, ESPE Nice
2014-5

2. Semester 1 VM2ANS3
1.1 VMAN31 Disciplinaire!
VMAN311 Litté Pernelle
VMAN12 Civi Massip
VMAN313 Grammaire Merle
1.2 VMAN32 Didactique!
VMAN321 McClure
VMAN322 Pertegas
VMAN323 Bessière
1.3 VMAN33 UE3 Culture commune
VMAN330 Culture commune ESPE instructors
VMAN331 GOAL Whyte
1.4 VMAN34 UE4 Mise en situation professionnelle
VMANG341 Stage Whyte

3. VMAN31 Disciplinaire
!
VMAN311 Littérature
Béatrix Pernelle
VMAN12 Civilisation
Nathalie Massip
VMAN313 Grammaire
Jean-Marie Merle
!
• for students who do not
already hold an M2 in
language education or
languages
• literature (October)
• civilisation/grammar Thurs
13-15h (Oct-Dec)

4. VMAN32 Didactique
!
VMAN321 McClure
VMAN322 Pertegas
VMAN323 Bessière
!
• for all student teachers
• November - 5 weeks
• Wednesday & Friday

5. VMAN33 Culture commune
!
VMAN330 Culture commune
ESPE instructors
VMAN331 GOAL
Whyte
!
• for all student teachers
• 330 - Monday afternoon
• 331 - second language
acquisition and teaching
(November, 5 weeks)

6. VMAN34 Mise en situation
professionnelle
!
!
VMANG341 Stage Whyte
!
• for all student teachers
• Thursday afternoons
• 6 sessions
• research project with
secondary and university
tutors

7. VMANG341
Stage et accompagnement,
méthodologie de la recherche,
préparation du mémoire

8. http://efl.unice.fr

10. classroom research for
second language teaching
Language
teaching and
learning
!
• classical languages
• modern languages
• foreign languages
• second languages
!
grammar-translation + culture
!
!
grammar-translation + culture + oral
(audio-lingual)
!
!
immersion (like first language
acquisition)

11. second language
acquisition
linguistics
(sciences du
langage)
!
• psycholinguistics
• applied linguistics
• language education
!
interlanguage
!
!
interaction hypothesis
!
!
output & noticing
3 key ideas

12. Task-based language
teaching (TBLT)
• This approach involves organising learning around
tasks, or “activities involving words.” Learning tasks
focus on a communicative purpose and outcome (not
an explicit language goal). They involve the real-time
use of learners’ own language resources (not rehearsed
sequences). Tasks often require learners to collaborate
in groups to share information or take decisions, and
they may present their conclusions to the class and
report on the process. Task-based language teaching
involves a task cycle, with pre-task activities to prepare
for the task, the task itself, and then post-task
activities involving evaluation and reflection.

13. Action research
• Action research involves the teacher acting as a researcher
in his or her own classroom by finding a question (or puzzle,
or problem) to investigate, collecting data, analysing and
interpreting the data, and then acting on the results, often
setting off a new cycles of action research. For example, a
language teacher might wonder why some learners in a
class seem more motivated to participate in learning
activities than others (Ellis, 2013). The teacher would
collect data to find out whether this intuitive judgement is
correct (e.g., by recording lessons, or making field notes, or
perhaps involving the learners themselves), and analysing
this data. Then the teacher can consider ways to make
changes, and again measure the effect on learners.

14. question, puzzle, or problem
• Why do some learners in a class seem more
motivated to participate in learning activities than
others?
• Think about your own classes. What aspects
• are going well?
• are posing problems?
• are puzzling to you?

15. Content and language
integrated instruction (CLIL)
• CLIL is used as a label for classrooms “where a foreign language
(English) is used as a medium of instruction in content
subjects” (Dalton-Puffer, 2007). It is often associated with the
teaching of languages for specific purposes, that is, in relation to
specific domains of use such as law, medicine, or science.
French secondary school pupils learn English (and other foreign
languages) in relation to prescribed literary themes and cultural
notions, and in upper secondary programmes they take separate
English literature classes. Secondary EFL teachers are trained in
English cultural studies and literary criticism, and are selected via
entrance exams based on competence in these domains.
English for literary purposes can be considered a specialisation
like business English or English for scientists, and tackled from a
task-based perspective in a similar manner.

16. • action research
• replication study
• CLIL study
• interlanguage pragmatics (politeness)
• videoconferencing

17. Replication study
• what is the topic of the study?
• what is the research question?
• what method was used to answer the question?
• what were the findings?
• what are the elements of the structure of the paper?

18. For next time
• create a class account on education.weebly.com
• class website (contacts on home page)
• individual blogs (one per student teacher)
• select a journal article from this list by 9 October,
discuss in class 16 October
• share one teaching unit/lesson plan with sample
learner production on your blog (anonymise)

19. • Learner language (CARLA)
http://carla.acad.umn.edu/learnerlanguage/intro.html
• Foreign language teaching methods (COERLL)
http://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/
• Spada, N., & Lightbown, P. (2006). How language
are learned. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Tarone, E., & Swierzbin, B. (2009). Exploring
learner language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.