This course is designed to help students understand the aspects of linguistic principles and processes that underlie oral and written language proficiency, and how this knowledge is relevant K-12 instruction. Emphasis is on a thorough, research-based understanding of phonology, morphology, orthography, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics. Students learn ways to use this information to support literacy and oral language development for elementary and secondary school students. Issues of linguistic diversity and second language learning are addressed.
This course is designed to provide new teachers or people interested in becoming teachers with some inspiration for the profession. It is not meant to be an indepth, comprehensive analysis of TEFL but rather an introduction to a few fundamental areas of teaching English. This course will cover 4 topics: Theories of Language Acquisition, Teaching Pronunciation, Teaching Grammar, and Teaching Young Learners.