Primary School Teaching: English

Course Coordinator: Ms Catherine Wong, BA (Eng), MPhil (Ling); PGDE, Prof. Dip (CUHK)

Course Developers: John Anthony Mahon, Hong Kong Institute of Education; Gertrude Tinker Sachs, City University of Hong Kong; Mandy Evans, Hong Kong Institute of Education; and Shirley Chan Sui-ping, Hong Kong Institute of Education

This is one of the courses in the following programmes:

• Postgraduate Diploma in Education (Primary);
• Certificate in Education (Primary English Strand); and
• Bachelor of Language Studies (English) (Hons) and Postgraduate Diploma in Education (Primary) combined programme.

Advisory prerequisite(s)
You are advised to have already studied (or be studying) EDU E854C.

Aims
This course aims to develop learners' capabilities to teach effectively within the context of the primary school English curriculum for Hong Kong through reflecting upon theory and practice.

Contents
The course covers the following topics:

• English language teaching in Hong Kong — curriculum change; the status of the English language
• Language learning and teaching — first and second language acquisition; bilingualism; factors influencing second language learning; learner and teaching strategies in EFL
• Perspectives on the English language —knowledge about grammar, text, vocabulary and pronunciation
• English language teaching approaches — the grammar-translation method; the audiolingual method; communicative language teaching; task-based learning
• Classroom management — managing individual learning; mixed ability teaching; classroom language
• Assessment and planning — formative and summative assessment; norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessment; task-based assessment
• Listening and speaking — effective listening and speaking; task-based listening and speaking; assessing listening and speaking
• Reading — beginning and developing reading; assessing reading
• Writing — beginning and developing writing; assessing writing

Learning support
This course involves 300 study hours. There will be ten tutorials and three workshops, each lasting two hours.

Assessment
There will be five assignments (including a project) and a final examination. Except for some designated assignments, students are required to submit assignments via the Online Learning Environment (OLE).

Equipment
Students will need access to multimedia components on the Online Learning Environment (OLE). This can be accessed via computers/mobile devices.

Set book(s)
Emmitt, M, Zbaracki, M, Komesaroff, L and Pollock, J (2015) Language and Learning: An Introduction for Teaching, 6th edn, Melbourne: Oxford University Press.