Course Objectives

Students will:
. Be able to explain how the subject is organised and its role in society and the school, in the present and the past.
. Familiarise themselves with theories on texts, language development and language teaching; and be able to relate to these in their work in promoting pupils’ acquisition of a language.
. Develop the ability to plan, carry out and evaluate their teaching efforts in relation to national curricula and their pupils’ varying approaches to learning foreign languages.
. Investigate the requirements for learning foreign languages both within and outside the classroom.
. Learn to arrange a variety of aesthetic experiences and insights for pupils through the creative use of language.
. Develop understanding of what language teaching involves within vocational branches of study.
. Acquire practical and theoretical knowledge about ICT (information and communications technology).
The following target areas are chosen on a practical and organisational basis. During the course, students will often focus on several of these areas simultaneously.
Target areas
The course includes the following target areas:
. The nature of the subject, its development and legitimisation
. Theories on texts and language acquisition
. Planning and justification of teaching methods and organisation of learning and aesthetic experiences
. Supervision and assessment
. Vocational branch of study
The nature of the subject, its development and legitimisation
The students will:
. Acquire insight into the history and position of their particular foreign language as a subject in the Norwegian school, its international distribution and its importance for Norwegian social and professional life.
. Demonstrate the ability to interpret and evaluate curricula, both with respect to the general parts of the curricula, and in relation to other subjects.
Theories on texts and language acquisition
The students will learn to:
. Explain and evaluate different views on learning and methodological approaches.
. Evaluate and use different teaching and learning methods in language teaching, including project and interdisciplinary approaches.
. Discuss the criteria for selecting texts
. Provide examples of different methods for diagnosing pupils’ language use and describe various forms of difficulty in learning foreign languages.
. Be able to relate analytically to new forms of expression and text mediation such as those linked to ICT, and investigate the potential which these might hold for language acquisition.
Planning and justification of the teaching methods and organisation of learning and aesthetic experiences
The students will learn to:
. Formulate goals for their own teaching and their pupils’ learning based on curricula, and be able to motivate, supervise and evaluate in relation to these goals.
. Draft well-formulated teaching plans adapted to the pupils’ abilities, backgrounds and interests.
. Include pupil participation in the planning and organisation of the teaching – and be able to use pupils’ ideas, knowledge and skills as a resource.
. Encourage pupils to develop insight into their own learning process.
. Create a learning environment in which pupils are provided with the opportunity to use the target language spontaneously and naturally.
. Evaluate learning aids and cooperate with pupils regarding the choice and use of these.
. Develop knowledge of, and skills in, the use of ICT as an integrated part of teaching a foreign language, and evaluate the opportunities made possible by using ICT in the teaching of foreign languages.
. Provide opportunities for accessing information from various sources stored in various ways.
. Create situations and organise activities which stimulate communication across national borders and subjects.
. Include the multicultural and international perspective in teaching.
. Use singing, music, images and art of various kinds from the target language countries in order to develop a playful, investigative and creative approach to linguistic and cultural expressions.
. Plan the teaching to provide positive experiences for pupils in their meeting with poetry, prose and other literary texts.
. Provide examples of the language’s role in literature and as a bearer of culture.
. Function as a good language model.
Supervision and assessment
Students will learn to:
. Provide pupils with supervision which they may use in their work on developing skills in using texts and in using language in order to learn it.
. Help pupils to assess their own competence and development and define their learning needs in relation to foreign languages.
. Give an account of what overall assessment of language competence entails.
. Discuss the criteria for the assessment of pupils’ language production and language comprehension during the learning process.
. Use various forms of assessment and maintain a critical standpoint to their relevance regarding documenting the individual pupil’s competence in English.
. Carry out a clarified assessment of the pupils’ final competence in English on the basis of current assessment criteria and examination requirements.
Vocational branch of study
Students will learn to:
. Organise the teaching of foreign languages for vocational courses.
. Discuss questions related to the choice of texts and work with texts in the vocational branch of studies, concerning how both fiction and prose may be a source of knowledge and strength in the creation of vocational identity and culture in the vocational subjects, and at the same time have a general educational aspect.

Course Description

The general curriculum for Foreign Languages Didactics focuses, as it has earlier, on the important role foreign languages serve in today’s society, and most likely will also serve in the future.
The elective languages German and French hold a more prominent position in the lower secondary school than before. English is an obligatory subject from the first grade of the primary school up to the foundation level in the upper secondary. English is a universal language for the world and has become an important tool in international cooperation.
Language subjects function as subjects demanding practical skills, as tools, and also as cultural subjects and subjects of general education; so it is clear that effective language teaching in schools is important.
Discussions of important questions concerning what acquiring foreign language competence entails, how one learns a foreign language, and why it is important to gain competence in foreign languages are also an important aspect of this course.

Learning Methods

The teaching will be organised so that the experiences gained during teaching practice will be given a central role. Students will be able to exchange experiences, discuss syllabus texts and offer each other advice.
All the students will have the opportunity either individually or in groups to present teaching plans and other practical examples from their teaching practice. Attendance is obligatory for all of the presentations of teaching plans. Students will receive responses and new ideas from each other and from the subject teachers. This will mainly take place using English in the English group. For students who have German and French the language used will depend on the composition of the group and on the teacher. These sessions are obligatory.
ICT - workshop:
Students will be given the opportunity to become acquainted with various aspects of the use of ICT in language teaching through experiences with ICT. It is obligatory for all language students to document a piece of work they have done in relation to this theme.
Attendance is obligatory for 80% of the teaching in the course. Submission of work and presentations which are required during the course are obligatory.

Assessment Methods

The examination for students taking 15 ECTS:
. Portfolio assessment: four texts must be submitted in a portfolio on a specified date. Information concerning the type of texts will be provided by the course teacher at the beginning of the course. This portfolio counts for 40% of the final grade.
. 5-hour individual written examination: 60% of the final grade.

The examination for students taking 30 ECTS:
. Portfolio assessment and written final examination (similar to the 15 ECTS course): 60% of the final grade.
. Project assignment: 40% of the final grade.
Students who take Foreign Languages Didactics 30 ECTS must write a problem-based subject-didactics project assignment which counts for 15 ECTS. The assignment is in addition to the obligatory syllabus of 15 ECTS. The assignment should be 25 pages long, and the topic of the project should be discussed with the subject teacher. A draft of the project assignment, and the project assignment’s reading list, must be submitted on a specified date. Students will be provided with the opportunity for supervision while writing the project. The project assignment must be presented orally to the rest of the class.
A single grade will be entered on the diploma, graded from A to F, where A represents the highest grade, and E the lowest passing grade. Each part of the assessment must receive a passing grade in order to achieve a final passing grade for the course.
Please refer to Telemark University College’s examination regulations for further information.

Minor adjustments may occur during the academic year, subject to the decision of the Dean