Pedagogy Reading List & Study Topics for the MAFLP --All Languages

Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
103 Jastak-Burgess Hall, University of Delaware, Newark DE 19716
(302) 831-6882

PEDAGOGY READING LIST FOR THE M.A. IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE PEDAGOGY (MAFLP)

I.  CORE

  • Teaching Language in Context, (2001, 3rd Edition), Omaggio, A.
  • Teacher's Handbook: Contextualized Language Instruction, (2005, 3rd ed.), Shrum, J. and Glisan, E.
  • Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen, (2003, 2nd ed.), Lee, J. and Van Patten, B.
  • The Elements of Language Curriculum, (1995), Brown, J.
  • Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, (2001, 2nd ed.), Richards, J. and Rodgers, T.
  • Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, (2000, 4th ed.), Brown, D.
  • Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing, (1990), Bachman, L.
  • Language Assessment, Principles and Classroom Practices, (2004), Brown, D.


In addition to the core, all students must select one of the following concentrations.

II.  CONCENTRATIONS

A) THEORY AND RESEARCH (CHOOSE TWO)

  • Second Language Classroom Research, (1996), Gass, S and Schachter, J.
  • Breaking Tradition: An Exploration of the Historical Relationship between Theory and Practice in Second Language Teaching, (1997), Musumeci, D.
  • More than Meets the Eyes. Foreign Language Reading Theory and Practice. (1989), Barnett, M.
  • Technology-enhanced Language Learning, (1997), Bush, M. and Terry, R.
  • The Study of Second Language Acquisition, (1994), Ellis, R.
  • Second Language Teaching and Learning, (1999), Nunan, D.

B) FLES:

  • Critical Issues in Early Second Language Learning: Building our Children's  Future, (1997), Met, M. (ed.)
  • Languages and Children: Making the Match, (2004), Curtain, H. and Dahlberg, C.

STUDY TOPICS FOR THE MAFLP EXAM (All Languages)

I.  GENERAL SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION RESEARCH 

·         Communicative competence

·         Krashen’s Monitor model

·         Output Hypothesis

·         Structured Input & Structured Output

·         Error correction models (Hendrickson’s, Cohen’s, Ervin’s, etc.)

·         L1 Transfer, Interference & Interlanguage

·         Impact of explicit grammar instruction 

·         ACTFL guidelines

·         National Standards for Foreign Language Learning

 II. LISTENING COMPREHENSION 

  • Psycholinguistic processes involved 
  • Comprehensible input
  • Listening as communication (collaborative vs. non-collaborative listening, modality, skills, strategic responses, maintaining the discourse, gambits)
  • Teacher talk, foreigner talk, & redundancy 
  • Illocutionary meaning
  • Richard’s model for listening comprehension

 III. READING COMPREHENSION 

  • Characteristics of good readers
  • Reading comprehension models (Grellet’s, Rumelhart’s, Coady’s, etc.)
  • Schema theory
  • Effects of text features on comprehension

 IV. SPEAKING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE 

  • Communication theory (expression, interpretation and negotiation of meaning, breakdowns, purposes and contexts of communication, multilayered communicative events, speech styles and functions, gambits)
  • Communicative competence
  • Proficiency
  • Fossilization
  • Structured Output
  • Classroom discourse, wait time
  • Information-exchange & Information-gap tasks

 V. WRITING IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE 

  • Flower and Hayes model of writing
  • Characteristics of good writers
  • Product vs. Process orientation
  • Teacher feedback and its impact on L2 writing skills
  • Peer editing
     

 VI. CULTURAL AWARENESS

  • Seeyle’s goals of cultural instruction
  • Hanvey’s levels of cultural awareness
  • Acculturation
  • Culture shock
  • Ethnocentrism
  • Assimilation
  • Cultural activities for the FL classroom (culture capsules, clusters, assimilators, etc.)

 VII. TESTING 

  • Assessment versus testing
  • Approaches to language testing (discrete-point, integrative, communicative, performance-based, etc.)
  • Types of tests (achievement, criterion-referenced, norm-referenced, diagnostic, etc.)
  • Item & task types (discrete point, open-ended, integrative, interactive, etc.)
  • Guidelines for test construction
  • Principles of language assessment (practicality, validity, reliability, authenticity, washback)
  • Contextualization
  • Standardized testing
  • Standards-based assessment
  • Assessment tasks for listening, reading, writing and speaking
  • The OPI (history, structure, level checks, probes, etc.)
  • Scoring, grading and giving feedback (test keys, holistic vs. analytic scoring, etc.)
  • Alternatives in assessment (portfolios, journals, conferences, observations, self and peer-assessment)
  • Computer-based testing


 VIII. LEARNER VARIABLES 

  • Aptitude
  • Motivation
  • Anxiety
  • Learning styles
  • Learning strategies

   

 IX. CURRICULUM AND SYLLABUS DESIGN 

  • Types of syllabi (structural, notional/functional, skill-based, task-based, content-based)
  • Factors involved in design of syllabi
  • Linguistic and pedagogical theories that influence syllabus design
  • Textbook evaluation criteria  

  

 X. FLES (for FLES concentrators)

  • Critical period
  • Immersion (what it is and what makes it work)
  • Types of continuous and non-continuous early language programs
  • Fantasy experience (key components)
  • Advocacy (what to say to parents about a new FLES program, and what questions you would anticipate parents asking)
  • Importance of authentic songs, games, rhymes, and stories in FLES classes