HENK00001U English, 2017 curriculum - Free topic 1: Academic language use in the L1 and L2 with a focus on vocabulary + Foreign language acquisition: Teacher cognition research in language teaching

Academic language use in the L1 and L2 with a focus on vocabulary

Academic language is an important tool for gaining, sharing and developing knowledge within any field of study, enabling us to develop and convey abstract and technical ideas and facts about complex phenomena. The hallmark of academic discourse is precision and nuance in expression, often at word and phrase level. Learning to use a technical language, as well as a general academic language, enables us to analyse, synthesize and express relations between concepts and phenomena. Academics therefore need to master both technical vocabulary within their own field of study and an academic vocabulary which, in contrast to technical vocabulary, is used across disciplines.

In this course, participants will be introduced to the concepts of academic language, academic literacies, academic competences and academic language skills by explorations of the following issues:

• The role and function of academic language
• Student and professional academic language use
• Vocabulary types within academic language use with a focus on academic vocabulary
• Learning and teaching academic language skills
• Development of academic word lists

Foreign language acquisition:Teacher cognition research in language teaching

Research on teacher cognition in language teaching investigates the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs that underlie the planning and practice of language teaching. Instead of only focusing on what goes on in the classroom or the learning effects of particular methods and approaches, teacher cognition research tries to tap into the mental lives of the teachers in order to explore the interplay between teaching experience, theoretical knowledge and actual classroom practices. The research looks at teachers’ reflections in relation to for example grammar teaching, literacy training, communicative language teaching, and teachers’ planning and on-line changes of plans. Teacher cognition studies also investigate the effect of teacher training, teacher identity and the role of previous learning experience on teaching practices with a focus on the potential conflicts teachers may experience in relation to competing demands and expectations.

The focus on the knowledge and the mental processing that guides language teaching calls for a range of different research approaches, both qualitative and quantitative, that can uncover the often implicit knowledge behind the complex process of language teaching. The course will explore some of the issues studied and the different methods used in teacher cognition research with some examples from the Danish research context.