HENA03633U Engelsk - Frit emne: Foreign Language Acquisition: Focus on Form

This course in foreign language acquisition aims is to give participants a theoretical background for evaluating various aspects of the teaching of English as a foreign language in the Danish sixth-form college. We therefore need to address current theories of foreign language learning and of communicative competence and the processes underlying the use of the foreign language in relation to production as well as reception. However, the course will mainly focus on recent research addressing what it takes to get learners to improve their language proficiency i.e. to get them to focus on form. Furthermore analysis and evaluation of learner language/data will be used for illustration of the theoretical concepts throughout the course. For some participants the course might provide inspiration for research projects in relation to their thesis ('speciale'). The course will be conducted using a mixture of lectures, group work and discussions. Readings will mainly consist of a number of research articles on the course topics, selected from scholarly journals.