Teaching English as An Additional Language in Bilingual and Multicultural Settings

This unit focuses on teaching in bilingual, multilingual and multicultural settings. You will investigate the linguistic, communicative, cultural and social issues involved in bilingual, multilingual and multicultural teaching situations. The unit connects with your professional experiences and supports you to articulate and reflect on important questions by investigating personal, school-based, theoretical and socio-cultural explanations of experiences in educational settings, including the principles underpinning the creation of safe and secure classroom environments.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Investigate knowledge of key concepts of the learning of English including formal systems, spoken and written discourse, language and social context, and bi/multilingual language and literacy development;
2. Critically review and evaluate current research on the language learning phases and special needs of a multilingual and multicultural student;
3. Identify and reflect upon the linguistic and communicative characteristics of teaching in a multilingual and multicultural classroom/context;
4. Interpret and articulate special features of instructing, guiding and assessing students in heterogeneous classroom/context; and
5. Initiate EAL/D students’ evaluations of their own strengths and weaknesses as a second language learner.