Dear 4th Year Students
Please note that the required book for Teaching Methods course this term is called: Teaching English as a Second Language by C. Paul Verghese.
It is the same book that was used for the course last year. I might be adding some material to the course, in the form of handouts, and it will be made available for you after the main and repeat lectures are given each week.
I am not sure if the book is available yet, if not, I am sure it will be quite soon.
Now regarding Sunday's upcoming lecture: I am going to give you a quick idea about the book in general, and the main topic will be that of Acquisition of Language. It is quite a big and intricate topic (but really interesting, and I am a big fan of it
), and I will try to simplify it as much as possible. If you have the book, please have a look at it, and try to read the Introduction and the 1st Chapter, that will help you understand the ideas I am going to talk about.
The purpose of the course is to prepare you to be teachers of English, and it gives you an idea about methods of teaching this language.This means that you have to try teaching and practicing these methods. At the end of each lectures, I am going to choose THREE people to prepare a chapter or a few pages from a chapter, and do a presentation the week after (each student will have 15 minutes to present his/her topic with 5 minutes Q&A). I hope I do not have to choose, and that you all volunteer and have the initiative to do it, as it helps you understand the material, and this means a better understanding of it, and that eventually means passing the course. This is for your own good, and I really hope and trust that you all participate and show me how good you are.
I will repeat the stuff I said here this Sunday for those who do not manage to read this note.
Take Care
see you all Sunday
, but we will show you the best we can do and participate by presentations because this is the thing that we really missed ( true, real , valuable, and supervised ) one.
