Lifelong Learning

General description:

The Literature exam is partly integrated with Didactics and is based on the student’s reading experience informed by theories, approaches and strategies discussed, demonstrated and exercised in class, and on its application in teaching practice.

Prior to the exam, the student will submit their reading list, featuring a minimum of 5 books of quality fiction published in English-speaking countries after the year of 2000. The student will also present a lesson plan featuring the use of a text selected from contemporary literature, which the student-designed independently and subsequently piloted. The lesson plan must also be handed in prior to the exam.

The deadline for submissions is the minimum of 10 working days before the exam. The reading list and lesson plan must be submitted in a clearly signed file to the secretary. Please make sure you have your copies for the exam so that both you and the examiners have access to the relevant materials.

At the exam, the student will be asked to debate an item or items from the reading list and then discuss their lesson plan.

More information:

Some exceptions may apply to the reading list, such as a collection of poetry or stories replacing a novel, two plays replacing one novel, a theoretical book replacing one novel, or three young adult novels replacing one novel. However, we highly recommend any non-standard choices be always consulted with the relevant instructors.

If the student is unable to pilot the lesson plan, they will supply two lesson plans instead.

For more information, please refer to the instructors teaching the courses.

Topics:

1. Written vs. spoken English. Formal vs. informal English.
2. The language of conversation vs. public speaking.
3. Stylised dialogue. Speech and thought presentation in fiction. Drama dialogue.
4. The language of administrative texts, written instructions and legal documents.
5. Scientific prose style. Humanities vs. exact science, academic vs. popular science texts.
6. The publicity style. Newspaper headlines, advertisements.
7. The poetic function of language. Literariness. Foregrounding.
8. Standard and non-standard English. Dialect varieties of English. Representation and functions of dialect in fiction.
9. Levels of stylistic analysis. Interpreting deviation at different levels of stylistic analysis.
10. Reader-writer interaction in literary discourse. Point of view.
11. Narratology and stylistics: Propp’s and Labov’s models of narrative structure.
12. Deixis, reference and inference.
13. Presupposition and entailment. Types of presupposition.
14. The cooperative principle. Conversational and conventional implicatures.
15. Speech act theory, direct and indirect speech acts.
16. Politeness and interaction.
17. Conversation analysis and preference structure.
18. Proto-Indo-European phonological system and Proto-Germanic changes in consonants (Grimm’s Law).
19. Characteristic features of Old English (phonology, grammatical system, lexis).
20. Characteristic features of Middle English (phonology, grammatical system, lexis).
21. Transformation of English from a synthetic to an analytic language (changes in morphology of nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs).
22. Foreign influences on English (esp. lexical). 

A presentation on a topic on 5 of the following topics (see detailed instructions).

Topics:

1. Language learner – individual differences, teenage learners
2. Language teacher – roles, professional development
3. Learner autonomy and learner training
4. Planning teaching (lesson planning, syllabus, ŠVP)
5. Teaching materials at secondary school
6. Productive skills at secondary school: speaking and writing
7. Receptive skills at secondary school: listening and reading
8. Communicative competence and its sub-competences
9. Teaching pronunciation at secondary school
10. Teaching vocabulary at secondary school
11. Teaching grammar at secondary school
12. Modern approaches to assessment and evaluation
13. Maturita exam and its reform
14. ICT in ELT
15. Literature in ELT

Recommended literature:

• Ur, P. A Course in Language Teaching : Practice and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
• Harmer, J. The Practice of English Language Teaching. 7th Edition. Essex: Longman Group UK Limited, 1994.
• Harmer, J. How to Teach English. Essex: Longman Group UK Limited, 1998.
• Scrivener, J. Learning Teaching. Oxford: Macmillan, 2005.