Postgraduate Course: Bilingual Education (EDUA11412)
Course Outline
| School | Moray House School of Education and Sport |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course enables students to understand and critically engage with language learning and teaching in institutional and non-institutional contexts with a particular focus on bilingual/multilingual settings, people, and institutions. The course supports, informs, and develops understanding of how people learn and use language across their communicative repertoire. The course is aimed at students developing expertise in the complexities, constraints, and practicalities of bilingual/multilingual learning and teaching in bilingual/multilingual contexts.
The course explores the main concepts, theories, principles, controversies and ideologies in current bilingual and multilingual research and practice including: bilingual language education policies, the role of language as a learning tool and as a resource, developing pluriliteracies, the psychology of how learners learn their languages and literacies, multilingualism and cognition, translanguaging as a practice and as a process, multilingual digital literacies, bilingual identity in learners and teachers, bilingualism and power/status in the classroom, and bilingualism, 'race', ethnicity and anti-discrimination.
The course introduces and puts forward concepts, theories, principles, and controversies regarding how bilingual/multilingual people communicate and develop their understanding and potential in various social and educational contexts, with a focus on bilingual/multilingual educational contexts. These bilingual/multilingual contexts may be personal, classroom-based, institution-based, or societal. The latest research on these issues is valuable for informing institutional practice and policy development and enabling our students to be at the forefront of developments in bilingual/multilingual education around the world. |
| Course description |
This 20-credit course will be delivered over eight contact weeks in a structured series of lectures with accompanying workshops, followed by a Q&A session in support of the assignment.
Course members will engage with, discuss, and consider the following bilingual and multilingual research areas, contexts, theories and ideologies over the course together with how we evaluate them through the research methods available to us:
- Overview of bilingualism/ multilingualism and literacies research, including translanguaging as psychological process and as social and pedagogical practice.
- Overview of bilingualism as a resource in schools (teachers, parents and policies) and valuing linguistic resources of bi/multilingual learners.
- Language policy models of bilingual education.
- Bilingualism and power/status in the classroom (countering deficit models of linguistic difference). Bilingualism, race, ethnicity and anti-discrimination.
- Bilingualism as a learning tool in bilingual settings, including Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), content-based language learning.
- Heritage and community bilingual education; bilingual immersion education.
- Bilingual and multilingual learners and how they learn languages and literacies, including the concepts of pluriliteracies, multiliteracies, and multilingual digital literacies.
- Learner and teacher identities and how these affect classroom practices, using a critical framework to explore these concepts.
Workshops will enable students to explore the issues arising from each week's lecture in relation to different contexts of communication and learning through supported discussion and debate in a collaborative environment. The workshops will also enable students to develop practical skills in data analysis relevant to the assignment area. The course uses English as a medium of instruction with all class members welcome to use other languages at will provided that all in the communication group can understand or have their understanding supported in real time.
Achievement of the following course learning outcomes will be assessed by one formative assessment (a presentation) and one summative assessment (a small-scale research project) with all information accessible through the course LEARN pages including the presentation, submission, and hand-back dates.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2019/20, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 8,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 16,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
170 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Summative
Students will be required to produce a 4000-word project (100% of the assessment) exploring the set theme or theories from the course for the year in relation to a bilingual or multilingual learning situation. For example:
-To design a language policy for an institution in students' chosen context and explain the changes that will result from this policy.
-To design and justify an interactive online bilingual/multilingual short course to raise awareness of translanguaging, appropriate for the chosen learners and learning context.
The project will be marked in line with the common postgraduate marking scheme set forward in the Taught Masters Generic Handbook, which students receive at the start of their studies and which is available online. «br /»
Formative
Students will make a short oral presentation to their workshop group on the first stage of the project they write for the summative assessment. The project will be on a set theme that forms part of the course (to change each year in order to maintain interest and course standards) with each student choosing the social and educational context for their project with the proviso that it relates to bilingual/multilingual people, institutions, or contexts. Relevant research methods will also be taught, eg, transcription and discourse analysis, so that students can use the methods to analyse publicly available data that they collect themselves for their project. The research ethics of these methodologies will form part of the course.
The presentations will be used as the basis of a class discussion on the issue. Students will receive written formative feedforward as a class in order to improve their project submissions.
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| Feedback |
The formative presentation will receive oral feedback from the workshop tutor and from peers as course members ask questions and discuss the projects. The class will receive written feedback as a whole on their presentations. Course members will also receive written feedback on their summative project submission. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical and knowledgeable understanding of the current main concepts, theories, principles, controversies and ideologies relating to bilingualism/multilingualism and bilingual/multilingual education (SCQF: knowledge and understanding).
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of research skills in investigating an issue, theory or situation in a chosen context relevant to bilingual/multilingual people and/or bilingual/multilingual contexts and/or bilingual/multilingual issues or theories. (SCQF: knowledge and understanding).
- Demonstrate critical analysis of research data relevant to the situation in the chosen bilingual/multilingual context. (SCQF: critical analysis).
- Give a short formal presentation on a small research project relevant to bilingual/multilingual educational or social contexts. (SCQF: autonomy and accountability; communication and IT skills).
- Evaluate the analysis and findings of the small research project relevant to bilingual/multilingual educational or social contexts and present the evaluation as part of the project. (SCQF: evaluation; communication and IT skills).
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Reading List
Creese, A. & Blackledge, A. (2010). Multilingualism. A critical perspective. London: Continuum.
García, O., Ibarra-Johnson, S., & Seltzer, K. (2016). The translanguaging classroom. Philadelphia: Caslon.
Helot, C. & Bonacina-Pugh, F. (In Press). Language Education Policies. In Routledge Handbook of Language Policy. Gazzola, M. et al. (Eds.). New York: Routledge.
Jaffe, A. (2014). Critical perspectives on language-in-education policy: The Corsican example. In McCarty T. (Ed.), Ethnography and Language Policy. pp.26-48. New York: Routledge.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Research and enquiry: course members will create their own small research project.
Communication: course members will be able to present their project orally.
Knowledge and Understanding: course members will develop knowledge and a critical understanding of concepts and theories.
Knowledge and Understanding: course members will develop their knowledge and a critical understanding of relevant research methods.
Critical analysis: course members will demonstrate critical analysis of research data relevant to the situation in the chosen bilingual/multilingual context.
Autonomy and accountability: course members will work on their own project and respond to questions about their work from a knowledgeable audience.
Communication and IT skills: course members will present their work orally and in writing to a knowledgeable audience and readership using supporting devices.
Evaluation: course members will demonstrate evaluation skills in presenting their project.
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| Keywords | Bilingual,multilingual,education,language learning |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Charlotte Kemp
Tel: (0131) 651 6232
Email: |
Course secretary | Mrs Moira Ross
Tel: (0131 6)51 6206
Email: |
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