124094 VK BEd 09.2: VK Linguistics and Language Education (2025S)

Approaching language as a social practice and resource, the course focuses on practice-based linguistic, social and cultural issues as they relate to language education in a diverse and pluralising society. This course covers a range of applied linguistic themes that are a) relevant to teaching English to linguistically diverse students, and b) crucial to consider for future language teachers: the linguistic repertoire, multilingualism, translanguaging, native speakerism, accentism and standard language ideology. We will discuss how language is negotiated, planned and shaped situationally by different social actors by means of a series of national and international case studies and current scientific findings in educational and applied linguistic research.
We will explore answers to questions such as how can we accommodate the multilingual profile of learners in the classroom, how learners / teachers may benefit from translanguaging practices in the classroom, or in what ways discriminatory behaviour and stereotyping speakers based on their accent or the way they write and talk can be problematised and avoided.

Aims:

You will:
- gain a deeper understanding of the social, cultural, and educational conditions of a multilingual and heterogenous classroom in and beyond English language education
- develop the ability to reflect and critically question key issues about language(s) for your own pedagogical praxis
- become familiar with and apply theoretical and methodological foundations in researching multilingual language education

Method of the course:

*This course is blocked and mixed, with digital sessions via Zoom and in-person sessions on days as indicated in the timeline.*
This course is based on themes that are introduced via short lectures and based on key readings. It combines readings, practice-based activities, joint discussions, group work, and individual research work leading to a presentation and final written paper (either a bachelor paper or a research report).

For the bachelor paper (9 ECTS points in total), students will write up their research project and discuss the theoretical and pedagogical implications of their planned research. Students who are not writing their bachelor paper in this course (5 ECTS points in total) will write a VK report, based on a literature review of one of the themes covered in the course. All students will give presentations on their project work on Friday + Saturday, 23-24 May 25.