Language, Culture, Brexit in the EFL Class: Developing Critical Discourse Competences for the 21st Century - Einzelansicht

Tuesday 10 April 2018, 10-12.

Please note that if you do not come to the first meeting, you run the risk of losing your place on the course.

On 23 June 2016 a small majority (51,9%) of the UK electorate voted to leave (or: exit) the European Union, while a large minority (48,1%) voted for the UK to remain in the European Union. What is now commonly known as ‘Brexit’, i.e. the UK formally leaving the EU, is scheduled to happen on 29 March 2019. In this class special emphasis is placed on understanding Brexit as a political and cultural phenomenon, potential reasons that may have led to the outcome of the referendum and potential consequences it may have. More importantly, however, as future teachers of English as a foreign language students will explore ways of integrating Brexit as a topic into the EFL curriculum and making a conceptually and linguistically complex subject matter available to teenage learners. To make sense and critically analyse official publications by the British government, newspaper articles, comments made with the help of social media etc. students will explore a wide range of texts, documents, and films with the help of instruments provided by the framework of critical discourse analysis. Students are strongly advised to attend Professor Sommer’s class Understanding Brexit,  Thursday, 12-14 h in order to broaden their perspective on the topic of Brexit.

In developing innovative teaching ideas, we will be targeting language skills as well as issues of cultural and intercultural learning, as every text is culturally saturated, and as every learner draws on values and notions acquired in cultural contexts. For those students who wish to adopt the teacher’s role and teach an aspect of Brexit to young adults, we also offer you the opportunity to participate in a class for international learners of English. These lessons are part of the project ‘PETE’ (Peer-Teaching and Peer-Coaching) that is conducted in cooperation with the Sprachlehrinstitut (SLI) and an additional tutorial. If you would like to participate in the PETE project as Forschungsprojekt to obtain additional credit points (6 LP for MEd 2014 PFP, 3 LP for MEd 2014 M-ENG 4) please sign up under http://buchung.sli.uni-wuppertal.de/angebote/aktueller_zeitraum/_PETE_Tutorial.html.

For further information on PETE, please contact the tutors Lea Steinkuhle and Susannah Ziegler ppete@uni-wuppertal.de or myself diehr@uni-wuppertal.de

Required:

The following online texts must be downloaded and read before the beginning of term:

a) Brexit timeline, provided by the House of Commons Library. Online:

http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7960

b) HM Government (2016): Why the Government believes that voting to remain in the European Union is the best decision for the UK. Online:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/why-the-government-believes-that-voting-to-remain-in-the-european-union-is-the-best-decision-for-the-uk (Please note that this document is available also in Easy English).

You may also want to use the BBC’s guide to Brexit: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-32810887. Further texts will be made available throughout the course.

For a theoretical foundation we will draw on chapters from:

- Partington, Alan/Taylor, Charlotte (2018). The Language of Persuasion in Politics. London/New York: Routledge.

- Richardson, John E. (2007). Analysing Newspapers. An Approach from Critical Discourse Analysis. Houndmills: Palgrave.

For curricular issues we will refer to:

- Ministerium für Schule und Weiterbildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (ed.) (2013). Kernlehrplan für die Sekundarstufe II -Gymnasium/Gesamtschule in Nordrhein-Westfalen - Englisch. www.schulministerium.nrw.de. Heft 4704.

- Ministerium für Schule und Weiterbildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (ed.) 2007. Kernlehrplan für den verkürzten Bildungsgang des Gymnasiums - Sekundarstufe I (G 8) in Nordrhein-Westfalen: Englisch. Frechen: Ritterbach.

Please register via WUSEL between 19.02.2018 to 04.03.2018.
Registrations before or after this time will not be considered.

LPO 2003/BA: Completion of “Introduction to TEFL”, GLS A and B.

MEd 2011, MEd 2014: Successful completion of the D module as part of your BA.

2 LP: presentation (pair or group work; incl. a handout)

3 LP: presentation (pair or group work; incl. a handout) plus a written summary critique

6 LP: tutorial in the PETE programme, lesson in the PETE programme, presentation (incl. a handout) plus written exam based on a text of your own choice and teaching experience

10 LP: lesson in the PETE programme, presentation (incl. a handout) plus written documentation (30 pages)

LPO 2003: D 2

Kombi-BA 2015: ANG-H-D (Komponente c)

Kombi-BA : D, DI

MEd 11: EN II

MEd 14 Lehramt Gym/Ge, BK: M-ENG 9 b

MEd 14 Lehramt Gym/Ge, BK: M-ENG 9 b und PFP (PETE ‘Forschungsprojekt’ in combination with the tutorial)

MEd 14 Lehramt H, R, Ge: M-ENG 6 b

MEd 14 Lehramt Grundschule: M-ENG 3 b

MEd 14 Lehramt Grundschule: M-ENG 3 b und M-ENG4 (plus optional: PETE ‘Forschungsprojekt’ in combination with the tutorial)

MEd 17 Sonderpädagogik: SP-ANG-DID b