EDUC9313 Languages, Literacy and Intercultural Understanding (Primary R-7)

This topic is designed to develop pre-service teachers' knowledge, skills and understandings in relation to contemporary curriculum, assessment and pedagogy in languages education. Through the examination of the role of genre in developing students' literacy in multiple languages and cultures, pre-service teachers will consider the place and nature of digital texts and ICTs in contemporary communication practices and language teaching and learning. In this topic, pre-service teachers will also critically evaluate the role of learners and teachers in languages education.

This topic aims to:

• Explore contemporary theories and pedagogical approaches in languages education related to language and literacy development
• Develop pre-service teachers’ understanding of the distinctive contribution that language learning makes to literacy development and the implications for practice
• Develop pre-service teachers’ capability to design and evaluate programs that allow for connections with content across the primary school curriculum
• Enhance pre-service teachers’ capacity to plan and evaluate planning for explicit, systematic, balanced and integrated literacy development in languages education
• Foster pre-service teachers’ understandings of inquiry into literacy and intercultural language learning and teaching with a particular focus on connectedness of language, culture and related cultural and situational expectations
• Develop pre-service teachers’ capacity to critically evaluate resources, including digital resources, for language teaching and learning

1. Discussing and appraise contemporary theories of language teaching and learning
2. Analyse the key features, design principles and theoretical basis of curriculum documents for primary languages
3. Plan learning and assessment activities which support development of learners’ knowledge, skills and dispositions to interpret and use languages for learning and as a social practice
4. Explain the role of multi literacies, Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and associated ICTs in providing authentic contexts for meaningful learner engagement
5. Design teaching and learning programs that support learners to make connections with their learning across the primary curriculum, including in relation to general capabilities such as literacy and use of ICTs
6. Design multimodal learner-centred lessons incorporating ICT with a focus on CALL, genre theory, text type teaching and cross-curriculum links