Theory and Methodology of Teaching a Foreign Language

2025/2026

Учебный год

ENG

Обучение ведется на английском языке

6

Кредиты

Лучший по критерию «Полезность курса для Вашей будущей карьеры»

Лучший по критерию «Полезность курса для расширения кругозора и разностороннего развития»

Лучший по критерию «Новизна полученных знаний»

Кто читает:

Департамент иностранных языков

Статус:

Курс обязательный

Когда читается:

1-й курс, 3, 4 модуль

Преподаватель

Павлов Владимир Владимирович

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The course "Theory and Methodology of Foreign Language Teaching" is a discipline of Major block, it is obligatory for the students of the educational program, who have chosen the applied trajectory "Methodology of teaching Foreign Languages in the Digital Environment". The discipline lays the foundation for the study of the following disciplines “ Theory of multifaceted instructional design”, “Testing, Assessment and Feedback”, “Digital instruments and AI tools in teaching languages”. The course on theory and methodology of teaching foreign languages will provide students with fundamental knowledge and practical skills necessary for effective teaching of foreign languages.

Learning Objectives

• To develop an informed understanding of the goals of modern language teaching, including communicative competence, the CEFR, and principles of learner progression.
• To analyse stakeholder expectations and evaluate their impact on methodological choices, curriculum and syllabus design, classroom decisions, and materials.
• To explain how key elements of the educational process—curriculum, lessons, materials, digital tools, and exposure to language—work together to support learning.
• To examine teacher and learner roles in contemporary pedagogy and evaluate classroom management, interaction patterns, feedback, and error correction.
• Тo develop a principled understanding of language and skills development, including grammar, vocabulary, functional language, receptive and productive skills, interaction, and mediation.
• To evaluate historical and contemporary teaching methods and to apply this understanding in lesson analysis and the design of effective learning tasks.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Explain the goal of modern language teaching, linking it to the concept of communicative competence and to the CEFR, and describing how learners progress toward it.
• Analyse stakeholder expectations and evaluate how they influence methodological choices, curriculum design, classroom decisions, and materials.
• Describe how key elements of the educational process—curriculum, lessons, materials, digital tools —work together to support language learning.
• Explain teacher and learner roles in modern pedagogy.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of classroom management (interaction patterns, instructions, dynamics), feedback, and error correction.
• Describe what it means to develop grammar, vocabulary, and functional language, and identify strengths and weaknesses of major language-development frameworks and methods.
• Define receptive and productive skills and their sub-skills, as well as interaction and meditation, and apply principles of skills development in a variety of learning contexts.
• Evaluate historical methods (Grammar–Translation, Direct Method, Audiolingualism, Suggestopedia) and relate these insights to contemporary practice.
• Analyse lessons by identifying aims, task purpose and learner difficulties.
• Compare syllabus types and how they appear in textbooks.
• Design effective learning tasks

Course Contents

• 1. Language teaching methodology today
• 2. The business perspective
• 3. What is our client's expectation? How to consider it when choosing teaching methodology?
• 4. Teacher's role
• 5. Language development
• 6. Review of lesson frameworks for language development
• 7. The lexical approach; TPR
• 8. Skills development
• 9. Task-based learning
• 10. Interaction and Meditation: How to teach?
• 11. Dogme ELT: Principles and Practice
• 12. ‘Historical’ methods
• 13. Content-Based Instruction/CLIL
• 14. Special' Contexts
• 15. The business perspective 2
• 16. Classroom management
• 17. Error correction and giving feedback
• 18. Lesson analysis
• 19. Syllabus design
• 20. Task Design

Assessment Elements

• Seminar participation/homework
  The students will receive points for participating in class and for completing homework tasks. The seminar participation/homework mark will be based on the cumulative number of points earned. Classroom participation is assessed by the seminar instructor. Students receive points (‘pluses’) for participating in the form of answering questions, chat messages and group work. The instructor will inform the students at the beginning of the seminar what ‘pluses’ will be awarded for. The maximum number of ‘pluses’ the student may receive per seminar is 2. General guidelines for seminar assessment: One ‘plus’ is awarded for active work during the seminar (e.g. you complete the tasks, you participate in discussions, you answer instructor’s questions, you send messages to the chat, you are active and making contributions during group work). Two ‘pluses’ are awarded if you take initiative, raise your hand and provide oral answers, voluntarily write meaningful messages to the chat, lead during group work and provide extended, detailed, well-reasoned and intelligent responses. Homework tasks vary, and assessment varies depending on the task. You will receive specific task instructions and assessment criteria for each task.
• Presentations + mini demo lesson/lesson plan
  Each students (group of students) will be asked to complete a presentation+ a mini demo lesson or a lesson plan, in which they will present and interpret a language teaching method or approach through a modern lens and demonstrate how it can be used in contemporary teaching contexts.
• Learner Pathway Assignment
  You will be given a learner profile and a learning context, with some details, in particular with some constraints (difficulties). Complete the learner pathway table by making realistic methodological decisions and justifying them using course concepts. Requirements: • Complete all rows of the table. • Provide a minimum 600-word rationale in total. You should write in short phrases and brief sentences (note-taking style, not lengthy paragraphs). • All decisions must be related to the learner context and the given constraints. You should include both decisions to prioritize something and to set low priority due to the course constraints (you cannot learn everything). • Use accurate methodological terminology from the course. Your work must show understanding of: • communicative competence and CEFR • stakeholder expectations • language and skills development (including interaction and mediation) • at least three teaching approaches and/or frameworks • teacher and learner roles • materials and classroom practice
• Designing a learning task
  In this assignment, the students will design one learning task suitable for a specific learner group and teaching context. This task assesses the ability to design an effective learning task for language teaching, drawing on principles and approaches studied in the course. A learning task is any classroom activity in which learners use language with a clear pedagogical purpose. It may be informed by different approaches, including (but not limited to): • task-based learning • text-based teaching • lexical approach • PPP / ESA • skills-based frameworks • CLIL • Dogme-inspired teaching, etc.
• Forum participation
  Taking part in forums.
• A thesis-related task
  Research question-Teaching methodology alignment statement. Note: if this task is not relevant to your thesis, you can propose your own thesis-related task. The task should focus on the link between your thesis and teaching methodology (e.g. how to choose language methodology for your own school; methodology vs practical application comparison, etc.)
• Final exam
  You will complete a series of quizzes and the final exam (in the format of an LMS test). They will be based on the material we will study in the lectures and will be available on LMS.

Interim Assessment

• 2025/2026 4th module
  0.05 * Forum participation + 0.45 * Learner Pathway Assignment + 0.1 * A thesis-related task + 0.05 * Designing a learning task + 0.2 * Seminar participation/homework + 0.15 * Presentations + mini demo lesson/lesson plan
• 2026/2027 2nd module
  0.1 * A thesis-related task + 0.2 * Seminar participation/homework + 0.05 * Designing a learning task + 0.15 * Presentations + mini demo lesson/lesson plan + 0.05 * Forum participation + 0.45 * Final exam

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Ellis, R. (2012). Language Teaching Research and Language Pedagogy. Malden, Mass: Wiley-Blackwell. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=430951
• Jeong-Bae Son. (2018). Teacher Development in Technology-Enhanced Language Teaching. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Ko, S. S., & Rossen, S. (2017). Teaching Online : A Practical Guide: Vol. Fourth edition. Routledge.
• Rosell-Aguilar, F., Beaven, T., Fuertes Gutiérrez, M., & Research-publishing.net (France). (2018). Innovative Language Teaching and Learning at University: Integrating Informal Learning into Formal Language Education. Research-publishing.net.
• Жемчугова, С. А. English for Future Teachers: Language Learning and Language Teaching = Английский для будущих учителей: изучение и преподавание языка : учебное пособие / С. А. Жемчугова. — Архангельск : САФУ, 2021. — 218 с. — ISBN 978-5-261-01534-5. — Текст : электронный // Лань : электронно-библиотечная система. — URL: https://e.lanbook.com/book/226949 (дата обращения: 00.00.0000). — Режим доступа: для авториз. пользователей.

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Corpus linguistics in language teaching, , 2010

Authors

• Diugaeva Irina Dmitrievna
• Pavlov Vladimir Vladimirovich