Students

APPL8200 – Linguistics and Language Teaching

2024 – Session 1, Online-flexible

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit Convenor; Lecturer
Philip Chappell
Contact via email
12 Second Way Room 513
By appointment
Unit Convenor; Lecturer
Melissa Reed
Contact via email
12 Second Way
By appointment
Melissa Reed
Credit points Credit points
10
Prerequisites Prerequisites
Admission to GradCertTESOL or MAppLingTESOL or MTransInterMAppLingTESOL or MAppLing
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description

This unit introduces you to a model of language useful for language teaching contexts in which learners are faced with a variety of language demands. You will explore the social and cultural underpinnings of language, and gain an introduction to key concepts such as: the relations between text and context, language in context, text structure, the multi-functionality of language, clause-level and text-level grammar, spoken and written English, phonology and graphology. There is a strong emphasis on applying these concepts to second and foreign language teaching and learning.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • ULO1: Analyse a range of spoken and written text types, within a range of genres, for their formal and functional linguistic features.
  • ULO2: Identify and differentiate between a range of everyday and English language learning spoken and written text types within a range of genres through analysis of their structure, their communicative purpose, and their formal and functional linguistic features.
  • ULO3: Apply knowledge of functional grammar for language teaching to appraise English language learners’ spoken and written language performance and to provide formative feedback to learners.
  • ULO4: Discriminate between the features of spoken-like and written-like language through analysis of students' language performance.
  • ULO5: Apply knowledge of phonology, graphology, orthography and graphophonic awareness to analyses of English language learners' written language performance.

General Assessment Information

All assessment tasks must be submitted in order to be eligible to pass this unit.

Requesting an extension to assignment due date

On occasion, you may be in a situation when you aren't able to submit an assessment task on time. Extensions are only given in special circumstances, by completing a Special Consideration request. For more information on Special Consideration, see https://students.mq.edu.au/study/my-study-program/special-consideration  

Late submission of assignments

If you haven't been approved for an extension and you submit your assessment task late, penalties are applied. You should consult your unit convenor if you are in this position. Late submissions will receive a 5% per day penalty. If you submit the assessment task 10 days or more beyond the due date, without an approved extension, you will be awarded a maximum of 50% of the overall assessment marks. Weekends and public holidays are included. 

Use of Generative AI

Please refer to instructions from your lecturers on the use and acknowledgement of use of Generative AI in your submitted assignments.

 

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Language diary 20% No End of Week 4
Analysing text-level features 35% No End of Week 9
Analysing a learner text 45% Yes End of Week 13

Language diary

Assessment Type 1: Case study/analysis
Indicative Time on Task 2: 10 hours
Due: End of Week 4
Weighting: 20%

 

For this task, you will collate samples of language from a range of language events in your daily life and comment on each of these language events as entries in a language diary This assessment task will introduce you to the kinds of text analyses you will do throughout the unit and in remaining assessment tasks.

 


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Analyse a range of spoken and written text types, within a range of genres, for their formal and functional linguistic features.
  • Identify and differentiate between a range of everyday and English language learning spoken and written text types within a range of genres through analysis of their structure, their communicative purpose, and their formal and functional linguistic features.

Analysing text-level features

Assessment Type 1: Qualitative analysis task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 35 hours
Due: End of Week 9
Weighting: 35%

 

For this task, you will analyse two texts for their overall social purpose, their rhetorical staging, the genre and text types, as well as the language used to realise Field and Tenor.

 


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Analyse a range of spoken and written text types, within a range of genres, for their formal and functional linguistic features.
  • Identify and differentiate between a range of everyday and English language learning spoken and written text types within a range of genres through analysis of their structure, their communicative purpose, and their formal and functional linguistic features.
  • Apply knowledge of functional grammar for language teaching to appraise English language learners’ spoken and written language performance and to provide formative feedback to learners.

Analysing a learner text

Assessment Type 1: Report
Indicative Time on Task 2: 40 hours
Due: End of Week 13
Weighting: 45%
This is a hurdle assessment task (see assessment policy for more information on hurdle assessment tasks)

 

This final task requires you to analyse in more detail the linguistic features of a text in relation to its social context and purpose, and then consider what areas of language would best be focused on for this learner. For this task you will analyse an English language learner's written text.

 


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Analyse a range of spoken and written text types, within a range of genres, for their formal and functional linguistic features.
  • Identify and differentiate between a range of everyday and English language learning spoken and written text types within a range of genres through analysis of their structure, their communicative purpose, and their formal and functional linguistic features.
  • Apply knowledge of functional grammar for language teaching to appraise English language learners’ spoken and written language performance and to provide formative feedback to learners.
  • Discriminate between the features of spoken-like and written-like language through analysis of students' language performance.
  • Apply knowledge of phonology, graphology, orthography and graphophonic awareness to analyses of English language learners' written language performance.

1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:

  • the academic teaching staff in your unit for guidance in understanding or completing this type of assessment
  • the Writing Centre for academic skills support.

2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation

Delivery and Resources

The unit is delivered face-to-face for internal students, with one weekly seminar. The approach to learning is "flipped" and "dialogic" (see this Teche article for details) Also see timetables.mq.edu.au for information on day and time of seminar. All resources are online apart from the required and recommended text books, which need to be bought. For online students, mini-lectures and associated learning activities are avaiable for each week. Seminars are recorded and there are also online forum discussions to be carried out.

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Students seeking more policy resources can visit Student Policies (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/policies). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

To find other policies relating to Teaching and Learning, visit Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au) and use the search tool.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/admin/other-resources/student-conduct

Results

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit connect.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

Academic Integrity

At Macquarie, we believe academic integrity – honesty, respect, trust, responsibility, fairness and courage – is at the core of learning, teaching and research. We recognise that meeting the expectations required to complete your assessments can be challenging. So, we offer you a range of resources and services to help you reach your potential, including free online writing and maths support, academic skills development and wellbeing consultations.

All assessment tasks must be submitted to be eligible to pass this unit

Requesting an extension to assignment due date

On occasion, you may be in a situation when you aren't able to submit an assessment task on time. Extensions are only given in special circumstances, by completing a Special Consideration request. For more information on Special Consideration, see https://students.mq.edu.au/study/my-study-program/special-consideration  

Late submission of assignments

If you haven't been approved for an extension and you submit your assessment task late, penalties are applied. You should consult your unit convenor if you are in this position. Late submissions will receive a 5% per day penalty. If you submit the assessment task 10 days or more beyond the due date, without an approved extension, you will be awarded a maximum of 50% of the overall assessment marks. Weekends and public holidays are included. 

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

The Writing Centre

The Writing Centre provides resources to develop your English language proficiency, academic writing, and communication skills.

The Library provides online and face to face support to help you find and use relevant information resources. 

Student Services and Support

Macquarie University offers a range of Student Support Services including:

Student Enquiries

Got a question? Ask us via the Service Connect Portal, or contact Service Connect.

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Inclusion and Diversity

Social inclusion at Macquarie University is about giving everyone who has the potential to benefit from higher education the opportunity to study at university, participate in campus life and flourish in their chosen field. The University has made significant moves to promote an equitable, diverse and exciting campus community for the benefit of staff and students. It is your responsibility to contribute towards the development of an inclusive culture and practice in the areas of learning and teaching, research, and service orientation and delivery. As a member of the Macquarie University community, you must not discriminate against or harass others based on their sex, gender, race, marital status, carers' responsibilities, disability, sexual orientation, age, political conviction or religious belief. All staff and students are expected to display appropriate behaviour that is conducive to a healthy learning environment for everyone.  

Professionalism

In the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, professionalism is a key capability embedded in all our courses.  

As part of developing professionalism, students are expected to attend all small group interactive sessions. Some learning activities are recorded (e.g., face-to-face seminars), however you are encouraged to avoid relying upon such material as they do not recreate the whole learning experience and technical issues can and do occur. As an adult learner, we respect your decision to choose how you engage with your learning, but we would remind you that the learning opportunities we create for you have been done so to enable your success, and that by not engaging you may impact your ability to successfully complete this unit. We equally expect that you show respect for the academic staff who have worked hard to develop meaningful activities and prioritise your learning by communicating with them in advance if you are unable to attend a small group interactive session. 

Another dimension of professionalism is having respect for your peers. It is the right of every student to learn in an environment that is free of disruption and distraction. Please arrive to all learning activities on time, and if you are unavoidably detained, please join activity as quietly as possible to minimise disruption. Phones and other electronic devices that produce noise and other distractions must be turned off prior to entering class. Where your own device (e.g., laptop) is being used for class-related activities, you are asked to close down all other applications to avoid distraction to you and others. Please treat your fellow students with the utmost respect. If you are uncomfortable participating in any specific activity, please let the relevant academic know. 


Unit information based on version 2024.01R of the Handbook