Education and Multilingualism
This is a 3 month (20 ECTS) or 4´5 month (30 ECTS) study period in Education at Mondragon University [Faculty of Humanities and Education]. The working language of the course will be English.
The programme will run from September 14th 2009 to December 18th 2009 for those students interested in 20 ECTS.
For those students interested in 30 ECTS the programme will run from September 14th 2009 to December 18th 2009 and from January 7th to January 29th 2010.
Those student who wish take a 30 (20+10) ECTS course they will have an extra 10 ECTS module in independent field or project work.
The aim of the programme
The overall theme of the programme will be child education from a multilingual perspective. The methods will include lectures, group work, visits, seminars and practical sessions.
In some of the subjects, the international students will join in with the regular classes at the Faculty. The other subjects are specially designed with a focus towards those students participating in the international programme.
The content, for 20 ECTS
The content of the course will comprise the following areas of study:
3.1 Foreign language teaching [3 ECTS]
This subject introduces students to the languages in Basque schools from preschool to age twelve. It examines the rationale behind curriculum design in a bilingual community where foreign language teaching involves a third language.
3.2 EITHER Children’s literature and foreign language teaching [3 ECTS]
The main objective of this subject is to introduce students to the world of children’s literature and to analyse its potential for foreign language learning. It looks at criteria for selecting storybooks and for using a storybook as a framework to organize the process of teaching and learning a foreign language.
OR Linguistics [3 ECTS]
This subject focuses on a variety of aspects relating to how languages are learned between birth and adolescence, ranging from multilingual informal contexts to learning languages at school. It also provides a basic background to the theories of language acquisition.
3.3 Basque culture: language, media and education [4 ECTS]
A brief survey of Basque culture centred on three of its most relevant aspects: language, media and education system, in order to understand present day Basque society.
3.4 Teaching Practice and analysis of foreign language teaching in a third language in a bilingual school environment [10 ECTS]
The objective of this course is for the student to carry out a project based on analysis of a classroom situation where foreign language teaching involves a third language (English), as the community is bilingual (Basque-Spanish).
Teaching practice will take place in infant and primary schools around Mondragon and students will work with English teachers in infant and primary schools.
The content, for 30 (20+10) ECTS
After doing the 20 ECTS programme students will have an intensive work on the final project period lasting four weeks. They will be expected to undertake individual fproject on a subject chosen by the student in consultation with the tutor in Mondragon University. Students will choose a topic, which lies within their area of professional interest.
Work on the topic will be based on direct contact, interviews and/or study visits. In addition, the students in their work are expected to draw on relevant theoretical sources from the course. The final project should be a written report of the fieldwork in English, using a PC, and an oral presentation of the fieldwork for the whole student group and its teachers. All students will be expected to work 40 hours per week.
4. Assessment and accreditation
Students are expected to contribute actively to the work of the course. Regular assignments leading towards a final mark for the subject will be given by each course teacher. A final transcript of records will be issued based on each teacher's assessment of the students performance. Grading will be by ECTS.
5. Fees
There are no tuition fees for Erasmus bilateral partners of Mondragon University. For students coming from institutions without a bilateral partner agreement with Mondragon University the tuition fee is 1.900 €.
