XENK1000 Developing Functional English (2 cr)

This course is designed to help early childhood education students recognize and develop the English language skills specific to their field’s demands. The course encourages students not to aim for perfection but to instead develop field-specific vocabulary and practical communication strategies that allow students to overcome English language knowledge gaps. During the course, students will also engage in shadowing activities designed to help them recognize basic phonological elements of English and will have the opportunity to build their own bank of relevant phrases and terminology. The course uses a combination of formal and informal English language materials, all of which are relevant to early childhood education.

• have gained insights into phonological elements of field-relevant English speech, such as word boundaries and basics of pronunciation
• identify and contextualize key terms in their field
• become familiar with higher level academic tasks (such as those within the compulsory XYHK1000 course)
• be able to recognize and use English language that is functionally relevant to early childhood education contexts, learning how to prioritize the development of this language over less essential vocabulary
• have practiced a variety of communication strategies designed for overcoming language knowledge gaps, i.e., circumlocution, confirmation checks, and clarification requests