Professional Development Opportunity for Teachers and Tutors of LESLLA Learners

Announcing Acquisition and Assessment of Morphosyntax
An Online Module for Language Teachers and Tutors
October 14 through November 24, 2019

The EU Speak Board is pleased to announce its offering of Acquisition and Assessment of Morphosyntax, an online module for teachers and tutors of LESLLA learners.

The module is appropriate for those with little training for or professional development in specifically working with LESLLA learners. It’s hosted on a Moodle platform and is offered in six languages: English, Finnish, German, Italian, Spanish, and Turkish.

LESLLA, or Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults, generally refers to adults who are learning to read and write for the first time in a new language. LESLLA is also the international organization dedicated to the research and teaching of immigrants and refugees who are emergent readers with limited or interrupted formal education experiences.

Acquisition and Assessment of Morphosyntax focuses on how the grammar of a new language is learned. Teachers and tutors often ask why learners don’t seem to learn the morphosyntax (grammar) of a language that we teach them. There is also another equally important aspect of the larger topic of second language acquisition: How do learners learn morphosyntax that we don’t teach them? Acquisition and Assessment of Morphosyntax considers both questions, to help participants reach a deeper understanding of how learners acquire word order (syntax) and the little words and endings which have grammatical functions (morphology).

During the module’s penultimate week, participants will have the chance to reflect on how learners’ linguistic achievement is assessed or tested and to hear about new ways to do so. The majority of the module involves the participants in taking a closer look at the interplay between adult learners’ minds and the input they get during instruction and outside of class, doing so in the context of seminal and recent, cutting-edge research. The module ends with an opportunity for participants to share the acquisition of an aspect of morphosyntax of the learners in their classes. 

The module starts on October 14 and runs for 6 weeks. For more information, see point 1. in the Instructions for Module Registration. To register for the module, please follow all of the steps in the instructions below. Registration begins on October 7. 

Instructions for Module Registration

  1. Go to https://research.ncl.ac.uk/eu-speak/modules
  2. Click on Log in.
  3. Create an account, if necessary. Otherwise skip to Step 4.
  4. Log in to your account.
  5. Search for the module by name.
  6. Register for the module.
  7. After you register, you will receive an email with a user name.
  8. Email your user name to the module leader(s).
  9. Agree to abide by the course netiquette