teaching

Phraseology and Language Learning
5 cr, BA level

Phraseology in its various forms has been a very popular topic in linguistic and applied linguistic research for over three decades. The number of different theories proposed during this time makes it a difficult topic for students to grasp. To make it manageable without oversimplifying, I developed a very simple framework. The field is abundant with different kinds of phraseological patterns, from idioms to units of meaning and from verb–noun collocations to semantic sequences. Each class focuses on one such pattern, e.g. phrasal verbs, binomials or lexical bundles. Importantly, in each class students complete a real linguistic or psycholinguistic task designed to study the given pattern and taken from published research which I programmed in PsyToolkit. For example, they try out a lexical decision task which demonstrates the effect of collocation on speed of processing or an acceptability judgement task estimating reversibility of binomials. This way the students not only understand the theory better but also get acquainted with a large number of tasks used in the field which they can use later in their own research. Importantly, task designs in psycholinguistic research are difficult to understand just by reading about them. Trying them out is eye-opening. Experimenting with them is also a nice change of activity during the class, gives excellent ground for discussion and promotes deep learning. The students are also encouraged to use the results of the experiments for their final projects on which they give poster presentations during the last class. Assessment is based on in-class workshops, which I call lab works since they involve practical work with language and are often held in computer labs, homeworks and final projects.

Language Testing
5 cr, MA level

In course design, I seek to build a clear structure which integrates several intended learning outcomes at different levels. This course serves both students in an applied linguistic line who intend to become language teachers as well as linguistic students. Understanding test theory and methods is crucial in language teaching, assessment and decision-making. At the same time, tests are also widely used in linguistic and psycholinguistic research: for example, researchers may need to determine the proficiency level of their study participants or evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention by administering a pre-test and a post-test. Thus, after the course students can handle tests in the context of language teaching but also can integrate a test into a research study, for example in their MA work. In the course, students write different test items themselves, these items are compiled into tests which students take, the results are analysed with standard statistical tests used in classical test theory. Together, we use statistical analysis to examine how well the items worked and how reliable the test is as a whole. This structure makes the links between test theory and practice much clearer and encourages students to think about tests critically. The assessment is based on a final project where the students apply all skills and knowledge they acquired during the course. As a bonus, the students learn to use basic functions of Excel, which is a much needed but an underdeveloped skill for humanities students.

Quantitative Methods in Applied Linguistics
5 cr, MA level

Applied linguistic studies often involve conducting a Likert-scale survey, administering a language test, comparing two or more groups of learners, or finding out which teaching method is more efficient. All these types of studies require statistical analysis. In this introductory course to quantitative methods in applied linguistics, students learn how to do it. We focus on understanding the thinking behind such methods and learning to apply them in one’s own research.

Our main tool is Excel, which is a very good starting point in learning to work with quantitative data. It is useful outside academic research too. Towards the end of the course, we gradually transition to coding in R which is a much more advanced tool. No previous background in Excel or R is required. Quantitative methods are illustrated with examples from applied linguistic research to broaden students’ understanding of the field as well as give them ideas for their future MA theses. The topics we cover include: descriptive statistics, normal distribution, statistical significance, effect size and statistical power, t-test, ANOVA, regression, correlation and reliability measures.

By the end of the course, the students learn to:

• understand and apply some basic statistical tests,
• use Excel for basic data processing and statistical analysis,
• design an applied linguistic research study and conduct it,
• discuss and understand the limitations of applied linguistic research results.

Academic Writing
5 cr, BA level

My Academic Writing course is both a course in academic writing skills and an applied linguistic course since I introduce the students to research knowledge on different aspects of academic writing and show how it could be used in planning, structuring, writing up, revising and editing academic text. I start by introducing the students to the sociocultural setting of academia and publishing and the distinctions between different academic genres. Then the students select an academic monograph they want to read either on topics around academic writing or based on their own interest. Every week they read roughly one chapter, write a one-page and a 50-word summary of it and get peer and teacher feedback on their writing. This process is supported by lectures and class discussions of such aspects of academic writing as citation practices, writer-reader interaction, academic vocabulary and phraseology and coherence and cohesion. The students are also asked to find linguistic examples of these aspects in the books they are reading which are then discussed in class. At the end of the course, students give a 10-minute presentation of their book and write a book review, another important academic genre, where all the aspects of academic writing discussed during the course need to be applied in practice. Assessment is mostly based on this final product. As a result, the students not only develop their writing, and reading skills but also learn to understand academic text better: how it is structured and why. They also learn about research on academic writing from the lectures and from the books they and their peers read.

Applied Linguistic Perspectives on Vocabulary
5 cr, MA level

It is quite clear that to speak a language one needs to know the words. But which words? How many words? What does it mean to know a word? Is it enough to know a word in order to use it? How are words learned? How should they be taught? How do I know as a teacher whether my student knows the word? What IS a word after all? These questions have been discussed in applied linguistics for decades and in this course we learn to understand the nature of the questions and some of the most recent answers. We cover such topics as breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge, core vocabulary and word lists, specialized and register specific vocabulary, word frequency distributions and lexical statistics, phraseology and multi-word units. To back up this theoretical knowledge, we work through practical exercises and try out a variety of vocabulary tests and measures.

By the end of the course, students learn to:

• understand core concepts and navigate their way across vocabulary studies,
• recognize theoretical assumptions behind vocabulary exercises and tests,
• use vocabulary instruments developed in research.

Other (co-)developed courses:

Topics in English Linguistics Online (5 cr, BA level, with Maura Ratia)
Approaches to Language Patterning (5 cr, MA level, with Turo Hiltunen)
English as a Lingua Franca: Changing Language Practices (5 cr, Helsinki Summer School)
English as a Lingua Franca – a New Language? (5 cr, Helsinki Summer School)