Resources - For Teachers

* It is based on discovery techniques. Students are encouraged to analyse data and to reflect upon evidence. In this way, it is hoped, they will achieve a deeper understanding of the issues raised. They will not simply acquire a set of facts, but will learn to think in the way that Psycholinguists do. This reflects the well-established educational principle at Sixth Form level that we should aim not just to transmit information but to enable students to acquire the perspective of those who work in the field.

The approach means that it is important to allow your classes adequate time to reflect upon the material. Many of the sections tagged as Activity should be presented to the class as raw data or as open-ended questions. The issues should then be reflected upon and discussed by students, sometimes working individually and sometimes working in pairs or small groups. They should be given time to present their solutions to the whole class and to discuss alternative versions before you (and the text) go on to present the received view. With this in mind, it may be a useful teaching resource to prepare overhead transparencies of some of the activities (especially those that describe experiments that have been undertaken.

If time in the class is scarce, one approach might be to ask students to prepare one or more of the activities in advance, by way of 'homework'. This will have the added advantage of equipping them with the right 'mind set' ahead of material which some may find new and challenging.

To encourage learner reflection, the answers do not always appear immediately below the activities, though they are usually apparent from commentary elsewhere in the section or form part of basic Psycholinguistic theory.

* It is flexibly structured. A linear progression through RELI: Psycholinguistics takes you through three cycles, in which increasing demands are made of your students. Each cycle covers the same twelve major topics in Psycholinguistics, and, as the book proceeds from Section A to B to C, the coverage of the topics becomes more detailed. However, the possibility is also open to you of focusing on a single topic and exploring it fully before going on to another. To do this, you simply need to follow the system of numbering: thus sections A1, B1, C1 and D1 introduce and extend a single topic (the goals of psycholinguistics). The same is true of Sections A2, B2, C2 and D2, and so on. Psycholinguistics falls into a number of clearly demarcated areas; and you may feel that it paints a sharper picture if you proceed in this way.

Note that the grading of the course supports either approach. The coverage becomes more complex from A to B to C to D. But, in addition, the issues covered in the sections numbered 4 (A4, B4, C4, D4) are more straightforward than those (say) in the sections numbered 6. Of the language skills, writing is introduced first because (in terms of students' assumed previous knowledge) it is probably the easiest to tackle.

One of the benefits of this flexible structure is that it enables you, if you wish, to negotiate the syllabus with your students. The material in Sections A1 and A2 is introductory. It might thus be sound policy to teach Sections A1 to A3 in order to give your students a flavour of the subject they are to study; then to seek their views on whether they wish to proceed topic-by-topic (going back to B1, C1 and D1) or whether they prefer the idea of recycling topics in ever-increasing depth. One effect of asking your students to make this decision will be to match your course more closely to the preferred learning style of the majority of the group. Confronted with new material, some learners prefer to operate localistically, building up knowledge by accretion, while others are more comfortable operating holistically and mastering one topic at a time.

The course has been designed so that it can be taught over three academic terms of 12 weeks. However, it can easily be adapted to shorter and/or more concentrated periods of study. If you only have two terms available to cover topics in Psycholinguistics, a useful approach might be to combine Sections A and B in the first term (teaching A1 and B1 in the first week, A2 and B2 in the second and so on); then to teach Section C in the second. One text a week from Section D could be set for private reading during each week of the second term.

* It promotes psycholinguistic enquiry beyond the seminar room.
a. At the end of almost every Section C, the course describes a simple experiment which students can easily undertake with small population samples. These experiments have been designed so that they do not demand sophisticated measuring or testing equipment.
They are optional and the course material is not dependent upon them. However, even if your time for teaching Psycholinguistic is limited, it may be worthwhile to get each of your students to undertake and report on at least one of these experiments as part of their course.
b. Also at the end of every Section C, there are suggestions for assignment titles. Of these, at least one encourages students to extend their area of enquiry well beyond the ideas which have been taught in the course, usually by reading a specialist account.
c. Section D offers a series of readings from leading names in the field. These readings can be set for homework at the same time as the group is working on Section C. Thus, the reading in D4 supplements the material being studied in C4; D5 extends C5; and so on. The readings should be followed up by class discussion which critically examines the ideas of the writers.