THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE OF PSYCHOLOGY: CREATING AN INTEGRATIVE BILINGUAL ENVIRONMENT FOR TEACHING STUDENTS

Abstract

Language acquisition and learning play a special part in any child’s cognitive and linguistic development. The younger the children are, the deeper insight into psychology it takes. Academic subject Foreign language learning at young learners’ age is grounded in psychology and psycholinguistics, as one of the EMI-based[1] courses within the ELM programme of the Faculty of Education in Belgrade. We investigated, through focus-group interviews, our students’ (N=32) experience with psychology and language teaching courses to see how they prepare for work with children. The results confirm that integrative courses largely support their personal and professional growth from academic bilinguals to responsible and caring teachers of young learners. [1] English Medium Instruction – the use of English to teach academic subjects other than English itself in countries where the first language of the majority of the population is not English. (https://www.education.ox.ac.uk › research-groups › emi) [Accessed February 2024]