THE CEFR

The CEFR is the most important document the administration has used to design our curriculum. The Common European Framework of Reference for languages is baes on learning, teaching and assessment. 

It provides a common basis for

1. The elaboration of language syllabuses
2. Curriculum guidelines
3. Eaminations
4. Textbooks
5. etc. 

It describes what language learners have to learn to do in order to learn a language for communication, moreover the knowledge and skills they have to develop to be able to act effectively. The description also covers the cultural context in which language is set.

The framework also defines levels of proficiency which allo learners' progress to be measured at each stage of learning and on a life-long basis.

For example, in a dictation children don't have any previous knowledge or abbility. They must asociate the wrong form with the correct one. The best moment to practise this is in the early morning. There is a huge difference between how teacher speaks in its quotidian life and when he or she does in front of its students. We can claim this kind of activities can be very interesting for our children to develop every abbility.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To promote the national and international collaboration of goverment and no-governmental institutions engaged in the development of teaching and evaluation in the field of modern language, moreover the production and use of materials, including multi-media.

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning)

Teaching different subject such as science, history… to students through a foreign language. This can be by the English teacher using cross-curricular content or the subject teacher using English as the language of instruction. Both methods result in the simultaneous learning of content and English. 

TASK-BASED APPROACH

·           It is defined as “how a learner applies his or her communicative competence to undertake a selection of task”.

·           The key word to learn a language is MOTIVATION.

·    What is a task? A task is an activity where the target language is used by the learner for a communicative purpose (goal) in order to achieve an outcome.

  

·      The teacher doesn’t pre-determine what language will be studied in a definite lesson because the lesson is based around the completion of a central task and the language studied is determined by what happens as the students complete it.

                 

                                                              THE TBL FRAMEWORK

Functional approach

It’s based on the functional use of the language.

1.        Process of “thingking in English”
2.         If you want to ask for the age of a person…then…how old?
3.        Function instead of grammar exercises.
4.        Listening, speaking, reading and writing, according to needs of the students.

Grammar aspects may be studied when students benefit from them. This process comes at the end, not the beginning.

CLT

1.       CLT represents a reaction to previous methodological principles.   They support what was called “the development of communicative proficiency in the target language”, rather than knowledge of its structures.   Three main principles can be inferred from CLT practices:

a.       The communication principle: learning is promoted by activities involving real communication

b.      The task principle learning is enhanced through the use of activities in which language is employed for carrying out meaningful tasks.

c.       The meaningful principle: the learning process is supported by languaje which is meaningful to the student. Activities should consequently be selected according to how they involve the learner in authentic and meaningful language use. 

COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

-          Language is a médium of communication and it’s understood as a reaction against the first methodologies.  It supposed a really great progression, morover, communication embraces functions and notions (what happens when a child ask about the meaning of a word? In this situation we must answer with a question to get that word into a context). It's based on communicative and meaningful activities. Learner centered approach or motivation centred approach. Besides it includes the concept of need:

o   Ways in which the learner will be called upon to use the language in situations he may meet.

o   Personal and social development of the student, including the development of study skills and self-reliance.

o   Meaning is paramount. 

      In this video we can see an example of how this method works. Moreover it’s show how the different abilities of a language can be practice (Speaking, Listening, Writing, Reading). It’s also related with the pair correction and. From time to time children have to participate in some activities out of school.

NATURAL APPROACH

This method is based on observing how children acquire their mother tongue, so they choose to speak when it is ready. We, as teachers, must help our students to understand us by using pictures and occasional words in the students’ native language, which is allowed to be used along with the target one.  

Krashen and Terrel developed this method in the late 70’s and early 80’s. The communication becomes the main target to the teacher in the classroom. 

TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE

So far, students have been quite doing nothing, and it’s been a problem for them due to their character as children.

• -          It’s named the Comprehension Approach as well.
• -          Listening comprehension first (it uses aspects from other methodologies)
• -          Use of commands to direct behavior
• -          Commands are given to get students to perform an action
• -          The action makes the meaning of the command clear.
• -          An order must be followed.
•       The planning of a lesson, must be related with listening and doing.

THE SILENT WAY

This method was developed in the early 60's by Gattegno, which the teachers are mostly silent and use as their main teaching tools rods and charts. In this particular methor, teaching should be subordinated to learning and the students should be able to use the language for self-expression, which pretends to make them intependent people by relying on themselves. 

AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD

-          It has its origins in 40’s

o   Foreign language teaching is a process of mechanical habit formation, especially for those one who were in the army.

o   It came from Ferdinard de Saussure.

o   Listening and reading after the teacher. “repeat after me”. (as little children do when they say for the very first time “daddy”)

o   Use of drills: Mechanical oral exercises.

o   Teacher-centered.

o   Grouping of students: group, pairs.

o   Thanks to the WW2 advances in technology, new devices appeared, and it supposed an evolve in education (recorder)

o   Language laboratory: New technology caught publishers and text-book writers unprepared.

o   Prevent errors as they can remember.  (if communication is not affect, don’t correct  the children). 

SUMMING UP

-          Learning by heart.

-          Written exercises.

-          Probably students don’t know what they are writing about and why.

Mechanical exercise

-          Use of memory.

-          Should be dealt with first orally.

Usually, the mechanical exercise that are done in class are based on the use of memory, so the only way possible it’s learn by hard.

We’ve seen a video exposing how this method works, where the teacher has started with a presentation of the lesson (how it’s going to be developed). The second stage is the input, which the students are given the time to understand the role play. Then they must repeat after the teacher. As the sentences are very long, they are divided in parts.

Our pupils must see how we articulate our mouth; this will help them to learn the language. 

DIRECT METHOD

This method is based on:

1.                        Second language is the linchpin of the communication (not Spanish is allowed).

2.                        Vocabulary and sentences are focus on quotidian life.

3.                        Oral communication skills were built up in a carefully graded progression…

4.                         Grammar was taught inductively.

5.                         New teaching points were introduced orally.

6.                        Using demonstrations, objects and picture to teach vocabulary.

7.                         Listening and Speaking are set as the main aim of the lessons.

8.                        Correct pronunciation and grammas were emphasized

What are its main objectives?

What a teacher wants to get with this method is promote conversation and discussion in classroom using the target language, so the mother tongue is completely forbidden (Unless the students could benefit from it) in order to being successful in this aim, moreover listening and oral production becomes really important whereas translation and grammar rules are ignored.

How is a lesson like?

A topic, which is usually from real life situations, is presented in the target language and then we start to introduce the vocabulary, so they have to reap it whatever in chorus, whole class together, groups or rows. Imagination is the main key.

Using a huge range of resources will help out pupils to learn the concepts better. Check the following examples:

• ·         Songs
• ·         Games
• ·         Mime
• ·         Objects
• ·         Visual aids (charts, posters, etc)

GRAMMAR-TRANSLATION METHOD

The method we’re going to study has its origin in the way Latin and Greek is taught, and contains the following items:  

There are some aspects that characterize Grammar-translation method:

1                                          1. The use of the second language in class is reduced only to translations. The lessons are                         completely given in Spanish.

2                                            2.   If you want to learn the vocabulary, you have to memorize it out of a context.

3                                            3 .Listening and speaking has not room in the lessons.

                  4.  Grammar and syntax are the linchpin for everything related to English learning.

Actually this method is not valid for Schools, due to the lack of comuncation that presents,.

Acquisition vs. Learning / Introduction to Methods

It’s clear that Education is not the same everywhere; each place has their particular characteristics which are taken from their society and that are the reasons why the curriculum is adapted to that specific community too.

Krashen pointed the difference between acquisition and learning.

• ·   Acquisition is understood as the way people acquire the first language by processes and strategies.
• ·         Learning refers to conscious and guided knowledge of second or foreign language.

Acquisition occurs when we accept the language as a part of us and we don’t consider it something that must be studied or learnt, but a important piece in our lives, which that not occur with the foreign one because we treat it as a subject that must be passed and not something significant for our world. 

If you want to show a great range of language materials, based on a strong relationship between the practice and the theory, you must use a Language learning method, which consists of three levels:

WHICH METHODS ARE WE GOING TO READ ABOUT?

What do I need to become an English teacher?

First of all we must consider English is not our first language, so it’s very important to accept the idea of being student for our whole life due to the continuous changes and upgrades in both Education and languages. It’s obvious that the first one is developing by all the scholars that help to improve it day-to-day. But, how can English evolve? Actually it’s very simple to answer this question, because everyday new concepts are introduced in this language, most of them coming from technological fields such as social networks or media. So, an English teacher must have a double role in Education, one as teacher and another as student.

Not only that attitude is needed, but there must be other important things, for instance:

•          A perfect knowledge of what their students need to learn by knowing their interests.
•          Respect for any other culture, sex, opinion, and so on.

Besides, communicative skills are really significant, and must be composed by: 

Do you really want to teach English? Don’t miss these tips:

• .      Make room for English in your life. Listen to the radio, watch your favorite TV serial in V.O., read a book, write a letter, etc.
• .      Try to begin a file and start filling it with as much English stuff as possible, whatever songs, books, news, activities, games …).
• .   Methodology is basic for English formation, so look for activities, funny games, ICT resources…)

Take into account that English learning has specific procedure and follows the next sequence:

Foreign language vs. Second Language

These two terms are always confusing, maybe because we don't even have them clear in our mother tongue. Both are commonly used to refer another language that is learned at school, but actually they don’t have the same meaning. Let's have an example, their relationship is the same that ceiling and roof, they mean “techo” in Spanish, but there is a little difference that distinguishes them both.

• ·                The ceiling is the part that delimits the room in its upper zone.
• ·                A roof is the covering on the uppermost part of a building.

So, that’s the same as second and foreign, both refer to a language apart from our native one, but there is a little hint that separate them completely:

 We talk about a second language when we want to point a language that is useful for our quotidian life, for instance, in Ceuta, the muslin population has Dariya as mother tongue, which is spoken at home, and Spanish as second one, which is used for Education.

The foreign language is learnt for pleasure, not for the necessity of communication in our day-to-day.

In my case, my second language is English, which I use for reading, studying, watching TV and working, and Italian is a foreign language I am learning, because I don’t use it in my quotidian life currently.

To sum up, what we want to teach is a complete functional second language and make our students capable of managing in different situations, from using a social network to reading news on a newspaper, completely in English.