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.