SECUNDARIA. SECUNDARIA. ESPECIALIDAD ESPECIALIDAD INGLÉS. TEMA 1. EVOL EVOLUC UCIÓ IÓN N DE LA DIDÁ DIDÁCT CTIC ICA A DE LAS LAS LENG ENGUAS. UAS. TENDEN NDENC CIAS IAS DE LA DIDÁCTICA DEL INGLÉS. LOS ENFOQUES COMUNICATIVOS. INTRODUCTION. The Spanish education system is currently regulated by the Organic Law 8/2013, o !ecember "th, to impro#e the $uality o education (LOMCE)% The main ob&ecti#es o the reorm are to reduce the rate o early abandonment o education, impro#ing educational outcomes in accordance with international standards, both on the comparati#e rate o studen students ts and and e'cel e'cellen lentt studen students, ts, and gradua graduates tes o Second Secondary ary (duca (ducatio tion, n, impro# impro#e e employab employability ility,, entreprene entrepreneurshi urship p and stimulate stimulate students% students% The principles principles on which which the reorm reorm pi#ots pi#ots are basica basically lly increa increasin sing g the autono autonomy my o school schools, s, stren strength gtheni ening ng the management capacity o the management o the centers, e'ternal e#aluations to stage the rationali)ation o educational pro#ision and le'ible paths% *long with these principles it is necessary to highlight three areas in which the LOMCE ma+es special emphasis in #iew o the transormation o the education system the inormation and communications technology, technology, promotion o multilingualism and the moderni)ation o the Spanish -ocational -ocational Training% The education system must be le'ible enough to collect training needs in a changi changing ng societ society y, hence hence the import importanc ance e o de#elo de#elopin ping g an educa educatio tional nal pro&ec pro&ectt and a teaching program that meets the needs and peculiarities in student learning% .n this topic . will deal with the dierent methodological trends we may ind in the teaching o languages, especially in the teaching o (nglish as a oreign language and mainly the communicati#e approach% This +ind o topic is o special interest or teachers due to the implications and applications that it may ha#e in our teaching lie% .t may help us choose the approp appropriat riate e te'tb te'tboo+ oo+ or progra programme mme sylla syllabus buses es but it may also also pro#id pro#ide e us with with moti#ation to be transerred to our students% hate#er our methodology might be, we shall learn rom this topic that it should be abo#e all, eclectic% .n other words, we shall learn that there is not one methodology that is perect but that all o them ha#e something to oer% . will irst mention the main trends in the methodology and their e#olution, then . will re#iew those which were de#eloped in the twentieth century and inally, . will ocus on the ones we ind nowadays, especially those used in the Spanish educational system%
1. THE EVOLUTION OF DIDACTICS IN LANGUAGE. Language is a purely human acti#ity in act, it is one o the main eatures that distinguish man rom the rest o the creatures% *n act o #erbal communication is only possible between human beings who transer their ideas rom the mind o the spea+er to the mind o the listener% ore than three thousand languages are spo+en in the world nowadays% The problem arises when we realise that we dont +now how a language is ac$uired% 4irst, language is learned, that is, e#ery normal child can learn any natural language as a irst language, under the appropriate conditions% Secondly, no theory can e'plain this act% That is, we ha#e no model which can show how language is learned under the appropriate circumstances% Summarising the whole idea we could say that the psychological ield is gaining an important place in the learning o a second language% 5ut perhaps the best ad#ice on methodology must come rom e'perienced teachers rather than rom theoreticians%
1.1.
CLASSICAL TEACHING METHODS (UNTIL 18TH CENTURY).
Languages ha#e always been studied e#en in the most ancient ci#ili)ations% The irst written document that e'its is the order gi#en by Sargon o *rcadia to proclaim his great deeds in all the dierent tongues o the (mpire in the year 2860 57% e +now o interpreters and translators in (gypt or in 5abylonia who were o the greatest importance when arri#ing at commercial pacts among the dierent peoples o 7yprus, alestine, etc, in act, there are more than 360 documents that pro#e the e'istence o a 95ureau or oreign aairs in the +ingdom o *menophis ...% .t is not surprising to learn that there was not much interest in languages among the wise :ree+s because, what was the point in learning languages i there was nothing worth reading abroad; uch later, on the other hand, the wealthy
5ut, perhaps, the greatest milestone in the learning o languages regarding the modern western world was the disco#ery o *merica% .t was in *merica that the directmethod was widely used or the irst time% 7olumbus wrote in his diary that he was going to ta+e si' .ndians to Spain to teach them the language, and, what is more, that the .ndians were going to learn separately, totally depri#ed o their mother tongue% Some con$uerors also decided to ollow the method and introduced themsel#es into the dierent .ndian tribes to the point o becoming almost nati#es li+e 4rancisco !el uerto% (#en in the ni#ersity in 1?3? was to possess a sound understanding o the Latin 7lassics% 5ut it was not until the eighteenth century that the study o modern languages was oicially introduced% .t was in the >ni#ersity o =ar#ard, in the 7ollege o illiam and ary that in 1@@" the teaching o 4rench substituted the teaching o =ebrew%
1.2.
FIRST APPROACHES (19TH CENTURY).
Learning languages is an intuiti#e process or which human beings ha#e a natural capacity that can be awa+ened pro#ided that the proper conditions e'ist, that is, someone to tal+ to, something to tal+ about and moti#ation or desire to learn% Learning, thereore, is not a mere rational process that must ollow a strict syllabus% The abo#e idea could be said to be a summary o the philosophy that has always remained constant or all the dierent methods in teaching% =owe#er, in the #ery beginning, oreign languages were taught in much the same way as classical ones% •
G!""!#T!$%&!'$ M*'+,.
This method was used up to recent times% .t consisted in the rigid presentation o grammar% The grammars o Latin and :ree+ and their terminology were applied to the teaching o modern languages% Students had to master Latin grammar and what is worst, the #ocabulary they were e'posed to was predominantly literary, and you could ind passages by 7er#antes, oliAre or Sha+espeare e#en in elementary te'ts% Such methodology did not include con#ersation because its purpose was to assimilate the prescripti#e grammars and then proceed to read literature% The students were lost #ery oten because they were not able to see why (nglish had a nominati#e or dati#e case until they learnt Latin, and what is worse, (nglish grammar could be ad&usted to Latin grammar all the time% One #ery good e'ample o this is the sentence 9it is ., because in Latin the complement must agree in genre, number and case with its sub&ect% =owe#er, in (nglish, the correct construction, as we all +now, is normally
ta+en to be 9it is me% e ha#e to say, howe#er, that ashionable as it is today to critici)e e#ery method o the past and although no con#ersation was usually ac$uired, the student did ac$uire a thorough +nowledge o grammar structure, synta', etc% and this could be transormed into con#ersational +nowledge airly easily when needed, as has in act happened in many cases% •
D*-' N!'!& M*'+,.
.n (urope, and more precisely in :ermany, -ietor in 1882 made an attac+ on the grammartranslation method and claimed that students should be gi#en the chance to disco#er the rules by themsel#es through e'perience in that language% The language should be learned orm speech rather than r om written te'ts% .n (urope one o the best +nown representati#es o language teachers was :ougin who in 1880 attempted to build a methodology around the obser#ation o child language learning% =e de#eloped this techni$ue ater a long struggle trying to learn to spea+ and understand :erman through ormal grammarbased methods% =owe#er, their total ailure and his turning to obser#ations o how children learn a second language is one o the most impressi#e personal testimonials in the recorded annals o language learning% .n 18"0 and during a conerence o modern language teaching a resolution was passed to ma+e honetics the basis o language teaching% .t must be said that the !irect ethod was more an approach to language teaching than a proper method o teaching% *s has already been hinted, its main principles were re&ecting the grammartranslation method and opposing translation into the language being studied% ebsters .nternational !ictionary deines it as B* method o teaching a oreign language, through con#ersation, discussion, and reading in the language itsel without use o the pupils language, without translation, and without the study o ormal grammar% The irst words are taught by pointing at ob&ects or pictures or by perorming actionsC% e could summari)e by saying that the !irect ethod consisted o the ollowing ideas language should be taught through speech, language should be learnt using the language rather than memorising, and the mother tongue was not used% 5ut, among other things, we could say that when such a method was adapted to schools, programmes, materials and te'tboo+s se#eral problems arouse% .t re$uired able teachers and great eorts besides, the use o acti#e methods led to indiscipline in class, translation was obliterated orgetting that it could also be useul at times, and the learning o grammar and #ocabulary was too slow%
1./.
T0ENTIETH CENTURY INNOVATIONS .
4irst, we should note that there was an attempt to present grammar as a natural se$uence instead o in a schematic way% 5esides, more current te'ts were handed or translation and, what is more important, con#ersation was inally introduced in teaching% 5ut we can criticise some disad#antages% ainly, teachers who had ne#er e'perimented the real language passed their own errors on to their students due to their deicient +nowledge o the language they were teaching and also that rom the beginning o the twentieth century until orld ar . there was a common lac+ o interest in oreign aairs leading to the act that only the wealthy and culti#ated classes were interested in learning languages so as to be able to read oreign literature% •
T+* *&' S-+&.
ri#ate institutions and academies began to recognise that the student could be more interested in learning to spea+ the language than to read it% One o these schools was 5erlit)% .t was ounded in 18@8 by a'imiliam 5erlit) in
T+* -$'3'$ 4 !$'+5&67 5%7-+&67 !$, %-&67.
hen linguists turned rom comparati#e historical philology to the description o modern languages, a new emphasis was gi#en to the teaching methods% The study o the *merican and *ustralian aborigines and their tongues $uestioned the uni#ersality o the classical grammars, but at the same time it disco#ered that all tongues had certain eatures in common% The study o *merican .ndian languages presented diiculties because they had no written orms to base their studies on% The grammarians had to listen and reconstruct the grammar rom the spo+en language% This made a signiicant contribution to uture language teaching methodologies% =owe#er, too much attention was paid to the spo+en language and #ery little to the written aspect% 5ut what is ob#ious is that the intransigence o these scientists on behal o the spo+en, popular tongue and its importance, as against the written literary #ersion, ser#ed
as an eecti#e counterpoise to the e'cess o the traditional purists% •
!%- E$6&%+.
The ollowing disco#eries made the appearance o the 5asic (nglish method possible e#ery language has a basic grammar that should be taught irst and a basic #ocabulary too, consisting o the most re$uent words, around 860 words% The methodology intended to teach both this basic grammar and basic #ocabulary% The #erbs were mainly phrasal, such as 9get in instead o 9enter and the nouns paraphrases, such as 9small tree instead o 9bush while ad&ecti#es were #ery limited, such as 9nice or the concepts 9pretty, 9wonderul, 9antastic, etc% 5asic (nglish eliminates all but eighteen #erbs, such as 9get, 9put and their combinations with operational words li+e 9at and 9on% .t eliminates concrete nouns and &ust +eeps some our hundred general nouns such as 9lo#e and 9hate, and two hundred pictureable ob&ects li+e 9lemon and 9apple and one hundred ad&ecti#es% The irst thing we can criticise is that i we add the e'tra set o words allowed or scientist, economists, etc, E&argonsF well ha#e more than 8%000 words% 5esides, or a
S'-'!&%".
The two main igures, Sapir and 5loomield, ga#e birth to the so called Structuralism% Sapir combined linguistics and anthropology and made teachers aware o the need to transmit not only a language but also its cultural bac+ground stressing the social aspect o language and the relationships between race, culture and language% 5loomield or his part contributed more to the spreading o *merican structuralism% =e endea#oured to ma+e linguistics as scientiic as possible and en#isaged language as a series o stimuli and responses, a series o habits% The concept lying behind 5loomields ideas is the embryo o the programmed learning o oreign languages% The A.S.T.P% or *rmy Speciali)ed Training rogram was tremendously successul during orld ar ..% 7on#entional teaching methods were too slow and in 1"D1, orced by the need to learn languages in the bac+ground o the orld ar, a linguistic programme was de#eloped% .t was called *%S%T%% and it achie#ed miraculous results%
5asically, it was a combination o the 5erlit) techni$ue together with some mechanical aids and phonographic recordings and, inally, some eatures borrowed rom the new methodology de#eloped in the study o .ndian languages% .t was an intensi#e method, 8 to 12 hours a day, there were &ust 10 to 12 pupils per class on a#erage, there were nati#e spea+ers to pro#ide real con#ersation, there was a strong grammatical instruction, there was #isual and audio aid too and, what was more important, the students were young and intelligent and had a #ery strong moti#ation% This success in the teaching o soldiers was a ailure when the same methodology was applied to children% The main reason was that these pupils did not recei#e so many hours o class, &ust 3 hours a wee+, and what is more important, they lac+ed the soldiers strong moti#ation% 5ut, what is clear is that we owe to the *%S%T%% the act that con#ersational luency became one o the main goals in language teaching% 4or the %'-'!&%' 6!""!%, language is a series o uni$ue structures whose construction ollows regular patterns which are the basis o grammar% They compared the structures o language 1 and 2, and saw which structures were similar and which could cause intererence in the learners o a second language% attern practice was an essential eature o structuralist methods too and its aim was to pro#ide the pupil with practice in certain structures or patterns% 7homs+y was one o the irst theoreticians to note the deiciencies o this type o grammars% .n his opinion, the structuralists only deal with surace structure o language lea#ing the underlying structure behind and, thus, orgetting such an important aspect as ambiguity or intuition% *nd, what is more, the +ind o e'ercises proposed by structuralism is purely mechanical and has no connections with actual situations, with the result that students oten lac+ed meaningul practice% *nother important criticism is that structural methods oered teachers the material they considered that should be taught but did not show them how to teach it% •
S&*$' 0!7 M*'+,.
7aleb :attegno ounded GThe Silent ayG as a method or language learning in the early @0s% Some o his basic theories were that Gteaching should be subordinated to learningG and Gthe teacher wor+s with the student the student wor+s on the languageG% The most prominent characteristic o the method was that the teacher typically stayed GsilentG most o the time, as part o his/her role as acilitator and stimulator, and thus the methodHs popular name% Language learning is usually seen as a problem sol#ing acti#ity to be engaged in by the students both independently and as a group, and the teacher needs to
stay Gout o the wayG in the process as much as possible% The Silent ay is also well+nown or its common use o small coloured rods o #arying length E7uisine rodsF and colourcoded word charts depicting pronunciation #alues, #ocabulary and grammatical paradigms% .t is a uni$ue method and the irst o its +ind to really concentrate on cogniti#e principles in language learning% •
C""$'7 L!$6!6*.
The ounder igure was 7harles 7urran, an *merican Iesuit priest, whose wor+ in 7ounselling Learning Ean approach to learning in general, based on 7arl
Students typically sit in a circle, with the teacher Eas
counsellorF outside the ring% hen a student wants to say something, they irst say it in their nati#e language, which the teacher then translates bac+ to them using the target language% The student then attempts to repeat the (nglish used by the teacher, and then a student can respond using the same process%
This techni$ue is used o#er a
considerable period o time, until students are able to apply words in the new language without translation, gradually mo#ing rom a situation o GdependenceG on the teacher counsellor to a state o independence% •
S66*%'5*,!.
.n the late @0s, a 5ulgarian psychologist by the name o :eorgi Lo)ano# introduced the contention that students naturally set up psychological barriers to learning based on ears that they will be unable to perorm and are limited in terms o their ability to learn% Lo)ano# began to de#elop a language learning method that ocused on GdesuggestionG o the limitations learners thin+ they ha#e, and pro#iding the sort o rela'ed state o mind that would acilitate the retention o material to its ma'imum potential% This method became +nown as GSuggestopediaG the name relecting the application o the power o GsuggestionG to the ield o pedagogy% One o the most uni$ue characteristics o the method was the use o sot 5aro$ue music during the learning process% Lo)ano# belie#ed it created a le#el o rela'ed concentration that acilitated the inta+e and retention o huge $uantities o material% *nother aspect that diered rom other methods was the use o sot comortable chairs and dim lighting in the classroom Eother actors belie#ed to create a more rela'ed state o mindF% Other
characteristics o Suggestopedia were the gi#ing o#er o complete control and authority to the teacher and the encouragement o learners to act as GchildishlyG as possible
•
.
T'!& P+7%-!& R*%5$%*.
.n the 1"?0s, Iames *sher began e'perimenting with a method he called Total hysical
.t is widely
acclaimed as a highly eecti#e method at beginning le#els, and a standard re$uirement in the instruction o young learners% .t is also admired as a method due to its inherent simplicity, ma+ing it accessible to a wide range o teachers and learning en#ironments% •
N!'!& A55!-+.
Stephen Jrashen and Tracy Terrell de#eloped the GKatural *pproachG in the early eighties, based on JrashenHs theories about second language ac$uisition% The approach shared a lot in common with *sherHs Total hysical
with the language and ma+e many errors which are corrected based on content and not structure E3F ('tending roduction promoting luency through a #ariety o more challenging acti#ities%
2. TRENDS IN ENGLISH DIDACTICS. Ta+ing into account that this topic is based on methodology, it would be interesting to reer to the D*-** /:2;1< 4 1;'+ =$*, which regulates the organi)ation and curriculum o 7ompulsory Secondary (ducation in the rincipality o *sturias that dedicated its *rticle 3 to edagogical rinciples and that says that the schools de#elop their teaching proposals or this stage on the basis o attention to di#ersity and access or all pupils to regular education% They also arbitrate methods that ta+e into account the dierent rates o learning, oster their ability to learn and promote teamwor+% The teaching methodology in this educational stage will be mainly acti#e and participatory, encouraging indi#idual and cooperati#e wor+ o students in the classroom% Teacher wor+ team will ma+e sure to pro#ide a multidisciplinary approach to the educational process, ensuring the coordination o all aculty members to attend each student in their group% The correct oral and written e'pression is encouraged% .n order to encourage the habit and lo#e o reading, time will be de#oted to it in teaching practice Enot less than one hour per wee+ in each sub&ectF, which will be structured through the plan o reading, writing teaching and research center% *s . ha#e already said, 7homs+y was one o the irst linguists to criticise the structuralist method, but he also made strong attac+s on traditional grammar% The only way out was to de#elop his Transormational :enerati#e :rammar%
2.1.
TRANSFORMATIONAL GENERATIVE GRAMMAR .
.n 1"6@ and with the publication o 7homs+ys BSyntactic StructuresC there was an important shit in the study o languages due to the importance attached to the concept o cognition in accounting or human language acti#ity and this was later on de#eloped until it became what is +nown as socalled psycholinguistics% 7homs+y criticised the act that structuralism did not describe the rules that allow spea+ers to create an ininite number o utterances, in other words, their linguistic competence% .n his opinion, structuralists did not pay attention either to the deep structure o language, orgetting thus that human language is a creati#e acti#ity in which a spea+er is able to utter grammatically correct sentences without ha#ing e#er heard them beore% =owe#er, 7homs+y himsel was conscious o the diiculty o applying his method to actual language% *lthough he has asserted that he is not an e'pert on language teaching,
what is important or us teachers is the act that he is mainly concerned with the structure o language and with its creati#e nature especially% 5esides, modern language teaching is emphasi)ing the importance o the pupils creati#e handling o language% Thereore, 7homs+y was ma+ing indirect contributions to teaching% There is #alue in oering ungrammatical e'amples apart rom the correct ones pupils should be allowed to ma+e errors e'planations in language learning are #aluable and priority must be gi#en to ree e'pression and creati#ity%
2.2.
THE NOTION OF SITUATION .
4irth, appointed roessor o (nglish in .ndia, de#eloped the concept o 9conte't o situation the meaning o an utterance is a unction o the cultural and situational conte't in which it occurs% 4irth made special emphasis on the unity o language and social acti#ity% =e de#eloped three ma&or categories in which language e#ents can be described the #erbal and non#erbal action o the participants in the e#ent, rele#ant ob&ects, and the obser#able eect o the #erbal actions% 5ut perhaps 4irths most important contribution was the embryo o the registers o language, an idea that he de#eloped towards the end o his lie when he began to identiy some restricted languages or specialised #arieties o language related to proessional interests or social roles% =alliday, one o 4irths students, de#oted his career to the preser#ation o the unity o language and language use regardless o the diiculty o the procedures to relate them% 5oth 4irths and =allidays ideas led to the birth o sociolinguistics in the @0s%
2./.
THE NOTION OF COGNITION .
The most signiicant wor+ in the se#enties did not concern teaching but learning% .n act, most o the presentday trends in language study ollow this line o wor+ although it begins to be threatened by the apparition o eclectic approaches that ad#ice the use o a good dictionary together with a special emphasis on con#ersation% * new emphasis on communication has come out to the stage too encouraged by the needs o thousands o students who tra#el to (ngland or a month and want to get as much as possible o their e'posure to real (nglish% The concept cognition means gi#en moti#ation, a normal human being would learn as many languages as he is e'posed to% This is the practical application o psycholinguistic research on teaching languages% Teachers must ac$uire an understanding o the learning process o their students rather
than attaching importance to the materials or methods that they should be applying% The aim o a language course is, thereore, to promote communicati#e perormances%
/. COMMUNICATIVE APPROACHES.
O,* ECD:><:2;1< 4 21%' =!$!7, establishing the relationships among competences, contents and e#aluation criteria o rimary (ducation, 7ompulsory Secondary (ducation and 5accalaureate% The ac$uisition o this competence in#ol#es a command o oral and written language in a #ariety o conte'ts, and a unctional use o at least one oreign language% e as teachers must pay special attention to the importance o teaching communication because it is the main goal when we study a oreign language% 5y teaching our students how important is to get that purpose, then they would understand much better all the acti#ities concerned with communication in the classroom because many times, students are sceptical to do many acti#ities i they do not really +now what is the inal ob&ecti#e o that e'ercise% 7ommunicati#e Language Teaching has its origins in two sources% 4irst, the changes in the 5ritish and *merican linguistics theory in the midlate si'ties and secondly, changes in the educational realities in (urope% Thereore teaching traditions until then, such as Situational Language Teaching in 5ritain and *udiolingualism in the >nited States started to be $uestioned by applied linguists who saw the need to ocus in language teaching on communicati#e proiciency rather than on mere mastery o structures%
eanwhile, the role o the (uropean >nion and the 7ouncil o (urope had a signiicant impact on the de#elopment o 7ommunicati#e Language Teaching since there was an increasing need to teach adults the ma&or languages or a better educational cooperation% .n 1"@1 a system in which learning tas+s are bro+en down into 9units was put on the mar+et by a 5ritish linguist, !% *% il+ins% .t attempts to demonstrate the systems o meanings that a language learner needs to understand and e'press within two types notional categories Etime, se$uence, $uantity or re$uencyF and categories o communicati#e unction Ere$uests, oers or complaintsF% The rapid application o these ideas by te'tboo+ writers and its acceptance by teaching specialists ga#e prominence to what became the 7ommunicati#e *pproach or simply 7ommunicati#e Language Teaching% 5eginning in the mid1"?0sm there has been a #ariety o theoretical challenges to the audiolingual method% Scholars such as =alliday, =ymes, Labo# and 7homs+y challenged pre#ious assumptions about the language structure and language learning, ta+ing the position that language is creati#e Enot memori)ed by repetition and imitationF and rule go#erned Enot based on habitsF% 4or =ymes, the goal o language teaching is to de#elop a 9communicati#e competence, that is, the +nowledge and ability a learner needs to be communicati#ely competent in a speech community% =alliday elaborated a unctional theory o the unctions o language, and 7anale and Swain identiied our dimensions o communicati#e competence grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competence% 7homs+y le#elled some criticism at structural linguistic theory% =e demonstrated that the undamental characteristics Ecreati#ity and uni$ueness o indi#idual sentencesF o language were not part o the structural theories o language%
/.1.
THRESHOLD LEVEL .
.t was born in 1"@1 in a symposium and it attempted to create a syllabus or the common core which all learners should posses beore mo#ing to their special areas o interest% The Threshold Le#el was based on Iespersens notional categories semanticgrammatical categories such as past, uture, location, etc categories o modality such as possibility, or necessity and categories o communication such as $uestions, re$uests, orders, etc% The Threshold Le#el suggests the ollowing language unctions and topic areas% .ts aim is that students will be able to use the oreign language to ulil the ollowing general unctions imparting and see+ing actual inormation, e'pressing and inding out intellectual attitudes, e'pressing and inding out emotional and moral attitudes, getting
things done, and socialising% They should be able to unction particularly in respect to the ollowing topic areas personal inormation, house and home, lie at home, education and uture career, ree time, entertainment, tra#el, relations with other people, health and welare, shopping, ood and drin+, ser#ices, places, oreign language and weather% The threshold Le#el suggests the ollowing language acti#ities •
S5*!?$6@ the learner will be able to ulil the language unctions speciied abo#e
and to deal with the topics listed beore in the way described there% .n doing so they will be able to e'press the general and speciic notions o the content speciication o the pre#ious chapter and they will be able to use the e'ponents mar+ed there% •
L%'*$$6@ the learners will be able to understand the most li+ely answers to
$uestions as+ed by themsel#es, the most li+ely responses to matters raised by themsel#es or to answers gi#en by themsel#es, $uestions as+ed by others and inormation gi#en by others within the mentioned topics, the te'ts o the commonest announcements #ia public address systems in airports, at railway stations, etc, and warnings such as 9stop, 9watch out, etc% •
0'$6@ the learners will be able to write both ormal and inormal letters in
accordance to the situations% •
R*!,$6@ they will be able to read letters and simple brochures sent in return or
ormal letters written by the learners themsel#es, inormal letters rom riends and relati#es, and generally used te'ts on road signs and public notices% Later, the threshold Le#el ma+es it clear that no ob&ecti#e could be complete unless we include an indication as to the degree o s+ill that will be e'pected o the learner% .n whate#er way we e#aluate the learners ability the main criterion will ha#e to be whether communication ta+es place, and that communication ta+es place with some degree o eiciency%
CONCLUSION. The LOMCE states that the domain o a second or e#en a third oreign language has become a priority in education as a result o globali)ation in which we li#e, while shown as one o the main shortcomings o our educational system% The (uropean >nion sets the promotion o multilingualism as an essential ob&ecti#e or the construction o a (uropean pro&ect% The law strongly supports multilingualism, redoubling eorts to get the students
are luent in at least a irst oreign language, whose le#el o listening and reading comprehension and oral and written e'pression is crucial to promote employability and career ambitions and thereore irmly committed to curricular incorporation o a second oreign language% The LOMCE in its reamble states that mainly all de#eloped countries are currently or ha#e been ound in recent years, immersed in the process o transorming their education systems%
.nherent
to
a
more
global,
open
and
interconnected
world
social
transormations, li+e this one in which we li#e, ha#e been retrained dierent countries on the need or policy changes in a larger and smaller grade to adapt their educational systems to the new re$uirements% .t is #ery interesting to inish this topic showing what the R7!& D*-** 11;<:2;1 o 2?th !ecember, where the core curriculum o 7ompulsory Secondary (ducation and 5accalaureate is established in its second additional pro#ision entitled BLearning o oreign languagesC the educational authorities may pro#ide that a part o the curriculum sub&ects are taught in oreign languages without in#ol#ing modiication o the basic aspects o the curriculum regulated by this
ILIOGRAPHY. L*6!& 4!"*?@
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Organic Law 8/2013 to impro#e educational $uality, o "th !ecember%
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7ompulsory Secondary (ducation and 5accalaureate is established%
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=O*TT * =istory o (nglish Language Teaching% 1"8D% O'ord >ni#ersity ress%
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-*K (J The Threshold Le#el or odern Language Teaching in Schools% 1"@?% Longman%
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S*K and *LT(
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www%macmillaneducation%com
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