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Agata Natalia Machalinska
Pedro Santana Martínez
Máster universitario en Profesorado de ESO, Bachillerato, FP y Enseñanza de Idiomas
Inglés
2015-2016
Título
Director/es
Facultad
Titulación
Departamento
TRABAJO FIN DE ESTUDIOS
Curso Académico
Listening strategies in the EFL classroom
Autor/es
© El autor© Universidad de La Rioja, Servicio de Publicaciones,
publicaciones.unirioja.esE-mail: publicaciones@unirioja.es
Listening strategies in the EFL classroom, trabajo fin de estudiosde Agata Natalia Machalinska , dirigido por Pedro Santana Martínez (publicado por la
Universidad de La Rioja), se difunde bajo una LicenciaCreative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 3.0 Unported.
Permisos que vayan más allá de lo cubierto por esta licencia pueden solicitarse a lostitulares del copyright.
Master de profesorado 2015/2016 Agata Natalia Machalinska
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Contents
Introduction…………………………………….…………………………….. 2
I. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK………………………………………….. 3
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………... 4
1. 1 MODULE OF GENERIC SUBJECTS……………………………. 4
1.1.1 Aprendizaje y Desarrollo de la Personalidad………….…… 4
1.1.2 Procesos y Contextos Educativos……………………….….. 6
1.1.3 Sociedad, familia y educación…………………………….…. 7
1.2. MODULE OF SPECIFIC SUBJECTS…………………….……… 8
1.2.1 Aprendizaje y Enseñanza de la Lengua Extranjera (Inglés.. 8
1.2.2 Complementos para la formación disciplinar (Inglés).….…. 9
1.2.3 Innovación Docente e Iniciación Educativa……….………... 10
1.3. PRACTICUM……………………………………………..………… 11
CONCLUSION………………………………………….…………….……… 12
II. TEACHING PROGRAMME……….……………………………..………. 14
CHAPTER INTRODUCTION…………………………………..…………… 15
2.1 Introduction…….…………………………………………………….. 16
2.2 Context……………………………………………………………….. 17
2.3 Stage Objectives……………………….……………………………. 18
2.4 Competences……………………….……………………………….. 19
2.5 Contents……………………………………………………………… 20
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2.6 Methodology…………….…………………………………………… 26
2.7 Attention to diversity………………………………………………… 28
2.8 Assessment criteria…………………………………………............ 29
2.9 Content sequence…………………………………………………… 35
2.9.1 Didactic unit: Ambitions……………………………………….. 52
2.10 Material and resources……………………………………………. 61
III. RESEARCH PROJECT………………………………………………….. 62
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………. 63
3.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………….. 64
3.2 Literature review……………..……………………………………….. 65
3.2.1 History of listening strategies…………………………………. 65
3.2.2 Listening strategies…………………………………………….. 67
3.2.3 Teaching listening strategies………………………………….. 69
3.3 Research question and hypothesis………………………………….. 70
3.4 Methodology…………………………………………………………….. 71
3.4.1 Participants………………………………………………………. 72
3.4.2 Instruments and data collection……………………………….. 73
3.4.3 Procedure………………………………………………………… 74
3.5 Expected results………………………………………………………… 75
3.6 Conclusions and lines for further research………………………….. 76
REFERENCES………………………………………………..……………….. 76
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INTRODUCTION
This Final Project is based on the first proposal of the guide suggested by the
Direction of the Master´s Degree. It consists of three parts: the theoretical
framework, syllabus and research/innovation project.
In the first part I will concentrate on summarizing all the abilities gained
during the training teachers Master, and expressing my opinion on it. I will talk
about all the subjects and their role in my future teacher´s work. The Practicum
period which took place during the second semester will be also included. The
subjects will be divided into two groups: general subjects which we attended
with all the specialisations of the Master and specific subjects studied in English
in a reduced group.
The second chapter of this work will include a syllabus designed for the 2nd
year of E.S.O. The choice of this level was based on my Practicum period,
where I had the chance of developing a whole unit in a real classroom. It will
consist of 15 didactic units. One of the units will be split into sessions, described
in detail and presented with all the materials needed to be performed. The
information about the specific contents, objectives, methodologies will be
presented amongst other details.
Last but not least, the research/innovation project will be described. The idea
for the project was grounded on the observation made during the teaching
practice period. The project focuses on the listening comprehension strategies
used by students in the EFL classroom. The main aim is to emphasize the
importance of the use of strategies in order to understand better listening
comprehension activities. A revision of a literature, which deals with the studies
already conducted on the topic, is included. The project was not performed until
the end. This is a proposal of a research study that could be conducted in the
future.
As a whole, the purpose of this work is to sum up the whole year of studies,
and to draw conclusions which will be necessary in my future career as a
teacher.
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Part I
Theoretical framework
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INTRODUCTION
The theoretical framework consists of two types of subjects studied during
the training teachers Masters. The first group are general subjects in which we
can find: “Aprendizaje y Desarrollo de la Personalidad” which concentrated on
the psychological part of teaching, “Procesos y Contextos educativos” which
encompassed pedagogy and “Sociedad, Familia y Educación” which dealt with
sociology. The second group are specific subject taught in English, amongst
which we can find: “Aprendizaje y enseñanza de la lengua extranjera”,
“Complementos para la formación disciplinar” and “Innovación docente e
iniciación a la investigación educativa”. All the subjects are part of teacher´s
work, and were very useful during the Practicum period.
The group of general subjects took place during the first semester. There
were three hours of each subject per week; two hours of theoretical classes
where new topic was introduced and one hour of practical classes, where we
could put into practice and discuss the theory. “Aprendizaje y enseñanza de la
lengua extranjera” was the longest running subject, it lasted for two semesters.
Regarding the other two specific subjects they were studied for only one
semester – “Complementos para la formación disciplinar” in the first part of the
Master, and “Innovación a la investigación disciplinar” during the second part.
1.1 MODULE OF GENERIC SUBJECTS
1.1.1 Aprendizaje y desarrollo de la Personalidad
This subject, which I personally found of much interest, dealt with the
psychological part of the teaching process. According to Nezhad and Vahedi
(2011) education and psychology are interdependent (…) and it is very
essential for a teacher to teach his students according to their mental abilities.
This Master prepares future teachers to work in secondary education,
bachillerato, vocational studies and official school of languages. This means
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that the majority of us will be dealing in the future with teenagers or adults.
Consequently, learning about the different mental processes and behaviours
helps to understand different types of learners. Eduardo Fonseca who lectured
this subject divided it into 6 topics as detailed below.
1. The fundaments of physical development and human learning process – in
the first unit we were introduced to psychology as a field in order to understand
and place ourselves in the discipline. A truly interesting part of this unit was a
small experiment on prejudices. The lecturer showed us two photos of two
boys, one of them blond with blue eyes, and the other one chestnut, and asked
a question: “Who threw a stone?”. At first sight a very simple question,
unanimously we all pointed to the chestnut boy. This quick test made us all
contemplate how easily we judge students by their appearance.
2. Biopsychosocial changes – the different development steps in the
adolescence are essential to understand the processes which occur in
teenagers´ bodies and minds. It is a difficult time of changes, where they
transform from children to adults. Mental changes that take place affect
cognitive skills, like memory.
3. Teenager´s personality – in the process of the development of teenager´s
personality it is crucial to strengthen ones self-esteem and self-perspective.
This may bring positive effects in the teaching-learning process and can
motivate your students. In this unit we also discussed emotional education,
which sometimes seems to be forgotten by the teachers and parents. We
should bear in mind that learning is a very complicated process and includes
both: individual and emotional characteristics.
4. Education and development psychology and model of teaching-learning
processes – the possibility to learn about dissimilar theories of teaching made
the majority of us reconsider the position of a teacher in the classroom. Apart
from learning different points of view of teaching-learning process theories, we
were also introduced the practicality of the theories in the classroom. Namely,
based on Vygotsky´s theory the knowledge is built on interaction with other
people, therefore students will learn more if exposed to that situations.
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5. Intrapersonal factors – Memory, motivation and different learning styles
may be some of the reasons why some students are more successful than
others. By getting to know existing types of memories, we can adapt our
teaching methods to the wide range of students fond in class. The part which I
found remarkably intriguing was mnemotechnics – “a method of gaining a sense
of potency in the present by re-establishing a link with the past” (Rickard 1999,
p.118).
6. Special educational needs – attention to diversity is one of the most
important factors gathered in the Syllabus that teachers should be aware of
when developing the didactic units. As Albert Einstein famously argued, “If you
judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that is
stupid”. The conclusion I drew from this class was that not all the students are
the same. Teachers should adapt to their students, and not students to their
teachers.
Comprehension of cognitive development and personality in adolescence
taught me empathy and understanding towards the teenagers. Much depend on
the understanding of the other person and their intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation. I also benefited from working on the final project from the practical
classes, which in my case was based on the use of Token Economy in the
classroom. During my Practicum period I was able to put it into practice, and
see the sudden change and results it brought. All in all, I found this subject very
helpful for my future practice, although I missed more practice classes.
1.1.2 Procesos y Contextos Educativos
A subject commonly known by students as “Pedagogy”, where interaction
and communication inside the classroom and school was discussed. Fermín
Navaridas Nalda, who was responsible mainly for the theoretical part, aimed to
prepare us for our future Practicum period, as well as for our future work, and
public examinations. We were introduced with real-life examples and real
documents on how a school works from the inside and what are the teacher´s
responsibilities, besides teaching. We dealt with Spanish educational system
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and Syllabus which it is based on, administration units and essential documents
without which no school could work. Namely, Educational School Project
(Proyecto Educativo del Centro) which we analysed cautiously and more
specific documents like Lecture Planning (Programación de aula) and Didactic
Units (Unidades Didácticas). The latter was highly advantageous in the
development of Memoria de Prácticas, where we had to design step by step a
whole unit. Moreover, we were presented with the process of the public
examinations for teachers and also we were given valuable tips on how to
prepare successfully for them.
In conclusion, the material we covered during the first semester in the subject
of “Procesos y Contextos educativos” we were able to put in practice shortly
afterwards. As a person who comes from abroad it was essential for me to
understand how Spanish educational system works and how my work will look
like in the future. There information in a major part was new for me, and now I
can say that without studying it first, my Practicum period would be much more
complicated and difficult to understand.
1.1.3 Sociedad, Familia y Educación
As the name of the subject suggests it concentrated on the social part of
education. Joaquín Giró Miranda explained the evolution of the family system
and how it changed throughout the years. We – teachers – should all know that
educational is not only teaching the subject we are specialised in, we should
also educate on how to be a part of a society. Teenagers at schools come from
different social backgrounds, in our future work we will have to deal with the
differences day by day. In the practical classes we had the opportunity to watch
videos were we could see how teachers coped with social problems in the
classroom. As in the last decade the image and respect to teachers have
decreased significantly, the position of a teacher in the society was also
ardently discussed.
I believe that this subject was a good “excuse” to reflect on our future working
environment and on the impact our job has in a cultural and social meaning.
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Educating young people consists of the three things which are included in the
name of the subject: society – which plays a great role in the educational
process, family – which is responsible for forming their children, and education
– the one received at school, as well as the one received at home, and outside.
1.2. MODULE OF SPECIFIC SUBJECTS
1.2.1 Aprendizaje y Enseñanza de la Lengua Extranjera (Inglés)
One of the three specific subjects which were taught in English. Without any
doubt this was the most challenging subject. It was the only one which lasted for
two semesters. On one hand very demanding, but on the other hand
indispensable for a future English teacher.
Since the beginning of the first semester we were asked to do numerous
tasks. The subject, lectured in the first semester by Almudena Fernandez
Fontecha, and in the second semester by Andres Canga Alonso, covered topics
such as different types of syllabi, the foreign language curriculum, Didactic
planning (Programación didáctica), and innovative teaching methods. Almudena
Fernandez Fontecha, who is a very innovative kind of person, tried to push us
beyond our limits and make us think out of the box.
All the tasks we had to complete had clear objectives. During the first
semester we were familiarised with the structure of the Spanish educational
system, we had to work in groups analysing parts that will be essential to
organise our teaching process once we find ourselves working in a school. We
had to prepare a table for didactic planning, which we later facilitated the
process of developing didactic units. Besides, we were presented thoroughly
the Content and Language Integrated Learning method (CLIL), which for the
majority of us was something new. We had the opportunity to put in practice the
theory. In groups we had to design a CLILquest. I have to say that it was a
fascinating experience and it showed me that teaching a language is not only a
text book.
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In the second semester Andres Canga Alonso continued with the idea of
what language teaching is. Nevertheless, first of all we focused on what
language testing is. We got familiarised with types of assessment: summative
and formative. The former is the one that is informative for a teacher, yet it
evaluates students learning. The latter is of general utility for students, as they
have the opportunity to assess themselves and see what strengths and
weaknesses they have. Secondly, Cultural Awareness in Language Studies
was presented. It taught us how important it is to learn not only the language,
but also different cultures. We analysed a variety of situations where students
need to deal with cultures and habits, which are different from their native ones.
At the end, we were asked to design an IC task taking into account its role in
ELT. The presentations of this task resulted to be of a great value for all of us.
Each student is different and has a distinct way of perceiving IC, so we could all
learn a lot from each other.
In conclusion, taking into account all the effort we had to put to meet the
expectations of the professors, who did their best to make us better teachers, I
believe it was worth completing so many tasks. We learned a lot about new
ways of teaching, of the use of ICT in the classroom and the importance of
being open-minded and aware and respectful with other cultures.
1.2.2 Complementos para la Formación Disciplinar (Inglés).
This subject was also included in the module of specific subjects. The fist aim
was to introduce the history of foreign language teaching. Information about
some basic theoretical concepts was presented and we could familiarise
ourselves with definitions of language learning and teaching, testing and foreign
language education. The initial unit was an introduction to understand better the
concepts we were going to learn in the second part of this subject.
Subsequently, we proceeded with the teaching methods. María Pilar Agustin
Llach who was in charge of teaching this subject gave us randomly one
teaching method which we had to describe, present and put in practice in
groups. The methods were divided into three groups: linguistic, humanistic and
communicative. We went through the methods hierarchically, from the oldest to
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the most innovative and recent ones. Personally, I found this part captivating, as
some of the methods were unfamiliar to me and bizarre.
The last unit concentrated on teaching training in foreign language teaching.
The professor talked about what it takes to be a teacher, types of teachers and
their responsibilities. Planning and managing the class was a continuation of
what we have learnt in Aprendizaje y enseñanza de la lengua extranjera
(Inglés). Interesting tips on how to plan a lesson were provided and hints for
lesson management. Getting to know reasons of misbehaviour as well as types
of motivation helped us, as future educators, to understand students and
enabled us to increase motivation and therefore the possibility to obtain better
results.
As a whole, I learnt a lot of new theories, visions and ideas which were very
useful in my Practicum period. I was able to fuse different methods and see the
result. It permitted me to judge the effectiveness on diverse groups of learners.
1.2.3 Innovación Docente e Iniciación a la Investigación Educativa
This was the las subject from the module of specific subjects. It aimed to
prepare us for our innovation project included in the last chapter of this work as
well as introduce innovative tools in the foreign language classroom.
In the first part of this subject we were introduced to existing types of
research, research traditions and methods of data collection. We concentrated
on action research and its steps. We analysed thoroughly how to detect and
approach the problem, collect information, analyse the data, organise results,
draw conclusions and finally incorporate results into classroom practice. At the
end of a month of classes our task was to design a draft of a research project.
All the suitable steps had to be taken into account.
The second part of the subject was less theory-centred and more practical.
On the one hand we centred on the role of a teacher as a researcher, literature
review and the analysis of already existing research projects. We were provided
some interesting articles to widen our horizons and perspectives of the subject.
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On the other hand we were asked to design an innovative tool for EFL
classroom. The project was carried out in groups of three. I have to admit that I
really enjoyed the whole process of elaborating this tool. Since it was after the
Practicum period, where I could notice some of the problems students had, I
was able to propose things that could be beneficial and advantageous to
students learning process. In my group we designed and innovative way of
teaching prepositions of place, we used visual thinking, as we got inspired by a
talk we attended, given by Rafael Vivas Bilbao.
1.3 PRACTICUM
Last but not least, I would like to emphasise the Practicum period I completed
in CPC Los Boscos. A two-month period where I was capable of putting into
practice all the knowledge acquired beforehand. Before Practicum I treated
every single subject as a separate part of the teaching training. Successively I
could notice that all the information we are assimilating during this Master is
interdependent. One subject cannot exist without another. Teaching is a very
complicated and long term process, so we have to be patient and humble.
I had the opportunity to work with students ranging from 2nd to 4th year of
Secondary Education as well as students doing vocational studies. Knowing
students coming from different social backgrounds and having different
objectives in their lives helped me be more comprehensible and open-minded.
Each student is different and should be treated according to their needs.
After finishing the Practicum period I look really forward to starting working as
a teacher and have the opportunity to educate teenagers and see how one´s
effort can have a good effect on other people.
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CONCLUSION
To conclude the theoretical framework I would like to propose a brief
reflection on what we have studied during this school year. As I have
aforementioned, at the beginning the combination of subjects seemed to be
random and did not seem to have been related to one another. Now after
completing all the subjects, I can say that both, the subjects from the generic
module as well as the ones from the specific module, made a perfect match and
are indispensable in the work of a teacher. They helped us to develop our
teaching skills, provided us with innovative ideas and the importance of the use
of ICT in the classroom. In addition, they prepared us to conduct our own
classroom research, which contributed to the development of the last chapter of
this work.
According to my opinion the most enjoyable and fun part of the Master was
the Practicum. I had the opportunity to see how a real secondary education
centre works, meet students and deal with them day to day. Getting to know
their problems, worries, strengths and weaknesses helped me to understand
them and be more empathic. In addition, I was able to put in practice all the
subjects. The subjects from the generic module helped me to understand the
school and department management as well as to deal with students and other
teachers. Specific subjects were of a great use inside the classroom. They
allowed me to put into practice new methodologies, class management
strategies and pedagogical procedures. I could also make use of the ICT tools
and other resources recommended by the professors.
In conclusion, I would like to highlight the importance of the theoretical
preparation before starting the Practicum period. It is essential to learn the
principles of teaching process before going into a classroom. The idea of
lifelong learning introduced by the European Union should be taken into
consideration independently on the age and experience we have. I believe there
is always something new to learn.
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References
1. The role of educational psychology in teacher education programs, Akbar
Soleiman Nezhad, Majid Vahedi, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 30
(2011) 327 – 330
2. Joyce´s book of memory. The Mnemotechnic of Ulysses. John S. Rickard,
Duke University Press, Durham and London 1999.
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Part II
Teaching programme
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CHAPTER INTRODUCTION
The second part will concentrate on the Teaching Programme of 2nd year of
E.S.O. (Secondary Education). The structure presented is clear and precise.
Different factors were taken into account when designing this part. I should
therefore make it clear that not only didactic units are presented, but also the
whole context needed to understand.
This chapter consists of eleven sections that altogether will make a whole. I
will start with an introduction of the teaching programme presented. Secondly,
the context provides a description of the school, its students, their knowledge
and background. Next three parts will be based on the law presenting the stage
objectives, competences and content. In part six I will proceed with the
methodology that will be used during the school year in order to develop this
programme. Attention to diversity will be explained, taking into account the
variety of students’ profiles found in one class. Subsequently, assessment
criteria will be presented, as I consider it an essential part of teaching-learning
process. Next, fifteen didactic units which make together an integral teaching
programme will be presented. In each unit information about the contents,
objectives, materials and assessment will be included. One of the units will be
developed in detail. Second to last, materials and resources need to be
included, as they play an important role in developing the units. Finally, I will
encompass bibliography without which it would be inconceivable to write this
part.
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2.1 Introduction
I believe it is essential to justify my choice for the teaching programme
described from this point forward. It is designed bearing in mind the 2nd year of
Secondary Education in Spain. To be more precise, the setting is CPC “Los
Boscos” located in the city centre of Logroño and surrounded by a great number
of other educational centres. Founded by María Gil de Gárate as a Sunday
school, and nowadays administrated by Salesian Fathers. I have chosen the
second year of E.S.O. (Spanish Secondary Education) to develop this teaching
programme, because I consider it a breaking point in teenagers´ education
process.
The main objective is to get students involved in their learning process by
providing topic s of their interest, improve their four skills (listening, speaking,
reading and writing) and teach strategies that will help them in their future
learning. During my Practicum period I had the opportunity to work with
students on different levels, and I detected a certain lack of interest in the 2nd
year of E.S.O. The reasons may vary from one student to another, although it
motivated me to develop the units in a way that will be more attractive to them.
Across the fifteen units students will work on the four skills, will be exposed to
an intercultural context (which will help them to develop Intercultural
Competence), will use ICT to complete tasks and will strengthen their ability to
work on their own as well as in a group. The teaching programme aims to work
on a wide range of skills that will be of a great use for them in the future. The
learners will work not only on improving the language but also will raise their
awareness on the world.
To elaborate this syllabus, which is framed within the Foreign Language
subject, I considered the Spanish Educational Law (Ley Orgánica 8/2013, de 9
de diciembre, para la mejora de la calidad educativa), Royal Decree 1105/2014,
26th December which establishes the minimum educational requirements for the
Secondary Education, as well as Royal Decree 19/2015, 12th June, which
establishes the Secondary Education curriculum in the Autonomous Community
of La Rioja.
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2.2 Context
This teaching programme is designed for 2nd year of E.S.O in CPC “Los
Boscos”. More specifically for the 2nd A which consists of 28 students (17 girls
and 11 boys). There are seven students coming from abroad. However, none of
the students shows difficulties with group integration. The level of knowledge is
quite equalised. The learning pace is satisfactory and there is a favourable
working environment. Their attitude towards English language is adequate and
there are signs of high motivation and eagerness to improve. No students with
special learning needs are found, neither especially gifted ones. Therefore, no
special curriculum adaptations are needed.
This group of students has all the classes in the same classroom, English as
well. There are 28 desks, each one assigned at the beginning of the school year
to one student. They always sit in the same place. A list with desks distribution
is posted on the wall, although once in a while the class tutor changes some of
the students from their place, according to their behaviour.
The classroom apart from being equipped with desks for students, chairs and
teacher´s desk, has also a double blackboard (big enough to store all the
information written during the class without erasing anything), a computer with
internet connection, a pull-down screen and a projector.
English classes are held four times a week, fifty-five minutes each. The
textbook used is “Interface 2”, published by Macmillan (2013). This series of
books (“Interface 1”, “Interface 2”, “Interface 3” and “Interface 4”) is used
throughout the whole Secondary Education. Each student has a textbook and a
workbook for further practice at home. The teacher makes use of the digital
version on the book Interface Live available on the Macmillan webpage.
Finally, I find indispensable to mention that the textbook consists of nine
units, which I therefore divided into fifteen didactic units. A unit that I will
describe in detail is “Ambitions”, according to the book the seventh unit.
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2.3 Stage Objectives
The Spanish Educational Law (Ley Orgánica 8/2013, de 9 de diciembre, para
la mejora de la calidad educativa) lists the stage objectives for the Compulsory
Secondary Education (Educación Secundaria Obligatoria). It is a set of
objectives that should be acquired during the whole Secondary Education
period; therefore they are not divided into levels.
According to the Law, Chapter II, Article 11, the most important capacities
Secondary Education should help to develop are as follows.
a) Asumir responsablemente sus deberes, conocer y ejercer sus derechos
en el respeto a los demás, practicar la tolerancia, la cooperación y la
solidaridad entre las personas y grupos, ejercitarse en el diálogo afianzando los
derechos humanos y la igualdad de trato y de oportunidades entre mujeres y
hombres, como valores comunes de una sociedad plural y prepararse para el
ejercicio de la ciudadanía democrática.
b) Desarrollar y consolidar hábitos de disciplina, estudio y trabajo individual
y en equipo como condición necesaria para una realización eficaz de las tareas
del aprendizaje y como medio de desarrollo personal.
c) Valorar y respetar la diferencia de sexos y la igualdad de derechos y
oportunidades entre ellos. Rechazar la discriminación de las personas por
razón de sexo o por cualquier otra condición o circunstancia personal o social.
Rechazar los estereotipos que supongan discriminación entre hombres y
mujeres, así como cualquier manifestación de violencia contra la mujer.
d) Fortalecer sus capacidades afectivas en todos los ámbitos de la
personalidad y en sus relaciones con los demás, así como rechazar la
violencia, los prejuicios de cualquier tipo, los comportamientos sexistas y
resolver pacíficamente los conflictos.
e) Desarrollar destrezas básicas en la utilización de las fuentes de
información para, con sentido crítico, adquirir nuevos conocimientos. Adquirir
una preparación básica en el campo de las tecnologías, especialmente las de
la información y la comunicación.
f) Concebir el conocimiento científico como un saber integrado, que se
estructura en distintas disciplinas, así como conocer y aplicar los métodos para
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identificar los problemas en los diversos campos del conocimiento y de la
experiencia.
g) Desarrollar el espíritu emprendedor y la confianza en sí mismo, la
participación, el sentido crítico, la iniciativa personal y la capacidad para
aprender a aprender, planificar, tomar decisiones y asumir responsabilidades.
h) Comprender y expresar con corrección, oralmente y por escrito, en la
lengua castellana y, si la hubiere, en la lengua cooficial de la Comunidad
Autónoma, textos y mensajes complejos, e iniciarse en el conocimiento, la
lectura y el estudio de la literatura.
i) Comprender y expresarse en una o más lenguas extranjeras de manera
apropiada.
j) Conocer, valorar y respetar los aspectos básicos de la cultura y la historia
propias y de los demás, así como el patrimonio artístico y cultural.
k) Conocer y aceptar el funcionamiento del propio cuerpo y el de los otros,
respetar las diferencias, afianzar los hábitos de cuidado y salud corporales e
incorporar la educación física y la práctica del deporte para favorecer el
desarrollo personal y social. Conocer y valorar la dimensión humana de la
sexualidad en toda su diversidad. Valorar críticamente los hábitos sociales
relacionados con la salud, el consumo, el cuidado de los seres vivos y el medio
ambiente, contribuyendo a su conservación y mejora.
l) Apreciar la creación artística y comprender el lenguaje de las distintas
manifestaciones artísticas, utilizando diversos medios de expresión y
representación.
2.4 Competences
According to the Spanish Educational Law (Ley Orgánica 8/2013, de 9 de
diciembre, para la mejora de la calidad educativa) the Key Competences are
“capacidades para aplicar de forma integrada los contenidos propios de cada
enseñanza y etapa educativa, con el fin de lograr la realización adecuada de
actividades y la resolución eficaz de problemas complejos”
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It is stated that the best way to acquire effectively the key competences
throughout the Secondary Education stage, is to integrate more than one
competence at a time. In this way learners will progress towards the area
objectives. The Competences are a combination of skills, knowledge,
perspectives and behaviours which students should acquire prior to the end of
the Secondary Education stage.
The Key Competences are the following:
a) Comunicación lingüística (C1).
b) Competencia matemática y competencias básicas en ciencia y
tecnología (C2).
c) Competencia digital (C3).
d) Aprender a aprender (C4).
e) Competencias sociales y cívicas (C5).
f) Sentido de iniciativa y espíritu emprendedor (C6).
g) Conciencia y expresiones culturales (C7).
What is understood by acquiring the above-mentioned key competences is to
be able to use them in a wide range of subjects and contexts. The learner
should know how to apply them in a classroom, as well as in a private,
professional or social context. To conclude, developing the key competences
may help learners in facilitating learning process later on within what is called
“lifelong learning programme”.
2.5 Contents
As stated in the Royal Decree 1105, 2014 from 26th December, contents are a
combination of knowledge, abilities, skills and attitudes which should help
learners to reach the stage objectives. They are divided into four modules of
contents:
Bloque 1. Comprensión de textos orales.
a) Estrategias de comprensión:
- Movilización de información previa sobre tipo de tarea y tema.
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- Identificación del tipo textual, adaptando la comprensión al mismo.
- Distinción de tipos de comprensión (sentido general, información
esencial, puntos principales, detalles relevantes).
- Formulación de hipótesis sobre contenido y contexto.
Inferencia y formulación de hipótesis sobre significados a partir de la
comprensión de elementos significativos, lingüísticos y paralingüísticos.
- Reformulación de hipótesis a partir de la comprensión de nuevos
elementos.
Aspectos socioculturales y sociolingüísticos: convenciones sociales,
normas de cortesía y registros; costumbres, valores, creencias y
actitudes; lenguaje no verbal.
b) Funciones comunicativas:
- Iniciación y mantenimiento de relaciones personales y sociales.
- Descripción de cualidades físicas y abstractas de personas, objetos,
lugares y actividades.
- Narración de acontecimientos pasados puntuales y habituales.
Descripción de estados y situaciones presentes, y expresión de sucesos
futuros.
- Petición y ofrecimiento de información, indicaciones, opiniones y
puntos de vista, consejos, advertencias y avisos.
- Expresión del conocimiento, la certeza, la duda y la conjetura.
- Expresión de la voluntad, la intención, la decisión, la promesa, la orden,
la autorización y la prohibición.
- Expresión del interés, la aprobación, el aprecio, la simpatía, la
satisfacción, la esperanza, la confianza, la sorpresa, y sus contrarios.
- Formulación de sugerencias, deseos, condiciones e hipótesis.
- Establecimiento y mantenimiento de la comunicación y organización
del discurso.
c) Estructuras sintáctico-discursivas. Léxico oral de uso común (recepción)
relativo a identificación personal; vivienda, hogar y entorno; actividades
de la vida diaria; familia y amigos; trabajo y ocupaciones; tiempo libre,
ocio y deporte; viajes y vacaciones; salud y cuidados físicos; educación
y estudio; compras y actividades comerciales; alimentación y
restauración; transporte; lengua y comunicación; medio ambiente, clima
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y entorno natural; y Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación.
Patrones sonoros, acentuales, rítmicos y de entonación.
Bloque 2. Producción de textos orales: expresión e interacción.
a) Estrategias de producción:
1. Planificación
a. Concebir el mensaje con claridad, distinguiendo su idea o ideas
principales y su estructura básica.
b. Adecuar el texto destinatario, contexto y canal, aplicando el registro
y la estructura de discurso adecuados a cada caso
2. Ejecución
a. Expresar el mensaje con claridad, coherencia, estructurándolo
adecuadamente y ajustándose, en su caso, a los modelos y
fórmulas de cada tipo de texto.
b. Reajustar la tarea (emprender una versión más modesta de la
tarea) o el mensaje (hacer concesiones en lo que realmente le
gustaría expresar), tras valorar las dificultades y los recursos
disponibles.
c. Apoyarse en y sacar el máximo partido de los conocimientos
previos (utilizar lenguaje ‘prefabricado’, etc.).
d. Compensar las carencias lingüísticas mediante procedimientos
lingüísticos, paralingüísticos o paratextuales:
i. Lingüísticos
- Modificar palabras de significado parecido.
- Definir o parafrasear un término o expresión.
ii. Paralingüísticos y paratextuales
- Pedir ayuda.
- Señalar objetos, usar deícticos o realizar acciones que aclaran el
significado.
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- Usar lenguaje corporal culturalmente pertinente (gestos,
expresiones faciales, posturas, contacto visual o corporal,
proxémica).
- Usar sonidos extralingüísticos y cualidades prosódicas
convencionales.
Aspectos socioculturales y sociolingüísticos: convenciones sociales,
normas de cortesía y registros; costumbres, valores, creencias y
actitudes; lenguaje no verbal.
b) Funciones comunicativas:
- Iniciación y mantenimiento de relaciones personales y sociales.
- Descripción de cualidades físicas y abstractas de personas, objetos,
lugares y actividades.
- Narración de acontecimientos pasados puntuales y habituales,
descripción de estados y situaciones presentes, y expresión de sucesos
futuros.
- Petición y ofrecimiento de información, indicaciones, opiniones y
puntos de vista, consejos, advertencias y avisos.
- Expresión del conocimiento, la certeza, la duda y la conjetura.
- Expresión de la voluntad, la intención, la decisión, la promesa, la orden,
la autorización y la prohibición.
- Expresión del interés, la aprobación, el aprecio, la simpatía, la
satisfacción, la esperanza, la confianza, la sorpresa, y sus contrarios.
- Formulación de sugerencias, deseos, condiciones e hipótesis.
- Establecimiento y mantenimiento de la comunicación y organización
del discurso.
c) Estructuras sintáctico-discursivas.
Léxico oral de uso común (producción) relativo a identificación personal;
vivienda, hogar y entorno; actividades de la vida diaria; familia y amigos;
trabajo y ocupaciones; tiempo libre, ocio y deporte; viajes y vacaciones;
salud y cuidados físicos; educación y estudio; compras y actividades
comerciales; alimentación y restauración; transporte; lengua y
comunicación; medio ambiente, clima y entorno natural; y Tecnologías
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de la Información y la Comunicación. Patrones sonoros, acentuales,
rítmicos y de entonación.
Bloque 3. Comprensión de textos escritos.
a) Estrategias de comprensión:
- Movilización de información previa sobre tipo de tarea y tema.
- Identificación del tipo textual, adaptando la comprensión al mismo.
- Distinción de tipos de comprensión (sentido general, información
esencial, puntos principales).
- Formulación de hipótesis sobre contenido y contexto.
- Inferencia y formulación de hipótesis sobre significados a partir de la
comprensión de elementos significativos, lingüísticos y paralingüísticos.
- Reformulación de hipótesis a partir de la comprensión de nuevos
elementos. Aspectos socioculturales y sociolingüísticos: convenciones
sociales, normas de cortesía y registros; costumbres, valores, creencias
y actitudes; lenguaje no verbal.
b) Funciones comunicativas:
- Iniciación y mantenimiento de relaciones personales y sociales.
- Descripción de cualidades físicas y abstractas de personas, objetos,
lugares y actividades.
- Narración de acontecimientos pasados puntuales y habituales,
descripción de estados y situaciones presentes, y expresión de sucesos
futuros.
- Petición y ofrecimiento de información, indicaciones, opiniones y
puntos de vista, consejos, advertencias y avisos.
- Expresión del conocimiento, la certeza, la duda y la conjetura.
- Expresión de la voluntad, la intención, la decisión, la promesa, la orden,
la autorización y la prohibición.
- Expresión del interés, la aprobación, el aprecio, la simpatía, la
satisfacción, la esperanza, la confianza, la sorpresa, y sus contrarios.
- Formulación de sugerencias, deseos, condiciones e hipótesis.
- Establecimiento y mantenimiento de la comunicación y organización
del discurso.
c) Estructuras sintáctico-discursivas.
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Léxico escrito de uso común (recepción) relativo a identificación
personal; vivienda, hogar y entorno; actividades de la vida diaria; familia
y amigos; trabajo y ocupaciones; tiempo libre, ocio y deporte; viajes y
vacaciones; salud y cuidados físicos; educación y estudio; compras y
actividades comerciales; alimentación y restauración; transporte; lengua
y comunicación; medio ambiente, clima y entorno natural; y Tecnologías
de la Información y la Comunicación. Patrones gráficos y convenciones
ortográficas.
Bloque 4. Producción de textos escritos: expresión e interacción.
a) Estrategias de producción:
1. Planificación
a. Movilizar y coordinar las propias competencias generales y
comunicativas con el fin de realizar eficazmente la tarea
(repasar qué se sabe sobre el tema, qué se puede o se quiere
decir, etc.).
b. Localizar y usar adecuadamente recursos lingüísticos o
temáticos (uso de un diccionario o gramática, obtención de
ayuda, etc.).
2. Ejecución
a. Expresar el mensaje con claridad ajustándose a los modelos y
fórmulas de cada tipo de texto.
b. Reajustar la tarea (emprender una versión más modesta de la
tarea) o el mensaje (hacer concesiones en lo que realmente le
gustaría expresar), tras valorar las dificultades y los recursos
disponibles.
c. Apoyarse en y sacar el máximo partido de los conocimientos
previos (utilizar lenguaje ‘prefabricado’, etc.).
Aspectos socioculturales y sociolingüísticos: convenciones
sociales, normas de cortesía y registros; costumbres, valores,
creencias y actitudes; lenguaje no verbal.
b) Funciones comunicativas:
- Iniciación y mantenimiento de relaciones personales y sociales.
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- Descripción de cualidades físicas y abstractas de personas, objetos,
lugares y actividades.
- Narración de acontecimientos pasados puntuales y habituales,
descripción de estados y situaciones presentes, y expresión de sucesos
futuros.
- Petición y ofrecimiento de información, indicaciones, opiniones y
puntos de vista, consejos, advertencias y avisos.
- Expresión del conocimiento, la certeza, la duda y la conjetura.
- Expresión de la voluntad, la intención, la decisión, la promesa, la orden,
la autorización y la prohibición.
- Expresión del interés, la aprobación, el aprecio, la simpatía, la
satisfacción, la esperanza, la confianza, la sorpresa, y sus contrarios.
- Formulación de sugerencias, deseos, condiciones e hipótesis.
- Establecimiento y mantenimiento de la comunicación y organización
del discurso.
c) Estructuras sintáctico-discursivas.
Léxico escrito de uso común (producción) relativo a identificación
personal; vivienda, hogar y entorno; actividades de la vida diaria; familia
y amigos; trabajo y ocupaciones; tiempo libre, ocio y deporte; viajes y
vacaciones; salud y cuidados físicos; educación y estudio; compras y
actividades comerciales; alimentación y restauración; transporte; lengua
y comunicación; medio ambiente, clima y entorno natural; y Tecnologías
de la Información y la Comunicación. Patrones gráficos y convenciones
ortográficas.
2.6 Methodology
The methodology that will be applied in this teaching programme is in its
major part focused on the communicative part. The main objective is to develop
communicative competence which is crucial to communicate effectively in a
foreign language. According to Johnson (1982) the tasks which make use of the
language promote and improve learning process.
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Along this year we have studied a large amount of teaching methods and
approaches. It is a demanding task to choose and use only one. I would dare to
say that it borders with implausibility. I believe there is no one good method, so
my teaching programme will be based on a combination of different methods
and approaches.
The mainstream will be Communicative Approach, although depending on
the activity the methods will change. The teacher will always bear in mind a
method that will consider most effective for each task. The main objective is to
catch students´ attention and make the sessions attractive to them. Motivation
is an essential part of a teaching-learning process, so I would strongly
recommend following task-based approach and CLIL. In relation to the former, it
may help students to open themselves to their classmates, as they can talk
about their own experience. The latter is still a new and not very common
method in EFL classroom. Making learners concentrate on the content and not
on the language itself make them forget about their fears and helps to express
freely.
In conclusion, the role of the teacher in the EFL classroom is essential.
Interest and motivation should be the main objectives, as it will enhance
students to participate actively. The more motivated they find themselves, the
easier they will communicate. During the development of the sessions in this
teaching programme I will try to provide learners with material appealing to
them. Real (not adapted) materials and videos will manage to catch the
attention of the students and in the end will make them want to take part in the
sessions.
2.7 Attention to diversity
According to the Royal Decree 1105, 2014 from 26th December, it is essential
for all the educational centres to provide quality education to all students,
depending on their personal traits “Los centros docentes desarrollarán, en su
caso, el currículo y las medidas de atención a la diversidad establecidas por las
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Administraciones educativas, adaptándolas a las características del alumnado y
a su realidad educativa con el fin de atender a todo el alumnado”.
It should be also stated that students with disability should be offered a
quality education in the same equality of opportunities as other students.
Consequently, curriculum adaptations should be done, for instance flexibility
measures, universal design, attention to diversity and any other measures
which will be necessary to achieve it.
In Article 10, Chapter II of the above-mentioned Decree, we can find general
principles for compulsory secondary education (ESO): “Las medidas de
atención a la diversidad en esta etapa estarán orientadas a responder a las
necesidades educativas concretas del alumnado y al logro de los objetivos de
la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria y a la adquisición de las competencias
correspondientes y no podrán, en ningún caso, suponer una discriminación que
les impida alcanzar dichos objetivos y competencias y la titulación
correspondiente”.
In the group this teaching programme is designed for, the level of knowledge
is quite equal among the students. On one hand, there are no students who
present significant signs of difficulties in the learning process. On the other
hand, there is neither presence of any students who are especially gifted. In this
way, the educational and cross-curricular material proposed by the teacher, will
not cause any major difficulties.
In the case, some difficulties appear, the teacher will offer educational
support through the use of reinforcement activities. On the contrary, students
who will show great ease with the activities proposed by the teacher will be
provided with extra activities of a higher level of demand.
2.8 Assessment criteria
As stated in the Royal Decree 1105, 2014 from 26th December, assessment
criteria is the basis for evaluation of learners “Los referentes para la
comprobación del grado de adquisición de las competencias y el logro de los
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objetivos de la etapa en las evaluaciones continua y final de las materias de los
bloques troncales y específicas, serán los criterios de evaluación y estándares
de aprendizaje evaluables (…)”.
To be more specific, Royal Decree 19/2015, 12th June, which establishes the
Secondary Education curriculum in the Autonomous Community of La Rioja
states the assessment criteria for the 2nd year of compulsory secondary
education (ESO), which are the following:
Bloque 1: Comprensión de textos orales
1. Identificar la información esencial, los puntos principales y los detalles
más relevantes en textos orales breves y sencillos en lengua estándar,
bien estructurados, con estructuras simples y léxico de uso común,
transmitidos de viva voz o por medios técnicos y articulados con claridad
a velocidad lenta o media y que versen sobre asuntos cotidianos en
situaciones habituales o sobre temas generales relacionados con las
propias experiencias e intereses en los ámbitos personal, público,
educativo u ocupacional, siempre que las condiciones acústicas no
distorsionen el mensaje, se pueda volver a escuchar lo dicho o pedir
confirmación y se cuente con una clara referencia contextual.
2. Conocer y saber aplicar las estrategias más adecuadas para la
comprensión del sentido general, la información esencial, los detalles
más relevantes y los puntos principales del texto.
3. Conocer y utilizar para la comprensión del texto los aspectos
socioculturales y sociolingüísticos relativos a la vida cotidiana (hábitos de
estudio y de trabajo, actividades de ocio), condiciones de vida (entorno,
estructura social), relaciones interpersonales (entre hombres y mujeres,
en el ámbito público, educativo y ocupacional), comportamiento (gestos,
expresiones faciales, uso de la voz), y convenciones sociales
(costumbres, fórmulas de tratamiento).
4. Distinguir la función o funciones comunicativas más relevantes del texto
y un repertorio de sus exponentes más habituales, así como patrones
discursivos de uso común relativos a la organización textual
(introducción del tema, cambio temático y cierre textual).
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5. Aplicar a la comprensión del texto los conocimientos sobre los
constituyentes y la organización de patrones sintácticos y discursivos de
uso común en la comunicación oral (p. e. estructura interrogativa para
formular una invitación).
6. Reconocer léxico oral de uso común relativo a asuntos cotidianos y a
temas generales o relacionados con los propios intereses, estudios y
ocupaciones, e inferir del contexto y del contexto, con apoyo visual, los
significados de palabras y expresiones que se desconocen.
7. Discriminar patrones sonoros, acentuales, rítmicos y de entonación de
uso común, y reconocer los significados e intenciones comunicativas
generales relacionados con los mismos.
Bloque II: Producción de textos orales: expresión e interacción
1. Producir textos orales monológicos y dialógicos breves y comprensibles,
tanto en conversación cara a cara como por teléfono u otros medios
técnicos, en un registro formal, neutro o informal, con un lenguaje
sencillo, en los que se da, solicita e intercambia información sobre temas
cotidianos y asuntos conocidos o de interés personal, educativo u
ocupacional, y se justifican brevemente los motivos de determinadas
opiniones, acciones y planes, aunque a veces haya interrupciones o
vacilaciones, resulten evidentes las pausas y la reformulación para
organizar el discurso y seleccionar expresiones y estructuras, y el
interlocutor tenga que solicitar a veces que se le repita lo dicho.
2. Conocer y saber aplicar estrategias adecuadas para producir textos
orales monológicos o dialógicos breves y de estructura simple y clara,
utilizando procedimientos sencillos para adaptar o reformular el mensaje.
3. Aplicar a la producción del texto oral monológico o dialógico los
respectivos conocimientos socioculturales y sociolingüísticos adquiridos
relativos a patrones de comportamiento y convenciones sociales,
actuando con la debida propiedad y respetando las normas de cortesía
más importantes en los contextos respectivos.
4. Llevar a cabo las funciones demandadas por el propósito comunicativo,
utilizando los exponentes más comunes de dichas funciones y los
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patrones discursivos de uso más frecuente para organizar el texto de
manera sencilla.
5. Utilizar estructuras sintácticas de uso habitual y mecanismos sencillos de
cohesión textual (repetición léxica, elipsis, deixis personal, espacial y
temporal, yuxtaposición, y conectores y marcadores conversacionales de
uso frecuente).
6. Conocer y utilizar un repertorio léxico oral suficiente para comunicar
información relativa a temas generales o específicos relacionados con
los propios intereses en situaciones habituales y cotidianas, aunque en
situaciones menos corrientes haya que adaptar el mensaje.
7. Pronunciar y entonar de manera clara e inteligible, aunque a veces
resulte evidente el acento extranjero, o se cometan errores de
pronunciación esporádicos siempre que no interrumpan la comunicación,
y sea necesario repetir lo dicho para ayudar a la comprensión del
interlocutor.
8. Manejar un repertorio limitado de frases cortas, grupos de palabras y
fórmulas para desenvolverse en breves intercambios en situaciones
habituales y cotidianas, con pausas para planificar el discurso, buscar
expresiones e intentar reformular de manera más clara lo que se ha
dicho.
9. Interactuar de manera sencilla en intercambios claramente estructurados,
utilizando fórmulas o gestos simples para tomar o ceder el turno de
palabra, aunque se dependa en gran medida de la actuación del
interlocutor.
Bloque III: Comprensión de textos escritos
1. Identificar la información esencial, los puntos más relevantes y detalles
importantes en textos breves y bien estructurados escritos en un registro
formal, informal o neutro, tanto en formato impreso como en soporte
digital, que traten de asuntos cotidianos, de temas de interés general o
relevantes para los propios estudios u ocupaciones, y que contengan
estructuras sencillas y un léxico de uso común, siempre que se puedan
releer las secciones difíciles o utilizar un diccionario.
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2. Conocer y saber aplicar las estrategias más adecuadas para la
comprensión del sentido general, la información esencial, los puntos
principales y los detalles relevantes del texto.
3. Conocer y utilizar para la comprensión del texto los aspectos
socioculturales y sociolingüísticos relativos a la vida cotidiana (hábitos de
estudio y de trabajo, actividades de ocio), condiciones de vida (entorno,
estructura social), relaciones interpersonales (entre hombres y mujeres,
en el ámbito público, educativo y ocupacional), y convenciones sociales
(costumbres, tradiciones).
4. Distinguir la función o funciones comunicativas más relevantes del texto y
un repertorio de sus exponentes más comunes, así como patrones
discursivos de uso frecuente relativos a la organización textual
(introducción del tema, cambio temático y cierre textual).
5. Reconocer, y aplicar a la comprensión del texto, los constituyentes y la
organización de estructuras sintácticas de uso frecuente en la
comunicación escrita, así como sus significados asociados (p. e.
estructura interrogativa para hacer una petición).
6. Reconocer léxico escrito de uso común relativo a asuntos cotidianos y a
temas generales o relacionados con los propios intereses, estudios y
ocupaciones, e inferir del contexto y del contexto, con apoyo visual, los
significados de palabras y expresiones que se desconocen.
7. Reconocer convenciones ortográficas, de puntuación y símbolos de uso
común, y sus significados asociados.
Bloque IV: Producción de textos escritos: Expresión e interacción
1. Escribir, en papel o en soporte digital, textos breves y sencillos sobre
temas cotidianos o de interés personal, en un registro formal, neutro o
informal, utilizando adecuadamente las convenciones ortográficas
básicas y los signos de puntuación más habituales, con un control
razonable de expresiones y estructuras sencillas y un léxico de uso
frecuente.
2. Conocer y aplicar estrategias adecuadas para elaborar textos escritos
breves y de estructura simple, p. e. copiando modelos convencionales
propios de cada tipo de texto.
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3. Incorporar a la producción del texto escrito los conocimientos
socioculturales y sociolingüísticos adquiridos relativos a relaciones
interpersonales, patrones de comportamiento y convenciones sociales,
respetando las normas de cortesía más importantes en los contextos
respectivos.
4. Llevar a cabo las principales funciones demandadas por el propósito
comunicativo, utilizando los exponentes más comunes de dichas
funciones y los patrones discursivos de uso más frecuente para
organizar el texto escrito de manera sencilla.
5. Mostrar control sobre un repertorio limitado de estructuras sintácticas de
uso común, y emplear para comunicarse mecanismos sencillos
ajustados al contexto (repetición léxica, elipsis, deixis personal, espacial
y temporal yuxtaposición, y conectores frecuentes).
6. Conocer y utilizar un repertorio léxico escrito suficiente para comunicar
información y opiniones simples y directos en situaciones habituales y
cotidianas, aunque en situaciones menos corrientes y sobre temas
menos conocidos haya que adaptar el mensaje.
7. Conocer y aplicar, de manera que el texto resulte comprensible en su
mayor parte, los signos de puntuación elementales (p. e. punto, coma) y
las reglas ortográficas básicas (p. e. uso de mayúsculas y minúsculas, o
separación de palabras al final de línea), así como las convenciones
ortográficas más habituales en la redacción de textos en soporte digital.
In respect to the assessment criteria specifically designed for the context of
2nd A compulsory secondary education (ESO) from CPC “Los Boscos”, it will
be divided into formative and summative evaluation. The procedure will be as
follows:
Formative assessment: - Repetitive tasks, where students will be able to see their progress. For
example “What I know about…” vs. “What I know now about…”. - Improvement of the four skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking) . - Completion of workbook exercises (workbook with key). Summative assessment:
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- An exam, which will evaluate all four skills (reading, writing, listening,
speaking) conducted at the end of each trimester. - Progress check in the Students´ book after every unit.
- Homework assessment
- Projects
Apart from assessing, homework and projects conducted throughout the
year, the teacher will evaluate the students at the end of each trimester. The
evaluation will be conducted in an individual way to assess objectively every
student. In the table below, a more detailed way of summative evaluation is
presented.
20%
5% Attendance
5% Necessary material (student´s
book, workbook, notebook,
etc.)
5% Attitude
5% Participation in class
80%
20%
Completion of homework and
tasks set in class
60% Exam
2.9 Content Sequence The teaching programme presented hereinafter is based on the student´s
book “Interface 2” Macmillan (2013), which is used in the CPC “Los Boscos”. It
consists of 15 didactic units which will be put forward in the sequence of tables.
Each table will represent the objectives of each unit, contents, materials,
assessment and methodology. Each unit will take from 6 to 8 sessions,
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depending on the level of difficulty and the understanding of the material. If
needed, the teacher will spend more time on the problematic issues.
The division of the units will be as follows:
- First term: September, October, November Units 1-5
- Second term: December, January, February Units 6-10
- Third term: March, April, May Units 11-15
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UNIT 1: FILM AND TV
Objectives - Understand, memorize and correctly use
vocabulary related to types of films and television programmes
- Identify specific information from a text on teen taste in films
- Understand and correctly use grammar structures related to the present and draw parallels to L1
- Identify specific information about a child actor´s life through a listening
- Talk about likes and dislikes - Look for information on films and film
awards using ICT - Identify general content of a text on young
people´s leisure habits - Write a review - Assimilate the learning tips and study the
Language Guide from the unit
Contents Module 1: Listening
- Listen to two young people talking about their favourite type of film - Listen to an interview with a child actor
Module 2: Speaking - Exchange information about likes and dislikes related to films - Participate in a class vote on where students prefer to watch films - Prepare and write a dialogue talking about likes and dislikes following a model
Module 3: Reading - Read a text about teen taste in films - Read a text about film awards - Read a text about young people´s television viewing habits - Read a review
Module 4: Writing - Write a review in four steps: plan, write, check, write
Other areas of learning Learning strategies:
- Reading quickly to get the general idea - Learning word sets - Using pictures to help understand a text
Socio-cultural aspects: - Film awards
Cross-curricular contents: - Language and literature:
conventions for writing a review Values:
- Respect for others - Respect for other cultures
Assessment - Workbook exercises - Progress check - Teacher´s diary with observations
Materials - Digital Student´s Book and Workbook - Computer with internet access
Methodology - Communicative Language Approach - Task-based Approach
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UNIT 2: SURVIVAL
Objectives - Understand, memorize and correctly use
vocabulary related to survival skills and feelings
- Identify specific information from a text on survival courses
- Understand and correctly use grammar structures related to the present and to future arrangements and draw parallels to L1
- Identify specific information about two young adventurers through a listening
Contents Module 1: Listening
- Listen to two young people talking about what survival skills they have - Listen to a telephone conversation about a sailing course - Listen to a radio programme about two young adventurers
Module 2: Speaking - Participate in a class vote on which of three survival courses students prefer - Talk about you survival skills - Tell your partner your plans for the weekend
Module 3: Reading - Read a text about some survival courses - Read a text about summer camps
Module 4: Writing - Write a letter to your Mom about the survival course you are on
Other areas of learning Learning strategies:
- Using pictures to help understand a text - Using keywords to predict the context of
a text Socio-cultural aspects
- Summer camps
Cross-curricular contents: - Language and literature:
conventions for writing a letter Values:
- Respect for others - Respect for other cultures
Assessment - Workbook exercises - Progress check - Teacher´s diary with observations
Materials - Digital Student´s Book and Workbook - Computer with internet access
Methodology - Communicative Language Approach - Task-based Approach
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UNIT 3: ADVENTURE
Objectives - Make plans - Look for information on summer camps
using ICT - Identify general content of a text on summer
camps and the Woodcraft Folk - Identify specific information from a text on a
reality show - Write a blog entry - Assimilate the learning tips and study the
Language Guide from the unit
Contents Module 1: Listening
- Listen to two young people talking about their plans - Listen to information about summer camps
Module 2: Speaking - Make plans - Prepare and write a dialogue making plans following a model
Module 3: Reading - Read a text about a reality show - Read a blog entry
Module 4: Writing - Write a blog entry in four steps: plan, write, check, write
Other areas of learning Learning strategies:
- Learning collocations - Using pictures to help understand a text - Using keywords to predict the context of
a text Socio-cultural aspects
- The Woodcraft Folk
Cross-curricular contents: - Language and literature:
conventions for writing a blog entry Values:
- Respect for others - Respect for other cultures
Assessment - Workbook exercises - Progress check - Teacher´s diary with observations
Materials - Digital Student´s Book and Workbook - Computer with internet access
Methodology - Communicative Language Approach - Task-based Approach
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UNIT 4: HISTORY
Objectives - Understand, memorize and correctly use
vocabulary related to discovery and natural disasters
- Identify specific information from a text on the origins of food
- Understand and correctly use grammar structures related to the past and draw parallels to L1
- Identify specific information about the answers to a history quiz through a listening
Contents Module 1: Listening
- Listen to two young people talking about journeys - Listen to a history quiz
Module 2: Speaking - Exchange information about likes and dislikes related to journeys - Participate in a class vote on which of three stories they prefer
Module 3: Reading - Read a text about the origins of some popular types of food
Module 4: Writing - Write about your favourite history figure
Other areas of learning Learning strategies:
- Using pictures to predict content of a text
- Using questions on the page to predict content
Socio-cultural aspects: - Types of food
Cross-curricular contents: - History: the origins of types of food
Values: - Respect for others - Respect for other cultures
Assessment - Workbook exercises - Progress check - Teacher´s diary with observations
Materials - Digital Student´s Book and Workbook - Computer with internet access
Methodology - Communicative Language Approach - Task-based Approach - CLIL
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UNIT 5: EXPLORERS
Objectives - Ask for information - Look for information on explorers using
ICT - Identify general content of a text on the
explorers Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
- Identify specific information from a text on two natural disasters in history
- Write a biography - Assimilate the learning tips and study the
Language Guide from the unit
Contents Module 1: Listening
- Listen to information about explorers - Listen to two young people revising for a history exam
Module 2: Speaking - Prepare and write a dialogue asking for information following a model - Talk about famous explorers who come from your country
Module 3: Reading - Read a text about Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary - Read a text about two natural disasters in history - Read a biography
Module 4: Writing - Write a biography in four steps: plan, write, check, write Assessment
- Workbook exercises - Progress check - Teacher´s diary with observations - Exam Units 1-5
Other areas of learning Learning strategies:
- Using pictures to predict content of a text
- Using questions on the page to predict content
- Learning words for people with the suffixes –er and –or
Socio-cultural aspects: - Discoverers and explorers in history - Two historical natural disasters
- Leonardo da Vinci Cross-curricular contents:
- History: discoverers and explorers, Leonardo da Vinci
- Geography: natural disasters - Language and literature: Around the
World in Eighty Days, conventions for writing a biography
Values: - Respect for others - Respect for other cultures
Materials - Digital Student´s Book and Workbook - Computer with internet access Methodology - Communicative Language Approach - Task-based Approach - CLIL
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UNIT 6: MYTHS
Objectives - Understand, memorize and correctly use
vocabulary related to character and movement
- Identify specific information from a text on three British legends
- Understand and correctly use grammar structures related to the past and draw parallels to L1
- Identify specific information about a famous highwayman through a listening
Contents Module 1: Listening
- Listen to a conversation about a famous highwayman - Listen to two young people talking about their first friend and their first teacher
Module 2: Speaking - Participate in a class vote on which of three stories students prefer - Talk about your first classmate, friend and teacher
Module 3: Reading - Read a text about three British legends
Module 4: Writing - Write about famous legends in your country
Other areas of learning Learning strategies:
- Using what students already know about a topic to help understand the content of a text
- Learning some cognates - Using the questions on the page to help
predict content
Socio-cultural aspects: - British legends
Cross-curricular contents: - History: highwayman
Values: - Respect for others - Respect for other cultures
Assessment - Workbook exercises - Progress check - Teacher´s diary with observations
Materials - Digital Student´s Book and Workbook - Computer with internet access
Methodology - Communicative Language Approach - Task-based Approach
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UNIT 7: CASTLES AND LEGENDS
Objectives - Talk about the past - Look for information on castles and legends
in the UK using ICT - Identify general content of a text on castles
and legends in the UK - Identify specific information from a text on
well-known April Fool´s Day jokes - Write a narrative - Assimilate the learning tips and study the
Language Guide from the unit
Contents Module 1: Listening
- Listen to the information about castles Module 2: Speaking
- Prepare and write a dialogue talking about the past following a model - Talk about past
Module 3: Reading - Read a text about castles and legends in the UK - Read a text about well-known April Fool´s Day jokes - Read a narrative
Module 4: Writing - Write a narrative in four steps: plan, write, check, write
Other areas of learning Learning strategies:
- Using what students already know about a topic to help understand the content of a text
- Learning some cognates - Using the questions on the page to help
predict content
Socio-cultural aspects: - Castles in the UK - April Fool´s Day
Cross-curricular contents: - History: Queen Boudicca - Language and literature:
conventions for writing a narrative Values:
- Respect for others - Respect for other cultures
Assessment - Workbook exercises - Progress check - Teacher´s diary with observations
Materials - Digital Student´s Book and Workbook - Computer with internet access
Methodology - Communicative Language Approach - Task-based Approach
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UNIT 8: MONEY
Objectives - Understand, memorize and correctly use
vocabulary related to money and computer technology
- Identify specific information from a text on money tips for teenagers
- Understand and correctly use grammar structures related to comparative and superlative adjectives, indefinite articles and quantifiers and draw parallels to L1
- Identify specific information about pocket money through a listening
Contents Module 1: Listening
- Listen to two young people talking about what they spend their pocket money on - Listen to a conversation about pocket money
Module 2: Speaking - Talk to your partner about what you spend your pocket money on - Participate in a class vote on which money tip students think is the best advice
Module 3: Reading - Read a text about money tips for teenagers - Read a text about pocket money
Module 4: Writing - Write a note to your parents asking to send you money
Other areas of learning Learning strategies:
- Using headings to help predict the content of a text
- Learning some antonyms Socio-cultural aspects:
- Pocket money
Cross-curricular contents: - IT
Values: - Respect for others - Respect for other cultures
Assessment - Workbook exercises - Progress check - Teacher´s diary with observations
Materials - Digital Student´s Book and Workbook - Computer with internet access
Methodology - Communicative Language Approach - Task-based Approach
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UNIT 9: SHOPPING
Objectives - Use language for buying and selling - Look for information on charity shops in the
UK using the ICT - Identify general content of a text on charity
shops in the UK - Identify specific information from a text on
an online swap shop - Write a description - Assimilate the learning tips and study the
Language Guide from the unit
Contents Module 1: Listening
- Listen to the information about charity shops Module 2: Speaking
- Prepare and write a dialogue involving buying and selling following a model - Buying and selling
Module 3: Reading - Read a text about charity shops in the UK - Read a text about an online swap shop - Read a description
Module 4: Writing - Write a description in four steps: plan, write, check, write
Other areas of learning Learning strategies:
- Using headings to help predict the content of a text
- Learning some antonyms Socio-cultural aspects:
- Charity shops
Cross-curricular contents: - IT - Language and literature:
conventions for writing a description Values:
- Respect for others - Respect for other cultures
Assessment - Workbook exercises - Progress check - Teacher´s diary with observations
Materials - Digital Student´s Book and Workbook - Computer with internet access
Methodology - Communicative Language Approach - Task-based Approach
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UNIT 10: JOBS
Objectives - Understand, memorize and correctly use
vocabulary related to jobs - Identify specific information from a text on
World Water Day - Understand and correctly use grammar
structures related to the future and should/shouldn´t, must/mustn´t and draw parallels to L1
- Identify specific information about three heroes through a listening
- Write about your hero
Contents Module 1: Listening
- Listen to two young people talking about what jobs they would or wouldn´t like to do - Listen to three young people talking about their heroes
Module 2: Speaking - Tell your partner about your dream job - Participate in a class vote on which idea for helping a cause they prefer
Module 3: Reading - Read a text about World Water Day - Read a text about heroes
Module 4: Writing - Write about your hero
Other areas of learning Learning strategies:
- Using pictures to help predict the content of a text
- Predicting vocabulary to help understand the content of a text
Socio-cultural aspects: - Heroes: Famous sportspeople
Cross-curricular contents: - Geography: World Water Day
Values: - Respect for others - Respect for other cultures
Assessment - Workbook exercises - Progress check - Teacher´s diary with observations - Exam Units 6-10
Materials - Digital Student´s Book and Workbook - Computer with internet access
Methodology - Communicative Language Approach - Task-based Approach - CLIL
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UNIT 11: HEALTH
Objectives - Understand, memorize and correctly use
vocabulary related to health problems and first aid
- Give opinions - Look for information on police forces using
ICT - Identify general content of a text on the
police in the UK and Canada - Identify specific information from a text on
advice from a mountain rescue service volunteer
- Write a letter to a magazine - Assimilate the learning tips and study the
Language Guide from the unit
Contents Module 1: Listening
- Listen to the information about the police Module 2: Speaking
- Giving opinions - Prepare and write a dialogue giving opinions following a model
Module 3: Reading - Read a text about two police forces - Read a text about advice from a mountain rescue service volunteer - Read a letter to a magazine
Module 4: Writing - Write a letter to a magazine in four steps: plan, write, check, write
Other areas of learning Learning strategies:
- Using pictures to help predict the content of a text
- Learning some words beginning with the prefix un-
Socio-cultural aspects: - Police forces - Mountain rescue services
Cross-curricular contents: - Language and literature:
conventions for writing a letter to a magazine
Values: - Respect for others - Respect for other cultures
Assessment - Workbook exercises - Progress check - Teacher´s diary with observations
Materials - Digital Student´s Book and Workbook - Computer with internet access
Methodology - Communicative Language Approach - Task-based Approach
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UNIT 12: AMBITIONS Objectives - Understand, memorize and correctly use vocabulary
related to life events and musical instruments - Identify specific information from a text on
demographics - Understand and correctly use grammar structures
related to the future and the first conditional and draw parallels to L1
- Identify specific information about two people´s childhood ambitions compared with their adult lives through a listening
- Ask for and give advice - Look for information on music in schools using ICT - Identify general content of a text on music in schools
in English-speaking countries - Identify specific information from a text giving advice
on how to be a top band - Write a class survey - Assimilate the learning tips and study the Language
Guide from the unit
Contents Module 1: Listening
- Listen to two young people talking about what they want to do in the future - Listen to two teenagers talking about their ambitions then listen to the same
people aged 29 talking about their real life Module 2: Speaking
- Ask for and give advice - Participate in a class vote on which country they would like to live in - Prepare and write a dialogue asking for and giving advice following a model
Module 3: Reading - Read a text about demographics - Read a text about music in schools in English-speaking countries - Read a text giving advice on how to be a top band - Read a class survey
Module 4: Writing - Write a class survey in four steps: plan, write, check, write
Other areas of learning Learning strategies:
- Making predictions based on key phrases to help predict the content of a text
- Learning some words beginning with the sufffix -ics
Socio-cultural aspects: - Demographics - Music in schools
Cross-curricular contents: - Language and literature:
conventions for writing a class survey
- Geography: demographics - Music: music in schools - Mathematics: expressing the
results of a survey Values:
- Respect for others - Respect for other cultures
Assessment - Workbook exercises - Progress check - Teacher´s diary with observations
Materials - Digital Student´s Book and Workbook - Computer with internet access Methodology - Communicative Language Approach - Task-based Approach
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UNIT 13: RECYCLING
Objectives - Understand, memorize and correctly use
vocabulary related to materials and containers
- Identify specific information from a text on tips for looking after the environment
- Understand and correctly use grammar structures related to the present perfect and draw parallels to L1
- Participate in a class vote and express your opinion
Contents Module 1: Listening
- Listen to two young people talking about recycling habits - Listen to a radio programme about an eco-family
Module 2: Speaking - Participate in a class vote on environmental tips - Prepare and write a dialogue giving opinions following a model
Module 3: Reading - Read a text about tips for looking after the environment
Module 4: Writing - Write a letter to a friend about recycling in your school
Other areas of learning Learning strategies:
- Skimming a text for specific information - Using keywords to help predict the
content of a text Socio-cultural aspects:
- Recycling - Eco-friendly habits
Cross-curricular contents: - Science: planet Earth
Values: - Respect for others - Respect for other cultures
Assessment - Workbook exercises - Progress check - Teacher´s diary with observations
Materials - Digital Student´s Book and Workbook - Computer with internet access
Methodology - Communicative Language Approach - Task-based Approach - CLIL
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UNIT 14: ENDANGERED ANIMALS
Objectives - Understand, memorize and correctly use
vocabulary related to endangered animals - Look for information on cycling and bike
weeks using ICT - Identify general content of a text on cycling
in the UK - Identify specific information from a text on
adopting animals - Write a competition entry - Assimilate the learning tips and study the
Language Guide from the unit - Ask for and give advice
Contents Module 1: Listening
- Listen to a text about adopting animals Module 2: Speaking
- Ask for and give directions - Prepare and write a dialogue giving opinions following a model
Module 3: Reading - Read a text about cycling in the UK - Read a text about adopting endangered animals - Read a competition entry
Module 4: Writing - Write a competition entry in four steps: plan, write, check, write
Other areas of learning Learning strategies:
- Using keywords to help predict the content of a text
- Learning some words beginning with the prefix re-
Socio-cultural aspects: - Eco-friendly habits - Cycling in the UK
Cross-curricular contents: - Language and literature:
conventions for writing a competition entry
- Science: endangered animals Values:
- Respect for others - Respect for other cultures
Assessment - Workbook exercises - Progress check - Teacher´s diary with observations
Materials - Digital Student´s Book and Workbook - Computer with internet access
Methodology - Communicative Language Approach - Task-based Approach - CLIL
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UNIT 15: FUN AND GAMES
Objectives - Understand, memorize and correctly use
vocabulary related to playing games and places to visit
- Identify specific information from a text on the history of popular games
- Understand and correctly use grammar structures students have met in this book and draw parallels to L1
- Identify specific information about three travel games through a listening
- Express preferences - Look for information on beaches using ICT - Identify general content of a text on summer
plans - Write an email - Assimilate the learning tips and study the
Language Guide from the unit
Contents Module 1: Listening
- Listen to two young people describing games for a guessing game - Listen to two young people describing travel games
Module 2: Speaking - Express preferences - Participate in a class vote on popular games - Prepare and write a dialogue giving opinions following a model
Module 3: Reading - Read a text about the history of games - Read a text about beaches in the UK - Read a text about plans for summer - Read an email
Module 4: Writing - Write an email in four steps: plan, write, check, write
Other areas of learning Learning strategies:
- Using previous knowledge of a subject to predict content
- Learning some compound nouns - Skimming a text for a specific
information Socio-cultural aspects:
- The history of some popular games - Where people go to the beach in the UK
Cross-curricular contents: - Language and literature:
conventions for writing an email - History: the origins of popular games - Geography: British beaches
Values: - Respect for others - Respect for other cultures
Assessment - Workbook exercises - Progress check - Teacher´s diary with observations - Exam Units 11-15
Materials - Digital Student´s Book and Workbook - Computer with internet access
Methodology - Communicative Language Approach - Task-based Approach
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2.9.1 Didactic unit 12th: Ambitions
FIRST SESSION
ACTIVITY SKILLS DESCRIPTION INTERACTION MATERIALS TIMING
Introduction
(warm-up)
Listening The teacher will introduce the topic
by asking for the definition of
ambition and showing the first few
seconds of the following video where
the definition appears:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
63_EBdk6zxM
Next the teacher will show a short
video, where children from different
countries talk about their ambitions
and will ask about the students´
ambitions when they were children:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
UbQ9Jp-s3hk
T -> S
Computer
Projector
Internet
2´
Brainstorming
Questions
Listening
Speaking
Students will look at the pp
presentation with different ambitions
and will talk about their own
ambitions and dreams.
T -> S
S -> T
Computer
Projector
10´
Vocabulary
presentation
Speaking Students describe pictures from the
book using vocabulary presented in
the unit.
T -> S
S -> T
Textbook
“Ambitions”
5´
Vocabulary
comprehension
Reading
Speaking
Listening
Students will complete an exercise
from their textbook with the
vocabulary previously presented.
This exercise will be read by students
and checked together.
Every sentence read by one of the
students will be followed by a
question about their personal
experiences.
T -> S
S -> T
Textbook
“Ambitions”
, p. 86, ex. 2
Computer
Projector
Internet
10´
Oral
comprehension
exercise
Listening
Students will listen twice to the
exercise to look for specific
information.
T -> S
S -> T
Textbook
“Ambitions”
, p. 86, ex. 4
8´
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Reading
comprehension
exercise
Reading
The teacher pre-teaches vocabulary
from the reading.
He/She tells students to guess if the
sentences in ex. 6 are True or False.
Students have to listen and read the
text at the same time. The class
checks if they were right about the
sentences.
T -> S
S -> T
Textbook
“Ambitions”
, p. 87, ex. 6
Computer
Projector
Internet
15´
Class vote Speaking Students vote In which country they
would like to live in.
T -> S
S -> T
5´
SECOND SESSION
ACTIVITY SKILLS DESCRIPTION INTERACTION MATERIALS TIMING
Introduction
(warm-up)
Speaking The teacher will start the class by
introducing the grammar structure
we will be working later by playing a
hangman game. The hidden sentence
will be “I want to get a job as an
engineer when I´m sixteen”. Once
they know the sentence he/she will
ask them if it is possible or not.
T -> S
S -> T
Blackboard 10´
Grammar
presentation
Listening
The teacher will present the grammar
structure “will” and “won´t”. The
class takes a look at the examples
given in the book and the box with all
the forms.
T -> S Computer
Projector
Textbook
“Ambitions”
, p. 88
5´
Grammar
comprehension
Reading
Speaking
Writing
The teacher checks if students
understood by doing exercise 2, 3 and
4 from their textbook, where they will
have to complete the blanks.
T -> S
S -> T
Computer
Projector
Textbook
“Ambitions”
, p.88
10´
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Grammar
practice
Writing
Speaking
Once the students know how to use
the grammar structure they will have
to write a short paragraph about their
future using vocabulary learnt on the
previous class. They will share their
answers with their partners.
Volunteers will read their answers
aloud.
S -> S
T -> S
S -> T
Notebooks 10´
Oral expression Speaking
Students will complete the questions
from exercise 7 orally and will direct
them to their classmates who will
have to answer them
T -> S
S -> T
S -> S
Textbook
“Ambitions”
, p.89
5´
Pronunciation Speaking
The teacher will present pairs of
sentences. One without “will”
structure and the other one using this
structure. Next he/she will ask them
to read the pairs of sentences. Then,
he/she will put the recording on so
the students can hear clearly the
difference and they will have to
repeat the pairs of sentences.
T -> S
S -> T
Textbook
“Ambitions”
, p.89
5´
Oral expression Speaking Students will practice orally the
grammar structure by playing a game
“Make it snappy” taken from a book
Games from Grammar Practice.
T -> S
S -> T
S -> S
A copy of
Games for
Grammar
Practice –
“4.2 Make it
snappy”
10´
THIRD SESSION
ACTIVITY SKILLS DESCRIPTION INTERACTION MATERIALS TIMING
Introduction
(warm-up)
Speaking
Writing
The teacher will start the class with a
revision activity “vocabulary race”
where students will have to write
down as many life events they saw on
the first class in this unit. They won´t
be able to look at the book. The
teacher will check the answers
together and will award them with
T -> S
S -> T
Blackboard 10´
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points for every good answer. Next,
he/she will draw a timeline on the
board and students will come and
write the events in order.
Oral
comprehension
Listening
The teacher will present the listening
exercise by explaining who they are
going to listen to and what they have
to do. They will listen twice, and they
will have to complete exercise 10, 11
and 12. The answers will be checked
together.
T -> S
S -> T
Computer
Projector
CD
Textbook
“Ambitions”
, p.89
15´
Cultural fact Speaking
Listening
In this part the teacher will introduce
an interesting cultural fact – a British
TV series “7 up” which is a
documentary that follows peoples´
lives every seven years. First he/she
will show them a trailer of the series
and then the class will talk if they
would like to participate in that kind
of programme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
UcrTX6x_qpw
T -> S
S -> T
Computer
Projector
Internet
10´
Oral expression
- introduction
Speaking Students look at the pictures in the
book, and answer questions. The
teacher will ask questions like: What
are they doing? Where are they? Etc.
T -> S
S -> T
Textbook
“Ambitions”
, p.90
5´
Oral expression Speaking
This speaking exercise concentrates
on asking for and giving advice. A
couple of volunteers will read the
example dialogue, and then they will
have to prepare a similar dialogue in
pairs. The teacher will go around
helping with grammar and
vocabulary. The steps to help
students with the order and
functional language are included on
page 91.
T -> S
S -> T
S -> S
Textbook
“Ambitions”
, p.90-91
10´
Oral expression
- presentation
Speaking Students present their dialogues in
front of their classmates.
T -> S
S -> T
5´
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FOURTH SESSION
ACTIVITY SKILLS DESCRIPTION INTERACTION MATERIALS TIMING
Introduction
(warm-up)
Speaking Students warm up by brainstorming
different types of music. They will
play a hangman game. They will get
points for every correct answer. The
pair of student who guesses the word
will also have to mention a singer or a
band that performs that type of
music.
T -> S
S -> T
Blackboard 10´
Written
comprehension
Speaking
Listening
Reading
First the teacher will tell the students
that they are going to read about
music in schools in the English-
speaking countries. He/she will ask
few questions about the pictures to
pre-teach some vocabulary.
Next, students will read the questions
from exercise 6 to think about what
they are going to read about.
The teacher will put the CD with the
text so students will have to listen
and read the text at the same time.
Meanwhile they are listening they will
have to answer the questions. The
answers are corrected together.
T -> S
S -> T
Computer
Projector
Textbook
“Ambitions”
, p.91
CD
10´
CLIL Speaking In this warm-up activity the teacher
will ask the students about the
American cities they know, and what
they know about them. He/she will
tell them that they are going to learn
about San Francisco and will ask if
anybody has ever been there or
knows something about this place
(e.g. landmarks, history, etc.)
T -> S
S -> T
5´
CLIL Writing
Speaking
Every student will get a copy of a CLIL
worksheet “San Francisco”. They
complete the exercises in pairs. The
teacher will correct them together.
They learn about the city, its location,
population, etc.
T -> S
S -> T
Culture
worksheet
copies
10´
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CLIL project Writing
In groups students will have to
prepare a tourist information
brochure of Chinatown or Little Italy
and they will have to illustrate it with
drawings or pictures. In this class they
will have to finish the written part.
They will print pictures for the next
class, when they will have to finish
the project.
T -> S
S -> T
S -> S
Computers
Internet
Blank paper
20´
FIFTH SESSION
ACTIVITY SKILLS DESCRIPTION INTERACTION MATERIALS TIMING
Introduction
(warm-up)
Speaking The teacher will ask students about
their projects and will give them
some time to glue the pictures they
brought and finish the brochures. I
will help if it is necessary. He/she will
put their brochures all over the
classroom on the walls.
T -> S
S -> T
Brochures
Glue
Computers
20´
Vocabulary
introduction
Speaking
Listening
The teacher will show the pictures of
the musical instrument on the
projector. Students without looking
at the vocabulary try to name them.
They correct the names together.
Students listen to the pronunciation
and repeat.
T -> S
S -> T
Computer
Projector
Textbook
“Ambitions”
, p.92
CD
10´
Vocabulary
comprehension
Speaking
Writing
The teacher finds out if the students
know anything about the group The
Killers they will read the short
paragraph about.
Students complete exercise 3 with
the vocabulary they saw in exercise 1.
The teacher checks the answers
together on the projector.
T -> S
S -> T
Computer
Projector
Textbook
“Ambitions”
, p.92
10´
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Oral
comprehension
Listening
Writing
Speaking
Following the theme of The Killers
students will do a listening
comprehension exercise. The will
listen to The Killers´ song “Somebody
told me”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=Y5fBdpreJiU) and they will complete
a worksheet with different types of
exercises based on the lyrics (fill in
banks, order the lines, circle the
correct option). They will listen to the
song twice. They will correct the
answers together.
T -> S
S -> T
Computer
Projector
Internet
15´
SIXTH SESSION
ACTIVITY SKILLS DESCRIPTION INTERACTION MATERIALS TIMING
Introduction
(warm-up)
Speaking The teacher will begin with the game
“Who am I?” with names of famous
musicians. Students have to guess
who they are and say what
instrument this musician plays.
T -> S
S -> T
“Who am
I?” cards
10´
Written
comprehension
Speaking
Listening
Reading
Students skim the text in order to find
the best title in exercise 5. The
teacher will check the students´
answers and will ask why they chose
that answer.
Students continue doing the reading
exercise. Now they will listen to the
text from the CD and will read at the
same time. This time students will
have to look for details and find the
answers for the questions from
exercise 6. The answers are checked
together on the projector.
T -> S
S -> T
Computer
Projector
Textbook
“Ambitions”
, p.92
CD
10´
Grammar
presentation
Speaking The teacher introduces the first
conditional by explaining the use and
giving examples on the board. He/she
reassures that students understand
well. Then he/she proceeds to the
T -> S
S -> T
Blackboard
Computer
Projector
10´
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59
grammar box in the textbook where
the structure is presented. Students
complete exercise 7 with the rules.
Volunteers read their sentences.
Internet
Textbook
“Ambitions”
, p.93
Grammar
comprehension
Writing
Speaking
Students complete exercises 8, 9 and
10. The teacher help with any doubts
students may have.
Fast finishers may compare their
answers with their classmates.
Students write sentences about
themselves, based on exercise 11,
using the first conditional. They read
it aloud.
T -> S
S -> T
Computer
Projector
Internet
Textbook
“Ambitions”
, p.93
10´
Grammar
practice
Writing
Speaking
After reassuring that students
understand well the first conditional
the teacher will conduct a fun
activity. It is a game where students
need to put in practice the grammar
structure they learnt during this class.
It is an activity called “Nothing´s
perfect” taken from Games for
grammar practice.
T -> S
S -> T
S -> S
A copy of
Games for
grammar
practice –
“6.1
Nothing´s
perfect”
15´
SEVENTH SESSION
ACTIVITY SKILLS DESCRIPTION INTERACTION MATERIALS TIMING
Introduction
(warm-up)
Speaking The teacher writes on the board If I
can, before I´m 90 years old… .
Students have to write as many
endings of the sentence as possible.
Students read their answers aloud.
T -> S
S -> T
Blackboard 10´
Written
comprehension
Speaking
Listening
Reading
Students look at the bar charts and
match them with the questions from
the text.
The teacher plays the CD. Students
listen and read the text at the same
time.
The teacher conducts a discussion
T -> S
S -> T
Computer
Projector
Textbook
CD
10´
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about the results from the survey.
Students think if answer in their class
would be similar.
Language focus Reading Students look at the box and read the
sentences aloud. They provide a
translation for the words in bold in
their mother tongue.
In order to check if students
understand the new expressions,
they complete exercise 3 on their
own. The teacher checks students´
answers using the projector.
T -> S
S -> T
Computer
Projector
Internet
Textbook
10´
Written
production
Writing
Speaking
Listening
Students have to design their own
survey similar to the one in the book.
They have to think about three
ambitions they would like to find out
about.
Once they write the three questions,
they have to ask as many classmates
as they can.
They present the results of their
survey in a written form using the
expressions learnt. They should also
illustrate their results with a bar
chart.
The teacher collects the survey for
marking and feedback.
T -> S
S -> T
S -> S
Textbook 25´
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2.10 Material and resources To develop this teaching programme, two types of material and resources will
be needed. Apart from basic materials that are found and used in any
classroom, the teacher will make use of additional material and resources.
As previously mentioned students will work with Student´s book and
workbook from the teaching series “Interface 2” Macmillan (2013). The teacher
will take advantage of Teacher´s book, Culture and CLIL worksheets, extra
vocabulary and grammar exercises take from the same series of books.
The additional material needed is as follows:
- Projector – the teacher instead of writing answers on the blackboard will
use an online programme http://interface.macmillan.es/. The projector will
be also used to show videos related to subjects developed later on in
class.
- Photocopies with extra activities and games – along the schoolyear
students will strengthen their knowledge of grammar taking part in games,
where they will be able to put in practice information obtained during the
class. Furthermore, students will carry out exercises based on song lyrics.
- Computers or laptops for students´ use – in the development of some of
the tasks students will have to make use of computers with internet
access to look for information or images on the topic worked during the
class.
References 1. Ley Orgánica 8/2013, de 9 de diciembre
2. Decreto Real 1105/2014, 26 diciembre
3. Decreto Real 19/2015, 12 Junio
4. Games for grammar practice, Maria Lucia Zaorob, Elizabeth Chin,
Cambridge University Press (2001)
5. Interface 2, Emma Heyderman, Fiona Mauchline, Macmillan (2013)
6. Games for vocabulary practice, Felicity O´Dell, Katie Head, Cambridge
University Press (2003)
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Part III
Research project Listening strategies in the EFL classroom
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ABSTRACT
In the last few years there has been more attention paid to the problems
Spanish-speaking students have when doing listening comprehension
exercises. In addition, they also struggle with speaking activities. The aim of this
research is to present students with listening strategies use, work on them to
improve them and see if finally this leads to a better understanding in the
process of communication. To understand the topic better, a history of listening
strategies is presented. The literature review focuses on how to teach listening
strategies. The research poses a great number of questions that still have no
answer, like: what students do to perform better in listening comprehension
activities? How can we help them to understand and perform better? The
hypothesis set is null. A brief presentation of groups of participants is included.
Three types of instruments are described in order to understand the process of
data collection. Moreover, the procedure is put forward and expected results are
discussed.
Keywords: listening, skills, strategies, students, secondary education
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3.1 Introduction
The last part of this final project consists of a classroom-based research
project. As Chamot, Barnhardt and Dirstine (2011) state it is “The process by
which teachers develop insights into their students´ learning from observing
their behaviour. They reflect, analyse the behaviours, identify potential
problems, modify their teaching practices accordingly, and evaluate the results”.
My project focuses on listening comprehension strategies in the EFL classroom.
According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English to listen means
“to pay attention to what someone is saying or to a sound that you can hear and
assign it a meaning”. This is a skill that we use most in our everyday life. We
use it automatically in our native language but we have to develop special skills
in other foreign languages to become successful.
Listening comprehension in EFL teaching has been left in the background.
Teachers concentrate mostly on grammar, vocabulary and lately a great
emphasis on speaking has been put. Many educators complain that there is not
enough time to do everything and that they have to cover the objectives set by
the law. Listening comprehension activities take time, as students would listen
at least twice to the recording.
During my two-month teaching practice I have noticed that students in
Secondary Education lack listening abilities. They learn in a test-oriented
environment which concentrates on reading and writing. Listening and speaking
skills still stay in the shadow. I could notice that even students in the fourth of
ESO, who have been learning English for ten years, have problems with
listening and speaking exercises. Besides, pronunciation and teaching of
phonemics stays of less importance for the teachers. Some students still do not
know how to pronounce well some words they learnt in Primary School.
Teachers do not try to investigate what are the main problems of their students
when doing listening comprehension activities, and do not provide them with
different listening strategies. Listening is a part of speaking ability. First we need
to understand the message to be able to produce a response. Therefore, I
decided to look deeper into this topic: revise some literature, investigate what
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listening strategies are, how big is their impact on the ability to understand
better and their influence on students´ progression.
To have a better understanding of what language comprehension is, I
therefore put forward a definition proposed by Chamot (1995): “In cognitive
theory, language comprehension is viewed as an active process in which
meaning is constructed through a complex interaction between the
characteristics of the input, the types of declarative knowledge that are
accessed, and the use of strategic processes to enhance understanding.” This
means that the comprehension process cannot be left to its own sake. By
working on the strategies, there is a great possibility of helping to develop a
better understanding.
3.2 Literature review
3.2.1. History of listening strategies
The importance of developing listening strategies has not been a part of
teaching practices until recently. Teachers used to focus mainly on the other
three skills: reading, writing and speaking. The reason for this, could be the one
mentioned by Johnson in his book “An introduction to Foreign Language
Learning and Teaching” (2008) that before the 1970s listening was only seen as
a receptive skill in language learning where students listened to repeat and
develop a better pronunciation. One of the methods that were popular in that
time was an audio-lingual method. It was developed in the USA during World
War II for military purposes for soldiers who had to learn foreign languages
rapidly. It is based on drill or repetition exercises and new vocabulary and
structures are presented through dialogues.
In the process of language acquisition it was Krashen (2009) who gave
listening comprehension more importance. He emphasised it as an essential
part of language acquisition process “(…) the child is building up competence in
the second language via listening, by understanding the language around him.
In accordance with the input hypothesis, speaking ability emerges its own after
enough competence has been developed by listening and understanding”.
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So it was then in the late 1970s when more importance was given to this
particular skill. Listening was included as a skill of equal importance as reading,
writing and speaking. During the next decade many researches became
interested in the topic and started posing hypothesis, building theories,
analysing the complexity of listening comprehension process and finally
changes to curriculum were done. The traditional grammar-based syllabi were
changed into more communicative. Ranging from structural, notional-functional,
content and language integrated learning, skill-based, task-based to text/genre-
based. Fluency became a main goal for EFL course, and is still a goal
nowadays. Listening skill may produce a `readiness´ to speak (Krashen, 2009),
therefore listening strategies became of more importance.
Researchers such as Vandergrift, Oxford, Thompson and Rubin and
O´Malley and Chamot among many others have analysed the field of listening
strategies in the second language acquisition. In 1975, Rubin was the first to
notice a relationship between good language learners and learning strategies.
In his paper Rubin highlighted that during his observation in classrooms in
California and Hawaii he noticed that many teachers did not pay attention to the
learning process, and were more concerned with the correct outcome. He
suggested that if the teachers attended more to their students´ needs, they
would be able to provide them with techniques and make their students more
autonomous in learning. Developing certain strategies may facilitate the second
language acquisition process.
In recent years, development of language learning strategies has been given
more importance (Clement, 2007). Teaching L2 students learning strategies
can help students to use them over time and apply them to new tasks, and not
only in the classroom but also outside. The strategies are grouped into three
categories: metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies and socio-affective
strategies. O´Malley and Chamot (1990) explain more specifically what each
one refers to. Metacognitive strategies deal with monitoring of learning, and
assessing learning. Cognitive strategies include the activation of schema,
classifying, inferring, and note-taking. Socio-affective strategies include asking
for clarification, positive self-talking, and confidence building.
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3.2.2 Listening strategies
I consider of great importance mentioning that when talking about the
process of listening comprehension, the terms “bottom-up” and “top-down”
should be introduced. The terms which originally came from computer science,
in language acquisition refer to the cognitive process of foreign language
listening and reading (Clement, 2007).
In top-down processing, the learner uses background knowledge and
expectation of what will follow next in the discourse and then tries to deduce the
intentions of the speaker. It is important to bear in mind that the speaker may
not be right about the meaning of wat he/she hears (Clement, 2007). When a
cultural or intellectual disconnect occurs, it is possible to accommodate or
incorporate a new schema to better understand and experience new ideas
(Rost, 2005). This type of processing can be of a great use for educators.
Making questions prior to a listening comprehension activity may activate
students´ prior knowledge and prepare them for the deduction of the content.
Top-down listening skills also include listening for main ideas or topic, listening
for specific information, sequencing the information, predicting or guessing
(NCLRC).
In bottom-up processing, the learner analyses the various morphosyntactic
elements of the discourse, from the phonemes of the language to the syllables,
words, phrases and sentences that make up the discourse. The learner uses
the sound heard to guess what a word might be. Starting from the first sound of
the word the learner activates possible words. When the next sound of the word
appears the learner eliminates words that do not fit. The whole process may
take no more than 25 second (Clement, 2007). Teachers can activate this
process by conducting, for example, dictation exercises, where students need
to activate the base of words they have in their minds, to guess what is being
said by the teacher and write it down. Students could also be asked to
distinguish individual sound, listen for intonation, identify grammatical forms and
functions, recognize contractions and connected speech or recognize linking
words (NCLRC).
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A skilled listener should be able to engage both kinds of processing: bottom-
up and top-down, in that way constructing the meaning of the input is more
effective.
Mental processes that are activated in order to understand new information
that is ambiguous or to learn or retain new information are referred to as
learning strategies (O´Malley & Chamot 1989). As I have mentioned in the
History of Listening, the strategies divide into three types (metacognitive,
cognitive and socio-affective). Graham and Macaro (2008) made a review of the
latest works on the most essential listening strategies: “A recent research into
listening strategies (Macaro, Graham & Vanderplank, 2007) identified the
strategies that have consistently been advocated as playing an important part in
the listening process:
1. Making predictions about the likely content of a passage (e.g. Goh, 1998)
2. Selectively attending to certain aspects of the passage, deciding to “listen
out for” particular words or phrases or idea units (e.g. O´Malley, 1989)
3. Monitoring and evaluating comprehension – that is, checking that one is
in fact understanding or has made the correct interpretation (e.g. Goh,
2002; Vandergrift, 2003; Young, 1996)
4. Using a variety of clues (linguistic, contextual, and background
knowledge to interfere the meaning of unknown words (e.g. Goh, 2002).”
In 1990 Oxford classified learning strategies into 6 groups: memory
strategies, cognitive strategies, compensation strategies, metacognitive
strategies, affective strategies and social strategies. They can be applied not
only to learning a language, and neither only to listening activities. They can be
applied in learning the other three skills reading, writing and speaking. The
classification is presented in the following table.
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3.2.3 Teaching listening strategies
The teacher´s role in the process of giving instructions is crucial. The
instructions provided to students should be clear and precise. Scaffolding is an
essential part of the process. Scaffolding is the help given to a learner that is
tailored to that learner´s needs in achieving his or her goals of the moment. The
best scaffolding provides this help in a way that contributes to learning (Sawyer
2008). Teachers scaffold students´ understanding in listening activities by
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guiding them how to construct their own ideas. For instance, teachers create a
supportive learning environment, facilitate the inquiry process instead of
dominating it, and model the listening skills required for successful cooperative
learning (Liao). It is believed that if the traditional comprehension-focused
approach of teaching listening changes into strategy-based listening instruction
it will boost EFL learners´ listening self-efficacy (Graham & Macaro, 2008).
A number of researches have been conducted on explicit instruction of
listening strategies. Carrier (2003) held a study where ESL students were
provided with intervention training. The training consisted of listening strategies
for discrete sounds, listening for specific information, processing information
delivered via video and taking notes. The results of this study showed a
significant improvement in students´ performance In 2007 Clement conducted
another study which concentrated on the impact teaching explicit listening
strategies had on adult ESL students. Significant results and a positive reaction
from the participants, that this type of training would help in the future, were
found.
In the studies above-mentioned, both researchers used listening tests to
measure the results. There are still questions, which seem to have no answer.
We do not know if the researcher took into account the level of listening
strategies before and after the test. Was a better result in the post-instruction
test a result of the proper instruction? In my research I would like to try to
answer these questions. My aim is to examine if by providing an explicit
listening instruction, students would benefit from it and would develop a higher
and more complex use of strategies in listening comprehension activities
conducted inside and outside the classroom.
3.3 Research question and hypothesis
The aim of this study is to train secondary EFL students in the field of
listening comprehension strategies, and investigate the effectiveness of this
training. A thorough investigation will try to fill in the information gap that still
exists in this field. The beneficial effect of the training is still a question mark.
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Taking into account the literature review and all the information mentioned
above, I would like to set three research questions. Its aim is to narrow down
the topic of the study, and help in the future research. The research questions
for this study are as follows:
- Has the level of listening strategies increased after the instruction?
- What is the real reason of an improvement in the performance: the
training or other factors?
- Have students benefit from the explicit listening instruction?
Having presented the research questions, I would like to set a null hypothesis
as follows:
1. No difference between the experimental group and control group
performance will be found.
Therefore, I consider of great importance to emphasise, that it is possible that
no statistically significant result in the study will be found.
3.4 Methodology
This research is an experimental study where a treatment will be applied: two
groups of students will participate: experimental group and control group. Both,
at the beginning and at the end I will test both groups on their performance in
listening comprehension activities. The result obtained from this research will
allow me to compare the size of effect and find out if any statistically significant
differences exist or not. This study is designed to find out if it is possible to
boost students´ performance in listening exercises, by providing them with an
explicit instruction.
This research will include a considerable amount of hours, where students
will be provided with skills training. Both groups will be exposed to the same
amount of input materials.
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3.4.1 Participants
This study is designed to be developed in a CPC “Los Boscos” in Logroño.
The English teaching program in this school is developed by trained teachers.
The students are non-native English speakers. The participants of this study will
be one group of 2ndA year of compulsory secondary education (ESO) students
and one group of 4th year of compulsory secondary education (ESO) students.
The aim of considering two different age groups is to investigate if the age plays
an important role.
In the first group investigated there are 28 students (17 females and 11
males). There are seven students coming from abroad. The level of knowledge
is quite equalised, and is equal to A2 according to the Common European
Framework. The learning pace is satisfactory and there is a favourable working
environment. Their attitude towards English language is adequate and there are
signs of high motivation and eagerness to improve.
The second group comprises 33 students, 25 males and 8 females. Their
level according to the Common European Framework is B1. The level is quite
equal. They are highly motivated and eager to learn. The learning pace is very
good.
Either of the groups have classes in their assigned classroom where all the
subjects take places. Each of the students has its own desk. Both classrooms
are equipped with a computer, loudspeakers, Internet connection and a
projector. The research will be conducted during one semester (from
September to January) in the corresponding classrooms.
Each group will be divided into to two: experimental group and control group.
The researcher will have no problem in splitting the groups of 2nd and 4th year of
compulsory secondary education (ESO) students, as once a week a native
conversation assistant comes and takes half of the group into another
classroom. This may be a good opportunity for the EFL teacher to give
instructions on the listening strategies to only half of the group.
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3.4.2 Instruments and data collection
This experimental research will use a variety of instruments to collect data.
Objectivity is the one of the main premises to conduct this study, so the
instruments will be applied by the same teacher in both groups, and students
from either group will be exposed to the same amount of listening
comprehension activities.
First of all, the teacher will conduct a listening comprehension activity to
gather information about the students´ level. Since students, in each group, are
of the same age, their level should be quite equalized. Although by applying the
listening comprehension test the teacher will be able to determine if their
listening skill is developed up to the same level. The test will be administrated in
the classroom with a CD player and loudspeakers. Tests for both groups are
taken from Cambridge Test books. The test for the 2nd year of compulsory
secondary education (ESO) is a Key English Test which consists of 5 parts
amongst which we can find multiple choice, match, and fill-in exercises. The test
that will be used in the 4th year of compulsory secondary education (ESO) is a
Preliminary English Test which consists of 4 parts. Both tests will be hand-
scored by the researcher.
Secondly, bearing in mind two issues: the teacher´s impossibility to observe
each and every student strategy and the students difficulty to do the listening
comprehension test and report on the strategy use, the teacher will distribute a
closed questionnaire to find out what strategies were used by the students. The
aim of completing this questionnaire is to make students aware of their strategy
use. Students will complete the same questionnaire at the beginning and at the
end of the research period.
Last but not least, periodical personal interviews with students will be
conducted, and the observations will be written down in the teacher´s diary. The
aim of this activity is to measure the level of students’ awareness of the use of
listening strategies.
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3.4.3 Procedure
The initiation of the study will take place along with the beginning of the
school year. Firstly, the research will meet the teacher who will take part in this
study, by delivering explicit instruction on the listening strategies. Besides, the
teacher will be the person who will conduct listening activities during the
classes, as well as the listening strategies questionnaire. During the first contact
between the researcher and the students it is essential to make the students
aware of the aim of this study, which is to make them aware of the use of
listening strategies on-spot and present them with new techniques.
Along the first week the teacher will conduct a questionnaire with
demographic data, following with a listening test to measure the level in both
groups. By the end of the first month students from the experimental group
should be accustomed to the exposure to listening activities. Instructions on
listening strategies will be given to each experimental group once every two
weeks. On each session student will work on different strategies. The teacher-
instructor will present the participants with top-down strategies, bottom-up
strategies (both types of strategies are explained in the 3.2.3 Listening
strategies) and metacognitive strategies to plan, monitor and evaluate their
listening.
The following weeks will be structured as mentioned above. Every two weeks
experimental groups will be presented to new listening strategies. And individual
interviews with students from experimental groups will be conducted. Both
groups: experimental and control will be exposed to the same amount of
listening comprehension activities.
The analysis of the data will be based on the qualitative and quantitative
data. This data will proceed from the questionnaire. The comparison of the
initial and final results from the listening tests and from the questionnaire on the
listening strategies will be a part of the data analysis. The qualitative data will be
gathered during the personal interviews conducted by the teacher during the
research period.
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3.5 Expected results and discussion
According to the null hypothesis aforementioned in this chapter no results are
expected to obtain. There is not enough data to set a positive hypothesis that
will boost the probability of an improvement in the strategy use and a better
performance of experimental group in the listening comprehension activities. A
great number of independent and dependent variables come into play. An
improvement in listening skills that leads to obtaining better results in listening
exercises may depend on the students´ previous knowledge, nationality,
amount of exposure to input or any other variable.
The obtained results will show if any statistically significant difference exists.
As mentioned in the 3.2.3.Teaching listening strategies all through the history of
researches conducted in the field of listening strategies we can observe both
types of results obtained: results which confirmed the positive hypothesis
(where the training given to the experimental group brought positive results),
and no results (where the training given to the experimental group brought no
statistically significant difference).
Regarding the research questions, it is still unachievable to answer any of
them. It cannot be confirmed if the explicit instruction given to one part of the
class will be beneficial to students, and they will put the information learned into
practice or not. Neither can it be said if the reason for improvement in students’
performance (if any) was thanks to the training. The level of the listening
strategies can only be measured according to students´ questionnaires and
interviews.
The success of this experimental study will depend on factors which are
difficult or even impossible to control by the researcher. Factors like students’
motivation or state of mind in the moment of listening test or exercise
application may play an important role. However, in order to minimize the
factors which may affect the results, the teacher will conduct the listening tests
and interviews using the same routine (the same day of the week, the same
time, etc.).
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3.6 Conclusions and lines for further research
This research aimed to raise the awareness of the necessity of teaching
listening strategies (how to listen and understand) and not teaching listening for
testing (to focus on the right answer). That will help the secondary school
learners to develop the awareness of the use of listening strategies while doing
listening comprehension exercise. The methodology applied in this study aims
to show them a wide range of techniques to approach listening activities, both in
the classroom and outside in real-life situations.
In my opinion listening skill is one of the most important and needed in
everyday life. As aforementioned it is a skill which we use unconsciously in our
native language, but which we have to develop in a foreign language. I believe
that listening skill is also influential in the process of communication. If we are
not able to understand what our speaker wants to say, it may result very difficult
to answer in a correct way.
Although this study has lacked specific data and results, further research can
be done in relation to the use of listening strategies use outside the classroom.
Do students apply their knowledge outside the classroom? Can a student
develop to a proficiency level listening skill in classroom conditions? There is
still a great amount of information to be researched on.
3.7 References
1. Conducting action research in the foreign language classroom, Chamot
A., Barnhardt S. and Dirstine S, National Capital Language Resource
Center, New York (1998)
2. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Pearson Education
Limited, Harlow (2003)
3. Learning strategies and listening comprehension. A guide for the
teaching of second language listening, Chamot, A. U., Dominie Press,
San Diego (1995)
4. Learning strategies in second language acquisition, O´Malley J., Chamot
M., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1990)
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5. An introduction to foreign language learning and teaching (2nd edition),
Johnson K., Pearson Education Limites, Harlow (2008)
6. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition, Krashen S.,
University of Southern California (2009)
7. What the “Good Language Learner” Can Teach Us, Rubin J., TESOL
Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Mar., 1975), pp. 41-55, Teachers of English to
Speakers of Other Languages
8. The impact of teaching explicit listening strategies to adult intermediate-
and advanced-level ESL university students, Clement J., Retrieved from
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (2007)
9. Optimising learning: Implications of Learning Sciences Research,
Sawyer K., CERI (2008)
10. Listening strategies and Applications in EFL Classroom, Liao S., Keelung
Municipal ZhongShan Senior High school
11. Strategy instruction in listening for lower-intermediate learners of French.
Language Learning, Graham S. and Macaro E. (2008)
12. Improving high school English language learners second language
listening through strategy instruction, Carrier K., Bilingual Research
Journal 27 (3), (2003)
13. El diseño de actividades estratégicas de comprensión auditiva, Martín
Leralta S., Universidad Antonio de Nebrija
14. Listening strategies Questionnaire, Asian Journal of Educational
research Vol.3, No. 4 (2015)
15. http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/stratlisten.htm The National
Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC
ANEXO I - Unidad didáctica desarrollada
1 A Make it snappy, Games for grammar practice.
1 B CLIL worksheet
1 C The Killers worksheet
1 D ”Who am I?” cards
Michael Jackson Shakira
Sponge Bob Batman
Barack Obama Shakespeare
Einstein Donald Duck
Mozart Charlie Chaplin
David Beckham Justin Bieber
Leonardo DiCaprio Beyonce
Will Smith Harry Potter
Fernando Alonso Rafael Nadal
Santa Claus Hello Kitty
Iker Casillas Tiger Woods
Madonna Bill Clinton
1 E “6.1 Nothing´s perfect”, Games for grammar practice
ANEXO II - Research project
2 A 2nd ESO Listening comprehension test
2 B 4th ESO Listening comprehension test
2 C Questionnaire
Student name: _____________________. Class: _________________
Gender: □ Male □ Female Age………………
Directions: This questionnaire aims to investigate what learners do when they listen to an academic listening text in classroom. It consists of 23 questions and printed into 5 pages. Please read each item carefully and circle the appropriate description (1-5) for what you actually do when you listening to English.
1: means “I never do this”
2: means “I occasionally do this”
3: means “I sometimes do this”
4: means “I usually do this”
5: means “I always do this”
Remember, there is no right or wrong answers to these items. The information you give will be used for research purposes only. Thank you for your co-operation.
Memory listening strategies When hearing a new word, I connect the sound of the new word and an image or picture on the word to help me remember the word.
1 2 3 4 5
1. never 2. occasionally 3. sometimes 4. usually 5. always
I remember new English words or phrases what has been heard by remembering their location.
1 2 3 4 5
I think of relationship between what I already know and new things I hear in English
1 2 3 4 5
Cognitive listening strategies While listening , I pay attention to English patterns to understand the text better.
1 2 3 4 5
I look for words in my own language that are similar to new words in English that have been heard to help me understand better.
1 2 3 4 5
First, I focus to listen for main ideas, then for detail ideas.
1 2 3 4 5
While listening, I write notes, messages, down my notebook before giving an answer.
1 2 3 4 5
I pay attention to starting conversations in an English listening text to guess its meaning.
1 2 3 4 5
While listening, I try to translate words into Vietnamese to understand better.
1 2 3 4 5
1. never 2. occasionally 3. sometimes 4. usually 5. always
I repeat English words which I do not understand several times
1 2 3 4 5
. I try to make summaries of information that I hear to understand the whole text.
1 2 3 4 5
Compensation listening strategies . To understand unfamiliar words I hear, I make guesses
1 2 3 4 5
. While listening, I use situational context (e.g. noise, speaker’s voice,…) in order to understand the text better.
1 2 3 4 5
Metacognitive listening strategies . While listening, I consciously pay attention to information I need.
1 2 3 4 5
. When listening, I had clear goals (listen for main ideas, listen for detail ideas or listen for identifying speakers’ attitudes )
1 2 3 4 5
. I think I am able to finish tasks in the listening 1 2 3 4 5
. While listening, I notice the mistakes which I had from listening texts and use that information to help me do better.
1 2 3 4 5
1. never 2. occasionally 3. sometimes 4. usually 5. always
Affective listening strategies . I encourage myself to concentrate on listening English even when I can’t hear anything.
1 2 3 4 5
. I notice if I am tense or nervous while listening 1 2 3 4 5
. I share my feeling with my friends when I am listening English
1 2 3 4 5 . I try to keep calm and not be nervous while listening.
1 2 3 4 5 Social listening strategies
. I ask the teacher for clarification what I do not understand.
1 2 3 4 5
. When listening, I exchange the information with friends to help me understand the text better.
1 2 3 4 5
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