OUR PROPOSAL

Taking into account all the aspects indicated in the previous entries, my working group has prepared the following proposal:

https://edit.genial.ly/5ce271f754bdc10f6b14706e

FROM EUROPE TO PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION IN GALICIA

ENGLISH IN PRESCHOOLS IN GALICIA

The Galician educational legislation specifies different aspects in relation to the foreign language. In this sense, as has already been pointed out in an earlier entry in this blog, the teaching of a foreign language implies the incorporation of a third language into a bilingual reality.

The references to the foreign language within the Infantile Education appear fundamentally in the Decree and in the Order of Evaluation specific of these educations.

DECRETO 330/2009

In its Annexed focused on Languages: Communication and representation area of the Second Cycle of Preschool Education are included:

• Goals. Beginning in the oral use of a foreign language to communicate in contextualized activities and show interest and joy when participating in these communicative exchanges.

• Contents. Interest for participating in oral interactions in a foreign language, in routines and usual communication situations, showing a positive attitude towards this language.

• Evaluation criteria.  Show a positive attitude towards learning a foreign language, interested in participating in oral interactions in routines, games and usual communication situations.

ORDEN DEL 25 DE JUNIO DE 2009

This order focuses on organizational aspects and includes a methodological guidelines to carry out the teaching of English in the classrooms of Preschool Education.

ORGANIZATIONAL ASPECTS
Weekly schedule. 
The teaching of a foreign language will be one hour per week for each of the courses of the second cycle of early childhood education.

The teaching of the foreign language.

• Schools will carry out activities that involve an approach to the foreign language whose methodological guidelines are those contemplated in Annex V of this order.
• Each school will specify the distribution of the foreign language hour, which in no case will be in a single weekly period.

Specialist teaching staff.

• The teachings of foreign language and religion will be taught by professors with the corresponding specialization or qualification.
• Specialized teachers who teach a foreign language will participate in the development of the programming of the language area: communication and representation in those aspects of the programming related to the foreign language.

METHODOLOGICAL GUIDELINES

• The early introduction of foreign or additional languages ​​must be understood in relation to the educational context in which it takes place. English is the third language in our multilingual education system.
• English must be taught using a globalized approach based on tasks and projects, integrating their teaching with the knowledge areas established for this educational stage, working and developing basic competences.
• English teacher must act as a mediator, creating communication dynamics in real and functional contexts, creating an environment in which students feel pleasure to listen an participate, avoiding the risk of getting tired or inhibited. 
• Strategies: experimentation and learning by doing, imitation and repetition of sounds, words and meaningful statements always with a playful intention.
• TPR (by Dr. James J. Asher, it is a language teaching built around the coordination of speech an actions; it attempts to teach language through physical -motor- activity). 

FROM EUROPE TO PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION IN GALICIA

ENGLISH IN  PRESCHOOLS IN SPAIN 

Spanish education legislation introduces the teaching of the first foreign language from the Second Cycle of Preschool Education:

The LOE-LOMCE into its Article 14, Organization and pedagogical principles points that it is up to the educational authorities to promote a first approach to the foreign language in the second cycle of early childhood education, especially in the last year.

The R.D. 1630/1992 in its Annexed focused on Languages: Communication and representation area of the Second Cycle of Preschool Education are included:

• Description: It is necessary to develop positive attitudes towards one´s own languages and that of others, awakening sensitivity and curiosity to know other languages. In the introduction of a foreign language, this curiosity and progressive approach to the meanings of messages in known communication contexts will be valued, fundamentally in the usual classroom routines.

• Goals. Understand the intentions and messages of other children and adults, adopting a positive attitude towards the language, both their own and foreign.

• Contents. Listening, speaking and conversation: interest in participating in oral interactions in a foreign language in routines and communication situations.

FROM EUROPE TO PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION IN GALICIA

THE COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE

The Common European Framework of Reference provides a common basis for the development of language programs, curricular guidance, etc, throughout Europe. 

It describes in an integrating way what the students of languages have to learn to do in order to use a language to communicate, as well as the knowledge and skills that they have to develop in order to act effectively. The description also includes the cultural context where the language is located.

The lowest level of the Common European Framework of Reference is Basic user, which is our reference to introduce English in preschool education. This basic level is divided into two sub-levels: A1 and A2.

A1 user is able to understand and use everyday expressions of very frequent use, as well as simple phrases designed to meet immediate needs. She/he can present herself/himself and others, ask for and give basic personal information about his/her belongings and the people he/she knows. She/he cand relate in an elementary way as long as her/his interlocutor speaks slowly and clearly and is willing to cooperate.

A2 user is able to understand phrases and expressions of frequent use related to areas of experience that are especially relevant to her/him (basic information about herself/himself and her/his family, purchases, places of interest, etc.). Knows how to communicate when carrying out simple and daily tasks that do not require more than simple and direct exchanges of information on issues that are known or usual. Can describe in simple terms aspects of their past and their environment, as well as issues related to their immediate needs.

ENGLISH AS  THE THIRD LANGUAGE IN GALICIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM

The spread of English as a lingua franca in Europe has promoted the acquisition of English language as a second language for the majority of European countries, but there are many situations where it is learned as a third language. For instance in  Spain, language policies include bilingual programs as well as foreign language programs which encourage the acquisition of a third language starting at the preschool level. This can be the case of our Autonomous Community, Galicia.

As it is said in Annex V of ORDEN de 25 de junio de 2009 por la que se regula la implantación, el desarrollo y la evaluación del segundo ciclo de la educación infantil en la Comunidad Autónoma de Galicia:

"The early introduction of foreign or additional languages must be understood in relation to the educational context in which it takes place. English is the third language in our

multilingual education system".

METHODOLOGY: TASK-BASED LEARNING TEACHING (TBLT)

Through history, different methodologies have been applied for the teaching of foreign languages. Currently, one of the most used is Task-Based Learning Teaching (TBLT). 

TBLT is a teaching approach that is based on the use of communicative and interactive tasks in order to plan an deliver instruction. Task-based language teaching is an extension of the characteristics of communicative language teaching and an attempt by its supporters to apply principles of L2 to teaching.

TBLT, in line with social- constructivist views on learning in general, regards language learning as an active process that can only be successful if the learner invests an intensive mental effort in performing tasks. It also regards learning as an interactive process that can be enhanced by interacting with other learners and/or the teacher.

The seven principles of TBLT are:

1. SCAFFOLDING

Lessons and materials should provide supporting frameworks within which the learning takes place. At the beginning of the learning process, learners should not be expected to produce language that has not been introduced either explicitly or implicitly.

2. TASK DEPENDENCY

Within a lesson, one task should grow out of, and build upon, the ones that have gone before. The task dependency principle is illustrated in the instructional sequence above which shows how each task exploits and builds on the one that has gone before.

3. RECYCLING

Recycling language maximizes opportunities for learning and activates the ‘organic’ learning principle.

4. ACTIVE LEARNING

Learners learn best by actively using the language they are learning.

5. INTEGRATION

Learners should be taught in ways that make clear the relationships between linguistic form, communicative function, and semantic meaning.

6. REPRODUCTION TO CREATION

Learners should be encouraged to move from reproductive to creative language use.

7. REFLECTION

Learners should be given opportunities to reflect on what they have learned and how well they are doing.

WHAT IS A TASK IN TBLT?

Nowadays, the most commonly used and widely accepted definition of a task is that of language activity in which there is a focus on meaning over form. This type of task is often referred to as a communicative task; it does not include, for example, translation tasks or grammar-based exercises. In spite of the increasing number of publications on TBLT, there is no consensus regarding the definition of the task. A task has been defined in many different ways:

“Task is a work plan, involves a primary focus on meaning, involves real-world processes of language use, can involve any of the four language skills, engages cognitive processes, has a clearly defined communicative outcome”  

Rod Ellis.

“A communicative task is a piece of classroom work that involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is focused on mobilizing their grammatical knowledge in order to express meaning, and in which the intention is to convey meaning rather than to manipulate form. The task should also have a sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a communicative act in its own right with a beginning, a middle and an end”.

David Nunan.

Despite the multiplicity of definitions of a task, researchers agree that for a language teaching activity to be acknowledged as a task it must meet the following criteria:

- Tasks are things that people do and that they are goal-directed.

- A task should facilitate meaningful interaction and offer the learner sufficient opportunity to process meaningful input and produce meaningful output in order to facilitate language acquisition.

- The primary focus should be on meaning; that is, learners must be mainly concerned with processing the semantic and pragmatic meaning of utterances.

- Tasks should result in a kind of language use that resembles that in the outside world.

- There should be some kind of gap, i.e. a need to convey information or to express an opinion.

- There should be an emphasis on learner activity. Learners are asked to work to reach certain goals and to make functional use of language in order to do so.

- Learners should largely have to rely on their own resources (linguistic and non- linguistic) in order to complete the task.

- There is a clearly defined outcome other than the use of language. In this way, the language serves as the means for achieving the outcome, not as an end in its own right.

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This blog aims to show my work in Research and innovation in didactics of English language and literature,  subject of the Master in research and educational innovation in Nursery and Primary Education at the University of Vigo.

My entries in this blog will be focused, above all, on different aspects of preschool education, educational level in which I teach.

English is not my mother tongue, so I apologize in advance for the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors that may appear. I will try to do my best!!