1muestra TM Inglespr PDF

Temario de oposiciones
INGLÉS Primaria
Cristina Rodríguez Díaz

Temario de oposiciones de
INGLÉS PRIMARIA
Pura María García Pérez
Primera edición, 2016
Autor: Pura María García Pérez
Maquetación: Jessica Sánchez Gavilán
Edita: Educàlia Editorial
Imprime: SERVICECOM
ISBN: 978-84-92655-55-7
Depósito legal: V-3159-2016
Printed in Spain/Impreso en España.
Todos los derechos reservados. No está permitida la reimpresión de ninguna parte de este libro,
ni de imágenes ni de texto, ni tampoco su reproducción, ni utilización, en cualquier forma o por
cualquier medio, bien sea electrónico, mecánico o de otro modo, tanto conocida como los que
puedan inventarse, incluyendo el fotocopiado o grabación, ni está permitido almacenarlo en un
sistema de información y recuperación, sin el permiso anticipado y por escrito del editor.
Alguna de las imágenes que incluye este libro son reproducciones que se han realizado
acogiéndose al derecho de cita que aparece en el artículo 32 de la Ley 22/18987, del 11 de
noviembre, de la Propiedad intelectual. Educàlia Editorial agradece a todas las instituciones, tanto
públicas como privadas, citadas en estas páginas, su colaboración y pide disculpas por la posible
omisión involuntaria de algunas de ellas.
Educàlia Editorial
Avda de les Jacarandes 2 loft 327 46100 Burjassot-València
Tel. 963 76 85 42 - 960 624 309 - 610 900 111
Email: educalia@e-ducalia.com
www.e-ducalia.com
i ÍNDICE
THEME 1: Language as communication: spoken language and written language. 5

Factors defining a linguistic situation: sender, receiver, functionality and context.
THEME 2: Communication in the foreign language class. Verbal communication. 14

Non-verbal communication. Extralinguistic strategies: non-verbal interactions in
different contexts.
THEME 3: Developing linguistic skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, the 25
communicative competence in english
THEME 4: Assessment of the knowledge of foreign languages as a means of 37

communication. Interest in linguistic variety through the knowledge of a new language
and its culture.
THEME 5: Geographic, historic and cultural overview of English-speaking countries. 43

Didactic application of the significant geographic, historic and cultural aspects.
THEME 6: Contribution of linguistics to foreign language teaching. Language learning 50

process: similarities and differences between first and foreign language acquisition.
THEME 7: Oral foreign language. The complexity of global understanding in oral 55

interactions: from hearing to active and selective listening. Speaking: from imitative
repetition to autonomous production.
THEME 8: Written language. Approximation, maduration and improvement of the 61

reading-writing process. Reading comprehension: extensive and intensive reading
techniques. Writing: from the interpretation to the production of texts.
THEME 9: Description of the English Phonological System. Learning models and 72

techniques. Perception, discrimination and sound emission; intonation rhythm and
stress. Phonetic correction.
THEME 10: Orthographic codes in the English language. Sound-spelling relationship. 86

Proposals for teaching the written code. Applying spelling to written production.
THEME 11: Lexical and semantic fields in the English Language. Necessary lexicon for 94
socialization, information and expressing attitudes. Typology of activities related to
teaching and learning vocabulary in the classroom.n.
THEME 12: Essential elements of morphology and syntax of the English Language. 101
Elementary communicative structures. The gradual use of part-of-speech categories
in oral and written productions to improve communication.
THEME 13: History of didactic evolution of the foreign languages: from the grammar- 110
translation to current methods.
THEME 14: Methods and techniques focusing on the acquisition of communicative 117
competence. Methodological basis for teaching English.
THEME 15: Epochs, authors and literary genres suitable for instructional application in 126
the English class. Text typologies.
THEME 16: Children’s literature in English. Didactic techniques for listening comprehension. 135
Introducing and encouraging reading habits and appreciating the poetic function of
language.
THEME 17: Songs as a poetic and literary creation in the classroom. Song typology. 145
Techniques for using songs for phonetical, lexical and cultural learning.
THEME 18: Function of games and creativity in FLL. Definition and typology of games 154
for language learning and proficiency. Games as play an creative techniques to
achieve foreign language communicative competence.
THEME 19: Motivational and expressive techniques as a resource for FLL. Real-life 168
situations, role playing and storytelling. Group work in creative activities. Teacher’s role.
THEME 20: Foreign language subject in the official educacional curriculum. Criteria to 177
be reflected in the school educational project and in the school curricular project.
THEME 21: Programming in the FL area: planning units. Criteria for sequencing and 186
scheduling contents and objectives. Selecting the methodology to be used in
learning and evaluation activities.
THEME 22: Features to take into account when managing the English class: grouping 197
students, organizing space and timing, methodology selection and teacher’s role.
THEME 23: The elaboration of curricular materials for the English class. Criteria for 209
the selection and use of textbooks. Authentic documents: limitation on their use.
Students’ collaboration for designing materials.
THEME 24: Technological and pedagogical aspects of the use of audiovisual materials. 218
Computers as an auxiliary resource for FLL and proficiency.
THEME 25: Student-centred FL learning and teaching process: bases and applications. 231
Identifying motivation and attitudes towards English language: practical applications.
Prohibida la reproducción total o parcial sin permiso escrito del editor Página 4 ISBN: 978-84-92655-55-7
THEME 1
Language as communication: spoken language and written language.
Factors defining a linguistic situation: sender, receiver, functionality
and context.
0. Introduction
1. The origins of language and communication.
2. Oral and written language: differences and implications in teaching.
3. Factors defining a linguistic situation.
4. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT).
5. Theme overview.
6. Legislation
7. Bibliography.
0. INTRODUCTION
The main aim of ELT according to the Organic Law for the improvement of quality in Education is
developing students’ communicative competence. This implies adopting an approach based on
communication: The Communicative Approach. This approach considers language as a means
of communication and consists in providing the students with enough communicative practice to
develop their ability to use the language in a variety of situations. Although the communicative
competence not only refers to the ability to use the language, but also to aspects related to the
communicative contexts. The social dimension of language is also taken into consideration.
As I have just said, our current educational system establishes that learning a language in Primary
Education has a practical objective which is to be able to communicate in that language. But
communicating in a language is a complex activity that implies using the following skills with ease:
listening, speaking, reading and writing. Communicative competence is, therefore, acquired by
being competent in the four linguistic skills.
The title of this first theme is intended to imply the mutuality of both “language” and “communication”.
The definitions of each imply the other; that is, any definition of language must include a
communicative function, and it is equally impossible to define communication without reference to
a linguistic component. But it is communication that provides the more general frame of reference.
Language serves communication. Language is only useful or practical to the extent that it ministers
to communicative goals. This, as we will analyze through the theme, has some important implication
in language teaching, especially when we deal with foreign language young learners.
1. THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION.
1.1. THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE.
People use the way we speak to draw conclusions about who we are, and they act on those
conclusions. Language “marks” our identity and is the most important communication tool we have.
When we speak any language we are using a system of sound that have developed and evolved
over a long period of time. The language we learned growing up is called natural language. In other
ISBN: 978-84-92655-55-7 Página 5 Prohibida la reproducción total o parcial sin permiso escrito del editor
words, it is not an artificial language or one up made by humans for computers, machines or some
special purpose. Natural human languages are very technical and governed by rules, but on the
other hand, natural languages are sensitive to people and the communities they live in.
Another way to say it is that languages have both structure and function. Structure is concerned with
language as a specific and unique system of sounds that have meanings. It also concerned with the
sequential organization of words, which is called syntax.
The structure of a language is more formal and either never changes or changes very slowly. Most
people do not know very much about language structure. Just as we can drive a car without
understanding what is going on under the hood of the car, we can speak a language without
understanding very much about how a language works.
As people interested in communication, we want to know how language works. We want to know
how create new meanings, express ourselves well, recognize when we are manipulated, and to
know what language tells us about people and their thoughts.
1.2. THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE.
All cultures have a language origin story. Although the facts of the story are irrelevant and certainly
apocryphal, the existence of the stories and the elements they share are interesting. The sun goddess,
Amaterasu, was the creator of language in Japan. In China, the son of heaven was Tien-tzu, and
he gave language and the power of words to man. From these collections of stories and myths
come reports of similar experiences and behaviours. It is possible to interpret the myths as saying that
language accompanied reason.
Through the centuries, many scholars speculated about the relationship between language and
people. The question about language originated became so frustrating that some academic
organizations banned its discussion. Nevertheless, as we move toward the modern time, the study of
language was assumed to be a natural evolutionary process and not a gift from God. In 1755, Kant
explained that language was the result of gradual evolution and natural causes that influenced the
development of humans.
Many evolutionary linguists believe that all human languages have descended from a single,
primitive language, which itself evolved from the grunts and noises of the lower animals. The single
most influential theory of the evolution of human language was proposed by the famous linguist
Noam Chomsky, and has since been echoed by numerous linguists, philosophers, anthropologists,
and psychologists. Chomsky argued that the innate ability of children to acquire the grammar
necessary for a language can be explained only if one assumes that all grammars are variations of a
single, generic “universal grammar”, and that all human brains come “with a built-in language organ
that contains this language blueprint”.
Chomsky has championed the idea that humans are born with a built-in “universal grammar” which
is a series of biological switches for complex language that is set in the early years of childhood. This
is why children can grasp elaborate rules, even at an early age. He noted: “The rate of vocabulary
acquisition is so high at certain stages in life, and the precision and delicacy of the concepts acquired
so remarkable, that it seems necessary to conclude that in some manner the conceptual system with
which lexical items are connected is already in place”.
1.3. WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?
We can look up the origin of the word. Communication comes from the Latin communis, “common.”
When we communicate, we are trying to establish “commonness” with someone. That is, we are
trying to share information, an idea or an attitude.
Looking further, we can find this type of definition: “Communication is the mechanism through which
human relations exist and develop”. This broad definition, found in a book written by a sociologist,
takes in about everything.
In contrast, some people limit their definitions of communication, saying “communication is the
process whereby one person tells another something through the written or spoken word”.
Some definitions fall in between these two extremes. Carl Hovland, a well-known psychologist, said
communication is “the process by which an individual (the communicator) transmits stimuli (usually
verbal symbols) to modify the behaviour of the other individuals (communicates)”.
This definition describes what many extension workers hope to achieve. You’ll be trying to change
behaviour. Some object to this definition. Their objections centre on the phrase “modify the behaviour.”
They say there are numerous occasions when they communicate, in their family and social lives for
example, with no intention of attempting to modify behaviour. But, we most likely do modify others’
behaviour even though that may not be our intention.
2. ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE: DIFFERENCES AND IMPLICATIONS IN TEACHING.
A spoken language is a human natural language in which the words are uttered through the mouth.
Most human languages are spoken languages.
Spoken language stands in contrast to sign language and written language. From the point of view
of linguistic evolution, spoken is prior to written language. The writing system of any language is
developed or “invented” by its users to record speech when the need arises. Even today, there are
many world languages that can be spoken but have no standard written form. Writing is learned
later. For modern linguistics, spoken language reveals many true features of human speech while
written language is only “revised” record of speech. Thus linguists’ data for investigation and analysis
are mostly drawn from everyday speech, which they regard as authentic. Even from the point of
view of grammar, spoken language usually has its own set of grammar which sometimes may be
quite different from that in written language.
Sign languages have the same natural origin as spoken languages, and the same grammatical
complexities, but use the hands, arms, and face rather than parts of the mouth as their place of
articulation.
Spoken languages also stand in contrast to computer languages, which are distinguished by their
artificial origin.
The development of spoken/oral language normally occurs without formal teaching. It develops
as a result of exposure to spoken language. Problems with language development may not be
recognized for a long time unless the child simply fails to begin talking. Oral language is the basis for
learning reading and written language and for benefiting from instruction in other areas. It is important
to identify children whose language is not developing normally so that more specific stimulation and
actual intervention can begin as early as possible.
Some differences between oral and written language comprehension.
A traditional view of reading comprehension has been that it is the sum of oral comprehension
skills and decoding skills, the educational corollary to this belief has been a heavy emphasis on the
teaching of decoding.
At this point, we will examine some important differences between oral and written language. We
hypothesize that, while many of children’s highly-developed oral language skills serve them well in
the context of reading comprehension, additional processes are necessary for their understanding
of text.
Some of the more obvious differences between oral and written language are the following:
• the presence of stress and other intonation features in speech;
• presence vs. absence of shared spatial and temporal context;
• the predominantly interactive mode of children’s oral language;
• paragraphs structure in text;
• the permanence of written language and different syntactic;
• Discourse structure of conversation and text.
These intermediate points represent tasks requiring a partial transition from oral conversation skills to
reading skills. Two of the dimensions in this analysis are spatial and temporal commonality. Children’s
conversational experiences generally assume a shared spatial and temporal context. As a result
of this consistency, children may develop comprehension (and production) strategies that take
advantage of the fact that they and their listener are in the same place, at the same time and can
see the same objects, as well as each other.
Features of oral and written communication
ORAL COMMUNICATION WRITTEN LANGUAGE

• It includes many incomplete sentences. • It includes metalingual markers to mark
• Active forms are more frequent than passive relationship among clauses.
ones. • The syntactic structures are more varied and
• There is little subordination. elaborated.
• It includes repetition of the same syntactic • Sentences are usually structured in subject
forms, pause or rephrasing. predicate form.
• It uses less formal vocabulary, colloquial and • The writer can only refer to information items
generalized vocabulary items. which are known by the reader or those which
have been already mentioned by the writer.
• Production is more demanding than in
writing: the speaker must monitor the • The vocabulary used tends to be richer, more
addressee’s reaction to his words, while planning formal and selected.
the next utterance. • We can distinguish two situations that require
• Expressive possibilities. When speaking, we written language:
can vary the tone, the accent, and the speed of *The addressee is not accessible to speech
our words to underline the most important word because he is physically absent but he is known
in our speech, or to show our attitude towards by the writer.
what we’re saying. We can show our interest,
*The writer does not know who the addressee is;
apathy, irony or scorn.
he is both absent and unknown.
• Use of gestures and body language to support
the basic meaning of the message.
• Speech usually is less organized than written
language. It contains less densely information
but more interactive markers.
3. FACTORS DEFINING A LINGUISTIC SITUATION.
To communicate effectively, we need to be familiar with the factors involved in the communication
process. If we are aware of them, these factors will help us plan, analyse situations, solve problems,
and in general do better in our work.
Thus, in the English classroom it’s necessary to keep these factors in mind, since it is through small
communicative acts that we will introduce language structures and vocabulary. The communicative
approach s based not only on creating communicative situations in the classroom as models for
learning the language, but also on developing appropriateness.
I’m going to analyse the factors that take part in a communicative act and the pedagogical
implications derived from them.
3.1. SENDER AND RECEIVER.
They are the participants in the communicative act. The sender is the author of the message and the
receiver is the person or people to whom it is directed. In an oral communicative act, the participants
can see each other, like in a face to face conversations, or not, as in the case of a telephone
conversation. Gestures and body language will be more usual in a face-to-face conversation, while
a conversation on the phone will be full of expressions, which indicate that the receiver has no
problem in following the message.
In daily life, we are continuously changing roles as senders and receivers. In an English classroom we
should also try to vary the interactions, so that the communicative act is as genuine as possible. The
communicative approach, in fact, rejects the traditional pattern: teacher-student, and advocates
the creation of varied interactions (teacher-student/s; student-teacher; student-student/s).
3.2. CONTEXT.
Linguistics distinguishes between linguistic context and situational context. LINGUISTIC context refers
to the context provided by the linguistic system itself; it is the text –e.g. the words, phrases, sounds,
etc.- that accompanies the particular sentence. SITUATIONAL context refers to the place and the
moment in which the communicative act is developed.
The situational context will influence the language type that is used in a communicative act (e.g. a
family context, where the language is colloquial or a conference, which is a formal context where
the grammatical constructions are complex and the vocabulary is ample and erudite).
In the English class the student should not only be able to communicate a message; s/he should also
learn how to select the language form to use in a certain context. Students should learn that the
imperative is more informal, and that courtesy formulas are used in more formal situations.
In the English class role-plays are very useful to recreate a situation. Students imagine that they are
in a certain place and time, and they have to communicate in that context in an appropriate way.
3.3. PURPOSE.
The purpose is the intention of a message. Senders in a communicative act want something to
happen as a result of what they say or write. They may want to give some information; to express
pleasure or to apologize. The purpose will vary the election of the words of the sender.
When learning English, the students should have a purpose or desire to communicate. In other words,
they should be using language in some way to achieve an objective. The concepts of purpose
and desire have an important methodological implication: if the students have a communicative
purpose then communication will be effective, and they’ll learn the language.
3.4. TOPIC.
The topic is the matter about which the interaction develops. Topics can be varied: toys, seasons,
animals, family, food, house, feelings, clothes, sports, transports, etc. In order to have successful
communicative activities in the English class it is essential for the topics to be based on the students’
interests. If we use topics of their interest about which students can express ideas and feelings, the
communicative act will be successful.
3.5. MEDIUM AND CHANNEL.
The medium is the means by which a message is transmitted. As far as language in concerned,
there are 2 types of media: speech (phonic medium) and writing (graphic medium). The channel
is the technical means of transmission: phone, TV, radio, etc. The form of the message will change
depending on the medium and channel we choose.
A FL student should know the formulas and rules of use in each means. The cultural differences in
the use of the medium and channel are important, because their ignorance can not only cause an
inadequate use of the language, but also misunderstandings.
3.6. CODE.
The code is the communication system shared by sender and receiver. Language is the most
frequent code used. But there are also other extralinguistic codes, such as the facial expressions,
body language or intonation that we use to make our message come through easily.
Non-verbal communication is very important in the 1st year of learning the spoken language, because
students still have very little communicative competence. Facial expressions help the message to be
transmitted and understood.
3.7. FUNCTIONALITY.
We use language to communicate our ideas and feelings, but it isn’t the only function of language.
Linguistics have identified many other functions of language.
One of the most influential models has been that of the Swedish linguist Roman Jakobson, who has
found 6 general functions:
a) Emotive function. This is the expression of feelings and attitudes. The most common expressions
are usually: “Wow!” or “Oh, my God!”.
b) Conative function. This is used to draw the receiver’s attention. For example, a common
expression to get the other’s attention would be “Excuse me!”.
c) Referential function. It is the communication of ideas or facts.
d) Poetic function. This is the language used for aesthetic purposes (poetry) or as verbal play
(crosswords, word searches, jokes, riddles, tongue twisters).
e) Phatic function. This is based on the human being’s need for showing signs of friendship. For
example: “Good morning!”, “How are you?” are used as courtesy formulas or as ice-breakers.
f) Metalingual function. This is used when explanations are requested for clarification. For example,
“I don’t understand”.
These functions of language have the following pedagogical implications: the English language
teacher should not only teach the language for students to communicate their ideas (referential
function), but s/he should also teach expressions, phrases or interjections to help them maintain
relationships (phatic function), enjoy the language (poetic function) or to understand the language
better (metalingual function).
The British linguist Michael Halliday believes language exists to fulfil certain human needs, such as the
need to make sense of the world or to relate to others. His model of language is called functional or
systemic grammar. Halliday identifies 3 principal functions of language:
a) Ideational function. This function emphasizes language as an instrument of thought with which
we represent the world to ourselves. We use the language to conceptualize the world: language
refers to real or imagined objects, persons, events, etc.
b) Interpersonal function. This function emphasizes language as an instrument of transaction
by which we represent ourselves to other people. We use language as a personal medium: to
establish or maintain social relationships.
c) Textual function. This function emphasizes language as an instrument of communication
with which we construct sentences cohesively and coherently. We use language to form texts,
whether spoken or written.
Today, FLT has incorporated the functional and communicative potential of language into teaching.
Language reaching now focuses on communicative proficiency rather tan on mastery of structures.
Several pedagogical implications can be derived from this view of language:
• The language presented to students must be contextualized in realistic and natural situations.
• Students are expected to interact with one another through pair and group work in order to
experience communication.
• Syllabuses should be organized around the notions and functions that learners may need
in order to communicate successfully, such as expressing likes and dislikes, asking, identifying,
accepting/declining invitations, etc.
4. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT)
The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), also called Communicative Approach, appeared in
the 1970’s. The person responsible was Noam Chomsky. He was struck about language because of
its creativity, that is, the capacity to generate completely novel sentences, endlessly. He proposed a
theory of language learning and argued that sentences are not learned by imitation and repetition
but are generated from the learners’ competence. Learners, then, should be encouraged to use
their innate and creative abilities.
British functional linguists such as Michael Halliday as we’ve seen previously emphasized its functional
and communicative potential. They saw language learning as the learning of communicative
proficiency rather than the mastery of structures.
The work of these scholars had a significant impact on the development of a Communicative
Approach to language teaching.
The Council of Europe incorporated this communicative view into a set of specifications for a first-level
communicative language syllabus called “Threshold Level English” in the 1980s. These specifications
have had a strong influence on the design of communicative or functional language programmes
and textbooks in Europe.
Thereby, the main aim of ELT according to the Organic Law for the improvement of quality in Education
is developing students’ communicative competence. This implies adopting an approach based on
communication: The Communicative Approach or Communicative Language Teaching Approach.
Thus, the main focus of the CLL is on the development of oral skills rather than the use of the written
word and on the development of the so called communicative competence.
One of the main purposes of CLL theories is to help teachers to broaden their repertoires of techniques,
so that they can enable learners to communicate more effectively in a foreign language. That means
to suggest activities through which teachers can help learners to go beyond the mastery of the
structures of a foreign language, to the point where they can use them to communicate meanings
in real situations.
4.1. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE.
Communicative competence is a concept introduced by Dell Hymes and discussed and redefined
by many authors. Hymes’ original idea was that speakers of a language have to have more than
grammatical competence in order to be able to communicate effectively in a language; they
also need to know how language is used by members of a speech community to accomplish their
purposes.
Nowadays, Foreign Language Teaching in a lot of countries is mostly based on the idea that the goal
of language acquisition is communicative competence: the ability to use the language correctly and
appropriately to accomplish communication goals. The desired outcome of the language learning
process is the ability to communicate competently, not the ability to use the language exactly as a
native speaker does.
The linguists Canale and Swain expanded the previous description of Hymes, establishing 4 dimensions
or subcompetences of the communicative competence:
• Linguistic competence is knowing how to use the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of a
language.
• Sociolinguistic competence is knowing how to use and respond to language appropriately,
given the setting, the topic, and the relationships among the people communicating.
• Discourse competence is knowing how to interpret the larger context and how to construct
longer stretches of language so that the parts make up a coherent whole.
• Strategic competence is knowing how to recognize and repair communication breakdowns,
how to work around gaps in one’s knowledge of the language, and how to learn more about the
language and in the context.
4.2. COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES.
Communicative activities refer to the tasks and exercises that the student carries out for real
communication. These activities focus more on the message than on the linguistic features of
language. Children learn how to speak without knowing what verbs, adjectives or verbal tenses are.
The communicative approach believes that the practice of communicative activities will produce
the unconscious learning of the structures of the language.
A communicative activity must be:
• Interactive. Two or more people are involved in the communicative interaction.
• Unpredictable. A communicative activity must create the necessity and the desire to
communicate.
• Within a context. This refers to the situational context (place, circumstances, time, channel
used…) as well as the linguistic context (cohesion in linguistic forms and in vocabulary).
• Authentic. The language used should be genuine, that is to say, similar to that of an English-
speaking person.
4.2.1. Purposes of Communicative Activities.

It may be useful to consider what the teacher might hope to achieve through communicative activity
in the classroom, since this will determine his own attitude towards it and what place he gives it in
his overall methodology. Littlewood summarises, under 4 headings, some of the contributions that
communicative activities can make to language learning.
• They provide “whole-task practice”.
• They improve motivation.
• They allow natural learning.
• They can create a context that supports learning.
4.2.2. Types of Functional Communicative Activities.

The principle underlying functional communication activities is that the teacher structures the
situation so that learners have to overcome an information gap or solve a problem. Both the stimulus
for communication and the yardstick for success are thus contained with the situation itself: learners
must work towards a definite solution or decision
We can group functional communication activities according to the two main uses of language just
mentioned: (a) using language to share information and (b) using language to process information.
We can take the following activity, named Identifying pictures, as an example of functional
communication activity for sharing information.
Learner A has a set of four, five or six pictures which are all very similar in content, but contain a
number of distinguishing features. For example, the pictures below all show a living room but differ in
the colour of the curtains, the number of chairs, the position of the radio, etc.
Learner B has a duplicate copy just of one of these pictures which he has either been given by the
teacher or selected himself from a complete duplicated set. Learner A must find out which of the
pictures learner B is holding, by asking him questions about it.
5. THEME OVERVIEW
To conclude we will remember that our responsibility as teachers is to develop in learners the capacity
for communicative behaviour in the language they are learning.
Our aim must be to teach language for communication, considering that communication is not
a simple matter of acquiring knowledge of language items. Besides, the function of the message
and the factors that intervene in a communication act are aspects that must be included in the
methodology of the FL.
Somehow or other, we have to develop a methodology which will lead the learner to engage in
language use as a dynamic problem-solving activity in the confines of the classroom.
6. LEGISLATION
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001) which describes in a
comprehensive way the competences necessary for communication, the related knowledge and
skills and the situations and domains of communication.
The Organic Law for improvement of Quality in Education 8/2013 of 9th December, which is the
current education law in Spain.
The Royal Decree 126/2014 of 28th of February which establishes the basic curriculum of Primary
Education in Spain.
7. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
AITCHISON, J. (1996): The Seeds of Speech: Language Origin and Evolution. Cambridge Approaches
to Linguistics.
BREWSTER, JEAN et al. (1992): The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. Penguin.
BROWN, H. D. (1980): Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Prentice Hall.
CANALE, M. (1981): From communicative competence to communicative pedagogy. Prentice Hall.
HARMER, JEREMY (1991): The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman.
LITTLEWOOD, W. T. (1978): Communicative Language Teaching. Audiovisual Languages.
RICHARDS, J.C & SCHMIDT, R.W. (1983): Language and communication. ERIC.
RIXON, S. (1999): Young Learners of English. Longman
Webgraphy:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk
http://www.britishcouncil.org/
http://abcteach.com
http://www.english-zone.com
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk
THEME 16
Children’s literature in English. Didactic techniques for listening
comprehension. Introducing and encouraging reading habits and
appreciating the poetic function of language.
0. Introduction
1. Children’s literature in English.
2. Didactic application techniques for listening comprehension.
3. Introducing and encouraging reading habits.
4. Appreciating the poetic function of language.
5. Theme overview.
6. Legislation
7. Bibliography.
0. INTRODUCTION
The main aim of ELT according to the Organic Law for the improvement of educational quality is
develop their ability to use the language in a variety of situations.
One of the functions of language is the poetic function. This means that it can be used for aesthetic
reasons, for pure enjoyment of language. But listening or reading literary texts isn’t just a pleasurable
activity, it’s also a communicative activity in which attitudes, values and socio-cultural aspects are
transmitted.
Material such as stories, poems and rhymes are valuable teaching aids that will help our students
attain this communicative principle. They offer the teacher opportunities to encourage the learner
to acquire the language in a natural way. Thus, it is important to consider how to introduce different
types of literature to EFL children. There is an abundance of children’s literature to choose from so a
teacher must be very careful to research what s/he incorporates in the classroom.
Another objective established by the law is fostering students to read. The teacher will have to design
activities to initiate and motivate reading habits.
Through this theme, we will review children’s literature which can be very useful in the EFL class,
especially when teaching English to young learners. After analyzing some of the most important
guidelines to choose the right tittles and the most suitable texts for EFL classroom, I will propose some
approaches to use the main types of text for effective reading and language teaching.
1. CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN ENGLISH.
Children’s literature is a really valuable tool in introducing children to different cultures. It is a great
way for second language learners to share their different cultures with the class and experience
new ones as well. The high-quality books published for children, the visual appeal of their illustrations,
and the enjoyment their stories bring readers is a very good reason to have literature as the basis of
instruction. But literature as a basis of instruction goes beyond appeal of the book. The support begins
in the early literacy environment and progresses throughout the school years as literature effects
language development, reading achievement, and writing in literature-rich classroom settings.
Research affirms the benefits of using literature as a foundation of literacy instruction both in the
home and in the classroom.
Literature is authentic. It is not usually written solely to teach specific structures or vocabulary.
Instead its structures and vocabulary grow naturally out of the ideas, plots, dialogues, and situations
developed. Literature enhances language development. Reading and listening to a variety of books
increases interest and motivation in learning to read. The language of literature assists in language
development while children feed their “linguistic data pool” from encounters with stories. Exposure
to quality writing through literature leads to a wider oral and written vocabulary as a child matures
(Hancock).
Literature provides memorable contexts for the language. Text is much easier to reproduce,
understand, and recall if it is structured episodically. Literature uses characters and plot lines so
students are engaged cognitively and emotionally. Literature also demonstrates correct language for
specific situations. From literature ESL children can learn the skills of turn taking and what vocabulary
and structures to use in a new language.
Literature helps children connect to other cultures. Literature can expose children to new ideas and
different people and things in a powerful way. When literature comes from the students’ first cultures
it helps to connect between the familiar and the new. Literature can be a source of pride for children
by seeing their own values and traditions reflected in what they read. Literature often has universal
themes that any child can relate to.
Literature is a good pivot for critical analysis, discussion, and writing. Literature naturally encourages
children to interpret and draw their own conclusions, and develop their own opinions regarding
personal, social, and political issues. Literature can stir up strong emotions that lead to critical analysis
and reflection. Literature is a valuable basis for discussion, writing, and research.
1.2. USING LITERATURE IN THE EFL CLASSROOM.
Children’s literature can be defined as literature written specially for children; however, many books
that were originally intended for adults are now commonly thought of as works for children, such as
Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” and Swift’s “Gulliver Travels”. Often no consensus is reached whether a
given work is best categorized as adult or children’s literature, and many books are multiply marketed
in adult and children’s editions; an example of this is the Harry Potter series, which was published in
separate editions for children and adults.
Why Use Literature?

There are many good reasons for using literature in the classroom. Here are a few:
• Literature:
- Presents language in context. Contextualization helps learners to understand meaning and
promotes the learning of vocabulary and structures effortlessly and unconsciously.
- Is a powerful resource for teachers to use as a focus for language teaching.
- Can be incorporated with several other teaching tools such as: the Internet, film, drama,
music, author studies, and writing.
- Helps children connect to other cultures. Literature can expose children to new ideas and
different people and things in a powerful way.
- Provides authentic language. It is not usually solely to teach specific structures or vocabulary,
instead its structure and vocabulary grow naturally out of the ideas, plots, dialogues and
situations developed.
- Encourages interaction. Literary texts are often rich is multiple layers of meaning, and can be
effectively mined for discussions and sharing feelings or opinions.
- Expands language awareness. Asking learners to examine sophisticated or non standard
examples of language (which can occur in literary texts) makes them more aware of the
norms of language use (Widdowson).
- Educates the whole person. By examining values in literary texts, teachers encourage learners
to develop attitudes towards them. These values and attitudes relate to the world outside the
classroom.
- Is motivating, because it is close to students’ interests, and are a source of enjoyment and
pleasure.
- Is a good pivot for critical analysis, discussion and writing. Literature naturally encourages
children to interpret and draw their own conclusions, and develop their own opinions regarding
personal, social, and political issues.
Different Models Of Teaching Literature In Class

There have been different models suggested on the teaching of literature to EFL students (Carter &
Long). How the teacher will use a literary text depends on the model they choose.
• The cultural model views a literary text as a product. This means that it is treated as a source of
information about the target culture. It is the most traditional approach, teacher-centred.
• The language model aims to be more learner-centred. As learners proceed through a text, they
pay attention to the way language is used.
• The personal growth model is also a process-based approach and tries to be more learner-
centred. This model encourages learners to draw on their own opinions, feelings and personal
experiences.
Suitable Texts For The EFL Class

Some of the most well-known Reading Projects developed criteria for selecting appropriate texts,
and exemplified these criteria through some booklists and through different teaching sequences.
Four categories of texts are included in the booklist: picture books, traditional tales, poetry and fiction.
• Picture books: Good picture books have an extra dimension that stimulates a child’s imagination:
the text and pictures work together to tell the whole story.
• Traditional tales: Folk tales have a particularly important role to play in developing children’s
narrative education. Such stories link the oral tradition of storytelling with the literary styles and
rhythms of written language.
• Poetry. It can be poetry written in verse such as nursery rhymes, humorous rhymes and riddles.
• Fiction: Fiction is above all the genre that lets us enter many different lives and worlds, and itself
contains many genres, from realism to fantasy, from mysteries to graphic novels. Unfortunately
the choice of international fiction available to children in the primary school is much narrower
than it is for older students.
Brief historical children’s literature background:

Once the concept of children’s literature and the suitable texts for the EFL class have been state, a
historical background must be provided, in order to show the development of the children’s literature
within literature in English.
Because of the difficulty in defining children’s literature, it is also difficult to trace the history of children’s
literature to precise starting point. Children’s literature emerged as an independent genre only
two centuries ago. Prior to the mid-18th century, books were rarely created specifically for children,
and children’s reading was generally confined to literature intended for their education and moral
edification rather than for their amusement. Religious works, grammar books, and “courtesy books”
(which offered instruction on proper behaviour) were the only books directed at children.
By the early 18th century interest in children’s literature (and a rise in ilteracy) led to new markets
and a flourishing of new publishers, particularly in England. The 18th century saw the translation into
English of the classic fairy tales such as “Cinderella” and “Little Red Riding Hood” and the beginnings
of the English novel with Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” and Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver Travels”.
While these may not have been written specifically for a young audience, the adventure stories
appealed to readers of all ages.
Newbery’s 1744 publication of “A Little Pocket-Book” is considered a landmark fot eh beginning of
pleasure reading marketed specifically to children.
The 19th century witnessed the institutionalization of the idea of childhood as a period distinct from
adulthood. During this century, many of the classics of children’s literature in English appeared,
including Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women”,
Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”, Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry fin”, and
Rudyard Kipling’s “Jungle Book”. This period also saw the emergence of the picture book, in which
the illustrations – and the artist’s vision – were at least as important as the text.
The contributions and innovations of the 19th century continued into the 20th century, achieving a
distinct place in literature for children’s books. Children’s books have become very popular in this
century; this is due to major changes in both the marketing and content of children’s books. On the
other hand, there has been an increasing involvement of the parent’s in their children’s reading
process. This has produced a bulk of titles classified by genre, age and type that aims at fulfilling the
great demand of children’s books.
2. DIDACTIC TECHNIQUES FOR LISTENING COMPREHENSION (LEARNING TO LISTEN)
2.1. STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILLS.
Language learning depends on listening. Listening provides the aural input that serves as the basis for
language acquisition and enables learners to interact in spoken communication.
Effective language teachers show students how they can adjust their listening behaviour to deal with
a variety of situations, types of input, and listening purposes. They help students develop a set of
listening strategies and match appropriate strategies to each listening situation.
Listening to English is hard work especially for youngest students. In the early stages of their learning,
they will normally spend much of their time listening to the teacher or to tape-recorder materials with
songs, rhymes, games and so on. It is very important to bear in mind that our pupils will concentrate
more during a listening activity if this activity is meaningful, so storytelling appears as the perfect
alternative to develop this skill. If we want our students to engage actively in a listening activity, they
must be either interested in what they are going to listen to or they must find it useful. In both cases,
they must have expectations about the content of the listening text. Another important factor to
consider before dealing with listening is the students’ psychological characteristics.
The process of listening isn’t simply a passive hearing of sounds; it’s a complex active process, during
which the student should understand the meaning of those sounds by discriminating words and
phonemes, recognizing intonation, processing the meaning of the spoken chain… We must build up
their confidence letting them know they do not have to understand every single word. Recognizing
the complexity of what seems so simple in our mother tongue, we should train the learner’s ear
to understand stories and texts in English. Therefore, if we want to help them feel confident about
listening activities, we must also teach our children to develop specific strategies that will facilitate
their listening comprehension.
Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and
help the way in which input is received. Listening strategies can be classified by how the listener
processes the input:
 Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener recovers information from his/her
background knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language;
and this helps the listener to interpret what is heard.
Top-down strategies include: listening for the main idea, predicting, drawing inferences,
summarizing.
 Bottom-up strategies are text based; the listener relies on the language in the message, that is,
the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning.
Bottom-up strategies include: listening for specific details, recognizing cognates, recognizing
word-order patterns.
Other listening strategies are:
• Recognizing sounds (phonemes, stress, intonation…). These are called ear-training skills.
• Predicting what s/he is going to listen to. When one listens, s/he usually has an idea of what is
going to be heard. This expectation is very important in order to understand the message.
• Use their general knowledge about the topic of the story they are listening to deduce the
meaning of unfamiliar words.
• Recognizing marks of speech is an important part of understanding how a text is built up.
Sequencing words such as “first, but, and, or” offer clues about what is coming next in a text, thus
helping us to understand a sequence of events in the story.
• Storing information in our memory and knowing how to retrieve it later.
In addition of these strategies, if we want the students to be efficient listeners in English we must give
them enough practice in both intensive and extensive listening.
 Extensive listening: requires a specific search of sounds, words or facts within a context.
 Intensive listening: requires identifying the main idea of what the students’ are listening to, that
is to say, global understanding.
We as teachers must bear in mind these strategies when using listening activities in the classroom, but
it is also important to know when to use them, that is, in which stages the activity best fit. The main
listening activities are:
• Pre-listening activities: to prepare students for what they are going to hear and create
expectation. This can be achieved through prediction, vocabulary and grammar exercises.
• While-listening activities: must be matched with the aims of the exercises and the students
proficiency level. These activities may include true/false, gap filling, matching pictures, etc.
• Post-listening activities: to check comprehension and evaluate. Following on the listening
passage, a lot of activities are possible: extending lists, summarizing, matching with a reading
text, etc.
2.2. STORYTELLING.
Storytelling is an oral sharing of a personal or traditional story, told using the essence of the tradition
from which it originates. As a shared experience between teller and listener, it offers natural language
experiences for students.
Storytelling can be an enjoyable activity for both tellers and listeners and should be engaged in at all
grade levels. The teacher should model storytelling before expecting students to tell stories.
Storytelling allows students to internalize important aspects of story beginnings and endings, settings,
characters, and plot lines. It provides practice in expressing ideas in thought units, using colourful and
descriptive language, developing ideas in sequence, and choosing effective action words.
The speech abilities needed for storytelling are essentially the same ones required for all speaking
activities. Storytelling encourages students to experiment with voice, tone, eye-contact, gestures, and
facial expressions. It also lets them practise techniques for holding audience attention. Storytelling
encourages reading motivation and aids listening comprehension. It can lead directly to story writing.
Criteria for selecting literary texts.

Selecting the right book may be the most difficult, and most important, part of teaching literature.
According to Ellis, storybooks are carefully selected from the world of authentic children’s literature
mainly from the lists of British publishers.
Teachers look for stories that have gained an international reputation and contain rich and authentic
examples of English, as well as literary devises commonly found in children’s literature such as
repetition and cumulative content, rhyme, onomatopoeia, humour and suspense, etc; and which
allow us to implement a story-based methodology structured around the familiar three stages of
pre, while and post storytelling. We look for stories with high quality and varied illustrative styles and
illustrations which synchronise with the text to support children’s understanding and to develop their
visual literacy.
Therefore, we have to bear in mind the criteria for selecting children’s books to be worked on in the
English classroom. Teachers must take into account 2 types of related considerations:
a) With the children:
We should bear in mind their age, their level of English, their tastes and interests and prior
knowledge of the subject.
b) With the stories:
• The length and complexity of the story. Simple, short stories with repetitive language that
promote participation and encourage prediction work best for young EFL learners.
• Thematic content. The subject should be appropriate to the level of children, regarding the
educational contents, be interesting, motivating, easy to remember and familiar to the child.
We should also look for stories through which students can learn about other subjects and
cultures.
• Does the book look overwhelming? Type that is too small, or too many words on a page,
can intimidate young students.
• The level of vocabulary. Text shouldn’t be too easy or too difficult for the student’s level of
English. How much of it will be review for your students? If students know less than 75% - 80% of
the vocabulary, they may lose confidence in their ability to understand the story.
• Illustrations should be interesting, attractive and colourful and should help students
understand both the vocabulary and the story.
• Potential for follow-up activities. The text must provide a starting point for language practice
such as role-plays, practice activities, written exercises, etc., in order to reinforce vocabulary,
pronunciation and structures in a meaningful and memorable way.
• Finally, select a book that you think you will enjoy. It will be difficult to convince students to
be enthusiastic about a story you don’t like.
Guide for approaching storytelling.

Listening to stories are activities for global understanding. Children are used to listening to stories in
the mother tongue; it’s hard work, however, in a foreign language. The teacher must ensure that their
understanding is clear. Visual support, facial expressions, voice expression and gestures are essential
elements in storytelling. We must also build up their confidence by telling them that it’s OK not to
understand every single word. Here’s a simple guide for approaching storytelling:
a) Pre-listening stage:
Activities to arouse children’s curiosity and expectations:
• Identify elements in the pictures. Children can list the words they already know.
• Deduce from their observations.
• Reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures.
• Give opinions about their observations.
• Predict what they’re going to listen to.
b) While-listening stage:
The students are now ready to listen to the story. The teacher can play the story or read it out.
• Listening with visuals.
• Checking off items in a list filling in graphs and charts.
• Searching for specific clues to meaning following a route on a map.
• Completing cloze (fill-in) exercises.
• Distinguishing between formal and informal registers.
Using a recording has the following advantages:
• The voice provides a model of English spoken by a native speaker.
• It provides a variety of voices.
• Some recordings provide sound effects, which are motivating and helpful for the
understanding of the story.
If the teacher is the storyteller, there are other advantages:
• It allows closer proximity to children. The teacher can involve the children actively in the
story by asking them questions, for instance.
• The teacher can use gestures, intonations, repetitions, pauses, slow down the narration
to encourage them to predict what happens next or to clarify a language item, increase
expectations, etc.
• The teacher can alter his/her voice for different characters to help convey meaning and to
attract the students’ attention.
Irrespective of the way in which the children will listen to the story, the teacher will have to tell or play
the story more than once. Students love hearing stories over and over again. Furthermore, repetition
helps to retain structures and vocabulary.
c) Post-listening stage:
• Mime the story.
• Describing characters and places of the story.
• Role-play. This is a more difficult activity, since it involves the students speaking. The teacher
can adapt the dialogues to the students’ comopetence.
• Read the story out loud.
• Comprehension questions about the story.
• Pronunciation practice: practicing difficult sounds, intonation patterns, etc.
• Sequencing the pictures of the story.
• Dictation of words or expressions from the story.
• Drawings.
• Handicrafts. Students can create their own masks, hats or puppets, as well as models of
streets of forests inspired by the characters and places.
3. INTRODUCING AND ENCOURAGING READING HABITS (learning to read)
3.1. INTRODUCING READING HABITS.
Reading comprehension is of great importance for the LOMCE. It highlights the importance of the
reading skill in Primary Education as an essential content to learn. Therefore, primary teachers will
have to encourage the development of reading habits by teaching efficient reading techniques.
Reading instruction takes into consideration the general developmental needs of the students as
well as their individual reading abilities. When considering the students’ reading needs, it is important
to realize that all readers (ineffective readers, average readers, and proficient readers) differ
considerably in their interests, aptitudes, personalities, backgrounds, and learning styles.
Students have to develop reading strategies, so that they can make the most of their reading
experience. Reading strategies share some characteristics with listening strategies as they both are
receptive skills. The main feature they have in common is that reading comprehension is a complex
active process in which meaning of graphs should be decoded. But reading is more than the
decoding of written words into sound. Reading is a complex communication process which requires
thought and individual construction of meaning.
The reader is in a more privileged position than the listener: they can read at their own pace and re-
read the text over and over again.
Reading in English in the early stages usually remains at the word or simple structure level. At this stage
they’ll need to rely on visual information to provide a context for understanding the written word.
Useful activities are: spelling and word-recognition activities, associating the visual form with the word
and games. After students practice word-recognition activities, they’ll become more confident in
reading the written word without visual support. At this stage, we can ask students to search for
detailed or specific information through intensive reading techniques or getting the general idea of
a text through extensive reading techniques. Getting the general idea, which is called “skimming” in
reading, and getting specific information, which is called “scanning” in reading, are equally important
in both listening and reading. Reading strategies can be divided into 3 different categories: pre-
reading, while-reading and post-reading.
• Pre-reading strategies help students familiarize themselves with the topic of the story. One of the
main aims of these strategies is to create expectations and arouse students’ interest.
We should motivate the students by relating the topic to the students’ personal experiences or
to the knowledge they have about it. Jeremy Harmer emphasizes the importance of creating
expectations and arousing the students’ interests towards the subject matter of the written text.
• While-reading strategies help students check their comprehension as they read. The purpose for
reading determines the appropriate type and level of comprehension.
• Post-reading strategies can be considered a follow up work. The main objective of these
activities is to provide practice of the language. This way students internalize and acquire the
language of the text.
The ultimate goal of reading in FLT should be to enable the students to cope with a variety of texts that
are useful to them. We can use authentic materials or simplified materials that are materials adapted
to the learner’s age, level of English and interests.
In the following I present the types of text suitable for reading instruction:
There are six distinctly different types of texts that can be used for reading instruction, also in EFL
teaching:
• Wordless books, which text is composed only of illustrations or photographs (f.e. the snowman).
• Predictable texts, which texts utilize a repeated pattern of some type. They may be authentic
literature or created text.
• Controlled high-frequency vocabulary texts, which text is written specifically for beginning
reading instruction using a core of high frequency words that have been carefully introduced.
• Decodable texts, which text is written using words that utilize decoding skills students have been
taught
• Authentic literature, that are stories and informational texts where no attempts have been
made to control the words, patterns, or decoding elements used in the text. The text is in the
original form written by the author.
• Created, easy-to-read texts, that are stories and informational texts that have been written to
control the level of difficulty and some aspects of skill application.
Students should experience a variety and balance of reading materials during the course of each
grade. A variety of communication forms (literary, informational, and journalistic) serve as the means
through which students learn about language, learn to use language, and learn through language.
Students should also read other forms of written communication such as newspapers, magazines,
informational books and articles, and electronic information. All forms of communication serve as
vehicles for language learning as well as means of exploring ideas about life and human nature.
3.2. ENCOURAGING READING HABITS: ORGANIZING A BOOK CORNER.
The most obvious way of directing students’ attention towards reading is to have a set of authentic
and adapted books of different levels available for borrowing. A book corner in the classroom allows
students to look through books of their own choice, at their own pace. Borrowing books also provides
an introduction to the written word in English.
Jean Brewster establishes useful tips to set up a book corner:
 Displaying books with the cover showing; it will make the selection of a book much easier.
 Decorating the corner with any artwork done by the students, inspired by the stories they have
read.
 Getting the students to write comments about different books and to stick them on the wall. This
will motivate other students to read that book.
 Keeping a class record of books that have been read. At the end of the school term, students
can see what the most popular book is.
 Involving students in the organization of the book corner. This encourages the development of
responsibility.
 Devising a lending system. The teacher has to prepare a notebook in which students write their
names, the title of the book, date borrowed and date returned.
4. APPRECIATING THE POETIC FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE (learning to appreciate the poetic function)
We have already seen that the use of literary texts has many advantages in the English class. A further
one is the poetic function, the enjoyment of language. Literary texts enable children to be initiated
in the appreciation of the value and beauty of literary language.
Thus, we as teachers have to make students aware of the existence of the poetic function of language.
Students can become aware of the rhythm, the use of rhyme, special word order, alliteration and
other stylistic effects. Nursery rhymes, for example, contain a considerable variety of literary figures
that can be analyzed in the English class.
The poetic function of language is referred to those messages which recall emotions and feelings
that depend on the form rather than on the content of the message. We must ask our students to
obtain pleasure with books and to be able to value the literacy worth of what they are reading.
In order to do so, the reading experience must be something special for them, not simply another
boring activity aimed at developing grammatical structures.
If we want the students to pay attention to the poetic aspects of a text, we should select suitable
texts, such as simple short poems, prose passages with a repetitive structure, etc. However, we should
not forget that these types of tasks are difficult to the students and that practice will remain at an
elementary level.
Let us consider how to introduce the students to the appreciation of poetic language:
• Rhythm. Nursery rhymes have a marked rhythm and musicality, enabling children to grasp
rhythmic patterns. Rhythm is the first stylistic feature children will notice.
1st children are introduced to the type of rhyme they are going to learn, its cultural background,
key words, pictures related to the topic…
2nd children listen to the rhyme to hear the natural rhythm of the verse. They can clap as they say
the rhyme.
3rd children imitate the model verse by verse. First all at once, then in groups and later individually.
Also a group can perform the rhyme for the rest of the class.
• Rhyme. Children are familiar with the rhyme. We can now make them focus on how the verses
rhyme.
- Children look for the words of the verses that rhyme.
- They can think of other words that rhyme with the ones they have found.
- They can invent new verses for a rhyme.
• Stylistic features. Once the rhyme has been learnt, the teacher can explain the semantic effect
of the images expressed by words. The figures to be studied will depend on the children’s age.
5. THEME OVERVIEW
Literature is a cultural aspect that we should introduce in our teaching practice. In order to do so, we
should take into account the age and level of our students, choose a suitable type of text according
to the students’ needs and interests and most important of all, we should design motivating and fun
activities using communicative strategies.
All teachers need to be knowledgeable about the different types of texts described in this theme
and know how to use them to meet the varying needs of students. Multiple types of texts are needed
to accomplish the many different purposes of an effective literacy program.
Literature can be incorporated with several other teaching tools such as: the Internet, film, drama,
music, author studies, and writing. When designing literature based units it is important to use a
combination of individual, small group, and whole group activities.
Therefore, literary texts offer a great source of teaching possibilities, since language is presented
in a meaningful and attractive context. But simply reading a story out loud or reciting a rhyme
could be disastrous without careful preparation. If a teacher selects an appropriate text and plans
its exploitation carefully, s/he will be developing the students’ communicative competence and
purposeful receptive and productive skills will be developed.
6. LEGISLATION
The Organic Law for improvement of Quality in Education 8/2013 of 9th December, which is the current
education law in Spain.
Education in Spain.
7. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
BREWSTER, J et al.: The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. Penguin. 1992.

ELLIS, G., BREWSTER, J. (1991): The Storytelling Handbook for Primary Teachers. Penguin Longman
ELLIS, G., BREWSTER, J. (2002): Tell it Again! The New Storytelling Handbook for Primary Teachers.
Penguin Longman.
DAY, R. A & BAMFORD, J. (1998): Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom. Cambridge
University Press.
HARMER, J. (1991): The practice of English Language Teaching. Longman.
HILL, D. R. (2001): Graded readers. ELT Journal, 55.
KRASHEN, S. (2000): The Power of Reading. Libraries Unlimited Colorado.
MOSS, JOY F. (1984): Focus Units in Literature: A Handbook for Elementary School Teachers. National
Council of Teachers of English, 1984.
NUTTAL, C. (2003): Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language. Macmillan Oxford.
Webgraphy:
http://abcteach.com
THEME 17
Songs as a poetic and literary creation in the classroom. Song
typology. Techniques for using songs for phonetical, lexical and
cultural learning.
0. Introduction
1. Songs as a poetic and literary creation in the classroom.
2. Song typology.
3. Techniques for using songs for phonetical, lexical and cultural learning.
4. Theme overview.
5. Legislation
6. Bibliography.
Anexos (opcional: ver CD)
0. INTRODUCTION
The main aim of ELT according to the Organic Law for the improvement of quality in education is
develop their ability to use the language in a variety of situations.
Current research in the field of FLT states that students ‘motivation and interests are amongst the most
important factors when learning a FL. One of the ways of raising students’ motivation and improving
teaching effectiveness is the use of songs.
Traditionally, songs have been used as fillers for slack classroom time, rewards for rapid assimilation
of the day’s lesson or changes of pace from a routine procedure in a lesson. But his approach to
songs undervalues their teaching potential. Their usefulness is recognized nowadays by specialists in
language teaching, especially in Primary Education.
If songs are carefully chosen, they can help with learning and consolidating linguistic elements,
developing communicative skills, the appreciation of some stylistic features and the learning of
socio-cultural elements. All these elements are reflected in the current educational system, which
emphasizes the use of authentic, motivating and familiar materials in the English class for the students
to achieve communicative competence.
Through this theme, we will look at reasons for using songs and the criteria for selecting them, as well
as their typology and didactic application.
1. SONGS AS A POETIC AND LITERARY CREATION IN THE CLASSROOM.
When considering the importance of music, and songs and chants, one question arises: what a better
and quick way to gain knowledge and confidence in oral language than through music?
M. Rahman suggests that young children seem to be naturally ‘wired’ for sound and rhythm. Songs
are very valuable in developing powerful access to the new language by being enjoyable, fostering
confidence, and, increasing attention span and motivation to learn.
The enjoyment aspect of learning language through songs is directly related to affective factors. Music
has always been a way for children to remember stories and learn about the world around them.
Using music as a stimulus can affect one’s emotions and make information easier to remember. Most
teachers use songs that have connections with the structure or part of speech they are teaching.
They may reform a lyric or delete words to suit the level of ability. They can begin with different
rhyming patterns and other written texts.
The effects of music (including all types of rhymes and songs) on the emotions are commonly known,
but the effects of music on the brain and thinking are also demonstrable. Research has shown that
during an electroencephalogram (EEG), music can change brain waves and make the brain more
receptive to learning. Music connects the functions of the right and left hemispheres of the brain
so that they work together and makes learning quick and easy. Brain function is increased when
listening to music and studies have shown that music promotes more complex thinking. It can make
connections between emotions, thinking and learning.
1.1. REASONS FOR USING SONGS IN THE ENGLISH CLASS.
K. Schoepp affirms that songs have been part of the human experience for as long as we can
remember. Songs have become an integral part of our language experience, and if used in
coordination with a language lesson they can be of great value. Fortunately, with the expanding
prevalence of the Internet and specifically the World Wide Web into both the classrooms and lives
of students, access to music and lyrics has been made easier. This paper will focus on the reasons for
using songs by demonstrating their effectiveness as a learning tool.
There are two processes involved in listening, and both can be utilized when songs are used in the
classroom. The activity which is selected for a particular song will determine which of these processes
is active. Cullen (1999) states that:
The first is bottom-up processing where the listener builds up the sounds into words, sentences and
meaning.
The second is top-down processing where the listener uses background knowledge to understand
the meaning of a message. Practicing both of these processes is essential for developing listening
comprehension.
The affective, cognitive, and linguistic reasons for using songs which follow, are all grounded in
learning theory, and provide insights into the benefits of songs in the classroom.
 Affective Reasons
The Affective Filter Hypothesis is one of five proposed hypotheses developed by S. Krashen. Basically,
it is an explanation of how the affective factors relate to language learning. It is particularly appealing
to teachers because it provides an explanation to why some learners learn and others do not.
Teachers have long recognized the need for students to have a positive attitude in regard to learning.
Krashen (1982) explains that for optimal learning to occur the affective filter must be weak. A weak
affective filter means that a positive attitude towards learning is present. If the affective filter is strong
the learner will not seek language input, and in turn, not be open for language acquisition.
The practical application of the Affective Filter Hypothesis is that teachers must provide a positive
atmosphere conducive to language learning. Songs are one method for achieving a weak affective
filter and promoting language learning.
With the affective filter weak, Saricoban and Metin (2000) have found that songs can develop the
four skill areas of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Eken (1996) states that songs can be used:
• To present a topic, a language point, lexis, etc.
• To practice a language point, lexis, etc.
• To focus on common learner errors in a more direct way
• To encourage extensive and intensive listening
• To stimulate discussion of attitudes and feelings
• To encourage creativity and use of imagination
• To provide a relaxed classroom atmosphere
• To bring variety and fun to learning
 Cognitive Reasons
Songs also present opportunities for developing automaticity which is the main cognitive reason for
using songs in the classroom. Gatbonton and Segalowitz (1988) define automaticity as “a component
of language fluency which involves both knowing what to say and producing language rapidly
without pauses.” Using songs can help automatize the language development process.
 Linguistic Reasons
Besides automatization, there is also a linguistic reason for using songs in the classroom. Some songs
are excellent examples of colloquial English, that is, the language of informal conversation. The
majority of language most EFL students will encounter is in songs informal. Thus, using songs can
prepare students for the genuine language they will be faced with.
Finally, two studies, Domoney and Harris (1993) and Little (1983) investigated the prevalence of pop
music in the lives of EFL students. Both studies found that music is often the major source of English
outside of the classroom. The exposure to authentic English is an important factor in promoting
language learning. It relates directly to both the affective filter and automaticity.
If students are exposed to songs which they enjoy, more learning is likely to occur since they may
seek out the music outside of the classroom. The repetitive style of songs then helps to promote
automatization of colloquial language.
Furthermore, the theory on Multiple Intelligences developed by the American psychologist Howard
Gardner, establish that there are eight different types of intelligences. One of them is the musical
intelligence, that is, the ability to perceive, discriminate, transform and express musical forms.
Children with this intelligence like to sing, whistle, hum or create rhythms with their feet and hands
and they need rhythmic chants. Thus, songs offer the teachers opportunities of fostering this type of
intelligence.
1.2. WHY USING SONGS AND CHANTS WITH YOUNG LEARNERS?
According to S. Phillips, music and rhythm are an essential part of language learning, especially
for young learners. Children enjoy learning and singing songs and older students find working with
current or well-known pop songs highly motivating. Music and rhythm make it much easier to imitate
and remember language than words which are just ‘spoken’.
When talking about chants, we can say that they are like songs without music, or a poem with a very
marked rhythm. There are many different songs and chants, from traditional ones to specially written
material for young language learners. Traditional songs and chants often contain obscure or out-of-
date language which may outweigh their usefulness, but they do have the advantage of being part
of English-speaking culture.
Some songs are good for singing, others for doing actions while music sounds. Teachers can use
songs and chants to teach students the sounds and rhythm of English, to reinforce structures and
vocabulary, or as Total Physical Response activities.
To sum up, using songs to teach can save teachers’ time. Songs help young children learn information
quickly and accurately. Through songs, children store and retrieve information more quickly and they
can access this information over longer periods of time.
Songs can be an effective way of teaching children and can encourage them to become actively
involved in their learning.
There are some important reasons to use songs with this age group:
• Children like songs.
• Songs can be integrated into language learning - listening, singing and doing activities around
the songs.
• In many cultures songs are used to introduce or practise mother tongue with young children, so
this is a medium that children are very comfortable with.
• Songs are memorable.
• Songs often include a lot of repetition that helps to make language memorable.
• Songs contain chunks of language that children can remember and use.
• Because songs must be sung at a reasonably fast speed they encourage natural phonological
features like linking and weak forms.
• Children will be actively involved in their learning, even at a very young age, rather than passive.
• Children have energy and want to make noise. Songs will channel these natural inclinations
positively.
• Parents will enjoy hearing their children singing in English.
• Singing is a happy and stress-free activity that will add to a positive classroom learning
environment
1.3. CRITERIA FOR SELECTING SONGS.
As we have just seen, there are many arguments in favour of using songs in language teaching.
Songs must be carefully chosen four our teaching purposes – many can be unsuitable. They may
have difficult language, or have unnatural stress patterns, and sometimes words aren’t pronounced
properly to fit in with the tune. Here are some guidelines:
• Students’ age. The teacher must consider his/her students’ age. A 6 year-old child doesn’t have
the same interests or language competence as an 11 year-old student. Students from 6 to 9
years-old will be more interested in traditional and children’s English songs, whereas students from
10 to 12 years-old may be more interested in folk and pop songs.
English teachers must be aware of their students’ musical tastes, even though they might not
share them. In this respect Penny Ur stated, “students are unlikely to attend well to songs they do
not like but equally, the teacher should enjoy the songs s/he uses, otherwise s/he will not teach
them very well”. The choice of songs, then, will be based on a balance between the teacher’s
didactic aims and the students’ likes.
• Level of vocabulary, structures and functions of words. The songs shouldn’t be too easy or too
difficult for the students’ level of English, and the language must be connected to the course
syllabus.
• Potential for follow-up activities. The lyrics of the song must provide a starting point for language
practice, as well as the introduction of socio-cultural aspects. We must choose a song because
it’s suitable for teaching pronunciation, intonation, grammar, vocabulary…
• Authentic vs. adapted songs. Both types of songs have advantages if they’re carefully selected:
- Authentic songs. These are genuine songs in English, so the language has not been selected
or graded. They provide examples of “real” language and can be very motivating: children
can experience a strong sense of achievement at having learnt a “real” song.
- Adapted songs. They’re specifically written for the teaching of English as a foreign language,
so language has been selected and graded. They’re useful for pedagogical reasons, since
they adapt to the children’s level of competence.
2. SONGS TYPOLOGY.
There’s a great variety of English songs that can be used in the English class. We should choose songs
that:
• Contain simply, easily understood lyrics.
• Link with a topic or vocabulary that you are studying in class.
• Children can easily do actions (to help emphasize meaning).
2.1. SONGS CLASSIFICATION:
a) Children’s songs and rhymes. The songs of this section are all short, have simple grammatical
structures and reduced vocabulary, and most of them can be accompanied by actions or
miming.
• Counting songs. These are especially suitable for the youngest pupils, those from 6 to 9
years-old, since they enjoy counting and repetitive lyrics. Examples of these songs are “10
in the bed” and “ten green bottles”. They offer good counting practice, since it takes extra
concentration to count backwards. Pupils can act out the song by standing in a line and
turning round before everyone, one person at a tie, leaves the line.
• Action songs. The emphasis on actions in foreign language teaching has a positive effect on
the acquisition of the language. (In fact, the Total Physical Response (TPR) method developed
by James Asher is entirely based on the principle that language is learned through physical
activity). Examples of these songs are “If you’re happy” for practicing actions (the imperative);
“Head and shoulders” to practice remembering the names for parts of the body; and “This is
the way” to practice the simple presents, expressing routines.
• Traditional songs. These are popular songs. The teacher must choose those that fit in with
certain grammatical patterns, vocabulary items or stories that are being taught. The words
of these songs mustn’t be too archaic or too childish for the age group. Examples of these
songs are “Old McDonald” about farm animals, each verse introduces a nex animal and the
appropriate animal noise; “I am a Music Man” about musical instruments; and “Three crows”
about the crows that live in the Tower of London. Many traditional songs have connections
with historical or social events.
• Nursery rhymes. The origin of nursery rhymes is very ancient and obscure. Many of them are
sung, and they all have a humorous and nonsensical content. English children enjoy nursery
rhymes; they have a long tradition in England. Examples of these songs are “Twinkle, twinkle
little star” or “Solomon Grundy” , useful for practice the days of the week.
b) Jazz chants. Jazz chants are a type of rhyme with rhythm as an essential element. The beats
are clear and steady, and can be easily followed. The language is the natural language that
children use. The topics and situations are also related to children’s experience. They are meant
to improve speaking and listening comprehension skills, but they’re also a useful tool to reinforce
specific grammar and pronunciation patters used in context.
c) Songs for special occasions. These are songs that are sung only on special occasions or at
certain times of the year. They’re useful to give an insight into English culture. Examples are “The
birthday song” or the Christmas songs.
d) Folk and pop songs. These songs are more appealing to older students (from 10 to 12 years-
old). They’re from British and American folklore, and most of them have become world-famous.
Examples of these songs are the Sea shanties, songs with a strong rhythm sung by sailors when
doing their work; Western songs, these songs tell stories of everyday life and work through simple,
lively melodies; Spirituals, songs from the Southern of States of America where farming or large
plantations were the main industry, Negro slavery became widespread and profitable, so much of
the plantation work was accompanied by the singing of spirituals; and Pop music. Pop music can
be considered an internationally valid cultural phenomenon. English pop songs have become
known worldwide and many students might have listened to them, read the titles or heard about
the singers and groups that perform them. The problem with these songs is that the words can be
more difficult than children’s or folk songs. The teacher should then take care in choosing those
that are more appropriate for Primary Education.
e) Adapted songs. Adapted songs are written specially for the teaching of English. The words
have been graded to the students’ level of competence. These songs can be found in most
textbooks and foreign language teaching materials. They focused on lexical, grammatical or
phonetical aspects of the language. Examples of these songs are Alphabet songs or Colour
songs. The teacher can also invent his/her own songs, chants or rhymes.
3. TECHNIQUES FOR USING SONGS FOR PHONETICAL, LEXICAL AND CULTURAL LEARNING.
We have seen that songs are a valuable teaching tool to use in the English class. But we need
careful preparation to gain full benefit from the potential of a song. Preparation includes choosing
appropriate songs material, CDs, lyrics and so on.
The procedure in listening comprehension of songs should be:
 Pre-listening stage.
This is a motivating stage in which the teacher presents the song the students are going to listen
to. In this stage:
• Students can give a brief account of the song.
• The students can deduce the content form the title.
• The teacher can pre-teach vocabulary.
 While-listening stage
Students are now ready to listen to the song. The teacher should ensure the listening conditions
are as pleasing as possible.
How to introduce songs to young learners
• The learners should hear it first a couple of times. If we are not confident with singing then we
will need to find a recorded version.
• Once they’re heard the song a couple of times they can start to join in. If it is an action song
they can watch you us the actions from the very first time and join in with them as soon as they
feel ready.
• Sing and do the actions and emphasize the last words of each line.
The main aims should be:
a) Lexical level: meaning of words.
b) Phonetic level: pronunciation of the words.
c) Cultural level: knowledge of the cultural background of the song.
Thus, the techniques to learn the phonetic, lexical and cultural aspects of English through songs will
be the following ones:
a) Lexical level. In this level, the students concentrate on the meaning of words. Words are
combinations of sounds which form together to give meaning. A word is uttered in syllables, usually
one emphasised syllable (the stress) and the rest weak (unstressed).
Why are words difficult?
• Even when the same words exist in both languages, the number of syllables is not always
identical.
• Each English word has its own stress pattern, with very complex ‘rules’ to guide learners.
• Weak syllables are central to English, though students often find this hard to believe.
Moreover, focusing on these can result in over-emphasis (not weakening) of these syllables.
How songs can help
• Words in songs fit the music, helping learners associate the number of syllables / stress in
these words, with memorable rhythms.
• The relaxed atmosphere songs create can expose students to this difficult pronunciation
area, without their realizing.
• Songs contain endless examples of weak syllables, helping to convince learners of the way
English is pronounced.
In this level in the first listening, the students get the general idea of the song, what is called extensive
listening. In the following listenings, the students listen to specific words, what is called intensive
listening.
Examples of these activities are:
• Line order. The words of the song are all jumbled up. The students are asked to rearrange the
words in the correct order.
• Missing words. Some words of the song are missing. The students have to fill the gaps In some
cases it’s best to write the missing words in a box.
• Miming. Students are asked to mime the song or to act out its meaning.
• Pictures in order. The song could be played in conjunction with viausl aids (pictures or drawings).
These could be put in the right order.
• Guess the meaning. The teacher asks the students to imagine the meaning of vertain words. This
could be a group activity involving discussion.
• Multiple choice. The teacher gives out a text with blanks. For each blank, there are several
possibilities to choose from. The students underline or circle the correct form.
• Find out known words. Students have to find out words from a given semantic field (e.g. listen to
the parts of the body, school objects, etc).
• Spot the mistake. Students are asked to look for wrong words in the text.
• Listen and sort out. Children are given the words from 2 different songs mixed together, and they
have to sort them out.
• Appreciation of stylistic features. The analysis of some stylistic features will contribute to the
understanding of the meaning of words. It is also useful for initiating the students in literary
language and poetry.
b) Phonetic level.
We can use songs to focus on sounds. Sounds are the smallest unit from which words are formed and
can be categorised as vowels and consonants.
Thus, students can practice through the songs recognition and pronunciation of words. Songs and
rhymes are especially useful to focus the students’ attention on the segmental and suprasegmental
features. The segmental features are: vowels, consonants and diphthongs; the suprasegmental
features are: stress, rhythm and intonation.
Why are sounds difficult?
• As languages differ in their range of sounds, students have to learn to ‘physically’ produce
certain sounds previously unknown to them.
• Learners can find sounds difficult to pick out, and may not see the point in focusing on them.
However, incorrectly pronounced sounds strain communication, sometimes even changing a
phrase’s meaning.
How songs can help.
• Songs are authentic and easily accessible examples of spoken English.
• The rhymes in songs provide listeners with repetition of similar sounds.
• Students often choose to listen to songs time and again, indirectly exposing them to these
sounds.
Examples of these activities are:
• Ear-training activities. The children are asked to distinguish between certain sounds, or rhythmic
and intonation patterns. For example, the sense of rhythm can be developed by clapping as
they listen to the rhyme.
• Fill in vowels or consonants. The students are given words in which some vowels or consonants
are missing. They have to complete the words.
• Look for similar sounds. Students have to find words that rhyme in the song.
• Listen and repeat. The students repeat line by line. The systematic repetition consolidates the
pronunciation and memorization of the song. The imitation of the model can be first done by the
whole class, then in groups and later individually.
• Performing. Students perform the song or the rhyme in groups for the rest of the class.
• Singing. Singing for the sake of singing – singing to relax, without having to perform a task.
c) Cultural level.
Students learn the socio-cultural background of the song: history, culture, traditions, ways of life and
beliefs reflected in the song. This stage is also useful to develop positive attitudes and values towards
the foreign language and the people who speak it. The teacher can use these resources to help
students understand and learn socio-cultural aspects:
• Pictures. The teacher can look for or draw pictures that reflect socio-cultural aspects. The
students can also make their own pictures to illustrate the words of the song.
• Realia. The teacher can bring real objects related to the song to the class.
• Video. There are videos on the market in which our students can watch British children performing
children’s songs and rhymes.
• Make an English songbook. Students can make their own songbook, in which songs will be
classified according to their cultural background: Christmas songs, children’s songs, Western
songs, American songs, rhymes, etc.
• Discussions on the subject. The teacher and the students can discuss the historical, social or
cultural issues that may arise from the words of a song.
 Post-listening stage.
Further follow-up activities.
The teacher should design activities that encourage skill integration, that is, activities that relate oral
and written skills. After the students have listened to and sung the song, the focus can shift to other
skills for them to acquire higher communicative competence.
Here are some examples to consolidate written skills (reading and writing)l:
• Reading activities.
- Answering true/false questions about the song.
- Answering Yes/No questions.
- Answering Wh-questions.
• Writing activities.
- Writing a summary of the song.
- Writing a description of a character or a place.
- Writing new verses.
Applying new technologies to songs

The use of new technologies in Primary Education is an aim in the current educational system, as the
Digital Competence is one of the 7 Key Competences included in the LOMCE. Thus, Primary School
teachers must encourage their students to be familiar with current equipment, because an important
feature of today’s world is the development of technological resources and global communication.
Besides, the students’ motivation towards English will increase, because young learners enjoy trying
new things out. There are some suggestions:
• CD player. After the blackboards, the CD player is probably one of the most commonly used
pieces of equipment in the English classroom. It provides a model of English spoken by native
speakers; it also reproduces songs, melodies, sound effects… The CD player has a high quality of
sound reproduction.
• DVD set. The visual quality of DVD is high. It combines the visual and the auditory aids. It has a
further advantage: it provides the possibility of reading the lyrics in both English and Spanish.
• Computers. The use of computers is increasing so rapidly that they’re becoming essential in
our daily lives. Computers are an interactive audiovisual resource and they can offer a variety of
tasks when using songs: listening to songs from CD-ROMS or the Internet, looking for information in
web pages about songs or singers…
4. THEME OVERVIEW
Through this unit we have analysed the potential of songs as teaching tools. They are motivating
materials that help learners to practise the English language in an enjoyable and effective way.
If songs are carefully chosen and used, they’ll provide the learning of linguistic elements such as
vocabulary, grammar, functions…; the development of communicative skills, (listening, speaking,
reading and writing); the appreciation of poetic language and the acquisition of socio-cultural
knowledge. Therefore, the effective use of songs helps to develop the students’ communicative
competence, which is the final aim of the Organic Law for the improvement of quality in education.
5. LEGISLATION
The Organic Law for improvement of Quality in Education 8/2013 of 9th December, which is the current
education law in Spain.
Education in Spain.
6. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
BREWSTER, J et al. (1992): The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. Penguin.

GARDNER, H. (1993): Multiple intelligences: The theory in practice. Basic Books.
GRAHAM, C. (1979): Jazz Chants for Children. Oxford University Press.
MEDINA, S. (1993): The effect of music on second language vocabulary acquisition. FEES News.
National Network for Early Language Learning.
MORGAN BOWEN, BETTY (1982): Look Here! Visual Aids in Language Teaching. Macmillan.
Webgraphy:
http://abcteach.com
THEME 19
Motivational and expressive techniques as a resource for FLL. Real-
life situations, role playing and storytelling. Group work in creative
activities. Teacher’s role.
0. Introduction
1. Motivation in EFL.
2. Real-life situations and role playing.
3. Storytelling and motivating young learners.
4. Group work.
5. Teacher’s roles.
6. Theme overview.
7. Legislation
8. Bibliography.
Anexos (opcional: ver CD)
0. INTRODUCTION
As Dornyei (2001) notes, “teacher skills in motivating learners should be seen as central to teaching
effectiveness”.The issue of motivation, particularly in EFL settings, is so important that other
considerations about teaching methodology seem to pale in comparison.
t is important to think about motivation as the essence of language teaching because of the stark
realities of learning English for most of our students. All of the conditions that we know contribute to
successful second or foreign language acquisition are lacking in most EFL contexts: there just isn’t
enough English input in the environment, there probably aren’t enough opportunities for interaction
with English speakers, there usually aren’t enough strong role models promoting the learning of English,
and there may not be widespread enough social acceptance for the idea of becoming proficient in
English. Because of these adverse conditions, a learner has to have extraordinary motivation in order
to succeed at learning English.
Through this theme, we will examine different strategies and activities to motivate foreign language
learners and young learners all of them related to group processes and to teacher-students and
student-to-student interaction.
After examining motivation strategies, we will define the characteristics of the most used drama
techniques and storytelling activities.
Finally, we will end this theme up by describing teachers’ roles and some guidelines to organize
group work in the classroom.
1. MOTIVATION IN EFL.
Prior to analyzing some of the motivational strategies, it would be of relevance to say a few things
about the teacher/learner relationship. Whichever way we look at it, this relationship is riddled with
power and status. For many, power plays a large part in the relationship. The rights and duties of
teachers and learners are related to power. For example, many teachers might assert that they have
the right to punish those learners who misbehave.
In any social encounter involving two or more people, there are certain power relationships “which are
almost always asymmetrical” (Wright, 1987). Social psychologists distinguish between three different
types of power - coercive, reward-based, and referent. The basis of coercive power is punishment.
Some individuals or institutions have the authority to punish others. The basis of the second type
of power is reward. Some individuals or institutions have the power to reward what they deem
appropriate behaviour. For example, business organisations reward employees with a salary, a bonus,
etc. The basis of the third type of power is motivation. In this case, individuals or institutions appeal
to the commitment and interest of others. In view of this three-fold paradigm, it is of importance to
concern ourselves with the fostering of learner motivation, as it is considered to be the most effective
and proactive, so to speak, power relationship.
According to Thanasoulas, a discussion of motivation and motivational strategies would not be
complet without a consideration of group processes, considering as there is usually a group of people
that we as teachers are called on to motivate. Tuckman established that a group went through four
stages from its formation, which has important implications for the study of the classroom and the use
of group activities during teaching.
• Stage 1 Forming: At first, there is some anxiety among the members of the group, as they
are dependent on the leader (that is, the teacher) and they have to find out what behavior is
acceptable.
• Stage 2 Storming: There is a conflict between sub-groups and rebellion against the leader.
Members of the group resist their leader and the role relations attending the function of the group
are questioned.
• Stage 3 Norming: The group begins to develop a sort of cohesion. Members of the group begin
to support each other. At his stage, there is co-operation and open exchange of views and
feelings about their roles and each other.
• Stage 4 Performing: Most problems are resolved and there is a great deal of interpersonal
activity. Everyone is devoted to completing the tasks they have been assigned.
Experience shows that almost every group goes through these 4 (or even more) stages until it reaches
equilibrium and, thus, taps into its potential.
1.1. A FRAMEWORK FOR MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES.
One central question in designing a framework of motivational strategies is to decide how to organize
them into separate themes. The following taxonomy is based on the process-oriented model by
Dornyei and Otto. The key units in this taxonomy are as follows:
• Creating the basic motivational conditions, which involves setting the scene for the use of
motivational strategies.
• Generating student motivation, which roughly corresponds to the pre-actional phase in the
model.
• Maintaining and protecting motivation, which corresponds to the actional phase.
• Encouraging positive self-evaluation, which corresponds to the post-actional phase.
1.1.1. Creating the basic motivational conditions.

Motivational strategies cannot work in a vacuum, nor are they set in stone. There are certain
preconditions to be met before any attempts to generate motivation. Some of these conditions are
the following:
a) Appropriate teacher behavior and good teacher-student relationship. Whatever is done by a
teacher has a motivational, formative, influence on students. In other words, teacher’s behavior
is a powerful “motivational tool”. For Alison, a key element is to establish a relationship of mutual
trust and respect with the learners, by means of talking with them on a personal level.
b) A pleasant and supportive classroom atmosphere. To be motivated to learn, students need
both ample opportunities to learn and continuous encouragement and support of their learning
efforts. Because such motivation is unlikely to develop in a chaotic classroom, it is important that
teachers organize and manage classroom as an effective learning environment.
c) Cohesive learner groups characterized by appropriate group norms. There are several factors
that promote group cohesiveness, such as the time spent together and shared group, history,
learning about each other, interaction, intergroup competition, common threat, and active
presence of the leader.
1.1.2. Generating student motivation.
Ideally, all learners exhibit an inborn curiosity to explore the world, so they are likely to find the
learning experience per se intrinsically pleasant. In reality, however, this “curiosity” is weaken by such
inexorable factors as compulsory school attendance, curriculum content, and grades.
Another ways to generate motivation in students are the following:
• Increasing the learners “Goal-orientedness”. In an ordinary class, many, if not most, students
do not understand why they are involved in an activity. It may be the case that the goal set by
outsiders (i.e., the teacher or the curriculum) is far from being accepted by the group members.
Thus, it would seem beneficial to increase the group’s goal-orientedness, that is, the extent to
which the group tunes in to the pursuit of its official goal. This could be achieved by allowing
students to define their own personal criteria for what should be a group goal.
• Making the curriculum relevant for the learners. Many students do their homework and engage in
all sorts of learning activities, even when a subject is not very interesting. Obviously, these students
share the belief of the curriculum makers that what they are being taught will come in handy. In
order to inspire learners to concern themselves with most learning activities, we should find out
their goals and the topics they want to learn, and try to incorporate them into the curriculum.
• Creating realistic learner beliefs. It is widely acknowledged that learner beliefs about how
much progress to expect, and at what pace, can, and do, lead to disappointment. Therefore,
it is important to help learners get rid of their preconceived notions that are likely to hinder their
attainment. To this end, learners need to develop an understanding of the nature of second
language learning, and should be cognizant of the fact that the mastery of FL can be achieved
in different ways, using a diversity of strategies, and a key factor is for learners to discover for
themselves the optimal methods and techniques.
1.1.3. Maintaining and protecting motivation.

Unless motivation is sustained and protected when action has commenced, the natural tendency to
get tired or bored of the task and succumb to any attractive distractions will result in demotivation.
Therefore, there should be a motivational repertoire including several motivation maintenance
strategies. Let us have a look at 2 of them:
a) Increasing the learners’ self-confidence.
In an inherently face-threatening context, as the language classroom is likely to be, it is important
to find out how to maintain and increase the learners’ self-confidence. There are 5 approaches
that try to help to this end:
1. Teacher can foster the belief that competence is a changeable aspect of development.
2. Favourable self-conceptions of FL competence can be promoted by providing regular
experiences of success.
3. Everyone is more interested in a task if the feel that they make a contribution.
4. A small personal word of encouragement is sufficient.
5. Teachers can reduce classroom anxiety by making the learning context less stressful.
b) Creating learner autonomy.

Many educationists and researches argue that taking charge of one’s learning, that is, becoming
an autonomous learner, can prove beneficial to learning. This assumption is premised on
humanistic psychology, namely that “the only kind of learning which significantly affects behavior
is self-discovered, self-appropriated learning”. Benson distinguishes between 5 types of practice
fostering the development of autonomy:
1. Resource-based approaches, which emphasize independent interaction with learning
materials.
2. Technology-based approaches, which emphasize independent interaction with
educational technologies.
3. Learner-based approaches, which emphasize the direct production of behavioiural and
psychological changes in the learner.
4. Classroom-based approaches, which emphasize changes in the relationship between
learners and teachers in the classroom.
5. Curriculum-based approaches, which extend the idea of learner control over the planning
and evaluation of learning to the curriculum as a whole.
1.1.4. Encouraging positive self-evaluation.
Research has shown that the way learners feel about their accomplishments and the amount of
satisfaction they experience after task completion will determine how teachers approach and
tackle subsequent learning tasks. By employing appropriate strategies, the latter can help learners to
evaluate themselves in a positive light, encouraging them to take credit for their advances. Dornyei
presents 3 areas of such strategies:
1. Promoting attributions to effort rather than to ability.
2. Providing motivational feedback.
3. Increasing learner satisfaction and the question of rewards and grades.
1.2. MOTIVATING YOUNG LEARNERS.
Educate to motivate or motivate to educate? According to Lobo, M. when motivating children, we

are building up the way for their education. Of course this applies not just to the teaching of English
as a FL but to teaching in general.
A lot has been said about the importance of motivating learners in order to achieve good results in
class. Easy to say. Probably not so easy to accomplish. In the case of English one thing is clear: young
learners are very motivated towards English when they come to our classes for the first time. It is the
teacher’s responsibility to make that motivation grow. But how does motivation happen? What helps
the teacher to motivate learners? There are many complex factors that intervene in the process of
increasing children’s motivation in class.
We will concentrate here on the teacher as motivator of young learners and on the materials used
in the classroom by following Lobo’s suggestions.
a) The motivating teacher.

When dealing with young learners, the teacher becomes the key motivating factor that can make
education and motivation be very closely linked. The younger the children are the more relevant the
figure of their teacher is at all levels. Here are some of the features that will identify the motivating
teacher:
• Likes his/her job. S/he is ready to help the children grow personally, cares for children’s personal
circumstances, knows the children’s psychology, is patient, tries to be fair in all situations, caters
for different needs, abilities and capabilities.
• Is friendly. S/he creates a good atmosphere in the classroom.
• Is positive. S/he sees the “+” side of situations, tries to find a solution/alternative to difficult
situations.
• Makes her/his explanations easy to follow and understand. S/he uses language that is accessible
to pupils, uses all kinds of materials and resources to make input comprehensible to children,
speaks in a clear voice, is organized.
• Has a good knowledge of English, of useful materials for the class, of school life, of cultural issues.
b) Classroom materials and motivation.

The materials used in class will play an essential role in increasing children’s motivation. Whatever
materials we choose for a particular lesson, project, teaching unit, term or school year, those
materials must be varied, attractive, interesting, accessible, challenging, encouraging, surprising
and, ideally, the must lead the children to achieve some kind of outcome. Only by accomplishing
all these requisites will materials be motivating and therefore successful in a class of young learners.
Besides, in order to be both educational and motivating, materials must foster creativity and
imagination, they must cater for different needs, abilities and capabilities, they must help develop
general learning skills as well as social skills, and they must present good models of behavior.
We could say that ANY materials can be used successfully in class as long as they are carefully
chosen and used with a clear purpose. Among the most successful materials and activities with
young learners Lobo mentions the following ones: TPR activities, stories, games, songs, chants, rhymes
and poems, puppets, arts and crafts, computers, magic, drama activities, puzzles and problem
solving activities, and any other material that at certain stage can make the learning of English a
motivating memorable experience.
It is desirable that the materials used in the EFL class are presented in the form of teaching units in
class, not as isolated activities. Within a teaching unit, the activities and materials mentioned above
must be nicely linked and one activity must lead into the next so softly that children will not even
notice.
To sum up, learning English with young learners must always be a joyful, memorable, motivating
experience for the children in which the teacher becomes a key motivating element that makes
education and motivation be very closely linked.
2. REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS AND ROLE PLAYING.
Drama is a useful technique for developing certain language skills. It’s used after language items
have been presented to the students, during the communicative practice stage. Drama provides
our students with direct experience of what they have been taught.
Role play is a drama technique that provides the opportunity for students to develop and revise their
understanding and perspectives by exploring thoughts and feelings of characters in given situations.
It involves acting. Students take roles and pretend they’re someone else In a particular situation.
Acting in language learning is valuable because, in some way, we are actors when speaking a
foreign language. Role-playing makes students get used to performing in front of others, which is
what they will have to do outside the classroom. This technique will help them to overcome the
nervousness which this situations produces.The teacher may take a role, becoming an active
participant in promoting independent thinking and co-operative learning.
The difference between role play and drama in context is that role play is a strategy for exploration
and does not attend to structure or aesthetic concerns. Role play can be used to ending episodes.
Closure can be achieved through reflection or debriefing, rather than through a specific ending in
the role play.
There are 2 types of role-play exercises:
• Guided role-play: this is a controlled activity that can be used in the early stages, when the
students’ competence is not very high (1st, 2nd, 3th and 4th grade). The teacher provides the
language for the students to use. Students are asked to say the lines of a dialogue, but we have
to bear in mind that the activity would be quite useless if they simply read each line out loud: the
teacher must make sure that the students say the lines meaningfully and that they look at the
person they’re addressing.
• Freer role- play: this goes a step further, and should be used with older students (5th and 6th
grade). Here, the students are given their roles in detail, accompanied by useful language
structures; they can use the language more freely, although they’ll have some cues. They’ll then
make up the whole dialogue, in pairs or small groups.
Role play helps students to develop:

• Empathy as they examine others’ ideas, feelings and points of view.
• Oral expression and interpretation skills as they use language to describe perceptions, emotions
and reactions.
• Decision-making and problem-solving skills as they gain experience in independent thinking
and co-operative learning.
SOME OF THE ADVANTAGES OF ROLE PLAY TECHNIQUES FOR YOUN LEARNERS ARE:
• they help break down inhibition in children.
• They gets them moving about the classroom.
• Via the physical movement, their minds are stimulated.
• They gives children the opportunity to develop their imagination in a controlled and creative
way.
• They help to clarify meaning and use of target language in a creative and realistic context.
• They can often bring reality into the classroom; where otherwise would be just a dry exercise.
• It makes task negotiation fun.
• It encourages interactive communication, and risk taking.
3. STORYTELLING AND MOTIVATING YOUNG LEARNERS.
According to David Vale and Anne Freunten in “Teaching children English: A training course for
teachers of English to children”, kids start developing their identity as readers and listeners from the
age of 3 or 4, because they start constructing their world of meaning and imagination when they
are fist exposed to different stories of life. It is vitally important that we, as teachers, support this
development.
3.1. CONSTRUCTIVE AND CREATIVE COMPREHENSION.
According to Ielmini, P., storytelling is a kind of reading which requires children to be active
participants in the construction of meaning. Children get fully involved while listening to a story and
they also feel joy and satisfaction. As language teachers, we are always tempted to regard the
teaching of reading and listening only as a variety of comprehension activity but in doing so we
sometimes discourage children from becoming “good” readers of English. Using storytelling in class,
children develop a constructive and creative comprehension.
What constructive and creative comprehension implies?
When children listen to a story, in terms of comprehension response, they get involved in different
types of mental processes. Firstly, they create a mental picture of what they are listening to. Then,
they can imagine what is going to happen next. Children also identify themselves with the characters
and situations in the story relating them to their own experiences. Last but not least, children apply
their own values to those found in the story. Therefore, each child’s response will be unique because
it will demonstrate individual interpretation, it will relate to the whole story and it can be also discussed
and shared with others in class.
Making it happen.
We can choose a story or write one of our own. When we make the selection, we must think on the
age level and proficiency level of our students. We may use a well-known fairy tale, a scary story or
any suitable reader we find in the school-library.
3.2. STORYTELLING – BENEFITS AND TIPS.
What can storytelling offer?

According to Stoyle, P., children have an innate love of stories. Stories create magic and a sense of
wonder at the world. Stories teach us about life, about ourselves and about others. Storytelling is a
unique way for students to develop an understanding, respect and appreciation for other cultures,
and can promote a positive attitude to people from different lands, races and religions.
Storytelling and intercultural understanding.
There are a number of ways in which storytelling can enhance intercultural understanding and
communication. Stories can…
• Allow children to explore their own cultural roots.

• Allow children to experience diverse cultures.
• Enable children to empathize this unfamiliar people/places/situations.
• Offer insights into different traditions and values.
• Help children understand how wisdom is common to all peoples/all cultures.
• Offer insights into universal life experiences.
• Help children consider new ideas.
• Reveal differences and commonalties of cultures around the world.
Storytelling and intercultural understanding.

Stories…
• Promote a feeling of wellbeing and relaxation.
• Increase children’s willingness to communicate thoughts and feelings.
• Encourage active participation.
• Increase verbal proficiency.
• Encourage use of imagination and creativity.
• Encourage cooperation between students.
• Enhance listening skills.
4. GROUP WORK.
The classroom is not the best place to learn a language. It has space and time limitations that prevent
real communicative situations. In fact, it is outside the classroom where a language is learnt better:
in an English-speaking family or in the country where that language is spoken. The circumstances
surrounding a family or country favour communications: a great variety of interpersonal relationships,
plenty of time for practice, varied situations.
Group work has been introduced into the EFL teaching repertoire with the communicative
methodologies in the 1970s to come to grips with a particular problem. Group work make it possible
for the teacher to devote more time to the students’ oral production, which perhaps before had not
been a priority of the FL classroom. Thanks to group work, less confident students get the chance to
put their knowledge of the new language into practice in a non-threatening environment, away
from the critical eye and ear of the teacher. Meanwhile, the teacher is left free to discreetly monitor
progress and give help, advice and encouragement where and when it is needed.
Pair and group work are important techniques to improve the students’ use of English and they are
very useful in large classes, where students have few opportunities to participate. These techniques
involve the whole class working separately, in pairs or small groups at the same time. Using these
activities in the study and activate stages allow students to talk about their opinions, ideas and
interests; in fact, fluency is developed with this type of groupings.
In many classrooms, pair or group work may be a new way of teaching and learning, but the current
dominant theory on language teaching, the Communicative Approach, emphasizes the role of the
learner as an active participant rather than a passive receptor. All drama techniques require the use
of these groupings.
Dealing with group work demands just as much tact and sensitivity. The teacher may have to decide
whether to intervene to bring an enthusiastic discussion onto a more linguistically fruitful path, or to
stay in the background to allow the students to make their own discoveries about the language and
the best way to learn it. Should groups be of mixed ability, so the more able language learners help
the weaker ones, or would same-ability groups be preferable, so that faster learners can progress at
their own pace, while the teacher gives extra help to individual learners in the slower groups.
Like any kind of praxis, group work can lose its meaning if it is handled in an automatic and unthinking
way. It was developed under particular circumstances to solve a particular problem and it is not per
se intrinsically better than any other technique. No technique is the panacea of all our teaching
problems and its value should be reviewed from time to time.
4.1. ADVANTAGES OF USING PAIR AND GROUP WORK.
a) Pair work
Although it can be complicated at the beginning, pair work is a very good method to practice in a
lively way what has already been learnt. The main advantages are:
• More practice. If the students practice a linguistic form simultaneously, the time they spend
speaking is greater than if they had to speak one by one.
• It improves personal relationships. Relationships within partners improve thanks to communicative
interaction: they get to know each other better, they can share their knowledge and they have
the opportunity to help each other.
• Similarity with real life. The situation of being face to face with a speaker is more similar to real
life than being asked by the teacher all the time.
• Increased self-confidence. Pair work increases self-confidence in the student because they
don’t feel any pressure from the teacher. In general, the student feels more relaxed when speaking
with a partner, thus achieving greater fluency.
Pair work also presents problems: more noise, loss of time during organization, impossibility of correcting
all couples, risk of them using their mother tongue, etc. – but, all in all, the advantages of pair work
outweigh the disadvantages.
b) Group work
If students are used to pair work, they will have had great training for working in groups. In group work
there’s three participants or more involved in an activity – this is ideal for activities of freer production.
In fact, fluency is developed with this type of grouping.
Just as in pair work, there are many reasons for using group work in the class:
• It provides a richer climate for interaction than pair work, because there is greater scope for
discussion.
• It is potentially more relaxing than pair work, since the latter puts greater demands on
cooperating closely with only one person.
• It increases the amount of student talking time.
• It gives students the sense of using the language communicatively.
• It increases self-confidence in the use of language.
5. TEACHER’S ROLES
Nowadays, the role of the teacher is far removed from the authoritarian attitudes of traditional
teaching. The role of the teacher has changed because the role of the learner has changed.
As a consequence, the teacher now has a less dominant role in the classroom, although this doesn’t
mean that s/he will lose the respect of the class, or will have problems controlling the class.
Several roles are assumed for teachers in current language teaching:
• Organizer. The teacher facilitates the communication process between the students. S/he
organizes the communicative activities and the students’ interactions.
• Participant. The teachers are an independent participant within the group. Not only do they
organize resources, they’re also a resource in themselves.
• Encourager. The teacher must make sure that, once the activity has started, everyone’s involved.
Students also need to receive encouragement; they like to hear how well they’re doing.
• Language consultant. The teacher should be on hand to help the students with what they want
to say. The teacher must be a source of information of vocabulary or structures.
• Monitor. The teacher should observe students’ performances and make a note of major errors.
Errors might be treated in subsequent lessons. However, at particular times, such as in controlled
practice activities, a certain amount of correction is advisable.
We can summarize the teacher’s roles saying that it is understanding students’ needs and engaging
them in their learning experiences, which include:
• Learning about the students and their interests, abilities and learning styles.
• Planning classroom environment and routines.
• Organizing classroom facilities and resources.
• Planning and organizing for instruction.
• Planning and organizing for assessment and evaluation.
• Planning for communication with students’ families.
• Reflecting upon the effectiveness of their planning, instruction and assessment as a means of
gathering information about their students’ progress and instructional needs, and success of their
practice.
6. THEME OVERVIEW
In general, motivation is the “neglected heart” of our understanding of how to design instruction
(Keller, 1983). Many teachers believe that by sticking to the language materials and trying to discipline
their refractory students, they will manage to create a classroom environment that will be conducive
to learning. Nevertheless, these teachers seem to lose sight of the fact that, unless they accept their
students’ personalities and work on those minute details that constitute their social and psychological
make-up, they will fail to motivate them. What is more, they will not be able to form a cohesive
and coherent group; unless they succeed in turning most “curriculum goals” (goals set by outsiders)
into “group goals” (goals accepted by the group members, that is, students). Learning a foreign
language is different to learning other subjects. Therefore, language teaching should take account
of a variety of factors that are likely to promote, or even militate against, success. Language is part of
one’s identity and is used to convey this identity to others. As a result, foreign language learning has a
significant impact on the social being of the learner, since it involves the adoption of new social and
cultural behaviours and ways of thinking.
Talking about the importance and benefits of storytelling, we are fully convinced that storytelling from
teacher to student or from student to student carries many benefits. Students can lose themselves
in the characters, plots and situations, they lower their anxiety levels and at the same time, they
increase their self- confidence and esteem. As they progress, the students can improve their abilities
to comprehend and later produce the target language.
Young Learners share a remarkable variety of personal experiences, values and ways of understanding.
The language they learn in the classroom is the tool they use to shape their thoughts and feelings. It
is more than a way of exchanging information and extending ideas it is their means of reaching out
and connecting with other people. Stories can link not only between the world of classroom and
home but also between the classroom and beyond. Stories provide a common thread that can help
unite cultures and provide a bridge across the cultural gap.
7. LEGISLATION
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001).

LOMCE. Fundamental law for the improvement of quality in education. 8/2013 9th of December,
which is the current education law in Spain.
Royal Decree 126/2014 28th of February about Basic Teaching contents for Primary Education.
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
CHAMBERS, G. N. (1999): Motivating language learners. Multilingual Matters.

HAYCRAFT, J. (1986): An Introduction to English Language Teaching. Longman.
MALEY, A. & DUFF, A. (1982): Drama Techniques in Language Learning. Cambridge University Press.
(C.U.P.)
MCRAE, J. (1985): Using Drama in the Classroom. Pergamon Press.
PHILLIPS, S. (1996): Drama with children. Oxford University Press.
RICHARDS, J. & ROGERS, T. (1998): Approaches and Methods in Language teaching. Cambridge
University Press.
VALE, D. & FEUNTEUN, A. (2001): Teaching children English: A training course for teachers of English to
children. Cambridge Teacher Training and Development Materials.
WENDEN, A. (1991): Learner strategies for learner autonomy. Prentice Hall.
WESSELS, C. (1987): Drama. Oxford University Press.
Webgraphy:
http://abcteach.com

1muestra TM Inglespr PDF

Cargado por

Información del documento

Título original

Derechos de autor

Formatos disponibles

Compartir este documento

Compartir o incrustar documentos

Opciones para compartir

¿Le pareció útil este documento?

¿Este contenido es inapropiado?

Copyright:

Formatos disponibles

1muestra TM Inglespr PDF

Cargado por

Copyright:

Formatos disponibles

Temario de oposiciones

Cristina Rodríguez Díaz

Autor: Pura María García Pérez

Maquetación: Jessica Sánchez Gavilán

Edita: Educàlia Editorial

Depósito legal: V-3159-2016

Printed in Spain/Impreso en España.

Avda de les Jacarandes 2 loft 327 46100 Burjassot-València

Tel. 963 76 85 42 - 960 624 309 - 610 900 111

THEME 1: Language as communication: spoken language and written language. 5

THEME 2: Communication in the foreign language class. Verbal communication. 14

THEME 4: Assessment of the knowledge of foreign languages as a means of 37

THEME 5: Geographic, historic and cultural overview of English-speaking countries. 43

THEME 6: Contribution of linguistics to foreign language teaching. Language learning 50

THEME 7: Oral foreign language. The complexity of global understanding in oral 55

THEME 8: Written language. Approximation, maduration and improvement of the 61

THEME 9: Description of the English Phonological System. Learning models and 72

THEME 10: Orthographic codes in the English language. Sound-spelling relationship. 86

1. THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION.

1.1. THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE.

1.2. THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE.

1.3. WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?

2. ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE: DIFFERENCES AND IMPLICATIONS IN TEACHING.

ORAL COMMUNICATION WRITTEN LANGUAGE

3. FACTORS DEFINING A LINGUISTIC SITUATION.

3.1. SENDER AND RECEIVER.

3.5. MEDIUM AND CHANNEL.

4. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT)

4.1. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE.

4.2. COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES.

4.2.1. Purposes of Communicative Activities.

4.2.2. Types of Functional Communicative Activities.

1.2. USING LITERATURE IN THE EFL CLASSROOM.

Why Use Literature?

Different Models Of Teaching Literature In Class

Suitable Texts For The EFL Class

Brief historical children’s literature background:

2. DIDACTIC TECHNIQUES FOR LISTENING COMPREHENSION (LEARNING TO LISTEN)

2.1. STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILLS.

Criteria for selecting literary texts.

Guide for approaching storytelling.

3. INTRODUCING AND ENCOURAGING READING HABITS (learning to read)

3.1. INTRODUCING READING HABITS.

3.2. ENCOURAGING READING HABITS: ORGANIZING A BOOK CORNER.

BREWSTER, J et al.: The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. Penguin. 1992.

1.1. REASONS FOR USING SONGS IN THE ENGLISH CLASS.

1.2. WHY USING SONGS AND CHANTS WITH YOUNG LEARNERS?

1.3. CRITERIA FOR SELECTING SONGS.

Applying new technologies to songs

BREWSTER, J et al. (1992): The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. Penguin.

1.1. A FRAMEWORK FOR MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES.

1.1.1. Creating the basic motivational conditions.

1.1.3. Maintaining and protecting motivation.

b) Creating learner autonomy.

1.2. MOTIVATING YOUNG LEARNERS.

Educate to motivate or motivate to educate? According to Lobo, M. when motivating children, we

a) The motivating teacher.

b) Classroom materials and motivation.

2. REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS AND ROLE PLAYING.

Role play helps students to develop:

3.1. CONSTRUCTIVE AND CREATIVE COMPREHENSION.

3.2. STORYTELLING – BENEFITS AND TIPS.

What can storytelling offer?