1.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE USE

1. FOREIGN LANGUAGE USE: activities and strategies for oral and written
expression; interaction for oral and written English at level B2 according to the
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

1.1 The Discourse in the Classroom: Classroom language.

1.2 The semantic fields necessary for the fulfilling of the teaching function.

1.3 General and on-line revision of the basic linguistic components and its treatment in
Primary Education: lexis, phonetics, morphosyntax.

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1.1 Discourse in the classroom: classroom language.

Language as Communication
Language is conceived as a dynamic phenomenon, not simply as a system of forms
structures and words, but basically as a system of communicative acts and situations.
Consequently, learning a foreign language implies not only the manipulation of
linguistic structures and the knowledge of vocabulary and phonetic features, it involves
learning how to communicate in the language effectively, correctly and appropriately.
The new plurilingual European context demands this communicative approach.

Communicative Competence
The communicative approach in language teaching starts from a theory of language as
COMMUNICATION. The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes referred
to as Communicative Competence.
Hymes theory of communicative competence was a definition of what a speaker needs
to know in order to be communicatively component in a speech community.
Hymes theory has been adapted for teaching purposes. Royal Decree 1513/2006 which
establishes the teaching requirements for Primary Education nationwide sees
communicative competence as comprising five sub-competences:
- Grammar competence, or the ability to use units as rules of the language system.
- Discourse competence, or the ability to use different types of discourse and
organizing them based on the communicative situation and on the interlocutors.
- Sociolinguistic competence, or the ability to adapt statements to a particular
context, observing the usage of a given linguistic community.
- Strategic competence, or the ability of speakers to use verbal and non-verbal
communication strategies to compensate for breakdowns in communication or to
improve the effectiveness of communication.
- Socio-cultural competence, or being familiar with social and cultural context in
which a given language is used.

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The role of the L1

The mother language is not considered as an obstacle to learning the foreign language
that causes interference but a useful resource at the learners disposal that aids learning:
The L1 is a resource of knowledge which learners will use both consciously and
subconsciously to help them sift the L2 data in the input and to perform as best as they
can in the L2. (Ellis 1986:40)

Class language
The FL primary classroom is a communicative context which is not taken full advantage
of. This is unfortunate, since:
it is possible to use L2 for all the transactions
the classroom situation is a concrete, genuine situation in itself
the English used in the classroom is directly transferable to other real-world
situations
the English used by the teacher in the FL classroom is a source of real input for
children
As we have seen, it is possible to use English in the classroom for a variety of purposes:
presenting language, checking understanding, clarifying doubts, giving instructions,
modelling, setting up activities, provide extensive language input, giving feedback,
asking for information and providing examples of L2 use.

Non-verbal communication in the class

In the FL classroom, gesture, facial expression and mime can be used:
to help to clarify the linguistic input (this is particularly important when teaching
beginners or near-beginners)
to reinforce the meaning of instructions and provide information on activities
through a different channel to the auditory
to reduce verbal explanations
to attract the students attention

Giving instructions
Some guidelines on effective instruction giving:
become aware of your instruction-giving strategies
prepare instructions

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attract the students attention

use simple, easy-to-understand language
involve the senses
demonstrate and give examples
get feedback for the students

Giving feedback
Giving feedback to our pupils has many purposes:
giving praise and encouragement
correcting production
supporting assessment
having discussions about group progression
giving individual tutorials

1.2 The semantic fields necessary for the fulfilling of the teaching function.

CLASSROOM LANGUAGE

GREETINGS GOODBYE BEGINNINGS

Hello Snip snap snover the class Wheres my CHAIR?
Wait a minute please is over. ..HERE it is !
Lets go Time to go . THERE it is !
Come in Patio time
(PUT your) Goodbye 5,4,3,2,1, silence please..
.....Coats ON your peg .see you tomorrow.
Snack IN the snack box .see you on Monday How many children ?
...pencil cases ON the table see you after the holidays How many teachers?
.books On the table How many are we?
Have a nice
sit down on the mat Day, weekend holiday Whos missing?
on your chair (please) Who isnt here?

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make a circle (put your)

(big and wide..song ) books TOGETHER
wiggle back / forward name (on your picture) Boy / girl
make a space PICTURE in your folder
.change with ...FOLDER in your BOOK Whats your name?
Lights ON ? chairs UNDER the table
Lights OFF? make a line with .. What day is it today?...
Monday. Etc (song)
Window OPEN?
WINDOW CLOSED? Excuse me, please
stand up (please) Sorry.
Pardon?

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ROUTINES ACTIVITIES ACTIVITIES 2

Rubbish IN the BIN Stop Which. Story/song/ game?
Toilet please Look this / that ?
.. may I go to. Listen
Read the .. pencils / crayons /
May I Copy paints / rubbers / glue.
Can I.. have/ do / play Sing is / are .
Thank you Say
Draw IN the BASKET
Open the door Colour ON the TABLE
Close the door Point to NEXT TO the DOOR
Put
Wash your hands Write your name(on Look at this.
(song. your paper) (picture, book, page)
Wash those dirty hands Cut ( here)
Dry the water off Stick (glue) You can. build
Paper in the bin) Can you Do the jigsaw
Dry your hands make/ draw. a Play the game
Etc .Do the jigsaw puzzle well done .lovely..
Get your snack Finished? (Have you..) very nice work..good
picture

Classroom management General Body

5,4,3,2,1 silence please Everybody do this.. Head, shoulders, knees
everyone Roly poly and toes
If youre happy and you One finger, one thumb
STOP LOOK LISTEN know it.. keep moving.
Tommy Thumb
hey he look at me I can build a house + songs for youngest
everybody look at me Winding the bobbin up..
..listen to me

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make a circle.

Here we are together..

Good (afternoon Good
morning)

Hello Tomas, hello Family

Ana,. Hello The wheels on the bus
everyone.
Days of the week
Lets see who sitting like Monday, Tuesday
me, I can see.sitting
like me.well done
../everybody.

Youngest Number Festivals

1 2 3 4 5 , 6 76 8 9 10 Little jack Horner
Can you play at peeka boo One potato, two potatoes Peter, Peter, pumpkin
1 2 3 4 5 I caught eater.
Roly poly (up etc) 2 little (dicky) birds In a dark, dark, wood.
..(slowly etc) 5 little monkeys Christmas is coming.
10 in the bed Pinch, punch first of the
Fingers like to wiggle 10 fat sausages month.
waggle I can make a house Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake
Open shut them.. There are ten in the bed Hot x buns
10 little children all in a
ring
Choosing
Snip snap snover Eeny meeny miny mo
This is over
Ipy dipy dation
See you later alligator
In a while crocodile Inky pinky ponky

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1.3 General and on-line revision of the basic linguistic components and its
treatment in Primary Education: lexis, phonetics, morphosyntax.

Before discussing the linguistic contents (grammar, vocabulary and phonetics) that we
have to teach in primary education, it is important to analyse the topics that should be
taught in each one of the three cycles in primary education:
In the 1st cycle:
o Topics (My reality):
Me, my body (parts of the body) and my clothes (general and basic)
Me, my belongings (what I have in my room or in class) and my
animals (pets).
Me, my school (necessary expressions to work in class) and my likes
and dislikes (my favourite colour, food, etc.)
Me, my house (bedroom, kitchen, etc.) and my family (father,
mother, brothers and sisters).
o What to teach?
Expressing the identity and possession in first person.
Expressing preferences and likes for something in first person.
Describing the closest school reality: the classroom.
Describing the closest family reality: the house.
In the 2nd cycle:
o Topics (My reality):
Us, our body and our clothes and food.
Us, our belongings and our animals.
Us, our school and our likes and dislikes.
Us, our house and my family (uncles, cousins,)
o What to teach?
Expressing identity and possession in first, second and third person.
Expressing preference and likes for something in first, second and
third person.
Describing the school reality and the closest social reality: the
classroom and extra-curricular activities.
Describing a wider family reality and the closest social reality: jobs.
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In the 3rd cycle:

o Topics (Reality including others):
The world and its problems (environmental, social, etc.)
The world and its diversity (nationalities, religions, customs, etc.)
The world and its unforgettable and basic places to understand that
travelling is an important issue.
The world and its famous people.
The world and our future.
The world and its communications.
o What to teach?
Everything necessary to produce in oral and written way, and to
understand in oral and written way about all previous topics.

We can observe this evolution in the students interests if we analyse the following
examples of table of contents:

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First of all, we should take into account that we are dealing with Primary Education
students, that is, there are different cycles and ages involved. For example, 1st cycle
students have a short-term memory, whereas 2nd cycle ones start to store some information
in their long-term memory, although most of it falls into the short-term one, and 3rd cycle
students have a greater ability to store information in their long-term memory. This makes a
big change in the way children learn and in the number of sessions and skills developed.
All this being said, lets describe the differences in cycles regarding the words, phonetics or
verb tenses that they are supposed to learn.

Students in Primary Education should learn 10-12 words depending on the cycle. Lets
imagine that students are working on a unit about houses, these are differences in the 3
cycles:
1st bedroom, bathroom, dining-room, sitting-room, kitchen, garden, window, door
(8 words).
2nd bedroom, bathroom, dining-room, sitting-room, kitchen, garden, window, door,
table, chair (10 words).
3rd bedroom, bathroom, dining-room, sitting-room, kitchen, garden, window, door,
table, chair, corridor, spout (12 words).

The number of phonemes that we should review also varies according to the cycle. It can
vary from 1 to 3 different phonemes. Lets take Incy Wincy Spider didactic unit now and
take a look at the different number of phonemes in the 3 cycles:
1st cycle (1 sound):
/ai/ climb, spider, dry.
2nd cycle (2 sounds):
/ai/ climb, spider, dry.
// up, sun, butterfly.
3rd cycle (2 sounds):
/ai/ climb, spider, dry.
// up, sun, butterfly.
/a/ down, spout.

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Apart from the number of phonemes worked in each cycle we also have to consider the
difficulty of them compared to the phonemes in the students mother tongue.

Finally, regarding the grammar, we need to consider which grammatical structures we want
to teach in primary education and in each specific cycle in particular. It may be obvious that
there are some structures that cannot be taught in primary education due to their difficulty
(e.g. passive, direct/indirect speech, etc.). However, there are other grammar aspects which
can or must be worked in primary education (for instance, a/an, adjective-noun position,
etc.)
Regarding the teaching of the verbal tenses, lets have a quick look at the following chart
which provides us with some examples to understand the differences related to the cycles:
1st cycle
Present Simple
To be, to have Other verbs (play,
read, go, etc.)
Its... Possessives (my, Vocabulary of colors,
your) a/the numbers, clothes,
animals, food, etc.

Specific structures:
Lets play. /Your turn.
Questions:
How are you? How many apples? Can I...?

2nd cycle
Future Simple (will)
Present continuous, questions and negative forms
Imperative forms
Questions with when, where, what, who
Vocabulary: numbers, months, sports, places
Descriptive adjectives

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3rd cycle
Past Simple (regular/irregular) Questions
and negatives with past simple Questions
with: which, why
Directions and prepositions: on the left
I want + infinitive
Adjectives for description
Vocabulary: travel, health, sports equipment, professions
If you.... you get

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