The Foreign Language As A Transversal Content

The foreign language as a transversal content
In this chapter we'll be focusing on topics that intend to integrate the setting of objectives, content selection, sequencing and evaluation. In general, there is a sharp demarcation line between syllabus design –what to teach– and methodology –or how to teach it.

David Nunan says that "such a separation has led in the past to such aberrations asthe teaching of courses whose input was specified in alleged (supposed) communicative terms through an audiolingual methodology."

What does Nunan mean? That the contents might have read something like "Unit 1: Introducing oneself. Getting to know others." But then the methodology proposed involved repetition and substitution. That is to say, a mechanistic, ‘behaviouristic’, methodology.Where was the communicative part? Were the learners learning how to communicate?

To avoid this type of separation –a dichotomy– we'll explore ways in which both aspects can be integrated. If they're all properly integrated, all of them will interact and influence each other. In what way? Objectives may be modified, expanded or simplified, in terms of learner needs during the development of thelearning process.

As teachers, we make decisions on the spot, in real time, as our lessons unfold. It is a well known fact for us that not all we plan for our lessons can be developed as we had in principle thought. Often we must "negotiate" with the institutional requirements, the pre-specified objectives, the textbook, and the task, together with our learners' needs, interests and demands..., andour commonsense: we must also negotiate with our own beliefs, approach, and knowledge of what is feasible, possible and probable.

No easy task...

And this task becomes all the more complex if we want to promote acquisition in the classroom.

Several researchers have been experimenting with techniques to promote acquisition in the classroom. One key aspect is providing learners with variedand meaningful input, as we saw earlier on. But how can we determine that input is varied and meaningful?

The key to this question is information, relevant information. And 'relevance' is a notion that depends on age, and cultural and social background, among other variables, and which often has an unstable status with adolescents as we’ve seen before.

Activities in which two partners mustshare information to complete a task or solve a problem, are effective in stimulating the development of communication skills. In particular, such activities provide an environment for the development of fluency and the negotiation of meaning, essential for acquisition.

For example, as part of pair work, two partners must interview each other to fill in a grid to find out about each other’sfavourite band. These grids can be discussed within the group, and finally there could be a rounding off class-as-a-whole with a profile of oneself as a good friend , with statement like, ‘What do I have to offer for the development of a good friendship?’, in which the most popular/boring band of the whole group is proclaimed, and the best friend can be appointed.

Due to its nature, this type ofactivity will generate a number of different mini tasks involving different strategies of group dynamics, a bit of research into different musical bands, their musical production; in turn, this will allow learners to come into contact with different discourse types, participate in debates, thus learning to argue for and against, and the list could go on in definitely. Ideally, as the topic isinteresting, learners will be trying to express their ideas, and hopefully using English to express them.

If there is 'communicative stress' –the only kind of stress that can be said to be positive– that is, if there's interest and motivation, there will be stimulation of learner linguistic and communicative resources, and their linguistic knowledge will be "squeezed" to the limit.

Another...