Topic 4 Lomloe

TOPIC 4 AWARENESS OF THE IMPORTANCE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AS A
VEHICLE OF COMMUNICATION AMONG PEOPLE AND NATIONS. INTEREST IN

LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY THROUGH THE KNOWLEDGE OF A NEW LANGUAGE AND ITS
CULTURE
INDEX
1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 2
2 LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY......................................................................................... 3
2A) Language families............................................................................................. 3
2B) Most spoken languages .................................................................................... 3
3 IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGES FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION .... 4

3A) Historical importance ........................................................................................ 4
3B) Implications in Foreign Language Teaching ..................................................... 4
3C) Language prestige ............................................................................................ 4
4. ENGLISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ................................................ 5

4A) English varieties................................................................................................ 5
4B) Formal differences ............................................................................................ 6
5. TEACHING AND LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES. ....................................... 7

5A) Objective: effective communication .................................................................. 7
5B) Contextual and learner’s needs ........................................................................ 7
5C) Motivation and material’s importance ............................................................. 12
6 CULTURAL IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH ........................................................... 13
7 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 14
8 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................... 15
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1. INTRODUCTION
Language is the main means whereby people communicate. However, a

foreign language can act as a barrier to international communication. So for this
reason some methods have been proposed to reduce the problem: foreign
language learning is one of them. Thus, we have to appraise the knowledge of
FL as the main means to foster mutual international understanding.
Communicative methodology has not always paid enough attention to the

culture of the target language. Fortunately, culture in the sense of sociolinguistic
and sociocultural aspects of the target language speaking community is now part
of the Spanish curriculum.
Thus, our current education system established by both organic Law on

Education 2/ 2006 modified in the Organic Law on Education 3/2020 (in
advanced LOMLOE) passed on December 30 th point out among its aims, the
capacity to communicate in the FL. Moreover, the RD 126/2014 passed on the
28th of February and the Order 26/2016 passed on the 21st of consider among
their general contents for primary stage sociolinguistic and sociocultural aspects
as well as communicative functions that underline the cultural knowledge of the
English language.
In this sense, through this topic we will discuss the relationship between
culture and language. So, first of al we will make reference to the linguistic
diversity: language families and the most spoken languages; secondly, we will
explain the importance of language for international communication: historical
importance, implications in the Foreign Language teaching and language
prestige. Later, we will deal with English as an international language its varieties
and formal difference. After that, we will talk about teaching and learning
international languages: objective, contextual and learners’ needs, motivation
and resources. Then, we will analyse the cultural importance of English. Finally
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we will reach our conclusion, summarising the information related to this topic
and we will make reference to the bibliography used to prepare it.
2 LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY
Now that we have introduced the topic, let’s speak about linguistic
diversity. It is estimated that the amount of languages spoken in the world is
around 3000 and 4000 (three and four thousand). But languages can be grouped
into families.
2A) Language families

Languages that are historically related and have a common origin form a
language family. The most important families are:
 The Semitic family that includes Hebrew, Ethiopian and Arabic.
 The Chinese Tibetan family is made up of Chinese and Burmese
 The American- Indian family is composed of Quechua and Guaraní
 The African family comprises Swahili and Bantú
 Malay and Indonesian family contains Malay and Indonesian
 Indo European languages that include all European languages (except
Finish, Basque and Hungarian) as well as Pakistani, Indian and Persian
However, when several languages of the same family share a higher degree of
similarity to one another than the rest of the family, they form a branch within the
family. For example the main branches of the Indo European family are:
 Roman or the Latin branch that includes Spanish, French, Italian and
Portuguese
 German branch comprises German, Dutch, English, Swedish and
Norwegian.
 Celtic branch is made up of Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh
 Slavonic branch is composed of Russian, Polish, Czech, Bulgarian, and
Lithuanian.
2B) Most spoken languages

As far as the number of speakers is concerned, Chinese is the language with
more native speakers over 1000 (one thousand) million. The second language in
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importance is English. Although English has only got 400 million of native
speakers, it is widely spread around the world and 2000 million people use it.
Besides, there are other languages that are spoken by several millions of people
like French, Japanese, Russian or Portuguese.
3 IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGES FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION
3A) Historical importance

Having seen the main language families and the most spoken languages, let’s
deal with the importance of languages for international communication. What are
the main reasons that foster the importance of teaching-learning foreign
languages?
First foreign language learning is a necessity in an interconnected world.
Historical treats and affairs among people and countries justify it.
Second, Foreign language learning favours international commerce
Third, learning foreign language learning enables understanding and
cooperation among cultures and nations.
Fourth, learners of foreign languages promote personal development and
social skills to face confidently different situations in foreign countries
Finally, foreign language learning contribute to a better understanding of
learners’ native language and culture
3B) Implications in Foreign Language Teaching

So far we have explained the main reasons that justify the foreign
language learning and teaching, now we are going to describe the implications
in foreign language teaching.
Learning a foreign language does not only imply knowing the linguistic
aspects of the language but also knowledge of its social system that means
developing positive attitudes and appreciation for the richness of the target
language’s culture. Thus, we should take into account that one of the goals of
the European language programme is to foster mobility and cooperation among
speakers to lower discrimination and prejudice.
3C) Language prestige

From a human perspective, any language deserves and has the right to our
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deepest respect and recognition. Therefore, no language is superior or inferior
to another. So it would be a serious violation of Human’s Right to force upon
any community the use of a language that is not naturally spoken in that
community.
Technically speaking, the category of language refers to any linguistic variety
that may be written, has a literary traditions and also shares common
characteristics among its speakers. However, there are some languages that
only have an oral nature. But in what are the main factors that determine the
language nature?. There are three factors
 First number of speakers as we have said before Chinese is the language
with more native speakers.
 Second, Geographic distribution. Some languages like English or Spanish
are spoken in many distant regions around the world.
 Finally, Social and cultural status some languages such as English become
important for political, economic and social reasons. So English language
is a mean of philosophical, scientific, technological and artistic or literary
expression.
4. ENGLISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
4A) English varieties

As we have considered the importance of languages for international
communications: reasons implications and language prestige, let’s deal with the
English varieties.
English is the official language in many countries such as UK, USA, Ireland,
Canada or New Zealand. But it is also the second language or co-official
language in Asian, African and European countries due to historical reasons
like English empire or Common Wealth belonging.
Besides, English is normally used as lingua franca (or neutral linguistic code
used between people and countries whose main language are different) in
politics and economy environments.
Moreover, the widespread use of English has produced certain effects on the
language. It is spoken by millions of non-native speakers so that this situation
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brings different accents and dialects according to their social and geographic
variations.
What are the main English varieties? There are two English varieties:
 British that includes British accents (like Welsh, Irish, Scottish) Australian
and New Zealander.
 America that contains Canadian varieties and USA varieties.
4B) Formal differences
So far we have considered English varieties, let’s define the differences

between British and American varieties.
In reference to Grammar, There are some minor differences that are studied in
topic 12, such as:
BE I work from Monday to Friday in AmE is expressed I work Monday thorough
Friday
BE I’m in hospital whereas AmE I’m in the hospital
BE I have already finished my homework while AmE I already finished my
homework
In pronunciation there are a few rather unimportant differences studied in topic

9. For instance:
BE final /r/ is voiceless whereas AmE final /r/ is voiced like in writer, rider
BE differentiates the sounds /t/ and /d/ whereas in AmE both have identical
pronunciation
BE stress on the second syllable maga’zine, ciga’rette while AmE are stressed
on the first syllable ‘magazine, ‘cigarette
As far as spelling is concerned American English tends to simplify endings like
color, honor, odor whereas British English spelling is more complex like colour,
honour, odour. This issue is also studied in topic 10
With reference to lexis, studied in topic 11, there are many variations in
colloquial or slang terms and the use of everyday words. For example in British
English shop, petrol station, biscuit and flat but in American English store, gas
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station, cookie and apartment.
5. TEACHING AND LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES.
5A) Objective: effective communication

So far we have seen English varieties and the formal differences between them,
now we are talking about teaching and learning foreign languages. As we have
seen, English has become an international means of communication because
first of all it is quickly spread all around the world, second it is spoken by both
native and non-native speakers; third, it is used in native and non-native
countries as vehicle for communication and lastly it is taught by native and non-
native speakers. But what is the main framework to facilitate second language
acquisition?. This issue is studied in topics 1 and 6
According to Krashen and UNESCO, second language acquisition should be
based on:
 Vocabulary acquisition through compelling input (such as good stories
or interesting conversations) not by learning it by heart
 Functional grammar by making grammar comprehensible through
explanations and language analysis in the target language not by
explicit instructions of rules
 Language registers to monitor the progress of pupils and find ways of
recognising, analysing and overcoming their learning problems,
 Skills development and sociocultural aspects through comprehensible
input
5B) Contextual and learner’s needs

Now that we have analysed the main objective of second languages, let’s
consider contextual and learner’s needs in second language acquisition.
When we are teaching a foreign language we should take into account both the
context and the needs of the learner since our final goal is the acquisition of
communicative competence in that language. So, we should select and create
learning materials, create a positive classroom environment to maintain pupils’
high motivation by introducing lesson through familiar and contextualised.
But how can we create motivational conditions to second language learning?.
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Fist, we should promote a pleasant and supportive atmosphere through
cohesive group’s relations based on appropriate norms,
Second as far as the creation and selection of activities is concerned, we
should consider relevant context that allows the discovery and construction
of meaning. Besides, the sequence of activities should range from simple to
more complex and demanding ones in order to develop our students’
curiosity and sense of community because they will feel challenged and at the
same time supported by the teacher, their peers and accepted as individuals.
The selections and creation of activities is related to topics 3,7 and 8 that deal
with oral language.
Third, We should select and create different resources such as
A. Activities: we should create motivating listening, speaking, reading or
writing activities.
1) As far as listening activities is concerned, we can use:
a) Pre-listening activities whose aim is to arouse pupils’ interest in
what they’re going to listen. In fact, they create expectations and
give them reasons for listen. This can be done through:
 Prediction exercises encourage students to draw
inferences and increase the amount of language
recognized at first hearing.
 Vocabulary introduction exercises: students are given a
list of words which might occur in the passage. They have
to listen for which one’s occurred.
 Grammar introduction exercises such as provide them
with a diagram to focus on the syntactic structures or
vocabulary items that occur in the passages
b) While listening activities whose aim is to break the ice and help
students establish basic facts. Thus, students must extract much
more detailed information about the content and the form of the
text. The activities allow learners to check their understanding
while listening. These activities include:
 Listening and making no response: such as following a
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written text (listening while teacher reads out a story and
the students follow his word in their text); listening aided by
visuals (learners look at visual materials while they listen a
spoke description of it)
 Listening and making non-verbal or short verbal responses
like story-line, picture dictation, labelling, true-false and
chart completion.
 Listening and make longer verbal responses: repetition and
dictation (ask students to repeat what they’ve heard),
paraphrase, gap filling
 Listening as basis for study or discussion
c) Post listening activities consolidate the previously introduced
knowledge. These activities must reflect the real life uses. So,
they have a purpose and require students to demonstrate their
listening comprehension by completing a task. These are:
 extending lists.
 Summarizing
 jigsaw listening (jumbled texts that students have to unjumble
while or after listening to a text).
 matching with a reading text.
 Inventing a dialogue
2) With reference to speaking activities, Hadley differentiate three
different stage activities:
a) Presentation stage: The aim of this stage is to create a context
so that our students are interested and motivated. The
presentation stage activities introduce vocabulary and grammar.
These activities are: sketch or drawing while speaking, singing a
song, watching a video.
b) Controlled- stage: Students, at this stage, learn a lot through
imitation. These activities are focused on accuracy and correction.
For example:
 Listening and reproduce a dialogue
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 Oral reproduction of songs, poems, riddles
 Drilling: choral drills (listen and repeat), interactive drills (ask
and predicted answer), substitution drills (give an example
sentence and ask students to change one or more words in it)
and transformational drills ( give an example sentence and
ask students to change grammar).
c) Free Production stage activities: They help to consolidate
understanding and transference of knowledge to other skills. They
are also focused on assessment. Examples of these activities are:
 Simulations and role-plays activities that teachers give a
particular role or situation to students and they act or discuss
about it.
 Personal information exchange
 Story construction
 Debates and speeches involve cognitive development,
capacity of interpretation of facts and argumentative skills.
3) In relation to Reading activities we distinguish the following ones:
a) Pre-reading activities that create expectations and interest in the
task our students will develop. For example:
 Prediction questions
 Preliminary discussion
 Brainstorming
 Grammar and vocabulary introduction by a semantic web
 Sequencing pictures
b) While reading activities that allow learners to check their
understanding while reading and practice micro-skills (like
skimming, scanning or detailed reading). For instance:
 Reading and making no response
 Reading and making non-verbal or short verbal responses:
circle the information required, information-transfer activities
(complete a table or grid)
 Reading and make longer verbal responses
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 Reading as basis for study or discussion
c) Post reading activities, they help to consolidate understanding
and transferring knowledge to other skills like writing a similar text.
Examples of these activities are:
 Drawing
 Making a summary
 Making crosswords
 Prepare a survey
 Group follow-up
4) As far as writing activities is concerned, There are the following ones:
a) Early stage that provides students opportunities to practise
handwriting or learn new vocabulary. These are:
 At word level: Making list, labelling, completing crosswords,
and making personal notes, pictionaries.
 At sentence level: writing speech bubbles for cartoons,
correcting mistakes in written sentences, matching halves of
sentences and copying
b) Intermediate stage: where teachers guide students to prepare
the written work. The main activities are:
 Descriptions with models or parallel writing: students are
given a model text and they are asked to write a similar one.
 Rearrangement of words: formulating a question out of an
answers, putting words in order.
 Rearrangement of sentences the aim is that students get
used to working with the cohesive devices used
 Writing role-plays.
c) Advanced level: pupils focus on free-writing tasks based on
particular topics. For example:
 Diaries
 Short tales
 Emails
 Letters
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 Reviews
 Articles.
B. Besides these activity types, we should also consider resources in e-

learning teaching such as gamification by means of TEAMS, office 365,
Kahoot and Edmodo platform to review and revise vocabulary
previously introduced to our pupils. The selection and creation of
resources is related to topics 23 related to video, TV and computer as
well as topic 25 where we deal with the learner centred didactic activities
such as songs, stories, webquests, problem solving activities and jigsaw
activities.
5C) Motivation and material’s importance
Now that we have explained contextual and learners’ needs, let’s deal with
motivation and materials’ importance. Without motivation, there is no learning.
In fact, motivation is an essential factor for a successful learning. This issue is
related to topic 25, which deals with motivation and learner-centred approach.
So, there are two main types of motivation:
 Intrinsic motivation that comes from within the students. It is related to
the individual’s identity and sense of well-being. For these students the
subject is interesting, challenging and rewarding
 Whereas extrinsic motivation comes from outside the individual. Thus
students learn to receive a reward such as praise or grades.
Thus, we as teachers are responsible to direct and increase students'
motivation
in order to keep their continuing participation in classroom activities. Therefore,
pupils need to be interested both in the subject they are
studying and in the activities and topics they are presented with. The teacher
needs to provide the students with variety activities to keep them engaged such
as songs, games, stories or teamwork tasks. Moreover,
The choice of the material to take into the class is crucial too, but more
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important than this will be how it is used in the lesson.
Another important aspect to consider is giving positive feedback and providing
autonomous learning so that our pupils feel their improvements and also boots
their motivation.
With reference to the creation of communicative and cultural context,
according to Brumfit and Finnochiaro teachers should use a multi-media
approach and an active methodology based on the creative use of materials
that reflect the real world. These materials must be authentic such as comics,
magazines, radio broadcast, TV programmes, YouTube videos and other online
resources. Besides we should include cultural projects related to English
speaking culture in our didactic units based on preparation of maps, travel
itineraries, menus, writing plays, art pieces, poems, songs or literature works.
6 CULTURAL IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH
Having seen the importance of motivation and materials, let’s explain the
cultural importance of English. Culture is an essential part of the language
teaching and learning process, and there are multiple reasons for this. First of
all, the cultural aspect makes the language more relevant and of practical use
outside of the classroom. According to Edelhoff, It is important to teach culture
because it contains important values of life. Students are able to learn how to
interact with others, to behave properly in a new society, to appreciate and
comprehend others' culture and the way of life by knowing culture. Therefore
when students learn English language they do not only acquire the language
system and the development of skills but they also boot positive attitudes
towards English cultural manifestations.
But how can we integrate culture in FL teaching? by using literature and cinema.
As far as literature is concerned, we can use traditional literature of both
American authors (Poe, Whitman or Hemmingway) an British writers like Byron,
Shakespeare or Joyce; Contemporary literature works, Children literature that i
it is studies in topic 16 and Hollywood’s films influence that is motivating to our
pupils. Besides we cannot forget the importance of the English language as
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official language in:
 International organizations such as NATO; UN;EU
 Transport and communication language through Internet and satellite
usage.
 Scientific research language
 Mass media usage TV channels and newspapers like CNN; BBC; The
Times
 Music industry influence pop, roc, and hiphop
 Films and TV series
 International companies like IBM or Google
7 CONCLUSION
To sump up in this topic we’ve dealt first of all the importance of English
language as an instrument of communication among different people and
countries. Later we have explained the relationship between culture and
language. So, first of al we have dealt with the linguistic diversity: language
families and the most spoken languages; secondly, we have spoken about the
importance of language for international communication: historical importance,
implications in the Foreign Language teaching and language prestige. Later, we
have considered English as an international language its varieties and formal
difference. After that, we have seen teaching and learning international
languages: objective, contextual and learners’ needs, motivation and resources.
Then, we have analysed the cultural importance of English. We cannot forget
that one of the aims of the Educational laws established by LOE and LOMLOE is
the achievement of Communicative competence. Thus, we should consider that
both the RD 126/2014 passed on the 28th of February and the Order 26/2016
passed on the 21st of consider among their general contents for primary stage
sociolinguistic and sociocultural aspects as well as communicative functions that
underline the cultural knowledge of the English language
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8 BIBLIOGRAPHY
 The RD 126/2014 passed on the 28 th February that establishes the Curriculum
for Primary Education nationwide (BOE 1 st March 2014)
 Decree 26/2016 passed on 21st July establishing the development and
implementation of the Primary Education in the region of Castilla y Leon
(BOCYL 25th july 2016).
 ALBURQUERQUE, R (1990). En el aula de inglés. London: Logman.
 KRASHEN, Stephen D (1981) Second Language acquisition and second
language learning. Oxford: Pergamon.
 FINOCCHIARO, M AND BRUMFIT, C (1983) The functional- notional
approach. From theory to practice. New York: OUP.
 EDELHOFF, Christoph, 1993: “english among the other european lan-
guages” in British CounCil (ed.): English language learning in Europe:
issues, tasks and problems, Bratislava: eLTeCS, 27
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TOPIC 4 AWARENESS OF THE IMPORTANCE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AS A

VEHICLE OF COMMUNICATION AMONG PEOPLE AND NATIONS. INTEREST IN

3 IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGES FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION .... 4

4. ENGLISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ................................................ 5

5. TEACHING AND LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES. ....................................... 7

6 CULTURAL IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH ........................................................... 13

Language is the main means whereby people communicate. However, a

Communicative methodology has not always paid enough attention to the

Thus, our current education system established by both organic Law on

2A) Language families

2B) Most spoken languages

3 IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGES FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION

3A) Historical importance

3B) Implications in Foreign Language Teaching

3C) Language prestige

4. ENGLISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

4A) English varieties

4B) Formal differences

So far we have considered English varieties, let’s define the differences

In pronunciation there are a few rather unimportant differences studied in topic

5. TEACHING AND LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES.

5A) Objective: effective communication

5B) Contextual and learner’s needs

B. Besides these activity types, we should also consider resources in e-

5C) Motivation and material’s importance

6 CULTURAL IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH

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