Facultade de

Ciencias da
Educación
e do
Deporte
Pontevedra

Lingua
inglesa e a
súa didáctica
Teaching
English

3º Educación
primaria
Primary
Education
2021-22

i
1
 TEACHING ENGLISH
3º primary school degree

british_council_new_things face-to-face vs online lessons

Getting students to stick to English during the lesson_Puchta

Maria Montessori: una vida dedicada a los niños

La Educación prohibida
Educación en Finlandia
El fenómeno de la educación en Finlandia
Cesar Bona “educar en la empatía”
Cesar Bona: escuchar para educar
Cesar Bona: la nueva educación
Carmen Quinteiro’s Blog
Lourdes Jiménez García
Alicia Tojeiro’s blog
Steps to think in English

What about error correction: some hints

Every kid needs a champion (motivating talk by Rita Pierson)

Stuart McNicholls and Inés Lareo (2021)

1
 TEACHING ENGLISH
3º primary school degree
CONTENTS

Introduction…………………………….……………………………….. 5

Presenting your CLIL sequence…………………………………………. 8

Section 1: Teaching English………..…………………………………… 10

1 Introduction ……………………..…………………………………… 10

2 Communicative competence ………………………………………… 12

3 Communicative language teaching …………………………………… 18

4 Primary English learning/teaching…………………………………… 27

5 Total physical response (TPR) method ……………………………… 32

6 Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence………………………………………. 36

7 Content and Language integrated learning (CLIL)…………………… 38

C78 About cognitive skills……………………………..………………... 56

Section 2: Some XXI primary Natural Sciences textbooks..…………… 59

1 Introduction …………………………………………………………. 59

2 Natural Sciences (Macmillan) ……………………………………. 60

3 Think, do, learn Natural Sciences (Oxford University press) …….. 63

Section 3: Stories, videos and projects………………………………... 66

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1 Introduction ……………………………………………………….… 66

2 Stories ………………………………………………………………. 67

3 Storytelling …………………………………………………….……. 70

4 videos ………………………………………………………………… 73

5 Projects with young learner…………………………………………… 74

Section 4: songs and play …….……………………………………….. 77

1 Introduction ………………………………………………………….. 77

2 Songs, chants and rhymes ………………………………………….. 78

3 Play ………………………………………………………………… 88

Section 5: Curriculum and assessment ………………………………… 92

1 Primary curriculum…………………………………………………. 92

2 Assessment in primary education………………………………….. 93

Appendix 1…………………………………………………………. 99

Appendix 2………………………………………………………………. 100

Appendix 3………………………………………………………………. 101

Appendix 4………………………………………………………………. 103

Appendix 5……………………………………………………………….. 107

Appendix 6 ……………………………………………………………….. 109

Appendix 7………………………………………………………………... 110

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Appendix 8 CLIL sequence instructions ……………..……………… 111

Appendix 9 ……………………………………………………………… 116

Appendix 10…………………………………………………………….. 117

Appendix 11……………………………………………………………. 118

Appendix 12……………………………………………………………. 119

References……………………………………………………………….. 120

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 TEACHING ENGLISH

INTRODUCTION: What this course involves

Objectives
• To continue developing students’ mastery of spoken and written English
at a sufficient level for primary school teaching.
• To introduce trainee to the theory and practice of communicative
teaching methodology through reading tasks, task-based activities,
audiovisual media, children’s literature, and the methodologies known
as Total Physical Response (TPR) and Content and Language integrated
Learning (CLIL) among others.
• To build students’ confidence when talking in English
• To show students ways of teaching a subject in English in primary
schools.

Materials
• Pdfs uploaded in faiTIC.
• Compulsory readings
o Burns, Marilyn (2008). The greedy triangle. Scholastic
bookshelf
o Silverstein, Shel (2005). The giving tree. UK: Harper Collins
o Manley, Heather (2015). The human body detectives. (read at
least these two stories: Nº 1 “the lucky escape” and Nº 3 “heart
pumping adventure”).
• Once upon a time life (videos about the human body). Take a look at
the list you find in moovi
Compulsory film
School of Rock (2003, dir. Richard Linklater).
Learning environment
• Tutorials (by appointment in campus remoto sala 1354/zoom)
• English level needed: B1- B2
Assessment: Students can decide on taking the continuous assessment or a final
exam.

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Continuous assessment:
In groups: Design and create a CLIL sequence (written work) (25 points [20 content
+5 English] 5 horror mistakes imply zero points in English).
It is compulsory that the whole group has a virtual appointment with the teacher to
comment on their plan before finishing the work. Once finished, this work has to be
uploaded in faitic. The files have to be labelled in the following way when you save
them in your computers:
primaria2021_topic1_surname1_surname2_surname3_surname4.pdf
primaria2021_topic_surname1_surname2_surname3_surname4_song.mp3 or mp4
Date to upload your written copy and videos (in case we do it online) November 15th.
PERFORMANCES
Performance 1, in groups: 5 minute to present your sequence to the class and XX
minutes (5 minutes each activity) to perform your CLIL sequence (dramatize it) (20
points [15 points performance + 5 points English]) (see below “Presenting your CLIL
sequence”). A group (16/23-11; 30-11; 7-12).
Performance 2, individually: 2:30/3 minutes to convince us about something in a
funny way (advertisement) (15 points). In this performance aspects such as to be funny,
to show your enthusiasm, creativity, fluency, pronunciation, body language will be
assessed; C groups. 17-11 and 24-11.
Performance 3, in pairs: a karaoke contest Called UNIVISION-2021 Christmas (20).
You have to use your own voices at the same time you play the melody and sing the
lyrics and dance. Only your voice is allowed (no the original singer); A group.
November 30th (pre-selection), December 14st (contest with the best songs and the jury).
We will have a special jury for the contest, a group of 18 students from a Xunqueira I
that are currently taken the 4th grade in primary education. The winner-couple will get
10 extra points.
Optional Performance 4, individually: you have 5 minutes to talk about a topic useful
for the subject and your future work as a teacher in a bilingual school (interesting web-
pages, Apps, etc. The topic has to be accepted by the teacher (10); B groups. Topics:
24-11.

1Topic refers to the theme you have selected for your CLIL sequence. For instance, if
you have chosen “the heart” then use,
primaria2021_heart_surname1_surname2_surname3_surname4.pdf

6
Oral exam (20 points (a 5-7 minutes conversation about teaching objectives, points of
interest, ways of using the tales in the class and YOUR OPINION about the compulsory
film and tales (see above)). B groups. 1-12, 15-12.

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PRESENTING YOUR CLIL SEQUENCE (Continuous Assessment)

Tasks: Presentations and performances of your sequences (see appendix 8)

Performance 1:

Working in teams (4/5 people -12 groups maximum), prepare a presentation of your
CLIL sequence. To select the topic for your 5 or 6 grade primary students you should
choose one of these videos of One upon a time life: the heart, the breathing, the brain,
the digestion, the muscles and fat, bones and skeleton, the ear, the blood. (Topics cannot
be repeated. So, hurry up and be the first to choose one of them). Focus your sequence
on that topic and select the contents taking the curriculum for primary education into
account (take a look at the file curriculo_primaria_2014_ga_completo.pdf you find in
moovi).
Your CLIL sequence should have an introduction where you describe your students
and school profile. Explain also why you have chosen that topic (see Appendix 8 to
design your CLIL sequence).
Your CLIL sequence should have 4 parts that follow the CLIL methodology: an
original game, an original exercise, an original story about the topic, an original song
all of them written and sung by the whole group. All of them based on the same topic
and created by yourselves, taking CLIL features into account. The melody could be
pretty new or based on a well-known song, but you have to create your own lyrics and
sing it with your own voices.
Each task should be described as follows (Appendix 8 for a minute description): title,
time needed to organized and performed the activity, objectives of this task, vocabulary
needed (BICS (social language: basic interpersonal communication skills) and CALP
(academic language: cognitive academic language proficiency)); cognitive skills
developed (Bloom’s taxonomy revised by Anderson and Krathwohl (2001); language
skills needed and developed (taking the 4 skills into account); resources needed:
materials and place; real instructions and explanations given to your students in class
(dialogue (script)).
Date to upload it in moovi (November 15th). The sequences will be performed in class
in the A group or recorded to be played in the same class (depending on the sanitary
situation). All group members will perform the role of the teacher in turns and the other
group members will act as the real class group (11-12 years old people).

8
The exposition will be assessed by the other classmates (peer-assessment) at the end of
the performance using the rating scale you find in moovi. You should also use the
same rating scale to mark your own performance when you finish it (self-assessment).
Your Clil Sequence presentation/performance should follow these steps:
• offer an overview of the overall aims and objectives of your
sequence (5 minutes). Explain to your classmates what is it about
and

• perform/dramatize the 4/5 key activities, (20-25 minutes) (created

by your group. You need an original song, story, game and 1
exercise). The other 3 group members will take the role of pupils
during these performances. You will take the role of the teacher in
turns. Remember you only have 5 minutes for each activity so you
need to summarize the steps. This is a performance and you are
acting. You will be given individual marks for your English usage
during the presentation.

You need to upload your work in moovi (November 15th 15:00).

You need to record your song (sung by all group members) in a separated file.
To organize your written work take a look at appendix 8. “Steps to write your CLIL
sequence”.

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 SECTION 1: TEACHING ENGLISH
1.1 INTRODUCTION

In this section we will be looking at what it means to learn English as a foreign

language, how English can be taught "communicatively" and how it can be taught and
learnt in a Primary context without focusing the attention on the language but on both
language and content. We will begin with a few warm-up activities.

Task 1.1.1 Favourite things

This is a verbal memory ice-breaking game - you must not take notes!

• Sit in a circle. The first person says their name and a favourite
thing.

• The second person then says their name and a favourite

thing, as well as the name and thing of the person
before them.

• Each person after that adds the names and items of all
of the people before them.

Task 1.1.2 How many questions?

1. Work in twos and write down all the question words and sentence starters for
questions that you know. Then share them with the rest of the class. Here are
a few examples to get you started:

when/

where/

are/there/

2. Now look at the picture your teacher shows you. Working with your partner, you
have 10 minutes to write as many questions as you can about the picture. Each question

10
you generate must have different content.

3. When the time is up, count how many questions you have produced. The pair with
the most questions now read out their sentences slowly, so the others can challenge
content repetition or linguistic mistakes. Any challenge supported by the teacher
eliminates that question.

4. The winning pair is the one with the largest number of questions remaining that have
been accepted by the class and by the teacher.

5. Now each pair writes their two most interesting questions on the board.

Task 1.1.3: Write pieces of paper with the vocabulary you want them to practice. Put
all the pieces of paper on a bag and pick three of them the first time. Write the words
on the whiteboard and tell your students that they need to create a sentence with these
three words or at least with one of the three. Each word of the three written on the
whiteboard used in the sentence means a point for the student. The first one saying a
correct sentence gets the points. Delete the word or words used from the whiteboard
and replace it or them by new ones, keeping always three words on the whiteboard.
Add the points at the end to know the winner.

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1.2- COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

Follow or study the presentations on Communicative Competence clicking on the

links above.
Communicative competence (Jack C Richards 1)
Communicative competence (Jack C Richards 2)
Communicative competence (Johan Rojas)
Communicative competence (S. LaQua)

Expressions to Encourage your Interlocutor

In normal conversation people encourage the person who is speaking to them and show
empathy towards them by using body language (nodding, leaning towards them, facial
expression, etc.) and also by using language itself. In Spanish you say Mmmm, si, ya,
claro, no me digas, and a whole lot of other things. Can you think of anymore? What do
you say in English? Listen again to the conversation between Stuart and Peter, paying
special attention to how Stuart reacts to what Peter says and encourages him to talk about
his photos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp2wncZ9iCw). Which of the
following expressions does he use? And how often does he use them? Write a tick next
to each expression every time you hear it.

OK splendid aha excellent vow

good Yes, exactly Right on Of course Right on
right All right then Yeah, well Ok, that’s great Sure thing
Oh well Yeah that’s All right yes Ah well
right

Filler words or discourse markers

They are used to fill sentence silence only when you are speaking (they can be used in
chats as well). They don´t add any real value. Overusing them can make you sound
unprofessional. Here you find some of their usages:
-to show that you’re thinking: I have basically….ten more hours of works

-to make a statement less harsh: Well, you have, um, you have something in
your teeth
-to make your statement weaker or stronger: you can change the sentence tone
=I think pit bulls are dangerous (regular statement)
=Actually, I think pit bulls are dangerous (shows contrast—we know
someone else doesn’t agree)
=At the end of the day, I think pit bulls are dangerous (conclusion to a
discussion about pit bulls)
- to gain time: if your teacher asks you where is your homework, your answer
can be: uhh. Umm. Well, you see….my dog ate it.

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 -to include the listener in the conversation when you are still talking: It was a
really interesting film, You know?
Some filler words

1-well: to put a pause in the sentence (well, I guess 20€ is a good price); to agree
(well… fine, you go out tonight).
2-Umm, um, er, uh, hmm: gives you a break to think or show hesitation. (Umm…I
like the red one)
3-like: means something is not exact (my friend has like ten cats)= a lot; when you
need a moment to figure out the next word to use (my friend was like, completely
ready to kick me out of the car if I didn´t stop talking so loud). “Like” has a negative
meaning.
4-Actually/basically/seriously/totally/literally/clearly:
“actually”- you use it when you think something is true, when others might not agree
(Actually, pit bulls are really cute); “basically”- used when you are summarizing
something (Basically, the last Batman movie was exciting) and “seriously”- used when
you want to show how strongly you take the statement (Basically, the last Batman
movie was seriously exciting).
Literally is used in conversation to state strong feelings (you’re not laughing, you are
literally dying from laughter).
Totally means completely and is used to emphasize something (look what I’ve bought.
Ten euros! and it’s completely new).
Clearly means that something is very obviously true (clearly you can’t go back in time).
5- you see: to share a fact that you assume the listener doesn’t know (I was trying to
download the app, but you see, I ran out of space on my phone).

6- you know: to share a fact that you assume the listener already knows (we stayed at
that hotel, you know, the one down the street in front of the church).
7- I mean: to clarify or emphasize how you feel about something (I mean, he is a great
guy, I’m not so sure if he is the right person for this job).
8- you know what I mean?: used to make sure the listener is following what you’re
saying. I really like that boy, You know what I mean?
9-Believe me: used to ask your listener to trust what you’re saying (believe me, I don’t
want to make the test today, but this is the only free date we have in this week).
10- I guess: to show that you are hesitant or not really sure about what you are saying.
(I was going to eat dinner at home, but I guess I can go eat at a restaurant instead).

11- right/ mhm/ uh huh: they are affirmative responses, meaning “yes”. Blue is one
of the primary colours. Right! Remember they are four.

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Task 1.2.1: Strategic competence

Imagine what would happen to language if there were no rules to follow during
conversations. Then it would be perfectly acceptable to follow "Hi, how are you
doing?" with "Cars are typically made from steel", or to simply lie with every statement
you made. But then communication would be virtually impossible.

It is clear that in normal conversation we don't simply say whatever comes into our
head, but instead we follow some general rules as to what is acceptable and what isn't.
If one of these rules is broken by something a person says but we are still assuming that
that person is cooperating with us in communication, we can interpret that violation as
a sign that something is being said indirectly. This is called exploiting or flouting a
maxim (deliberately violating it). The question now is, what exactly are these rules?

One of the most basic assumptions we must make for successful communication to take
place is that both people in a conversation are cooperating. This is called the
Cooperative Principle (conceived originally by the philosopher H. P. Grice.) Grice
identified 4 groups of maxims (principles), which people implicitly and instinctively
obey when communicating. These are the Conversational Maxims.

A Maxim of Quality
1. Do not say what you believe to be false.
(i.e., "don't tell lies"; people are expected to say what they know to be true. When
talking with each other we expect people to tell us the truth.)
According to the first rule, if your mother/father asks, "...have you seen my car
keys?" an honest answer is expected.

B Maxim of relevance
According to this rule, you are expected to stay on the topic. In other words, make sure
that your comments fit with what is being talked about - make sure your comments are
relevant.
If your girl/boyfriend asks "How was your day?" and you say "I hate tomatoes" - you

14
 are not playing by the rules. You are expected to make a contribution that is in some
way related to the topic at hand.

C Maxim of Quality
1. Make your contribution as informative as is required.
(i.e., "Don't say too little")
2. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
(i.e., "Don't say too much")
We usually assume that people are telling us everything we need to know. If they don't
say something, then we assume they simply don't know that information.
So, when you get home from an important job interview and your parents ask, "How
did it go today?" - you are expected to answer the question without providing too much
detail ("The interview started three minutes late, I sat at the table, opposite the
interviewer, the first person to speak...") or too little information ("All right").

D Maxim of manner
a. Avoid obscurity of expression
b. Avoid ambiguity
c. Be brief
d. Be orderly

These maxims relate to the form of speech you use. You shouldn't use words you know
your listeners won't understand or say things that you know could be taken multiple
ways. You should also not state something in a long, drawn-out way if you could say it
in a much simpler manner.
If your girl/boyfriend asks, "How does my new shirt look?" and you respond "It's
interesting," you have broken Maxim of Manner - you are not being clear and direct.
Following the Rules/Maxims
When the rules are followed it is easy for people to understand each other. What people
say is explicit, direct, and to the point. People say what they mean.

Noticeably Breaking the Rules/Maxims

These rules, however, are useful even when they are broken. If a speaker breaks the

15
rules in a way that is noticeable (called "flouting"), we try to figure out why it happened
"...why did she say that?"

The following examples show how this works:

If someone asks you, "How much did your house cost?" and you respond by saying
"Enough" - well, hopefully they will get the point ("It's none of your business.")
This is how we imply meaning - we say things without actually having to say them by
breaking Grice's rules overtly (out in the open).

One more example of flouting the maxims:

Imagine that you and a friend are sitting around in class complaining about the teacher.
Mid-sentence your friend abruptly changes the subject (breaks the Maxim of Relation).
Without saying a word your friend has told you what you need to know.

As can be seen, Grice's rules are important - we follow them when we want to be
explicitly clear and direct. And we break the rules in an obvious, noticeable way in
order to make a point without having to be explicit about the point being made.

Task 1.2.5 Using the Conversational Maxims

Work in groups of 3. Imagine that you want to work in a private school you like and
you are going to be interviewed by the headmaster/principal. You have to explain to
him/her the reasons why you want/need the work there and convince them to hire you
instead of the other applicants/candidates. What would you say? Prepare your talk with
your group-mates. Then change group. Role-play your talk - your new group-mates
will comment using the "four maxims":
Maxims

Quality

Relevance

Quantity

16
 Manner

Task 1.2.6 Reading - Notions and Language Functions

An important aspect of communicative language teaching is the concept of function.
Traditional methods and approaches to Foreign Language (FL) teaching are based on
the presentation and practice of grammatical structures and, essentially, a grammar-
based syllabus. But from the 1970s a new emphasis began to emerge which prioritised
the communicative meanings that learners would need in order to express themselves
and to understand effectively. Applied linguists began to look at how language could
be categorized on the basis of notions such as quantity, location and time, and
functions such as making requests, making offers and apologizing. The Council of
Europe drew up a communicative language syllabus, which specified the
communicative functions a learner would need in order to communicate effectively at
a given level of competence and soon course-books to be based on functional syllabuses
began to appear. Typically, they would be organized on the basis of individual
functions and the exponents needed to express these functions.
For example, many course-books would begin with the function of 'introducing
oneself, perhaps followed by the function of 'making requests', with typical exponents
being 'Can I....?', "Could you ....?', "Is it alright if I....?' and so on. These would often
be practised in the form of communicative exercises involving pair work, group work
and role plays. It is interesting to compare this approach with a grammatical syllabus.
In a typical grammatical syllabus, structures using the word 'would' tend to appear in
later stages of the syllabus, as they are held to be relatively complex (e.g. "7/7 knew the
answer, I would tell you"), whereas in a functional syllabus 'would' often appears at a
very early stage due to its communicative significance in exponents such as 'Would you
like ....?, which is extremely common and of great communicative value even to
beginners. The need to apply a grammatical name or category to the structure is not
considered important within the framework of a purely functional syllabus.
Basically, functions refer to what items of language actually do in a real context, as
opposed to what they might mean literally. These include suggesting, criticizing,
refusing, agreeing and disagreeing, enquiring or giving advice among others.
Example: The phrase 'What time do you call this?' has a clear literal meaning but its

17
function is to ask 'Why are you late? I'm very angry! 1

Obviously, the concept of Notions and Functions is very much connected with the
concept of communicative competence that we have been looking at, and
fundamental when you come to deciding what you want to teach and when.

Watch the following video about functions and communicative teaching and then do
task 2.7. It is a conversation between Jeremy Harmer and Scott Thornbury about
communicative language (go to 14:00 minutes where they talk about language
functions). Another video about CLT .

Task 1.2.7 Functions worksheet

Look at the worksheet on the following page and match each expression with its
corresponding function.

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19
1.3- COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

Task 1.3.1 Listening

Fill in the blanks in the transcript with the words in the box

-students' preferences -flexible -language -meaning-centered

-communicative language use -information-sharing -classroom
-grammatical structures -notions and functions -real communication
-promote -students’ interest -communicate -interaction

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is an approach that represents

a philosophy of teaching based on 1 ……………….. ……………………… It is also

based on Communicative Competence. CLT emphasises notional/ Functional

concepts and communicative competence rather than 2……………… CLT is

constructed upon two systems of meaning: 3………………………………. Let's see

some of the main features of communicative language teaching:

• Meaning is of primary importance in CLT, and contextualisation is a basic

principle.

• Attempts by learners to 4 …………………………………………………

with the language are encouraged from the very beginning of classes. The

new language will be learnt best by struggling to communicate one's own

meaning and by negotiation of meaning through . … ........................ with

5

others.

• Sequencing of materials is determined by the content, function and/or

meaning that will maintain 6…….………………

• Reasonable use of native language in the 7…………………………………………….

20
(for example, to briefly clarify an unfamiliar word or concept).

Activities and strategies for learning are varied according to 8………………………

and needs. The goal of teaching is communicative competence.

Communication principle: Activities that involve 9………………………………

promote learning.

Task principle: Activities in which language is used to carry out meaningful tasks
10
………………………………. learning.

Meaningfulness principle: 11……………………………………………. that is

meaningful to the learner supports the learning process.

Learning activities are consequently selected according to how well they engage the

learner in meaningful and authentic language use.

Classroom activities that would be representative of CLT include: Interactive

language games, 12… ………………………………………………….. activities,

task-based activities, social interaction and functional communication practice,

according to Richards and Rodgers 1986.

In sum, CLT is a 13......................, engaging and14 .................................. approach to

teaching and learning language.

21
Task 1.3.4 Web Search
In the following websites you will find information about pre-communicative
approaches to FL teaching, i.e. methods that were used before the Communicative
Approach. Watch them and complete the table above with information about them. Try
to summarise one of them and explain it to your classmates.

Grammar translation method

Oral approach
Audio-lingual method
Direct method
Natural approach
Fill in the table on the pages that follow:
Read the files you find in moovi (teaching methods folder) and watch the following
video Total Physical Response

22
Approach Grammar translation Direct Method

View of
language you
are going to
teach

When was it
used?

Role of the
teacher

Teaching
techniques

Skills
emphasized

Use of the
mother
tongue

23
Approach Oral Approach Audio-lingual method
View of
language you
are going to
teach

When was it
used?

Role of the
teacher

Teaching
strategies

Skills
emphasized

Use of the
mother
tongue

24
Approach Natural Approach Total physical response

View of
language you
are going to
teach

When was it
used?

Role of the
teacher

Teaching
techniques

Skills
emphasized

Use of the
mother
tongue

25
Task 1.3.5 Methods and Features
Match the following methods/approaches with their essential "features":
METHOD
1. Grammar-translation method
2. Direct method
3. Oral approach
4. Audio-lingual approach
5. Natural approach
6. Total Physical Response
FEATURES
A. involves group work and interaction
B. Memorizing patterns, repetition,
drills
C. Grammar is taught implicitly;
meaning is given through
demonstration, not translation
D. Combining language & movement
E. Importance is given to the cultural
context. The aim is automatic control of
the foreign language
F. Memorizing rules and vocabulary
26
 1.4- PRIMARY ENGLISH LEARNING/TEACHING

Task 1.4.1 Food for thought

Work in groups. Here you have some food for thought. It is meant to help you to
reflect on some important issues surrounding foreign-language teaching in primary
education:

1. What are natural languages for? How do we learn them?

2. "Learning how to communicate in a foreign language" or "learning a foreign
language"?
3. Why is "thinking in Galician/Spanish while using/learning a foreign language"
a problem? In what ways can we get round this problem?
4. Should grammar be taught implicitly or explicitly?
5. Should emphasis fall on the graphic or on the phonic medium?

Maximum exposure to the foreign language certainly has importance for English
language learning, but the two main methodological transformations are the presence of
a visual approach in combination with sensory learning and the central concept of
holistic learning for children.

Task 1.4.2 Language Learning Is a Natural Process When Children Are

Young
Adults often try to learn languages in an unnatural way. Most people, for example, can
recite the verbs in French—je suis, tu es, il est, elle est, nous sommes, vous etes, etc.
But they find it much more difficult to speak French naturally when they visit France.
However, when people immerse themselves in a language like children, through play
and exploration, they can learn a language quickly and easily. So the more we become
child-like in language learning, the easier it becomes. Children growing up in a good
environment learn to speak at least 2,000 basic words by the time they are four years
old. Simply observing how babies learn to talk proves that they are natural learners.
During the first six months of life, babies use the 70 sounds that make up all the
languages in the world. They will then learn to talk using only the sounds and words
they learn from their environment, most importantly from their parents and caregivers.
A baby's brain will then discard the ability to speak in languages he or she does not
hear (Kotulak, 1996).

27
 Preschool Years Are Vital Years
"During this period and especially the first three years of life, the foundations for
thinking, language, vision, attitudes, aptitudes, and other characteristics are laid down
[established]," says Ronald Kotulak, author of Inside the Brain. Consequently, it would
be a waste not to use a child's natural ability to learn during his or her most vital years,
when learning a second language is as easy as learning the first. Since 50 percent of the
ability to learn is developed in the first years of life and another 30 percent by age eight
(during the first and second year of primary education), early childhood development
programs have the opportunity to encourage early learning and development. This does
not mean, however, that 50 to 80 percent of one's intelligence, wisdom, or knowledge
is formed during early childhood. It simply means that during the first few years of life,
children form their main learning pathways in the brain (Bloom, 1964). There are six
main pathways to the brain. They include learning by sight, sound, taste, touch, smell,
and doing (Dryden & Vos, 1997). Later in life, everything a person learns will grow
from the information gained during these early years.
(Adapted from Can Preschool Children Be Taught a Second Language? by Jeanette
Vos Ed.D.).

Task 1.4.3 Work in twos (A and B). Student A takes TEXT1 and student B TEXT2.
Read the text to your partner and try to find the differences of both texts. Once you
have marked the differences, you should agree on the correct sentences.

28
What can primary children do? TEXT1 (B)
In the primary years (4-12), children are in the concrete operational stage, that is, they
are not as egocentric as before, they cannot perceive something else beyond their own
realities and point of view, and haven’t an incipient comprehension of physical and
mechanical realities and causal relationships, though they cannot yet carry out abstract
operations. Their memory techniques are progressively developed, being able to review,
organize and use imagery, recall and scripts for learning. The second metacognitive
abilities appear, so that they can start learning what to carry out intellectual processes
such as planning, decision-making a strategic choice for solving problems.

Linguistically speaking, they have learnt nearly everything regarding the moral aspects
of the language, including discourse and pragmatic skills such as illocutionary actions,
speech registers and topic shifts. Nevertheless, some grammatical aspects are still in the
process of being learnt, much as the full use of co-ordinators, conditionals, and relative
clauses. Another very important task ahead is the achieve of complete proficiency for
the symbolic communication represented by reading and writing. It for the English
learners, has an added degree of complexity, due to its deep Homographic system.

This is the situation of primary learners, whose job is learning a new language with the
cognitive and linguistic pools they have and with the help of the teacher (and probably
a textbook or any other tool).

29
What can primary children do? TEXT 2 (B)2

In the primary years (6-12), children are in the concrete operational stage, that is, they
are as egocentric as before, they can perceive something else beyond their own realities
and point of view, and have an incipient comprehension of physical and mechanical
realities and causal relationships, though they can yet carry out abstract operations. Their
memory techniques are progressively developed, being unable to review, organize and
use imagery, recall and scripts for learning. The first metacognitive abilities appear, so
that they can start learning how to carry out intellectual processes such as planning,
decision-making a strategic choice for solving problems.

Linguistically speaking, they haven’t learnt nearly everything regarding the oral aspects
of the language, including discourse and pragmatic kills such as illocutionary actions,
speech registers and topic shifts. Nevertheless, some grammatical aspects are still in the
process of being learnt, such as the full use of co-ordinators, conditionals, and relative
clauses. Other very important task ahead is the achievement of complete proficiency for
the symbolic communication represented by reading and writing. They for the English
learners, has an added degree of complexity, due to its deep orthographic system.

This is not the situation of primary learners, whose job is learning a new language with
the cognitive and linguistic tools they have and with the help of the parents (and
probably a textbook or any other tool).

2
Take a look at appendix 7 and check your answers.

30
COMPARING EDUCATION IN SPAIN, UNITED KINGDOM AND USA
SPAIN: primary school from 6 to 12 divided into 6 primary courses. Secondary
school (12-16, 1-4 ESO)
United Kingdom: What are the Key Stages?

The National Curriculum is divided into four Key Stages that children are taken
through during their school life. For example, Key Stage 1 is taught during Years 1
and 2 of primary school. Targets defined in the National Curriculum are assessed at
the end of each Key Stage.
Reception is the first year of primary school in the United Kingdom. It is preceded by
nursery and is followed by Year One. Pupils in Reception are usually aged between
four and five.

Spain UK USA3
name level age name Year age name level age
Infantil 1 3 Preschool Pre-k 3
Infantil 1 4 Nursery 4 Preschool Pre-k 4
Infantil 2 5 K14 1 5/6 Elementary Kindergarten 5
Infantil 2 6 K1 2 6/7 Elementary 1 6
Primaria 1 7 K2 (1) 3 7/8 Elementary 2 7
Primaria 2 8 K2 (2) 4 8/9 Elementary 3 8
Primaria 3 9 K2 (3) 5 9/10 Elementary 4 9
Primaria 4 10 K2 (4) 6 10/11 Elementary 5 10
Primaria 5 11 K3 (1) 7 11/12 Middle 6 11
Primaria 6 12 K3 (2) 8 12/13 Middle 7 12
ESO 1 13 K3 (3) 9 13/14 Middle 8 13
ESO 2 14 K4 (1) 10 14/15 High School 9 14
ESO 3 15 K4 (2) 11 15/16 High School 10 15
ESO 4 16 High School 11 16
BACH 1 17 High School 12 17
BACH 2 18

3
The US K-12 public education system varies substantially in school configuration by grade level, both
across states and across school districts within states. (There is even variation within districts!)
For more details, see this document . According to that document “Primary schools are
called elementary schools, intermediate (upper primary or lower secondary) schools are called middle
schools, and secondary schools are called high schools […]. Schools are organized into
elementary(primary) schools, middle schools, and high (secondary) schools. Primary or elementary
education ranges from grade 1 to grades 4-7, depending on state and school district policy. Middle
schools serve pre-adolescent and young adolescent students between grades 5 and 9, with most in the
grade 6-8 range. Middle schools in the upper grade range (7-9) are sometimes referred to as junior high
schools. Secondary or high schools enrol students in the upper grades, generally 9-12 with variations. In
the United States these tend to be comprehensive schools enrolling students of widely different interests
and capabilities who follow different educational tracks within the same school.”
You can find also K3 in the USA to refer to elementary 3 (8 years-old) or K5, elementary 5 (10 years-
old).

4 The educational system in the UK is divided into four main parts: primary education, secondary
education, further education and higher education. Attend to classes is compulsory from 5 to 16. This
system is also split into key stages: K1 (5 to 7), K2 (7-11), K3 (11 to 14), K4 (14-16). Primary education
comprises K1 and K2, that means from year 1 to year 6. In year 2 and year 6 the 2 SATs testing take
place for K1 and K2.

31
5.- TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE (TPR)5

Task 1.5.1 TPR jigsaw.

Form base groups and study the short text (1, 2, 3) your teacher assigns you. Prepare
to explain the contents of your text to other members of the class.

Now form expert groups and share the information with each other to find out more
about TPR. Make sure to take notes on what the other members of your group tell you.

When finished, return to your base groups to share notes and discuss what you have
read. In each base group finally piece together all the information in your own words.
Then prepare a poster and present your findings to the whole group.

Task 1.5.2 text 1

This was a term coined by Dr. James Asher at San Jose State University in 1965. He
showed how students can learn a language by listening to and carrying out instructions.
Asher’s theory is that languages can be more easily learnt if we look at how infants
learn their first language. Before being able to speak, a baby reacts physically to
language and then moves to verbal expression. During the pre-speech period, the baby
internalizes the language. Jack C. Richards & Theodore s. Rodgers (1986) present TPR
as a language teaching method built around the coordination of speech and action,
attempting to teach language through physical (motor) activity.

The use of TPR in the classroom in many ways tries to take advantage of this ready-
made learning capacity that everyone has. In a way, the teacher takes on the role of the
parent —giving prompts, setting patterns, playing games, and the student then responds
physically to the prompt. The teacher then responds positively to the correct response,
much in the way that a parent would. This reinforces the learning and encourages
further steps.

5 Total Physical Response is the method selected by Xunta de Galicia to teach a foreign language to pre-
primary students (DOG, nº 90. 10 de mayo de 2007), so your students are used to learning through this
method.

32
TPR also recognises a “silent period” during which the learner is absorbing the new
language and cannot yet produce new words with confidence. Whether you have
heard the term TPR or not, almost all pre-primary teachers have likely used it
instinctively.
Total physical response (TPR) is probably something that all good teachers use in the
pre-primary classroom, but do you ever stop to think about what really happens when
you use it?

Why is TPR particularly useful for young learners?

TPR techniques can be used with adults in many ways, but they really lend
themselves to teaching young learners because of children’s:
• need to move
• lack of inhibition in moving in front of others
• natural desire to mimic
Total Physical Response in Pre-primary Language Learning
• innate desire to react
• enjoyment of tactile activities
• Huge amounts of energy
From the moment you wave and say “Hello” and they respond in kind, TPR is kicking
in. From that point on, you might instruct the children to move to different places in the
classroom, use a puppet to animate meaning and shake hands with the children, play a
game involving actions, ask the children to touch or point to things in a book, or you
sing a song with actions. All of these activities incorporate TPR.

TPR appeals to a number of learning styles. It most obviously appeals to the

kinaesthetic learner who learns best through physically doing something or connecting
to memory through actions. However, visual learners will take visual cues from seeing
the actions associated with the instructions given. Auditory learners will particularly
benefit from TPR chants and songs in which the words and rhythms associated with
movement will be memorable to them. However, the most important thing is that TPR
brings language to life and makes language learning an enjoyable experience.

33
TPR jigsaw Task 1.5.2 text 2
TEXT and TPR
One of the greatest advantages of TPR for the pre-primary classroom is that it doesn’t
have to be text dependent. TPR can be mostly oral. This means that children of any
level of reading ability can react to it — creating the perfect type of activity for mixed
ability classes. The ability to respond physically to a prompt can be particularly
rewarding for children who have dyslexia and other learning issues. However, as you
move to higher levels. TPR can be used with pictures and then text. Children can point
to different words, match them, do actions when a certain word is read aloud in a story,
or mime actions as they read.

TPR and everyday classroom activities

You can easily use TPR in your everyday classroom routine. Get the children used to
responding to greetings and questions like: How are you? by doing a thumbs up or
down. Encourage the children to recognise and respond to your simple classroom
instructions and gestures to do things like:
• touch • hands up/down
• stand up • find
• sit down • open/close your books
Make visual associations with words that they can learn and mimic, especially
descriptive words:
• big • happy
• small • sad
And of course, they love to mime people, animals, vehicles, weather… (you can
probably think of many more.) By integrating TPR into routines, students will
immediately become involved in the language and engaged in
reacting to it. They will soon realise that they understand a lot of things and will build
confidence as they learn.
(source: Dyson, Leone. “Children learning English as a foreign language. Total
physical Response in pre-primary language learning”).

34
TPR jigsaw Task 1.5.2. Text 3
Asher (1977: 43-44) says that “Most of the grammatical structure of the target language
and hundreds of vocabulary items can be learned from the skillful use of the imperative
by the instructor” and that “The instructor is the director of a stage play in which the
students are the actors”. TPR is based on: language acquisition; mime; movement;
listening; understanding; doing. The meaning of the target language has to be
communicated through actions (usually imperatives). - Memory is active thanks to the
physical response of the student because movement activates a part of the brain that
help us to memorise. TPR encourages the development of oral skills after internalizing
the words. So Listening and understanding come before production.

TPR starts with the silent phase. Mouths are not opened. There is not stress to produce
the right sound because stress kills motivation. TPR should be stress-free; judgment-
free. Your students answer with their movement, using their energy and having fun.
What students do is to play games, listen to instructions, having fun, acting. But what
they really do is understand and store vocabulary in the long-term memory. Only when
you are confident, you can re-produce words.

Steps you should follow to apply the TPR method

• Present the vocabulary to your students (with objects or pictures, photos, etc.
and gestures). They need to identify the words (sounds) with real objects.
• Repeat the words or phrases in the same order.
• Do the action when you say the command or phrase
• Repeat the sequence in the same order and make them copy you.
• Repeat the sequence in the same order but do nothing as teacher (only the
students do the actions).
• Once they have understood all the phrases, say them in a different order.

Watch the following videos to understand it better.

(TPR and action stories), (TPR action story_film 8)

35
1.6.- Taking a look at Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence

Gardner (1983; 1998) says that we have several types of intelligence:

• Linguistic intelligence
• Logical-mathematical intelligence
• Musical intelligence
• Visual-spatial intelligence
• Visual intelligence:
• Kinesthetic intelligence
• Social intelligence
• Introspective intelligence:
• Natural intelligence

Task 1.6.1: Work in twos and write on the left column the type of intelligence is
described on the right one.

Intelligence Description
the ability to master position in space. This intelligence is
used by architects, painters, and pilots.
the ability to learn by exploring nature
the ability to know one’s inner feelings, wants and needs.
The ability to read, write and communicate with words.
the ability to relate to others, used by salespeople and
motivators.
the ability to memorize visually, and use the imagination.
the musical ability highly developed by composers and top
musicians.
the ability to reason and calculate.
the physical intelligence used by dancers and athletes.

How can you link all these intelligences to teaching a second or third language? Here
you find some tips.

1. Learn by doing: Play with them to do the shopping, or make a snack, or take a
walk. While you are interacting with the children during these activities, speak
the new language (Dryden & Rose, 1995).
2. Reinforce with pictures and sounds. Say the sounds of the language that
accompany the picture in a playful way when you want to remark them
(Dryden & Rose, 1995; Dryden and Vos, 1997).
3. Learning should be fun: The more entertaining it is to learn a language, the
more a child will want to stay with it. Learning while playing. It is the best
way to learn because it creates emotional attachments and emotion is the door
to learning (Jensen, 1994; Dryden & Rose, 1995; Dryden and Vos, 1997).
4. Learn in a relaxed but challenging state. Never stress a child. Current research
shows that 80 percent of learning problems are stress related. Not all the
children have the same rhythm.
5. Learn with music and rhythm. Music is one way to use the whole brain. Do

36
 you still remember the songs you learned in early childhood? Most people do
because lyrics combined with music are easier to learn. They are also saved in
the long term memory. So make them get involved in creating songs with the
new content.
6. Learn with lots of movement- use the body and the mind together. Don’t tell
your students to be quiet and still. We learn more when we move. Encourage
children to dance and move to the rhythm when learning a new language.
7. Learn by talking to each other. Having students practice a language by talking
to each other over a meal, during the break, etc. Practice with real situations.
Promote group work or work in pairs because it contributes to use the foreign
language.
8. Learn by reflecting. It is important to let children take time to absorb the
language before they begin to speak that language (krashen, 1992)
9. Link numbers and words in a playful way. Anything can be linked when
learning a new language. For instance when learning number two in English
make them point to the partner (tú, in Spanish).
10. Learn by touching. Do little finger rhymes in a second language. While you
sing or say “itsy, bitsy, spider” have the fingers of each hand touch another
finger, as if the spider is climbing.
11. Learn by tasting. Have young students celebrate language learning by eating
foods and saying the food name in the new language.
12. Learn by smelling. Play smelling games. Hide objects in a sack, and have the
children guess what is inside. Encourage them to say the new word in the
language they are learning.
13. Use the whole world as the classroom. Turn every outing into a learning
experience. You can learn a new language while counting oranges, comparing
things, classifying different animals, learning another subject or anything that
interests the children.

37
 1.7 CONTENT AND LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING (CLIL)6

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has become the term used to
describe both learning another content subject such as natural sciences or geography
through the medium of a foreign language and learning a foreign language by studying
a content-based subject. The term was created by David Marsh and Anne Maljers in
1994. Essentially CLIL is similar to content-based instruction (CBI) and English as a
medium of instruction (EMI) in that you learn the target language along with specific
subject matter. CLIL is able to meet its most important objective: it allows students to
use the language as they learn it, rather than learning it for using it later in life.
Teaching in a CLIL classroom is challenging for our students. They have to learn two
new topics, specific topic and a foreign language, all at the same time.
(Source: CLIL a lesson framework; Content and language integrated learning
CmapTools / Mindmup Goconqr Canva (tools to make concept maps)
six videos showing CLIL used in classes from primary schools)
Take a look at those pages about CLIL

Classroom principles

Some of the basic principles of the CLIL classroom:

• Language is used to learn as well as to communicate. It is the subject matter which

determines the language needed to learn.
A CLIL lesson is therefore not a language lesson neither is it a subject lesson
transmitted in a foreign language. It is based on Communicative Language Teaching
(CLT) (see section 1.3 task 1.3.1). According to the 4Cs curriculum (Coyle: 1999,
2006), a successful CLIL lesson should combine elements of the following 4Cs:
• Content: it relates to the learning of subject matter such as science or geography.
We must carefully define content for our students. What will we teach? What will
they learn? What are the teaching and learning objectives?

• Cognition: it reflects the development of learning and critical thinking skills in

the subject context during the lesson, linking new knowledge to existing
understanding. Students will be challenged both linguistically and by the subject
matter (see page 50- 1.8 about cognitive skills).

• Communication: it emphasizes language development in the classroom. Students

use the language to learn while learning to use the language. We must carefully
consider what language and grammar they will need to work successfully with

6 In moovi you find a whole section devoted to this topic with interesting files.

38
 the content, including specialized words or phrases.

• Culture (community): it is what unites the 4Cs together. It reflects the benefits of
the learning experience (classroom-society). It helps them to understand the world
and society.

Features a CLIL sequence should include

1.- Repetition

When you repeat the core vocabulary and phrases, you are giving students multiple
chances to get the definition and usage right. Repetition gives students the chance for
auditory practice. One of the most important skills for learning a language is listening.

2.- Animated gesturing

This technique is a visual aid. You have to use your whole body to convey
meaning to your students. Remember your students are used to TPR
methodology, so you can take advantage of this. Don’t just use your hands. Even
your eyes can speak. The way in which you stand, or tilt your head, or frown
conveys meaning and helps you to explain something to your students. Take a
look at this idea about teaching English using the sign language.

3.- Use of visual aids and prompts7

If gestures are not enough, use images or objects. It is true what they say. A picture is
worth a thousand words. Select clear and good images.

4.- Pre-teaching vocabulary

Sometimes it’s better to isolate the vocabulary that you want students to remember. In
this case you’ll want to pre-teach vocabulary ahead of the main lesson. It all depends
on your class and individual students. Doing this when necessary, your students can
concentrate on the content. Remember, they should learn content and language at the
same time.

5.- About direct translation

7Give the students ideas to finish sentences. Encourage them to say something. Give them the
beginning of a sentence and encourage them to finish it.

39
Sometimes you can translate the core vocabulary. Remember that your students need
to know the core vocabulary in their own language as well. The use of the mother
tongue is not forbidden in CLIL, but you should restrict it. Avoid direct translations.
Instead, try to play a game with the translated words and the English words.

6.- Task-based and Communicative activities

The students will do most of the talking in these techniques. So, offer them
opportunities to practise the target language. They will need to use language functions
such as asking for permission, coming to an agreement, making decisions, etc., learning
how to use the language and not the language directly.

7.- Show and tell

You can ask students to talk about the subject in their own words, using the target
language. A presentation of about 5 sentences will be enough. What is important is that
you let the students experience what it’s like conversing, interacting and conveying a
message in the target language.

Don’t interrupt the presentation even when you hear something wrong. Instead, after
each presentation, do a rundown/summary of everything right that happened during a
student’s show and tell.

8.- Role playing

A two-minute performance of a topic is more than enough. This activity has a dual
purpose of serving as language practise and apprising the teacher of what students have
learnt. If the solo nature of show and tell is too much for them, let them work in pairs
or groups.

CLIL Essential features

First we should strive for the authenticity in the materials that we use (a recipe, a blog,
a magazine, documentary-films, newspapers, e-mails, letters, advertisements, tv shows,
etc. Our task is to make those authentic materials appropriate for the level that we are
teaching. You find below one example of a magazine “how it works” dealing with the
human body and its organs and functions. This is an informative magazine for all
audiences.

40
Second, we should engage our students in active learning. The lesson should be
designed so that the students can work in pairs or small groups (to work
communication) in order to work through the material themselves. Teachers are
facilitators in a CLIL classroom, giving minimal input to the students. It is the students
who should be doing most of the communication in classroom. CLIL instruction is
student-centred instruction. See the activities below to be group in pairs or group.

Third, scaffolding is a term used in CLIL to mean support. New knowledge should be
supported by pre-existing and previously learnt knowledge, for both content and
language, but also for the learning process. It is like taking your students by the hand
and slowly pointing them to the light.

41
(Ioannou-Georgiou and Paulou, 2011).

Here you find some examples. What kind of scaffolding do you identify here?

Finally, CLIL teaching is rarely done alone. Teachers should work together in a
cooperative fashion to gather and create materials. They should also collaborate with
language teachers.

What are the steps to follow when designing your CLIL lesson plan?

To prepare your sequences you can take CLIL’s A’s Approach, Analyse, Add and
Apply, to find appropriate content-based materials.

42
Task 1.7.1. Include the appropriate A-word in the gaps and draw arrows to connect the
bubbles.
Steps (focus on language)
ANALYSE
Once you define what
content you will teach,
…………….. the
content to determine
what language will be
needed for learning to
take place; i.e. the
required language to
understand the content
The language
for learning
APPLY
ADD
Give your
Find the way to students the
……………..to content opportunity to
……… what
language the appropriate
language they need to they have learnt
work. At this stage you in order to assure
will need to take into that learning has
account learners’ taken place. It
strategies, classroom talk emphasizes the
and task demands. It active
includes grammar and involvement of
learners in the
rule-based knowledge of
learning process
language and strategies
learners need to
communicate and learn in
a foreign language
environment
The language
through learning.
The language of
learning
43
Mind map on different aspects of language you need to pay attention to.

Task 1.7.2. Take a look at this mindmap and answer you teacher’s questions.

Steps to follow focussing on content (?) appendix 10

1-You should start with checking previous knowledge. Do you know how? Write 3
examples.

2-Give your students an opportunity to practise their content knowledge, perhaps

by explaining what they have read about the topic to each other.
3-Give your students a chance to expand their vocabulary, either by directly
presenting new words or giving them the opportunity to discover meanings
within the context of the content readings.
4-Give them the opportunity to consolidate this knowledge.
5-Allow your students to exercise their skills, by giving them an opportunity to
deduce meaning in context.
6-Follow this with an opportunity to apply this new knowledge by proposing
opinion discussions or debates or posing open-ended questions, rather than

44
 simple factual questions.
7-Conclude your sequence with the time to check or correct errors; up until this
point, you have been concentrating on content over correct language. Now is
your opportunity to present and fix errors, but give them the opportunity to
discover them by themselves.

To be a CLIL teacher is not an easy task since not all of us will be familiar with both
the target language and the subject matter to a high degree of proficiency. Act as a
facilitator in the CLIL lesson. The instruction is student-centred, meaning that the
materials should be created in such a way as to allow our students to work through them
in pairs or in groups with minimal input from the teacher/instructor.

Task 1.7.3. Now take a look at the image below. Could you number the steps from 1
to 7? Think about this: your first look to the image was directed to the right or to the
left side? (app12)

Now work in pairs/ twos (pair off with a classmate): Could you write two examples of
each step?

Stages of a lesson framework focusing on content and language in equal measure

Task 1.7.4. Read the following text and make a diagram/mindmap with the ideas

A CLIL lesson looks at content and language in equal measure, and often follows
this four-stage framework.

1.- Processing the text

45
The best texts to be used in CLIL are those accompanied by illustrations so that
learners can visualise what they are reading. When working in a foreign language,
learners need structural markers in texts to help them find their way through the
content. These markers may be linguistic (headings, sub-headings) and/or
diagrammatic. Once a 'core knowledge' has been identified, the organisation of the text
can be analysed.

2.- Identification and organisation of knowledge

As we have previously mentioned, texts are often represented diagrammatically. These
structures are known as 'ideational frameworks' or 'diagrams of thinking', and are used
to help learners to categorise the ideas and information in a text. Diagram types include
tree diagrams for classification, groups, hierarchies, flow diagrams and timelines for
sequenced thinking such as instructions and historical information, tabular diagrams
describing people and places, and combinations of these. The structure of the text is
used to facilitate learning and the creation of activities which focus on both language
development and core content knowledge.

3.- Language identification

Learners are expected to be able to reproduce the core vocabulary of the text in their
own words. Since learners will need to use both simple and more complex language
(remember BICs and CALP8), there is no grading of language involved, but it is a
good idea for the teacher to highlight useful language in the text and to categorise it
according to function. Learners may need the language of comparison and contrast,
location or describing a process, but may also need certain discourse markers, adverb
phrases or prepositional phrases. Collocations, semi-fixed expressions and set phrases
may also be given attention as well as subject-specific and academic vocabulary.

4.- Tasks for students

There is little difference in task-type between a CLIL lesson and a skills-based ELT
lesson. A variety of tasks should be provided, bearing in mind to promote

8 BICS are Basic interpersonal communication skills, i.e. the language used in social situations (day-to-
day language). CALP “Cognitive academic language proficiency” refers to listening, Reading, speaking
and writing about subject área content material. Academic language does not only include content
vocabulary. It also includes cognitive skills such as comparing, classifying, evaluating, inferring, etc.
(Bics and Calps, Cummins, 1984)

46
communication and the learning purpose and learner styles and preferences. Receptive
skill activities are of the 'read/listen and do' genre. A menu of listening activities
might be:

• Listen and label a diagram/picture/map/graph/chart

• Listen and fill in a table
• Listen and make notes on specific information (dates, figures, times)
• Listen and reorder information
• Listen and identify location/speakers/places
• Listen and label the stages of a process/instructions/sequences of a text
• Listen and fill in the gaps in a text
Tasks designed for production need to be subject-orientated, so that both content and
language are recycled. Since content is to be focused on, more language support
than usual in an ELT lesson may be required. Language is also focused on this
method, so remember to use appropriate activities to encourage speaking. Here you
find some ideas.
Typical speaking activities include:
• Question loops - questions and answers, terms and definitions, halves of
sentences
• Information gap activities with a question sheet to support
• Trivia search - 'things you know' and 'things you want to know'
• Word guessing games
• Class surveys using questionnaires
• Singing a song about the topic
• Proposing a debate about natural sciences. Explain your students their roles.
One example could be the following:

47
Further aspects to be taken into account when designing a CLIL sequence for primary
school pupils:

Timing/ time frame How long is my lesson? What is the concentration span
of my pupils according to age? How many activities do
I need to plan?
Teacher’s and pupils’ What skills do I and my pupils need to carry out the
communicative skills and lesson/ activities in English? R. L. W. S.
thinking (cognitive) skills What kind of cognitive skills following Bloom’s
taxonomy do they need to practise? (see 1.8).
Content and language What are exactly the contents and the language
(vocabulary, grammar, phonetics) needed taken BICS
and CALP and language functions into account
Activities to support What activities can I include to teach the content?
content
Pupils’ physical What activities can I include to allow the young
involvement learners to be physically active?
Motivation tools What tools/ strategies can I use to motivate my pupils
(solve mysteries, prizes and rewards)
Materials What materials can I use to support content? Don’t
forget the use of authentic materials/realia
Expected outcomes What do I want my pupils to be able to do at the end of
the sequence?

Echevarria, Vogt and Short (2000) suggest taking the following aspects of planning
into account. They use the following questions to organise the sequence:

Content objectives What do I want the learners to learn and know about by
the end of the class?
Language objectives What is the main language that I need my pupils to be able
to understand and use during the class?
Content concepts What are the concepts that my pupils need to understand
and are they suitable for their age and level?
Supplementary What visual back up and other support can I use to help
materials (to create me to get my message across and help my learners to
context and support understand the content?
content concept)
Adaptation of content What teaching strategies can I employ to make the content
more accessible to my pupils, in terms of language, but
without compromising the content being taught, in terms
of concepts and level?
Meaningful activities What concrete hands-on activities that are age appropriate
and relevant to my pupils’ world can I include? (remember
the context of the 4Cs).

48
In a CLIL lesson, not only cognitive skills but also communicative skills should be
developed and combined. The language/ communicative skills are seen thus:
• Listening is a normal input activity, vital for language learning.
• Reading, using meaningful material, is the major source of input.
• Speaking focuses on fluency. Accuracy is seen as subordinate.
• Writing is a series of lexical activities through which grammar is recycled.
All these features make the difference between CLIL lessons and ELT (English
language teaching) lesson. CLIL lessons are delivered by a teacher versed in CLIL
methodology and are based on material directly related to a content-based subject.
Remember that both content and language are explored in a CLIL lesson, although
the language is not explicitly explained.

Example 1 speaking: hands-on activity. Text you give to your students:

Government wants to cut expenditure on maintenance of human bodies
Yesterday the government announced measures to economise on the costs of human
bodies. The most striking measure is the plan to abolish at least one entire organ
system. However, there is still no consensus among government officials which organ
system should be done away with. According to reliable sources more details will be
announced by next month.
The different organisations for organ systems have been asked for input and
comment. The following seven institutes were approached:
ACS- the Association of Circulatory System
RCRS- the Royal Club of Respiratory System
FE- Friends of Excretion
DS- the Digestive Society
ESIG- the Endocrine System Interest Group
NO- the Nervous Ones
PoR- the Propagators of Reproduction
The above mentioned interest groups have expressed their concern about the situation,
but are not willing to comment at this stage. All agree that talks should be held with
each party concerned before opinions can be vented, and that society should not be
rushed into such a far-reaching measure.
The following procedure has been proposed. Each of the organisations will be send

49
representatives to the talks which will be held at our school. There will be
simultaneous meetings, each with one representative of each interest group. The
outcome will be discussed in a plenary session. Hopefully, a number of government
officials will be present to witness the possible consequences of their proposed
policies (Dale, 2012).

Other typical speaking activities:

• 20 Questions - provide language support frame for questions
• Students present information from visual media using a language support handout.

50
-Example 2: writing activities
Possible writing activities:
• Writing the lyrics of a song about the topic
• Writing a story about the topic. One possible could be the following
Imagine you are part of an enormous cheeseburger (yes vegetarians,
you too!). perhaps you are the bread roll, or the melted cheese, the
pickles, the onions, the secret sauce, the lettuce or possibly even the
beef. Whatever part of you choose to be, you are the leader. It is your
mission to lead the burger on a dangerous journey. A journey to the
bottom of the world. A journey through the digestive system.
It is a journey involving many risks and not all of you will survive. All
of you will come under attack and most of you will be destroyed along
the way. Many of you will suffer a painful death and be broken down
into many thousands of pieces, to be absorbed into the blood of the
voracious monster: otherwise known as Homo Sapien!
Whether you survive or not, a report must be written for base HQ. in the
report you must describe what happens at every stage of your journey.
Say which of your friends (food types/ nutrients) is destroyed at each
stage and who is responsible (yes, watch out the vicious enzymes and
evil acid!!). Tell it as a story, starting in the mouth and ending at the
anus. At the end, only one of your friends is left over…. Let this
“character” take over the story after you have been destroyed.
(Dale, 2012)
• Writing a magazine about the subject matter (see appendix 1 a class magazine
5.5a 5.5b Dale, 2012)
• Comparing persuasion in two school websites (see appendix 2 box 5.6f Dale,
2012)
• Another example of writing frame to report the results of a study:

Our names: 1………………………………………….2………………………………

Title:…………………………………………………………………………………….
On …………………….(date), we observed……………………………………………
…………………………………………… . Our graph shows the results of our
observations, as follows. Our task was (write here what you had to do)………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………

51
Here are our results. Firstly, we counted a total number of ……………………. We
noticed that (write something about percentages here)………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………………
The results show the relative popularity of ………………… (depends on the topic).
The most popular …………………..is ………………………….. We think this is
because……………… ……………………………………………………… The least
popular ………………………….. is ……. …………………………………We think
this is because …………. ………………………………………………………………
Other popular ………………… are ………………………………………….. The
most interesting thing that we have noticed about the …………………. …………..
was…………………………..………………………………………
because………………….………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
What we found difficult about the activity was……………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………………….

See below to answer the questionnaire How CLIL you are.

52
53
54
55
 1.8- ABOUT COGNITIVE SKILLS

(inside out / finding nemo / Monsters Inc

Cognitive skills identify how you learn best. Tests of cognitive skills identify how you
most efficiently understand new information and recall previously learnt information.
In contrast, tests of academic skills show what you know and are more similar to the
achievement tests your pupils take in school.

The 10 core cognitive skills are the following:

Visual motor speed: how quick your eyes and hands work together

Processing speed: how quickly you digest and respond to new information

Attention: your ability to sustain focus

Working memory: your ability to mentally juggle multiple bits of information

Flexible thinking: your openness to taking feedback and adapting

Verbal reasoning: your ability to understand language-based information

Abstract reasoning: your ability to understand non-verbal information (numbers, shapes

and patterns)

Spatial perception: your ability to understand how objects relate in space

Verbal memory: how efficiently you encode and recall language –based information

Visual memory: how efficiently you encode and recall objects, pictures, and other
visual-spatial information.

In this subject we are going to focus on Bloom’s taxonomy to develop cognitive skills.
Benjamin Bloom identifies 6 main cognitive skills and divides them into HOTS (high
order thinking skills: analysing, evaluating, creating) and LOTS (low order thinking
skills: remembering, understanding, applying) (Bloom, 1994).

More about Bloom’s taxonomy

56
(Source: Dale, 2012)

57
Task 1.8.1. Could you number the ones in the following table from 1 to 6, being 1 the
lowest level? Could you include more examples of actions used in each cognitive
skill?

REMEMBERING APPLYING

ANALYSING EVALUATING

CREATING UNDERSTANDING

We should also pay attention to the affective part of the learning. There are other
aspects of learning we should encourage. Remember, when you enjoy the learning
process, your learning outcomes are quicker and more effective.

58
SECTION 2: Some XXI century Primary Natural Sciences textbooks

2.1- INTRODUCTION
In this section we will be looking at materials from two popular course-books being
used in bilingual Primary classrooms in Galicia.

We will first present and explore materials from one sequence from each course with
you. Then in small groups you will be studying, preparing and presenting different
sequences from different topics using CLIL to each other.

Task 2.1.1 Reflection

Think back to when you first started learning English as a child and reflect on the
following questions:
1. What can you remember about the experience?
2. What was your first coursebook called?
3. Was it attractive?
4. Did you play games, sing songs or listen to stories?
5. Did you enjoy your first English classes?
6. Did you feel you were "good at" English?
Now compare your answers with your partner and then with the rest of the class.

59
 2.2- COURSEBOOK 1: Natural Science. Primary 5º. Macmillan

(Boid, A. et al., 2015).

2.2.1 INTRODUCTION

Macmillan Natural Science: primary is a six-level course for teaching Sciences in

English at Primary level. It has been designed to provide a supportive and enjoyable
learning context for young children to learn one of the subjects of the curriculum in
English. Each level includes a student’s book and an activity book.

Units or lesson
Task 2.2.1.1 In the box below you find some words that represent the steps to follow
in each lesson. Write the title of each step in the corresponding place.

Each unit is organised sequentially as follows (app9)

This section is designed with a careful balance of texts
and images. Large-scale maps, diagrams, graphs and
Content pages any kind of visual aids are included. The activities
dealing with the topic are scaled to provide a range of
cognitive difficulty from LOTS to HOTS.
These introductory pages, with a vibrant double page,
maximize motivation by showing that pupils’ prior
Introducing and recalling knowledge of key topics is often already considerable.
Key content and vocabulary is introduced though
attractive large-scale illustrations, short texts and
engaging activities.
This is the last section and it ensures that pupils’
progression is regularly checked and reviewed.
revise
This section reviews what students already know,
organised often in visual or graphic formats and
Analyze and organize provides some typical questions, tasks and audios.
Here some values and ethics link to the same content
and the students’ context are provided. It also gives
Fragile world the students the opportunity to develop their
presentation skills.
This section deals with something they have to do: a
fun experiment, investigation or project
Science project

60
 -Introducing and recalling -Analyse and organise -Revise

-Science project -Fragile world -The content pages

This text-book is based on cooperative learning (CL). It is an educational situation in

which students are required to work together in small groups or teams so support each
other in order to improve their own learning and that of others. For students to
cooperate and collaborate effectively and to reach their full potential within the group
team, they will need some essential elements. According to Johnson, Johnson and
Holubec, (2008), the basic principles of cooperative learning are the ones you find in
the next table. Write the words in the corresponding description box. TB5-26

Task 2.2.1.2. Write the names you find in the box below in the corresponding place
Principles of CL Description (app10)

each student’s performance is assessed and the results

are given to that and the rest of the members of the group.
Individual accountability Therefore each member of the group is responsible for
the assessment of the whole group. Individual
performance will affect not only one’s result, but also the
rest of the members’ results.
students need interpersonal skills in order to be
successful (effective leadership, decision-making, trust-
Social abilities building, communication, conflict resolution, helping
and asking for help, organisation, self-esteem and self-
confidence.
we need to know the strong and weak points of the group
in order to make the right decisions and give them
Group processing feedback.
Students promote each other’s learning by helping
sharing, and encouraging efforts to learn. CL implies
Promotive interaction face to face interaction. Students need not only to
discuss and agree but also to produce a piece of work
through combined effort, because CL and neither CLIL
are about working individually and make a cut-and-
paste final product.
they perceive that they need each other in order to
complete the group’s tasks.
Positive interdependence

-Positive interdependence -Individual accountability

-Promotive interaction - Social abilities -Group processing

61
Advantages of Cooperative Learning: (B groups)
Students learn more by doing something active;
Weak students working individually tend to give up, but when they work as part of
a team they keep going;
Strong students help weak students and they often find gaps in their own learning
Students working alone may tend to delay or skip their assignments but working as
a group, they will often feel more motivated and do the work in a timely manner.
We can also use some learning structures to enhance CL. These are some ideas.

Task 2.2.1.3. Work in pairs to find information about these activities (one per pair).
Google one of them and try to dramatize/show your classmates with examples what
one of the structures is about. See appendix 3. (B groups)

1- When we want our students to get to know each other

a. Round Robin
b. Corners
2- When we want our students to focus on information
a. Pair check
b. Numbered heads together.
3- When we want our students to understand concepts
a. Three-step interview
b. Think-pair-share
c. Team word-webbing
4- Other structures used almost in any other situation
a. Roundtable
b. Jigsaw
c. Cooperative project
Appendix 4 includes also some helpful tips to maintain your pupils engaged and
motivated. (TB5- 27/B groups)

Appendix 5 includes the structure of unit 1 divided into different columns: contents,
evaluation criteria, learning standards and key competences.

62
 2.3 COURSEBOOK 2: Think, Do, Learn. Natural Sciences. Primary 5º
Oxford (McLoughlin, 2015).

2.3.1 Introduction

This method was developed based on the LOMCE law (RD 126/2014). This decree
divides the subject into five distinct content blocks: introduction to scientific enquiry,
Our bodies and health, living things, matter and energy, and technology: objects and
machines. It describes Science and the development of scientific enquiry as essential
skills to understanding humanity, the world around us and its changes, as well as to
developing responsible attitudes.

The LOMCE states that the first content block, introduction to scientific enquiry, is
common to all the other content blocks, as it gives the basic methodology whereby the
students will learn by doing, participating actively in the process, and begin to
understand the role and the importance of technology in their lives.

This method is organized in modules, each one corresponding to one content block,
with the first block, introduction to scientific enquiry, being integrated throughout the
units as a key to the methodology.

Key competences are designed by the LOMCE as “knowing how to do”, and should be
integrated within each subject in order to renew the educational process. It proposes
new tasks that mean a significant change in methodology: learning occurs through
active participation. The teacher’s role is key, as they must design tasks that encourage
the development of critical thinking skills, involving students in their own learning
process.

63
 • Careful grading of language makes it easier for students to understand and
learn new content
• This method links Natural Sciences and Arts and Crafts through and
integrated cross-curricular approach
• It develops students thinking skills effectively by actively involving them in
their learning process stimulating their curiosity and encouraging them to
learn through doing.
• It is a hands-on approach that makes learning meaningful and active.
Students learn through doing a wide variety of tasks.
• It promotes critical thinking skills from the very beginning and keep
students motivated.
• It helps students to develop key scientific enquiry skills such as asking
questions, predicting, planning and analyzing results.
• It includes original videos of all the experiments, explaining step by step,
how to carry out each experiment. Videos are presented in a captivating tv
programme format to attract the students’ attention. The experiments are
motivating, easy-to-do.
• It includes group work activities in every unit to promote oral
communication and collaborative learning.
• The class-book includes language support that helps students to
communicate effectively in English
• It also includes self-evaluation in the section “my progress”, promoting
autonomous learning.
• An audio Quiz is included at the end of each lesson for students to check
their learning in a motivating way.
• Colour coded curricular content blocks make them easy to identify.
• Powerful images are used to grasp students’ attention.
• Sci-fact: interesting facts are presented.
• Each module includes a glossary at the end with all the key vocabulary
• Activities at the end of each lesson go from low-order thinking skills to high
order thinking skills. Students gradually arrive at the more demanding
activities with all the practice and support they need to carry them out.
• The activity book reinforces content and language and further develops
students’ writing skills. Similar images help students to identify the subject
matter.

Task 2.3.1.1: Take a look at the book and answer the question: How many
sections do you find on each class book lesson? (you find a copy of one lesson in
moovi/ to work in class/ the cell:
natural_sciences_living_things_5_classbook_cell.pdf // natural_sciences_our
_body_5_classbook_cell. pdf // macmillam_sciences_5.pdf)

64
Task 2.3.1.2: write the name of the section or activity that corresponds to the
description in the oxford textbook. (app11)

Reinforces content and language and promotes

Experiment time scientific methodology

makes students to think of what they already know

think on the subject and what they’d like to find out

Is a pre-reading activity to interact with the

Getting started content. A question or an activity that prompts
students to look at content and communicate with
each other.
Describes interesting facts

Scientific fact
Helps students to remember what they have

Let’s revise previously seen and focus on the topic.

Require students to actively participate and

Activities/quiz respond to content

promotes autonomous learning and encourages the

Find out /experiment time use of tics

Promotes collaborative learning and oral

Let’s work together communication

Open in moovi the folder entitled “To work in class”, THE CELL to find the
Macmillan’s and Oxford’s pages related to the topic “The cell”
(natural_sciences_living_things_5_classbook_cell.pdf // natural_sciences_our
_body_5_classbook_cell. pdf // macmillam_sciences_5.pdf)

Cambridge collection exercises

The cell exercises
Natural science pupils’ book
Natural science activity book

65
 SECTION 3: Stories, videos and projects

3.1 INTRODUCTION

In this section we will look at a variety of popular techniques and approaches to

teaching English in Primary contexts, including stories and videos. As in the previous
section the idea is that you participate in activities as if you were a Primary pupil
yourself and also that you reflect critically and constructively from the point of view of
a future professional.

Task 3.1.1 Reflection

Think back to when you first started learning English as a child and talk to your partner
about the following questions:
1. Can you remember any stories you were told in English? If so, tell
your partner a brief version of the story.
2. Did your teachers read picture-books to you? If so, can
you remember which ones?
3. Did you watch videos in your English classes?
4. If so, do you think that watching videos helped you to learn
English?

Now compare your answers with the rest of the class.

66
3.2- STORIES
Create your own story books

BSD a TPR story in primary education

Task 3.2 .1 Reflection

Work with a partner and discuss the following questions:

• What was your favourite story when you were a child?
• Why do you think you liked this story so much?
• Why do you think we should use stories to teach English to
young learners?

Watch these videos

The magical science of story telling David phillips
Watch this video about making stories and story telling interactive alison Smith
Elements of a story rap
Story elements song
Five Ws for story telling
The mountain plot (stories)
Pixar’s UP plot diagram
Five elements of a story Flocabulary

Task 3.2.2 Why use stories in Primary Education

Read the following text and then work in twos to answer the questions.

There are many reasons why we should use stories in a Pre-Primary and primary
foreign language leaning context. Firstly, as Robinson and her colleagues remind us
(Robinson et a/, 2015) stories are a universal feature in Pre-Primary school classrooms
throughout the world. Story reading and telling is a routine activity for very young
learners and so constitutes a natural vehicle for transmitting the foreign language too.
There is also a great deal of readily available literature written for young children.
Often this material can be downloaded for free from the Internet and some of it comes
together with supplementary resources and guidance for teachers.

Furthermore research over many decades has demonstrated strong connections

between listening to stories and young children's cognitive, social, emotional, first

67
language and literacy development [idem). One researcher has found significant
increases in learners' second language vocabulary knowledge from listening to stories
(Elley, 1989). Others have shown that greater oral participation during EFL story
reading activities contributes to greater intrinsic motivation and engagement from the
learners (Li and Seedhouse, 2010, p. 288).

It is important to remember that the successful use of stories with very young learners
requires proper preparation. So key vocabulary, phrases and sentences from the story
need to be taught first using language games. Once they have been prepared with fun
vocabulary games and activities, the children will be ready to listen to and participate
in the story. The story itself can be repeated on several occasions and it is a good idea
to do follow-up activities that help to make the language presented in the story stick.

Finally here are ten great reasons to use stories to teach English to young learners:
1. They love them
2. The story can be the focal point of the lesson, giving meaning and
context to odd words and phrases learned in isolation.
3. Pupils can absorb the structure of language subconsciously as well
as hear familiar words they know.
4. Pupils will be happy to hear the same stories over and over again,
which is fantastic for revision and absorption.
5. You can use the stories as a base for fun activities in class.
6. A useful message can be contained in the story, aside from
language learning.
7. Using stories gives you another method of putting language across
and will lead to more variety in your lessons.
8. You can use stories as quiet time in between boisterous activities.
9. Stories, along with songs, allow children to hear and understand far
more English than any other method.
10. Enhancing story telling with gestures, actions, colourful
illustrations, relevant games and role-playing increases language
retention and acquisition, and makes for some really fun lessons.
This is logical as you will be repeatedly reviewing and practising the
same language as well as making it real through play.

68
Sources: Elley, W. (1989) Vocabulary acquisition from listening to stories. Reading
Research Quarterly, XXIV, 2. Li, C. and Seedhouse, P. (2010) Classroom Interaction
in Story-Based Lessons with Young Learners. Asian EFL Journal.

Questions
1. How widespread is the use of stories in Pre-Primary classrooms?

2. According to research, what are the benefits of listening to stories

for young children?

3. What should we remember if we want to use stories with young

children in class?

4. What can children do subconsciously while listening to a story?

5. What else can stories transmit, as well as language?

6. How can you improve storytelling and make classes more

engaging?

69
 3.3. STORYTELLING

British council Reading stories practise

3.3.1. Introduction
Everyone loves to listen to stories. There is hardly anyone among us who has not heard
a story during our childhood. Stories keep children engaged and let them feel that they
are also participating in the process of storytelling. Language learning (and any kind of
learning), happens when children are engaged in meaningful activities. If story telling
is made into an interesting experience and fun filled activity where the listeners also
participate in telling, guessing, manipulating, it could be a joyous learning experience.
Make them be authors for a day to create stories with the knowledge learnt. Use the
content as characters, setting, plot, conflict, etc., i.e. any of the story elements.

3.3.2. Understanding the learner and his / her context

Children are impulsive for they have no apprehension and notions that will stop them
from acting (don’t make them feel embarrassed); they are inquisitive and want to know
what is around them and what is happening to things and people; they have enormous
energy that they will not stop doing things till they are extremely tired; they are
spontaneous and social, and would like to be entertained always. Moreover, children
crave for attention and love, as this is a natural instinct of a child. If our classrooms
keep them engaged with right kind of entertainment in the process of learning, learning
is ensured. This is because children are active learners and thinkers (Piaget, 1970). They
learn though social interactions (Vygotsky, 1962) and learn better and more effectively
through scaffolding by adults (Bruner, 1983).

3.3.3-Why stories for content and language learning?

Stories use a holistic approach to language teaching and stories support natural
acquisition of language. We believe language is learnt in contexts and in chunks, not in
isolation, word by word or sentence by sentence. Stories are meaningful inputs i.e.
comprehensible inputs (Krashen, 1985) that children receive as they listen to and tell

70
stories. Comprehensible input refers to the language given to children just above the
level of their present language competence. This helps them get engaged and motivate
them to understand and find out the new words, structures and make meaning out of
the input. Stories develop in children an understanding about other cultures, respect for
others and other cultures. Stories help children to develop critical thinking and making
a judgment about things and happening and actions of people, ideas and so on. Above
all children love stories.

Task 3.3.1. Work in twos: Can you suggest a story that you would like to tell your
students? Give reasons for your selection.

3.3. 4. Techniques for Story telling

Though children love to listen to stories, we need to begin with short sessions, if they
are not familiar with storytelling in the classroom. You can make your own seating
arrangement comfortable for children. You can have younger children sit on the floor
around you. Begin with very short stories, riddles, anecdotes and tales which children
like better.
You may ask children tell such riddles in their mother tongue or in English. This will
serve as good starter to take children into the story telling session. Now tell the story
slowly and clearly, being very expressive and putting all the passion in your voice.
While telling the story use the following techniques or actions to sustain children’s
interest.

3.3.7.1. Tools for a story teller

• Concentration and visualization: Close your eyes and recall a story heard as a
child, Picture the home you grew up in. Remember some of your happiest
moments; saddest times; times of anger; times of reflection
• Breathing: Take deep, slow breaths. Try breathing in and out not so quickly as
if panting. without moving shoulders or chest much so that you develop deeper,
fuller breath support.
• Enjoy and remember the silence and calm as you do this.
• Voice work: Chew, hum and stretch to keep your voice relaxed. Also try voice

71
 exercises from vocal/ oral tradition of your region. Read a newspaper line or
say a nursery rhyme in different ways varying pitch, volume, texture, and
feeling. Try talking in a monster’s voice, giving a king’s command or a beggar's
plea. Vary the pace, tone and volume of voice; pause where appropriate;
Disguise your voice for different characters. Do not be afraid to repeat, expand,
and reformulate.
• Encourage children to take part in story telling
• Ask question that involve children.
• Make comments about illustrations and expect a response from children.
• Sound and Silence: Listen to the sound of the spoken word.
• Consider alliteration; explore the possibilities of rhyme; Add sounds to the right
stories- animal noises; connect culturally.
• Word Play
• Ask students to predict what will happen in the story
• Give them a purpose for listening (Adapted from Brewster, Ellis &
Girard, 2004)

Post Story Telling Activities. The following activities and tasks would enrich the
experiences of children after listening to the story.
• Questions and answers based on the story. This has to be oral.
• Total Physical Response (TPR) 9 (revise section 1)
• Group retelling
• Create your own ending
• Drama and role playing
• Story mapping
• Story boarding
• Games that check comprehension (Start & Stop, retelling with mistakes,
picture out of order).

9
Total Physical Response (TPR) is a language teaching method built around the coordination of speech
and action; it attempt to teach language through physical (motor) activity (Richards & Rodgers, 1986)

72
3.4. VIDEOS

Task 3.4.1 Using videos

Videos are a great resource and have the advantage of combining stories with
animation. They offer lots of language input and can include subtitles in the pupil's
language.

There is a danger that the children will want to watch passively and although that
might be justified when they are very tired, you can do predicting and pre-watching
activities with them. For example, before watching “once upon a time “life”: “the cell”
episode 2, you can ask them what they know about cells (shape, size, colour, elements,
etc). You can pre-teach some words so that your pupils will recognize them in the
video.

After viewing, you can ask your pupils to identify the elements of the cell or to draw
a picture about the topic or a diagram, which can lead to more language practice. But
don't forget to let the children enjoy the video story as well as using it to practise their
English and learn the content!

Task 3.4.2. In twos write what you could do with this episode of “once upon a time
life: the cell” and your 5 primary class. Think of activities you can do with them to
help them to understand the content and the language, to catch their attention when
watching the video, to remember core vocabulary and to help them to watch the video
actively.

Questions

1. Is it important that the video has subtitles?

2. What kind of things can you do with your pupils after watching the video.

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3. What can you do with videos that don't have soundtracks?

Watch this video: The water cycle:

3.5. PROJECTS WITH YOUNG LEARNERS

(Source: Diane Phillips, Sarah Burwood, Helen Dunford. 2015. OUP)

3.5.1. What is a project?

It is a recognizable unit of work with a beginning, middle and end with a topic under
focus. It includes activities that form a real end-product. Students have at the end
something they can be proud of and that indicates their progress. It also encourages
personal and emotional development.

3.5.2. Why are projects a good teaching method?

Because they develop the following skills:
-motor skills: cutting, folding, colouring, painting, gluing, writing
-intellectual/thinking skills: describing, drawing conclusions, using their imagination;
hypothesizing, reading, planning
-social skills: sharing, cooperating, collaborating, making decisions together,
appreciating how individual contributions can make a successful end-product.
-learners independence: making responsible choices, deciding how to complete tasks,
getting information, trying things out, evaluating results, continuing their learning
independently of the teacher.
-language skills: students use the language that is needed to the successful completion
of the activity. Thus they realize what they can achieve through language. It
integrates language skills in a natural way.
Projects allow the teacher to focus on different abilities of students, encouraging them
to make different contributions depending on their capabilities.
Projects allow for flexibility within the curriculum. They can be used either as a
supplement or as a complement to the programme.
Planning a new project
-Integrate the project into the curriculum.
-choose a topic
-Pay attention to:

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grammar aspects and language functions
vocabulary needed
motor skills involved
cross-curricular contents
communicative skills: listening, writing, reading, speaking
Plan the end- product: poster display, a three-dimensional model, and exhibition, a
magazine, a newspaper, a report, a video or audio, an event
When presenting the end-product you have to decide:
-who? Is it for the parents, friends, other teachers, pupils in the school, for the class,
for a wider public?
Where? The place can limit your end-product (the classroom, the school hall, a
theatre, outdoors, etc.
How? An event, such as a party or show, will involve invitation cards, or
programmes, and refreshments; a video can be treated as a film at the cinema.
Diagram with the main elements of a project. Example Project “let’s have a party”

-Remember to introduce the project to the parents. Give parents a timetable with the

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activities and the materials needed for the activities.
-Introduce the project to the students: Discuss the end-product with them, the
language (vocabulary) they will learn, the skills they will practise, etc. Design a
timetable, plan of work or checklist of objectives they have to pay attention to. (with
beginners the introduction can be made in their mother tongue).

How to manage the project

• Introduce the project carefully, so the children know what to expect and what
behaviour is acceptable.
• Establish the rules (e.g. always wear an apron when painting).
• Plan your lessons very carefully so that you know exactly what you want your
students to do at each stage.
• Give very clear instructions and check that the students what they have to do
for their individual work and for their group work.
• Plan time at the end of the lesson to sum up what has been achieved and make
sure the students know about any homework or preparation they have to do for
the next lesson.
• You can use a wall poster on which all the elements of the project are
included. For older children you can include also grammatical, functional,
lexical, skills objectives of the project. Tick off the objectives achieved as the
project progresses. For younger students, the plan can be in the form of a
calendar with a picture for each day depicting the activity to be achieved.

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 SECTION 4: SONGS and PLAY
4.1 - Introduction

In this section we will be looking at how to make the most of music, play and

movement in Primary English language classrooms.

Task 4.1.1 Reflection

Think back to when you first started learning English as a child and reflect on the

following questions with a partner:

1. Can you remember any songs that you learnt?

2. What games did you play in class?

3. Were you always sitting down or did you get to stand up and move your bodies?

4. Did you find such activities motivating?

5. Do you think that when you did this kind of activity, it helped to improve your

English?

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4.2- SONGS, CHANTS AND RHYMES

Task 4.2.1 Combining Versions - Songs, chants and rhymes

Work in twos and follow the instructions to combine two different versions of a text

and try to arrive at the best, most sensible version. Student A should use the version

on the next page and Student B the one on the following one. DON’T show your text

to your partner. Work with your partner (reading your text out loud and listening to

theirs) in order to:

a) identify the differences between your two texts (you can underline them) and

b) agree on the best, most logical version.

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Combining version TEXT A:

One can easily imagine very early language learning without maths, chants, and games. They are

an important source of auditory language input. Through rhymes, chants, and songs children

teach how the foreign language sounds. They are exposed to intonation patterns, stress patterns

and the rhythms of the foreign language.

The language in traditional songs is rich and boring and extends the children's vocabulary beyond

the limited range of their own day-to-day experiences. The use of rhyme encourages children to

explore the sounds of words, and the use of imagery limits their perception of the world and their

ability to express what they feel.

One of the linguistic advantages of songs, chants, and rhymes is that the learners will happily invent

the same structure, even the same words, over and over again without getting bored. Songs, chants,

and rhymes are particularly useless in a stress-timed language such as English because the rhythm

forces us to put the stress in the right places and to observe the helpless and weak forms.

At the same time pronunciation is improved as the students are concentrating on meaning rather

than sound. Young children are excellent mimics, although you cannot expect perfect

pronunciation, especially if they cannot yet pronounce all the sounds of their mother tongue. They

are particularly good at copying intonation

Relatives and friends are sometimes delighted when children can sing or recite in another language

and it is useful to have a repertoire ready for end-of-term concerts and other festivities. Teachers

often worry about when to find songs, chants, and rhymes, but really there is no great secret to

turning ordinary language into chants. If you look at children playing in the playground, it will not

be long before you hear something like this: 'Na, na, net, na, na, I'm better than you-ou', chanted

in a sing-song voice. A new favourite in the U.K. used to be: 'I'm the king of the castle and you're the

dirty rascal' Children find it nearly impossible to turn almost anything into a chant.

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Combining version TEXT B

One cannot imagine very late language learning without rhymes, stories, and songs. They are

an important source of auditory literary input. Through rhymes, chants, and songs children

learn how the foreign language sounds. They are exposed to information patterns, stress

patterns and the rhythms of the foreign language.

The language in traditional songs is poor and colourful and extends the children's vocabulary

beyond the limited range of their own day-to-day experiences. The use of rhyme encourages

teachers to explore the sounds of words, and the use of imagery enriches their perception of

the world and their ability to express what they can.

One of the linguistic advantages of songs, chants, and rhymes is that the learners will

mechanically repeat the same structure, even the same words, over and over again without

getting interested. Songs, chants, and rhymes are particularly useful in a stress-timed language

such as English because the rhythm forces us to put the stress in the right places and to observe

the strong and beautiful forms.

At the same time pronunciation is improved as the students are concentrating on sound rather

than meaning. Young children are excellent mimics, and you can expect perfect

pronunciation, especially if they cannot yet pronounce all the sounds of their mother tongue.

They are particularly good at copying intonation.

Relatives and friends are always distressed when children can sing or recite in another language

and it is useful to have a repertoire ready for end-of-term concerts and other festivities.

Teachers often worry about where to find songs, chants, and rhymes, but really there is no great

pleasure in turning ordinary language into chants. If you listen to children playing in the

playground, it will not be long before you hear something like this: 'Na, na, na, na, na, I'm better

thanyou-ou', chanted in a sing-song voice. An old favourite in the U.K. will be: 'I'm the king of the castle

and you're the dirty rascal' Children find it quite natural to turn everything into a frog.

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Task 4.2.2 Possible ways to work with songs, chants and rhymes

Take a well-known song, one your students like. Extract only the music. Focus the
students’ attention on the contents of the your lesson and try to write rhyming lyrics with
them. Adapt the lyrics to the music.

There are several ways in which songs can be taught. You can get the children to recite the

words after you and then add the melody later, or you can sing the song and get the

children to sing the melody to 'la-la-la'. If the song has a word which is frequently repeated

or a sound like 'crash’, the children will soon start joining in on those words.

Now work in small groups and invent a short rhyme or chant, following the examples

given in the text. Practise performing the rhyme/chant in your group so that you will be

able to teach it to some other classmates afterwards.

Task 4.2.3 Rhymes and songs in the classroom

Read this passage on the role of rhymes, songs and chants in the process of learning a

language, then answer the questions:

Music and rhythm are an essential part of language learning for young children. They

have great fun both learning and singing songs, and even older children enjoy working

with well-known pop songs and music. We all know how there are some songs which

are so catchy that we can't get them out of our head. Music and rhythm make it much

easier to imitate and remember language, whereas if we are dealing only with spoken

words or expressions it is much more difficult to retain them. A chant is like a song, but

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without music, or like a poem with a very marked rhythm. There are many types of

songs and chants, ranging from traditional ones to others specially written for young

children. Traditional songs and chants often have obscure or old-fashioned words, but

on the other hand they have the advantage that they form a part of the culture of the

English-speaking world.

There are songs that are simply fun to sing and others which are meant to be

accompanied by actions, but the best are those that allow both singing and movement.

Songs and chants can be used to teach pupils the sounds and rhythms of English, to

reinforce structures and vocabulary, or as Total Physical Response activities, but above

all they should be used for fun. They can be brought in at any moment in a class, for

example, at the beginning, to mark the transition from another school subject to

English; in the middle of the class, as a break from another more demanding activity; or at

the end, to give the class a fun twist. Songs and chants can also serve to create a feeling

of group identity. And finally, songs, chants and rhymes can be used to create a pleasant

background while children are working on something else; you'd be surprised just how

much they can take in without paying conscious attention to it.

Songs and chants are frequently used in teaching and learning vocabulary, since the

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repetition they entail enhances the retention of the words involved. It is interesting to

note that this repetition is motivating for children, since they are having fun while they

are memorising. And memory is an important element in language learning, both in the

case of a foreign language and of the mother tongue. Singing and chanting are among

children's favourite activities, since they allow them not only to sing, but also to move,

dance, gesticulate, etc.

Many teachers enjoy singing songs along with their pupils, while others, either because

they are shy or because they think they can't sing, prefer to use other means (a CD

player, for example). In the first case, it is easier for teachers to back up the song with

gestures or flashcards which allow the children to remember or predict the lyrics. But

in both cases it is important to get the children to participate both by singing and with

gestures.

Questions

1. Which is easier to remember, five or six lines of poetry or five or six lines of prose?

Why?

2. What is the difference between a song and a chant?

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3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of non-traditional songs and chants

specially written for children?

4. When is it a good idea to use songs and chants in class?

5. Why is it a good thing to use songs and chants as a

background to other activities?

6. What are songs and chants frequently used for?

7. What personal elements condition the learning of a language?

8. Why do children enjoy singing?

9. Which do you think is better, singing with your children, or using a CD player? Which

will YOU do?

10. It's important to get your children to participate in singing or chanting, but what

must you remember?

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Task 4.2.4 Learning and teaching songs
Work in small groups. Each group will be given a song to work on.
The Science song:
The planets song:
Bones:
Dry bones:
Flocabulary flocabulary explanations:
Counting by fives
Science song country:
Scientific Classification song:
The brain
Muscles and bones
The cell

Task 4.2 .5 Gapfill - TPR songs

Now open the link and go to page 3. Read the text and fill in the gaps with words
from the box.

Action anticipate confidence encourage

imagination mental vocabulary first

With a little 1 ………………………………., you can turn elements of most children's

songs into 2…………………………….songs and build up the TPR element. It is

important that the children understand the meaning of the songs. It is also useful to

choose simple repetitive songs so that they can 3…………………………… the

structure and participate more fully. Memorable song tunes help enormously in creating

4 …………………………….links to words and meaning. Children will remember a

song they like for a long time.

The song "Close Your Eyes" mixes actions with face 5……………………………. You

would teach them the actions 6………………………………………… , introducing

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the parts of the face by saying and demonstrating "Point to your..." You would then

play the song and 7……………………………………….. the children to do the

actions. Repetition of songs and actions is very important for young learners as

familiarity breeds 8……………………………… and will help them remember.

(Source. Leone Dyson TPR-in-pre-primary-language-teaching. You can also listen to

that interview)

86
TPR SONG : HOKEY COKEY

Hokey Pokey (Debbie Doo)

In other verses substitute different parts of the body. Which ones?

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 4.3. PLAY

*Albert Einstein said: “the highest form of research is essentially play”

Surf the net and refer this quotation in the correct way.

* https://quoteinvestigator.com/tag/neville-v-scarfe/

Task 4.3.1. Watch these videos

Children’s opinions about playing:
The importance of play
Play is children’s work
Play-based learning
Games for teens on communication
Task 4.3.2 Reading – The importance of playing

Read the following text and then complete the activities in twos:

Play has been central to childhood education since the beginning of the twentieth

century and has been described by Moyles (2010: 10) as a "powerful scaffold" for

children's learning. So play should not be understood as something frivolous or as 'relief

from work1. Instead, we need to remember that play is the young child's natural way to

learn. When we are engrossed in play we enter into a relaxed but focused state. This

state has been defined as 'flow' (Czikskentmihalyi, 1990) and as Goleman (1996) points

out, it is the healthiest way to teach children, by motivating them from within.

Furthermore games help children to acquire language in the natural way that native

speakers do. The language is used as a means to an end rather than an end in itself, and

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the children are motivated to learn because they are enjoying themselves. Games also

teach social skills such as co-operating and obeying rules. Very young children do not

require the sophistication in a game that older children would look for and many simple

activities can seem like games to the children and be used over and over again.

Research has provided substantial evidence that planned, stimulating play

environments improve verbal communication, social and interaction skills, creativity

and imagination as well as problem solving and divergent thinking skills (Kalliala,

2006). Findings from Siraj-Blatchford and colleagues (2002) suggest that the best early

years education achieves a balance between "opportunities for children to benefit from

teacher-initiated group work and the provision of freely chosen yet potentially

instructive play activities" (2002: 43).

According to the European Commission (2014) and Kernan (2007: 12), effective early-

years education programmes combine the practice of adult-led and structured child-

initiated activity. In the context of pre-primary English language education, the notions

of potentially instructive play and structured child-initiated activity suggest the need

for teachers to plan, organise and facilitate additional opportunities for children to re-

engage with the language that has been previously taught, during free play activities.

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(Sources: Czikszentmihalyi, M. (1990) Flow, the Psychology of Optimal Experience New

York: Harper and Row European Commission (2014) Proposal for key principles of a

Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care.

Goleman, D. (1996) Emotional Intelligence London: Bloomsbury

Kalliala, M. (2006). Play culture in a changing world, Maidenhead: Open University

Press.

Kernan, M (2007) Play as a context for early learning and development. A research

paper. Dublin: NCCA.

Moyles, J. (2010) 'Introduction', in Moyles, J. (ed) The Excellence of Play (3rd edn).

Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Siraj-Blatchford, I, Sylva, K, Muttock, S, Gilden, R and Bell, D. (2002) Researching Effective

Pedagogy in the Early Years. Research Report No. 356, London: Department of

Education and Skills, HMSO

*black 1962 November, Childhood Education, Volume 39, Issue 3, “Play is
Education” by N. V. Scarfe, Start Page 117, Quote Page 120, Published Association
for Childhood Education International, Washington D.C.

Find the words

1. In the first paragraph find a word which means "support system".

2. In the first paragraph find a word whose Spanish translation would be "absorto".

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3. In the third paragraph find an expression which refers to "capacity to

think creatively".

Questions

1. How do young children most naturally learn?

2. What is flow?

3. Can you remember a time you were in a state of flow? If so, talk to your partner about it.

4. In what way do games help children to learn language 'naturally'?

5. What helps to improve problem solving?

6. According to the text, what do teachers need to do in order to encourage child-

initiated play activities?

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 5. CURRICULUM AND ASSESSMENT

Finally, as teacher trainees, you are asked to prepare and present an CLIL sequence for
the 5/6 primary course that reflects the LOMCE legislative considerations as well as
the various CLIL and CL techniques we have studied throughout the course.

5.1. PRIMARY CURRICULUM (take a look at

https://www.edu.xunta.gal/portal/es/linguasestranxeiras/1640/1686)

Task 2.1 Reading - Example of a Primary Curriculum

Look at these examples of a Primary curriculum from Galician schools, by following

these links http://atlantico.sek.es/en/the-school/curriculum/
; 2- http://peleteiro.com/docencia/idiomas; https://britishroyalschoolcoruna.com

• How many references are there to English or foreign-language learning?

• Do you think that foreign-language learning could be given more emphasis?
• How could the curriculum be improved in this sense?

Task 2.2 Objectives for Primary education

In twos, complete the following table with the description of the primary education

key competences. What is a key competence?

LIN

MST

DIG Digital competence.

LTL

SOC

AUT

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 CUL

5. 2. ASSESSMENT IN PRIMARY EDUCATION

Task 5.2.1 Read the text about assessment in primary education and write a
diagram.

Child assessment is a vital and necessary component of all high-quality early childhood
programs. Assessment is important to understand and support young children’s
development. It is also essential to document and evaluate how effectively programs
are meeting young children’s educational needs, in the broadest sense of this term.
Assessment must meet reasonable criteria regarding its efficiency, cost, and so on. If
assessment places an undue burden on programs or evaluators, it will not be undertaken
at all and the lack of data will hurt all concerned.

There are many reasons why pupils undergo assessments; among these is the desire to
know how well pupils are learning, if they are making progress and meeting proficiency
benchmarks, and if they are being taught effectively.

Assessment is a tool or process for answering specific questions about various

aspects of children’s knowledge, skills, behaviour, or personality.
Best practices in assessment require that teachers do more than just observe children
and write notes (assessment by observation). Anecdotal notes may be a part of an
assessment, but there has to be a tool (such as a checklist) or an organized system for
collecting, analyzing, and sharing information. Best practices in assessment require
that the assessment process answer specific questions about each child (for example,
“Can this child do X?/ can s/he identify X? Can s/he follow basic instructions?”).
To answer questions like these, teachers have to focus their observations and data
gathering on specific knowledge, skills, and behaviours that are expected of a child of
that age. These are called widely held expectations (or standards) and are based on
accepted research. The expectations (or standards) are used to build a framework that
enables the teacher to look at all children’s performance in the same way. Providing a

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list of knowledge, skills, and behaviours assures that the teacher looks at all areas of
development and knowledge for each child.

ASSESSMENT GOALS
There are many types of child assessment based on different goals.

-Developmental screening assessments

They are used to identify specific children who should receive further attention. The
screening process an archaeologist uses to screen the soil for artefacts is similar to
screening assessments. We can use the assessment tool to look at a large number of
children. Those who pass the assessment fall through, but those who do not pass
through require that we look at them more closely. We can use screening assessments
to determine which of a number of children will benefit from a program, or which might
be at risk of having difficulties in school, or which would benefit from a more extensive
evaluation of their knowledge, skills, and behaviour.

Diagnostic assessments
They include assessments that are used by psychologists or therapists (such as speech
and language therapists) or content specialists (such as reading teachers) to determine
if there is a delay or disability.

Readiness assessments
They provide information on the specific knowledge or skills that a child needs to learn
something new. For example, we might assess a child’s ability to use a computer mouse
and follow verbal directions to determine whether the child is ready to use a specific
computer reading programme.

Achievement assessments
They tell us what a child has learnt and accomplished. The achievement assessment is
the type the parents in the Introduction was hoping to see on their visit. This type of
assessment enables the teacher to compare performance with widely held expectations
and to plan appropriate next steps for children.

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AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT VS. ON-DEMAND
ASSESSMENT
Best practices for assessment of young children include the use of authentic
performance assessment. That is, one of the best ways to assess young children is to
observe them while they are doing typical tasks during the regular school day
(authentic performance). Young children do not understand the purposes or importance
of assessments, and so they don’t like to be interrupted in the middle of a game or
playtime to do a specific task (on-demand performance). We can gather data for an
authentic performance assessment by collecting children’s work (using a portfolio) or
systematically observing children’s performance. For example, we might observe
children while they are playing with other children, completing puzzles, building in the
block corner, or listening to stories or doing an exercise. Examples of products or
children’s work we might collect include art work, invented spelling during play, work
sheets, or photographs of block structures, poster they have created.

Documenting for assessment

To assess a child’s knowledge, skills, and behaviours, we must document what we see
(collect evidence). On the basis of the evidence, we know what conclusions about the
child are valid. We can also share this evidence with others, such as parents. Notes,
portfolios, and checklists are all documentation methods that are frequently used at
schools, and these can be “real” documents, created using paper and pen, or they can
be created and stored in any of the electronic devices that are available.

Observations and developmental checklists.

An appropriate developmental sequence should be followed. Pay attention to the
following points.
1-Training and support. Any assessment system selected for a program will require
initial training and ongoing support for implementation.
Most early childhood assessments rely on observations and developmental checklists
to focus observations, summarize and interpret collected observations, provide valid
criteria for evaluation, and support curriculum and instruction.

2-Background information about the checklists.

Good systems also provide some background information to the teachers to be sure that

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they are marking the items correctly. The best checklists and systems also offer
guidance on when to collect data and mark items. These tasks should be done
throughout the year and not just at the year’s end.

3-Portfolios. In addition, good assessment plans include keeping some kind of portfolio
of children’s work that documents the quality of each child’s performance. For
example, “writing your name” can be checked off on a checklist; however, there is wide
variation in how children write their names. This can best be captured as a writing
sample in a portfolio.

4-Communication with parents or other significant family members. Best practices

in assessment also require some form of regular communication with parents (or other
caregivers) who can provide honest information on a child’s knowledge, skills, and
behaviour.

Good assessment must be integrated with good teaching. Sometimes teachers

misinterpret the use of the standards or widely held expectations by taking each
assessment item and teaching it directly. Best practices in assessment recognize that the
items on the checklist are indicators of a child’s accomplishment of goals and not a list
of activities for the teacher to do. Instead the items on the checklist are the result of the
experiences and teaching that occur in the classroom.

The compendium of assessment instruments should address the following areas of

development and learning. Among the most important:
• approaches to learning;
• physical/motor;
• social/emotional;
• cognitive;
• communication and language;
• literacy;
• math/numeracy;
• sensory function;
• temperament;

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• behaviour;
• specific disabilities such as autism

Purposes and types of Assessment

• Assessment for learning: It is formative. It involves teacher assessment,
student assessment, and /or student peer assessment.
• Assessment as learning: It actively involves students in peer and self-
assessment.
• Assessment of learning: it normally occurs at end of the year or at key
stages. It is summative. It is for grading and report cards. It is made by the
teacher.

We find also different types of assessment:

• -Initial assessment (useful to check the progress)

• -Self-assessment (useful for the student to understand the goals)
• -Summative assessment: assessment of learning. It documents student
learning at the end of a teaching unit. It provides grades/marks for
accountability purposes.
• -Formative assessment: assessment for learning. It identifies students’
needs and guides instruction on an ongoing basis. It provides specific
feedback to improve student learning. (e.g. after instruction have students
complete some “test” items. Review the work but do not mark the items as
correct or incorrect. Indicate only the number of correct answers on the
paper; then return the papers and have students identify and correct their
work in collaborative teams).
• -Continuous assessment
• -Informal assessment by teacher
• -Classroom assessment
• -Information taken from parents, caregivers, other teachers

What is important to assess

• to find out What the students know (knowledge)

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 • to find out What the students can do, and how well they can do it (skill;
performance)
• to find out how students go about the task of doing their work (process)
• to find out how students feel about their work (motivation, effort)

Assessment tools
Day to day observation
Tests and quizzes
Rubrics
Rating scales
Project work
Portfolios
Checklists

(sources: https://www.g-w.com/pdf/sampchap/9781590708132_ch03.pdf;
http://cambridge-community.org.uk/professional-development/gswafl/index.html;
https://es.scribd.com/document/1016284/Assessment-Preschool

Task 5.2.6
To practise assessment you have to assess the presentations of your classmates (peer-
assessment) and your own performance (self-assessment). Write a rating scale using
10 items you think necessary to assess your classmates’ work. Write the sentences in
question form using the past tense or the present perfect tense.

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Appendix 1

99
Appendix 2

100
Appendix 3

101
102
Appendix 4

103
104
105
106
Appendix 5

107
108
Appendix 6: Tales/stories. Diagram

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 Appendix 7
What can primary children do? Keytext
In the primary years (6-12), children are in the concrete operational stage, that is, they
are not as egocentric as before, they can perceive something else beyond their own
realities and point of view, and have an incipient comprehension of physical and
mechanical realities and causal relationships, though they cannot yet carry out abstract
operations. Their memory techniques are progressively developed, being able to review,
organize and use imagery, recall and scripts for learning. The first metacognitive
abilities appear, so that they can start learning how to carry out intellectual processes
such as planning, decision-making a strategic choice for solving problems.

Linguistically speaking, they have learnt nearly everything regarding the oral aspects of
the language, including discourse and pragmatic skills such as illocutionary actions,
speech registers and topic shifts. Nevertheless, some grammatical aspects are still in the
process of being learnt, such as the full use of co-ordinators, conditionals, and relative
clauses. Another very important task ahead is the achievement of complete proficiency
for the symbolic communication represented by reading and writing, chic, for the
English learners, has an added degree of complexity, due to its deep orthographic
system.

This is the situation of prospective primary learners, whose job is learning a new
language with the cognitive and linguistic tools they have and with the help of the
teacher (and probably a textbook or any other tool).

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Appendix 8
CLIL sequence (primary school education)

Tasks
-Read the following instructions so you can
.-prepare a written copy of your CLIL sequence to hand in/upload (25
points= 20 content+5 English ).
.-present your sequence and dramatize a sample class drawn from it in
class (20=15 content+ 5 English)

PREPARE AND PRESENT YOUR CLIL SEQUENCE

-Working in groups of four select one of the videos of “Once upon a time life”. You
have to identify the topic and have a look at the curriculum (Anexo I: Área de Ciencias
de la Naturaleza/bloque 2: el ser humano y la salud (BOE 1 de marzo de 2014)). Topics
cannot be repeated. Once you have your topic, you must decide on the age and level
of your students (5th or 6th grade (11 or 12 years old)) and on appropriate contents (about
the subject, grammar contents, language functions to include in your unit (taking the
curriculum and the LOMCE into account). Apply the methodology Content and
Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)).
You can find a list of the possible topics below. You have to select one of the videos of
once upon a time life dealing with these topics, from the list you find in Moovi, and
after watching it, you have to design your own and original activities. Follow the
instructions below to design your work. Include a story, a song, a game, and exercises
created by the group.

TOPICS/THEMES LANGUAGE GRAMMATICAL

FUNCTIONS ELEMENTS
The brain Asking for information Simple present (to be, to
The heart Describing appearance have, and others)
The blood Expressing likes and Question forms and words
The breathing dislikes Possessives
The mouth and teeth Giving advice Negative forms of the
The digestion Making a request verb
The bones and skeleton Making a complaint
The muscles and fat Making a compliment
The liver factory Etc.
The kidneys

Once you have selected the topic, decide on the contents that you wish to teach
(remember to have a look at the curriculum to see what your students should learn about
this topic and take a look at section 1.7).
The CLIL sequence must be divided into lesson plans or sessions your students need to
achieve the objectives. Within the sequence you must try to observe the appropriate
Communicative Language Learning sequencing, moving from presentation through
practice to production, as well as from receptive to productive skills and beginning with
oral before progressing to written.
You have to include at the beginning of your sequence a school profile where you are
going to teach this sequence and your class profile. As this is a collaborative work (not
a cooperative work), all members of the group (together) have to design 4/5 original

111
activities, including a story/ 1/2 activity/ a game/ a song (made by yourselves). You
can use the sound of a well-known song, but you have to write your own lyrics.

Your sequence will be assessed on the basis of the written copy you upload in moovi
(hand in to me in November Tuesday 15th). This written copy will be corrected and
assessed as part of your final mark. During the A sessions, all the groups have to give
a 5-minutes presentation of their sequence using the resources they need to explain it
to their classmates. After this summary the group has 5 minutes per activity to
perform/dramatize their 4 tasks (5 minutes each=20), taking it in turns to be the teacher
and the three students (20 points maximum). The last 5 minutes of your time in the A
classes will be devoted to the classmates’ assessment of your unit and your self-
assessment. The performances are going to take place from approximately November
16 (November 16, 23 and December 14). Go to moovi “One: material for the class” and
print one copy per exposition and one for your self-assessment (one per group member)
of the file Assessment_primary_CLIL_sequence 2021-22.pdf, i.e. you will need 4
copies per performance day.

INSTRUCTIONS: follow this index to write your work.

1- Design your own school profile and describe your students’ socio-cultural and
economic context, age, level, etc.
2- Write a brief introduction to your CLIL sequence (take the curriculum into
account), justifying your topic and including cross-curricular considerations
and the time you need to finish the whole sequence (number of sessions).
3- Write the objectives of your sequence.
4- Explain the contents you are going to include (take a look at the curriculum).
Lexical contents (BICS (basic interpersonal communicative skills) and CALP
(cognitive academic language proficiency)), grammatical, phonetic, cultural
contents.
5- Identify the Communicative skills you are going to develop: listening,
linguistic intuition, speaking, reading, writing and the language functions you
want to practice.
6- Describe the Cognitive skills developed on each activity (following Bloom’s
taxonomy.
7- Include the production and use of teaching materials and resources.
8- Include attitudinal contents (rules, values and beliefs to be learnt at school)
you plan them to acquire.

9- Explain the methodology you are going to use in this sequence (CLIL). Don´t
use translators or copy and paste fragments. Make a brief description of it.
10- TASKS /ACTIVITIES (4/5= 1 or 2 tasks or exercises, 1 song, 1 story, 1
game). Describe each activity in the following way

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 ACTIVITY 1 Song, story, game, task

TITLE

AGE

TIMING

METHODOLOGY Write only Content and Language integrated learning

CONTENTS LEXICAL BICS:

CALP:

GRAMMATICAL

PHONETIC

CULTURAL

OBJECTIVES Of this activity

DESCRIPTION What the students are supposed to do

COMMUNICAT- LISTENING
IVE SKILLS
READING

WRITING

SPEAKING

LANGUAGE
FUNCTIONS
RESOURCES

SCRIPT10

Class presentation and performance of the teaching unit (20 points)

1-Overview of the teaching unit: Prepare a 5-minutes presentation of your teaching
unit to present and explain it to your classmates. This should include reference to points
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 from the written copy of the sequence (see above). Special
attention will be paid to the teachers’ ability to transmit the main aims, objectives
contents in an interesting, communicative and enthusiastic way using also body
language.

10 Explanations and instructions given to your students to do the activity, not to me. The script of the
lesson from the teacher’s point of view. You can include some possible answers to write the script for
your performance.

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2. Microteaching (performance: 20 minutes (5 minutes per activity)): Prepare and use
the material you need to perform your four tasks (5 minutes each). Task one should be
based on an original story you write about the topic. Task two should be based on an
original exercise/task about the topic. Task 3 should be based on an original game
designed by the group. Task 4 should be based on an original song about the topic (you
are allowed to use the tune of a well-known song, but you have to write your own
lyrics). Each member of the group must be prepared to take the role of “teacher” in
turns. The other members will perform the role of students. The tasks will be presented
and performed (5 minutes each) as if the other three members of the group were a real
class, leading them to a series of teaching activities. Remember to mark clearly the
beginning and the end of your tasks and to explain them to your students clearly (use
the script you have written for each activity. Remember the teacher in CLIL does not
have to give thorough explanations of the topic but instructions).
Special attention will be paid to the use of English by the teachers, communicative
skills, the use of your voice, body language, your enthusiasm, etc.; the effective
participation of “your children”, and the overall structure of the class in terms of
“communicative” criteria.
Preparing your sequence and designing each activity
When you are designing the activities for your sequence don’t forget the following
points:

1) Teaching goal/objective: what do you want to achieve, what do you want your
pupils to be able to do thanks to this activity
2) communicative Skill(s) needed (speaking, listening, reading or writing);
language functions
3) Cognitive skills developed (follow Bloom´s taxonomy)
4) Teaching aid(s) (material) needed (flashcards, murals, maps, drawings, song
lyrics, hand-outs, tapes, pictures, worksheets, balls, videos, etc.)

And you also need to think about what you will be telling your pupils (be ready to use
non-verbal communication because you need it in CLIL) before they start working on
the sequence:

5) Type of activity for example, “Now you are going to … listen to a song, play a
game, watch a video about ….. etc.”)
6) the script with the step-by-step instructions on what they are supposed to do
while engaged in the activity. If you have a lot of instructions to give, divide
them in chunk or steps.
7) Classroom organization (tell them whether they have to sit or stand up
individually, in pairs (twos), in trios, in teams, in groups, whole class; whether
they have to move, dance, walk, etc. while they are doing something else;
whether they have to sit in a circle, in pairs facing each other; etc.).
8) Expected and unexpected comments during activities:
8.1) Think about possible questions you can ask or comments you can
make about the content and/or the activity.
8.2) Think about what possible things can go wrong while your pupils are
doing the activity and, if they do go wrong, be ready to tell/show how to
do them in the right way. Don’t forget to praise your pupils when they do things the
right way.

114
Important points: No matter what activity or activities you propose, you must keep in
mind the following:

1) Your activities should be fun, enjoyable, lively and student-centred, and promote
talking (speaking and listening), student-teacher and student-student communication,
and physical actions (moving about, jumping, dancing, playing, etc.). By all means,
interact with your pupils by asking questions, making comments, requesting that
something be done, clowning around with them, playing along, being a child from time
to time, etc.

2) You should design activities that avoid passive, silent or boring moments (when no
communication or interaction is taking place, or when the teacher has the floor for more
than 1 minute). Please avoid long explanations of anything. If you have to do so, do it
in small “chunks” at different moments during the activity. When you plan your
activities think about these problems (and don’t forget time constraints. Take a look at
LOMCE/LOMLOE to see the time devoted to each session) and how to overcome them
in the way you design each activity.
Remember that one of the goals of education in Spain is the following:

Take a look at LOMCE horas y materias.pdf

Distribución horas y materias LOMCE.pdf
And at la LOE con las modificaciones de la LOMLOE.pdf

115
Appendix 9
Check Task 2.2.1.1
Each unit is organised sequentially as follows
1. Introducing and recalling Key content and vocabulary is introduced though
2. Analyse and organise
3. The content pages
4. Science project
5. Fragile world
6- Revise
These introductory pages, with a vibrant double page,
maximize motivation by showing that pupils’ prior
knowledge of key topics is often already considerable.
attractive large-scale illustrations, short texts and
engaging activities.
This section reviews what students already know,
often in visual or graphic formats and provides some
typical questions and audio.
This section is designed with a careful balance of
texts and images. Large-scale maps, diagrams,
graphs and any kind of visual aids are included. The
activities are scaled to provide a range of cognitive
difficulty from LOTS to HOTS.
with something they have to do: a fun experiment,
investigation or project
Here some values and ethics link to the same content
are provided. It also gives the students the opportunity
to develop their presentation skills.
This is the last section and it ensures that pupils’
progression is regularly checked and reviewed.
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Appendix 10
Check your answers

Task 2.2.1.2. Write the names you find in the box below in the corresponding place
Principles of CL Description
each student’s performance is assessed and the results
are given to that and the rest of the members of the group.
Individual accountability Therefore each member of the group is responsible for
the assessment of the whole group. Individual
performance will affect not only one’s result, but also the
rest of the members’ results.
students need interpersonal skills in order to be
successful (effective leadership, decision-making, trust-
Social abilities building, communication, conflict resolution, helping
and asking for help, organisation, self-esteem and self-
confidence.
we need to know the strong and weak points of the group
in order to make the right decisions and give them
Group processing feedback.
Students promote each other’s learning by helping
sharing, and encouraging efforts to learn. CL implies
Promotive interaction face to face interaction. Students need not only to
discuss and agree but also to produce a piece of work
through combined effort, because CL and neither CLIL
are about working individually and make a cut-and-
paste final product.
they perceive that they need each other in order to
complete the group’s tasks.
Positive interdependence

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Appendix 11
Task 2.3.1.2: write the name of the section or activity that corresponds to the
description in the oxford textbook.

Reinforces content and language and promotes

Experiment time scientific methodology

makes students to think of what they already know

think on the subject and what they’d like to find out

Is a pre-reading activity to interact with the

Getting started content. A question or an activity that prompts

students to look at content and communicate with
each other.
Describes interesting facts

Scientific fact
Helps students to remember what they have

Let’s revise previously seen and focus on the topic.

Require students to actively participate and

Activities/quiz respond to content

promotes autonomous learning and encourages the

Find out /experiment time use of tics

Promotes collaborative learning and oral

Let’s work together communication

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 Appendix 12
TASK 1.7.3 FOCUSSING ON CONTENT

Give them diagrams to be completed

Presenting them new words
asking them to make outlines
discovering new words through
authentic readings (realia)

Giving them an opportunity to

deduce meaning in context
telling to their classmates what
proposing them a project idea they have read about the topic
giving a two-minute talk about
propsing them opinion the topic`+
discusions / debates
posing open-ended questions

word clouds

working in twos to compare brainstorms

answers
allowing them to use any device what I know and what
or tool useful to that end I want to know lists

119
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