ACTION-ORIENTED COMPETENCE APPROACH: BASIC

PRINCIPLES FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHING

All the studies and theories on different teaching methods and approaches do not provide a
definitive conception of how to ensure that second language learning in a classroom context is
successful. That is why many language teaching materials published today are not limited to a single
approach, but rather adopt, in an eclectic manner, two or more approaches.

It is along these lines that the Common Framework of Reference for Languages moves, since
one of its fundamental methodological principles is the one described below and designed in the
subsequent scheme.

"The procedures used in language learning, teaching and research are those
considered most effective in achieving the agreed objectives , based on the needs of
the students as individuals in their social context, and using the strategies as a line of
action to maximize effectiveness by helping to put all skills into operation. But
effectiveness depends on the motivation and particular characteristics of the students,
as well as the nature of the resources, both human and material, that may come into
play."

METHODOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE
OF THE COMMON FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE

ACCURACY OF
OBJECTIVES
(Continuously,
graduated
Desefnogcrrmiallad
auycaocdnlaatirna
u)a,

PERCEPTION OF
THE

The approach it adopts, in a general sense, focuses on action , since it considers users and
students who learn a language mainly as social agents , that is, as members of a society that has
tasks; but it speaks of "tasks" to the extent that the actions are carried out by one or more
individuals strategically using their specific competencies to achieve a specific result.

® Authors: Carlos Romero Dueñas and Alfredo González

Hermoso
 GENERAL METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
OF THE COMMON FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE

Users and
Focused students as
on action social
agents

Members of
a
society,
that
develop
a series
competitions

We are talking, therefore, about an action-oriented competency approach that must take
into account the entire series of specific capabilities that an individual applies as a social agent.
Consequently, any form of language use and learning could be schematized as follows:

APPROACH BY COMPETENCES
ACTION ORIENTED

"The use of language - which includes learning - includes the actions carried out by
people who, as individuals and as social agents , develop a series of skills , both general and
communicative , in particular. People use their skills in order to carry out language activities
that involve processes to produce and receive texts related to topics in specific areas , putting
into play the strategies that seem most appropriate to carry out the tasks they have to

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 perform. The control that the participants have over these actions produces the reinforcement
or modification of their competencies."
Common framework of reference for languages

Furthermore, the Common Framework of Reference for Languages makes it clear how each
of the fundamental concepts of its approach should be interpreted:

- Competencies are the sum of knowledge, skills and individual characteristics that allow a
person to perform actions.

- General competencies are those that are not directly related to the language, but which
can be used for actions of all kinds, including linguistic activities.

- Communicative skills are those that enable a person to act specifically using linguistic
means.

- Language activities involve the exercise of communicative linguistic competence within a

specific area when processing (in the form of comprehension or expression) one or more
texts in order to perform a task.

- The text is any sequence of discourse (spoken or written) related to a specific area and
that during the performance of a task constitutes the axis of a language activity, either as
support or as a goal, or as a product or as a process.

- The scope refers to the broad sectors of social life in which social agents act: the
educational, professional, public and personal spheres.

- A strategy is any organized, intentional and regulated line of action, chosen by any
individual to carry out a task that he proposes to himself or that he has to face.

- A task is defined as any intentional action that an individual considers necessary to

achieve a specific result in terms of solving a problem, fulfilling an obligation, or achieving
an objective. This definition would include a wide series of actions such as, for example,
playing a game of cards, ordering food in a restaurant, translating a text from a foreign
language or preparing a school newspaper through group work.

Starting, then, from this action-oriented methodological approach, let's see what are the
basic principles that are proposed as a guide for effective teaching practice.

1. Development of linguistic and pragmatic skills.

Language acquisition requires students to pay attention to the formal. By "attention to the
formal" we refer not only to the phonetic or graphic representations of linguistic forms, but also to
the form-function connections (that is, the correlation between a particular form and the meaning(s)
it acquires. In communication).

Teaching can facilitate attention to the formal in several ways, outlined in the following
table (Ellis, 2005) :

Option Description

1. Explicit teaching: Teaching that requires students to pay conscious

attention to the forms presented so that they grasp
and understand them.

a) Didactics (deductive). Students are provided with an explanation of the

shapes.

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 b) Discovery (inductive). Students are given data in the L2 that illustrate these
forms and are asked to discover how they work for
themselves.

2. Implicit teaching: Teaching that requires students to infer the

functioning of shapes without this being a conscious
process.

a) Unenhanced input . Data is presented to students in the L2, without

attempting to draw their attention to the forms
under study.

b) Enhanced input .
The forms under study are highlighted (in italics, for
example) in order to promote their perception.

But second language acquisition also requires learners to pay attention to meaning. By
"attention to meaning" we mean pragmatic meaning (that is, the highly contextualized meanings that
emerge in acts of communication that require us to know how to organize a message, when to use it,
and how to express it).

To give students opportunities to pay attention to pragmatic meaning, a task-based (or

task-supported) approach to language teaching is very useful. Theorists argue that it is necessary to
attend to pragmatic competence not only because they see it as a way of activating linguistic
resources developed by other means, but also because it is considered to be the main way of
creating one's own linguistic resources, that is, of develop communicative competence. However, we
do not mean to suggest that teaching should be oriented - exclusively - to providing learners with
opportunities for pragmatic meaning creation, but rather to point out that teaching, to be effective,
must include such opportunities, and ideally that these predominate throughout the curriculum.

In conclusion, it is not about multiplying and chaining tasks, but about including the student in
the learning process because what is clear is that "the language student has to acquire both forms
and meanings." (MCR, p. 113 - 5.2.1.4).

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 ACTION-ORIENTED COMPETENCE APPROACH
BASIC PRINCIPLES

1. DEVELOPMENT OF LINGUISTIC AND PRAGMATIC SKILLS

Linguistic skills Pragmatic skills

(Attention to shapes) (Attention to the meanings)

^ Lexica ^ How to organize a message

^ Grammar ^ When to use it
^ How to express it
^ Semantics
^ Phonological
^
Orthographic
^ Orthoepic
It is not about multiplying and chaining tasks, but about including the
student in the learning process because he or she must acquire both forms
and meanings.

2. Development of explicit knowledge and implicit knowledge.

Explicit knowledge is the knowledge of the phonological, lexical, grammatical, pragmatic
and sociolinguistic characteristics of an L2 accompanied by the metalanguage necessary to classify
that knowledge. It is consciously retained, apprehensible and verbalizable. It involves a conscious
perception of how a certain structural feature works.

Implicit knowledge is procedural, retained unconsciously, and underlies the ability to

communicate fluently and confidently in an L2. According to most researchers, L2 proficiency is
essentially a matter of implicit knowledge and, therefore, should be the goal of any teaching
program.

In that case, is explicit knowledge of any value in and of itself? Of course. It has been shown
that explicit knowledge is used both in message formulation processes and in supervision, and that
many learners have the ability to access their explicit memory to achieve these purposes, especially
if the rules are automated to a certain extent. .

Good competence in an L2 requires that learners acquire a rich repertoire of fixed

expressions, which provide fluency, and rule-based competence consists of knowledge of specific
grammatical rules, which provide complexity and precision (Skehan, 1998). Today it is widely
accepted that fixed expressions are of great importance in the use of language. It has been shown
that native speakers use a much greater number of fixed expressions than advanced L2 learners.

A notional-functional approach is perfectly appropriate for teaching ready-made models and

routines and can provide an ideal basis for direct intervention in the initial stages. However, a
complete language program must ensure the development of fixed expressions and rule-based
knowledge.

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 Explicit knowledge can contribute to language development by facilitating the development of
implicit knowledge. Therefore, work on form should not be relegated to the margins. The student
must be led, through an authentic progression of the learning sequences, to perceive the
construction of their competencies.

ACTION-ORIENTED COMPETENCE APPROACH

BASIC PRINCIPLES
2. DEVELOPMENT OF EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT KNOWLEDGE

Explicit knowledge Implicit knowledge

^ Linguistic skills ^ Procedural

^ Pragmatic competencies ^ Unconscious
^ Sociolinguistic competences ^ Basic to communicate fluently
^ Metalanguage
^ Conscious and verbalizable

Work on form must not be relegated to the margins, but rather the student must be led through an authentic
progression of learning sequences, so that they perceive the construction of their competencies.

3. Exposure to understandable and varied input in L2.

Language learning is a slow and laborious process. Children acquiring their L1 take between
two and five years to reach full grammatical competence, and during that time they are exposed to
massive amounts of input . The same can be stated with respect to the acquisition of an L2. If
learners are not exposed to the target language they will not be able to acquire it. In general, the
greater the exposure to the language, the faster and more complete the learning will be.

Furthermore, the input must be made "understandable" either through its modification or
through contextual supports. And how can teachers ensure that their students have access to varied
input ?

a) Maximizing the use of the L2 within the classroom. Ideally, this means that the L2 should
become the means and the object of teaching.

b) Creating opportunities for students to receive input outside of the classroom. This can be
accomplished with great ease by providing extensive reading programs based on carefully
selected graded readings appropriate to the student's level.

c) Ideally, where additional resources are available, schools should establish self-contained
learning centers that students can use outside of school hours.

The student must be provided, from the initial level, with written and auditory texts and
documents that reflect the reality of the target language and culture.

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 ACTION-ORIENTED COMPETENCE APPROACH
BASIC PRINCIPLES
3. EXPOSURE TO A UNDERSTANDABLE AND VARIED INPUT IN L2

Comprehensible input Varied input

^ Modified according to ^ Intense use of the L2 in the classroom

educational needs ^ Creating opportunities to receive input outside the classroom
^ Supported in contexts ^ Self-directed learning centers in schools

The student must be provided, from the initial level, with written and auditory texts and documents that reflect the
reality of the target language and culture.

4. Creation of opportunities for production ( output ).

Language acquisition does not depend entirely on comprehensible input , but the learner's
output also plays a very important role. The contributions that can come from the output are the
following:
a) It forces syntactic processing, that is, it forces students to pay attention to grammar.
b) It allows students to test hypotheses about the grammar of the target language through
the feedback they get when they make mistakes.
c) Contributes to automating existing knowledge.
d) Provides opportunities for students to develop discourse skills.
e) It is important to help students develop a "personal voice" and guide the conversation
toward topics on which they want to contribute opinions.

The production process requires that the student mobilize all the communicative and
linguistic means at his disposal so that in a given situation he can express the need to ask for or give

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information, express a feeling, talk about it and his environment to come into contact. with
someone or argue about a topic to convince someone of something.

It is essential that the student, even with the limited linguistic means available to him in
his learning stage, has the possibility on multiple occasions to go as far as possible to express what
he wants to say or write, that is, to put into I use the linguistic and communicative means that allow
you to go to the end of your desire for communication.

As he mobilizes his energies in this sense, the student will gain confidence in him, use the
most complex means and will be able to qualify what he says according to the situations in which he
finds himself.

In short, an action-oriented competency approach means promoting student autonomy, which

helps them become aware of the learning processes with a clear structure that collects and plans
the components of the language.

ACTION-ORIENTED COMPETENCE APPROACH

BASIC PRINCIPLES
4. CREATION OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR PRODUCTION ( OUTPUT )

Contribution of oral and written production

^ It forces you to pay attention to grammar.

^ Hypotheses about grammar are tested by making mistakes.
^ Automate existing knowledge.
^ Develop discursive skills.
^ Guide the conversation toward students' priority topics.
^ The student gains confidence in himself using all his strategies.

A competency-oriented, action-oriented approach means promoting student autonomy, thereby helping to become aware of
the learning processes with a clear structure that collects and plans the components of the language.

5. Creating opportunities to interact.

The chances of extensive interaction occurring in a classroom context are greater when
students begin to interact in class and have to find their own words. The best way to achieve this is
to ask learners to perform tasks that require the use of oral and written language.

Interaction is a way not only to automate existing linguistic resources, but also to create
new resources. Interaction promotes acquisition when a communication obstacle arises and learners
participate in the negotiation of meanings.

There are four essential requirements (Johnson, 1993) for classroom acquisition to be
fruitful:

a) Create contexts of language use where students have reasons to pay attention to the
language.

b) Provide opportunities for learners to use language to express their own personal
meanings.

c) Help students participate in language-related activities that are beyond their current
level of proficiency.

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 d) Offer a broad set of contexts to promote "complete linguistic production."

All of this can be most adequately provided by "tasks" in which the key to ensuring an
acquisition-rich interaction is allowing students to control the topic of the discourse. Obviously, this
is not something that is easily achieved, as teachers must ensure that classroom discourse is orderly.
One solution is to incorporate work in small groups. As we have already said, when students interact
with each other, it is very likely that a discourse rich in acquisition will emerge. However, there are
a number of risks in group work that can produce an undesirable effect (for example, excessive use
of the L1 in monolingual groups).

The potential benefits of group work are known (Jacobs, 1998):

BENEFIT COMMENT
1. Increase in the
amount of oral In teacher-centered classrooms, the teacher typically speaks 80% of the
production of the time; In group work, more students talk for longer.
learner.

2. Increase in the In teacher-centered classrooms, students' productions are articulated as

variety of speech responses. In group work, however, its production can take on diverse roles,
productions. including those that involve negotiation of meanings.
In teacher-centered classrooms, teachers shape their teaching according to
3. Greater
the needs of the average student. When working in groups, it is possible to
individualization of
meet the individual needs of each student.
teaching.
4. Reduction of Students feel less nervous when speaking in an L2 with other students than
anxiety. in front of the entire class.
5. Increased Students will show less competitiveness in group work and are likely to
motivation. stimulate each other.

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6. Increase in Students, as "social animals" that they are, enjoy interacting with others
playfulness. during group work. In teacher-centered classrooms, student-student
interaction is often proscribed.
7. Increase in Group activities help students become autonomous learners.
autonomy.
8. Increase in social Group activities enable students to get to know each other.
integration.
9. Possibility for In typically teacher-centered classrooms, students are not encouraged to
students to learn to help each other. Working in groups helps students learn collaborative skills.
work with others.

10. Increased Learning is encouraged because students are willing to take risks and can
learning. support the efforts of others.

For group work to be effective, a series of factors must be taken into account that
allow it to be carried out successfully. The student must be convinced that the task is relevant and
not just an opportunity to have fun. Each of them has to be responsible for their own personal
contribution to complete the activity of the group as a whole. It is advisable that the groups be of
four people who in turn can be divided into pairs. Everyone has to share resources, talk face to face.
It is essential to achieve group cohesion and not continually change them in order to develop positive
autonomy. The group must know that it will be evaluated as such by the entire class.

The teacher's role is essential in this process: he must observe and supervise the students'
work, intervene when a group is in difficulty and not allow a group to become discouraged or “drop
out” of the collective project.

In short, an action-oriented competency approach is knowing how to perform communicative

tasks.

ACTION-ORIENTED COMPETENCE APPROACH

BASIC PRINCIPLES
5. CREATION OF OPPORTUNITIES TO INTERACT

Interaction Team work

Tasks that require the use of oral and written language.
Automate existing resources and create new resources.
Activities that are above the student's level.
The student expresses his own personal meanings.
Promotes complete linguistic production.
Increases the amount of oral production. Increases the
variety of speech productions.
Greater individualization of teaching.
Reduces anxiety and increases motivation.
Increases the playful aspect.
Increases autonomy.
Increases social integration.
You learn to work with others.
Increase learning.

An action-oriented competency approach is knowing how to perform communicative tasks.

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6. Student-centered teaching.
As we have seen, although universal aspects can be identified in the acquisition of an L2,
there is also considerable variability in the pace of learning and the level of final mastery. Learning
will be more successful when:

1. Teaching is coupled with the students' particular aptitude for learning.

2. The students are motivated.

Teachers can pay attention to the diversity in their students' aptitude by adopting a flexible
teaching approach that involves varied learning activities. In fact, studies on good language learners
suggest that successfully learning a language requires a flexible approach. Therefore, one way to
help students learn is to make a wide range of learning strategies available to them.

Regarding motivation, Dörnyei (2001) makes the obvious statement that "the best
motivational intervention is simply to increase the quality of our teaching" (p. 26). But he highlights,
in particular, the need for "clear teaching" and this includes some obvious prescriptions such as
"explain simply" and "teach at a pace that is neither too fast nor too slow." Teachers must also
accept that their responsibility is to ensure that their students are and remain motivated, and not to
lament the fact that they lack motivation. It may not be easy for teachers to influence students'
extrinsic motivation, but there is a lot you can do to increase their intrinsic motivation. To do this,
the formula is simple: it has to help you become aware of the learning processes with a clear
structure that collects and plans the components of the language.

In short, offering authentic learning strategies means providing work habits, clear reference
points so that the student knows where they are at all times.

ACTION-ORIENTED COMPETENCE APPROACH

BASIC PRINCIPLES
6. STUDENT-CENTERED TEACHING
^ Flexible teaching approach ^ Increasing the quality of our teaching
^ Various learning activities ^ Clear, simple explanation at an
Attention
^ Provision to diversity
of a wide range of learning Motivation
appropriate pace
strategies ^ Target Accuracy
^ Perception of progress

Offering authentic learning strategies means providing work habits, clear reference points so that the student
knows where they are at all times.

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 Strategies can be encouraged explicitly, for example by asking students what they do
when they learn something new, and then selecting the best strategies and reading those
suggested by the book or the teacher. Surely there will be many students who discover useful
strategies. In the following illustration - extracted from the ECO B1 Spanish manual (Romero
and González, 2005) - we can see an example of activities related to explicitly promoted
learning strategies.

But you can also design activities that carry strategies implicitly. For example, in a
written expression exercise - like the one we present below, also extracted from the ECO B1
Spanish manual (Romero and González, 2005) - the student can be asked to carry out some
preliminary steps: observe a model of written expression, classify discourse connectors,
generate ideas through an authentic document, plan, write in an order (using the discourse
connectors studied), etc.

Before writing a text (a personal letter, a cover letter, a report, etc.), it is essential
that the student observe a model and review the characteristics that make it different from
the others. Next, you will write a script or a thematic index and finally you will write the first
version taking into account the following aspects: that all the points of the script are well
related so that the presentation of the ideas is clear and orderly, write one idea per paragraph
and attend to formal issues (use of punctuation marks). It could be interesting for the student
to read the work to one of his classmates to verify that what he is trying to explain is
understandable to everyone.

The last phase will consist of carrying out a second draft, rearranging the content
according to the suggestions received and that are considered useful, improving the style
(ensuring

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that spelling, vocabulary and syntax are appropriate) and deciding on a title for the text if
required.

nce of learning Spanish.

END OF QUIZ

1. PERSONAL DATA OF THE STUDENT

Gemma Cair Slaymaker interesting! and they motivated us to perfect our

2. ACCOMMODATION
How did you find your accommodation? Which is it?
At ECO Academia they gave me several addresses of
apartments and families that offered rooms. During
sanana you visited several places and finally I stayed in a flat■You have had contact with sword students them' how
shared with other students. What type of
accommodation do you recommend*?
I recommend
As a foreign student
Spanish by speaking a lot in class and beyond that.
We took an exam at the end of the course to know what
level we are aiming for in order to continue.
4. THE ENVIRONMENT
you have contacted them.
I have been there for a short time, but it has been easy to
do well We ignore each other, especially with the
Spaniards who lived with me in the student apartment.
What are the biggest differences between life in Espada

living with other Spanish students or with a and life in your country.

The main difference is the good weather in ED070 Oero,

3. THE ACADEMY
What is access to libraries, orders? swimmers and other what caught my attention the most was. lo vida
meturna ton animode On the other hand, the meal
services?
schedule is different from that of Remo Kingdom, but I
The library was fantastic, very modern and with many
like the food in Espada better, it has a moderate taste
computers, although the acca ° “ Internet was a bit slow. I earthy and it is healthier

Ki and transforms the form into an essay. Use the connectors.

article is the pegunu u-—a in «I rmundo.

I tour begin, and rnporuntely “IIw Spanish guide is one of the P»» * । - wern ile speakers
4 for the number 0E .
of 500 million) Secondly, national sorsanem (UN. UNESCO. « In camoa his alfuston. e» one of Eaz «te more
future: tuy me de puicncone pelodicas en ap 150Ue emeras de radio t semo eCnle de telew-ln. without attack.

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 worqqpsupreencucntnuemnetccupa the ™in3o Ngae, Akcrends with English d are still very 8ranoe
in ronduU0n.es very imponanie conce el epanol » we want u Soron cm the mayo •*» of r To in e mute, because eu
Ioneu ieg Jidon the ««units of the planet

7. Development of sociolinguistic
and cultural competencies.

Finally, for the effective teaching

of a second language, the development of
sociolinguistic competence, which includes
the knowledge and skills necessary to
address the social dimension of language
use, must be proposed, both explicitly and
transversally. To do this, texts must be
selected or constructed that exemplify the
sociolinguistic contrasts between the
society of origin and the target society (use
and choice of greeting, forms of address,
conventions for speaking turns,
interjections, rules of courtesy, etc. ) and direct the student's attention to sociolinguistic
contrasts, explaining and discussing them as they occur in the learning process.
Likewise, it is also essential to provide a section for teaching the cultural component

of the society or societies in which the language is spoken. And it is important enough to
warrant explicit teaching since, at the same time,

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Unlike many other aspects of knowledge, it is likely not found in your prior experience and
may even be distorted by stereotypes.

Therefore, an action-oriented competency approach is to "elicit cross-cultural awareness"

(MCR), which means:
a) Provide the student, from the initial level, with written and auditory texts and
documents that reflect the reality of the target language and culture.
b) Propose activities and tasks that allow you to reflect both on the culture of the
target language and on your own.

ACTION-ORIENTED COMPETENCE APPROACH

BASIC PRINCIPLES
7. DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIOLINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL COMPETENCES

Sociolinguistic skills Cultural component

Linguistic markers of social Implicitly
relations Explicitly to avoid stereotypes
Rules of courtesy
• Expressions of popular wisdom
• Registration differences
• Dialect and accent
•
Intercultural awareness must be raised, proposing activities and tasks that allow people to reflect both on the
culture of the target language and on their own.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Council of Europe (2002). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages:
Learning, Teaching, Assessment . Madrid. Anaya / Cervantes Institute / Ministry of
Education, Culture and Sports.
• Dörnyei, Z. (2001): Motivational strategies in the language classroom. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
• Ellis, R. (2005): Second language acquisition in a teaching context. Analysis of existing
research . Wellington, Technical Department of the New Zealand Ministry of Education.
• Jacobs, G. (1998): "Cooperative learning or just grouping students: The difference makes a
difference", in W. Renandya and G. Jacobs (eds.), Learners and language learning (pp.
145-171). Singapore: SEAMEO.
• Johnson, D., Johnson R. and Holubec, E. (1993): Circles of Learning (4th ed.). Edina, MN:
Interaction Book Company.
• Romero Dueñas, C. and González Hermoso, A. (2005). ECHO B1. Modular Spanish Foreign
Language Course . Madrid. Edelsa.
• Skehan, P. (1998): A cognitive approach to language learning. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.

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