TOPIC 25: EL PROCESO DE ENSEÑANZA Y APRENDIZAJE EN LA LENGUA EXTRANJERA CENTRADO EN EL ALUMNO:

FUNDAMENTOS Y APLICACIONES. LA IDENTIFICACIÓN DE MOTIVACIONES Y ACTITUDES ANTE LA LENGUA INGLESA.

APLICACIONES PRÁCTICAS

 active, as it requires consistent practice and work to build the knowledge, instead of passive reception.
 It is meaningful, since new contents must be connected to previous ones.
 And it is creative, because speakers are able to create new sentences once they learn the basis of the
language.

Therefore, memorization is not enough, learners have to establish and maintain meaningful mental connections, to
join previous and new contents and they need to participate actively in meaningful tasks in a social context.

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3. PRINCIPLES OF THE STUDENT-CENTRED APPROACH.

As I have explained, within this approach it is paramount to have a clear idea about how learning takes place. Now, I
will analyze the most important factors that condition the learning process.

 Cognitive and metacognitive factors: many constructivist pedagogues like Ausubel argued that learning must
be built around children's previous experiences, making connections between new contents and their
previous knowledge. In order to do so, learners have to use two types of strategies.

o Cognitive strategies to enhance learning like grouping, researching, note taking, summarizing, deduction,
imagery, elaboration and transference of information.

o Metacognitive strategies to manage one's own process of learning, such as advanced organization,
advanced preparation, selective attention, self-monitoring and self-assessment.

 Motivational factors: motivation is a key element, as it encourages the individual to pursue a goal. Both
intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are important.

 Affective factors: a balanced emotional state is required for students to be in the best predisposition for
learning. As Krashen pointed out in his Input theory, it is necessary to establish a safe and relaxed learning
environment to decrease the affective filter of the students, eliminating psychological barriers.

 Developmental factors: Piaget's studies put the emphasis on respecting the overall development and
maturation of the children, taking into account that any stage presents different constraints and opportunities
for learning.

 Social factors: Vygotsky highlighted that relationships, interactions and collaboration among students in a
social environment act as a mediator, helping the students acquire new contents.

 Individual characteristics of the students : learners have different capabilities, learning styles and socio-
cultural backgrounds that have to be taken into consideration in order to offer an individualized methodology.
In addition, according to the Multiple Intelligences theory by Gardner, individuals can access to new
information in various ways, as we all have several intelligences: logical-mathematical, linguistic, naturalistic,
visual-spatial, kinaesthetic, musical, interpersonal and intrapersonal.

[Some of the benefits of the approach have been already mentioned in an implicit way, but I will also present some
advantages provided by Campbell: the potential of the learner is brought to the class; a consistent and continuous
process of analysis is carried out for the identification of the interests and needs, implying an increase on the overall
quality of the process; topicality can be introduced in the classroom dynamics; student’s previous experiences are
used as a starting point; open-ended activities are set up to foster decision making by the pupils; learners act as
authors; a component of surprise is incorporated; peer teaching and peer correction are promoted; and finally,
group solidarity is fostered.]

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5. IDENTIFICATION OF VALUES AND ATTITUDES. APPLICATIONS TO THE CLASS.

At this point of the essay it is necessary to reflect on how teachers can identify pupil’s necessities, preferences and
strengths, taking into account two types of needs.

 Objective needs, related to their profile, age, level of proficiency, background knowledge, etc.
 Subjective needs: attitudes, interests, expectation from parents, self- esteem, learning styles, and above all,
motivation.

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Consequently, motivation is a key factor, because it makes learners work hard and with interest. We can distinguish
between: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic one has to do with students' innate curiosity and eagerness to learn, and it can be induced in the classroom
by means of an attractive and varied methodology, the role of the teacher and so forth.
Extrinsic motivation comes from external factors, which can be related to socio-cultural aspects of English speaking
countries, to functional capacities acquired by a proficient speaker, status, passing exams, external rewards and
professional success.

For detecting motivation and attitudes, teachers can use both formal techniques (interviews, texts, exams); or
informal ones (tasks, games, group work). Once attitudes and values of the students have been determined, we can
reflect on how to take advantage of them.
 Motivation can be fostered by the involvement and participation of the students.
 Contents must be presented in familiar contexts, close to pupil’s realities and interests.
 Students can be encouraged to design their own new materials.
 Using authentic materials incorporates social and cultural aspects of English speaking countries.
 What is more, children can be allowed to choose some topics and tasks according to their preferences.
 Rules and rewards can be negotiated with them.
 Additional responsibilities can be given to pupils in the classroom.
 A varied methodology and fun activities will increase their attention and interest. Some of them are songs,
game or drama activities.
 Finally, a pleasant atmosphere in the classroom must be created, in order to decrease the affective filter of
the students.
 I would personally propose to implement a behavioural and motivational plan based on the principles of
gamification, which incorporate game elements such as points, badges, avatar characters or challenges in
order to enhance pupil’s motivation and participation.

Just to finish, I want to mention that using the communicative approach definitely helps in the task of eliciting the
interest and implication of the pupils. In the next part of the essay, I will analyse this approach in detail.

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6. METHODOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES TO ACHIEVE COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE CENTERED ON THE STUDENTS:

THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

The communicative approach advocates for a balanced view: between accuracy and fluency, between formal
learning and informal acquisition, between deductive grammar instruction and real language use, and among the
four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.

The main goal of this approach is the progressive acquisition of communicative competence. As this concept is
crucial to understand this approach, I will present a further explanation on it. (COMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE*)

In order to achieve communicative competence, teachers need to reflect on how to organize and sequence the
contents or basic knowledges of a syllabus design.

In this sense, Brewster mentioned that a lesson can be planned around these choices: structural, functional, lexical
or phonological aspects; and also, around a skill or a topic.

According to Brumfit, a communicative syllabus design should be organized with a grammar core, and the notions,
functions and communicative activities must be set up around it as a spiral.

Concerning the activities or learning situations within these framework, I will mention the principles stated by
Richards and Rodgers: communication, task and meaningfulness principles, so in order to imply meaningful
learning, activities must convey real communication, they must be based on seemingly real-life tasks, and they must
include real and meaningful language.

As regards materials, I can highlight that they must be varied (written, audio-visual, computer-based, task-based…),
motivating and they should be connected to the real world. Following Candlin and Edelhoff, teachers can
incorporate some authenticity to the materials through the goal of the activities, the task to accomplish, the
environment or the text.

Regarding procedure, I would propose following Brewster's sequence for sessions and units.
 Warm up: to prepare the students for further work.
 Presentation: to present the new language to the students providing them with meaningful input.
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  Practice: to start assimilating the contents practicing them through code-controlled activities and games
focused on accuracy, so they will produce the structured output.
 Production: to use the language in a more freely way with certain degree of autonomy through
conversations and communicative games which imply communicative output.
As far as attention to diversity is concerned, I would personally highlight an approach called Universal Design for
Learning (UDL), specifically mentioned in LOMLOE and supported by several pedagogues such as Meyer and Rose.
It makes special emphasis on variety and flexibility, giving all students an equal opportunity to succeed by providing
them different ways to learn. It is based on three main principles.
• Representation: presenting contents in a variety of ways and formats to support comprehension.
• Action and expression: giving children more than one way to interact and work with the materials and to
show what they learn.
• Engagement: stimulating and sustaining motivation and effort among pupils, by setting up safe, relevant
and engaging learning environment.
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7. PRACTICAL TECHNIQUES IN THE ENGLISH CLASS.

To finish the essay, I would like to present some specific techniques and resources to include within a
communicative syllabus design that fits the principles of the student-centered approach. They are the following.

 Songs, which facilitate memorization and reduce the affective filter of the students.
 Games, which incorporate fun and variety to the class, promoting participation and motivation.
 Drama activities, like simulations and role-plays, which allow teachers to set up a contextualized learning
situations to experience the language in a active way.
 Literature: in the form of story-telling, reading passages, writing poems, etc. It promotes the cultural
awareness and expression competence since it introduces the poetic function of the language.
 Pair and group work: it encourages communication and interactions, promoting the citizenship and the
personal, social and learning to learn competences.
 Projects: they are long-term activities that involve putting into practice cognitive and metacognitive abilities
(resourcing, summarizing, elaborating, planning…).
 Information and communication technologies : blogs, apps, interactive activities and computer-based games
are beneficial because of the promotion of the digital competence, but because they engage students into
working.
 Self-access corners, such as a listening, reading or a games corner will give students the opportunity to
practice autonomously. They are especially useful to provide additional work to fast-finishers, and to treat the
diversity of the class with revision, reinforcement and extension activities and tasks.

All the techniques mentioned above should be included in the classroom dynamics with the purpose to set up
meaningful, active and contextualized tasks based on students’ interests and experiences. They will make students
put into practice key and specific competences, as well as working on the contents and constructing their own
knowledge. This is to say, they are useful techniques to use within learning situations, which are established in the
Decree 157/2022 as the basis of the teaching-learning process from a methodological point of view.