Nowadays, the traditional educative system is not enough to satisfy the necessities of children, so teacher have to find a new one for them.
A child is an active machine of continuous and unconscious learning so we have to do this process fun and exciting. Children learn better and faster if they learn by games, exploration and if they are the most important in the construction of them knowledge.
We can identify a number of different conditions which are associated with this ideal learning situation:
Fundaments of teaching and learning a foreign language in primary education.
• Time
Children will have plenty of time for learning English and it can be spread over several years.
• Exposure
They are exposed to English all around them, both in and outside of school.
• A real need for English
They have a need to use English in order to survive on a daily basis.
• Variety of input
They are exposed to a wide variety of uses of English, eg spoken and written, English for thinking, for interacting, for getting things done, for imagining.
• Meaningful input
They will receive plenty of meaningful language input through experience of English not as a subject to be learned, but as a means of communication, where the focus is on the meaning not the form of the language.
We need to create a favorable environment in the classroom for develop the abilities of children. If the children are motivated they will want to learn. When they are enjoying themselves, they are usually absorbed by the activity and want to continue with it. They are not always aware that they are learning language.
Current approaches in teaching a foreign language in primary education.
The foreign language curriculum
Attention is paid to the process of instruction:
- Learning of contents
- Development of skills and strategies
- Levels of motivation, etc.
In general, these syllabuses share some common characteristics (Madrid and McLaren
1995:15):
- They aim to develop efficient learning strategies.
- They are concerned with the individual learning style.
- Students negotiate curricular activities with teachers.
- Special attention is given to affective factors: the student's feelings, emotions and values.
- Students are often involved in the learning process: in the way learning takes place and in its evaluation (metacognition).
Procedural syllabuses
These syllabuses consist of a set of tasks and activities to be carried out in class and/or at home. These tasks require the use of meaningful language with different purposes according to the tasks proposed, but not primarily for the learning of certain linguistic forms. The accomplishment of the activities involves three kinds of tasks (Prabhu 1987: 46-47):
a) Information gap activity: transference of unknown information from one student to another.
b) Reasoning-gap activity: through processes of interference, deduction, practical reasoning, etc.
c) Opinion-gap activity: personal feelings or attitudes towards given situations.
Task-based syllabus
A task is an activity or action which is carried out with meaningful language (not with the intention of using the language for its own sake).
Some of the benefits suggested by Candlin (1987) and implied in task-based syllabuses are (Nunan 1988: 45-46):
- Tasks promote attention to meaning.
- They encourage attention to relevant data.
- They develop different procedures and modes of participation and involve learner contributions.
- They promote risk-taking.
- They encourage knowledge, skills, participation.
- They involve the use of language for the purpose of solving the task and promote learner training for problem-solving.
- They promote sharing of information and allow for different solutions.
- They encourage the learner's consciousness of the learning process and reflection (metacognition).
