Topic 21

Foreign language area planning: didactic units. Criteria for the sequence and timing of the contents and objectives. Selection of the methodology to be used in learning and assessment activities.

Foreign language area planning: didactic units.

REASONS TO JUSTIFY THE INCLUSION OF THIS AREA IN THE CURRICULUM: importance of FL in our globalized world, lower barriers, attain a wider selection of job offers, communication and information channels, business success, move freely in the European Union, for work and travel, develop cognitive and social abilities, fostering respect and letting them understand their own language.

CONCEPT OF TEACHING PLANNING: FL curriculum designed to acquire the CC, it is open and flexible, involving four levels of curricular specification: 1. Minimum teaching requirements, established by the Spanish government, specified by each Autonomous Region. 2. Schools have pedagogical and organizational autonomy according to LOMLOE. 3. Teachers: teaching plan: bearing in mind the features of the students. 4. Attention to diversity: involving students with specific needs of educational support. The teaching Plan is the most specific curricular step to provide students with an adjustment of their characteristics, needs, interests… Harmer states that the best teachers are the ones who carefully plan and organise the TLP.

Teaching Plan conditions: adapted to the students, specify the TLP (objectives, KeyC, contents…), flexible (adjustable) and feasible (have what is needed to do)

DIDACTIC UNITS: it is a plan of work that sequences and times the learning and assessment activities so that the students acquire the KeyC and the contents. Must be cyclical, from simplest to most complex. Elements: Justification of the DU. Justification of the topic. Context and characteristics. Contents. Objectives. Transversal elements. Key C. Evaluation criteria and learning standards. Methodology. Activities. Space. Groupings. Attention to diversity. Evaluation.

Criteria for the sequence and timing of the contents and objectives.

LOMLOE provides more autonomy. Teachers decide what to teach according to the students, then plan: sequence (organisation in a cyclical (in order to reuse, recycle the contents so that they can remember, as they have a short memory span.) way of the objectives and contents to ensure continuity in the TLP. Krashen’s natural order h and Cognitivism: mental pictures. Piaget: Concrete Operational Period) and timing (time needed to achieve the objectives and teach the contents, depends on the characteristics). Contents: 4 blocks, emphasis con the oral skills.

According to the multiplicity principle there is not an only valid method, teachers should be able to use different methodology according to the needs and characteristics of the students.

Types of activities: learning (allow pupils to practice the contents) and assessment (help the teacher check if the objectives have been achieved or not). Both aim to develop the students’ CC. Aspects to consider: must be exciting, interesting, motivating, challenging, input and output adapted to them.

PEDAGOGIGAL PRINCIPLES: individual attention (follow up activities, enrichment and reinforcement), teaching methodology (will be communicative, active and participatory), consider different rates of learning, teaching reading and writing strategies, use of ICTs.

MEHOTODOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES: methodology includes the techniques, procedures and strategies to carry out activities. /Activities to learn more than one competence, apply learning, promote research, task and projects, flexile groups, individual, cooperative and teamwork, varied materials and resources. /Consider students needs, interests…, familiar activities like games, stories, songs…, language as a means of communication (create situations in which to communicate in), students learn from teacher and peers, being the centre of the learning process, promote autonomy, meaningful learning, integrate skills, scaffolding, errors are normal. The teaching practice must be constantly assessed to see if its working or not and how to improve it.

EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES: communication (essence of the educational process), activity (facilitate scenarios to can learning), individualisation (adapt), socialisation (work cooperatively), globalisation (interdisciplinarity), creativity (autonomous and independent), intuition, opening (principle of diversity).

Selection of the methodology to be used in learning and assessment activities.