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TRABAJO DE FIN DE MÁSTER: MODALIDAD A The role of the teacher as the key to success in a Task-Based Approach to EFL Máster Universitario en Profesorado de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria, Bachillerato, Formación Profesional y Enseñanza de Idiomas, Artísticas y Deportivas Especialidad de Inglés Curso 2013-2014 Student: García Cardiel, Cristina Tutor: Delgado Crespo, Violeta 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 3 2. The Role of the Teacher in EFL Teaching ......................................................... 6 3. Justification for selected projects ..................................................................... 11 4. Critical reflection: Course Plan and Learning Unit .......................................... 13 4.1. Critical Analysis of Course Plan ................................................................ 14 4.2. Critical Analysis of Learning Unit ............................................................. 20 5. Conclusions ...................................................................................................... 26 6. Future Proposals ............................................................................................... 27 7. Works cited ....................................................................................................... 29 8. Appendixes ....................................................................................................... 32 8.1. Critical Analysis of Course Plan ................................................................ 33 8.2. Critical Analysis of Learning Unit ............................................................. 76 3 1. Introduction: The English language teaching tradition has been subjected to tremendous changes, especially throughout the twentieth century. Through history, there have appeared many different methods and approaches to teach English as a second or foreign language. Actually, for the last few decades, the English language has gained a great importance in educational policies, and it has also been a subject of debate the way it is taught in Compulsory Secondary Education (E.S.O). Among the issues debated, the role of the teacher has taken centre stage in discussions the last two decades. In this Master’s Dissertation, the role of the teacher will be the main focus of the discussion as the key to the success of a Communicative Approach to EFL teaching at E.S.O stage in general, and of a Task-Based Approach in particular. But before concentrating on the role of the teacher, I would like to start by critically commenting on the Master’s Degree. The first term of this Master’s Degree was a first taste of the world of education and the different tools to work with as an English teacher in a real educational setting. As an English philologist, I had learnt about culture, literature, grammar, phonetics and linguistics, but not about anything concerning education. Therefore, almost everything learnt in the first term was new to me. One of my greatest achievements was to understand all the official documents and schools institutions, and know how to use them in my future as an English teacher. Hence, the experience of the school placement in Escuelas Pías School was my first opportunity to understand the functioning of a school and the importance of official documents such as Proyecto Educativo de Centro or Plan de Convivencia. In addition, by being in a school I could realize the laborious task it is to create a Course Plan, which is a document created by the teacher which contains academic information for each subject and course. In order to elaborate it, teachers must identify objectives, contents, evaluation criteria, methodology, together with the context of the school and the specific characteristics of its students. Therefore, by creating the Course Plan, I could understand how objectives, contents and evaluation criteria were based on the three different curriculum planning levels: the current 4 national legislation called LOE (Ley Orgánica de Educación, 2006) along with the regional legislation, which in the Aragon community is the Aragonese Curriculum (Currículo Aragonés); the PEC (Proyecto Educativo de Centro), which is elaborated by each school and it sequences objectives and contents in the different cycles; and finally, the Course Plan (Programación Didáctica), which is included in the PGA (Programación General Anual) of each school and it is created by a team of teachers of the same cycle for each area. The Course Plan also includes the number of lessons, the time for each lesson, the topic of each lesson, the different materials to be used by the students or the teacher, and the way a teacher is going to conduct each lesson. Actually, the elaboration of a Course Plan (a group project) was another of my greatest achievements during the first term, since it was a challenge and the first step into the teacher’s world. The second term of this Master’s Degree was a chance to see the reality behind the concepts already learnt in the first term and also to focus on the teaching of English as a foreign language. One of my greatest achievements in this term was to learn how to plan thoroughly, since I was asked to design a Learning Unit for a specific course during my school placement in Escuelas Pías School. By creating the Learning Unit, I learnt how to follow the legal institutions’ prescriptions (LOE and Curriculo Aragonés), with the model of education established in the Aragonese Curriculum (Orden de 9 de mayo de 2007), a Competence-Based Model. Actually, this model of education is one of the most important additions to the educational system in recent years. It replaced a traditional teaching based on teacher-centered, linear lessons, contents as ‘aims’ rather than ‘means’ to develop competences. The Competence-Based model is focused on spiral lessons (consisting on the development of some competences), teaching as guidance (process-oriented view), contents are ‘means’ to competence development, lessons are student-centered and tasks are meaningful, fostering communication. In other words, students progress by demonstrating their competence, which means they prove that they have mastered the theoretical and practical knowledge and skills (also called competences) required for a particular course. In order to understand the Competence-Based model better, it is essential to understand the Constructivist theory of learning, which focuses on the idea that students construct learning and knowledge for themselves, when they are involved in a process of interaction and active learning 5 (Hein, 1991). Thus, the English subject in this case must contribute to the acquisition of the key competences (Competencias Básicas) set by the Aragonese Curriculum and the current Educational legislation in Compulsory Secondary Education (Real Decreto 1631/2006, 29 de Diciembre, y modificado 1190/2012, 3 de Agosto), which identifies six of the eight key competences1. Another of my greatest achievement during the second term of the Master’s Degree was to understand the important role played by the CEFR (Council of Europe in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment) concerning language and education policy worldwide. Apart from promoting the interaction of five skills (writing, reading, listening, spoken interaction and spoken production), the CEFR promotes communicative competence, which was originally defined by Hymes in 1972. He (1972) claimed that the goal of language teaching was to develop communicative competence, which implied acquiring both the ability and knowledge to use language. That is, communicative competence considers language as a tool used for communication. In addition, Hymes (1972), along with other linguists, proposed five sub-dimensions of communicative competence2. In this way, all skills and competences have to be integrated in the teaching-learning process, since the main goal is the communicative act. But perhaps my greatest achievement during this Master’s Degree was to understand the role the teacher has played through the different methods that have been used in teaching English in the last two centuries. Although it is believed that the teacher is just an important component of efficient classroom management, some researchers regard it as part of the design of methodology or approach. As Richards and Rodgers (1986) pointed out, the different roles of the teacher are related ultimately to the different approaches and methods. In other words, different approaches demand different roles for the teacher. Traditional methods such as the Grammar-Translation method were teacher-centered, that is, the teacher gave lectures on particular topics about grammar while students were asked to learn grammar rules by rote, and then 1 Linguistic Competence, Digital Competence, Social and Citizenship Competence, Cultural and Artistic Competence, Learning to Learn Competence, Autonomy and Personal Initiative Competence. 2 Linguistic or Grammatical Competence, Sociolinguistic Competence, Pragmatic Competence, Strategic Competence, Procedural or Discourse Competence. 6 practice the rules by doing grammar drills and translating sentences to and from the target language. Nevertheless, in the last few decades, new teaching approaches have changed the winds in ELT education with the Communicative Approach, which is student-centered, that is, students are the ones in charge of their own learning process, and which includes active and cooperative learning. With these changes in education, the role of the teacher also suffered some transformations, since it was no longer the one in charge of knowledge, but the one who facilitates that knowledge. This is the reason why I have chosen to focus on the role of the teacher as the starting point of this Master’s Dissertation. To begin with, I will describe the different roles of the teacher in ELT. Then, I will critically analyze two projects accomplished in this Master’s Degree, since they have been very useful for my own learning process and for my future professional development as an English teacher. Finally, I will suggest an alternative for my future professional development as an English teacher regarding my personal experience during my school placement at Escuelas Pías School. 2. The Role of the Teacher in EFL teaching: For many years, the role of the teacher has been a permanent topic of discussion in the field of education, especially in language teaching. This discussion emerged due to the importance of the different potential roles for a language teacher. Richards and Rodgers (1986) consider teacher roles as part of the design component of a method, pointing out that these are related to the types of function teachers are expected to fulfill, the degree to which the teacher is responsible for determining the content of what is taught and the interactional patters that are developed between teachers and learners. Nonetheless, before going on, it is important to understand what a teacher is. According to Harmer (2001: 71), ‘teachers are like actors because they are always on the stage. Others think they are like orchestral conductors because they direct conversation. Yet others feel they are like gardeners because they plant the seeds and then, watch them grow’. If these different images about teachers indicate the different views about the teaching profession, the dictionary definitions do not help much to create a concrete picture of what a teacher is. Instead, the Collins Dictionary defines teacher as ‘a person who teaches something to someone’. Another dictionary as the Longman Dictionary of 7 Contemporary English defines it as ‘a person who shows somebody how to do something or to change somebody’s ideas’. As it can be seen, these different views are mixed as to what teachers are, and therefore, it is important to examine the teacher’s role in the classroom critically. Taking a look back at the history of EFL teaching, for many decades English was taught in a very traditional way by following the rigid way that was used for the teaching of the Classical Languages (Latin and Greek). One of these traditional methods was the Grammar-Translation method, in which, as pointed out by Brown (2001:18), students translated English texts into their first language (L1). Other methods followed, such as the Direct Method, in which students learnt the target language through exposure to input, since the L1 was prohibited; and the Audiolingual method, which consisted of drills without any grammar instruction until students could use a set phrases in particular situations. However, the focus remained on the teacher, but by the 1970s, it was thought that students should become the focus. In this decade, Humanistic Approaches emerged by drawing on new methods and approaches such as Total Physical Response, (which consisted on giving commands to students in the target language, and they responded with whole-body actions), Suggestopedia, or the Silent Way. As suggested by Richards and Rodgers (1990), these approaches include imitation, question and answer, role-play and listening practices. That is, these approaches used the mentioned practices to touch on the innate ability and capacity that all learners are presumed to possess. However, there are elements in the Silent Way or Total Physical Response which seem entirely teacher-centered as imitation and physical response. Nonetheless, the change of the focus did not arrive until 1980s with Krashen’s Natural Approach and the five hypothesis of his Monitor Model, whose main aim was to foster naturalistic language acquisition in a classroom by emphasizing the importance of using comprehensible input in lessons. In fact, it could be said that Krashen’s biggest contribution to modern language teaching was to make learners active participants in their own language learning process rather than passively memorizing rules. But perhaps, the biggest change in education did not appear until the 1970s and 1980s, with the advent of a communicative view of language with Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), based on the ideas of Hymes (1972), which emphasized interaction 8 and communication as the ultimate goal. With CLT, students must be involved in real communicative contexts by using the language in a real communicative way, as for example when asking for information, or writing a letter. In actual fact, CLT was the first approach which changed the focus in education from teacher-centered to learnercentered lessons. Or rather, teachers and students play an equally active role in the learning process, with the teacher’s primary role to coach and facilitate student’s learning while students are made to become conscious of their own learning process. Therefore, teachers must create and maximize learning opportunities by involving the learners in the learning process because teaching and learning are essentially collaborative. Actually, Numan (1991) identifies five features of CLT3, which requires a change in the role of the teacher. These five features are claimed to focus on the needs of the learners as well as the way language is taught in the classroom. Therefore, any teaching practice that helps students develop their communicative competence in an authentic context is a beneficial form of instruction both for students and teachers. Thus, the role of the teacher is that of a coach and a facilitator of knowledge who provides students with opportunities to communicate through interaction in the target language by introducing authentic materials. In order to foster communicative competence through interaction, teachers must provide cooperative work and fluency-based activities that encourage learners to develop their confidence, together with role-plays in which students practice and develop language functions. The linguists Richards and Rodgers (2012) came with new interpretations of the Communicative Language Teaching approach, and focused on two current methodologies, which are grouped into two categories: Process-Based CLT approaches and Product-Based CLT approaches. While the first ones focus on the achievement of the development of learners’ communicative competence, the second ones focus on the 3 1. An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language. 2. The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation. 3. The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the learning process. 4. An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experience as important contributing elements to classroom learning. 5. An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities outside the classroom. 9 outcomes of learning. In this dissertation, the focus will be on one of such ProcessBased CLT approaches, namely Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT). Actually, it is an extension of Communicative Language Teaching. It seeks to engage learners in authentic communicative language use by having them perform a series of tasks which are used as the unit of planning. The sequence is usually three-tiered: Pre-Task, WhileTask, and Post-Task. In the Pre-Task phase, the main purpose is to prepare students to perform the tasks in ways that will promote acquisition. Then, the teacher and students make decisions about how to perform the task in the While-Task phase. Finally, the Post-Task stage encourages reflection on how the task was performed and also encourages attention to form, in particular to those forms that were problematic to the learners when performing the task. Actually, it is perhaps Ellis’ definition (2003: 3-4) that has been widely accepted of what a task is: A task is a workplan that requires learners to process language pragmatically in order to achieve an outcome that can be evaluated in terms of whether the correct or appropriate propositional content has been conveyed. … A task is intended to result in language use that bears a resemblance, direct or indirect, to the way language is used in the real world. Like other language activities, a task can engage productive or receptive, and oral or written skills and also various cognitive processes. As it has been noted above, English teaching methods have evolved over the last century. They have gone from traditional methods where teachers were the ones who had the knowledge while the students were the receivers (‘empty vessels’), to the most innovative methods in which both teacher and students share knowledge. However, with the new methods the teacher’s role does not disappear but rather it complements the students’ learning process. In fact, the teacher must adjust to the educational changes and play different roles in the same class, since their role can vary from one activity to another. Therefore, as Harmer (2001: 72) comments, ‘if we are fluent at making these changes our effectiveness as teachers is greatly enhanced’. According to Harmer (2001), the term ‘facilitator’ is used by many authors to describe a kind of teacher who shares their leadership rather than being in total control of the classroom, but also the kind of teacher who fosters learner autonomy by using group or pair work. In addition, he (2001) points out that the ultimate aim of all roles is to facilitate the students’ progress. 16 previous knowledge, their contexts, students’ needs and likes, etc., since as Kumaravadivelu (2012: 3) stated, ‘teachers need to know, with a reasonable degree of certainty, which features of method A, which features of method B, etc. can be combined, how, for what reason and with what result […] taking into account the particularity of a given learning-teaching context’. By taking into account those aspects, teachers will establish the specific competences to be achieved by the students, in what way, by what means, which what purposes in order to make the teaching process successful. So as to understand the contribution to the key competences, first of all it is important to comprehend what a competence is, which is defined as a way of using all the available resources, as knowledge, skills and attitudes in specific conditions and defined tasks. Competences are cross-curricular and must not only be taught through English as a subject but also through all the other subjects set by the curriculum. Although there are eight key competences for the different subjects, the English subject deals with six of them. In relation to the Course Plan created by my group work, we added the seventh key competence, which is ‘Knowledge and Interaction with the Physical World’ and left aside the eight key competence (‘Mathematical Competence’). On the one hand, the seventh competence was added since it was thought that students would interact with the world and understand how it works. On the other hand, the eighth competence was left aside since the general thought was that as an English subject, it would not use any symbol nor numbers. Nevertheless, although the Aragonese Curriculum declares that the English area works towards six of the eight competences, it does not mean they cannot be included. As regards competences, I designed the Course Plan bearing in mind the contribution to the key competences as the Aragonese Curriculum establishes, although perhaps, the competence was focused on more centrally, ‘the Cultural and Artistic Competence’. Students must know other cultures to do the given tasks. The whole Course Plan dealt with knowing about different cultures from Anglophone countries. In addition, students would also develop the Interpersonal and Civic competence by showing respect and tolerance those different cultures and countries. Moreover, useful tasks were created in order to foster the development of the key competences such as the Learning to learn competence, digital competence, linguistic competence, among others, as the Aragonese Curriculum (2007: 202) supports ‘The learning of a foreign language contributes in a direct way to the development of the linguistic competence, expanding the general communicative 17 ability incorporating new competences and strengthening the acquired competence in relation to the mother tongue or other languages’. Keeping on with the elaboration, it is essential to identify the objectives and contents. But by focusing on the objectives, their ultimate aim is to achieve the fulfillment of the key competences for each different subject. The Course Plan was created following the general objectives related to the Compulsory Secondary Education stage (E.S.O). Therefore, the Course Plan included general objectives related to the stage objectives (in this case, the 4th grade of E.S.O), and then each lesson included specific learning objectives such as ‘To develop the ability of speaking in groups and individually’ (Unit 4) and ‘To understand texts about digital technology and ICT’ (Unit 8). Then, the main problem I found when designing the specific objectives of each lesson was that some objectives were too general (e.g.: ‘To make comments about writing texts’) or did not follow the Aragonese Curriculum, and therefore, they were non-curricular (e.g.: ‘To know specific vocabulary of music and cinema’). During my school placement, I was aware of the importance of stating the objectives of the didactic unit by following the ones stated in the Aragonese Curriculum, since the formulation of the objectives improved during the elaboration of the Learning Unit. So being in a school where I was going to implement some lesson plans of my Learning Unit helped me to comprehend even better the relation between general objectives with the ones adapted to the didactic unit in order to make the objectives concrete and curricular. In addition, it must be kept in mind that the Course Plan was created for 4th E.S.O students who were in their last course of the Compulsory Secondary Education, and therefore, they would have to decide about their future, whether they would continue studying or start working. In order to decide their future, the Course Plan immerses the students on a trip all around the world, especially through Anglophone countries such as India, Canada, and New Zealand. As it will be seen in the Course Plan, students would deal with socio-cultural aspects, while they improve their listening, speaking, knowledge of language, reading and writing. It is important not to forget that as the contents are prescriptive, the four blocks should all appear concretely in the syllabus. Regarding the contents, it is the teacher who has to specify the contents, as we did in our Course Plan (eg: ‘To understand and use the communicative strategies 18 to talk about PC, digital technology and ICT’, in Block 1. Listening, Speaking and Conversing, Unit 8). Then, the next step to take into account is methodology. As it has been mentioned in the role of the teacher section, there have been many methods with different methodologies each one. According to the Aragonese Curriculum, the schools and teachers are the ones in charge of choosing the methodology, but also taking into account the methodological principles proposed by the curriculum, which is a regional addition (that is, they are not specified in the LOE but in the Aragonese Curriculum). As mentioned above, the Curriculum promotes the Communicative Approach, so it fosters the communicative skills and procedures also known as Communicative Competence. With this main purpose, many of the activities proposed in the Course Plan are groupbased in order to foster cooperative learning, but without disregarding individual activities, which are necessary to develop students’ autonomy and independence. In designing the syllabus, the ages, likes, needs and motivational aspects of the students were taken into account in order to select and create activities supported by authentic materials, which is one of the principles of the Aragonese Curriculum. As Gattengno (1972: 89) said, ‘learning is not seen as the means of accumulating knowledge but as the means of becoming a more proficient learner in whatever one is engaged in’. According to him, before elaborating a syllabus, it is crucial to take into account what students have learnt and what they are able to do. In relation to our Course Plan, we created communicative activities so that students could express their preferences, opinions and future plans, and therefore, foster their communicative competence. In addition, we chose activities to be done in groups (e.g.: projects) and also individual activities (e.g.: write a Curriculum Vitae). Another thing I would like to comment on is the role of the teacher. That is, although we acted like teachers when elaborating the Course Plan by following the official documents, we did not have the opportunity to implement it on a real context, so therefore, we could not see if the activities chosen were suitable, whether the methodology used would work, etc. To continue with the elaboration of the Course Plan, the last thing which completes such a syllabus is the evaluation. According to Stufflebeam (1985: 3), ‘evaluation is the systematic assessment of the worth or merit of some object’. In other words, it is an essential tool to guarantee objectiveness, so evaluation procedures should 19 be as concrete and systematic as possible in order to facilitate the evaluation of the students. In our Course Plan it was divided into four different sections which were: Approaches and Instruments of Evaluation, Grading Criteria, Evaluation of the Teaching and Learning Process, and Evaluation of the Course Plan. It should be mentioned that the Evaluation Criteria are based on indicators, which state what students must know and do. In addition, those indicators must be associated with one or more of the key competences. In relation to our Course Plan, the main problem with the evaluation criteria was that they did not match exactly the general objectives set at the beginning of the Course Plan, and therefore, they were non-curricular, as for example, this one: ‘To express themselves by using relative clauses’. That is, this objective is not linked with any competence and it has no communicative function or purpose. Regarding the last part of the Course Plan, we designed nine different Learning Units according to their academic level, age and likes. We thought that it was crucial to set a central topic and design the different learning units of work in relation to such topic in order to foster students’ motivation. Actually, that is what we did, since as it was created for 4th E.S.O students who were in their last course of their Compulsory Secondary Education and they had to decide about their future, whether to work or study. We decided to base our Course Plan on the motivating topic of travelling all around the world, but especially, through Anglophone countries in order to develop their cultural and artistic competence, but also the intercultural awareness promoted by the English Language Portfolio. By elaborating each Learning Unit, we combined the typical topics (restaurants, music, sports) with new ones (technology, getting a job, horror literature), which are presented to students through communicative tasks in order to help students in their language development and their future. Finally, during the elaboration of the Course Plan, some materials were used in order to create engaging activities for the students. Most of the materials used were webpages, which offer interactive activities so as to practice some skills such as listening, writing and reading. With the main objective of being innovative teachers, we left the textbook aside and tried to make students use authentic materials, as for example, searching for examples of CVs and write a C.V. on their own, as it can be seen in Unit 9: Get a job in Wellington, New Zealand. None of my group mates were in favor of using the book, since the general thought was that books are just one more tool that 20 teachers can use, but they must not be central all the time for all the units. On the contrary, teachers must find activities and materials which foster the intrinsic motivation (Gardner and Lambert, 1972) of the students so that they would be more receptive and willing to learn when the tasks present a challenge and they are motivated to do it. 4.2. Critical Analysis of the Learning Unit: Designing the Learning Unit for Diseño, Organización y Desarrollo de actividades para el aprendizaje de Inglés during the second term was the most difficult activity I carried out in this Master’s Degree. In fact, this project was clearly related to the previous one in the first term, the Course Plan. Nevertheless, and unlike in the first term, I already had some knowledge about how to elaborate a syllabus, so the difficulty did not rely on the syllabus itself but on the identificative and selection of the suitable materials to be used in the classroom. As was previously seen, a Course Plan is usually divided into Units of Work, or also known as Learning Units. Within each unit of work, all the different components of the syllabus should be present (justification, contextualization, objectives, methodology, etc.) so that the work is systematic and provides us with guidance throughout the academic year. The Learning Unit was elaborated with a project partner and it was implemented at Escuelas Pías School. All through the process I realized that I could apply the concepts acquired during the first term, concepts which helped me to understand and finally, carry out this project. What is more, some concepts which were confusing in the first term became clearer and more evident due to this project, which was a compilation of all the knowledge and skills acquired during the Master’s Degree. As will be explained later, the implementation of the Learning Unit during the school placement in Escuelas Pías School made me realize the importance of planning when teaching and also the important role of the teacher in Communicative Language Teaching. The first step to follow when designing a Learning Unit is to follow the same legal provisions used in the Course Plan. As I already had previous knowledge concerning the elaboration of a syllabus, it was not very difficult to complete the 21 Learning Unit taking into account official documents as the Aragonese Curriculum and establish relations with what the Aragonese Curriculum states and adapting it to my Learning Unit (that is, the topic, contents, objectives, competences, methodology, etc.). As was already mentioned, the Spanish official curriculum (Real Decree 1631/2006) and the Aragonese Curriculum promote a syllabus based on topics which encourage real communication in the classroom by following Communicative Language principles. Richards and Rodgers (1989) state that this approach helps teachers develop students’ oral communication skills and in this way students speak more and get more readily involved in classroom activities. With this objective in mind, I drew on the Task-Based approach, supported by Ellis (2003) and which has its origin in CLT. The main reasons why I chose this communicative approach was because it is a student-centered approach, which means that students are the ones in control of their learning process; this approach allows students to draw on their existing linguistic resources; also, this approach allows for cooperative work throughout activities which foster cooperative learning; TBLT is based on tasks with a clearly defined set of objectives stating what the participants will be able to do at the end of the task, as we will be able to see later on. After becoming acquainted with the context in which the Learning Unit would be implemented with specific objectives adapted for this Unit, it is essential to chose a topic, which was ‘The Emmy Awards’. Actually, we chose this topic not because it was about the awards themselves, but because authentic materials such as videos from YouTube were used. The reason why we chose this topic is because teenagers are used to watching TV series such as Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory among others, so it is something that can be used by teachers in order to motivate students. By focusing on the topic of videos, we believed that we could foster their intrinsic motivation (Gardner and Lambert, 1972) so they could be more receptive and willing to learn when the tasks would be seen as a challenge. Although the central topic dealt with TV series, there were different small topics for each different lesson plan, as for example, in ‘lesson 2: ‘Two can keep a secret’, which deals with crime and mystery, or ‘lesson 5: A mythical being who feeds on human blood’, which deals with supernatural powers. The Learning Unit is divided in eight lesson plans having at their centre a video around which the five skills are practiced and developed. It must be said that the main aim was not to teach 22 grammar, as students are used to, but to make them aware of language use and its culture, as it is stated by the Council of Europe in the Common European Framework of Reference. Nevertheless, teaching grammar has always been a permanent topic among linguists. According to Nunan (1989: 13), after the rise of CLT, the future of the use of grammar was uncertain. In addition, some linguistics maintained that it was not necessary to teach grammar, since it would develop automatically when the learner used the language to communicate. Nowadays, the use of grammar is widely accepted as an essential resource in using language communicatively. In relation to our Learning Unit, there are some activities which include grammar points, the modal verbs, but not as a central axis of the Learning Unit but as a means to foster communicative competence. Nevertheless, there were activities were the grammar point was not well integrated, as for example in ‘lesson 1: Take your passport and travel the world’, where in order to make students practice future plans, my project partner and me created a grammar activity in which students only had to fill in the gaps. In addition, we realized that the activity was not good enough as a Post-Task activity, since it did not have any final purpose. Keeping on with the elaboration of the Learning Unit, it contributes to the development of the key competences stated by the Aragonese Curriculum. As aforementioned, there are eight key competences, but in the English subject only six of them are primarily promoted. Below, there there are examples of activities which are related which the six different key competences. 1. Linguistic Competence: In relation to our Learning Unit, there are activities to make students learn new vocabulary, new grammar rules, and to know how to express themselves orally and in a written way. As for example, in ‘lesson 7: Let’s be scriptwriters!’, students will have to write a script for a film. (See Appendix 2, p. 49) 2. Digital Competence: As regards our Learning Unit, students will watch a video where a girl disappears, and they will have to write an alternative ending in ‘lesson 2: Two can keep a secret’. (See Appendix 2, p. 37) 3. Social and Citizenship Competence: In relation to our Learning Unit, the materials used will improve students’ tolerance and respect for others. 23 4. Cultural and Artistic Competence: Concerning the Learning Unit, in ‘lesson 6: The water came and swept everyone away’, activity 2, which consists of reading a text and answering some comprehension questions, will help students to learn aspects of English speaking countries and foster their cultural awareness. (See Appendix 2, p. 45) 5. Learning to Learn Competence: Regarding our Learning Unit, students will have to complete a table by providing the plot they choose, the characters, setting, point of view, mood and theme by working cooperatively in ‘lesson 4: My favorite film is…’. (See Appendix 2, p. 42) 6. Autonomy and Personal Initiative Competence: In relation to our Learning Unit, students will write a story about vampires and explain their abilities, weaknesses, origins, etc. in ‘lesson 5: A mythical being who feeds on human blood’. (See Appendix 2, p. 44) Keeping on with the elaboration of the Learning Unit, the next step to take was to identify learning objectives and contents. On the one hand, although the objectives were based on the ones prescribed by the Aragonese Curriculum for Compulsory Secondary Education (E.S.O), we reformulated them so as to make them match perfectly the topic of the Learning Unit. If we compare the Learning Unit with the Course Plan, we would say that the formulation of the objectives improved, though sometimes they were too general (‘7. To be able to extract general and specific information from the texts.’). Nevertheless, there were also some objectives which were formulated in a concrete way (‘1. To be able to listen and understand general and specific information from YouTube videos in different communicative situations, adopting a respectful and cooperative attitude’.). Even so, in each lesson, there were objectives which were too general (‘Lesson 4: To understand audio lingual resources and the key information given in the video’). I am now aware that identifying and describing objectives in a concrete and specific way should be one of my future improvements as a teacher. The next significant aspect taken into account when designing the Learning Unit was the methodology, since we knew we would have the great opportunity to implement it during the teaching practice period. As in the Course Plan, the Learning 24 Unit also followed Communicative Approach principles as stated by the Aragonese Curriculum, which emphasizes that the goal of language learning is communicative competence, and seeks to make meaningful communication and language use a focus of all classroom activities (Richards and Schmidt, 2002). As aforementioned, the approach used is task-based due to its advantages both for the teacher and students. Unlike traditional methods, task-based teaching seeks to engage learners in authentic communicative language use by having students perform a series of tasks. As can be seen in each lesson plan, the activities were divided into three stages which correspond to Pre-Task, While-Task, and Post-Task. So following two of the seven characteristics of CLT proposed by Brown (2001: 43)4, the TBLT approach will provide students’ opportunities for their own learning process while the teacher acts like a facilitator of knowledge. On the one hand, teachers must foster the students’ autonomy by letting themselves take care of their own learning process, and that is what we actually did. Most of the activities designed in our Learning Unit promote students’ autonomy, so they can learn by themselves by working individually or in a cooperative way. As an example, in the ‘lesson 7: Let’s be scriptwriters!’, students were asked to create a script for a film. In the process of creating a script, students would have to choose and dismiss some options in order to progress and learn on their own. By taking initiative in their learning process, students’ self-awareness promotes better learning. Nonetheless, the autonomy of the students is linked to the role that we as teachers perform in the classroom. On the other hand, different teacher roles are related ultimately to the different language learning approaches (Richards and Rodgers, 1986). By drawing on a TBLT 4 1. Overall goals 2. Relationship of form and function 3. Fluency and accuracy 4. Focus on real-world contexts 5. Autonomy and strategic involvement 6. Teacher roles 7. Student roles 25 approach, the teacher is seen as a facilitator of knowledge rather than as an all-knowing teacher. However, the role of facilitator is not the only one played in the classroom, as Harmer (2001) mentioned, as it can be combined with other roles such as controller, assessor, organizer, prompter, participant and resource. As a demonstration of the different roles a teacher can play when conducting a classroom, ‘lesson 6: The water came and swept everyone away’ will be analyzed. In ‘lesson 6: The water came and swept everyone away’, activities are organized in a three-tiered sequence consisting of Pre-Task, While-Task, and Post-Task. The roles of the teacher I played when conducting this lesson were diverse, but especially, I played the roles of controller, organizer, observer, participant, and assessor. Although those roles changed from one activity to another, there were specific moments which were required to specific roles. For example, when calling to attention in order to have the control of the classroom to introduce the topic of natural disasters such as tsunamis, I was acting as a controller and also as a participant, since students were asked about what they knew about this topic, whether they knew more natural disasters or not. In addition, I also played the role of organizer when I explained to students what the activity was about, the timing, and what they were asked to do in the activity which consisted of reading news about the terrible tsunami that happened in Thailand in 2004 and answering some comprehension questions. And finally, I also acted as an observer when checking which materials were the most suitable ones to put into practice in future lessons or the ones which would need to be changed to be more suitable. In fact, I played some of the teacher’s roles proposed by Harmer (2001), which were created to adapt educational changes, now that teachers have to deal with a variety of responsibilities. Finally, the last aspect taken into account for the elaboration of the Learning Unit was the evaluation criteria of the Learning Unit. Unlike in the Course Plan, it must be said that the evaluation criteria are clearly linked to the general objectives stated at the beginning of the Learning Unit. In order to be as objective as possible, we defined evaluation procedures and instruments. On the one hand, the evaluation procedures used were observation, analysis of the pupil’s production, oral exchange and production of different tests. On the other hand, the instruments used were conversations and written tests. As the evaluation criteria are based on indicators which have to be associated with 32 8. Appendixes:  Appendix 1: Course Plan 4th grade of Compulsory Secondary Education. Subject: 68515 ‘Diseño Curricular de Lenguas Extranjeras’ (2013/2014); Teacher: Violeta Delgado Crespo. [pp. 1 - 28]  Appendix 2: Learning Unit: ‘The Emmy Awards’; 2nd grade of Compulsory Secondary Education, Escuelas Pías School, Zaragoza; Subject: 68564 ‘Diseño, Organización y Desarrollo para el Aprendizaje de Inglés’ (2013/2014); Teachers: María José Luzón Marco and Enrique Lafuente Millán. [pp. 1 - 54] UNIVERSIDAD DE ZARAGOZA FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN 2013-2014 68515 DISEÑO CURRICULAR DE LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS YEAR PLAN Alumnos: García Cardiel, Cristina Perdices Cuesta, Carlos Javier Serrano Moreno, Alfredo Tolosa Hernández, Belén Profesora: Delgado Crespo, Violeta 34 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Contextualization 1.1 Official documents: National Curriculum and Aragonese Curriculum 1.2 School Setting 2. Syllabus design and development: 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Objectives 2.3 Contents 2.4 Methodology 2.5 Evaluation 2.6 Differentiation 3. Structure of the Unit Plans: Unit 1: Introduction meeting in Gibraltar. Unit 2: Sightseeing in London, Great Britain. Unit 3: Horror literature in Edinburgh, Great Britain. Unit 4: Christmas in New York, United States of America. Unit 5: Sportlife and skiing in Ottawa, Canada. Unit 6: Lifestyle and food in Port of Spain, the Trinidad and Tobago Republic. Unit 7: Music and cinema in Agra, India. Unit 8: Digital technology and ICT in Canberra, Australia. Unit 9: Getting a job and future plans in Wellington, New Zealand. 35 1. Contextualization: 1.1 Official Documents: For this project, the legal framework we have to take into account in order to design a year plan is constituted by three documents: the National Curriculum, the Aragonese Curriculum and the Common European Framework of Reference. The National Curriculum gives some patterns to be implemented at a state level. This document specifies the generic guidelines of education to obey throughout the different academic years, as well as the competences and aptitudes a student must develop during their years at school. Some of these deal specifically with English and have to be considered when designing a syllabus. Concerning foreign languages, the National Curriculum highlights the need of studying a foreign language during the years of school of a student. The study of a second foreign language is recommended but not compulsory. The breakthrough of the communicative competences while studying a foreign language is a frequent issue in the whole National Curriculum. With regard to the Aragonese Curriculum, it is essential to know that it is more prescriptive than the National Curriculum. It is the aftermath of adjusting the National Curriculum to the particular necessities of Aragón. In accordance to the Aragonese Curriculum, the reasons for teaching and learning foreign languages, especially English are: growing demand for communication and interaction because of European convergence, increased emphasis on pluriculturalism and plurilingualism: understanding and mutual respect, the importance of a lifelong learning and other reasons such as: better understanding of reality, whole-person education, cultural enrichment, respect, flexibility, personality development (affective, social, cognitive factors). The Aragonese Curriculum is divided into four parts which deal with the skills to be developed in the process of learning a language. These parts have to do with the oral skills (listening, speaking, conversation), written skills (reading and writing), the language awareness (study of grammar) and reflections on learning and the sociocultural and intercultural awareness. They are based on three main principles: developing language skills, understanding the constitutive elements of the target language and engaging with the social and cultural dimensions of the language. 36 This curriculum prescribes that the four parts should be integrated by teachers in a global learning and development of competences. This curriculum sets also a series of objectives, some key competences and contents to be accomplished at the different stages of education. As far as the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) is concerned, this document focuses on competences but also gives a stage-based process of learning a language. Working on the five skills of the language is essential in order to achieve this objective, according to this document. The CEFR establishes different levels in which reaching some competences makes the student advance to the next level. 1.2 School Setting: Hijas de San José school is a state-subsidised school located in an urban area in Zaragoza, between Duquesa Villahermosa and Unceta streets. It is the only catholic school in the area and it offers educational opportunities to many families in the area. For this reason, the school does not need school transportation, since students live in the surroundings. This is an ordinary school in Zaragoza, it has around 800 students and enables parents a different choice from public education. The school has pre-school education, and primary and secondary education. It also has Diversificación in 3rd and 4th grade of Compulsory Secondary Education. There are many facilities in the school that ease the learning of the students such as a library, a gymnasium, a laboratory, a computer room, a music room and an arts room among others. Moreover, the great majority of the classrooms have computers or tablets and a digital board integrated which facilitates audio-visual materials. The students enrolled in this school have different sociocultural and economic backgrounds. This school has a high percentage of immigrant students and most of them come from South American countries such as Ecuador or Colombia. In spite of the fact that the language is the same, they have difficulties in maintaining the level. In addition, they usually have significant learning differences with respect to the rest of the students in Spain. Many other immigrant families come from foreign language speaking countries such as Morocco, China or Romania. These students not only have a curricular difference but also present many problems in reaching the appropriate level due to the lack of knowledge of Spanish. This wide diversity in the students’ background influences their motivation, learning process, behaviour, values, self- 37 sufficiency and education in general. Considering the circumstances, the teaching staff decided to deal with this multicultural diversity (linguistic, social, of values, of identity...) that difficulties social relationships as much as academic activities. However, it can be very enriching if it is worked jointly. Consequently, Hijas de San José school has its own educational method, defined in its own features and objectives. Its educational task consist of favouring students personal maturity and development, through abilities, attitudes and knowledge acquisition needed for an integral development. In particular, this year plan focuses on 4th grade of Compulsory Secondary Education. 4th grade is formed by three different classes A, B, C and diversificación, all of which have between 25 to 29 students, except diversificación which has around 10 students. According to the difficulties in the learning process, there are students that require special need, that is, an individual curricular adaptation specially designed for them. Besides, there are some other students with slight difficulties due to their cultural background (their knowledge of the language is poor and their level is behind the average) that also need special attention. In this case, their curricular adaptation will be non-significant since they will only need extra support in classrooms and different materials. 2. SYLLABUS DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT: 2.1 Introduction: The project and the corresponding digital and educational material is part of the legislative guidelines of the Department of Foreign Languages – Decree of the minimum key competences for language teaching in the Compulsory Secondary Education (R D 1631/2006 of 29th December), and it was modified in the R D 1190/2012 of 3rd August. The curricular objective is not only to teach a language itself, but teaching how to communicate with it and through it, as well as the provisions of the Council of Europe in the Common European Framework of Reference for language learning. The CEFR plays a central role in language and education policy worldwide. It describes language ability on a scale of levels from A1 for beginners up to C2 for those who have mastered a language. In addition to this, there is also the contribution to the key competences, with which students must be able to perform communication tasks for progressive gradually 38 develop their competences in the foreign languages, as in the English language in this case. A competence is a way of using all the available resources, as knowledge, skills and attitudes in specific conditions and defined tasks. That is, the definition of learning in terms of competence highlights the need to acquire knowledge so that it can be adequately mobilized to solve tasks and problems. Moreover, the definition of the basic learning in terms of competences highlights the importance of considering knowledge into action and not just as knowledge representation. The department must provide the contribution of the foreign languages to the development of basic skills listed in the Annex to the Order of 9th May, 2007. The key competences are: 1. Linguistic competence: This competence presupposes the use of language as a means of oral and written communication and as a learning tool and for selfregulation of thinking, emotions and behavior. 2. Digital competence: This competence focuses on searching, obtaining and communicating information, and transforms it into knowledge. 3. Social and citizenship competence: This competence enables the students to form a part of the society where they live in, understand how it functions and play a part as a democratic citizen in a diverse society. 4. Cultural and artistic competence: This competence implies knowledge, understanding and critical evaluation of different cultural and artistic manifestations for the personal enrichment but also as a part of the heritage of different cultures. 5. Learning to learn competence: This competence involves being able of learning autonomously, looking for answers in a rational way. 6. Autonomy and personal initiative competence: This competence focuses on making choices following one’s own criteria, and taking responsibility for one’s decisions both in social and personal sphere. 7. Knowledge and interaction with the physical world: This competence focuses on the ability to interact with the physical world, to understand events and consequences, and to appreciate actions designed to improve and preserve living conditions of other people. 39 2.2 Objectives: The main objective of the students of ESO is to learn the discursive skills that can take place in different areas. Although the process of learning English began in Primary Education, this process continues in Compulsory Secondary Education, with the aim that by the end of this stage, students have consolidated productive skills, are able to interact with others, and are understood in a number of situations as well as for example: to give personal explanations, to ask, to express an idea, to use a comprehensive language, and to understand the main ideas from texts in standard language. At the end of the stage, students must learn to cope with daily problems of oral and written communication, such as participating in regular conversations, raise grievances, share experiences or plans, explain something or ask for clarification. Furthermore, the learning of a foreign language goes beyond learning to use in communicative contexts. Its knowledge contributes to the training of students from a holistic perspective as it encourages respect, interest and communication with speakers of other languages, develops intercultural awareness, and is a vehicle for understanding global issues and problems and to acquire different learning strategies. The process of teaching and learning a foreign language in the stage of the Secondary Compulsory Education involves a clear attitudinal component, as it helps to develop positive and receptive attitudes to other languages and cultures and at the same time, to understand and appreciate the language or own languages. Our project, then, aim to develop communicative competence of students, ensuring that the students assimilate the grammatical rules and vocabulary of the English language. At the same time, students will learn about other countries and their cultures and enjoy the process of learning. The development of communicative competence of students is achieved by promoting the acquisition of the following skills: 1. To listen and understand general and specific information of oral texts in different communicative situations, adopting a respectful and cooperative attitude. 2. To express orally oneself and interact in common situations of communication in an understandable, appropriate and with some level of autonomy. 3. To read and understand different texts to a level appropriate to the abilities and interests of students in order to extract general and specific information, and use 40 reading as a source of pleasure and personal enrichment from other Anglophone countries. 4. To write simple texts for different purposes on different topics using appropriate resources of cohesion and coherence. 5. To use correctly the basic lexical, structural and functional components of the English language in real communication contexts. 6. To develop autonomy in learning, reflect on their own learning processes, and transfer to the foreign language knowledge and communication strategies. 7. To use learning strategies and technologies of information and communication to obtain, select and present information written and orally. 8. To appreciate the target language as a means of accessing information and as a tool for learning different contents. 9. To value the English language and languages in general, as a means of communication and understanding between people of backgrounds, languages and cultures from different Anglophone countries, avoiding discrimination and linguistic and cultural stereotypes. 10. To show a receptive and self-confidence in the ability to learn and use the English language. 2.3 Contents: The contents are grouped into four blocks corresponding to the characteristics and needs of the teaching and learning: language skills, the constituent elements of the linguistic system, their functioning and relationships, and the social and cultural dimension of the English language. Block 1. Listening, Speaking and Conversing: Block 2. Reading and Writing: Block 3. Knowledge of the language: Block 4. Socio-cultural aspects and intercultural awareness: The first two blocks include procedures, defined as operations that allow to relate the concepts acquired its realization in communication activities that develop the expertise. However, the oral and written skills are presented separately because each requires different skills and knowledge, as we will see now: 41 Block 1. Listening, Speaking and Conversing: This stage gives great importance on oral communication, so that the first block focuses on developing the ability to interact in certain situations, and stresses the importance of the linguistic model of oral reference comes from a large number of speakers in order to collect the variations and nuances. Block 2. Reading and Writing: The second block includes the procedures necessary to develop competence in discursive writing use. In foreign language texts, as the English language, are also textual composition patterns and practice and acquisition of linguistic elements. Block 3. Knowledge of the language: The observation and the use of spoken and written language is being learned allow develop a conceptual system about its operation. That is, the starting point will be situations that encourage the inference rules of functioning of the language for students gain confidence in their own abilities. The block is divided into knowledge and reflection on learning. Block 4. Socio-cultural aspects and intercultural awareness: The contents of this block will help the students to learn the customs, forms of social relations and specific features of Anglophone countries. This knowledge will promote tolerance and acceptance, increase interest in knowledge of different social, cultural realities and facilitate intercultural communication. 2.4 Methodology: Before starting a year plan, defining the methodological approach that we are going to follow is absolutely necessary. We will describe in the following paragraphs the approach that we have decided to choose and we will pay attention into its main underlying principles. We have decided to use The Communicative Language Teaching approach, which consists of focusing on the development of communicative skills and procedures also known as communicative competence for teaching students a second language. Our units will be based on a specific topic related to the use of learning a language through its main five skills. We hope that our future students will be motivated by means of working on familiar contents to them and of their interest. 48 - Intercultural competence: Students will learn about other people lives through oral communication and introductions. 4. Learning objectives: - To describe themselves. - To interpret writing texts. - To understand the audio lingual resources. - To express orally their hobbies, likes and dislikes and preferences. 5. Contents: Block 1: Listening, speaking and oral interaction: Comprehension of interpersonal communication. Oral production of description, own experiences, and contents. Active participation in conversational situations about daily routines and own personal interests Block 2: Reading and writing: To understand and producing written pieces about greetings. To correct use of orthography. Block 3 Knowledge of the language: To use common phrases and vocabulary of their interest. Block 4 Socio-cultural aspects and intercultural awareness: To practice how an introduction is done according to different cultural backgrounds. To be aware of Socio-cultural and intercultural aspects. 6. Methodology: In this unit we will be using a Communicative Approach. Students should introduce themselves by means of different activities such as role playing after using the materials provided. The methodology used in this unit will be based on ideas from Communicative Language Teaching. We will give students some examples of authentic texts and pieces of information from which they will be able to elaborate their own materials. 49 7. Evaluation criteria: Evaluation criteria will consist of grading how students: - To describe themselves. - To interpret writing texts. - To understand the audio lingual resources. - To express orally their hobbies, likes, dislikes and preferences. 8. Materials and resources: To start with, different materials have been selected such as a video from YouTube to illustrate how people introduce themselves in English. Moreover, students will be capable of using key words and phrases in order to meet new people. Nevertheless, we have linked a second video where the explanation of how to introduce yourself is more theoretical and it can help them to improve in this skill of knowing new people using English language. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oceDC_w6uY http://australianetwork.com/livingenglish/stories/le_ep01.htm http://martinsenglishzone.blogspot.com.es/2011/01/unit-one-lesson-two-how-tointroduce.html 9. Approximate timing: This unit will last around four weeks. The first week will be used to introduce the topic and familiarize students with introducing themselves. The second week, students will deal with a video and digital resources as well as getting to know each other. The third and fourth week, they will realize what they have learned through the weeks. 3.2 UNIT 2 SIGHTSEEING IN LONDON, GREAT BRITAIN. 1. Introduction and justification: The first city in which the students are going to live for three or four weeks is the capital of the United Kingdom, London. This lovely city is known as the cradle of the English language and Saxon customs, which are expanded in many countries around the world such as Canada, Australia, USA or Jamaica. During their experience in the British 50 capital, students will be able to develop a vast variety of contents due to the fact that they will learn about asking for accommodation, tickets, addresses or directions among others. Basically, students will learn from this unit a lot of vocabulary and grammatical structures related to the tourism in an English speaker country. In addition to this, this unit will help students to get on sightseeing in a foreign country by means of using English language which they can use in a real context. 2. Contribution to the key competences: - Linguistic competence: They will use new vocabulary relative to airports, eating out, hotels, etc. They will learn how to describe and talk about the most beautiful building of the city and ask people for different addresses. The students will use the previous vocabulary to meet more people in the new city. - Personal initiative and autonomy competence: Students will show their initiative when playing a real conversation between a receptionist and a customer in a hotel and they will be more autonomous when writing about their favorite spot of London. - Social and civic competence: They will learn about different customs and ways of greeting, thinking, eating and living. - Learning to learn competence: They will be capable of learning new vocabulary in different ways. 3. Competences of the foreign language: - Morphosyntactic competence: The students will use everything they have learned about grammar, vocabulary and speaking through activities. - Pragmatic competence: The students will learn how to establish a conversation in a hotel bar or restaurant among others. - Procedural competence: The students will express their likes and opinions about London after having visited the most important monuments. - Intercultural competence: The students will establish a first connection with the British culture so they will be capable of learning about London, Londoners and their habits. 4. Objectives: - To understand a real situation between a receptionist / waiter and a customer. - To know the specific vocabulary of travelling and sightseeing. - To listen and understand real videos. 51 - To read and interpret writing dialogues in a hotel / bar / restaurant. - To report basic statements and questions. - To use the present simple. - To produce Yes / No questions and Whquestions. 5. Contents The contents in this unit are divided into four different blocks: Block 1: Listening, speaking and oral interaction. Understanding the information from audio lingual and digital resources. Oral production of the description of places, likes, situations or directions. Appreciation of formal correction in the production of oral messages. Active participation in a conversational group about a normal throughout role games about a hotel or restaurant. Block 2: Reading and writing. To understand general and specific information from written texts. To correct use of orthography. To understand and produce written pieces about dialogues in a hotel, restaurant or an airport. To fill the gaps or complete the sentences. Oral production of the description of the situation in a hotel, bar or similar. Block 3: Knowledge of the language. To practice yes / no questions and whquestions. To use present simple (affirmative, negative and interrogative). To use the verb To Be and To Have Got. To use the comparatives and superlatives with adjectives. To use vocabulary related to the topic (hotel, restaurant sightseeing). Block 4: Socio-cultural aspects. Practicing how greetings are done according to the British culture. Getting to know about the daily routine, the typical food and traditional festivities nowadays. 52 6. Methodology: A communicative approach will be used in this unit since students will be capable of carrying out different activities such as listening, writing or speaking by means of authentic texts and pieces of information about London. Therefore, students will learn contents from the activities. To conclude, the methodology used in this unit is based on a great deal of ideas from Communicative Language Teaching. 7. Evaluation criteria: It will consist of grading how students: - To be aware of the grammatical points learned in the unit. - To interpret writing texts. - To understand the audio lingual resources. - To express orally all the contents taught throughout digital and writing resources. 8. Materials and resources: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehzH4GuBCVA http://agenda http://agendaweb.org/vocabulary/travel_transportsexercises.htmlweb.org/vocabulary/travelling-tourism-exercises.html http://www.audioenglish.org/englishlearning/english_roleplay_hotel_booking_a_room_2.htm http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/vocabulary/hotel/exercises http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/vocabulary/hotel/exercises?03 http://www.cepagernika.com/wordpress_blogingles/?page_id=363 9. Approximate timing: For this unit we will use between three or four weeks. To start with, the first week will be used to introduce the topic and familiarize students with the capital of England. In the second week, lessons will be based on different materials and digital resources. Moreover, the explanation of different grammatical points has to be into account. All in all, the last lessons will be used to make different activities such as role playing or using on-line exercises. 53 3.3 UNIT 3: HORROR LITERATURE IN EDINBURGH, GREAT BRITAIN: 1. Introduction and justification: In this unit students are going to travel to Edinburgh. They will find out about the city, they will read a horror story and create a new one. They will have the opportunity to be closer to a different literature and be creative. They will also comment and expose their views about the different horror stories. 2. Contribution to the key competences: - Linguistic competence: Students will learn new vocabulary and expressions and also how to use them in written texts. - Digital competence: Students will use the Internet to download materials, process the information given, seek more useful information and create new texts. - Cultural and artistic competence: Students will learn about a different culture and literature. - Learning to learn competence: Students will improve their own creativity when writing texts. - Personal initiative and autonomy competence: Writing texts will improve their initiative. - Knowledge and interaction to physical world: Students will learn about Edinburgh and its people. 3. Competences in the foreign languages: - Morphosyntactic competence: Students will work on different expressions and connectives in order to improve their writing. - Pragmatic competence: Students will see how language is used in written texts. - Procedural competence: Students will write and comment a story. - Intercultural competence: Students will learn about a different culture through real texts. 4. Learning objectives: - To understand written texts. - To interpret writing texts. - To make comments about written texts. 54 - To learn about other cultures and literatures. - To write horror texts. 5. Contents: Block 1 Listening, speaking and oral interaction: To understand and narration about horror stories. Block 2 Reading and writing: To understand and writing horror stories. Block 3 Knowledge of the language: To practice with new vocabulary they can find in texts and use in order to write their own one. Block 4 Socio-cultural aspects and intercultural awareness: To read useful data about the culture and the city they are travelling to. To be aware of how things are done in other countries and the similarities and differences between different countries. 6. Methodology: In this unit, we will be also using a Communicative Approach. By using the materials provided, students will be able to work in groups, on written texts and create a horror story showing their creativity. They will be able to interact with other students and express their opinions and comments about those written texts. 7. Evaluation criteria: Evaluation criteria will consist of grading how students: - To understand written texts. - To interpret writing texts. - To comment about texts. - To learn about other cultures and literatures. - To write horror texts. 55 8. Materials and resources: http://www.atkielski.com/PDF/data/Jekyll.pdf http://www.searchengine.org.uk/ebooks/62/44.pdf http://www.edinburgh.org/ http://www.wordreference.com/ http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/english-writing.html http://www.wikihow.com/Improve-Your-Writing-Skills http://michaelhyatt.com/improve-writing.html https://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/lsu/content/4_writingskills/writing_tuts/linking_LL/sen tence.html 9. Approximate timing: This unit will last around four weeks. The first week will be used to know about Edinburgh, its culture and literature. In the second week, students will read and orally comment one of the two given texts. In the third week students will have to write an horror story set up in Edinburgh. The last week will be used to put into practice all that has been learned by means of a PowerPoint presentation of their projects. 3.4 UNIT 4 CHRISTMAS IN NEW YORK, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1. Introduction and justification: In this unit, students will travel to New York City which is considered the capital of the world and one of the most visited cities in the USA. In addition to this, students will visit New York when Christmas celebrations take place at the same time due to the fact that the city of skyscrapers is well known for the different sorts of celebrations, parties and things that people can do in this lovely city at Christmas. Apart from this, New York is highly connected with the fashion world and the Fifth Avenue is the most important thoroughfare in the city since it hosts the most prestigious shops in the world, therefore, students will learn from this unit a vast vocabulary about fashion and Christmas. Besides, they will learn how a foreign country celebrates Christmas and some specific grammatical points will be taught throughout this unit and it will be explained in the following sections. 56 2. Contribution to the key competences: - Linguistic competence: Students will learn new vocabulary and expressions about the topic of the unit and also they will demonstrate how to use the grammar points throughout the oral production, oral interaction and pieces of writing. - Digital competence: Students will use Internet in order to do specific exercises in a website. - Cultural and artistic competence: Students will learn about different customs of a foreign country. - Learning to learn competence: Students will be able to describe their idyllic Christmas. - Personal initiative and autonomy competence: To share their own opinions about the topic will be able to motivate among them and respect people’s ideas. - Knowledge and interaction to physical world: Students will learn about New York City and the way in which New Yorkers live and enjoy Christmas. 3. Competences of the foreign language: - Morphosyntactic competence: The students will learn a specific vocabulary related to the fashion world and Christmas celebrations apart from the grammar points. - Pragmatic competence: The students will improve the listening skill and they will learn new grammar points and vocabulary. - Procedural competence: The students will talk about the different ways in which Christmas are celebrated in Spain and the USA. - Intercultural competence: The students will learn about the American culture and how they celebrate Christmas by means of watching videos and doing the exercises. 4. Objectives: - To interpret and understand writing texts. - To understand the audio lingual resources. - To learn about other cultures and Christmas celebrations in the Anglophone world. - To develop the ability of speaking in groups and individually. - To study Present Simple and Present Continuous as a future action. - To study Future Simple and “be going to”. 57 5. Contents: Block 1: Listening, speaking and oral interaction: To understand the information from audio lingual and digital resources. To produce oral texts in groups or individually. Block 2: Reading and writing: To understand general and specific information from written texts. To understand and produce pieces of writing. Block 3: Knowledge of language: To practice the new vocabulary related to the unit. To use Present Simple, Present Continuous, Future Simple and “be going to” and studying their differences. Block 4: Socio-cultural aspects: To know better another culture to become familiar with the Anglo-Saxon culture. To analyze the similarities and differences between the USA and Spain. 6. Methodology: In this unit, it will be used a Communicative Approach in order to practice and develop the five different skills as the Aragonese Curriculum tells. Thus, students will be able to assimilate all vocabulary and understand the grammar points related to the unit. In addition to this, it should be taken into consideration the use of real texts and pieces of information due to the fact that it is a characteristic based on the Communicative Language Teaching. 7. Evaluation criteria: It will consist of grading how students: - To be aware of the grammatical points learned in the unit. - To interpret writing texts. - To understand the audio lingual resources. - To produce short pieces of writing. - To Express orally all the contents taught throughout digital and writing resources. - Student shows interest and sacrifice. 64 Block 3: Knowledge of the language To make suggestions: Shall we..? Why don’t we …? We could …, How/what about …? To accept and refusing: Yes, why not? That’s a good idea! No, it’s…. To take decisions: Let’s .., I’ll …. Revision of have got to express possessions. Basic vocabulary related to food, fast food, ingredients and lifestyle. Block 4: Socio-cultural aspects and intercultural awareness. To learn about other countries cultural backgrounds by means of their traditional cuisine. 6. Methodology: Students will be working in groups in order to reach agreement about food. They will choose which one is more interesting to them. The methodology that we will follow is again very flexible because they have different menus and different recipes. The Communicative Approach is one of the most important methods in this unit, we will be working with projects and tasks related to food. 7. Evaluation Criteria: Evaluation criteria will consist of grading how students: - To express their opinion. - To reach an agreement with the group. - To understand the menu at restaurants. - To use the first conditional in order to convince others - To differentiate between different foods in different cultures. - To use different registers, waiter and fellow students. 65 8. Materials and Resources: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdrqA93sW-8 http://www.bostonorganics.com/calaloo/pr/calaloo http://gotrinidadandtobago.com/trinidad/dining/ How to cook calaloo: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080719153514AADukIa http://www.engvid.com/4-ways-to-order-at-a-restaurant/ http://www.vocabulary.cl/Lists/Cooking-Instructions.htm 9. Approximate timing: We will use three weeks for this unit. In the first week we will be paying attention to the different types of restaurants and cultures in Port Spain. We will focus on structures of agreement and disagreement in order to take decisions. The second week, we will deal with the local culture and we will focus on the most typical dish of Trinidad and Tobago: the calaloo. In the third week, students will show what they have learned about doing their own recipe of calaloo so they will perform a role play settled in an imaginary Caribbean restaurant just opened in a European English speaking city. 3.7 UNIT 7: MUSIC AND CINEMA IN AGRA, INDIA: 1. Introduction and justification: In this unit, the students are going to travel to Agra, India. Students will have the chance of learning English through cinema and music from a different country. The aim of this unit it to learn more about the oral register of the language and motivate students with topics interesting for them and particular in each country. 2. Contribution to the key competences: - Linguistic competence: students will learn new vocabulary and expressions related to cinema and music. Also, they will have to show that they are able to express and communicate their opinions about those topics. - Digital competence: Students will search information by using technologies. They will work with music and video software and web pages such as You Tube. 66 - Cultural and artistic competence: Students will learn about a different music and cinema. - Learning to learn competence: Students will learn how to exchange their own views and opinions. - Personal initiative and autonomy competence: Listening and watching pieces of music and films will improve their listening skills. - Knowledge and interaction to physical world: Students will learn about other types of music and cinema. 3. Competences in the foreign languages: - Morphosyntactic competence: Students will learn grammatical structures in order to be able to express opinions and suggestions. - Pragmatic competence: Students will see how the language is used in the oral register. - Procedural competence: Students will talk about cinema and music and they will also learn to respect others' opinions. - Intercultural competence: Students will learn about a different culture through songs and videos. 4. Learning objectives: - To make suggestions and express opinions. - To know specific vocabulary of music and cinema. - To talk about musical and cinematographical issues. - To listen and understand real videos and songs. 5. Contents: Block 1 Listening, speaking and oral interaction: To listen and understand songs and videos. To give opinions and making suggestions. Block 2 Reading and writing: To read and writing opinions. Block 3 Knowledge of the language: Students will practice oral register and slang. 67 Block 4 Socio-cultural aspects and intercultural awareness: Awareness of how the oral register is used in other countries and the similarities and differences between different countries. 6. Methodology: The students will work in groups, and communication will be the main method used in class. The teacher will play different songs and videos in Indian-English and recommend the students some useful webpages to use in order to comment on music and cinema. Students will have to search more Indian-English songs and videos and exchange their opinions. 7. Evaluation criteria: Evaluation criteria will consist of grading how students: - To make suggestions and express opinions. - To learn specific vocabulary of music and cinema. - To talk about musical and cinematographic issues. - To understand real videos and songs. 8. Materials and resources: http://www.dsm.edu.uy/uploadfiles/ingles/GRAMMAR/02_L4%20- %20L6_Talking%20part%20in%20a%20discussions.pdf http://dindahs.blogspot.com.es/2012/11/asking-opinion-and-giving-opinion.html http://www.lyricsmasti.com/song/6695/get_lyrics_of_Dreams-on-Fire.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2taIpIz_sk http://suhash001.blogspot.com.es/2012/12/caught-in-rain-shankar-tucker-ft-rohan.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75TwwtXF9vo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zeJSS81as4 Scene 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbXFk0RAvoc Scene 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNFEVwjzSw4 Scene 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56rgyFR6yAk Scene 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQk5jlxAqgg Scene 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DzDNvlNSm0 68 9. Approximate timing: This unit will last around three-four weeks. The first week will be used to play songs and videos. In the second week, students will describe and comment the songs and videos. In the third week, they will have to search for another Indian-English song or video and comment on it. In the last week, students will have to write opinions, comments and/or suggestions about their classmates' choices and exchange their views. 3.8 UNIT 8: DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AND ICT IN CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA: 1. Introduction and justification: In this unit, the four students will be landing in Canberra, which is the capital city of Australia, and one of the most important Aussie cities, along with Sidney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. Focusing on the digital technology and ITC, Canberra has five free-to-air television stations services, which are: ABC Canberra (ABC), SBS New South Wales (SBS), Prime7 Southern NSW & ACT (CBN), Win Television Southern NSW & ACT (WIN) and Southern Cross Ten Southern NSW & ACT (CTC), which each station broadcasts a primary channel and several multi channels. In this unit, the students will spend a month in Canberra, where they will visit the ABC TV set, where they will be working with many broadcast journalists. This unit has been designed in order to make the four students learn specific vocabulary of digital technology and ITC, read and listen to a variety of texts, and speak about the important news of all around the world. 2. Contribution to the key competences: - Linguistic competence: The students will learn a command of oral and written language in a variety of contexts, and a functional use of the English language. - Digital competence: The students will develop their skills by using technological resources and the ICT as an essential element of communication. - Social and citizenship competence: The students will do some activities in the ABC TV set in order to develop their understanding of the social situation they live in, and respond to conflicts with ethical values, exercising the rights and obligations as they have as citizens. 69 - Cultural and artistic competence: This competence will help the students to be openminded towards different cultures and arts and appreciate and enjoy them as a part of heritage. - Learning to learn competence: The students will do some activities in the ABC TV set and face some problems in which they will have to be able to be organized, motivated to use different methodologies to find the answers and do an adequate use of intellectual resources and techniques. - Autonomy and personal initiative competence: The students will do some activities in the ABC TV set which will make the students develop their abilities to be creative, innovative, responsible and critical. - Knowledge and interaction with the physical world: The students will spend hours in the ABC TV set with professional broadcast journalists who will do some activities with the four students in order to make them improve their autonomous interpretation of information, personal initiative in decision-making and critical approach in the development of individual or group projects. 3. Competences of the foreign language: - Morphosyntactic competence: The students will learn a specific vocabulary of digital technology and ICT, they will also learn specific grammatical rules and a functional use of the English language in order to express themselves. - Pragmatic competence: The students will learn a command of oral and written language in a variety of contexts. - Procedural competence: The students will talk about digital technology and ICT, but also to express the important news of Australia. - Intercultural competence: The students will learn about the Australian culture by finding information about it and watching videos about what is happening in Australia. 4. Learning objectives: - To talk about PC, digital technology and ICT. - To express themselves by using relative clauses. - To know how to ask and answer about Internet. - To describe real situations according to digital technology. - To develop and consolidate written and oral strategies. - To understand texts about digital technology and ICT. 70 - To reflect on digital technology: ICT, computers, brands of computers, etc. - To know the vocabulary and use the words about digital technology. - To know what manage digital material autonomously. - To know the cultural aspects of the aussie media, specifically about TV. 5. Content: Block 1. Listening, Speaking and Conversing: To understand and use the communicative strategies to talk about PC, digital technology and ICT. To interact orally using the specific vocabulary and grammatical structures learned in this unit. To present a project about the news to the audience. Block 2. Read and Write: To read and compile the breaking news. To write an article about the news. To write a project about the news in groups. To understand texts about digital technology and ICT. Block 3. Knowledge of the language: To identify and use the specific vocabulary about PC, digital technology, media and ICT. To understand and learn the specific grammar rules of this unit, which are the relative clauses. Block 4. Socio-cultural aspects and intercultural awareness To interact with Australian broadcast journalists. To have knowledge about the news that happens in Canberra. To know the cultural aspects of the aussie media, specifically about TV. 6. Methodology: In this unit, it will also be used a communicative approach. That is, the students will learn and show their learning in digital technology, ICT and media by doing many activities individually and in groups. On the one hand, students will do some activities 71 individually, which will consist on writing an article based on the news they have complied. On the other hand, students will do a project in groups by managing technological material autonomously. By doing these activities, the students will show their knowledge in digital technology, ICT and media. 7. Evaluation criteria: In order to be evaluated, the four students will have to be able to: - To talk about media, TV, digital technology and ICT. - To write and describe an article about the news. - To express themselves by using relative clauses. - To write a project in groups about how to inform the audience from a TV set: that is, to compile information, to know what information is the most important to show to the public, and then, present the project to the other students. 8. Materials and resources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canberra#Television http://www.abc.net.au/canberra/ http://www.onestopenglish.com/community/lesson-share/pdfcontent/exams/exams-article-writing-cae-and-cpe-lesson-plan/147546.article http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/relative-clauses 9. Approximate timing: This unit will last around four weeks. In the first week, the students will visit the ABC TV set, where they will meet many broadcast journalists, who will teach them the specific vocabulary about media, TV, digital technology and ICT. In the second week, the students will write an article about the news that has already happened in the city of Canberra. In the third week and the fourth week, the students will do project in groups about how to inform the audience from a TV set by compiling the information, take the most important one to show to the public, and then, present project to the other students. In this project, the students will manage technological material autonomously. 72 3.9 UNIT 9: GETTING A JOB IN WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND: 1. Introduction and justification: In this unit, the four students will be landing in Wellington, which is the capital city of New Zealand, and is located in the north island of the country. Since the course comes to an end and therefore this is the last country the four students will be visiting, they will have to think about their plans for the future, whether they want to keep on studying or start working. The four students will be visiting the Victoria University of Wellington so as the four students know the different degrees the university offers. In this last trip, the students will be also able to visit the New Zealand Post, where students could learn many things about working, including how to create their own curriculum vitae. 2. Contribution to the key competences: - Linguistic competence: The students will learn a variety of vocabulary and language that will be very useful for them in their academic and work future, along with a functional use of the English language. - Digital competence: The students will develop their skills by learning how to use digital technologies and ICT for their future. - Social and citizenship competence: The students will do some activities in order to make them concerned that they form part of the world as citizens and they have obligations as future students or workers. - Cultural and artistic competence: This competence will help the students to be openminded towards different cultures and arts. - Learning to learn competence: The students will be taught to be organized and how to use different methodologies to keep on learning or to find a job. - Autonomy and personal initiative competence: The students will be taught to be creative, critical, innovative and competitive in this constant changing world. - Knowledge and interaction with the physical world: The students will learn how to improve their critical approach and their decision-making as future workers. 73 3. Competences of the foreign language: - Morphosyntactic competence: The students will use everything they have learned about grammar, vocabulary and speaking through this trip for their future plans, whether they want to keep on studying or start working. - Pragmatic competence: The students will learn how to create their own curriculum vitae and different written texts from a variety of contexts. - Procedural competence: The students will express their wishes and opinions about their future plans by visiting the Victoria University of Wellington and the New Zealand Post. - Intercultural competence: The students will not only learn about the New Zealander culture, which will teach them many things about the degrees they can study and about working, but about the whole wide world when they become workers. 4. Learning objectives: - To know how to use the modal verbs: possibility, obligation, necessity and ability. - To understand and use: Will (future intent and prediction). - To develop and consolidate oral and written strategies. - To understand texts about university studies and future jobs. - To use material autonomously for their future as students and future workers. - To express their preferences and future plans. - To introduce the students to real situations and the real world. - To know the vocabulary and use the words about getting a job. - To create a curriculum vitae for their future jobs. 5.Content: Block 1. Listening, Speaking and Conversing: To ask and talk about future plans, intentions and preferences by using the modal verbs. To express themselves by using the specific grammar rules and vocabulary in this unit. To consolidate the listening and speaking strategies. To present a project to the audience and being able to answer the questions. Block 2. Read and Write: To develop written strategies by writing a text. To learn how to create a curriculum vitae. 80 1) Linguistic competence: This competence presupposes the use of language as a means of oral and written communication and as a learning tool and for self-regulation of thinking, emotions and behavior. Regarding our learning unit, students will develop the Linguistic competence by using language to express themselves, give opinions, to talk in public or answers teacher questions. 2) Digital competence: This competence focuses on searching, obtaining and communicating information, and transforms it into knowledge. The learning unit is based on different audio-lingual aids in which students will be familiarized with digital materials and they will transform the information expressed in the videos into knowledge. 3) Social and citizenship competence: This competence enables the students to form a part of the society where they live in, understand how it functions and play a part as a democratic citizen in a diverse society. All the materials used to carry out this unit will try to improve students’ tolerance and values regarding cultural differences to make easier the cohabitation among citizens. 4) Cultural and artistic competence: This competence implies knowledge, understanding and critical evaluation of different cultural and artistic manifestations for the personal enrichment but also as a part of the heritage of different cultures. Throughout this unit, students will learn cultural aspects of English speaking countries. 5) Learning to learn competence: This competence involves being able of learning autonomously, looking for answers in a rational way. In this learning unit, students will develop this competence by using Project Based Learning, in which students produce something useful to themselves and the group they are working in. By using the PBL, students will learn which material is the most appropriate one, which step they have to follow to create their project, how to write a report and present their work. 6) Autonomy and personal initiative competence: This competence focuses on making choices following one’s own criteria, and taking responsibility for one’s decisions both in social and personal sphere. Students are encouraged to do activities in this learning unit in which they have to think about activities and give their personal opinion, therefore, they will be more autonomous and reflective. 81 2.2. Objectives: The main objective of the students of E.S.O is to learn the discursive skills that can take place in different areas. Although the process of learning English began in Primary Education, this process continues in Compulsory Secondary Education, with the aim that by the end of this stage, students have consolidated productive skills, are able to interact with others, and are understood in a number of situations as well as for example: to give personal explanations, to ask, to express an idea, to use a comprehensive language, and to understand the main ideas from texts in standard language. At the end of the stage, students must learn to cope with daily problems of oral and written communication, such as participating in regular conversations, raise grievances, share experiences or plans, explain something or ask for clarification. Our project aims to develop communicative competence of students, ensuring that the students assimilate the grammatical rules and vocabulary of the English language. At the same time, students will learn about other countries and their cultures and enjoy the process of learning. The development of communicative competence of students is achieved by promoting the acquisition of the following objectives: 1. To be able to listen and understand general and specific information from YouTube videos in different communicative situations, adopting a respectful and cooperative attitude. 2. To be able to express orally oneself and interact in common situations of communication in an understandable way when presenting their final work and conclusions to their classmates. 3. To be able to read and understand different texts about the TV series and films according to their level of English. 4. To be able to write simple cohesive and coherence texts by using the grammar points and the vocabulary learnt on different topics. 82 5. To be able to show interest and respect for other countries’ culture throughout TV series and movies. 6. To be able to develop their autonomy in learning and reflect on their own learning processes. 7. To be able to extract general and specific information from the texts. 8. To be able to value the English language as a means of communication and understanding between people of backgrounds, languages and cultures from different Anglophone countries. 2.3. Contents: The contents are grouped into four blocks corresponding to the characteristics and needs of the teaching and learning: language skills, the constituent elements of the linguistic system, their functioning and relationships, and the social and cultural dimension of the English language. Therefore, we will briefly explain each block according to our learning unit. Block 1. Listening, Speaking and Conversing: This stage gives great importance on oral communication, so that the first block focuses on developing the ability to interact in certain situations such as work in pairs, work in groups or teacher - student interaction. In addition, it stresses the importance of the linguistic model of oral reference comes from a large number of speakers in order to collect the variations by means of different activities as for example British English vs. American English. Block 2. Reading and Writing: The second block includes the procedures necessary to develop competence in discursive writing use. A lot of activities will be carried out in which teacher give patterns and students will have to put into practice their knowledge acquired so far. 83 Moreover, students will have to show their understanding by reading exercises and short texts. Block 3. Knowledge of the language: The observation and the use of spoken and written language is being learned allow develop a conceptual system about its operation. That is, the starting point will be situations that encourage the inference rules of functioning of the language for students gain confidence in their own abilities. The block is divided into knowledge and reflection on learning. We, as teachers, will be able to see students’ knowledge of the language throughout assessments and feedback, which will give us a general view of students’ awareness of the language rules. What is more, all the activities carried out in class will leave a proof of their level of English. Moreover, students’ awareness of the use of the English language and their reflection on learning will increase by teacher’s feedback. Block 4. Socio-cultural aspects and intercultural awareness: The contents of this block will help the students to learn the customs, forms of social relations and specific features of Anglophone countries by means of different sort of videos played in class. This unit will provide them knowledge about films and TV series which will increase their social context by being able to understand the English language and culture of the English speaking countries. 2.5. Methodology: Our methodology is quite closed to the Communicative Language Teaching approach, which consists of focusing on the development of communicative skills and procedures also known as communicative competence for teaching students a second language. Our lessons will be based on a specific topic related to the use of learning a language through its main five skills. Our main goal has been to work on the development of the five skills throughout the use of authentic materials such as short videos of TV series. The tasks to carry out in 84 each lesson integrate the five skills in order to make the class more attractive to students and try to catch their attention. Students will be dealing with basic elements such as grammar and vocabulary but without focusing on these elements. They will be using communicative activities to use their acquired knowledge of grammar and vocabulary. An important part of their learning procedure will be to develop their chance to learn from their classmates, not only from the teacher’s help and guidance. Besides, learning a second language should not be a tedious process since we must guide students into interaction, cooperation and the use of their intuition and imagination. Choosing real texts and authentic materials will motivate students. It should be noted that our lessons contain a great deal of exercises in which they have to work on their own or in groups, therefore, they have to do and prepare the tasks by themselves. By doing so, autonomous learning is being put into practice by means of these sorts of tasks, moreover, working in groups make students learn from their classmates, help each other and solve any problem which may arise. Anyway, not all the activities will be group-based since it is necessary to develop activities with an individual purpose so the student will develop as well autonomy and independence. Although most of the activities will take place in the classroom, we should pay attention into space and timing, and possibly variations in order to improve students’ motivation. To sum up, all this actions mentioned above, will make students develop their communicative competence while learning not only a second language but learning how to learn, which is the most important goals and objectives throughout the whole teaching process in general and one of the most challenging aspect for teachers in particular. 2.6. Evaluation Criteria: The activities have to be designed in order to develop contents, practice competences and achieve the objectives established in the previous section. These activities have to combine individual and group work, mixing the individual’s 85 reflection, investigation and the interrelation of the different topics applied in real situations. The evaluation of the key competences has to be a parallel process with the teaching and learning process because it has to be a useful tool in the pupils’ daily lives. The teacher has to evaluate how their knowledge contributes to their future life, in a personal and academic way. The evaluation of competences has to be evaluated through every single lesson because we will use different tools in order to evaluate the different processes such as doing homework, well behavior in class or passing the exam. Evaluation criteria: - To be able to understand general and specific information from YouTube videos. It evaluates the capacity of understanding these ideas in brief expositions and conversations about the topic of the lesson. - To be able to participate in different conversations related to personal opinions regarding TV series and movies with the adequate correction in order to reach communication. - To be able to understand general and specific information from different written texts. They have to be from varied extensions and adequate to the age of the pupils. (dialogue, news etc). - To be able to write diverse texts in different formats, using the grammar and vocabulary in an adequate way, using formal aspects and respecting orthography and punctuation rules in order to be more comprehensive to the reader. (plans, ideas, etc). - To be able to use the acquired knowledge of English in different contexts of communication, as a self-learning instrument for their own written and oral productions in order to understand other productions. - To show interest and initiative in the learning process acting with autonomy in the planning of the project and having the control of the learning process. 86 - To show interest to know English language and culture accepting them as part of their own reality, and establish connections between their own culture and the foreign one. EVALUATION PROCEDURES AND INSTRUMENTS: The evaluation procedures will be: - Observation - Analysis in the pupil’s production - Oral exchange - Production of different tests The instruments that are going to be used in the evaluation are: - Analysis of the pupils’ production - Conversations - Written tests - Review of unit ( summative evaluation) Qualification criteria: The four skills (writing, speaking, listening, reading) will be evaluated with 25% each one, however, speaking test will be carried out during the class through different activities in class such as reading sentences or doing speaking activities in pairs. In addition, pupils will increase their marks with 0.5 if they do all the tasks and have a good behavior in the classroom. They will have: - Suficiente: Obtains the minimum required - Bien: Obtains the minimum required and one more - Notable: Obtains the minimum required and two more. - Sobresaliente: Obtains all the indicators 87 - Insuficiente: Doesn’t obtain the minimum required 3. Lesson plans: 3.1. Lesson 1: ‘Take your passport and travel the world’ Time and date:18/03/14 2ºA (09:00-09:55) 2ºB (09:5510:50) Grade: 2º A/B ESO Unit of work: Future plans Number of students: 25 (2º A)/22 (2º B) Title of lesson: ‘Take your passport and travel the world’ Learning objectives: a) To understand audio lingual resources and the key information given in the videos. b) To learn the grammar point of the lesson. c) To express themselves about possible plans using future tenses. d) To write a short composition about future trips. Activity: 1 Pre-task activity: Time: Groupings: Materials: 88 Introduce the topic by means of a video about planning holidays. 2 While-task activity: Students have to write a composition around 100 words. 3 Post-task activity: Students have to do some exercises to practice the grammar point. 5’ 30’ 15’ Teacher - students interaction. Class discussion Whole class activity Teacher – students interaction Teacher – students interaction Students – students interaction Work in pairs Black board / whiteboard. Whiteboard marker / chalk. Two videos from YouTube. A piece of paper. Dictionaries. A power point presentation. A photocopy for students. Evaluation of teaching and learning Have students been aware of learning and understanding new grammar? Has there 89 process: Have students been aware of learning and understanding new grammar? Has there been an effective teacher - student interaction? Students have learnt the grammar but not all of them showed the same motivation. Have students understood the differences between WILL and BE GOING TO? Yes, they have. Have I made myself clear with the instructions and explanation in the lesson plan in English? Have students understood me? I tried to do all my best. Students could follow me. Did they show interest with the topic? Most of them showed their enthusiasm about the topic. been an effective teacher - student interaction? Students learnt the grammar point and they have learned how to use it correctly. Have students understood the differences between WILL and BE GOING TO? Yes, they have. Have I made myself clear with the instructions and explanation in the lesson plan in English? Have students understood me? As far as I could see, students learned the grammar point and the new vocabulary through my explanations. Therefore, it seemed as students could follow me. Did they show interest with the topic? Yes, they did. They seemed to like the topic and the way it was explained. Assessment and feedback: Activities carried out during the lesson will make teacher be aware of students’ difficulties concerning grammar points. Therefore, the teacher will know in which aspects need to focus on improving students’ knowledge. Besides, teacher will get information by means of classroom atmosphere, teacher-student interaction and observation. Feedback will be provided after having checked the compositions done in class. 96 Yes, they did. Assessment and feedback: Activities carried out during the lesson will make teacher be aware of students’ difficulties concerning grammar points. Therefore, the teacher will know in which aspects need to focus on improving students’ knowledge. Besides, teacher will get information by means of classroom atmosphere, teacher-student interaction and observation. Feedback will be provided when checking each activity step by step. Homework: None. 3.4. Lesson 4: ‘My favorite film is…’ Time and date:25/03/14 2ºA (09:00-09:55) 2ºB (09:5510:50) Grade: 2º A/B ESO Unit of work: To talk about the story in a film. Number of students: 25 (2º A)/22 (2º B) Title of lesson: ‘My favorite film is…’ Learning objectives: a) To understand audio lingual resources and the key information given in the video. b) To learn how to write about films/ TV series. c) To speak in front of the audience about their own likes related to films. d) To learn new vocabulary related to the task (films). 97 Activity: 1 Pre-task activity: To explain the meaning of some words which will be important to carry out the task. Teacher will give instructions. 2 While-task activity: To show a video of a TV series Skins. Students have to fill in the table regarding the video seen. 3 Post-task activity: Each student has to fill in the table again according to their favorite film or TV series. Teacher will ask some students to explain to the rest of the class their favorite film by using English language. Time: 7’ 3’ 8’ 20’ 10’ 7’ Groupings: Teacher - students interaction. Class discussion. Teacher – students interaction Teacher – students interaction Work individually Whole class activity. Materials: Black board / whiteboard. Whiteboard marker / chalk. A video from Skins. A photocopy for students. Dictionaries. Dictionaries. Students’ notebook. Students’ notes Evaluation of teaching and learning process: Have students been aware of learning and understanding new vocabulary? Has there been an effective teacher - student interaction? Have students been aware of learning and understanding new vocabulary? Has there been an effective teacher - student interaction? Yes, they have. There was a clear and effective interaction between teacher and 98 Yes, they have. There was a good interaction during the class. Have students understood the aim of the task? Yes, they have. Besides, students have learned a lot. Have I made myself clear with the instructions and explanation in the lesson plan in English? Have students understood me? They could understand my instructions but Spanish was used as well to clarify some aspects. Did they show interest with the topic? Yes, they did. students. Have students understood the aim of the task? Yes, they have. In addition, they learnt a lot while having fun. Have I made myself clear with the instructions and explanation in the lesson plan in English? Have students understood me? The only language used to give instructions was the English language. Did they show interest with the topic? Yes, they did, since it was a really interesting topic. Assessment and feedback: Activities carried out during the lesson will make teacher be aware of students’ difficulties concerning aims of activities. Therefore, the teacher will know in which aspects need to focus on improving students’ knowledge. Besides, teacher will get information by means of classroom atmosphere, teacher-student interaction and observation. Feedback will be provided when checking the task and observe some examples in the oral activity at the end of class. Homework: None 99 3.5. Lesson 5: ‘A mythical being who feeds on human blood’ Time and date: 26/03/2014 2ºA (08:05-09:00) 2º B (10:5011:45) Grade: 2º A/B E.S.O Unit of Work: To express ability Number of students: 25 (2º A)/22 (2º B) Title of the lesson: ‘A mythical being who feeds on human blood... Learning objectives: a) To understand audio lingual resources and the key information given in the video. b) To learn the vocabulary and know how to use them. c) To know how to express ability by using the modal verbs Can and Could. d) To speak in front of the audiences by using the vocabulary and grammar points. e) To learn how to write a story by including the vocabulary and grammar points. Activity: 1 & 2 Pre-Task activities: The teacher will introduce the topic of vampires and their features by asking students their knowledge about vampires. After that, students will be given a photocopy about a vampirism vocabulary activity, which will be very useful in order to do the following activities. This activity consists of matching the words on the left column with the definitions on the right column. Time: 3’ 7’ Groupings: Classroom discussion Student-student interaction (4 people groups) Materials: A photocopy A video from 100 3 While-Task activity: The teacher will show a scene from the TV series The Vampire Diaries in which the human Elena Gilbert dies and transforms into a vampire. After watching the video, students will do an activity which consists of doing two columns with powers and weaknesses of Elena Gilbert as a vampire. In addition, students will have to express ability by using the modal verbs Can and Could. Finally, each group will have to present their two columns to their classmates and explain the powers and weaknesses of a vampire. 4 Post-Task activity: In order to finish the lesson, students will be asked to create a story about a vampire including their powers, abilities and weaknesses by using the vocabulary learnt and the modal verbs Can and Could. 5’ 10’ 10’ 15’ Teacher-student interaction Student-student interaction (4 people groups) Classroom interaction Individually YouTube (The Vampire Diaries 3x22) A photocopy Evaluation of teaching and learning process: Have students been aware of learning and understanding new vocabulary? 101 Have students been aware of learning and understanding new vocabulary? Yes, they did. They even enjoyed learning this kind of vocabulary. Has there been an effective teacherstudent interaction? There has been a good and effective teacher and student interaction. Have students known how to express ability? Yes, they have. Have I made myself clear with the instructions and explanations in the lesson plan? Yes, I have. In addition, explanations and instructions were given only in English. Did students show interest with the topic? Yes, they did, since it is a topic about vampires and they have also enjoyed watching a scene from a famous TV series. Yes, they have. Has there been an effective teacher-student interaction? Yes. Students have enjoyed the activities. Have students known how to express ability? Yes, they have. Have I made myself clear with the instructions and explanations in the lesson plan? Yes, I have. Did students show interest with the topic? As far as I know, students enjoyed a lot during the class and I could not observe anything wrong. They really like watching videos in class. Assessment and feedback: Activities carried out during the lesson will make teacher be aware of students’ difficulties concerning grammar points. Therefore, the teacher will know in which aspects need to focus on improving students’ knowledge. Besides, teacher will get information by means of classroom atmosphere, teacher-student interaction and observation. Feedback will be provided when checking whole class activity and work in pairs activity. Homework: None 102 3.6. Lesson 6: ‘The water came and swept everyone away’ Time and date: 27/03/2014 2ºA (08:05-09:00) 2º B (11:1512:10) Grade: 2º A/B E.S.O Unit of Work: To express obligation and prohibition Number of students: 25 (2º A)/ 22 (2º B) Title of the lesson: ‘The water came and swept everyone away’ Learning objectives: a) To understand audio lingual resources and the key information given in the video. b) To learn the specific vocabulary and know how to use them. c) To know how to express ability by using the modal verbs Must and Have to. d) To speak in front of the audiences by using the vocabulary and grammar points. e) To learn how to write a story by including the vocabulary and grammar points. Activity: 1 & 2 Pre-Task activities: The teacher will project a scene from the Spanish movie The Impossible (2012), in which a Tsunami takes places. This video will be used as an introduction for the topic of this lesson. After that, students will be given a photocopy with the news about the 2004 Tsunami, Time: 5’ 10’ Groupings: Teacher-student interaction Individually Materials: A video from YouTube about the Spanish movie The Impossible (2012) A photocopy with the news about the 2004 Tsunami 103 which took place in Thailand. Students will be asked to read the text carefully and answer the questions concerning the text. 3 & 4 While-Task activities: The teacher will ask the students more information about natural disasters, what they know about them, etc. After that, the teacher will give students a photocopy with a vocabulary activity about natural disasters. In this activity, students will be asked to match the words on the left column with the definitions given in the right column. Next, students will have to do an activity called ‘A problem to be solved!’. Students will have to choose a natural disaster and then, they will have to fill in a list with the things to do and not to do in order to survive in the natural disaster chosen. 5 Post-Task activity: Finally, students will be asked to present their natural disaster to 3’ 7’ 15’ 10’ Classroom interaction Student – student interaction (4 groups people/4 people in each group) Student – student interaction (4 groups people) Classroom interaction A photocopy with the vocabulary activity A photocopy with a list to fill in 104 their classmates by using the vocabulary learnt and the modal verbs Must and Have to Evaluation of teaching and learning process: Have students been aware of learning and understanding new vocabulary? Yes, they have. Has there been an effective teacherstudent interaction? Yes, there has always been a good and effective interaction between students and teacher. Have students known how to express ability? Yes, they did. In addition, they showed me they knew how to use them throughout the activities. Have I made myself clear with the instructions and explanations in the lesson plan? Yes, I have, since students understood everything I asked them to do. Did students show interest with the topic? Yes, they did. Students like to learn these grammar points and vocabulary by using a movie. Have students been aware of learning and understanding new vocabulary? Yes, they have. What is more, they liked the activity. Has there been an effective teacherstudent interaction? Yes, it has. Have students known how to express ability? Yes, they have. They know how to express ability and it was showed through activities in class. Have I made myself clear with the instructions and explanations in the lesson plan? Yes, I have. Did students show interest with the topic? Yes, they did. Students showed interest in the topic and the class was funny. Assessment and feedback: Activities carried out during the lesson will make teacher be aware of students’ difficulties concerning grammar points. Therefore, the teacher will know in which aspects need to focus on improving students’ knowledge. Besides, teacher will get information by means of classroom atmosphere, teacher-student interaction and 105 observation. Feedback will be provided when checking whole class activity and work in pairs activity. Homework: None 3.7. Lesson 7: ‘Let’s be a scriptwriter’! Time and date: 2º A: 28/03/2014 (09:00 – 09:50) 2º B: 28/03/2014 (09:55 – 10:45) Grade: 2º A/B E.S.O Unit of Work: Review of vocabulary and grammar Number of students: 25 (2º A)/ 22 (2º B) Title of the lesson: ‘Let’s be scriptwriters!’ Learning objectives: a) To write an script in a cohesive and coherence way. b) To know how to use the specific vocabulary in the appropriate context. c) To know how to use the specific grammar points in the appropriate context. d) To speak in front of the audience with a clear voice and in a fluent way. Activity: 1 Pre-task activity: Teacher will introduce the topic of scriptwriters by asking the students some questions. 2 While-task activity: Teacher will provide students with a photocopy. Before that, teacher will give them the instructions, which are also stated in the photocopy. In the Time: 5’ 2’ 33’ Groupings: Classroom discussion Teacher-student interaction/ Materials: A photocopy 112 Activity 1: Match the words on the left column with the definitions on the right column. . 1 CLUE An act that violates the law 2 CRIME A statement or object that proves a solution to a mystery 3 DETECTIVE The reason a person does something 4 EVIDENCE The arrangement of events in a story 5 MOTIVE An object or piece of information that helps solve a mystery 6 MYSTERY A person who is harmed by a crime 7 PLOT To speak secretly or furtively, as in promoting intrigue, gossip, etc 8 VICTIM To carry off and hold (a person), usually for ransom 9 WITNESS The unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another 10 MURDER A way of maintaining something from others hidden 11 KIDNAP To declare or affirm (a statement) as true, esp by invoking a deity, etc, as witness 12 WHISPER Someone who saw something related to a crime 13 KEEP A SECRET A problem that needs to be solved 14 SWEAR ON MY LIFE A person who gathers information and investigates crimes Activity 2: Watch a video. Can Ali be alive? Or can she be dead? What do you think that happened to her? Discuss in groups about that. Then, write an alternative final by using could, may or might. After that, talk to the audience about the alternative final of each group. Eg: She could escape with a boyfriend or She might be away on holiday. Activity 1, 2 and 3: Do this exercises concerning the grammar points: 1. Use Could or Couldn’t: 1 Beethoven…….. hear, but he…………. compose beautiful music. 2 Hans Christian Andersen…………… spell words well, but he……….. write wonderful stories. 3 Christopher Reeve was a great actor. He………. do any acting job! Sadly, after a tragic accident, he……….. move his body. 113 4 Ray Charles………. See at ball, but he………. sing beautifully and he………. play many different musical instruments. 2. Put in order. 1 I May pen ? borrow your …………………………………. 2 please have , ? a we moment may ………………………………………… 3 early I May tomorrow leave ? ………………………………………… 4 name May have ? please , I your ………………………………………… 5 go now we May ? ………………………………………… 3. Fill in the gaps. 1 They (can/might) be away for the weekend but I'm not sure. 2 You (may/might) …………… leave now if you wish. 3 (Could/May) …………… you open the window a bit, please? 4 He (can/could) …………… be French, judging by his accent. 5 (May/Can) …………… you play the piano? 6 Listen, please. You (may not/might not) …………… speak during this exam. 7 They (can't/may not) …………… still be out! 8 You (couldn't/might not) …………… smoke on the bus. 9 With luck, tomorrow (can/could) …………… be a sunny day. 10 You (can/might) …………… be right but I'm going back to check anyway. Lesson 3: ‘I need a Doctor, please!’ 114 Activity 1: Match the diseases with their symptoms. 1 FLU A swollen glands in front of ear, earache or pain on eating 2 PNEUMONIA B burning pain in abdomen, pain or nausea after eating 3 RHEUMATISM C rash starting on body, slightly raised temperature 4 CHICKENPOX D dry cough, high fever, chest pain, rapid breathing 5 MUMPS E headache, aching muscles, fever, cough, sneezing 6 AN ULCER F swollen, painful joints, stiffness, limited movement Activity 2: Read the following text and answer the questions below. PATIENT (P): “Good morning. I'd like to make an appointment to see the doctor today.” SECRETARY(S): “The doctor is in a conference this morning, but he is free this afternoon. Is 2 o'clock OK?” ………………………………… DOCTOR (D): “What's the problem?” P: “I’m not sure but my throat hearts when I eat or drink water” D: “When did the symptoms start?” P: “It started five days ago and every day it has got worse! I have been coughing a lot since yesterday. Besides, tonight before I had a fever.” D: “And do you feel anything else? P: “I have been sneezing and had headaches.” D: “My diagnosis is that you have the flu.” P: “What should I do?” D: “I will give you a prescription. Go to the chemist’s and buy it! It’s syrup that you must take twice per day every twelve hours and some pills which will make you feel better in couple of days” P: “Thank you very much!” D: “By the way, remember. You should keep warm and mustn’t drink cold drinks!” P: “Alright. Bye!” Questions: 115 1. The patient has the flu. True or false? ………………………………….. 2. The appointment is at 11.30 am. True or false? ………………………………… 3. The patient feels backache. True or false? …………………………………. 4. Where was the doctor this morning? ………………………………… 5. How many time has the patient to take the syrup? …………………………………. 6. What are the advises that the Doctor gives to the patient? ………………………………….. Activity 3: Do this exercise by using the grammar points: 1. Use should or shouldn’t. 1. You……. open an umbrella inside the house. It’s bad luck. 2. Before Alan blows out his birthday candles, he………. wish for something nice. 3. Salt is an unlucky word. Sailors………. say it at sea. 4. You………. throw some salt at the entrance of your house. It will protect your house. 5. Has a black cat walked in front of your friend? Then your friend……… be happy. It’s a lucky day! 6. You………… sweep dirt from the house into the garden. The dirt will take all the good luck out of the house. 7. People with bad dreams……… put a horseshoe above their beds. 2. Write questions with the words in A. Use should. Then match the questions to the advice in B A 1. I / take / an umbrella /with me 116 2. Where / I / shop / for clothes 3. Which museums / my parents and I / go to 4. Which type of transport / we / take 5. What / we / eat 6. Which / superstitions / I / know about B a. The Underground. b. On Oxford Street. c. Fish and chips. d. Yes, because it often rains. e. It’s bad luck to open an umbrella indoors. f. The Natural History Museum and the British Museum. Activity 4: Work in pairs. Choose one of the following diseases: flu, pneumonia, rheumatism, chickenpox, mumps, an ulcer (others: sunburn, headache, stomachache, broken arm, broken foot, cough, flu, cold, dizziness…) Imagine that you are a doctor and your partner is a patient. Write three or four sentences with the recommendations that your patient should do. After that, tell them about the recommendations. Lesson 4: ‘My favorite film is…’ Activity 1: Explanation of the following words: plot, characters, setting, point of view, mood and theme. Activity 2: Fill in the table below. 117 Plot (What are the main things that happen in the story?) Characters (What are their names?) Setting (Where does the story take place?) Point of View (Who is the narrator of the story?) Mood (What is the mood of the film?) Theme What is the theme of the fim?) Activity 3: Complete the table again according to your favorite movie and after that, you will explain your movie to your classmates. Lesson 5: ‘A mythical being who feeds on human blood’ 118 Activity 1. Class discussion: Have you ever watched a TV series or films about vampires? Which one? Do you know anything about vampires? Do you know their powers? And their weaknesses? Activity 2. Match the words on the left column with the definitions given in the right column. 1)Blood consumption A) The fact of being sensitive to electromagnetic radiation, as for example light. 2)Superhuman speed B) The fact of undergoing physical renewal, especially when drinking blood. 3)Wall climbing C) The ability of not being subjected to death. That is, having a perpetual life. 4) Regeneration D) The power to gain power from blood and bodily fluids usually by ingestion. 5)Photosensitivity E) The ability of being physically stronger. 6)Superhuman strength F) The act or quality of acting or moving fast. 7)Immortality G) The ability of climbing without the aid of any equipment. Activity 3. Watch the transformation scene of Elena Gilbert from a human into a vampire from the TV series The Vampire Diaries. What do you think will be the powers of Elena Gilbert as a vampire? And her weaknesses? Write two lists about the powers and weaknesses of Elena Gilbert as a vampire. In addition, use the modal verbs Can and Could to express her abilities. After that, present your lists to your classmates. POWERS WEAKNESSES 119 Activity 4. Write a story about a vampire and explain their abilities, weaknesses, origins, and so on and so forth. Include the modal verbs Can and Could and the vocabulary learnt. ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Lesson 6: ‘The water came and swept everyone away’ Activity 1. Watch the scene of the Spanish movie The Impossible (2012), in which a Tsunami takes place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCqUoPaaH0I 120 Activity 2. Read the following text and answer the following questions. Many tsunamis occur each year, but one of the most deadly and destructive ones in history occurred in 2004. The tsunami was triggered by an undersea megathrust earthquake. The earthquake, known as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, was the second biggest tsunami ever recorded, registering between 9.1 and 9.3. The earthquake set off the tsunami, which is known by a variety of names including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the Asian Tsunami, the Indonesian Tsunami, and the Boxing Day Tsunami. The earthquake occurred on December 26, which was the same day the tsunami occurred. The death tolls for the 2004 earthquake are staggering. At first, the U.S. Geological Survey put the death toll at 283,100 killed. They also believed that there were 14,100 missing and 1,126,900 people displaced. However, new statistics showed that fewer people than originally believed died. Currently, at least 227,898 people have been confirmed as dead. At last count, over a million and a half people were displaced as a result of the tsunami. The tsunami, which was actually a series of tsunamis, affected many countries. India, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Somalia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand suffered the most in terms of damage and casualties. The most deaths occurred in Indonesia. A number of other countries also suffered from the tsunami including Bangladesh, Kenya, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Yemen, Australia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Oman, and Singapore. Numerous other countries lost citizens who were traveling abroad and were caught by the tsunami. The waves of the 2004 tsunami reached 30 meters, which is by no means the largest tsunami ever recorded. However, the 2004 tsunami did substantial damage. It destroyed thousands of miles of coastline. It even completely covered some islands. The effect of the tsunami has been long lasting. In addition to the huge loss of life, there was a huge economic and environmental impact on the countries affected. In coastal areas, much of the fishing gear and supplies was destroyed. The tsunami also made tourists hesitant to stay in the area. There was also contamination of drinking water and destruction of coral reefs, forests, and other many other natural features. 121 1. What is the name of the Tsunami occurred on December 26, 2004? 2. How this Tsunami occurred? 3. How many people died? How many people were displaced? 4. Which are the countries the Tsunami affected? 5. Name, at least, two of the many consequences the Tsunami caused. Activity 3. Match the words on the left column with the definitions given in the right column. 1)Natural Disaster A) the rising of a body of water and its overflowing into land 2)Avalanche B) A severe tropical storm with high winds and heavy rain 3)Tornado C) A major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth 4)Earthquake D) A cataclysm resulting from a destructive sea wave caused by an earthquake or volcanic eruption 5)Flood E) A slide of large masses of snow and ice and mud down a mountain 6)Hurricane F) A localized and violently destructive windstorm occurring over land characterized by a cloud extending toward the ground 7)Tsunami G) shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement Activity 4. ‘A problem to be solved!’: In groups of 4 people, choose a natural disaster and create a list of the things you have to do and mustn’t do in order to escape from the 128 A He ……… make false promises. B You ……… get offended, he may have forgotten to ring you up. C You ……… think there’s something wrong with you. It was Jerry’s mistake. D If you don’t go to his party, you ……… buy him a present. That is an advantage! VOCABULARY 1.Complete the dialogue with the suitable word from the box. (1 point) pills backache doctor Can What’s the problem? A: Sarah? …… you help me, please? These bags are too heavy for me! It hurts a lot! B: Don’t worry, grandma. …………………… ? A: Darling, I have a terrible ……… . B: Have you seen the ……… ? A: Yes, I have. I have to take some …… for a couple of days 2. Translate the following words into Spanish. (1 point) 1 Keep a secret ………………………………….. 2 Private eye …………………………………. 3 Murder ………………………………… 4 Clue …………………………………… 5 Alibi …………………………………… 6 Kidnap …………………………………… 7 Witness ……………………………………. 8 Swear on my life …………………………………….