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TRABAJO FIN DE MÁSTER (MODALIDAD A): THE TEACHING-LEARNING PROCESS OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE Sara Múzquiz Pérez Tutora: Mª Pilar Mur Dueñas Máster en Profesorado de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria, Bachillerato, Formación Profesional y Enseñanzas de Idiomas, Artísticas y Deportivas Especialidad: Lenguas Extranjeras (Inglés) Universidad de Zaragoza Curso 2010/2011 Trabajo Fin de Máster 2 INDEX Page Introduction 3 1. Training process 4 1.1. General training 4 1.1.1. Contexto de la actividad docente 4 1.1.2. Interacción y convivencia en el aula 5 1.1.3. Procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje 6 1.1.4 Atención a los alumnos con necesidad específica de apoyo educativo 7 1.2. Specific training 7 1.2.1. Diseño curricular de Lenguas Extranjeras 8 1.2.2. Fundamentos de diseño instruccional y metodologías de aprendizaje en la especialidad de Lenguas Extranjeras 9 1.2.3. Diseño, organización y desarrollo de actividades para el aprendizaje de Inglés 10 1.2.4. La comunicación oral en lengua inglesa 11 1.2.5. Evaluación e innovación docente e investigación educativa en inglés 12 1.2.6. Enseñanza del español como lengua de aprendizaje para alumnado inmigrante 12 1.3. Practicum periods 13 1.4.1. Practicum I: Integración y participación en el Centro y fundamentos del trabajo en el aula 14 1.4.2. Practicum II: Diseño curricular y actividades de aprendizaje en Lenguas Extranjeras - Inglés 15 1.4.3. Practicum III: Evaluación e innovación de la docencia e investigación educativa en Lenguas Extranjeras - Inglés 16 1.4. Conclusions 17 2. Learning and competences acquired 18 2.1. General training 18 2.2. Specific training 20 2.3. Practicum periods 22 2.4. Conclusion: self-evaluation of the main competences 24 3. Proposal for the future 25 3.1. Research project 25 3.2. Aspects of my future permanent training 27 4. Final conclusions 28 Bibliography 30 APPENDIX I Unit of work: I love music! 32 APPENDIX II Research project: Analysis of instructional material 80 Trabajo Fin de Máster 3 INTRODUCTION I have always been interested in languages and communication. When I was studying in the secondary school I took the speciality of humanities (Latin and Old Greek) because I liked languages and communicating with other people from different cultures. These interests led me to start my degree in Filología Inglesa, which I finished in June 2010. In addition, my training has been completed with the study of French in the State-run language school (to an advanced level), and also with the study of German, not only in the State-run language school (to an A2 level) but also thanks to an Erasmus year in Cologne (Germany) in 2008-09. Besides languages, I have always been in contact with the Education profession. In my home environment there are a lot of people working as teachers and I considered the possibility of becoming one of them a long time ago, teaching specially teenagers. That is a satisfaction for me because young adults seem to be nowadays very much disoriented, not only in an academic way but also personally. I think that I am ready to motivate and interact with them to meet their learning expectations taking an approach that makes them consider it a useful language worth learning. For this purpose, I need to acquire the necessary knowledge to get the required masters for becoming a language teacher. These are then, the main reasons I decided to do this Master. This Trabajo Fin de Máster summarizes the main learning and most relevant competences acquired while completing the Master focused on the teaching profession that I have been taking in the specialty of English. It is divided into three main sections. First of all I make some reflections about my process of learning in each course. Then, in the second section, I present and self-assess the sub-competences I acquired in each module and I present through a summarizing chart the main competences of the Master I have achieved at the end of that section. I will synthesize my innovation research project in the third part, and I will finish by explaining the importance of my future permanent training, putting forward some of the ways of developing it. Trabajo Fin de Máster 4 1. TRAINING PROCESS 1.1 GENERAL TRAINING The courses of this first period were common for all the students of the different specialities of the Master since the contents dealt with issues related to the teaching profession in general. As such, the language used in class was Spanish. 1.1.1 Contexto de la actividad docente This course integrated two different aspects: the educational establishment itself, its policies and characteristics and the social and familiar context of the educational process. We started the lessons looking at the educational establishment. In relation to this part of the course we studied three key documents: the current LEY ORGÁNICA 2/2006, de 3 de mayo, de Educación, the Currículo Aragonés BOA 2007, and the Proyecto Educativo de Centro. I consider it essential to have a deep knowledge of the rules that regulate education in Spain since they are the bases that support any actions related to the teaching practice. Although at the beginning it was difficult to get familiar with the new concepts related to the educational sphere, I realized that the knowledge acquired has been very useful to establish a strong basis on which to construct the learning process of the other courses. Further, it was also useful as an introduction to the Practicum I that I did during the first term when I had the opportunity to read and analyze the rules and documents of a specific secondary school (see section 1.4.1.). Besides, I also consider very important, as part of our general training, the notions we learnt about the general principles and the structure of the current educational system, the educative legislation, the power and the participation in the education establishments, the processes of negotiation and the decisions made within our region and which are explained in Bernal‟s (2006) book Comprender nuestros centros educativos, that made me become conscious of the need to engage oneself and be committed in the educational of being implicated in the education context in order to put measures into action when appropriate put action measures when it is appropriate. The second part of the semester focused on El contexto social y familiar del proceso educativo. Throughout the lessons I learnt notions about sociology and psychology between teacher and teenagers also made me reflect about the way in which the Trabajo Fin de Máster 5 behavior of the lecturer in certain conflictive situations must be. Throughout the course we had to follow and write our opinions and experiences in some opened fora in the Moodle platform every one or two weeks. Some questions for discussions were about our previous experience as students such as: which positive and bad memories or experiences do you remember of the teachers you had?, what experience did you have with the counselor of your school?, was there any relation between the families and the teachers?. This forum was interesting because I could remember my personal experience as student and compare it, in several aspects, with the current situation and get useful conclusions that can help us deal with young students. 1.1.2 Interacción y convivencia en el aula This course was divided into three parts: psychology and personality development, tutorship and orientation, and interaction and coexistence in the classroom. In the part where psychology was more developed, the lecturer gave an overview of evolutionary Psychology paying special attention to his and he based his explanations and point of view on Berkowitz‟s (1986) book A Survey of Social Psychology. We started from the premise that team work is more effective than individual work and we saw how it can influence, at the same time, students‟ behavior, how certain features of the personality can come to the surface according to their position in the group and the roles that each of them adopt in them. We also paid attention to the interaction and communication processes among people, following Gil Lacruz‟s ideas in her book Psicología social, with the purpose of knowing our social role in the classroom, which can promote a formative and motivating coexistence in the classroom. An important factor as well was to look at interaction in the classroom focusing on the particular role of the „leader‟, and its positive contributions in the process of learning. A good leader helps colleagues to reach a common goal (Tannembaum and Schmidt 1958; Moreno 2005). This part of the course appealed me a lot because I think that it is essential to have notions and observe which factors promote the development of the students at all levels and guide then academically and professionally, taking into account their psychological characteristics and their familiar and social contexts. The second part of the course dealt with the prevention and resolution of conflicts, tutorials and orientation. The way these issues were covered in class was quite Trabajo Fin de Máster 6 controversial. The target of the lecturer was to make us react about established methods and conventions while dealing with different situations; concerning for instance, the students‟ bad behavior, conflicts in the classrooms, the lack of understanding between teacher and students, confidence and many other things from the point of view of the social psychology. The somehow unconventional way of approaching these questions was by means of practices on real situations, with our participation, open questions and debates. Not everybody liked this method as no clear answers were offered (understanding, trust, observation and patience were key elements). However, in my particular case, it was one of the lectures that put my principles down to build new ones with a more open perspective and made me think again of what is right or wrong and to know which attitudes I would allow in class and what I consider that is good for a student. I used to arrive home and still think about it and discussed it with family and friends to see the possible solutions for the different conflicts. It made me react and it was practical in order to acquire knowledge about a field that maybe still sometimes neglected since it is difficult to be dealt with. 1.1.3. Procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje The course was taught by three different lecturers dealing with: teaching-learning models such as Conductism (Paulov and Skinner), Cognitivism (Piaget and sociocognitive theories) and Constructivism (precursors: Piaget, Vygotsky, Ausubel). Another part dealt with the curricular components of the teaching-learning process, attention to diversity, the evaluation of the teaching-learning process and finally the use of ICTs. The course was very well coordinated and planned in such a way that each lecturer explained a part taking into account what we had already learnt and what we had not seen yet. Through this course, I acquired notions about the different teachinglearning theories, the importance of taking into account the context during the teaching learning process, the curricular components such as the competences, methodology, objectives, contents and evaluation of the teaching-learning process, innovation, students‟ motivation, attention to diversity and the use of ICTs in the classroom and some ways of making the most of them to enhance the students‟ learning. The assessment of this course was based on the evaluation of the lecturer, an elaboration of a unit of work for the English class, which I consider particularly interesting because Trabajo Fin de Máster 7 I could unify and integrate all the knowledge that I had acquired in an independent way. At the same time, it was something very practical and useful for our future work as teachers since it is something that will have to be done regularly. 1.1.4 Atención a los alumnos con necesidad específica de apoyo educativo In this optional course we were prepared to answer the professional needs of teachers in a more and more heterogeneous educational context. Organizational and didactic aspects such as the classroom as a space where mediation and intervention can take place, the variants of curriculum to face the varied needs of the students or curricular adaptation are some of the measures that were studied in relation to attention to diversity from a perspective that combined innovation with legislative proposals. I could understand the different meanings that attention to diversity may have. I considered it a challenge to make a good performance in my future teaching practice since this reality is very wide nowadays and the needs are many and very different. By working in class in team groups we could explore all the aspects working on legal documents, making oral presentations about the analysis of a particular situation and experiences, and preparing units of work for a heterogeneous classroom. In this course I learnt about the legal and psycho-pedagogic resources: the LOE, la Orden de 25 de junio de 2001(BOA 6/07/01),CAREI (Centro Aragonés de Recursos para la Educación Intercultural) and a lot of bibliographic references, in relation with the students with special needs which can be of much help in my future teaching practice. I am more conscious now about the problem and I know how to tackle it taking into account the psychology and personal situation of each student, how that problem affects them and the possible ways of helping them 1.2 SPECIFIC TRAINING Due to the particularity of the speciality, foreign languages, the language used in class was English as a means also of preparing the teaching practice in that language. Exceptionally Spanish was used in Diseño curricular and Fundamentos de diseño Trabajo Fin de Máster 8 instruccional y metodologías de aprendizaje because we shared the teacher with the French speciality and not all the students could understand English. 1.2.1 Diseño curricular de Lenguas Extranjeras The main purpose of this lecture was to study the Currículo Aragonés in a deeper way focusing on the contents, skills and objectives students the students should achieve and to understand the structures of the different phases and levels in ESO, Bachillerato and EOI. We analyzed its underlying principles and the main consequences of teaching with a focus on competences. What I learnt in this course was how to adequate the contents of a syllabus of English according to the needs and levels of the students bearing in mind the objectives and bases of the currículo. We were assessed on the basis of the planning of an academic year full syllabus of a specific level of ESO. The notion of the competence was new for me. It changed my view and manner of focusing and preparing a syllabus depending also on the levels of the students. It was the first time that I had an exhaustive and complete reading of the Currículo Aragonés ,Orden de 9 de mayo de 2007, and it entailed a change in my way of seeing teaching: more organized, leveled and complete with concrete principles in order to have a good command of a foreign language: in this case, English. I found quite difficult and laborious to design the syllabus taking into account that you could not predict the needs of the students in the teaching-learning process. Although it was a wonderful guide, preparing a syllabus in an abstract way without considering a particular teaching situation was too general. Another aspect covered in the course was the treatment of other cross curricular aspects apart from competences, such as transversal questions: attention to diversity, the ICTs, civic and equal opportunities for education regardless gender, covered in the BOA. These were very much discussed and I thought it was important to show and instill into the students. Nevertheless, it could have been better to focus more on the syllabus than on other aspects but I thought that this course was essential as a guidance for the teaching practice within the legal framework and the basics, as well as the preparation for the courses La comunicación oral en lengua inglesa and Diseño, organización y desarrollo de actividades that were closely related. Trabajo Fin de Máster 9 1.2.2. Fundamentos de diseño instruccional y metodologías de aprendizaje en la especialidad de Lenguas Extranjeras In this course we were prepared to teach a foreign language through varied methodologies, activities and resources for different contexts in the teaching-learning process with the model and from the perspective of the didactic guide of the PEL, Portfolio europeo de las lenguas para Enseñanza secundaria, and the BOA, mentioned above. We were also taught to adjust the models and designs for different situations within the English class. It was closely related to the course Diseño, organización y desarrollo de actividades that established the theoretical principles of the instructional design needed in order to be applied in the context of an English lesson. The objectives of this course were then, to plan, design and develop learning and assessment activities based on achievement of varied, general competences: linguistic, mathematic, knowledge and interaction with the physical world, information and digital, social and civic, cultural and artistic, learning to learn and autonomy and personal initiative, in a particular subject (English). Throughout the lessons, I could learn the methodological principles of the didactic action, the different ways of presenting information and knowledge, the different parts the units of work consist of, the methodologies I could use while teaching, as well as the different types of activities, its advantages and disadvantages, working on the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. We also designed activities aimed at developing several, different general competences such as, learning to learn and autonomy and personal initiative such as proposing students to make a creative presentation in class of a topic of their own choice, and adapt the level according to the different special needs of the students. We also tried ourselves to work in groups to practice and experience the advantages of working cooperatively. The way of reflecting this learning was the elaboration of a complete unit of work about a specific topic for a specific level of ESO. The evaluation was completed with a written exam about the theoretical notions seen in class. Being aware of the different methods and models of activities to exploit a particular competence or skill in the process of learning of students with several needs was the most interesting Trabajo Fin de Máster 16 participation were promoted) , and its downs (slower explanations of grammar, repetition of the concepts should have been needed and few more activities in team work). The course Diseño de actividades helped me to deal with it and the result was very positive (see section 2.3 and appendix I for further details on it). As a conclusion, I was very happy with the experience I got, what I learnt, the observation in the classes of the methodologies in use, the relationship between the teacher and the students, the strategies to encourage motivation and participation and many others. It was a great opportunity of teaching because it was the only way to put into practice the theory learnt in the lessons at university, and to confront the reality in the routine of a school day in Spain. 1.4.3. Practicum III: Evaluación e innovación de la docencia e investigación educativa en lenguas extranjeras. This third period of practice took place after the practicum II in the second semester. During our stay in the school, my colleagues and me decided that it would be interesting to research, analyze and compare the materials and resources used to improve the teachers‟ performance and make the learning easier for the students. In order to deal with this project we attended some English lessons of Grado Superior de Agencias de viajes and we decided to observe and analyze, working in class side by side with the students, the materials used, which became the focus of our study. We specifically focused on specialized vocabulary that could be used in travel agencies when the students had access to the labor world. We studied the way vocabulary was taught and practiced both in oral activities (speaking and listening) and in written activities (reading and writing). Putting in common the observations and conclusions after the lessons, we realized that the materials to be used were very specific for the training of tourism notions in English language and the teacher had to pay more attention to the sources and the purpose of those materials. A very good idea to experience this at first hand was to work ourselves together with the students by preparing for instance, a journey with real catalogues. One of the important points we studied was the perception between the traditional view of education based on a book oriented method and the writing skills, and the new communicative approach in the EFL classroom. In this sense we noticed how new Trabajo Fin de Máster 17 technologies (internet) and realia, where students worked with real parameters being a motivating factor because they felt the responsibility of doing things in a right, serious and professional way. These materials produced a comprehensible input on students, however, my colleagues and I suggested a more frequent use of good quality audiovisual materials such as the DVD to have subtitles if available or transcriptions of the dialogues as a feedback in order to make easier the input students received. Sometimes they felt lost with the traditional tape recorder or CD. This experience helped me to be critical with the resources and materials, create and research new ones and explore the possibilities of the ICTs for my future teaching practice. 1.5. CONCLUSIONS After covering the learning process undergone in each course, I would like to underline in this section some conclusions I have reached. First, if I look back at the contents developed in the courses throughout the academic year I think that the global approach of the master is logical and coherent each module having correlation with the following ones. The course starts with the lectures of a generic nature that introduce the students to the basic and general issues in the teaching profession and it goes in progression towards more specific contents related to each specialty. I also think that the different periods of practice are well located in time and in relation with the courses previously taken and contents covered . This makes the practicum periods to be well contextualized within the global aim of the master. However, I consider that practicum II is a littlebit short in duration. If it were longer, it would permit students to be more integrated in a real way in the educational community. The practicum was the best part of the master because becoming a professional requires practice and experience at all levels and in a real context. As far as the progression of the courses is concerned, I think that the approach as it was explained in each of the previous sections is appropriate; both the theory lessons and the tasks and activities proposed have helped me to acquire the competences of each of the them, as I will explain in more detail in part 2 below. Trabajo Fin de Máster 18 2. LEARNING AND COMPETENCES ACQUIRED In the following part I present the competences each student should acquire, according to the learning guides of the courses, as a result of the teaching-learning process. The procedure will be to self-assess the general sub-competences of each section of the training process, first commenting on the level in which I have acquired those competences ( excellent, satisfactory, acceptable or need to reinforce). Finally, as a conclusion, I will analyze with a chart the way I acquired the five fundamental competences of the Master. 2.1 GENERAL TRAINING The acquisition of the sub-competences in this general training was very satisfactory. As far as the course of Contexto de la actividad docente is concerned, I could identify, describe, analyze, interpret and question, when it was necessary, the historical evolution of the teaching activity, the historical evolution of the family and its role in education, as well as the relationship between the educational institution, the family and the education community. After taking this course I am also more competent in ways to look for integration in discussing the model of the teacher in the current society, the ethical compromise of a critic and self-critic capacity, the regulations of the education system, the definition of the education project and the general activities in the school and the interaction and communication between the members of the education community. The reason why I developed these competences was the preparation I received in the lessons, learning about the old and current legislation in education. With the fora proposed and the debates, I could also reflect on the current situation of education and the social and familiar context and develop strategies to deal with it. For instance, the conventions to welcome foreign students. My first teaching placement also helped me in the acquisition of the previous competences. However, maybe due to the theoretical character of the course, I consider the sub-competences of designing or implementing evaluation, investigation and innovation actions as well as the activities for promoting equity and human rights were not very much developed throughout the course and I have therefore reached just an acceptable level in them. In my case, these Trabajo Fin de Máster 19 competences were better acquired during the Practicum as real proposals to deal with these issues are developed at schools. The competences acquired in Interacción y convivencia en el aula can be considered excellent. Throughout the lessons I could learn to observe, identify, understand, develop, master issues related to the observation of the students‟ behaviors (individual and in group), the guiding of students, strategies for the prevention of conflicts, attention to diversity, methodological strategies to increase students‟ participation, and processes of interaction and communication in the classroom. The debates made us deeply reflect on the acquisition of competences. At the same time there were other subcompetences that were acquired to an acceptable level. For instance, those dealing with the theoretical notions: skills and social abilities, the development of the students‟ personality and how it affects learning, effective methods of communication, the psychosocial abilities and the characteristic of the students, since there was not a real context where the theories were exemplified. I will have to wait to face a real experience to reinforce these competences. During the course Procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje the sub-competences were acquired in a satisfactory way considering that all the knowledge of the different parts of the course were integrated and put it into practice with the elaboration of a unit of work. I emphasize the competences dealing with the conception of theory and practice in teaching as a dialectic process of investigation and constant reflection. It was also remarkable the analysis of the use of ICTs in the teaching-learning process, the development of proposals based on the acquisition of knowledge, skills and intellectual and emotional aptitudes, as well as the development of strategies to learn, teach and think creatively in the classroom. Atención a los alumnos con necesidad específica de apoyo educativo helped me to know about the current legislation related with the preparation of a syllabus for students with specific education needs and to know the theoretical and practical implications in the prevention of education difficulties. These facts implied to be aware of the implications the participation of these students entails. I acquired the competence of analyzing psychological, pedagogical and social aspects that influence school performance. These competences were achieved in a satisfactory way even though Trabajo Fin de Máster 20 specific education needs is a very wide aspect and it was difficult to deal with all the suggestions and implications. Designing a curricular proposal for a heterogeneous group with special needs gave me the chance of becoming aware of the problems and possibilities variety in a class entails. The competence of designing a unit of work directed to foreign students with different needs was reasonably acquired since it is very difficult to manage a situation with these characteristics without a real context although, it encouraged me to take responsibility with the students‟ special needs in my future teaching. 2.2. SPECIFIC TRAINING The acquisition of the sub-competences in this general training was in general terms satisfactory. In the course Diseño curricular I developed the sub-competences in an acceptable way through the elaboration of a one-year syllabus. The main subcompetences were to understand the structure and the elements of the curriculum and apply that knowledge to the organization and distribution of the contents of the different educational levels, and develop the curricular design for the English courses paying attention to competences. However, I missed spending more time with the curriculum and the acquisition of competences could have been deeper. Preparing a good syllabus requires more time than we took. The sub-competences I acquired with the course Fundamentos de diseño y metodologías de aprendizaje were very satisfactory as I could integrate the knowledge in a unit of work. I consider that I fully acquired the competences of: critically analyzing different models and theories of the instructional design and learning methodologies, as well as, designing and assessing learning situations appropriate to particular cases in the context of an English lesson. Concerning Diseño, organización y desarrollo de actividades, some of the subcompetences I achieved were acceptable and others need to be reinforced. I have partially completed my knowledge in applying the tenets of the methodological paradigms to the teaching of a foreign language during the practicum II. I had the opportunity to implement these competences being a language teacher in a real context Trabajo Fin de Máster 21 and putting into practice the activities I had designed and developed. Since the experience was very positive I consider that I satisfactorily acquired the competences of this course. However, I realized while teaching in the practicum, that the application in a real context of theoretical issues regarding the communicative teaching of language is difficult. I guess this competence will be more developed as I gain more experience in my future teaching practice. Although the communicative approach may be a challenge for the EFL teacher it can contribute to raise students‟ motivation and interest in learning a language and especially if authentic materials are used, as I could learn in my teaching placement. During my teaching practice, although I could make students participate, I would need to improve my teaching skills to prepare and adapt more activities to meet the students‟ needs, wants and likes. Regarding the course Comunicación oral en lengua inglesa, I could achieve in a satisfactory way the sub-competences integrated in the contents of the syllabus. More specifically I consider that I gain good competence in expressing and interacting orally in English in a correct and fluent way in a particular context, as well as giving explanations to the students and trying to encourage the interaction through several activities made in group throughout the lessons including a role play task where I acted as teacher of my classmates; I had to explain and practice an oral activity with them. What I think that should be reinforced is the design, planning and assessment of the activities based on phonetic aspects and oral production activities that need to be put into practice , in my particular case, in a real context. In terms of analyzing, identifying and describing the most relevant aspects of English oral discourse, I consider my preparation should go deeper into these theoretical aspects in my future teaching training. The sub-competences concerning the course of Evaluation, innovación docente e investigación educativa, were achieved in a satisfactory way. With the experience I had in the practicum III putting into practice the theory given in class, analyzing, reflecting and evaluating the teaching techniques and the materials used by a teacher of English, I learnt the procedure to follow in order to identify the possible problems, analyze them and plan education interventions to implement and modify them. What I consider should be improved was the time dedicated to the innovation in the teaching practice of Trabajo Fin de Máster 22 a foreign language; more time and guidance was needed for improving the practice in the practicum III. Working in group was a very useful competence which I acquired in this course. Finally, thanks to the reading proposed by the lecturer of the optional course Enseñanza del español como lengua de aprendizaje para alumnado inmigrante as well as to the activities and reflections shared in class and the individual work, a task study consisting in teaching some Spanish lessons to a Chinese student who had arrived in Spain and had started attending the secondary school two months before. I consider that I have achieved the competences attached to this course in an acceptable way. I can emphasize the acquisition of the theoretical bases and the abilities directed to Spanish as a second language for foreign students, including teaching strategies to make the comprehension of oral and written texts easier for them and to adapt the material to the different areas of the curriculum. As I mentioned above, I developed, practiced and reinforced these competences by preparing the lessons for a foreign student. 2.3. PRACTICUM PERIODS The acquisition of sub-competences in the Practicum I has been in general terms, excellent. The fact of being in contact with the documents of the IES Miralbueno and the rigorous analysis I made with my colleagues, I became aware of the underlying regulation and implications in the education system of that particular school. Our focus was not only on the legislation but also on the guidance of students, attention to diversity, quality and extra activities, which we learnt about through several meetings with different members of the education community. I can underline the acquisition of the following competences: the analysis and assessment of the teaching profession situation and the importance of the participation in the definition of the different projects and institutional or didactic programs, the identification, recognition and application of the education system regulations, the processes of interaction and communication in the classroom, the fundamental bases of tutorials and orientation, as well as the development of the observation of the students‟ capacity. Trabajo Fin de Máster 23 As far as Practicum II is concerned, the process and achievement of the subcompetences described in the teaching guide was excellent basically thanks to the practice and experience got while teaching English to a group of 1º ESO in IES Miralbueno. In this period I could put into practice the strategies and competences acquired first in theory during the lessons in the specific training courses, and then observe the results and have feedback from the university tutor on the implementation of my own unit of work. The main competences related to the curricular design that I developed were: to identify, recognize and apply the design of the teaching-learning processes, analyze, adjust and develop the curricular design for the course according to diverse theories, through competences and in an education context, and finally to analyze and assess the appropriateness of the contents. The main sub-competences I achieved related to the instructional design were: the analysis and identification of a good atmosphere to acquire competences, the analysis and assessment of the criterion and procedures to organize activities and the creation of a positive learning environment, the planning and the implementation of the designed activities. Finally, I acquired in a very satisfactory way those competences related to the organization and design of learning activities: to analyze the keys of a good learning atmosphere for the acquisition of competences, to analyze the criteria and procedures to organize and deal with the activities bearing in mind different learning factors and to prepare an appropriate learning environment for the specific courses. The Practicum II was in my opinion most fruitful in the acquisition of the masters‟ competences. Finally, regarding Practicum III the sub-competences included in the teaching guide were acquired in an acceptable way. Looking at the competence of evaluation, innovation and investigation about the teaching processes I became aware of the importance of introducing constant improvements in the teaching practice. I worked with this aim in mind when developing an innovation project together with my colleagues about the materials used in the English class (see section 1.2.5 and appendix II). But paying attention to the second competence, to motivate and guide the learning process of the students of English, I would need to reinforce and improve it in my future teaching practice by doing for instance a portfolio of my teaching practice. Trabajo Fin de Máster 24 2.4. CONCLUSION: Self-evaluation of the main competences After having made a reflection about the sub-competences of the different parts of the learning process of the Master, as a conclusion, I present in the following chart, the selfassessment of the five main competences established in the regulations of the Master that embrace the sub-competences of all the courses. This competence has been acquired Competences Excellent Satisfactory Acceptable Need to reinforce 1. Being integrated in the teaching profession, knowing the legal and institutional framework, its situation and challenges in the current society and being integrated in the social and familiar contexts that determine teaching performance being integrated and participating in the organization of the educational establishments and contributing to its projects and activities. X 2. Providing a formative and stimulating coexistence in the classroom, in order to contribute to the development of the students at all levels, guiding them in an academic and professional way, taking into account their psychology, social and familiar characteristics. X 3. Driving and fostering the students‟ learning process in a reflective way, based on the principles and theories more relevant to the teaching-learning process. X 4. Planning, designing, organizing and developing a syllabus and learning activities and assessing such learning. X 5. Assessing, innovating and investigating about my own teaching processes with the objective of being involved in a permanent teaching training and improving the teaching practice. X As it is shown in the chart above, I consider that in general terms, I have acquired the specific and fundamental competences of the Master in a satisfactory way, in spite of some aspects and competences that will have to be improved that I have already mentioned above. The need for reinforcing the innovation and investigation and for long-life learning will be commented on the third part. Trabajo Fin de Máster 25 3. PROPOSAL FOR THE FUTURE In this section I explain the main aspects of the innovation project that I made together with two of my colleagues about instructional materials. First I will justify the choice of this topic, I will then describe the analysis we made and the conclusions we reached. After that, I will summarize the ways in which I will pursue my future permanent training. 3.1 RESEARCH PROJECT The research project that I am going to present is the result of the knowledge and competences acquired in the course Evaluación e innovación docente e investigación educativa en Inglés that were put into practice together with two classmates during the Practicum III in IES Miralbueno. The context in which we decided to start this research project was the class of English in Grado Superior of Agencias de viajes in which our coordinator was the teacher. It was interesting to see the needs of these students to face their professional future in the tourism sector where English is the main language of communication. My colleagues and me were conscious of the particular needs of these learners which, as teachers to be we need to take into account. We saw then, the importance of motivating the students, working on competences and taking a communicative approach. By paying attention to these aspects, we realized about the importance of the instructional materials as they are the main way of exposing learners to the L2 and supporting the knowledge learnt. The focus on the instructional materials led us to think on how materials had been influenced by different views on the learning and acquisition process in different historical and current methods, and on how under previous methodologies the first language prevailed in teaching materials in general and in textbooks in particular. We also had to reflect on the need for materials to meet the students‟ particular needs and that, under the Communicative Approach, materials have to foster the contextualized use of language. This approach entailed a change in the teaching-learning process: „English language in textbooks instead of the students‟ first language and the use of the new approach connected to tasks and activities whose main aim was now to foster the use of the target language in real communicative situations‟(Richards and Rodgers, Trabajo Fin de Máster 32 APPENDIX I UNIT OF WORK: I LOVE MUSIC! Trabajo Fin de Máster 33 Trabajo Fin de Máster 34 UNIDAD DIDÁCTICA I LOVE MUSIC! PRÁCTICUM II Sara Múzquiz Pérez Coordinadora: Ana María Artigas Máster en Profesorado de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria, Bachillerato, Formación Profesional y Enseñanzas de Idiomas, Artísticas y Deportivas Universidad de Zaragoza Curso 2010/2011 Trabajo Fin de Máster 35 INDEX Page Introduction 3 My learning plan 4 Methodology 6 Objectives 10 Contents 12 Learning Activities 13 Evaluation and assessment 26 Instruments for learning assessment 27 Marking criteria 29 Evaluation of the teaching-learning process 30 Materials 27 Appendix 32 Bibliography Trabajo Fin de Máster 36 1. INTRODUCTION Every student is different and unique. Especially when teaching we must take this into account. According to the curriculum, the main objective of foreign language teachers is to form students who will be capable of using the language. But we cannot just focus on this. Teachers are a main pillar in our society when forming people. Being specialised in English teaching does not mean that we can forget other aspects related to the child. We must work those aspects to achieve a complete formation of the child. When teaching English as a foreign language have to bear in mind that what students really want is to be able to communicate with others in that language. Therefore we cannot only focus on vocabulary or grammar as students will find no motivation in it. We have to make them see that behind each activity, each text they read, each lesson, there is a real purpose. . This center is located in an old rural neighborhood that is nowadays in expansion and modernization with the coming of new families with a higher socio-economic level. Due to the fact of the ruralization, IES Miralbueno was created focusing on the acquisition of skills dealing with a specific profession. It is a center then, where the majority of students are over 18, learning voluntary a specific job in Ciclos Formativos. That is why there are still quite a few students of ESO (around 200) who are involved more in an atmosphere of labor world than in a university one. Although with the passing of time it will change, the consequences are that few students arrive to bachillerato and in general, there are few people e interested in going to university. This unit of work is thought for students that are in their first year of secondary education (13 years old), in the IES Miralbueno, Zaragoza. It will take place during the 2nd school term. The level of the students is very low mainly due to the lack of interest in the lectures and particularly English. There are 24 students and only off of them passed the subject in the 1st term and most of them do not work English at all in class. They understand very few things and do not speak at all. It is significant the mixture of students with Trabajo Fin de Máster 37 different origins (Gypsies, Chinese, South Americans, etc) that makes a great variety of diversity in characters on one side and levels on the other side. There are at least 4 or 5 students one year older than the rest, repeating who try to be the “jokers” of the class, influence and make difficult the progression of the lecture. The 2 gypsy guys do not even try to work or understand because it seems they have their mind somewhere else. There is a Chinese, in Spain for 2 months, who does not know English or Spanish and needs extra help and activities. His integration would be essential and a reason to teach English and interact with his classmates. There are only few students who work and follow the class. The great challenge then, is to make them feel part of a whole, participate, work and interact. Motivating them will be another big objective. 2. MY LEARNING PLAN.  School: IES Miralbueno  Students: 24  Year: 1st year of Secondary Education  Topic: I love music!  Areas: English language  Number of Sessions: 6 It is a real challenge to motivate and involve all the students in the process of teaching-learning. For this purpose and in order to attract them we will work on the topic: I love music! The topic that has been chosen because in general, all students love music and specially teenagers, who even feel identified with their favourite stars. Some of them may play some instrument as a hobby or in a professional way. Second, it is a topic with a large range of vocabulary: instruments, genres, dance, singers, fans, etc. Not only the vocabulary is interesting but also the other linguistic skills, reading, grammar, etc, can be worked on. Nowadays, teenagers and society in general, are influenced by these stars who built a life of dreams and success. Something that students have to learn to criticize Trabajo Fin de Máster 38 having autonomy and independence to make mature decisions. Music is also a therapy and a way to acquire the values of respect and tolerance. Students must learn about everything that surrounds them, especially if it is something that affects society. It is very important to address diversity in the classroom, as each one of us is different from one another, and children must understand that being different is not something bad. We all have different needs from one another, but that does not mean that we have to be treated in a different way in terms of discriminating others. Anyway, we cannot mistake treating students equally with ignoring differences and wanting them to be all the same. We have to bear in mind also the technological world and the spread of communication through Internet and the social nets. These and other interesting topics that students can suggest, will be the excuse to motivate them and create interest in learning English, a tool for their future, becoming mature and good people. After all, music is also an international language of communication and interaction. Music helps students to express more ideas and feel comfortable since everyone knows little bit of music and it is something personal. People liked, like, and will like music so; they always have the resort of the previous knowledge and abilities. If not, they can learn with information given in class. It is a topic of the past, present and future, ideal to put into practice all the learning skills. Trabajo Fin de Máster 39 3. METHODOLOGY When putting into practice this unit of work we must consider the following principles:  Knowledge of the student about the topic: it is essential for the teacher to find out what the student knows in order to select the contents that are going to be worked and prepare the different type of activities. A previous discussion on the topic will be made in order to test it.  Level of development: the teacher must know the students‟ cognitive competence.  Motivating situations: the use of activities that include games will be used in order to motivate students into learning process specially those ones who are passive in class and do not work.  Appropriate level: cognitive, psychomotor, linguistic, moral and social aspects must be taken into account when selecting and preparing activities. These must be adapted to the student‟s level.  Daily life experiences: the activities must be related to daily life situations in order to achieve meaningful learning which will lead to the creation of links between the new contents that children learn and those which already exist in their cognitive structure.  Motivation: it will be the main issue of the whole teaching and learning process. An atmosphere of affection and trust in which the student feels secure and comfortable will help the whole process to carry out in a satisfactory way.  Organization of the classroom: there is not an organization of the classroom which can be considered ideal. It would be considered what would be the most appropriate depending on the characteristics of the group. Anyway, the following aspects can be taken into account:  It should help both, group and individual work. Trabajo Fin de Máster 40  It should include a common area such as “corners” in which group activities can be carried out. We cannot forget that the organization of the classroom can change if necessary  Organization of the time: drastic segmentations within the unit must be avoided. Daily routines will help the child structuralize the activities and internalize a time frame in order to act with more autonomy. We mustn‟t forget to keep a correct balance between the amount of time students spend working and the rest time. A specific strategy will be to write on the board every day, the planning with all the activities of that day‟s lesson underlining the most important and crossing out when completed. In some activities they will have a limited time to finish with. Ex. You have 3 minutes time to do the exercise.  Organization of the materials: it should provide as many opportunities for manipulation as possible to achieve new learning‟s. Students will be free to choose the materials they want to use when working at home.  The teacher will pay attention to detect as soon as possible any difficulties that may arise in the classroom in order to help these students through appropriate activities or attention if necessary. From the beginning of the year, we will hang up some useful expressions that each student will have in a piece of paper. Spanish will be forbidden when it comes to say those expressions. Some of those expressions could be the following:  Can I go to the toilet, please?  Sorry I‟m late  Good morning!  See you tomorrow!  Can you lend me a pencil, rubber, etc. please?  Can you repeat that please?  How do you spell __________?  What does __________ mean?  Can you give me an example? Trabajo Fin de Máster 41  How do you say ___________ in Japanese/Spanish/French . . .?  I think so, I don‟t think so.  Maybe, perhaps According to the use of different techniques among the class, we will apply the following:  ACTIVE LEARNING If we manage to actively involve the student in his/her learning process, the locus of control will gradually shift from the teacher to the student. Active learning:  engages students physically, cognitively, and emotionally  promotes action, as students learn to recognise their own capacity and selfefficacy  places students at the centre of the learning process through ensuring that the content is relevant to their own lives and is engaging for them  requires an atmosphere of trust and support in order to ensure that student do engage and feel secure in expressing their own views or in trying out new skills Active learning involves learning in collaboration with others. Learning within a community of learners enables the student to construct his/her own knowledge, to explore issues from multiple perspectives, and then to review and reflect on his/her discussions with peers. In other words, the way the student acquires knowledge affects the degree to which that knowledge becomes useful or not useful to the child. This makes active learning crucial to learning the meaning of responsible citizenship.  DISCUSSION It will be one of the most important strategies. Through discussion students learn to analyse, synthesise, and evaluate information by asking questions, and continually revisit their own ideas and attitudes. Discussion has a key role in intercultural education. Trabajo Fin de Máster 48  Description: T shows different pictures (power point) related with the music. Discussion about the topic where the T will make questions to SS. All SS will have to participate. Ex. Which English bands or singers do you know?, which genres of music do you know?, have you ever been in a concert?, tell me positive or negative thing of the music, do you want to be an artist?,etc. T will suggest some useful expressions: I like, I do not like, I think, I don‟t think so…  Type: individual  Objectives: 1,3,4,7,10,20  Materials: pictures  Time: Approximately 15 “  Competences:  Linguistic competence  Cultural and artistic  Social and citizen competence  Autonomy and personal initiative Activity 2: Professions (Appendix 2)  Description: SS will have to match the pictures with the professions. Later on, they will have only 5 minutes to make a list of other professions SS may know. Once it is corrected by volunteers or SS named by the T and with her supervision, they will be asked to say which of those professions are not connected with the entertainment and which ones are connected with the music. All students will have to participate at least once. They will write everything down their notebooks.  Type: individual  Objectives: 1,9,16,20 Trabajo Fin de Máster 49  Materials: board, notebook, photocopy  Time: 10”  Competences:  Linguistic competence  Social and citizen competence  Autonomy and personal initiative Activity 3: Reading “Guitars: then and now” (Appendix 3)  Description: in order to introduce the activity T will ask SS if anyone of them play some instrument and will try to establish a dialogue with them. After that, SS will try to guess which questions they could make about the reading looking at the title. The questions will be read aloud and then compared with the ones that suggest the exercises. SS will read the text then, once to be familiarized with the topic, a second time to ask the doubts of vocabulary and a third time to make an exercise and test what they have understood. SS will check if they can answer the first questions they prepared.  Type: groups  Objectives: 1,2,6,8,9,10,11,13  Materials: photocopy, notebooks  Time: Approximately 20”  Competences:  Linguistic competence  Cultural and artistic  Social and citizen competence  To learn to learn Trabajo Fin de Máster 50  SS will be asked to prepare for future sessions some information about the name, time, members of the group, job within the group, country and popular songs of their favorite English singer or band. (5 minutes) SESSION 2 Activity 1: present/past TO BE  Description: first of all a voluntary S refreshes, on one side of the board, the present simple of verb TO BE. T then will introduce the past tense of verb TO BE and tell them the meaning but not the forms.  Type: individual  Objectives: 6,10  Materials: board, notebook  Time: 5”  Competences:  Linguistic competence  SS will be asked to do homework about the gramar. Activity 2 : game! (Appendix 4)  Description: SS will learn and practice past tense TO BE. Tables will be cleared! A card with pronouns, verbs (was/were in blue color), predicates, negation and interrogative particles will be distributed to each student. Each S will say “I have a subject” or whatever the card is and they will be divided into groups according to the kind of word they have (all subjects together, verbs together, etc). SS will guess which the verbs are and they will be written on the other side of the board (in contrast with present simple), with T‟s supervision. The S who has written on the board names a classmate, takes his/her card and the S selected makes a sentence following the structure T will write on the board ( S+V+PRED) with all Trabajo Fin de Máster 51 the cards distributed into the different groups and translate it. The SS with the cards chosen will go to the front of the class to show the final result. The S who makes a sentence, names another volunteer and so forth. Sentences will be checked by SS first and finally by the T. SS can be helped by their classmates. The vocabulary will be related with the topic of music.  Type: individual and group work  Objectives: 1,6,8,9,14  Materials: cards with words, board  Time: 30”  Competences:  Linguistic competence  Social and citizen competence  To learn to learn  Last 5 minutes, revision of the contents. SESSION 3  Correction of homework: doubts will be asked. 5 min (Appendix 13) Activity 1 : game of instruments! (Appendix 5)  Description: SS play getting into lines (as the classroom is divided). SS have 3 minutes to read and learn some instruments they have in a photocopy and ask the possible doubts. Later on, T gives a sheet with four columns (string, keyboard, wind, percussion) to the first one of the line. When T says READY, STEADY, GO! Each S will write an instrument in the right column and will pass the sheet to the next classmate. The first line that finishes with all the instruments well written and in the right column wins. Trabajo Fin de Máster 52  Type: individual and group work  Objectives: 8,9,16  Materials: chart  Time: 3”  Competences:  Linguistic competence  Autonomy and personal initiative Activity 2: thre was/were  Description: S on the board makes revision of the past tense of TO BE and then, deduction of the rule to use there was/were in looking and in contrast with the forms there is/are all together.  Type: group work  Objectives: 10,14  Materials: board, notebook  Time: 5 minutes  Competences:  Linguistic competence Activity 3 : there was/were again!  Description: SS working in groups should make sentences using there was/were and the vocabulary seen through the sessions. The sentences are exchanged between the different groups for peer assessment. After that, one leader (elected by all the members of the group) writes one of the sentences on the board and the T gives feedback.  Type: group work Trabajo Fin de Máster 53  Objectives: 1,2,6,8,10,11,14  Materials: sheet of paper, board  Time: 15”  Competences:  Linguistic competence  To learn to learn Activity 4 : puzzle (Appendix 6)  Description: SS will complete the puzzles that include sentences with expressions of time. T will give feedback when time is over.  Type: group work  Objectives: 1,2,6,8,9,10,11,17  Materials: puzzle  Time: 5 min  Competences:  Linguistic competence Activity 5: preguntas en pasado  Description: each group will create an activity of filling the gap making questions with interrogative pronouns and the vocabulary seen in class. The activities will be exchange among the groups, SS will do them. Later on, SS will say aloud the answers and all together will give feedback with the supervision of the T. The main aim will be practicing the interrogative pronouns and time expressions. Ex. (when) is the concert of Lady Gaga? The concert is in March.  Type: group work Trabajo Fin de Máster 54  Objectives: 8,9,10,11,17  Materials: sheet of paper  Time: 10”  Competences:  Linguistic competence  To learn to learn  Homework SESSION 4  Correction of homework: doubts will be asked. 5 min ( Appendix 14) Activity 1: a music presentation. (Appendix 7)  Description: with the information SS have got at home of their favorite English singer or band, they complete the rubric provided by the T. They will exchange the information among the colleagues of the same group and later on they will have to explain to the class the information they got.  Type: individual and group work  Objectives: 1,2,3,6,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,16,17,20,21  Materials: notebook, rubric  Time: 25”  Competences:  Linguistic competence  Cultural and artistic Trabajo Fin de Máster 55  Social and citizen competence  To learn to learn  Autonomy and personal initiative Activity 2: musical diversity. (Appendix 8)  Description: SS with the information obtained at home from internet, newspapers, articles, encyclopedia, books, etc, make a chart, compare and get conclusions of the following features: name, year, country, style, etc,( following the model of the previous activity), of a black singer/band, English/American singer/band, female singers/bands from 60‟s onwards. T will provide the chart. SS will put in common all the information and decide what is useful or important to be reflected on the chart following the steps. T will ask to follow several steps: first to plan what they want to write down (completing the chart), then to make the composition and finally to revise and edit it. The final result will be in form of short essay of 5 lines approximately that SS will read to the class. T will give feedback when visiting the groups.  Type: individual and group work  Objectives: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10,11,12,13,14,16,17,20,21  Materials: notebook, rubric, ICT, articles, magazines, etc  Time: 25”  Competences:  Linguistic competence  Cultural and artistic  Social and citizen competence  To learn to learn  Autonomy and personal initiative Trabajo Fin de Máster 56 SESSION 5 Activity 1: Word stress Activity. (Appendix 9)  Description: SS will make two exercises of pronunciation in order to practice the word stress. In the first exercise SS will have to know which word has not got a stress on the first syllable. T will say the words and SS will repeat first in chorus and then individually (all of them) at least one word. In the second one T will read a dialogue that SS will repeat again. After that, SS will say if the pronunciation of was /were, is stress or not. Both listening will be repeated twice (once for overview, twice to do it). In case some SS do not know what a stress syllable is, T will explain it and provide some examples.  Type: individual and group work  Objectives: 7,8,19,20  Materials: photocopy and board  Time: 10 minutes  Competences:  Linguistic competence  Autonomy and personal initiative Activity 2: pronunciation in songs! (Appendix 10)  Description: SS will watch 2 clips of two famous songs with lyrics from YouTube (a musical, Singing in the rain, and a classic, Mary Poppins). The first view will be to set the context and pay attention to the features, the second to do the activity. SS will have to find words with stress in the first and second syllables. In the second one, SS will find which words (grammar, vocabulary) they know and if Trabajo Fin de Máster 57 they find some forms of past verb TO BE and if they are stresss or not. T will give feedback when SS suggest some examples aloud.  Type: group work  Objectives: 1,7,8,11,18,19,20  Materials: computer, sheet of paper  Time: 15 minutes  Competences:  Linguistic competence  Cultural and artistic Activity 3: Revision playing. (Appendix 11)  Description: this game will be useful for SS to refresh all what they have learnt in the unit of work. T will say: you have 5 seconds to write 4 instruments, or 4 professions, write a sentence with was or were, etc. the first group that get it within the time will win and as a reward T will give a piece of paper with a clue of the title of the song they will listen to the next session as prize after the work and if the teacher considers they behave properly. The group that has more clues will guess the singer and the title of the song.  Type: group work  Objectives: 1,7,8,9,10,11,16,17  Materials: sheet of paper  Time: Approximately 25 minutes  Competences:  Linguistic competence Trabajo Fin de Máster 64 9. APPENDIX Appendix 1 (Power point presentation with these pictures in class) Appendix 2 Trabajo Fin de Máster 66 Appendix 3 Trabajo Fin de Máster 67 Appendix 4 I YOU HE WAS TEACHER OF MUSIC SINGER WERE SHE WE NOT ? YESTERDAY IN A CONCERT OF MICHAEL JACKSON GUITARIST SHE IT THEY LAST SUMMER IN ENGLAND DANCERS OF FUNKY AT 6 O‟CLOCK LAST WEEK YOU (plural) FAN OF… Appendix 5 Keyboard String Wind Percussion Trabajo Fin de Máster 68 Appendix 6 Puzzle FROM…TO… 4:00-6:00 AT 5 O‟CLOCK ON TUESDAY IN JANUARY Trabajo Fin de Máster 69 Appendix 7 Trabajo Fin de Máster 70 Appendix 8 Name Male/female When popular Members of the group From Instruments songs Appendix 9 Trabajo Fin de Máster 71 Appendix 10 ( you tube clips) “Singing in the rain” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Sing Along” Appendix 11 (the clues to get the singer and the title of the song) MI CHAEL JACK SON HOLD MY HAND Trabajo Fin de Máster 72 Appendix 12 Pop idol. Trabajo Fin de Máster 73 Appendix 13 Trabajo Fin de Máster 80 APPENDIX II RESEARCH PROJEXCT: ANALYSIS OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL Trabajo Fin de Máster 81 Trabajo Fin de Máster 82 Titulación: Máster Universitario en Profesorado de E.S.O., Bachillerato, FP, Enseñanzas de Idiomas, Artísticas y Deportivas. Asignatura: Evaluación e Innovación Docente e Investigación Educativa en Inglés Alumnos: Tomás Gareta Deborah Giovinazzo Sara Múzquiz. Año académico: 2010-2011. ANALYSIS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPLEMETATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS AND THEIR USE IN THE CLASSROOM Trabajo Fin de Máster 83 CONTENTS 1. Introduction…………………………………………………….3 2. Analysis of instructional materials……………………………6 3. Suggestions for Implementation……………………………...22 4. Conclusion……………………………………………………...24 5. Bibliography…………………………………………………...25 6. Appendix: Materials…………………………………………..26 Trabajo Fin de Máster 84 INTRODUCTION While teaching English it is very important to take into account the use of different instructional materials. Traditional teaching techniques were based on the progression that textbooks established: specifically designed textbooks constituted the basis upon which entire courses would develop without taking into account other factors that may influence the real progress in the acquisition of the foreign language such as: the real needs and interests of the students, their previous knowledge, the relationship between the real world and the use of a language in effective communication and so on. Nowadays the general trend in Spanish education system, as far as English teaching is concerned, is to follow a standardised methodology according to what the national law establishes: content, methodology, progression and objectives have turned into a general concern for the administration, and this fact has led to the creation of a national curriculum. As consequence instructional materials had to adapt to the national curriculum and teachers keep using them as a reference to decide on both the content and progression of the syllabus. Nonetheless we have to bear in mind that teachers have, and need to have, an active role in choosing and grading the use of instructional materials: they can add or avoid some parts they consider not adequate to the level of the students and, what is more important, they can manipulate the activities in order to match the current and real objectives taking into account the peculiar features of the group they are working with. During the last decades we have seen the rise of the Communicative Approach. The main consequence has been the use of English language in textbooks instead of the students’ first language and the use of the new approach connected to tasks and activities whose main aim is now to foster the use of the target language in real communicative situations (Richards and Rodgers, 1986). Many English publishers have so been able to introduce their products in foreign markets, but as a matter of fact, these textbooks cannot adapt content and topics to the different countries, cultures and smaller groups such as classes. That is why together with the textbook, most teachers feel the need to implement them and add more material from other and more varied sources taking into account the students’ needs and interests. Due to the importance of the materials in second language teaching courses (Bolitho, 1990) we have decided to focus our research project on their use in Ciclos Formativos in the I.E.S Miralbueno where we are spending our second period of practice. Trabajo Fin de Máster 85 We have decided to choose this stage because it entails a greater difficulty as far as the specific vocabulary, communicative functions, their related structures and specific topics are concerned. More precisely we are going to analyse the instructional material that the teacher, María de la Peña Caballero, uses in class in the first year of Grado Superior of Agencia de viajes. Furthermore, this course of English has a very specific purpose connected to the needs of the students as future travel agents and this fact has a direct influence on the choice and grading of materials. As consequence this project aims at pointing out whether the students’ needs are matched by means of the selection and the teacher’s implementation of the materials in the classroom. The materials we have selected include different sources: photocopies from different textbooks, realia such as catalogues or leaflets and real information from the Internet. In addition to that we have noticed that the classroom decoration has been adapted in order to match students' needs providing a series of maps in English, while, at the back of the class, we can find some stands with real leaflets and catalogues about different kinds of trips and travels. The objective of this spatial organization is to help the students feel as close as possible to their future real activities as workers of the tourism industry. As the main aim of this English course is to provide the students with useful tools for handling the English language within a specific frame, that is English for the tourism industry, our project has been conducted trying to find out whether the teaching and learning processes were carried out through materials or with materials. The difference is not a trivial one. As Wright points out (Wright, 1987, cited by Bolitho, 1990, p.7): “If a teacher teaches through materials problems may occur. With a text as the ‘master’: 4. the learning’s objectives are the textbook’s; 5. there is little room for improvisation; 6. teacher and learner roles may well be predetermined and contrary to expectations. If the teacher teaches with the materials, with the textbook as servant, then he is freer to improvise and adapt the course of lessons to the needs of learners.” Trabajo Fin de Máster 86 In this perspective, and taking into account the importance of the fulfilment of the students’ needs as far as the arrangement of this subject is concerned, it becomes important to analyse, in order to define it, the relationship between students, teacher and instructional materials. To deal with all the data we have gathered the structure of this project will be as follow: first we will briefly present the instructional material we have selected, explain why we consider it is important and explain in which sense they match the students’ needs and, at the same time, foster the development of the students’ communicative strategies and competence; second we will carry out a deep analysis of each kind of material making a reference to how the teacher uses it in the classroom; third we will give some suggestions about possible implementations of the materials in order to make them more effective and more appealing to students. Finally, the last section of this project draws a short conclusion summarising the most important topics that we have dealt with and their consequences as far as the use, manipulation and implementation of instructional material are concerned. Trabajo Fin de Máster 87 ANALYSIS OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS Realia Realia are very important in the development of a second language course syllabus because they constitute the linking between the theoretical and the practical levels of the study of a foreign language. Besides, these tools, in a course whose main aim is to form travel agents, become absolutely necessary and are the frame within which English for a specific purpose is taught. Realia are not a mere representation of an actual context, they really are a manifestation of how language can be, and actually is used for a specific purpose; in this case to give information on tourist sites. By means of realia students can focus both on language and its connection with daily life, they can simulate real situations such as booking a room or buying a ticket, in which communication and intelligibility are the most important points to develop and work on. The most outstanding feature of realia is the fact that they contain and display real information and as consequence the students may find them more attractive and more related to their learning objectives, so that when the learners will have, in the second semester, to work in a travel agency they will already know necessary information and as consequence they will be more efficient. Another advantage is that, if learners have already acquired some amount of knowledge about specific language they will be able to focus on the way to use language to convey a message and develop their communicative strategies and competence. In addition to that, students will be able to develop skills related to their needs as workers. Students will have to work with different kinds of pamphlets and leaflets taken from foreigner travel agencies, due to the fact that tourist market is not the same all around the world and they, as professionals, must become aware of this. At the same time students will be able to notice and acquire specific vocabulary and knowledge about different products concerning tourism. The whole information that the pamphlets offer is contextualised so that, according to the assumptions of the communicative approach, it will be easier for the students to learn it and to recall in real practical situations. Here we have some examples. Trabajo Fin de Máster 88 (Canterbury Travel, Merging Fantasy with Reality (brochure), 2008, p. 11) As we can see in this extract from a real catalogue the students are given the opportunity to work with a material that is both appealing and useful for them. In this way they can see technical vocabulary and structures used in context. According to the assumptions of the communicative approach (Richards and Rodgers, 1986) this is the best way for students to acquire and store in their long term memory the linguistic knowledge they need and by means of techniques that are on the one hand not too much demanding and, on the other hand, more effective than traditional teaching techniques. One of the outstanding characteristics of this extract is that it integrates visual information together with written one. On the one hand students get in contact with chunks of real language used, in a real context, for a purpose which is similar to theirs, that is display the Trabajo Fin de Máster 89 advantages and strong points of a specific trip; on the other hand the pictures need to be explained to the possible customers and this fact will develop their descriptive skills. In addition to that, instead of presenting the plan of the trip, this catalogue gives information about comfort and relaxing opportunities. Since the information is quite short, learners will have to use it as a basis for their dialogues with possible customers and develop their ability to convince. As a matter of fact students will improve their use of communicative strategies and oral performance. (Royal Caribbean International, Europe and the Med (brochure), 2009) There is a lot of difference between this material and the one we showed above. First, this one focuses on images to explain technical vocabulary and, second, is very simple because it gives information without complex structures, third, with the use of these pictures students do not need to translate or look for a synonym in their own language. Besides, images and text together help the student in memorising important concepts more easily than in a traditional vocabulary list. This one is better to force students to prepare in advance the structure of their oral performance, while the previous one gives more or less the information they need so it is less demanding for them and requires more improvisation. Finally, at the communicative level Trabajo Fin de Máster 96 Among all the instructing materials the teacher actually uses in class the following activity is the most communicative mainly because it is a role-play. Of course not all role plays are really communicative but in this case we can highlight some features that foster communication. First of all an information gap is created. Students work in pairs or groups and each of them plays a role having to ask or give specific information about different issues such as: prices of the rooms and their facilities, information about domestic and international flights or other means of transport and so on. Another important point is that students are given only the information they may need to use but they have to choose the way to ask and answer so that they can manipulate the message to adapt it to different situations depending on the context and the kind of customer they have to deal with. As consequence they will practice socio-cultural competence and pragmatics mainly because they will have to make a choice on both form, that is grammar, and politeness. An important implication is that while exchanging information there will be negotiation of meaning and students will need to use their background knowledge on how oral interaction works in order to carry out the activity. The only negative aspect of this material is that it proposes a change of roles between the students without giving them new information. As consequence students will not be able to create new situations and new messages because the second time the role-play is played the information gap has already been filled. To avoid this problem the teacher may intervene changing the information to allow the students playing it the second time and adjusting the level of difficulty according to the students’ needs and levels. Trabajo Fin de Máster 97 (O’Keeffe, M. & Dubicka, I., English for International Tourism (Pre-intermediate Student’s Book), Harlow: Longman, 2003, p. 42) Trabajo Fin de Máster 98 In our opinion this is a very complete textbook. In it we can find activities which deal with each competence, speaking, reading, listening and writing. This is one of the few textbooks we have analysed containing a specific mention to grammar and pronunciation, even if it is not the main skill that students have to develop but which, in our opinion, is also very important for the quality of the communication; that is for politeness and formality. We think that it is very important because students themselves demand grammar exercises and it is also basic in conversation. As we can see in the extract there are a lot of images that help students to understand better the meaning of the technical vocabulary and, in this way, the teacher can avoid translating the phrases into the native language and there are more opportunities to provide a comprehensible input. The book is divided in several specific topics, such as cruises or flights, so students can have a general idea about knowledge of vocabulary concerning their future jobs. Grammar and pronunciation exercises are fully integrated in the units because the language used is related to the topic that they working on. The communicative approach is presented in the book by means of information gap activities or role plays. For instance if we focus on the speaking activity in the extract, the information gap is created by giving to each of the students working in pairs different amount and type of information. They need to cooperate to fill the gap and in doing that students practice politeness, vocabulary, pronunciation and real communicative use of grammar being also able to notice the relationship between forms and functions. Extra Material To Realia and textbooks the teacher usually adds more material, such as photocopies, that she selects from different sources. The aim is to adapt the general objectives of the course to the target group. The teacher uses them to work on vocabulary and use of language but not grammar. This happens because students are supposed to have enough previous knowledge to follow the class, understand the texts and carry out the tasks. As the students were used to a traditional approach to the study of a foreigner language they ask for grammar based exercises maybe because they feel more self-confident and these activities are also easier for them. Trabajo Fin de Máster 99 In the activities carried out by means of these materials we have noticed a lack of listening and oral production activities. The students demand these kinds of activities because they have realised these are important for their future jobs; besides they can both apply the knowledge they may acquire by means of these activities in real life and acquire a good communicative competence. As we have pointed out above, the extra material is never presented in digital support because of the lack of audiovisual equipment. Of course the teacher uses the Internet as a source of material but the only possibility to present it to the students is to photocopy the selected extracts. That is the main reason why we have noticed an underdevelopment of auraloral activities and skills. We have chosen this example because it is representative of the category we are dealing with. This kind of exercises is typical of a traditional approach, such as fill in the gap exercises. Even if we think that it is not the best activity to be used, the way in which the teacher uses it and corrects forces the students to notice the importance of knowing specific vocabulary and formal constructions. In addition to that the teacher can ask the students to explain some words in more details so that they have to speak and teaching becomes not only Trabajo Fin de Máster 100 a matter of testing students’ knowledge but also a way to make the class interactive and participative. Trabajo Fin de Máster 101 This extract uses the students’ previous knowledge because it introduces new technical vocabulary about cruises related to knowledge already acquired by the students during the study of previous units. Although it is not a communicative activity the fact of treating new information establishing a relationship with the old one is based on some assumptions of the communicative approach; that is why we think it is a useful way to deal with new linguistic items, moreover it consolidates background knowledge. It is a guessing activity because students do not have all the information they need explicitly in the text but the diagram gives them clues they have to find out and then apply in order to fill in the gaps and solve it correctly. As a conclusion we can say that extra material is very important in this specific kind of courses whose main aim is to provide students as much varied material as possible dealing with a great amount of specific linguistic items. Although the teacher uses many and different sources, the final product of her research and selection of information is only presented by means of photocopies containing, in the material we have had access to, almost the same kind of activities, that is fill in the gaps and explanatory texts to introduce new concepts. Exam As we can see this exam is very different to those we can find in secondary school. We have to bear in mind that it is an English course for specific purposes so the topic is not related to general knowledge but to concrete topics such as cruises or flights. The exams follow the general class syllabus and their aim is to check students’ acquisition of the new concepts and reinforce previous knowledge. We can find two kinds of exercises: in one of them students have to display their knowledge about specific vocabulary and proficiency in writing skill; in the second one, students have to fill in the gaps selecting the words from a list given in advance. The former kind can be well be exemplified in exercises 1 and 4 in which students are given the following statements that they have to discuss: 1st General conditions when booking a cruise holiday. 4th Talk about the main cruises lines, destinies and the role of Spain in the tourist market. Trabajo Fin de Máster 102 The answers to these exercises involve the integration of the knowledge of both the English language and the specific related topic, so students need both aspects to answer correctly to the questions, and none of them predominates above the other. Students are aware that they are not only learning English but also a specific content related to their future job and, as consequence, they will learn the bits of language that allow them to be intelligible and to carry out the tasks in an efficient way. The latter kind is a little bit more traditional type of exercise. It is a fill in the gap exercise focusing on vocabulary. Not only force the students to learn the new vocabulary but also to connect that new knowledge with the same items in their mother tongue. In our opinion this type of activity is not useful for evaluation but for testing the students' progress, anyway we may argue that it is useful, at least, to help them to store the new concepts (see image on the following page). Trabajo Fin de Máster 103 We think that the use of images is better than the use of definitions to make the students recall the vocabulary they are asked to name. Visual aids give students an opportunity to be more creative and reduce the level of stress because they do not need to deal with long bits of language. Another advantage is that by means of images the teacher can avoid the use of L1 in the exams. Trabajo Fin de Máster 104 In our opinion the questions of the exam do not match the general level of the class: exercises one and four are very demanding and hard to answer correctly, while exercises two and three are just testing the students acquisition of new vocabulary but do not give any information about the learning process of the student. Trabajo Fin de Máster 105 SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPLEMENTATION In general terms we consider that the teacher uses quite well the instructional material but we think audiovisual material should be exploited more. This kind of material may be very useful because it presents real situations, in which students may get in touch with the body language, intonation, accent and pronunciation of native speakers, which are not available by means of written material. Another advantage is that students can watch and listen to these materials more that once and use them as a model to follow or to recognise patterns of oral interaction. Moreover in this way the receptive listening skill is developed. The negative side of this practice is the difficulty we have noticed in the classroom because it is not very well equipped, in the sense that: the TV and DVD sets are not good enough and cannot offer a good quality in reproduction; the acoustic conditions of the classroom do not help the understanding and finally the physical supports, that is tapes and DVDs, present sometimes distortions which make more difficult to carry out the listening task. To solve these problems we would avoid the use of tapes, because the quality of sound is usually worse than in CDs and DVDs, then, if speakers have a strong regional accent we would use subtitles if available in DVDs, or we would give the transcription of the dialogues as a feedback, after the activity, in order to help them to improve their listening skill, get familiarised with strange accents and make the task of matching spelling and pronunciation easier. We have also noticed that this kind of activities is not carried out in a systematic way and as consequence students are not used to them because the activities they usually carry out are mainly written, that is why, in our opinion, this practice should be used more often and become part of the routine in class. As future teachers of English, we have to bear in mind that it is also important to analyse beforehand the selected material to check first, whether it is appropriate to the level and the needs of the students and second, what kind of difficulties it may entail and how to solve them. As far as the written material is concerned, we would use the traditional material in a more communicative way for instance trying to elicit from the students the vocabulary they already know and connect it to their previous knowledge. In this way we would foster and encourage their creativity in order to make them notice that they already know things and to make them feel more confident. Trabajo Fin de Máster 112 Trabajo Fin de Máster 113 Trabajo Fin de Máster 114 Trabajo Fin de Máster 115 Strutt, P., English for International Tourism (Intermediate Student’s Book), Harlow: Longman, 20 Trabajo Fin de Máster 116 Canterbury Travel, Merging Fantasy with Reality (brochure), 2008. Trabajo Fin de Máster 117 Trabajo Fin de Máster 118 Royal Caribbean International, Europe and the Med (brochure), 2009. Trabajo Fin de Máster 119 Trabajo Fin de Máster 120 Trabajo Fin de Máster 121