1.

METHODOLOGY 34
1.1. Basic didactic principles 34
1.1.1. Motivation strategies 34
1.2. Specific methodology for the teaching of English 34
1.3. Development of the classes 35
1.4. Grouping of students 36
1.5. Time management and lesson stages 37
1.6. Complementary and out-of-school activities 37
1.6.1. Activities related to El Quijote 38
1.6.2. Other complementary and out-of-school activities 38
1.6.3. English activities in the Cultural Week 38
1.7. Materials 39
1.7.1. Definition and criteria for choosing them 39
1.7.2. Types of materials 39
1.8. ICT resources in my didactic programme 40
1.9. E-TWINNING projects41
1.10. Graded readings 41
 8. METHODOLOGY
8.1. BASIC DIDACTIC PRINCIPLES:

Since it is an open curriculum, it is the teacher’s responsibility to use certain methodological

principles. Nevertheless, a number of general principles are established by the mentioned
regulations for the whole stage.

 The constructivist theory, as explained by Vigotsky, Piaget or Bruner, is the essential

factor in the realisation of school types of learning. It is the student who modifies and re-elaborates
his/her own schemes. It is based on students' active participation in problem-solving and critical
thinking regarding a learning activity which they find relevant and engaging. The teacher acts as
a guide and mediator in order to facilitate the construction of meaningful learning. Students apply,
analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information instead of simply recalling language structures.

 Another important aspect to take into account is how the students connect the new
information they learn with the knowledge they already have. David Ausubel’s Meaningful
Learning Theory tries to explain how a teacher should find the students’ previous knowledge to
organize the teaching process from it. Consequently, the learning process will be effective and
useful, since the students will build the acquisition of the new knowledge on the basis of the one
they already have.

 Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory defends that the social aspects also influence the
individuals’ development. As a consequence, it is important to analyze the students’ background
and to pay attention to their personal and social situation while working with them.

8.1.1 MOTIVATION STRATEGIES:

Everyone knows and has experienced at one point or another the great importance
motivation can have in any type of learning. Directly associated with motivation is attitude. In the
same way that we all know that no matter how much insistence is done, a student does not learn if
he or she does not want to, it is also possible to state that almost any student motivated can learn,
unless he or she has a serious deficiency.
Motivation can help overcome learning difficulties so some motivational strategies could be:
 Knowing the motivational style of each student.
 Stimulation of the student to achieve significant learning.
 Identify their interests and use these as a starting point.
 Control factors that have a positive influence in students and their progress.
 Recognise factors in which students attribute success to. The operation of these will
elevate the level of individual motivation.
8.2. SPECIFIC METHODOLOGY FOR THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH:

 The communicative approach: The basic aim of our methodology must be to

promote the instrumental use of the foreign language, as English as a Foreign
Language directly addresses linguistic and communication competence. According to
this competence, language should be used as a tool for oral and written communication,
knowledge and organization, and self-control of the thinking process, emotions and
 behaviour. English learning also enhances the development of linguistic competence,
including the lexical, syntactic and phonological elements and skills of a language,
which are reading, writing, listening and speaking, and these skills have to be
integrated.

Canale and Swain (1980) identified four dimensions of communicative competence:

 Grammatical competence: an ability to put into practice the rules of the language
system.
 Discourse competence: ability to use different types of discourse and organize them
according to the communicative situation and the interlocutors.
 Sociolinguistic competence: ability to adapt utterances to a specific context, taking
accepted uses within a particular linguistic community into account.
 Strategic competence: ability to define, correct, clarify or make adjustments in the
course of the communicative situation.

 Stephen Krashen’s contributions have also been significant for the methodology I
propose to use. His most important contributions are the distinction between acquisition (a
subconscious process) and learning (a conscious process). He believes that it is
acquisition and not learning which enables the learner to achieve competence in the
second language; and his discussion on the importance of providing the right kind of
‘input’ to promote acquisition (given that in general teaching the time learners are exposed
to the language is limited). Following on from Chomsky’s ideas of Creative Construction,
Krashen proposed five hypotheses: Learning and Acquisition, Natural Order, The
Monitor Hypothesis, Input hypothesis, and Affective filter hypothesis.

8.3. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CLASSES:

The development of the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing is essential
regardless the book or approach. They must be integrated in each topic so that the practise of one
skill will lead to another and students can see the intrinsic connexion among them.
Each unit will be divided into different sections in order to structure the tasks and simplify
the learning. So in each section, we are going to work a partial aspect of the topic of the unit and
in the final section, all those aspects scattered around throughout the unit will be revised. There
will also be a project at the end of each unit which will allow them to work in pairs or in groups and
will be useful to consolidate and revise the material studied in the unit.

a) Oral and written competences: To develop oral comprehension, listening activities are
included such as monologues, dialogues and radio programmes. There are also songs, stories
and quizzes. After that, there are activities to check text comprehension and to establish a link
with the following activity, which often consists of a brief conversation in pairs. Pair work is
often proposed because it is an efficient way to develop oral communication and to make the
students feel more confident. Besides, it is an activity that the teacher can control easily
because students know what they have to do and the time they have to do it. Moreover, the
students’ motivation is essential. Students have to be in the mood to communicate something
to their partner making an effort to achieve this. For that reason, the topics of conversation are
always related to interesting topics for the students and to the world in which they live.

 To develop reading comprehension we use texts which include not only the structures
related to the unit but also values and attitudes such as interesting topics related to
legends, letters and authentic stories. Vocabulary and structures are introduced in texts, so
that vocabulary, as it happens in real life, is contextualized.

 To develop the writing skills, students use exercises based on the topic of the unit.
Moreover, a wide range of extension and reinforcement exercises are offered. The aim of
 these additional activities is to reinforce the points studied throughout the unit and to
develop their written expression little by little by means of simple guided activities.

b) Knowledge of the language:

The study of grammar is cyclical, that is to say, each unit deals with the most important
grammar points including the structures seen in previous units, especially in texts, increasing the
difficulty of presentation and use of these points and changing the focus. Exercises and tasks are
contextualized and varied communicative tasks are included to be practised orally after the
understanding of a specific structure. This way, the study of grammar is understood as a means of
improving out students’ communicative capacity rather than as an end in itself.

In each unit, a section is included devoted to vocabulary and students will be demanded to
include a subdivision in their notebooks to write down the new words. Students will also work
with a mini-dictionary of each unit which they can check. Another section will be devoted to
phonetics where students are introduced basic aspects about accent, rhythm, intonation and
some phonemes.

c) Socio-cultural aspects and intercultural consciousness:

When we learn a foreign language, we learn both its language and a new culture, a different
way of looking at the world which is necessary to communicate with other people appropriately.
This helps us understand and accept the differences with people from other cultures and among
inhabitants of the same country.

8.4. GROUPING OF STUDENTS:

The organization of space is a very important factor in education in order to create a relaxed
atmosphere that allows students and teachers to work and coexist comfortably side by side. The
diversity of activities carried out in the classroom requires different spatial solutions. Consequently,
the different organisations of spaces which have been employed are the following:
 Lockstep: In examinations or during deductive grammar teaching.
 Horseshoe: It is a good distribution for the inductive teaching of grammar.
 Mix and Mingle: in production stages, to enable the students to move freely, (e.g. DU12).
 Pairs: in different kinds of activities, particularly in the development of production stages.
Students will work in pairs in activities such as creating dialogues on invitations (DU1),
playing oral games like the Who Am I? Game in DU3, planning the visit to a museum
(DU4), or making hypothesis (DU12).
 Individual work: to foster learner autonomy and self-reliance. Asking the students to work
individually can be done when presenting new content, to do controlled practice of
vocabulary, new structures, songs, listen to tapes, etc.
 Groups: students will be organised in production stages to give a greater scope for
communication. For example, students will be organized in groups when carrying out the E-
twinning projects, presentations of information searched beforehand (DU1, 9), in written
productions such as the design of an advertisement (DU2), WebQuests (DU 9, 10), or other
ICT resources such as Toondoo (DU3), debates about recycling (DU 7), role-plays such as
a plenary session (DU8) or about piracy (DU9) or in a cross-dialogues game (DU11).

In relation to groups, there should be a maximum of four people in each group. They can be
homogeneous or heterogeneous depending on their level of communicative competence:

 Heterogeneous groups contain a mixture of most advanced and less advanced

students. In these groups, the more able students can help their less fluent or
knowledgeable colleagues. It is a beneficial process since the process of helping will help
 such strong students to understand more about the language and the weak students will
benefit from the help they get.
 Homogeneous groups are groups where all the students have approximately the same
level of communicative competence. Consequently, those students who are shyer will feel
more motivated to speak with someone whose level of competence is similar. In the same
way, stronger students will learn more if they join together in groups, since they are
challenged to show their linguistic resources.

8.5. TIME MANAGEMENT AND LESSON STAGES:

My didactic units have been designed following two different approaches. Most of the sessions
contained in each didactic unit will follow the Task Based /Action Oriented approach, which is
based on the successful completion of tasks as both the organizing feature and the basis for
assessment of language instruction. It is recommended by the CEFR (within a communicative
framework). The lesson is then based around the completion of a central task and the language
studied is determined by what happens as the students complete it. Therefore, learners learn
language not only in order to communicate, but by communicating, and not only in order to
perform actions, but also by performing actions. The lesson follows the following stages:

 PRE-TASK: The teacher introduces the topic and gives the students clear instructions
on what they will have to do at the task stage. S/he will help the students to recall some
language that may be useful for the task. The students take notes and spend time
preparing for the task.
 TASK: The students use the language resources to complete the task in pairs or
groups. Meanwhile, the teacher monitors and offers encouragement.
 PLANNING: Students report back to the class orally or read the written report. The
teacher gives the students some quick feedback on the content.
 ANALYSIS: The teacher highlights relevant parts from the text of the recording for the
students to analyse. S/he may ask students to notice interesting features within this text.
 PRACTICE: Finally, the teacher chooses certain language areas to practise based upon
the needs of the students and what emerged from the task and report phases. The
students then do practice activities to increase their confidence.

8.6. COMPLEMENTARY AND OUT-OF-SCHOOL ACTIVITIES:

The teaching of a foreign language must be practical, which means that we need to make our
students understand that the learning of English is active and thus, it can be used in different
circumstances, not only in the classroom. Consequently, it is important to organize different
activities where students can practice the language out of the classroom.
Since the centre is located in a small village, the possibilities of extra-curricular activities
related to the area of English are reduced. These will be planned at the beginning of the school
year by the department of English in a joint-venture with the extra-curricular activities department.

8.6.1. ACTIVITIES RELATED TO EL QUIJOTE:

As 2015 is the anniversary of the publication of El Quijote, complementary and out-of-school

activities will be proposed. It will be carried out on the 22nd and 23rd April, the World Book Day:
 SHORT STORY CONTEST: Together with the Spanish Language department,
a short story contest will be proposed. It will be based on the one offered by the
official programme of activities proposed by the Castilla – La Mancha
government, “Tu propio Qvixote”, found in:
http://www.qvixote2015.es/programas/programa-oficial/, which aims to
promote reading. It deals with the creation, illustration and layout of short
stories inspired by El Quijote.
Students will be asked to write a short story in groups and the best ones written
in English and Spanish will be awarded. The whole high school will take part in
this contest and different categories will be established.

VISITING THE SETTINGS OF EL QUIJOTE: In order to help the students

develop the previous activity, they will visit some of the most representative
settings of El Quijote: Campo de Criptana and El Toboso. This is an
extracurricular activity which will take place in a whole day. The visit will be
previously arranged with the company Enclave Cultural in
http://enclatur.com/.
- In the morning, we will start the visit in Campo de Criptana,
where we will assist to a dramatized visit through the windmills
with the characters of El Quijote.
- In the afternoon, we will wander through El Toboso streets to visit
important literary spots such as Dulcinea’s house or the
Cervantes Museum.

8.6.2. OTHER COMPLEMENTARY AND OUT-OF-SCHOOL ACTIVITIES:

- THE GUY FAWKES NIGHT: “Remember, remember the 5 th of

November” We will organize a Bonfire Evening/Night on the 5 th November.
The story of the Gunpowder Plot and Guy Fawkes will be introduced with the
following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcyXMLz3fK0. We will
take advantage of the bonfires and students will be asked to tell horror and
weird stories in groups to their partners. Traditional food of this festivity such
as toffee apples, toffee or baked potatoes will also be offered and
firecrackers will be used. This activity will be evaluated in Unit 3.

- VISIT TO AN ART MUSEUM: Unit 4 is devoted to Art, the description of art

items and students giving their opinions and expressing their feelings
towards artworks. They will be given the opportunity to do it in context, as
they will be taken to a local museum in the English hour. They will have to:
- Choose 2 items, take a picture of them and describe them.
- Choose their favourite artwork and another one they dislike.
The mark of this activity will be included in Unit 4.

- TRIP TO EDINBURGH: We will organize a trip to Edinburgh after the

Easter holidays (23rd – 27th March). This trip is proposed with the following
objectives:
- To stress the diversity of the Anglo-Saxon world.
- To bring the students closer to the Scottish reality and uniqueness.
- To promote reading habits with guided literary tours such as one about
Harry Potter.

8.6.3. ENGLISH ACTIVITIES IN THE CULTURAL WEEK (18th – 20th FEBRUARY):

 We will devote a session (13th February) to prepare the activities that the English
Department will organize during the Cultural Week:

The App of Family Feud will be downloaded and the students who would
like to take part in the game must register in groups.
The rules of the game will be explained and students will have to answer the
questions in English.

Tea and muffins: Students will offer an English breakfast consisting of tea
and muffins made by them. The breakfast will cost 2€, and the money
collected will be used for the trip to Edinburgh.

A karaoke with English songs will be organized which will give the students
the opportunity of practice their pronunciation and their fluency in English
using Singstar.

Coinciding with Saint Valentine’s day, the English, French and Spanish
Departments will propose the contest “Cartas Valentinas” where students
write love letters. The best ones will be glued on the walls of the high school
and students will vote for their favourite letters. Those with a higher number
of votes will win several prizes. This activity will be marked in Unit 6.

8.7. MATERIALS:

8.7.1. DEFINITION AND CRITERIA FOR CHOOSING THEM:

A didactic resource is understood as any instrumental resource which helps us to teach

and facilitate the achievement of the learning goals.

The aim of didactic means and resources is to encourage, help and reinforce the didactic
act. On the one hand, they offer the necessary and adequate means for a good communication in
the teaching process and on the other hand, they try to make the learning process faster and
wider with respect to concepts and ideas.

In order to choose and select didactic resources in general, we will have into account that
they shouldn’t be discriminatory, they should be able to be used by everybody (adapted in some
cases) and that they should be environmentally friendly (avoiding excessive use of paper, etc).

8.7.2. TYPES OF MATERIALS:

PERSONAL RESOURCES
They make reference to people who teach something in class. The most important is the teacher, but it
can also be a native person, a father or mother, etc.
Examples: Speak only in English, establish rules in the classroom, have conversations in English with the
native person.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES
They refer to the classroom itself as a flexible and funcitonal space, to other spaces in the school and to
the suroundings of the centre.The environment can be a very important resource if we know how to use it,
since it offers several possibilities to make activities.
Examples: realia, TPR, role-plays,.
DIDACTIC RESOURCES
PRINTED We utilize printed materials to carry out the activities since they help us in the teaching-
learning process. All the printed materials that I have used in my units have been written by
myself, always looking for the motivation and interest of the students.
Examples: grammar practice worksheets, flashcards, cue cards, newspapers
 - Texts simplified in language but authentic in format, taken from newspapers, magazines
and internet.
- Two graded readers: Gulliver’s Travels and The diamond as big as the Ritz,
- Reference books such as dictionaries and grammars.
- Pictures to carry out warm-ups, brainstorming, and vocabulary activities: artworks, tribes,
musicians, cultural festivals, instruments, cultural elements.
- Film posters: Bend it like Beckham, Gulliver’s Travels, Fantastic Four.
- Posters about art exhibitions.
- Printed materials for games: Stepping Stones, Mash Game.
- Questionnaires on dating and recycling habits.
- Leaflets of different summer courses and travel guides.
AUDIOVIS CDs, CD player, DVDs, DVD player, recordings, digital blackboard,
UAL - Videos: “A graffiti artists”, “Garbage as Art-Recycling Garbage Into Awesome”,
“Nanotechnology”, “Everyone knows your name”, “Adventure Holidays”.
- Songs: “Viva la Vida”, “In the summertime”.
- Films and trailers: Bend it like Beckham, Gulliver’s Travels, Fantastic Four,
- TV shows: Jeopardy, Family Feud.
COMPUTE Different web pages: www.e-twinning.org, http://www.brysoneducation.org,
R-BASED www.youtube.com,www.superherosquad.marvel.com,
http://www.englishw.com/SamplePage3.php, www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/,

8.8 ICT RESOURCES IN MY DIDACTIC PROGRAMME:

The following ICT resources will be used to carry out the different activities proposed:

Students will use Prezi to present information beforehand searched such as

WebQuests on different topics related to the didactic units to their classmates.
Students will use Prezi in the following didactic units: UNIT 1: Students will be
proposed several tribes. They will have to prepare a presentation using Prezi to show
the information they have searched beforehand to their classmates.

Toondoo is a tool which students can use to make comic strips. It is a very funny way
to learn since students can develop their imagination in an artistic way while using the
language. ToonDoo will be used in UNIT 3, where students will be asked to create a
comic strip using future tenses.

Glogster is a tool which enables students to develop their creativity by creating a

poster on a specific topic. They can mix text, audio, video, graphics and images to
design a poster which they can show later to their classmates.
An example of a Glogster project can be found in ANNEX I

8.9. E-TWINNING PROJECTS:

As we stated in the basic principles, one of the main objectives of our didactic programme
and of the teaching of a foreign language is the acquisition and development of the necessary
communicative competence to be able to communicate in a multicultural world where English
is the vehicular language. In order to use language as a vehicular language in the classroom,
several eTwinning projects will be proposed, one per term, to bring our students closer to other
European students.
 Traditions and customs Describing a town of CLM and
Castilla – La Mancha is UNITS invite other foreign students
my region 1-4 Famous and important people of Artistic and cultural heritage and
the region interaction through chats
Improvements in education in the Designing an ideal travel route
Our proposals for a UNITS future with a European partner
better world 5-8 Proposals of a recycling project Proposals of European political
policies
Designing exercises about songs Description of important objects
Our daily lives UNITS and chat interaction in their daily life
9 - 12 Survey about dating habits Chat with foreign students

eTwinning is the community for schools in Europe. It offers a platform for staff of the
teaching community in order to communicate, collaborate, develop projects and to be part of a
wide learning community in Europe. It promotes school collaboration in Europe through the use of
ICT by providing support, services and different tools such as text chat or video chat.

8.9. GRADED READINGS:

The inclusion of readings and of a Reading Plan in our didactic programme is of outmost
importance since the foreign language subjects must contribute to the development of reading for
pleasure. Moreover, it is an element included and defined in Decree 69/2007, of 29th May as:

“The “Reading Plan” constitutes a basic element of the knowledge of the language, the
literature and socio-cultural aspects and, undoubtedly, contributes to the strengthening of all
the objectives and competences that have been highlighted”.

Since it is considered a basic element in the learning process, it is also included as an

objective of the area of foreign languages, number 9:

9. Make the reading of texts in the foreign language a source of pleasure, of personal
enrichment and of world knowledge, and to consolidate reading habits from a
multilingual perspective.

In my programme, the graded readings chosen are Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift and
The Diamond as Big as the Ritz by Francis Scott Fitzgerald. They are classic books of both
English literature and North American literature. They will be developed in the following way:

Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift.

Publisher: The Black Cat.
ISBN: 978-88-530-0088-0

This book will be used from didactic unit 1 to didactic unit 6.

It will be introduced in Unit 1, “Our World”. As this unit deals with
multiculturalism, we will introduce the graded reading by firstly
showing the students the worlds where Gulliver travels.
From Units 2-5, we will devote half or one session to read the
book and carrying out different activities.
In Unit 6, we will carry out a performance of one scene of the
book, chosen by the students. In this unit, student will have to
hand in the reading diary.
 The Diamond as Big as The Ritz, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Publisher: The Black Cat.
ISBN: 978-88-530-0366-9

This book will be used from didactic unit 7 to didactic unit 12.
It will be introduced at the beginning of Unit 7, after having studied
different English-speaking countries in Unit 6, as the book takes
place in Montana, the USA.
From Units 8-11, a session will be devoted to read the book and
to do activities related to it.
As well as with the previous book, the students will carry out a
performance of the book after the end of Unit 12, and it will be
evaluated with the reading diary.

The reading diary which the students will have to hand in is included in ANNEX II.