Ways Of Improving The Speaking Skills Of The Efl Students

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PART I. THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF TEACHING AND IMPROVING THE SPEAKING SKILLS OF THE EFL STUDENTS

CHAPTER 1. THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF THE COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCES

Features of spoken language

The communication that began from the very dawn of human existence became a necessary element for man. It has a human character because is formed and developed in each person through the establishment of relationships with those and it plays an important role as an activity developed by each individual. This shows that the roots of communication are in the same vital material activity of men. The gradual enrichment of social relations and the realization of dissimilar activities conditioned the increase of communication and the development of the inner world of man. This interaction includes the planning and development of joint activities among men, the acceptance and transmission of moral and behavioural norms; as well as the satisfaction of their affective and cognitive needs. Once the individuals began to speak, the word was the first and most important means of communication, although from the beginning different gestures, actions and poorly articulated sounds were the first means of communication.

However from the early stages of development, society was accompanied by the improvement of the media. The emergence of writing enabled the development of communication by signs, which allowed the transmission and reception of all socio – historical cultural experience achieved through time. In the same manner, as society is developing, communication between individuals is putting greater challenges, aspect that requires a growing training of people in correspondence with each period. For example, at the beginning of the 21st century this mission becomes more complex, due to the scientific and technical development achieved by humanity. The development causes a vast flow of information that men demand, a communicative competence that allows them to decode the most diverse sources of information. This situation has led to the intensification of studies and research on communication, as the vehicle for developing the intelligence of modern civilization. To further substantiate this statement, there is no more to reflect on the different forms of scientific, cultural, artistic and political exchange that are carried out daily in the world through different events, forums and conventions. Nowadays, it is common talk about communication and there are innumerable authors who have publications on such a controversial topic. This approach is evidenced by the different existing criteria for the definition of communication, which are briefly illustrated below.

The concept of communication can be associated with different terms that contribute to its definition, without major discrepancies on the part of researchers, such as: mutuality, reciprocity, communion, community, possession of something in common, participation, transmission, information, expression, coding, accessibility, decoding, similarity, treatment, expansion, interaction, and sympathy. From an etymological perspective, the word “communication” is derived from the Latin word "communicatio" which in turn has its origin in the term "communis" meaning common. These terms allow a better description of the complex communicative phenomenology that exists only when, between two subjects, there is an uninterrupted continuum and mutual exchange not only of messages, but also of a certain affectivity and affinity. According to Bateson Gregory (1990:133) is a word of Latin origin (communicare) that means sharing or doing common.

When we communicate, we share each other's thoughts. Communication is the action of communicate, but it also represents the treatment, the correspondence between two individuals, the union that is established between them. It is a continuous chain of learning contexts and, fundamentally, premises for communication. Hall Walfriman and Sheflon (1980:87) express that communication is conceived as the matrix of all human activities, as a permanent and circular process of interactions in which each man participates. Ellis (1196: 272) argues that it is a process of social interaction through symbols of message systems that produce as part of human activity. It can also be understood as exchange, dialogue, life in society, all indissolubly related to the productive needs of men and can not exist without language.

Underwood (1984:69-72) says that communication is an essential process of all human activity, since it is based on the quality of the interactive systems in which the subject performs, and also has a fundamental role in the psychological atmosphere of every human group. For B.F Lomov (1989: 293) communication is the interaction of people who enter into it as subjects, which is not only the influence of one subject with another, although this is not excluded, but the interrelation between both. In it an exchange of activities, representations, ideas, orientations, interests are integrated in a system of subject-object relations that is developed and manifested, necessitating at least for its realization, two people, each of them acting as subject. This author considers it a category closely related to the activity category and proposes the following principles:

Communication is not reduced to verbal language because the whole organism is an instrument of it.

It is not restricted to the transmission of information, not only propagates but is created within the communicative process itself.

The communication resolves the contradiction between the particular and the general of men, between their general and particular qualities.

Man realizes and assimilates in the communication its general essence.

Terrel (1991:231) shares the criteria given by Underwood (1984), the theoretical methodological nature of the relationship between personality and communication, since man is involved as a personality in the educational process, personality must be studied from of the communicative contexts. Only through communication do people express themselves and discover their essential irregularities; man as personality is the subject of the communicative process. Swan (1985:77) defines it as the process by means of which the man, using words, gestures and symbols, exchange an information or idea; or as the conscious activity that is established when two or more people are interrelated, with a motive defined by language (either oral or written). It coincides with the view that any definition of communication comprises the following common basic elements:

• The subject issuing the message (source).

• The content of the message.

• The ways and means used to convey the message.

• The subject or subjects receiving the message (recipient).

• The effect achieved by the issuer.

For Anderson (1993:33-34), communication is a complex process related to human behavior. Other authors such as Maldonado, Sebastián and Soto (1999:112) consider that communication is a process where a system transmits information to another system that is able to receive it. Andrieva G.M (1984:58) states that communication is a way of realizing social relations that takes place through the direct and indirect contacts of people and groups in the process of life and social activity. In the book Psychological Foundations of the Language, Vigotski L.S. and Rubinstein S.L (2000:114) took into consideration communication as an exchange of thought, feelings and emotions. On the other hand, Brumfit (2017:58) agrees with Leontiev's criteria when he states that communication is the relationship between objects and phenomena, established between people, and more concretely, is the relationship that occurs between them in the verbal process.

Walter Ong (2013:88) considered that "orality is not an ideal, and never has been. Focusing positively does not mean enhancing it as a permanent state for every culture. Knowledge of writing opens up possibilities for word and human existence that would be unimaginable without writing. […] Orality can never be completely eliminated: reading a text is "orchestrated". Both orality and the emergence of writing from orality are necessary for the evolution of consciousness. "

It is necessary to establish a conceptual delimitation of the term "language", trying to describe the content to which this expression refers. When we face this task for the first time, what first strikes us is that there are multiple terms associated with this concept (e.g., communication, voice, information, etc.). While the term "language" can be used and understood in various ways, in the context of this chapter we are going to specifically refer to language as a specific human faculty of communicating through articulated sounds. We will begin this task of delimiting this way of conceiving language by initially supporting the distinction between Ferrandez, Ferreres and Sarramona (1982:5) and Sánchez (1988:38) between the concepts of language, language and speech. Language encompasses all peoples, all ages, all civilizations and all forms of expression. Language is one of the concretions of language as a communication system, therefore, it is an essential part of language. It is a social product, an oral code created by each society and present in the consciousness of its individuals, who use it to communicate.

Each society has its own language, which is the system of signs and rules accepted by its members and used by them to communicate. Language has a normal and primary manifestation that is phonics, that is, the spoken language. In this sense, speech would be an absolutely circumstantial act in which we choose signs and expressions of the language already possessed to communicate with others, that is, it would be the concrete realization of a language at a precise time and place. These considerations, generally derived from the Saussorian conception of language, are reflected in many of the proposed definitions; for example, Bloom's and Lahey's (1978:88) definition of language: "it is a code by which ideas are represented, through an arbitrary system of signs, for communication." As Belinchón, Riviere and Igoa (1992:58) suggest, the different definitions of language in the last decades would account for the following facts:

a) the fact that language can be interpreted as a system composed of units , Linguistic signs) whose internal organization can be the object of a structural or formal description;

b) that the acquisition and use of a language by the speakers allows in these peculiar and specific forms of relationship and action on the medium; And

c) that language materializes in, and gives rise to, concrete forms of behaviour, which allows it to be interpreted, as well, as a modality or type of behaviour.

Accordingly, it is possible to identify the three most common dimensions or components of definition from which a general definition of language can be addressed respecting the formal or structural dimension, along with the functional and the behavioural ones.

Language is interpreted as a code, that is, as a structured set of signs, hence all language presupposes, by definition, the existence of signs. Hence, language can be the subject of a structural or formal characterization, which would include both the definition of its basic constituent units (for example, individual signs) and the conditions under which such signs can be combined ("grammar "Internal of that language). Therefore, all language in a system formed by signs can be the object of phonic, morph syntactic, semantic and pragmatic descriptions that specify the conditions in which combinations of signs and their uses are acceptable. The construction of these four types of principles constitutes one of the essential tasks of the linguistic perspective in the study of language. In addition, language serves as an effective communication tool. In this sense, the absence, in a given communication system, of a well-defined formal code that could be described in terms of units and fixed rules or constraints precludes its consideration as a language in a strict sense (gestural communication is interpreted More as a communication system than as a proper language). Although, in this sense, there are authors who fail to establish these boundaries when considering gestural communication as a communication system with the same properties that characterize language as a sign system (Foster, 2014:89). As for the functional dimension from which a general definition of language can also be addressed, it should be emphasized that the acquisition and development of language is always linked to the performance of activities such as communication and social interaction, knowledge of reality.

In this respect, Bühler (1934:36) identifies three basic functions of language: the representational or symbolic function, the appealing or call function and the expressive function. As for the symbolic function, it must be borne in mind that verbal linguistic signs are not necessarily or directly related to referents immediately present in time or space, and can therefore refer to aspects of present, past, or present reality.

Future, real or imaginary. The linguistic signs, in this respect, categorize the reality and represent mental contents on the reality that transcend and modulate the direct reference to the things. Therefore, these aspects imply meanings constructed through principles of generalization and individualization that must be known and shared by both the sender and the receiver. The use of language as an instrument of transmission of information by an issuer can only be effective as long as the interlocutor can properly interpret the signs. The appealing or calling function through it acts upon the listener to direct or attract his attention. Language is, first, a call to the listener. Likewise, it can be observed well in the early stages of children's language. In the already developed language of man can manifest with some autonomy, as in the forms of the imperative. It should be noted, in this respect, that in relation with the origin of language one considered that its first phase is imperative.

With respect to the expressive function, traditionally verbal language, like any other system of communication, has been interpreted as a process of information transmission. From this perspective, some communication models (Shanon and Weaver, 1949:77) were proposed in which human communication is understood as a situation in which the sender encodes messages and a receiver decodes or decodes such messages by virtue of his knowledge of the same code. However, the validity of these models as a metaphor for human communication has been questioned and what stands out in the new perspectives is the "intentional" nature of human linguistic activity. In this respect, when conceptualizing the verbal communication process, it is necessary to account not only for what language has to use a code but also for interpreting the intentional (not just referential) meaning of the messages.

Finally, Belinchón et al. (1992:110) points out that language can also be defined according to a behavioural dimension. This means that if we analyze the language as a particular case of conduct or activity the first characteristic that must be emphasized is the freedom of its use. The use of language can be seen as an instrumental behaviour, because it may be related to certain previous conditions of the emitter or the environment and with certain consequences or effects (behavioural, emotional or cognitive) on the environment. Requesting or obtaining an object or information, getting our interlocutor to do something, changing their opinion or knowledge through the information we provide, or attract their attention to some aspect of reality are examples of things that can be done with language and what children learn to do in the first years of their lives, before even having a very extensive or grammatically complex linguistic repertoire. The possibility of transforming the behaviour, the knowledge or the emotions of others from the language becomes, represent therefore, one of the main instruments of interpersonal and social regulation.

This first characterization regarding what is understood by language in the scientific field has allowed us to approach a definition of language in a broad and theoretical sense. From such a theoretical analysis one could understand language, as suggested by Ervin-Tripp (2014:223), as "a social instrument of representation and communication, materialized in linguistic signs that are emitted with sounds that give rise to words and these are organized by forming grammatical structures." In this respect, a language could be understood as the integration of form, content and use. It is precisely in an attempt to get closer to the reality of language in natural contexts (school, family) and one will observe below which aspects have been derived from basic research on the development language and communicative skills. This analysis is going to constitute a conceptual reference obligatory when it comes to the study of educational practices around oral language.

Dimensions of oral language analysis

When analyzing oral language, for reasons of diagnosis, re-education, aetiology and so on, the analysis that Launer and Lahey (1981:36) or Lund and Duchan (1983:7) have shown are quite illuminating, being centred on how the study on language exploration has evolved. The review made by these authors covers the work carried out from the fifties to the eighties. As a synthesis of this review, we would note that initially there was some interest in the study of semantic acquisition, so that the receptive vocabulary (such as oral comprehension) was basically analyzed. Subsequently, interest shifts towards the study of language more globally and in natural situations and the exploration of phonetic correction. In the sixties, it continues in this same line; the importance of semantic aspects persists, but one may highlight the importance of understanding and producing morph syntactic rules. At the end of the sixties, the importance of analyzing the effectiveness of the children communicative exchanges among themselves, and between children and adults, was emphasized. It is in the seventies that interest arises in not separating the analysis of language from the context in which it occurs. The content of language as well as its use must be analyzed according to the context in which it occurs and closely related to the socio-cultural characteristics of the subject that produces it. Hence, the basic context for the analysis of children's language will be represented by the familiar or the school one. What comes to characterize the eighties is precisely a tripartite approach to language analysis and all language exploration must include the analysis of content, form and use. In this respect, below, one may observe the aspects related to each of these dimensions.

Language Content

As Bloom and Lahey (1978:92) point out, the content of language is its meaning or semantics, so it deals with the "representation of what people know about the objects of reality, events and relationships." In this respect, language content refers to the analysis of meaning (comprehension or expression) either in semantic units (isolated words) or in context (understanding and expressing ideas). According to Triadó and Forns (1989:56), the study of language content would deal with aspects related to lexicon, categorization, functions, word definition, spatial relations, and so on. It would be closely related to the cognitive system.

Language form

As for the analysis of the form of language, this would include the phonological and morph syntactic system. In this sense, for Bloom and Lahey (1978:93) the form of language can be described in different ways according to the different components of language itself. If one follows the form of sound units, the phonology will be referred to. In this situation, the phonological evaluation deals with the analysis of the production of sounds and, in the articulator aspect, the analysis affects the conditions of the orthodontic apparatus, especially the breathing, or the point, the mode of articulation. If one refers to units of morphological significance and to formal grammatical units, there must be made a distinction between the following two dimensions:

a) the first one has is related to the morphology, respectively to the formal categorization of grammatical units (nouns, adjectives, verbs , conjunctions, prepositions and so on)

b) the second one that is related to the syntax, respectively to the combination of those formal morphological values ​​to form minimal units such as the word to higher units like the sentence, through units of grammar organization intermediates as the syntagma.

Use of language

Also, the analysis of the language use or its pragmatic refers to the study of language social objectives or functions and the rules that govern the use of language in a certain context. It is of special relevance that linguistic functions such as the functions of informing, repeating, asking or the various forms (such as promise, mandate, question, criticism, etc.) to take into consideration a single phrase depending on the situation. The analysis of the language functions would be a clearly social aspect, since it informs about the processes of subjects’ communicative interaction.

Reflections on the teaching of oral language

One has tried an approach to the study of what some teachers in Early Childhood Education think about oral language learning and what they do in the classroom context regarding this domain. In this respect, one may intend to collect previously all contributions and suggestions from different authors who within the specific field of language, certain didactics have suggested ways and forms of action in the field of oral language. One may consider that this approach that has been generated around this issue justify the need to study both the implicit theories and practices in the teaching of oral language, as one have sought in this research.

Importance of context and oral communication

Throughout the present century, the development of language has been described and explained in different ways according to the theoretical currents of reference (referring to psychology, linguistics, sociology or biology). Starting with the 1950s, there was an important and decisive turning point in the study of language development thanks to the contributions of cognitive psychology (Piagetian and Vygotskyan currents) and linguistics one (mainly the Chomskyan one). Researchers have been particularly interested in the underlying mechanisms in the various interpretations that subjects of different ages give to the same statements. This reveals the importance that is beginning to be given to the procedures and strategies used by the speaking subjects. Since 1980, the interest of researchers in many disciplines of the human and social sciences has been directed towards interaction and communication. A large number of papers deal with the role of interactions in the emergence and development of language and the use of language by children in the context of production situations.

As suggested by numerous authors (Schnenwy and Broncart, 1985:33; Vila and Boada, 1989:98; Weck, 1994:78) in the context of different theoretical paradigms, it has been postulated the need to consider that the appearance of language needs a double development during the first year of children’s life: a development in the intellectual aspect and a development in the aspect of the communication. These two areas are at first separated and by the year they are merged in such a way that the thought becomes verbal, and the language becomes intellectual. This approach, has a determining role in the general development of the child, and in particular in the language, has been minimized for a long time. In this respect, language can not appear without children engaging in interaction. These interactions with adults constitute a type of mini-culture. They learn not only the structure of their mother tongue (phonology, lexicon and morph syntax, but also the uses of language and types of discourse (such as pragmatics).

Children are considered to be individuals who communicate from their earliest age. Language is acquired by and for communication. These abilities of language are developed in dialogue, communication being the matrix in which all human activities are organized. Birdwhistell (1970:99) argues that culture emphasizes structure and communication in the process, both terms being linked to the idea of ​​human interrelation. All this leads us to consider that the linguistic competence defended by Chomsky must be understood and extended in the sense of a communicative competence, since the rules of speech are not only linguistic but also cultural and social. All these approaches lead to the proposal of pragmatic proposals.

Brumfit (2017:125) summarizes that language or verbal language continues to be the reference system, and linguistics is the science that provides the basic method of research for all these fields of study. At this point, it must be said that today it seems clear that no message will be understood in all its implications without studying the context in which it occurs. Thus, one considers how the structuralist current and everything that brings with it the study of language in the dimension of code and rules are only a fragment. The study of communicative phenomena analysis must be completed in the study of the contextualization of linguistic production. Derwing and Murray (2013:163-185) proposes to focus attention on speech and on the actual communicative fact. Emphasis is placed on the importance of the study of concrete realizations. There should be no differentiation between the study of language as an essential and social system, and speech as accidental and / or individual use, since communication is jointly with language and speech, comprehension and production. Bygate, Swain and Skehan (2013:88-101) suggest that by using language we are always negotiating its meaning and meaning. For Vygotsky as well as for Bakhtine, interaction is the place par excellence where all the creative, instrumental and regulatory capacity of language is revealed. The interactive spaces are the privileged places of communication with the others and of planning of the own activity.

Authors such as Canale and Swain (1980:28) speak of communicative competence from four distinct dimensions as following: the linguistic competence (recognized as linguistic knowledge of language), sociolinguistic competence (considered an adjustment to the communication situation), discursive competence (such as knowledge of the rules of discourse) and strategic competence ( or the ability to meet the gaps in the other three competencies).

How to approach a didactics of the oral language?

Trying to define concepts within the framework of what can be a work in the classroom, how to approach the teaching of language is necessary and essential. We have to know what theory underlies what we want to teach, what we want to teach and how we are going to do it. By answering these questions we could begin to construct what may be some reflections on the task of the language in the classroom. Oral language and written language are privileged instruments of communication and social interaction. Bronckart (1985:68) have recognized that oral discourses are plural and diverse according to the situations of communication in which language is produced, and its necessary adaptation to the representations that the interlocutor constructs from such situations. This theoretical position leads to introducing the problem of the norm and distinguishing between descriptive norms (related to the different discourses produced in specific communication situations) and prescriptive norms (which refer to the language system) and favour those that are arbitrarily designated as a result of good use (for example, standard language); the consideration of these two aspects involves two forms of entering the oral language and that are complementary, on the one hand, communication and the language system, on the other hand.

Communication is a social interaction of exchange and is a situation typical of the oral language. Here one could speak of intentionality, number of interlocutors, types of speech and so on. The study of the language has focused and oriented towards grammar and lexicon, emphasizing the difference between oral and written language to emphasize the primacy of the latter. Today one speaks of the need to have not only a syntactic theory valid for the written language but also another that accounts for the syntactic guidelines of the oral language.

If one talks about teaching oral language, he is talking about developing communication skills that could be understood as:

the speaker produces the different genres of speech.

the speaker adapts to the situations of communication in which it is expressed.

To accomplish this, one will have to say, as Besson and Treversi (1994:77) consider, that the school will select those models that allow the student to take an active role in intervening in situations of frequent interaction but which cause him difficulties: defending his point of view in a debate, report an event where he witnessed, school situations in which the student should be able to make a brief statement, justify an attitude, verbalize a reasoning or explain some procedures performed. Authentic discourses will constitute, in the first place, the basic material of the teaching of the oral language, leaving for the reflection and observation discourses recorded and transcribed. Talking about defining the concepts of context, interactive space, communication, competence, from the point of view of language, makes it an anteroom to begin to reflect on what could be the work regarding oral language in classrooms. Thus, Pujol (1992:25-37) suggests that children come to school with an oral linguistic background, so that teaching should be oriented to their oral language. This is important to note, since we are going to encounter large linguistic deficiencies among children, together with differences between the teacher's language and their own language, differences between the language spoken in the school and the standard one.

To summarize, differences of origin and governmental represent requirements. Authors such as Bain (1991:88) and Perrenoud (1991:90), in their work on children of different nationalities in the same classrooms, corroborate those approaches. All this raises how the demands of the school dictated by the governments themselves is an important and decisive factor to delimit what is done in the school. For this reason, one may refer to this later as a basic part of the design of oral language teaching. The "chore" in the classrooms is related to the objectives that one has set and the conceptual definition of the starting point of what teachers try to design. Thus, Pujol (1992:39) speaks of the following aspects that teachers must contemplate regarding the objectives that they propose:

1) types of texts and speeches that teachers will propose,

2) linguistic units of these texts that will be a reason for teaching,

3) connections with other languages ​​(second languages)

4) the relationship with other subjects and extracurricular activities,

5) the evaluation that will be proposed

6) teacher training.

From the aspects listed above, and in accordance with Pujol (1992:39), those related to texts and linguistic units are the two most important. Social reference models will be authentic communication situations. Teachers will have to decide which models are most appropriate, according to ages and course purposes and what criteria they will use in the selection of those they present in the classroom, and they will also decide which ones will be produced by students (argumentative, informative, narrative, expository texts). As for the internal characteristics of the texts, it is necessary to emphasize that the oral language has its own syntax. Some authors (Camps and Giralt, 1991:332) suggest that the syntax of oral language is no deformation of the syntax of written language, and that both syntaxes can explain the facts of the language. Admitting this implies a revolution in the didactic approaches of oral language.

The syntax of oral language shows that the order of words in English is more varied, and that sentences that do not follow this order are less correct than those that follow it. One may continue with Pujol (1992:40) as regards the transfer that can be established between different languages. The didactics of the language (oral and written) should not be reduced when it comes to language. Language is one of the privileged means of the other subjects. In terms of evaluation, teachers must first define the objectives they want to achieve and the criteria on which they will base the evaluation. And as far as the section on teacher training is concerned, it is necessary to see what training, what implicit theory underlies and prevails in teaching, and what kind of activities are worked in the classroom context.

Scinto (1986:363) considered from a psycholinguistic perspective that it is difficult to maintain a sharp separation between the oral language and the written one. The oral and written uses of the language are interrelated while mixed communication situations in which both codes participate are created. Payrate (1988:75) points out that from a communicative perspective, the proper use of language means knowing how to concretize, in a given context, the most effective option of the set of potentialities offered by a specific language (Payrate, 1998:75). Vila and Vila (1994:88), based on the Payrate’s approach, one may consider that, methodologically, in relation with oral language in classrooms, real situations of communication must be created in which the students have to use the language to convey their intentions to Particular partners and in a specific situation. One may think that there must be a balance between the use of oral language and meta- communicative and meta- linguistic reflection as a way to influence the improvement of oral productions. Therefore, the most important skill that a person must acquire is the ability to modify their discourse in function of the contextual circumstances in which it occurs. Therefore, from this perspective, three phases or moments of the oral language are established:

a) planning phase,

b) production phase,

c) revision phase.

During the planning phase, it is time to prepare the text without losing sight of the purpose of the oral discourse (inform, convince, etc.), the content to be transmitted and the communicative context, and the previous knowledge of the recipients. In the production phase is the staging. This phase involves the proper use of extra-linguistic resources and rhetoric to maintain the interest of the audience. In the review phase, one may suggest a collective assessment of the oral text in which students and teachers participate. Self-correction ability is encouraged. The discourse is analyzed based on the use made of the linguistic elements and the exposed content. Looking at what has been written so far about oral language work, it should be noted that the work that exists is almost always related to the study of a second language and often coincides with communities or countries that are bilingual. This must be pointed out because of them we are talking about and they are part of the work in the classroom. Thus, Cooper, Roth, Speece and Schatschneider (2002: 399-416) suggest that the basic contents of programming will be texts, not forgetting the grammatical units that characterize its formal configuration. There will be situations of real and communicative use of both school and non-school language. As far as the evaluation is concerned, it will emphasize a formative evaluation, which will be integrated in the didactic sequence, without being an end in itself. The phases contemplated by the didactic sequence are:

Motivation or sequence presentation. Together with the children, teachers are invited to propose ideas about the informative-narrative text that is to be realized and all the ideas proposed by the children are collected without forgetting any;

Elaboration of the content of the text. An attempt would be made to test children to see what kind of prior knowledge they possess to ensure understanding of certain terms. Both referred to the topic in question and the type of text chosen.

Elaboration of the form of the text. One will propose several of which will be chosen one. Here we can ask comprehension questions to see if the text has been understood.

Situations of oral production of children. These will serve to obtain information and evaluate the learning by obtaining the largest number of recordings by the children.

The evaluation will be performed later taking into account indicators such as what type of morph syntactic structures are present, what lexicon, what uses and what mistakes have been made. For this it is necessary and essential the recording. Regarding the above and following the oral language, one may consider Dannequin (1989:44-52), who speaks of „prepared situations” to manage the conversation in the classroom, situations where the daily knowledge of children / must represent the basis of learning in motivating situations, not forgetting that teachers should not stereotype the sentences they teach. Each geographical context whose language is the same has different ways of expressing reality.

Artigal (1990:68), following the previous approaches, says that language is acquired through its own use, while its acquisition is possible through an interactive process that is developed along with the interlocutors one has. For this, he speaks of the "keys" essential for learning a second language. Thus, one is referring to a set of ritualized, repeatable and actively stories lived by teachers and all students in the classroom. These stories will allow sharing the knowledge about what will be done "to do and say" and procedures to advance this "do and say" that will make meaningful and effective the first uses of the language still in the process of learning. These stories function as first territories shared in the new language that is easily recognizable, as a context whose structure can already be considered for all participants at the same instant of being proposed.

Thus, Artigal (1990:73) concludes that it is essential for students to always understand the oral texts that teachers offer to them, while the expressions that teachers propose to use are always effectively realizable and have meaning for them. At this age (3-6 years) a context is needed where to situate the uses of the new language, a shared territory that makes practically possible the first acts of understanding and expression transmitted through a code still unknown.

Taeschner (1989:20) concludes that the only way to learn to speak a language is to use it in a context. Wells (1985:112-115) has proposed that this way of working advocates a meaningful teaching-learning model. To the extent that the student accesses new levels of the language is precisely because he can start from schemes of knowledge and action that he already knows, because he can recognize in what is proposed to him "something" that he already knows. The approaches presented so far outlining possible ways of approaching the work of oral language respect the basic curricular design. Thus Carrow-Woolfolk (1995:88) emphasizes the new aspects of the ​​language and literature area:

Importance of oral communication in all educational stages,

Respect for linguistic diversity,

Eminently communicative and functional approach,

Elimination of differentiated blocks of vocabulary and study techniques that are incorporated into the rest of the blocks,

Contextualization of language learning and literature

A considerable increase in work, preferably from oral work.

All of this takes relevance especially regarding the essence of compulsory education, a teaching in which the structuralist and innatist theories (Chomsky: 2014: 110) have had the leading role in language teaching. As far as child education is concerned, the most important thing is that the aim is not to teach reading but to prepare the child for this learning. It emphasizes the work of oral language as an important part of language as a communicative process, necessary to live in society. They talk about listening, speaking, understanding and expressing skills. This reference is made to materials such as stories, songs, instructions, dialogues, recordings of literary texts of oral tradition, among others. In short, as the curriculum highlights, it is necessary to start from the uses that students already dominate when they start schooling to promote other jobs, in different situations and with different communicative situations. Entering the second cycle of early childhood education, it is necessary to deepen the development of the capacity for comprehension and oral expression, teaching this in every possible context that we have within our reach.

It is obvious that any study that is designed to expand the knowledge of oral language didactics necessarily involves the observation of this domain in contexts of communicative interaction generated in classroom. For this reason, teachers have selected in the classroom those situations or segments of activity where language is the main protagonist in the classroom scenario. It is precisely in these contexts of interaction that one can analyze what the teacher does in the classroom so that the children can understand the language, learn a syntax, a phonology, uses of language and so on.

Characteristics of the oral language

It is the first manifestation of human language

Acquire and develop all the speakers for the mere fact of living with a particular language community.

It is manifested through articulated sounds produced by the speech apparatus

Use the air channel as the transmission channel.

The message is codified, therefore, making use of the physical qualities of the sound: tone, intensity and quantity.

It is of greater use, practice and frequency than the written language.

It is fleeting and therefore has little duration over time

It has a limited number of receivers.

It allows immediate modification of the message and is subject to interruptions.

Often due to the presence of the interlocutor, it allows a continuous interaction and a permanent process of feed- back: a simple gesture of the interlocutor, for example, can tell the speaker that he should rephrase what he is saying.

The message is reinforced with additional resources such as pauses, changes of rhythm, intonation, tone. The information is complemented with gestures, movements (extra linguistic codes)

Often, their planning and organization are simultaneous with their production.

Does not demand a careful grammar organization.

It is less refined, more spontaneous and more careless than the written language; this implies that the errors committed during their broadcast have little social censorship.

It always takes place in a situational context as it is framed by a set of social, psychological, cultural, spatial aspects. This situational context determines the linguistic act, and in this respect much of the meaning in the oral language is found outside the text. On many occasions, when we speak, we do not need to be too explicit, since part of the meaning of what we say is in the situational context.

It is more dynamic and innovative than the written language, because it facilitates the use of new words (neologisms) and colloquial expressions.

When we speak, we do not have the way to operate a methodical reflection on what we say. Oral language does not allow us to self-analyze our own thinking.

Communicative competence is a notion that arises within linguistics, but over time it has become an object of study of several disciplines that have approached it from its perspectives, even coming together to do integrative analysis of the concept. At present, communicative competence is seen as a compendium of knowledge, abilities, skills or aptitudes that participates in the production of coexistence and interpersonal and intergroup relations, since human coexistence requires the mediation of an effective communication, "as process of interaction in which two or more subjects are recognized as equals, share experiences, act with a sense of community in function of a dialogue oriented to the construction of agreements "(Fallowfield, Jenkins, 1999: 1592-1597). Thus, communication represents an essential instrument in the disposition of the social fabric that permanently explores new forms of support. In that quest to improve and increase forms of communication, science and technology have created complex and elaborate increasingly sophisticated media and networks. However, all these mechanical advances have contributed to improving the relationship between people and, in many cases, have created a gap that has led to forms of personal isolation that are naturally transferred to groups and organizations. For this reason, communicative competence has an eminently strategic character, both individually and collectively, and it represents a requirement to establish relationships that are not only healthy but also productive, which at the level of organizations contribute to sustain the organizational climate, the sense of belonging and all those components that optimize the productive processes. In any organization, considering that its success depends to a great extent on its people, their capacities, their competences and their attitudes, the effectiveness of the communication generated in it is based on the participation of its members in the process and their abilities to understand, process, ponder and value the necessary interaction in different relations.

Multiple views to understand communicative competence

To enter the theoretical field of communicative competence, it is necessary to take a path that leads to the understanding of several fields of study, ranging from psychology, a discipline that plays an extremely important role from the point of view of behaviour as part of the human expression; linguistics, in terms of language skills formation is related to pragmatics as a multi-factorial discipline indispensable for the study of the subject. The concept of competence evolves from the critique that Noam Chomsky makes to Skinner about his perception of language learning, where he proposes a process based only on the stimulus-response relationship, without taking into consideration the vital importance of the creative process. In 1965, Chomsky proposed the term of linguistic competence and defined it as "capacities and dispositions for interpretation and performance" (Chomsky, 1965: 55). But this concept only glimpses the linguistic competence, which in itself does not guarantee a good communication. Later, Hymes (1971:99) expands the notion of Chomsky and conceives it as a communicative action according to the demands of the environment. The definition of Hymes departs from the purely linguistic fact and gives room to other aspects such as social and psychological. In the psychosocial field, we find the contributions of McClelland (1973:380) in the theory of needs and the identification of social variables from which explains how to arrive at efficiency in work, placing the term competence in the labour field, as it is known today. From this psychological perspective, Piaget (1981:110) posited the theory of cognitive development and the use of mental operations considering the existence of an abstract knowledge of the subject that intervenes in the development of his abilities. The confluence of studies both in the area of ​​language, ​​psychology and cognition, gave way to a common perspective that allowed the expansion of the concept of communicative competence. By way of explanation, communicative competence implies, then, a series of knowledge processes and experiences of various types that the transmitter-receiver must o produce or understand speeches appropriate to the situation and to the context of communication.

Booth (2009:223) adds to the components that had already been raised, the learning competence or degree of autonomy that an individual can enjoy to organize his own training, and he points out that it depends on the capacity to make decisions and take responsibility, self-evaluate and supervise their process, to participate actively in it; emotional competence, as an ability to recognize, express and channel emotional life, where personal balance, self-esteem and empathy, as well as the ability of the subject to know and govern the feelings caused by affective phenomena, becomes particularly important; and competence in terms of behaviour, a set of verbal and non-verbal skills that show an adaptation to the situation and context that favour effective communication.

Later, Aguirre (2005:201) argues that the category must be approached from three dimensions: cognitive, communicative and socio-cultural to analyze the subject within its pragmatics, for which it makes an integrative approach. As one may observe, several authors agree that communicative competence is the result of the sum of several competences and sub-competences, called dimensions.

This is reflected in one of the most recent concepts presented by Booth (2009:225), who confirms that communicative competence is knowing how to communicate in a field of knowledge and how to apply it; Knowledge that includes knowledge, skills, attitudes and values ​​(preconditions, criteria, uses, rules and norms) to perform effective communicative acts in a given context, according to needs and purposes. The study of communicative competence requires, then, a holistic vision away from mechanistic and rigid positions to give way to a multi-factorial and necessarily subjective or at least flexible; particularly when applied to the organizational context, where human relationships determine the achievement of objectives. Among the authors who have offered a holistic view of the concept are Knapp, Vangelisti and Caughlin (2014:88) define communicative competence as a psychological configuration that integrates the capacities to interact in diverse socio-cultural contexts, with different purposes and purposes. The author includes in the conception of communicative competence in the cognitive processes, the domination of the discursive structures and the socio-cultural action of the individual. The cognitive and socio-cultural component of the competition referred to by Romeú (2002:11) involves both the acquired cultural knowledge and the culture of the individuals with whom their knowledge, values, needs, emotions and motivations interact in a constant process of feedback.

From this perspective, communicative competence is subject to context, relationships with others, role and social position, which determines that its analysis must be done with an interrelated vision of all its components. As a study variable and based on the fact that communicative competence has been approached by different sciences, an analysis acquires two basic dimensions: the linguistic dimension and the strategic dimension. The linguistic dimension initially includes traditional grammar, with its levels: morphology, syntax, phonetics, phonology and semantics (Chomsky, 1965:44). To these elements, Hymes (1971:10) adds the capacity and the understanding to relate them to the socio-historical and cultural context in which the communication takes place.

According to the author's vision, it is not enough to know the grammatical rules of language use, it is extremely important to have the ability to relate them to the context. As a category of analysis, the linguistic dimension includes discursive competence, psycholinguistic competence and sociolinguistic competence. Discursive competence is the ability of a person to communicate effectively and adequately in a language, giving appropriate use of grammatical rules and meaning to a text, oral or written. Owens  (2016:58) describes it as the faculty of assigning macro semantic structure and relations of coherence and cohesion. The sociolinguistic competence implies all the components on the socio-cultural aspects or social conventions of the use of the language; consists of three basic elements: knowledge, theoretical and empirical concepts; know-how: procedures, skills and abilities; know to be or want to do: attitudes that sustain the existential competence of being.

This competence has, according to Hymes (1971:102), the rules of social interaction and cultural competence that entail understanding the norms of behaviour of members of a specific culture, the assimilation of all aspects of culture, specifically Which refer to social structure, values, and beliefs. Socio-cognition or sociolinguistic competence, from Van Dijk's (1980:87) perspective, proposes that mental schemas, attitudes and values ​​are the result of the interaction of the minds of a community, for example a social fact; the members of a community have the common basis for qualifying situations, events and speech acts and of course interpreting the absence of others.

As for the psycholinguistic competence authors such as Owens (2016:58) refers to factors of personality, socio-cognition and the affective component that distinguish the psychological aspect of competences, recognizing in this manner its subjective component, regarding the individual characteristics of the speaker and interlocutors, we must take into account that each one has different intellectual, cultural, system of motivations, age, sex and social status. That is the reason of a language being a tool with which we not only inform and communicate, but also exchange meanings. Last, but not least, one may observe an affective component represented by a person's variable traits, such as his mood that affect the quality and quantity of his interaction in specific events. There is also the social space composed of the institutional context, the moment and the norms of interaction and the interpretation that must be applied in the speech act. From the perspective of pragmatics, the contributions made by Austin (1962:26) allowed to see the communicative competence beyond the domain of the code, incorporating the capacity that the individual possesses to achieve its projects, for which language is used as instrument for To speculate, to reject, to deny and to ask, always according to the culture, to the systems of values ​​and the contextual expectations of cooperation of the participants in a communicative act.

The strategic dimension of communicative competence covers factors related to the effective use of language. It is the ability to use verbal and nonverbal resources to promote communication and compensate for errors in it, resulting from lack of knowledge or other conditions that limit it. As Bachman (1990:110) points out, strategic competence is a skill that enables an individual to make the most effective use of the available skills, when performing a given task, whether that task is related to the communicative use of the language as with nonverbal tasks. Based on the above, to be competent to communicate is closely related to the situation in which the individual develops, which indicates that the notion of competence requires, for analysis, a specific context because of this depends on both theoretical and methodological treatment. For this reason, one contextualizes the communicative competence in the field of organizations and incorporates concepts that are specific to this discipline and that will allow to determine the interrelations necessary to understand the communicative demands of individuals, whose performance depends largely on the effectiveness of an organization.

1.2 Syllabus design

The communicative approach of the English program has been designed around the skills of listening, oral production, reading and writing. Also a structural component has been determined which includes specific grammatical and vocabulary elements. The cultural component is introduced through general themes, speech acts and semantic functions in the cultural context of English.

General objectives

Acquire the English language as an instrument for the exchange of knowledge.

Recognize the importance of English as a universally used means of communicating with people, countries and cultures different from our own.

Differentiate its own characteristics of the learning of a foreign language in relation with other fields of knowledge.

Critically extract and evaluate the basic content of the messages one may hear from an oral medium or a specific speaker.

One may express feelings, reactions and points of view in English.

One may read texts applying special strategies to appropriate vocabulary, grammatical structures and reading comprehension.

One may assume and demonstrate a positive attitude and self-learning oriented towards the constant practice of English.

One may acquire awareness of the cultural component of the English language

Curriculum Definitions

In the pedagogical literature, curriculum has been defined as a product (Tyler, 1949:3), as a practice (Stenhouse, 1975:66), as praxis (Grundy, 1987:39) and as the content of teaching (Briggs, 1988:39). From our curriculum perspective, the definition of curriculum is close to that expressed by Bringgs, therefore we will take definitions according to those of this author, such as those presented by law, Gleason and Ratner (2016:36) considered the first definition of curriculum is the proposal by the General Law of Education, according to which: "Curriculum is the set of criteria, plans of study, programs, methodologies, and processes that contribute to the integral formation and the construction of the identity Cultural, national, regional and local level, including human, academic and physical resources to implement policies and carry out the institutional educational project. " This definition assumes the curriculum as a global element which is represented by working programs, methodologies and processes and it is highlights institution’s general terms. Another definition to analyze is the one presented by Gleason and Ratner (2016:44), according to which "the curriculum is a structured on series of learning experiences that are intentionally articulated by a concrete purpose: when producing the desired learning, one may not confuse the syllabus or Curriculum, because this as well as the contents, topics, organizations and design of proposals, are elements that constitute it but do not represent it ".

From the definition presented by Pansza (1988), it is inferred that curriculum and syllabus although they are linked are not the same, on the contrary the syllabus is part of the curriculum’s global character as an integrating element of this one.

The third definition is that of Gleason and Ratner (2016:45). In this respect, they consider the curriculum to be “a socio-cultural process consisting of a series of pedagogical actions activated when planning, developing, and assessing a critical and transformative educational program aimed at integrating contextually shaped teaching and learning Realities, practices, and experiences ". According to this definition, the curriculum takes into account the realities, needs, learning, practices defined in the planning, development and evaluation of a program, these elements are in the design of the syllabus, however for this author is done the evaluation of each program included in the curriculum, which does not agree with the syllabus, since this is for a single subject. Therefore, for us the curriculum is defined in the present context as: "the ensemble of criteria, planning, programs methodologies, pedagogical actions, theoretical foundations, and assessment and evaluation forms for an academic institution. It takes into account the vision and mission of the school and the obligatory areas in a huge sense." Consequently, in accordance with the above, it is necessary to define the syllabus and differentiate it from the curriculum to support the proposal presented, because the first of them refers to the whole as it is designed to cover all the classes that makes up the educational community, while syllabus refers to a particular curriculum.

Syllabus

The concept of syllabus that is assumed in this work of degree results from the theoretical discussion that different authors present. The first point to differentiate is the fact that for some scholars of the subject there is no clear differentiation between curriculum and syllabus: According to Douglas Brown (2000:36):” the terms Curriculum and languages ​​are American and British terms for the same concept, designs for carrying out a particular language program". On the other hand, those who differentiate between two concepts do it according to variables such as: the curriculum is broader and contemplates the institution's pedagogical frame, and the syllabus is part of it and is more specific: "syllabus denotes the content or subject matter of an individual subject, while Curriculum designed the health of content to be taught and theorized be realized within one school or educational program”. For Graves (1983:326), “the curriculum stands in the broadcasting as well as the philosophy, purposes, design, and implementation of a whole program, whereas syllabus refers narrowly to the specification and ordering in content of a course or courses." However, dissimilar concepts are found when reading in English, and there is no one-to-one correspondence in the translation of curriculum and syllabus. In order to establish the concept that will support the proposal in this degree work, we will take as a first element to consider, the definition of the General Law of Education: "The curriculum is a the structured scheme of compulsory areas and fundamental and optional areas with their respective subjects, which are part of the curriculum educational establishments. In formal education, such a plan should establish objectives by levels, grades and areas, methodology, time distribution and evaluation and administration criteria, in accordance with the Institutional Education Project and with the current legal provisions. "

If the definition proposed in the Law is carefully reviewed, Curriculum and Syllabus would seem to be the same, since the syllabus, also called syllabus, is defined globally as encompassing all mandatory, fundamental and optional areas, our proposal is focused solely on the English language curriculum, so this definition is very general and broad. The second definition to be taken into account was that of Candlin (2014:36), who defined it as follows: "The syllabus is concerned with the specification and planning of what is to be learned, frequently set down in some written form as prescriptions for action by teachers and learners. They have, traditionally, the mark of authority. They are concerned with the achievement offends, often, though not always, associated with the pursuit of particular means. “In other words, the concept of syllabus is perceived as a mark of authority and it provides teachers and students with a detailed model to follow.”

For David Nunan (2016:85) a syllabus is: "A specification of what is to be taught in a language program and the order in which it is to be taught. A syllabus may contain all or any of the following: phonology, grammar functions, notion, topics, themes, tasks ". From the previous definition, one may consider that the syllabus is an element that indicates what is going to be taught and contains some elements, such as : the topics to work and the tasks, these elements providing a first notion about what a syllabus should take into consideration. Dubin and Olshtain (1193:181-202), on the other hand, define syllabus as "a more detailed and operational statement of teaching and learning which translates the philosophy of the curriculum into a series of planned steps leading to more narrowly defined objectives at each level". Of the previous definition, the importance of the objectives for the syllabus and the steps of the planning that lead to them, the objectives are an important feature in our syllabus and will be reflected in each didactic unit. Hadley (1998: 50-71) considered that a syllabus "represents and endorses the adherence to some sociolinguistic and philosophical beliefs regarding power, education, and cognition that guide a teacher to structure his or her class in a particular way." It is inferred that syllabus should be approached from the sociolinguistic perspective and philosophical of the student, so that the teacher can structure the class according to these components that are part of the educational context. On the other hand, Douglas Brown (2000:36) refers to the Syllabus as: "a sequential list of objectives, topics, skills, and forms to be taught, it is often helpful to carry out a review of options in materials (textbooks and other recourses) that are already available ".

The definition of Douglas Brown provides a conception about the elements that must integrate a syllabus or curriculum and without which it would be incomplete, since it is part of the organization and sequencing of it. The American author Lacey Thompson (2011:77) defines the syllabus as follows: "An EFL syllabus is a set of headings indicating which items have been selected, by a language planner or materials writer, to be covered in a particular part of the curriculum or in a course series. The definition given by Lacey Thompson emphasizes the need to incorporate into the syllabus elements such as the skills and linguistic elements that were present in our syllabus proposal. Finally, a syllabus is defined as: " the program, which is a small part of the wider setting covered by the curriculum. One also examined the syllabus of a syllabus (Ur, 1991:11; Dubin and Olshtain, 1986:258; Nunan, 1988:258), a comprehensive document that specifies the orderly components of a course or series of courses in terms of contents (vocabulary, grammar / topics) and process (explicit aims / goals / objectives, teaching and learning tasks, materials / resources associated with those tasks, evaluation / assessment, and sometimes approach / method, time schedule or pacing guidelines).

This last definition differentiates the syllabus from the curriculum, in addition it enumerates the elements to include in this and how the process is going to be carried out, incorporating the evaluation materials and a whole series of elements that make it detailed, orderly and suitable for the teaching of English in the classroom. For the construction of a definition of syllabus, one may take elements from the following authors: Candlin, Nunan, Brown, Dubin, Olshtain, Chavez and Hernandez and therefore, syllabus is a curriculum which makes part of the curriculum (White, 1988:58), it is a public document (Dubin and Olshtain (1986:68), Nunan (1988:587), Brown (1994:28), Chavez and Hernandez (2012:33)), since it can be accessed without restriction. For a series of contents, such as vocabulary, subjects, this for foreign languages ​​and additionally it is accompanied by the learning orientations for the student, which is explained in our syllabus through objectives, tasks and materials associated not only with the learning tasks But also with meaningful learning, a syllabus should be guided by the context of the students, the curriculum must be continuously evaluated, therefore, in teachers’ proposal will be represented by formative evaluation at the end of each topic and project at the end of the course.

In the design and implementation of the syllabus one may be based on the criteria of Douglas Brown, Lacey Thompson and CigdemYukcuson.

Designing a Syllabus

For the elaboration of the syllabus proposal, conceptions of the mentioned authors were taken, detailed in principles or steps to design a syllabus understood the first as the basic elements to be included in the syllabus and the steps are the sequences to be followed for its elaboration. Some of the principles for designing a syllabus according to Douglas Brown are the following: Having the idea of ​​teaching from active learning, in addition must be based on the work of the student rather than on the information provided (learn through the manipulation of Information rather than memorization) and we must take into account the progressivity of the learning difficulty in the student, therefore for the syllabus design we include significant learning in the development of the proposed methodologies, since the student's teaching must be focused not so much on the memorization of concepts but on the manipulation of the information by the student, which leads him to generate an autonomous knowledge, just as the teacher can increase the "difficulty" of the contents that teaches him according to the progressivity of the student's learning.

For Lacey Thompson (2011:36), the most important principles regarding a syllabus are the following: a syllabus is not designed only for teachers; it is also an element of guidance for the student and it details teaching progress, but also, the student must know why is he learning a certain subject, so it is important to present the students a sequence of what is going to be done in the classes, likewise, the production phase of students with respect to the knowledge acquired is detailed in our class plans. Finally, for the development of syllabus, for Lacey Thompson (2011:33) to define the purposes and objectives of the course is to say what it is that the student wants to learn how it is going to be evaluated, to identify and to develop the resources that will be used in each one of the classes and finally the structuring of the work to be carried out by the students; these elements are detailed in the present proposal and in the same way in the lesson plans realized by the teachers while training certain classes; the syllabus must also contain general information of the teacher and the subject, along with and the calendar in each unit, the course objectives, class methodology and grading scales. In this respect, in other words, the teacher must specify it before the beginning of the course.

The student's academic cycle, what teachers expect from the student to learn and what to do with that acquired knowledge, the materials and time that will be used in it. In addition, another important aspect is the evaluation of student learning, since it is an effective way not only to measure, but to correct possible errors of the teacher. The subjects can be ordered by different periods according to the particular case of each institution.

Taking into consideration the opinion of Lacey Thompson, an English syllabus should include an extra part as the introduction of students to new words and language-specific expressions that mean the elementary student, this element we took into account when we teach cultural topics such as Easter, Saint Valentine's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving Day, in our proposal, as well, should include universal dates such as the day of the earth and the day of the language, among others. Lacey Thompson (2011:38) argues that when designing a syllabus one must take into account: "the meaningful learning that will get the student to link new information with what he has already seen", for which the same author points out: "The design of a syllabus does not should be emphasized for a specific group or course, but it should encompass the educational cycles, because through it, the student presents a conducive knowledge linked to this type of learning.

Therefore the syllabus was designed according to the conceptions of meaningful learning, since, students learn a foreign language better if they are taught through it information that they already know, in addition, it must be taken into account the contexts in which children are handled and what is meaningful to them to learn. In conclusion, the design of a syllabus should encompass a general introduction, objectives, contents, methodologies, materials, evaluation that offer the most detailed information possible to the teacher and students, hence the importance of structuring first: what themes are going to work, how, what to employ, what time will it take? and what to evaluate?, all in order to make a greater organization in the foreign language class. Following the types of syllabus, the choice of some authors was made for the precision regarding the subject and for the exemplifications of each syllabus.

Syllabus classes

The types of syllabus and their corresponding explanation may be observed below:

Procedural Syllabus: graduated conceptually, respectively grouped by similar themes, focused towards the apprentice, so that the latter perceives the foreign language in a way Subconscious by the resolution of tasks, some elements such as the grouping of similar topics were taken into account at the time of the creation of syllabus.

Cultural Syllabus: According to the creator of this syllabus, a language is better learned if it is emphasized in the socio-cultural implications of this syllabus, which allows the student to compare it with his, to generate curiosity to learn the second language through the culture of this and empathy for it, so teachers should include in their proposal elements of American culture detailed in their class plans, for example.

Situational Syllabus: This syllabus emphasizes the need to explain the foreign language from the very context in which it occurs, for example, the phrases that are used to ask for an address or to introduce itself to other people, the content is obtained from imaginary situations within the classroom. The student must use the foreign language, for teachers can take elements of this syllabus to integrate their proposal in the context, since, this must be taken into account for the planning of classes by the teacher; clutch situations should not be imaginary but rather adapted to the real context of the student.

Skill-Based Syllabus: Focuses on the development of language skills, such as vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar, therefore develops activities such as: listening and speaking in the foreign language to express an idea in the classroom, to write a proper paragraph, to read and understand a statement. In this respect, the syllabus must be structured in steps where at early ages one begins only with oral and listening skills.

Structural Formal Syllabus: The form or grammar of the foreign language is prioritized and graduated according to the student's grammatical progress. For many teachers, there were no elements of the syllabus to include in their proposal, although in the beginning, as teachers in training, they might think that they should teach only grammar, because of the preconceptions that it was important for children to memorize it; however, and after many reflections in the PIPP class and after reading the article ”L 'Enseignement D'Une Langue Étrangère à l'École Primaire”, one may understand that at the age of the children it is very difficult to teach and that they learn each and every one of the grammar rules .

Multi-dimensional syllabus: It is a type of syllabus not standardized in categories like the others but constructed according to the necessity of the context in which it is found, it can prioritize diverse areas as the culture, grammar or abilities, following objectives, which focuses on the diverse needs of the student.

Task-based syllabus: The most important aspect about the task syllabus is that the tasks must be in accordance with the real world of the student, and also according to the needs of use of the language in each of these, therefore it must be a significant task.

Process syllabus: Emphasizes the need for student progress, which must be continuous, to generate relationships between the student, language, learning and contribution forms in the proposals presented in the classroom, an element to be taken into account of this syllabus is the need to generate units in which the subjects to be taught are those seen by the children in their other subjects.

Learner-led syllabus: It focuses on the idea about how the student learns, and what topics he would like to learn, this in order to generate interest and motivation in him, a fundamental element to take into account is the conception about How it learns the student?, since the different channels of multiple intelligence of the students must be taken into account.

Proportional syllabus: This syllabus seeks to achieve total competence for the majority of students, through the use of varied elements within the classroom, such as the game in each of its units, to generate interaction among students, a syllabus is focused on meaningful learning, activities such as play and group work were included in different proposals not only as a learning mechanism, but also as a form of socialization in the classroom.

Notional / functional syllabus: In short, this syllabus seeks to answer the question: what do I want the student to express through the foreign language?,

Lexical syllabus: This syllabus emphasizes the idea of ​​communicating through natural language as a means of expression, such as apologizing in the foreign language, some elements such as learning to greet in the foreign language or ask permission to go to the bathroom.

Content-Based syllabus: For this type of syllabus the activities presented in the classroom, in the foreign language, must be connected by the content, so during the English class one can select a subject of another subject that the students already have seen, and present it in the foreign language. In this respect, there will be an evocation of previous knowledge that helps the student to express in the foreign language.

Therefore, in order to elaborate the syllabus proposal, content based Syllabus was chosen because, in teaching subjects already known in the subjects, in the foreign language, it performs mental processes to connect new and stored information that helps to create an autonomous learning, the content acts as a "connector" between the foreign language, in this case the English language, and the cognitive process of the student, and lastly it tends to work as a group of students to generate greater success in learning that is what is considered as one of the key elements when teaching English, because sometimes the student learns better with his peers. In addition the Content Based Syllabus allows to integrate elements of other syllabus, therefore it included features of Procedural Syllabus that suggests a gradual sequencing of subjects, the cultural Syllabus by the importance of including elements of English culture in the English class, Skill syllabus, because it works from the communicative abilities of the student, the Proportional Syllabus, since, it uses of diverse elements within the classroom, like the game in each one of its units, finally our proposal looks for is an integration of areas to avoid using the English language to teach concepts that the child does not know. The elaboration of the Content Based Syllabus examines the recommendations made by the author, who in his educational practices has implemented this type of syllabus with his students.

Characteristics of a Content Based Syllabus

For Eskey D. (1992:11-23) one of the main features of a Content Based Syllabus is: "The essential notion of Content-based syllabus is that many activities are linked together by their content: the theme of topic runs through everything happens in the classroom and acts as a connecting thread. In the simplest version of subject-based foreign language teaching, atopic provides content for a range of language learning activities, in other words, content-based syllabus allows the connection between subjects, which causes the student to evoke what he has learned in other subjects and associate it in the English class.

Similarly, for the above-mentioned author, English language teaching occurs simultaneously and while students are learning the content they are taught, at the moment of connecting previous knowledge they have on the subject, this was reflected when Carried out the "practice" part of our class plans as it generated greater participation of the children in the proposed activities and generated a greater use of the foreign language so that the students expressed references regarding the content. On the other hand, for Eskey D. (1992:11-23: "Subject matter is primary and language happens concurrently": The English language was emphasized in the classroom when the students realized their phase of production with the subject that they had seen, then, appears its use of spontaneous way since, they know "there is no way for the student to "learn" the English language. Mentioned, it is used gradually by the students as they make their productions and progressively improve their level of English as they develop the expositions of the subjects worked and their corresponding evaluations. Of the above characteristics of how a content based syllabus is described, it is possible to emphasize that the use of the content based syllabus to teach English causes the acquisition of the content during teaching, which means that the student evokes previous knowledge and relates it to those seen in the English class, which generates a greater confidence in the realization of their communicative processes in the language, because he knows in advance what is going to be taught in the English class. In addition, one should take into account that the materials must be authentic, meaning that they mean to the student and that the student can manipulate them according to their intelligence channels, as explained by the author Chesnevar (2004:7-11) in his article "Strategies for Promoting Significant Learning" and make the student interested in them. This type of syllabus also emphasizes the need for student group work, as skills should be integrated and one should include evaluation as a mechanism for improvement in the techniques or methodology used by the teacher to teach English.

A pedagogical approach of teaching oral English skills

"Who does not know foreign languages he knows nothing about his own". (Von Goethe, 1999:23) The importance of the English language today is so crucial that is taken for granted in the acquisition of any work in our society. Communicating in English it is required from the very beginning of the learning process in the first academic courses.

Communication in the classroom is defined as the set of processes for the exchange of information between the teacher and the student and between the peers, in order to achieve two objectives: the personal relationship and the teaching process -learning, however this does not always work. Communication in the classroom is "a process of production-reception of complex effects of meaning (and not only of information), from the place that the interlocutors occupy in the fabric of social relations and according to the ideological horizon -cultural that they are carriers by virtue of their situation or class position. " (Charles Mercedes, 1999:115-118).

According to these approaches, it is necessary to explain the situations of interpersonal and group relationship that are carried out, assuming that these are the result of the need for communication that is managed in the classroom, and the various roles, rules and interactions that Are generated and which are present in the communicative exchange. Communication between the teacher and the student is essential when a problem arises or when it is necessary to exchange information or conceptions of reality, or when it is desired to give something of itself. Communication is more than the teacher speaks, the student hears. It is more than the simple exchange of words between people. In all interactions, a message is sent and received. Teachers sometimes believe that they only send a message, but their voice, their body positions, the words they use, and the gestures express different messages. The message of double meaning is meta-communication. (Fragoso David, 1999:47).

The first principle of communication is that people respond to what they thought was said or referred and not necessarily to the message that the interlocutor wanted to give. That is why the first step in communicating with students is to really listen to what they say. To listen well requires attention, to be receptive, perceptive and sensitive to grasp the feelings that underlie the student's words. Students should also be attentive to what the teacher says and ask for clarification of concepts, attitudes, ways of expressing. In the sense of understanding and coexisting, this principle is not always fulfilled in the teaching-learning process, since the process of interaction and communication for learning is limited by:

• Traditionalist practices

• Memory teaching

• Lack of freedom for students to defend their ideas

• Impositions of rules of conduct! teacher

• The lack of understanding and understanding of the teacher to the questions that express the students' concerns.

• The teacher's ignorance of the problems of the students from a personal and affective point of view.

The key to a good teacher – student communicative relationship is to determine why the first one is disturbed by a particular behaviour. In this respect, the problem should be identified. To do this, the teacher must begin by asking about the problem.

Significant learning occurs when the subject relates new information or concepts to their previous ideas, experiences or knowledge, thus extracting and constructing meanings and acquiring higher levels of comprehension, which is why, according to Ausubel (2002:25) in his book Acquisition and Retention of knowledge, the author emphasizes that the student's learning depends on the previous cognitive structure that is related to the new information, it must be understood by "prior cognitive structure", to the set of concepts, ideas that an individual possesses in a certain field of knowledge, as well as its organization the process of orientation of the learning, it is of vital importance to know the cognitive structure of the student; not only is the amount of information he has, but also the concepts and propositions that he handles as well as his degree of stability. Among the principles of meaningful learning, for the author Carmen Padilla the most important are related to learning as it us not mere memorization but it requires an active mind that builds and reconstructs ideas, concepts and meanings. Learning is a social act, which is facilitated and strengthened by the interaction between individuals and others and there are multiple emotional or affective elements in the learning process. Learning occurs when what the individual knows – or thinks he knows – conflicts with the new. Learning is deepened and strengthened when contextualized. In this respect, one may use authentic materials in the classroom. For certain teachers, the above principles offer the framework for the design of methodologies that allow us to know the organization of the cognitive structure of the learner, which guides the educational work, this will no longer be seen as a task that must be developed with "blank minds" or that the students' learning starts from "zero", because it is not, but, the learners have a series of experiences and knowledge that affect their learning and can be used for their benefit.

The most important characteristic of meaningful learning is that it "produces an interaction between the relevant knowledge of the cognitive structure and the new information (it is not a simple association), in such a way that these acquire a meaning and are integrated into the cognitive structure of non-arbitrary and substantial way, favouring the differentiation, evolution and stability of pre-existing elements and consequently of the entire cognitive structure." In addition, meaningful learning seeks students to "do something" with what they have learned and understand what they are learning, in a nutshell seeks to create critical subjects and leaders for a tomorrow who are recognized for the management of all their skills and who possess a high degree of autonomy in their working life. In this respect, the activities in the classroom focused on meaningful learning are essential, and can be: "short lectures, group discussion, teamwork, couple work, oral presentations, mind maps, mind maps, concept maps and brainstorming." For some teachers, all this must be contemplated within the syllabus of foreign languages ​​that must be made known at the beginning of class to the students, also, the general contents of the course must be organized and emphasize their relationship, in addition the teacher must be constantly observing and noting in their field journal how the students are "piling" some subjects with those seen in other subjects or precedent to the course in which they are, this last aspect is highlighted by the author Karmen Padilla (2014:21) , when she says that “the best strategy to verify if a student is really learning is to check your field diary but more importantly to promote meaningful successful learning in the classroom you should devote time before starting the class to feedback, you should also plan how to Is going to structure the class in an active way favouring spaces in which the greater participation by the students is generated, the design of evaluation rubrics is another topic to consider, since they must show the importance that is given to students thinking and communicating that thought in the foreign language.”

On the other hand, certain authors emphasize that the phases to achieve a correct learning in the classroom are the following ones:

Initial phase of the learning: The learner receives the information as constituted by "pieces", the apprentice tends to memorize as much as possible these pieces to learn in a concrete way linked to a specific context and also use review strategies to learn the information, gradually the learner is constructing a global panorama domain or material to be learned, for which he uses his schematic knowledge, establishes analogies (with other domains he knows best) to represent that new domain builds assumptions based on previous experiences.

Intermediate stage of learning: The learner begins to find relationships and similarity in between isolated parts and comes to formulate schemas and cognitive maps about the material and the domain of learning progressively, learned knowledge becomes applicable to other contexts, are performed meta-cognitive behaviours based on organizational or collaborative strategies such as: concept maps and semantic networks.

Terminal phase of learning: the knowledge that began to be elaborated in cognitive maps or maps that become integrated are autonomous and have two moments: accumulation of new facts to the pre-existing schemes (domain), which finally triggers a skilful management of knowledge.

It should be mentioned that the phases described above were detailed in certain class plans, since they represent key elements of the syllabus implementation in the second cycle, since they are expected to relate their previous knowledge of other subjects with the English language. Another subject in relation to this work is also the population with which the syllabus will be implemented; it was inquired then by the way of teaching English to young apprentices:

Teaching English for young learners

Teaching English for young learners is a challenge for most teachers because of the lack of attention given by children to the activities. In this respect, it is essential to understand how this specific population should be able to learn a foreign language. The teaching of the English language for children must be done from an early age, since they are more accepting of the introduction of a new linguistic code because they are still learning their own, in addition to encouraging creativity in the classroom as these codes are constantly compared, the same document refers to how children can be taught English, certain authors outline the following steps:

The teacher should emphasize that the child listens and speaks in English.

The teacher should not use the new language to teach concepts that children do not know.

The teacher should peak as much as possible in English, so that the children can hear the rhythm and so that they understand each other little by little.

The teacher should ry to teach the English "tied" to other subjects, since the learning of the child is not fragmented, and this must be significant.

The teacher should consider the mental operations of the student as well as their cognitive maps and make the class as playful as possible by integrating movement, mime, theatre and perhaps dance.

On the other hand, the article entitled: ”L'enseignement D'Une Langue Étrangère à L'École Primaire", emphasizes that activities can be designed so that everyone can succeed in taking into account the different multiple intelligences present in the classroom, such activities can be observed below:

• The teacher should use a lot of repetition; children need to do things over and over again; this aspect makes them feel comfortable and helps them learn.

• Classes should be fun because a teacher’s motivation to learn English is to be able to participate in games and songs.

• The teacher should present short and varied activities to maintain their interest and to change the pace of the class.

• A primary class should not be understood as a secondary school because at that age it is very difficult to teach grammar.

• The child learns more if he is taught in a fun way, using songs or games and also requires that the teacher be seen as a model of pronunciation in the classroom.

In this respect, teaching methodology is important when teaching English to children, so is the material and means that can be used for teaching English, which can be varied such as: stories, these are very useful Because children of all ages enjoy them, generate minimal stress, serve to present the language in a natural way, and through imitation children learn the importance of pronunciation and intonation in the classroom, also stimulate the imagination , are stored in the memory in the long term and are multicultural elements that serve to take students through other areas other than English, other practical activities to explore in the classroom are the crafts as children learn using creativity, can implement various games, either table or action and finally can introduce songs, rhymes or chants in the classroom, as these tools memorize easily as your letter is constantly repeated. In all these cases, the role of the teacher should be fundamental, he should be the modeller so that the classes will get out of control, therefore to teach children should be aware that classes should be as varied as possible, emphasize repetition, group activities, not using English to teach information that the child does not know and the teacher should not forget students’ periods of attention.

Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative teaching is one that targets the development of communicative competence. The essence of this approach lies in the enrichment of the learning objectives: it is not only a question of students acquiring a certain linguistic system, but of being able to use it to communicate adequately and effectively (Luzon and Soria, 2013:233).

The main characteristics are (Luzon and Soria, 2013:234):

1. Language is a system of social communication.

2. Learning affects the personality globally.

3. Students are the real agents of the process. It is they who, with the help of the teacher, manage to learn.

4. The teacher should offer the kind of stimulation that the process requires, but remembering that their behavior should be subordinated to the learning needs of the students.

5. The language learned should be the vehicle in communication in class.

6. Students should be heard on all the aspects that integrate the process of which they themselves are protagonists

PREPARATION (ORAL COMMUNICATION PLANNING)

We understand oral expression as a social interaction that enables us to:

• Students practice the oral and written code through real exercises;

• Classes are more active and participatory;

• The exercises recreate real communication situations;

• The language students learn is real and contextualized;

• Students usually work in group in certain situations;

• The exercises allow students to develop the four language skills regarding communication: speaking-listening-reading-writing;

• The acquisition of language is social and, therefore, teaching language is to teach to communicate in the different personal and social situations in which the speaker can be found;

• The creation of a positive and welcoming atmosphere in the classroom so that students are free to express opinions, suggestions, make proposals, express their points of view, criticize, express emotions and feelings.

In this respect, one may consider the following items:

• Program in Cycle Computer with reference to the PC.

• The teacher should plan gradually the objectives and contents for the teaching of oral language:

– Starting from the social environment and the previous knowledge of the students.

– From the spontaneity of speech to controlled and planned language.

• The teacher should plan didactic units in which the language skills are interrelated: reading-speaking, writing-speaking, speaking.

• The teacher should program the teaching of oral communication as a cooperative activity, dynamic and interactive, taking into account the exchanges between student – teacher, between student / student and student, between the family – other interlocutors.

• The teacher should program motivational activities to learn to speak and as a consequence speak to learn (pronunciation, listening and giving opinions, correction of mistakes) in all areas

• The teacher should program for the classroom variety of communicative situations, interlocutors, themes, and linguistic forms (debates, news)

• The teacher should program the oral communicative situations taking into account the relational aspects such as: the turn in the conversation, the right tone, respect in the dialogue, listening attentively.

• The teacher should program oral communicative situations taking into account both verbal and nonverbal aspects

• The teacher should program significant situations for students to practice regarding the functions of language:

– claim attention.

– direct attention to some element of interest.

– express wishes and / or requests.

– ask or give information.

• The teacher should plan the oral communicative situations taking into account the set of linguistic learning, which refer to the correct use of phonetics, semantics and morph syntax.

• The teacher should program for the debate different topics of interest that deal with Education regarding values.

– Organization of relations between students, both in academic and extra-academic activities.

– Promotion of respect and tolerance among peers.

– Activities of the tutorial Action Plan.

– Cross-cutting issues (ethical-moral).

• The teacher should anticipate the use of technological resources and conditions for its use in communication (Technological Educational Network, television, video, video camera, cassettes, overhead projector …) for learning and for evaluation.

• The teacher should strive for a balance between his speaking time and the student's speaking time.

• The teacher should establish procedures to facilitate the student's reflection before expressing himself orally to do it correctly.

• The teacher should establish rules on the forms of involvement and participation expected of the recipients and issuers of each activity.

• The teacher should program the activities of teaching oral communication taking into account the objectives, contents, resources and characteristics of the group of students and in coordination with the teacher even carrying out a program of oral stimulation per course.

• The teacher should plan the use of different resources or instruments to evaluate, such as: recording, transcription of oral speech fragments, self-reflection questions, self-evaluation, external evaluation, co-evaluation.

The items corresponding to this section are in accordance with these objectives:

A) Speak to speak better and interrelate:

The following skills and strategies can be developed to teach listening and expressing better:

* Plan the speech – Analyze the situation (routine, state of the speech, anticipation, etc.) to prepare the intervention. – Use written media to prepare the intervention (especially in monogestionados discourses: scripts, notes, notes, etc.). – Anticipate and prepare the subject (information, structure, language, etc.).

* Conduct the speech

▪ Conduct the topic – Search for topics appropriate to each situation. – Start or propose a topic. – Develop a theme. – End a conversation. – Lead the conversation to a new topic. – Divert or avoid a topic of conversation. – Relate a new theme to an old one.

▪ Conduct the interaction – Show that you want to intervene (with gestures, phrases). – Choose the right moment to intervene. – Effectively use the word shift:

◦ take the time to say everything that is considered necessary; ◦ to conform to the conventions of the type of discourse (theme, structure, etc.);

◦ mark the start and end of the word shift. – Recognize when an interlocutor asks for the word. – Give the call to an interlocutor at the right time.

* Produce the text

▪ Facilitate production – Simplify the sentence structure. – To avoid all irrelevant words. – Avoid expressions and formulas of routines. – Avoid mutilations, pauses and repetitions.

 ▪ Compensate for production – Self-correcting. – Specify and polish the meaning of what is meant. – Repeat and summarize important ideas. – Reformulate what has been said.

▪ Correct production

– Articulate with clarity the sounds of the speech.

* Nonverbal aspects – Control the voice: imposition, volume, nuances, tone. – Use appropriate non-verbal codes: gestures and movements. – Control the look: direct it to the interlocutors.

B) Speak to perform activities: narrate, describe, argue and instruct. In oral language teaching it is imperative that students learn to analyze the communicative situation – intention, relationship between participants, space in which communication takes place and time available to speak – to be able to plan their speech in an appropriate manner. Depending on this, they can select ideas and reasoning that can be useful in a specific discourse and organize these ideas by controlling the elements that give them logical coverage: the textual structures and mechanisms that allow to link the different parts of the speech and indicate the type of relationships that are established between ideas.

C) Speak to energize the classroom. In addition to the mechanics of the activity, it is also necessary to learn to maintain order, to control oneself, to respect the turns of speech and not to shout. It would try to use formulas and resources of models that allow to offer a positive image of oneself and to value the image of the others. The classroom is the most suitable space to stimulate the processes of relationship and communication that must keep in mind at all times both the content of the communication and how to carry it out, respecting, in any case, such essential aspects as respect, courtesy and expressive good taste.

D) Talk to learn to think. It is about teaching the student to transmit, represent and build their ideas, thoughts, feelings and knowledge.

In this respect, one may consider the following items:

The teacher should teach his students to listen in an active way: to verbalize and analyze a problem, to present a personal point of view, to explain their opinions.

The teacher should create communicative situations in which oral language has a clear functional value and where a true dialogue can be established.

The teacher should emphasize and analyze situations in which students learn to plan their oral discourse (such as preparation of debates, dialogues on occasional topics)

The teacher should prepare students for comprehension through questions that precede the intervention and that will serve them: as a listening orientation, focus attention on the fundamental elements of the speech and so on

The teacher should teach to intervene and promote among my students the discussion (with their cognitive and social values) as an opportunity to dialogue, to express opinions, to argue, to cooperate and to agree

The teacher should make brief interventions and ask later to verify the understanding of the fundamental meanings.

The teacher should favour oral communication as a way of expressing affections, opinions and to form children personality as social beings.

The teacher should use in the assembly: spontaneously unstructured conversation, guided conversation, spontaneous debate, structured debate.

The teacher should teach and care for language in any communicative context, trying to create a climate of exigency and security, trying to be interlocutor, enabler and linguistic model.

The teacher should teach oral texts with different purposes adapted to the student's age.

The teacher should support the development of students' expressive richness through questions, new expressions, some of their experiences.

The teacher should propose to orally reproduce the speeches heard as a result of discussion and group work.

The teacher should take into consideration the forms of non-verbal communication: facial mime, gestures, postures and so on.

The teacher should stimulate the interest of the text by raising its predictions from the title, advancing some of the plot without revealing the outcome, establishing connections between what is going to be read and some experience lived by them

The teacher should explain in a concrete, clear and reiterated way the task that the students must do and he advises them on how the answer should be given.

The teacher should use oral communication to develop the processes of written comprehension: planning, textualization, revision.

The teacher should teach the functionality of the grammatical contents in the various situations of oral communication.

The teacher should encourage the conversation as a way that allows students to discover the criteria for choosing books to read (authors, topics, type of text, formal aspects, recommendations of other students).

The teacher should propose oral language activities in a large group, small group and individuals for the development of written comprehension.

The teacher should emphasize through oral expression at all textual types: narration, description, explanation, argumentation and dialogue

The teacher should teach and analyze with his students the rules that govern the operation of a conversation.

The teacher should use audiovisual media, media or new information technologies for the teaching of oral communication.

The teacher should respect the linguistic diversity of the students as a way of knowledge of wealth and cultural identity.

The teacher should help students who have difficulty expressing themselves and participating in communicative exchanges with cooperative work strategies: by tuition, questions and so on

The teacher should teach linguistic expressions to ask for clarification, reformulation or repetition (I did not understand you, you could clarify it please, etc.).

The teacher should teach courtesy formulas (please forgive, do not you care ?, thank you … as part of basic education in respect for the other.

The teacher should intervene in debates to make thinking, to reveal contradictions between speakers, to channel thematic deviations or to claim and guide summaries of what has been said.

The teacher should dedicate time to verbalize reflections of the student on his own speech.

The teacher should give the opportunity to listen to the oral text more than once so that he can concentrate on certain aspects.

The teacher should use the dictionary as a way to expand the oral repertoire of the students: looking for words that arise in the conversation or in prepared texts or observing different meanings that the same word may have.

EVALUATION OF ORAL COMMUNICATION

The formative evaluation is an essential part of the teaching-learning cycle of oral communication since it allows systematic practice, detection of difficulties, its resolution and the reflexive use of language. During the process of evaluation of teaching-learning oral communication in the classroom, the following items will be taken into account and correspond to the following distribution:

• Evaluation criteria for consistency with the curriculum project.

• Teaching-learning process.

• Systematic evaluation: procedures and instruments.

• Use of results and proposals for improvement

In this respect, one may consider are the following items:

• The teacher should carry out the assessment of the learning, according to the programmed criteria, in coherence with the Curricular Project.

• The teacher should evaluate the learning of communication in the initial stages, in the process and at the end of each teaching-learning unit.

• The teacher should systematically evaluate the achievement of basic oral communication skills by students.

• The teacher should use various procedures to evaluate oral communication learning: dialogues, recordings

• The teacher should use different instruments to evaluate oral communication learning: systematic records, observations, summaries

• The teacher should use self-assessment, co-evaluation to evaluate learning.

• The teacher should encourage students to compare the results of their assignments in pairs or in small groups.

• The teacher should use the data obtained in the evaluation of the learning to improve the programming, the development of the teaching and the evaluation itself.

• The teacher should reflect on his manner of talking to the students: how much does he speak, the explanations are clear and useful, how does he correct mistakes, what kind of interaction occurs between students and him and so on.

CHAPTER II. METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS

2.1. Describing spoken language

2.1.1. Different purposes, different speaking skills

The reflection of the student regarding his own processes of knowledge is one of the fundamental aspects to develop the capacity to learn on own account. Awareness of the processes used in their own learning, both of the real processes and of the ideals, makes it easier to improve them and develop the capacity to learn continuously, inside and outside the school environment. One could consider that one uses cognitive strategies to carry out a learning process and metacognitive strategies to control that process. In order to develop activities of self-control or self-evaluation of learning, the following aspects must be considered:

To be aware of what should be studied in a particular learning situation;

To be aware of what actions lead to what results;

To reflect on the extent to which action has been taken;

To take action when there are difficulties in understanding or when there is no progress in relation to goals.

Generally, students have been promoted to acquire and memorize information and reproduce it based on previously established patterns. A new configuration of the process traditionally used in our centers is indispensable, where knowledge does not rest in the teacher and where the role of the student is not that of the mere receiver of information. The teacher must become the designer of instructional situations for the student and a tutor of the process while the student must assume responsibility for his own learning.

During the teaching-learning process, school develops for the students a capacity to learn on their own through:

1. be able to ask questions, recognize their ignorance on many issues and seek knowledge on their own from various sources.

2. have study habits that involve discipline, concentration, fulfilment of engagements, search for information, true desire to learn

3. develop analysis, synthesis and evaluation skills.

4. recognize that the responsibility to learn is always something personal and do not hold anyone responsible for not having learned something.

5. know how to seek the necessary information despite ignoring the area of ​​knowledge to investigate.

6. develop efficient reading skills.

7. identify your particular way of learning and putting it into practice.

8. distinguish the different levels of reliability of the information.

9. analyze the information with critical spirit.

10. teachers can postulate hypotheses and test them to increase their knowledge.

The fundamental means of human communication is oral language, voice and oral language, which allow the individual to express and understand. The acquisition of oral language is conceived as the development of the ability to communicate verbally and linguistically through conversation in a given situation and in relation to a particular context and temporal space. The fundamental medium of human communication is oral language, voice and Oral language, which allow the individual to express and understand ideas, thoughts, feelings, knowledge and activities. The spoken language is given as a result of a process of imitation and maturation through the wealth of stimuli that exist in the environment. The acquisition of oral language is conceived as the development of the ability to communicate verbally and linguistically through conversation in a given situation and in relation to a particular context and temporal space. Therefore, when considering a series of productions, it is essential to intervene the linguistic and extra-linguistic context of the verbal exchange, the topic of conversation, the attitudes and motivations of the participants, as well as information about the formal organization of the statements and the words that compose it. In its broadest sense, oral language can be described as the ability to understand and use verbal symbols as a form of communication, or it can be defined as a structured system of symbols that emphasize objects, relationships and facts within the framework of a culture. Being the most specific language of the communication, one may affirm that it is a code that understands all that belongs to a linguistic community. Puyuelo, M. (1998:33) defines language as a communicative behaviour, a specifically human characteristic that performs important cognitive, social and communication functions which allows individuals to make intentions explicit, to stabilize them, to make them very complex regulations of human action and to access a positive plane of cognitive and behavioural self-regulation, which can not be reached without language. Based on the above, many authors have focused on the development of oral language, allowing different societies to become aware of its importance as an instrument par excellence used by man to communicate with Their fellows.

Oral language is part of a complex communicative system that develops among humans. Scholars have called for the development of language in the child’s “development of communicative competence". This process begins as early as the first weeks of a newborn baby, when looking at faces, smiles and other gestures and listening to the linguistic interpretations given by the adult. These verbalizations have extreme importance to create a later development. During the process of linguistic development, different communicative capacities evolve, such as intentionality, inter-subjectivity, that is, transmitting and sharing a mental state; The reciprocity, which is to participate in a proto-dialogue (the child cries, the mother responds by taking him in her arms, caressing him, talking to him) to culminate in the so-called interactive routines where the adult and child participate in games of giving and taking inserting vocalizations. It is observed how the oral language starts from a social dimension and goes through a continuous process of refinement.

Regarding general language, specialists, with some exceptions, considered that it is possible for a child to speak well by three years of age. In order for this situation to occur, several conditions must be met: normality of the linguistic organs, both receptive (auditory or visual and cortical capacity), and productive (capacity for ideation and articulator ability). Also, the child's exposure to an appropriate socializing and linguistic context, as well as the development of a communicative environment supposes a continuous stimulation of the adults towards the child generating the appropriate answers.

Given these conditions, the process of language development proceeds in stages that begin with a pre-linguistic development, which requires:

Experience that in a way has a meaning for the child.

The faculties of attention (ability to focus the information to be more relevant for a specific objective).

Perception: (converts data captured by the senses into abstract representations).

Memory: stores the mental representations of perceived objects and events for later use.

Internal mechanisms of the child.

Interactive experience to develop.

All these conditions make it possible to process the sensory data through which the elements of the linguistic code are integrated.

Requirements for language comprehension

In addition, in order for the oral language acquisition process to develop properly, there must be a good availability for both physical and psychological communication between the child and the people who interact with him, so the language that serves as a model for the child must comply with at least two conditions:

It should consist of a wide range of correct grammatical phrases.

It should give oneself at an expressive level, initiating conversational exchanges, and at the receptive level, responding appropriately to the utterances made by the child.

2.1.2.Spoken vs. Written language

Overcoming the writing/ orality dichotomy. Discursive genres

Traditionally, oral and written language were conceived as two opposing registers, one informal (represented by the characteristics of the spontaneous conversation) and the other formal (represented by those of academic writing), respectively. However, this conception of the oral and the written, by virtue of simplistic, leaves out of reach many oral texts that participate in formal features and many texts written with informal features, such as a conference or a chat, respectively. That is why, at present, the relationship between oral and written language is considered a gradual relationship, and oral and written are combined according to communicative situations.

Any text can be produced orally or in writing, which does not have to do with how the message is conceived (the content of that message or with the language used in its production), which will depend to a great extent on the Degree of immediacy / distance of that communication. The parameters for determining the degree of immediacy / distance of a oral language are:

– privacy of communication: the more private the communication, the closer it will be to the pole of immediacy.

– the mutual knowledge of the interlocutors: to greater knowledge, greater immediacy.

– shared knowledge: to greater shared knowledge, greater immediacy.

The communicative immediacy is prototypical of the oral conversation and communicative distance is prototypical of the written. Thus, the concepts of writing and orality intersect with those of immediacy and communicative distance, forming a plane in which all possible discourses – oral and written – are distributed in a language, and at the ends of which there would be discourses such as (A) a spontaneous conversation, (B) a conference, (C) a family letter or a chat, (D) a specialized treaty.

From this scheme, one may speak of prototypical oral discursive genres to refer to texts that are located in the A zone (for example, spontaneous conversation) and prototypical written discursive genres for those who are in the D area (for example, A treatise on thermodynamics), which were traditionally associated with writing and orality, as one observed at the beginning. For their part, texts that are not located in these areas will be called intermediate discursive genres.

Oral language vs. Written language

According to what one has just seen, one could not systematize the features of the oral language versus those of the written language, while the difference between oral and written simply informs us of the communication channel of the message, but not of the form of its form (how it is formed, what words it uses, what register, etc.). However, it is interesting to analyze the linguistic features of the prototypical discursive genres (those that are at the extremes) bearing in mind that there will be many texts that share traits of both.

In order to focus on my subject here, the starting point would be to clarify the difference between orality and legality, but bearing in mind that both modalities complement and influence each other.

A first difference lies in the conditions of production and reception. In drafts, the writer often returns back on the syntagmatic axis. In addition, one can accumulate the elements of the same paradigm, before choosing one. The preparation stages are erased in the written text. In contrast, the spoken language shows the stages of their preparation. We observe both the accumulations of paradigmatic elements like the going and turning on the axis of the syntagms, either to complete it, or to modify it. Of course, there are also deficiencies of the oral with respect to the written (although in a noticeably smaller number). Perhaps the most important is the impossibility of erasing the correction in the oral statement. Here it highlights the inherent artificiality of the writing where the author can pretend not to have made corrections. When we speak, we look for words, and we often list several before finding the right one. This enumeration corresponds exactly to the paradigmatic axis of Saussure. But in this case, the elements of the paradigm are present at the same time. These enumerations would be exasperating in reading, but they are not in the oral discourse (Blanche-Benveniste, 1998:168). It is thought that up to seven attempts can be made to find the right word. If the number becomes seven, the case is considered pathological; this loss of the word should be treated by specialists in oral language disorders. Undoubtedly, paradigmatic accumulation is one of the important characteristics of oral production. It should be noted that sometimes it is used to produce a stylistic finding effect. Another feature of spoken language is the ease of introducing incised sentences. These are the three essential characteristics of the oral texts that we want to emphasize: paradigmatic accumulations, goings and turns on the axis of the phrases, introduction of incised sentences. Usually, one may observe an equivalence between oral and spoken language, on the one hand, and writing and written language, on the other. This equivalence has as fundamental criterion the means of communication, that is, it establishes the difference between the phonic realization of a statement and its graphic manifestation. However, this criterion is limited and insufficient in not considering the conception of these terms and their ability to go beyond terminological boundaries. It is also necessary to specify that there is no univocal correspondence between letters and phonemes. In the different alphabetical writings is given polyphony for the same grapheme and polygraphs for the same phoneme. Oral texts and written texts are ideal types that often overlap, blend, intersect. For example, a conference combines written conception with the phonic medium and a private letter, in turn, combines the spoken conception with the graphic medium.

In addition, there is always the possibility of a medial change in any statement, which John Lyons (1981:23) calls medium transferability (Oesterreicher, 1996: 69). David Olson (1977:257-281) introduces in this polemic a fundamental distinction between what a text means and what it says literally (in English to mean and to say (Blanche-Benveniste, 1998:232). One may insists on the idea that writing is meant to write down what is said and not what is meant. The intentions of the speakers are not reflected. In this sense the discourse analysts define the text as a linguistic product and apply the term of discourse to this contextualized text. This idea would be embodied in the following formulas:

• oral language = text + production conditions

• text = oral language – production conditions

Consequently, the concept of discourse encompasses the interaction of the agents of discourse with the utterance and with the communicative situation” (Tovar, 1996: 36). The differences between the two modalities of the language (oral and written) cover different aspects: communicative situation, degree of planning, permanence, redundancy, interaction. Also, one may not forget that the communicative situation is shared by the sender and receiver. Let us remember the elements that are given in any communicative fact: they are the components grouped in the acronym SPEAKING of Hymes (1972: 269-293). The acronym is formed by the initials of the eight components in English: Situation, Participants, Ends, Act sequences, Key, Instrumentalities, Norms and Genre. An aspect of utmost importance in the study of oral language is the transcription of the oral and all the difficulties that it entails. The different systems of transcription signs do not reflect the great richness of orality. Punctuation and typography are not enough either. Let us also think of the difficulty in hearing the spoken language. "We hear" one part for what the perception offers us and another we reconstruct by interpretation. All communication can receive disturbances that hinder it. Any disturbance is called noise in the Theory of Communication. This term does not refer here only to a sound annoyance. It can be errors in the use of code or obstacles in the transmission channel, ink spots or fading in a writing, barely perceptible oral language, deafness, distraction of the listener or reader, interference in telephony, radio or television, etc. To avoid the loss of information that can cause the noise, a set of units of defence, the redundant elements, is available. The word redundancy (which in the ordinary language means 'unnecessary and surplus repetition') applies in the Theory of Communication to any of the means used by the sender and that prevents the code, to avoid the loss of information. Thus, for example, the elevation of the voice to compensate for the deafness of the listener are redundant; the underlining, the use of a different typography to draw attention to certain words of a written message; certain morphemes that, for example, accompany the name, to indicate redundantly its gender (the open door) or its number (the open doors). Finally, one may also think that it is difficult to repeat literally what has just been said. Even the emitter of the message would say a paraphrase, as close as possible to the meaning, but already with different signifiers.

Marks of orality in written texts

In every written expression dialogue underlies as the most natural form of language: always someone communicates with another (Tovar, 1996: 66). It is the dialogical character of all text in terms of Bakhtin (2010:112): every statement is aimed at a receiver. The presence of oral features in written texts is a widely researched topic. Literary texts usually reproduce the oral language. But they are orality figures, since you can not reproduce the substantial reality of the sound elements. These are represented with graphic characters and actually appear as described or suggested elements, etc. That is why we define this orality as fictional. In this process of fictionalization the oral in the writing is feigned. It is a mimesis of the spoken. These simulations of communicative immediacy are now known as textual polyphony (Reyes, 1984:23). Oral statements contain non-verbal codes (paralinguistic, kinetic, proximal). The paralinguistic studies the intonation, the intensity of the voice, the speed of emission, and elements such as: laughter, crying, yawning, crying, coughing and sneezing. Kinaesthetic is dedicated to body language, to the distance between the interlocutors.

In a written statement we never find what is spoken in an authentic state. Let us add as examples the exclusion of the situational context, the planning of the utterance, the possibility of correcting it, the communicative distance (between production and reception of the utterance). But we can find in the written texts features of the spoken and their diatonic and dysphasic variants. One should not forget that the level of cultural training influences the level of written competence. The low cultural level would easily lead to the use of low dysphasic registers, not normally admitted in writing. On the other hand, in the private letters abound the examples of a language less elaborated, facilitated by the intimacy, the spontaneity and the familiarity of the communicative situation. One must not lose sight of the desire to achieve certain stylistic effects in both cases. The elements of the spoken language are often used as literary resources, among them, to characterize the characters. These resources sometimes include the desire to adapt the linguistic expression to the reader's possibilities of understanding and, therefore, to choose a language close to the colloquial one. Conversation (dialogue) is a social activity, regulated by a series of norms that are also reflected in the use of one or other linguistic formulas. In addition, principles of cooperation and courtesy, Grice's maxims, are fundamental. It is important to note that cooperation (or conversational) maxims are usually recognized negatively, that is, when they are unfulfilled. One may consider in a schematic way the presence or absence of courtesy in communicative acts.

Courtesy also uses non-verbal signs such as shaking hands, patting back, smiling, clearing, etc. A very interesting field for the study of this aspect would be the translation of texts. It is curious to see that the translation makes the character more "polite" than it is in reality (Salamanca, 2006:110). Another special case of orality in writing is oral poetry. It has come to choose this curious oxymoron (oral literature) to designate the set of traditional forms as songs, stories, legends, myths, etc., collected directly from oral informants. One of the problems posed by this "oral literature" is its multimedia condition: "Written language … is confronted with the imperative to cover a whole transmitting process that in orality is accompanied by theatricality, gestural dimension, a certain phonticism, a rhythm of locution or a ritual aesthetic” (Pizarro, 1985: 53).

Without considering the details of the controversy, we can point out that oral poetry has an elaboration closer to the communicative distance. It is also an artistic production of texts with a clear aesthetic purpose. However, the subsequent staging, recitation and representation add numerous features of orality. This entire problem is very similar to what was spoken in the dramatic text. Again we find the communicative distance in terms of conception, aesthetic purpose and a whole repertoire of orality and verbal and non-verbal codes in the theatrical performance. However, it is not possible to study the spoken language through the dramatic texts nor in general through the writings. These often offer artificial dialects. It is the imitation that a specific author makes of the spoken language; It is a mimesis of the spoken, of a pretended orality, the product of a previous conscious elaboration, with a certain target and with some inevitable deficiencies.

To conclude this section, one may observe some ideas of Nietzsche on the style collected in a posthumous text regarding the doctrine of the style (Gauger, 1996:22). One may chose five of the ten ideas in total:

1. The first thing that is needed is life. Style must live.

2. The style has to be appropriate to you with respect to a particular person, with whom you want to communicate (law of double relationship).

3. You have to know first of all: this is how I would say it if I spoke – before I started to write. Writing has to be just imitated.

4. As he who writes he lacks many means available to the speaker, he must have as a general model a very expressive form of oral communication: his reflection, the writing, will necessarily prove to be much more discoloured.

5. The richness of life is shown through the richness of gestures. One must learn to feel everything as gestures: the length and brevity of the sentences, the punctuation, the words that are chosen, the pauses and the order of the arguments.

Typology of what was written

The creation of a typology of what is spoken in writing is extremely important for diachronic linguistics. And the previous steps would be to study the causes of the appearance of linguistic features of orality in written texts. Let's look at the different possibilities. There are actually four systems of discourse:

Spoken language – Oral language encoded by the speaker: a conversation.

Written language – Discourse codified by the writer: a letter.

Oralized language – Written oral language that is spoken: reading aloud.

Transcribed language – Oral language that is written: the taking of notes.

Trademark marks in oral texts

One has seen some marks of orality in written texts. The complementarities of the two modalities also provokes the opposite phenomenon: the penetration of the writing in oral texts. A striking example is punctuation and typography. The exclamation mark, comma, capital letters or quotation marks represent approximate equivalents of oral phenomena, although they can not reflect the great diversity of orality: ironic tone, rising tone, elongation, accent of Insistence, speed, etc. However, the oral discourse surprisingly resorts to these means of written expression, which everyone considers insufficient, to use as markers within the oral discourse. Paradoxically, we come to pronounce in quotation marks, in parentheses or with a capital letter, instead of using an oral procedure such as modulation of intonation, change of rhythm or change of voice. We have already discussed the greatest prestige in written societies today. Curiously, Blanche-Benveniste (1998:102) comments: "We questioned children about ten years of age to see if they thought they spoke French well. The answer, as we expected, was "no", but justification surprised us: they said they did not speak well because they spoke with "misspellings." This answer – which did not seem to surprise the teacher – is very eloquent about the representation of what is spoken, because it is entirely moulded on what is written.

Difficulties in the teaching of oral language

Perhaps a first reason for these difficulties is the abandonment of the rhetorical tradition in the teaching of language and literature. In the case of written language, it is very easy for teachers to select and offer students written texts that serve as worthy models to imitate. The same can not be said for oral language. It is much more difficult to select models of good speakers, pronunciation and so on. The deficiencies in teacher training in this regard affect the didactic aspects. There are few methodological strategies and techniques for programming content related to oral competence. There are also few observational guidelines for this competence and the evaluation criteria. All these difficulties carry the risk of falling into a formal didacticism when putting into practice the contents related to orality. In order to avoid this danger, it will be necessary to work, care for and promote the affective and psychological dimension of orality from a solid scientific and pedagogical foundation, in particular.

Prototypic oral gender: the spontaneous conversation

Most authors consider that spontaneous conversation is “the primary and universal form of realization" of oral discourse and constitutes, in addition to a linguistic process, a social process that allows the construction of identities, relationships and situations (in the conversation "the speakers do not only demonstrate their communicative competence, but also the procedures used for the construction of a social order"). "Characteristic of the conversation is the fact that it involves a relatively restricted number of participants, whose roles are not predetermined, all of which in principle enjoy the same rights and duties (the interaction is" symmetrical "and" egalitarian "), and Whose sole purpose is confessed the pleasure of talking; it has, in short, a familiar and improvised character: the subjects to be addressed, the duration of the exchange or the order of the speaking turns are determined step by step, relatively freely-relatively, for even […] The more anarchic they obey in fact certain rules of manufacture, although they leave room for manoeuvre clearly wider than other more "regulated" forms of communicative exchange”. Among the works of the authors who have dedicated themselves to the study of the conversation, we can affirm that the spontaneous conversation:

One may observe the presence of an interlocution, a face-to-face one of the simultaneous, immediate and current participation ("here and now") of a restricted and variable group of people, for whom there are no categorical restrictions that speaker can intervene to contribute to the dialogue the information you want or to answer another partner).

There are no pragmatic restrictions: the moment, the place, the social context can be any and the objective pursued depends only on the will of the interlocutors, it is not imposed from outside.

The communicative roles of the participants are not predetermined and the change of speaker is recurrent during the development of the conversation, thanks to the alternation in the turn of oral language , whose duration and order are not preset. For this reason, the conversation is dynamic, while there is a dialogical tension between participants, whose interventions often overlap are common briefly. Also, there are mechanisms to repair errors in transgression:

It has a strong improvised character, while it deals with subjects without predetermining, with a duration without predetermine.

The approach and implementation phase occur simultaneously.

Symmetry and equality in social roles: the interlocutors are not hierarchical. They have the same status in the act of communication.

Ludic purpose: A priori, spontaneous conversation has no more purpose than the conversation itself.

Family tone and proximity of the participants. Spontaneous conversation occurs among speakers who are on the same social plane.

Although the conversation has, as we have mentioned, a marked character of unpredictability and indefinition, the interlocutors are taking a series of agreements implicitly that allow the correct development of the conversation. To begin with, participants must decide to initiate interaction, choose a topic and a (more or less serious) tone of conversation, which they will maintain or change by mutual agreement until they decide to end the interaction. All these decisions of the interlocutors that allows the development of the conversation occurs implicitly, based on indications of the communicative situation, which is why (the implicit nature of decision-making), there are frequent situations of confusion or misunderstandings. For all this, we could think that one of the aspects in which there are more clashes between the participants is in the exchange of communicative roles. However, in general, the word shift is regulated in the spontaneous conversation because the interlocutors recognize what are called places appropriate for the transition, which may be marked by different resources (a pause, a question, the establishment of visual contact)

Linguistic features of oral language

In the phonic level of oral discourse, pronunciation is one of the aspects that can present greater variety, informing us about psychosocial and cultural characteristics (on the geographical origin, on social origin, on elements of the situation or on some personal characteristics). Thus, phonetic realizations can be related to social variables of all kinds (diatonic, dysphasic or individual). Another great phonic element that models oral language is prosody (intonation, intensity and rhythm). Intonation helps to organize information in two senses mainly: as a support of the practical modality (enunciatively, interrogative, exclamative) and as a resource of emphatic and modalizing expression (focusing [giving importance to a part], enhancement of certain structural elements …), which can also be manifested by intensity (for example, "greater articulatory intensity usually corresponds to the information focus"). In addition, the intensity allows, in languages ​​of "free accent" the distinction of meanings (celebrated, celebrated, celebrated). Finally, rhythm, in addition to transmitting attitudes – hostility, serenity, for example – has a great weight in the discursive organization, while it controls the management of the pauses within the discourse. In the line we have been maintaining, the complexity at the morph syntactic level in oral discourse – as in writing – varies markedly depending on the discursive event in question (a spontaneous conversation and a lecture). However, common to all oral discourses is the temporary space coexistence of participants in that discourse. This fact favours the presence of deictic elements, which can only be correctly interpreted in their use in a given context. Deictic can point to different elements of the communicative situation: they organize time and space, locate the participants, determine the relationship between them and also point to the elements of the text itself. According to this, five types of deixis are distinguished: personal, spatial, temporal, social and textual.

– DEIXIS PERSONAL: It indicates the people of the exchange, those present in the act of enunciation and those absent in relation to them. It manifests itself in personal and possessive pronouns, and in verbal morphemes of person. The signalling is flexible and changing according to the circumstances of the enunciation; Is structured in the opposition between the ME (mine) / WE (ours) that refers to the enunciator and YOU (yours) that refers to the enunciate. With the third person, the excluded are named from the framework of interaction (HE / SHE).

– In this area of ​​personal refers the DEIXIS SOCIAL that selects the partners characterizing them socio-culturally; Are the forms of treatment expressed in the pronouns, appellations and honorific that describe the relations between the people of the oral language .

– DEIXIS SPACIAL: Organizes the place in which the communicative fact unfolds. They fulfil this function: adverbs or adverbial locutions (here / here, there, there, there, near / far, up / down, front / back, right / left, etc.), demonstratives, that, and that), prepositional phrases (in front of / behind, near / far from), some verbs of movement (going / coming, coming / going, going up / down)

– TEMPORARY LEAVE: The temporal central axis is the "now" of the enunciating self. Temporal references are marked by some adjectives (present, old / modern, future, next) and especially adverbs and adverbial locutions of time and reflect different relations with the moment of enunciation:

Simultaneity: now, at this moment

Previous: yesterday, the day before yesterday, the other day, last week, a while ago, recently

Later: tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, next year, in two days, soon, soon, soon

Neutrals: today, Monday, this morning, tonight

When the axis is transferred and placed in the past, the dejis is relative (at that time, then for simultaneity, the eve, the previous week, a little before for the previous, the next day, two days later, more Late, then for later, another day, neutral). Absolute verbal tenses are also deictic: the simple past tense (pastiness), the present (simultaneity) and the imperfect future (posteriority). Others like the past perfect plus perfect, the perfect future, the compound conditional are relative times since they measure time from another point different from the now of enunciation.

– DEIXIS TEXTUAL: The text becomes metaphorical time and space of reference; The deictics point to elements already appeared (anaphoric reference) or will appear later. They can be pronouns of all kinds (neutrals can substitute segments superior to the syntagma), adverbs (also, no, yes, no), proverbs (to do, to happen, to happen)

Other recurrent morph syntactic features in oral discourse are the use of word order as a focalization element and the preference for coordination and juxtaposition versus subordination, although we may find a certain correlation between the elaboration of the syntax and a more formal. On the other hand, the lexical level depends to a great extent on the register, on the tone of the interaction, on the aims to be achieved, as well as on the socio-cultural characteristics of the participants (such as belonging to a group). Thus, "we can speak of a lexicon more or less cultured, careful, technical-jargon, relaxed, common, formal, marginal, slang, etc." (Casalmiglia and Tusón, 1999: 125). On the other hand, it is interesting to observe how care at the lexical level also has a gradual character conditioned to the discursive event in question: in the spontaneous conversation, the low degree of lexical density and the high degree of redundancy are characteristic. Finally, in terms of textual organization, it is necessary to distinguish between oral discursive monological and dialogical genres. The organization of the first will depend on the textual structure – depending on the purpose and the event – of the linguistic and textual forms that serve to shape the oral language and the verbal and nonverbal interaction marks.

Linguistic-textual features of written oral language

In languages ​​such as English, written discourse, on the graphic level, is based on an abstraction of the sounds of the language, which are standardized by convention. In this respect, most of the written discursive genres conform to the fixed orthographic norms. There are two areas in which writing acquires its place of specialization: the literary and the academic. Thus, at the morph syntactic level, "academic writing is constituted as the example of a reflective writing that must meet the requirements of impartiality, dispassion, neutrality and distance. As far as syntactic constructions are concerned, it tends mostly to represent in a canonical and neutral way the sentences of the language. The model text in the writing is presented as a planned and controlled text in which the predominant sentence modality is declarative / enunciative, word order, canonical (CC) S-V-O (CC); And the relationship between sentences, explicit. " These characteristics are imposed by the very nature of these academic texts, which pursue clarity, order, precision and interlocking. Likewise, these texts tend to objectivity, so they will use expressions that dilute the modalisation regarding the oral language (impersonal, passive or third person sentences). As a consequence of the organization and planning enjoyed by these texts, they are not their own redundancy or repetition, but "the achievement of an orderly informational development, connecting unequivocally the prayers at the local level and the higher units Such as periods, paragraphs or chapters at the global level ".

Linguistic-textual features of written discourse In languages ​​such as Spanish, written discourse, on the graphic level, part of an abstraction of the sounds typical of the language, which are standardized by convention. In this sense, most of the written discursive genres conform to the fixed orthographic norms, in our case by the SAR. There are two areas in which writing acquires its place of specialization: the literary and the academic. Thus, at the morph syntactic level, "academic writing is constituted as the example of a reflective writing that must meet the requirements of impartiality, dispassion, neutrality and distance. As far as syntactic constructions are concerned, it tends mostly to represent in a canonical and neutral way the sentences of the language. The model text in the writing is presented as a planned and controlled text in which the predominant sentence modality is declarative / enunciative, word order, canonical (CC) S-V-O (CC); And the relationship between sentences, explicit. " These characteristics are imposed by the very nature of these academic texts, which pursue clarity, order, precision and interlocking. Likewise, these texts tend to objectivity, so they will use expressions that dilute the modalization in the oral language (impersonal, passive or third person sentences). As a consequence of the organization and planning enjoyed by these texts, they are not their own redundancy or repetition, but "the achievement of an orderly informational development, connecting unequivocally the prayers at the local level and the higher units Such as periods, paragraphs or chapters at the global level ".

As for the lexical level, it is worth noting the preference of writing at the normative standard level. In the case of scientific and technical writings, one uses a specialized lexicon (technicalities), while in the literary field, expressivity is more valued. "The fields of knowledge and experience are, as it were, passed through a filter of economy, precision and rigor in the case of scientific writings, and creativity in expression, in the case of literary, thus constituting key spaces for the expansion of the lexical competence of the speakers in the order of the language elaborated ".

Textual and discursive organization

As in oral language , writing also unfolds linearly, albeit in a graphic medium. This sequence of words on the page uses various resources to present in an organized way the themes, sub-themes and topic changes. Thus, the basic unit before us is the paragraph (a "significant supra-national unity, constituted by a set of related statements by the content"), which, in turn, are organized in sections, chapters and parts. Punctuation is a resource that helps in the ordered expression of written discourse, while its basic functions are the grammatical organization of elements and the relation of statements and parts of statements. Although the fundamental function of the punctuation is to favour the correct interpretation of the discourse, it is conditioned specifically by the syntax, the length of the period, the intonation and the taste of the author. In this sense, we can point out: the normative use of the punctuation against its stylistic use. Finally, the presence of titles and subtitles – typographically and with a cataphoric function – also distribute the content of the written discourse.

2.2. Current communicative skills teaching approaches

2.2.1. Theories of teaching oral English

The teaching of the English language, in addition to its social and cultural significance, is an increasingly important discipline in the world today, due to the high level of scientific and technical development and international collaboration among peoples. However, it has not been easy for specialists worldwide to find a suitable method that can answer certain questions related to the learning of foreign languages ​​in general, and English in particular, in the sense that many graduates of these courses are unable to communicate properly. Throughout the twentieth century a great variety of methods and linguistic theories have been applied and still apply today in various parts of the world for the teaching of foreign languages, but practice has shown that at least in countries such as Cuba, Where English is taught as a foreign language, are insufficient to effectively develop the four fundamental skills of language (speaking, understanding, reading and writing), let alone achieving an acceptable command of the different components of the language, that is, grammar, semantics, lexicon and pronunciation. The situation generated by the changes and advances that have taken place in the field of linguistics since the late 60's and early 70's brought without doubt new expectations regarding the teaching and learning of the English language. In theory, such changes meant a conceptual step forward from a strictly structuralist approach to language teaching to a functional approach to the nature of their teaching and, in practice, an audio-lingual methodology of the language with a communicative approach.

Psychological Theories

Behavioural theory

From this theoretical perspective, it is argued that behaviour is learned through the individual's own experiences, so that the acquisition of any type of behaviour, including language, is a function of the influences of the environment. This emphasis on behaviourism from the outside is explained if we consider that behaviourism developed explicitly as a "school" in opposition to the school of structuralism and functionalism. In this sense, the basic idea of ​​behaviourism was to turn psychology into a science of behaviour and not of consciousness.

Within behaviourism, we will find the proposal of two learning models: classical or Pavlovian conditioning, and operant conditioning (Sampascual, 1985:22). Since Watson (1924:88) showed that behaviourism or behaviourism would only admit facts that could be observed objectively, all behaviour, including language, could be explained by the formula E-R. The explanatory model adopted at the beginning of the century is the classical or Pavlovian conditioning. According to this model, the learning is produced by the contiguity between the stimulus and the response, a response to a stimulus can be provoked by another that is in principle neutral. This connection between E-R would always be independent of its consequences. In this sense, language is considered as a complex system of responses that is acquired through such principles, that is, the linguistic responses that are manifested in spoken language are consolidated in function of the stimuli with which they are associated. However, other forms of behaviourism, such as the model of operant conditioning, later emerged. An exhaustive description of the application of this model to the explanation of the acquisition of verbal behaviour is found in Skinner’s researches (1957:9). Also within this model the verbal responses correspond directly to the stimuli without any mediation of the meaning or of grammatical laws; But, unlike the classical conditioning model, linguistic behaviour would be explained not only in terms of E-R but also in terms of reinforcement or reward (i.e., linguistic behaviour would be determined not only by stimuli but also by reinforcement). All primary verbal behaviour requires the interaction of two people: speaker and listener. For a behaviour to occur, there must be someone who produces it and then maintains it. If the speaker utters a verbal response to a stimulus, the listener provides a reinforcement or non-reinforcement, or even punishment, which causes him or her to return the same response in the future. The behaviour of the listener may be verbal or not, but it is the speaker's mode of action that must be taken into account (Chomsky, 1990: 55). For Skinner (1957:33), oral language is a motor response. If a casual action is rewarded, because of it the action is repeated again until the original action becomes part of the repertoire of the person's behaviour. Skinner suggests that a spoken emission may emerge as an echoic response, such as a simple repetition mimicking the sounds produced by parents or others. These reward the child by paying attention to their eco-form if it is quite similar to the original stimulus. In the case of the child, the child first emits a random sound that incites the parents to a response. If such a response meets a circumstantial need, it will repeat such sound whenever it wishes to meet such need. For example, if parents believe they interpret a sound or broadcast as something that resembles the word "milk" or "water," they will give it, and if this is reinforced, the child will learn to use the word "milk" Or "water" properly.

As vocabulary develops, other secondary factors that affect the choice of words come into play. Thus, for example, one word suggests another as long as it has been associated with it in familiar phrases, rhymes, and so on. In this way much of the intra-verbal behaviour is generated. Skinner (1957) would establish up to three levels of response according to the action of reinforcement or reward, as a product of his experimental studies of oral language :

1) if there is no listener, the probability of reinforcement is low and it is not likely to be issued the answer;

2) if a listener appears, the probability of reinforcement increases, as well as the probability of a response;

3) if the listener with the stimulus appears there is a greater increase in the probability of reinforcement.

Piagetian Theory

Although Piaget has not formulated a specific theory about language acquisition, everything he has written on this subject is related only to the problem of language as a factor in development (Piaget, 1950:27). It is in La formation du symbole chez l`enfant (1946) that Piaget presented his conception of language acquisition, although such a description was already present in his book Le langage et la pensée chez l'enfant (1923).

According to Bronckart (1985:66), from this text, two fundamental principles can be pointed out: 1) that, contrary to what most philosophers, linguists and psychologists hold, the most specific characteristic of the human being is not language, but something more general, a superior cognitive capacity that would make conceptual thinking possible; and 2) that language is but one of the various manifestations of the symbolic function, elaborated by man in the context of his interactions with the physical and social means. As Hernández-Pina (1990:25) summarizes in his review of Piaget's work, for this author language can serve the progress of cognitive development, but it does not engender it. Every new operation is constructed from the action of the subject, never comes from an evolution in the specific plane of the language. For this reason, the source of mental operations is not to be found in language, since it understands that cognition does not depend on language for its development, but that cognitive development is at first related to the development of a series of sensor motor schemes Responsible for organizing the experience. At the end of the sensor motor period, and before the language or symbolic function in general appears, the child has overcome his initial perceptual and motor egocentrism thanks to a series of decentrations and coordinations. Subsequently, representation is used to explain the emergence of language. In this respect, Piaget argues that the transformation of representative thought develops at the same time as the acquisition of language, which effectively suggests a strictly representative origin of language.

However, both belong to a broader process such as the constitution of the symbolic function in general. A proof of this is that, according to Piaget, if we observe the changes that in intelligence occur at the time of language acquisition, we will realize that it is not the only one responsible for these transformations. The acquisition of language marks the beginning of the representation, and the changes that occur can be considered as the beginning of representative schematization. In the child there is a much broader function than language, which encompasses not only the symbols but also the system of verbal signs. The source of thought is not the language but the symbolic function, which is explained by the formation of representations. Bronckart (1985:77), in his review of Piaget's work, points out that he considers that when language appears, within the framework of the development of the symbolic function, the primacy of action and cognitive mechanisms remains. It is thus that the "concrete operations", above all, that appear on the seven or eight years of age, and that make intervene the classification, the correspondence, the reversibility, are, in the first place, actions properly said, before internalizing. In the words of Richelle (1984;88), these operations are coordinations between actions before they can be transposed into a verbal form. Consequently, Piaget does not consider language as a sufficient condition for the constitution of mental operations, that is, it would never be the cause of their formation. With regard to formal operations, language would be a necessary condition, but not sufficient for the constitution of such operations. As Richelle (1984) suggests, by going deeper into Piaget's writings, language is thus considered to be a fully peripheral element in cognitive development; That is, once language has been acquired, it will naturally serve for the progress of cognitive development, hence, at a later stage of the latter, the linguistic instrument will be necessary for the logic of propositions, but properly speaking not Beget. Language, then, is conditioned by intelligence, but at the same time all intelligence is necessary for language to be possible. This translates into the assertion that there is a close dependence of language structures on cognitive structures. That is, linguistic structures emerge only if intelligence and other psychological preconditions are already ready. Language is important in cognitive development, as it marks the progress of stages more than determines them, hence it is not crucial. According to Piaget, development occurs not through language, but through the action and results of this action. In short, the Piagetian interpretation of the acquisition of language as a process whose genesis depends first on the interaction with physical objects and only later or secondarily with the people, was object of a replica of Vygotski in his book Thought and Language (original version, 1934), which has been a source of fierce controversy, as reflected in the Vygotskian theory that we will describe below.

Vygotskian Theory

While Piaget's theory puts special emphasis on cognitive development, which leads him to seek in language that which reveals the characters of thought in its successive stages, in Vygotsky's theory, however, it is argued that language and The thought have different roots and that they develop separately, until at a certain moment the union between both occurs. This means that in the genesis of thought and oral language it is possible to observe a pre-linguistic phase in the development of intelligence and a pre-intellectual phase in the development of language. In order to present broadly the Vygotskian theory we will take as reference the revisions that Martinez (1981:4), Forns (1989:121) have done in this regard. For Vygotsky, the object of psychology is not in the internal world itself, but in the reflection in the internal world of the external world, that is to say, to explain the more complex forms of the conscious life of man, it is essential to leave The limits of the organism, to look for the origins of this conscious life and the "categorical" behaviour, not in the depths of the brain or in the depths of the soul, but in the external conditions of life, and first of social life, In the historical-social forms of the existence of man (Luria, 1980: 22). The existence of man is characterized by the social work that involves the division of functions, that is, while the man builds an axe to hunt, acts with an indirect or deferred objective, when one individual avers the animal for another to hunt, has From acting for elemental biological reasons to acting for social reasons, it is here that human activity is organized around work and socialized, when language appears as a necessary means of communication. Vygostki's theory referred to the development of language and its relation to thought. Vygotsky argues that language, like any other capacity, can take place on two levels: elemental and superior (i.e., as superior ability is directly related and inseparable from thought and consciousness). When Vygostki wants to refer to the activity properly human speaks of conscience. Consciousness is a condition of the existence of higher psychological functions. The higher psychological activity is necessarily conscious, only this way the apparent deviation of the objective is understood when instruments are used in the behaviours that establish relations with the environment. In addition, consciousness is a structure, which means that it forms an inseparable whole. If we want to analyze the interrelationships between two higher functions (language and thought), we must take into account that they form a structure. For Vygotsky, the infantile stage constitutes a fundamental explanatory link of the adult behaviour. Look in the past for the appearance of current behaviours. Therefore, it raises human development from an interactionist and constructivist position in which the subject and the environment have to interact. This author understands that language appears in the shared labour relations of the early stages of humanity. Language as a system of signs independent of actions is of decisive importance for the later restructuring of the conscious activity of man. Its most important consequences are:

1) that in naming objects are retained in memory and allow a relationship of the subject with the object, even if it is not present,

2) that words abstract certain essential attributes of things and allow categorization and generalization

3) that language is a means of transmitting information accumulated in the social history of humanity.

All of these aspects leads us to place language at the centre of the conscious life of man, the complex forms of generalized abstract thinking are based on language. Language and thought form a structure. Vygotsky studied the child's mental processes as a product of their intercommunication with the medium, such as the acquisition of language-transmitted experiences. He concludes that human mental development has its source in verbal communication between the child and the adult. Superior psycho-intellectual functions occur twice in the course of the child's development, first in collective activities, social activities, and secondly in individual activities as internal properties of the child's thinking. All this leads us to say that language originates first as a means of communication between the child and the adult, and then, as interior language, becomes an internal mental function that provides the fundamental means to the child's thinking. In this sense, and following the references that Forns (1989:124) have reviewed, the social function of language is manifested in the first year of life, in the pre-intellectual stage of language development. But the most important thing is that at about two years the two curves of development, that of thought and that of language, which were separated, meet and unite to initiate a new form of behaviour. This statement is justified by Vygotski pointing out that in children it is observed:

1) a sudden and active curiosity about words, and also

2) fast and increasingly large increases resulting from their vocabulary. The child feels the need for words, discovers the symbolic function of words. The name, once discovered by the child, becomes part of the structure of the object. Vygotsky has emphasized the consideration of language as a means of communication and the mediating role of signs, which leads him to his theory to fruitfully understand the individual development, as well as the relations between society and the individual.

Linguistic Theories

The history of linguistics allows us to differentiate different periods in which the principles about the acquisition of language have been treated. Also, these periods correspond to different schools whose evolution was not the same in American culture as in European. From the beginning of the century, once linguistics had acquired its scientific status, we can delineate, for the needs of this research, two major stages. As antecedent to these stages, there is a linguistic debtor of the theoretical and methodological assumptions of anthropology, which we will refer to as a reference approach. Next, we introduce Saussurean structural linguistics in Europe, which implies an immanent view of language. And, finally, we give way to generative-transformational linguistics, which brings, unlike the previous one, a clear conception of the psycholinguistic implications in what concerns the acquisition of language.

What is remarkable about the referential approach is the conception of the relationship between language and reality as a single-way connection: language is marked by the organization of the world, by the material culture of its speakers, by the spirit of each people, etc. Therefore, anthropological linguistics developed under these principles: knowing the material culture of a community of speakers is better explained the organization of their language, which is another element particularizing their culture. The methods of this linguistics were those of the anthropology: to inventory the minimum components of each fact; Thus enumerating the totality of the components we would have not only the value of each element but its difference with the others. Language is a purely human and non-intuitive method of communicating ideas, feelings and desires through a system of deliberately produced symbols. As Szemerenyi (1979:77) points out, Sapir attacks the widely held view that elements of the linguistic system are automatically assigned to certain categories (nouns, adjectives, etc.). There are many languages ​​in which an adjective (e.g., red) can only be expressed as a verbal form. Each language has a structure appropriate only to it, although, nevertheless, we can say that certain languages ​​are much more different than others; So that Chinese departs much more from German than German from Russian, which means that languages ​​can be classified according to morphological types, although this is not an easy task (Szemerenyi, 1979:78). The concept that underlies Sapir's theory is framed in the relationship between language and culture (Malmberg, 1982:82). If a language reflects the civilization and society to which it serves as an expression, it is thanks to its adaptation to the needs created by that society and by that civilization and also thanks to the means that the leaders have in terms of vocabulary, grammar and Spelling to make such adaptation. A language – in fact, in its opinion, every language – is established socially in one way or another and is dependent on the social and spiritual facts of the community. It remains to discuss the inverse problem: the influence of language on thought and therefore on the social and cultural conventions of ethnicity, the contents of the signs (ie, as structured semiological facts and as contextually determined semantic facts) as dependent units of social conventions and which differ from one language to another.

Thus Malmberg (1982:85) states: "It is the idea of ​​the arbitrariness of signs that is responsible for the philosophy that sees in the language the worldview of a civilization. This leads us to think that our concepts and relations Established between them are given to us in great measure by the structuring of the world that is bequeathed to us by our language. The power of language over thought is felt much more in the language events where the motivation of the signs is great and the ties Between expression and content are strong (eg, poetry, advertising, etc.) ". Sapir also explains that anthropological linguistics understands that the languages ​​of civilization are not poor in imitative and expressive means, but it is the way in which the environment has formed us. It is a difference of frequency of imitative elements in the word (i.e., socially conditioned) rather than a difference of possibilities and resources which explains this idea of ​​the onomatopoeic character of the so-called primitive languages. The difference, if there is difference, is social rather than linguistic. It is necessary to look in the language of the children to find the same explanation of the motivation and expressiveness of the signs that in the less sophisticated societies.

Structuralist theory

Within European linguistics we find Saussure (1983:22) whose theoretical approaches made it conformed to what we know as European structuralism, an explanatory theory of languages ​​that led to the break in the unscientific approach to linguistic facts. The fundamental ideas of the Saussurean conception are the following: language is a system in which all parts can and should be considered in their synchronous mutual relationship, in their interdependence. The most elemental units of this system are the signs, whose constituents are meanings and signifiers. The signs are linear and unmotivated, but they are organized and systematized in the paradigmatic and syntagmatic axis, in which it obtains its value. Language encompasses not only this systematic code (i.e., langue), but also the infinite communications that are made with the use of this code and which together produce the field of oral language (i.e., parole). It projects to the language a double study: synchronic, which only deals with systematic relations in a state of language, and diachronic, which only deals with the evolutionary patterns of linguistic signs. In the Saussurean view of linguistics, synchronic linguistics has a material priority over diachronic. With the phrase "linguistics has as the only real object the language considered in and of itself", we can encompass all its approach that had an impact on later linguistics.

The Saussurean theory was reviewed in its own bosom from the forties. Martinet (1986:25), from the so-called Paris School, went deeper into the study of the delimitation of the different levels of analysis and the respective minimum units. It begins the practical possibility of analyzing phonemes, morphemes and lexemes, which leads to the clear establishment of linguistic disciplines based on the structuralist analysis known as phonetics-phonology, morph syntax and lexicology. Also in Europe, we find the School of Copenhagen where we will locate the figure of Hjelmslev. According to Szemerenyi (1979:88), within functionalist structuralism generates what is called Glosmatic. It is based on Saussure's judgment that language is form, not substance. Linguistics should attempt to understand language not as a conglomeration of extra-linguistic phenomena (eg, physical, physiological, psychological, etc.) but as a self-sufficient totality, a "sui generis" structure.

Following with Szemerenyi (1979:89) every process can be analyzed in a limited number of elements that are repeated continuously in different combinations. Because of this combining ability these elements can then be collected in classes. It should also be possible to obtain a general calculation of possible combinations. In this way a systematic, exact and generalizing science could be reached, whose theory can determine in advance all phenomena, that is, possible combinations of elements and establish the conditions of their realization. From all this comes the most immanenistic appearance of these approaches.

Generative theory

From 1950 onwards we find the first generative explanations of language, arising within post-bloomfieldian structuralism led, as we said before, by Harris. The most important point of generative theory is represented by Chomsky's work of 1957 Syntactic Structures. Bloomfield and his disciples had emphasized the structural diversity of languages; However, the generativists, without denying it, will feel more interested in what languages ​​have in common, in their formal properties and in the nature of the rules indispensable for their description, than in the relations between the language and the world . Chomsky seeks evidence to say that the linguistic faculty of man is innate and privative of the species, that is, generically transmitted and unique to the species. To this end he develops the term competence and performance. The linguistic competence of the speaker consists in the part of his knowledge about the linguistic system by virtue of which he is able to produce the indefinitely large set of sentences that constitute his language. And the performance, on the other hand, is the linguistic behaviour which is said to be determined not only by the speaker's linguistic competence but also by a variety of non-linguistic factors, including social conventions, beliefs about the world, Along with the psychological and physiological mechanisms involved in the production of statements.

Thus, Lopez (1988:22) affirms that human language is characterized "by its creative nature, by the fact of being able to emit sequences that have never been reinforced and that nevertheless respond perfectly to the situation". Therefore, generative-transformational grammar establishes and constructs a model for that part of the linguistic competence that, being universal, is considered innate. Chomsky believes from 1965 that there are certain phonological, syntactic and semantic units that are universal, it is not the sense that they are necessarily present in all languages, but according to a use of universal something different and not very common in which Can be defined independently of their occurrence in any particular language and be identified when given in particular languages, on the basis of their definition in general theory. It is what is known by substantial universals. For Chomsky the innate is not a knowledge of the formal principles of language as such, but a more general faculty (Lyons, 1974:58).
Chomskyan rationalist position explains how the child, before learning a language, has an innate grammatical scheme (here grammatical means syntactic-semantic-morphological and phonological) that allows him to quickly infer, from the linguistic behaviours he hears, the proper rules of his tongue. Thus, it is able to generate sentences not previously performed. This position is clearly antagonistic to that derived from referential linguistic approaches, which attribute an essential role to experience, to the empirical in the conformation of languages.

Sociological Theories

In this section we review those theories that have tried to describe and explain the language in its social context. We refer, in particular, to Bernstein's theories of linguistic deficit about the restricted and elaborate codes, and Labov's theory of variability. Even knowing that the Lavobian theory is more properly a linguistic theory and the Bersteinian a sociological theory, we have included them together in this section because what interests us of both for this work is the incidence of the social factor in linguistic production. The reference we make to these theories is due to several reasons. On the one hand, because they have been theories with broad educational implications in the school environment. And, on the other hand, these two perspectives represent clear differentiated positions regarding their interpretation of variability and linguistic differences (Ganuza, 1990:125).

Theory of linguistic deficit

Bernstein attaches particular importance to the role of social factors in the acquisition of language. In this sense, much of his work has been devoted to the study of linguistic differences in relation to social class or socio-cultural stratum. Likewise, the differences observed in language development among children from different social classes have been interpreted in terms of deficiencies (Dittmar, 1976:25). According to this, the different models of linguistic behaviour that are offered from the different social environments determine the linguistic development. The varied experiences of relationship, the different styles of family interaction lead to different modes of expression and thought. This effect of the social environment would be reflected, according to Bernstein, in two types of codes: one elaborated and another restricted. The first would be characteristic of those children who are educated in environments rich in linguistic and cultural stimuli. That is to say, adults manifest a greater mastery of their linguistic production, which is translated into long phrases, compound verbal forms, greater ability to offer help to children, a relatively improved communicative style oriented towards the person, a greater disposition to Talking with children, etc. In contrast, the restricted code is the characteristic of the oral language of children from marginalized social environments in which the patterns of linguistic behaviour are characterized by the use of short phrases, simple verbal forms, monosyllables, use of repetitions and less disposition for the dialogue.

Stubbs (1984:110), carrying out a review of Bernstein's work, extracts what for him must be taken into account when trying to discover if a subject makes use of the elaborated or restricted code. For this, it is necessary to observe the language in the four critical socializing contexts: regulative, for example, being fought by the mother; instructional, for example in the classroom; imaginative, for example in the game; and interpersonal, for example in the talk with others where the child is made aware of emotional states. If the linguistic realizations of these four contexts occur predominantly in terms of restricted variants of oral language, then the deep structure of communication is said to be a restricted code. With the code developed the opposite occurs.

Theory of linguistic variability

Labov's sociolinguistic perspective departs from that defended by Bernstein in that it emphasizes the need to encompass both structural and functional, ie, language, work. In this sense, some central ideas could be identified in this new theoretical perspective and that we reproduce next with reference to the revision realized by Ganuza (1990:85):

1) the linguistic variation is considered with a neutral value, that is, the difference never Can be interpreted as deficiency;

2) only the knowledge of language in its natural form can allow us to adequately explain both the processes of language development and linguistic identification and linguistic change; Hence it is necessary to develop practical research methods that allow the functional study of language in specific contexts. Thus, the study of variation is configured as the analysis of linguistic, social (sex, age, race, social class, educational level) and stylistic factors of oral language. In this respect, Labov's theory intends to approach the study of the different linguistic modalities, based on studies based on more detailed analyzes, compared to those made by Bernstein, of the spontaneous language collected in its natural social context of use (Stubbs , 1984:117).

Biological theory

Lenneberg's theory of maturity (2014:110) explains the acquisition of language from biologic assumptions. For this author, language is based on a central nervous system and peripheral organs that need a process of maturation. This organic substrate on which the acquisition of language depends is not functional from birth, nor does it remain constant throughout the life of the subject. The emergence of language takes place from a succession of stages where there is a gradual unfolding of abilities following a fixed sequence and a relatively constant chronology, determined by the maturation of the organism. This development takes place between the second and third year of life, and it is possible to observe during the development of acquisitions linked to specific evolutionary stages, which leads one to think that the development of language does not depend only on maturation factors, Is situated in a limited period, above which there would not be the same facilities for the acquisition of a language. They would be phases or critical periods defined as periods of ontogenesis along which behaviours are generally characteristic of the species, and that such behaviours will no longer occur in their normal form outside that phase. However, the role of maturational factors in language acquisition is reflected in the evidence that language appears in all normal children with very similar chronological margins, and the stages of their development show a very great regularity (Richelle, 1984:88). Likewise, language development follows a regular process despite environmental deficiencies, which highlights the importance of maturation. For this reason, Lenneberg (2014:26) asserts the existence of a transcultural uniformity in the acquisition of language, which leads him to relativize the importance of the environment.

2.2.2. Analysis of current teaching approaches

Four basic methodological approaches can be distinguished in teaching the higher processes of written expression: a first approach is based on the analytical study of the general structure of language; The second proposes a more holistic work of communication, based on types of text and real materials; The third approach emphasizes the development of the writing process; finally, the fourth focuses on the content of texts to take advantage of the creative and learning potential of written expression. The present passage outlines the main linguistic, didactic and psychological characteristics of the four approaches, and does it in a mixed way, listing the main theoretical bases, explaining what happens in the classroom, and comparing several examples of each approach.

The present study aims to outline the four methodological approaches with which written expression can be taught. To do so we rely on the four approaches established by Shih (1986) for teaching English as L2. Our work develops notably this distinction, drawing the theoretical lines of each approach and presenting the concrete practice of each one. In this way, the description of the approaches is valid for the teaching of written expression in general, regardless of whether it is L1 or L2. The four didactic approaches that are presented are:

approach based on GRAMMAR,

FUNCTION-BASED approach,

approach based on the PROCESS,

approach based on the CONTENT.

GRAMMAR-BASED APPROACH:

1) It was born in the school context of the teaching of written expression in the mother tongue, and then is transferred and adapted for the teaching of writing in L2. The basic idea is that to learn to write one has to master the grammar of the language (the rules that construct it, the essence, the structure, the underlying formal organization, etc.). The core of the teaching is precisely this set of grammatical knowledge about the language: syntax, lexicon, morphology, spelling, etc., obviously the most important influence that this approach receives comes from the field of linguistics or grammar.

It is based on the ancient and fruitful tradition of research in grammar, which starts from the Greeks and reaches modern linguistics, through the Latin grammarians, the scholastic; the grammarians of Port Royal, comparative linguistics or grammar, structuralism, generativism and linguistics of the text. The grammatical model it offers varies according to the current of research that supports the approach. In general, we can establish two great models: the sentence model, which is based on studies of traditional grammar, and the textual or discursive model, which is based on the linguistics of the text, also known as discourse grammar.

2) In general, the language is presented in a homogeneous and prescriptive way. On the one hand, it is homogeneous because it does not take into account the dialectal reality of the language nor the sociolinguistic value of each word. A single linguistic model is offered to the student, which usually corresponds to the neutral and formal standard of the language (the most spoken dialect of the language, or the one with the most diffusion and sociolinguistic importance). Rarely do we offer examples of different dialect varieties and, if done, receive a very scholarly and impractical treatment; they are presented as peculiarities of the language (almost like curiosities) and not as valid linguistic forms in certain situations. Also, the presence of different records or levels of formality is very limited. The student usually learns only the structures and the most formal and neutral lexicon; Colloquial and even vulgar language never appears. On the other hand, the linguistic model is also prescriptive, not descriptive or predictive. Students learn what must be said, what the grammar books say: the normative. What is important is that they know what is right and what is wrong.

In the sentence model, the teaching focuses primarily on the field of prayer: the categories or parts of the sentence, the concordance, the spelling, etc. On the other hand, in the textual model, the contents cover the text or the complete discourse: it is taught to construct paragraphs, to logically structure the information of the text, to write an introduction and a conclusion, etc.

In the more traditional sentence model, the linguistic models that are offered are usually literary classics, selected and adapted to the level. The books that follow this approach offer a good sample of the most important authors of the target language. In this way, the learning of the language is related to the study of literature; It is a very traditional union that has been abandoned (or, to put it more exactly, it has been rethought with various solutions: learning a language implies entering not only in its literature, but also in all its Culture, we must separate the teaching of language from culture, so that the methods must be culturally neutral or international, etc.).

3) The curriculum or course schedule is based on grammatical content. These vary according to the grammatical flow that follows. In a traditional approach, learners basically learn spelling (accentuation), morphology (conjugation of verbs, gender and number in names …), syntax (subordinate, concordance …) and lexicon (enrichment of the lexicon). In a more modern approach, based on text linguistics, aspects such as adequacy (level of formality, registration, presentation of text …), cohesion (ellipsis, pronominalization, punctuation) internal coherence and organization of information (paragraphs) emphasize its structure. Each didactic unit, lesson or section deals with one of these points, so that at the end of the course the whole grammar has been globally dealt.

The way to structure these contents can also vary. The traditional proposals are usually more analytical and resemble the form presented by the contents of a grammar book: they separate the different levels of analysis of the language and proceed neatly, first dealing with spelling, then morphology, syntax and lexicon. On the other hand, the most modern proposals tend to be holistic and do not care so much for a logical ordering as for making the student a global learning of the language. In this way, they inter-relate the contents of different levels of analysis between them in each unit or lesson.

4) In the class, the approach works as follows: A linguistic item is explained (the teacher explains it, it is read in the textbook, etc.), in a theoretical way and then put examples. Students understand the explanation. Mechanical practices are done. Students exercise the new item in controlled situations and in small contexts (words, phrases …). They practice openly and exercise the item in uncontrolled situations (redactions) and more global contexts. The teacher corrects the exercises of the students.

Finally, the correction is another aspect that characterizes each approach. In this case, the teacher corrects basically the grammatical errors that the students have committed. He is interested in that the texts that write these are correct according to the established norm. On the other hand, it has no basin other parameters such as originality, clarity of ideas, structure, communicative success, degree of development of the text, etc.

5) Following the same example of comparison structures and adjectives, a possible final activity would be as follows: write a wording on the following topic: Advantages and disadvantages of living in a town or city.

6) Most methods of writing, textbooks, and textbooks of L1 and L2 follow this approach.

FUNCTION BASED APPROACH

1) It is born in the context of teaching an L2 and, specifically, within a methodology: the communicative. It follows the tradition of notional-functional methods, developed in Europe during the sixties, in which the most important thing is to teach a language to use it, to communicate. This type of method has its origin in the philosophy of language (Wittgenstein, Austin, Searle, etc.), and in the functionalist conception of the language that developed it. It also receives influences from sociolinguistics, from the first works on linguistics of the text and, in the field of didactics, from the movements of pedagogical renewal and active teaching.

According to this regard, language is not a closed set of knowledge that the student has to memorize, but a useful communicative tool to get things done: asking for a coffee in a bar, reading the newspaper, expressing feelings, asking for information, showing kindness, etc. The concrete action with which some objective is achieved is called an act of oral language and consists in the codification or decoding of a linguistic text. The complete set of oral language acts is the set of things that can be achieved with the language and can be classified with large generic groups of functions: greet, take turns speaking, excusing, expressing opinion, etc. These functions are related to the corresponding linguistic resources (the notions): lexicon, structures, abstract concepts, etc. And constitute the contents and objectives of a communicative language course.

In the classroom, the language is taught from this point of view. The purpose of a class or lesson is to learn to perform a given function in the language you learn. The methodology is very practical in a double sense: on the one hand, the content of the class are the same uses of the language, as they are produced in the street (and not the abstract grammar that underlies them); On the other hand, the student is constantly active in the classroom: listening, reading, talking with classmates, practicing, etc. For example, pupils listen to realizations of a particular function, understand them, repeat them and begin to practice them, so that they subconsciously learn the lexicon and grammar that appear in them.

The first examples of this approach were developed in the teaching of English and French as L2 for beginners or for first level students. In the case of students with basically oral needs, these courses gave a very limited treatment to written expression. In fact, it is not until the early 1980s, when exclusive methods of written expression are developed with these approaches (Johnson, 1981:11). In this respect, some of the most important findings of text linguistics are incorporated, such as concepts about text properties (coherence, cohesion, adequacy, etc.), typologies of texts or genres of writing. The latter are basic to the programming of these manuals, since they replace the initial concept of function or oral language act. The concept of type of text is much more operative in the written language than that of function; For example, the language has many words to refer to types of written text (letter, note, notice, instance, examination, diligence, article …), which have no correspondence in the oral language.

2) The most important aspect of this approach is the emphasis on communication or language use, as opposed to the previous grammatical approach, in which language structure and grammar rules were important. This central idea underlies the other characteristics:

– descriptive language, opposite to the previous prescriptive vision. Language is taught as used by speakers (with their variations, imperfections, and inaccuracies), and not as it should be. It is not taught what is right and what is wrong, but what is actually said in each situation, whether normative or not, accepted by the Royal Academy of Language or not. The correct / incorrect binomial is replaced by the right / wrong binomial. In this way the linguistic context in which the language is used is taken into account: a certain grammatical form is not correct or incorrect per se, according to the grammar books, but is adequate or inadequate for a given communicative situation (a recipient, Purpose, context, etc.). For example, non-normative use is unacceptable in an academic and formal situation (conference, article …), but may be very suitable for colloquial use (a letter to a family member).

– Several linguistic models: dialects and registers. The language is not monolithic and homogeneous, it has dialect modalities and, in addition, levels of formality and of varied specificity. A language course must offer varied linguistic models: a student must be able to understand several dialects of the same language and, also, within the standard that has to dominate productively, it must be able to use very formal and other more colloquial words. Thus, in the field of written expression, sociolinguistic variations due to the degree of specialization of language are very important: a learner who learns to write must know the difference between how the reader is, the profile of the recipient or the psycho-sociological characteristics of the message receiver.

– Real or realistic materials? The texts that are used for the class must be real or, at least, plausible. This ensures that what is taught in class is what is actually used on the street.

-Special attention to the communicative needs of each student. Each student has different communicative needs, so he must learn different language functions and resources. Each group requires specific programming for it. For example, it is very different to teach English to a group of foreigners working in the country, than to a group of tourists. Both groups require particular programming.

At this point the difference between this approach and the previous one is substantial. While in the first one is always taught the same grammar, whatever the student, in the second are taught and learn different functions according to the recipient.

3) In notional-functional methods, programming is based on a set of functions or oral language acts. These vary from one course to another, but coincide in the basic functions of communication: presenting, requesting information, excusing, etc. In the exclusive methods of written language, the programming is based on the typology of texts developed by the linguistics of the text. Each lesson deals with a different kind of text, so that at the end of the course the most important ones or those that the students ask for and that they will use in their real life will be treated.

Several typologies of texts are often used. Two of the best known are:

1. Based on the areas of use:

– Personal scope: diary, notes, agenda …

– Family and friendships: letters, postcards, invitations …

– Work environment: reports, letters, resumes …

– Academic field: essays, notes, summaries …

– Social field: advertisements, letters and articles in the press …

2. Based on the function, following the proposal of J. M. Adam (1985:55):

– Conversation: written dialogues, transcription of oral texts.

– Description: of objects, people.

– Narration: stories, jokes.

– Instruction: recipes, instructions for use.

– Prediction: horoscope, futurology.

– Exhibition: lesson, essay.

– Argumentation: opinion, defence of thesis.

– Rhetoric: poetry, recreational uses.

Working in this line of typologies or textual genres, Serafini (1985:77) presents a very interesting analysis of texts, writing functions and cognitive skills, with the aim of developing a progressive curriculum of written expression. His proposal is very interesting and goes beyond the limits of the functional approach to penetrate the field of cognitive operations, which already belongs to the third didactic approach.

4) In a class act as follows:

Several real or plausible examples of a particular type of text are presented and a comprehensive reading of them is made.

Students perform several practice exercises:

-Line with cloze of verbal forms.

– Change the registration of a very common letter. Pass it into familiar language, without vulgarisms or profanity.

-Write the introduction and conclusion for a given body of letter.

The teacher explains a situation so that the students write a family letter: they want to organize a trip and have to get companions writing some letters to friends and family. The exhibition of the situation is made with various materials: travel advertising, maps, excursions, etc.

Other typical exercises of this approach are the repair, manipulation and transformation of texts: change the point of view, complete an unfinished fragment, restore a missing paragraph, cohesion of disconnected and disorderly sentences of a text, change the record, etc.

Regarding the correction, it is governed by strictly communicative parameters. The teacher basically corrects the errors that make comprehension difficult and that could muddle the meaning of the text. Theoretically, grammatical errors that do not have communicative value are not corrected, but in practice the criterion of correcting those important and repetitive errors of the structure, whether or not they have implications in the communication, is imposed.

Finally, one last important aspect of the class is the motivational and stimulating aids for students who do not know what to write. The teacher tries to look for topics that are interesting and, in addition, prepares exercises prior to writing, so that the student knows what to write and is interested in doing so. These exercises may consist of reading an introductory text on a topic, having a previous discussion or discussion, etc.

5) the same exercise on the advantages of living in the countryside or in the city, adapted to this functional approach would be the following: Your nephew, who lives in Madrid, has a job offer in Melgar de Abajo (Valladolid). He does not know if he should accept it because he has always lived in a big city and does not know the field. Write a letter to tell you your opinion on the subject.

The content of the text and grammatical resources are the same as in the exercise of the first approach, but here there is a real communicative context. The writing theme has become a letter to a nephew. Since writing is a type of text that only exists in the classroom, exercise can never be communicative. Instead, by proposing a plausible motive, purpose, and receiver for the same text, exercise becomes a possible communication situation. The student has to search for the right register, he has to structure the text according to the established conventions and he has to decide what is the most important thing he can write and how.

6) A good example of this approach is the Spanish methods L2: Equipo Avance (1986) and Equipo Pragma (1984 and 1985). In L1 we would highlight three examples in Catalan: Cassany et al. (1987:44), Coromina (1984:45-50) and Bordons et al. (1989:225), with very different programming proposals. And all with permission of a classic English: Johnson (1981:142).

FOCUS BASED ON THE PROCESS

1) From the 1970s a series of researches on the production process or composition of written texts developed in the United States. A group of psychologists, teachers and pedagogues who taught written courses for American or foreign students in private colleges and universities began to analyze what their students did before, during and after writing the text. These teachers were very disappointed with the current methods they used in their classes, because they did not offer satisfactory results in their courses. The research methods used were very varied: observation, video recording, analysis of the drafts students wrote, interviews with them, tests of written expression ability, etc.

The results of the research suggested that competent writers (students who performed well on tests) used a range of strategies or cognitive skills to write that were unknown to the rest of the students (those who scored poorly on the same tests). This finding was the recognition that in order to write satisfactorily, it is not enough to have a good knowledge of grammar or to master the use of the language. It is also necessary to master the process of writing texts: to generate ideas, to make diagrams, to revise a draft, to correct, to reformulate a text, etc. The set of these strategies constitutes what is called, in a rather crude way, the profile of the competent writer. This is the one that takes into account its reader, writes drafts, develops its ideas, revises them, re-elaborates the outline of the text, looks for a shared language with the reader to express itself, etc.

Together, these investigations and the general approach in the teaching of written expression are strongly influenced by cognitive psychology, as well as other branches of knowledge such as studies and creativity techniques or problem solving methods and heuristics. On the other hand, in terms of didactics, there is also a certain influence of humanistic pedagogy or approaches that emphasize the human and global dimension of the student.

2) This approach emphasizes the process of composition, as opposed to previous ones, which rewarded the finished and ready product. What is important is not only to teach how the final version of a writing should be, but to show and learn all the intermediate steps and strategies that should be used during the writing and writing process. The student often thinks that writing consists of filling in letters with a blank sheet; nobody has taught him that the written texts he reads have had a draft, and that his author has had to work hard to get it: that he has made lists of ideas, that he has worked out a scheme, a first draft, that he has corrected it and that, in the end, it has happened to clean. According to this approach the most important thing to be taught is this set of attitudes towards writing and the corresponding skills to know how to work with ideas and words.

Consequently, in the classroom the emphasis must be placed on the writer, on the student, and not on the written text. In traditional courses, it is taught how the written product should be: what are the rules of grammar, what structure should the text have, the linking of phrases, the selection of the lexicon, etc. Instead, this approach aims to teach the student to think, to make schematics, to order ideas, to polish the structure of the sentence, to review the writing, etc. The important thing is that at the end of the course the student is able to do that, and not so much that the texts that you write do not contain inaccuracies. With an excessively easy metaphor, we could say that the focus is to teach how to sculpt and not teach sculptures.

3) Programming collects the set of strategies or skills and attitudes regarding writing that characterize a competent writer. In short, these are the mental processes that cognitive psychology has isolated and described as fundamental: generating ideas, formulating objectives, organizing ideas, writing, reviewing, evaluating, and so on. These processes form the great blocks, sections or lessons of a course, and for each one are taught several useful writing techniques. Thus, the generation of ideas can be taught techniques such as the whirlwind of ideas, analogies or comparisons, systematic exploration of a topic based on questions, etc.

One should then transcribe the list of chapters or lessons of the method of Flower (1985:77):

Step 1: Explore the rhetorical problem.

Step 2: Make a work plan.

Step 3: Generate new ideas.

Step 4: Organize your ideas.

Step 5: Know the needs of your reader.

Step 6: Transform writer's prose into reader prose.

Step 7: Review the product and purpose.

Step 8: Evaluate and correct the writing.

Step 9: Correction of connectors and consistency.

Individual analysis of student needs is also very important in this approach. According to the theory, there is no single correct process of text composition, but each writer has developed his own strategies according to his abilities, character and personality. Some researches (Jensen and DiTiberio, 1984: 55) have attempted to relate personality factors (extroversion / introversion, thinking / feeling …) with cognitive styles or compositional strategies and have found some connections. Individuals prone to extroversion prefer techniques such as freewriting, or as dialogue with themselves or with other authors, and usually write in an impulsive and spontaneous way, while the introverts use the schemes, lists and order at work.

In this respect, one can not teach unique "writing recipes", nor can we expect the same techniques to be valid and useful for everyone. Each student has to develop his own style of composition based on his abilities: he has to overcome the blocks he suffers, he has to select the most productive techniques for him or her, to integrate them and adapt them to his way of working, to make productive time , etc. Teachers help their pupils by analyzing their writing and becoming aware of their defects and potentialities, suggesting appropriate techniques for each one, correcting the way they work, and so on. In short, this is a very individualized work with the subject of writing (and not with the object: text), which closely resembles the relationship between psychologist and client.

4) The classes based on this approach work in a very particular way. They are very similar to the well-known Literature Workshops or Workshops of written expression (Auladell and Figuerola, 1989: 44), although what the students write does not have to be necessarily literature or texts with artistic or playful intention, but they can write letters, school works, essays, intimate diaries, etc. Basically, a topic is proposed and students spend all class time writing about it. The role of the teacher is to guide and advise the student's work: tell him how he can work, what techniques he can use, read his drafts and show him mistakes or loose points, etc.

In fact, the class can take various forms. You can work in a more programmed way, with precise tasks and instructions on what has to be done, collaborating in a group, sharing the results, etc .; or it can flow spontaneously according to the rhythm and interests of each student, without specific exercises or organization, with only a very open general task. For example, given a given topic, the teacher can give detailed instructions every ten to fifteen minutes about what has to be done to develop the written topic: a list of ideas, a scheme, a group of questions, a draft, etc. ; And the students follow the instructions successively, to the letter. On the other hand, class time can also become a free and autonomous space for each one to write at a pace predetermined texts at the beginning of the course, quarter or month (in much the same way as the Garrison method, quoted by Sokmen, 1988:78). In this case, the teacher becomes a supervisor-collaborator of the student, who walks around the classroom and responds to the doubts of the students.

Another very special aspect of this approach is the correction of student work. According to the theory (Cassany, 1989:47), the product is not corrected but the drafting process. It is not so much interest to eradicate the grammar mistakes of the writing as the student improves his composition habits: to overcome blockages, to gain agility, to make his time profitable, etc. In this way, the correction far exceeds the linguistic framework and concerns psychological fields such as thinking or cognitive style, techniques or study skills, creativity, etc. In short, we are no longer talking about correction but advice.

5) With the process-based approach, the same exercise in other chapters would become a task that would require several instructions and a lot more time to complete:

Make a whirlwind of ideas on the subject of the advantages and disadvantages of living in a town or a city.

Write down everything you can think of. You have 6 minutes.

Read what you've written and sort it into groups of ideas. Complete the groups.

Develop ideas from two of the groups.

Write a first draft of a text entitled Advantages and disadvantages of living in a village.

With the previous exercises, the student was explained how the final text had to be presented: subjects, extension, type of text, etc. On the contrary, in this respect the pupil is shown what he has to do to get the writing: how he can get ideas, how he can develop them, structure them, etc. In this approach, the student's work process is more important than the final product.

CONTENT-BASED APPROACH

1) This approach developed in parallel in two different academic contexts, in the United States during the 1980s: on the one hand, in writing courses at universities and colleges; on the other, in basic and middle schools with the movement "Writing through the vitae". In both cases, the underlying idea is the supremacy of content over form (be it grammar, function, type of text or process).

With regard to the first context, the writing teachers of these higher education establishments developed a new methodology to attend to the characteristics and special needs of their students, university students and future scientists. This methodology is based on the following points:

• The written expression needs of these students are basically academic: exams, notes, papers, essays … This type of texts has very specific characteristics (research cited by Shih, 1986:110-147).

Consequently, mastery of the understanding and production of academic texts requires a type of strategies substantially different from those necessary for the mastery of the more general social texts. And this also implies a change in teaching didactics.

• Likewise, the need for written expression is born with the interest or obligation to pursue a university degree; in this respect, with the interest in a certain discipline of knowledge, usually very technical and specialized. Students are not interested in writing on general topics such as vacations, sports or leisure, but are intended to develop their ideas on electronic engineering, organic chemistry or computer science. In this way, written expression exercises have to be closely related to the students' syllabus and also, teachers have to know the subject about what their students write in order to correct and help them.

• Interest in written expression is related to the interest in other language skills such as reading or listening comprehension, as well as to other more abstract skills such as the selection of relevant information, summary, schematization and general processing of the Information, etc. Thus, by having to also attend to more general cognitive needs, other than the strictly linguistic ones, expression exercises become very complex tasks or projects that require important intellectual work.

Altogether, this is a very specialized approach in the teaching of academic language skills. It is done in the context of higher studies and uses exercises of tasks or projects on academic subjects.

In the second case, the pedagogical movement called writing through the curriculum (writing across the curriculum) aims to use the creative potential of the writing process to teach other subjects. It is a question of students writing about social issues; Mathematics or physics, in the corresponding subject, so that they learn about these subjects, besides practicing and improving their expression. In this way, the teaching of written expression breaks the limits of the language subject and goes to cover the entire curriculum. The two fundamental principles of this movement are the following: the process of composing texts includes in some way a learning process. Writers learn things about what they write when they write. Writing is an instrument of learning.

This instrument can be used to learn about any topic or subject of the curriculum. The written expression exercises not only serve to evaluate the knowledge of the students on a subject, but can be used to learn about this subject.

Griffin (1982:2) presents the main features of these pedagogical movements and proposes examples of exercises in all kinds of subjects of the curriculum. Other didactic experiences closely related to this content-based approach are task-based work, or project work, originally developed in the teaching of English as L2 (see The Reality of a Dream: An Example of Project Work, 1988); and the whole of the discipline – very modest – of metacognition: self-learning, study techniques, learning to learn, and so on. (Nisbet and Shucksmith, 1986:58; Noguerol, 1989:36).

2) The main features of the approach are as follows (Shih, 1986:110):

Emphasis is placed on what the text says, in content, and not on how it is said, in form. Questions are interesting as if the ideas are clear, if they are ordered, if they are original, if they are related to solid arguments, if they are creative, etc. The formal aspects of expression and text (structure, presentation, grammar, etc.) are not included in the course schedule and are only addressed if the student presents needs of this type.

It is not written about the personal experience of each one, but about some academic subject. The sources of writing are, therefore, basically bibliographical: books, lectures, notes, articles, etc. In this way, the written expression classroom is very closely related to the content disciplines of the career.

The skill of written expression is integrated with other language skills (listening, reading and speaking) in the context of academic work. It is understood that the development of a skill is not done in isolation from the overall learning of language skills. In addition, the type of study activities that students have to do in their career integrates and mixes all the skills. Consequently, in the classroom, students not only write, but practice all kinds of verbal exercises.

In class exercises, two very clear and separate sequences are distinguished. A first phase of study and understanding of a subject (of "input") always precedes the final phase of developing ideas and producing a written text. In a first stage, the student "immerses" in the subject: read articles, listen to exhibitions about it, comment and discuss the content with colleagues and teacher, etc. In the final stage, he begins to collect information, to schematize it and to prepare his ideas for a written text.
3) In principle, the programming of the course is based on the content of one or several study subjects. It can be a very complete and structured program from a subject or a discipline, or we can find more flexible programs that consist of a simple list of topics of interest to students. In the latter case, we would be very close to an approach as well known as the famous centers of interest of the student.

However, behind this simple and attractive list of topics, teachers have organized a wide range of activities (tasks, projects, works, exercises, etc.) that respond to a wide range of objectives: they practice all kinds of (Analysis, comprehension, synthesis, evaluation, etc.), use very different types of text (oral / written, argumentative / informative, etc.) or force them to work in different ways (in class, in House, group, alone, in the library, etc.). And there is no doubt that this is the true program of the course: an extraordinarily varied set of exercises that require all kinds of efforts on the part of the student. Shih and Griffin offer various classifications of skills or academic skills that may be the basis of written expression programs.

4) A class based on this approach includes the following steps:

Deep research on a topic (or, as Shih says, incubation): reading texts, analysis of theses and arguments, search for new information, selection, etc.

Processing of information: elaboration of schemes, group discussions, contrast of opinions, etc.

Written production: preparation and writing of academic texts.

In general, the type of exercises that are performed are very global. They come from full texts, not sentences or fragments; of real documents, without manipulation, which have not been specially prepared for teaching; and of graphic material: schemes, maps, photographs, etc. Students always focus on the content: they extract the main ideas, compare two texts, interpret a scheme, etc. And what they have to produce are real academic texts: reviews, essays, articles for a school magazine, comments of text, etc.

Regarding the correction, two basic lines stand out: primary attention to the content of the text and individualization to respond to the needs of each student and, also, to deal with the formal aspects.

5) The example that serves as a contrast here becomes a real task or job that would occupy many work sessions:

Search for information in the library about the quality of life in Melgar de Abajo and in Madrid (or Valladolid).

Read and interpret the following graphs: number of hospitals, cultural offer, pollution, cost of housing, prices gather the main data in a summary.

Listen to this lecture on the subject of quality of life in Spain and take notes of important points. Discuss the most important points with your colleagues.

Review all the documentation on the subject and write a short article about your research.

6) Two good texts on this approach are those already cited by Shih (1986:114) and Griffin (1982:150). 
 

The teaching of English oral language from the perspective of the communicative approach

For more than twenty years, the predominant focus on second language (L2) and foreign language (LE) didactics in Europe is the communicative approach. Of course, in these years the communicative approach has been enriched with different contributions, different models have emerged and have materialized in the publication of various methods and courses, becoming a flexible theoretical framework always evolving. First, we will examine the principles and ideas common to all manifestations of this approach; then we will briefly analyze their development, from non-functional programming to homework teaching; finally, we will point out some methodological consequences of the principles of the communicative approach.

IDEAS AND PRINCIPLES OF THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH: COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

We could say that a communicative type of teaching is one that targets the development of communicative competence. The essence of this approach lies in the enrichment of the learning objectives: it is not only a question of students acquiring a particular linguistic system, but of being able to use it to communicate properly and effectively. The concept of communicative competence has been re-elaborated since its first formulation (Hymes, 1971:57) with the contributions of various researchers to a complex network of sub-competences. In one of the most widespread models, that of Michael Canale and Merril Swain (1980:75), later expanded by Canale (1983:147), the following are described:

The grammatical competence: it supposes the dominion of the linguistic code, that is to say, of the grammar, of the phonological system and of the lexicon.

Sociolinguistic competence: it has to do with the knowledge of the properties of the statements in relation to the social context and the communication situation in which they occur (information shared between the interlocutors, communicative intentions of the interaction, etc.) .

Discursive competence: refers to the knowledge of the relationships between the different elements of a message and the mastery of the rules of combination of these elements according to the different types of texts.

Strategic competence: refers to the mastery of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to control communication, to reinforce the effectiveness of communication, or to compensate for the insufficient mastery of other competencies.

We see, then, that the communicative approach subordinates the study of the formal aspects of languages ​​to the use of these for communicative purposes. The emphasis is therefore on the processes involved in the use of language, that is, on the study of meanings, their expression, understanding and negotiation during interactions. This conception of what a language is and how it is learned can not dispense with the approach to the culture in which the language acts as a vehicle of communication. In recent years, the importance of the cultural component in communicative processes and the need to incorporate it into language programs have been highlighted in order to facilitate intercultural understanding and understanding. In the communicative approach, a type of teaching centered on the pupil is promulgated, in both communicative and learning needs. This supposes a loss of protagonism on the part of the teacher and of the programs, in favour of a greater autonomy of the students and, therefore, of a greater responsibility in the decision making on their own learning process. The analysis of the needs and the negotiation with the students constitute, thus, in the axis on which articulates the action of the teachers.

In the 1970s, we began to talk about the crisis of behavioural psychology and proposed cognitive models (Piaget, Vygotsky) as a possible alternative. In linguistics Chomsky's ideas are imposed, and his conception of language as the innate faculty of the human being clashes head-on with Skinner's behaviourist ideas. At that time a real revolution in the world of second language teaching took place with the emergence of the different "humanist" methods and the communicative approach in Europe, which respond to the new conception of language and its learning. In this first stage of the communicative approach, the main concern of researchers will be to try to account for the communicative needs of students. Thus arise the non-functional programming, which will be widely disseminated and quickly adopted in the new textbooks. Much of the success is undoubtedly due to the support of the Council of Europe, which will base the definition of the contents of a threshold level for language teaching programs on the concepts of "notions" (concepts such as place, sequence, quantity , Time) and "functions" (or communicative intentions such as greet, offer, present). The last stage in the development of the communicative approach is marked by the development of homework teaching. In an attempt to turn the classroom into the real communicative process scenario, the tasks (meaningful activities that result in a particular product) are proposed as the articulating axis of the teaching-learning process.

According to Nunan (1989:78) we can define task as "a unit of work in the classroom that involves students in understanding, manipulation, production or interaction in the L2 (second language) as long as their attention is concentrated primarily on the meaning than in the form."

From the communicative approach, the objective of the teaching-learning process of a foreign language is that students reach a certain level of communicative competence in that language. This objective is shared by teachers and students, and in the same statement it is clear that students are the real agents of the process. They are the ones who, with the help of the teacher, manage to learn, so the teacher has a very important but subsidiary function. In reality, the teacher does not have direct control over the learning to the extent that this is an internal process of the students. Hence, in his activity he must offer the kind of stimuli that the process requires, but remembering that his behaviour must be subordinated to the learning needs of the students. Experience shows us that what we teach in our classes is not learned in the same way and in the same order by our students; It seems obvious that there are different ways of learning, and that students can know how they work best. All this leads us to discard the conception of the student as a passive agent of the learning process. It is time, therefore, to listen to the students, who have much to say about all the aspects that integrate the process of which they are protagonists: the objectives (the for what), the contents (the what) and the methodology ). In conclusion, we can say that there has been "an investment in the teaching-learning relationship: before, the belief was that it had to be taught well, and learning was a direct consequence, the teacher taught (taught) and it was the student's responsibility to learn; Learning was subsidiary to teaching. Now, the belief is that it is learned in many ways and teaching is a subsidiary of learning; the student learns, and it is the teacher's responsibility to facilitate or enable their learning "(Martín Peris, 1993:14). This investment has been possible thanks to the entry into the field of second language methodology of new ideas from the Sciences of Education. In addition, in the last two decades, the findings of different linguistic sciences, such as Sociolinguistics, Pragmatics or Psycholinguistics, have substantially modified our conception of what a language is and therefore how it should be taught. Studies in the field of Sociolinguistics and Pragmatics have transformed the conception of our object of study, so that in the classroom of Spanish is not expected to be taught only the language system, but how to use it properly to communicate. It has also shown the need to contextualize the language to correctly interpret the statements. Psycholinguistics points out, in turn, the different strategies that are used to learn a language, and that should be taken into account when teaching it, although its main contribution is the concept of inter-language, where the error is no longer considered as negative form. For all this, it seems clear that the traditional vision that identified the Spanish teacher with an instructor who passed on his knowledge to the students, that is, that "taught grammar" and that he made all decisions regarding the progress of the class In the theoretical framework we have established, the role of the protagonists of the process we are describing can no longer be the same. From this point of view, the role that the student should assume is a An essentially active role, as a result of the awareness of its responsibility in the process of which it is an agent, as for the teacher, its function must now be defined around two fundamental axes: negotiation with students and their role as facilitator of learning .

2.3.3. Alternative/complementary methods of improving the speaking skills

Principles of action in the classroom It seems interesting to highlight some principles of action for the teacher in the classroom. These include:

– Flexibilization of processes, resources, spaces, times, results, etc.

– Promote autonomy, personal development, shared and collaborative, but always respecting their own possibilities.

 – Cooperation and mutual support between the participants of the group stimulating to share doubts, solutions, strategies, results, etc.

– Diversity and abundance of resources that make it possible to choose and search for alternatives when results are not obtained.

– To favour the experiences and the experiences. Education is not just doing or knowing, it is also feeling.

– To stimulate the communicative interaction between the students with work in pairs, small groups or large interactive groups.

– Explicit integration offering activities for the development of reflective and social skills that favour it.

 – Assume respect for diversity with its real practice and the search for careful solutions with it.

– Learn from others through the preparation or discovery of personal strategies or modelling activities.

– To create, to make explicit and to practice a new Philosophy of Classroom that manifests our attitudes and differences.

– To propose a general multipurpose methodology and without fixed moulds that assumes that there is no universal scheme of learning but as many suitable ways as students.

– Propose individual intervention guidelines so that individual training itineraries can be developed with their specific development, participation and follow-up.

– Enrich work with group intervention guidelines that favour interaction and mutual progress.

– Generate some monitoring mechanism in which the student participates (agenda, journal, card, table, etc.) that allows to support a curricular design and development of each student.

– Intervene to resolve not to become angry or to disparage the student. Learning difficulties do not have to be obvious, or when they jump, they should not be attributed to the responsibility of the student who did not choose it, of course.

The communicative potential of a person is not determined simply by their learning potential. It is true that the more capacity to learn, to develop, to grow, the broader your horizons of communication. But the limitations may come from a variety of sources as limiting or more than the same intellectual disability: affective-relational factors, perceptual deficiencies, motor or postural difficulties, precariousness of resources or opportunities, lack of training, lack of Support and motivation or misguided approaches in the selection of technical aids can act as a reduction of a person's communication potential. In order to properly consider a person's communication potential, we need to pause to consider briefly what is meant by communication and the forms of communication at our disposal. Communication must be understood as a multi-directional, interactive and intentional process that maintains two or more people exchanging meaningful elements. We understand that we are the ones who give meaning to the elements we exchange (do not have to be words) according to the communicative intention of the sender and according to the interpretative guidelines of the receiver.

As for the ability to speak in English, which has been noticed more deficiency, it is due to the influence exerted by the mother tongue on the English language. Students who are learning English tend to translate everything they hear, read and write from English to their mother tongue. This is a mistake that most English learners make, because not everything is translatable into English, there are other types of expressions, grammar and sounds, among other factors. The student feels that if I can not translate everything into his language then he will not find another way to express himself. On the other hand, to accurately reproduce the sounds of English and pronounce correctly must have knowledge about the phonetics of the English. Often in English courses there is not enough phonetic teaching in English, which forces the student to depend totally on the pronunciation of the teacher or what he hears in videos, songs, audios, etc. English has phonetics different from any other language, due to the position of the organs of the oral cavity (lips, tongue, teeth …). To produce the sounds of English correctly, certain muscular movements must be made with the mouth, different modes of breathing, etc. For students it is extremely difficult to memorize all the positions that need to be done to create the sounds correctly so the easiest and most commonly practiced is to learn from the ear. This is how English children learn to pronounce the language well by listening and repeating everything they hear. (Learning English, 2010)

To practice and improve oral skills both in the classroom and outside of the classroom, the most advisable is the following:

Be concrete: organize ideas to know exactly what you want to convey, do not try to speak so quickly, do it at a medium pace.

Avoid "revolver" languages: try as much as possible to forget a language, think in English and not want to translate everything from a language to English.

Bring words to action: If you do not know the meaning or how to pronounce and say something, it is better to be honest and ask for help or through different actions try to communicate what you want.

It is not what is said, but how it is said: It is very important to focus on the intonation of what is pronounced, it may be that something important is being said but if the proper intonation is not added, the message can be transmitted erroneously, of this that is not understood the original idea that was wanted to communicate.

To analyze the accents and inflections of the language and to work in it: it is important to focus on imitating the accent in English, it is advisable to get used to listening to an accent (American) first, and when you are familiar with it, to become familiar with others (British, Australian, etc.).

Study sentences and not isolated words: it is better to learn vocabulary words within sentences in a given context, so they can be used on different occasions and this will create more sentences to have a more fluid conversation in a more natural way.

Do not concentrate too much on grammar: if grammar is to be prioritized at all times, it will make it harder to be fluent in speaking; if you only think about the rules of grammar when speaking, it will cause many pauses to be made. In order to avoid this, it is advisable to form a pattern and to understand the primordial of the grammatical structure, to pay attention to the use of this structure and to concentrate on practicing conversations with what has already been learned without thinking of the rules, but in the contexts and experiences prior to the talks.

Listening, listening and listening: in order to learn to speak more in English, special attention must be paid to listening to the language, it is advisable to watch series and movies in English, to be in constant practice with the language, not to listen and do this daily. The more you are in contact with the language, the more you become familiar with it and it will become easier to know what another person is speaking in English because the brain is getting used to imitate structures and phrases, forming patterns to follow. (Coto, 2010:478)

The learning strategies used by teachers to help students manage the new language are the key to making a difference in the learning process. Steinberg (2001: 76-77) says: "Learning strategies are the particular approaches or techniques that learners employ to try to learn a second language." It points out that learners will use a particular strategy depending on the problem they are facing, such as remembering a new word. Students can also remember and explain what they did to remember that word. That is, the learning strategies employed by students vary from student to student depending on their individual mental processes.

For the purposes of this project, the definition of learning strategies to be used is that of Oxford (1990:2), because it offers a holistic vision, which contemplates making learning easier and more pleasant through the application of strategies. Oxford says, "Learning strategies are steps taken by students to expand their own learning. Strategies are especially important for language learning because they are tools for active and self-directed participation, which is essential for developing communicative competence. Appropriate language learning strategies result in better performance and greater self-confidence. "(Oxford, 1990: 1)

Oral Production Skills

Bygate (1991:17) presents a series of facilitation and compensation strategies that students naturally employ to facilitate their discourse. He says, "Firstly, we can see how useful it is for learners to be able to facilitate their oral production by making use of these devices, and how important it is for them to get accustomed to compensate for problems" (Bygate, 1991: 20).

The facilitation strategies are: simplification, ellipsis, shortcuts, devices to gain time, and formulated expressions.

Interactive oral activities that have some impact on learners: The different authors, consulted in the realization of this project, provided a wide variety of interactive oral activities according to their experience. Some of their points of view and suggestions are briefly described below: Folse and Ivone (2005:77) point out that asking students to write their ideas before participating in a discussion allows them to re-examine, rethink, and recycle their thoughts. Tillitt and Newton (1993:89) suggest a simple way for students to learn communicative strategies and the functional use of language. They consider that students of English as a second language need to know the social rules of language use that may be different from those in their own culture. They distinguish between the formal and informal discourse that people use when speaking.

Yorkey (1985:58) suggests several activities designed to be performed by two students for the purpose of practicing listening and communication skills. It is necessary to work cooperatively to solve different situations such as following routes on a map, reproducing drawings by means of lines, strips of stories, and making appointments among others. The intention of this type of activities is to help the students to develop real communicative competence.

Zelman (2005:77) proposes a series of oral activities to promote conversational fluency such as interviews, role change, group work, and discussions. Role change activities present hypothetical situations in which two or more students interact with one another without prior preparation. This type of activity demands the creativity and imagination of the students, helps to improve their fluency, and creates a pleasant atmosphere in the classroom.

2.3. Building the speaking habit

2.3.1. Building confidence and enthusiasm

THE AFFECTIVE DIMENSION IN THE CLASSROOM

"The human mind is like an iceberg whose tiny tip emerges to consciousness while the much larger part remains hidden beneath the surface" (Hansen, G, 1999: 232). In the part that we do not see are dreams, forebodings, impulses, thoughts that can not be expressed, some unconscious emotions. Its influence in conscious thinking is enormous. Emotions (both conscious and unconscious) act as underlying causes of much of what we do. Antonio Damasio (1994:152) has written in detail and in a fascinating way the physiology of the relationships between emotion and cognition. By fostering positive emotions in the language classroom and paying attention to what happens not only in the mind but in the heart of the students we will gain more success in our teaching and we will boost learning by having students acquire the L2 in a more effective and faster. Both the humanistic psychology and the theory of multiple intelligences of Gardner that we will expose in our research work recognize that learning includes the physical, affective and cognitive aspects. Gardner's cognitive model proposes that human beings need to develop not only their cognitive abilities but also other physical, artistic, and spiritual abilities. Indeed, "the physical, emotional and cognitive aspects of the student can not be isolated in practice from each other: what happens in one of these areas inexorably affects others" (Stevick, 1980: 187).

However, traditionally many of the resources used in the interaction space do not reflect this holistic composition. All too often the materials only take into account the cognitive aspect of the students. If we consider the three aspects (the intellect, the body and the heart), we realize that the resources we use often leave the body and the heart inactive altogether. Zoltan Dörney (2001:147) laments that schools forget to include motivation and emotional aspects in the curriculum. Dörney insists that teachers should be trained in the area of ​​affectivity, as this will give them very good results in the long run, making the classroom environment more pleasant and learning more effective. In Western civilization we have concentrated on understanding the cognitive and rational functions of our mind and have misused everything that remains in the field of emotions or the non-rational, or even denied it. One of the consequences of this situation is our current inculturation of the emotional. Goleman proposes that schools educate the student globally, joining mind and heart in the classroom (1995: 22,24). Modern pedagogy tends to emphasize more and more the importance of the affective aspects of learning, since when they are taken into account one learns more and better. Including affective aspects can lead to more effective language learning: "Attention to affective aspects can lead to more effective language learning" (Arnold, 1999: 2).

In this research we will explain the importance of the affective dimension in the process of learning a language and how to include it in the classroom. In the first part of the report we will present the state of the matter. It contains the fundamental theoretical concepts and the main authors and researchers in this field. This section emphasizes the importance of emotions and the affective dimension in the learning process of an L2. First, the physical environment positively or negatively influences students' performance. Feng Shui techniques can help us create a pleasant classroom and an environment conducive to study. We must try as far as possible to counteract the negative emotions that may arise in the language classroom. These include anxiety, which is the affective factor that more strongly hinders the learning process. Likewise, we should encourage positive emotions in the classroom especially motivation. It plays a fundamental role in the process of acquiring a foreign language. Encouraging, protecting and maintaining it is the teacher's job. Finally, relational factors (group work, empathy among students …) are also important for achieving optimal academic performance.

Traditional educational methods neglected the importance of emotional factors. However, since the 1970s several methods have emerged that place the affective dimension of learning in an essential place. Currently a large number of teachers include it in their classes but there is still a long way for it to be considered as a further section of the curriculum of schools. The second part of the report is practical and aims to present a series of ideas and activities to create an enabling environment in the classroom and introduce the affective dimension. The proposed activities will take into account the different learning styles of the students. We will propose activities that bring together several of Gardner's multiple intelligences. Among them are those that introduce the artistic dimension (puppets, plasticine) and that we will use to develop oral or written expression. All these activities have been carried out with several groups of Lebanese students of levels C1 and C2 and some of them with teachers of ELE in courses of formation of the Cervantes Institute. We have annexed the main activities as an annex. Finally, we performed an analysis of the results obtained and an evaluation of the surveys to which the students responded on the proposed activities.
Each individual is original, creative, unique and unrepeatable, has strengths and virtues and an immense inner richness. School contexts are ideal spaces to put into play and enhance the most valuable, attractive and desirable aspects of the human being. In this chapter we will focus attention on the relevance and incidence of passion and enthusiasm for teaching and learning. A classroom where the passionate teacher conveys his passion and enthusiasm for the subject he imparts, for education and for his students, is the best breeding ground for his students to learn. Fortunately, the research is giving scientific explanations to this fact (Immordino-Yang and Damasio, 2007:58; Perandones, Lledó and Grau, 2010:114). Students differ significantly from one another in intellectual ability, in lived experiences, in dispositions for learning, in the social environment that surrounds them, in the family environment that surrounds them, as well as in their emotional competences. Teachers, therefore, have to pay attention to their students; it is necessary to know and understand each student, to attend to their concerns, to assess their abilities and to detect their passions. To detect, to know and to develop the passions and the enthusiasm of our students and to put all this to the service of the learning, implies to bear in mind a determining factor in this process: the teachers and their passions. Even if we talk about the passions of the students, we must also do those of the teachers. Passion has the rare virtue that when distributed it multiplies. And, although it is personal, it is not totally non-transferable. Therefore, the passion and enthusiasm of the teacher can be affirmed as conditions (in this case external) of the passion and enthusiasm of the students. It does not seem reasonable to consider teaching as a passionate or exciting situation, excluding those who have the direct responsibility to build this situation. In personal relationships passion and apathy are contagious. That is why to live unhappily the task of teaching is the most effective way to embitter the task of learning. A pedagogy that uses as a didactic resource the enhancement of human strengths such as passion and enthusiasm does not require teachers who are humorous, witty or funny (these are qualities not inconsiderable for a teaching profile, but to ask for them might be too much to ask for). It is enough, not least, that the teacher is able to enjoy what he teaches, to enjoy teaching it, to communicate both enjoyments and to feel gratified to perceive that the students also enjoy learning.

We can understand passion as a very intense feeling, as an engine, a motivating force emanating from emotion. Passion generates energy, determination, conviction, and engagement (Fredrickson, 2002:78). According to Fried (1995:58), passion is not only a personality trait that has some people and not others, but something that can be discovered, taught or reproduced, even though the regularities of school life collude against it and , Although not everything, passion, however uncomfortable the word may be, is at the heart of what teaching is or should be. Following the ranking of Strengths and Virtues of Values ​​in Action (VIA), developed under the direction of Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman, we find that within the 24 Strengths and 6 Virtues identified, the Fortress of Passion and Enthusiasm appears within the Virtue Of Transcendence. When speaking of transcendence they refer to the emotional strengths that go beyond the person and connect us with something higher, broad and permanent. They also describe the people who score high in the strength of passion and enthusiasm as people full of life, who dedicate themselves body and soul to the activities in which they participate, who wake up in the morning eager to start the day and the passion they put into activities is contagious, so it is very unlikely that they feel depressed (Peterson and Park, 2009:108; Shryack, Steger, Krueger and Kallie, 2010:114).

Why do most of the students, from the stage of infancy to university, do not see the school, the institute or the university, as a place of joyful learning, of possible happiness, of human fullness? Are educational institutions a place of irradiation of passion, enthusiasm, well-being? School centers should suggest rewarding work, they should be places of exciting discovery, but those who live daily between classrooms, corridors, books, grades and newsletters, feel that, in general, this is not the case. Teaching and learning centers, as some authors point out (Day, 2006:147; Fried, 1995:125), effective teaching and learning are based on the exercise of passion. Passion is related to enthusiasm, engagement and hope, which are key features of teaching effectiveness. In order to accommodate the passion in our classrooms it is appropriate that the teachers take into consideration the following points:

– Explore student motivations

– Favour assiduously the development of activities that carry with it a reasonable dose of pleasure

– Valuing individual potential and stimulating them

– To foster an appropriate climate of trust so that freedom of expression surfaces so that students express their feelings

 – Strongly stimulate curiosity

A good teacher will favour appropriate human and environmental conditions that encourage the learner to delve into the paths of affective learning (Gilman, Huebner and Furlong, 2009:258). As Clark (1995:78) points out, without passion, teaching loses its heart. In this line, we highlight works such as those by Lyubomirsky, King and Diener (2005:58), which present the influence of emotions on learning, based on the fact that the brain is designed to pay attention first to information with An emotional component; In fact, the more intense the emotion, the more sense it will have. Emotions in general and experiencing the teaching-learning situation with passion and enthusiasm, in particular, help us learn faster, better remember information, make information "look real" (we believe what we feel), and Help us make better decisions based on the information available.

2.3.2. Provide high-interest engagement

Education: an eminently human work.

Fernando Savater (1996:75) says, quoting Graham Greene, that "being human is also a duty". That is to say, "we are born human, but that is not enough. We also have to become human"; And the possibility of being human is only effected by means of others, of the like, that is, "of those to whom the child will do everything possible to resemble." And "if," continues Savater, "as Jean Rostand (1960: 7) says, culture is what man adds to man, education is the coining of the human where there is only a possibility. Man's own is not so much the mere learning as Learning from other men, being taught by them. " We then understand the reason for the need for education as an organized action from humans to humans. We must agree that human learning, far from being identical to animal learning, is a complex process, loaded with a number of variables that determine and differentiate it in the case of each person. Moreover, if we understand formation from the perspective of the subject, as Moya (2002: 23) says that "it conceives of being part of the history of each subject, united and interwoven with the history of others. The subject will register his new learning, "is what Bruner explains as the construction of shared knowledge by students and teacher, where the known is open to scrutiny in a social process and not individual in which it compares, contrasts And discusses.

We can understand the complexity of the learning process in the subjects we teach, but we must assume that it is not only that: we learn content and information, and we develop skills and competences; however, we also learn a way of living, of seeing the world, we apprehend a culture, a cosmogony. But it is not only that: it is also learning a series of signs and meanings, a learning of symbolic relations, a particular language, a specific discourse that gives us a perspective to understand what we know and what we are capable of doing , both at the level of technological product and at the level of relationships between people and this is why our learning as humans is possible only when we are in contact with other human beings because the above can only be learned from others who have learned it just like us: of culture, which is an eminently human work.

Education and social engagement

But this is a matter that has many edges. One -distinct from the previous ones and perhaps arisen from them- is that of the ultimate end of education and of every learning process. We have already learned from Foucault (1979, quoted by Martínez 2001:78) that all discursive formation is an effect of organized power through anonymous rules, mediated historically and determined by time and space. The school – as Martínez (2001: 96) recognizes – is itself a discursive formation, that is to say a set of discursive practices that achieve a certain regularity. This discourse, called the school together with the search for a rational conceptual framework that ideologically orders social reality (Bourdieu's cultural capital), seeks to distribute and reproduce relations of power in order to fulfil the itinerary that has been imposed on itself. That integrates some social agents to the select group of the protagonists of history and excludes others. But we must understand the above in a double dimension: the same thing that can make the school a discourse of exclusion, can make a discourse of integration. This dialectic is what constitutes not only the educational practice, but also the curricular design: education is not only concerned with reproducing and transmitting the forms of relation of the different social actors, but also where they are and are Generate different forms of reaction and opposition. Becerril (1999: 69), following Althusser, explains this phenomenon in two facts: the first is that "in the conditions of social order, the development of productive forces need school organizations as conditions of production at the same time as they produce"; And the second, that this reproduction is not automatic, but complex and can accommodate different forms of resistance, which this author – now following Apple – calls contradiction: that is, the possibility that in "school organization, workers Create certain autonomous conditions to exercise control of their work, which is configured in a kind of counter organization with informal relationships that defy the norm, since they use ingenuity and cultural creativity to distance themselves from determination "(Becerril 1999: 78 )

Well, exclusion and integration are two potentialities present in the pedagogical task, both products of the learning process in which every person embarks when being part of a social group. This, which is also an eminent human work, makes us question the sense that as a social macrostructure or as an individual initiative we must give to our educational action. This task becomes more effective when we assume that what we want from education is precisely that it is a tool for social integration, that is to say, it can develop the capacity of the human person to be part, autonomously, actively and in solidarity, of the processes In which it is appropriate to develop. The fundamental idea is that we be able to form people – citizens according to Magendzo (2003:2) – solidary, conscious and critical, that we are capable of undertaking "something new" (Arendt 1993: 208), that is, of renewing the world through of deeply conscious and responsible acts, as well as transformers. This is what Bronislav Geremek (1996:28) understands as social cohesion: respect for the dignity of the human being and the construction of social bonds in the name of solidarity to integrate it with other human beings and save it from exclusion and isolation from ignorance-respectively, ignorance-condemns them.

This of course requires a engagement, a positioning on the part of the individual with respect to the alternatives that the different discursive approaches propose to him, because it is not possible to be kept aside of such questionings especially if the individual to whom we refer is a teacher that is, the one in charge of a group of students to learn. The work of the teacher implies a position in the extent that it is established as the sieve through which the conceptions and ideologies of culture reach the students, therefore it is this teacher who, under the influence of a determined cultural and political discourse, decides what students need to be part of the social structure in their particular role. The teacher will make sure that his students receive the cultural capital to the extent that it corresponds to them, so that the function that assists them in the social fabric is fulfilled in them; well, for this to be possible, this teacher must have defined for himself – and for his students – his particular position vis-a-vis the historical-cultural circumstance he faces, he must adhere to some sense for his own work as an educator. I must say here that I consider a fallacy the idea that education can be apolitical, de-ideologized or simply neutral; of course, is not to instrumentalize it, but on the contrary, it is to recognize that, like any communicative and discursive process, education is based on ideological principles that support it – I do not necessarily refer to political ideology, but to worldviews – and Give it its goals and methods. Well, to paraphrase Martinez (2001: 83), we can say that engagement is a method of approach and circulation by the possible contributions within the field of play in which the sector is inscribed, and that each subject approaches To configure his own field of possibilities in a non-mechanical or predetermined way, but under the influence of his cultural capital, his personal history, the historical moment he lives, etc.

Unfortunately, this awareness of the educator regarding his social engagement has become, besides a piece of museum, a component of which is denied. Educational reforms have brought with them social paradigm shifts. Not because they have so far meant a revolution in educational terms, but because they bring together conceptions of person, society and world different from those that nurtured educational activity until its appearance. I am clear that these particular ways of seeing the world are in themselves the position that is required to sustain them ideologically, however I do not trust them, because where they are installed as an ideological-value component, they refuse to reflect deeply and questioning at the level of principles, proclaiming the doctrine of pragmatism and technocracy, trying to convince us of the neutrality and objectivity of its postulates, when in reality they are neither neutral nor objective. The experience of more than ten years of Educational Reform in Chile speaks of the effort to try to convert the formative process of the people – this work that completes us in our condition and human dignity and that is only possible through interacting with other people – in a kind of industrial production, based on international performance standards, but forgetting that all pedagogical action is played completely in a personal communicative process between an educator and a student, where the educator assumes the individual engagement with his Student to help him in his process of learning the world and building his own convictions. Reality tells us about a world that has become a "global system on which capitalism, in its various forms, has woven a complex network of economic, cultural, and political relations" (Martinez 2001: 92). Dissent from the officialism tinged by economic liberalism and centered on technical individualism: there is no longer room for collective engagements or personal engagements. This, in the case of education, can be observed in the discourse of teacher professionalization, which far from seeking a social claim of the teacher proposes a reformulation of the professional profile, orienting it to the new times, transforming the teacher into an official Change of a certain security and "professional prestige", and at the cost of the loss of control over the different levels of concretion of the teaching practice -distinguishing the stages of design of the application, corresponding to the teacher only the latter, for example- and incorporating Logic and business arguments, especially in the analysis of quality, with the consequent risk of the instrumentalization of both teachers and students, in order to achieve a successful production of academic results.

The social engagement of education and the educator, given the panorama he faces, must be revalidated, reconceptualized, as we believe with Martinez (2001:95) that "the radical engagement of the school to the education of the human being can not avoid his critical position With the policies of injustice and inequality, which must remain a basic issue in every educator”. For us education must be essentially a liberation (Freire), insofar as it empowers the person of that which limits it, the emancipation of its determinisms (Habermas, Groundy), so that it can make itself (Moya). From this perspective, the teacher, as the primary agent of the educational process, must define a deep and permanent engagement with his students and their practice, in order to respond to what reality demands in favour of their formation and as a consequence of She, of the formation of society and culture; Engagement that implies an awareness-that is to say, it opposes alienation, that is, "the loss, by man, of what constitutes his own essence and, consequently, the domination of the object over the subject" (Becerril 1999 : 86) – and results in a pedagogical action centered on what Moya (2002: 20) calls formative situation, that is to say, "a space of mediating educational practice between subjects and pedagogical device (…) that contains the network of relations that institute, both the relation Between actors (pedagogical interaction) as the interaction between knowledge (meaningful relationship) ".

Social engagement and teacher training

As we said before cultural capital is not inherited in the genes nor acquired by osmosis, it is the result of a complex process of appropriation in which the person is introduced to culture by other people in a dialectical relationship of knowledge construction. Well, this applies equally to the learning of teaching. Teachers, who will be responsible for the learning of their students, with all that implies, are also apprentices of other teachers, who will receive the notions that will allow them to create their own conceptions regarding their teacher work and their social role. Then it is essential that you reflect on your training processes.

As we have already said with respect to the process of formation of the students, in the case of teacher training we have to take into account what role education has as a phenomenon in society, which in turn will define what Above according to its particular aspirations and way of projecting itself in time. Well, it is not the same thing to expect from education a repetition of a social model than to prepare for a paradigm shift, and in the same sense, a teacher who works for the perpetuation of a system is not the same as the one who does it by a transformation. Unfortunately the conditions in which this has been given are not very promising: the hegemony of a cultural paradigm founded on scientific positivism and inspired by economic capitalism has resulted in the presence of a teacher who has limited himself to being a mere Transmitter of knowledge and "teacher training institutions and programs have been the best" demonstrative school "of the transmissive, authoritarian, bureaucratic school that scorns learning" (Torres, 1999: 47).

The above results in several problems for teachers, students and the educational system in general: the low results that the process of educational reform in Chile has shown in terms of the quality of education; To that we add that we are facing a disoriented educational system that seeks to reinvent itself in order to qualify along with the rest of the social system – especially alongside the political and economic systems – in the panacea of ​​globalization; We face teachers who do not have the didactic or pedagogical resources to respond to a reality that is far from the theoretical assumptions in which they were prepared, teachers who, socially discredited, bear the historical trauma of the authorities' indifference to their Working conditions, with respect to their dignification as professionals (professing an office for which they had to go through years of university training) that work in the formation of people, with respect to their social deferral along with the whole educational system, with respect to their knowledge of Educational process and, therefore, the validity of their opinion regarding possible reforms and their implementation. We are faced with alienated teachers, "mostly unaware of the information and debate surrounding the major issues of education, national and international educational policies that define their present and future role and perspectives" (Torres, 1996: 26). ). It is in this last point according to I believe where one of the most sensitive problems of the formation of educators is: teachers do not know how to reflect on the pedagogical practices that we carry out, which makes us fall into activism without meaning, motivated only For the purpose of obtaining results (approved), fulfil our function (pass contents) or keep students busy so they do not cause discomfort (discipline). There is no look that transcends the everyday and projected to the meanings that our work contains, to stop not only in the strategies and in the didactics proper to the teaching, but also to analyze the precedents that we are sitting with each discourse, analysis And in every relationship we establish with our students. There is a lack of reflection and criticism in the educational practice. There is a lack of awareness of the social and cultural role of teaching: lack of concern for transcending and doing so in a good way, and this is learned.

Teacher training can then not be a mere revision of didactic formulas or a training in specific disciplines, it must be the space that welcomes the teacher's concern to transcend, the place where, through reflection, he can clarify his position regarding the Educational problem, its role in social dynamics, its way of understanding the world. It should be the space where the teacher – in training or in service – can become aware of himself, his work and the world and can confirm his engagement to his students and their learning process, a responsible engagement to what their stocks Can become. Now, we must be clear that this training does not begin in the university with the professional qualification of the teacher, it is a continuum that begins, as stated by María Alice Setúbal (1996:55), when the teacher or future teacher is a student in elementary school or Even before, because we do not speak of skills or abilities simply, but we are considering an attitude to the world, a way of understanding social relations that involves a conscience and a engagement, and that comes from very long. Thus understood, the responsibility of teacher training is a double responsibility, as it affects students as students and as future teachers, which in turn will multiply their particular way of understanding the practice with hundreds of other students. We must also know that the continuous teacher training does not end with the teacher's degree, but extends throughout the educational practice, incorporating both the systematized knowledge in the so-called in-service training – or continuous – and the knowledge extracted from practice In itself, those that are incorporated as an experience, adding to the knowledge of the person who exercises the teaching profession and who embrace a broader spectrum than pure education.

At all levels teacher training must incorporate reflection and criticism, as we have said before, to regain consciousness and social engagement. The teacher must be able to be incorporated into society, to interact with other people and to the institutionality that organizes them, to be able to "make the school the first public space of the child, creating possibilities for perceiving, living and acting, Interacting with the multiple relationships that permeate the whole society "(Setúbal, 1996: 88). To the extent that the teacher has learned to participate and engage, he will be able to teach his students to integrate into society and the world, so that everyone can protect their own individuality and not become a victim of alienation. But you have to keep in mind that this, which means a way of seeing the world, is learned from the culture, from other people.

We have already seen how every formative process stands as a complex interaction between people. Only from there is learning possible. But this learning is framed in a human context more profound than the mere repetition of information, it is the adaptation of a natural being to a social reality mediated by culture, it is the adoption of a cosmogony, a way of seeing the world, the Other people and himself, that stains all intention, action and thought that can be had. We have seen how the cultural capital that a person inherits defines his role in society, liberates or enslaves it, integrates it or excludes it. We have seen that all that is an option that is assumed according to what I have been able to learn. We have seen that the school and the teacher trainer are decisive in this. We have also seen that the teacher must also be formed in the engagement to respond to the concerns of his students and achieve emancipation in them through awareness and criticism.

At first we asked ourselves questions about the teacher's work and his real awareness of it. I believe that we can fully assume that the work of the teacher trainer goes much beyond his work as an instructor and has to do not only with his role in the social fabric, but with his engagement to the people of his students, in a Close and cordial interaction. It is here that the whole pedagogical relationship is played, not only that of the people who are in the roles of teacher and student, but of the whole school institution, added to it also, the political, economic and social institutions interested in their work . It is necessary to personalize the pedagogical relationship to make it a human communication.

But this, so that it is not just rhetoric, must be assumed as politics. It must be assumed by the institutions that finance, prepare and perfect the teachers, who – like everyone else – must learn to look at the problem from this perspective and must have the necessary tools to respond to the questions that arise in the way. It is necessary permanent and systematic reflection to be able to visualize the problems and their ways of solution, but above all it is necessary that spirit that allows us to rescue from the segregation to other human beings and that allows them to perform humanly, according to their own dignity, and consequently intervene actively and powerfully in the historical and social processes that it faces. In an increasingly empty world of spirit, facing a reality increasingly hostile to solidarity and engagement to others, in the face of an educational system lost in individualism and instrumentalization, our call is to rescue the human being who Is behind each student, each teacher and give back sovereign control over their existence, especially at the intellectual level and above all spiritual.

Engagement as a source of satisfaction

As the subtitle shows, the engagement awakens the satisfaction of work thus motivating the teaching professional. In some teachers the engagement is not considered as something so important, or, the demands that are demanded today, make this primary factor is deteriorated. Realistically, there are teachers who do not experience engagement and are not suffocated by demands. They simply do not commit to the children's learning because they are not interested in them and only motivate them to pay them every month. I believe that this task should be carried out in the best way, otherwise I would opt for another occupation which, in addition to the soil received, would arouse greater interest, fulfilling it effectively. After reading the different conceptions of engagement that are set out in a chapter of Christopher Day's book, I thought it appropriate to cite the one that most closely resembles my thinking: "Engagement is a value, a virtue. It is the combination of sense of responsibility, loyalty and work … "This statement is consistent with all the work that has been developed. Engagement as a key thing, which can not be left aside, because from this will be released many other factors such as responsibility, loyalty, dedication, etc., that will greatly benefit the student. Of course, the concept of engagement may be different for different people.

However, all the assessments will have characteristics in common as the rigorous work, the enthusiasm, the own formation but mainly the one of the students, the sense of the affection, among others. The educational practices of these non-committed teachers will not be based on these guidelines, becoming few days of multiple factors such as lack of interaction and communication with their students, lack of preparation of their classes, lack of affection for students , among many other aspects. The teaching that is given on a class day should be as enriching as possible for the students. The face-to-face interaction with them could not stop practicing, one must go from the social to the emotional because this also contributes to their training. A teacher can not get to the classroom and sit at his desk to do his job and let the students handle themselves, much less when it comes to an initial level. Teaching can not refer only to a job, there must be something more, one has to feel desire to teach, in Day's words "… one has to feel passion for her …" otherwise "there is a light on, but no one in home". By means of this metaphor one can see the absence of the master although his figure is present. It is worthless to occupy a hall, if teaching in it is not going to be imparted. Something important in the docenes is the ability to maintain engagement over the years. It is very difficult to control that time and the environment does not absorb that engagement. But it is here that a teacher who is passionate about his work will draw those values ​​that have served as support for a long time and will fight for their beliefs against that external that wants to harm him. Undoubtedly a committed teacher who experiences this desire to teach, you will feel great satisfaction to observe that with this way you can achieve incredible things that will mark the lives of many and that will be the best prize for your work.

The engagement also leads to lifelong learning. That is why a committed teacher will never forget his desire to continue learning, which he will achieve through the well-known "reflexivity". The reflection starts from that passion to teach, from that constant search for new ways that enable the learning of its students, that want to learn more and more about multiple things, and then to cultivate that attitude in others. But this is only achieved, firstly, through the awareness of teachers, then one may take distance from the teaching situation and allow yourself a space and time to think about what they are doing, what is the better way of acting that allows the progress of their students, in what really works and what does not. Continuing to learn will give the possibility to keep that engagement to perform the task in the best way, in addition, self-esteem will be enhanced. Therefore, we can characterize the engagement as an aspect that will "mix" a number of components, which were already highlighted throughout the work, which contribute to strengthen this aspect in the teacher and also, will give the possibility of preserving it over time. Within the main factors we find that set of values ​​and ways of thinking that the teacher carries with him and that help him to develop his practices independently of the social context. This refers to the fact that those bases on which the teacher is supported will be those who support him when the context tends to obstruct his work. The attitude of seeing teaching merely as a job, must be very "far" from teaching thinking. The reflection of practices emerges as a key factor. However, there must be a constant willingness on the part of the teacher to do this. In addition, this capacity must be present to adapt to the different contexts in which the teaching is developed, because as we know, not all are equal, and that is where the teacher will have to appropriate this means to be able to perform his task of the best Form, but always starting from his disposition to achieve it. This provision will also enable the opportunity to transform that context, which is why the importance of the transformative teacher, who will be directed to develop in his students critical thinking that later will help the modification of society, making it more just and supportive. Resistance to these external demands that seek to change their way of acting should be the shield that will be based on the values ​​of each teacher, in order to maintain the identity and the objectives towards which it is oriented. The emotional and intellectual aspect also plays a fundamental role. The teacher should start with the emotional, such as demonstrating affection for his students, as a way to achieve meaningful learning in them, but also enriching the knowledge that will then be given to them and the one who will provide the Way of transmitting it. "It is necessary for teachers to review fundamental values ​​and beliefs, to reflect regularly on the contexts that influence their work and life, to participate in a collaborative dialogue with peers about improvement, to visit other schools and other teachers, and Unite inter-school learning networks so that they can break the isolation that sometimes undermines passion and therefore engagement to teaching "(Christopher Day, 1999:35).

I believe that it is not an easy task, that of teaching, so you have to be prepared to play the role as teachers. It is a task that tests many aspects such as dedication, interest, engagement, energy set-up, attitude. This makes me think of the committed teachers, those who are hopeful, who work in the best way of transmitting the teachings through reflection, who want their students and why they constantly seek the best for them, which are based on their Moral purposes oriented towards the good of humanity, which are committed to the learning of its students. "They are not heroes or heroines, but they are heroic …". Engagement must be the centre of our educational endeavour, constantly contributing to its protection, "feeding" and maintenance.

Educational quality. Engagement of all.

The context of analysis, on which this reflection is supported; Is a kindergarten located to the north of the city, a sector of tradition and privilege since it is one of the few purely residential sectors, which are still in the city; Away from commerce, congestion and pollution. Its inhabitants are people located in a high socioeconomic stratum.

Administratively they try to do everything in the best possible way. Of this, they are in charge the two directors with which the garden counts; one is in charge of the economic and the other of the academic, generating a very structured and organized teamwork. Although sometimes the lack of opinion of the teachers, since at certain moments do not have the option to comment on the decisions that are made, they simply do not agree, they must abide by what they are asked. In this way the quality of education is achieved, since these must pass over their convictions in order to maintain their employment or simply good relations with their superiors. Situation that questions the quality process in terms of the methodologies used by teachers as the process becomes activist and the performance is no longer natural and with little choice of criteria, gradually affecting the aforementioned quality.

At the moment when the teaching practices begin, the student is inexperienced, neither knows how to handle the children nor what to do, it is very difficult, since being a beginner in the teaching aspect and by ignorance, it is involved in quantity of conflicts; More when so far this is in the first semester and everything that is seen, seems wonderful and uncountable or analysable; Obviously everything is observed from that perspective; The way the teachers manage the groups, is perfect or simply adequate, because at that time no one had taught that it should and should not be done in a classroom. It simply has some theoretical bases, sometimes without any relation to the process that begins to manage.

In the real context one learns a lot; more than theory, reality is what it is, for lack of experience occasionally generates an erroneous idea of ​​one as a practitioner who is not easy to change; But with effort and the passage of time it generates more security and own style, which determines if the career is the professional field you really want. And this is where every person should be evaluated, because not everyone is fit for that mission and it is from here that you start to manage quality.

The change of observation classrooms and the school semester, are determining factors increase the theoretical part in the university thus arriving, to "analyze" and to compare better to the different teachers and at the same time their methodologies; Mixing them, so to speak with the learning given in the university, getting more and more questioned in certain aspects, such as the following: Teachers use a lot of conditioning in the management of their children, generating from an early age interest, where the child learns that to do something must have reward. It should be strengthened more not to condition; so, conditioning is an alternative to achieve good performance. Generating then that the children live according to the prize and not to do the things for their own benefit, obviously in these ages is not aware of what this could bring in the future. The concern is that this could be observed from the beginning of children to the garden, a process somewhat complex for teachers because for children is a new stage in their lives and it is here that defines the enjoyment that the child takes the institution. It is also observed how the teacher is limited to comply with what is required so do not agree, ceasing to be autonomous in the management and decisions to please their directives.

Another aspect that was observed in this first stage is the importance of the temperament and the attitude of the teacher in the attitudes of the students, in the way they respond and imitate what they see and what they perceive; being this determinant for the mutual performance. Thus day after day the student practitioner is becoming more analytical and critical and it is here where he begins to copy models.

As you begin to rotate through the different levels you are getting more and more enriched since each level and teacher shows great differences.

Competition begins to become very noticeable; each one wants to impose its methodologies, leaving aside the effort that the previous teacher presented and instead of reinforcing it is wanted to excel as of place.

A clear example of daily life is as follows: From the first levels, teachers work hard to generate in children the habit of good posture when sitting down to work and the poor little ones are repeated so much that they are even bored with theme; They acquire it and as it is possible that when they are practically to leave the garden and enter the new schools, they feel as they want and nobody tells them anything, where are the efforts of previous years?

Another common situation that is observed is the effort made to teach children to differentiate moments to play, work, concentrate, silence, etc., which is key to life, as there must be moments for Everything and for more children that are it is good that they learn it from an early age. In certain halls one is respected and others collapse, then one could consider that the problem is lack of solidarity, teamwork, union and they will simply do it because they do not support the achievements of the other; This situation is observed a lot; competition, they all sink with all, in their own way, they love to excel and earn points regardless of the consequences. Nothing ethical, right? But they all do, will it be a failure in teacher education? What about the values ​​that are taught in theory?

Instead of worrying about overcoming others, which we say are our colleagues, why not worry about the needs and interests of children.

Because the truth is that I do not believe that one tries so hard during four years of a career focused on educating children, to spend the rest of his life competing with his coworker, indicating this by what is heard in the experiences of the Other partners, in all contexts is common. There is certainly something missing in the training process, altering the quality of the processes.

Why rather as a team of teachers do not worry about helping us, correcting ourselves and learning from others? We never bother to improve but to compete. And this is where we should ask ourselves:

Why is so much competition generated, if we are all focused on the same point, education?

Why the preferences, with some children if the important thing is to educate?.

How good or bad is facing real work, with no idea how to work? How much can the image of practitioners affect?

Why do teachers become accustomed to conditioning their students to "work?"

Could it be that the flaws we commit as teachers are related to inconsistencies in the training they give us?

Instead of criticizing us so much, why not worry about helping us, correcting ourselves and learning from others?

Why do we always copy models and not implement our own?

Do we teach values? But do we really have them?

Is there really clarity in the needs and interests of children?

In this way, it feeds back and consolidates a vicious circle, in which mutual mistrust is the guarantee that real and profound changes in the school will not be achieved and, as the authors to whom reference will subsequently refer, these inconsistencies are generated by A theory without practice or a practice without theory, which means that instead of dedicating themselves to forming and improving quality, they dedicate themselves to things without substance that make the teaching work, become exhausting and monotonous since the teacher is not Worries about innovating, or drawing new experiences every day from every minute of work, but is simply content to comply and do. In this respect, one may become mediocre and a victim of his own reality, since there is no teacher who does not complain. Is this why the quality of the teaching profession is so questioned in its methodologies?

Obviously it is not always the fault of the teacher and his training; It is also very influential the location given to the teaching knowledge and the position they give in the institution, in the majority, although they are the executors of most of the activities, they are assigned a minority role, since It must always depend on others and their point of view is not valued; The lack of recognition of one's own specific knowledge of the teacher makes it difficult to organize a system of improvement that allows him to value himself as a producer of culture and quality.

Professionals who deal with the educational fact, characterize the teacher as rigid and closed to change, reluctant to accept suggestions and modify attitudes. The institution as such, does not integrate the teacher's point of view in its actions but asks it to act as "perfect" before the parents and other members of the community. Generating this that always learn to justify itself at the time of criticism and the worst, is that most of the time, the school as an institution, does not provide neither a time nor a space to share the daily work, so it is not given the moment to motivate the teacher, causing that the experiences do not grow, generating demotivation and as mentioned before presenting mediocrity, that is to say deficient quality, since it is done by doing, to fill and to fulfil; they become activists.

Instead of promoting learning that is really meaningful, that is to say, they promote engagement, making their methodological strategies something rewarding and enjoyable for both their students and for them.

PART II. PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF IMPROVING THE SPEAKING SKILLS OF THE EFL STUDENTS

CHAPTER 3. INTRODUCING AN EXPERIMENTAL AUXILIARY ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASS.

3.1. Pre-experimental phase

3.1.1. The premise and the aims of the research-needs analysis

The main objective of the present research is to highlight the advantages and limitations of the methods in the formation and development of competences by English teaching – learning to students by introducing an experimental auxiliary English speaking class. Subordinate to the proposed goal, the pedagogical experiment will take into account the following aspects:

1. the efficiency that the use of modern educational means and implicit interactive methods have in teaching – learning English;

2. the appreciation of the correlation between the systematic use of modern educational means and the improvement of the school performances of students.

The general hypothesis can be formulated as follows:

• Using interactive methods systematically in the context of teaching-learning-assessment at the English speaking class, one may observe a significant contribution to the improvement of students' performance.

The approach of didactic activities in the experiment was carried out from the perspective of checking the specific assumptions in a derivation report with the general hypothesis.

Specific hypotheses:

1. The systematic use of interactive methods in the context of didactic activity influences significantly the formation and development of competences, the ability to understand and use the specific concepts of English oral skills in ways corresponding to the needs of individual life as regards the students at the intermediate level.

2. The systematic use, in didactic activity, of modern educational means influences significantly the formation and development of the capacity to understand and use the specific terms and concepts of English oral skills as well as the ability to experiment and explore / investigate reality through the use of specific tools and procedures.

3. The optimal use of modern educational means, combined with interactive methods has a significant influence on the efficiency of didactic management at the intermediate level.

Research objectives

The research objectives can be expressed as following:

• to participate actively and interactively in learning, to discover new knowledge in collaboration with other colleagues and under the guidance of the teacher;

• to discover, recognize and use correspondences and successions or phenomena associated with the given rules;

• to explore different ways of learning;

• to observe and denote the effects of phenomena and use a specific language in the description of various situations;

• to form a correct and efficient intellectual work style that they can adopt in their learning activity.

Research variables

In terms of the general hypothesis, the following variables have been set for this experiment:

– independent variable – this variable is represented by the design and development of learning activities based on modern educational means and, implicitly, on interactive methods, focusing on their systematic use in didactic activities;

– Ist dependent variable : level of school results obtained by intermediate level students (grades A and B) at the English Language discipline;

– IInd dependent Variable: students’ attitude towards school and learning at the intermediate level.

Sample of Participants:

– Experimental sample: Grade A, ……… School, name of the city, 19 students: 10 boys and 9 girls.

– Control sample: Grade B, ……. School, name of the city, represented by 20 students, 8 boys and 12 girls.

The content sample was represented by:

• Curricular area: Foreign Languages

• Discipline: English Language and Literature

The learning units approached were:

…………………………………

…………………………………

3.1.2. Methods and techniques of investigation

The didactic methods applied in the context of present research have been selected so as to have the capacity to respond to the requirements of a pedagogical investigation, but also to prevent potential errors in investigation and processing of factual material. In this context, in order to confirm or refute the previously established general hypothesis I used a methodological system made up of the following methods:

-the method of the conversation

-the method of systematic observation;

-the method of analyzing the products of the activity;

-the case study method

-the method of the medium-term psycho-pedagogical / didactic experiment. This experiment was carried out in stages, according to the following phases: the pre-experimental phase, the experimental phase and the post-experimental phase.

The observation method is used to investigate and collect the experimental data according to the requirements of the type:

• formulating the exact purpose of observation,

• drawing up the observation plan,

• recording the data in a proper manner (video, audio, or classical),

• classification,

• comparing,

• reporting

• data interpretation.

Observation can be spontaneous, scientific, exploration-oriented and experimental. This is one of the main methods of direct investigation, manifesting itself in the form of a systematic act of careful follow-up of the educational process, under certain sides, without making any changes from the researcher. The natural observation can be undertaken in parallel with the current activities, the observer's teaching staff giving him the opportunity to consider the quality of the activities carried out by the pupils, the frequent errors in solving the various problems, the typical situations in which one manifests indiscipline or inattention. In the context of this method, the observed data is immediately recorded, without the pupils becoming aware of this. In this respect, we used the observation sheet on the basis of which we prepared the observation protocol. The data gathered, after being ordered and interpreted, gave me a primary orientation on the subject of this research, as well as some methodical suggestions useful for the next stage.

The method of conversation involves the discussion of the teacher's framework, whose role is that of the researcher and student, respectively the subject investigated. This method allows direct observation and direct appreciation of the pupil's inner life, the intentions behind his behaviour, as well as the opinions, beliefs, attitudes, aspirations, interests, conflicts, prejudices and mentalities, feelings and values ​​of the pupil.

The advantage of this method is that it allows the collection of numerous, varied and valuable information in a short time and without the need for special materials and equipment. Organized from an intellectual and affective point of view, but also its placement at the optimal moment of teacher-school relations, the method of conversation made possible the emergence of the moments by which the children remained close to me. According to the particularities of the intermediate level students, we organized conversations that were meant to invite intimacy and relaxation, but at the same time, to the continuity, in order to record the child's livelihoods. During the process of the conversation, I did not write down anything about the children's approach, but later on I formed the protocol of the discussion. The disadvantage of this method derives from the possible failure of the subject's receptivity, its subjectivity, and in this respect it is necessary for the data to be completed and verified by other methods.

The case study method involves presenting the case, analyzing it, proposing solutions and testing them, applying the optimal and efficient solution. The "case study" method refers to individual behaviour throughout the social framework, focusing on data analysis and on their unitary presentation as relevant variables necessary for understanding the knowledge.

On the whole, one may consider that we have used a category of methods for describing and measuring the various aspects and manifestations of the pedagogical act in the current context. The fundamental aspect of the tools included in this group is the recording of data and findings after they have occurred. Thus, it is possible to obtain an inventory of these data which will allow the diagnosis of the manifestations and, implicitly, the improvement of the educational activity.

The method of analyzing school activity products. In terms of this method, it is possible to research the pupils' school performance and the various activities it involves. The analysis of the activities products carried out by the students gave me some important clues about the characteristics of observation, the ability to observe, understanding and mental development, the volume and accuracy of knowledge, the ability to put them into practice, general and special skills, general and specific creativity saddle. Of particular importance is the analysis of the products made by students in their leisure activities.

They show the motivational orientation characteristic of schoolchildren, as well as the interest they have in studying oral English.

Research Tools

In order to get information about the pupils' personality, their level of knowledge and skills, their behaviours and their involvement in the educational process, we used as research tools:

– pedagogical knowledge tests;

Most of these instruments have been taken over and adapted to the content of the pupils, the particularities of the pupils and the objectives in question.

3.1.3. The layout of the research and evaluation of the students’ initial level of knowledge
Major Research Coordinates

The research took place between the 15th of November, 2016 and the 26th of May, 2017.

3.2. The experimental phase

3.2.1. Integrating students

Particularities of an English class with communicative teaching

In communicative teaching, classes are basically structured around three phases: presentation, practice and production (PPP). In this connection, communicative teaching differs from traditional teaching in that this sequence may vary in its planning and in the role of the teacher in the different phases.

The presentation phase is characterized by the introduction of teaching objectives through oral or written texts. The purpose of this stage is to familiarize the student with the new content. Consequently, the main role of the teacher is to serve as "informant". The contents must be presented in a clear and memorable way for the student. If necessary, the mother tongue can be used rationally, mainly to facilitate the presentation of grammatical structures and difficult terms, comprehension of instructions in a given activity, explanation of errors that interfere with communication or to contrast differences and similarities between the mother tongue (L1 ) And the foreign language (L2).

In the practice phase, the student must do most of the work while the teacher must guarantee the greatest amount of practice for the student, in pairs or small groups, by using exercises and situations that are always the easiest to do. More difficult to foster interaction. The role of the teacher in this stage is to offer the student the opportunity to participate and at the same time monitor their participation. The teacher is the conductor of the teaching activity in which the student must reach a level of correction and acceptable accuracy.

At the stage of production or application students should creatively use the knowledge and skills that have been presented and practiced previously. It is the moment when students have the opportunity to express their ideas and opinions. The role of the teacher changes again, this time he becomes an administrator, guide and counselor, since he has to be available to help and advise the students. By simply presenting the content and practicing it, learning is not guaranteed. It should only be assumed that the student has assimilated the knowledge and developed the skills when he is able to use them by himself in and out of the school context.

In this phase the student has the opportunity to use the language in situations related to real life, to integrate the knowledge and skills acquired and apply them to a new context or situation, to personalize the contents learned by relating them to their own ideas, needs and experiences and to negotiate The meanings in processes of interaction between the members of the pair or the group.

The teacher should have a reflexive attitude to errors, since these constitute a normal phase in learning a foreign language. The errors must be pointed out, but without interference of the expression of the student in its realization. They must be corrected appropriately, "through tolerance at times and firm rectification in other situations." It is through the opportunity that the student is given to freely use what is studied and to express his own ideas that he realizes that Has learned something useful and strives to continue learning. Self-correction and correction by students is also suggested.

Whenever students are assigned a reading comprehension or listening comprehension activity, they should be informed of the purpose of the activities and propose a task to be followed. Remember that there are specific exercises before reading or listening, while reading or listening to and after reading or listening. The student should always have a reason for each activity.

At the end of the teaching activity, conclusions should be made in which the teacher can summarize what has been studied, the successes and failures of the class, ask direct questions to the student, motivate the next class, assign a task or other activity that Consider valid for this stage of the class. In addition, if you perform an oral assessment, you must report the result to your students. It is suggested to do it individually and use feedback as an effective way to overcome deficiencies. The relations between the teacher and the students have an exceptional value. It must be a type of relationship of trust, mutual respect and "not necessarily maternal or paternal, but affective."

For this reason, from the above considerations, it is pointed out that the teaching activity of the English discipline demands the analysis and reflection of its teachers on pedagogical and methodological aspects such as:

– know the objectives of the class well,

– let the students know what is expected of them in the class,

– be well acquainted with the didactic principles governing the teaching method used,

– use teaching methods to ensure the active and creative participation of students,

– to know what role it plays in each phase of the class and to act accordingly,

– to master the contents to perfection, from the linguistic and didactic point of view,

– master their form of performance and types of exercises for each activity,

– integrating language skills with other aspects of language,

– be creative without dissociating from the objectives, methodology, official textbook and syllabus of the subject,

– focus the teaching process on students,

– addressing individual differences,

– adequately manage the time available to perform the exercises,

– give adequate feedback to students,

– linking the class to the content of other disciplines.

The demands that society imposes on health professionals need a solid preparation in English that answers to the needs of the country and to achieve it, among other aspects, the classes must be of excellence.

VARIABLES OF CONTEXT (referred to teachers and students)

1. Social context: social class, family environment, school context, classroom context

PRESSURE VARIABLES (individual characteristics)

2. Student:

 – age of initiation to L2

– mother tongue

 – attitudes and motivation

– cognitive styles

3. Teacher:

– age

– gender

– teaching performance

– personality

– classroom and school environment

PROCESS VARIABLES

4. Didactic processes (the class):

– Study of didactic strategies used:

A) Learning Contexts of the L.E .: strategies of translinguistic, analytical, explicit.

B) Acquisition of the L.E .: intralingual, global, implicit.

– (sub) competences developed

– Care dedicated to SKILLS

 – Quality of the "input"

– Interaction between teacher and students

5. Student learning processes; Use and development of strategies. Types of strategies that are developed in class:

Metacognitive

Cognitive

Affective

Communicative

PRODUCT VARIABLES

 6. Learning outcomes:

– Principles, concepts: grammar, functions, cultural aspects …

– Procedures, skills, abilities: listening, speaking, reading and writing

– Attitudes and values

3.2.2. Communication strategies

CRITERIA FOR THE SELECTION AND PREPARATION OF CURRICULAR MATERIALS

There are many other aspects and questions that we must ask ourselves when designing materials or we limit ourselves to selecting and adapting existing ones. Breen and Candlin (1987) offer us a very useful and complete guide. Its frame of reference and key aspects includes the following categories:

1. Objectives and contents of the curricular material: objectives of instruction that are proposed, what gives the apprentices and what they omit.

2. Tasks that they propose for the learning: sequence of work that they establish, type of tasks that suggest: variety, clarity, adequacy.

3. Requirements of the materials to the teacher who carries them out: identification of the teacher with the lines of work proposed, degree of professional competence required by the tasks.

4. Variety of resources and didactic materials: adaptation of the materials to the needs and interests and expectations of the students.

 5. Adequacy of materials for learning English at the desired level: sequencing, structure and continuity.

6. Adequacy of materials to generate the desired learning processes: autonomous learning, discovery learning, learning construction, content-based learning, cooperative learning.

Other criteria for the analysis of materials

The relationship of proposed criteria is useful and can help us, but it is not enough. We must deepen in other aspects related to the type of learning that we want to facilitate and to propitiate through the materials. In this sense, it is convenient to explore other areas and to consider to what extent certain materials can contribute to its development. In this respect, one may propose the following:

1) knowledge of general facts or related to specific academic disciplines (general and / or specialized training);

 2) our vision of what knowledge is and how it develops;

3) our conception of language learning;

4) roles of the teacher and students in the classroom;

 5) opportunities for the development of cognitive abilities;

 6) and finally, the values ​​and attitudes that reflect the materials and metacognitive instruction: learning to learn.

Among the strategies to motivate students in the class of English discipline, one may suggest first and foremost to generate and maintain a pleasant climate, affection and respect in the classroom, such as "teaching … is above all a work of infinite love ".

It is recommended that before starting the teaching activity is linked its contents with the contents of the previous lesson or previous contents related to the new. Also raise problems that with their solution activate the curiosity and interest of the student. Likewise, use the task review or any other activity that you consider motivating for the students to relate to the new content. Even the statement of objectives can be stimulating for the student.

The means of teaching are a key factor in the development of a class of English discipline, as they favor communication, an essential element in teaching a language. In this respect, the teaching medium is the operational component of the educational-educational process that manifests how the method is expressed through different types of material objects: the word of the subjects involved in the process, the chalkboard, the Back-projector, other audiovisual media, equipment of laboratories and so on. In this regard, one may find this definition very correct and also add that the textbook, dictionary, radio, television, videoconferencing, CD-ROM, Internet sites and other media will acquire their educational character insofar as they are inserted and used in the teaching-learning process.

That is why it is also recommended to use the new information and communication technologies (ICT). The degree of motivation is significantly higher when ICT is used, since it opens a range of opportunities for the student to interact with the different teaching resources. If the motivation of the student is guaranteed before, during and after the teachers’ activities, more than half the battle will be won.

Review of the task

Whenever a task has been assigned, it should be reviewed at the beginning of the class and if possible link it to the contents of the new lesson. If no assignment has been assigned, it is suggested to use previous class-related objectives to systematize new content. It is up to the teacher to use the appropriate means so that the students show interest not only to obtain a satisfactory evaluation but also by the process of learning.

At the intermediate level, it is much more feasible to apply the approach by tasks and projects than in other stages, since the students already have enough base to work autonomously with greater independence and capacity. In recent years, this approach has developed considerably from primary and secondary to academic level. Among the most important implications and advantages of the approach by tasks and projects for the training of students we could mention the following:

– It focuses primarily on meaning.

– It directs the attention of students to relevant data.

– It develops a variety of procedures and form of participation.

 – It trains in the resolution of varied problems.

– It incorporates the personal contributions of the students.

– It promotes creativity, the exhibition of personal sight.

 – It develops students' knowledge, skills, general skills, attitudes and values ​​towards different fields of study.

– It facilitates the development of linguistic competence in solving the issues raised.

– It promotes cooperative learning and team problem solving.

– It develops inquiring attitudes or the researcher spirit of students.

– It favors autonomous work, control and accountability of learning.

It may be at the intermediate level that the task approach has fewer limitations and where it can bring us more benefits, so it is best to adopt it whenever possible.

If we want students not to become mere recipients and consumers of ideas coming from the teacher, other specialists and "official" research, but rather build their learning in a personal way and draw their own conclusions, we will have to develop their research capacity and enhance the figure of the researcher.

This approach favors the development of an inquiring and critical attitude and is also proposed as a means to improve teaching in the classroom and other psycho-pedagogical tasks carried out by educational professionals in the educational field. As Gimeno (1983: 63-64) has pointed out, it is intended to:

– Develop personal knowledge bases on education.

– Develop the inquiring and diagnostic capacity of teaching and learning situations.

 – Detect the implicit theories that operate on the professionals of the education.

– Develop action strategies for decision making.

– Develop a critical, reflective and investigative attitude in the practice of the profession.

Reflective and critical teacher-researcher roles and functions

– It facilitates the "understanding", individual and collective reconstruction of knowledge, creates its own laws, applies the principles emanating from its context, acts basically as facilitator, mediator and monitor of learning.

– It is nourished by perceptual psychology and phenomenological epistemology.

 – It gives more importance to the individual construction of learning and the individual differences of apprentices.

 – Dialogue, encourages a more reflective learning, by discovery (Socratic method).

 – The teacher promotes the diversity of points of view and usually remains neutral.

– It takes into account the opinions and beliefs of the students and builds on them.

 – The aim is to solve classroom problems and conflicts through dialogue and the cooperative commitment of those involved.

– It does not worry so much the academic excellence and the levels of contents that the students obtain.

 – Prefers critical reflection and development of procedures and skills.

– The student participates systematically in the construction of learning.

– The teacher is more open and democratic, more flexible and negotiates with the students the itineraries that are undertaken.

– A more open curriculum is developed, centered on the student, which incorporates his contributions.

 – Cooperative and team teaching is promoted. More strategies or socialization techniques are used.

– attaches equal importance to formal and informal teaching situations; the resources of the environment (outside the classroom) are very often used.

Examples of proper activities are given below.

FILLING PHRASES AND EXPRESSIONS OF DOUBT

It would be based on the following: use fill phrases and expressions of doubt to gain time and solve doubts or blockages.

Preparation: The teacher asks to know what strategies students use. What do you do when you block and do not know what to say to gain time to think or solve your doubts while you talk? Presentation, the teacher gives the following explanation of the strategy: there are short phrases that help us to gain time to think what to say or solve a doubt as you speak.

Some examples are: well, I mean … in fact, you know, let me think for a moment, I'll tell you what … I understand what you mean … Students listen to a dialogue that includes these sentences and they write them down . They can also write the text without these sentences and check that six or seven sentences are summarized in one or two lines of important information. They can provide the activity with the script and can underline it.

Practice: in pairs students invent dialogues using fill-in phrases and cities as words with content to decide where to travel

A: Well, you know, I think maybe London.

B: Well, now, but understand me, I do not speak English, I, in fact, was thinking about Berlin

A: Ah, yes? I see, but it's Germany, I do not speak German, understand it. (Your plans using a word and then do the same dialogue adding more information and phrases of filling )

A: Mariana? / So, what are you going to do, Mariana?

B: Excursion! / Well, I think, I was thinking of going "Ah, I see, very well, interesting, and, where?"

B: Motril ("Well, Motril, I like it, you know?").

Evaluation: the teacher checks if the students have correctly performed the activity and the difficulties they have had. Failures in language use are also corrected. Ask them their opinion about activities of this type and if they think it has been useful. The teacher encourages students to use these strategies in conversation with other oral practice activities in class and out of class. You can remember it in the conversation with the student when he can not find the right word by asking him to explain or describe it or by asking questions to facilitate the answers.

PARAPHRASE

The second activity proposal is the paraphrase or circumlocution.

Preparation: The teacher asks to know what strategies students use. What do you do in a conversation when you can not find the word you need to say something?

Presentation: The teacher gives the following explanation of the strategy (Today we will practice what to do when we do not know the exact word to refer to an object.) When this occurs, we can explain the meaning by describing the color, type of object, Its origin using phrases such as green, is a vegetable, has leaves, eat it in salads, for example lettuce.We can also define it using phrases such as a vehicle where you can travel or is to travel. What he said in other words, the structures to be used are written on the board leaving the holes for the student to complete).

Practice: give each student a piece of paper with the name of an object or its drawing. Everyone should explain their word to others without saying what it is. The students write down the words and the winner is the student whose words have been answered by more students. Another would be definitions: in pairs students are given the name or drawing of an object they must define using a relative phrase or purpose infinitive, a car is a vehicle in which you can travel / to travel. The other couple decides whether the definition is concrete or not in case of being able to find other words, for example, bus. In that case they are given a point and if they give a more specific definition they are given another; Paraphrase: students talking about a topic repeat the companion's message with other words introducing the phrases "What you are saying is …", "What you mean is …".

Evaluation: the teacher checks if the students have correctly performed the activity and the difficulties they have had. Failures in language use are also corrected. Ask them their opinion about activities of this type and if they think it has been useful.

Transfer: The teacher encourages students to use these strategies in conversation with other oral practice activities in class and out of class. You can remember it in the conversation with the student when he can not find the right word by asking him to explain or describe it or by asking questions to facilitate the answers.

REQUEST FOR HELP

The next activity proposal is the request for help.

Preparation: the teacher asks to know what strategies students use. What do you do in a conversation when you do not understand a word?

Presentation: the teacher writes the questions to ask for help either on the blackboard or on posters that can be hung in the classroom until students get used to using them: can you repeat? What does it mean "____"? I do not get it.

Practice: in pairs, one student reads a text from the book and another interrupts him by asking him to repeat the word again (A: London is the capital of … B: Sorry, can you repeat the last word? Heard the word after "la"). In pairs, a student reads a text from a book and the other asks about the meaning of a word (A: Madrid is the capital of Spain. B: Excuse me, what does "capital" mean?). In pairs, a student reads a text from one book and the other tells him that he does not understand it. The phrase is repeated more slowly, but again it is not understood, so you have to paraphrase the whole sentence (B: I do not understand / I am sorry but I have not been able to follow).

Evaluation: the teacher checks if the students have correctly performed the activity and the difficulties they have had. Failures in language use are also corrected. It asks them their opinion on activities of this type and if they think that it has been useful to them; Transfer: the teacher encourages the students to use these strategies in the conversation with other oral practice activities in class and out of class. You can remember it in the conversation with the student when he can not find the right word by asking him to explain or describe it or by asking questions to facilitate the answers.

Other possible activities would be the following: Total Physical Verbal or Linguistic Response (Reading, Writing, Poems, Stories), Logical Mathematics (Deduce Rules, Grammar, Vocabulary Classification, Exercising), Physics / Kinetics, Music (Drama, Roleplays, Space (Interactive), Interpersonal Individual work, Projects, Creative writing, Learn with all your intelligences), Musical (Ecuchar songs, Learn the letter, Practice pronunciation, find words that rhyme).

3.2.3. Speech production, fluency activities

In order to prepare the workshop we find several very clear principles to develop fluency. In fact, these principles clearly reflect many of the ideas that have emerged both in the workshop and in questionnaires and conversations with teachers. What do we have to take into account to build fluidity?

1. Repetition

This principle does not imply simply carrying out drill-type repetition activities but rather repeating the activity in some way. Surveys of all kinds can be very useful as the "Find" (Find somebody who …) or questionnaires or surveys prepared by the students themselves. Sometimes repetition can be promoted by grouping, such as pyramid or snowball activities where students talk about a topic or propose the solution to a problem first in pairs, then in groups of 4, then in 8 and finally all the class. When they finally speak in plenary, the students have reused structures and vocabulary, they have improved the pronunciation of segments and sequence and, most importantly, in my opinion, they have gained more confidence in talking about the subject in question.

2. Maximize speaking time

To achieve this, it is a priority to work with diverse groupings, couples, small groups and large group for plenaries. To do this, you have to persuade some students that they can only learn by talking to natives. In addition, English or other mother tongues of the class must be banished.

Free conversation should also be encouraged. At this level it will be necessary to address it a little at the beginning but leave space for students to continue speaking more spontaneously.

3. Preparation

Another factor that contributes to increase fluency is good preparation before speaking. One way is to prepare at home one of the class subjects, for example, a good trip or the cuisine of a country. Students bring their notes to class but the important thing is to use them as a basis for talking about these topics. They can also prepare the questions for a couples interview and then interview other partners separately. You can also work the vocabulary with brainstorming or a mind map. Or, simply, the teacher can give them time to read and think about a topic. With this preparation, the students reactivate both their vocabulary, structures and their ideas on the subject they are going to speak. Again, this preparation will affect your confidence level

4. Family and Motivational Issues

The more familiar and meaningful a topic is, the more they will talk about it. If the subject is unknown or alien to the student will arouse very little enthusiasm. The best thing will always be to give the floor to the students, to make them choose the topics. In our workshop warm-up activity it became clear that the topics that most promote the real conversation are those related to one's own experience: telling a trip, teaching photos of your home or family, remembering your childhood.

5. Appropriate language level

Activities to promote fluency should be at the appropriate level so that students do not have to think too much while talking. That is why practicing newly learned structures or vocabulary is not a good idea to develop fluency. It is much better to work with language already acquired or sight and, again, with familiar themes. The ideal level would be your level or a little below. Thus, review activities at the beginning and end of the class are highly recommended.

6. Set a time

While it is important to create a relaxed atmosphere, it may be convenient to occasionally introduce a bit of intensity, setting time limits on conversation activities. This forces students to speak faster and take fewer breaks.

7. Teach phrases and placements

 To develop fluency it is important to teach our students phrases, placements. One of the most essential communication strategies is the ability to introduce appropriate phrases at appropriate times. In this way, students reuse already learned language which strengthens their safety and contributes to their fluency.

Unlike the subjects, the selection of these phrases is on account of the teacher but with the help of the students. Students' role or task may be to investigate new phrases in conversations or transactions in different countries, in films, radio programs and podcasts, and even in textbook audios.

The workshop: the plan and the activities

The workshop followed the following structure:

To present the activities of these classes we use the typology of Thornbury to be oriented to the conversation and development of fluency rather than to the presentation and practice of linguistic contents:

– Awareness raising activities. In these activities attention is paid to linguistic (eg, conversational connectors), sociolinguistic (courtesy, a little registers) or cultural issues (events, references, etc.).

– Controlled practice activities. In these activities concrete points are practiced, very often in a repetitive way

– Activities of autonomy. With these activities we try to achieve free production and, in the long term, the autonomy of the learner

– Finally, as you can see in the plan, we finished the workshop with a discussion about correctness in the conversation.

Suggestions for future projects

It would be interesting to continue working on autonomous learning, what kind of activities and exercises can students carry out on their own, and also in activities that encourage the automation of language content. More authentic oral and written materials are needed, such as using recordings, tapescripts, role play, simulations, information gap, brainstorming, storytelling, interviews, reporting, picture narrating and debate. And also the transcripts of these, especially for awareness activities. More oral practice activities are required at all records and levels. In the workshop and in the course some appear but hopefully many more will be designed in the future.

3.2.4. Assesing speaking

The initial stage helps to establish the level at which pupils are at the moment of initiation of the psycho-pedagogical experiment, both in the experimental sample and in the control sample.

Table 1

The results obtained at the initial test by the experimental sample

The results are distributed as following:

Average at the class level is of the form: (1×0+2×0+3×3+4×1+5×5+6×3+7×2+8×1+9×0+10×0):15= 5.20

Module (the most frequent mark) is represented by mark 5

Table 2

Nominal table with the scores obtained at the initial test by the experimental sample

Analyzing the results obtained by 15 of the 19 pupils of the grade A, respectively the experimental sample, at the initial test, we can say that the module at the group level is 5, 11 grades being scored over the mark 5. In the same context, one may observe a grouping of marks on a fairly large segment.

Observing the graph above, there is a lack of 1 and 2 marks which suggests that the tendencies of promotion are increasing, but there is a deficit of 9 and 10 marks that suggests the poor involvement of pupils in the teaching-learning process. Also, since no student has fully achieved the objectives proposed by the didactic approach, it is easy to understand that success can only be achieved in the future by longer training and by giving more attention and importance to the discipline.

Table 3

Results obtained at the initial test by the control sample

The results are distributed as follows:

Average at the class level has the following form: (1×0+2×0+3×2+4×3+5×3+6×2+7×3+8×2+9×2+10×0):17= 5,88

Module (the most frequent note) is represented by the marks: 4, 5 and 7

Table 4

Nominal table with the marks obtained at the initial test by the control group

According to the graphs and tables above, the representative sample of the control group ranges around marks 4, 5 and 7. In this context, in the grade B there were 12 marks over 5, also observing here a grouping of marks on an extended segment. Also, the fact that marks 1 and 2 are missing suggests an upward trend in the promise of the initial test, but on the other hand, the absence of the mark 10 can be attributed to the lack of student concentration. Under the same aspect, no student has fully achieved the objectives proposed by the didactic approach.

According to the results obtained by the students of the experimental and control groups, the following measures for optimizing the didactic approach can be considered:

• Returning with additional information in the field where a deficit is found

• To propose new exercises and text that pupils should analyze from this perspective

• Insisting on resolving exercises of the type corresponding to the initial test

Observing the structural diagram of the averages obtained at the level of the two classes in the context of the initial test, it is noted that the control group is relatively higher compared to the experimental group. One may observe in this context an initial phase of the finding, also known as the initial test, the context in which the starting dates were collected, the level existing at the time of initiation of the experience with which the English language teacher works. Interpreting the results and the information obtained from the pedagogical knowledge test, the analysis of the pupils' products, their systematic observation and the learning outcomes, one may found that there are no very large differences regarding the two samples, as the above diagram emphasizes.

In the context of administering the initial test at the level of the two samples, the following general and specific competencies are noted:

General, social and civic competencies

1. Receiving the oral message, from literary and non-literary texts, for various purposes;

2. The correct and appropriate use of the English skills in the production of written messages, in different contexts of realization, with different purposes.

Specific targeted competencies

1.1 Reading a variety of literary or non-literary texts, demonstrating the understanding of their meaning;

1.2. Recognizing the specific modalities of organizing the different types of texts and;

1.3. Knowing the correctness and expressive value of the learned grammar and lexical categories in a text;

2.1. Expressing in writing their own opinions and attitudes;

2.2. The correct and nuanced use of learned semantic categories;

2.3. Use varied modalities for expressing the text.

3.3. Post-experimental phase

3.3.1 Evaluation of the students’ final level of knowledge. Interpretation of the students’ results.

The final experimental stage of this research was the administration of a final evaluation test, the subjects being the same for both classes, experimental and control ones. Subsequently, the results recorded in this context were compared with those obtained from the initial assessment.

As far as the evaluation of the results is concerned, it was possible with the help of the notes, to set the total score for each item. The next step was to compare the results obtained by each class in terms of comparison charts and those that reveal the structure.

In the context of the final stage, the following general and specific competencies were considered:

General, social and civic competencies

1. Receiving the oral message, from literary and non-literary texts, for various purposes;

2. The correct and appropriate use of the English oral skills in the production of oral messages, in different contexts of realization, with different purposes.

Specific targeted competencies

1.1 reading a variety of literary or non-literary texts, demonstrating the understanding of their meaning;

1.2. Recognizing the specific modalities of organizing the epic text and the expressive procedures in the lyrical text;

1.3. Knowing the correctness and expressive value of the learned grammar and lexical categories in a text;

2.1. Expressing in writing their own opinions and attitudes;

2.2. The correct and nuanced use of learned semantic categories;

2.3. Use varied modalities for expressing the text.

Table 5

The results obtained at the final test by the experimental sample

The results are distributed as following:

Average at the class level has the following form: (1×0+2×0+3×0+4×2+5×0+6×1+7×6+8×3+9×1+10×2):15= 7.26

Module (the most frequent note) is represented by the mark 7

Table 6

Nominal table with the marks obtained at the final test by the experimental class

Based on the graphs and tables representative for the results obtained by the experimental sample at the final test, it can be stated that the module was around the 7th mark, and in terms of the degree of advancement, this is a good one, 13 marks being recorded over the 5th mark. As well as in the case of the final test, a grouping of marks on a quite stretched beach is noted. In the same context, none of the marks 1, 2, 3 and 5 were recorded, and two pupils with mark 10 achieved the objectives that were initially proposed in the context of the didactic approach.

Table 7

Results obtained at the final test by the control sample

Table 8

Nominal table with the marks obtained at the final test by the control class

Analyzing the results obtained at the final test by the control sample, there is a presence of 14 marks over the 5th one. In this context, the module is represented by mark 5, observing a grouping of marks on a large beach.

Also in the case of the control group, marks such as 1, 2, 3 and 10 are missing, which means that none of the grade B pupils have fully achieved the objectives proposed during the didactic approach.

In this context, the main measures for optimizing the didactic approach at both levels are:

• Return with additional information

• To identify gaps in the context of the teaching-learning process in which pupils should be involved at maximum capacity

• Insist on solving the exercises similar to the ones received by the students at the final test

Observing the structural diagrams of the averages obtained at the level of the two samples in the context of the final test, it is noted that with respect to the experimental group, the average is higher compared to the control one.

All the students were given a test. The evaluation test was structured in relation to the framework and reference objectives of the curriculum. Objectives of the test are the following ones:

– use correctly in statements the verbs;

– recognize the types of conditional sentences;

– differentiate the types of conditional sentences;

– identify the verbs in the text;

– to differentiate between personal and non-personal modes;

– identify correctly the missing words;

– correct reproduction of the text/ words being heard

The analysis of the results obtained in this English oral skills test by pupils allows a detailed description of the problems and difficulties faced by the pupils in this class but also the brief outline of their strengths and weaknesses.

STRENGTHS:

After correcting the test, I found that students know the verb definition, they know the verb has four conjugations, they know how to correctly apply the verbs, identify the verbs in the text and also distinguish the conditional sentences. They also know how to differentiate the types of conditional sentence.

WEAKNESSES:

After applying the test it was found that some students of can not spell correctly. Another common mistake is the fact that some students do not differentiate between the auxiliary and the predictive verbs and identifying conjugations has created some difficulties. Some of them also do not analyze the verb correctly.

OPPORTUNITIES:

Successful promotion of internal and external assessments during the current school year;

Successful completion of the school year and the gymnasium cycle;

The possibility to continue studying at a high school depending on the student's intellectual profile and the results of the gymnasium cycle;

The possibility of active, responsible and competent integration in the society and the labor market, and even the achievement of a successful career;

THREATS:

Corigence and / or repetition;

Disinterest and / or school abandon;

Reduction and / or absence of further educational perspectives;

The impossibility to attend another educational cycle;

The impossibility of active, responsible and competent integration in society and the labor market, social and professional marginalization

OPTIMIZATION RECOMMENDATIONS:

Difficulties encountered in resolving the test require some remedial measures:

solving several exercises with the correct writing of the orthograms;

performing several morpho-syntactic analysis exercises;

making several sentences with verbs: predictive, copulative and auxiliary;

constant checking of the themes;

I have tried the items to be as varied as possible to cover as much knowledge as possible. Also, I realized as many items as possible. Thus, objective items, semi-objective items, short-response items and subjective ones of problem-solving appear in this final test. The first topics were accessible, while the last one is more complex. The results obtained by the students, can be summarized as following, in percentage:

The highest percentage was situated at the value of 26.53% (the one of the mark 6), while at the opposite pole one may find the value of 0% recorded for marks 1, 2, 9 and 10. In this respect, one may consider the following:

• The arithmetic average obtained at the class level is 5.90.

• The module (the highest frequent mark) is 6.

• The median is between marks 5 and 6, respectively 5.50.

Through this test, operational concepts were verified, such as: verbal, verbal types, adverb types, noun, adjective, conditional sentences. Students 'grammatical knowledge was also verified.

Thus, according the results of certain dissatisfaction, the teacher will take the following measures:

• she will develop tables with verbal time

• she will develop texts in order to improve students’ vocabulary

• she will develop exercises on different themes

• she will increase the hours when students can practice writing

• she will develop elaborate appropriate tests

The analysis and interpretation of the data and implicitly, of the obtained results suggests the presence of a positive trend aimed at improving the school results of the intermediate level students in favour of both experimental and control samples. Moreover, this trend can not be exclusively attributed to the psychic and physical development of pupils, which is why we can assert that the initial hypothesis is confirmed. Using the interactive methods and techniques, both individually, by group and frontal, is the following:

• children have the ability to learn new knowledge with ease;

• the students' confidence in their ability to decode and comprehend the content, both individually and at group level, is observed;

• students show an increasing desire to be involved in the learning process and show no signs of fatigue as they engage willingly, freely, consciously, learning logically and actively;

• children have acquired a tinted language and enriched by various teaching methods;

The data suggests that there is a positive trend in improving student outcomes in favour of the experimental sample, in terms of transforming the teacher-student relationship into a democratic one, aligned with modern standards. Thus, intermediate level students enjoy effective communication based on cooperation, mutual help, initiative and freedom, thanks to the factual methods used by the English teacher.

In this context, it can be said that the present study was a real challenge for me, in terms of an opportunity to study both the literature and the psycho-pedagogical type, to enrich and deepen my knowledge regarding interactive methods and phenomena characterized by complexity, but topical and vital for the future. In the case of the two samples studied in this research it was found that in the first experimental phase, the differences between the average are statistically relative, the balance inclining towards the control sample, but as the experimental intervention is unfolding, one may observe remarkable differences between environments, on this occasion favouring the experimental group. This is due to the fact that the dynamics of the school performance, which the experimental group follows, contributes to the decrease of the difference between the media to the inflection point, after which the difference between the averages in favour of the experimental sample follows an ascending trend.

The qualitative and quantitative comparative approaches between the two groups (experimental and control) reinforce the assertion that the ascending evolution of the school performance of the experimental sample is strongly influenced by the final experimental intervention.

CONCLUSIONS

The present research deals with a current issue, framed in the new orientations of contemporary pedagogy, aiming in particular at replacing the grading methodologies and differentiating ones that support the individualization and the personalization of the educational process, offering equal opportunities to all students regardless of their level, thus promoting various methods with a high training potential that can lead to the optimization of the action taken by the students in the context of their own learning.

The experimental investigation supports the intention to verify the extent to which the use of interactive teaching methods and of the modern educational means in the teaching of English oral skills has a particular influence on the achievement of the students' superior performances in terms of the positive impact these methods especially in the field of effective and conscious learning, but also as regards the intention to identify the limits of the use of these methods.

The approach taken in the present research presents clarifying and argumentative aspects, supporting the idea that the interactive methods promoted systematically and with pedagogical relevance in didactic activity have positive effects on school performance.

Appreciating the results obtained from the investigative approach, it can be confirmed that the teaching of English oral skills to intermediate level students using modern educational means and interactive methods has significant positive effects, both in the formative segment and in the information plan.

The design and development of the pedagogical experiment was carried out from the perspective of optimizing the teaching and learning process of the English oral skills at the intermediate level, the exigency of the systematic use of interactive methods regarding the formation and the development of the fundamental competences, in the dynamics of school performance segment. The pedagogical intervention was carried out in the context of the English didactic activities at the level of the A and B grades. The two samples (experimental and control) were selected according to the methodology of pedagogical research while respecting the compatibility with the various requirements imposed by the objectives and the hypothesis of the formative experiment.

With regard to the content sample, its delimitation was possible by the potential of capitalizing on the formative valences that modern and interactive didactic methods have, appreciating also the extent to which the content contributes to the learning and development of the understanding, using the concepts and specific terms of the discipline of study, exploration and investigation capacity of reality. Thus, the content sample covers a significant part of the contents of the English oral skills.

The formative experiment was the fundamental stage of this pedagogical research, at which level the didactic activities did take place at the intermediate level, according to the intervention project. The processing and interpretation of experimental data, referring to specific hypotheses, makes it easier to outline future conclusions.

Using interactive methods makes it possible to create a logical and natural chain between old and new knowledge; didactic units are not separate sequences, but they are inter-conditioned in a training situation, contributing to an optimal understanding of them, as they capitalize and activate the previous knowledge of students.

As expected, conducting this experimental research has given me the opportunity to see new perspectives, address other possible themes or subtopics, set new objectives and, implicitly, distinct working hypotheses, use innovative assessment tools and advanced data analysis techniques. In the same context, the process of collecting and analyzing data has given me the opportunity to know the various limits of research.

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ANNEXES

Speaking practice initial test

In the Speaking test, you will have a discussion with a certified examiner. It will be interactive and as close to a real-life situation as a test can get.

You will answer questions about yourself and your family. You will need a study partner to practise the Speaking test.

Ask your study partner to interview you using the questions below. 

Questions

Let’s talk about your home town or village:

what kind of place is it?

what’s the most interesting part of your town/village?

what kind of jobs do the people in your town/village do?

would you say it’s a good place to live? (why?)

Let’s move on to talk about accommodation:

tell me about the kind of accommodation you live in?

how long have you lived there?

what do you like about living there?

what sort of accommodation would you most like to live in?

Listen to the audio:

You can read the transcript of the audio to check any words that you did not understand.

Do you think that this candidate performed well?

Think about how you can improve your own Speaking test.

Transcript

Examiner: Now, in this first part, I’d like to ask you some more questions about yourself, OK?

Let’s talk about your home town or village. What kind of place is it?

Candidate: It’s quite a small village, about 20km from Zurich. And it’s very quiet. And we have only little … two little shops because most of the people work in Zurich or are orientated to the city.

Examiner: What’s the most interesting part of this place … village?

Candidate: On the top of a hill we have a little castle which is very old and quite well known in Switzerland.

Examiner: What kind of jobs do people in the village do?

Candidate: We have some farmers in the village as well as people who work in Zurich as bankers or journalists or there are also teachers and some doctors, some medicines.

Examiner: Would you say it’s a good place to live?

Candidate: Yes. Although it is very quiet, it is … people are friendly and I would say it is a good place to live there, yes.

Examiner: Let’s move on to talk about accommodation. Tell me about the kind of accommodation you live in …

Speaking test final test

In the speaking final test you will be given a task card on a particular topic, and this will include key points that you should talk about. 

Describe something you own which is very important to you. 

You should say:

where you got it from

how long you have had it

what you use it for; and 

explain why it is important to you.

You will have to talk about the topic for 1 to 2 minutes.

You have one minute to think about what you're going to say.

You can make some notes to help you if you wish.

Let’s consider first of all how people’s values have changed. 

What kind of things give status to people in your country? 

Have things changed since your parents’ time? 

Finally, let’s talk about the role of advertising. 

Do you think advertising influences what people buy?

Rounding off questions

Tell me

is it valuable in terms of money?

would it be easy to replace?

Listen to the audio:

You can read the transcript of the audio to check any words that you did not understand.

Do you think that this candidate performed well?

Think about how you can improve your own Speaking test.

Transcript 1

Examiner: Alright? Remember you have one to two minutes for this, so don’t worry if I stop you. I’ll tell you when the time is up. 

Candidate: OK

Examiner: Can you start speaking now, please?

Candidate: Yes. One of the most important things I have is my piano because I like playing the piano. I got it from my parents to my twelve birthday, so I have it for about nine years, and the reason why it is so important for me is that I can go into another world when I’m playing piano. I can forget what’s around me and what … I can forget my problems and this is sometimes quite good for a few minutes. Or I can play to relax or just, yes to … to relax and to think of something completely different. 

Examiner: Thank you. Would it be easy to replace this, this piano?

Candidate: Yes, I think it wouldn’t be that big problem but I like my piano as it is because I have it from my parents, it’s some kind unique for me. 

Transcript 2

Examiner: We’ve been talking about things we own. I’d like to discuss with you one or two more general questions relating to this topic. First, let’s consider values and the way they can change. In Switzerland, what kind of possessions do you think give status to people?

Candidate: The first thing which comes in my mind is the car. Yes, because lots of people like to have posh cars or expensive cars to show their status, their place in the society.

Examiner: Is that a new development?

Candidate: No, I think it isn’t.

Examiner: People have thought like that for quite a long time?

Candidate: Yes. Another thing is probably the clothing. It starts already when you are young. When the children go to school they want to have posh labels on their jumpers or good shoes.

Examiner: What do you think of this way of thinking, that I need to have a car or certain clothes to show my status?

Candidate: Probably it’s sometimes a replacement for something you don’t have, so if your wife has left you or your girlfriend, you just buy some new, I don’t know, new watches or new clothes to make you satisfied again.

Examiner: You don’t think of it as a healthy way of thinking?

Candidate: It’s probably not honest to yourself. You can understand what I mean?

Examiner: Yes. And do you think this will change? In the future, will cars and designer clothes be status symbols in the same way?

Candidate: I’m sure that clothes will be … that the thing with the clothes will be the same. I’m not so sure about the cars because cars cause lots of environmental problems and probably in some years, a few years, this will change because it’s not reasonable to drive a car anymore.

Examiner: Can you tell me a little bit more about that?