TEMA 21.- LA PROGRAMACIÓN DEL AREA DE LENGUAS
EXTRANJERAS: UNIDADES DE PROGRAMACIÓN. CRITERIOS
PARA LA SECUENCIA Y TEMPORALIZACIÓN DE CONTENIDOS Y
OBJETIVOS. SELECCIÓN DE LA METODOLOGÍA A EMPLEAR EN
LAS ACTIVIDADES DE APRENDIZAJE Y EVALUACIÓN:
1) INTRODUCTION
2) FOREIGN LANGUAGE AREA PLANNING: DIDACTIC UNITS
3) CRITERIA TO ESTABLISH THE SEQUENCE OF OBJECTIVES
AND CONTENTS
4) SELECTION OF THE METHODOLOGY TO USE IN LEARNING
AND ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES
5) BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.- INTRODUCTION:
The Organic Act 1/1990 of General Arrangement of the Educational System introduced
some important changes, aimed at improving the quality of education in Spain. Among
these changes we can mention:
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The extension of compulsory education to the age of 16 years old
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The establishment of new educational stages such as: Infant, Primary and Compulsory
Secondary Education.
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These stages are organised in cycles, which is the period that should be considered for
teaching programs and promotion.
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The establishment of a curriculum which, in spite of having certain aspects which are
compulsory for all the country, is also open and flexible, as the different autonomous
educational services could adapt it to their real context. Then, each school should
adapt the official curriculum to their real environment by means of the design and
development of the Curricular Project.
-
Every teacher should design his/her particular teaching planning according to the
decisions taken in the Curricular project.
Then, taking into account these basic aspects of the Educational Reform, we are going to
deal with:
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The elements and specific characteristics of foreing language teaching planning.
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The criteria we must take into account for the sequence of objectives and contents
-
The methodological principles we should bear in mind to design the learning and
assessment activities.
2.-FOREIGN LANGUAGE AREA PLANNING:
As we have said before, our educational system establishes and open and flexible
curriculum which must be adapted to the particular needs of students through different
levels:
The First level, refers to the official curriculum which contains the general objectives
of each stage for the different areas, their blocks of contents and assessment criteria.
The Second level, includes the Curricular Project of each stage, where each school
adapts the elements of the official curriculum to its particular context.
According to the R.D. 82/1996, the Curricular Project should include the following
elements:
-
The general objectives of the stage adapted to the socio-cultural context of the
school.
The sequence of objectives, contents and evaluation criteria of the different
areas per cycle.
General methodological decisions that affect the following aspects:
Methodological principles, groupings, space, time and materials.
General decisions about the attention to pupils with special needs.
And finally in the third level of curricular development, each teacher should design
his/her teaching planning which consist of a set of didactic units, taking into account the
decisions made by the teaching staff in the Curricular Project.
Then the teaching planning is defined in the curricular material known as Red Boxes
as: ‘the process whereby, starting from the official curriculum and the decisions taken
in the Curricular Project, teachers plan the work that is going to be developed in the
class. As a result, we have a set of sequenced didactic units for a given cycle’.
Teaching planning should be:




Adapted to the context and pupil’s needs
Flexible, which implies that we must be ready to change any of it elements if we feel
that they are not appropriate for a particular group of students.
Concrete, as it should give clear information about the teaching/ learning process
which is going to be developed in the classroom.
Realistic, as the teacher should have the space, time and materials to carry out the
activities he/she has designed and this activities should be adapted to the student’s
level.
Teaching planning covers two aspects:
1. First, it includes several general decisions to ensure the coherence of the teaching
process and the link between the different didactic units throughout the cycle.
These decisions, which are taken by the teaching staff of the cycle, deal with :
- Arrangement and sequence of contents throughout the cycle
- General guidelines about: space, time, materials, pupils groupings and
evaluation
2. In the second place, the teaching planning includes the design of the didactic units.
In relation to the design of didactic units the teaching staff of the cycle should:


Find topics which meet the students interests and needs
Decide the objectives and contents to be worked on in each unit.



Design activities according to these objectives and contents.
Choose the materials suitable for each unit.
Decide about the strategies to assess the students performance and the teaching
practice.
Now, we are going to deal with the first aspect we have mention, the general decisions
to ensure the coherence of the teaching process throughout the cycle, which include:
THE SEQUENCE AND TIMING OF OBJECTIVES AND CONTENTS.
2.1.- CRITERIA TO ESTABLISH THE SEQUENCE AND TIMING OF
OBJECTIVES AND CONTENTS:
As we have seen when talking about the Curricular project, one of the decisions made in
such document is the sequence of objectives, contents, and assessment criteria of each
area along the different cycles.
Then, once the teaching staff has decided the objectives and contents programme per
cycle, in the Curricular Project, the cycle teacher or teachers have to decide about the
sequence and timing of these objectives and contents within the cycle.
The term sequence refers to the order in which we are going to present the contents
while the term timing refers to the amount of time we will need to achieve the objectives
and teach the contents.
Since the establishment of this sequence is a difficult task, the Ministry of Education
published a Resolution of the 5th of March 1992, that offered some criteria to establish
such sequence:
1. The objectives and contents should be related to the global aim of Foreign language
learning , which is the acquisition of communicative competence.
2. The objectives and contents should be arranged in a meaningful way
3. The arrangement of objectives and contents should ensure the coherence of the
learning process
Regarding contents this Resolution says that:
1. We must go from the general and simple to the particular and complex. This applies
to the arrangement of concepts and procedures, since it is difficult to arrange
attitudinal contents into cycles.
2. There must be a balance between the three types of contents (concepts, procedures
and attitudes).
3. As far as the procedures are concerned, the four skills should be developed in an
interrelated way as they are in real communication.
4. However we must remember that in the Foreign Language Area curriculum for
Primary Education, oral skills are stressed over written skills, and receptive skills
are given the priority over productive skills.
5. Contents must be adapted to the students level of development: According to
PIAGET and INHELDER (1984) children are at the concrete operational stage
(between 7 and 11 years old) The characteristics of this stage are as follows:

Children start to develop rational thinking starting from concrete objects, classes or
relations.

Children make progress in perceptive and motor aspects.

Children begin to develop socialisation skills.
According to these characteristics we must remember the following guidelines:

If children mental operations are based on their concrete experiences, we, as foreign
language teachers, should select topics and activities connected to the pupils real
experiences.

If children develop their perceptive and motor abilities, we should contribute to this
development by means of contents and activities which involve body movement or
the use of their perceptive and creative abilities.

We should also foster the development of socialisation skills. In this sense we should
promote the development of positive attitudes such as co-operation and respect
towards the contribution of others.
6. The contents should be presented in context. The new grammatical structures and
vocabulary must be learnt in connection with the communicative functions that
children need to express themselves in situations related to their needs and
experiences.
When planning the sequence of objectives and contents we must take the following steps:
1. We must decide the degree in which the abilities expressed in the general
objectives are going to be developed in each cycle, and choose the contents we need
to reach them. For instance, starting from the objective number one of the foreign
language area:
‘To understand simple and oral written texts about known objects, situations and events,
using general and specific information taken from those texts for specific purposes.’
We can sequence the abilities expressed in this objective, for the second cycle of Primary
education, as follows:
‘At the end of the second cycle pupils will be able to understand the general meaning of
simple oral texts emitted by the teacher with a simple structure and vocabulary, in
familiar contexts, and with the help of gestures, mime and any necessary repetition’
2. As we must teach the three types of contents in an interrelated way, we must choose
any of them to organise the sequence. The best way to promote the development of
communicative abilities is organising them around procedures. If we decide to do it in
this way, we should consider the factors which determine the sequence and the
degree of complexity of the communicative functions, since these will be the factors
to be taken into account to set the sequence of contents. These factors, which are
defined in the Resolution of the 5th of March, are:
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The type of oral or written texts
The channel
The type of comprehension
The interlocutor
The level of correction
Now, we are going to explain these criteria in detail.:
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The type of oral or written texts
Here we must consider the length, vocabulary, the linguistic structures, and organisation of
the oral or written texts that we are going to use in class. Obviously, we must go from short
simple texts to more complex ones.
-
The channel
As far as channel is concerned we should consider if the oral or written messages that our
students should understand or produce are going to be transmitted in a face to face
communicative situation, or by means of a cassette recording or a written text. In this sense, we
should start from face to face communication, because mime, gestures and expressions help pupils
to understand.
-
The type of comprehension
The type of comprehension refers to the information we ask them to extract from an oral or
written message. This comprehension may be global ( if they should get the general sense of the
message) or specific (if they have to extract specific details). The most logical progression goes
from global to specific comprehension.
-
The interlocutor
Regarding the interlocutor we should take into account if he/she is known or unknown for the
student, if he/she belongs to the school context or not. At the beginning we should work with close
interlocutors such as the teacher and the classmates.
- The level of correction
The level of correction deals with the demands about correction in the oral and written
production of students. Obviously such demands increase along the cycles. At the
beginning, they should produce language correctly enough to be understood.
3 .- Then, if we have decided to organise contents around procedures, we should not
forget that the three types of contents (concepts, procedures and attitudes) must be
considered in an interrelated way. Then we should relate them as in the following
example:
“Recognising the characteristic sounds, rhythm and intonation patterns of the foreign
language, realising the importance of being able to communicate in a foreign language
To see this relation more clear, the Resolution of the 5th of March suggests that we can
display them in a chart, as follows
EXAMPLE OF SEQUENCE OF CONTENTS FOR THE SECOND CYCLE
Procedures
Concepts
Attitudes
Recognising
-Characteristic sounds
-Rhythm and intonation
patterns.
Identifying
-Words and sentences in texts - Showing an optimistic
related to the context of the
attitude towards their own
classroom and daily life
ability to understand the
foreign language
-
Global comprehension
- Realising the importance of
oral communication in a
foreign language.
of messages with
the following
communicative
intentions:
*Greeting (hello!,good
morning...)
*Identifying oneself (I - Showing a receptive attitude
towards people who speak a
am. ,My name is...)
*Giving and asking for different language.
basic personal
information (using
expressions such as:
What´s your name,
How old are you?...)
- These
communicative
functions should be
related to topics of
general use and
wide notions,
which are
interesting for
children, such as:
*The school,
family, friends,
animals, body,
home, numbers,
colours...
Specific comprehension
Of information
- Showing a receptive attitude
previously required towards people who speak a
in contextualised
foreign language.
situations*
*For instance, we ask children to fill a chart about the favourite sports of different characters from the textbook. First, we
tell them what they are going to listen to a conversation where the characters talk about things they like and dislike and
what information they should pay attention to. Then, we play the cassette or read the text aloud and they should complete
the chart, with the specific information we have asked them for (sports, in this case)
TENNIS
BASKETBALL
FOOTBALL
STEVIE
yes
yes
no
LUCY
yes
no
yes
ANNIE
no
yes
no
As we can see this task ask them to extract specific information (about favourite sports),
previously required by the teacher, in a contextualised situation,( as they already recognise the
characters voices, and know what they are talking about).
If we do this with all the general objectives we will have a list of the contents of each
cycle including concepts procedures and attitudes.
These orientations are quite useful to establish the sequence of objectives, contents and
assessment criteria, in the second and third cycle, but we must not forget that English has
been introduced in the 1st cycle in our Autonomous Community.
Then the Order of 30th of August published by the Department of Education, Science
and Technology of our Autonomous Government says in its article number 3 that:
“The centres must change and adapt their Curricular Projects to this change as the
objectives, contents and evaluation criteria of the foreign language area, should be
sequenced for three cycles, instead of two”
Obviously, as we haven’t got our own curriculum yet, we must take as reference the
objectives, contents and evaluation criteria of the R.D. 1344/91 of the 6th of September,
which establishes the national curriculum for primary Education.
However, the Department of Education, Science and Technology of our Autonomous
Government, has published a document, made by foreign language teachers co-ordinated
by the Technical Inspection Service called “English in the first cycle of Primary
Education”. This document is not a law, it has been published just to help teachers.
Regarding the abilities, skills and contents which should be worked in this cycle this
document says that:
In the FIRST CYCLE:
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The most important skill in the first cycle should be listening.
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We must not force children to speak until they are ready to do it. Then at the
beginning they can show what they have understood by means of non-verbal actions
such as movements, gestures, drawing, cutting, pointing, colouring...
-
Total Physical Response ( TPR) activities and songs are a good way to help them
link words and actions, and express themselves in English in a funny and meaningful
way.
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Written language should be avoided, especially in the first year of the cycle, because
they are learning to read and write in their native language and the complex English
spelling could be confusing for them.
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Contents should be taught by means of didactic units, organised around meaningful
topics such as:, Family, Friends, Christmas, Things of the classroom, The house,
Food, Toys, Clothes...
-
Children must be already familiar with such topics in their native language. Then, the
co-ordination with the class-teacher is very important to establish the sequence of the
different didactic units along the cycle.
2.2.- DIDACTIC UNITS:
Now we are going to talk about the second moment of the teaching planning: the design
and development of didactic units.
Didactic units are defined in the curricular material known as Red Boxes published by
the Spanish Ministry of Education (1991) as:
A unit of educational action formed by a set of activities that are developed in an
specific time, to reach a set of didactic objectives.
A didactic unit is the answer to all the curricular questions:
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What to teach? In the form of Objectives and contents
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When? Through the sequence of objectives and contents.
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How? By means of the learning activities, space and time organisation,
didactic resources and materials.
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And what, when and how to evaluate, by means of the assessment criteria,
and the different activities to carry out the initial, formative and final
evaluation
A didactic unit should have the following elements:
1.- Description
2.- Didactic objectives
3.- Learning contents
4.- Activities
5.- Materials
6.- Space and time arrangement.
7.- Evaluation criteria and techniques used to carry out this process.
We are going to analyse this elements in detail:
1.- The Description is a kind of introduction which includes :





The topic of the didactic unit
A brief reference about pupils´ previous knowledge
Cycle/ level and term
Number of sessions
Connection with the previous didactic units
2.-The didactic objectives are more specific than those designed for the cycle as they
express the abilities that we want pupils acquire as a result of the work developed in a
given didactic unit.
The didactic objectives must meet all the students’ needs. This means that the teacher
should include some basic objectives as well as more difficult ones designed to
reinforce the acquisition process. In this way everyone could progress according to his /
her possibilities.
3.- Learning contents: The didactic unit must include the three types of contents (
concepts, procedures and attitudes) taking into account that:
 There must be a balance between them
 They should be interrelated and connected to the students experience and needs.
 The teacher should include contents related to cross-curricular topics ( health,
peace, environment protection...)
4.- Activities or learning experiences:
Once we have explained the main criteria to design the learning activities, we will focus on
evaluation activities :
The general methodological principles for Primary education, included in the R.D. 1344/ 1991 of
the 14th of June, evaluation is considered as a global and continuous process, which must be used
as a tool to improve the teaching/learning process.
According to the document “Keys for the teaching of a foreign language(MEC,1991) the main
aim of evaluation in the foreign language area is “to check if students are able to use the language
in communicative situations”
Then, evaluation activities should not be different from learning ones. Direct observation of the
students’ work is the main evaluation technique, however in order to make this observation in a
systematic way the document “Keys for the teaching of a foreign language” suggests that we
should use an evaluation form containing the aspects to be observed on each kind of activity.
For example for the evaluation of oral activities this document suggest teachers to consider the
following questions:
Has he/she completed the activity?
Does he/she understand the activity?
Can he/she make her/himself understood by means of words and gestures?
Is his/her pronunciation good enough to be understood?
Does he/she need help from the teacher or other students?
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
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Ley Orgánica 1/1990, de 3 de octubre de Ordenación General del Sistema Educativo.
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RD 1344/1991 de 6 de septiembre, por el que se establece el currículo de la Educación
Primaria.
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RD 82/1996, de 26 de enero que establece el Reglamento Orgánico de las Escuelas de
Educación infantil y colegios de Educación primaria.
Resolución de 5 de marzo de 1992, de la Secretaria de Estado para la Educación, que
regula la elaboración de proyectos curriculares y establece orientaciones para la
distribución de objetivos, contenidos y criterios de evaluación.
-
-
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Orden del 30 de agosto de 2000, por la que se establece y regula la impartición de la
lengua extranjera en el primer ciclo de Educación primaria, en el ámbito de la
Comunidad Autónoma de Extremadura.
MEC: Materiales para la Reforma, area de lengua extranjera. Madrid. Servicio de
publicaciones del MEC. 1991.
-
MEC. Proyecto Curricular. Materiales para la reforma. Madrid. Servicio de
publicaciones del MEC, 1991.
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Brewster, Ellis and Girard. The primary English Teacher’s Guide. London. Penguin.
1992.