Resumen Tema 14

MÉTODOS Y TÉCNICAS ENFOCADOS A LA ADQUISICIÓN DE COMPETENCIAS COMUNICATIVAS.

FUNDAMENTOS METODOLÓGICOS ESPECÍFICOS DE LA ENSEÑANZA DE INGLÉS.
METHODS AND TECHNIQUES THAT FOCUS ON THE ACQUISITION OF COMMUNICATIVE
COMPETENCES. SPECIFIC METHODOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH.

INTRODUCTION

The term “communicative competence” was coined by Dell Hymes in 1972, a sociolinguist who
was convinced that the notion of “linguistic” competence by Chomsky was too limited.
Communicative language competence can be considered as comprising several components:
linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic. Each of these components is postulated as comprising, in
particular, knowledge and skills and know-how.
Linguistic competences include lexical, phonological, syntactical knowledge and skills and other
dimensions of language as system, independently of the sociolinguistic value of its variations and
the pragmatic functions of its realisations.
Sociolinguistic competences refer to the sociocultural conditions of language use. Through its
sensitivity to social conventions, strictly affects all language communication between
representatives of different cultures, even though participants may often be unaware of its
influence.
Pragmatic competences are concerned with the functional use of linguistic resources
(production of language functions, speech acts), drawing on scenarios or scripts of interactional
exchanges. It also concerns the mastery of discourse, cohesion and coherence, the identification
of text types and forms, irony, and parody.
All categories used here are intended to characterise areas and types of competences internalised
by a social agent, i.e. internal representations, mechanisms and capacities, the cognitive
existence of which can be considered to account for observable behaviour and performance. At
the same time, any learning process will help to develop or transform these same internal
representations, mechanisms and capacities.
As it is stated by LOE ratified by LOMCE, (article 17) one of the objectives in Primary Education is
to acquire at least, the communicative competence in a foreign language.
Current methodologies take into account real contexts when teaching a foreign language which
contributes to the development of the communicative competence. This is one of the general
methodological principles in primary education stated in the ORDER 16TH JUNE(Article 9)
In the ORDER 16TH JUNE, in its methodological principles (Article 9) Cooperative Learning is
given importance. It is one of the current approaches used in Education nowadays and helps
develop communicative competence.
Current methodologies provide new strategies for the comprehension and expression in a foreign
language developing LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE (ORDER 16TH June).

1. METHODS AND TECHNIQUES THAT FOCUS ON THE ACQUISITION OF

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE:

The concepts of approach or principles, method and technique, which are mutually and
hierarchically related, represent, in fact, three levels of analysis and teacher’s decision-making for
teaching and learning English in the classroom.
From one point of view, an approach or strategy is the most abstract of all three concepts and
refers to the linguistic, psycho- and sociolinguistic principles underlying methods and techniques.
Actually, every teacher has some kind of theoretical principles which functions as a frame for their
ideas of methods and techniques, as Ellis states: “All teachers have a theory of language learning.
Language teaching cannot take place without a theory of language learning, but this may exist
only as a set of covert beliefs” (1985:2)
A technique is, on the other hand, the narrowest of all three; it is just one single procedure for
use in the classroom. Methods are placed between approaches and techniques, as the mediator
between theory (the approach) and classroom practice. Some methods can share a number of

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techniques and, ugh some techniques have developed autonomously, the most important ones
start form the main methods (Hubbard et al. 1983:31)
From another point of view, there are authors like Richards and Rogers who have a more
comprehensive conception for method, as they consider it to be composed of approach or
principles, design and procedure, as an interrelated system. Design refer here to objectives,
linguistic content and its selection, the types of learning tasks and teaching activities, the roles of
teachers and learners, and the role of instructional materials. Finally, procedure includes
techniques and classroom management.

1.1. Dimensions of acts of language:

Any act of language learning or teaching is concerned with each of the following dimensions:
 Competences: the sum of knowledge, skills and attitudes that allow a person to perform
actions
 General competences: those not specific to language which are called on for actions of
all kinds.
 Communicative language competences: those which qualify a person to act using
linguistic means
 Context: the group of events or situational factors in which acts of communication are
performed.
 Language activities: the exercise in processing one or more texts in order to carry out a
task.
 Language processes: the chain of events involved in the production and reception of
speech and writing
 Text: any sequence of discourse.
 Domain: broad sectors of social life in which social agents operate.
 Strategy: any line of action chosen by an individual to carry out a task.
 Task: any purposeful action considered by an individual as necessary in order to achieve
a result in the context of a problem to be solved, an obligation to fulfil or an objective to
be achieved.

1.2. Components of communicative language competence:

It is important to highlight that the final aim is not teaching a language but to make students able
to communicate using that language.
Therefore, we have to adopt a communicative approach oriented towards the acquisition of
communicative competence, which involves 6 sub-competences.

1.3. Some methods and techniques focussed on the acquisition of communicative

competences.
The most important modern methods for learning a language are:

1.3.1. The communicative approach (CLT)

(CLT)
The Communicative Approach draws upon some changes and innovations coming mainly from
applied linguistics, in which language is considered a social phenomenon by this approach, as it is
a means of communication and interaction between members of a community. The goal, then, of
FLT is to develop students’ communicative competence (Hymes 1972), a term coined in opposition
to the Chomskian concept of competence that refers to the abstract grammatical knowledge
speakers have for producing correct sentences in a language.
Communicative competence, on the other hand, extends Chomky’s concept to the ability to
understand and produce messages appropriate to a socio/psycho/cultural situation, so that
language users can relate their linguistic knowledge to everyday conventions. Later on this
knowledge of language use was extended to the capacity to participate in discourse and to the
knowledge of pragmatic conventions governing that participation. It was also added the
competence to be creative with these rules and conventions, and to negotiate them during

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communication. This is then a set of language knowledge competences which interact during real
communication.
The learning theory underlying the Communicative Approach is not very highly developed, though
some main elements emerge from its practice. Learning improves when these forceful ideas are
applied to classroom activities.
Some of its characteristics are:
- Relationship of activities to real communication.
- Activities use language for meaningful tasks.
- Language used is meaningful to the learner.
- Language is used communicatively, rather than practising language skills.
- Accuracy is secondary, fluency is more important.
- Students have to use the language productively and receptively.
- Authentic material (real speed of dialogues, texts from newspapers, etc..) is used,
so technology (radio, video, TV) can be of some aid for the teacher.

1.3.2. COOPERATIVE LEARNING:

 Cooperative language learning (CLL): It is the application of the instructional

method cooperative learning in the language classroom. This approach to language teaching
was a reaction against the teacher-centered methods of its time in favor of learner-centered
methods. Based upon the work of Vygotsky, it sees language as a primary tool for social
interactions. The intention was that it would integrate translation so that the students would
disassociate language learning with risk taking. It's a method that is based on English for
communication and is extremely learner-focused. Although each course is unique and student-
dictated, there are certain criteria that should be applied to all CLL classrooms, namely a focus
on fluency in the early stages, an undercurrent of accuracy throughout the course and learner
empowerment as the main focus.

It has five stages in the classroom:

 Stage 1- Reflection
 Stage 2 - Recorded conversation
 Stage 3 - Discussion
 Stage 4 – Transcription
 Stage 5 - Language analysis

Length of stages of stages will depend entirely on the class, how quickly they respond to CLL,
how long you or they decide to spend on the language analysis stage and how long their
recorded conversation is. Be careful however that the conversation isn't too long as this will in
turn make the transcription very long.

 Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is an approach where students

learn a subject and a second language at the same time. A science course, for example, can be
taught to students in English and they will not only learn about science, but they will also gain
relevant vocabulary and language skills. It’s important to note that CLIL is not a means of
simplifying content or reteaching something students already know in a new language. CLIL
courses should truly integrate the language and content in order to be successful – and success is
determined when both the subject matter and language is learned. CLIL can work for students of
any age, all the way from primary level to university and beyond. So long as the course content
and language aims are designed with the students’ needs in mind, there is no limit as to who can
benefit from this teaching approach. However, it is most commonly found in primary and
secondary school contexts.

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Many teachers see CLIL as a more natural way to learn a language; when a subject is taught in
that language there is a concrete reason to learn both at the same time. And as students have a
real context to learn the language in, they are often more motivated to do so, as they can only
get the most of the content if they understand the language around it.
Moreover, being content focused, CLIL classes add an extra dimension to the class and engage
students, which is especially advantageous in situations where students are unenthusiastic about
learning a language.
CLIL also promotes a deeper level of assimilation – as students are repeatedly exposed to similar
language and language functions and they need to produce and recall information in their second
language.
Furthermore, it has the advantage that multiple subjects can be taught in English, so that
students’ exposure to the language is increased, meaning their language acquisition is faster.
CLIL also encourages students to develop 21st Century skills, including the ability to think
critically, be creative, to communicate and collaborate.

1.3.3. Some techniques to acquire communicative competence are:

 Language games: From the emotional point of view, games have an important role in
the foreign language class. Language is used immediately. A systematic use of games is
very efficient and linguistic skills are carried out. Children react and act in the second
language in a natural way. The main advantage is that games allow a real use of the
language.
 Dramatization: This technique imitates a real and spontaneous usage of the second
language by means of activities where children assume the own or another character in
imaginative situations.
 Role-playing: The students assume the role of certain character taken from real life. The
students have facts (role-cards) although they can choose the most appropriate
expressions. Role-playing is more controlled than dramatization and the teacher helps
more with regards to linguistic production.
 Problem solving: The students discuss giving information to solve a problem. This
requires more skill in the second language.

2. SPECIFIC METHODOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH:

BASIC PRINCIPLES
Three premises stand out as guidelines in the organizing or sequencing the methodology of
the Primary Education foreign language syllabuses:
1) Constructivism. The starting point in concepts, procedures and attitudes must be
what the student already knows. One of the basic tenets of constructivism is that
already-known ideas must “subsume” or “anchor” the new information. Of all the
pedagogical devices that can be used –included in coursebooks and materials under
the general heading pre-teaching-, one of the best-known is the advance organizer,
used to make new linguistic rules fully comprehensible, whose function is to present
some relevant concepts and ideas in advance of the learning material itself.
2) Relevance of procedures. It seems logical, within the educational philosophy
underlying the new Primary curriculum, to consider procedures as the core contents,
or at least to give them the same importance as concepts and attitudes. Therefore, in
the grading and sequencing of language tasks, two factors must be considered: 1) the
complexity and number of procedures and strategies needed to solve them and 2) the
complexity of the linguistic input of the tasks themselves. It goes without saying that
the most appropriate pedagogical approach to content grading is always to go from
the most simple to the most complex.

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3) Receptive and productive skills. As we mentioned above, receptive skills or
exposure to linguistic input, are much more relevant at these stages than production
or output, especially in Primary Education. Production does not necessarily have to be
oral, especially at true beginner level. Needless to say, English should be the
classroom language from the very beginning, aided by contextual support, and
specific methods like TPR. Sources of input are the teacher, the materials, and the
students themselves, whose verbal interaction is crucial for the transmission and
comprehension f new contents. One of the basic attitudinal contents of this cycle is the
acceptance of English as the language of communication in the classroom. If this
attitude is fostered from the very beginning of Primary education, the teachers of
English in the following cycles will benefit immensely.

2.1. Teaching English in the primary school: general guidelines.

The ‘C-wheel’
Carol Read presented in 1998 her ‘C’ wheel which
contains her ideas about the concept of whole learning:

It is made up of 8 segments which show factors to

contribute to whole learning for children:

Context. It needs to:

 Be natural.
 Be relevant.
 Allow for the discovery and construction of meaning.
 Allow for learning to be active.
 Encourage to use the language as a vehicle to do things
 Support children understanding and learning
Connections.
 To other areas of learning.
 To the children’s real life.
 To what has gone before and what will follow.
 Between what the children already know and what is to be learnt.
 Between what is learnt and how it is learnt.
Coherence.
 The learning needs to be chunked appropriately, but it should never seem fragmented
or unconnected to the children.
 The learning should appear with internal coherence to children.

Challenge.
We should establish the level of challenge right for the children.

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 ZPD: the distance between actual developmental level and the level of potential
development. It’s the layer of knowledge or skill that is just beyond the actual level a
child has achieved.
 ‘Flow’: the positive energy and emotions to overcome difficulties and to make an effort
to achieve our objectives.
 ‘Yes, it’s a challenge, but I’m into it and I’m determine to do it and I’ll feel great when I
do it’
 Sense of achievement. When there is flow and the level of challenge is correct, we
experiment a sense of success, of achievement.
 Challenge to think

Curiosity.
 Children’s curiosity generates a desire to learn and makes the act of learning
interesting, relevant and enjoyable.
Care.
The children’s environment needs to be full of care.
 Treating children as individuals.
 The carer (teacher) should guide the children until they are independent.
 Supporting children’s learning.
 Taking into account children’s expectations.

Community.
 Activities are shared experiences.
 Children are encouraged to co-operate.
 There is a natural interaction.
 Children are given opportunities to express themselves.

Creativity.
 Allows ‘hidden talents’ to emerge.
 Increases personal investment.
 Develops fluency and flexibility in thinking.
 Allows for humour and fun.
Around the wheel there are factors which provide a framework in which whole learning may be
realised:
 Educational and cultural context.
 Methodology.
 Materials.
 The curriculum.
 The teacher.
We need to find a framework that is child-centred, experiential and based on activities from which
language derives and where:
 Children are encouraged to be active and constructive.
 Language is used as a tool to do meaningful things.
 Learning is coherent.

Teaching young children.

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There are some clear advantages in beginning the process of teaching foreign languages in the
first stages of schooling. Aims associated with the idea of teaching English to young children:
 To exploit the flexibility of primary-age children.
 To exploit the positive attitude and motivation of these children.
 To raise high levels of achievement.
 To exploit the opportunities presented by infant and primary schooling context.
 To provide children with an enrichment experience.
 To equip children with the knowledge, skills and understanding which will enable them
to function effectively in international contexts.

Principles to improve teaching-learning.

Principles that can improve the teaching-learning with children:
 English should be fully integrated with the curriculum.
 The curriculum should be learner-centred.
 Children learn best in a global way.
 Children should be treated as individuals.
 Providing a variety of activities is vital to maintain children’s motivation.
 Children should learn how to learn.
 Children need lots of practice.
 Autonomy should be introduced little by little.

2.2. Teaching English in the primary school: specific guidelines

As we have seen, the term communicative competence, since its introduction by Hymes, has
shown increasing popularity among teachers and others interested in language. However, there
are reasons to admit its lack of application in second-language learning, resulting in large part
from failure to consider and develop an adequate framework, and then address the relevance of
this framework for teaching purposes.
The essential aspects of this theoretical framework concern the nature of communication,
the distinction between communicative competence and actual communication, and the main
components of communicative competence.
Relating to the notions of knowledge and skill, learners must receive as much
comprehensible input in the foreign language as possible; such maximum comprehensible
exposure to the second language is crucial for acquisition of basic knowledge ad skills required for
effective second language use –skill- oriented activities and knowledge-oriented ones while
exposure to the first language in the second language classroom. There seems to be a
comprehension stage which must precede a production stage in second language learning. At the
initial stages of second language learning, knowledge-and skill- oriented activities for listening and
reading should perhaps be emphasized before those devoted to speaking and writing.
It seems reasonable to assume that quality of communication at initial stages will depend
heavily on learners’ communicative competence in their dominant language, and teachers’ and
learners’ motivation and attitudes.
The five guiding principles for a communicative approach, according to Canale and Swain
(1980) are as follows:
1) Coverage of competence areas, including four areas of knowledge and skill:
grammatical competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence and
strategic competence. The goal must be to facilitate the integration of the four.
2) Communicative needs. A communicative approach must be based on and respond to
the learners’ communication needs and interests.
3) Meaningful and realistic interaction. Learners must have the opportunity to take
part in meaningful communicative interaction with competent speakers of the language.
It has been argued that paper-and-pencil tests, tape-recorded listening and speaking

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tests, and the like do not allow the learner to try out his/her communication skills in a
realistic communication situation.
4) The learner’s native language skills. Particularly at the early stages, optimal use
must be made of those communication skills that the learner has developed through use
of the native language.
5) A Curriculum-wide approach. The learners should also be taught about language and
about the second language culture, drawing as much as possible from other subject
areas. Such an approach would facilitate a natural integration of knowledge of the
second language, knowledge of the second language culture and knowledge of language
in general.
In summary, both subjective and objective feedback can play important roles in research on
a theory of communicative competence and its application to foreign language learning.
Here are just a few examples of exercises/tasks on communicative competence to show its
factual application to teaching/learning points.
(1) Grammatical (linguistic) competence
o Complete sentences – sentence formation.
o Word stress in connected speech – Phonology.
o Liaison (e.g. “Fred-and-Antonio are coming”) – Phonology.
o Punctuation conventions – Orthography.
o Meaning of idioms in context – Vocabulary.
o Place words in the right order.. Recognise difference between tense and aspect.
(2) Discourse competence
o Lexical cohesion devices in context (e.g. use of synonyms) – Cohesion.
o Grammatical cohesion devices in context (e.g. ellipsis, logical connectors,
parallel structures) – Cohesion.
o Identify the clause which has the thesis statement.
o Oral discourse patterns (e.g. the normal progression of meanings in a causal
conversation) – Coherence.
o Link a paragraph with the next one.
o Written discourse patterns (e.g. the normal progression of meanings in a formal
letter) – Coherence.
o To be able to work out an introduction / development / conclusion of a piece of
oral or written language.
(3) Sociolinguistic competence
o Provide examples of common communicative errors done by foreigners.
o Teach / learn the difference between style and register.
o Teacher provides a context and students give examples of appropriate language.
o Students correct the incorrect use of forms depending on different contexts.
o Know how to use function correctly (invite, suggest, apologise…)
o Organize communicative interactions within the members of a class.
o Know how to use idioms appropriately.
(4) Strategic competence
o Teach strategies in class…Keep motivation high.
o Know ho to interrupt a conversation.

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o Know how to take advantage of visual memory.
o Know how to group vocabulary into lexical fields so that it is easier to
remember.
o Recognise when an interlocutor wishes to finish a conversation. Use of pause
fillers (e.g. well, and, I see…) to maintain conversation while searching for ideas
or grammatical forms.

ROLES OF THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHER

The different teaching movements and approaches emphasize a variety of roles and options often
incompatible with one another. At present, adopting an eclectic and reconciliatory posture, we can
consider that:
 Language is not simply a system of forms, structures and words, but basically a
system of communication. The teacher is expected to develop the students’
communicative competence.
 Learners pass through similar stages of cognitive, emotional, physical and social
development but at different rates. So teachers must provide individual attention
according to personal differences in development.
 The learning of the foreign language is thought to be a personal and creative
construction, global and cyclical (hence a spiral approach) not lineal, meaningful and
connected with the students’ interests, needs and schemata. It must be motivating.
This concept of language and language learning demands the adoption of certain roles. It requires
the teacher to be:

 Informant:
 Providing suitable input (dialogues, narratives, descriptions)
 Explaining the use of the linguistic elements contained in the texts presented
(structures, idioms, functions, connectors…)
 Teaching the cultural elements, etc.
 Facilitator, mediator and monitor of meaningful learning experiences.
 Diagnoser of interests and needs.
 Motivator and generator of positive attitudes.
 Provider of second-language acquisition situations
 Using English –as much as possible- as the language of communication in
the classroom: instructions, routines…
 Teaching prefabricated language by means of songs, rhymes, slogans and
realia.
 Acting out short and easy dialogues, simulations and role-plays.

The language teaching activities are supposed to foster this type of learning and to be oriented
towards the development of oral and written communication, the establishment of attitudes ad
values for autonomous learning and the development of the students’ communicative
competence. Finally, teachers are supposed to evaluate the teaching and learning process as well
as the learning outcomes. That evaluation must be consistent with the aims of the school
curriculum. It must involve not only the students but also the school system. Teachers are
expected to obtain continuous information so that regulation of the processes and the system can
be carried out in an efficient way. Teachers and school must also promote self-assessment so that
pupils learn to assess their own learning.

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ERROR TREATMENT
Errors and mistakes seem to be an inevitable part of the learning process. The “status” of errors
has changed over the past years. At the time of widespread use of an audio-lingual methodology,
errors were considered to be prejudicial to the quality of foreign language learning, but they have
now come to be considered, among other things, indicators of the development of the learner’s
“interlanguage”, a guide to the progress being made and a useful instrument for the planning of
language teaching.
A careful analysis of the errors made by our students will provide us with useful information. It
will help us to understand the complex process of language learning, to recognize the strategies
our students use, and to plan revision activities designed to reinforce those aspects which have
not been properly assimilated.
When we are correcting we should bear in mind that:

- Students do not immediately assimilate what has been corrected: further repetition
and self-correction is necessary. Indeed, self-correction is often felt mere effective
than “external” correction by the teacher, etc…
- What is “correction” of oral production for one students may, if given aloud in class,
be “revision” for another. The student who is speaking, and whose production is
being/has been corrected may be nervous and may not fully learn form the
correction, but the other members of the class may need the correction given, and
understand and retain it, since they are naturally in a more relaxed frame of mind.
- If the long-term aim of English teaching is communication, then for some teachers
the only serious errors are those which actually impede the intelligibility of the
message and these teachers will be more tolerant with other errors which do not
affect comprehensibility, since they are considered to be a natural part of the
learning process, reflecting the stage(s) the student is passing through.

CONCLUSION

We have considered the different approaches and methods of FLT as models or paradigms of
theory, research and school practice. Some of them may be considered obsolete from a scientific
point of view, some others seem to be more current, but in fact all of them have introduced
innovations at a given moment, superimposing them on the former ones in an eclectic way.
However, all methods have at least two things in common:
1) their belief that they are the best
2) a set of prescriptions that teachers have to follow necessarily.
I do not suggest then –from the assumption in this chapter- that teaching should be approached
following a particular method as a set of prescriptions, but on the contrary as a dynamic and
reflective process, which means a permanent interaction among the curriculum, teachers,
students, activities, methodology, and instructional materials. What actually happens in the
classroom, alongside careful planning and evaluation, becomes the most important thing teachers
have to reflect on and then relate to theory or other experiences.
I propose, therefore, an active role for teachers, who design their own content and tasks,
classroom interaction, materials, methodology, evaluation, etc., instead of a passive role which
means dependence on other people’s designs and methods. The expression classroom researcher
clearly represents the new role considered above.
Then, instead of an uncritical and eclectic way of teaching, teachers should introduce a constant
analysis and interpretation of what is happening in the classroom. Certainly it is the best way of
curriculum, teacher and learner development.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

CELCE-MURCIA, MARIANNE (1991). Language Teaching Approaches: An Overview. Teaching

English as a Second or Foreign Language. Heinle

RICHARDS, JACK; RODGERS THEODORE (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching.
Cambridge University Press

HARMER, J. (2001). The practice of English Language Teaching. Longman.

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk

http://www.britishcouncil.es

http://www.learnenglish.org.uk 

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