The Main Stages To Teach Foreign Languages

The main stages to teach foreign languages

In today`s intercultural society, no one can deny the importance of learning a second language. In our institution we believe that major action should be taken to guarantee that all of the students are given the chance to practice this ability to communicate with people from all over the world. This task will require working with a holistic approach and will imply the participation of a very committed group of people willing to help each other. There are many methods for teaching foreign languages, but in my opinion the cycle shown in the present article is one of the best approaches to learn any language. So are you ready?

1. Initial communicative practice: If one of the principles of the particular didactics for languages is analyzed: the determining role of the need for communication in a specific and concrete context, it is understood then that it is impossible to begin from something that is not communication itself. The process begins with the need for communication with a situation intentionally provided by the teacher. At this stage, students use the communicative resources they have to interact and talk about a topic that will gradually guide them to need new linguistic elements to be able to express their ideas. This stimulation is an additional motivational element that allows the students to learn better because the new elements become necessary and significant. The students face a polemic-communicative situation that they cannot handle by themselves with the knowledge and abilities they have acquired. This practice is said to be communicative because the teachers permits the use of the linguistic resources by the students in a free way he does not impose anything he does not demand a given structure or the other, but he will be guiding the students through the need of the new knowledge. In this moment the students immerse themselves in a communicative activity from which some contradictions occur in one or more components of the communicative competence, as well as in one or more components of communication (sender, receiver, message or way of expression).

2. Determination, analysis and solution of the problem: This moment of the process propitiates the immersion of the students in a situation in which they should solve a problem. The new linguistic-communicative content can provoke contradictions with what has been previously learned. The contradiction is assimilated by the students, who make it in a polemic situation in their minds. The polemic situation is the unknown, what they cannot solve only from their experience. When the students understand what they should look for, then they have defined the problem. Then, the teacher isolates the example on the board and adds more similar examples. Usually, the teacher tries to write the examples from the communicative situation itself and not from the textbook. The students discover the rule, from the different polemic methods, which are mainly partial search (guided discovery) and heuristic conversation.

3. Controlled practice addressed to form: This stage is essential for the formation of linguistic habits after the comprehension of the phenomenon. Stage number two by itself does not lead to communication neither does the combination of stage two and three. The most important thing at this stage is the form, the reproduction with accuracy of the different grammatical patterns, pronunciation, etc. It is also important that students know the meaning of what they are saying in each moment, and that the teacher is able to listen to one among the rest of the students, in order to make the necessary corrections. At this stage the teacher has to correct to guarantee a minimum of success in the subsequent stages in which the content is as important as its way of expression.

4. Guided practice: Unlike controlled practice, in this fourth stage the teacher propitiates the use of the linguistic-communicative content without making explicit her intention for the students to use it. Here, the students face exercises which claim for the use of the linguistic element, but not in a mechanical way, but almost in a communicative way. This type of practice has been also called pseudo-communicative exercises and it constitutes the so called, the missing link that existed when it was expected that the student could communicate fluently only from the repetition of mechanical exercises. This practice is developed in a very gradual way, that is, the previous exercise is more guided than the next one, up to approaching its free use automatically.

A very useful exercise within the guided practice is the role-play exercise. This exercise is eminently a communicative one, and therefore it is based on a gap of information, opinion or judgment. Nevertheless, the role-play exercise needs previous preparation, mainly for those students whose development of communicative skills is not so high and have poor knowledge of the vocabulary.

5. Integrated free practice: This practice differs from the initial one in that in this moment the students are ready to integrate themselves in a communicative activity of spontaneous and free expression, drawn from the communicative resources they have assimilated, in which they put into practice the skills developed in the new unit together with the previously ones acquired.

6. Creative production. This stage is mainly developed out of the classroom. The students apply their knowledge, skills and strategies acquired to solve communication problems independently in the social context they have prepared for. Learning does not end in the classroom. If the five previous stages are developed satisfactorily, in such a way that the students learn to learn, to solve problems without the permanent teachers guide, then they will be able to face the sixth stage.