PNIEB a new challenge in Mexican Pubic Education

Introduction Many areas in daily life require a constant change and adaptation depending on the circumstances and needs. Living in a globalized world requires every day competent people able to face new challenges, that is why, one of those aspects needing to be actualized constantly is no doubt, education. Recently, an educational reform has taken place in Mexico. Previously, English language was taught during the last three years of basic education (secondary or junior high) in public schools . Being a teacher at that level I see how students are shocked when they face the new language; besides the results they get are poor. As well, the university ones do not have the level required to access information in their area neither to get better work opportunities. Fortunately, nowadays there is a consensus that a quality education needs to incorporate the study of English into the national curricula, beginning in the third level of preschool or kindergarten up to the third grade of secondary school.

Justification Learning a foreign language specifically a universal one such as English will let the students: understand, know and value a different culture, to satisfy his/her communicative needs, to have access to information, to contribute to his/her professional development, to understand their culture and language better among other reasons. According to the CEFR (2001, p. 4) a person does not keep languages and cultures in strictly separated mental 1

compartments, but rather, builds up a communicative competence in which all knowledge and experience of a language contributes and in which languages interrelate and interact. I have always been aware of the need of starting teaching English at early ages because children are motivated, they are not easy to frustrate when making mistakes, their pronunciation is better, and since many activities done are playing, learning is meaningful and long lasting. Besides, initiating English teaching in preschool will have in a long term better results and will reduce the disparity in quality with private schools. My aim in this project is to conduct an exploratory research about the SEP (Secretara de Educacin Pblica) English Program. I start by giving a general view of what the PNIEB (Programa Nacional de Ingls en Educacin Bsica for its initials in Spanish) or NEPBE (National English Program in Basic Education for its initials in English) is about enlightening some aspects I consider relevant. I turn next to propose a guideline for a personal interview to know the perception and results teachers have had implementing the PNIEB. I think the information obtained from the experiences may be useful for teachers and planners to make the necessary changes and adaptations in activities, contents, time, etc. so the program works better.

Literature review PNIEB came into effect during the school year 2009-2010 in third of preschool, first and sixth grade in selected schools. The time of sessions the students had varied from three to six months; it was not the whole school year. The program continues in a piloting stage before its implementation in all schools. It is organized by cycles. Cycle 1 comprises 3 rd of preschool, 1st, 2nd of elementary school; cycle 2, 3 rd and 4th grades; cycle 3, 5th and 6th

grades. Cycle 4 the three grades of secondary school. The time planned for each cycle is of 300 hours, 200, 200 and 360 hours respectively giving a total of 1060 hours. The objective of the first cycle is to familiarize the students with the language. Along the next cycles it is expected the students obtain the required competencies to use English effectively. The time for each cycle was based on the CEFR and the SEP established the national standards students need to fulfill in order to get the Cenni (Certificado Nacional de Ingls). At the end of cycle 4, it is expected that students get a B1 level. According to the CEFR(2001, p. 24), in this level a person can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar maters, can deal with situations when travelling abroad, can produce simple texts, give opinions, etc. The SEP (2009, p. 25) program defines language as a communicative, cognitive and reflective activity to express, exchange and defend ideas, establish relations, and reflect on our discursive and intellectual creation. Therefore, PNIEBs purpose (2009, p. 20) of foreign language teaching is that students get the necessary knowledge to engage in social practices (patterns or ways of interaction ) with spoken and written language to interact with native and non native English speakers by means of specific activities with the language. That is, learning a language implies to acquire the rules of use socially imposed and the ways of using them according to the context or social environments. So far, I have presented the general characteristics of the PNIEB. Of course the theoretical stand needs to be approached widely so I would like just to review some aspects of the program I consider relevant because they are part of the current trends in language teaching and because they are the most important ones for me. I think that if education is not the panacea to finish with poverty, violence, and loss of moral values it must as Delors (1997, p. 19) proposes a continuous process of forming 3

whole human beings- their knowledge and aptitudes, as well as the critical faculty and ability to act. It should enable people to develop awareness of themselves and their environment and encourage them to play their social role at work and in the community. This is one of the international objectives established for basic education; the other tendency I definitely agree with is to follow international guidelines in language teaching such as the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). In this aspect the PNIEB plans to work by cycles and under these parameters will certainly let the students advance. I remember my school days. Every year we learnt the verb to be translated isolated and meaningless sentences and when we had to use the language with a communicative purpose we did not have the competencies to do so. As Richards and Rodgers (1986, p. 141) say Competency Based Education focuses on the outcomes of learning; it addresses on what the learners are expected to do rather on what they are expected to learn about. The social practices and the activities in the PNIEB search a learning to do with the language (communicative actions to interact), learning to know about the language (grammatical rules) and learning to be with the language (how to act in different environments of social life). The last point I would like to consider is that language learning cannot be separated from grammar. I think there are many learning styles and some students welcome grammar presentations, others need to prove their hypothesis about language, some others may find it boring but it is necessary to find a balance. Davies and Fraenkel (2003, p 53) suggest teaching grammar through use. By exposing learners to lessons run in English with lots of listening and reading input and activities and tasks requiring the communicative use of English.

Methodology 4

There is a natural instinct in humans to explore. We need to have answers about why things happen in one way or another to find a solution or just for simple curiosity. As Stebbins (2001, p. 6) mentions, researchers explore when they have little or no scientific knowledge about the group, process, activity or situation they want to examine but nevertheless have a reason it contains elements worth discovering. In order to carry out the project about the perception and results teachers have had implementing the PNIEB, I considered an exploratory research. The objective of this research is to gather preliminary information that will help to define problems and suggest hypotheses It provides insights into a comprehension of an issue or situation. Stebbins (2001, p. 3 ) agrees with the definition Vogt gives that social science exploration is a broad-ranging, purposive, systematic undertaking to maximize the discovery of generalizations leading to description and understanding of an area of social or psychological life. To do so, I am proposing an interview (see appendix A P.9 ) with open and closed questions. According to Richards (2003, pp. 47-59) as TESOL teachers, we are dealing with linguistically sophisticated people so the interview besides gathering data must go to a deeper level. He approaches the interview as a professional conversation where as interviewers we are concerned only with encouraging the speaker, not putting our own point across. So the skills we need are still collaborative focused on drawing from the speaker the richest and fullest account possible. Regarding the participants I will interview ten male or female teachers chosen at random. This amount is just to check the approach of the questions or topics. Teachers worked in the PNIEB piloting stage last scholar year. They were in cycles one or three, that means they were working in third of preschool, first second, fifth or sixth grade of

elementary school. Their ages vary from 24 up to 45 years old. I suppose they have the profile in language teaching.

Procedures The interview was done to five teachers because of the time. The application of it was useful to review the approach of the questions and the relevance of the topics. In the future some other aspects may be considered because now the program will be available for all school grades. Regarding the information obtained, I am pleased with the acceptance and motivation of students and teachers about the program. This is something very important for success and I hope it goes on. There is support of parents and authorities which is necessary too. Having started with classes almost at the end was not a good idea for them. Besides in some schools the textbooks were not on time or did not even arrive and it was not so easy to work. They mentioned that in some schools there is lots of material, especially in kindergartens but some others do not even have a cd player. It was interesting to know that they had never worked with children and in their career there was not a subject about teaching to young learners, so they suggested to include it in the curricula. The teachers I interviewed had the profile in language teaching and they received trainee workshops about the PNIEB. They also have been asked to continue studying.

Conclusion I think PNIEB is a necessary and ambitious project. Certainly a challenge for Mexican education that though will take time to be generalized in all schools, it will definitely contribute to improve quality education. I am very pleased to see lots of young 6

and compromised teachers working on it because a great part of its success will depend on them. My research project was just to gather preliminary information to mark a path for future investigation so I would like it turned out in a deeper level about topics such as how are the competencies of the students be evaluated, maybe about materials design since there are none, maybe about remedial work since large groups will may cause that not all the students achieve their goals at the same time. In fact this is a new field to explore.139

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References Common European Framework of Reference. ( 2001). Accessed August 2010 from http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/source/Framework_EN.pdf. Davies, P. & Fraenkel, A. (2003). The Language in English Teaching. England: Richmond. Delors, J. (1997). Learning: the treasure within. Report to the UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century: UNESCO Publishing. 7

Ingls. Fundamentos Curriculares 2009. Secretara de Educacin Pblica. Plan de Estudios 2009. Secretara de Educacin Pblica. Richards, J. C. & Rodgers T. S. (1986). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. USA: Cambridge University Press. Richards, Keith. (2003). Qualitative inquiryin TESOL. England: Palgrave Macmillan. Stebbins, R. A. (2001). Explotratory Research in the Social Sciences. Thousand Oaks, Ca: Sage Publications.

Appendix A

El objetivo de esta entrevista es saber qu es el programa PNIEB, cul es su percepcin y los resultados que tuvo en la implementacin de ste. Los comentarios y/o sugerencias podran ayudar a su mejoramiento.

Gua de entrevista. Podra platicarme acerca del PNIEB. Qu ciclo y en qu grado trabaj? Cunto tiempo estuvo a cargo del grupo? Podra describirme la escuela donde trabaj Sus alumnos cmo tomaron las clases de ingls Comnteme por favor sobre sus alumnos, edades, intereses, actitud. Lo que le haya parecido relevante. Platqueme de los logros de sus alumnos. Qu manejan del idioma? Cunteme un poco de la metodologa, contenido, objetivos, enfoque. En fin lo que me quiera comentar Y los padres de familia y directivos, qu apoyo le brindaron? Us libro de texto? Tuvo cursos de entrenamiento antes de trabajar con el PNIEB? Algn curso de capacitacin despus de haber trabajado Si usted estuviera a cargo del PNIEB qu modificara o mejorara. Alguna recomendacin a los profesores que inician