UNIT 1 - MOTIVATION

1.- WHAT’S MOTIVATION?

Motivation: is an abstract concept we use to refer to the reason why people act as they do.
Refers to why someone decides to carry out an action and the degree of implication he/she has with its
development and how long they will sustain this interest.
Motivation has two dimensions:
♥ direction: we choose a particular action to carry out
♥ intensity: the effort and the perseverance carrying out this action
attitude is much more important than aptitude towards a foreign language.

2.- THE COGNITIVE APPROACH

How humans’ conscious attitudes can influence their actions.
3.- MASLOW AND THE 5 HUMAN NEEDS
♥ Self-actualization: morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, acceptance of facts.
♥ Esteem: self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others, respect by others
♥ Love/Belonging: friendship, family, sexual intimacy
♥ Safety: security of body, of employment, of resources, of morality, of the family, of health, of property.
♥ Physiological: breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, excretion

4.- GARDNER’S INTEGRATIVE MOTIVE

♥ Integrativeness: integrative orientation, interest in foreign languages
♥ Attitudes towards the foreign language: evaluation of the L2 teacher, evaluation of the L2 course

Together, it give: motivation, desire to learn the L2 language, motivational intensity (effort), attitudes towards
the learning of the L2.

5.-WILLIAMS AND BURDEN’S FRAMEWORK OF L2 MOTIVATIONAL

Motivation depends on Internal and External factors.

♥ Internal factors
♥ Intrinsic interest of activity (arousal of curiosity, optimal degree of challenge).
♥ perceived value of activity (personal relevant, anticipated value to outcomes, intrinsic value attributed to
the activity)
♥ sense of agency ( locus of casualty, locus of control, ability to set appropriate goals)
♥ mastery (feeling of competence, awareness of developing skills and mastery in a chosen area, self-efficacy)
♥ self-content ( realistic awareness of personal strengths and weakness in skills required, personal definitions
and judgments of success and failure)
♥ attitudes (to language learning in general, to the target language, to the target language community and
culture)
♥ confidence, anxiety, fear
♥ developmental age and gender

♥ External factors
♥ significant others (parents, teacher, peers)
♥ the nature of interaction with significant others (mediated learning experiences, the nature and amount of
feedback or appropriated praise, punishment, sanctions)
♥ the learning environment (comfort,, resources, time of day/week/year, size of class and school)
the broader context (wider family network, the local education system, conflicting interest, cultural norms,
societal expectation and attitudes)
6.- MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES

♥ BASIC MOTIVATIONAL CONDITIONS

♥ Appropriate teacher behavior: enthusiasm, expectations about students, good relationship with
students and parents, acceptance (not judging) availability.
♥ A pleasant and supportive atmosphere in the classroom: tolerance, anxiety-free-zone, humor and
decoration according to student’s taste.
♥ A cohesive learner group with appropriate group norms: promote interaction, start with
icebreakers and get-to-know exercises, include small group activities, change the arrangement
according to the activity
(group norms: formulate and discuss basic norms, explain them, the students may include some
other, consequences for not respecting them)

♥ FIRST FASE: GENERATING INITIAL MOTIVATION (Dörnyei). CHOICE MOTIVATION

We have to present the course as something fun and interesting, create an attractive image of the learning
process and Promote positive language-related values:

♥ Intrinsic values: associated with the students’s interest of the learning process and the activities.
♥ Connect L2 activities with those students are likely to enjoy: tics, videos…
♥ Learning a language is not only filling grammar exercises.
♥ provide examples of original and enjoyable tasks
♥ The first encounter with subject must be a positive experience.

♥ Integrative values: refers to the student’s interest in the interaction with members of the social
target language.
♥ to promote an open-mind disposition toward the Foreign Language, culture and speakers.
♥ include a cultural and social component
♥ Use influential public people as a good way to promote a positive interest
♥ Promote contact with L2 speakers and products: books music, films…
♥ Enjoy with their own language researches like Webquests

♥ Instrumental values: refers to practical use in the outside world

♥ provide real-life situations to put into practice their knowledge
♥ Explain the role English plays nowadays: job, cultural and touristic opportunities

♥ SECOND FASE: MAINTAINING AND PROTECTING MOTIVATION . EXECUTIVE MOTIVATION

♥ Be careful not to damage the initial motivation
♥ Provide appropriate strategies to carry out the task
♥ Vary the activities, tasks and materials. Change the format.
♥ present tasks in a motivating way: challenging, student’s interest, specific and realistic goals
♥ Make learning enjoyable.
♥ Protect the learners self-esteem and increase their self-confidence
♥ promoting cooperation and self-motivating strategies
♥ creating learners autonomy

♥ THIRD FASE: Encouraging positive retrospective. MOTIVATIONAL RETROSPECTION

A retrospective evaluation of how things went and the way students process their past experiences
determine the activities they will be motivated in the future.

If a learner has finished with successful a task, will feel self-confident and motivated to the next task.

How to encourage positive retrospective:

♥ Promoting motivational attribution
♥ Providing motivational feedback
♥ increasing learning satisfaction
♥ offering rewards and grades in a motivational manner
 UNIT 2 – INTERACTION

1.- WHAT’S INTERACTION

Interaction means mutual participation. Learning a language by taking an active role: using it, understanding others
and expressing ourselves. Is a collaborative activity between: sender, receiver and context.

2.- IMPORTANT FACTORS TO DESIGNING INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES

♥ make the students interact from the beginning with activities to break the ice
♥ material specially for listening to give examples of how to use the language
♥ students must work together joining tasks
♥ watch films and videos of native people to observe how initiate a conversation, intonation, body language
♥ Pronunciation preparing dialogues, writing, poetry
♥ cross-cultural interaction to make them feel more confident in future interaction with real speakers
♥ Reading activities with interaction between reader ant the text
♥ Learning grammar, using the rules to express themselves
♥ using tests as an interactive and non-passive activity
♥ interaction with the community which speaks the language: newspapers, tv, radio, webpages.

3.- ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE INTERACTION

♥ Group decoding a text * interpret a story
♥ conversation * Gatekeeping (mediador de debate)
♥ peer observation of a discourse * Key sentences
♥ role play * The helping encounter (ask 5min.questions someone, to know him)

4.- TEACHING GRAMMAR USING INTERACTIVE ORAL ACTIVITIES

♥ The exercises should be communicative: groups, interview, dialogues
♥ The exercises should be meaningful: student’s imagination
♥ The exercises should be integrated: combined with other traditional grammar exercises
♥ The exercises should be expressive: imitation the intonation and pronunciation
♥ Limited answers to choose, centered answers: did or do, has or have
Interactive grammar exercises: dialogues, fill in the blank dialogues, translation, dialogues with visual cues.
5.- MATERIALS TO PRESENT INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES
Language use and learning is regarded as a multisensory experience.
Apart from a model, language itself and the way we present it is an stimulus for production and analysis.

CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning)

Advantages Disadvantages
♥ Interaction and Interactivity ♥ Materials can provoke anxiety
♥ Immediate feedback ♥ Tiredness, monotony
♥ Error analysis ♥ Isolation
♥ Motivation ♥ Superficial information
♥ Self-Correction ♥ Technical problems
Examples of programs: Drill and practice the programs,simulations, games, Contextualized activities, Tutorials

DRAMA
Advantages Disadvantages
♥ Students put into practice the input received ♥ difficult to find suitable texts for L1
♥ Help to Break the ice in a progressive way ♥ frustrating if the text is not correctly chosen
♥ Express their own according to their personality
Expected outcomes:
♥ Start developing their communicative skills in a personal way
♥ Overcome the fear to express themselves orally and increasing confidence
♥ Learn to adapt the speech depending on the situation, changing the tone and register
♥ Think critically about the author’s intention and analyze the character’s
♥ Put themselves in other’s shoes people with other circumstances
 UNIT 3 – ORAL SKILLS: Listening and Speaking

1.- DIFFERENT FORMATS FOR LISTENNING LESSONS

PAST FORMAT
♥ Pre-listening: to prepare students for the listening exercises and for the post listening stage
(Pre-teach vocabulary to maximum understanding)
♥ Listening:
♥ Extensive listening followed by general questions on context
♥ intensive listening followed by detailed comprehension questions
♥ Post-listening: to revise everything learned during the listening exercises
♥ Teach any new vocabulary
♥ Analyze language (Why present perfect here?)
♥ paused play, students listen and repeat
♥ checking answers and correcting mistakes

CURRENT FORMAT
♥ Pre-listening
1.- Establish a context: is important to prepare students for what they are about to hear. Basic
information, not extensive.
2.- Create motivation for listening: a reason to listening.
♥ Write the title, ask then about what’s going to happen, where…
♥ Play a short extract, and ask learners to be imaginative with what’s happening
3.- pre-teach only critical vocabulary. In a real life conversation they will have to guess
♥ Extensive listening
Teachers ask general questions on context. Questions have to be asked after finished because of the
memory of the students)
♥ Intensive listening
Questions have to be asked before listening because the students need to know where to direct their
attention. They could feel a bit insecure.
♥ Post-listening (optional)
We can design activities to infer meaning, as in reading exercises.
Pre-teach only essential vocabulary. In a real life conversation they will have to guess.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ANCIENT PRE LISTENING AND ACTUAL PRE LISTENING
♥ Ancient Pre-listening: pre-teach vocabulary to ensure maximum understanding. Everything that has been
learned during the listening exercises will be revised.
♥ Actual Pre-listening: establish context, create motivation for listening and pre-teach only essential
vocabulary.

2.- COMPREHENSION APPROACH: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LISTENING AND READING

Reading Listening
Material ♥ standard spelling system ♥ different country different sound
Level of comprehension ♥ Blank spaces between words to identify word ♥ No spaces in speech
♥ Permanent. can check what have previously read ♥ Transitory. rely up on their memory
Patterns of language ♥ Can plan carefully what they want to write ♥ we find repetitions,
mispronunciations, hesitations

3.- COMPREHENSION APPROACH:

Comprehension Approach: refers to a method of learning through the process of understanding the meaning of
words and expressions.
C.A. has some requirements which limit the type of listening in the classroom:
♥ long enough to contain almost eight comprehension items widely spaced
♥ Interesting recording. Rich information
♥ Only one or two speakers of different sexes.
♥ Passive role of the listener. Decode information to use it.
Genres of listening events
♥ Face to face: conversation. receive and produce information
♥ distant but two-way: phone conversation
♥ External to listener: listener passive, only decode the information
♥ listening to pleasure: drama, songs, films
♥ informative: interviews, discussions
♥ instructional: lessons
♥ Persuasive: TV or radio
3.- EXAMPLES OF LISTENING EXERCICES
♥ Modeling: dialogue exercises for non-participatory listening. examples of conversation structure
♥ Paused practice: The teacher plays a listening dialogue and pauses after each turn of the first speaker and
ask students to anticipate the respond.
♥ Quick-fire questions: The recording consists of a series of questions as in an interview. The student must
listen and answer quickly.
♥ Rehearsal: used to predict questions and responses and help to improve performance in different types of
exchanges. Try to predict the possible question and justify the answer.
♥ Jigsaw listening: Students listen to different part of a conversation and have to organize them.
♥ Recording we can record learner’s performances and play short sections to discuss and analyze moments of
incorrect pronunciation, intonation, not understanding…
♥ Communicative tasks: information gaps, improvement, causes and consequences of misunderstanding
4.- DECODING MESSAGES
Phonemes are grouped into syllables syllables into words words into sentences; and many sentences together
have a specific meaning

Decoding and meaning building

♥ two major operations which make up the listening skills, that we need to
distinguish:
♥ Decoding: translating the speech signal into speech sounds,
words, clauses and meaning
♥ Meaning building: the listener expands on the meaning on what
the speakers says (word and sentence level) and add incoming
pieces of information to the conversation.
♥ Three types of information used to decoding and meaning building
♥ Input: the sounds that the listener receives words, syllables,
clauses, etc… that those sounds represent.
♥ Linguistic knowledge: knowledge of words, grammar, syntax,
intonation, etc…
♥ Context: general knowledge and personal experience of
knowledge of what has been said so far in the conversation.
♥ Direction of processing
♥ Bottom-up: building phonemes into words, words into phrases
♥ Top down: The use of context (external knowledge) and co-text
(text-so-far) to help identify words that are not clear.

♥ The interactive compensation hypothesis (Stanovich)

♥ When confidence in input is high, the role of top down information is small.
♥ When confidence in input is low, the role of top down information plays a much more important role,
making a big contribution.
♥ Both input and context, play a very important role in listening regardless the listener’s level, although,
the not very experienced listener, with a lower level, will rely more on context to compensate for the
gaps of information he/she might have.
 UNIT 4 – WRITING SKILLS: Reading and Writing

1.- READING SKILLS

♥ Skimming: Running the eyes quickly over the text to get the gist of it, the general idea, by focusing only on
the most relevant: Headlines, pictures, titles, rather than examining every word.
♥ Scanning: going quickly over the text to get a particular piece of information. A fairly fast reading, rejecting
irrelevant data: reading a menu, look for a telephone number on a telephone book.
♥ Extensive reading: reading, usually for pleasure longer texts that involves global understanding. Rapid
reading for main ideas.
♥ Intensive reading: (study reading). Reading shorter texts for details, for specific information. It involves a
complete understanding of the text. High comprehension, low speed of reading: poetry.
♥ Predictive reading: anticipate before and while reading the form and the content of the text
♥ Critical reading: The ability to evaluate writer’s purpose and attitude (tone, register, irony or sarcasm, etc.).
All writers have a purpose when they write ant they choose, emphasize or omit facts according to this
purpose.
2.- USING READING COMPREHENSION EXERCISES
♥ The different types of reading are not mutually exclusive
♥ Reading comprehension is an active skill with a communicative function. Should be meaningful exercises.
♥ Should not be separated of from other skills:
♥ Reading and writing: summarize, note-making
♥ Reading and listening: comparing reading and listening event (articles) recording info to write a text.
♥ Reading and speaking: discussion, debates, etc…
3.- READING APPROACH: DIFFERENT WAYS OF USING TEXTS IN THE FL CLASSROOM
♥ Models:
♥ The linear model (bottom-up process): 1950s and 1960s:
When the reader receives a message decodes first sounds, words, phrases and sentences. Word
recognition ends up being automatic.
♥ The psycholinguistic model (top-down processes): 1960s and in the 1970:
The decoding of information is guided by the reader’s previous knowledge and expectations. Background
knowledge helps the reader understand the text.
♥ The interactive approach:
Reading is the interaction of both bottom- and top-down processes. It is believed that all the different
aspects of reading influence and contribute to the reading process. The most successful readers can
decode the language on the page rapidly and accurately whereas they relate this new information to the
relevant knowledge they previously had. The two processes are carried out simultaneously.
♥ Critical literacy:
Reading process is considered a social and psychological activity.
Reading is considered as social, because it takes into account the relationship between readers and
writers. The context is always essential: meaning flows from the understanding of the political, social
and cultural contexts in which the texts take place.
♥ Ways of using texts in the EFL classroom
♥ TALO (Text as a linguistic object)
To present language, as an example of grammar structures, vocabulary, different registers, tones,
spelling, orthography. (It can be also used as a model of writing)
Activities: find all the examples of present continuous, find all the words connected to food….
♥ TAVI (Text as a vehicle for information)
To learn English culture, to develop reading comprehension and in many cases to enjoy
Activities: predicting the content of the text, marking things in the text you knew/didn’t knew before,
summarizing the most important parts of a text, or re-order it.
♥ TASP (text as an stimulus for production)
We can use texts as an example of point of departure from which students can get ideas and motivation
to write or speak.
Activities: a discussion and debates raised by a text, written responses to text, doing role plays based on
a given text, writing similar texts.
 4.- AUTHENTIC MATERIALS: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
Advantages Disadvantages
♥ Students have a more direct relationship with the ♥ It can be very difficult and time consuming to find
language, so they gradually gain confidence suitable authentic texts, especially for elementary levels.
♥ The relationship between learners and ♥ It can be really frustrating if the text has not been
language/culture is not so artificial correctly chosen
♥ Students become familiar with the kind of readings ♥ The text we can find might have an inappropriate
they will find outside the classroom extension and might be difficult to reduce
♥ They learn new items, lexicon structures that may not ♥ Authentic texts might have expressions that are typical
appear in their books of one country or region
♥ We should choose texts according to our student’s ♥ In any authentic text will see many different grammatical
tastes and thus, make the lesson much more successful structures which are mixed = we cannot use them to
and enjoyable. teach a particular structure
5.- READING TECHNICQUES
♥ Sensitizing: develop the skills to deal with unfamiliar words
♥ Inference: Use syntactic, cultural and logical clues to understand the meaning of those words we have
not seen before. This skill need to be developed from the beginning.
♥ Understand relations within the sentence: is necessary to help students to distinguish the “core” of the
sentence (subject and verb). If they are able to identify S+P, they will be able to recognize the important
elements of the sentence.
♥ Linking sentences and ideas ( anaphaora, cataphora, synonymy, hyponymi): Students need to identify
devices to create textual cohesion. It’s important that they understand that written texts are not made
from independence sentences, it’s a web of related ideas. Useful for skimming.
♥ Improving reading speed: Slow readers get discouraged soon, so we have to help them giving texts to read and
ask them to time themselves. Reading comprehension exercises have to follow the reading.
♥ From skimming to scanning: Effective readers: adapt speed and skills to the reading objective, and not all the
text should to be read in the same way.:
♥ Predicting: guess what’s coming next using logical, cultural and environmental clues. (In skimming or
anticipation)
♥ Previewing: Use the information given ( paragraphs,contents, chapter headings) to see where the info
might be.
♥ Anticipation: What readers already know about the topic, and what they anticipate as important as the
objective meaning of the text.
♥ Skimming and Scanning: in Skimming we go quickly through the text to get the gist. in scanning we look
for specific information getting the info that’s relevant to us.
6.- TEXTUAL INTERVENTION
We can write about a text which has been previously read and analyzed; used as an stimulus for production.
We can change the center of interest of the text in three ways:
♥ Textually: change ending or imagine character’s reaction. to change the ending of a story we have to read or
imagine how a character have reacted if something else had happened.
♥ Contextually: Change social-historical context. For example, write about how we would live and dress in this
particular time.
♥ Cross-textually: use the same structure but different plot and characters.
Specific techniques of textual intervention activities
♥ Alternative summaries: summarizing texts in a variety of ways, focusing on different aspects.
♥ Change titles
♥ Alternative ending: doing this, we can change the destiny of the characters, and offer possibilities to other
characters or options not explored
♥ Preludes, interludes and postludes: extending the text before, during and after. We can change the point of
departure, the process of development or points of arrival. f. ex. what was the live of the characters before,
what someone was doing while the action or what happened once the story has finished.
♥ Dramatic intervention: change some scripted conversation
♥ Narrative intervention: change some turning point to explore alternative premises or consequences.
♥ Change narrative into drama and drama into narrative.
♥ Parody: exaggerate the text or introduce incongruous references.
♥ Word to image, word to movement, word to… transform verbal texts into another mode of communication
 UNIT 5 – CULTURAL COMPONENT

1.- DIFFERENT NOTIONS OF CULTURE

♥ Traditional notion of culture: Includes geography, history and achievements in the sciences, the social
sciences and the arts.
♥ Anthropological notion of culture: Consists of discrete behaviors like traditions, habits, customs, as in
marriage or leisure. Culture is something which is shared and can be observed.
♥ Symbolic notion of culture: is seen as a system of meanings and symbols interrelated and negotiated
between the members of the community.

2.- SOME CONCEPTS

♥ Multiculturalism: social environment of the individual in which several cultures coexist. It’s part of family
relationships, learning, history, contacts between generations, reading…
♥ Pluriculturalism: psychological or individual concept. Involves the ability to identify with different values,
beliefs and customs of two or more cultures, acquiring the linguistic competences necessary to take an
active part in it.
♥ Interculturalism: combination of knowledge, skills, attitude and behaviors which allow a speaker to
recognize, understand, interpret and accept other ways of living ant thinking and living.
♥ Sociocultural: rules of politeness, norms and relations between generations, sexes, classes and social groups,
linguistic codification of fundamental rituals in the functioning of a community.
Sociocultural competence:
♥ Interpersonal relations between family, race and community
♥ Ritual behavior: religion, birth, death, marriage…
♥ Social conventions: punctuality, presents, dress…
♥ Body language
♥ Values, beliefs and attitudes
♥ Everyday living: food, drink, customs, leisure, public holidays
♥ Living conditions
♥ Stereotypes: preconceived ideas transmitted through social interaction and imposed by the social
environment.
♥ Prejudices: when someone pre-judges a particular group or individual based on their own stereotypical
assumptions. Have an emotional component.

3.- DMIS (Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity)

♥ Ethnocentric stages: idea of using one’s culture as measuring stick to judge, assess or confront cultural
conflicts.
♥ Denial: People describe others using stereotypes, they know very little about the other culture. Tend
to oversimplify and underestimate others.
♥ Defense: people are more able to deal with cultural difference but they are still not able to think
positively about it.
♥ Minimization: describes situations in which people tend to oversimplify cultural differences because
consider that everyone needs the same things and aspire to the same objectives, so we all are the
same.
♥ Ethno relative stages: people adopt more open and tolerant attitude towards any differences.
♥ Acceptance: This is the first step for intercultural integration. People accept differences, are tolerant
and know what there are different ways depending on the different cultures. But still are not ready
to face cultural conflict.
♥ Adaptation: people can adapt to different situations and adopt other’s perspectives in order to
avoid cultural conflicts.
♥ Integration: people see themselves as interculturalists and multiculturalists. They can reconcile
cultural conflicts
 UNIT 6 – ASSESSMENT

1.-QUALITIES OF A GOOD TEST

To assess we must take into account: which contents, when, how, where and the correction criteria

There are two types of assessment: informal (observation) and formal (tests)

Qualities of a good test:

♥ Validity: should reflect the skill or skills we want to assess

♥ Transparency: clear scoring system and easy to understand. Familiar format.
♥ Feasibility: factible for both teachers and students.
♥ Reliability: a reliable test produces the same result on different occasions
♥ Discrimination: differentiate between bad, average and good. Depends on the subjectivity of the teachers

2.- ORAL ASSESSMENT

When we asses oral productions we must take into account:

♥ the range: lexical, semantic and grammatical complexity)
♥ the accuracy: correct use of grammar, lexical
♥ the fluency: maintenance of communication, pauses
♥ the interaction: turn-taking, checking understanding
♥ the coherence: connectors, organization
♥
Oral skills can be assessed both
♥ formally (oral presentations, discussions, roleplaying, reading aloud, description of pictures)
♥ Informally: every day activities.

3.- WRITTEN ASSESSMENT

There are two essential aspects we need to have into account:

♥ The length (start writing sentences and after write texts) and
♥ degree of control (do students have clear instructions)

Examples:
♥ Essay questions: “write about a member of your family”
♥ Guiding writing: receive some input which works as a stimulus for production: pictures, films…
♥ Dictation
♥ Summaries
♥ Note-taking /reading and writing: read the text and take notes or write a composition

4.-ASSESSMENT OF RECEPTIVE SKILLS

We can assess by using

♥ Listening comprehension texts, to asses comprehension meaning
♥ Hearing tests or pure listening tests, to assess the different sounds, intonations, stress…