STUDENTS

CONTEXTUALIZATION

A lot of young people from Jaen are moving to this area, so the population is quite
young.

As the area is becoming a modern part of the city, which has a middle class
population, people are more and more aware of the importance of modern
languages, particularly English.

As for our students, they belong to different social class families, being the most of
them middle working class families together with a little deal of lower class
families, which is going to influence our students’ motivation and competence.
Within this last group we have social-economic problems, like low incomes and
separated parents.

The average class size is 25 students of eight and nine years old, from which 15 are
girls and 10 are boys. Some of these students present certain learning difficulties
(slow learners). The consequences of this situation are principally truancy,
attention deficiency, lack of routines, habits and norms or values, lack of
motivation, emotional disorders, etc. Apart from these slow learners, we also have
those students who are above average (most able students). There are two
Moroccan students who are well accepted and integrated within the group as they
are in our school since Childhood Education. Moreover, there is also a student who
requires specific needs of educational reinforcement, a hearing impaired student.
She will receive ordinary educational measures according to her needs and
characteristics. This will be discussed in more detail in section 7 (Attention to
Diversity). Apart from this case, we will support all students who require our help,
always taking into account our pupils’ aims and abilities.

As regards the students’ parents cooperation and relationship with the school, we
have to say that some of them are very concerned with their children’s education,
while others are not as involved as they should be, which has a negative effect on
the students.
It’s a varied group, with different types of pupils and different learning styles,

this has been taken into account

when planning this syllabus, with different types of activities: oral, written,

games, songs, DVDs, computers.

we aim to teach the language using the

communicative approach, which implies not only that there is an emphasis on
meaning over form, but also that motivation and autonomy are fostered. This
goes to show that knowing a language goes beyond the mere learning of
grammatical structures. Year 6 learners will then have to perform communicative
tasks with clear communicative goals set in a very concrete context. All of this
will lead to the acquisition of communicative competence as social interaction
facilitates language acquisition. Therefore, experiencing the functionality of the
English language will boost our learners’ motivation.

Games are very important to create a pleasant classroom

atmosphere and to relax while continuing learning.

Year 1
Related to our students, they are 6-7 years old. Thus, according to Piaget's

stages of logical thinking, our learners will be in the last stage of the

preoperational level where children learn by interacting with the environment. A

difference is observed with its previous stage, kindergarten, since they are able

to use words to express their feelings and refer to objects that are not present.

Moreover, their interests at these ages are on cartoons, games and have fun.

We must take into account those things and also their emotional profile to carry

out activities that make them be interested.

Referring to the practical case, my students are at first grade, according to my own
experience as a teacher, the main sources of their learning are physical and mental
activity, consequently, they learn through play, action and experimentation with
their environment wherein they discover and build knowledge for themselves by
means of a teacher-guided process as noted by psychologist J.Bruner in his
discovery learning theory as well as D 108/2014 highlights the use of language in
authentic and motivating communicative situations. So, we should bear it in mind
in order to implement the most suitable methodological guidelines.

To develop this task, I have chosen 1st level of Primary. They are 6-7 years old and their
interests at these ages are on songs, paintings and manipulative materials. We must
take into account those things and also their emotional profile to deliver activities that
make them be interested.

students from first level who have not acquired skills in reading the language yet.

YEAR 3º Y 4º

3RD GRADE

At this age, children are getting more and more conscious of their environment and their
capacities of thinking and learning are also increasing. Children also represent their
environment through basic concept categories and rules. They organize
everything around in categories, through psychological similarities they have perceived.

They acquire a new conscience of others’ points of view and interests, and can compare
his/her personal thoughts, with those of other people outside or inside his/her family. As
a result of his/her findings of satisfaction and similarity in his/her relation with others,
the child acquires more confidence in his/her personal criteria.

They move from the security of their family and neighbourhood to some new and
different surroundings. The social interchanges let children understand the importance
of culture, family and themselves in the social order. This makes them understand also
their own singularity. As they discover what the human being is, they also find that
there are rights, obligations and social responsibilities, which are the central topics of
these years.

the bonds of friendship between them become consolidated and they have a
deep interest in group games and competitions, therefore, one of the best
techniques to encourage them to learn vocabulary would be through grouped
games such as hangman, anagrams, games board or even role- plays and
simulations where language is used with communication aim and, in addition,
they can also work the fellowship, respect towards other opinions and
cooperation.

Year 5

children have a great interest in the world around them beyond their daily lives.
They begin to be interested in research, in activities with intellectual challenges
and other ways of learning more updated such as technology. Some of the tools
we can use to motivate them with vocabulary learning could be ‘Kahoot’ which is
a kind of digital quiz test where they can review and play with the vocabulary in
competition groups or ‘Plickers’ which is a tool where teachers can assess their
level of acquisition through using QR codes.

Por otro lado, según la clasificación de los estadios del

niño, de Piaget, los alumnos se encuentran en pleno
subperiodo de las operaciones concretas, en su fase
complementaria (10-11 años). Las características de esta
etapa son las siguientes:
Comienzan a razonar más como adultos, es decir,
pueden pensar y dar explicaciones más lógicas a las
situaciones que se les presentan, en comparación con las
explicaciones que daban en las etapas anteriores. En esta
etapa el pensamiento es lógico, pero no es abstracto,
además, el niño es capaz de mostrar el pensamiento lógico
ante los objetos físicos y de retener mentalmente dos o
más variables cuando estudia los objetos. La capacidad
mental se demuestra por un rápido incremento en su
habilidad para conservar ciertas propiedades de los
objetos. Por otro lado, consolidan la lateralidad, y se
produce un desarrollo en el lenguaje. Se mejora la
sintaxis y la fonética. También, durante esta edad se
producen grandes cambios a nivel social, afectivo y moral.
Pierden la ingenuidad y discuten sobre lo que consideran
correcto, o no. Para ellos, es fundamental la búsqueda de
la aceptación de los demás y surgen los grupos de amigos.
Year 6

As for the psychological foundations, our programme is aimed at Year 6 learners,

this is, ten/eleven-year-old learners, who, according to Piaget, are in the so-called
concrete operational stage. This implies that they have not built up their ability to
think in an abstract way yet. However, it is important to note that their thinking
starts to resemble more mature and logical. All of this will be considered when
planning our teaching strategies and performance.
Moreover, they still have difficulties in storing things in their long term memory.
This is a highly significant aspect in the planning of our performance as we will
have to recycle the contents previously taught in different contexts.

English contributes to a large extent to develop and foster this cognitive side as
learning a foreign language improves the communicative competence as it
develops our learners’ ability to express themselves in the oral and written form.
From a social and affective perspective, students start to change the way in which
they encode experience by their personal, social and learning experience. These
aspects impinge on their intellectual and autonomous development of their
learning process.
It is also now when learners begin to develop interest and curiosity for topics
related to the different areas of knowledge. This increasing intellectual
development favours the arising of new interest and hobbies, and in turn this will
trigger the establishment of new personal relationships.

according to Piaget, are in the so-called

concrete operational stage. This implies that they have not built up their ability to
think in an abstract way yet. However, they begin to give more logical
explanations to the situations that may arise showing greater intellectual
curiosity. They feel pleasure in reading and there is a development in the
language that increases the linguistic capacity, consolidating the mother
tongue and offering the possibility of teaching them a second language. As
for the socio-affective level, they better understand the reactions of others
and discover common interests, respecting the rules and making joint
decisions. They are interested in cooperation and participation. Therefore,
they love collective and organized games. Thus, this programme year will
promote pupils interest in oral communication by means of group activities
(simulations, games, role-plays) where language is used with communicative
aim.

we must not forget that children are born in a digital age where they use
technologies in their daily lives and therefore they have access to information
easily. If we work with technology in class, apart from approaching their likes, we
can also educate them how to use the Internet safely.