ACADEMIA TOWER BRIDGE

UNIT 20: THE FOREIGN LANGUAGES AREA IN THE

CURRICULUM. CRITERIA TO BE INCLUDED IN THE
SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL PROJECT AND THE SCHOOL
CURRICULAR PROJECT.
INDEX
1. Introduction.

2. The foreign languages area in the curriculum.

2.1. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

2.2. Demands for the presence of foreign languages area in the curriculum.

2.3. The concepts of “curriculum” and “syllabus”.

3. Criteria to be included in the school educational project and the school curricular project.

3.1. Presentation of the structure of the School Education Project and the Curricular Concretion.

3.2. Key Competences.

3.3. Stage objectives.

3.4. Contents.

3.5. Methodology.

3.6. Assessment.

4. Conclusion.

5. Bibliography.

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1. INTRODUCTION.
The Spanish education system is currently regulated by the Organic Law 8/2013, of December 9th,
to improve the quality of education (LOMCE). The main objectives of the reform are to reduce the
rate of early abandonment in education, improving educational outcomes in accordance with
international standards, both on the comparative rate of students and excellent students, and
graduates of Secondary Education, improve employability, entrepreneurship and stimulate students.
The LOMCE in its Preamble says that the domain of a second or even a third foreign language has
become a priority in education as a result of the globalization process that we are living, while shown
as one of the main shortcomings of our system education. The European Union sets the promotion
of multilingualism as a goal essential for building a European project. The law strongly supports the
multilingualism, redoubling efforts to get students to become fluent in at least a first foreign
language, the level of listening and reading comprehension and oral and written expression is crucial
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to promote employability and career ambitions, and therefore firmly committed to curricular
incorporation of a second foreign language.
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The Royal Decree 126/2014 of February 28th where the curriculum of Primary Education is
established says in its Article 6 entitled "General Principles" that the purpose of Primary Education is
to provide students with the appropriate learning of speaking and listening, reading, writing and the
acquisition of basic notions of culture, in order to ensure a comprehensive training that contributes
to the full development of students' personality.
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The National Curriculum for the Teaching of English in Spain (Royal Decree 126/2014) refers to the
fact that learners need English both for educational, vocational and recreational purposes. Spanish
teachers and learners of English need therefore to be aware of the importance of “context” for
language use and be prepared to adapt English to any given situation.
!
This unit deals with the role of foreign languages in the Spanish educational system. First, we will
focus on the reasons there are for including foreign languages in the curriculum to later on analyse
the aspects that must be included when designing the School Educational Project and the Curricular
Concretion (we must take into account that the term “School Curricular Project” does not exist
anymore).
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THE FOREIGN LANGUAGES AREA IN THE CURRICULUM.
I would like to start this part of the topic mentioning the Common European Framework of Reference
for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment  (CEFR). It was designed to provide a transparent,
coherent and comprehensive basis for the elaboration of language syllabuses and curriculum
guidelines, the design of teaching and learning materials, and the assessment of foreign language
proficiency.
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The importance given to the learning of a foreign language in current society has to do with certain
social, educational and psychological demands, which Brewster, Ellis and Girard, in their book “The
Primary English teacher’s guide’ (2002) summarised as follows:
- Social demands: derive from the need of communicating with people from other countries in a
world, which is becoming a ‘global village’. Besides, the ability of communicating in a foreign
language (especially in English) is quite useful to travel abroad, and for the transmission of news
and knowledge.
- Educational demands: have to do with the development of cognitive and social abilities by means
of the learning of a new language and its culture. This knowledge helps children to overcome their
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natural egocentrism, as they realize that there are other ways of living and seeing reality different
from their own.
- Psychological demands: refer to the need of introducing them to the learning of a foreign
language, as young as possible, because they are less distanced from the age in which they learn
their first language than teenagers or adults, and they are still good at understanding and imitating
what they hear.
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The advantages and opportunities offered by the current Education Law (LOMCE), the increasingly
pluricultural demands and needs of our society, along with the guidelines established by the Council
of Europe in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, are three key elements
reflected in this topic.
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The aim of our English class is, firstly, to ensure that students acquire all the competences
established by the LOMCE concentrating, logically, upon competence in linguistic communication
and with particular emphasis upon social and civic competences, learning to learn and sense of
initiative and entrepreneurial spirit. In addition, to incorporate the list of transversal elements, also
cited by the LOMCE, into the learning process. Needless to say, reading comprehension, oral and
written expression, audiovisual communication and ICTS, will be worked on intensely throughout the
process, but there will also be a place in the learning of the foreign language for the promotion of
equal opportunities, non-discrimination, real equality between men and women and the prevention
of domestic violence, the prevention and peaceful resolution of conflict in all spheres, the rejection of
any kind of violence, racism or xenophobia, respect for the victims of terrorism, sustainable
development and the environment, the dangers of sexual exploitation and abuse, situations of risk in
the use of ICTS, protection against emergencies and catastrophes, development of the
entrepreneurial spirit, physical activity and a balanced diet, improvements in coexistence and the
prevention of road accidents.
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Our teaching practice will take into account such significant and evident changes as globalisation,
which makes practically obligatory the command of a second foreign language, and the impact of
new technologies, directly affecting students. In the FL class, teachers must create the necessary
conditions for learning, paying attention to diversity in the ability of each student and the quest for
the development of the talent of each one. They will organise work, helping towards its
development; coordinate actions; encouraging positive attitudes towards the English language and
culture, catching and developing the students’ interest towards the new and towards creativity, and
treating mistakes as a sign of progress. Students, meanwhile, must participate actively in their
learning progress, being, as defined by the LOMCE, the centre of education.
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I would like to finish this part of the topic by saying that there are differences between “Syllabus” and
“Curriculum” that sometimes are not taken into account. “Curriculum” is a very general concept
which contributes to the planning of an educational programme. “Syllabus” refers to that subpart of
the curriculum which is concerned with a specification of which units will be taught (Allen, 1984).
Widdowson (1992) takes a rather traditional line on this matter, suggesting that a “syllabus” is the
specification of a teaching programme or pedagogic agenda which defines a particular subject for a
particular group of learners,
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2. CRITERIA TO BE INCLUDED IN THE SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL PROJECT
AND THE SCHOOL CURRICULAR PROJECT.
It is important to include in this topic some of the main ideas introduced by the LOMCE in its article
121 entitled “Educational Project”:
- School education projects will include the values, objectives, and action priorities.
- This project must take into account the characteristics of the social and cultural environment of
the school.
- It is the responsibility of the Education Administrations to establish the general framework which
allows public and publicly-funded private schools to draw up their education projects.
- It is the responsibility of the Education Administrations to promote coordination between the
education projects of primary schools and secondary schools.
- Schools will foster educational commitments between families or legal guardians and schools.
With the School Educational Project we are introducing our educational offer. It consists on stable
and unstable parts:
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STABLE PARTS OF THE SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL PROJECT.
Educational aims.
Curricular concretion.
School interior regulations.
Projects.
UNSTABLE PARTS OF THE SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL PROJECT.
The general annual programming.
The continuous training of teachers.
A final summary.
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About the Curricular Concretion we should say that the definition of curriculum reflected in article 6
of the LOMCE is as follows: curriculum understood as the regulation of the elements determining the
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teaching and learning processes for each subject. The Curricular Concretion will comprise the
following elements:
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A. KEY COMPETENCES.
We cannot continue this topic without saying that the LOMCE goes further by putting the emphasis
on a model of competence-based curriculum. A new article in this Law (Article 6bis entitled
“Distribution of Competences”) says that it is the government who must design a core curriculum in
relation to objectives, competences, contents, evaluation criteria, standards and learning gradable
outcomes in order to ensure a common training. Together with the LOMCE another legal disposition
deals with this: the Order ECD/65/2015 of 21st of January, by which the relations between the
competences, the content and the evaluation criteria of Primary Education are described.
In the Principality of Asturias the Key Competences appear in Article 7 entitled "Curriculum
Competences" in the Decree 82/2014. We will see them now in more detail:
• Linguistic communication. It refers to the use of language as an instrument of oral and written
communication, of representation, interpretation and comprehension of reality, organisation and
self-regulation of thought, emotions and conducts.
• Mathematical competence and Basic Competences in science and technology. Mathematical
competence is the ability to interpret and express with clarity and precision information, data and
arguments. These Basic Competences in science and technology imply the use of technological
tools and machines, and scientific data to achieve objectives based on trials.
• Digital competence. It consists in having the ability to look for, obtain, process and communicate
information and transform it into knowledge.
• Learning to learn. This involves awareness of those capacities that come into play in learning like
attention, concentration, memory, comprehension, linguistic expression and motivation to
succeed amongst others.
• Social and civic competences. Languages help speakers to communicate socially, but they are
also a vehicle of cultural communication and transmission. Learning a foreign language involves
the knowledge of cultural traits and facts linked to different communities of speakers of the
language.
• Sense of initiative and entrepreneurial spirit. They involve the capacity to imagine, develop and
evaluate individual or collective actions or projects with creativity, confidence, responsibility and
critical sense.
• Cultural awareness and expressions. This competence incorporates basic knowledge of the main
skills, resources and conventions of different artistic languages such as music, literature, the visual
and dramatic arts, or the different forms of the so-called popular arts.
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ACADEMIA TOWER BRIDGE

B. STAGE OBJECTIVES.
If we take into account our Autonomous Community we will pay attention to the Decree 82/2014,
Article 4 called "Stage Objectives" which presents the following goals:
A. To know and appreciate the values and rules of convivence, learn how to behave in realation
with them, prepare themselves to be citizens and respect both, the human rights as well as the
pluralism of democratic society.
B. To develop habits to work individually or in groups, effort and responsibility at study as well as
attitudes of being sure about themselves, critical sense, personal initiative, curiosity, interest,
creativity for learning and enterpeneur spirit.
C. To acquire ability to the prevention and paceful resolution of conflicts, which lets them express
themselves with autonomy on familiar and domestic domain, as well as on the social groups in
which they interact.
D. To know, understand and respect the different cultures and the differences among people, the
equality of rights and opportunities for men and women, and the no discrimination of disabled
people.
E. To know and use on an appropiate way the Spanish language and, if required, the Asturian
language and develop reading habits.
F. To acquire the basic communicative competence in a foreign language which allows them
create and understand easy messages and if required in everyday situations.
G. To develop the basic mathematical competence and start the problem resolutions which involve
the making of basic calculating operations, geometrical knowledge and stimations.
H. To know the fundamental aspects of Natural Science, Social Science, Geography, History and
Culture, including, if required, the Asturian Culture.
I. To start using, for learning, the ICTS developing a critic spirit facing the messages received and
sent.
J. To use different representations and artistic expressions and start constructing visual and audio-
visual proposals.
K. To value the hygine and health, accepting their own body and the bodies of others, respect the
differences and use the physical education and the sport as ways to favour the personal and
social development.
L. To know and value the animals (closest to humans) and follow the ways of behaviour which
favour taking care of them.
M. To develop affective capacity in every aspect of personality and in relation with others, as well as
an attitude contrary to violence, to any type of prejudices and sexist stereotypes.
N. To foster vial education and respect traffic regulations to prevent traffic accidents.

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C. CONTENTS.
In the Principality of Asturias the Decree 82/2014 establishes the contents of the English subject into
four different blocks:
Block 1, Understanding oral texts and Block 2 Production of oral texts: Expression and interaction,
acquire, at this stage, particular relevance. The limited presence of foreign language in the social
context, makes the language model provided by the school to be the first source of knowledge and
learning of the FL. Oral texts used in the classroom are both a vehicle and an object of learning, so
the curriculum has attended both the knowledge of linguistic elements and the ability to use them to
perform communicative tasks. Moreover, the linguistic model provided should come from a number
of speakers in order to collect as much as possible, changes and nuances that an environmental
linguistic model offers to speakers both in the phonetic and rhythmic aspect and the choice of
expressions specific for communication in familiar situations. Block 3, Understanding written texts
and Block 4, production of written texts: Expression and interaction. In foreign language written texts
are also models of textual composition, practice and acquisition of linguistic elements. The obvious
differences in the graphical representation of the languages that are known and the foreign
language, suggest using prior learning and oral forms. The progressive use of the written language
will depend on the degree of knowledge of the code, which is directly related to the degree of
security that the code provides in the graphic representation of the sounds of language. To
overcome this lack of security, the curriculum includes strategies and resources such as the use of
dictionaries and other means of consultation, conventional and digital, for the understanding and
composition, with progressive degree of correctness and complexity, all kinds of texts.
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D. METHODOLOGY.
The methodological bases that inspire our work are as follows:
• The starting point of learning for students is their first prior knowledge; focusing on what is familiar
and near to the student but with an element of fantasy to achieve the balance between security/
well-being and interest/imagination.
• Competency-based learning seeks the development of each student’s potential, and of their
capacities, preparing students to face personal challenges throughout their lives.
• Communicative situations that include humour and play motivate students and facilitate learning;
for this reason it is important to bear in mind the importance of the songs and stories, the
characteristics of the characters, the illustrations and even the sound effects on the recordings.
• Children learn in different ways and at different speeds; that is why our teaching practise is
designed to be used flexibly so that all group members may participate and find activities in which
they can apply knowledge and aptitudes, facilitating the development of one’s own sense of
achievement and progress attained day by day.
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• To consider progress but also error as something natural in the learning process. In our teaching
practise we understand that errors are made when children anticipate how the language is going
to function or when they transfer rules from their mother tongue in a natural process of
acquisition.
• Globalised learning generates the development of reality as a whole in students. Our teaching
practise takes this situation into account by offering activities interrelated with the other areas of
the curriculum.
If we take into account our Autonomous Community we will pay attention to the Decree 82/2014,
Article 3 called "Pedagogical Principles" which explains the following points:
1. Taking into account Article 9.1 of Royal Decree 126/2014, of 28 February, emphasis will be
placed on attention to the diversity of students in individualized care, prevention learning
difficulties and the implementation of enforcement mechanisms as soon difficulties are detected.
2. Without prejudice to their specific treatment in some areas of the stage, as provided in Article
10.1 of Royal Decree 126/2014, of 28 February, reading comprehension, oral and written
expression, audiovisual communication, the use of ICTS, and entrepreneurship spirit will be
worked out in all areas.
3. In order to enhance reading comprehension, written expression and the research interests,
schools will develop a plan of reading, writing and research. This plan will be developed in
accordance with the guidelines established by the competent Ministry in education and ensure
the incorporation of a daily reading, not less than thirty minutes along all the courses of the
stage.

E. ASSESSMENT.
The Decree 82/2014 devotes it Article 14 to "Students' evaluation during the stage" and it says that
the evaluation of students' learning processes will be global and continuous and it will take into
account its progress in all areas. Such evaluation will be formative and will allow the faculty to
respond appropriately to the rhythm of learning and the needs of students of the course at any time
prior to the adoption of other measures.
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We will see now more items in relation to primary education assessment in the English subject:
Assessment by competences enables assessment of both the fulfilment of objectives in the subject,
and the degree of acquisition of the Key Competences.
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Depending on the objective we seek when evaluating, we have various modalities, such as
Summative assessment, performed at different moments of the course that we tend to identify with
the termly and yearly evaluation (ordinary and extraordinary, when appropriate). There will be other
assessments, like initial (not graded) and final and, above all, continuous or formative, which takes
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place throughout the teaching-learning process. There will also be individualised assessment of all
students at the end of 3rd of primary education in which students must demonstrate their degree of
acquisition of competences in linguistic communication and mathematics. At the end of 6th year of
primary education they must also show their degree of acquisition of the Key Competences, as well
as the achievement of objectives in this phase.
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The curriculum also establishes Assessment criteria and Assessable learning standards for subject
and course which enable evaluation of the achievement of objectives in the subject. With regard to
assessment by competences, given that these are very generic, they need to be made more
precise, expressed in detail to serve as a reference for educational action and to demonstrate the
student’s real competence, and this is what we have termed Indicators. For reference purposes, the
following session includes the complete list of both assessment criteria and the indicators of Key
Competences.
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CONCLUSION.
The LOMCE in its Preamble states that mainly all developed countries are currently or have been
found in recent years, immersed in the process of transforming their education systems. Inherent to
a more global, open and interconnected world social transformations, like this one in which we live,
have been retrained different countries on the need for policy changes in a larger and smaller grade
to adapt their educational systems to the new requirements.
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The Royal Decree 126/2014 devotes its Article 13 to "Foreign language learning" and says that the
education authorities may provide that a part of the curriculum subjects are taught in foreign
languages without involving modification of the basic aspects of the curriculum regulated in the
Royal Decree. In this case, they shall ensure that throughout the stage students acquire the
terminology of the subjects in both languages. Comprehension and oral expression will be
prioritized. Easing measures and alternative methodologies in teaching and assessment of the
foreign language for students with disabilities will be established, especially for those who have
difficulties in speaking. These adaptations in no case will be taken into account to lessen the grades
obtained.
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In this unit we have pointed out the fact that studying a foreign language completes and improves a
student’s education while providing the foundation for further personal enrichment and scholastic
achievement. The need for students to learn and understand a foreign language is more evident
today than in past times. In recent years, Spain has been transforming its educational system so that
children, the state’s future leaders, are able to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Legal framework:
Organic Law 8/2013 to improve educational quality, of 9th December.
126/2014 Royal Decree of 28th February, the core curriculum of primary education is established.
Order ECD/65/2015 of 21st of January, by which the relations between the competences, the
content and the evaluation criteria of Primary Education are described.
Decree 82/2014 of 28th August, which regulates and establishes the curriculum of Primary
Education in the Principality of Asturias.
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Reference manuals:
• ALLEN, L., Curriculum, syllabus design and equity. Cambridge university press. 2013.
• BREWSTER, J., ELLIS, G. and GIRARD, D., The Primary English teacher’s guide. Penguin
English. 2002.
• WIDDOWSON, H. G., ELT and EL Teacher. ELT Journal. 1992. Sociis mauris in integer, a dolor
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temporibus nec.
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