FL teachers’ most frequent reported practices in communicative language teaching: an exploratory study at Secondary Schools and Official Schools of Languages in the Madrid region

Marta Garrote Salazar; Isabel Alonso Belmonte; Edgardo Galetti Torti

Authors

Marta Garrote Salazar Universidad Autónoma de Madrid http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5566-9073
Isabel Alonso Belmonte Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Edgardo Galetti Torti Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Abstract

Abstract. This paper is about the implementation of Communicative Language Teaching in foreign languages instruction in Secondary Education and Official Schools of Languages in the region of Madrid (Spain). More specifically, its main goal is to map the variety of communicative practices carried out in the FL classroom as reported by 91 experienced teachers. Data was collected as part of a larger international research project, the KIELO study, where FL educators from different countries were asked about varied aspects of their daily teaching activity with the help of an ad hoc designed questionnaire. Findings highlight that the most frequent reported practices in secondary education are clearly communicatively oriented and that their implementation in the FL classroom is mainly determined by teachers’ self-conception as researchers and learners. Results also show that the Spanish findings are not always in line with previous KIELO studies.

Keywords: CLT; secondary education; official schools of languages (OSLs); foreign language teachers; KIELO project

Resumen. Este artículo versa sobre la ejecución práctica del enfoque comunicativo en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras en educación secundaria y escuelas oficiales de idiomas en Madrid. Concretamente, el principal objetivo de este trabajo es identificar las prácticas comunicativas más habituales en el aula de idiomas a partir de los datos obtenidos entre 91 profesores experimentados. Este estudio se ha realizado en el marco del proyecto de investigación internacional KIELO, cuyo propósito es recabar opiniones de profesores de lenguas extranjeras sobre diversos aspectos de su actividad docente a partir de un cuestionario diseñado ad hoc. Los resultados señalan que las prácticas más frecuentes en educación secundaria están claramente orientadas a la comunicación y que los docentes que las llevan a cabo de forma regular son aquellos que se consideran investigadores y aprendices en el aula. Los resultados también muestran diferencias significativas con otros estudios KIELO llevados a cabo en otros países.

Palabras clave: enfoque comunicativo; educación secundaria; escuelas oficiales de idiomas (EOIs); profesores de lengua extranjera; proyecto KIELO

Author Biographies

Marta Garrote Salazar, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Marta Garrote is a Lecturer of EFL at the Faculty of Teacher Training, at (UAM). She has a PhD in Linguistics and her main research lines are: corpus linguistics, teacher training and second language teaching.

Garrote, M. and Fernández-Agüero, M. (2016). Intercultural competence in teaching: defining the inercultural profile of student teachers. Bellaterra Journal of Teaching & Learning Language & Literature, 9(4), 41-58.

Isabel Alonso Belmonte, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Isabel Alonso-Belmonte currently works as an ELT associate professor at the University Autónoma de Madrid, where she has been training Primary and Secondary EFL pre service and in service teachers for more than 10 years now. Her area of research is applied linguistics to foreing language teaching.

Alonso-Belmonte and Fernández Agüero (forthcoming). "Practical proposals for the development of intercultural communicative competence in EFL: what textbooks won't tell you". In: Productive Foreign Language Skills for an Intercultural World. A Guide (not only) for Teachers. Bern: Peter Lang.

Edgardo Galetti Torti, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Edgardo Galetti Torti holds a PhD in English. He works as a Lecturer of EFL at the Faculty of Teacher Training (UAM). His main research lines are phonetics, literature, teacher training and second language teaching.

Garrote, M. and Galetti, E. (2015). Teaching effectively: ESP for pre-service primary teachers. Revista de Didácticas Específicas, 13, 116 - 130.

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