Communication

This week we've had an interesting discussion. I've got to know ANVILL, and LinguaFolio. Both go in the same direction as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and the European Languages Portfolio (with the e-ELP tool).

Being in Europe, most of the influence that Spain receives when it comes to teaching English and other languages, comes from the European Council, or the European Commission. Several years ago they decided that to promote European Citizenship it was important that people could speak several languages. It is what they called the 2+1 policy: everybody should speak his or her mother language, a foreign language, and English.

Thus, the methodology needed a complete change. After years of studying a foreign language people could barely survive in the country where that language was spoken. That was no use. A functional approach was needed, with COMMUNICATION being the first objective. So, instead of being the spine of language teaching, grammar was left to a second stage, once you have enough skills to communicate efficiently in the language. Stressed was set on speaking, listening, writing, reading and interacting.

It is great to know that the US is going in the same way, placing the communicative skills on top of language teaching. Now I'd like to know other countries policy in this way, like Australia or New Zealand, where I'm sure that interesting initiatives are taking place.

Besides all this, this week we've shared the first draft of our project.