TOPIC 1
Definition of language → ***Choose one or two definitions which you are going to
remember, citing the literal words.
***In this topic, the functions of language are not referred to in the title, therefore they could be
left out.
***Mention the elements of oral language (pitch, intonation, rhythm…) but don’t delve too much
into them, since you already need to remember too much theory.
***Many different writing systems are mentioned: I would just focus on Spanish and English’s type
of systems.
The English language, as well as Spanish, are phonological systems (with a clear
relationship between sounds and symbols) and alphabetical systems (since each symbol
depicts a sound)
***CRITERIA TO ESTABLISH DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE
(another alternative)
Three criteria presented by Holgraves (2002) to contrast these two modes of language.
The first criteria is GRAMMATICAL FEATURES, since spoken language tends to use
ellipsis and simple coordinate sentences whereas written language features full more
complex sentences. Then, according to the LEXICAL FEATURES, oral language employs
more general simple vocabulary, and even empty fillers, making it less formal, but the
written form uses technical, abstract and more complex words, often of Latin origins.
Finally, focusing on DISCURSIVE FEATURES, spoken language has a high incidence of
interpersonal markers to address the listener as well as redundancy and repetition. On
the contrary, written language explicitly indicates text organization with discursive markers.
***In these topics, authors and theories are very important. Try to understand their key and main
ideas, and explain them in your own words. Otherwise, it will be too difficult to memorise all this
language terminology. An idea would be to make a table of the AUTHOR, THEORY, and KEY INFO
or WORDS to remember them.
EXAMPLE
Differences between oral and dynamic / permanent
JAKOBSON written language present / distant
static / dynamic
***I consider it essential to mention COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE. You can add it anywhere,
I would recommend you to do it after describing the features of language.
Communicative Competence is a means to analyse language proficiency, so another idea would
be after describing oral and written language.
TOPIC 2
***You can use a similar introduction in topics 1 and 2, although in this one you should
refer to the implications of language in the foreign language classroom.
DEFINITION OF COMMUNICATION
***Simply define communication, you have already introduced the topic before.
TYPES OF COMMUNICATION
***Based on Crystal’s definition of SEMIOTICS, which is the study of language according
to its nature.
COMMUNICATION IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
***Now it’s a good way to introduce communicative competence, since it's the goal of our
teaching practice.
***In the topic, the approach followed is based on defining the oral skills and explaining
how to develop them in class, and doing the same with the written skills. There is a lot of
information, and since the goal of this topic is not to explain the four linguistic skills, I
would just briefly describe the skills.
***Another alternative path is to talk about a teaching approach that will contribute to
acquire and develop this verbal communication → CLT (Communicative Language
Teaching)
→ In this article, you can read all about what CLT is, as well as in this one. If you
consider including this approach in the topic, find information about: goal, types of
activities.
***In the type of VERBAL INTERACTIONS, you can summarise and focus on: describe
the communication, and how these interactions are supported to foster the use of
English.
NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
***You can also explain the importance and
relevance of this type of communication for
children learning a language (mother tongue
even).
***There are several types of non-verbal
communication (you can mention the most
relevant ones and briefly explain them)
***TPR → summarise the ideas a lot, focus on
the main goal and some interesting
techniques.
TECHNIQUES FOR NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
***Mention some of them and examples of activities. Include the ones that incorporate
ICT so that you can mention their importance in the law (watch a video and stop the
frame, record students to analyse body language…)
TOPIC 6
CONTRIBUTION OF LINGUISTICS
***Relation of linguistics and its
different structures to
COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
(emphasis on Noam Chomsky’s
theory of linguistic competence)
***I would recommend summarising the VIEWS ON LANGUAGE by mentioning the main
notions to distinguish them.
THE LANGUAGE LEARNING PROCESS - FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
***The approach I would follow would be to briefly explain the notions of each approach
and then mention what positive or negative aspects they have.
***Another interesting approach is Motherese, which you could include in the topic.
THE LANGUAGE LEARNING PROCESS - SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
***The Monitor Model is essential for all the topics and many of the ideas we develop in
the didactic programme, so I recommend that you read them and try to understand them
deeply, until you are able to explain them in your own words.
Below there is a summary chart
***Apart from behaviourism and Krashen’s hypothesis, you could mention COGNITIVISM
→ FLL is a conscious thinking process that involves active mental processes and the use
of learning STRATEGIES.
Also, CONSTRUCTIVISM would be very interesting to talk about, since it’s at the core of
the current educational law → children are active learners who construct their own
knowledge through experiencing things and making sense of those experiences.
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES...
***I recommend adding examples of some of the similarities and differences to make the
topic more practical.
