Language Curriculum Design and English as a Foreign Language

Globalization as an economic phenomenon that implies social and cultural changes and the daily
and impressive advance of science and technology in the information age. In this context, learning
foreign languages is a must for all human beings, because it allows people to interact with
different cultures in equal opportunities and capacities

Education in Ecuador has changed in the last decade. For this reason, it is necessary to modify
the National Curriculum to meet current educational needs. The teaching of foreign languages in
the course of their didactic exercise had many transformations both in their content and
orientation. Apart from the direct and traditional way in which only prayers were learned, later
audiovisual or structural methodologies were developed that changed the linguistic material of
learning that remained below the communication until reaching the communicative and
constructive approach

The basic principles of the curricular proposal can be summarized as follows:

The communicative language approach: language is best learned as a means to interact and
communicate and not as a set of knowledge that is memorized.

Student-centered approach: teaching methodologies that reflect and respond to the strengths and
challenges of the learners, facilitating their learning process.

Thinking skills: learning a foreign language promotes the development of thought, as well as the
social and creative skills necessary for lifelong learning and the exercise of citizenship.

Integrated Content Learning for Foreign Languages: a model used to integrate language learning
with cultural and cognitive aspects, so that the acquisition of this language serves as an engine for
the development of students.

International standards: the curriculum is based on internationally recognized teaching levels and
processes for language learning.

The main objectives of the curriculum of English as a foreign language are based on develop
students' understanding of the world, other cultures and their own and their ability to communicate
their points of view through the foreign language., in addition , the intention is develop the
personal, social and intellectual skills necessary to reach their potential and participate
productively in an increasingly globalized world that operates in other languages and Create a
love for language learning from an early age, through interesting and positive learning
experiences, in order to encourage the motivation of students to continue learning.

List of the 20 Principles of language
teaching
CONTENT AND SEQUENCING
1. Frequency:
2. Strategies and autonomy:
3. Spaced retrieval:
4. Language system:
5. Keep moving forward:
Examples of the way
Definition of each how you can
principle in your own incorpórate each you
words can incorpórate in an
EFL course
There are many
Frequent elements
expressions that students
within the language
should learn, since there
should be included to
is a lot in the use of
provide students with
language, such as
further progress in
introductions and
learning.
expressions
Students must learn how
to learn a language, that
is, they must know that
A language course they have to prepare
should teach the student some bases, and go from
how to learn to learn, the simplest to the most
how to understand the complex, for example,
language, and what steps they must know that the
to take to be a self- language they must learn
employed learner. orally, it is speaking
through speaking, they
must learn vocabulary
and structures.
Importance must be The students must be
given to the placed in different
participation of students situations, as in some
in different contexts, in daily situation when
this way students will buying bread so that it
learn how to act. can be unwrapped.
We must focus our
The basis of the teaching
teaching on the
of a language must be
generalities of the
focused on its general
language as its
characteristics.
pronunciation
Progressively all the
The teaching of the fields of a language must
language must cover all be covered, that is, while
the fields that the kindergarden children
teaching of the language teach the pronunciation
implies, not to focus of colors, to the first
only on a part. grade we can teach them
how to write them.

6. Teachability:
7. Learning burden:
8. Interference:
FORMAT AND PRESENTATION
1. Motivation:
We must evaluate the age
It refers to the fact that and the level that
the level of the students children have, then
must be taken into primary school children,
account, and in this way who are beginners, we
decide which topics can choose the numbers,
should be taught. colors, greetings, body
parts, etc.
To connect information
we must present two
topics that complement
Care should be taken
each other. For example
that students connect
the subject pronouns
previous knowledge
with the verb To-Be, in
with current knowledge
which it is necessary to
in a more practical way.
know the pronouns in
order to conjugate the
verb.
When learning the
Previous knowledge can simple past after the
act as interference in present simple, there
current lessons, may be a misuse of the
therefore, you must find verbs, so it is convenient
the way in which both to give a list of the verbs
act together trying to in the present tense and
learn. the verbs in the past, and
to emphasize the
differences between
them.
An idea to keep students
motivated is to do small
As its name suggests,
dynamic activities, make
students must be
a game for example.
attracted to learning,
Physical activities, but
they must feel that they
not chosen from the
want to learn, they
language. We must
should be interested in
compensate the effort
the subject.
made by the students,
even if the activity is not
 quite right, but that
motivates them.
Meaning - focused input
Meaning - focused
2. Four strands: output
Language - focused
learning
Fluency activities.
If students are learning
the simple present, we
You must work with
must work with texts and
understandable material
material that contain this
3. Comprehensible input: for the students, that is,
verb tense, not other
that is adapted to the
more complex ones, as it
needs.
will be confusing for the
students.
To develop fluency, they
Students must work with
should learn vocabulary,
activities that ensure
the structures of the verb
their fluency, both in
tenses, read. One option
writing and listening, so
4. Fluency is to have students study
they must use the
a list of common verbs,
grammar and vocabulary
and in the next class, use
they already know in a
them to count a part of
natural way.
their daily routine.
we must encourage the
students to participate so
Students should be
that they can develop,
encouraged to intervene
we could invite them to
5. Output: and develop their speech
talk about their
and write in a variety of
vacations, that they write
discourses.
a small essay on
performance.
We must plan a schedule
The course must cover
in which we cover all
all the areas in which a
areas. For example, to a
language is based, each
course, 9 °, we must
6. Deliberate: one of them must be
teach a grammar day, the
developed and better, for
following vocabulary,
example the grammar,
pronunciation, that is,
the vocabulary ... etc
develop the language.
You should try to
dedicate all the time to
You should focus on the the language, if the
second language as long lesson is over we should
7. Time on task
as possible, you should give them activities, we
study and practice.
should make them
investigate.
Students must focus on
When dealing with a
the elements, they must
subject about the present
learn in the most
8. Depth of processing: simple, students should
profound way, that is,
investigate everything
they must review from
that surrounds it, uses
their bases.

9. Integrative motivation:
10. Learning style:
Students will be
motivated to learn the
language, if we present a
course in which they can
use their attitudes, in
addition the teacher must
have the ability to
present an interesting
course, in which the
students can feel that
they will be successful.
Students must be
evaluated, as we know
there are several types of
learning styles, so we
must vary the material so
that students use the one
that best suits their style.
structures, expressions
of time, etc.
we must somehow sell
the course to the
student, we must make
the student perform
activities in which he
stands out to motivate
him to continue. For
example, if the student
has attitudes about
memorizing structures,
we should try to make
sentences following
those structures.
The learning style of
some of our students
could be kinesthetic,
therefore, we could
include an activity, or
didactic material in
which the students use
their body to learn, as
when learning the parts
of the body. We could do
gigantographies of one
of the body parts and the
students would have to
run towards the
corresponding one.

MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT

To choose the right When preparing the
material for class, we teaching material for the
must observe the needs of class, we should try to
our students, we must cover those areas in
choose those that adapt towhich the students need
their learning style. to practice. If the case
were that the students
1. Ongoing needs and need to improve listening,
enviroment analysis: we would take advantage
of the fact that they
already know the colors
and we would look for a
song about them, so that
they can identify them.
This would be for a
beginner level.
This principle highlights At the end of a class about
the importance of the "simple present",
instructor responses and students should receive
2. Feedback:
indicates the best manner comments about the use
in which to deliver of the "s" at the end of the
feedback to students in verbs when they are
order to maintain or conjugated in the third
increase motivation to person.
learn. Providing students
with clear, explanatory
and timely feedback is
important for learning.