Eclectic lesson plans based on the natural approach and the total physical response method for the development of communicative competence in ninth graders

Abstract

Given that the significant number of high school graduates who finish their studies, do not reach the established communicative competence levels in the National Curriculum, the Ministry of Education has implemented courses of action destined to the development and improvement of Ecuadorian students’ language skills. An important aspect relies on the need of incrementing the amount of professional educators, as well as on implementing opportunities for them to improve their practice. Therefore, as its main objective, this project proposes and provides as an aid to teachers, 10 eclectic lesson plans based on the Total Physical Response method and on the Natural Approach, for the development of communicative competence in ninth grade students of Educación General Básica Superior; therefore, the lesson plans are designed under the performance criteria stated in the National Curriculum. In order to accomplish the mentioned objective, significant research was conducted on the antecedents of English teaching in Ecuador, as well as on the origin, principles and techniques of the Total Physical Response method and the Natural Approach. Furthermore, surveys were addressed to ninth grade students from two groups in a public high school, aiming to acknowledge their preferences of activities during the process of learning English, for the design of the lesson plans. To emphasize on the development of language skills, will help the students of a foreign language to accomplish the objective of studying it for several years; the objective of communicating in the foreign language.