| dc.description.abstract | Nowadays the globalized world demands competent speakers of English
performing efficiently all the abilities belonging to the communicative competence
of a language, in this way, The Common European Framework in its political and
educational context provides the standards to measure learners’ skills of English
as a foreign language; additionally the European framework enables teachers,
educational centers and professionals working in the field of modern languages to
reflect about their pedagogical practice.
The Colombian educational context is not exempt of this requirement, for this
reason, the promotion of English as a foreign language is one of the main targets
of the National Ministry of Education, therefore, under The Common European
Framework, the National Bilingual Program and with support of The British Council,
it was created the first edition of Basic Skills Standards in Foreign Languages for
English in October 2006, in which are established clear and public criteria about
what students have to learn and what they must be able to do with what they learn
(Velez White, 2006).
In the regional context, the Government of Valle del Cauca department has
developed an English teaching project named SING (Segundo Idioma Nueva
Generación) benefiting 735 primary public schools in the region, 1666 teachers
and 105.000 children; Alba Nelly Mark Korman and Korman, specialists and
researchers of foreign language education appointed by the Valle de Cauca’s
government to carry out this project said “The idea is to expand the language...To
succeed in the process of language acquisition, we need to transmit a lot of
games, activities, movement, stimulating the brain of children and allowing the
development of the new language and at the same time the recognition of sounds”1
In this way, the efforts and the support given by the national, regional and local
Government is a respond to the curricular requirements framed in a global
educational context, where the domain of English as a foreign language is
regarded as a fundamental condition for any professional wanting to wide his
career prospects being competent in a specific scope, since nowadays, companies
claim for employees with different aptitudes, among them, the ability of
communicating in a global language, that is why Colombian Government
recognizes the importance of working on the promotion of English as a foreign
language.
Although, the government policies support the foreign language learning, it is
important to remark that the success of a English project depends largely on the
ability, mastery, and willingness of foreign language teachers; therefore as Jeremy
Harmer points out it is essential that English teachers share a set of
characteristics, such as, “the ability to give interesting classes, using the full range
of their personality, the desire of empathies with students, stressed the need for
variety within a secure setting”2
; in this manner, a teacher endowed with this
characteristics and with the challenge of innovation will engage students not only to
learn, but also to enjoy what they learn. | |
