|  The
classes at the Spanish language school are based around the communicative
approach and use the latest task based learning methodology. Teachers
are conscious of the need to use a variety of methods as the students
come from a range of backgrounds and ages and have varied learning
styles and needs. Activating communicative skills means planning
classes taking into account linguistic objectives, socio-cultural
backgrounds, learning skills and communication with special emphasis
on sentence construction and appropriate language. In this way,
rather than offering a list of rules and structures for different
situations they look at both meaning and intent. They use the
language with specific intention to communicate and aid the students
to manipulate structures rather than just repeating them in order
for them to achieve what they want. Rather than teachers who get
their students to repeat structures and constructions (teacher
based) the teachers at the Spanish language school aim to help
their students think in Spanish (learner based).
 Thus
the integration of skills is fundamental in the design of activities
and the instructors move from listening comprehension to oral
skills and from reading comprehension to writing skills,just as
students originally learnt their native languages. The integration
of skills presupposes the use of authentic and motivating materials.
Videos, radio programmes, the press and internet offer a wide
variety of topics as well as up to date information that helps
to bring the real world into the classroom.
Completing a task in the
language is the ultimate objective of language learning. For example,
students complete questionnaires, pass them on to their colleagues,
analyse the results and take a decision (e.g. letter to the director
asking for longer opening hours in the multimedia room), they
have a meeting with the person in charge and often achieve a favourable
result, in other words just like in real life.
All of this in line with
the latest investigations by the European Council and the European
Framework for Spanish language learning, teaching and evaluation.
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