Language and Communication PDF

TEMA 1. - LA LENGUA COMO COMUNICACIÓN: LENGUAJE ORAL Y LENGUAJE ESCRITO. - FACTORES QUE DEFINEN UNA SITUACIÓN COMUNICATIVA: EMISOR, RECEPTOR, FUNCIONALIDAD Y CONTEXTO. Human language is the fundamental vehicle to convey our thoughts, needs and feelings. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the communicative process among people by concentrating on its two basic manifestations: oral and written language. Traditional Foreign Language Teaching focused on teaching items of language in isolation and its main aim was to read texts. It could be said that people learnt about the language but could not use it in a real context, since the focus was not on communication, but on a piece of language. However, in the last decades, the movement towards a Communicative Approach has been a remarkable tendency in the teaching of English as a Foreign Language. This Approach is based on providing the student with enough communicative activities to develop the oral and written skills needed to use the language with accuracy and appropriateness. Due to the influence of this Approach, our current education system has incorporated this functional and communicative potential of language in its objectives and methodology, the ultimate goal being the development of the students´ communicative competence, which at the same time, is one of the general objectives for Primary Education established by The Organic Law 3/2020, of December 29, which modifies Organic Law 2/2006, of May 3, on Education. (LOMLOE) Based on this view, the present essay aims to study language and its functions, and more precisely, the notion of communication as one of these functions. For this purpose, I will divide this topic into three main sections. In the first part, I will deal with the definition and the main properties of language. In order to do so, I will address the following two questions:  What is language?  What is language for? 1 Then, I will introduce the concept of Communicative Competence. In the second part, I will compare spoken and written language, dealing first with the historical attitudes and then outstanding the main differences between writing and speech. Finally in the third part, I will deal with the communication theory, the key factors that affect any communicative interaction and the main functions of language according to Jackobson. We deal with an essential topic since communication is the basis of understanding among human beings. In addition to that, the Foreign Language Curriculum for Primary Education emphasizes the significance of this topic by including in its objectives, blocks of contents and assessment criteria the development of oral and written communication through the four linguistic skills FIRST To develop the first part of the topic, I will deal with the definition, properties of language and its functions. In Tragger´s words, Language can be defined as a “system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which the members of a society interact in terms of their total culture”. Hall, for his part, states that language is the “institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols”. As we can see in these definitions, it is difficult to make a precise statement about formal and functional universal properties of language, so some linguists have tried to identify the various properties that are considered to be its essential defining characteristics. Let us go on distinguishing which these characteristics are:  Communicative versus informative: we use communicative signals (as the language itself) to intentionally communicate something, but we can also provide information unintentionally via the informative signals. For instance, a person listening to us may become informed about us via a number of signals which we have not intentionally sent. He may note that we have a cold (because we have 2 sneezed) or that we are uncomfortable (we shifted around in our seat). However, when we use language to tell this person that “I would like to apply for the vacant position of secretary at the office”, we are considered to be intentionally communicating something.  Displacement: Users of a language speak about things and events nor present in the immediate environment. That means they can refer to past and future time, and to other locations.  Arbitrariness: There is no link between a linguistic form or sign and the nature of the reality to which represents.  Productivity: The potential number of utterances in any human language is infinite. It is a feature of human language that novel utterances are constantly being created. Moreover, humans can understand and produce new sentences even if they haven´t said or heard them before.  Cultural transmission: Language is passed on from one generation to the next.  Discreteness: The sounds used in a language are meaningfully distinct, for instance, the difference between a “b” sound and a “p” sound is actually not very great, but when these sounds are used in a language, the occurrence of one rather than the other is very meaningful. The fact that the pronunciation of the words “pack” and “back” leads to a distinction in meaning is only due to the difference between the “b” sound and the “p” sound in English.  Vocal-auditory channel: Human linguistic communication is normally generated via the vocal organs and perceived via the ear. However, it can also be transmitted without sound, via writing or via the sign languages of the deaf.  Reciprocity: Any speaker or sender of a linguistic exchange can also be a listener or receiver.  Rapid fading: Linguistic signals are produced and disappear quickly. Once the definition and characteristics of language have been presented, it may be appropriate to develop the concept of Communicative Competence. Dell Hymes stated that in order to learn a language, a native speaker does not only need to utter grammatically correct forms (as Chomsky thought), he also has to know the rules of use, that is, where and when to use a sentence, and to whom. Thus, Hymes replaced 3 Chomsky´s notion of Competence with his own concept of Communicative Competence, and distinguished four aspects:  Systematic potential: A native speaker possesses a potential for creating language.  Appropriacy: A native speaker knows what language is appropriate in a given situation, in a particular context.  Occurrence: A native speaker knows how often something is said in the language and act accordingly.  Feasibility: A native speaker knows whether something is possible in the language, although some structures are grammatically correct, they are not possible in the language. These four categories have been adopted for teaching purposes. Later on, linguists Canale and Swain expanded the previous description of Hymes, establishing five subcompetences of the Communicative Competence. As a result of this, the DECREE 107/2022, of July 28, which establishes the organization and curriculum of Primary Education for the Autonomous Community of Extremadura establishes the teaching requirements nationwide and sets up that Communicative Competence for Foreign Language Learners comprises five subcompetences:  Grammar competence: It refers to the ability to put into practice the linguistic units according to the rules of use established in the linguistic system, for instance, the mastery of grammatical structures and vocabulary.  Discoursive competence: The ability to us different types of discourse and organise them according to the communicative situation and the speakers involved in it, using cohesion and coherence.  Sociolinguistic competence: The ability to adequate the utterances to the specific context according to the accepted usage of a particular linguistic community. 4  Strategic competence: The ability to define or make adjustments in the course of the communicative situation, and the capacity to use verbal and non-verbal strategies in order to make communication effective.  Sociocultural competence: A certain knowledge of the social and cultural context in which the Foreign Language is used. SECOND Now that the communicative nature of language has been argued, I will go on developing the second part of the topic. For this purpose, I will first deal with the historical attitudes towards spoken and written language. Then, I will attempt to establish the main differences between speech and writing. For centuries, written language held a dominant place over oral language. Traditionally, it was considered to be superior, as it was the medium of literature and thus, a synonym of linguistic excellence. Oral language, on the contrary was thought to be an object unworthy of study because it was considered to be lacking in care and organization, which assumed that speech could not be studied scientifically. Given that the norms were based on written standards, the tradition rested on this supremacy of writing over speech. Contrary to this point of view, a group of linguists argued in favour of studying speech because this is the primary medium of communication. Also, spoken language is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue whereas written language is taught and learnt later. Following this criterion, many linguists came to think of written language as a tool of secondary importance. Nowadays, linguists no longer consider one medium of communication to be better than the other. Writing cannot substitute for speech, nor speech for writing. The functions of speech and writing are usually said to complement each other. Let us go on distinguishing the main differences between spoken and written language: The main distinction between speech and writing is obvious: speech uses the form of air pressure movements produced by the vocal organs whereas writing uses graphs that are marks on a surface, normally made by a hand using an implement or a tool. 5 However, many other differences can be pointed out. I will analyse the relationship between speech and writing in terms of six points of contrast: (Firstly…) 1. Speech is time-bound, dynamic. It is part of an interaction in which both participants are usually present, and the speaker has a particular addressee in mind. Writing is space-bound, static and permanent. The writer is usually distant from the reader, and often does not know who the reader is going to be. 2. The spontaneity and speed of most speech favours a looser construction, simpler sentences, repetition and comment clauses, such as “you know”, “mind you”, etc. Writing favours careful organisation and complexity in sentence structure. 3. Because participants are typically involved in face to face interaction, they can rely on extralinguistic clues such as facial expression and gestures to aid meaning. Lack of visual contact in writing means that participants cannot rely on context to make their meaning clear. 4. Unique features of speech include most of the prosody. Intonation, loudness, tempo, rhythm, provide highly efficient hints. Unique features of writing include pages, lines, capitalisation, spatial organisation and several aspects of punctuation. 5. Speech is very suitable for social or “phatic” functions. Writing is very suitable for the recording of facts and the communication of ideas, and for tasks of memory and learning. 6. Finally, regarding production mistakes, on the one hand, in speech there is an opportunity to rethink an utterance while it is in progress (starting again, adding clarification…). However, errors, once spoken, cannot be erased. On the other hand, errors in our writing can be eliminated without the reader ever knowing. Interruptions, if they have occurred while writing, are also invisible in the final product. Despite these differences, there are many respects in which the written and spoken language have mutually interacted and nowadays, their dependence has been proved to be reciprocal. 6 THIRD Now that we have examined the main differences between speech and written language, we shall concentrate on the communication theory. Real life is full of communicative acts and their nature depends on several factors: the participants (a relative, a stranger), the context (at home, in a restaurant) and the type of activity we are engaged in (a phone conversation, a conference). The choice of the words used will vary according to the factors of each situation. Traditionally, communication has been defined as the exchange of meanings through a common system of symbols. One of the most popular communication theories is the Information Model, which was developed by the mathematician Shannon. He invented a mathematical theory of communication that gave the first framework. His model consisted of five elements: 1. An information source, which produces a message. Messages often work on two levels: what the sender means and what he says unintentionally (perhaps through non-verbal signs). 2. An emisor or transmitter, which encodes a message into signals. 3. A channel, to which signals are adapted for transmission, for instance, the telephone, face to face, a letter… 4. A receiver who decodes the message from the signals sent by the emisor. 5. A destination, where the message arrives. 6. A sixth element, noise, was added later. In the process of transmission, certain unwanted additions to the signal may occur which are not part of the message and theses are referred to as noise or entropy. Information, emisor, channel, receiver, destination and noise are key factors affecting any communicative interaction. In the English classroom we must try to vary the interactions, so that the communicative act is as genuine as possible. In this regard, the Communicative Approach fosters the creation of varied interactions: teacher-student(s), student-teacher, student-student(s). 7 Now that I have established the main factors involved in any communicative interaction, I will address what language is for. In the simplest sense, the word “function” can be considered as a synonym of “use”. In general terms, people do different things with language, that is, they expect to achieve, by talking and writing, and by listening and reading, a large number of different aims and purposes. The most usual answer to the question “what do we do with language?” is “to communicate our ideas”. But it would be wrong to think of communicating our ideas as the only way in which we use language (referential function). According to Roman Jackobson, the main functions of language are:  Referential function: Language is used to communicate ideas or facts. E.g. Water boils at one hundred degrees.  Expressive function: Language is also used to express both negative and positive emotions, such as expressions of fear or affection. E.g. Oh, my God!  Phatic function: It refers to the social function of language, which arises out of the basic human need to show friendship, for instance, saying Hello.  Poetic function: It´s based on the phonetic function of language, for instance, the persuasive cadence of political´s speech.  Conative function: The weight of communication falls on the receiver. The sender tries to attract the receiver’s attention to get a certain reaction. E.g. A baby cries because he is hungry.  Metalinguistic function: It is centred on the code. We use language to talk about language. E.g. What does language mean? Now, I will analyse the intended effects of our communicative interactions (or speech acts) and the environment in which they are exchanged, that is, the social context. The Speech Act Theory, was developed by the philosopher Austin, who claimed that many utterances (things that people say) are equivalent to actions. When someone says “I name this ship”, the utterance creates a new social or psychological reality. Speech Act Theory explains these utterances as having three parts or aspects: locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts: 8 1. Locutionary acts are simply the speech acts that have taken place. 2. Illocutionary acts are the real actions which are performed by the utterance, where saying means doing (as in betting, welcoming or warning). 3. Perlocutionary acts are the effects of the utterance on the listener (who accepts the bet, is welcomed or warned). Apart from this, there is a second key feature which may be taken into account: the context. This concept would be defined as “the parts of a piece of writing, speech, etc. that precede and follow a word or passage and contribute to its full meaning”, which refers to the linguistic context. But this context may not be enough to fully understand a speech act, as it doesn´t make reference to the outside world, then a definition of the context of the situation may be added: “the conditions and circumstances that are relevant to an event, fact, etc.” With regard to the concept of context of the situation, a number of linguists have worked over it and extended this concept. For instance, Halliday categorises the communicative situation in terms of three components for the analysis: 1. Field of discourse. It refers to what is happening, the nature of the social action. 2. Tenor of discourse. It refers to who is taking part, to the nature of the participants. 3. Mode of discourse. Is the function of the text in the event, including therefore both the channel taken by the language, and its genre and rethorical mode, as narrative, didactic, persuasive and so on. Conclusion To conclude, I would like to remark that, as I have proven in this topic, communication is a key word for us as English teachers. Not only it is the essence of human interaction, it is the centre of language learning, where both oral and written communication is included. 9 In this topic, I have studied the definition and the main properties of language as well as the concept of Communicative Competence. Then I have compared spoken and written language, dealing first with the historical attitudes and then outstanding the main differences between writing and speech. Finally I have dealt with the communication theory, the key factors that affect any communicative interaction and the main functions of language according to Jackobson. In order to develop this topic, the following bibliography has been used:  Halliday M.A.K.(Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday): “Spoken and written language”. Geelong University Press, 1976.  Halliday M.A.K.: “Language as Social Semiotic”. Arnold, London, 1978.  Searle, John Rogers “Speech Acts: an essay in the Philosphy of language” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969.  Grundy, Peter “Doing Pragmatics” Arnold London, 2000.  BREWSTER, J. et al. (2003): The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. Penguin English.  HARMER, J. (2003): The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman.  LARSEN-FREEMAN, D. (2003): Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford University Press.  VARELA, R. et al. (2003): All About Teaching English. Centro de Estudios Ramón Areces. 10 Tema 2 - LA COMUNICACIÓN EN CLASE DE LENGUA EXTRANJERA: COMUNICACIÓN VERBAL Y NO VERBAL. - ESTRATEGIAS EXTRALINGUÍSTICAS: REACCIONES NO VERBALES A MENSAJES EN DIFERENTES CONTEXTOS. Every act that we perform has a communicative purpose. Language is the most complex system of signs, but it is not the only one: facial expressions, gestures or intonation also communicate something. Traditional Foreign Language Teaching focused on teaching items of language in isolation and its main aim was to read texts. It could be said that people learnt about the language (learning) but could not use it in a real context, since the focus was not on communication, but on a piece of language. However, in the last decades, the movement towards a Communicative Approach has been a remarkable tendency in the teaching of English as a Foreign Language. This Approach is based on providing the student with enough communicative activities to develop the oral and written skills needed to use the language with accuracy and appropriateness. This view focuses on communicative proficiency rather than on the mastery of structures and vocabulary. Due to the influence of this Approach, our current education system has incorporated this functional and communicative potential of language in its objectives and methodology, the ultimate goal being the development of the students´ communicative competence, which at the same time, is one of the general objectives for Primary Education established by The Organic Law 3/2020, of December 29th, which modifies Organic Law 2/2006, of May 3, on Education and in The Royal Decree 157/2022, of March 1st, which establishes the organization and minimum teachings of Primary Education. Based on this view, the present essay aims to study communication in an EFL classroom and more precisely, to develop the concept of verbal and non- verbal communication. For this purpose, I will divide the topic into three main 11 sections. In the first part, I will deal with the concept of communication. In order to do so, I will briefly provide a definition of communication. Then, I will address the types and the nature of communication. In the second part, I will deal with communication in the classroom by developing the concepts of Communicative Approach and verbal and non-verbal communication. In the third part, I will explain the Total Physical Response Method developed by James Asher, which puts the emphasis on the role of movement in connection with learning. We deal with an essential topic since communication is the basis of understanding among human beings. In addition to that, the Foreign Language Curriculum for Primary Education emphasizes the significance of this topic by including in its objectives, blocks of contents and assessment criteria the development of oral and written communication, including strategies to support listening, speaking, reading and writing. FIRST To develop the topic, I will deal with the communication theory. For this purpose, I will firstly present the definition of communication. Second, I will discuss the main types of communication. Finally, I will attempt to identify the nature of communication. Traditionally, communication has been defined as the exchange of meanings between individuals through a common system of symbols. Communication refers to the transmission of information (a message) between a sender and a receiver, using a signalling system. After having discussed the definition of communication, let us deal with the different types of communication. Communication can be either verbal or non-verbal. On the one hand, verbal communication is carried out through symbols known as words and it can be either 12 oral or written. On the other hand, non-verbal communication is in Geoffrey Finch´s words “communication that takes place other than through words”. As we can see, there are many forms of communication and language is just one of these forms. All these are the subject matter of semiotics which is the general theory of signs and symbolism. In this light, Crystal developed the following aspects of semiotics which are related to language according to its nature:  Firstly, Auditory-vocal: speech, musical effects and voice qualities.  Secondly, Visual: sign languages, writing codes and Kinesics.  Thirdly, Tactile: deaf and blind languages, secret codes and Proxemics.  Lastly, Olfactory and gustatory: Communication through smell and the symbolism of food and taste. As Crystal argued, some of these aspects have a linguistic nature, such as speech, deaf and blind sign languages, and written languages. The communicative use of the visual and tactile modes in their non-linguistic aspects is referred to as non-verbal communication or body language. Now that the types of communication have been established, I will go on to address the nature of communication. Communication between humans is a very complex phenomenon which involves many variables, such as the participants, the context and the purpose. Whenever communication takes place, there is a speaker (or writer) and a listener (or reader) and they both have a communicative purpose which can be having a conversation or greeting each other. Scholars have found certain characteristics which seem to apply in every situation. In addition, if we want our teaching to be really communicative, these characteristics must be followed. On the one hand, I assume with Jeremy Harmer that when one person speaks: 1. He wants to speak (he wants to say something) 13 2. He has a communicative purpose (he says certain things because he wants something to happen as a result of what he says) 3. He selects from his language stores (he has an infinite capacity to create new sentences, because as Noam Chomsky advocated in his Generative Grammar, “with a finite set of elements, a speaker can create an infinite number of utterances”) On the other hand, I also assume that when a person listens: 1. He wants to listen to something. 2. He is interested in the purpose of what is being said. 3. He processes a variety of language. Thus, when organizing communicative activities in the classroom, teachers must ensure that the activities that the students are involved in share the process I have just described, that means that the students should have a desire to communicate, have a communicative purpose and deal with a variety of language, either receptively or productively. To finish off this section, notice that these factors were not traditionally taken into account when designing language learning activities. It is only with the advent of the Communicative Approach to language teaching that real communication enters to classroom. SECOND Now that the concept of communication has been developed, I will go on to develop the second part of the topic, that is, communication in the classroom, where both verbal and non-verbal communication take place. First, I will deal with the evolution of the Communicative Approach and how the Communicative Competence is central in nowadays education. Then, I will deal with the verbal communication: in order 14 to do so, I will explain the Communicative Language Teaching method, and the activities used in the classroom as well as the teacher and learner´s roles. Then, I will highlight the importance of the non-verbal communication and I will illustrate the Total Physical Response method. First, I will present the origins of the Communicative Approach that changed language teaching methods. This approach is one of the principles on which foreign language methodology is based on at the moment. In the 1970s, humanistic psychology theories started to be introduced for educative purposes. This changed the main aim of the education: from “teaching” to “learning” and from “teacher” to “learner”. As a result of this, the Communicative Approach came up, and its first representation was the Communicative Language Teaching. The worldwide importance of this approach was due to the increasing interest of the Council of Europe in the communicative competence and the necessity to develop procedures aimed to teach the four language skills. Apart from the already mentioned humanistic theories, Linguistics studies suffered a revolution. Some scholars, the best known of them is Dell Hymes, set up the concept of Communicative Competence, which is the ability to use a language in an appropriate way. This concept was deliberately contrary to Chomsky´s Linguistic Competence, who tried to explain how a child learns a language. For Chomsky, competence simply implied the knowledge of the language system. Hymes maintained that Chomsky´s theory was incomplete, and that a communicative and cultural dimension should be incorporated. According to him, a speaker does not only need the ability to use grammatical structures, but also to learn how to use those structures in a community (appropriateness). In other words, Hymes stated that in order to learn a language, a native speaker does not only need to utter grammatically correct forms (as Chomsky thought), he also has to know the rules of use, that is, where and when to use a sentence, and to whom. Thus, Hymes replaced Chomsky´s notion of Competence with his own concept of Communicative Competence, and distinguished four aspects, all of which refer to native speakers:  Systematic potential: A native speaker possesses a potential for creating language. 15  Appropriacy: A native speaker knows what language is appropriate in a given situation, in a particular context.  Occurrence: A native speaker knows how often something is said in the language and act accordingly.  Feasibility: A native speaker knows whether something is possible in the language, although some structures are grammatically correct, they are not possible in the language. These four categories have been adopted for teaching purposes. Later on, linguists Canale and Swain expanded the previous description of Hymes, establishing five subcompetences of the Communicative Competence. As a result of this, Communicative Competence for Foreign Language Learners comprises five subcompetences:  Grammar competence: It refers to the ability to put into practice the linguistic units according to the rules of use established in the linguistic system, for instance, the mastery of grammatical structures and vocabulary.  Discoursive competence: The ability to us different types of discourse and organise them according to the communicative situation and the speakers involved in it, using cohesion and coherence.  Sociolinguistic competence: The ability to adequate the utterances to the specific context according to the accepted usage of a particular linguistic community.  Strategic competence: The ability to define or make adjustments in the course of the communicative situation, and the capacity to use verbal and non-verbal strategies in order to make communication effective.  Sociocultural competence: A certain knowledge of the social and cultural context in which the Foreign Language is used. The concept of Communicative Competence is also present in our education system. The Organic Law 3/2020, of December 29th, which modifies Organic Law 2/2006, of May 3, on Education highlights the importance of developing both 16 oral and written skills in the three different cycles of Primary Education. More precisely, The Royal Decree 157/2022, of March 1st, which establishes the organization and minimum teachings of Primary Education divides the contents into four blocks which are listening, speaking and conversing; reading and writing; knowledge of the language; and sociocultural aspects and intercultural awareness. All these contents aim to help Primary students become communicative competent in the FL. After having analysed the foundations of the Communicative Approach, I will focus my attention on the concept of verbal communication and the Communicative Language Teaching Approach. Verbal communication is carried out through symbols known as “words”. It is the process of sending and receiving messages with words, including oral, writing and sign language. It is intended to develop the ability of a language-user to produce not only a linguistically correct speech utterance but also a communicative appropriate utterance as well. In this light, it is important to know the Communicative Language Teaching approach developed by Wilkins. This approach has been the major teaching approach since the early 80´s and it organizes the contents to teach around notions (that are concepts the learner needs in order to communicate) and functions (speech acts of the communicative functions). According to Hadley, the main characteristics of the Communicative Language Teaching are:  Meaning and contextualisation are basic principles.  Learners are encouraged to communicate from the beginning of the instruction.  Activities and strategies for learning are varied according to learner´s preferences and needs  Communicative Competence is the goal of the instruction. 17 As regards to the activities within this approach, also applicable to the rest of communicative methods, according to Harmer, they should have the following characterisitics: they should raise the desire to communicate; have a communicative purpose; be based on content, not form; use a variety of language; have no teacher intervention and no material´s control. Next, I will focus my attention on the teacher and learner´s roles in the Communicative Language Teaching. o On the one hand, the teacher should modify the curriculum content in order to adequate it to his/her students´ level, keep the motivation of his/her students, attend the individual differences of the learners and organise the learning experience carefully and in advanced. Moreover, in the Communicative Approach, the teacher´s roles contrast with the authoritarian roles of traditional teaching. In this sense, the teacher is an informant, a facilitator, a participant and a monitor in the classroom. o On the other hand, due to the learner-centred teaching, the student´s role has changed within the last years. In this sense, students do not learn in an individualistic way, but in an interdependent way. The emphasis is therefore on the process of communication and not on the mastery of language forms: successful communication can only be achieved through group interaction. Moreover, in the Communicative Approach, the learner´s roles also differ from traditional language teaching. Learners were seen as stimulus-response mechanisms whose learning depended upon repetitive practice. Today, this passive role has become an active one, in the sense that the learner is more involved in his/her own learning process and that his opinion, feelings and motivation are taking into account. Now that we know a little bit more about verbal communication and the Communicative Language Teaching, it is important to note that communication is not purely verbal. 18 Communication uses a whole set of paralinguistic devices such as gestures, body movements, paralanguage, proxemics, etc. We could say that, while linguistic abilities may operate on a verbal layer, communicative abilities operate on both the verbal and the non-verbal layers. For this reason, I´m going to present the notion of non-verbal communication, which Geoffrey Finch defined as “communication which takes place other than through words”. For years, non-verbal communication has been neglected in the teaching of languages. However, nowadays its importance is recognized, because:  It helps to express and to understand messages, when the Communicative Competence is not very high.  It favours sociolinguistic competence.  It is highly attractive and motivating for children. In the English class, we can use the following non-verbal language:  Gestures and body language: It is also called non vocal because the human voice is not involved. It includes facial expression, posture, eye and hand movement…for instance point to objects or use fingers to count numbers.  Physical movements: There is a theory in the teaching of languages called Total Physical Response by James Asher, based on the theory that a child acquires language by listening and executing command from adults, such as “stand up” or “sit down”.  Accent and intonation: It is also called vocal because they are aspects of the language which accompany the words we pronounce.  Visual aids: Visual aids have two functions: to shorten the gap between the real world and the classroom and to help the students to understand the message. As the saying goes “One image is worth a thousand words”.  Auditory aids: Such as sounds or noises, have great communicative power, just like visual aids. THIRD 19 In recent times, certain attempts have been made to use extralinguistic responses to linguistic messages in the language classroom. The best known is the Total Physical Response method. I will focus on its main features, how a T.P.R. based curriculum works and, finally, the teacher and learner´s role in this method, in which the non-verbal communication is predominant. The Total Physical Response method, developed by James Asher, is related with the educational and psychological development, language teaching and humanistic pedagogy. Its main aim is to teach oral proficiency through physical activity at a beginner´s level. The main features of T.P.R. method are:  Comprehension precedes production in learning a language.  The teaching of speaking should b delayed until comprehension skills are established.  Teaching should emphasise on meaning rather than on form.  Teaching should minimise learner stress. The general objective of the TPR is to teach oral proficiency through physical activity at a beginner´s level. A few examples of command students respond to in a relatively early training will serve to illustrate this methodology:  Listening Training: students sit in a semicircle around the teacher. The teacher asks them to be silent, listen to a command in English, and then, do exactly what he does.  Production: After about ten hours of training in listening, students are invited but not pressured to reverse roles with the instructor and give their own commands in English.  Reading or writing: At the end of each class, students copy the expressions in their notebooks. 20 Regarding the role of the teacher and the learner, according to Asher, the teacher is the director of a play and the students are the actors. In this sense, the teacher will have to use gestures and mime actions in order to enable the students to fully understand what we want them to do. As it is also stated by Stephen Krashen in the Input Hypothesis taken from his Monitor Model, one of our main objectives is to provide children with as much comprehensible input as we can while they are doing an enjoyable activity. Students have the primary roles of listeners and performers. Conclusion To conclude, I would like to remark that, as I have proven in this topic, communication plays a vital role in almost every aspect of our lives. People communicate with others almost all the time either verbally or non-verbally. We as teachers should be aware of the importance of both verbal and non- verbal communication in the classroom and how we can maximize verbal and non-verbal items to encourage children to infer meaning and use all sorts of extralinguistic strategies to improve communication. By means of meaningful, motivating activities which use aspects such as body movement, gestures, objects, the five senses and so on, we can motivate students to believe that communicating in the foreign language is within their reach. In this topic, I have presented the concept of communication and its main types. Then, I have developed the Communicative Approach and how it has influenced our current education system. After that, I have focused on verbal communication and the Communicative Language Teaching Approach developed by Wilkins. Finally, I have highlighted the importance of non-verbal communication and I have illustrated the TPR method developed by James Asher. 21 In order to develop this topic, the following bibliography has been used:  Crystal, D. “The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language” Cambridge University Press 1997.  Dell Hymes “On Communicative Competence in Sociolinguistics” Penguin, London, 1972.  Harmer, J. “The Practice of English Language Teaching” Longman, London 1983.  Asher, J. “ Learning another language through actions: The Complete teacher´s guide book” Los Gatos, Cal. Sky Oaks Production 1982.  BREWSTER, J. et al. (2003): The Primary English Teacher‘s Guide. Penguin English. HARMER, J. (2003): The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman. LARSEN-FREEMAN, D. (2003): Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford University Press.  VARELA, R. et al. (2003): All About Teaching English. Centro de Estudios Ramón Areces. Tema 3.  DESARROLLO DE LAS DESTREZAS LINGÜÍSTICAS. 22  COMPRENSIÓN Y EXPRESIÓN ORAL. COMPRENSIÓN Y EXPRESIÓN ESCRITA.  LA COMPETENCIA COMUNICATIVA EN INGLÉS. In order to master a language, we need to understand its native speakers and also to make ourselves understood. This involves being able to encode (speaking and writing) and decode (listening and reading) both oral and written messages. Thus, in order to communicate effectively, communicative competence is essential. Since the 1970’s, the belief that language is a means of communication has inspired a new approach in English teaching: the Communicative Approach. Due to its influence, nowadays language is taught and learnt in a very practical way in the classroom and students practise the four basic skills from a communicative point of view. Based on this view, the present essay aims to study in detail the four basic skills of language, which are listening, speaking, reading and writing. For this purpose, I will divide this topic into three main sections. In the first part, I will deal with the spoken word as well as the development of listening and speaking skills in students when learning a language. In the second part, I will examine the written word, so that reading and writing skills will be analysed. In the third part, I will discuss the importance of integrating skills in order to develop the communicative competence , which is the main objective of FLL according to The Organic Law 3/2020, of December 29, which modifies Organic Law 2/2006, of May 3, on Education. We deal with an essential topic since successful communication, which is the basis of understanding among human beings, depends on communicative competence and the mastery of the four linguistic skills. In addition, The Foreign Language Curriculum for Primary Education emphasizes the significance of this topic by including in its objectives, blocks of contents and assessment criteria the 23 development of listening, speaking, reading and writing with a communicative purpose as well as paying attention to the components of communicative competence such as the use of strategies, linguistic and socio-cultural aspects, etc. FIRST Learning a language in Primary Education has a practical objective: to be able to communicate. In order to use a language effectively, we need to combine different abilities or skills. We can identify four major skills when using a language to communicate: listening, speaking, reading and writing. According to Jeremy Harmer, these major skills can be classified according to the medium and the activity of the speaker. In this way, speaking and listening are said to relate to language expressed through the aural medium whereas reading and writing are said to relate to language expressed through the visual medium. If we classify these skills according to the activity of the participants, speaking and writing are said to be productive skills since they demand some kind of production on the part of the language user, whereas listening and reading are receptive skills, since the language user is receiving oral or written language. In order to achieve a proper learning, it is convenient to take into account some principles, so that children learn in a natural way: not speaking before listening, not reading before speaking and not writing before reading. One of the reasons to follow this sequence is that the mother tongue is learnt in this way. According to the Communicative Approach, the four skills must be worked on at the same time, but not to the same extent. Reading and writing are abstract activities, and children are not mature enough to deal with abstract concepts. Therefore, they must be reached at the end of Primary Education and that is why The Organic Law 3/2020, of December 29, which modifies Organic Law 2/2006, of May 3, on Education, has kept this in mind and emphasizes oral skills over written skills in Primary Education. 24 After explaining how the four skills are classified, I will go on developing each skill separately. In order to do so, I will follow Jeremy Harmer´s medium classification. I will provide a definition of each skill and its main principles, as well as the strategies and the stages which must be followed to carry out the activities in which these skills may be involved. First, I will deal with the analysis of the skills expressed through the aural medium via spoken words. Let me start with the listening skill. Listening can be defined as the ability to understand and respond to spoken language. This is an essential skill and it provides the aural input that serves as the basis for language acquisition and enables learners to interact in spoken communication. However, far from passively receiving and recording aural input, listening activities involve the listeners actively in the interpretation of what they hear, bringing their own linguistic and background knowledge to bear with the information contained in the aural text. According to Donn Byrne, it is important to remember that, as in mother tongue acquisition, “a learner´s ability to understand language needs to be more extensive than his ability to produce language”. Let us go on examining the main principles which should be followed in order to achieve suitable and beneficial teaching-learning listening activities: a) They must have definite goals, carefully stated. b) They should be constructed with careful step by step planning. c) They should demand active participation from the student. d) They should stress conscious memory work. e) They should teach, not test. f) They should have a communicative purpose: 25 Apart from these principles, listening strategies are another key element when dealing with the listening skill. These are techniques that contribute directly to the comprehension and help the way in which input is received. Since listening is not a passive hearing of sounds but a complex and active process, teachers must train students in: a) Identifying the topic. b) Predicting and guessing information using their prior knowledge. c) Inferring the meaning from context. d) Listening for global understanding (listening for gist). e) Listening for specific information. f) Listening for detailed information. The Communicative Approach and the Learner-centred Approach emphasize the active role of the learner. Therefore, lessons must be planned in a way that ensures children’s involvement in classroom activities. A listening lesson, in order to be effective, must follows 3 stages, which are: - Pre-listening stage: It is a preparatory phase. The aim of the activities carried out at this stage is to prepare students for what they are going to hear and create expectation. This can be achieved through activities such as predicting content from a title, commenting on pictures or photographs, asking for the students’ opinion on the topic, pre-teaching key words (vocabulary) and grammar exercises, among others. - While-listening stage: The aim of the activities carried out at this stage is to develop listening strategies and keep the students active. These tasks can be either extensive or intensive listenings. On the one hand, in extensive listening activities, global understanding is encouraged, for example: matching pictures, sequencing a story, answering questions, following instructions (listen and colour, listen and do...). These activities are appropriate for the first levels. On the other hand, intensive listening activities are tasks that require a 26 specific search for information of any kind (sounds, words, intonation patterns, etc.) as well as dictations, gap-filling activities, finding differences between two versions of a story, etc. - Post-listening stage: The aim of the activities carried out at this stage is to check comprehension and evaluate. Following on the listening passage, a lot of activities are possible: extending lists, summarising, matching with a reading text, performing role plays, practise pronunciation, vocabulary and structures from the text, etc. After having explained the listening skill, I will go on to address the speaking skill. Speaking can be defined as the ability to communicate in speech, which has to be appropriate to specific contexts. The main aim of oral production is to speak fluently, that is to say, the speaker should be able to express his ideas with clarity, correction and without too much hesitation. In order to achieve this objective, the student should go from the initial stage of imitation to the final stage of free production. Nevertheless, there are often silent periods which cannot be interpreted as learning absence. According to Stephen Krashen, the ability to speak fluently comes with time, after the acquirer has built up a certain linguistic competence by understanding the input. In addition, errors are normal, because as Chomsky states, they are positive evidence that learning is taking place. It is important to bear in mind that speaking involves three areas of knowledge: - Mechanics or the use of the right words in the right order with the correct pronunciation. - Functions or the knowledge of the purpose of the speech act. - Social and cultural rules and norms or the importance of the context. 27 As I mentioned before, in order to achieve oral fluency, learners must go from the initial stage of Imitation to the final stage of free production. This means that they have to follow three stages. The first and second stages are preparatory for the third stage, in which real communication takes place: - Imitation: As we know, the first step is the imitation of the model. In this stage, they will mainly repeat either from the teacher of from recorded material. To be successful, they need to be fun, lively and varied, for instance drills: substitution, repetition drills. - Practice: The students can practice in pairs the verbal form already presented. These activities will be controlled by the teacher although some variation is allowed. There are two levels within this stage: On the one hand, there is controlled practice, in which students will use correct and simple language within a situation or context performing activities like telling the time looking at a clock or asking questions about pictures. On the other hand, there is guided practice, which will often be done either in pairs or small groups, performing activities like practicing a model dialogue with possible variations or making surveys. - Production: This is the most genuine communicative stage as the students will have to put in practice in a creative way all he has learnt, without the teacher´s control. In this stage, the development of the discursive competence, that is, coherence and fluency, will take place. At this stage communicative activities take place and the range is endless: playing card games, giving mini-talks, role-play, problem-solving, drama... Most of them are based on the information gap principle. SECOND Now that I have considered the spoken word, I will go on to analyse the skills expressed through the visual medium via written words,that is, reading and writing. 28 Let me start with the Reading skill. Reading can be defined as an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension. Reading comprehension is a receptive skill and therefore shares common features with listening. The main common feature is that reading is an active process in which the meaning of graphs should be decoded so the student must develop some reading strategies. In other words, teachers can help their students to become effective readers by teaching them how to use strategies before, during and after reading. We can distinguish the following reading strategies: previewing, predicting, skimming and scanning, guessing from context and paraphrasing. These reading strategies should be used appropriately depending on the reading stage the student is at. Next, I will describe the main stages in reading activities, which are: - Pre-reading stage may serve as preparation: assess students´ knowledge, give students the knowledge, clarify, make students aware of the type of the text and the purpose reading and motivate them. E.g. using the title, predict content, looking at pictures, skimming to find the main idea, brainstorming. The main aim during this stage is to develop the skill of predicting. - In the while-reading stage, students check the comprehension as they read. The teacher gives the students points to search for: getting the general idea of the text or specific information. The first case is called extensive reading; the other is intensive reading. It may include suggesting a title, underlining the required information, answering questions and chart filling. The main aim during this stage is to develop the skills of skimming, scanning and inferring meaning from context. - As for the post-reading stage, a follow-up work can be considered. The main aims are to internalize the language of the text and to integrate skills. 29 Integrating skills promotes the learning of real content and is highly motivating for students. Once reading in English has been considered, I will focus on how to write in English. Writing skill is more than the production of graphic symbols, as symbols have to be arranged according to certain conventions. According to Matthews, we may distinguish five subskills related to writing: graphic skills, that is writing words correctly including aspects such as capitalization, punctuation and spelling; grammatical skills, the ability to use a variety of sentence patterns and constructions; stylistic skills, the ability to express precise meaning in a variety of styles and registers; rethorical skills ,the ability to use cohesion devices in order to link parts of a text; organisational skills, writing ideas with coherence and summarize relevant points. Writing correctly in a language requires a lot of practice and is a slow ability to acquire. For that reason, in Primary Education it should be done in a guided way. The strategies that a student should learn are, among others, writing words and elementary linguistic forms correctly, writing appropriately according to the context and writing with coherence. In the early stages of learning English, students will generally write very little. Moreover, the youngest ones may be still coping with some features of the writing process in their native language. Therefore, we must be especially sensitive to the different writing demands which we may find in our classroom and the different strategies of supporting their writing. It is highly recommendable that students will spend most time completing tightly controlled written exercises to practice their English, such as completing sentences, unscramble words/sentences, gap-filling or dictations. Like many teaching techniques that go out of fashion for a while, dictation is making a comeback, especially due to the revision undertaken by Paul Davis and Mario Rinvolucri, who looked at the 30 subject and found dynamic alternatives to the dictation of large chunks of uninteresting prose by a boring teacher. In addition to these controlled activities, sometimes students will also be encouraged to produce free writing, although they will need a lot of support. Four stages must be followed when teaching to write: - Copying: students copy material provided by the teacher: texts, sentences, etc. Copying is of great pedagogical value because it helps students reinforce spelling or sentence structure and it also helps them to retain words. Some examples of copying may include listing, classifying words into categories, putting lists of words in alphabetical order, etc. - Practice stage: It must begin as a guided copying at word-level: making a list, a personal dictionary, crosswords, matching labels to pictures, anagrams, then progress to sentence-level: writing speech bubbles for cartoons, sequencing sentences and copying, correcting mistakes and finally, if we want our students to write fluently, they will have to learn how to write paragraphs. This is commonly done by providing a model from which to work, e.g. our students see a text and then use it as a basis for their own work. Jeremy Harmer calls this exercise “parallel writing”. - Production stage: Students will be encouraged to produce writing. At this level, this skill will demand sentence, text structure, organization of ideas… THIRD After having examined the spoken and the written word, I will turn to the definition of integrated skills as well as to the concept of communicative competence. Integrated skills can be defined as the process by means of which a series of activities or tasks use any combination of the four linguistic skills. If we think about how we communicate in everyday life, we notice that, in general, we do not use these skills in an isolated way: we combine them. Thus, 31 in the English class, we have to do the same and design activities that integrate several skills.. The integrated-skill approach involves the teaching of the language skills in conjunction to each other, and exposes learners to authentic language. Integrating the language skills promotes the learning of real content and is highly motivating to students. According to Donn Byrne, in order to integrate skills, it is essential to use varied groupings when designing integrated activities because they offer many opportunities for listening, speaking, reading and writing. Some activities in which skills are integrated are role-play, dictations or project works, which involves some research and some group discussion about the topic until eventually, the students write the final product. Therefore, it is very useful for integrating skills Summing it up, it could be said that skill integration will help to the acquisition of communicative competence. This term was coined by Dell Hymes and it was deliberately contrary to Chomsky´s Linguistic Competence, who tried to explain how a child learns a language. For Chomsky, competence simply implied the knowledge of the language system. Hymes maintained that Chomsky´s theory was incomplete, and that a communicative and cultural dimension should be incorporated. According to him, a speaker does not only need the ability to use grammatical structures, but also to learn how to use those structures in a community (appropriateness). In other words, Hymes stated that in order to learn a language, a native speaker does not only need to utter grammatically correct forms (as Chomsky thought), he also has to know the rules of use, that is, where and when to use a sentence, and to whom. Thus, Hymes replaced Chomsky´s notion of Competence with his own concept of Communicative Competence, and distinguished four aspects:  Systematic potential: A native speaker possesses a potential for creating language. 32  Appropriacy: A native speaker knows what language is appropriate in a given situation, in a particular context.  Occurrence: A native speaker knows how often something is said in the language and act accordingly.  Feasibility: A native speaker knows whether something is possible in the language, although some structures are grammatically correct, they are not possible in the language. These four categories have been adopted for teaching purposes. Later on, linguists Canale and Swain expanded the previous description of Hymes, establishing five subcompetences of the Communicative Competence. As a result of this, the act 1006/1991 of 14th June (B.O.E. 25 June) establishes the teaching requirements nationwide and sets up that Communicative Competence for Foreign Language Learners comprises five subcompetences:  Grammar competence: It refers to the ability to put into practice the linguistic units according to the rules of use established in the linguistic system, for instance, the mastery of grammatical structures and vocabulary. Students should be able to cope with difficulties in phonology, orthography, vocabulary, word and sentence formation.  Discourse competence: The ability to us different types of discourse and organise them according to the communicative situation and the speakers involved in it, using cohesion and coherence. Students should be able to distinguish the different devices to use in oral and written language.  Sociolinguistic competence: The ability to adequate the utterances to the specific context according to the accepted usage of a particular linguistic community. Students should be able to understand the social context in order to express and understand social meanings properly.  Strategic competence: The ability to define or make adjustments in the course of the communicative situation, and the capacity to use verbal and non- verbal strategies in order to make communication effective. Students should be 33 able to use strategies to cope with grammar problems , with sociolinguistic difficulties as well as with discourse difficulties in general.  Sociocultural competence: A certain knowledge of the social and cultural context in which the Foreign Language is used. Students should get at least some command of the basic social and cultural features of L2 in order to communicate appropriately. Conclusion To conclude, I would like to remark that, as I have proven in this topic, it is important that the activities and techniques we use in the classroom aim to develop the four skills of language in students so that they can take part in any communicative situation. Therefore, we should try to achieve communicative competence in our students, aiming activities to develop oral and written comprehension (listening and reading skills) and oral and written expression (speaking and writing skills). In this topic, I have analysed the spoken word as well as the development of listening and speaking skills in students when learning a language. Then, I have examined the written word, and the achievement od the reading and writing skills. Finally, I have discussed the importance of integrating skills in order to develop the communicative competence , which is the main objective of FLL according to The Organic Law 3/2020, of December 29, which modifies Organic Law 2/2006, of May 3, on Education. In order to develop this topic, the following bibliography has been used:  Halliday M.A.K.(Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday): “Spoken and written language”. Geelong University Press, 1976. 34  Savignon, S.: “Communicative Competence: Theory and Classroom Practice” New York: McGraw Hill, 1997.  Dell Hymes “On Communicative Competence in Sociolinguistics” Penguin, London, 1972.  Halliwell, S. “Teaching English in the Primary English Classroom” Longman, London, 1992.  BREWSTER, J. et al. (2003): The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. Penguin English.  HARMER, J. (2003): The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman.  LARSEN-FREEMAN, D. (2003): Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford University Press.  VARELA, R. et al. (2003): All About Teaching English. Centro de Estudios Ramón Areces. Tema 4. - VALORACIÓN DEL CONOCIMIENTO DE LAS LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS COMO INSTRUMENTO DE COMUNICACIÓN ENTRE LAS PERSONAS Y LOS PUEBLOS. - INTERÉS POR LA DIVERSIDAD LINGÜÍSTICA A TRAVÉS DEL CONOCIMIENTO DE UNA NUEVA LENGUA Y SU CULTURA. A language is the expression of a whole culture; it is a way of understanding the world and organising the relationships among people. Hence, learning a foreign language means learning both a linguistic code and cultural elements. Foreign language teaching must introduce students to the most outstanding social and cultural aspects of a country and help them to develop attitudes of tolerance and respect because, as stated by Crystal, if a student perceives a country or culture to be unpleasant for whatever reason, the negative attitude is likely to influence language learning achievement. 35 Based on this view, the present essay aims to study the relevance of teaching a foreign language as an instrument of communication and the increasing interest in language diversity. For this purpose, I will divide the topic into two main sections. In the first part, I will discuss the way foreign languages can act as a barrier to international communication. In order to do so, I will explain briefly the main current languages that exist in the world. Then I will point out different methods that have been proposed to reduce the linguistic barrier and I will argue why learning foreign languages is necessary. In the second part, I will underline the interest in language diversity by getting to know a new language and its culture and I will suggest how to develop our students´ sociocultural competence. We deal with an essential topic since effective communication in a foreign language is more than elaborating grammatically correct sentences; it also involves the appreciation and respect of its speakers and their culture. In other words, we cannot go about fostering Communicative Competence, which is the main aim of FL teaching, without paying attention to the sociocultural competence. In this regards, according to Canale and Swain the CC can be divided into five subcompetences, one of which is the Sociocultural competence. This can be defined as a certain awareness of the social and cultural context in which the FL is used. In addition, The FL Curriculum for Primary Education established in the DECREE 107/2022, of July 28, which establishes the organization and curriculum of Primary Education for the Autonomous Community of Extremadura emphasizes the significance of this topic by including in its objectives the value of the foreign language and languages in general as a vehicle of communication and understanding among people with diverse origins and cultures. FIRST After having presented the sociocultural competence and its main role in teaching English as a FL, I will start to develop the first part of this topic by explaining briefly the current languages that exist nowadays by classifying them into three categories: Firstly, there are the Indo-European languages which seem to descend from a common linguistic trunk whose influence expanded from India to Europe. The Indo-European family is divided into twelve branches, being the most important on the one hand The Germanic Branch which includes languages such as English, German or Dutch and on the other hand, The Italic Branch which includes languages 36 such as Spanish, French or Romanian, all of which are derived from Latin. In this regard, it is worth mentioning that the existence of a common linguistic trunk makes it easier for children to learn foreign languages, since they can apply the knowledge of their mother tongue to the learning of languages that have similar features, for instance, the fact that the Spanish language and the Romanian language have similarities in many aspects like grammar and vocabulary, makes it easier for a Romanian child to learn the Spanish language. Secondly, there are other linguistic trunks nowadays, like Caucasian or Semitic. Finally, there are other languages such as Japanese, Korean or Malayan which do not have similarities with other languages. Next I will consider the way in which foreign languages can act as a barrier to international communication. According to David Crystal, language is the main means by which people communicate, although, ironically, it also constitutes the main barrier. The fact that so many languages exist prevents people from understanding each other. We quickly notice this barrier when travelling, in international political relationships and in business. There have been many attempts in order to get around this linguistic barrier. Let me go on examining in detail some of the most important ways of getting around this linguistic barrier: 1) One of them is increasing the number and availability of translating and interpreting services. The most usual way to overcome a linguistic barrier is to find someone who translates or interprets it. The aim of translation is to provide semantic equivalence between source and target language. However, there are many problems when it comes to interpret or translate because exact equivalence is impossible and there is always a loss of information. There are also technical problems if we use translation in a large scale, as it can result very expensive. 37 2) Developing an auxiliary language that everyone will understand, such as Esperanto is another option. An ideal artificial language should fulfil the following criteria, among others: it must be easy to learn, it should be applicable to mother tongues, it should enable the user to apply it for a rich range of functions, it should be standardized, it should be neutral and it should enable its users to think more logically. However, one cannot be persuaded to learn it if no one else knows it. 3) A third possibility is to develop an existing language that everyone will understand. Today, many people consider that the only realistic way of breaking the linguistic barrier is to use an existing language as a world lingua franca. We understand lingua franca as a language that is used for communication between different groups of people, each speakers of a different language. History demonstrates that there have been precedents in the idea of using a common language to communicate and exchange ideas. In the Middle Ages and The Renaissance, Latin was used as the main medium of communication in Western Europe. From the 18th Century onwards, French was the language that was used in international diplomacy, and at the beginning of the 20th Century, German was the language in which scientists wrote. Nowadays, the absolute protagonist as a lingua franca in any field is English. The political, economic and military power of the United Kingdom initially and now of the United States of America contribute significantly towards the role of English as a lingua franca. The main problem we find with a lingua franca such as English is that the fact that it is spoken in so many parts of the world makes it suffer from significant variations and it is hard to keep it standardised. Also a world language like this may affect the status of minority languages such as Swedish or Danish and the identity of those nations. 4) Finally, there is the option of providing increasing motivation and opportunities to learn foreign languages. This seems to be the most realistic way to break the linguistic barrier. In addition, the success to a unified Europe depends on the European citizens´ success to speak a common language. Thus, organizations such as The Council of Europe have adopted recommendations to the governments of member states to ensure that all sections of their population have access to effective means of acquiring knowledge in one or more foreign languages. 38 Considering languages as a means of communication implies that the teacher informs students of the advantages of being fluent in a common language, in a world where so many languages exist and it also implies using a communicative methodology in which the student understands the scope (opportunities) of mastering another language. The necessity of learning foreign languages is questioned by many people who are reluctant to learn a second language. However, there are some answers to defend the opposite idea and protect the need to teach and learn foreign languages. According to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, FLT must be increased and diversified and if possible, children must learn more than one language. There are several reasons why learning foreign languages is necessary and should be promoted at school:  First, it can be said that foreign language learning is no longer a luxury but a need in a plurilingual world like ours. The path towards a united Europe demands citizens to communicate and interact with each other. Learning a foreign language in Europe is a criterion of responsible international membership.  Second, learning a FL promotes understanding, tolerance and respect for the cultural identity, rights and values of others. Language learning broadens our minds, because we find other ways of thinking about things.  Third, foreign language teaching has an essential role in preparing our students to cope with an ever-changing environment. They may overcome their insecurity and develop their confidence as they face up to social and personal demands, which are not usually encountered in a Spanish context.  Fourth, the students general Communicative Competence is improved by the incorporation of other linguistic codes, such as a foreign language.  Fifth, children are better prepared to learn a language than adults at an auditory and phonological level, because their brain has a natural capacity that diminishes as the years go by.  Sixth, when communicating, children´s spontaneity comes in handy when learning a second language because, generally, they have less inhibiting factors.  Finally, it could be said that foreign language learning is the only way to fully appreciate one´s own language. 39 As we can see, some of the most important reasons why we should learn a FL have to do with international communication, but this has to do not only with knowing the linguistic aspects of the language, but also with knowing about the culture in which the language is a vehicle for. SECOND Now that we are aware of the way a FL can act as a barrier for international communication and why learning a FL is necessary in a plurilingual world like ours, let me go on developing the second part of this topic, that is, the interest in linguistic diversity by getting to know a new language and its culture. For this purpose, I will explain “what culture is” and “why it should be taught” when learning a FL. Next, I will propose how to incorporate culture in the EFL classroom and how to develop students´ cultural awareness. Finally, I will give some practical considerations. Let me start answering the first question “what culture is”. Culture can be defined as a whole of knowledge, lifestyles and customs of a concrete society in an historical moment. It has been widely recognised that culture and language are interrelated and that language is used as the main medium by means of which culture is expressed. Therefore, culture and communication are inseparable: culture dictates how communication proceeds, establishes the relationships between the participants and also helps to determine how people encode messages and the conditions and circumstances under which various messages may or may not be sent, noticed or interpreted. Let me go on answering the second question “why culture should be taught”. In order to do so, I will highlight the main goals when teaching culture to Primary students:  To be aware of the existence of different culturally-conditioned behaviours.  To develop an understanding that social variables, such as the age, sex, social class and so on influence the ways in which people speak and behave.  To be aware of conventional behaviour in common situations in the target culture.  To increase awareness of cultural connotations of words and phrases in the target language.  To avoid stereotypes in the target language. 40  To stimulate students´ intellectual curiosity about the target language, and to encourage empathy towards its people. Methods and Approaches for teaching a foreign language have greatly changed in the last decades, and the sociocultural factor has been a key factor in this evolution hand in hand with the Communicative Approach. The first methods were centred in the study of grammatical rules, avoiding the study of social and cultural rules and norms or the importance of the language within a specific context. As a result of the role of language as a social practice, new ways of looking at the teaching of language and culture have been suggested. Let me go on describing them:  Establishing a sphere of “interculturality”. Understanding a foreign culture implies putting that culture in relation with one´s own culture. To teach culture in the foreign language classroom it is necessary to reflect upon both the English and the Spanish culture.  Teaching culture as an interpersonal process. The conception of language as a social practice implies that meaning depends not only on its linguistic context, but also on the socio-cultural background.  Teaching culture as difference. It is important to teach that differences related to a nationality do not only depend on the culture, but on some other factors as well, such as the age, sex, regional accent or social class.  Crossing disciplinary boundaries. The teaching of English language as well as its culture has to be linked with other disciplines such as anthropology and sociology and not only with grammar. However, the development of cultural awareness is not an easy task. In order to facilitate it, the teacher should give the students regular opportunities to: come into contact with native speakers in the students´ country (English club) and abroad (Project Lingua); work with authentic materials and Realia from the countries of the target language. In this regard, J. Peck states that “from the first day, teachers are expected to bring in the class posters, pictures and other realia in order to help students develop a ‘mental image’ of the target culture”; discussing similarities and differences between the students´ culture and British or American culture; teach them how to solve cultural problem in specific situations, for instance, in a restaurant and of course encourage them 41 to use verbal and non-verbal communication, such as gestures and facial expressions, typical from the target culture. These procedures will make our students more aware of cultural differences and similarities. However, how can we teach culture to Spanish foreign language students? How can we stimulate their curiosity about the target culture? Perhaps one of the best ways of doing so is by exploring culture-based activities. The main aim of culture-based activities is to increase students´ awareness and to develop their curiosity towards the target culture and their own, helping them to make comparisons among cultures. These comparisons will enrich our students own culture and will make them aware of the diversity among cultures. This diversity should then be understood and respected. Regarding the topics which these activities should cover, it could be remarked that in Primary Education, the teacher will deal with information and knowledge which is close to the children´s world, so that they become interested in the new culture. Pupils will often learn a range of details about the target culture, especially everyday life, songs, rhymes, stories, special festivals and celebrations. In addition to these aspects of daily life, certain geographical or historical aspects may appear naturally in text books and other materials. Some of the aspects that we can work with in the classroom are: (+ las actividades del topic 5 sólo enunciadas, no explicadas) Firstly, among relevant social aspects to teach our students we may find courtesy formulas, also called formulaic language and their use in each situation such as Hi/hello; Goodbye/Bye- bye, Thank you/please; education aspects such as British or American schools, uniforms and schoolsubjects; Food and drink in those countries such as English breakfast and their different eating hours; Housing for instance the fact that in Britain most people live in houses rather than in flats; Money and the familiarization with British and American money and with the value of sterling pounds and dollars in euros and the variety of names among which we may highlight Anglo-Saxon names such as Kim or Patrick. Some activities to work with social aspects in the English classroom may include performing making contact with real people, for instance older 42 pupils can be encouraged to interview native speakers, writing to pen friends and performing role- plays. Secondly, among relevant cultural aspects to teach our students we may find Festivals such as the Bonfire Night or Thanksgiving; Music such as rock n´roll songs or blues; Monuments such as Big Ben or the Statue of Liberty; History and Literature such as Henry the VII and his wives or the great writer William Shakespeare; Sport and the fact that most of them are English borrowings like football, golf and tennis and also typical British sports which are less popular in Spain such as cricket. Some activities to work with cultural aspects in the English classroom may include using Realia; watching Films, television shows, or looking to web sites, photographs, magazines; learning and singing songs, rhymes, telling stories ; learning Proverbs, elaborating projects; celebrating British or American festivals in class, like Halloween, Christmas; taking quizzes on Anglo-Saxon culture; and working on recipes, which are useful to practise food and drink, and are also connected with celebrations. Lastly, among relevant geographical aspects to teach our students we may find the Main English speaking countries: using maps students can locate the main countries where English is official language such as Great Britain, the USA, Canada or Australia; Main cities and capitals such as London, New York or Sidney; Interesting facts about the British weather and its influence on landscapes and lifestyles; and Population or how different cultures, races and religions coexist. Some activities to work with geographical aspects in the English classroom may include using Maps, so that students can locate the main countries where English is an official language, as well as important cities; also becoming familiar with flags, so that students can relate nationalities and countries with their flag, making puzzles of Great Britain or the USA by cutting its parts into pieces so that students can join them later and also different types of listenings, for instance, listening to a weather forecast while completing a map. As Abraham J.Peck states “Beginning foreign language students want to feel, touch, smell and see the foreign peoples and not just hear their language”. The focus in the language classroom should be on cultural experience rather than on cultural awareness. 43 Conclusion Learning a FL is a necessity in a society that tends to remove language barriers and promotes international relationships at cultural, social, professional and political levels. Learning a FL means learning both a linguistic code and cultural elements. Therefore, FLT must introduce students to the social and cultural aspects of a country and help them to develop attitudes of tolerance and respect. It is not by chance that within the general objectives for the area of Foreign Languages on the stage of Primary Education established ,by the in The Royal Decree 157/2022, of March 1st, which establishes the organization and minimum teachings of Primary Education,we find the following Objective: to value the FL and languages in general as a vehicle of communication and understanding among people with diverse origins and cultures and as a learning tool of different contents. In this topic we have explained why children must learn foreign languages at school. Then we have focused on the main languages that exist today, considering the possibility of creating a lingua franca to improve understanding about people from different countries. Then we have concentrated on the teaching of the English language in a way that contributes to the appreciation of its cultural features. In order to develop this topic the following bibliography has been used:  BREWSTER, J. et al. (2003): The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. Penguin English.  HARMER, J. (2003): The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman.  LARSEN-FREEMAN, D. (2003): Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford University Press. 44  VARELA, R. et al. (2003): All About Teaching English. Centro de Estudios Ramón Areces. Tema 5. - MARCO GEOGRÁFICO, HISTÓRICO Y CULTURAL DE LOS PAÍSES DE HABLA INGLESA. - APLICACIÓN DIDÁCTICA DE LOS ASPECTOS GEOGRÁFICOS, HISTÓRICOS Y CULTURALES MÁS SIGNIFICATIVOS A language is the expression of a whole culture; it is a way of understanding the world and organising the relationships among people. Hence, learning a foreign language means learning both a linguistic code and cultural elements. Foreign language teaching must introduce students to the most outstanding social and cultural aspects of a country and help them to develop attitudes of tolerance and respect because, as stated by David Crystal, if a student perceives a country or culture to be unpleasant for whatever reason, the negative attitude is likely to influence language learning achievement. Based on this view, the present essay aims to study the geographical, historical and cultural aspects of the most emblematic countries where English is spoken as a mother tongue. For this purpose, I will divide the topic into three main sections: first, I will deal with The United Kingdom and The Republic of Ireland. Second, I will concentrate on the United States of America and finally, I will deal with the teaching of geographical, historical and cultural aspects, analysing the importance of developing Sociocultural Competence in the FL classroom. We deal with an essential topic since effective communication in a foreign language is more than elaborating grammatically correct sentences; it also involves the appreciation and respect of its speakers and their culture. In other words, we cannot go about fostering Communicative 45 Competence, which is the main aim of FL teaching, without paying attention to the sociocultural competence. In this regard, I would like to mention that according to Canale and Swain the Communicative Competence can be divided into five subcompetences, one of which is the Sociocultural competence. This can be defined as a certain awareness of the social and cultural context in which the foreign language is used. In addition, The Foreign Language Curriculum for Primary Education emphasizes the significance of this topic by including in its objectives the identification and appreciation of cultural aspects of the countries where the foreign language is spoken. FIRST PART Let me start analysing the most relevant geographical, historical and cultural aspects of the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (usually shortened to the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain) is a political union made up of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Many people confuse England with the United Kingdom. This difference needs to be explained and worked on in class through different activities. The capital city is London, but each country has its own capital. London is the capital of England; Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland; Cardiff, the capital of Wales and Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland. The currency is the pound sterling. The UK is a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral Parliament that consists of The House of Lords and The House of Commons. The chief of State and the head of the Church of England is Queen Elizabeth II. However, the country is ruled by a government which is constituted by one of the two major political parties: the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. The UK is also a member of The Commonwealth, The European Community and the N.A.T.O. 46 Bearing these general characteristics in mind, I will concentrate on three main aspects: Geography, English History, Culture and Education.  As regards Geography, it is important to distinguish between British Isles, Great Britain and United Kingdom. The British Isles are a group of about 5000 islands in the north-west coast of Europe. The largest island among them is Great Britain, which consists of England, Wales and Scotland. The next largest island is Ireland, which is made up of Northern Ireland and The Irish Republic. Britain and Northern Ireland together with a number of small islands form the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland, more commonly known as United Kingdom. In total it is estimated that the UK includes around 1000 island, with 700 in Scotland alone. Great Britain is separated from the European continent by the North Sea and the English Channel. Rivers in Great Britain are quite short but their easy navigability has made them an important part of the inland transport network. The most important ones are The Thames and The Severn. The United Kingdom has generally a mild, temperate climate. The weather, however, tends to be very changeable because of the constant influence of different air masses. Regarding the human geography, it is notably that since the early 1950s the United Kingdom has experimented a rapidly growing of the population, mainly due to people coming from different Commonwealth countries such as India and Pakistan. Its overall population density is one of the highest in the world.  As regards British History, the country´s isolation has marked its history and its non-conformist character, reflected in aspects such as driving on the left, the measures used or the currency. Next, I will point out some of the most important historical facts that have taken place in Britain: 47 - In 55 B.C. Julius Caesar invaded Britain to secure Gaul for Rome. After choosing Colchester as the capital of Britannia, the Romans realized the strategic importance of the Thames, so the former settlement, which was then called Londinium became a trade and administrative centre. - In the 5th century A.D. the Saxons settled in Britain and established a number of kingdoms: Essex, Sussex, East Anglia... The influence of Anglo-Saxon culture and language was very important. As a result, Latin disappeared when these tribes invaded Britain. However, by the end of the 8th century the Vikings started to attack Britain. The Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms could not stop them and soon the Vikings conquered Britain and started to settle there. By the end of the 9th century, the Danes had conquered the Kingdoms of East Anglia, Northumbria and Mercia, and were preparing to do the same to Wessex. However, King Alfred the Great defeated them and brought Anglo-Saxon England into a golden age of social stability. - Later on, in Middle 9th century, the separate Kingdoms of Scotland became unified into a large Celtic monarchy that lasted until the end of the reign of Macbeth in 1057. - In 1215, the sovereign’s absolute power became submitted (sometida) to law because of the Magna Carta. This was due to the barons’ rebellion against King John, who finally had to sign it. In 1282 Edward I controlled Wales, but his son, Edward II, lost the Battle of Bannockburn to Robert the Bruce in 1314 and Scotland gained its independence. - In 1337 the One Hundred Years’ War began. In 1328, the French King had died with no children. The English King, Edward III, claimed the French throne but Philip VI was the legitimate heir in the eyes of the French. The war lasted, on and off, 116 years, and ended up with the loss of all English possessions on the mainland. - In the 15th century the Wars of the Roses took place, between the Houses of York and Lancaster. In the Battle of Bosworth Field (1485), Henry Tudor (Lancaster) defeated and killed Richard III (York) and became King as Henry VII (The Tudors became the ruling family in England). Bosworth marked not only the end of the Wars of the Roses, but also the end of the feudal period. 48 - At the beginning of the 16th century, Henry’s VII eldest son, Arthur, married Catherine of Aragon, but he died young, leaving the throne to his brother, Henry VIII. Henry received a special dispensation f

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