Principles Underlying Teaching Practice
The principles underlying teaching practice are viewed as an evolutionary process aligned with the CEFR, preserving or adapting aspects of the Revised English Curriculum 2018. These principles address: language learning and teaching, beginning language learning and teaching, selection of materials, design of tasks, classroom assessment, and the integration of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
Meaningful language learning is active, constructive, authentic, and cooperative, with learners motivated when they engage in activities relevant to their lives. Teachers promote learning by affording learners maximum exposure to the target language through a language-rich environment and a variety of texts, allowing for incidental acquisition. Teachers should recognize the importance of relating to learners' linguistic resources (L1, additional languages, and English). They promote learning by providing success-oriented tasks and constructive feedback. Teachers should set lexical targets based on the Lexical Bands, provide frequent recycling activities, and ensure grammar and vocabulary are practiced in focused, meaningful, and contextualized tasks. Furthermore, teachers should provide authentic, real-world tasks, encourage collaboration, and promote reflection and metacognitive awareness before, during, and after learning opportunities.
Instruction for young learners at the Pre-Basic User (Pre-A1) level focuses primarily on establishing aural/oral skills as the foundation for reading and writing. Teaching should provide for an extensive period of meaningful listening and speaking practice prior to the introduction of English literacy. Teachers should provide exposure to rich, comprehensible language input using high-frequency vocabulary and chunks, utilize age-appropriate materials like stories and games, and teach phonemic awareness, along with decoding and encoding of letters and syllables. Extensive practice is required to ensure the acquisition of sight vocabulary (automatic, accurate, and rapid word recognition).
Instructional materials must cover the can-do statements and the Lexical and Grammar Bands. They must be inclusive, unprejudiced, and non-stereotypical, building on learners' backgrounds and interests while providing opportunities for action-oriented, contextualized language practice that promotes independent learning. Instructional tasks, which should be meaningful and transparent in terms of goals and process, must allow for a focus on form, meaning, and use. Tasks should encourage convergent and divergent thinking, provide opportunities for applying global competences (including critical thinking and creativity), allow for multiple solutions, and promote learner reflection and self-evaluation.
Assessment, whether formative or summative, constitutes an integral part of the process, utilizing a variety of valid and reliable methods. Assessment should include tasks that promote learners’ involvement and reflection on their learning. Learners should be familiar with the assessment criteria and take an active role in evaluating their own progress and that of their peers, often using rubrics and checklists. Teachers should also take measures to minimize test anxiety. Regarding the integration of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), teachers should encourage learners to interact with digital media, providing tools to access, manage, store, create, and critically evaluate information. Learners should engage in virtual exchange and collaborative activities based on Web environments (like Google Docs and wikis) and be aware of ethical considerations and acceptable online behavior (netiquette).
The curriculum includes a section titled "Key to Communicative Language Activities," which serves as a guide for reading the can-do statements for all five levels of progression (Pre-Basic User – Independent User II). This key describes the sub-headings and the key concepts operationalized within the statements for reception, production, interaction, and mediation activities.
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Can dos: Pre-basic user (Pre-A1)
