La segunda lenguaFactores positivos para el aprendizaje

Resumen

This research resulted from the need to hilight and investigate those processes of mental development, based on didactic models and approaches, wich favour linguistic integration of foreign students as the first step in their social integration. The conducted study aims to question the possibility and limits of this process, by concentrating on the strenght of integration in school and therefore on the possibility of using it in multicultural and multilingual contexts. The aim of the investigation and analysis regards sociological, psycological antropological and even legal aspects of the issue in question. In a multicultural contest, like that which exists today, integration becomes a fundamental element and such aspects consequently form the aim of investigation and analysis, which are parallel to research. Moreover, these aspects are both fundamental and necessary for the pedagogical definition of the object of this study. The theoretical principal underlying this research is the early teaching of a foreign language and in particular, of the English language, a universal language of the multicultural society, in which we live; this early teaching is necessery to create a shared space between pupils whether they are foreign or not. As a result, the teaching of a foreign language becomes an aid in the socialization and acceptance of foreign pupils in our classes. The research method, also includes giving a questionnaire with open answers to foreign language teachers of all levels, categorising them by age, sex, permanent or non-permanent job, and length of employment. Analysing the results of the questionnaire, it emerged that teachers prefer to use a comunicative methodological approach aimed at developing fluency and ability of the language; more precisely this means carrying out specific tasks. An eclectic approach is greatly used and requires a variety of method and approaches, from which a teacher selects those he or she considers to be the most effective and applies them to the relative objectives and contexts. In particular, the so called active techniques are often used and they foresee the student’s conscious participation, for example, role-playing. In the methodological field, the functional-notional method, which focuses on communication is generally favoured; it is directed at the learning of a language as a means of communication, considering that we are part of a society in which the English language is increasingly considered, more and more, as a vehicular language. Furthermore, all those teachers interviewed mantain that language lessons develop the inclusion of foreign students through activities in pairs or in small groups where everybody works together and where they are involved in overcoming the same difficulties, as well as taking part in role-play which facilitates communication. This study concludes with a series of examples of lessons, which show the fundamental role of studying a foreign language in involving foreign students in the proposed activities, which in turn favour their inclusion in and socialisation with the rest of the class.