Standards and language skills integration: is it possible?
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Abstract
As language teachers we are concerned about how to cope with the National Ministry of Education policies. National Standards for English Language Teaching was published, in an attempt to unify criteria for English Language teaching. However, there are still teachers wondering how to include them into their class planning. The research group (ESCU) developed a research study using learning tasks as a pedagogical strategy to integrate these standards and the language skills in the English class. This qualitative research study was conducted with sixth and ninth grade students in three public schools. Direct class observations were made, questionnaires and interviews were applied. Results indicated that the use of Task-Based Learning helped to integrate standards and enhanced students' potential in the four language skills. This paper presents the results of one of the proposed objectives of a research project carried out in a city in the Colombian Caribbean Coast.
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