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online:
Spanish for Primary
teaching
Tita Beaven,
Department of Languages, The Open
University
April 2009
The challenge:
Our challenge in this CPD course was in designing
an online course to introduce primary school
practitioners to the Spanish language. This
involved:
• Designing a basic curriculum to introduce school
practitioners to basic Spanish vocabulary and
structures, but at the same time designing a
course that would also be relevant to their
classroom context
• Training participants in learning how to learn a
language
• Providing substantial interactive practice online
• Providing support for the course participants
Overall course content
All out CPD courses a 30-hours long, so in terms of
the language covered the aims of the course are
necessarily modest:
The learning
outcomes are
clearly stated
at the start of
each new
topic.
Learning how to learn
Language learning
strategies are
introduced
throughout the
course, to ensure
the participants
think about how to
learn a language,
both for
themselves and
for the children
they will be
teaching.
Collaboration
The course
provides
students with a
number of
collaborative
tools such as a
forum, a course
blog and a wiki
so they can
engage with
others course
participants.
Learning support
The
introduction
to each
section
situates the
learning in
a context
that course
participants
can
understand
and relate
to.
Focus on pronunciation
It is essential
that
classroom
practitioners
are able to
offer the
children they
teach a good
enough model
when
speaking the
foreign
language, so
there is a lot
Focus on grammar
In an online
course it is
very important
to give the
learner plenty
of opportunity
to speak.
Interactive
speaking
activities like
this one
simulate real
interaction by
providing a
prompt
students have
to respond to.
Interactive practice
Because it’s
an online
course that
learners study
mostly on
their own,
there are
regular
interactive
activities.
This helps
maintain
interest and
motivation in
the learner.
Relevance to the primary
context
In the design of the course it was important to
include examples of the language used in the
primary school context:
Some of the
activities in this
section provide
learners with the
sort of
“classroom
language” they
can easily
transfer to their
own setting. This
listening activity,
for instance, is
about a teacher
Practical suggestions for the
classroom