A didactic proposal for EFL speaking framed under teaching For understanding principles.

Abstract

The school under study follows the Ministry of Education (M.E.N) standards, which are concise written descriptions of what scholars are expected to know and be able to do grade by grade. We realized that the progression followed to teach a beginner class of 26 English Language Learners (ELL) did not seem to help them to attain the goals of oral proficiency development. With this mixed-ability class we were challenged to design a unit of work that started with the end goal. We designed 11 lessons that resulted that most of the 10th graders made gains in speaking. This thesis shares with the audience a Backward Design, which is a planning teaching for understanding framework, developed by Wiggins and Mctighe (2005). The data indicate that fourteen of the participants made progress in speaking and that they all of them found the course interesting, fun and meaningful. We feel that the recently published Suggested English Curriculum (M.E.N 2016) would be an opportunity for teachers of English to try a Backward Design to guide their decisions.