A Didactic Proposal for EFL in a Public School in Cali

Abstract

This article reports an action-research project aimed at designing, applying, and assessing a didactic sequence for teaching English as a foreign language in the first grade of a public school in Cali. The article comprises the context, reasons that justified the research, theoretical support, methodology, and results, analyzed through descriptive statistics and a data matrix. The findings suggest that the didactic proposal was easy to use for the teacher, understandable for the students, and appropriate for the students' proficiency level due to its emphasis on the oral skills. It was concluded that didactic material should follow the pacing of the teachers' academic work and has to be closely linked to the reality of teachers and students.Key words: Didactics, didactic sequence, English as foreign language, primary school.Este artículo reporta una investigación-acción cuyo objetivo fue el diseño, aplicación y evaluación de una secuencia didáctica para enseñanza de inglés en grado primero de una escuela pública de Cali. Se presentan el contexto, las razones que originaron el estudio, el soporte teórico, la metodología y los resultados obtenidos. Los hallazgos sugieren que la propuesta didáctica fue de fácil uso para la docente, comprensible y acorde con el nivel de proficiencia de los estudiantes, dado su énfasis en las habilidades 11A Didactic Proposal for EFL in a Public School in Cali orales. Se concluyó que un material didáctico en este nivel debe ser acompañado del trabajo académico de los docentes de área y estar ligado a la realidad escolar.Palabras clave: didáctica, escuela primaria, inglés como lengua extranjera, secuencia didáctica. IntroductionTeaching English as a foreign language has increasingly become a priority for the Ministry of National Education in Colombia. This process dates back to Law 115 (Ministerio de Educación Nacional [MEN], 1994), Curricular Guidelines for English Teaching (MEN, 1996), Basic Competence Standards for English (BSCE) (MEN, 2006), and National Plan of Bilingualism (MEN, 2004) with its subsequent variations (PFDCLE in 2010, Colombia Very Well or PNI in 2014[MEN, 2014, and Colombia Bilingüe in 2015). However, despite the interest of the government in developing the teaching of English, most primary school teachers do not have the proficiency level or the formation in didactics for teaching a foreign language because they are general homeroom (all-subject) teachers, not English teachers per se; they do not have any formation in English or language didactics other than the one they received in secondary school (Cadavid, McNulty, & Quinchía, 2004;Cárdenas, 2001;Cárdenas, Chaves, & Hernández, 2015); they have not increased their proficiency or developed their teaching of English because BAs and professional development in this area are offered only for secondary teachers (Bustos & Chamorro, 2003;Cárdenas et al., 2015;González & Sierra, 2011). Research has found that the current situation in Colombian public schools does not reflect effective actions aimed at promoting prima...

Enhance of Flavor and Some Microbial Physicochemical and Sensorial Properties of Yogurt by Dried Cantaloupe Pulp

“…The results are shown in the Figure 3, ethanol value in control treatment A was 10.25 mg/L and the rest of the treatments H and K were 7.12 and 4.29 mg/L respectively. The level of ethanol in the( H) cantaloupe 1% and (K) cantaloupe 3% treatments were lower than control treatment, the reason for that cantaloupe contains many nutrients that stimulate the growth and activity of yogurt starter in the production of alcohol dehydrogenase that removes the hydrogen atom from ethanol and converts it to acetaldehyde as one of the pathways for the production of acetaldehyde from alcohol (6,25), reducing the percentage of ethanol to the limits of these values brings us many benefits, such as getting rid of the undesirable alcoholic taste in the yogurt product.…”

“…in the trails A, H and K respectively. the level of acetone in the (H) cantaloupe 1% and (K) cantaloupe 3% treatments were lower than control treatment, the reason for this is that may be due to cantaloupe contains many nutrients that stimulate the growth and activity of yogurt starter in the production of an enzyme that removes the hydrogen atom from acetone and converts it to acetaldehyde by an (Alcohol dehydrogenase) as one of the pathways for the production of acetaldehyde from alcohol (6,25).…”

“…Flavor compounds tests Acetaldehyde1: The results are shown in the (figure 1), acetaldehyde values were 13.46, 14.27 and 24.54 mg/L in the treatments (A, H and K) respectively. In treatment (H), it was found that acetaldehyde content increased compared with the control treatment, is due to addition of cantaloupe 1% a good source of threonine (14), which is a good nutrient for the starter culture, threonine represents one of the pathways of acetaldehyde formation (6,25).…”