Competences in US and Spain

This chapter analyzes teaching strategies that English-speaking Language Assistants (LAs) enrolled as students in the ‘Teach and Learn in Spain' Program at Instituto Franklin-Universidad de Alcalá, considering their curriculum designs developed as Master's Theses between 2014 and 2017. It is based on the assumption that they focus on the aspects they perceive as essential for developing Spanish students' oral communication skills in English in the context of their relationship with other types of skills that are specific for the 21st century in particular. Specifically, after describing the basic context for developing competences in the Spanish and North American education systems, the chapter analyzes several aspects: the teaching strategies their academic papers focus on, the proposal of guides and guidelines as a strategy to solve difficulties, and some of the other types of solutions they provide to motivate the students and improve specific skills.

Relationships in the Learning Process of Reading Comprehension in Spanish and English

English is one of the most studied and used languages worldwide. The process of acquiring reading is a complex task that involves mastering a set of strategies aimed at assimilating written information by the reader. Different studies have shown that the process of understanding reading in the mother tongue has certain similarities with this same learning in English because in both situations semantic and contextual information is used, but there are also several authors who point out that there are distinctions between reading models in a first and second language. This chapter delves into these relationships, which focus on analysing the variables that most influence the learning of comprehensive capacity in Spanish and English. A quasi-experimental design of comparison between groups with pre-test and post-test measurements was used. The study involved 120 students aged between 8 and 9. The results indicate that there are a number of factors that are related in learning to read in Spanish and English.

Literacies of the Body

Education is at a transitional point: multicultural, multilingual environments are the norm and diversity a defining feature. Classrooms embrace a culture of change, enriched by people who experience the world differently - conceptually, linguistically, and emotionally, with different world visions, values, beliefs, socio-cultural and socio-economical experiences. A new understanding of identities in multicultural contexts requires pedagogies that teach and practise intercultural competence. With specific reference to (1) the author's research on the embodied learning of literacies through drama, sociodrama and empathy, and (2) the projects of The Empathy Reactive Media Lab (eRMLab), an interdisciplinary academic research lab which investigates virtual reality and its educational potential with reference to empathy, this chapter draws on diverse academic research from the fields of education, the arts, psychology, medicine, image processing, and computer vision, to examine present and future pedagogies which foster intercultural competence and the development of literacies.

Intercultural Education

This chapter discusses intercultural education (in general) addressing some of its challenges and opportunities within a local context of a public university in Brazil. A review of literature on intercultural education and internationalization of higher education was conducted, followed by a meta-analysis of a corpus composed of 22 studies/documents in the university analyzed, comparing them with the reviewed literature. The study sought to answer the research question of what are the possibilities and limitations of intercultural education in the university analyzed (UFES). The discussion contrasts the analysis of the corpus with the literature reviewed suggesting that UFES adopts English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) approaches and internationalization models from the Global North which in turn, pose more difficulties than possibilities for intercultural education there. The chapter concludes that the use of other languages besides English in approaches such as CLIL, COIL, and Intercomprehension represent relevant alternatives to foster multilingualism and intercultural education in that context.

Second Language Instruction

Speech perception has long been taken for granted as an auditory-only process. However, it is now firmly established that speech perception is an auditory-visual process in which visual speech information in the form of lip and mouth movements are taken into account in the speech perception process. Traditionally, foreign language (L2) instructional methods and materials are auditory-based. This chapter presents a general framework of evidence that visual speech information will facilitate L2 instruction. The author claims that this knowledge will form a bridge to cover the gap between psycholinguistics and L2 instruction as an applied field. The chapter also describes how orthography can be used in L2 instruction. While learners from a transparent L1 orthographic background can decipher phonology of orthographically transparent L2s –overriding the visual speech information – that is not the case for those from orthographically opaque L1s.

Bilingual Education From Learner Perspectives

The European Commission call to promote early foreign language learning among citizens in member states has led to a major paradigm shift in national and regional educational systems across Europe. The most extended option to make this shift effective has been applying bilingual education models which involve teaching academic subjects in foreign languages. Among those models, the so-called content and language integrated learning (CLIL) approach has been largely implemented in several countries and regions such as Madrid. This chapter gauges students' attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs on bilingual educational programs in Madrid. The findings revealed important issues related to curricular content, methodology and strategies, challenges, and successes of bilingual programs as perceived by students.

Literacy Development in L1 in Bilingual Education

This chapter explores literacy development in the mother tongue (L1) in bilingual education programs. To explore the impact of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) on literacy development in L1, a large-scale study was conducted in a monolingual autonomous community (Castilla-La Mancha) located in central Spain. Scores obtained by CLIL and non-CLIL (n=4,231) learners aged 9-10 in a writing task and in a reading comprehension test were compared. Results showed CLIL was not detrimental for literacy development in L1, since no significant differences were detected between both groups in their overall proficiency in written production and reading comprehension. However, a differential achievement was observed depending on the type of instruction CLIL/non-CLIL in some areas. Significant differences were observed in favour of CLIL students in receptive vocabulary, expressive richness and spelling, whereas the non-CLIL group was ahead in critical reading, planning strategies, and use of text typologies.

Fostering Cultural Awareness for a Global Competence

The currency of intercultural education has risen worldwide in response to increased diversity within societies resulting from migration and global flows of populations. As intercultural education becomes a core responsibility of schooling, the attention to fostering students' cultural awareness grows even faster. The school and all the educational agencies must find the most suitable tools to adequately address the complex multiculturalism of the third millennium to promote the students' ability to understand one another across and beyond all types of cultural barriers. How can we, as teachers and educators, stimulate reflexivity about cultural identities and intercultural relations? How can we foster interaction, dialogue, mutual recognition, and enrichment of any individual, in respect of the different identities of the other? This chapter offers a reflexive analysis of the efficacy of using frameworks and autobiographical narratives for enhancing students' intercultural awareness.

Can a Teaching Method Guarantee Success in L2 Learning?

In a rapidly globalizing world, the need to learn languages is more than evident. Professional growth, intercultural communication, and personal enrichment are among the great benefits they offer. Therefore, the important efforts throughout history to find a perfect method which guarantees success in language learning should come as no surprise. Nevertheless, none of the proposals has achieved desired results. Consequently, it is necessary to reflect on the following question: can a teaching method really guarantee success in L2 learning? This chapter analyzes in depth the wide range of factors which influence the learning process, in order to understand better who learns, how, and why. This new approach promotes an individualized and autonomous learning process, and the quest for a unique, infallible teaching method becomes senseless.

The Pedagogical Potential of Design Thinking for CLIL Teaching

This chapter examines the origins and singularity of Design Thinking as a humanistic discipline that can be successfully exploited in education. It explores the pedagogical potential inherent in Design Thinking strategies to foster creativity, critical thinking skills, and deep learning in content subjects taught through the medium of an additional language in CLIL settings. The author contends that Design Thinking will ultimately empower content teachers to rethink their teaching techniques repertoire, to redesign their CLIL practice, to cultivate inquiring minds in their classroom, to give students memorable learning experiences, and to equip them with core 21st-century competences related to creativity, critical thinking, teamwork, and intercultural awareness. Design Thinking strategies prompt learners to think out of the box and seek alternative answers to learning tasks, whilst cultivating LOTS and HOTS in Bloom's taxonomy and ensuring learning progression along both the content and language pathways.