An alternative guideline for the teaching of English as a foreign language in secondary schools in Belo Horizonte

Abstract

It is a well known fact that the teaching of English as a foreign language in secondary schools has not been effective. Among other things, current teaching sets out to develop the four linguistic skills. However, students reveal a poor command of the language in whatever skill considered, which breeds poor motivation and lack of interest. Therefore, the ultimate aim of this thesis is to provide suggestions for the improvement of EFLT in secondary schools in Belo Horizonte. So as to reach this aim, we first discuss some theoretical issues such as language concepts, the development of linguistic skills versus communicative abilities, cognitive principles and motivational factors as well as methodological trends. This theoretical discussion is relevant for the next two steps — first, the evaluation of the current teaching situation in Belo Horizonte, and secondly, the proposal of an alternative guideline. The unfolding of this thesis and the proposal further reveal that the communicative approach to language teaching together with Ausubel's theory of meaningful verbal learning can make the process more meaningful, useful, and transferable. As a result, students are likely to be more motivated and interested. A final claim is that the whole teaching/learning process could be better contextualized by having reading as a pivotal activity, which is made apparent in the illustrative study module that closes this thesis.