A Spanish folk tale

The life of "Lazarillo de Tormes and of His Fortunes and Adversities" (better known as "Lazarillo de Tormes") is an anonymous Spanish novel, written in first person  It is an autobiographical story about a child called Lázaro de Tormes, in the sixteenth century, from birth and childhood to his marriage, and also in his adulthood.

The reason why Lázaro is called " de Tormes" is because Lazarus was born in Salamanca, right next to the river Tormes( Spain). Below you can see where is Salamanca in a spanish map:

 He was very poor and since childhood had to fend for himself, since he lost his father and his mother could not maintain him. He did not live in a happy world: but he was smart and witty.

In the tale Lazarus had to serve a number of masters who had to cheat in order to survive, so we spent a lot of hunger and hardship. 

This novel was written for adults, however, there are many things in it that may appeal to children, because a child is the protagonist. But there is a lot of adaptions to children. 

We have chosen one of them. Here you can see the page http://www.anayainfantilyjuvenil.com/catalogos/capitulos_promocion/IJ00196001_9999990314.pdf

A history that has survived many years being one of the most widely read books of all time. A book I like and entertains, it also shows how people lived at that time, making young readers appreciate what they have.

It is therefore a highly recommended book for ages 9 to 12.

The tale has seven chapters:


Chapter 1.-Lazarus and the blind. The central idea is the evolution of Lazarus, who goes from being an innocent child, without knowledge of life, to become the paradigm of "rogue" young boy must fend for himself in life to eat each day. A constant reference will be the "hunger".
 Lazarus devotes all its efforts to deceive the blind, a man very clever, to get some food or wine each day. At the end of the treaty, Lazarus , after he tricked his master and leaving him alone.

Chapter 2.-Lazaro and Maqueda cleric. The clerics is petty and miserable, that refuses to adequately feed his servant, and he is keeping few foods that are in his house in a locked chest. Lazarus, once again gripped by hunger , he decided to be more clever if he wants to gain a piece of bread to put in their mouth. Finally, the cleric aware of the deception and theft decided prescind from his services.

Chapter 3.-Lazarus and a squire. The squire is a low level noble who is living in the poverty but that still tries to maintain a false image of tranquility, respectability and wealth. Lazarus does not understand the pretensions of him master, but feels sorry for him and feed him many times. Due to bets, the squire flees from the city. So, this time the master leaves Lazarus.

Chapter 4.-Lazarus and a friar of the Merced. Lazarus talks about his new love, a friar of the Merced no friend of the duties of a priest and spent the day attending to and fro "certain businesses" whose nature is never clarified. In addition, the treaty concludes: "For these and other things that do not count, I left my master." This ending leaves all possibilities open: what are those "little things" by Lazarus decided to leave the friar?

Chapter 5. - Lazarus and a pardoner. The pardoner was a priest who used to walk the parishes selling bulls, papal indulgences that allowed those who had not bought that meet certain religious precepts (like fasting, abstaining from meat during Lent, etc..). Lazarus describes the dirty tricks used by the priest  without any real religious feeling just for getting good profits.

Chapter 6. - Lazarus with a chaplain. Again, the master of Lazarus is a religious. In this case, the chaplain allows Lazarus to work as a water carrier for the city. Once the boy has managed benefits and may have changed his clothes, Lazarus decides to leave the job in order to find a new master.

Chapter 7. - Lazarus account the reason for your letter. After working with a sheriff (police) job that seemed too dangerous, Lazarus is at the service of an archpriest, who suggests that marries one of his servants. At last, Lazarus gets married with a servant. But there is some gossip about her.

Lazarus, who knows the rumors, prefer not "hear" them. He has achieved "happiness" and some popularity in the city, yes, in exchange for giving up their honor and to allow his wife's infidelities.

Here, you can find the whole novel http://www.elhuevodechocolate.com/cuentos/cuentos6.htm. There is also a english version : http://www.lazarillodetormes.com/ingles.htm

HOW THE NEWS ENCOURAGE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN IMMIGRANTS AND NATIVE PEOPLE

We have consulted two Spanish newspapers which talk about decreasing of social insurance budget because of crisis.  These two ones refer to the same event, but from different points of views.

On the one hand, in a newspaper called “Qué!” (http://www.que.es/ultimas-noticias/sociedad/201210301511-paro-afecta-doble-inmigrantes-espana-reut.html?anker_4 ) we can read this headline: “Unemployment affects double immigrants in Spain, according to the IOM” (International Organization for Migration). 

"Qué!" Newspaper

This newspaper explains this new using an objective method as it just says that more than a half of the foreigners who lost their jobs during the crisis also lack of social protection rights derived from Spanish Social Security system.

In addition, more than a half of foreign workers didn’t receive an amount equivalent to the minimum wage in 2010. A research has shown that the part of the native population who rejects immigration has grown since 2007 to 2010, achieving 20 %. Moreover, in general, the crisis and its consequences are triggering xenophobia.

ABC Newspaper 

On the other hand, there is another media that we consulted which is called “ABC” and is a conservative one. In this case, the title says: “The crisis demands savings in immigration costs “(http://www.abc.es/20121016/espana/abci-gasto-inmigracion-crisis-201210151941.html). 

Reading this paragraph, we, as readers, could think unconsciously and indirectly that immigration favors the crisis. So this is a proof that sometimes media encourages bad feelings against immigration in native population. As they make us thinking that crisis is, in some way, a consequence of the immigration.

Concurrently, if we go into the article “Understanding the alien in our midst: using citizenship education to challenge popular discourses about refugees” written by Jill Rutter, we can realize that it is something that, unfortunately, has been happening for a long time. For instance, we can read in his article that at the end of the nineteenth century “Jewish immigration emerged as a problem in popular discourse, with Arnold White, an anti-immigration author and campaigner, presenting the Jewish migrant as the pauper foreigner” in The Times newspaper. In that period the anti-immigration stance of politicians was reflected in the populist press, including the Daily Mail. Because of this, “the newcomers, referred to as aliens, were seen as: a cause of unemployment and overcrowded housing”.

As we can realize in the above information, we have always been under the influence of the media, which has encouraged as thinking what they want us to think.

Also, we could link what we have said previously with other news about immigration, which also belong to the same media, the one called “ABC” (http://www.abc.es/sociedad/20121202/abci-esclavos-espana-siglo-201211281343.html ).

In the above link we can read in the headline this: “Slaves in Spain in 2012”. It is about some cases of people who have not a residence permit and because of that they are considered as illegal people in Spain. Some people take advantage of the situation of these people, by forcing them to labor exploitation, to rape, etc. It is "a modern form of slavery".

Moreover, the ONG called Medics around The World, in November indicated that more than 50,000 people, mostly undocumented immigrant women, are victims of human trafficking in Spain for sexual exploitation, labor, organ trade, forced begging or forced commission of crimes.

The article concludes that it is essential that the government, police and society do their best to avoid whatever kind of cases where people is enslaved and deprived of their human rights and dignity.

Actually, is embarrassing that 175 years after slavery was abolished in Spain, thousands of people are victims of sexual and labor exploitation in our country.

The main reason that underlies the fact that some people exploit immigrants, and take advantage of their situation, is merely racism. Furthermore, the way that medias give importance or not to the immigrants, and specifically to those who lack of  human rights (like a home, social insurance or a dignified job), affects to what people think about it, particularly the new generations: children.

For this reason, it is vital that media challenge racism through the great power they have of influencing individual’s thoughts. And talking about children, the school has to face racism by teaching multicultural aspects.

In this point, as it is said in the text of Jill Rutter, the school has four key areas of work deal with racism:

•          Promote multi-agency working. School could collaborate with other institutions as police, youth groups, parents, several organizations.
•         Evaluate previous antiracist work.
•          Make sure effective sanctions against racism facts.
•          Use activities to develop, to promote diversity and equality.

But, the key point is that schools and teachers can not challenge racism in isolation from the rest of society, they should work with other organizations in order to be more effective.

Communicative classroom

What is the purpose of learning English?

•           To be able to communicate with person from another different country.
•          Preparation for holidays abroad and future jobs.
•           Read idols as well as internet newspaper
•           Understand English songs

What characterizes a good language learner?

-          Someone motivated and who want to learn.

-          Someone that doesn't give up, although he/she make mistakes.

-          Someone that does the best of itself.

-          Someone that feels comfortable and confident in the classroom.

Key components of communicative language ability

·         Fluency: you can manage communication with other English speakers. Communciate and understand with ease and rapidity. When you speak like a native speaker.

·         Linguistic competence: knowing about grammar, or formal aspects of English language.  The learner can analyse and translate sentences of the foreign language. Be able to realize and see structures and patterns related to the L1 (metalinguistic awareness).  It comprises the basic elements of communication. Aspects as : vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling,etc.

·         Pragmatic competence: to be able to adapt the language into suitable social contexts or situations. Using the language appropriately according to different contexts. Being able to understand messages ( based on, for instance, content, intonation).Understanding levels of formality politeness, etc.

·         Discourse competence:  understanding dialogues, monologues, conversation. Use the language in spoked written discourses.

·         Strategic competence: the aim is to avoid misunderstandings, realize you are been understood by using: body-language , paraphrasing, simplify language, slow-down when you are talking, pronounce words clearly.

Examples of activities in a communicative classroom

 What goes on in a communicative classroom?

•          Open-minded
•          Deals with what semms relevant( materials, news, etc), and useful for the student.
•          Practical/ real- life activities
•          Errors are tolerated or ignored.
•          Speaking , emphasized on meaning, not form ( grammar).
•          Positive atmosphere
•          Teacher are advisors or facilitators of knowledge.
•          Lots of pair work, group work : space is needed.
•          Cooperation is important : use the language, aids learning.

We do a reasoning gap activity. Firstly, in groups of 4 people, we have to explain what is going on in each picture

Aim: to describe pictures. Listening, creative skill

Opinion gap activity

We make a dynamic role-play which is to act like you're someone different article to which you are. It is a good activity to do it with kids because:

-          As the work is carried out in small groups, students will feel more confident about talking.

-          Small group lets children feel more confident when they are speaking English.

-          Children could be find fun and motivating.

-          Children could see that English language is useful, because they can use it in a informal or practical way.

-           Children speaks with other classmates, who have the same age and English level more o less.

-          The most important aim of the teacher role, as a knowledge facilitator, is make sure that children are speaking English, although they could say some words in their native language.

Nevertheless, there are some disadvantages:

o   It is not certain that children talks in English if there isn’t any person control the dynamic. So, for this reason, could be a good way if the teacher manage the task, but preferably in small group.

o   The first few times doing this dynamic might be a little difficult for students, perhaps because they are not get  to used to do these such activities.

Some examples of activities to do with the videos

We think that it could be a good idea to create several activity about the previous video :

If  the pupils aren’t from the same country, we can do:

• As teachers we can provide cultural insight before is shown in order to prepare pupils. Later they can   recognize the main characters.

• Pupils could bring some objects from their home.

• A imitating-activity, for example if the video is a dance , pupils can imitate the dancing way. It could be a introduction step, later on the teacher can explain the reason of the dancing.

•    For example,  we can plan some theme week about festivals or parties that are very known in their home country.  This could comprised  tasks devoted to understand other cultures.

•   Reflection on similarities and difference , play some of the  characters in the video.

•   A journalist ask a characters from  the video why is they did something.

Showing Spanish culture through a video

Last Monday, in our Democratic Citizenship lesson, our teacher asks us to find a video which shows something about our culture. So I decided to choose one which shows what happened the 23-F in Spain.

Firstly, before watching the video, you should know that the 23-F was an attempted coup d'état in Spain that began on 23 February 1981 and ended on the following day. It is also known as El Tejerazo from the name of its most visible figure, Antonio Tejero, who led the failed coup's most notable event: the bursting into the Spanish Congress of Deputies by a group of 200 armed officers of the Guardia Civil during the process of electing Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo to be the country's new Prime Minister. King Juan Carlos I gave a nationally televised address denouncing the coup and urging the maintenance of law and the continuance of the democratically elected government. The coup soon collapsed. After holding the Parliament and cabinet hostage for 18 hours the hostage-takers surrendered the next morning without having harmed anyone.

Once you have read the above information I would also like to tell you that the following video is about a musical playd by some actors in a very famous Spanish entertainment program, called "El Hormiguero". Although it is in Spanish, you can understand what is happening because of the show. It starts in the minute 00:58, I hope you enjoy and learn something about it.

Testing methods

In this activity , each country group has to design an activity destined to other country group.  In the Spanish group we have to do a task for ITE group ( Italian and French). We did  this following framework:

Testing methods
Name of the activity	“Yo meto en mi maleta”
Level	Beginners
Duration	10-15 min
Materials needed	We do not need any materials.
Skills trained (e.g. listening, speaking, reading, writing, communicating)	·         Memory ·         Listening ·         Speaking
Class organisation (e.g. pair work, group work, etc.)	Two big groups.
Procedure Please explain in as much detail as possible	The class is arranged in two sitting circles. Firstly, the teacher says “I put into my suitcase a pencil”. Then, the next pupil must add another object to the sentence mentioning also the one which was said before. For instance: “I put into my suitcase a pencil and a rubber”. In case they do not know how to say something in Spanish they can say it in English and the teacher will translate it. So they will learn new vocabulary and through repetition.
Variation How can the activity be adapted to more skilled/less skilled pupils?	To adapt the activity to more skilled pupils we can say more complex sentences as well as non sense ones, which are more difficult to remember. For instance: “I bring my umbrella for not to be cold”.
Didactical considerations What are the learning objectives (which linguistic forms do you teach)?	·         Learn grammar in an implicit way. ·         Learn vocabulary. ·         Develop listening skills. ·         Train the memory.
Made by  Ana, Carmen and Paula.

Afterwards,  we answered this questions:

 Were the two activities successful learning activities? Why?

Yes , because they learn some easy words related to objects or food.

What type of learner is the AL useful method for? And TPR?

We consider that in this case that it was easier than with others students, because  Italian and French is quite similar to Spanish. Our method ( AL) is destined to students who have a slightly more advance level that a beginner level, because you have to repeat and say what you listen.  In this case, we did gestures and repeating words. And we regard that TPR method is better for a easier level  because the teacher as well as students  used dynamic activity by using moves and body.

 What are the pros and cons of the two methods respectively?

Audio-Lingual method :  

             -  Pros . This method is a good way of learning  in order to improve your listening and memorizing skills because you have to be able to memorize what others said, and also to listen carefully.  Is a good option, if your aim is that pupils learn the names of objects that students can recognize and touch.

             -  Cons.  Perhaps, it could be more complex speaking and repeating words that you don’t even see. We think that it would be better for students if they write the word in a paper in order to be capable of remembering better.  A drawback could be that the pupils is not treated as an individual, the teacher doesn’t give him a personalized attention. 


Total Physical Response (TPR):

        - Pro.  In the case of young learners it could be the best choice to start a learning language because pupils learn by doing, they can associate words with body moves. In this way, they can learning by memorizing moves , and it is very useful for children that they cannot focus on task easily. For instance, using this kind of learning method the teacher can teach pupils basic words, not long sentence. It is based on what we know about L1 acquisition. It is motivating, fun for children. Krashen : “ silence period” , because the pupils feel that they just are listening not speaking. The “silence period” is is a stage in second language acquisition where learners do not attempt to speak. Silent periods are more common in children than in adult learners, as there is often more pressure on adult learners to speak during the early stages of acquisition.

       -  Cons.  As teachers you are limited due you can just use this method in a way, but when you want that your pupils learn about real social communication or how to keep a dialogue between persons it is much better if pupils learn through other methods.  It is based in commands, so the children has to know what means the sentence that the teacher is saying.




  Which language acquisition theory/theories in the AL  method used on and which ways? And TPR?

          -   AL is related to behaviorism
          -    TPR is linked with Krashen’s monitor model : is about receiving inputs. You make sure that it is the same level by making gestures. Because you have to ask pupil what they have to do, if they have to clap, or whatever. But if we are talking about correction, we could say that there is a immediately feedback because the teacher corrects pupils as the same time that pupils makes the error.



 Teaching a foreign language to young pupils in the very beginning of learning language procedure is quite complex, because students cannot understand when you are talking,  it is hard to carry out. So, for this reason, we think that the native language of these pupils can be used just sometimes, otherwise the lesson don't make sense.