Nowadays, learning a foreign language first and foremost means communicating (understanding and making oneself understood), therefore teaching is action-oriented and learner-centered. Of course, the definition of the role a teacher plays in classroom is no longer the same, since today he is rather a facilitator, coordinator and advisor for greater flexibility in the course of the language class. In this sense, authentic texts are, moreover, the best suited to help the learner to handle real-like communication and assimilate content.
It is a question of a know-how that includes ethical education especially for activities introducing at the same time, gestures as well and prosody. Therefore, it is essential to have certain interpersonal skills to conduct a good dialogue or succeed in a dialogue. It is a correlation between dialogue and ethics.
At the same time, education is the action of leading the learner to adapt appropriate attitudes, to be able to acquire know-how worthy of a citizen of the world. It is not possible to go over the aptitudes without mentioning their essential role in mastering a foreign language especially where the potential of age is taken into account, in order to hope for good assimilation and performance. If education is the set of means by which the learner is guided, which allows the development of the individual, pedagogy is above all, knowledge, and a way of doing things whereas, teaching is the content which results in giving an instruction by means of pedagogy in order to acquire, transmit and allow past or new knowledge and ensure full development of ethical and cultural potential in every learner.
We started with a question about the contribution of dialogue in the teaching/ learning of English as a foreign language to achieve the desired result. We have managed to illustrate the image of the learner to say that it is not a container that must be filled with content or it will only be a question of knowledge. On the other hand, the school or the class is a society in miniature, with social individuals who need instruction and above all education.
So, we find that the aptitudes constitute a source and a resource to be exploited to install the planned attitudes. It is a more tender way that can lead the learner to acquire the expected attitudes, but it suffices to accompany, guide, and animate to lead him to autonomy.
The pedagogical relationship is profoundly modified regarding both the position of the teacher and the function of the group – class. The teacher must accept to lose some of his power as well as the role of conductor given the group work. This group work must take place in a non-binding atmosphere of openness and cooperation and requires the participation of everyone according to their means and the equality of all within the group. This group work should not be competitive, and it is not about showing others that you are better, but it is about sharing with them. The group allows the child to be creative.
Communicative methods offer lessons, exercises and classroom practices that are organized as in real life. A communicative method is a procedure that teaches, which allows you to learn to communicate in a foreign language. Language must be presented in situ by means of supports whose force of implication and power of realism were far superior to those of the still image. We have seen the emergence of methods in which the most frequent words and constructions, the most common and the most useful for communication, were presented not in isolation, but in contexts, situations and dialogues imitating conversational communicative exchanges.
Knowledge of forms and structures remains essential in a foreign language, but it is always at the service of a project of meaning, expression, communication. Communicative methods have given a more reasonable place to formal and repetitive exercises to develop in the classroom activities of real or simulated communication, which are much more interactive. Students who learn English must first be judged by their ease of expressing themselves in English. To do this, first of all, sustained work is needed to acquire basic structures, through a systematic assembly of these structures in the form of reflexes conditioned by a choice of themes sufficiently attractive to the students. Conversation can take place at all times of the lesson and at all levels. Conversational strategies can be of a wide variety, from simple question/ answer exchange, to staging, and can lead all students on the path to success.
The start/ end of the school year SWOT analysis of the classes involved in the research reveals a series of particularities that we need to take into account when creating teaching materials.
Strengths:
- Relatively small number of students in class;
- They are motivated to work in groups;
- They easily accept the professor’s proposals;
- Most students demonstrated an average proficiency level above grade 5. The 6th A: 16 registered / 15 assessed: average score 8.03: 9-10: 5 students; 7-8.99: 7 students; 5-6.99: 2 students; under 5: 1 student. The 6th B: 17 registered / 12 assessed: average score 8.19: 9-10: 8 students; 7-8.99: 1 student; 5-6.99: 2 students; under 5: 1 student.
Weaknesses:
- Students are at a lower level than appropriate at the start of the second year of study;
- The textbooks were not provided in time by the school, so the pace of knowledge acquisition varies greatly;
- Often the focus is primarily on assessment rather than on skills acquisition;
- Above all, we value the skills of written comprehension and written expression to the detriment of oral expression and oral comprehension;
Opportunities:
- Students are eager to get involved in extracurricular activities offered by the teacher;
- They show interest in studying foreign languages;
Threats:
- Few students are interested in deepening the knowledge acquired in class;
- The teacher must be guided by the curriculum imposed by the Ministry of National Education rather than adapting to the needs and points of interest of the learners, which leads to a demotivation of the learners;
- The materials offered by the school are unsuitable for skills training needs in accordance with the CEFR: almost total lack of internet access, lack of a CD player, lack of suitable spaces for teamwork;
- Parents’ disinterest in the quality of their children’s education, which leads to early school leaving.
As a result of the different methods and materials, I recorded a number of differences between the two classes at the same level both in terms of the assessment of knowledge and in terms of the value of studying English:
- The marks of the students of the 6th A have evolved in a positive way on all the skills: oral comprehension, written comprehension, written expression and oral expression.
- Their involvement in activities dedicated to English Days was significantly higher;
- They understand and appreciate more the role of English in their personal and professional development by considering it an asset;
- Even if the working conditions have not changed much, teachers do everything possible to supplement the materials necessary for the smooth running of the class;
- Parents seem to encourage students’ newfound passion for studying English.
In conclusion, the student today lives in an environment open to the new, where everyone can find the product suited to their needs. For this reason, if the support of the teaching activities is to trigger the student’s availability to cooperate and stimulate his interest, the teacher’s effort will be rewarded by the student’s achievement of his proposed educational goals.