Improvement of the listening skill through top down strategies and audiovisual aids

Abstract

Nowadays the globalized world demands competent speakers of English performing efficiently all the abilities belonging to the communicative competence of a language, in this way, The Common European Framework in its political and educational context provides the standards to measure learners’ skills of English as a foreign language; additionally the European framework enables teachers, educational centers and professionals working in the field of modern languages to reflect about their pedagogical practice. The Colombian educational context is not exempt of this requirement, for this reason, the promotion of English as a foreign language is one of the main targets of the National Ministry of Education, therefore, under The Common European Framework, the National Bilingual Program and with support of The British Council, it was created the first edition of Basic Skills Standards in Foreign Languages for English in October 2006, in which are established clear and public criteria about what students have to learn and what they must be able to do with what they learn (Velez White, 2006). In the regional context, the Government of Valle del Cauca department has developed an English teaching project named SING (Segundo Idioma Nueva Generación) benefiting 735 primary public schools in the region, 1666 teachers and 105.000 children; Alba Nelly Mark Korman and Korman, specialists and researchers of foreign language education appointed by the Valle de Cauca’s government to carry out this project said “The idea is to expand the language...To succeed in the process of language acquisition, we need to transmit a lot of games, activities, movement, stimulating the brain of children and allowing the development of the new language and at the same time the recognition of sounds”1 In this way, the efforts and the support given by the national, regional and local Government is a respond to the curricular requirements framed in a global educational context, where the domain of English as a foreign language is regarded as a fundamental condition for any professional wanting to wide his career prospects being competent in a specific scope, since nowadays, companies claim for employees with different aptitudes, among them, the ability of communicating in a global language, that is why Colombian Government recognizes the importance of working on the promotion of English as a foreign language. Although, the government policies support the foreign language learning, it is important to remark that the success of a English project depends largely on the ability, mastery, and willingness of foreign language teachers; therefore as Jeremy Harmer points out it is essential that English teachers share a set of characteristics, such as, “the ability to give interesting classes, using the full range of their personality, the desire of empathies with students, stressed the need for variety within a secure setting”2 ; in this manner, a teacher endowed with this characteristics and with the challenge of innovation will engage students not only to learn, but also to enjoy what they learn.