HOW TO ACCOMPANY AND COMPLEMENT LITERACY PROCESSES IN SPANISH THROUGH ENGLISH TEACHING AS A FOREING LANGUAGE?

LEARNING MATERIALS AND TEACHER TRAINING PROPOSALS CREATED BY THE ENTRE LENGUAS PROGRAM FOR THE FIFTH HOUR –QUINTA HORA– FOR THE FIRST CYCLE OF PRIMARY SCHOOL IN CÓRDOBA

Abstract

This paper proposes to reconstruct and narrate a pedagogical experience developed by the members of the Entre Lenguas Program, an initiative of the Instituto Superior de Estudios Pedagógicos –ISEP– which is part of the Ministry of Education of Córdoba, which gave origin to the creation of teaching materials and teacher training proposals for the Quinta Hora (extension of the school day) in the first cycle of primary level of this province. In 2022, the school day was extended by an hour (Quinta Hora) in the first cycle of primary level with the aim of enhancing learning in the first years of primary school. At the same time, this educational policy defined literacy in English as a foreign language as one of the priorities of the school day extension. In this context, the Entre Lenguas Program, began the task of developing learning materials and teacher training proposals. In the production process, the following questions arose: How to accompany and complement the literacy processes in Spanish that are developed in the pedagogical unit -unidad pedagógica- through English language teaching as a foreign language? How to give continuity to this process that begins in kindergarten? What teaching practices and types of activities are in line with and which are detrimental to the literacy processes that the children are going through in parallel in Spanish? As a result of these concerns, a process of research on the subject began with the aim of enhancing the ways of accompanying and complementing the literacy processes in Spanish through English language teaching as a foreign language. As a consequence, interdisciplinary meetings were held with other areas, from which resulted not only in rethinking and improving the approach to the contents proposed for the materials, but also in two didactic athenaeums and two talks aimed at teachers in charge of English teaching in the first cycle of state-run and private-run primary schools in the province. The aim of this paper is to socialize the reflections and syntheses we have produced so far on the ways and possibilities of accompanying literacy in Spanish through the teaching of English as a foreign language.