Teaching of English Language

Teaching a foreign language must be something eminently communicative and functional. From Primary Education, we work following a method based on communication, aimed at acquiring increasing competence in the five linguistic skills of listening, speaking and talking, reading and writing, developed simultaneously, although there are specific exercises and activities designed to emphasize each of them.

Click on this link to access a collection of videos about teaching English in Retamar.

By the end of the second cycle of Primary, after many hours of classes and individual work, the students have become familiar with phonemes and their intonation, are able to understand and carry out communicative exchanges appropriate to their age and know the written code and its graphic representation, as well as the mechanics of reading and writing.

During the third cycle of Primary, ESO and Baccalaureate, pedagogical action is fundamentally aimed at achieving a communicative command of oral language that makes it possible for them to use it in everyday life and in situations related to their interests and motivations. Likewise, teaching encourages students to acquire a communicative command in the written language that guarantees them to be able to relate also through this code without grammatical or spelling errors. A systematic reflection on the foreign language and its most outstanding socio-cultural aspects is also developed.

Mastering both oral and written language provides the student with autonomy to further deepen their learning later.

For the model that we develop in Retamar, it is essential that students see that what they have learned is useful now as well as in the future. 

From 1st grade of Primary to 2nd grade of Secondary Education there is no differentiation by classes among students in terms of the level of English they possess.

In 3rd and 4th grade of Secondary Education we have established two levels, I and II. In Baccalaureate, each course is divided into 4 levels, with different rhythms and linguistic complexity as we move up the scale. In addition to preparing for the corresponding Cambridge exams, students in the 2nd year of Baccalaureate receive specific preparatory classes for the Selectividad exam.

The learning model followed at Retamar ensures its effectiveness through continuous reference to external indicators. Thus, progressive goals are defined that can be verified by means of a continuous external evaluation.