Students practise using the target language in a spontaneous way.

Students quickly lose their fear of speaking in a foreign language in front of others.

Students soon realise that making mistakes not only doesn't matter but also helps them improve rapidly.

Students pick up and build on emergent language (as opposed to just the target language of text books.)

Students learn language rules naturally  in non-fake contexts.

Students engage in whole brain learning where they are learning intellectually, physically and emotionally.

In schools in Spain, English is generally taught using a student's book and an activity book supplied by one of the big publishers. They have claimed at one time or another to use the communicative approach but this does not seem to be true when you read up about this methodology.

In these text books, every unit is disconnected from the previous one in terms of learning goals but maintains the same format: a text superimposed onto a photo followed by reading comprehension exercises; some vocabulary exercises; a grammar section; a writing section and lastly a speaking section.

These books are easy to use but rarely coincide with the contemporary interests of students and the overall results do not seem to be especially good, as the proliferation of English academies would seem to indicate. This appears to be particularly true when it comes to developing oral expression and spontaneous speech.

Learning by doing

Input is king!

Opportunities for interaction

Low anxiety levels

When students are involved in project-based learning they tend to use their mother tongues to communicate with each other when working in groups. While they will gain vital skills in many areas, they will not improve their speaking skills in the target language.

Students are highly resourceful. They help each other or ask their teachers directly when they are trying to express themselves. Once they know how to say something, they will never forget and will have obtained another brick for building their target language.

The first few weeks will be difficult but after a month or two, students will feel great about being able to express so much in their target language. It will feel "cool".

Use a control sheet to penalize the use of other languages. This may seem harsh but no one likes losing points. After 2 months nobody will be losing points anymore anyway. Download this one and adapt it to your needs:

Language is being used in a meaningful way or for real purposes.

Learning becomes not just a cognitive process but also a physical and emotional one which makes new language much easier to remember.

Learning is a collaborative cooperative process as students help and correct each other. This process snowballs.

Students become used to using English in a spontaneous way and so gain confidence using the target language and in expressing themselves generally.

Teachers tweak students' grammar or use of English so that they learn firsthand about when the present perfect sounds good and which preposition works in a particular instance. As these kinds of errors are reoccurring, students will have plenty of oportunities to get things right. Remember that humans have an instinct for grammar. (Noam Chomsky)