The teaching of english as a foreign language and the evaluation ofdidactic materials applied to specialised fields in post-compulsory secondaryeducation

Resumen

Objective: To prove that there exists a contradiction in the present Spánish educationalsystem in the relation between the recently advocated specialisation of thestudents and the real contents of the subject of English Language in thesecond year of bachillerato. Our aim is to try to solve this dichotomy provingthat students can be taught to deal with general English as well as withspecialised texts related to matters concerning the modality they havechosen.Subjects: Two groups of second course of bachillerato students. One following themodality of Sciences and the other following the Humanistic modality duringthe academic year 2001-2002.Method of Analysis: The revision of the historical and legal background of bachilleratostudies in Spain, together with the revision of the current trends in foreignlanguage teaching, as well as the study of texts as basic generic units ofanalysis, thanks to Discourse Analysis, Pragmatics and Genre theory, set up thebasis for our design of didactic material for text understanding and production.This material consists of a diagnostic test, a common parí to both modalities,two other parís including specific material for every modality, a final test forevery modality and a final questionnaire. The implementation of this material inthe classroom is analysed taking into account some linguistic and extra?linguistic variables.Results: Our students begin making simple grammatical mistakes, not recognisingcohesive devices or text typology, using simple vocabulary, repeating ideas,lacking in connectors, and, little by little, they improve all there aspectsachieving, finally, very satisfactory results both in text understanding andproduction when dealing with general and specialised English.Conclusion: We discover a generalised equal treatment of English in all bachilleratomodalities that can be avoided by using the didactic material we havedesigned. Every bachillerato modality can be considered a discoursecommunity having its own characteri