Considering that for many students, the teacher will represent their first/only contact with an English speaker, it is necessary that, at the very least, teachers are competent to a B1 level, Threshold.
2.1. General purpose of language teaching in basic education The purpose of teaching language in basic education is that students gain ownership of diverse social practices of the language and participate effectively in their life in and out of school. For that purpose, it is essential that they learn to use language to organise their thought and discourse, to analyse and solve problems, and to have access to different present and past cultural expressions. In addition, it is necessary that students acknowledge the role of language in the construction of knowledge and cultural values, and develop an analytical and responsible attitude towards the problems of the world. Ownership of social practices of the language is not achieved through simple practice and over time. On the contrary, it demands a series of individual and group experiences that involve different ways of reading and interpreting texts, of approaching writing and becoming involved in oral exchanges and analysing them. School must provide the conditions necessary for students to participate in such experiences and gradually achieve autonomy in their intellectual work. The responsibility of school is greater with students who come from communities with less schooling and/or lower levels of literacy.
2.2. Purpose of teaching English in secondary education The purpose of studying a foreign language (English) in secondary education is for students to participate in certain social practices of language, both oral and written, in their own or in a foreign country in contact with native and non-native speakers of English. In other words, through the production and interpretation of a variety of spoken and written texts —of a quotidian, academic and literary nature—, students will be able to satisfy basic communication needs in a range of familiar situations.
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