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The English as a Foreign/Second Language teacher has the opportunity of making classes quite beneficial because they can address essential topics for students at the same time as they teach the most global language at the moment. Especially now, they can make this combination in a relatively easy way through the use of a variety of ICT applications. This paper describes four projects carried out in two Spanish secondary schools. On the basis of their statistically-founded results, it can be concluded that teaching value-laden issues is perfectly viable within the compulsory secondary education English classroom by means of computer technology. [Article copies available for a fee from The Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: [email protected] Website: http.//www.transformativestudies.org ©2014 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.]
KEYWORDS: Values Education, Foreign Language, ESL, Secondary Education, Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
INTRODUCTION
The teacher of English as a Second/Foreign Language has the potential to be a very important educator and relevant figure in society. This potential is based on her/his being the one that can more easily integrate the teaching of the most global language at the moment and essential contents for the full development of their students.
The essential contents that are meant in this paper are moral and civic education, peace education, health education, gender education, environmental education, sex education, consumer education and road safety education. These are a series of value-laden issues that were promoted in Spain under the Ley Orgánica General del Sistema Educativo (LOGSE). This educational law was applicable from 1990 to 2007. In its Enseñanza Secundaria Obligatoria (ESO) ('compulsory secondary education') curriculum it was stated that a series of topics should be taught in all subject areas and throughout the four years with a view to achieving the fundamental aim of the law: the full development of the student's personality.
Since 1991 these issues have been popularly known and referred to in official documents as 'cross-curricular issues' (henceforth CCIs). Their teaching was recommended so that the compulsory secondary education curriculum could fulfill the social, emotional and ethical-moral aspirations of the law (LOGSE). The close relationship of these topics with values education has been stated by many experts, e.g. Gavidia (1996), González Lucini (1994) and Yus Ramos (1996).
At the present time,...