1.

KEY COMPETENCES

As the Decree 236/2015 says in its first chapter,

“The main aim of the Basic Education is to stablish solid foundations for the

whole life. Students must be prepared to do this long way along the life and to do it in

the best possible conditions. To do that, they must develop the basic, that is to say, the

indispensable competences for the life.

The main aim of the Basic Education (Primary and Secondary Education) will be to

consolidate these basic competences.

According to the OECD, DeSeCo (2015) “Key competences for lifelong learning are a

combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the context, which people

active to provide a suitable answer to the requirements of a specific situation or task.”

The five transversal key competences stated in the Decree are:

1.1. COMMUNICATION and DIGITAL COMPETENCE: know to communicate.

It supposes a use of the verbal, no-verbal and digital communication together in an

effective way and adapted to personal, social and academic situations.

1.2. LEARNING TO LEARN COMPETENCE: know to think and to learn.

It is related to learning, the ability to pursue and organize one's own learning, either

individually or in groups, in accordance with one's own needs, and awareness of

methods and opportunities.

1.3. COMPETENCE FOR PERSONAL INITIATIVE AND

ENTREPRENOURSHIP: know to act with initiative.

It is the ability to make your ideas come true. It involves creativity, innovation and risk-

taking, as well as the ability to plan and manage projects in order to achieve

objectives. The individual is aware of the context of his/her work and is able to seize
opportunities that arise. It is the foundation for acquiring more specific skills and

knowledge needed by those establishing or contributing to social or commercial

activity. This should include awareness of ethical values and promote good

governance.

1.4. SOCIAL COMPETECE: know how to live together

Social competence refers to personal, interpersonal and intercultural competence and

all forms of behaviour that encourages individuals to participate in an effective and

constructive way in social and working life. It is linked to personal and social well-

being. An understanding of codes of conduct and customs in the different

environments in which individuals operate is essential. Civic competence, and

particularly knowledge of social and political concepts and structures (democracy,

justice, equality, citizenship and civil rights), encourage individuals to engage in active

and democratic participation.

1.5. COMPETENCE FOR PERSONAL AUTONOMY

Reflection on the own feelings, thoughts and action that take place in the different

areas and situations of life, in order to be self-orientated, by means of constant

improvement, and aimed at the growth of the individual in all his/her dimensions.

Apart from this key transversal competence, we should develop the disciplinary

competence: Communicative, Linguistic and Literary Competence in all the

languages areas, in our case, in English language.

2. CONTRIBUTION OF THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE TO THE ACQUISITION OF

THE KEY COMPETENCES.

The acquisition of the foreign language contributes to the development of all the basic

transversal competences of the curriculum since they are instruments favoured for the

communication, the representation of the world, the insertion in the society, the

expression of the feelings and the promotion of the creativity, even more when there is

adopted the instrumental perspective of the education of the languages, like in this

curricular propose.

In fact, the main aim of the language learning is the development of the students’

communicative competence, that is to say the aptitude to understand and produce

varied texts adapted to the proper situations. On the other hand, the skills and

strategies for the use of a specific language as well as the processes of reflection on

those languages are transferable learnings and contribute to the development of the

linguistic competence in the rest of the language of the curriculum. This principle is

one of the foundations of the integrated curriculum of the languages (HTB/TIL)

The evolution of the digital technology has caused the appearance of new forms of

communication and therefore, of new textual genres that need to be learnt by 21st

century students. They need the ability to search for, obtain process and communicate

information, and transform it into knowledge. Different skills are involved, from access

to and selection of the information, to its use and transmission through different media,

and the use of ICT as an essential element of communication. Likewise, there have

multiplied the possibilities of real communication, of interaction and of approximation to

other languages and cultures, facilitating the social and cooperative use of the reading

and the writing and the shared construction of the knowledge. From another

perspective, the linguistic matters must promote the development of a critical attitude

towards the information transmitted by these means.

The language is a vehicle of communication and as such, a basic element in the

processes of socialization and therefore in the development of the social

competence. It is acquired and learnt in interaction with the others and taking part in

communicative exchanges and social activities.

Learning to use the language is also to learn to analyze and solve problems, to plan

schemes and undertake processes of decision, to use strategies adapted in every

communicative situation, since one of the functions of the language is to adjust and to

orientate our own activity. For that, the acquisition of language skills contributes to the

development of the personal initiative competence and to the regulation of the own

activity with progressive autonomy (competence for personal autonomy). The

acquisition of these competences implies creativity, innovation, responsibility and a

critical approach in the development of individual or group projects.