PROJECT WORK

Several researches consider Project work planning a powerful strategy to give the learners a free and natural way to use English as a means of communication. An introductory work is that of Hutchinson (1988); also Ribe and Vidal (1991) and Fried-Booth (1986) have written texts about this methodology. Project work is a highly motivating procedure of teaching-learning, linked to specific topics and tasks and having an end in a final product. On the basis of this initial statement, Project work could be defined as:
- a multi-skill activity focusing on topics/themes rather than specificlanguage items;
- a task in which students practice the language they know and acquirenew language as a result of their own initiative;
- a free, group activity, the aim of which is an end product.
It seems for this reason that Project work has to be a fundamental methodology of any FL courses since it commonly happens that such methodology gives the students an effective way to practice the new language and interact with other children through the foreign language.

TOPIC-BASED APPROACH

Another useful F.L. teaching method is the Topic-based approach, that encourages learners to feel more involved in their learning and helps them to consolidate their language skills in a meaningful context. I found useful advice about this approach, expecially in primary teaching, in Tann (1988) and in several articles of Italian Methodology journals, expecially in the sections dedicated to the specialistic teaching of English in Italy.
We can say that the more common topics are based on the children's interest. Topic-based activities are, for this reason, a source of fun, offer wide range of exploration of the factual and the imaginative, involve the use of several different resources and, last but not least, give the teacher an easier way to motivate and challenge the children.
In terms of the classroom context, an implication of the topic-based approach is that the learners gain opportunities to use and to experiment with the new language mainly because language objectives are thus integrated with content study.

SEASONAL TOPICS

I'm used to sharing with my colleagues the passion for seasonal topics: these were very fashonable when I was a student in primary school, more or less twenty years ago. I could clearly recall the several experiences I had when we learnt all about the ever-changing events occurring during the school year; we were happy to learn in this way because we felt involved in the big and fantastic festivals of our culture linked to the coming of the different seasons.
It is necessary, however, to bear in mind that understanding another culture is a continuous process in which experience is required as well as study.
This is the starting point of my present working hypothesis according to which I think that in the teaching of EFL it is very useful to link activities to the observation and discovery of the world around the learners, starting from the closest experiences, several of which are provided by the environment and the background culture.
The culture of English speaking countries can be, therefore, introduced to our students framing it into seasonal topics related to the events occurring in a specific time during the school year and engaging the learners in a variety of activities and experiences that entice them to want to use their new language and let them discover the functionality of the new language they are studying. This seems to be a suitable way to tie the foreign language learning to topics already explored and to develop a continuous syllabus in order to fit F.L. learning to the changing interests and to the increasing competences of the primary school pupils.

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