Interacting in social contexts as the starting point of a teaching unit

Abstract

Our philosophical background for this paper will be the conception of language as an integral part of social life (Hymes, 1971). As a result of this thought, language teaching (whether the teaching of the mother tongue, a second language or a foreign language) should be intimately related with affective factors and should be carried out in terms of language functions for social interaction.Our objective here is basically to illustrate how this conceptionof teaching can be put into practice both in courses of EFL andin ESP courses.

Our philosophical background for this paper will be the conception of language as an integral part of social life (Hymes, 1971). As a result of this thought, language teaching (whether the teaching of the mother tongue, a second language or a foreign language) should be intimately related with affective factors and should be carried out in terms of language functions for social interaction.Our objective here is basically to illustrate how this conceptionof teaching can be put into practice both in courses of EFL andin ESP courses.