ANEXO 3
BIBLIOTECA ALFONSO BORRERO CABAL, S.J.
DESCRIPCIÓN DE LA TESIS DOCTORAL O DEL TRABAJO DE GRADO FORMULARIO
TÍTULO COMPLETO DE LA TESIS DOCTORAL O TRABAJO DE GRADO SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL TO DEVELOP LISTENING SKILLS AT ELEVENTH GRADE
SUBTÍTULO, SI LO TIENE
A series of lesson plans and a handbook guided by the Ignatian pedagogy and based on Communicative Language Teaching
AUTOR O AUTORES
Apellidos Completos Nombres Completos
Barrera Alonso Yuliana Paola
Téllez Rendon María Camila
DIRECTOR (ES) TESIS DOCTORAL O DEL TRABAJO DE GRADO
Apellidos Completos Nombres Completos
Moya Chaves Deyanira Sindy
FACULTAD Comunicación y Lenguaje PROGRAMA ACADÉMICO Tipo de programa ( seleccione con “x” )
Pregrado Especialización Maestría Doctorado
x
Nombre del programa académico Licenciatura en Lenguas Modernas
Nombres y apellidos del director del programa académico Jorge Andrés Mejía Laguna
TRABAJO PARA OPTAR AL TÍTULO DE: Licenciada en Lenguas Modernas
PREMIO O DISTINCIÓN(En caso de ser LAUREADAS o tener una mención especial):
CIUDAD AÑO DE PRESENTACIÓN DE
LA TESIS O DEL TRABAJO DE GRADO
NÚMERO DE PÁGINAS
Bogotá 2015 119
TIPO DE ILUSTRACIONES ( seleccione con “x” ) Dibujo
s Pinturas
Tablas, gráficos y
diagramas Planos Mapas
Fotografía
s Partituras
SOFTWARE REQUERIDO O ESPECIALIZADO PARA LA LECTURA DEL DOCUMENTO
Nota: En caso de que el software (programa especializado requerido) no se encuentre licenciado por la Universidad a través de la Biblioteca (previa consulta al estudiante), el texto de la Tesis o Trabajo de Grado quedará solamente en formato PDF.
MATERIAL ACOMPAÑANTE
TIPO DURACIÓ
N (minutos)
CANTIDA D
FORMATO
CD DV
D Otro ¿Cuál?
Vídeo Audio Multimedia Producción electrónica Otro Cuál?
DESCRIPTORES O PALABRAS CLAVE EN ESPAÑOL E INGLÉS
Son los términos que definen los temas que identifican el contenido. (En caso de duda para designar estos descriptores, se recomienda consultar con la Sección de Desarrollo de Colecciones de la Biblioteca Alfonso Borrero Cabal S.J en el correo [email protected], donde se les orientará).
ESPAÑOL INGLÉS
Pedagogía Ignaciana Ignatian pedagogy
Pensamiento crítico critical thinking
Competencia comunicativa communicative competence
Habilidad de escucha listening skill
Diseño de material material design
Enfoque comunicativo Communicative Language Teaching Enseñanza del inglés como lengua
extranjera
English teaching as a foreign language RESUMEN DEL CONTENIDO EN ESPAÑOL E INGLÉS
This research seeks to develop learners’ communicative competence in English and their integral education guided by Ignatian pedagogy through a series of lesson plans and a handbook addressed for teachers and eleventh grade students from a private school in Bogota. It attempts to develop mainly students listening skill and to incorporate the five stages this pedagogy proposes to carry out in the classroom taking into account the principles of the Communicative Language Teaching approach. It is important to highlight that this research project uses a pedagogical perspective which involves interaction, cooperation and a critical thinking development. It is an applied research that follows the steps proposed by Tomlinson (2011) in the field of material development which are identification, exploration, contextual realization, pedagogical realization and physical production. In order to carry out these stages, some instruments were taken into account: classroom observations, interviews to the teacher and surveys to students. As a result, two handbooks called Listen up, think it over, speak out! were designed along with a syllabus and a series of lesson plans for the teacher that explain carefully the objective, instructions and tasks students should carry out during an English class. The students handbook contains five units with the activities to develop while the teachers’ handbook contains the syllabus that shows a general overview of the contents, five lesson plans which explain step by step what they should do throughout the classes and the units with their corresponding answers and instructions.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL TO DEVELOP LISTENING SKILLS AT ELEVENTH GRADE A series of lesson plans and a handbook guided by the Ignatian pedagogy and based on
Communicative Language Teaching
RESEARCH PROJECT
MARÍA CAMILA TÉLLEZ RENDÓN YULIANA PAOLA BARRERA ALONSO
Thesis advisor
DEYANIRA SINDY MOYA CHAVES
PONTIFICA UNIVERSDIAD JAVERIANA FACULTY OF COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE
DEGREE IN MODERN LANGUAGES
We want to thank our parents for their support throughout our learning process. We are also grateful to Sindy Moya, our thesis advisor, for sharing expertise and valuable
guidance in this research project.
Abstract
This research seeks to develop learners’ communicative competence in English and their integral education guided by Ignatian pedagogy through a series of lesson plans and a handbook addressed for teachers and eleventh grade students from a private school in Bogota. It attempts to develop mainly students listening skill and to incorporate the five stages this pedagogy proposes to carry out in the classroom taking into account the principles of the Communicative Language Teaching approach. It is important to highlight that this research project uses a pedagogical perspective which involves interaction, cooperation and a critical thinking development.
It is an applied research that follows the steps proposed by Tomlinson (2011) in the field of material development which are identification, exploration, contextual realization, pedagogical realization and physical production. In order to carry out these stages, some instruments were taken into account: classroom observations, interviews to the teacher and surveys to students.
As a result, two handbooks called Listen up, think it over, speak out! were designed along with a syllabus and a series of lesson plans for the teacher that explain carefully the objective, instructions and tasks
students should carry out during an English class. The students handbook contains five units with the activities to develop while the teachers’ handbook contains the syllabus that shows a general
overview of the contents, five lesson plans which explain step by step what they should do throughout the classes and the units with their corresponding answers and instructions.
Table of contents
1. Introduction 7
2. Statement of the problem 10
3. Research questions and objective 18
4. Justification 19
5. Background 21
6. Theoretical framework 31
6.1Critical applied linguistics 31
6.2Foreign Language Teaching 33
6.2.1 Communicative Language Teaching 35
6.2.2 Communicative competence 37
6.2.3 Listening skill 39
6.2.3.1 Listening comprehension process 40
6.2.3.2 Micro Skills of listening comprehension 41
6.3Syllabus 44
6.3.1 Materials 46
6.3.2 Lesson plans 48
6.4Integral education 49
7. Methodological framework 52
7.1Research design 54
7.2Ethical aspects 55
7.2.1 Deception code 55
7.2.2 Informed consent 55
7.2.3 Privacy and confidentiality 56
7.2.4 Accuracy 56
7.3Materials design process 57
7.3.1 Identification 58
7.3.2 Exploration 59
7.3.3 Contextual realization 64
7.3.4 Pedagogical realization 66
8. Materials evaluation 76
8.1Materials piloting 77
8.2Institution’s English teacher evaluation 79
8.3Expert evaluation 81
9. Conclusions 84
10. Limitations and recommendations 87
List of images
Image 1: Books available to teachers 16
Image 2: Books available in the Biblio-Banco for students 16
Image 3: Material syllabus 68
Image 4: Student’s handbook 71
Image 5: Teacher’s handbook 72
Image 6: Unit 2 73
Image 7: Unit 3 74
Image 8: Unit 4 74
Image 9: Unit 5 75
List of graphs Graphic 1: Microskills of listening 42
Graphic 2: Critical thinking abilities 51
Graphic 3: Designing material process 57
Graphic 4: Demographic aspects of the eleventh graders 61
Graphic 5: Student’s difficulties in their English learning process 61
Graphic 6: Activities students usually do in the classroom 62
Graphic 7: Topics students would like to talk about in the clasrrom 62
Graphic 8: Activities students would like to do in the classroom 63
Graphic 9: Materials students usually use in the classroom 63
Graphic 10: Moments to be implemented in the classroom according to Ignatian Pedagogy 64
Graphic 11: Lesson plan model 70
List of appendixes
Appendix 1: School’s English teacher interview 93
Appendix 2: Student’s survey 95
Appendix 3: School’s English department coordinator interview 99
Appendix 4: Material’s piloting survey 102
Appendix 5: Institution’s English teacher evaluation 106
Appendix 6: Expert’s evaluation 109
Appendix 7: Informed consent for material’s design participants 112
Appendix 8: Informed consent for material’s piloting participants 114
1. Introduction
This research project arises from the researchers’ interest in contributing toward the English language-teaching field in our context, since this language has acquired global status over time. It represents applied research based on a pedagogical perspective, which seeks to fill a gap in a specific context.In this research project, specific lesson plans based on the communicative language teaching approach are designed for the English teacher, as well as a handbook for eleventh grade students from a Jesuit’s private school in Bogota. It seeks to develop not only students’ communicative competence, but also their integral education. In other words, it aims to
develop students’ language skills in a communicative manner, in addition to the eight dimensions of the human being that form part of the integral education posed by Ignatian pedagogy.
To make this possible, a needs analysis was carried out in order to identify the problem. Therefore, we made some observations, interviews and surveys to get closer to the context and learners' needs. We work with an institution that belongs to the Colombian Jesuit’s school association (ACODESI) which is inspired by Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s pedagogy. Its main objective is to accomplish
integral education through the curriculum; that is why our material seeks to involve the eight dimensions of the human being. Through the lesson plans, we also seek to develop students’ listening skills, since the analysis suggests there is a weakness regarding this skill.
language-teaching framework. Although there are some research papers that have addressed the development of language skills in the Modern Languages program from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, none of them have related these to the development of the students’ integral education.
Therefore, this research project becomes relevant.
Then, a review of the theoretical and conceptual aspects is made in order to identify the most important categories in this research project: Critical applied linguistics is the first category, since it is sought not only to apply theory to practice, but also to reflect upon language assumptions and issues that emerge from social life. Foreign language-teaching is the second category because it is the framework in which our research takes place. Within this category, communicative language teaching is addressed, as it gives priority to communication and interaction when learning a language and, therefore the communicative competence and the listening skill are explained. The third category is syllabus since it implies the description of the contents of a course and the order in which they are to be taught, so it involves aspects such as materials, lesson plans and integral education; precisely what this research is interested in.
Finally, the aspects of the material evaluation are presented. The results of material piloting, the institution’s English teacher interview and the expert’s evaluation. The last two chapters
2. Statement of the problem
In today’s world, learning English has become important since it is considered the global language. According to Crystal (2003), an authority on the English language worldwide, English has become the international language because of its geographical and socio-cultural history. It is present in every continent and on some islands due to expansion, colonial developments and the voyages to the Americas, Asia, the Antipodes and Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth century. (P.29). As it was spreading all around the world, it assumed an important role in the international domains of political life, business, safety, communication, entertainment, the media and education. Therefore, English became a lingua franca in order to facilitate global human relations. (P.28)
For Crystal, a language can be thought as global if it acquires a special role that is recognized in every country (P.3). It is not only recognized in the countries where people speak English as a mother tongue, but also other countries around the world. The author states that the global status of the language can be taken up in two ways: the first is that it can be the official language of a country, because it is used as a medium of communication and it is described as a complement to the mother tongue. English is an example of the role of an official language in different countries such as Nigeria, India, Ghana, among others. The second is that “a language can be made a priority in a country’s foreign-language teaching, even though this language has no official status” (P. 4).
As English is regarded as a priority in Colombia in terms of foreign language teaching, Law 115 Section Three, Article 22 of February 8th (1994) states that it is mandatory to acquire speaking and reading skills in a second language in primary and high school. In fact, a student that completes the four grades of primary education must be able to understand and express themselves in a second language (P. 8). Furthermore, Decree 3870, Article 1, issued by the Ministry of Education has the following objective: “organize and ensure the effectiveness of education and human development
programs in the area of languages” (Méndez, 2006. P.1). This decree also states, in its second article, that the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages must be the reference system used for the learning, teaching and assessment processes (p.1)
In order to implement the aforementioned decree, the Ministry of Education created the Colombia Bilingual program, whose main objective is to help Colombian people to improve their proficiency in English as a foreign language. Moreover, it seeks to create strategies to develop communicative competences. One of Colombia Bilingual program’s specific objectives is that students reach level B1 in the language by the time they graduate from high school.
situations, but also involved listening and interacting with others. For instance, in B2 level the CEFR (2001) states that in relation to listening:
The learner can understand extended speech and lectures and follow even complex lines of argument provided when the topic is reasonably familiar. He/she can understand most TV news and current affairs programs and can understand most of films in standard dialect. (P.27)
Although this exam seeks the B1 level among students, some schools aim at reaching a higher level among students. For instance, ACODESI, Colombia’s Jesuit schools association, has as a main objective that students will graduate from high school attaining a B2 level. ACODESI’s schools have assumed English as a foreign language by taking into account Colombian students’ sociolinguistic context. This association does not seek for schools to become bilingual since the curriculum is not designed based on English, nor are the students exposed to the language for extended periods; nonetheless, it seeks to reach a higher language competence as an alternative of communication, (ACODESI, 2007) which means that students will be able to communicate considering the basic cultural aspects of the language.
Furthermore, the association (2007) states that the language must be taught in its schools through the Communicative Language Teaching, because it implies a theory of cognitive learning that
involves aspects such as grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, pragmatics; a language theory that focuses on the student’s needs and interests and the use of authentic resources for real purposes.
the development of cultural and educational relations with other countries (2014), went over the organizational structure, the curriculum, the assessment system, resources and the supplementary materials of those schools, and implemented training for the ACODESI’s English teachers based on this approach. (p.1)
One of the schools that belongs to the association mentioned above, is a co-education private institution, whose general objective is to accomplish integral education through the curriculum, reflecting the eight dimensions of the human being which are: ethical, spiritual, cognitive, affective, communicative, aesthetic, corporal and sociopolitical. (Jesuit’s private institution, 1996-2013). The institution’s view is inspired by Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s pedagogy and by the
educational tradition of the Society of Jesus. Its ultimate goal is to:
“Develop people that do not live for themselves, but for God and His Christ (...) men
and women for others, who cannot conceive of love for God without love for their fellow man; an effective love whose first condition is justice, which is the only guarantee that our love for God is not mere pretence”. (La propuesta educativa de la compañía de Jesús, 2005 cited P, Arrupe p.161)
recreational education, religious education, Humanities: Spanish and English; Math and Technology.
Focusing on English, the school invests six hours per week from sixth grade to ninth grade, and four hours per week in tenth and eleventh grade to develop students’ communicative competence. In addition, it offers them the opportunity to improve their skills by giving extra tutorials so that students can reach B2 level in the English language by the time they graduate. Nevertheless, according to the English department’s coordinator, 193 eleventh graders took the IELTS exam in 2014 and only 13% of them attained this level. Meanwhile, 5.1% achieved level A1; 42% A2; 41% B1 and 3.1% of them attained level C1. We conducted an interview with one of the school’s English teachers (See appendix No. 1) , and in his view students do not reach the expected level because of a lack of continuity, resources, teachers and intensity of hours (Personal interview, September 12th).
In order to understand why students are not achieving the expected results, a survey (See appendix No. 2) was carried out on a random sample of thirty-five eleventh graders. The results showed that 25% of them have had difficulties in the speaking skill, 63% in the listening skill, 20% in the reading skill and 54% in writing skill1. Moreover, the IELTS results showed that students need to work more on the listening skill, since this skill is the one that had the lowest score. In fact, the English department’s coordinator provided us with the students’ results in this skill and 82% of them achieved less than 50% in the listening band score.
1
Furthermore, the School’s English department coordinator stated that although students had some
problems in the reading skill due to the lack of vocabulary to understand the texts, the skill that needed the most work was listening, since they do not have enough exposure to the language’s context and culture, nor do they have the chance to listen to it, practice and produce. (See appendix No. 3) Besides, she argues that there is a lack of interest on their part and they have not become aware of the importance of mastering the English language in today’s world. (Personal interview, September 15th).
Since the IELTS exam results demonstrated that listening is the weakest skill among the eleventh graders and the English coordinator stated that listening is the skill that required the most development, it is necessary to work on it constantly. Schmitt (2002 cited Lynch 1997) argues: “listening involves making sense of spoken language, normally accompanied by other sounds and visual input, with help of our relevant prior knowledge and the context in which we are listening”
(pp. 216). This skill is important for developing the communicative competence since according to Brown (2000) “through reception, we internalize linguistic information without which we could
not produce language” (pp. 247). This means that if the students do not have enough exposure to
the language, they would not have sufficient input to communicate.
For that reason, it is important to provide students with material that enables them to acquire elements to communicate. Tomlinson (1998) defined them as “anything which is used by teachers
students for the international exams2. These copies are also taken from material of the Biblio-banco3. She stated that the photocopies are a limited material since they could not ask the school for too many copies, and the books that the Biblio-banco offers are already out of date. Indeed, she
said that this was the main difficulty regarding material.
The institution provides textbooks that focus on developing the four skills. For instance, New Opportunities is available in different levels (beginner, elementary, pre-intermediate- intermediate
and upper-intermediate), it has different listening activities that are not frequently used by the students, since according to the survey they are not aware of the existence of that material. 60% of the students expressed that they are aware of the material that the school provides; however, when they were asked about it, they only refer to the photocopies and guides. The textbooks are available in the Biblio-banco for students, but for teachers the institution offers other texts like American Headway, Blockbuster, and books that focus on grammar and developing speaking skills such as World Link Developing English fluency, Basic English grammar, focus on grammar. It also provides books to prepare students for international exams; for instance, Cambridge preliminary English Test. Nonetheless, there aren’t any books or materials intended to develop just the listening
skill.
2 According to the survey results, the most common activity in students’ English classes is to fill in photocopies
3
The books that the school offers to work on English skills.
3. Research question
Which series of lesson plans, guided by values of the Ignatian Pedagogy and based on Communicative Language Teaching, will be most relevant for the improvement of eleventh graders’ listening skills at a private school in Bogota?
General Objective
To design a series of lesson plans, guided by values of the Ignatian Pedagogy and based on Communicative Language Teaching, for the development of listening skills among eleventh grade students at a private school in Bogota.
Enabling objectives
• To identify eleventh grade students’ needs in regards to listening skills at a private school
in Bogota.
• To identify the criteria to design a series of lesson plans guided by the Ignatian Pedagogy
and based on Communicative Language Teaching.
• To identify techniques to develop eleventh grade students’ listening skills guided by the
4. Justification
The following research emerges from the need to aid the development of students’ English level in private institution, so that they are able to communicate in real contexts where the language is used. This institution is guided by the Ignatian Pedagogy which seeks to develop people who are willing to work in a group, cooperate with their partners, respect other’s opinions and think critically about daily situations. Therefore, the main objective of this research project is to design material based on Communicative Language Teaching which contains these aspects; so that students can put into practice the principles of the pedagogy that the school is guided by.
We believe that English teaching should go further, which means that the skills must be integrated in a coherent manner; the language should be used to talk about real life situations, discussing problems and finding solutions. That is why our material proposal aims to make students reflect upon aspects that happen in their context, to share their points of view with their classmates, and to propose ideas and possible solutions. The expectation is to improve students’ listening skill through a series of tasks, which have different purposes depending on the topic, and to practice what students have learnt in their English classes.
at them; it consists on a series of lesson plans guided by the principles of the Communicative Language Teaching that seek to practice listening skills, in which the instructions are explicitly explained, so that they can guide students adequately. In addition, critical thinking is promoted at all times; we consider very valuable for someone to be able to reflect upon a situation through language practice, which means not limiting themselves to memorizing and repeating, but rather to do something meaningful with the language.
This research also establishes a link with students’ needs and interests , based on certain observations and a need analysis carried out in order to understand learners’ difficulties and shortcoming regarding their language skills. This is why the material deals with topics such as advertisement, environment, sports, music and movies that were chosen according to students' interests. Through this topics it is expected to promote the Ignatian values as well as the critical thinking, so learners have the opportunity to reflect upon different situations related to their reality.
This research project takes the form of applied research and materials design. In addition, it is attached to the Lenguajes y conflictos (Language and conflict) research line that belongs to the language and communication faculty of Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, and to Lenguajes, aprendizajes y enseñanzas (Language, learning and teaching) from the language department. The
5. Background
Before the mid-1990s, the development of materials was not deemed that important until academic fields such as literature and applied linguistics began to take it seriously. It was considered something that practitioners did or a methodology subsection in which materials were just examples of methods in action, but they were no examples of the principles and procedures of material development (Tomlinson, 2012). In fact, in the 1970s and 1980s there were few books and articles that covered issues about materials evaluation and selection, or advice on how to design and write material. Nonetheless, according to the author (2012), by the 2010s, some experts had encouraged universities and institutions to spend more time on developing materials to facilitate language acquisition. As a result, nowadays it is a field of academic study that is related to the research of principles and procedures for the design, writing, implementation, evaluation and analysis of materials (pp.144).
One of the research projects that is related to material design and carried out by graduates from the Javeriana University was “Diseño de un material suplementario de acuerdo con los estilos de
aprendizaje para el desarrollo de la habilidad oral de inglés en los niños del Colegio Cristiano Semilla de Vida (Design of supplementary material according to learning styles, to develop oral English skills among children from the Semilla de Vida Christian School)” written by Diana Alexandra Gonzalez Mesa and Jennifer Perez Ramos in order to obtain their degree in Licenciatura en Lenguas Modernas (Modern Language) in 2006. The project aims to design supplementary material in accordance with Semilla de Vida School fifth grade students’ learning styles, in order to develop their speaking skills.
As this research posed the question of which type of material allows the development of the speaking skill according to Semilla de Vida School fifth grade students’ learning styles, Gonzalez and Perez take into account some important aspects such as materials design, materials evaluation, the importance of performing a needs analysis when designing them, as well as learning styles theory and some theoretical constructs about the Communicative Language Teaching. Gonzalez and Perez (2006) went over the communicative approach since it is the one that is employed in the Semilla de Vida School. They state that this approach aims to develop the communicative competence and it seeks to develop not only grammatical competence, but also sociolinguistic, sociocultural and discussion skills.
accordance with the learning styles, in order to develop the students’ speaking skills. They took the materials design process proposed by David Jolly and Rod Bolitho cited by Tomlinson (1998), which explains seven important steps in developing materials (from needs identification through to material evaluation).
Gonzalez and Perez designed eight units, however they piloted only two units in order to reduce costs because there were many children. They used two instruments: a checklist and video, in order to verify the relevance of the material in terms of design, learning styles and speaking skills development. The results showed that the material was appealing because of its colors, letters and contexts. The activities and the vocabulary provided in each unit gave students some tools to communicate easily in class. Moreover, it served as a model so that students could create their own conversations in a real context. They found that children learn easily by seeing pictures in the material, since most of it has a visual learning component. According to a teacher from the Semilla de Vida School, students were motivated because they liked the characters and colors presented in the material.
In addition to the Javeriana’s University graduates that sought to develop students’ speaking skills, there have also been projects that aim to develop the listening skill through material design. For instance, Alin Amaya wrote a research project named “Listen to it: self-access listening comprehension material design for the improvement of listening microskills in rate of delivery and accent” in 1998. The material is addressed to teachers who want to provide their students with the
opportunity to be independent and make choices regarding their learning and it seeks to give appropriate self-access listening material.
The author created a guide for teachers called “Listen to it” whose activities are adapted for
adolescents and adults in terms of content and topics. Each activity has a specific goal and it takes into account the student’s needs. The guide contains different topics, its aims, and the preparation
part, which provides the contextualization for the activities (for instance, focusing on vocabulary and providing the pre-requisite knowledge for the activity). It also contains the instruction part and the task sheet that provides the main part of the activity. In addition, it shows a typescript of each tape recording and the follow up that is the part of suggestions for further activities. Finally it offers a section called comments to the teachers.
In pursuit of the same objective -the development of student listening skills-, Sergio Esteban Osejo Fonseca, also a graduate of Javeriana University, wrote a research paper whose title is “Implementation of closed captions and/or subtitles to develop listening skills in EFL
(Implementación del closed caption y/o subtítulos para desarrollar la habilidad de comprensión auditiva en inglés como lengua extranjera)” in 2009. Its aim is to develop and implement a
pedagogical proposal based on the use of closed captions to improve listening skills among seventh and ninth grade students from Colegio San Bartolome la Merced.
According to the author, one of the challenges that learners frequently face when learning a second language is to develop the listening skill. He noticed this when he was doing his practicum in Colegio San Bartolome La Merced, so he decided to address the issue. He conducted a survey on the students and interviewed the teachers; the results showed that students had some difficulties with this skill because of a lack of interest, attention and concentration. Considering these problems the following questions emerged: Are closed captions a pedagogical tool that contributes to the development of listening skills among seventh and ninth grade students from Colegio San Bartolome la Merced?
that provide a broad overview to understand what closed captions are, as well as how they relate to education.
This project represents action research, since it is an approach designed to improve the practice. According to Jones, Sterling and others, it implies focusing on a research problem, collecting data and finding out the way in which the problem could be addressed. Therefore, Osejo started performing observations in seventh and ninth grade classrooms and collecting data in order to identify the problem. Then, he defined the aforementioned research question and he chose the best research method to implement his proposal, identifying which type of visual material was going to be presented to students to assess their listening skills. The material chosen was the sixth season of the TV series FRIENDS , which has eighteen episodes.
In order to pilot the material, he gave a pre-test to all students to introduce the new activity; he showed ten minutes of one of the first chapters and he performed a quiz in order to ascertain the participants’ listening level. Then, they carried out sessions in which students watched different
The results showed that 61% of the seventh grade participants and 44% of the ninth grade participants got better results in the last sessions. In addition, 77% of the student liked the activities set in each session and that 64% of them think that this tool helps to develop their skills. The author found that 50% of students saw an improvement in their listening skills, 17% of them were at the same level and just 33% saw lower performance. Therefore the author concluded that using videos with closed captions is useful to improve student listening skills.
We consider this research important for our project since it provides a way in which we can design the lesson plan activities to be implemented in EFL classrooms: for instance, performing a pre-test and post-test in order to ascertain the students’ skill level. Furthermore, it is focused on how can we improve student listening skills through a pedagogical tool. The author used authentic material as a pedagogical tool to improve the ability mentioned above.
As with Osejo, Ilse Cristina Monch García also sought to apply new technologies in EFL classrooms in order to develop student listening skills. The researcher not only based her project on videos, but also in the use of podcasts to integrate both listening and speaking skills. Therefore, she carried out a research project called “The use of videos and podcasts to improve listening
In this project, the researcher explains that one of the main problems that foreign language students have is the lack of sufficient authentic input that allows them to prepare models for what they are going to produce and, at the same time, to practice what they have learned inside the classroom, where the majority of input comes from the teacher. Furthermore, many students have difficulties understanding native and non-native speakers’ oral speech, the different accents, idioms and the normal speed of such speech. Based on these reflections, this investigation presents a strategic-methodological approach regarding oral comprehension teaching in the English language, with the support of new technologies. Therefore, the following questions arise: How to expose learners to these English-language differences, and how to help them recognize this variety so they can improve and develop abilities or strategies for oral comprehension?
came the “while listening” part, in which more specific videos on the topic were provided. At the end, in the “post-listening,” students had to record their voices in Podomatic, giving their point of
view on the subject.
It was concluded that oral comprehension teaching is fundamental for language knowledge, due to the fact that it is a necessary input to achieve language proficiency. It was also stated that understanding it was an active process that should be taught in a way that promotes students’ autonomy and that also provides them with significant tasks that contain pedagogical input. This research is relevant for our own project since it presents very clear steps for creating an oral comprehension lesson. Moreover, it is focused on the listening skill, which is the one we aim to address within our research.
6. Theoretical framework
The following section is going to develop the theoretical concepts that are evidenced inductively and deductively in this project’s research question: Which series of lesson plans will be most relevant for the improvement of listening skills based on Communicative Language Teaching for eleventh graders at Colegio Mayor de San Bartolome? Therefore, three general categories have been considered: Foreign language teaching, Communicative Language Teaching and Critical Applied Linguistics, which is the discipline that this research project is linked to.
6.1 Critical Applied linguistics
Quang (2007) sees critical applied linguistics (CAL) as a critical approach to applied linguistics (p. 34). It is a semi-autonomous and interdisciplinary domain of work that aims to apply linguistic knowledge in different settings such as professional, language education, literacy, speech pathology and translations. According to the author, “critical applied linguistics is a way of thinking and doing, a continuous reflexive integration of thought, desire and action.” (p.36) In
addition to Quang, PennyCook (2001) argues that CAL is more than just a critical dimension added to applied linguistics: it involves a constant questioning of assumptions of applied linguistics and provides a way of performing applied linguistics that seeks to connect it to questions of gender, class, sexuality, race, ethnicity, culture, identity, politics, ideology and discourse. (p.9)
to social relations’ political criticism since the notion of criticism is related to asking questions of power and inequality. The other concern is the micro and macro relations that seek to understand
the relation between the concepts of society, ideologies, capitalism, colonialism, education and second language acquisition, classroom utterances, translations and conversations. CAL is also concerned with critical social inquiry in which social relations are seen as a problematic and language and social contexts are related and takes into account self-reflexivity, due to the fact that the word “critical” implies an awareness of the limits of knowledge; it means that this discipline
is not orthodox, but it allows awareness of the different educational practices.
Quang (2007) argues that all critical work should include elements of self-reflection, so our research project ascribes to Critical Applied Linguistics since it implies constant self-reflexivity in order to improve an educational practice. Indeed, we are reflecting upon which type of activities we can propose (depending on students’ needs) in order to develop a specific skill at the private institution. Moreover, this study involves critical thinking in that it requires a problem-analysis to identify gaps in this formal context, to thus develop our proposal that might provide a solution.
The authors have a broad overview regarding the domains of Critical Applied Linguistics. Some of the areas of work are critical discourse analysis and critical literacy, critical approaches to translation, language teaching and testing, language planning and rights and literacy and workplace settings. For our research, the relevant domain is language teaching, which is
skills need further work among eleventh grade students and what material we can implement to practice and optimize them.
6.2 Foreign Language Teaching
Before we start discussing language teaching, it is important to bring up the concepts of Second Language and Foreign Language, and make a distinction between the two of them. In his book Foreign and Second Language Learning, William LittleWood (1984) made a brief distinction
between a Second Language (SL) and a Foreign Language (FL). From the author’s point of view, SL has social functions within the community where it is learnt (pp.2), whereas FL is learned for being used outside the person’s society.
In addition, Stern (1991) argues that one of the main differences between these two is that SF has a status or a function within a country, while FL does not. Furthermore, the author explains that the purposes of learning a SL and a FL are usually different. For instance, as the second language is the official one in a country, it is used for “full participation in the political and economic life of the nation” (Stern cited Paultson 1974: p. 16) and it can also be the language used in educational
contexts. Conversely, FL is taken into account for different goals; such as: travel abroad, communication with native speakers, reading of foreign literature or reading of foreign scientific and technical work. (p. 16)
research project will address. On the one hand, Stern (1991) states that the concept of learning has been conceived from a psychological point of view. “The psychological concept of learning goes
far beyond learning directly from a teacher or learning through study or practice.”(p. 18). This
means that it is not only the learning of the skills, but also learning to learn and learning to think; how students acquire interests and social values that can be brought to the classroom. On the other hand, the author defines language teaching as “the activities which are intended to bring about language learning” (p. 21).The author suggests that the concepts of language teaching and learning
should go in hand in hand; therefore, a good language teaching theory should bear in mind the learner’s needs to the best possible extent.
On the subject of good language teaching theory in which learners’ needs should be taken into account, we are now going to present Communicative Language Teaching. We consider it appropriate to optimize the listening skill, which is what students from the private institution need to work on, as it implies developing communicative competence. (Richards and Rodgers, 2001)
6.2.1 Communicative Language Teaching
emphasizes not only language structure, but also the categories of functional and communicative meaning, so the structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses. (p.161)
In order to establish the objectives of the language class, curriculum or syllabus based on Communicative Language Teaching, there are certain objectives levels that should be taken into account. Richards and Rodgers (2001) cited Piepho (1981) since he referred to those levels; he mentions an integrative and content level in which language is seen as a means of expression; a linguistic and instrumental level in which language is a semiotic system and an object of learning. Also, he stresses an affective level of interpersonal relationships and conduct, in which language is a means of expressing values and judgments about oneself and others; a level of individual learning needs and a general educational level regarding extra-linguistic goals, which is used in language learning within the school curriculum. The objectives are general and can be adapted to any teaching situation; “Particular objectives for this approach cannot be defined beyond this level
of specification, since such an approach assumes that language teaching will reflect the particular needs of the target learners” (p 163). Those needs can be related to students’ listening, reading,
speaking and writing skills.
As the main goal of this approach is to develop the learner's communicative competence, according to the authors (2001) the activities and exercises should engage learners in communication so that they can share information, negotiate meaning and interact among themselves. “Learning activities are selected according to how well they engage the learner in meaningful and authentic language use (rather than merely mechanical practice of language patterns)” (Richards and Rodgers, 2001,
tasks and which involve real communication promote learning. There are two types of activities: functional communication activities that include tasks such as comparing pictures and identifying similarities and differences, discovering missing features in a map, and social interaction activities that involve conversations, discussions, dialogues, debates, etc. (p. 166).
Richards and Rodgers (2001) cited Breen and Candlin to explain the learners’ and teachers’ role
in Communicative Language Teaching. Learners are seen as negotiators between the self, the learning process, and the object of learning. They have to contribute, as they gain knowledge and learn in an interdependent manner. In addition, they have an active role since students are expected to interact with each other rather than with the teacher. The teachers’ role is to facilitate communication among students in the classroom and act as an independent person within the learning-teaching group; they are also seen as an organizer, a guide, a needs analyst, counselor, and group process manager because they are responsible for responding to learner language needs. (p. 166-167)
approaches mentioned above focus on specific aspects of teaching and learning, they are built on principles that form part of CLT (p. 244).
6.2.2 The communicative competence
The term competence was introduced first by the linguist Noam Chomsky in the mid-twentieth century. He went beyond linguistic structures and was concerned not only with the form, but also in the way in which sentences are understood (semantic structures). In addition, Chomsky proposed transformational-generative grammar focused on the grammatical competence that is assumed to be innate in all native speakers. Unlike Chomsky, the linguist and anthropologist Dell Hymes sought to look beyond the grammatical competence; therefore, he stated that the structural use of the language was just part of a theory of communicative competence. (Savignnon, 1007, p.16-17)
Embark cited Hymes (1997) since he states that “communicative competence refers to the level of
The theoretical model proposed by these authors (1980) includes three competences: the grammatical, the sociolinguistic and the strategic competence. The grammatical competence refers to the knowledge of lexical items and the rules of morphology, syntax, semantics and phonology. The sociolinguistic competence refers to the knowledge of the sociocultural and discourse rules that are important to interpret utterances for social meaning, and the strategic competence includes verbal and nonverbal communication strategies that will help the learner to figure out breakdowns in communication. (p.31)
As we have seen, there are different definitions and perspectives of the communicative competence; according to Embark (2013), “there is a lack of consensus about what the term
communicative competence means.” However, he provides a general concept: it refers to the speaker’s ability to use the language appropriately in different linguistic, sociolinguistic and
contextual contexts. The realization of this level of language use requires a good mastery of all language skills (p. 108). Therefore, we are going to explain the listening skill, which is the ability that our research project is focused on.
6.2.3 Listening skill
Listening comprehension is the process of understanding speech in a first or second language. “the
study of listening comprehension in second language learning focuses on the role of individual linguistic units (phonemes, words, grammatical structures) as well as the role of listener’s expectations, the situation and context, background knowledge and topic”(Richards and Schmidt,
and interpret information which comes from auditory and visual clues in order to define what is going on and what the speakers are trying to express” (p. 7). Furthermore, Richards and Schmidt
explain that listening is to receive some input in an specific context; Rubin seeks to add to this idea by arguing that listening is also the interpretation of this this input. Therefore, the listening skill involves an understanding of a message and an ability to comprehend and analyze it.
In addition to what it has been mentioned, Nunan (1989) cited Anderson and Lynch (1988) since they made a distinction between reciprocal and nonreciprocal listening. The first refers to the tasks that give the listener the ability to interact with others; while the second is related to the transfer of information in only one direction. In order to achieve better comprehension, the authors point out that the listener must integrate the following skills:
● Identify spoken signals from the midst of ambient sounds ● Segment the stream of speech into words
● Formulate appropriate responses in interactive listening
6.2.3.1 Listening comprehension process
Listening comprehension, discourse analysis and pragmatics are concepts that are closely related. Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (2000) argue that listening to message, a news broadcast or being part of a conversation, is listening to an extension of the discourse. Furthermore, the authors affirm that both L1 and L2 listening processes accept that listening consists of “bottom-up” and “top-down” aspects. The first involves prior knowledge of the language system in terms of phonology, grammar and vocabulary (pp. 115). In addition, Nunan (1989) states that the bottom-up model supposes that listening is a process of decoding the sounds from the smallest units (phonemes) to the biggest units (texts). Moreover, there is a sequence to the comprehension process: phonemic units are decoded and tied to form words, these are tied to create sentences, which then are linked to form utterances, and its final purpose is to make meaningful and complete texts.
Regarding the top-down interpretation model, it is stated that listeners use their prior knowledge and the context they are in to give sense to what they are hearing. Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (2000) indicate that this model involves the activation of schematic (describes the background information of the topic) and contextual (the understanding of the specific listening situation) knowledge. All the authors agree on the importance of developing both bottom-up and top-down strategies among language learners, since they give students the opportunity to use the things they know in order to understand what they hear.
Douglas Brown (2000) explains that there are many techniques for teaching listening skills; in order to identify the right moment to apply them, the different kinds of listening performance should be taken into account. The first is reactive performance, whose sole purpose is to listen superficially and repeat back what has been heard. Next is intensive performance, which seeks to
focus on specific components of speech (phonemes, words, intonation, stress). Moreover, there is responsive performance in which an immediate answer from the listener is expected. Going further, in selective performance, it is not necessary to understand the whole passage; the general idea is that the students can retain important and key information from it. Furthermore, extensive performance looks for a global understanding of the spoken language; and it also requires the use of other interactive skills (note-taking, discussion). Finally, there is interactive performance, which
may include the last five and must be integrated with the listening skill; therefore, its general purpose is to make students participate in debates, discussions, role-plays and group work. Richards (1983) proposes the following micro skills of listening in order to help teachers see what they need to use, depending on the listening performance they want to work with.
Micro-skills of listening Retain chunks of language of different
lengths in short-term memory.
Discriminate among the distinct sounds of English.
Recognize English straight patterns, words in stress and under stress position, rhythmic structure, intonational contours, and their role in signaling information.
Recognize reduced forms of words.
Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in different grammatical forms.
Recognize cohesive devices in spoken discourse.
Recognize the communicative functions of utterances, according to situations, participants, goals.
Distinguish words boundaries, recognize a court of words, and interpret word order patterns and their significance.
Process speech at different rates of delivery.
Process speech continuous pauses, errors, corrections, and other performance variables.
Recognize grammatical word classes (nouns, verbs etc.), systems, patterns and rules.
Detect sentence constituents and distinguish between major and minor constituents.
Describe, predict outcomes, infer links and connections between events, deduce causes and effects, and detect such relations as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given information, generalization and exemplification.
Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.
Use facial, kinesics body language, and other nonverbal clues to decipher meaning.
Develop and use a battery of listening strategies, such as detecting key words, guessing the meaning of words from context, appeal for help, and signaling comprehension.
Graphic No1 Micro skills of listening. Richards (1983)
So far, many aspects about the listening skill have been mentioned. Nevertheless, it is important to see the connection between it and the other language skills. According to Brown (2000) it can be implied that the integration of the four skills (writing, reading, speaking and listening) in the classroom gives the students the chance to “diversify their efforts in more meaningful tasks” (p.
233)
In addition, the author makes some observations in his book that support the fact that integrating the four skills brings more interaction and communication to the classroom. For instance, he affirms that production and reception are “two sides of the same coin”; meaning that they cannot be separate from each other. Moreover, “interaction means sending and receiving messages” (p.
learn to speak, in great part, by assimilating what we listen. Bearing in mind the previous observations, using language in natural contexts involves not only the integration of one or more skills, but the logical connections that the person makes between the language, emotions and actions.
Although this research project seeks to focus on listening, the syllabus is going to integrate all language skills since this joint approach provides students the opportunity to develop their abilities through different, meaningful tasks. In order to clarify the way in which the content is going to be presented, the following section will give a broader overview about the syllabus’ definition.
6.3 Syllabus
Waters (1987) provides a general definition of syllabus, saying that it can be described as the statement of what is to be learnt (p. 80). Going a little further, Richards (1992) argues that the syllabus is the “description of the contents of a course of instruction and the order in which they
are to be taught” (pp. 368). In the same way, Stern (1992) suggests that the syllabus defines
In order to design a syllabus, it is necessary to know what topic is going to be taught and in what order. Additionally, it is important to take into account the theory of language to decide what type of syllabus is more suitable for the context where it will be applied. These are the types of syllabus proposed to organize the classes and the materials in an appropriate manner: product-oriented and the process-oriented.
The product-oriented type emphasizes the final product, where approval from an authority will be expected. Within this type, there are four different syllabuses: the structural syllabus in which the grammatical and phonological structures are the main principles. The situational syllabus, which deals with real situations such as buying something in a supermarket, ordering food in a restaurant, etc.; it seeks for language to be used in everyday life, outside the classroom. The other is the notional/functional syllabus, whose main goal is the communicative purpose and the conceptual meaning of language. According to White (1988), learners have to analyze the communication need, since needs analysis is highly related to the notional/functional syllabus.
competence-based syllabus, which is the description of essential skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviors required for effective performance or real-world task activity. (Richards and Rogers, 2002)
This research project ascribes to the task-based syllabus since it is expected that eleventh grade students will improve their listening skill through the realization of tasks. Crookes (1987) defines a task as: “a piece of work or an activity usually with a specified objective, undertaken as a part of an educational course or at work.” According to the author, task-based syllabuses require a needs identification stage, in which real world target tasks will be identified that the learners are expected to use. Nonetheless, it is important to note that students, especially at low levels, would not perform target tasks by themselves since they are beginners and they would need more help.
David Nunan (2004) cited Richards and Rogers (1986) since they give considerable attention to the teacher and learner role in the task-based syllabus. From the authors’ perspective, “good language learners find their own way to solve tasks, organize information about language, are creative and learn to make intelligent guesses” (pp. 67). On the other hand, the teacher’s role is to
The syllabus roughly indicates the contents, the tasks and the skills that are going to be taken into account for the materials design. It is important to go over materials definition and characteristics since it will feed into the aspects mentioned above.
6.3.1 Materials
Tomlinson (2012) defines materials as anything that can be used to facilitate the learning of a language, including course books, videos, graded readers, flash cards, games, and websites, among others. In other words, they are tools that help the learner to increase his or her knowledge and experience with the language. According to the author, materials can be informative, which give the learner information about the target language; instructional, which guide the learner in practicing the language; experimental, which provide the learner with experience of the language in use. In addition, they can be eliciting, encouraging the learner to use the language, as well as exploratory, to help the learner to make discoveries about the language. (p. 143).
The author argues that visual materials facilitate detailed static observation since it can catch the attention of the learner; for example, comics, posters, models, etc., and audiovisual material that enable students to practice both listening and reading skills.
Materials have an important role in Communicative Language Teaching since, from this perspective, they are seen as a way of influencing the quality of classroom interaction and language use. (Richards & Rodgers, 2001, p. 168); therefore, materials have to promote communicative language use. This approach considers three kinds of materials which are text-based, task-based, and realia. Text-based materials refer to textbooks that provide mostly pair work activities that imply asking questions to obtain clarification, asking for more information, taking notes, among others. Task-based materials refer to materials that promote activities such as games, role plays, simulations to support Communicative Language Teaching classes, and realia refers to authentic material in the classroom; for instance, magazines, advertisements, newspapers, graphic or visual sources around which communicative activities can be built. (p. 169-170)
6.3.2 Lesson plans
The procedure for the class must be clearly explained in the lesson plan. For instance, it can start with a warm-up activity, in order to contextualize the students on the topic. After that, it describes the activities that the students are going to perform and, at the end, it includes the close of the lesson. One way to be certain that students have accomplished the goal of the lesson is through evaluation. According to Brown (2000), evaluation can be a part of the activities; it does not mean that every lesson has to end with a quiz or an exam. Finally, the author states that extra-work is also important since it can help students to further their learning beyond class hours.
As we are going to design lesson plans for a private school that belongs to the Society of Jesus. it is important to take into account the aims of Ignatian pedagogy, which implies the consideration of integral education.
6.4Integral education
There are eight human dimensions: ethical, spiritual, cognitive, affective, communicative, aesthetics, corporal and socio-political. They are defined by ACODESI (2002) as a set of potentialities of the human being that comprise integral development. (p.15) That is why the Society of Jesus’ schools take into account those dimensions, which we will describe below.
According to Ignatian pedagogy, the ethical dimension refers to a human being’s ability to make decisions based on the use of their freedom that comes from their socio-cultural environment. The spiritual dimension is a human being’s ability to transcend their existence in order to acquire universal values, beliefs and doctrines, which give a global and deep sense to their own life experience, to the world, history and culture. The cognitive dimension refers to a set of the human being’s potentialities that enables them to understand, build and make use of the assumptions
created by the interaction of a human being with their surroundings. The affective dimension refers to the set of potentialities in a human being’s psychological life, which involves emotions, feelings, sexuality and the way people interact with others.
one is the socio-political dimension; it refers to a human being’s capacity to live among and with others in order to transform the socio-cultural environment in which they live.
As Ignatian pedagogy seeks to promote critical thinking among students, it is important to take this concept into account. Many authors have given a definition of critical thinking; from the philosophical tradition, it can be defined as the “reflective and reasonable thinking that is focused
on deciding what to believe or do” (Ennis, 1985, p. 45). Meanwhile, from the psychological
approach it is “the mental processes, strategies, and representations people use to solve problems, make decisions, and learn new concepts” (Sternberg, 1986, p. 3). Conversely, from the perspective
of the educational approach, its benefit is that it is based on years of observation and experience, which makes it more beneficial. However, the three approaches agree on some abilities of critical thinking, which are:
Critical thinking abilities - Analyzing arguments, claims or
evidence
- Reasoning verbally - Judging or evaluating - Making decisions or solving
problems
- Asking and answering questions
- Defining terms
- Identifying assumptions - Interpreting and explaining - Seeing both sides of an issue - Making inferences
The critical thinking skills that are shown in Graphic No. 2 are closely related to our research project since we intend to develop a skill through different activities in an innovative and autonomous manner. We believe that using these skills will help students to better solve the tasks, because they all promote autonomy and decision-making.
7. Methodological Framework
Over time, several theoretical streams have emerged such as empiricism, positivism, phenomenology and structuralism, which have created different methodological routes. From the second half of the twentieth century, those streams have been based on two approaches: the qualitative and the quantitative. Both are considered paradigms of scientific research since they involve empirical, systematic and careful processes in order to generate knowledge (Hernandez, R; Fernandez, C; Baptista, P, 2006). According to the authors, the approaches have five similar phases in common, which are interrelated (p. 4):
a. They carry out an observation and assessment process for the phenomena. b. Assumptions are established after the observation and assessment process.
c. They demonstrate the extent to which the assumptions have grounded theory
d. They go over those assumptions, taking into account evidence and analysis.
e. New observations are proposed in order to clarify, modify and substantiate the assumptions to generate their ideas.
From the authors’ perspective, these approaches can be carried out in the same research project,
since they can enrich it. Nonetheless, our study is guided by a qualitative approach. Qualitative research, according to the authors (2006), can be defined as a set of interpretative practices that make the world visible and transform it into a series of representations such as observations, notes,
recordings and documents. It is naturalist since it studies objects and living beings in their contexts
or their natural environment, and it is also interpretative because it tries to give meaning to
