English Language Learning Agency Performance of Second Graders in a Public School
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(2) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 2. __________________ Note of acceptance. ______________________________ Juror _____________________________ Juror ..
(3) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. Abstract Agency is seen every day at the university and at the school level. This study reports what two groups of second grade at Carlo Federici School experimented being agents in their classrooms. In doing so, the teacher was seen as a guide and not as a taskmaster. This qualitative case study used video recordings, artifacts and an interview as instruments to collect data. Regarding the pedagogical focus, students were taught some basic vocabulary in English taking into account their context. These words along with their previous knowledge helped them to create stories in English. The pedagogical approach used was CL. Thus, the view of language was language as doing things, the view of learning was analytical and the philosophy for this intervention was based on progressivism. The key words of the literature review were related to critical pedagogy, agency and social interaction. The results of the study show that these children developed their agency in English language through creativity, action and choices, responsibility, initiative, project design, doubt, strategy, will and purpose, effort and ability, freedom and self-hood. These issues were synthesized in three general categories: decision making, skills development and management.. 3.
(4) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 4. Table of Contents. Chapter One Introduction…………………………………………………………………………. 6. Justification………………………………………………………………………….. 7. Problem Statement…………………………………………………………………... 8 Research question and objectives……………………………………………………. 10 Chapter Two: Literature Review Critical Pedagogy…………………………………………………………………….. 11 Agency …………...…………………………………………………………………....14 Social Interaction…………...……………………………………………..…………... 18 Chapter Three: Instructional Design Institutional information…………………………………………………………..…… 28 View of Language …………………………………………………………………..….28 View of Learning ………………………………………………………………………28.
(5) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 5. Approach…………………………………………………………………………………31 Instructional Objectives ………………………………………………………………..32 Thematic Development………………………………………………………………....32 Methodology……………………………………………………………………….…...34 Chapter Four: Research Design Type of study ……………………………………….………………………...……......36 jjjjjParticipants………….……….…………………….……………………………….......38 Ethical aspects………………...………………………………………………………...39 Chapter Five: Data Analysis Organization of the information………………………………………………………...41 Units of analysis………………………………………………………………………...42 Evaluation categories…………………………………………………………………...56 Theories, hypotheses and explanations…………………………………….......……….60 Conclusions………………………………………………………………………………...70 References………………………………………………………………………………….74 Annexes…………………………………………………………………………………….80.
(6) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 6. Chapter One Introduction. In general terms, English as a foreign language, is taught in Colombian schools by teachers who tend to instruct their students about what to do and how to do something. Teachers usually follow a curriculum which may develop students’ learning with resources such as guides, textbooks, posters, among others. As an English teacher in my pedagogical practicum I have seen that some students in public schools tend to do what the teacher suggests them to do. Then, I started wondering what will happen if a student is responsible of his/her own learning? It is clear that I was motivated to work on children´s agency and I linked that to social interaction in as much as my study looked into children’s agency in an environment of mutual collaboration among both the students and the teacher. Hence, I wanted to find out a possible answer about how children become agents of their own learning. My main purpose was to unveil that teachers are not the only source of knowledge as students might have something to contribute with in the EFL classroom. I also wanted to contribute to the EFL community by providing some findings in regards to students’ agency. The content of this project is presented as follows. Below, I present the justification that relates to the importance of this project. Then, I state he problem. After that, I discuss the literature review with the authors chosen to develop this project. Later, I present the.
(7) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 7. instructional as well as the research design. Finally, I discuss the data analysis along with the conclusions of the study.. Justification This project was implemented in a public school called Carlo Federici. It was expected that this project fostered English learning through students’ agency. In other words, teachers were not considered the only source of knowledge as students started to be responsible of their own learning. Moreover, this research allowed me, as a researcher, to find out how social interaction may affect learning and thus, how knowledge can be built. Furthermore, this project was important as far as it showed that learning English could be done not only following the teacher’s instructions but working cooperatively with students. This project presented agency as a strategy to work cooperatively to improve second graders performance in the English language. This was so, by developing some activities (which will be explained in the instructional design). In this sense, this study provided the EFL community with a strategy that can be used in any scenario. It also helped the ELT community because it provided them some insights about how agency was developed in children. Student in this specific context also benefited from this study as they could be agents in their EFL classroom. This research study also helped me to improve my profession. Specifically, I learned that new resources need to be included into the EFL classroom to motivate.
(8) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 8. students. Besides that, as a researcher, I understood the context where the study was conducted and how one can help others to learn.. Problem Statement Based on some observations carried out as part of the pedagogical practicum in primary school, it was evident that most of the children tended follow the teacher´s instructions. Those directions were focused on grammatical issues in which students had to write correctly and coherently some English words using the Grammar Translation Method. According to Richards and Schimidt (1985) in this method “a typical lesson consists of the presentation of a grammatical rule, a study of lists of vocabulary, and a translation exercise” (p. 231). This method was used to work with topics such as colors, animals and body parts, among others. Thus, there was a clear focus on the grammatical aspects of the language, on the use of translation from English into Spanish and on the development of writing instead of speaking. Richards and Schimidt argue that “the Grammar Translation Method emphasizes reading rather than the ability to communicate in a language” (p. 231). Besides that, students tended to obtain bad grades in grammatical exercises, they did not pay attention to the class, they were not motivated towards the English class and there was indiscipline. However, in some classes students were able to take a role in their own learning through activities that involved movement, participation, interaction and arts (songs, dramatizations and competitions). These classes seemed to work better for these.
(9) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 9. primary school pupils. Regarding this, Steiner (2010) notes that “by integrating the arts and art- making into English language teaching and learning, students will develop and deepen their understanding of their own and others’ human experience” (p. 2). This argument was totally true for these students because when they were enrolled in such activities, they seemed to get better grades, pay more attention, and be motivated as they appeared to enjoy those activities. This goes in accordance to what Quisenberry and Willis (1975) suggest “children learn through play” (p. 883) because as they further suggest, “play has a significant contribution to make in any childhood curriculum” (p. 883). Moreover, according to Hudelson (1989) teachers should not worry about writing until children really master the language orally. This author further asserts that children need first to be taught to listen, understand and speak and later on to read and write. In that sense, as Hudelson argues, the students, in this case children, first listen and then, speak based on a sort of repetition. Finally, they are able to write. It is evident from the experience already mentioned that students in my practicum liked speaking English rather than writing it. It was difficult for them to write because English words are not written as they sound. This life issue could be seen in the diverse contexts I observed: Colegio Eduardo Carranza with first graders, Colegio Silveria Espinosa de Rendón with third graders and Colegio Carlo Federici with fourth graders. All these students had some characteristics in common as they belonged to public schools in Bogotá of first and second social Colombian strata. Besides that, they seemed to be reluctant to learn grammatical issues assigned by the.
(10) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 10. teacher (basically fill in the gaps activities written in guides or in tests). They seemed to participate more in artistic activities such as games, songs, handicrafts and dramatizations as in theses spaces they used basically the speaking skill rather than the other ones. Then, it was evident that these children were interested in speaking, because they were asking for the correct pronunciation and participation was noticeable.. Research question and objectives A according to what has been mentioned so far, the research question takes into account both empirical and theoretical elements related to the following words: agency, children, primary school and social interaction. In that sense, since these students seemed not to enjoy grammatical issues which involved basically reading and writing skills, and on the contrary, they preferred activities which involved participation by themselves instead of following teacher’s instructions, I observed how students took their own responsibility when learning English through social interaction. Thus, according to what has been mentioned so far the research question was: how do second graders develop their English Language Learning Agency in a Public School? The general objective was to analyze agency development in second graders through identifying strategies which children use when taking responsibility about their own learning and to explain the involvement of those strategies in the development of the activities in the classroom..
(11) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 11. Chapter Two Literature Review. Along the project, I have found four key concepts which are the basis thereof: agency, social interaction, critical pedagogy and language. These concepts will be discussed from a personal perspective taking into consideration the Colombian social context. To begin with, critical pedagogy will be encompassed taking into account Freire’s theory. Agency will then be discussed. Finally, social interaction will take place taking into account Vygotsky’s theory. These concepts will be mediated by language taking into account EFL (English as a Foreign Language).. Critical Pedagogy Pedagogy is a way to inquire how agency is developed. Learning is a process which allows students to develop their agency since learning is related to contribution. When talking about contribution, it could be related to what one of the most important authors in the subject, the Brazilian and education expert Paulo Freire postulates in relation to the new knowledge which is produced in the classroom between both students and teachers (Barlett, 2008). In this case, each one has something to contribute according to what they have learned by themselves and through interactions with their group..
(12) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 12. In daily life in Colombia, it could be seen how some students just follow teacher’s instructions. For instance, the teacher might assign exercises and homework assignments which students are limited to develop. Taking into account Freire’s perspective about Critical Pedagogy, three remarkable aspects appear: to learn, to relearn and to unlearn (Wink, 2005).When talking about how students develop their agency, the third characteristic of Critical Pedagogy already mentioned, seems to be crucial when talking about teachers. When the students play a role and assume responsibility about their learning, the teacher puts aside that role of being a “boss” and goes to play the role of a “helper” who guides the students without telling them what needs to be done toughly. Here, the teacher unlearns to be that boss that he/she used to be or considered to be. Unlearning is in fact a comparison between theory and empiricism. Theory is taken and compared to reality, what has been learnt at the university or has been told is not true or evident in the classroom where teaching is developed. Here, the teacher learns from the others and in that way learning could be possible. For instance, when students develop their agency the teacher unlearns to be that figure of superiority and knowledge and accepts the power of their students in the process, contributing to the class by asking questions and proposing ideas that might not be expected When talking about unlearning the teacher actually learns to unlearn. When a teacher learns to unlearn to be the only source of knowledge, agency could be developed since the teacher and the students are sources of knowledge which is constructed through interactions. For instance, the teachers learn again that each context is different and what.
(13) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 13. might work for some, might not work for some others. In the Colombian social context, learning English could be developed in open and close spaces. As mentioned before, some contexts in Colombia live under the poverty line which could affect the development of the class. Then, agency from the students appears to be an option to make learning possible. “Education is radically about love” (p. 13, 2005) is one of the most remarkable quotes from Freire. This is closely related to what the unlearning process in critical pedagogy is all about. This sentence is quite clear and it just emphasizes on doing something with passion as the key to succeed. But, how close is this to reality in Colombia? To begin with, aspects such as the low salaries and the big number of students in each class might decrease teachers´ passion. Another aspect which can make teaching difficult is research. When teachers do research, they are able to somehow contribute to unlearning. However, research is not easily accessible for school teachers in Colombia. Unfortunately, if a teacher wants to do research he or she is obliged to do it by his/her own means and that includes time and budget (Quintero & Guerrero, 2013). If school teachers cannot be supported by authorities when documenting about a problematic and try to find solutions, how could it be possible to develop critical pedagogy when a problem is not researchable? Critical pedagogy is undoubtedly a wide topic. For the purpose of this document, it has been used to address agency and social interaction. This is part of some situations presented at schools in Colombia. According to some colleagues and the general opinion, they go out of the university with that idea of changing a little the way of teaching However, some aspects such as the time, the number of students, the resources, the salary,.
(14) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 14. among others, might make the process hard and teachers end up giving up. Moreover, when tying a different methodology in the classroom, it could be unaccepted by the school administrators. This as opposed to what happens at the university where a teacher exposes his/her methodology in his/her own way. A teacher, for instance, might create something different to what is common sense such as guides, exams, homework assignments. Instead he/ she can construct knowledge through interaction and agency in children. In such a way, the awareness of the students about their learning is developed. However, this methodology might go against the policies in the school. So, the attempt of the teacher to develop his/her classes in such a way can be limited.. Agency Agency could be a term which we may not be quite familiarized with. However, we face it every day when we take a subjective perspective about what is more convenient and the possible way to do it. In other words, agency has to do with how people take responsibility about something by their own. That responsibility has to do with personal gain. As mentioned, agency is faced in everyday life: the way we treat our relatives, the way we learn through some strategies which we might think are the appropriate ones for us to make something, etc. As agency has to do with a subjective way of acting being reflected in our way of thinking about life, it has a direct impact in social life. For instance, the way children go to school implies, as with many other aspects, time. In that way, children decide.
(15) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 15. at what time it is better to leave or to arrive to school to avoid misunderstandings. In other words, they make the decision to be responsible and punctual. The same happens in the issue which concerns the most in this research: learning. For adults and teenagers, who must take higher responsibilities at the university, institutes or any other institutions, decisions are made by themselves as they know what should be done. On the contrary, what occurs in primary schools is that pupils are ruled by teachers and the people in charge of them (parents or other relatives) and they are the ones who advise students what to do in order to learn. Actually, the teachers at school usually tell the students what to do and the tutors at home may or may not help those students. At universities, the responsibility is higher because if students are willing to learn, they might take into consideration strategies. To illustrate this, a student who learns English at the university may not be satisfied with what has been taught. So he or she tries to study by him/her using books, internet, dictionaries, etc. However, what will happen when a primary school pupil takes responsibility about his/her own learning? It could not be as common as it happens in the university. This is so because in primary school the students tend to be mindful to teachers’ instructions. As opposite, adult learners typically ask questions based on their perceived knowledge needs. With school children, on the contrary, questions are typically asked by the teacher, based on the teacher's perception of the child's needs. So far I have presented my own construction of agency. In the following lines I will account for what some authors have said about this concept. According to Emirbayer and.
(16) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 16. Mirsche (1998) agency needs to be reconceptualized due to it does not have an exact meaning. Besides that, they argue that the authors, in this case children, live simultaneously in the past, present and future and make adjustments in their empirical existence. As it was mentioned, Emirbayer and Mirsche seem not to be quite sure about their definition. However, they assert that agency has to do with the personal experience which is seen and developed while thinking and being conscious about an issue. Besides, when talking about agency in children, it seems children’s rights will not be respected unless adults appreciate that children are agents of their own learning (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1991). In this way, the teacher plays that crucial role of that adult and seems to take children’s agency for granted. This is so, perhaps, because of their age and because they are always guided by an adult as it could be done at home. This fact leaves aside the idea that teachers are not the only ones who know. Students can also learn by their own using the most convenient ways. Additionally, agency is closely related to terms such as self-hood, motivation, will, purposiveness, intentionality, choice, initiative, freedom and creativity (Keys, 2014). All these concepts could be related to how people construct knowledge by themselves. In fact, children can produce and recognize educationally productive questions and can adapt them to their knowledge needs (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1991) as occurs at the university and sometimes at high school. From time to time, children ask questions about doubts that might emerge from a topic taught in a lesson. Sometimes they do not talk as they might feel embarrassed. So, they just ask the fellows to get a possible response. Besides, those activities which involve children’s access to activities that require them to use their own.
(17) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 17. agency such as experimentation and designing projects, is in decline inasmuch as federal, state, and local directives focus on math and literacy assessments (Keys, 2014). In this way, the teachers teach a lesson providing students with material which could be a guide. Then, students are told to solve it. In this way students will pass the course. In other words, adults may think they can manipulate younger people and tell them what to do according to what they think is appropriate. Agency could also be interpreted as “free will” which may happen if a teacher is only limited to tell the students to act by themselves in order to learn without any kind of advice. However, the teacher is quite important in the process. It is the student the one who makes use of his/her agency to complement what has been taught in the class. To my eyes, the context of a school is determined by many aspects such as socioeconomic status, physiological aspects, the academic level of the school, etc. Thus, it could be a difficult task to impose agency in primary and even high school pupils as learning English is seen as a difficult endeavor. Perhaps some students are just limited to learn it through the school and the teacher in charge. In addition, given the fact that the present study has the English Language as means, the English level is significantly low both in students and teachers (Universia Colombia, 2015). This low level could be prevented by the mere fact of putting an autonomous effort in it since autonomous work is a well-known strategy to get skillfulness in any subject. In fact, agency highlights the importance of the actions and choices made by actors within specific contexts (Forbes, 2008) such as the Colombian context in the public.
(18) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 18. school chosen for this study. These actions are consequence of people’s choices which may bring both, positive and negative results as the teacher gives students a “kind of freedom” while they are participants in learning. However, agency in students might be related to other issues such as economic ones which are a reality in Colombia. To illustrate this, children from wealthy families might get access to more options in order to take responsibility by themselves while in marginal contexts it is much more complex. For instance, in a private school located in 5th social strata in Colombia there could be more resources at home and at school. Then, students have easy access to libraries, internet and computers, among others.. Social Interaction Agency could be discussed not merely as an individual issue but a social one. This is. where social interaction comes into play. When talking about social interaction, it becomes significant to quote one of the most representative authors of all time: the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky who stresses on the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition related to language learning at an early age since he believed that community makes meaning and in that sense, social learning comes before development (McLeod, 2007). Taking into account that learning English in Colombia should be develop through interaction, it is important the communication among people and then the inner speech could be developed. However, in Colombia most people do not speak the English language. Unfortunately, the English level in Colombia is low in public schools. In the.
(19) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 19. institution where this study was conducted, based on a survey, only 15 % of the students have a basic English level. They tend to imitate what other students do but they do not have their own strategies to learn the language. Nevertheless, when students use their agency and they realize their own strengths and difficulties, they can have a critical perspective towards learning. This is so because when learning English as a second language, students are essentially infants. They learn as we do when we learned our mother tongue. We repeated as others did, committing mistakes and fixing them as soon as we realized them. At schools, teachers are responsible for establishing interaction at the beginning. As students get more familiar with the English language and are able to communicate, the control of the interaction can be relinquished a bit and the students can take more control of their own language learning. In this way, through some methods such as the help of body language, the infants communicate each other when something is not understood. By doing this, children through agency can realize their own mistakes and they can use diverse strategies to improve. This if they are willing to. Besides that, Vygotsky (1978) stressed the idea that “young children are curious and actively involved in their own learning and the discovery and development of new understandings/schema”. Thus, this theory is much more social than the one proposed by Piaget that had to do more with a self-initiated theory. According to McLeod (1978) quoting Vygotsky, mentioned that learning is a necessary and universal aspect of the process of developing culturally organized, specifically human psychological.
(20) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 20. function. Thus, according to Vygotsky development is done after learning through social interaction, contrary to Piaget who tended to underestimate it. Of course, both theories are well constructed and each one of them has plenty of arguments to convince the audience of its truthfulness. Personal development is important in order to socialize but also society is immersed in our personal development. Our personality and our acts are the result of what all the history of people around us has taught us and what we have learned from them. However, to my eyes, the relationship we have with ourselves is shown in the way we interact. In fact, each part of our personality has been determined by our background which in part, has a touch which makes us unique. When talking about social interaction from Vygotsky’s point of view, the direct relation with learning is established. Previously, it was discussed the relation between agency and how it is an aspect in life that we face every day. Now, when joining agency as the way of taking responsibility of our own learning with social interaction and we adapt some characteristics and learn from others, it may get two opposite but closely interrelated connotations: an individual and a social one. To illustrate this, Vygotsky presents private speech as the use of language for self-regulation of behavior. This represents the external thought which main function is to communicate with the self in order to get self-guidance and self-direction. In this way, the individual becomes an agent. This plays a crucial role in the development of the child’s abilities in language. However, this private speech decreases completely by the age of 10 turning into an inner speech or best known as verbal thought..
(21) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 21. It is also remarkable that children raised in cognitively and linguistically stimulating environments, which are more noticeable in higher socioeconomic status, increase their private speech at higher levels. Again, the socioeconomic situation plays a crucial role in learning. Children raised in more privileged families get more access to information, resources and support from people around them while in low social contexts it becomes harder since the resources and in some cases, the support is not as high as in children from higher status. Unfortunately, in an unequal country such as Colombia, the more privileged students get better access to health, education, work opportunities, etc. Furthermore, social interaction (especially at school) carries other aspects such as competence, discrimination, relationships, among others, which might affect social interaction and learning. In this case, it would be appropriate to work independently rather than asking for collaboration. Maybe, when elaborating a personal strategy, we see it does not work. So, we see how others do it and thus, we may imitate it adapting it to our way of doing it. In general terms, returning to Vygotsky, there is a close relation between the social field and learning. The way we interpret something is determined by our social background. We become agents as stated in our private speech, ended by the age of ten, and we provide ourselves with self-guidance. However, private speech is a fact that occurs even in adults. As a strategy, people speak loudly in order to memorize something better. So, it may not be as evident as it occurs with children, but it does not stop there. Our private speech will always appear just in order to address our ideas, to make them more emphatic..
(22) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 22. Another important aspect given by Vygotsky is The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) which explains more deeply the importance of society in our cognitive development. This one establishes how a child might work as a guide for other children who seem to have difficulties in learning. In that vein, cooperative work plays a key role for children to become agents. Along this document, it is important to see language as a priority. In other words, when learning a second language we should not only follow what the teacher says but ourselves. The importance of will is highlighted because it will carry students to work by themselves when some goals are proposed by them and not only by the teacher. There is when a student thrives in any subject by making big efforts. The ZPD is a complement of agency. For instance, a student (with the will to deepen his/her understanding) studies by his/her own a topic in an English class. The student can socialize with his/her classmates if his/her guesses are true or not. Thus, the student learns alone and with the help of his/her surroundings. Learning is seen not only as a mere individual aspect but as a social one. In public schools in Colombia, the willing in children is very noticeable. Students of those ages are like “sponges” absorbing knowledge and sharing events about their lives. So far, agency has had a close relation to what Vygotsky establishes as the private speech which may or not be complemented through social interaction when learning becomes the means to perform it. However, that agency and social interaction, as purposes to learn any subject, are determined by willing. Willing is presented when we take a critical point of view about what is appropriate and what is not in our own learning. It has been.
(23) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 23. discussed how students might take responsibility about themselves not only following the teacher’s instructions but complementing them with self-work and socialization. As the learning process in the classroom has in general terms two figures: teacher and students, what can be discussed about teachers? First at all, a teacher could be defined as that figure who, in this case, may guide the students in their own learning to give them an support in that process. Up to this point it has been discussed how unlearning plays a role in the development of agency inside the classroom. It has also been discussed how agency and social interaction relate taking into consideration the Colombian social context and the implications it might bring. Thus, in this study, it is seen how students take action about their leaning by themselves, if the teacher unlearns that knowledge is constructed cooperatively as an integration of the teacher and the students. Now, it is important to establish not only the end but the means, and that is where language takes place. In this case a foreign language: English. Language is developed from social interactions, for communication purposes, basically (Vygotsky, 1962). Thereby, communication among people facilitates learning a second language. In this way, students learn according to what others do. It is a mutual support. When learning English as a second language, students are essentially infants. They cannot communicate with the teacher, except through their mother tongue complemented with non-verbal communication (gestures). Therefore, it relies on the teacher to act as the guide in the infant-adult relationship. In that way, the teacher may lead all interaction at.
(24) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 24. first, and as the students become more familiar with the English language and are able to communicate, the control of the interaction can be relinquished a bit and the students can take more control of their own language learning. Some children in Colombia, where English language is not quite spoken in real life, tend to ask for some words in English using gestures. So, to give an example, through the help of body language the infants communicate each other when something is not understood. This is so in their mother tongue and in the foreign language. Vygotsky's theories stress on the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition as he strongly believed that community plays a central role in the process of “making meaning”. In other words, Vygotsky truly believed that language learning could be possible through a community. As known, Vygotsky stressed on the idea of a more social theory. He argued that young children are quite curious and are actively involved in their own learning (being agents) and development of new understandings. Thus, social learning tends to come before development and that development is done after learning through social interaction. Having considered language in relation to a community, it is necessary to mention English as a foreign language (EFL) which is seen in Colombia as an increasing requisite. For second graders, for instance, it becomes a challenge given the fact they are still learning their mother tongue (Spanish). When learning a mother tongue, children from a very early age start to listen and repeat which is evident in their speech. In this case, the students will develop both speaking and listening skills first rather than reading and writing skills as it occurs when acquiring a language: the baby starts to repeat according to what they listen.
(25) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 25. and reproduce with the evidence of some mistakes of coherence. The same happens when learning a foreign language and it is more complex when the target language is not truly spoken in real life. Children become agents knowing what is appropriate for their level as it happens with their mother tongue. Moreover, the English level at school in Colombia is quite low, according to the study Education First carried out in 2013, which is one of the global leaders in international education, Colombia is located in the 46th place among 60 countries which were evaluated. In public schools, even the ones with the tag of “bilingual” the English proficiency is not the appropriate. Undoubtedly, there are many facts which are the cause of the low English level presented in Colombia. One of them is due to the low level teachers in Colombia have. According to El Espectador newspaper, (2014) 60 % of English teachers in Colombia actually do not speak English. How could be possible to learn a foreign language in Colombia even when the teachers do not know the subject properly? This is so because English teachers (more specifically in primary school) are not just English teachers but they are also in charge of other subjects such as math, Spanish, physical education, among others (Quintero & Guerrero, 2013). In that way, quality in education could not be possible even when the people in charge do not have security and appropriateness in any subject. One of the consequences of the low preparation of the English teachers in Colombia is that they teach in a traditional way. Thus, the teacher is the only source of knowledge and students’ contributions are not given enough relevance. The lack of preparation in teachers show some mistakes that are quite evident in children when learning EFL. To illustrate this,.
(26) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 26. some mistakes such as the pronunciation of words is presented in students´ everyday life as they repeat as the teacher does. Furthermore, in the practicum offered by the university in the English teaching career, most of the colleagues face a reality in which only vocabulary is learned. There is not any focus on communication and teachers struggle with discipline problems. The teacher just assigns tasks to be done and the students are limited to obey without any feedback or contribution from their part. The way these teachers work instead of being a passion, a remarkable characteristic of Critical Pedagogy, becomes a nightmare. If education is radically love, as Freire postulates, how could it be a reality in Colombia when the students’ contribution and opinion are not acceptable? Low English level in Colombia is a fact which seems to have its implications from an early age, in primary school. That root of the problem is located at the beginning of learning since, as mentioned before, there is an emphasis on writing words and learning vocabulary without any students’ contribution. When learning a language, writing comes after the students have mastered the oral language and not before (Hudelson, 1989) as it is commonly done in Colombian schools. EFL has, in some cases, a connotation of boredom as it occurs with subjects such as math. English, for some children is difficult and it causes frustration and as consequence, the reluctance of learning it. To conclude, so far the concepts of critical pedagogy, agency and social interaction have been discussed taking into consideration both theory and practical perspectives, in a Colombian social context mediated by language. Some of the implications which might appear when implementing critical pedagogy in a classroom when learning a second.
(27) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 27. language through social interaction taking into consideration the responsibility that students take were also unveil..
(28) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 28. Chapter Three Instructional Design. Regarding the instructional design of the present research study it is important to mention where and how it was developed. In this sense, this chapter explains the name of the institution, the curriculum platform which includes the view of language and the view of learning, the approach, the philosophy, the thematic development, the methodology and the evaluation taken in this study. Institutional information As previously mentioned, this study was carried out in IED Carlo Federici with second graders in the morning shift. The school is located in the ninth locality of Bogotá called Fontibón. It is a mixed school with an emphasis on bilingualism (one of the few ones established in Bogotá). Its vision is based on a scientific approach and the development of human values to change the society and the family. View of Language To begin with, it is important to highlight that the students who belonged to this research were told to develop stories in English making use of their agency. Once this said,.
(29) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 29. according to Helbert Clarck (2004) language was used for doing things. In this view, “Language is presented everyday as a joint action which embodies both individual and social processes” (p. 1). Thus, language was seen as the way students exchanged ideas and created agreements in order to create the stories intended for learning English. Language as doing things is a view of language which is related to agency since, as mentioned before, is language that is presented in everyday life. When children created their stories and their puppets as material, language was used for doing things individually and in groups. According to Clarck (1996), there are some settings of spoken and written language use. The spoken ones are personal settings where the students would create conversations related to gossip. In these settings the students would talk about themselves, the teachers, the classes, the school, among others. When talking about institutional settings the children engage in speech exchanges that resemble ordinary conversation but are limited by institutional rules (p. 3). Thus, these settings were related to the topics seen in class such as the greetings and general vocabulary in English and their doubts about English language. It was more or less spontaneous. In private settings people speak for themselves without actually addressing anyone else which could be seen when a student may have ideas for the development of the stories which does not want to share yet because they are not sure or want to think better about it to consider that idea or not. On the other hand, in the written settings aspects such as printing, writing and literacy appeared. They “can introduce intermediaries between the person whose intentions.
(30) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 30. are being expressed and the intended audience” (p. 5). In this case, language is seen in writing settings when the students developed those stories in English, Spanish or even both. Language here was seen as doing things because they were creating stories which were done according to the agreements presented in the spoken setting of language use. Progressivism was included in this pedagogical intervention as philosophy. According to David Labarre (2005) it is easier to define progressivism nowadays: "it means basic instruction on the needs, interests, and developmental stage of the child. It means teaching students the skills they need in order to learn any subject" (p. 50). Then, I was focused on how interaction affects learning taking into account students as agents. Besides, the author mentions that "it means promoting discovery and self- directed learning by the student through active engagement" (p. 52). These pupils are just children, they are discovering the world. Thus, this philosophy helps as it promoted their own development through interaction. Through this interaction and by developing the stories, "values of community, cooperation, tolerance, justice and democratic equality" (p. 55) were expanded. Moreover, according to Jerner and Loomis (2007) in their Building Teachers: A constructivist Approach to Introducing Education, it is said that the teacher should be a guide and not a taskmaster since progressivists focus the curriculum on the needs (academic, social and physical) of the students. In the same token, according Jerner and Loomis (2014), “students learn from one another, so the progressivist classroom fosters social learning by having students working in cooperative groups” (p. 48). In this sense, this philosophy perfectly fit in this study..
(31) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 31. View of Learning According to Johnston and Orwig (1999) when talking about analytical learning there are some characteristics which emerge such as decision making, critical thinking and strategies for learning which are closed related to their agency. Some of my motivations to choose this view were that the analytical learner gives opportunities to work independently. This was presented when the teacher assigned tasks and the students decided by their own how they wanted to do them and how they wanted to arrange groups. The analytical learner has also opportunities to solve problems which were seen in the division of their work, the use of the puppets, also opportunities for intellectual freedom where the students decided what and how to develop their stories. Approach The approach that was implemented was the Cooperative Learning. This approach is quite related to social interaction. According to Felder (2007), the term Cooperative Learning (CL) "refers to students working on teams on an assignment or project under conditions in which certain criteria are satisfied" (p. 1). Thereby, the students were told to work by groups in order to follow what the lesson was about. According to Felder, CL has benefits such as reducing stress, better high-level reasoning and thinking skills, more positive and supportive relationship with peers, among others (p. 1). However, as Felder points out, some students remember working on teams as a task where just one or two students really work while some others do not, an argument which I totally agree with taking into account my experience as student. One way or another, as this study took into.
(32) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 32. account how students developed their agency when learning English and based on the fact that students were interacting, this approach was quite useful. Instructional Objectives Being said that this instructional design was based on CL as an approach and progressivism as a philosophy in which students work in teams and develop their agency, the objectives are as follows: the first one, to work in groups and to make evident the contribution of each participant in order to deepen their understanding about the lesson given; the second one, to create strategies in order to develop their agency towards learning English; the last one, to show the teacher how the topic given is understood and how responsibility about learning is developed. Thematic Development The lessons were taught in the grades 201 and 202. There were six classes per course. There was a total of 12 classes. The following chart shows in a brief way how each class was developed (each lesson plan could be found in appendices): Date/ lesson. Topic. Assessment. Thursday March 12th 2015/. There is/ there are in relation with. No assessment. The students. lesson # 1. fruits. were working in groups about how they should organize in order to develop the stories.. Thursday April 23rd, 2015/ Lesson # 2. Construction of the story and. The teacher went group by.
(33) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE presentation. group to see their stories. Points were added to those who did it.. Thursday May 7th, 2015/. Background/ what do you remember. The students developed. Lesson # 3. in English? / Greetings. stories based on their background and using the greetings in English. The teacher assigned points.. Thursday May 21th, 2015/. Free topic in English. The students created a story in English based on any topic. Lesson # 4. they wanted to work with. Points were assigned to those who did it.. Thursday May 28th, 2015/. Stories using English and Spanish. The students created stories based on a topic of their. Lesson #5. preference. They used Spanish if they wanted. Points were assigned.. Thursday June 4th, 2015/ Lesson #6. Comics in English. The teacher told them to develop a comic in English. Cardboard was used to develop these stories by groups. Points were given to those who were working.. 33.
(34) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 34. Methodology The students were organized in groups of four in order to represent a story given or a story created by them in English. They used some puppets created by them. Topics such as greetings and students’ previous knowledge were taken into account. The classes had usually a time of 45 minutes. A common class in the pedagogical intervention of this research project started with a warming up in which the lesson of the last class was practiced. After that, the introduction to the topic was developed. In this phase, the theory was explained using mainly English (which was adjusted to the use of Grammar Translation Method according to their level). After that, some words related to the topic were written on the board in order for them to memorize the vocabulary. The use of the notebook took place in some classes. At the end of the class (around 30 minutes) the teacher passed by each group to see the creation of their stories using the puppets. The puppets spoke only in English and the students just had the possibility to talk with them if they did it in English. Then, when the discourse of the puppets finished (which was developed through the use of improvisation from the teacher and the students) the teacher explained some common expressions, commands and, of course, the content of the topic developed. At the end, some doubts were resolved according to what the students asked. Concerning innovation, as it has been said, an uncommon daily resource such as the use of puppets and the creation of stories was implemented in each class. The use of puppets in order to practice and be more focused on the speaking skill (not only common topics that primary school pupils learn, but also some common expressions and commands.
(35) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 35. were taught) which are the means of this research. How they shared and transmitted knowledge from one another through the puppets as part of the cooperative is another point to highlight. On the other hand, concerning the evaluation, it is important to clarify that Carlo Federici School does not allow practitioners to assign grades as this is supposed to be a task carried out by the home-room teacher. Nonetheless, points were assigned to the students who worked in class. In most of the classes, the teacher assessed them through oral evaluations in which the teacher asks some questions related to the topic and also some expressions and commands which they have heard from the puppets or their stories..
(36) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 36. Chapter Four Research Design. Considering the research question: How do second graders perform their language learning agency in a public school? below I will explain the paradigm chosen for the present study. Then, I will account for the research method that was used. After that, the research instrument used to collect data will be described. Finally, the profile of the students and the objectives of this study will be discussed. To sum up this information, I can state that this study will be a qualitative case study that used video recordings, photographs, artifacts and an interview as the main instruments to collect and validate data. Type of study To Begin with, it is necessary to clarify the paradigm chosen for this study. According to Johnson and Christensen (2004) a paradigm is defined as “a perspective based on a set of assumptions, concepts and values that are held by a community of researchers” in which “there are currently three major research paradigms in education (…). They are quantitative research, qualitative research and mixed research”. The qualitative approach is more subjective. The quantitative one allows to statistics, numbers and exact data to give the result of a research. Then, it is more objective. For example, in the qualitative paradigm I could take into account those attitudes and individual aspects of the pupils related to their agency performance when learning English and although, both.
(37) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 37. quantitative and qualitative paradigms play an important role in any research, this study was focused on the qualitative paradigm due to the instruments that were used. At this point, Johnson and Christensen (2004) defined some characteristics of the qualitative paradigm. The authors suggest that qualitative paradigms “rely on the collection of qualitative data”. The nature of this data is related to words, images and categories contrary to variables which are the nature of quantitative data. Regarding the research method which took place in this project, it was a Case Study. As stated by Johnson and Christensen a case study “is a form of qualitative research that is focused on providing a detailed account of one or more cases.” Due to the fact that this research project was focused on second graders of a public school in Bogotá, this research method seemed to fit in this study. Three research instruments were used in order to obtain data: video recordings, artifacts and to validate them, an interview. At this point, Fernandez argues that “one characteristic of qualitative research is that it is worked mainly with words rather than numbers” (p. 1). In that way, video recording seemed to do more with qualitative research. Jewitt (2012) affirms that “Now, video is increasingly a significant resource for many contemporary social researchers.” (p. 2). The author further asserts that “Video is increasingly the data collection tool of choice for researchers interested in the multimodal character of social interaction.” (p. 2). Because it accounts for social interaction, I made the decision of using it as I could see and analyze how these students act and collaborate among each other in order to learn. These video recordings and photos are accompanied by.
(38) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 38. a transcription in order to have validity. Regarding this, Jewitt (2012) affirms that a researcher must transcript the voices of the participants, but also gestures, attitudes and the speech in social interaction (p. 20). The other instrument that was used was artifacts which have a technical perspective (different to the cultural one). It means they have happened under unintentional conditions (Loukissas, 2012). Given the fact agency has to do with how students take responsibility of their own learning, one of the most appropriate data is their products of that agency. In this case, their projects: their stories. These were the creation of second graders and they were a clear evidence of their labor in which agency concerns. Thus, artifacts were another instrument used in this research. The students developed stories created by themselves in English. These stories can be evident in a picture or in an oral report. When these stories were partially finished, the teacher was able to contrast them with the literature review provided. Besides, according to the website Sage Research Methods “there is no one right way to analyze artifacts” due to the fact each one of this artifacts will have an interpretation depending on the researcher. Participants The participants in this study were second graders in Carlo Federici School, a public school in Bogotá. The school is located in a first, second or a third social stratum. Those who were the most representative figures of what agency was, had a close attention in the development of data analysis. Edwin, Tomás and Nicolás were featured by being agents in class because their work key in this research. These three students were responsible about.
(39) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 39. what needed to be done and showed interest towards the class. These students were benefited because their learning was somehow superior to the others in terms of taking responsibility rather than following teachers’ instructions solely.. Ethical aspects According to Johnson and Christensen (2004) Ethics is defined as “as the principles and guidelines that help us to uphold the things we value.” Besides, “there are three primary areas of ethical concern for researchers which are the relationship between society and science, the professional issues and the treatment of research participants” (p. 1- 2). Regarding this, it was appropriate to submit a consent form to the school and the student’s parents. This consent form was signed by parents at the beginning of the intervention to avoid misunderstandings..
(40) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 40. Chapter Five Data Analysis. According to Hernández (2006) in most of qualitative studies data is qualified in order to obtain detailed information. Thus, irrelevant information is eliminated. This is what Hernández calls a process of codification. The author further argues that “codification has two levels: the first one consists of codifying units into categories. The second one consists of comparing categories to group them into topics and so, find possible links” (p. 634). Besides, Hernández (2006) affirms that categories could emerge from questions and reflections of the researcher as well as from those critical events related in the stories of the participants (p. 635). As the main source of data was video recordings along with artifacts and an interview (this last for validation purposes), Hernández (2006) argues it is important to transcribe them and analyze the language of the participants (the transcripts could be seen in more detail in the annexes of this document). Besides that, Hernández (2006) in his work provides a brief chart explaining the process of data analysis. This chart was used as the basis in the analysis of data. In this sense, firstly it was necessary to collect data. In this case data was collected through video recordings, the artifacts and the interview. Secondly, it is important to organize the information. Thirdly, data needs to be prepared for analysis. In this case it consisted of transcribing the video recordings, the interview and the pictures.
(41) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 41. of the artifacts. Fourthly, a review of the data in order to have a general panorama of the material was carried out. Fifthly, I discover the units of meaning taking into account the data review. Then, after evaluating the units of analysis and assigning them categories and codes, the firs levels of analysis emerged. As part of the codification of the categories in the second level, small categories were put together to have general categories. Finally, theories, hypotheses and explanations were generated. Organization of the information The transcripts of the video recordings as well as the photos of the artifacts and the transcripts of the interview are shown in the annexes of this document. Nonetheless, each transcript was analyzed in order to find the units of meaning. Transcripts were just taken from those relevant episodes in which agency, the main focus of this research, took place. In the transcripts emerged some other topics that did not have any relation to the main focus, though. Hernández (2006) advises to apply the confidential principle so that the names of the participants are not revealed (the names of the participant in the interviews will not be included). Each transcript took into account all the words, sounds and paralinguistic elements. Besides that, some artifacts were related to those transcripts. They can be seen in the annexes. In sum, this study considered the transcripts from the most relevant clips in the whole video recordings which seem to be appropriate for the analysis of this research..
(42) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 42. In order to analyze data, Hernandez (2006) establishes four stages: the first one consists of checking all the material (data set). The second one, identifying a type of segment characterized for being a constant unit. The third one, codifying and evaluating if the unit is appropriate for the analysis. Finally, identifying data relevant for the categories. (p. 636637). Given the fact that agency is the main focus in this data analysis, the artifacts collected worked as a way to validate data seen in the video recordings. This is so because seeing how agency is developed in the artifacts is difficult. However, in the recordings it can be seen. Below, each unit of analysis will be explained in more detail as Hernández (2006) suggests. Units of analysis To begin with, clip #1 shows how students create their stories and also some of the puppets by themselves. It is also seen the interest from Nicolás, a student who wanted to read his story showing a drawing, apparently made by him. The teacher was just passing around the classroom to couch the students. Nonetheless, Nicolás wanted to read his story in a very short period of time. Actually it was quite short. The drawing in his notebook (annex artifact #1) was a man and a dog which seemed to be talking. At the beginning the story had grammatical mistakes. It seemed that the student wrote the word in English as if it were in Spanish (the way it sounds): frends instead of friends, tenkio instead of thank you. Besides that, dyslexia appears: welow as hello. This student was very creative in his story including his mistakes, his drawing and his story itself. It was just a dialogue. Thus, the first topic flows: creativity..
(43) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 43. In the transcripts from clip #2 and #3 which were related to a student called Edwin, it was s seen a student working alone creating a story. Again, with grammatical mistakes (artifact #2). It was about a famous priest who was called “padre Chucho”, he translated it as “priest Chucho” and created a dialogue between this character, “Jennifer” and “Juliana” which were other characters. It was quite difficult to understand what the story was about. As it happened in the first clip, Edwin also wrote the words as the way they would be written in Spanish: prist instead of priest, du llu du instead of do you do, ayam instead of I am, dad as that and others. Despite his mistakes there was a way to develop his agency and it was based on how he took the decision of working alone instead of working with his fellows as suggested. Besides, creativity emerged again with the second topic which seemed to be initiative. As a matter of fact, Edwin took the initiative to work by his own means with no necessity of working with his fellows; he created a story which seemed to be based in his context. Perhaps he watched this famous character on TV and for some reason there was a kind of admiration, it could be related to his family, beliefs, religion, etc..
(44) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 44. In clip # 4, student B came to the teacher asking for information related to vocabulary; in fact, it was a whole sentence (“catch a thief”). His story seemed to be related to cops and robbers. He appeared to be quite interested in creating his story by the way he smiled, how he opened his eyes and how he spoke with enthusiasm. Student B went towards the teacher and did not wait until the teacher went to his desk. Besides, he asked for the expression “I know” in English. Perhaps it was part of his story. When the student was the one who asked and is responsible about his own learning a third topic appears: selfhood.. In clip #5 the same student goes again towards the teacher and asks the same question. It is seen a gesture of doubt when he scratches his head, he seems not to remember and it is quite understandable, it is not his mother tongue. When the teacher says “catch a thief” the student smiles as an approval for the way he has written it in his notebook. He seems to be excited to show the teacher what he has written it in his notebook. Besides, student B pronounces police as polise the way it would be uttered in.
(45) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 45. Spanish. The connection these kids have with their mother tongue seems to be very strong, something totally natural.. In clip #6 Tomás seemed to be the leader of the group of five students. He appeared to couch them in their process of reading the story as a kind of dialogue introducing each one of them. Besides, he told each one what to do a bit worried and a bit anxious because sometimes his fellows did not understand what he wanted to say. He had very good pronunciation, he seemed to enjoy what he was doing (he was very focused and concerned about the task). In artifact #3 it can be appreciated that there were not as many mistakes as the ones that were seen before. Nonetheless the same problem with orthographical mistakes occurred: hou instead of oh, wat instead of what, pleshure instead of pleasure, among others. The way Santiago managed the situation of couching his group to create a story was the fourth topic: action and choices. As a matter of fact, Santiago was the leader and he said what needed to be done taking into account his knowledge which was evident when he talked..
(46) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 46. In clip #7, student C had a drawing of a farmer (artifact #4) greeting a kind of spacecraft and a traditional house. The farmer was alone as it was Student C which seemed to prefer working alone. Each one of the topics already mentioned appeared in every recording because Student C did not want to work in groups. Because of the way he talked and how he moved the pencil, I can say he was quite shy. He just stayed quiet until the teacher suggested him to talk about the story. He decided to speak in Spanish although the teacher suggested him to do it in English. Despite he had the words written in his notebook in English he refused to speak in English. After that, the teacher suggested him one more time to speak in English. He said the words “good morning world” and pronounced this last word as “guor”. The way he understood English seemed to be taken for granted. When developing his agency towards learning, he hesitated; thus, the fifth topic that emerged was doubt..
(47) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 47. In clips # 8 and #9 Edwin created the second part of a story. The teacher had not suggested to do it in that way. His story was called “La encontrada parte 2”, in his story (artifact #5) he wrote a different title from the one assigned to the first story “La encontrada parte 1”. Edwin seemed to be very focused on what he was doing. He erased some words and did not want to talk. It seemed he was another student who preferred working alone rather than working in group. The topics seen so far seemed to have a close relation to the next topic which emerged: responsibility. Some people preferred to work alone. The students were surrounded by some students who did not make as much effort as these students did. Edwin was one of those students who, along with Tomás, had very good academic performance which could be evident in the clips and his artifacts.. In clip # 10, Nicolás asked for some words in English. Apparently, he confused “asking” with “saying” in Spanish. There was confusion even in his mother tongue which may hinder his English learning. Doubt emerged again, along with action and choices. He made the decision of writing that English word dog down on the board and he was asking for another one, how to say “un” in English. He needed to create a sentence that started with “a dog…”..
(48) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 48. So far it has been seen that some students dare to write a story in English without feeling afraid of making mistakes while others seemed to use Spanish instead of English when that was not the instruction. For instance, in clip #11 student D seemed to be afraid of telling his story so he decided to ask Tomás, his fellow, for help. Tomás, apparently, did it under pressure because the teacher was there. When the students did what they thought could be done and they did not do what they thought they were “not able” to do, this was close related to what is more convenient, to their own interests. In fact, the whole story was written in Spanish and it had orthographical mistakes and lack of coherence (artifact # 6), even in their mother tongue. This seemed to be quite natural in second grade. Nonetheless, Tomás took the decision of translating the story into English. He had just started to use his knowledge. Tomás, again, was the leader and he seemed to work in a responsible way helping out his group. As it was seen in clip #12 he said words which were not written in the notebook, he just did it at the beginning using his common sense: un día as a day, unos as a (which is grammatically incorrect) and superhéroes as superheroes (cognates). When a student takes action about how to do something a new topic appears: will and purposiveness..
(49) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 49. In clips #13 and # 14 it is seen how working in groups, promotes the exchange of ideas as well as creation, negotiation and lack of discipline. In this case, the classroom was noisy and the students had too many doubts about English vocabulary. They asked because they did not have enough resources (dictionaries). Student G got upset because the teacher did not pay attention to his questions to his question. The students again showed responsibility when asking for a solution to their doubts.. In clip #15 it is seen, again, the lack of discipline presented in the classroom as a result of the negotiation they went through. Student J, K and L seemed not to be interested in the class. Nonetheless, student N said “I want to work alone!” and repeated it a bit annoyed. In this case, again, selfhood is presented. Despite some students had not brought their puppets, which was supposed to be an important tool in the classroom, something unexpected happened. Some students decided to create the puppets by themselves. It was appreciated in clip #14. They used paper, scissors and colors to create a kind of puppet in order to work in class (artifact #7, artifact # 8). In this act, topics such as strategy emerged..
(50) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AGENCY PERFORMANCE. 50. There were many reasons for them to design their puppets. Perhaps, they did not feel comfortable without their puppets, or perhaps they needed them in order to create their stories. Another topic which arose was project design because in that group they worked together, they cut paper, color and designed their characters. They selected a specific task and work cooperatively. For instance, Tomás decided to create the puppet for another student in order to help him. This, contrary to what other students did. On the other hand, doubt emerged again when Student S decided to ask the head teacher how to say “welcome” and also when Student P asked the teacher the correct the pronunciation of the words “hi” and “hello”..
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