Which teaching strategies can I implement to engage my fifth grade students : to participate in listening activities at Colegio José Antonio Lecaros?

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(1)TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Which teaching strategies can I implement to engage my fifth grade students to participate in listening activities at Colegio José Antonio Lecaros?. Camila Andrea Núñez Palomino. Seminar teacher: Pablo Silva Practicum tutor: Pamela Lara Santiago, Chile. 2016.

(2) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Table of contents I.. Abstract………………………………………………………………...……………….3. II.. Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………….4. III.. Introduction…...………….…………………………….…………………....................5. IV.. Context …………..………………..…………………….………...……………………7. V.. Problem ………………………...………….....……………………………….............10. VI.. Research question...……………...…...………………………………………………11. VII.. Rationale…...……………………………………………………………….................12. VIII.. Literature review……………………..……………………………………................13. IX.. Research Methodology……...………………………………………………..............17 1. Data collection instruments……………..………………..………………………..18 2. Procedures of data collection...…………………………………………................19 3. Action plan…...…………………………………………………………................20 4. Interventions……..………………………………………………………………...21. X.. Data analysis....…………………………………………………...…………...............23. XI.. Reflection…...…………………………………………………………………………28. XII.. Conclusion, implications and limitations……………………………………………30. XIII.. References...……………………………………………………………...………...….31. XIV.. Appendix ………………………………………..…………….………………………32 1. Appendix A. Students’ survey..……………………………………………………32 2. Appendix B. Teacher’s questionnaire……………………………………..............33 3. Appendix C. Journal entry 1………………………………………………………34 4. Appendix D. Journal entry 2……………………………………...……………….36 5. Appendix E. Journal entry 3………………………………………...…………….38 6. Appendix F. Journal entry 4…………………………………………...………….40 7. Appendix G. Students’ exit ticket…………………….……………………………42 8. Appendix H. First intervention planning and material…………………………...43 9. Appendix I. Second intervention planning and material…….…………………….45 10. Appendix J. Students’ surveys developed examples……………………………….48 11. Appendix K. Teacher’s survey developed……………………...………………….49. 2.

(3) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Abstract The following action research was made in a fifth grade in Colegio José Antonio Lecaros, an educational institution located in Estación Central, Santiago, Chile. The problem emerged in this group during a listening lesson. It could been observed that these students did not know how to participate in listening activities. The students were confused and anxious in front of some material and instruction that it was new for them and that they do not understand. There were two interventions designed in order to establish a routine where these students could understand and develop the listening activities, supported by certain educational theories which help this project to be developed. Keywords: Listening comprehension activities, engage, routine, instructions. Resumen Esta investigación fue llevada a cabo en un quinto año básico en el Colegio José Antonio Lecaros, una institución educacional ubicada en la comuna de Estación Central, en Santiago de Chile. El problema surgió durante la realización de una clase enfocada a la habilidad de escuchar un audio en inglés. Como profesora en práctica pude observar que estos estudiantes no sabían cómo participar durante dichas actividades. Los alumnos se veían confundidos y ansiosos ante un material y una instrucción que no comprendían y que era totalmente nueva para ellos. Desde esta realidad, dos intervenciones fueron diseñadas y realizadas con el fin de establecer una rutina que ayudara a los estudiantes a entender y a participar en las actividades correspondientes a la habilidad auditiva del idioma inglés. Dichas intervenciones se elaboraron de acuerdo a ciertas teorías educacionales que respaldaron esta investigación. 3.

(4) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Acknowledgements During the realization of this investigation there were people who supported me regardless the difficulties that I faced. I would like to thank my family, my parents Susana Palomino and Victor Núñez, my sister Constanza Núñez and my brother-in-law Leonardo Olguín who were always by my side, who raised me to be responsible, to never give up and always expect for the best. To my grandmother Ana Matus who has been my greatest support in life. To my uncle-brother Pablo Matus who always give me a hand with the audio visual projects that I had to do for the university, no matter the time, he was always there. To my group of friends, especially to Barbara Vargas besides of being such a good friend who always supported me, she helped me as therapist as well. To my boyfriend Felipe Retamal for loving, caring, understanding and supported me throughout all my career but even in this important process. To my classmates at the university who always guided me when I needed it, who helped me to study and who shared their teaching experiences in order to make everyone in the group to be critic with their decisions inside the classroom. Finally, I would like to thank to my teachers who motivated, challenge and encourage me to become a professional through the years. To Pablo Silva, Loreto Aliaga, Beatriz Jaramillo, Mauro Ramos, Astrid Tapia, Andrea Pardo, Olga Mella, Pamela Lara and especially to José Callado who taught me that a teacher is not someone who knows everything but someone who believes and appreciates every students knowledge. 4.

(5) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Introduction Teaching English in a Spanish-speaking country is a challenging task, especially if it is being taught to a group of people who seem to be reluctant to learn it; as most of the Chilean students. The reasons why students can be unwilling to this subject would be finding English difficult to be understood, useless to their context or more complicated than their native language. However, since globalization, communication and technology are present in daily contexts, English has become part of our lives. Perhaps some people are not yet aware of that, but this language is present in the television, music, movies, smartphones, internet and social networks that everybody uses every day. Furthermore, learning English is an important tool that might allow people to travel to other countries, know other cultures, increase their knowledge and give them the chance to study or to be more qualified to apply for jobs as well. In Chile, English teachers commonly encounter similar contexts as the one that will be described in this investigation, that is to say, students who struggle with a language to which they can only have access to inside the classroom. Therefore, it has become a need for teachers to scaffold the learning process in a way that they can develop the linguistic abilities of their students. Fortunately, through investigation and being self-reflective, teachers have been able to discover new strategies to improve their practices. Considering this, it has become necessary to raise awareness of the presence of English in society. Most people ignore how they have integrated expressions such as “sorry” “heavy” “like”. Such linguistic phenomenon could be used by teachers as a tool to reduce the anxiety students feel when. 5.

(6) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. studying the target language. Equally important would be to present English in a familiar context so that learning becomes meaningful for the students. The following action research was conducted with the purpose of improving the English learning environment of a group of students from a fifth grade in Estación Central and also to improve teaching practices in Chilean classrooms. This investigation was led by taking into account students perception regarding their learning process, as well as their strengths and weaknesses when having listening activities, a type of lesson that they were not used to have.. 6.

(7) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Context This action research was conducted in a fifth grade in Colegio José Antonio Lecaros. This school is located in Estación Central district and it is part of Educación Jesuita, which is a non-governmental organization that offers quality education to children and teenagers from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. There are around 480 students enrolled from prekinder to twelfth grade, classes have an average number of 35 students and one class per level. According to the Ministry of Education (2016), the index of vulnerability present in this school is a 65,3% in primary education students and a 71% in secondary education students. This index identifies the number of students who are in extreme poverty conditions with the purpose of giving them the specific support to ensure that they will successfully finish their 12 years of school. It has been decided to focus this action research in a fifth grade with 36 students due to time availability to observe and teach this class. They have English classes only two days a week, a 90-minute class on Mondays and a 45-minute class on Thursdays. During the observation of classes, it was noticed that the English level of these students corresponded to the learning objectives they were expected to achieve throughout the year. According to the Ministry of Education’s fifth grade program, the students will be able to write words, phrases and sentences following given examples during and at the end of this level (2013, p. 31); all of which was observed in these fifth-grade students who were able to identify and understand the vocabulary and expressions of the units taught. During the English classes observed for two weeks, the students were usually asked to complete some worksheets based on the third unit of the English program from the 7.

(8) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Ministry of Education: “What we eat”, which aims at identifying and understanding information related to food. These worksheets had activities focused on vocabulary such as completing food’s names, matching food images with their written form and painting images of food. There was only one day that the students had to watch a video of a song about food preferences that children expressed in a video. However, in this class, no activities were identified that aimed at developing listening skills such as practicing vocabulary, asking the students to use the new words by creating sentences, predicting the material they are going to use, answering questions, focusing on what they had to listen to in order to achieve the objectives for the unit they were studying. Additionally, it had been observed that in few opportunities the host teacher used the Ministry’s English textbook, nevertheless as aforementioned, these students usually had to complete worksheets as the main material of the class. This school had integrated a program to their institutional project to address students who are diagnosed with special needs, which is the school integration program PIE (Programa de Integración Escolar) implemented by the Chilean Ministry of Education. Six students from fifth grade have been attending to this program which consists of weekly meetings with professionals who offer workshops in order to help students to develop their learning skills according to their own pace and needs. Besides, her host teacher mentioned that one of these students has a “borderline personality disorder” and another student that has epilepsy. It has been observed that some of the students who have a disruptive behavior were some of the students who are part of the PIE program. The use of the concept of “disruptive behavior” is to refer to students who did not follow instructions, others did not participate or 8.

(9) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. if they did, they wanted to finish the activities before than the rest of the class. Perhaps for the reason that the instructions were not clear enough or they were not scaffold to these students’ needs.. 9.

(10) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Problem According to this context and the observed lessons, it was noticed that these students were not used to have listening lessons and in view of that, emerged the need to do more listening activities to expose them to this foreign language more than by only listening to the teacher. The first lesson taught, included worksheets with the image of a boy, a girl and food that they would like or do not. At the moment that the worksheets were delivered it was observed that the students enjoyed painting the images and developing the exercises. The students paid attention to each step of the worksheet, to the explanations and instructions from the teacher. However, there were a couple of them that only focused on painting the images or in completing the entire worksheet unless they did not know how to do it, what could be a problem in the sense that the instruction was intended to give all the students the same opportunity to ask questions and to explain the exercises. The problem itself appeared when it was attempted to develop a listening activity where the students had to identify the word “likes” or “does not like” in different sentences. Since connecting the computer, projector, speakers and cables were time-consuming, it was decided to create a material regarding these students’ needs and to read it, instead of asking the students to listen to a recording. The idea was that the students could listen to some sentences about two kids and their food’s preferences. In this activity the students had to circle or cross the food depending on if it was said “he/she likes” or “he/she does not like”. When the students were asked to listen and to be quiet there was no problem, but at the moment the reading of the first sentence was finished, they got anxious and started to talk 10.

(11) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. and shout (ones asking their peers what did it just been said, others talking about anything different from the lesson and a boy complaining because he does not understand English) they seemed frustrated and that they did not want to participate. In another opportunity, two students were asked to go to the whiteboard and they had to express their preferences about food images stuck in the classroom. Then, other students were selected (from a cup of sticks with the students’ names) and asked to recall the answers that the first students gave. One student made a mistake by saying “yes…” and forgetting the rest of the answer. After that, another kid helped him and added “yes, I do” with the rhythm of a song they listened a few classes ago. In that moment it could be realized that they could recall information from what they listened to in previous lessons, so there would not be a problem to continuing using audios and to try to make the students understand them. The fact is that they did not know what to do or how to behave in front of a listening activity, that is to say, to have specific routines to listen to specific pieces of information or answers. By having a specific routine, the students might get used to have and to participate more in listening activities and might understand English more easily.. Research question Taking into consideration the previously explained problem, the following question was raised: Which teaching strategies can I implement to engage my fifth-grade students to participate in listening activities at Colegio José Antonio Lecaros? 11.

(12) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Rationale This action research was meant to help the teacher to develop strategies which allow students to listen to and comprehend English. Since they needed to be more exposed to English in different contexts, because the only input that these students receive was written vocabulary from the worksheets and listening to the teacher. This investigation might also be relevant to the teacher, in the task of creating more engaging activities for students and to teach lessons using listening for different purposes. Moreover, this might help every member of the classroom, students and teacher, to have a specific routine to follow during listening activities and to ensure more effective lessons in a way that they understand how to communicate their preferences in English, to recognize and use vocabulary. Finally, this action research might help teachers in the manner that they can plan lessons with a specific timing which might allow them to explain the activities, to answer students’ questions and to give everybody the opportunity to participate. Besides, it might allow teachers to consider scaffolding and engaging the students with the lessons through different topics related to their interests and background. Accomplishing the goal of exposing the students to the language and ensuring a meaningful learning.. 12.

(13) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Literature review Engaging students in the classroom. To begin with, it is important to consider that the materials used in class must be related to the students’ preferences in order to expose them to English through familiar context. Some sources to include in the classroom can be the music that they listen to, video games and topics they enjoy according to their age group, interests and background. In order to do this, teachers should set as a goal asking students about their interests and to plan lessons that they believe the students will find interesting. By doing this, teachers will motivate students through activities with elements and topics which are relevant for them and ensure a meaningful learning. (Brown, 2007, p.57). Listening comprehension. The English program from the Ministry of Education for fifth-grade students aims at listening comprehension as a skill which the students should develop by listening to the language and providing meaning to the sounds that they listen to with the purpose of identifying and understanding the information. (p.31, 2013) On the contrary, the previous belief about listening comprehension was to focus on listening post questions which supposed to help students to comprehend what they had listened to. However, if the students did not have any idea of the topic of the recording they could not develop those questions. For that reason, and in order to engage the students with the topic of the audio, teachers should have previous activities to make the listeners to have. 13.

(14) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. a main idea of the topic, the purpose of a certain conversation, program, song or anything that they are going to pay attention to. (Brown, 2006, p. 5) Listening for a purpose. When planning for listening activities, teachers should bear in mind the purpose of why they want their students to listen to a certain audio. This could be with the objective of identifying the general idea of a recording or identifying specific details from it. Consequently, teachers should consider asking key questions to guide the students to achieve the purpose of listening, as well as predicting and listening comprehension questions, instead of asking the students to listen to the audio and leaving them on their own trying to discover what it was about. (Scrivener, 2008, p. 171) Thus, teachers use the time effectively to give all the students the opportunity to comprehend the lesson, to ask questions and to use the new vocabulary or information they learned. Scaffolding When teachers set a defined purpose and task to develop a listening comprehension activity, they need to give special attention to the instructions they give. A suitable strategy to engage students to participate in listening activities is scaffolding the instructions and contextualizing the audio that is going to be used. Therefore, the students will have a specific idea on what they have to focus on and it will allow them to achieve the objective(s) of the lesson. Thus, if the instruction begins as: “you are going to listen to a song about love” the students will predict that they are going to listen to a song about a couple, a relationship or. 14.

(15) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. anything that is related to emotions. On the contrary, if the instruction is “listen to the following song” the students will not know what to expect or to focus on. (Ur, 2009, p.108) Feedback circle Other useful strategy described by James Scrivener (2008) is the feedback circle (See Figure 1). This strategy involves a set of tasks for students to practice vocabulary and to do exercises which might help them to understand what they listen to. First, in Lead-in step, teachers will have to make a pre-listening introduction to the topic by a having a discussion, brainstorming of the vocabulary related or asking students to look at referential images and flashcards. Second, Pre-task work, with a worksheet, the students develop a pre-task to work on vocabulary and making predictions of what they are going to listen to. Third, Set clear task, teachers have to give clear instructions, using checking comprehension questions and ask the students to focus in one activity at the time. Fourth, Play the tape, the students listen to the tape and check their predictions. Then, the students listen again and answer the listening comprehension questions. In the meantime, teachers should monitor the students and check if they could do the activities or if they need to listen to the audio again (Feedback on task). To conclude the listening activity the teacher should consider a production stage, Conclude. In this stage, students would have to make comments, give opinion and anything that led them to use the language focus contained in the listening text. (p. 174) By taking into consideration all the concepts formerly presented, it could be inferred that these strategies would contribute to a better learning environment for listening activities 15.

(16) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. to take place (namely that the students of this investigation, were not used to have listening lessons for specific purposes). Furthermore, if teachers pay attention to the time that each activity will last, by scaffolding the activities, being aware of the explanations and the instructions they give, the material they choose and their students’ previous knowledge and abilities, the classes can be more effective and the students will have a clear idea of what they are expected to do.. Figure 1. Feedback circle. (2008) 16.

(17) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Research methodology During the course of this action research, it was necessary to collect information from all the participants in it before and after the interventions. Firstly, important to consider the journal entries written before interventions, in order to keep a record of how the classes were taught and how this influenced students’ participation in listening activities. Also it was essential to consider the fifth-grade students and the host teacher insights, with the purpose of getting their opinion and perception about the listening activities in order to make this an objective, reliable and valid research. Secondly, after the interventions it was relevant to consider the journal entries again in order to observe if teaching practices and the learning environment had improved due to the strategy implemented in listening activities. In addition to, asking students’ opinion about how they felt during the interventions and if they could noticed improvements in their learning process. By gathering this information from the participants, these research problem and question were supported in order to find a suitable outcome that contributed to engaging students to participate in listening activities and to improve the learning environment of all the members in this action research.. 17.

(18) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Data collection instruments Students’ survey: A rating scale of six questions made in order to know the students’ opinion about their exposure to English, their ability to understand this language and the lessons as well as their participation in classes. (See appendix A) Teacher’s questionnaire: A set of five questions to know the host teacher’s opinion about how listening activities were taught before the interventions and to understand why students had difficulties when doing the activities. (See appendix B) Journal entries: In order to keep a record of how listening lessons were taught before and after the interventions and to be aware if the implementation of the strategy chosen had improved students’ participation in listening activities. (See appendixes C, D, E and F). 18.

(19) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Procedures for data collection. Students’ survey: The fifth-grade students were asked to answer this survey in ten minutes. The instructions were explained and modeled in front of the class and written on the whiteboard. Every student received one sheet of paper with the questions. (See appendix A). Teacher’s survey: The teacher survey took place in the teachers’ lounge. This teacher was asked to give her opinion about the students’ performance in English classes and her practices. She was also asked to be as objective as possible. (See appendix B). Journal entries: Four journal entries were written just after observing and teaching fifth grade English classes. (See appendixes C, D, E and F). 19.

(20) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Action plan First of all, it is important to mention that as the problem emerged in listening activities at the end unit 3 from the Ministry of Education program of fifth grade (“What we eat”), the interventions were plan and taught when the students started studying unit 4: “What’s the weather like”. The following action plan was developed with the intention of helping the students to participate in listening activities. Through the implementation of Scrivener’s feedback circle (2008), the listening activities had a specific procedure that the students could follow in order to understand what they were listening to, develop the activities and achieve the objective(s) of the lesson. Implementation of the strategy of feedback circle. As mentioned beforehand, the feedback circle aims at having specific steps in a listening lesson to help students to focus in specific tasks. These steps are pre, while and post activities to guide the students to comprehend and understand what they listened to, to develop the activities and to improve the learning environment of the classroom. (See Figure 1) Exit tickets. Since the strategy previously described aims at giving feedback to each step of the lesson, it was decided to keep a register of how the students were feeling at the end of each class. For this reason, the students were given a sheet of paper with some “emojis” (faces. 20.

(21) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. expressing different emotions) which allowed them to choose the images that they felt represented their emotions and explained the reasons of their choice. (See appendix G) Interventions First intervention The first intervention made in the fifth grade took place in a 90-minute class on October 17th (See appendix H) corresponding to unit 4 from the program of the Ministry of Education: “What’s the weather like”. The listening used in class was a song about weather and clothes. The materials of the class included a power point presentation with three images of different types of weather, images of pieces of clothes and a video of the song before mentioned. (See appendix H) The class started with pre-activities. First, the students were asked to look outside the window and say how the weather was like that day and to think of the clothes that they could wear. Second, they had to look at different images of seasons, from a power point presentation, and say the suitable types of weather and clothes to each case. Before playing the song, the students were asked to predict the topic of it. They give their answers aloud and they were correct: the song was about weather and clothes. Asking them about the topic of the material that was going to be used allowed them to pay attention to the song and to understand what they listened to. At the end of the lesson, the students had to develop an exit card expressing how they felt after the activities and during the monitoring a great number of the students could do the activities and understood the listening. 21.

(22) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Second intervention The second intervention took place in a 45-minute class on October 20th (See appendix I). The students were asked to recall the different types of weather learned in previous lesson. First, the students were shown seven flashcards of types of weather, they were asked to recall each images’ names from what they have learned in previous lessons. Then, in a power point presentation, the students had to read and complete sentences according to the images at the end of each line (e.g. “Today is _______” next to an image of a sunny day). Second, they were given a worksheet and they had to predict the listening activity that it will continue, from the images they saw and from the power point presentation and from this worksheet. Third, the teacher explained how to develop the exercises on the whiteboard and gave the instructions of the activity, that is to say, showing the worksheet (See appendix I). The exercises were explained, telling the students how it was the recording going to be (e.g. “it will be said one sentence and the recording will be stopped”), telling them how many times they will have the opportunity to listen to the audio to check predictions and to look for specific information in order to everyone could understood the activity. At the end of the class, the activities were checked. Some students were asked to go to the whiteboard and write their answers. Those answers were checked along with the rest of the class and a great number of the students had the same outcomes.. 22.

(23) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Data analysis The former instruments to gather the data from the participants of this action research took place at the beginning of the investigation and after the interventions made. Students’ survey The students’ survey made to 31 out of 36 students in the fifth grade, brought that a great number of students had English lessons from preschool (See Figure 2). However, not all of them can understand the teacher when she speaks English (a 58.1% of them said that they cannot understand the teacher because they need to know more vocabulary to do so) (See Figure 3). In the case of listening activities, a 54.8% of the students can understand the audios used in classes but a 48.4% still need to learn more vocabulary to understand the whole listening (See Figure 4). This for the reason that the activities were not well scaffold to help the students to understand the activities. How long have you being studying English?. 9 From preschool From first grade 22. Figure 2. Time learning English.. 23.

(24) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Do I understand the teacher when she speaks English? 4. 9. 18. No, I cannot understand what she says More or less, I need more vocaburary to understand what she says Yes, I can understand everything she says. Figure 3. Understanding of English.. Is it easy for me to understand the listening material used in classes? 2. 15. 7. 7. No, I cannot understand them No, I need more vocabulary to understand them Yes, but I need to learn some words to understand them all Yes, I can understand everything they say. Figure 4. Understanding of the listening material. About the English exposure of this group of students, a 48.4% of the students said that they listen to English songs at home (See Figure 5). Besides, a 55% of the students paid attention in classes but only a 22.6% pay attention the whole class (See Figure 6). And finally, an 87.1% of the students said they participate in classes but only a 12.9% of them said they participated the whole time (See Figure 7).. 24.

(25) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. How often do I listen to music in English? 5. 8. 10. Never. Rarely. 8. Some days a week. Everyday. Figure 5. English self-exposure.. How often do I pay attention to classes? 0 7 14 10. Never. Sometimes. Most of the time. Always. Figure 6. Attention in classes.. How often do I participate in classes? 1 3 4. 23. Never. Sometimes. Most of the time. Always. Figure 7. Participation in classes. 25.

(26) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. The result of this survey showed that these fifth-grade students’ exposure to English is the one they receive inside the classroom, since in their context the English language do not take an important place. Regardless English became an important language to learn because of globalization, one reason of this problem would be the remaining focus of Chilean education only on the subjects that will allow the students to take the PSU exam to enter to college, namely Spanish language, mathematics and science. Another reason to students’ low exposure would be that in this school English does not have yet an important place as in other schools which promote extracurricular activities such as English week or English camps. Furthermore, these students’ low participation in class was due to the lack of vocabulary they needed in order to comprehend what the teacher asked them to do, as well as the lack of scaffolding the activities and the instructions given at the first lessons taught. (See appendix J) Teacher’s survey According to what the host teacher of the fifth-grade students answered in the survey, there is no exposure to English in their homes “they do not have the opportunity to listen to English and their parents cannot help them (to study or to check if they are doing their homework properly)”. When she was asked to mention the procedures she followed to teach a listening lesson she mentioned the following steps: “first, the students listen to the activity. Then, the teacher explains the instruction and give them the example. Sometimes the recording is stopped step by step to facilitate the activity”. 26.

(27) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. What can be analyzed from this survey is that the students were not used to have preactivities to predict or brainstorm the topic of the class which could help the students to understand and achieve the objective(s) of the lessons. For this reason, as explained by the host teacher, she usually had to stop the recording to explain the activity many times, missing the opportunity for the students to develop the activities. (See appendix K). Journal entries The information gathered through the journal entries written before and after the interventions showed that the students were not used to have listening activities regularly and when they had, they were disruptive and most of them did not participate due to the absence of a routine they can follow to practice vocabulary from the topics of the class. After the first intervention, in which the listening skill was developed by using a different teaching strategy, the feedback circle, which aims at having steps for the students to do specific activities to predict, develop and produce using and the information presented in the recordings, it could be noticed that the students were less anxious, more focused on the topics and they could do the activities and understood the listening.. 27.

(28) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Reflection At the beginning of this action research, I perceived that these students had an issue with English lessons, that they did not want to participate and that they had a low English level. But after observing, teaching and knowing them, I could realize that they actually equal the Ministry of Education standards since they can learn and use vocabulary in simple phrases or sentences. Moreover, in classes, when I asked for a volunteer to give an opinion or answer of an activity, they always wanted to participate and they were interested in English because I could notice their willing to learn new words and to show the people that they know another language. Then, once I had the results of the surveys and the answers of some questions that I made to the students, I realized that they did not participate in listening activities for the simple reason of being a completely new activity for them. They had had some listening lessons with their former teacher of English but not with the purpose of paying close attention to what is being said in those materials. For this reason, during the interventions, when they were asked to do a specific task, including pre, while and post stages, these activities and the lesson worked effectively. After the interventions, I noticed that the students were less anxious for the reason that they were not complaining or saying that they did not understand, as in previous classes. Instead, they could comprehend the material used and develop the activities. The explanations I gave in those lessons were thought and designed according to their learning skills, that is to say as clear as I can, which means that there was no need to second-time instructions. I considered using more checking comprehension questions, had shorter and 28.

(29) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. specific activities for them to focus on a task that was not big enough as to feel bored or get lost. At the end of each intervention, I checked the answers of the activities and also the exit cards that the students completed, and I appreciated that a great number of them were improving in their comprehension of the activities, having less mistakes in their works and feeling better in the English class.. 29.

(30) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Conclusion, implications and limitations This action research was meant with the purpose of engaging students to participate in listening activities. It could be noticed that when a class had defined objective(s) and clear steps to follow, the students could focus on specific activities in order to comprehend what they had listened to. Moreover, when the topics of the activities are related to the students’ background, they can pay more attention when they are studying something meaningful. From my point of view, there were things that I would like to change in these interventions now, for example to include projects, roleplays and more motivating assessments for the students. Perhaps this a limitation to this investigation was that this year I was not totally able to choose the materials for the class, for the reason that my host teacher asked me to create at least one worksheet for each class and she always suggested me to use norm-referenced assessments. Furthermore, the material used in the interventions could be seen as too basic for other contexts, but they were suitable for these students to start working on listening comprehension activities. In a way that the continuing lessons would add a little complexity for them to be challenged to improve their skills. A further investigation that it could be interesting for me would be related to warm ups, icebreakers and strategies which involve the use of total physical response because I think I need to include in my teaching practices.. 30.

(31) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. References Brown, D. (2007) Teaching by Principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy, Third Edition. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.. Brown, S. (2006). Teaching Listening. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Exit ticket Emoji. Retrieved from: http://www.uked.directory/product/wsr00034/ Junaeb. ¿Cómo funciona el SINAE? Retrieved from: https://www.junaeb.cl/como-funcionael-sinae Junaeb (2016) Prioridades 2016 con IVE SINAE básica media y comunal. Santiago, Chile: Ministerio. de. Educación.. Retrieved. from:. https://www.junaeb.cl/wp-. content/uploads/2016/01/PRIORIDADES-2016-CON-IVE-SINAE-BASICA-MEDIA-YCOMUNAL_1.xlsx Ministerio de Educación. (2013) Idioma extranjero: inglés. Programa de Estudio de Quinto Año. Básico.. Santiago,. Chile.. Retrieved. from:. http://www.curriculumenlineamineduc.cl/605/articles-20548_programa.pdf Scrivener, J. (2008). Learning teaching: The essential guide to English language teaching. Oxford: Macmillan Education. Ur, P. (1996). A course in language teaching: Practice and theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.. 31.

(32) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Appendix Appendix A: Students’ survey.. 32.

(33) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Appendix B: Teacher’s questionnaire.. 33.

(34) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Appendix C: Journal entry 1 Monday, august 22nd 2016. To begin with, today I started teaching the two classes that I have, 5th and 12th grade. The fifth grade was a 45-minute class. I introduced myself, I checked and make sure that the students have the topics from previous classes clear enough. Therefore, I asked them, if they remember how to use I like and I don’t like. Most of the students did. Then I explained to them how they can report what their classmates’ preferences are, by saying “He/She likes…” or “He/She does not like” (using the third person singular). I must say that I make things very clear for all the students, I give my best to speak English all the time but I have to admit that I used a little of Spanish to ensure that all students understood me. Later on, I delivered them a worksheet that had 4 exercises. In the first one, the students had to complete a chart answering if they do or don’t like each piece of food given and ask the same question to their partner as well. In that step there where two students seated alone- that did not want to work with the person, I suggested to them. They show themselves upset about my decision, so they chose other classmates. In the second exercise, the students had to see ten food drawings and write their names next to them. In here there was a girl who was painting the drawings before writing them their names. So I asked her to do the writing first and then to paint if she wanted. Between one and another exercise, the students asked me their doubts and there were a couple of students that asked me about a further exercise to what I asked them to wait until 34.

(35) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. their classmates ended the previous activity, and also until I gave them the explanation and example. When almost all the students were finished, I called one student randomly –using a glass with sticks with the students’ names- and asked him to share his answer. I used this technique with all the exercises and I was great because no one refused to participate. Then, with the third exercise, the students did not need an extensive explanation, they had to classify food into healthy and junk and most of them did well without asking me for help. We checked in the whiteboard, and again, there were some students trying to do the next exercise. As they noticed they could not understand the instruction –because it said “listen” and we were not using any computer or radio- they had to wait until everyone it was ready to move on. Finally, in the fourth exercise, I asked them to be in absolute silence, for the reason that I was going to say a word that they had to listen and circle and the whole class must listen clearly. They understood and did the activity very well, except from one boy that was not listening and missed the first word.. 35.

(36) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Appendix D: Journal entry 2 Thursday, august 25th 2016. Today the 5th grade started 10 minutes after the usual time because of a teachers’ meeting. For that reason, I had to adapt what I planned. First of all, I stuck on the board some food drawings that I made, and the kids started asking me things such as “what is that?” “What are we going to do?” Then I picked up two names from my glass with sticks and asked a girl and a boy to come to the whiteboard. I asked them “Benjamin, Do you like apples?” and the boy replied: “yes…” (He tried to remember what he had to say), and then another boy tell him: “yes, I do” (with the rhythm of a song that they listened to a few weeks ago.) I asked these two students about the 7 drawings I had stuck on the board and then I picked up more sticks and made more students participate by saying to them: “Gabriel, Does Benjamin like apples?” and Gabriel said: “yes, I do.” He was unsure about his answer and I asked the rest of the class “is that correct?” and they said: “Yes, he does.” While I was asking the class to recall their classmates information, I wrote their answers on the board in order to make them know how they should spell them (Yes, he/she does. - No, he/she doesn’t) and at the end of that I make them repeat the answers to ensure they know how to pronounce them. Subsequently, I asked a boy to help me to deliver some worksheets, and most of the students wanted to help me too. When we finished, I told them to write their names and to listen to the instructions. They had to listen to some sentences that I was going to say and they have to circle or cross some food images. I modeled the activity in the whiteboard and 36.

(37) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. remember each foods’ names to check that everybody understood. I asked them to be quiet but after I read the first sentence they were disruptive and confused (because they said “I didn’t understand”). I asked them again to be in silence and I let them know that I was going to read each sentence twice. When all the previous yelling and disruption happened, my guide teacher was outside the classroom talking with a teacher. When she came in the classroom she noticed all and ask the students to be respectful. After that, the students paid attention to what I was saying but they were still confused about what they had to do. At the end of the class we all checked the answers, some students could do the activity and when we checked I asked the rest of them to correct their worksheets if they had mistaken.. 37.

(38) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Appendix E: Journal entry 3 Monday, October 17th. Today in the 5th grade I made a lesson about the types of weather and the clothes that we can wear according to them. I introduced the topic by asking them “what was the weather like?” the students answer “cloudy and cold”, and for that reason, I continued: “today is cloudy and cold, so I wear a jacket, pants and boots” showing them the clothes that I was wearing that day. Then, I showed them a power point presentation with images of different types of weather. First, an image of a sunny day and they had to mention the clothes that they can wear. They said, “Short, sandals, dress” and so on. Then I showed them two more images of cloudy, windy and chilly and a rainy and cold day. Again they mention clothes according to those types of weather. In the following slide, I showed them the images of clothes they had mentioned. I asked them to repeat the name of the piece of clothes that I was pointing out. Then, I told them that they were going to watch a video of a song and ask them “what is the song going to be about?” they all started saying “weather” “clothes”. Actually, the audio was a song about weather and clothes, so they check that their predictions were correct. I played the song again and some of the students started singing by following the lyrics from the video. I stopped the audio and asked them what types of clothes can we wear on a windy and chilly day, they answered “jacket, sweater and pants” by repeating what the song said. 38.

(39) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. The final activity was to divide a sheet of paper into four spaces and they have to write “Cool and rainy” “Hot and sunny” ”Windy and chilly” ”Snowy and cold”. Secondly, they have to cut some images of clothes that I gave them and organize them according to the weather. From my point of view, I could see that the environment of the classroom had improved since the first listening activity that I taught. The students seemed less anxious and they knew what they had to focus on the song.. 39.

(40) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Appendix F: Journal entry 4 Thursday, October 20th. To begin with, today’s class was about a listening activity. The students had to say the types of weather according to four different images and sentences projected in a power point presentation. Most of the students could discriminate between weather and seasons, but there are some students that get confused with sunny and summer. Then it came the part of telling the students they were going to have a listening, but first I delivered the worksheets. These worksheets had ten exercises which showed two images of weather per exercise. The students had to listen to an audio saying sentences such as “it is cloudy” and they have to select the image that represented a cloudy day. After delivering the worksheets, almost all the students knew that they had to listen to something, for the reason that they read the word “listen” in the instructions. Then, when they all starting shouting that it was a listening activity I asked them “what do you think the audio will be about?” before they could answer I add “it will be about months of the year or weather?” and now all feel secure in answering: “weather”. I explained the students the routine that we will have in that activity, which it was the same as in the first intervention, to read the worksheet, questions and explain the first exercise on the whiteboard, play the audio once to check predictions, other time to answer the questions, to be sure of our answers and to check the correct answers as a whole class.. 40.

(41) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. The first impression before doing the interventions I thought that these types of activities would be time-consuming, explaining and playing a record a lot of times, but through the use of ccqs and examples, we can use the time properly.. 41.

(42) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Appendix G: Students’ exit ticket.. 42.

(43) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Appendix H: First Intervention Planning and material.. Objective: The students will be able to differentiate which pieces of clothes they can wear depending on the weather. Pre: 20 minutes . Strategies: Ask the students “what’s the weather like today?” and along with their answer the teacher will say e.g. “Today is cold and cloudy, so I wear a jacket, pants and boots”. Then show them some images of different kinds of weather and ask them which kind of clothes they can wear..  Activities: Say what the weather is like and then look at the images from the board and say what kind of clothes they can wear. . Assessment: Ask the students to give their answers and write them on the board.. . Special needs considerations: Show the students some pieces of clothes (images with names). While: 20 minutes . Strategies: Tell the students that they are going to watch a video and ask them to predict from the images that they saw. Present a video about different types of weather and the clothes that we can wear. Ask the students the clothes they saw.. . Activities: Predict what the video is going to be about and look at the clothes that you can wear in the different kinds of weather.. . Assessment: Watch the video again and ask the students to sing the song. 43.

(44) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Post: 40 minutes . Strategies: Ask the students to divide a sheet of paper from their notebooks into four sections, one for “Rainy and cool”, other for “Hot and sunny”, other for “Windy and chilly”, “Snowy and cold” (weather described in the video). Then ask the students to cut and organize the clothes in the different sections.. . Activities: Divide a sheet of paper from your notebook into four, write the following titles for each section: “Hot and sunny”, “Windy and chilly”, “Snowy and cold”. Cut and organize the images of clothes in the four sections.. . Assessment: Monitor the students work and ask four students to show and explain their work to the class. E.g. it’s windy and chilly. I wear boots, sweater and pants.. . Special needs considerations: Ask ccqs to check if the students understood the activities. Do you have to divide the paper in 2 or 4 sections? Do you have to draw or to cut the images?. Material:. 44.

(45) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Appendix I: Second intervention planning.. Objective: The students will be able to listen and tell the different types of weather. Pre: 15 minutes . Strategies: Ask the students “What’s the weather like today?” Then, show them some flashcards and ask them to recall the types of weather seen in the previous lessons. Show them a power point presentation with some sentences and images and they have to say what kind of weather it is. After that, the students will have to predict the audio that they are going to listen..  Activities: Say what the weather is like, look at the whiteboard flashcards and name the types of weather you have learned in previous lessons. Then complete the sentences form the power point and predict about the audio that you are going to listen. . Assessment: Ask the student the questions and write their answers on the whiteboard.. While: 15 minutes . Strategies: Deliver a worksheet and ask the students to look at the images and say what each image is representing. (Sunny, cold, rainy, etc.). Then, play the audio one time and ask the students to listen and do the activity. Play the audio again if they need a second time to finish.. . Activities: look at the images and say what each image is representing (Sunny, rainy, cold, etc.) Then, listen to the audio and check your predictions. Listen to the audio again and do the activities. 45.

(46) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. . Assessment: Ask the students to raise their hands if they have finished and check their worksheets.. . Special needs considerations: Model the activity and use ccqs in order to ensure that all the students understand the activity. Play the recording one more time if needed.. Post: 15 minutes . Strategies: Students have to report their answers by making mimic of a person in each type of weather. Give an exit card to the students in order to know how they felt during the listening activity.. . Activities: Tell your answers to the class and do the mimics of a person in each type of weather.. . Assessment: Ask the students to guess the mimics of their classmates.. Flashcards second intervention.. 46.

(47) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Worksheet second intervention.. 47.

(48) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Appendix J: Students’ surveys developed examples. Student A. Student B. 48.

(49) TEACHING STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Appendix K: Teacher’s survey developed.. 49.

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