How can I foster participation to my tenth grade students while doing speaking activities?

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(1)HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES?. Action Research Project How can I foster participation to my tenth grade students while doing speaking activities? Joaquin Andres Perez P. Alberto Hurtado University..

(2) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? Diagram Abstract. 3. Acknowledgements. 5. Introduction. 6. Context. 7. Action Research Question. 8. Rationale. 8. Literature Review. 10. Research Methodology. 15. Data Analysis. 18. Reflection. 20. Implication. 23. Conclusion. 24. References. 27. Appendix. 28. 2.

(3) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? Abstract This work has the intention of dealing with an issue that happens in many Chilean classrooms, which is students’ participation. This work was made based on a school located in the commune of San Joaquin with a tenth grade course. The different topics that were used on this research are related to the main concern. The concepts that were used are how students’ motivation influences students’ participation during the lessons, the usage of speaking activities to foster students’ participation, reinforcing interaction among students, and the input theory proposed by Steven Krashen. In order to support the ideas mentioned before, it have been prepared a series of tools to collect information that will be analyzed to elucidate whether the problem proposed is accurate and to give support of how this cycle is being carried out. Finally, the final intention of this Action Research is to share the results obtained with other colleagues so they can know what to do if they are in a similar scenario as the one described here.. Keywords: Participation – Motivation – Speaking activities – Interaction – Input.. 3.

(4) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? Abstract Este trabajo tiene la intención de hacer frente a un problema que ocurre en muchas aulas chilenas, que es la participación de los estudiantes. Este trabajo se realizó en base a una escuela ubicada en la comuna de San Joaquín, con un curso de tercero medio. Los diferentes temas que se utilizaron en esta investigación están relacionados con la principal preocupación. Los conceptos que se utilizan son la forma en que la motivación de los estudiantes influye en la participación durante las clases, el uso de las actividades orales con tal de fomentar la participación de los estudiantes, reforzar la interacción entre los estudiantes, y la teoría del “input” propuesta por Steven Krashen. Con el fin de apoyar las ideas mencionadas anteriormente, se ha preparado una serie de herramientas para recopilar información que será analizada para dilucidar si el problema propuesto es preciso y para dar apoyo a la forma en que se está llevando a cabo este ciclo. Por último, la intención final de esta investigación-acción es compartir los resultados obtenidos con otras colegas para que puedan saber qué hacer si se encuentran en una situación similar a la descrita aquí.. Palabras claves: Participación – Motivación –Actividades orales – Interacción – Input.. 4.

(5) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? Ackowledgements Before starting with the Action Research, I want to thank everybody who helped me on doing this work. I want to express my gratitude to my host teacher, teachers from the university, and guide teacher, who corrected the previous versions of this work and made comments to improve those versions .To the tenth grade A and teachers from Liceo Politecnico San Joaquin for being a key part on this research and for having the willingness to participate in this research. To my family who always supported me on doing this work in moments of weakness. To my friends who always showed me support and, never left me alone on doing this present paper and in previous moments of the career. Especially, I want to express my gratitude to: Daniel Cañete, Victor Nuñez, Jocelyn Flores, Tania Millan, Jaime Villa, Javiera Cerda, Marcelo Rojas, Carol Soto, Romina Pinto, Rocio Diaz, Nicolas Palma, Belen Arriagada, Carolina Muñoz, Paola Caceres, Gonzalo Sandoval, Francisca Band, Paz Bustos, Maura Silva, Oscar Perez, Doris Perez, Raquel Oyola, Raquel Perez, Hugo Garcia, Hernan Garcia, Javiera Garcia, Erika Veloso, Fernanda Pinto, and Valentina Chavez. In memory of teacher Mr. Jose Callado. 5.

(6) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? Introduction After observing and teaching students from tenth grade at Liceo Politecnico San Joaquin, there has been dealing with a problem as a teacher. So, this Action Research Project has the intention to propose a solution to that specific problem which is related to participation in classes. Regarding my role in the school, it is to plan and perform the lessons to two different courses. Even tough, this research exclusively targets to tenth graders from the school mentioned before. As far as it has been observed in the school, there have been identified different elements which are affecting my teaching performance during the lessons, which it will be covered in detail further. However, the most important situation, related to the problems faced is the lack of participation from students regarding certain moments of the lessons, which more precisely are related to giving answers after a given oral task. For that reason, the purpose of this study is to find out strategies to overcome these situations and foster students’ participation during the English classes. It will be employed different tasks in order to analyze students’ progress. For those tasks, and as an instrument of data collection, it has been made different surveys to collect and analyze students’ needs. These tools to collect data will be done as soon as they finish their respective tasks. Other tools that will be used to collect data are a set of pictures of students’ pieces of work, recordings of students performing those tasks, and an interview to my host teacher so it might show a neutral perspective of how this process has been developing, in relationship of students and teacher’s performances.. 6.

(7) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? In order to elucidate key concepts it will covered during this research, there must be stated concepts that will guide this work to obtain findings. In relationship to the concepts that will be used on this project, it is going to be needed appropriate literature to clarify those concepts. Context The school selected for this Practicum and research is Liceo Politecnico San Joaquin and it is one of seventy other schools to be directly subsided by the state. This money given by the government is received by a foundation called Romanos XII, and then it is administrated by this entity and used in the school. It is located on Santa Rosa #3050, commune of San Joaquin. The people in charge of the English lessons are two women but the responsible of taking the English subject with the grade elected for the research is my host teacher, a twenty seven year old woman. She has been working in the building for about three years. Her approach to students is very kind but distant, she seems to be openminded with students’ suggestions but she remains the figure of a strict teacher. With her colleagues, she is open to help whoever needs her and she participates on the teachers’ syndicate from the school as an active member. The course selected for this Action Research Project is tenth grade A. The course has twenty students; from that number five are women and fifteen are men. It is also important to clarify that the number of students per classroom always varies since the school has a project in which they reassign students with problems of behavior inside other courses, instead of expelling them. The English teacher has stated the students from the course that will be used for this research are used to work very well with all teachers, in all subjects and it is recognized by many people from the school as one of the best courses from the entire school (even headmaster, and 7.

(8) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? administrative people can confirm it). Nevertheless, this course has special cases of psychical and verbal violence because they have differences in their interests. However, this issue is not a problem that may it must be concerned because those episodes of violence tend to occur outside the classroom, and those are immediately solved when they happen. The problem encountered while teaching tenth grade A is that when teacher asks them to share their answers with me, they act as if nothing happen; they start staring at the ceiling, avoiding my sight, and things like that so they do not participate. This has become a problem for me because I lose a lot of time waiting for them to participate or asking one by one for answers. From the experience observed there, there is no reason why this is happening because it seems students had achieved previous knowledge of previous units and individually they do the tasks. On the contrary, when they need to share with their classmates their answers orally (in English) they do nothing about it; they immediately ask if they can share their answers in their mother tongue or, simply, they do not share. Research Question Considering all the factors that have been mentioned before, the research question for this work is: How can I foster participation to my tenth grade students while doing speaking activities? Rationale It is considerable important that participation is a problem on my professional experience since the time spent on doing activities is a lot and the time for students to give answers and check them, they are staring at each other, avoiding to be asked to answer a 8.

(9) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? specific question. This situation becomes a problem while teaching because there is so much time wasted on checking and waiting for students to answer. That leads to take interaction into consideration as a factor missing inside the classroom since students are used to work with the teacher, instead of amongst them. At the beginning, it seems the problem could be that students did not understand English at all but while monitoring them, it could be appreciated that my students understood the English content without problems. Another thing to point out is when students are asked to come in front of the classroom and check or share their answers with the rest of the class; they react with shyness as if they did not know what to do. At first sight, it was thought the problem came from students’ conditions, as a new English teacher with a different approach; they would be insecure to comment or participate. However, a quick survey was done with the rest of the teachers who have done classes to that course, and the majority of the teachers said they were in that way with them, also. So, the problem relies on a connection between students’ attitude in classes when they are doing any tasks, and teachers (myself included) are not giving enough motivating tasks in order students can engage with the class. What it could be seen, considering everything said before, it is that it may be a problem with participation but the reason is unclear and this written project has the intention to investigate that area so students can improve that point considered as weakness in my Practicum. The main difficulty while doing classes is time, in other words, because teachers from school, when they teach to tenth grade, are used to lose time waiting students to answer the questions or making them to be engaged to participate in the class. At the beginning, it was believed the problem could rely on misbehavior, or motivation, but when 9.

(10) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? doing classes there have been no problems related to those topics. What is more, as other teachers have the same problem with this course, doing this Action Research will help other teachers to improve their way to teach these teenagers. Literature Review The problem identified relies on participation in classes. In relationship on that topic, it is a problem since, as a teacher, you lose so much time waiting your students to participate or to making them work together. Amongst students, there is a feeling of being afraid of speaking and participating in the English lesson, and so, this research wants to find an answer to solve the problem mentioned before. Based on what was exposed, it can be inferred some answers to predict solutions to that problem. One solution can be to adapt the English lesson so it can motivate students to participate, another could be scaffolding the lesson so students attention may be focus on what is happening in the class, or giving differentiated instructions to provide students with a different approach that may engage them in the class. For this research, there are concepts that must be clarified in relation to this work. In order to understand the situation of this class, I need to settle a context so these keywords will have a connection with the problem I am facing at school. Finally, the concepts I will use in this work are the following:. Motivation in relationship with fostering students’ participation One of the main reasons to support the idea of fostering participation relies on motivating students to do the tasks they are assigned. Therefore, students’ perceptions of the topics we see in class ‘have meaningful effects on their performance and behavior’. 10.

(11) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? (Vasquez 1988, pg. 248), thus she proposes in the text that ‘loving and caring are important characteristics for a teacher’. On the other hand, there is also a key issue which is interaction between teacher and students. In his book “High Impact Teaching”, Brown (1988) emphasized the following statement "Teaching is interaction that facilitates learning, if you can't interact with them, you can't teach them" (p. 10). Brown also indicates the reason why many teachers cannot interact with students is that the teacher has not developed respect for students, nor caring. Then, Vasquez indicates that "expectations are communicated to the student through different types of cues, verbal or nonverbal, and the student's performance is consequently affected" (p. 244). On the whole, and analyzing the previous idea, if a teacher cares about students, he/she would connect the subject with students’ everyday life issues, he/she will get interested on what they like, for instance, listen to “their” music, see “their” movies, and, as a result, the teacher can improve the rapport with students since he/she will comprehend what students have in their minds. Also, teachers can determine standards of quality and expect students to meet them; teacher’s expectations are highly relevant, even more than students’ expectations of the teacher because when we, teachers of any subject, set a sufficiently high standard with clearly specified ways of attaining that, eventually students may seem to have more success in meeting high expectations. Speaking activities As this language topic is the one I will use in this research, I need to establish the importance of this ability and the usage of it during the whole process. ‘The speaking ability, amongst the four skills, seems intuitively to be the most important based on the idea that people who know a language are referred to “speakers” of that language’ (Ur, 1996).. 11.

(12) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? The reason I decided to use speaking ability as a way to foster students’ participation is because I checked and analyze an amount of problems my students have during the whole class, specifically while doing this type of exercises. These problems were illustrated by Ur (1996) were listed in the following order: Inhibition, nothing to say, low or uneven participation, and mother-tongue use. The main reason why these problems occur is because, unlike the other three abilities, speaking requires real time of exposure in front of a certain group of people. Also, Ur states different reasons, very thoroughly, why those situations might happen during English classes. Inhibition for learners is often inhibited about trying to say things in a foreign language in the classroom: worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts. Nothing to say, even if they are not inhibited, teachers often hear learners complain that they cannot think of anything to say: they have no motive to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking. Low or uneven participation which in other words is only one participant can talk at a time if he or she is to be heard; and in a large group this means that each one will have only very little talking time. This problem is compounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate, while others speak very little or not at all. Mother-tongue use which in our country is a big issue. In classes where all, or a number of, the learners share the same mother tongue, they may tend to use it: because it is easier, because it feels unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language, and because they feel less ‘exposed’ if they are speaking their mother tongue. If they are talking in small. 12.

(13) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? groups it can be quite difficult to get some classes – particularly the less disciplined or motivated ones – to keep to the target language. On the other side, the goals students can accomplish are very fruitful, which are exposed in the same book from Penny Ur, are the following: Learners talk a lot or as much as possible of the period of time allotted to the activity is in fact occupied by learner talk. This may seem obvious, but often most time is taken up with teacher talk or pauses. Participation is even so classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of talkative participants: all get a chance to speak, and contributions are fairly evenly distributed. Motivation is high, therefore, learners are eager to speak: because they are interested in the topic and have something new to say about it, or because they want to contribute to achieving a task objective. Language is of an acceptable level and learners can express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and of an acceptable level of language accuracy. Interaction A possible solution for the problem stated can come from this perspective. As it is said in one of the books quoted, “The best comprehensive input comes in the form of interaction” (Long, 1996). As students seem to be afraid of participating and speaking in classes, one possible solution comes from here. Long proposes that interaction helps the learning process due to the conversational and linguistic modifications that may happen in a conversation and it may provide students with the input they need. With that said, if. 13.

(14) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? students are afraid to make mistakes or are embarrassed of speaking in English, by interacting among them will eliminate those fears because students will realize the progress their classmates are doing and, consequently, they will feel secure while doing activities in classes. Input This idea was developed by Krashen (1982) and his input hypothesis explains how learners acquire a second language. It is important to make the difference between acquisition and learning, as the author proposed. Acquisition is a central process while learning is more peripheral (Krashen, 1982). For this reason, Input hypothesis is exclusively concerned on acquisition, not learning. Krashen claims that Input hypothesis is: “A necessary (but not sufficient) condition to move from stage i to stage i + 1 is that the acquirer understand the input that contains i + 1, where "understand" means that the acquirer is focused on the meaning and not the form of the message.” (p. 21). In other words, we acquire language when we comprehend that a word carries a message within it and our focus must be on the message given by the word, not on the structure or the form in which the message has been delivered. In my case, students seem to be unfamiliar with the language, so they feel afraid of the language and use it. On his book, the author gives us a possible reason why this happen stating that “How can we understand language that contains structures that we have not yet acquired?” (p. 21). Immediately, Krashen offers us the answer to that problem proposing that: “The answer to this apparent paradox is that we use more than our linguistic competence to help us understand. We also use context, our knowledge of the world, our extra-linguistic information to help us understand language directed at us.” (p. 21). To summarize this idea, Krashen proposes that even if the structure. 14.

(15) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? of a message given is not well-comprehend, we still can infer that message by using our linguistic competence. By making this process of ‘understanding’, and considering that acquisition is a central process, students may understand what English teachers say in classes, therefore, students may not be feeling afraid of using the language. What is more, levels of participation should increase as students are understanding the language used in English lessons. To conclude with this topic, the usage of speaking ability during classes is fundamental to overcome the problems experienced at the practicum. An important issue here is that using this kind of activities I might face the results given by the author, which will contribute to students learning experience. Furthermore, the usage of key elements during the lesson such as interaction among students, and considering input hypothesis given by Krashen, students will deal and control the problem faced during the experience at the school. Research Methodology In the following part, I am going to explain the sort of thing I will do to evidence the problems in the school I will analyze. It is important to remark that as this is not the final version of the present work, there will be an appendix section with all the research instruments used, and also the specific questions asked to the students. So, this part will be improved on next version. For the research, it has been planned a series of interventions which allow to collect data regarding students´ performance during the semester. To collect real evidence from my students, I planned a series of three oral presentations in different moments of the semester to observe students’ progress. These tasks will be based on the different topics we will see. 15.

(16) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? during the semester. The moments this presentations are going to be done are: (1) at the beginning of my interventions (already made), (2) one during the middle of the semester, and (3) the last one at the end of this period. Furthermore, I chose different tools to gain information about how those activities are being made. To collect those important elements, I decided to use the following instruments so I can register the data I will obtain: Recordings audio/video: As the focus on this Action Research is speaking performance, recording students’ voices is utterly important. So by registering what students do on oral presentations, there will be realistic evidence of what they have done so far. After getting the recordings done, there will be a set of transcriptions to avoid misunderstanding in terms of audio or video quality. Later, the recordings obtained will be analyzed to comprehend, compare, and identify students’ performance at a regular basis. However, there is a chance the recordings cannot be done since students are afraid to be recorded or to register their performance, and that issue can interfere with the normal performance of the course analyzed and students can reject from being recorded.. Images from the presentations: In order to have visual support of what students did on the presentations, I will take pictures of what they have prepared for the different occasions. In terms of this research, and considering that the main focus is on participation, images can reflect what students do in normal classes and they can show students’ creations and performances avoiding them to be recorded (if they reject from being so). Then, the images are going to be analyzed and described to avoid confusions.. 16.

(17) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? Surveys and Likerts: Also, it is reckon students’ opinions about the different tasks are important for this research, so by using these instruments it will be perceived their real view point of the entire process. The information included on the surveys is related to students’ opinions after immediately doing an activity. By doing this, the data collected will be fresh of what students feel and think of the activity recently done. The type of questions given to students will be: “Has this presentation helped you on any aspect? What do you think about it?” and that sort of questions. There is already one survey done with the questions said before. In the near future, when other surveys and likerts will be done, it will be included the type of questions made, the format of the questionnaire, and samples of them. An interview to the teacher at the end of the cycle: In this whole semester, the classroom has been shared with my host teacher and she knows these students for two years. She is a very good source of information related to students’ level of achievement and performance and also my own level of performance with these teenagers. She, as an observer of the whole Action Research can give her viewpoint of both sides, students and teacher-researcher, and even, include comments of what she could have done in my situation. The questions that the teacher must answer are the following: 1. What is your impression of the course after the last intervention was made? 2. What do you think about how the process ended? 3. What are the strengths/weaknesses of this process? 4. What do you think is your perception of me, as an English teacher? 5. What do you think are my weaknesses? 6. What elements/tasks would you add to the process done?. 17.

(18) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? In order to elucidate the problem, there are some factors that should be identified. Therefore, many literatures about fostering participation and using speaking abilities to motivate students to participate were driving the research on the following topics, and were included in this research because those were considered as potential elements of influence on the Research question. Data analysis By looking at the data collected, it is shown that the problem relies on participation because the oral presentations used to gain data were going to be marked. Although students were concerned on this, some of them were still reluctant to do the work assigned. However, by looking at the result (wall charts and opinions from students), it is shown that students had a problem of self-confidence; as they said they were embarrassed and nervous before doing their oral presentation. By looking at the scenario there is now, it seems that input theory (Krashen) and interaction (Long) may influence as a good solution to overcome the problem seen at the school. By looking at the data collected on a second occasion (after doing the whole circle of interventions), it is observable that students have gained security on using English in classes. Therefore, participation on English lessons has risen due to two aspects mainly: interaction among students and the usage of topics that students are interested. According to interaction, the strategy used was to make students speak English among them (in pairs) so they can practice their English with someone they know was at the same level of proficiency. One issue students commented me that the reason they do not participate is because they assume teacher knows more than they know, and students felt they might be humiliated by the teacher for one reason: making basic mistakes in classes because they. 18.

(19) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? considered they do not know English. Moreover, he added that they could translate but not understand English literally. Based on that comment, the English department decided that it is compulsory the use of cognates (as much as it can be), dictionaries (fostering this aspect since they were not used by students, even if it was recommended by the teachers) and if there is a word they do not know, students must get together in pairs to discover that word. Also, it was recommended teacher may use short speaking activities to make students speak in class, in front of the rest of the class. After realizing that decision, most of students have change their attitude in the English lesson and it is supported by students’ behavior and attitude. Students have been more interested on participating in the English lesson since they have realized that the class is challenging for them; now they have knowledge (as they acclaim) they can participate more. What is more, by using short speaking activities such as fill in the blanks, word puzzles, and more in classes, students’ security concerning English proficiency of the language has risen. Students are less afraid of making errors due to they are concerned they and the teacher are learning the same, but in different categories. As four students said on November 5th: “We (the entire class) are supposed to learn more than English, but the abilities the language has on it and you (me) are supposed to learn better strategies to teach us those abilities more than English itself” (Arias, Venegas, 2015). It was decided to include photos of students’ works on Appendix to show differences between to reflect students’ commitment with both tasks. In an interview with the host teacher, she has stated her agreement on how students were doing in English classes. However, she states the teacher doing this work needs to improve his classroom management and my time control since students cannot be distracted from the class (host teacher, 2015).. 19.

(20) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? The main limitation of these findings is how to measure participation. Since participation is abstract concept, it is very difficult to create and gain data unless it is visual data. Even though recordings can be used as a support, they also might not reflect what happens on reality, especially in my case. The students of the course used on this research are afraid of being recorded (audio and video) and if they accept to be recorded, they change their attitude for something unnatural; they start behaving incorrectly (something that already happen) because they want to appear on the audio/video to interfere the classmate’s presentation or simply as a joke for the rest of the class; that is the reasoning why set of photos was used to show students’ commitment with the given tasks through the research cycle. As a conclusion of this segment, the problem observed can be argued to students’ feelings when they encounter a second language as English. They start feeling embarrassed and nervous since they were not sure of their performance with the language but, as long as there have been more moments of using the language; students have increased the levels of participation during the English class. By implementing brief tasks as interaction, the usage of dictionaries and activities to produce language, students seem to have changed their position during the English lesson. Meanwhile the research process was being implemented in the lessons; students and teacher have been working on small aspects that inflicted the students’ perspective of the class. Nowadays, students appear to be interested in the lesson and they have been participating more than they used to do at the beginning. Reflection As tools for data collection, it was used images of students’ works, audio recordings of students’ speaking performance, an interview done to the guide teacher, and samples of. 20.

(21) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? students’ opinions of the first intervention made. The images were taken during the both interventions, audio recordings were only made on the second intervention because students were not comfortable and confident to that since they were not secure of what they were going to say, regarding this was the first time they were afraid due to they were not confident and secure of the topic. The samples of students opinions were meant to reflect how students felt after doing the task, and what they believed must be reinforced in order to avoid those issues to happen again. The interview done to my guide teacher had the intention to reflect her thoughts about the entire cycle from the perspective of a person that had seen the improvements made by the class and the teacher doing this research, and to indicate what she believed would be done in a different way. In relationship to the data gathered, it seems students were comfortable doing the second task since they felt secure on what they were doing. Also, it has been observed this course is more committed on participating in the English class, and it can be shown by the use of English on different activities done after the second intervention, or in asking questions regarding the topics they were seeing on the lesson. Moreover, it was discovered that the problem was relying on students’ confidence since they were not as exposed to the language as it was done during the research cycle. As students were practicing and performing the speaking competence to their classmate first, and then rehearsed in front a teacher, they started changing their view of English as an element that they can use; they thought English was a close element to them. In that sense, by doing speaking activities, students gained security on their English knowledge so students’ participation was fostered at the end of the cycle.. 21.

(22) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? Respecting to the bond between the findings and the literature seen before, it can be said that the books used on the research helped to define the problem and guide the research to find a strategy to overcome the situation lived inside the classroom. The first concept stated that motivation is a relevant factor on students’ participation. This concept, supported by Brown and Vasquez, embraces two key elements which are teacher caring about students’ concerns and interests, and teacher’s expectations must be highly relevant for students. The second concept used was the speaking ability since, from the four skills, speaking requires real time exposure in front of a group of people. The third concept was interaction because it was conceived, and related to speaking activities, that students were afraid to talk in front of a teacher, so it was adopted a strategy where students share their answers orally with their classmates using English as much as they can and the teacher was only to explain or monitor how the conversation was going. A fourth concept is connected to input; since students were not exposed at the language as it would be necessary to progress from a learning stage to another. As the literature said the acquirer needs to understand the input the language contains. After finishing the data analysis, and standing at the end of the cycle, there are some assumptions, beliefs and values which must be shared. At first, it seemed that students were not interested on the lesson because of the way they behave with the teachers. However, while the course was on the first task, it was noticed students were afraid of using the language. According to the students, that happened because they were not enough spaces for them to use the language. So, taking into consideration recommendations from teachers and students, it was planned a proper method to make students participate more. The real intention behind everything that has been planned is that students can participate as much. 22.

(23) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? as it can be, so they can be more time exposed to the language. After working this entire process based on that idea, it can be said that what it was believed on the cycle was confirmed due to, after the classes and the interventions done, students have shown signs of mastering basic elements of the language. At this moment, and after reflecting on everything that was done in this research, it could be said that the objective of this research has been accomplished since students are taking over the class in order to participate as much as they could because they have realized that if they do not use those moments of the lesson to practice their English performance, they are wasting that opportunity to practice and they would not improve their English proficiency level. Implications This research, as stated before, has the intention to develop a strategy to foster students’ participation. Nevertheless, the results gotten on this research are related to the context the worked was based. The results a research can have are influenced by the context of the school and of the students. As an example, if this research is applied on a private school, the strategies to deal with the problem are going to be different, because of students’ background. In that sense, other implications this research can have are related to which results teachers that are dealing with this topic may discover. Based on those results, teachers are meant to discover other strategies and types to asses if those strategies created are successful regarding the goals they want to achieve. Another implication this work has is to suggest other teachers to do a research of their own teaching experience, so they can discover their issues that interfere with their lessons. Even though doing research requires a. 23.

(24) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? lot of time to do it, it will help teachers to improve their teaching experience and the learning environment for students. Conclusion As this first cycle is ending, it must be stated a brief summary of what this research is about. The course selected for this research is a tenth grade with a specific problem that was inflicting the teaching practice in Liceo Tecnico Profesional San Joaquin. As a teacher, it is seen there is problem of participation which was disrupting with the English lessons and, speaking activities were used in order to foster participation to this students. As it was discovered, the problem of participation relied on how much students were exposed to English inside the lesson. Therefore, students were afraid of using the language since it was unnatural for them. By taking these elements in consideration, key concepts were used in order to raise a strategy which may solve this problem. The concepts analyzed were motivating students during the English lesson by caring them and including students’ concerns in the lesson, the usage of speaking activities as the main procedure to overcome the fear students were feeling, interaction amongst students so they can eliminate those fears and, at the same time, realize how students and their classmates are progressing in the learning process, and the “input” theory so students can bared in mind their own progress. For that reason, a set of instruments were proposed to reflect and support these ideas and, propose a possible solution to face this problem. Finally, the result got from the entire process was that participation was an issue inside the classroom and, by the strategies and tools implemented during the research cycle; students broke that barrier that could not let them participate in an English lesson. Students were engage with the class. Also, they were. 24.

(25) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? able to stop feeling fear of speaking in front of their classmates and teachers since they had realized that through participation, they can master the language. My personal thought of this process is that the final goal was achieved successfully. Students could demonstrate that they can use the language in their own way, and defeat that fear which would not let them express correctly. Furthermore, students were feeling comfortable with their own English speaking competence because they had not imagined they were going to be able to make simple utterances or speak in front of the class. What is more, English teachers were happy with the evolution this course had because, at the end of the research cycle, students occupied classroom time to participate and help other classmates to reach a higher level of proficiency. With that said, it could be remarked that even students overcame their fear; they have achieved another goal, which was not explicit on this paper: students have reinforced their relationships since, as they were constantly working among them, they are helping other classmates to achieve their objectives proposed by teachers, improving the relationships and decreasing violence on this course. As a reward, it can be said that students were pleased I have helped them to beat a fear they did not know how to deal with it. Consequently, students proposed to other teacher if they can use the strategies worked on English lessons, in different subjects like history, mathematics, language, and many others. Taking this matter into account, I believe students have gained autonomy as they have assume they can negotiate some points in benefit of their own learning process, such as working in pairs, participate more in classes, use language of topics seen in class (like in chemistry and biology), to name a few. Finally, I can express my satisfaction with the research results as students have embraced the. 25.

(26) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? concepts used during the cycle and I have developed a strategy which can let students conquer their fears and master the language according to students’ needs. As a teacher, I also look forward to apply the strategies developed in this cycle in other courses and other levels, as I will teach students from fourth to twelfth grade. As participation is a key factor on student’s experience, I will use those strategies in other contexts like a teacher doing classes in an University, in English institutes, after getting a PhD degree, or any other proper context. In addition to my profile as teacher, this paper helped me as an experience to make other types of research in the future, regarding other aspects that might interfere in my experience. As a closure, I reckon the intention to publish this research so other teachers dealing with this problem can discover new results, if this work is applied on different contexts.. 26.

(27) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? References. Ur, P. (1996). A course in language teaching: Practice and theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vasquez, J. (1988). Contents of Learning for Minority Students. In The Educational Forum (Vol. 52, pp. 243 - 253). Original Articles. Brown, T. (1988). High impact teaching: Strategies for educating minority youth. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. Cohen, L., & Manion, L. (2011). Research methods in education (7th ed.). London: Routledge. Long, M. (1996). "The role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition". In Ritchie, William; Bhatia, Tej. Handbook of second language acquisition. San Diego: Academic Press. pp. 413–468. Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon.. 27.

(28) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? Appendix Appendix 1.1 Students wallcharts related to Social Networks.. 28.

(29) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES?. 29.


(31) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES?. Appendix 1.2 Students opinions based on what they have learnt or what benefits they can say this activity had on them.. I didn’t like it due to the partner I had didn’t care. I don´t like to present because I feel embarrassed but I could practice my English. I think it was awesome because I could talk in front of my classmates and it was cool to talk about Google+. 31.

(32) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES?. It was excellent, funny and I feel like I learnt.. I like it because it is a short work and it is funny, you learn things that one does not know.. Nervous but it was good like is… in the sense that you have to look for information.. It was interesting; I believe that with it I met a new web page I did not know. I could work with my classmates and have fun, it was funny anyways.. 32.

(33) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES?. -My personal opinion from the activity was cool and good because I learnt information about every application that exists today like What’sApp. I did not know its creator.. Good; I think that the work was really good because it let us be informed about social networks and that is interesting. So (Y). I think that this work was really good because we could work in groups and investigate about social networks. Social networks ;). 33.

(34) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES?. I think it was very interesting and funny because I learnt things very attractive.. My opinion: I liked it very much; it served me to not feel embarrassed.. It was excellent and it was funny and I learnt. The teacher taught me well.. 34.

(35) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? Appendix 1.3: Images taking of the second intervention.. 35.


(37) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES?. Appendix 1.4: Typescripts from audio recordings of students presenting the second intervention. Typescript N°1 1.. Class:. (??). 2.. S1:. Good afternoon classmates, good afternoon teacher, we are going to. 3.. present you the video blog.. 4.. T:. english. 5.. S1:. (hesitation) what is it about. 6.. T:. English. 7.. S1:. (hesitation) and the name of the members P, the P and the P. 8.. Class:. (…)(??). 9.. S2:. ok, name video blog, date of (creation??) two thousand and one,. 10.. (laughter) place place of (creation??) USA. 11.. S1:. use, functions, (address any topic desired??). 12.. T:. go ahead. 13.. S1:. (hesitation) pros, cons. blogs consists of post followed by comment. 14.. multiplex. 15.. Class:. (…) (??). 16.. S3:. impact on society. is on when users can upload and (share??) videos,. 17.. hot and music videos, as well as amateurs IS THIS WORD. 18.. CORRECT OR NOT. 37.

(38) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? 19.. T:. amateur (T assents). 20.. S3:. can test such as video blogs. 38.

(39) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? Typescript N°2 1. T:. go ahead, go ahead. 2. S1:. in english or spanish. 3. T:. english. 4. Sx:. in english, what’s the course. 5. S1:. ok (hesitation) hi, my name is P and i’m going to (present??) or introduce. 6.. you the telegraph. 7. T:. (request of silence). 8. S1:. and today i want to (this??) to do this (mine??). so (hesitation) the name of. 9.. the creator, the creator is samuel morse. He was the (hesitation) the person. 10.. who (made??) the morse code. 11. T:. (assents). 12. S1:. it was made in the (hesitation) eighteen thirty and the (…) in the (hesitation). 13.. eighteen fourty because in that time it was created because I don’t know. 14.. it’s complicated and it was made in washington dc and the (hesitation) first. 15.. telegraph was sent to the washington to (hesitation) I think miami (mmm). 16.. I’m not really sure (hesitation) the code assigned letters of the alphabet so. 17.. you can do a (hesitation) sets or (..)(hesitation) or dots (hesitation) or and. 18.. dashes that means you can make points or lines (…)(hesitation) the. 19.. telegraph was (…) (aahhh). 20. Sx:. you are doing good. 21. T:. go ahead P you’re doing well you’re doing good go ahead. 22. S1:. the telegraph was stopped being used in twenty one century because there. 39.

(40) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? 23.. born the internet, fax and all that stuff now (we’ve??) being used. 24.. (…)(hesitation)the pros and cons, the pros was. 25. T:. (asking for silence). 26. S1:. you can use it in the (hesitation) the navy used it because in the sea you can’t. 27.. call at that time, and even it doesn’t exist so you can send a message with. 28.. telegraph, in morse code and the cons was the message, that the type (…). 29.. this type of message, there are so long the message, one message, the first. 30.. message was distributed like this (S gestures of long length). 31. T:. too long. 32. S1:. too long. yes. that is the con, and the pro is. 33. T:. (teacher asks for silence again). 34. S1:. you can communicate in an easy way. 35. T:. thank you P. 40.

(41) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? Typescript N°3 1. S1:. my name is P. 2. S2:. and my name is P. 3. S1:. and we’re going to present about the newspaper.. 4. S2:. the newspaper (hestitation) paper, name of the creator john campbell(…). 5.. date of creation (hesitation) sixteen twenty one uses and function inform (...). 6.. place of creation in boston usa, pros and cons (hesitation) the good thing is. 7.. that is accessible (hesitation) to anyone (…) and bad is that the type of news. 8.. (…) they can publish. 41.

(42) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? Typescript N°4 1. S1:. ok teacher. 2. Sx:. close it close it. 3. T:. (T asks for silence). 4. S1:. we’re going to present the morse code. Name. 5. S2:. the morse code. 6. S1:. creator. 7. S2:. manuel morse. 8. S1:. date of creation. 9. S2:. in eighteen thirty. 10. T:. (T asks for silence again). 11. S1:. place of creation. 12. S2:. usa. 13. S1:. uses and functions. 14. S2:. (hesitation) long distance communication. 15. S1:. (hesitation) pros and cons. pro. 16. S2:. it helped to (hesitation) communicate. 17. S1:. con. 18. S2:. it was used badly, in a wrong way. 19. S1:. impact on society. 20. S2:. it was used as a base to improve different means of communication. 42.

(43) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? Typescript N°5 1. S1:. my name is P and i will present streaming (…) creator twitch and netflix. 2.. (…) date of creation nineteen ninety (…) place of creation california usa. 3.. (…) and china (…) uses and functions (…) stream live into (hesitation). 4.. internet (…) pros and cons (…) pro you can see live videos (…) con pay to. 5.. watch live (hesitation) streaming (…) like netflix. 43.

(44) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? Typescript N°6 1. T:. you can start. 2. S1:. ok (…) hi my name is P. 3. T:. please a little bit louder. 4. S2:. my name is P. 5. S1:. name blog (…) creator justin hall (…) date of creation nineteen fourty. 6. S2:. place of creation usa (…) united states for the ones that dont know (…) uses. 7.. and functions (…) (hesitation) readers can read texts from different authors. 8.. (…) chronologically (…)(hesitation) pros or cons (...) you are free (...) to. 9.. read the topic you want and (hesitation) blogs (…) are not (…) too known. 10. T:. very good kids. 44.

(45) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? Typescript N°7 1. T:. you can start now. 2. S1:. my name is P. 3. S2:. my name is P. 4. T:. (T gestures to increase Ss voice). 5. S1:. were going to present magazines (…) now begin. 6. S2:. creator the ger (…) the german goverment. 7. S1:. date of creation sixteen sixty and sixteen sixty eight. 8. S2:. inform people (…) on different topics and publish the life of different. 9.. famous. 10. S1:. pro is that people (…) could communicate with other and get information on. 11.. what. 12. T:. (T asks for silence). 13. S1:. they like (…) con children were (hesitation) already (…) exposed to adult. 14.. topics. 15. S2:. impact on society (…) people got inform (hesitation) easily but children. 16.. could watch porn. 17. S1:. place of creation germany. 45.

(46) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? Typescript N°8 1. T:. alright you can start now. 2. S1:. were going to present about the telephone (…) ok (hesitation) the name is. 3.. telephone (…) and the name of the creator is (hesitation) antonio meucci. 4.. (…) sorry. 5.. teacher i don’t feel well (…) can i sit. 6. T:. alright P you can. 7. S2:. date of the creation eighteen fifty seven (…) (hesitation) uses functions. 8.. communicate and call (…) (hesitation) the pros you can communicate. 9.. (hesitation) through long (hesitation) distances (…) (hesitation) and the cons. 10.. (hesitation) before only few people (hesitation) had money to (hesitation). 11.. buy one (…) that thing (…) (laughter) (hesitation) impact on society (…) it. 12.. was a great shock that (hesitation) could (hesitation) allow people to. 13.. communicate (hesitation) without travel (hesitation) traveling (…) and place. 14.. of the creation (hesitation) boston usa. 46.

(47) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? Appendix 1.5: Interview to the guide teacher to know her point of view of the entire cycle. Interview to guide teacher 1. What is your impression of the course after the last intervention was made? A: I had a very good impression because I saw the course making a progress while you were teaching, and I saw you improving your weaknesses. 2. What do you think about how the process ended? A: I think the process ended very well. The students seem that they have reached the status you wanted for them and, as I had said before, you have improved your weaknesses. 3. What are the strengths/weaknesses of this process? A: The strengths were that you had time to make materials to them, taking into account their interests and concerns. Also, the students reacted in a very good way (I think the best way) to work with you. And weaknesses, I believe time was always running out for us; we lost many classes and here, at the school, there is no enough time for English to be worked. 4. What do you think is your perception of me, as an English teacher? A: I think you’re on the right track. I saw you evolving into a good teacher, taking the role of a teacher, and believing that you were teacher with all the letters. Maybe, it’s because how the entire school (meaning teachers and students) treated you, like a real professional since you deserved it that way.. 47.

(48) HOW CAN I FOSTER PARTICIPATION TO MY TENTH GRADE STUDENTS WHILE DOING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES? 5. What do you think are my weaknesses? A: Always checking time because sometimes you were too confident on your lesson plans, when in the reality you needed a little bit of time to be spend on working on the activities you brought. 6. What elements/tasks would you add to the process done? A: I would have recorded the presentations on but students were not comfortable with that. Also, I have spoken to the home teacher of the course so she can also give you more information about them, since she sees them the entire week.. 48.

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