How can i teach a communicative lesson 4th grade B in Cadete Arturo Prat School, when english that provokes frustration to my students and me?
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(2) Coñoepan2. Index Abstract. page 3. Introduction. page 4. Context. page 5. Focus and Question. page 8. Rationale. page 11. Theoretical Framework. page 14. Research Methods. page 21. Timeline. page 28. Resources. page 29. Conclusion. page 30. Work Cited. page 31.
(3) Coñoepan3. 1. Abstract In Chile, the level of English that young learners have is commonly low. Especially in public schools were English lesson are usually taught in Spanish. The research presented was made in 4th grade B of Cadete Arturo Pratt School in two months of observation. The problem studied was the inability to achieve a communicative lesson, since English was a barrier to the development of the understanding more than an useful tool used by learners. As the lessons were frustrated and children were not motivated to learning a new language, the need was to investigate about how to create different activities that are focused on communicative competence. For this, the study was based on communicative language teaching approach in order to improve the preparation of these activities and try to find solutions for the problem. Key words: Communicative language teaching, Activities/task, Frustration, Motivation.
(4) Coñoepan4. 2. Resumen En Chile, el nivel de inglés que tienen los estudiantes es comúnmente bajo especialmente en las escuelas públicas donde las clases de inglés se suelen enseñar en español. La investigación presentada se realizó en 4 º básico B de la escuela Cadete Arturo Pratt durante dos meses de observación. El problema estudiado fue la incapacidad de lograr una lección comunicativa, ya que inglés es un obstáculo para el desarrollo de la comprensión, más que una herramienta útil que puede ser utilizada por los alumnos. Durante el desarrollo de las clases los estudiantes no estaban motivados para aprender un nuevo idioma, por eso nace la necesidad de investigar acerca de cómo crear diferentes actividades centradas en la competencia comunicativa. Para ello, el estudio se basó en el enfoque comunicativo de enseñanza de idiomas con el fin de mejorar la preparación de estas actividades y tratar de encontrar soluciones para el problema. Palabras clave: Enseñanza comunicativa de idiomas, Actividades / tareas, Frustración, Motivación.
(5) Coñoepan5. 3. Introduction Communication is one important factor to achieve a successful lesson. In public Chileans schools the level of English that students have is very low, and many teachers of English are not doing their job properly. English lessons are not communicative at all since they are grammar centered or because they are based on activities that are not interesting for students. My research is based on 4th grade B of Cadete Arturo Pratt School. The aim of the research is to achieve a communicate lesson based on communicative language teaching approach. This investigation will help students to be motivated in learning English, and it will avoid frustration of them. The research also will be useful for other teachers that have the same problem, since I will illustrate some tips to prepare communicative activities for young learners with low level of English..
(6) Coñoepan6. 4. Context Cadete Arturo Pratt is a primary school located in Santiago Centro that accepts boys and girls from different towns. It was founded during Manuel Montt government in 1914. Firstly, the school was called “La campana” then was changed to Escuela Superior Nº 1 “Bernardo O’Higgins”, and then “Escuela Republica de Guatemala”. After 100 years of the Combate Naval de Iquique, the school was named “Cadete Arturo Pratt” in recognition of the national hero, because he studied in the school for 2 years when he was eight years old. The school emphasizes discipline in all the grades, teachers and people who work at the school are responsible for teaching good manners in order to prepare the students for their future life. The aim of the school is to keep the order everywhere, and as an example, students have to form lines and they have to sing the national anthem before getting inside the classroom. This ritual is also used when government authorities visit the school. In some occasions the President goes to the school for some celebrations such as national holydays, cueca’s tournament or the school’s anniversary. Therefore, the school is very important and well known in Santiago Centro. The infrastructure of the school is similar to any school in Santiago. There are no green areas in the schoolyard only a few trees. The classrooms are really small, and there are many students per class. There is no space for making groups and the seating arrangement is the traditional one, with the teacher in front of the class and students sitting in rows looking at the whiteboard. I work with a teacher that is not an English teacher, so he does not speak in English at all. He is nice with us, but in terms of lessons he does not do very much to help.
(7) Coñoepan7. students to learn English. The classes are all the time in Spanish, for this reason there are few students who really understand English and only when they read it. In my class, I work with Bounce book. It is supposed that the book was created in order to facilitate the work of the teacher. It has a CD, workbook, flashcards and posters. This book helps me because it gives me a context to teach the lesson and some of the activities are very useful. However, most of them are not focused on communication. Nowadays, I am working with 1st and 4th graders. In 1st grade C there are 21 children (boys and girls) from 6 to 7 years old. They enjoy the English class, and they are all motivated to learn English. They like reading and speaking in English, and they are usually making efforts to be better. In this class, there is only one student with learning difficulties and he receives differentiated assessment, but there is nothing more significant in order to help the student comprehend a little bit more. In 4th grade B. There are 41 students between 9 and 10 years old, (there are boys and girls). It is very difficult for me to work with them, because they are very talkative, restless and disrespectful with me. Many of them enjoy walking around the classroom while I am teaching the lesson. When I say that I need silence and respect, they laugh. They are in silence only when the host teacher is inside the classroom, because he blows a whistle to reassure them. I do not like this tool, because it is violent for children but it seems they enjoy listening to the whistle. In academic terms, students understand a little bit of English but only when they read it. Most of them do not even know the numbers from 1 to 10. Therefore, I am frustrated when I have to teach them something. As I said before, the teacher does not speak in English, so when I do it they do not understand what I say and they stop paying.
(8) Coñoepan8. attention because they also get frustrated and bored. I do not know what to do, because I try to speak with simple vocabulary, and I am always trying to make the lesson easier for them. The nastiest thing is that I have almost three months to work with them and in this period of time it is almost impossible to make real changes. My motivation in this class has been lower and lower because of the barrier that English produces inside the classroom. Students’ motivation is also reduced. They are totally frustrated and I believe they misbehave because they also get bored in my lessons..
(9) Coñoepan9. 5. Focus and questions. I want to be a teacher because I want to help people. I have realized that education in Chile is a matter that is not solved yet, in terms of quality, opportunities, and monetary issues. The most common problem is segregation that affects our population. In my experiences at schools, I have observed that good teachers are considered to work in private school, while many teachers of public schools are not doing their job appropriately. On one hand, English teachers in private schools can speak in English all the time, or have long conversations with students, because they have a higher level of English. On the other hand, in public schools teachers do not speak in English at all, and this is a factor that has a negative effect on the learning of the language, the quality of the classes, and the students’ motivation. What I am always trying to do in my lessons is to be better than those teachers, because I want to be a teacher who is concerned about education and a teacher who is in charge of the students’ learning. I want to be a real agent of change in this society in order to improve quality in the schools of my country. However, in these three years of ELAB and practicum, I have realized that English is a huge barrier to work in Chile at least in the majority of schools. As I said before, it is really difficult to work in public schools because of the level of English used in those places, and in my short periods of experiences in schools I could not do that much. I know that significant changes take a lot of time, for this reason I believe that this is the origin of my problems with 4th grade B of Cadete Arturo Pratt School. I have realized that 4th grade B is in really bad academic conditions in the English subject, and I have to solve the problem. I want English to be a tool that students could use in their lives now and in the future..
(10) Coñoepan10. I choose English because it is a language that is used globally, and I want that Chilean people can communicate when they need it. Nowadays, in schools it is not well considered, because it is not well taught, and that is what I want to change. Possibly, English could be an excellent tool if I think in the benefits that it has for me. If I want to travel abroad or if I want to live in another country, it would be totally useful, and I will not have problems to communicate what I feel. However, my goal is to work with Chilean people. I want to help and improve my society. I want to make changes in Chileans schools, and I want to develop my career in the way it has to be. Considering that, I spent a little time with my students inside the classroom, and with the level of English they have, my classes have been a real frustration in my experience. English has been a real obstacle inside the classroom. My problem is that I cannot use English as an useful tool, therefore I cannot teach it properly. The classes are not communicative, because the only way that I have in order to make my students understand what I say is using Spanish. They blocked themselves, and I am not able to find fast solutions to solve the problem. I want to communicate and teach English, but in this class it has been really hard. Taking into consideration all these factors, I have to find a solution to my problem as soon as possible, and the best way to start is eradicating the root of my problem. For this reason I ask the following question: -. How can I teach a communicative lesson in 4th grade B in Cadete Arturo Pratt school, when English is a barrier that provokes frustration to my students and me?. My hypothesis is that I need to investigate about different ways to teach a communicative lesson. When I teach almost all the lesson in Spanish, the objective of.
(11) Coñoepan11. the class is achieved. However, when I try to do it in English, I lose control of my students, because they do not understand what I want to say, and they start feeling bored and frustrated. The class becomes a chaos and the host teacher has to use his whistle. For this reason my investigation field will be about communicative language teaching, because I believe that in this way I will find pieces of advice in order to solve my problem..
(12) Coñoepan12. 6. Rationale I want to do this research because it will be helpful for me in order to improve my lessons, and because I do not want to have more problems communicating in English. It will be relevant to find solutions, because as I explained before this context is frequent in public schools and it is here where I want to work since it is where students need more help and preoccupation from teachers. It is in public schools where is important to improve the quality of Education in order to avoid segregation between the private and public systems. Teaching a lesson in 4th grade B makes me feel frustration, because the important thing for me is that I want to help them in English terms and make them in equal conditions with those students who have better quality of education. In my professional development it will be great to achieve my goals, and nowadays my problem inside the classroom is a huge barrier that I must solve in order to teach my lessons properly. I do not want to fail in reaching my objective that is teaching communicative lessons with 4th grade B. It will be important to find a solution for me and my students because in this way I will improve my work at schools and I will do what I always wanted to do with my students. Moreover, finding a solution to my problem I will avoid frustration and I will help my students to understand what I teach them. If they are comfortable in my classes and they are able to understand what I say, they will increase their motivation and I will reach a successful class. Doing this research I will strengthen my profession and I will feel comfortable with it, because I do not want to become one of those bad teachers of English that Chilean schools have nowadays..
(13) Coñoepan13. The principal outcome that I expect for my research is to reach a communicative lesson. I want them to understand English and in this way they could use it when they need it. Not only in their school period, also in their professional future, since English has become a global language. Also, I expect developing my career effectively and I do not want to have this kind of problem anymore. I truly believe that this research will have an enormous contribution to the English educational field, since I have seen that I am not the only teacher that has the same problem. My classmates who are also working in public schools have the same problem as me, and with this research I will make a contribution in finding solutions for them. Moreover, if all the teachers that have the same problems try to find solutions all together, we will improve our educational system and as I said before we will improve the bad quality in education in these schools. The most important thing is to be in contact with other teachers explaining what problems we have at schools, sharing experiences, and giving feedback to each other in order to work together and work as a group to facilitate education to our students. For this reason, if any teacher has the same problem that I have, or a problem related to that, my research will help because it will show some steps to follow in order to solve the problem that is produced in public schools. This research will have many positive benefits in the developing of my career but what is more it will have direct benefits on my students. Doing this research I will contribute to the improvements in my society and education. I want to be a good teacher for my students and I want to be a good model for them. For this reason I am really disappointed when I cannot reach the objective that I have in every lesson. I want to teach different lessons in order to make easier for them the understanding of English. If my students do not feel unmotivated and frustrated my work will be significant for.
(14) Coñoepan14. them. I want to be helpful inside the classroom and I do not want that students reject me only because they do not understand what I say. Students will gain confidence inside the classroom and they will be prepared to understand English in different context of their lives. The work of teachers and the work of students will be significantly favored with this research because in this way we will communicate what we feel easily. As I said before, I will avoid frustration and bad mood of students making the lesson enjoyable and pleasant for them. Thus, lessons will be significant and I will not feel that I am not doing my work properly. Students will learn and I will be satisfied finding solutions to my problem of communication inside the classroom. I hope this research will be successful, because the lessons will change completely. Students will have a positive disposition and frustration will not have room in the classroom. Students also will improve their grades and the work will be easier for me and for them..
(15) Coñoepan15. 7. Theoretical Framework Key words: Communicative language teaching, Activities/task, Frustration, Motivation In order to analyze and improve my problem, I will base my research on the following articles and books that are useful because they give pieces of advice on how to reach a communicative lesson. Communicative Language Teaching According to Jim Scrivener in his book ‘learning teaching: the essential guide to English language teaching’ CLT is defined as ‘the method or approach that most contemporary teachers would subscribe to, despite the fact that is widely misunderstood and misapplied. CLT is based on beliefs that learners will learn best if they participate in meaningful communication’. According to Jeremy Harmer in his book ‘The practice of English Language teaching’ the communicative approach or Communicative Language Teaching ‘is the name which was given to a set of beliefs which included not only a re-examination of what aspects of language to teach, but also a shift in emphasis in how to teach. The ‘what to teach’ aspect of the communicative approach stresses the significance of language functions, rather than focusing solely on grammar and vocabulary. A guiding principle was to train students to use these language forms appropriately in a variety of contexts and for a variety of purposes’. For this reason, the ‘How to teach’ aspect considers that students must be exposed to the language, and the opportunities they have to be close to it are vital to the students’ development in a language class..
(16) Coñoepan16. William Littlewood in his book ‘La enseñanza comunicativa de idiomas’ explains that one of the main characteristics of communicative teaching is considering functional and structural aspects of the language. The structural aspect is based on grammar, describing how linguistic elements are combined and he also explains the rules about the order of words. The structural aspect of the language is not replaced by functional aspect, since they are different. The structural part of the language is solid and the functional aspect is variable because it depends on the context, the situation and the social environment. Another idea that Littlewood highlights is that the communicative function can be expressed by a number of linguistic forms. One linguistic form can express a variety of functions, the same as one communicative function can express a variety of linguistic forms. This idea is best expressed in the following example: Someone who wants to close a door has many ways to ask it including: -Can you close the door? -Would you mind closing the door? Please -Close the door please. -Bbrrr it is cold, isn’t? However, some forms could fix only in some social contexts. -You have left the door open! This is way that could be used by a teacher to a student, but it could not be used from the teacher to the principal of the school..
(17) Coñoepan17. Communication is a process in which two dimensions take place and it is said that if a speaker could not express the message properly, the communication process failed. When we talk, we are constantly valuing the previous knowledge of the listener in order to select the words that we will use in order to transmit meaning properly. Consequently, Littlewood points out that the person who manages the structure of the language very well is not the best or more effective communicator. Frequently, the best communicator is the person that is able to include the previous knowledge in a conversation in order to make the listener understand the message. A factor that determines the linguistic choice of the speaker is the supposed knowledge of the listener. If the speaker is too polite to a close friend it will be unusual, and vice versa, if the speaker use a familiar tone with a strange person it will be offensive. This process also works in the other way around, since the social situation determines the nature of the language, and this nature can also determine the social environment of the situation. For example, a level of formality between teacher-students could be affected by the level of formality of the language that a teacher uses in the classroom. Moreover, according to Littlewood the objectives of communicative activities in the learning of a language are: . Provide ‘global task practice’: In the learning of foreign languages we can give our students tools to develop global tasks in terms of communication through activities that are meant to differentiate the partial skills from the complete skills. In order to finish one activity the student will have to put into practice many skills to achieve the complete skill..
(18) Coñoepan18. . Improve motivation: The final objective of CLT is to make students participate in communicative situations with other people. If students are conscious about that, they will realize that their learning is completely related with this objective. Thus, their learning will have more sense for them.. . Allow a natural language: The learning of a language is an internal process of every student and it is out of the pedagogical control. It is very possible that many aspects of the language are developed only through natural processes in the moment that students use the language to communicate. In this way, the communicative activities (out or inside the classroom) are an important part of the language learning process.. . Create an atmosphere that benefits the learning: The communicative activities provide opportunities to develop positive relationship inside the classroom among students and teachers.. Activities/Task According to David Nunan in his book ‘El diseño de tareas para la clase comunicativa’, there are many Activities/tasks’ definitions, depending on the context that we want to use it. The elements that compose the activity include verbal or nonverbal information such as dialogs, texts or drawings, and a task which establishes what students must do in relation with the materials. The activity also must have teachers and students’ roles and a clear objective..
(19) Coñoepan19. This is well explained in the following figure:. Teachers’ role. Objectives Verbal/Non-verbal. ACTIVITIES. Students’ role. information Task. Situations. Figure 1 This example expressed in a listening activity could have the following characteristics: Objective: Provide personal information Non-verbal information: Habits’ questionnaire. Activity: 1) Read the questions 2) Answer the question Teacher’s role: Supervision Student’s role: Participate in a conversation. Situation: Group work. For this, Nunan says that the activity is a work focus on the meaning that helps students to comprehend, produce and interact in a different language. Moreover, he says that the task of the activity could be classified according to the objectives, information, roles or situations. The information of the activity is the data and details in which students have to work on. The roles of teachers and students are the relationships among the participants of an.
(20) Coñoepan20. activity. The situation is the way in which the activity will be finished, inside or outside the classroom in either case. But, what is more important is the objective of the task that is the intention of the teacher, or the ability that students will learn with an activity. Nunan says that there are different types of objectives: . Communicative Objective: Establish interpersonal relationships in order to share information, ideas, opinions and feelings.. . Sociocultural Objective: Comprehend daily routines of the groups in which students are learning a language. Including house, school, and free time.. . Learn to learn Objective: Negotiate and planning a work in a period of time. Learn to establish real objectives and develop the necessary skills to achieve them.. . The ‘make aware’ Objective: Acquire a comprehension of the linguistic and cultural nature and its functioning.. Motivation It is the force that moves us to act in different situation of our lives. It is what helps us to complete our goals. It is the orientation that we have to achieve our objectives. David Nunan in ‘El diseño de las tareas para la clase comuncativa’, establishes that ‘motivation is considered by many to be one of the main determining factors in success in developing a second or foreign language both referred to a L2. Motivation determines the extend of active, personal involvement in L2 learning. Conversely, unmotivated students are insufficiently involved and therefore unable to develop their potential L2 skills’..
(21) Coñoepan21. Motivation plays an important role in EFL learning, since it is usual that students at schools do not feel interest by the language in contrast with those students who are learning a language to use it in their daily lives. Here the role of the teacher is crucial, in order to motivate students in all the English lessons. Frustration According to a definition of the Cambridge dictionary, frustration is ‘when you feel annoyed or less confident because you cannot achieve what you want; something that makes you feel like this’. Frustration is the worst feeling that students can experience, since it is difficult for teacher to deal with it. When a student is frustrated, it is almost impossible to achieve learning or the objective of the class. Frustration becomes a barrier for students’ learning, because they are blocked to learn, and what is more, it provokes misbehavior and also frustration to the teacher..
(22) Coñoepan22. 8. Research Methods The methods that I will use are based on the theory of some authors such as: Jeremy Harmer, William Littlewood, David Nunan, and Jim Scrivener. According to Jeremy Harmer, a communicative lesson must consider activities that involve students in real or realistic communication. The accuracy of the language in these activities has to be less important than the successful achievement of the communicative activity that students perform. For this reason, the common activities of Communicative Language teaching are role-plays or simulations in which students must work with a partner or a group, simulating a scene of a daily life situation, a television program, an interview, etc. The importance of these activities is that the students must have a purpose to communicate something (write a letter, buy a ticket for a concert, etc). Students have to be focused on the content and intention of what they want to say or write, more than the proper structure they are using. In this case, the teacher has no intervention in the activity because the activity has to be as real as possible. Harmer shows a figure that describes the difference between a communicative activity and a non-communicative activity.
(23) Coñoepan23. Non-communicative activities. Communicative activities. No communicative desire. No communicative purpose. Form not content. One language item only. Teacher intervention. Materials control. . A desire to communicate A communicative purpose. Content not form. Variety of language. No teacher intervention. No materials control.. Figure 2 The communicative approach is a term that describes the improvement of students in their ability to communicate in contrast with the learning of language without a purpose and not focused on the communication skill. According to Littlewood, we can observe different areas that constitute the communicative competence of a person. These areas should be recognized in the teaching of foreign languages. The teacher must be aware of these areas in order to reach a communicative lesson. These areas are: . The teacher must help the students to reach a high level of competence. Students must develop the skill to manipulate the linguistic system in order to use it in a spontaneous and flexible way, with the purpose of communicating the message that they want to transmit.. . The educator must teach students to realize that the linguistic system they use is also part of the communicative system.. . Students must develop abilities and strategies to use the language to communicate effectively and in real situations..
(24) Coñoepan24. . Students must be conscious about the meaning of the social linguistics forms. Sometimes, they must adjust their language to different social circumstances and try not to be offensive while they are communicating.. Moreover, the activities designed by teachers must help students to develop the nature of the linguistic act, and the clarity of the comprehension when the foreign linguistic system is used. In every activity the linguistic form could be related to the communicative function and with the non-linguistic reality. Students must learn to develop the language with the social meanings and use it as a tool for communication. For this, the activities must be real in order to make the students realize that they are in a real context more than answering to a stimulus without context. Moreover, students must not depend on the teacher to finish the activity, because they have to produce real interactions. Consequently, students will learn new linguistic elements and use them in independent interactions. An excellent example for this is to create open activities and open dialogues in order to give students opportunities to use the language independently. Furthermore, activities must be designed to make students have the control of the interactions with their classmates, and only with the supervision of the teacher. At the beginning, the teacher must be sure that students understood what it is asked in the activity. It would be helpful for students if the teacher is their model to follow, however, the performance of the teacher has to be less dominant. Littlewood, also states that there are two types of activities: Activities of functional communication and activities of social interaction. On one hand, the activities of functional communication are used when the teacher organizes a situation in which students have to find solutions to a problem by sharing and interpreting information. In.
(25) Coñoepan25. this kind of activities, the interaction among students seems to be more real because the activities are more similar to situations that student could find in their daily lives. That is why students must be more and more creative in order to interact successfully in their activities. On the other hand, activities of social interactions give a new dimension to functional activities because they provide a social context clearly defined, what means that students pay more attention to social meaning as well as functional meaning that are transmitted through the language. In order to choose the content of the class, Littlewood says that it is possible to select and organize the content of the class without any reference of what students will need to use in terms of language. Many books take the structural part of the language and they are based on grammar-translation activities. For this reason, teachers have to avoid this situation and create activities that consider the interests and needs of students. Littlewood also points out that another important aspect that teachers must consider in their lessons is the psychological factor inside the classroom. It is easy in a language class that students feel frustration and anxiety. This could happen because the students are always aware of their ignorance in comparison with a teacher that ‘knows everything’ or because everything they say is carefully analyzed by the teacher or their classmates. In these circumstances, it is not probable that they will want to communicate, on the contrary they will want to be unnoticed by the teacher. The developing of the communicative skills could be possible only if students are motivated to do it and if they feel that have opportunities to express their own identity when they communicate with their classmates. That is why students must have a feeling of security and importance as individuals when they are at school and the relationship among student must not create inhibition..
(26) Coñoepan26. As we have seen, the design of the activities is one of the most important factors to achieve a communicative lesson. In this term, David Nunan in his book ‘el diseño de tareas para la clase comunicativa’ gives emphasis to the meaning of a communicative task. He says that a communicative task is a part of the class which makes students comprehend, manipulate, produce and communicate in a different language but focusing their attention on the meaning not on the structure of the language. There is no point in teaching words in English to students if they are not able to use it in context. Nunan also says that it will be important to design and select tasks with the students’ opinion, since in this way they will focus their attention on the same aspect of the teacher. This plan could be a challenge for the teacher, because students are not used to participate actively in their learning. Teachers will break the hierarchy barriers among teachers and students, but this does not mean that students will lose the respect for teachers. In addition, if I change the way in which students are use to learn at schools, they will feel that are an important part that is actively contributing on their learning. For this, it is important to have a good relationship with students in order to create a good level of trust and understanding among students. This term is academically known as rapport. Rapport is an essential factor in teaching our lessons since it will help to have an enjoyable class and make students feel comfortable and relaxed inside the classroom. As I said before, the methods that I will use are mainly activities that are significant to my students of Cadete Arturo Pratt School. These activities will change the perspective that students have since they will be totally involved in creating these activities. In this way, students will know that their learning process is important because is not only created by the teacher, but also by them. They will give their opinions in what it is important to learn, so they will be totally involved in the learning English process..
(27) Coñoepan27. The appropriate methods to achieve my goal, apart from the activities created by students with the supervision of the teacher, will be pair observation of my class. I will invite different colleagues to observe my lessons, in order to receive feedback from them and improve my mistakes. Also, it will be significant for me, to observe lessons of my colleagues that have more experience than me for taking some ideas that could be incorporated in my own teaching. What is also important is to be aware that teaching does not mean ‘talking all the time’. With young learners the less you speak, the most you are understood. Scrivener says ‘when you are teaching a language, the priority is for the learners to talk rather than the teacher. Start to notice the quantity of your own talk as soon as possible- and check out is really useful. High levels of teacher talks are a typical problem for new teachers’. That happened to my several times. So now, I will give emphasis in realizing how much I speak in the lesson in order to not contribute in the confusion of my students. Other important factors to considerate are the characteristics of young learners. They are noisy, they like to experiment, they want to have fun, and they are not able to concentrate for long periods of time. That is why, my activities will not be based on the typical course book (in this case, bounce) in which activities are almost always passive and boring for children. I will prepare short activities that are exciting for them. I will use videos, songs or toys, and I will base my activities on children’s lives more than in an abstract reality. In this case games are a very good option to engage students in the learning of a second language at schools, even more when their level of English is low. In this way students learn the language intrinsically, because they enjoy playing and they feel happy.
(28) Coñoepan28. and free while they are playing in the classroom. In addition, games are useful to develop good relationships among students because they have to interact with each other. Also, they are good because young learners are very energetic, and we teachers, can use this energy positively. Playing games is an effective way to learn English and students increase motivation in learning a second language..
(29) Coñoepan29. 9. Timeline The minimum time needed to perform this research will be one semester. In these three or four months, students will get used to work differently, and they will understand that their learning has a purpose. At the beginning, in the first month, students will find difficult to work with more independence. They must learn how to behave without losing the respect for their classmates and for the teacher. In the second month, students will behave appropriately, so they will pay more attention to the activities, and they will start taking risks in communicating what they think in English. After that, in the third month, students will enjoy the English class, they will be motivated to participate and they will not have problems in communicating what they feel. At this point, students and teacher will find normal to have always communicative activities to work on. The only thing they have to do is to practice English communication to be better every day..
(30) Coñoepan30. 10. Resources Needed In order to implement this research I will not need many tangible resources. However, some of them are: . Communicative activities: The more important resource is the activities prepared by the teacher in order to give a real context to what students must learn. If students work in class based on a book, the teacher must adapt the content with the purpose of making activities appropriate for communication and not grammar centered. For this, paper and printer will be necessary when the teacher has to prepare teaching material for the class.. . Pair observation: In order to avoid mistakes, I will ask a colleague to observe my lesson and ask him/her feedback of my weaknesses and strengths. For this, also I will need a cam recorder because after the lesson I will also observe my performance..
(31) Coñoepan31. 11. Conclusion To sum everything up, it is important to highlight the importance of a communicative class. The research showed us that if teachers create activities based on communicative language teaching, they will achieve a successful lesson easier. Moreover, students who learn how to work in a communicative lesson are able to express what they feel and also are able to achieve the objective of the lesson. However, the result of the research is not available, since the time I had was not sufficient to prove my hypothesis. Nevertheless, this investigation was useful to understand that communication is an element that it has to be considered to succeed in teaching English lessons..
(32) Coñoepan32. 12. Work Cited. Littlewood, William. La Enseñanza Comunicativa De Idiomas. 1st ed. Madrid: Cambridge UP, 1981. Print. Nunan, David. El Diseño De Tareas Para La Clase Comunicativa. 1st ed. Madrid: Cambridge UP, 1989. Print. Scrivener, Jm. Learning Teaching: The Essential Guide to English Language Teaching. 3rd ed. Oxford: Macmillan, 2011. Print..
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