Oral communication skills inside the classroom

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(1)Facultad de Educación Departamento de Inglés. Oral Communication Skills inside the Classroom. Tesis para optar al Título Profesional de Profesora de Inglés. Por Lilian Cárdenas Córdova. Profesor Informante: Soledad Araya.

(2) Cardenas 2 Acknowledgements. I am very grateful to all the people involved in this action research whose help and support kept me going through this process. I would like to thank Universidad Alberto Hurtado and all the teachers related to the institution who gave their best when teaching me and classmates the real meaning of being a teacher. I would also like to thank Colegio Los Sagrados Corazones de Manquehue, students from 9th grade E and Mónica Gayani who kindly opened the school’s doors for me to witness a fruitful experience; I do not think my research action would have found a conclusion if it was not for the opportunity given by the school for me to work there.. Moreover, I am grateful to Soledad Araya, my tutor, whose support and encouraging words always made me feel I had someone looking after me and my work as a researcher.. But this action research would never have seen the light of day without my family’s support. Each one of its members has been the main source of my motivation. Their endless comprehension and support gave me the strength to continue working hard. No matter the obstacle I faced; they always kept by my side..

(3) Contents Aknowledgements. 1 INTRODUCTION……….………...……………………………………………….1. 2 CONTEXT………………………...……………………………………………….2. 3 PROBLEM AND HYPOTHESIS…….…………………………………………..4. 4 RESEARCH QUESTIONs……..…………………………………….…………..5. 5 RATIONALE……………………………………………………………………….6. 6 OBJECTIVES……………………………………………………………………...7. 7 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK.…………………………………………..........8 7.1 Oral Communication Skills………………………………………………….....8 7.1.1 Functions of Language…………………………………………………...9 7.1.2 Describing Oral Language Performance……………………………….11 7.2 Stages of Oral Language ...………………………………………………..…11 7.3 Teaching of Speaking………………………………………………………....14 7.3.2 Why is it so important?........................................................................14 7. 3.2 What makes it so difficult to understand?.........................................15 7. 3. 3 How should we introduce speaking skills? ......................................16.

(4) Cardenas 4 7. 3. 4 How can we organize it class talk?..................................................17 7. 3. 5 Affective factors to consider when asking…………………………....17 students to speak inside the classroom 7 .4 Promoting Oral Communication inside the Classroom ……...…………..19 8 METHODOLOGY ……………………………………………………………….22 8.1 Data Collection ………………………………………………… …….23 8.1 Data Analysis…………………………………………………………..24 9 PROPOSAL……..…...………………………………………………………….27 9. 1 Teachers tools for Oral Language Development ..…………………...28 9.1. 2 Short-term strategies…………………………………………………...28 9.1.2.3 Clarity Tools…………………………………………………….......28 9.1.2.3.4 Questions and Response Tools………………………………..30 9.2 Long-term strategies…………………..…………………………………..31 9.2.1 Interactional structures ..…………...…………………………….....31 9.2.1.2 Cooperative work. …………………….…………………………...32 9.2.1.2.3 Pair work strategies……………………………….…...….32 9.2.1.2.3.4 Group work strategies…….…………………………….33 9.2.1.2.3.4.5 Whole class work strategies…………………….…..35 10 CONCLUSION ...…………………………………………………………...….38 11 APPENDIX ..……………………………………………………………….......40 12 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...……….……………………………………………………48.

(5) Cardenas 5 Abstract. Searching for the best ways for me as a teacher to encourage students to develop their oral communication skills is the main reason that motivated me to start this investigation out, which objective is to identify the main reasons why I am having problems when promoting the development of students’ oral interaction skills.. Helping students to develop their oral communication skills in English has become a matter of debate among teachers and experts of other areas, since interaction is one of the most crucial elements when making a successful lesson to happen.. For this reason, I have decided to base the following investigation on an action research strategy which allows the teacher to become the investigation’s own researcher. This strategy requires for the investigator to collect as much evidence as possible. In my case, I decided to portray everything I experienced throughout the observation period on both, observation sheets and journals, which allowed me to establish a clear target and objectives that will be explained in great detail in the following pages..

(6) Cardenas 1 Introduction. “ Teacher- student dialogue is part of the basis of the instructional conversation within the classroom” - Vygotsky. To begin with, I would like to express that one of the first things that caught my attention after observing many lessons, in which the main participants were twenty female students from ninth grade, was the way they avoided communicating in English everytime they were asked to do so.. This being said, the main focus of this action research is to identify the reasons why I am having so much trouble when fostering students’ oral interaction skills in English; a reality that not only affects students’ understanding when communicating orally; it also affects the interaction among all the participants within the classroom..

(7) Cardenas 2 Context. Los Sagrados Corazones de Manquehue is a private school located in Vitacura, Santiago. The school used to allow boys only, but in 1994 girls were also allowed to study at the institution. This school counts with a wide range of resources such as a library, study rooms, data, English lab, among others. The school includes levels from pre-k to twelfth grade and each level is split into two, in other words, class A and B considers boys, while D and E considers girls only. The reason why the school’s community has chosen to separate girls from boys during the class time is due to students’ different ways of learning mainly. Each class considers thirty five students and sometimes students are asked to be part of group A or B, that way the teacher works with seventeen to eighteen students most of the time throughout the week. The school also promotes a strong commitment toward the Catholic Church, so it is pretty common for every member of the school’s community to go to mess once a week which lasts 30 minutes approximately. Los Sagrados Corazones School also encourages students to participate in diverse activities outside the school like scout, sports, and trips..

(8) Cardenas 3 The class that I am working with considers thirty six female students but I only teach eighteen of them since the school allowed the English department to work with half of the class so that students can take full advantage of the class as much as possible. Most of students have a good level of English since their parents provide the tools to do so, meaning, these students have had the opportunity to travel abroad, meeting new people, and face real life situations in which English has become the best tool they can make use of. It is also important to add that my tutor’s focus is a grammarian one, so students are taught in a way in which reading and writing have greater importance than listening and speaking activities during the lessons..

(9) Cardenas 4 Problem and Hypothesis. After the first couple of weeks in the English teaching training program, I was able to identify many elements within the school that caught my attention immediately. Students’ motivation within the classroom, teacherstudent relationship, and teamwork were some of many aspects that seemed quite interesting for me to focus on. However, there was one in particular I realized I needed to pay more attention to. After two weeks of observing students from ninth grade, I realized their level of English was quite good, which was excellent in terms of allowing the teacher to use the language throughout the whole lesson. However, everytime students were asked a question; they would answer in the simplest way and gave up easily when asked a more difficult question. Also, whenever they had a doubt, wanted to share an opinion or clarify a classmate’s idea, students would overuse Spanish even though the teacher encouraged them not to do so. For this reason, my hypothesis is that despite the fact their level of English is quite good, students prefer communicating in their mother tongue rather than the target language; a situation I believe can be improved by suggesting a whole new range of ideas connected to strategies and techniques that might help me as their teacher when fostering the development of students’ oral interaction skills in English in order to keep students motivated and eager to interact in English inside the classroom..

(10) Cardenas 5 Research Questions. After the problem and the hypothesis of this action research have been given, the main research question that caught my attention is the following: What can I do in order to foster the students’ oral communication skills in English? A secondary research question that also frames this action research is whether I am confusing and intimidating students in a way that I am not allowing them to develop their interaction skills? A third research question is what kind of speaking activities will help me to motivate the students to communicate in English more frequently in class?.

(11) Cardenas 6 Rationale. The main reason of this action research is to analyze the main factors that forbid me from encouraging students’ oral communication skills in English inside the classroom. There has to be a way to tackle this reality, new strategies that I would like to learn and tools to acquire in order to facilitate students’ understanding when speaking in English in class. I would like to promote an atmosphere in which students feel safe enough when speaking in English. I do understand that they do not possess a full knowledge of this language, but that does not mean that they cannot achieve the goals connected with the English class. When analyzing what students can gain out of this new approach regarding their speaking skills, then I would say they have lots of chances of improving their oral communication skills. These students are immersed in a world in which they are constantly meeting new people and places; a world in which English has become a universal language, one with different expressions, and even humor that might not be similar to students’ mother tongue. For this reason, I consider that improving my techniques as a teacher will help me to promote students’ confidence when speaking in a second language in real life situations they might face..

(12) Cardenas 7 Objectives. The main objective of this action research is to identify the main reasons why I am having problems when promoting the development of students’ oral communication skills. The secondary objective of this action research is to investigate the main factors that make an impact on students’ communication skills development. Finally, the third objective is to find the proper strategies for the students to feel confident enough when participating in speaking activities within the classroom..

(13) Cardenas 8 Theoretical Framework. The theoretical framework or state of art for this action research was designed according to the most relevant aspects of oral communication skills inside the classroom. The main reason why I strongly believe the following topics to be developed are so relevant is because oral communication, among all the participants inside the classroom, is fundamental when fostering a healthy interaction in which both, the teacher and students focus not only on developing receptive skills, but also to become active participants with ideas and opinions to be expressed and shared with others Oral communication skills. When trying to understand what oral communication skills mean, then it is necessary to acknowledge some crucial facts before considering to continue reading. First, it is necessary to comprehend that speaking, which is quite the opposite of listening, is a productive process. They require English Language Learners (ELLs) to create instead of interpreting what the teachers has said. Secondly, the spoken discourse might be planned (a lecture) or unplanned (a conversation) and it employs more random words than written.

(14) Cardenas 9 language. Moreover, the spoken discourse involves reciprocity and shows variation; meaning, the interaction can be formal or casual. During my observation period, I realized that the students did not quite understand what oral communication skills really mean since all they did during the lesson was writing what the teacher explained on the board, meaning, there was no room for students to express their ideas whatsoever. Moreover, when encouraging students to talk about the lesson’s content, they would try it but then they gave up easily since they realized they did not have the necessary tools to carry a more informal conversation out in a second language, meaning, they were taught to interact in a way that did not allow them to express their ideas as they would do in their daily lives. Functions of Language According to Jack Richards (2008) there are three main functions of speaking. First, talk as transaction, has to do with how effective the message being transmitted is. This function of language focuses primarily on information rather than on the participants. Here, linguistics accuracy is not always important, but the message as a whole is what really matters. Second, the interactional function serves to establish and maintain social relations. Here the main focus is on the participants rather than the message itself. In my opinion, it is extremely necessary to take this function into consideration when helping students to improve their oral communication.

(15) Cardenas 10 skills, since its main focus is for the speakers to express their ideas freely more than the message’s content itself. In order to link both functions to what I was able to observe during the observation period and also during class is that I will describe the main event in more depth. To begin with, my tutor was focused on a grammarian approach so, students did not know how to interact in a second language, which brought me great difficulties when applying the interactional function of language when helping them to express their ideas freely in English. The learners knew how to answer the teacher’s questions in English, but every time they wanted to interact with their classmates; they would do it in Spanish. Moreover, if they shared their comments in English, they were corrected immediately after a mistake was made. For this reason, I consider that talk as transaction function was the only way students would use when participating during the lesson. I strongly believe that the interactional function is not as usual as I think it should be; in other words, day by day learners are expected to reproduce dialogues or give speeches to the class without even considering the real purpose of such tasks. There is very little room for students to improve their interaction skills. Instead, the attention that is being paid on how learners can repeat sounds after they listen to a recording is wider than the.

(16) Cardenas 11 attention we pay on how students manage to communicate and maintain a simple conversation about how the weekend was. Describing Oral Language Performance When trying to understand how students acquire a second language inside the classroom, then the first thing we need to take into consideration is what New Levine means by stating that ELLs have a limited English proficiency, meaning, we teachers cannot assume they will understand every word we say the second we enter the classroom. For this reason, the author has classified ELLs into two subcategories of English learners: (1) beginning and (2) intermediate. As I have already mentioned, the students do possess a high level of English; however the main problem is that they avoid using it and tend to overuse Spanish during the English class. For this reason, the next topic’s main purpose is to understand better in which stage of oral language the students are at. Stages of oral language. In order to understand better why students, 9th graders in my case, find some difficulty when communicating orally inside the classroom we need to be aware of the level of English understood and spoken by the learners..

(17) Cardenas 12 The following stages have been identified by the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) which focuses on both, oral and written language instead of oral only like Krashen and Terrell (1983) do. Level1: Starting. ELLs can communicate basic needs and use highfrequency vocabulary. Level 2: Emerging. ELLs can communicate about routine experiences; use generalized academic vocabulary, phrases, and short sentences. Level 3: Developing. ELLs can communicate on familiar matters; use some specialized academic vocabulary and use expanded sentences in writing. Level 4: Expanding. ELLs can use language in abstract situations and for new experiences; use specialized vocabulary and a variety of sentence lengths with varying complexity. Level 5: Bridging. ELLs can use a wide range of texts and recognize implicit meaning; use technical academic vocabulary in a variety of sentence lengths and with varying linguistic complexity.. The students from 9th grade at Los Sagrados Corazones de Manquehue School seem to be at level 3, developing, meaning they can communicate on familiar matters; use some specialized academic vocabulary and expanded sentences in writing. These students, generally speaking, tend to memorize the vocabulary that is being presented to them and then they put it into practice. They also seem to manage quite well when expressing their ideas in a short length paragraph when writing, and they also try to give their opinions in English when encouraged by the teacher..

(18) Cardenas 13 Alongside TESOL, Krashen and Terrel (1983) developed the five stages in more depth which explain learners and teachers’ behavior in more detail. (see Figure 5) Figure 5. Stage. Language Development Stages. Characteristics. Teacher Prompts. Preproduction. The student Has minimal comprehension Does not verbalize Nods “Yes” and “No” Draws and points. Early Production. The student Has limited comprehension Produces one- or two-word responses Participates using key words and familiar phrases Uses present-tense verbs. Yes/no questions Either/or questions One- or two-word answers Lists Labels. Speech Emergence. The student has good comprehension and can produce simple sentences Makes few grammar and pronunciation errors Frequently misunderstands jokes. Why...? How...? Explain... Phrase or shortsentence answers. Intermediate Fluency. The student Has excellent comprehension Makes few grammatical errors Enjoys role playing. What would happen if...? Why do you think...?. Advanced Fluency. The student has a near-native level of speech.. Show me... Circle the... Where is...? Who has...?. Decide if... Retell.... In the case of my 9th graders, Speech Emergence seems to be the appropriate category to place my students in.. “Higher beginners” do not. communicate their ideas in chopped phrases anymore; instead, they like.

(19) Cardenas 14 questioning the teacher, which is exactly the reason why their questioning techniques are also widened. Finally, Krashen and Terrell suggested for teachers to continue to challenge students’ with a variety of “sheltering techniques and innovative teaching methodologies”. The following pages will deal with that very same idea. I will focus on the main importance of teaching speaking to my students and the factors that we teachers need to take into consideration when motivating students to improve their oral communication skills.. Teaching of speaking. Why is it so important? The first thing we think about when analyzing how powerful and useful speaking tools can be is how best to approach students in order to encourage them to make a good use of such speaking tools. According to Jack Richards (2008), the idea aforementioned has been the focus of methodological debate in terms of finding the best ways of helping students to develop their oral skills. The author also states that “teachers and textbooks make use of a wide variety of approaches, ranging from indirect approaches (such as turn-taking, topic management, and questioning strategies) to indirect approaches (like group work, task work, and other strategies), but do they actually work?.

(20) Cardenas 15 Before I continue listing the reasons why the teaching of speaking is such a crucial aspect to develop within the English skills, I find myself wondering what makes speaking English so difficult first. What makes it so difficult for students to understand speaking inside the classroom? The greatest obstacle learners find when learning how to speak in a second language has nothing to do with word order or grammatical rules that are meant to follow. Instead, learners find themselves surrounded by an interactive nature they might not be used to. Conversations are collaborative and they require more than one speaker to make them happen; thus it is natural to find out that learners feel nervous not because of the fact that they have to deliver a message, but how to deliver it is what really concerns them. According to Douglas Brown (2007), there are some aspects that make speaking in a second language difficult to understand since the learner is now the producer. One of these aspects is clustering. Communication should not be expressed word by word; instead, students should be able to express their ideas using whole sentences or phrases that help them to communicate their opinions. Rate of delivery is also an important aspect to take into account. One of the teachers’ tasks when promoting students’ oral communication skills in English is to help them to achieve a reasonable speed along their speech accuracy and fluency..

(21) Cardenas 16 Authentic language is another aspect to consider when students express their ideas orally within the classroom. On the one hand, most of teenagers feel quite comfortable when starting a casual conversation; thus informal expressions are necessary when talking to a friend in a relaxed atmosphere. On the other hand, there are some situations in which students need to be familiar with an appropriate vocabulary and polite expressions, in other words, when facing formal situations students, should consider avoiding a colloquial language as much as possible. Finally, Brown also suggests for teachers to motivate students to encourage themselves and negotiate the meaning of their conversations freely, rather than organizing their interactions everytime they are asked to talk. How should we introduce speaking activities? When analyzing how teachers understand students’ interactive communication skills inside the classroom, Alexander and Winne (2006) state that it is necessary for us educators to consider preliminary support before any activity we want to do. The author also mentions that “the teacher needs to help the leaners by providing a real life context through pre- speaking activities that might include: a) eliciting, in other words, what the learners already know about the topic..

(22) Cardenas 17 b) stimulating a response by presenting realia to activate students’ interests. c) recording students’ suggestions on the board. In the authors’ aforementioned words, these pre- speaking activities aim is to reinforce the vocabulary and ideas learners will meet in the activity, so that the new information make sense to them. How can we organize class talk? The first element we teachers need to take into account when making activities work inside the classroom, is how clear our instructions and expectations toward students are. The first principle to keep in mind in order to be successful when delivering clear cut instructions to the learners is to demonstrate the task rather than explain it to our students. The author also suggests for teachers to divide the task into stages rather than presenting it as a whole. After this, the task’s instructions should be demonstrated step-by-step and written on the board for learners with short memories.. Affective factors to consider when asking students to speak inside the classroom. Some people might think that the affective domain has nothing to do with students’ performance inside the classroom. However, Douglas Brown (2007) states.

(23) Cardenas 18 that the affective domain, which is the emotional side of human behavior, is completely related to the cognitive side. When. analyzing. affective. factors’. impact. on. students’. oral. communication skills in English, confidence is definitely one of the most important ones. It is extremely necessary for us teachers to consider that learners might have a high level of understanding English whenever is being presented through a reading or a listening activity, but what happens when students are asked to produce a speech on their own in a second language like English? Since speaking in another language is already a complex task, Brown suggests for teachers “not to push students to give their opinions and avoid over-correcting any kind of mistakes they make as this will only make learners feel nervous. Instead, educators should give learners the confidence to have a go and provide a comfortable atmosphere for students to feel safe. Also, praise efforts and willingness to join in and participate”. Another crucial affective factor that plays a fundamental role when understanding why learners feel so fragile when communicating orally within the classroom is students’ language ego. Learners think they are being judged by others; thus they are reluctant to think aloud, using Spanish more than English to communicate orally their ideas no matter how much the teacher encourages not doing so..

(24) Cardenas 19 Promoting Oral Communication inside the Classroom.. So far, I have explained the importance of understanding what oral communication inside the classroom is; the stages students might be categorized in, and the main reasons why teaching speaking is so fundamental within the classroom. However, I have not yet clarified why promoting the development of our students’ oral skills is such a fruitful experience. According to Vygotsky (1962) the classroom is “a natural environment for a wide variety of oral language learning opportunities”. This is one of the main reasons why I strongly believe that encouraging learners to become aware of how amazing their speaking skills can be is fundamental in our nowadays educative system. The classroom and its participants interact in so many ways, being oral the most common one, that it is impossible to ignore the impact such interaction makes on our daily lives communication inside the school. Moreover, Vygotsky once stated that teacherstudent dialogue is part of the basis of the instructional conversation within the classroom. This dialogue allows teachers and students to negotiate meaning in a way that both sides understand each other in a clear and comprehensive way. In the previous pages I have explained which were the main functions of language, and the ones we teachers experience throughout the day inside.

(25) Cardenas 20 the classroom. However, there I have not explained how students react everytime they use such functions unconsciously. When talking about the interactional function of language, which main focus is for students to speak and share their thoughts, there is a situation I believe most of teachers recognize when learners start a conversation say, a dialogue, round of opinions, rephrasing what the teacher has said, etc. Students react, most of the times, in a responsive way. What does responsive mean then? This is quite simple. According to Douglas Brown (2007), learners manage to share their ideas in short replies to teacher- or student-initiated questions or comments. For this reason, I strongly believe that promoting the development of students’ oral communication skills is all about going beyond a responsive attitude toward an interpersonal attitude. In this form of conversation (interpersonal), learners manage to maintain social relationships more than transmitting facts and unknown information. However, when considering to motivate students to carry this form of conversation out, is when we teachers need to take two elements into extreme consideration; the comprehensible input and social interaction. When promoting the development of students’ oral communication skills, then we teachers must be aware that there are plenty of aspects within our teaching practice that we need to change if the case is that they are not working, or we might want to enrich such aspects within our teaching practice if the case is that they actually work and can be even better..

(26) Cardenas 21 Throughout the following pages, I will focus on different strategies that are quite useful for teachers when facing some trouble, meaning, their input is not totally comprehensible for learners, so taking clarity tools (to be developed in the following pages) into account might improve the way they deliver instructions. I will also specify a set of strategies that encourage the improvement of social interactions not only among students; also between the teacher and the learners themselves..

(27) Cardenas 22 Methodology The methodology used in this investigation was one based on an action research or state of art strategy. In order to clarify the meaning of this concept I would like to quote Anne Burns (2010) own words when he stated that action research is part of a “broad movement that has been going on in education for some time”. According to the author, the concept is also related to “reflective practice” ideas and the teacher as a “researcher”. By researcher, the author also says that there is a need for teachers to problematize their teaching contexts, and by problematizing she does not exactly mean to make negative comments toward their teaching practice; instead, teachers should take the areas they believe are weak enough to take them into considerations and then give an alternative to them. The central idea of this type of research is to “intervene in a deliberate way”, meaning, to make changes in their teaching practices by bringing fresh ideas in order to improve the areas teachers feel weak at, adopting a more self-reflective attitude toward their teaching practices. However, these changes need to be based in some type of solid information the researchers must collect. In my own case, I managed to keep an organized register of journals and I also prepared observation sheets for me to complete everytime I observed my monitor’s lessons at school..

(28) Cardenas 23 Data Collection. When collecting concrete information regarding students’ difficulties toward their oral communication skills, is that I decided to use two instruments, observation sheets, and journals. The former instrument was taken from an example given by Ann Burns (2008) which allows the teachers to portray the most relevant events observed throughout the lesson; the students’ responses, and an appropriate analysis for such events. The latter instrument was also taken from examples given by the aforementioned author, who stated journals are elaborated from a personal perspective which allows the investigator to identify his feelings toward the lesson’s observation.. In my opinion, I would have to say that both instruments were pretty helpful when portraying what I had experienced inside the classroom from different perspectives. On the one hand, I was able to identify the main events of the class in a concrete way through observation sheets. On the other hand, I was also able to express my own feelings and expectations toward the class observed through journals I managed to collect during the observation period..

(29) Cardenas 24 Data Analysis. The following are some examples of observation sheets used in order to show the ideas and events inside the classroom in a concrete way. Figure 1. Observation Sheet #1. Date: September 19th, 2012. Day 1 Topic: Personality adjectives. Sequence of actions. Student responses. Analysis. 1. Teacher shows a list of personality adjectives for students to copy on their copybooks.. Students copy the vocabulary and they make comments like: ¿Miss, se copia todo? ¿Por qué son tantos? ¿Embarrased significa embarazada, cierto?. Attitude of class: Students express their opinions. Overuse of Spanish. Sometimes their comments seem a little tricky.. 2 The teacher asks students to participate in an activity on the computer.. Students participate throughout the activity. Students seem to be engaged with the game.. Figure 2. Observation Sheet #2. Date: September 26th, 2012 Day 2 Topic: Modals (might-may-ought to-should) Sequence of actions. Student responses. Analysis. The teacher asks students to take their books out and work on some exercises.. Students seem a bit reluctant to work on their books, but they end up doing the activity requested.. Although some students work and finish the task; there are some others who seem too anxious when checking the answers..

(30) Cardenas 25. I also managed to collect journals after every class I witnessed. I will include the ones belonging to the first two weeks of observation in order to be as concise as possible. (see Figure 3 and 4). Figure 3. Observation Period: 2 weeks.. September 19th, 2012 Today the teacher started the class by asking students to brainstorm ideas related to personality features. Then the teacher shows a slide on the projector with a wide range of adjectives and activities for students to participate which they did, but they tend to use Spanish more than English. Students also tend to translate every word into Spanish more than putting the vocabulary in context. I found pretty interesting to see that the students wanted to engage the new vocabulary with their own interests, say, Harry Potter, hipster trends. Figure 4. Observation Sheet #2. September 26th, 2012 Today students were asked to talk about nouns, adjectives and verbs related to today’s lesson. The teacher gave students 6 minutes to finish a task, but again, they ended up talking about random things in Spanish to each other. The teacher then asks them to stop talking about miscellaneous things and start working which they do..

(31) Cardenas 26 After I collected the necessary amount of observations sheets and journals after the classes I witnessed, I decided to analyze the teacher and the students’ reactions, and also the main events observed within the classroom.. As you can see, not only the observation sheets show the same pattern after analyzing them, also the journals reveal similar points of view. Observation Sheets • Students participate and share their opinions.. Journals • Students participate during the class. • They tend to overuse Spanish. • Students overuse Spanish, and. even when encouraged not. translate most of the words into. doing so.. their mother tongue.. • Students feel motivated when. • Students seem to be engaged. challenged to finish a task, and. when encouraged to connect. they also enjoy playing online. their interests with the lesson’s. games regardless their age.. content.. As a result, we can clearly that no matter the instrument; there are some patters in common like students’ tendency to overuse Spanish and their motivations when challenged that might be telling us something important about the way learners are being motivating when helping them to develop their oral interaction skills..

(32) Cardenas 27 Proposal One of the main issues I have met when promoting oral communication in English inside the classroom is that students tend to overuse Spanish whenever I motivate them to communicate in English during the lesson. It all seems to me that, instead of communicating, students think that the teacher becomes an English invader and the only way to survive the attack is by answering the invader’s question with a shy attitude. However, when the resources are becoming scarce, students literally run toward the Spanish battlefield and hide under its shelter in order to escape the English invader’s attack. According to Suzanne Peregoy and Owen Boyle (2008) there are a great number of verbal strategies that showcase oral language use in ways that promote acquisition. For this reason and after a long way of describing, observing and experiencing is that I have decided to propose a wide set of strategies accurately connected with students’ speaking skills I have analyzed throughout my whole action research. This being said, the following pages will deal with strategies which will provide the reader with interesting insights connected with the principles aforementioned in order to promote students’ development of their oral communication skills in English inside the classroom..

(33) Cardenas 28 Teacher tools for Oral Language Development The following techniques facilitate students’ understanding when interacting with peers and with the teacher inside the English class. As I have previously mentioned, these strategies may be classified into two categories: short- term (in other words in a short period of time) goal techniques, and long-term (meaning, a longer period of time) goal techniques. According to Fillmore & Snow (2002), in order to develop students’ oral language inside the classrooms, they must “interact directly and frequently with people who know the language well enough to reveal how it works and how it can be used” So, the first person that comes into our minds when describing such role is the teacher. The following are short-term goals techniques that will allow me to understand better the main reason why I am having so much trouble when delivering instructions to students. Short- term goal techniques I have decided to classify these techniques into short-term goal strategies mainly because I hoped to see immediate changes on students’ understanding.. a) Clarity tools According to New Levine, clarity is the process of delivering clear instructions to students, a goal I was clearly not achieving..

(34) Cardenas 29 Whenever we are inside the classroom trying to deliver an instruction, opinion or comment, and we realize the students’ facial expression is one that reflects boredom is when we need to stop and ask ourselves: do students really understand what I am explaining to them? If the answer is no, then we will immediately find the reason why students do not feel motivated enough when they are encouraged to communicate in English with their peers and the teacher. When referring to places, people or things that have no meaning for our ELLs we need to keep students’ prior knowledge toward the topic we are discussing at all times. It is not a surprise then to realize that our ELLs easily give up and lose their focus on the lesson when making a connection between their own lives experiences and the content that is being presented to them seems like an impossible task to achieve. The author suggests for teachers to consider different techniques when talking to students: •. Repetition. •. Slower rate of speech. •. Gestures, context.. •. Stress on important vocabulary items..

(35) Cardenas 30 b) Question and Response Tools When trying to understand why maintaining a fluent conversation in English among students and the teacher is so difficult, New Levine suggests some aspects teacher tend to forget. •. Sticking with students Throughout the years, my experience at different schools as an English. pedagogy student has proven to me that many teachers considered for students to have an opinion and share it with the class as an extremely important aspect within the class. However, most of those teachers did not realize they gave less than a minute for students to express their thoughts. It is true that not all students are the same, some are very shy and others are very talkative. Nevertheless, if the teacher asks for a student to share some thoughts regarding a specific topic, then it is the teacher’s job to listen and pay attention to what the student has to say. In my own experience, I would have to say that listening to students’ opinions in an appropriate way does not make me uncomfortable at all. It is such a challenge for a student to speak out and express their ideas freely that the second they raise their hands in order to say something, I immediately stop talking and allow them to say whatever comes into their minds..

(36) Cardenas 31 Long-term goal techniques a) Interactional structures As I have already mentioned, there are some techniques I consider approachable in a short time period of time. However, not all students learn in the same way which is why they might need a different type of reinforcement when encouraging their oral communication skills in the English class. Some useful techniques are the following: •. Paraphrase Passport: This is an excellent technique when motivating learners to take part in classroom discussions. The teacher asks a question and then a student gives an answer to it. After this, the teacher asks another student in the class “What did Sandra say?” The student called must paraphrase what the prior student has said.. •. Stir the Class. This is another great technique when encouraging students to take part in class discussions. Each student has a sheet of paper. They are asked to write three names, reasons, examples, etc about the lesson’s topic. At a signal, students walk around the classroom and collect ideas from classmates and share their opinions. Then the teacher calls time and students go back to their seats, and then they share their ideas.. •. 10-2 technique. Here the teacher presents new material for no more than 10 minutes. Then, the educator pauses so that students share their notes.

(37) Cardenas 32 with a buddy, summarizing the concepts or discussing their ideas for two minutes. •. Establishing. long-term. dialogues. with. students.. This. technique. encourages teachers to start a casual conversation with students on topics that relate their lives with situations they may face in the future.. b) Cooperative work techniques This type of work bases on the idea of allowing students to work collaboratively in order to create positive interdependence and individual accountability. Before I continue listing all the strategies I have in mind, I would classify each technique into three different groups: pair work, group work, and whole class work.. i) Pair work: •. Think/ Pair/ Share (T-P-S): This is the simplest form of classroom interaction. Teachers ask students to think about a question, and then learners are asked to pair themselves with a classmate and discuss their ideas. Finally, students are asked to share with the class. Purpose:.  Motivate students to think about a question, issue, or topic and give concrete arguments through discussions with a partner. Payoff:  Students will develop their understanding toward a specific topic..

(38) Cardenas 33  Learners will also develop their social skills when working with their classmates. •. Timed Retell:. In this strategy, students practice their listening and. speaking skills by choosing a relevant question and then brainstorming as many ideas as possible individually. Then, learners are asked to pair themselves in order to do both, retelling the information given and convincing their classmates as much as possible in one minute. Purpose:  Enhance critical thinking.  Use diverse expressions presented in the lesson in order to deliver their message.  Create an argument and become aware of its impact on someone else’s perspective. Payoff:  Students will share ideas  They will also respect each other’s opinions  They will develop their speaking and listening skills.. ii) Group work •. Talking Chips: This is another technique that works pretty well when encouraging student to work in groups. First, learners are asked to make groups of three or four participants. Then, each member of the group will be provided with colored chips which students will have to deposit in a.

(39) Cardenas 34 container everytime they talk. This way, the teacher can make sure every student in the class is participating. Purpose: •. Enhance students’ participation in a proactive way when working in small groups.  Payoff:  Learners will become aware of the importance of their participation and its impact when working in groups.  Students will also take turns, meaning, they will have to respect others when talking the way they would like to be respected. •. Group roles: Students are divided into groups of a certain size. Each student is assigned a role, say, leader, manager, note marker, reporter, or supporter and then they. are asked to talk about a topic previously. suggested by the teacher who will be in charge of monitoring students’ performance. Purpose:  Students are encouraged to assume the responsibility of carry a task out with a specific role assigned to them by the group. Payoff:  Students will speak in small groups  Learners will also have roles to fulfill, meaning, they will be given a responsibility to embrace.  Students will also participate actively in their learning process..

(40) Cardenas 35 •. Determining Key Ideas: Learners are provided with blank cards or stickon notes in order to find the most relevant pieces of information within a reading selection suggested by the teacher. Then, students will make judgements on what they have read followed by a group discussion which main focus is to share students’ insights on the reading and its relevant information. Purpose:.  After analyzing a reading selection provided by the teacher, students will be able to analyze such text and give their opinions on the reading’s most interesting aspects whether they agree with it or not. Payoff:  Students’ will develop their oral, reading, and writing skills by themselves, first, and then in groups.  Learners are motivated to make judgements on ideas they might not agree with.. iii) Whole class work •. Four corners: This technique is pretty useful when introducing students to the debate world. The activity consists on dividing the classroom into four areas (corners)and label them as “strongly agree”, “agree”, “disagree”, and “strongly disagree”. Then, the teacher creates a statement or question for students to reflect on and then choose the area that makes them feel confident enough. Purpose:.

(41) Cardenas 36  Students will be encouraged to choose the statement that suits them the best in order to give strong arguments when asked to defend their positions. Payoff:  Students will work with different classmates and they will develop their social skills in more depth  Learners will also classify their opinions into different categories, making a clear difference between statements they agree with and others they disagree with.  Students will be able to defend their opinions orally, meaning, they will have to find the best ways to express their ideas so that the whole class understands their positions.. •. Triangle debate: Debates not only require from students to talk about a specific topic; they also require other abilities such as reading, writing, listening and expressing thoughts and ideas respectfully.. This strategy asks learners to divide the class into three groups after choosing a specific topic to discuss. Then, group 1 will agree with such topic; group 2 will disagree with it, and group 3 will make questions and comments on both, group 1 and 2. Each group will have a considerable time to develop their ideas and then 1 to 2 minutes to share their opinions with the class..

(42) Cardenas 37 After the discussion, students will be provided with worksheet (see the triangle debate organizer in the following page) in which they will be asked to jot down their reflections on the activity. Purpose:  This activity’s main purpose is for students to give opinions in a clear and respectful way, using the four skills thoroughly Payoff:  Students will participate in a debate based activity.  Learners will also practice their speaking skills in a challenging activity.  Students will learn to process ideas and reach conclusions..

(43) Cardenas 38 Conclusion. After witnessing what I consider an interesting and fruitful experience, I certainly can state I have reached a level of understanding regarding oral communication skills in English within the classroom that allows me to draw a conclusion for this investigation. When standing in front of a class full of students whose level of English is quite good, but they do not take advantage of it is when an alarm inside any teachers’ head will activate a signal telling us something must be done. However, not all teachers listen to this kind of warning, and they continue following a structured methodology in which there is no room for mistakes whatsoever. In the case of my teaching training program, which is connected to the aim of this action research, I would have to say that the moment I was able to identify the problem inside the classroom I did not feel forced to pay attention to it; on the contrary, I felt it was part of my duty as a researcher to observe, analyze and investigate the many reasons why I had problems when encouraging students to use their oral communication skills in order to interact in another language. After going through a long process of investigation, I can state I also managed to find the main factors that made an impact on students’ and their difficulties when interacting in English inside the classroom..

(44) Cardenas 39 Alongside the definitions and reasons I have found when answering many questions that came along the way; I also found a wide variety of strategies and techniques that seemed quite useful when motivating my students to improve their speaking performance within the classroom. Even though I have not yet put the plan into practice, I am absolutely sure that the strategies suggested will have a positive impact on students’ communication skills development since they (strategies) encounter the learners’ expectations. In other words, the strategies selected are challenging enough for students to participate and engage their participation within the lessons’ speaking activities. The strategies aforementioned also tailor the learners’ social skills since they have to manage to work in pairs, groups, and as a whole class throughout the lesson. Finally, I have reached the conclusion that whenever we teachers want to help students to become active participants within the classroom, it is necessary then to take different perspectives into consideration instead of blaming learners for their lack of both, participation and motivation, since a part of our duty as educators is to change that reality, and work alongside the students in order to improve their learning process rather than becoming their “enemies” and lower their understanding process down..

(45) Cardenas 40 Appendix Figure 1. Observation Sheet #1. Date: September 19th, 2012. Day 1 Topic: Personality adjectives. Sequence of actions. Student responses. Analysis. 2. Teacher shows a list of personality adjectives for students to copy on their copybooks.. Students copy the vocabulary and they make comments like: ¿Miss, se copia todo? ¿Por qué son tantos? ¿Embarrased significa embarazada, cierto?. Attitude of class: Students express their opinions. Overuse of Spanish. Sometimes their comments seem a little tricky.. 2 The teacher asks students to participate in an activity on the computer.. Students participate throughout the activity. Students seem to be engaged with the game.. Figure 2. Observation Sheet #2. Date: September 26th, 2012 Day 2 Topic: Modals (might-may-ought to-should) Sequence of actions. Student responses. Analysis. The teacher asks Students to take their Books out and work On some exercises.. Students seem a bit reluctant to work on their books, but they end up doing the activity requested.. Although some students work and finish the task quietly; there are some others who seem too anxious when checking the answers..

(46) Cardenas 41 I also managed to collect a wide variety of journals I wrote after every class I witnessed. I will include the ones belonging to the first two weeks of observation in order to be as concise as possible. (see Figure 3 and 4). Figure 3. Observation Period: 2 weeks.. September 19th, 2012 Today the teacher started the class by asking students to brainstorm ideas related to personality features. Then the teacher shows a slide on the projector with a wide range of adjectives and activities for students to participate which they did, but they tend to use Spanish more than English. Students also tend to translate every word into Spanish more than putting the vocabulary in context. I found pretty interesting to see that the students wanted to engage the new vocabulary with their own interests, say, Harry Potter, hipster trends. Figure 4. Observation Sheet #2. September 26th, 2012 Today students were asked to talk about nouns, adjectives and verbs related to today’s lesson. The teacher gave students 6 minutes to finish a task, but again, they ended up talking about random things in Spanish to each other. The teacher then asks them to stop talking about miscellaneous things and start working which they do..

(47) Cardenas 42. Lesson Plans Samples. LESSON PLAN N° School. 2 SSCC Manquehue I° E. Class Teacher Date. Lilian Cardenas/ Mentor: Mónica Gayani October 17th, 2012. Time LEARNING OUTCOME (General Objective) EXPECTATIONS (Before teaching) TEACHING MATERIALS PROCESS ASSESSMENT. 90 minutes Students should be able talk about indoor and outdoor activities. I hope student speak in English throughout the whole class. I also hope they do not feel lost everytime I give an instruction and they feel confident enough to ask for help whenever they need it. Data, student’s book, boxes, ppt doc 1 and 2 (attached) Observation sheet.. Today’s menu:. Video Prezi presentation and brainstorm Student’s book reading activity (1) Pairwork Student’s book reading activity (2) Talking chips activity Student’s book reading activity (3) Checking activity Closure. 5 minutes 10 minutes 10 minutes 8 minutes 8 minutes 10 minutes 10 minutes 10 minutes 5 minutes.

(48) Cardenas 43 ACTIVITIES. OBJECTIVES. Greeting and roll call. Greet students with a positive attitude Students should be able to recognize some activities they do throughout their daily lives and share their experiences with the class .. Pre activities:. While activities:. Students should be able to analyze different texts related to the lesson’s content and relate it to their own life experiences through reading and speaking activities.. SKILLS. STEP BY STEP. Speaking. I will ask students to pay close attention to a video which shows different people doing different activities indoors and outdoors in their daily lives. Then, I will show students different pictures related to today’s lesson (indoor and outdoor lifestyles) and I will ask them to brainstorm their thoughts and life experiences.. 15. Magazines, newspaper s’ pictures.. Reading/ Speaking. I will ask students to pay attention to different pieces of texts provided by the book (which will also be projected on the board) and I will ask them to do activity 1 from the Student’s book. However, I will make sure students understand the instruction clearly so, I will introduce the activity by giving an example of what they are expected to do. Then, students will work in pairs for 5 minutes. After that, I will share the answers with the class and I will encourage them to speak in English.. 36. same. The next activity will consist on students reading different extracts and choosing the correct alternative for each text (activity 2 of the Student’s Book). It is important, though, to read allow them to read. TIMING. PLAN B.

(49) Cardenas 44 each paragraph individually for about 5 minutes so that they become familiar with the texts. After reading, I will motivate students to participate in an activity called “talking chips” in which they will make groups of four and each group will have a box in the middle. The idea is for the the members to take turns and insert* a red card everytime they share the alternative they though was the correct one (this way all the members of each group will participate in an active way) Post activities:. Students should be able to put today’s vocabulary and content into practice.. I will ask students to do one last activity, only this time they will have to do it themselves. In other words, I will give clear cut instructions,; however I will not provide an example for them to follow. After this, I will check the activity with students using the “Paraphrase Passport” activity which requires for the teacher to listen to what student (A) has to say and then ask a random student (B) what student A has just said, and so forth.. 20. Same. Closure:. I will encourage students to share their ideas about what they understood in today’s class.. 5. Same. Homework:. Dictionary Corner (page 43 of Student’s Workbook). Same.

(50) Cardenas 45. LESSON PLAN N° 3 School SSCC Manquehue I° E. Class Teacher. Lilian Cardenas/ Mentor: Mónica Gayani Date. th. October 24 , 2012 Time 90 minutes LEARNING OUTCOME (General Objective) EXPECTATIONS (Before teaching) TEACHING MATERIALS PROCESS ASSESSMENT. Students will be able to identify the difference between –ing and infinitive form. I hope student develop their speaking skills well enough to talk to their peers as much as possible. Data, student’s book, boxes.. Observation sheet.. Today’s menu:. Speaking activity 10-2 exercise Reading activity 1-2 Writing/ Speaking activity.. What did you learn today?. 5 minutes 15- 25 minutes 20 minutes 25 minutes (20 minutes of production, 5 minutes for sharing, and 5 minutes to present) 5 minutes.

(51) Cardenas 46 Activity. Objectives. Greeting and roll call. Greet students with a positive attitude. Pre activities :. Students should be able to identify the concepts and ideas presented to them during the previous class.. While activities :. Skills. Step by Step. Timing. Plan B. Speaki ng. Today I will start the class by asking students to participate in a speaking activity called “take five” which basically consists on asking students to pair up and share some thoughts regarding the previous class content.. 15. Sam e. Writing / speaki ng / readin g. I will ask students to review the content from previous classes by doing different exercises that include both reading and speaking skills.. 40. Sam e. First, I will show the list of verbs related to the infinitive form we checked during our previous lesson. Then, I will show students a video with a song that shows a clear example of how to use such verbs. After this, I will provide students with worksheets in order to practice the information delivered to students. I will repeat the same action, only this time I will present verbs followed by the –ing form..

(52) Cardenas 47. Post activities :. Closure:. Students should be able to put today’s content into practice by writing a note using the grammatica l structures presented in today’s lesson.. Finally, students will put the content into practice by doing one last activity which consists on writing a note to Carla. She is 14 years old and she wants to take up a hobby. However, it can’t be any kind of hobby. She doesn’t want it to be too expensive, and she would like it to be an opportunity in which she can meet lots of people. After students finish writing their notes they will work with a partner and some of them will present their work to the class.. I will encourage students to share their ideas about what they learnt in today’s class by participating in one last activity. http://webs.schule.at/website/Exerci ses/_ingorInf1.htm. 5. Same.

(53) Cardenas 48 Bibliography. •. Alexander, P. & Winne, P. 2006. Handbook of Educational Psychology. Second Edition. Routledge.. •. Brown, D. H. (2000). Principles of language learning & teaching. 4th ed. New York. Longman.. •. Brown, D. H. 2007. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy,Second Edition.. •. Burns, Anne. 2010. Doing Action Research. New York. Routledge.. •. Fillmore, L. W. & Snow, C. E. 2002. What teachers need to know about language. McHenry, IL: Delta Systems.. •. Krashen, S. & Terrell, T. 1983. The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom. Hayward, ca. Alemany Press.. •. New Levine, L. and McCloskey M. L. 2009. Teaching Learners of English in Mainstream Classrooms. Allyn and Bacon.. •. Newton, J. 2009. Teaching ESL/ EFL Listening and Speaking. New York. Routledge.. •. Peregoy & Boyle. 2008. Reading, Writing, and Learning in ESL. Pearson.. •. Richards, J.2008. Teaching Listening and Speaking. From Theory to Practice. Cambridge University Press.. •. Vygotsky, L. S. 1962. Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press..

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