What speaking activities can I implement to encourage students willingness to communicate in front of others in the 9th Grade?

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(1) . What speaking activities can I implement to encourage students’ willingness to communicate in front of others in the 9th Grade?. ACTION RESEARCH . Faculty of Education English Department. By. María Carolina Marambio Guide teacher: Claudio Jaramillo.

(2) 1. For Marisol, Leonel, Aracelli and the entire Marambio-Barahona Family Support and care from you, always..

(3) 2. Table of contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................. 4 Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................. 5 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 6 Context ................................................................................................................................. 7 Problem ................................................................................................................................ 8 Research Question ................................................................................................................. 9 Rationale ............................................................................................................................... 9 Basis of the Action Research ................................................................................................ 9 Relevance of the problem in the context............................................................................... 10 Possible impact and contributions ....................................................................................... 11 Literature Review ................................................................................................................ 12 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) .......................................................................... 12 Motivation ........................................................................................................................ 15 Speaking ........................................................................................................................... 17 Vocabulary teaching and learning ....................................................................................... 19 Research Methodology ........................................................................................................ 21 General Methodology ........................................................................................................ 21 Data collection methods: Instruments .................................................................................. 22 Factual journal ............................................................................................................... 22 Personal journal ............................................................................................................. 22 Survey .......................................................................................................................... 23 Open interview .............................................................................................................. 23 Analysis of data ................................................................................................................. 24 Action plan: parts and purposes........................................................................................... 24 Planning: Gant Chart ......................................................................................................... 26 Data analysis ....................................................................................................................... 27 Data Results ...................................................................................................................... 27 Journals ........................................................................................................................ 27 Factual Journal .............................................................................................................. 28 Reflective Journal .......................................................................................................... 29 Survey to Students ......................................................................................................... 30.

(4) 3 Open interviews ............................................................................................................. 35 Data Interpretation ............................................................................................................. 38 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................... 40 General Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 40 Research question’ answer.................................................................................................. 40 Reflection on the AR process .............................................................................................. 41 Limitations and Implications ............................................................................................... 42 Future questions .................................................................................................................. 43 .

(5) 4. Abstract Through this Action Research, it was explored how 9th Graders could speak English during the English class. The participants were 40 students in a subsidized school, from 14 to 15 years old. The focus of the research was to enhance students’ speaking skills through different activities which arose unexpected results regarding the best activities which could be applied to achieve the goal. In order to evidence the situation, data was collected by using surveys, interviews and journals from the researcher; and analyzed using thematic coding..

(6) 5. Acknowledgments Finishing this process of not only 5 years at university, but also 14 years of being a student makes me feel so happy. I am absolutely grateful with all those people who helped me along this exhausting process. I must say, it was not easy, but I could always count on my family and my friends, who were always supportive to me. My mom and my dad, who always stimulated me to study and gave me all the love I always needed, and more. My beautiful family members, who, believe it or not, each one of you taught me something that I could use to succeed in this process. And of course all my friends from life: Yaritza Cuevas and Macarena Pedraza, who always supported me at everything I wanted to do; and my dearest friends I met at University, Camila Godoy, María José Leiva and Chandra Kripalani, for always pushing me to work and do better, and be the best partners to work with during these five years. I also want to thank all the teachers who encouraged me to be a better person and a better student. Mainly the ones who did not let me fail when I was not feeling good; the ones that showed me I could do better, and be the best one in what I was doing. By all those teachers I mean my teachers at school Claudia Medel, Eduardo Donoso, Zorka Mateluna; my teachers at University Claudio Jaramillo, the one that fought me everything, but I ended up learning from it and appreciating it; José Callado, who was the most outstanding teacher I have ever met, full of energy and a smile on his face, even when the circumstances were not positive ones; and Salomé Villa, a person who taught me methodology and to understand that nothing in education is impossible..

(7) 6. Introduction During this Action Research, it will be analyzed and figured out some issues regarding speaking skills that 9th grade students have to face when using the English, in front of other. The purpose of this research is to be able to help students regarding this problem that was considered a main concern by the Teacher Trainee and some other people involved in the situation. All of the above will be specified and supported by several instruments that were thought to be accurate to solve the problem. That is to say, all the analysis will be theoretically supported, in order to make this Research valid and reliable for possible future academic purposes..

(8) 7. Context The school The following research will take place in a school located in San Miguel, Santiago. Its name is ‘Colegio Parroquial San Miguel’ and it is a Marianist school, which means that it follows Catholic’ values throughout its Mission and Vision. (CPSM, 2016) It has 1208 students, amongst women and men, from Pre-K to 12th Grade – having two grades per level-. Besides, it is important to highlight the average from the institution at SIMCE 2012 (MIME, 2016), which is 123 points (reaching a higher result than similar schools). The 9th grade’s class The grade in which it was decided to focus this research is one of the 9th ones, due to the amount of time that the teacher trainee spends with it. This grade has 45 students in which 25 of them are girls and 20 are boys. However, for this AR only 40 of them will participate, due to the filling of surveys was done on time by those 40. In the school, the classroom arrangement is mainly 8 rows, facing a whiteboard, and the teacher’s desk (but in the “Religion” class, in which they set the classroom creating a huge circle with the chairs). That is to say, the classroom arrangement in most of the subjects follows the general pattern as shown in the picture..

(9) 8. Class dynamic Regarding the class dynamic, the English lesson is mainly focused on students having to complete activities from a course-book. That is to say, most of the classes are given under a “writing or reading” focus. However, it does not mean that it is not communicative; due to most of the activities are not grammar focused in their nature. That is to say, they have to explore grammar in each of the readings (e.g). Taking into account the former information, it can be said that the interaction amongst students during the English class is mainly null. Most of the time there is individual work. Only sometimes they can work in pairs, but just to complete written or reading activities from the course-book; –without being asked to interact in English while completing the activities- nor to produce meaningful language. In this way, the role of the teacher is to tell students what activities to complete, and then checking the answers on the board asking students to “read” their answers aloud in English. As a consequence, most of the times if the answer is too long, students say they do not want to read it in English because it is “too long” or “too difficult to read” or “they do not know the answer”. Thus, in general English lessons where speaking is the focus, there are usually five out of 40 students who actively participate: always the same students.. Problem Therefore, when analysing the interaction in the English class, there are issues to deepen. The main concern that was identified in the English lessons was the lack of spoken participation during the lessons. Therefore, it might be possible that one possible reason for this to happen is that there are no speaking activities related to the lessons’ topics, so.

(10) 9. students are not able to interact among themselves and use the language in a spoken situation. From this perspective, it was necessary to make sure that this was an actual problem for the kids, or something that could affect their lives in more than one sphere (due to the impact that experiences at school can provoke in children –emotional or psychological, for example- so there was a real need to be delved into. After a short interview -two questions which pointed out students’ feelings towards speaking during the class- conducted individually to 40 students from the chosen group; the results arose that most of the students (57.5%) did not want to participate because of different factors that will need to be analysed in depth in the following sections of the Action Research.. Research Question As it was previously written, the main question that this research aims to address is the following: What speaking activities can I implement to encourage students’ willingness to communicate among each other in the 9th Grade?. Rationale The aim of this section of the AR is to clarify the reader the reasons behind undertaking this investigation focused on Speaking English during the English lessons. This segment will be divided into the (1) general basis of the AR, (2) the relevance of the problem in the context; and finally, (3) the possible impact and contributions of the study. Basis of the Action Research.

(11) 10. The situation that triggered the focus of this Action Research was mainly the negative reaction of students towards speaking in front of the class. At first, the class activities were meant to be thought as reading an answer aloud. And ideally, with time, they could produce the language spontaneously. Nevertheless, most of the 9th grade students had an excuse for not presenting an opinion or just sharing a short answer, orally. This circumstance occurred in most of the lessons in which students had to participate in this way. To illustrate, here it is a citation of a class in which can be shown the issue: “ [Teacher made each student read a sentence of a text. At the end, all students were supposed to have read out loud] Teacher: Miss Fernanda, could you continue with the next sentence, please?Fernanda: No profe! Porfa… yo no sé leer en inglés. Soy súper mala en esto. Teacher: Come on! Read! I will help you. Fernanda: No po profe, de verdad que no quiero. Teacher: Fernanda, no se estrese, si no es difícil. Vamos, ¡usted puede!” (Factual Journal, 2016) (See appendix B) Since, there are multiple slants to take into account, if it is wanted that speaking English during the class, succeeds. There are. Relevance of the problem in the context Regarding the context, this Action Research project is beneficial for the context due to it was considered an urgent need to make students participate actively in the English class, which was supported by the observations through the whole process. This idea arises from the belief that - as it was previously stated- English is taught as a foreign language.

(12) 11. (Broughton G. et al, 2002) the lessons ought to be more dynamic (in terms of interaction among students, for example)so as to have students participating actively. Likewise, it is absolutely linked to the teachers’ role, as well. Nonetheless, a great part is made by students and their active participation. It is more probable that they learn if they take part in the class, as described in the Communicative Approach (Brinton, D. M., & Celce-Murcia, M., 2014) which is the chosen one for this type of concerns in the classroom. On the other hand, and more specifically in a micro level, this situation is relevant for the context because of what has been said by the host teacher regarding the expectations and aims of the school towards students from 12th grade and beyond: that students should be able to speak the language in a contextualized real situation (Personal Journal, 2016) (See appendix C). Moreover, the school’s PEI (http://www.cpsm.cl/documentos/PEI2015.pdf, 2016) promotes human beings with both features: social –meaning interaction- and individual values. Then, if students are able to speak in front of others (no matter the language they are using), it would be beneficial for the school and the vision they want to foster. For this reason, it would be necessary that students feel comfortable with the language, their oral performance in it and that they do not have any fear when facing a person at the moment of speaking English, which is one of the targets of this AR.. Possible impact and contributions Finally with the subsequent research, it is expected to have an impact not only on students at the moment they have realized they have improved in English speaking skills and the possible outcomes they might result in their future as students and professionals,.

(13) 12. but also in the teaching community of English, and from other subjects as well, in view of the fact that guiding and facilitating children/youth people personality development should be every teacher’s role due to the amount of time they spend with students through the whole psychological-physical developmental process, as Piaget’s theory is explained in Moshman (2005) . It will certainly have an impact in the community since they may be able to use it as a tool to may be apply role playing activities -or other speaking activities- so as to make their classes more dynamic and meaningful; which is what students expect from their facilitators of learning; and undoubtedly the field in which Chile seems to have major difficulties. (AND Radio, 2015). Literature Review In the following paragraphs, there will be described the main concepts that this Action Research will use as theoretical background, in order to base its ideas and subsequent analysis. The objective of presenting the definitions for each notion is that the reader can understand the point of view in which the analysis will be based on. Also, there will have a brief explanation on how it would help with the analysis, and what connections can be made. In that sense, both the reader and the author can keep the same literature’s definition – as a consequence, understanding- at the moment of analysing the issue which was found in the 9th grade. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Through time, numerable authors have discussed the topic of Communicative Language Teaching. Hereunder, several points of view will be described, so as to understand the focus of this topic linked with education..

(14) 13. According to Richards (2006) “Communicative language teaching can be understood as a set of principles about the goals of language teaching, how learners learn a language, the kinds of classroom activities that best facilitate learning and the roles of teachers and learners in the classroom. [...].” That is to say, it includes a complete set of aspects that a class should have, according to the author. From his perspective and as he states in his book “Communicative Language Teaching today”, CLT is composed by Communicative Competence, which is the use of language for meaningful communication. (2006) Therefore, the target of CLT is to make learners use the language in a useful way, taking into consideration the different purposes and functions that we can make use of the language. As it was previously named, there are many researchers who have gotten deep understanding on the topic. One of them is Mister Douglas Brown, who as well as his colleague Richards, also agrees on the use of the language for communicative purposes:. “Language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic, authentic, functional use of the language for meaningful purposes. [...]Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying communicative techniques.” (Brown, 2007. ,. p. 43) Brown indicates that CLT includes certain techniques which can be applied in order to use the language to communicate with others. In addition to Richards’ statement of what CLT means, Brown adds more specifically the importance of Fluency (when the learner speaks efficiently, without pauses) and Accuracy (the grammatically correct use of language) in the learning of a language. From this perspective, the question that teachers of English may ask would be: What is it more important? Fluency or Accuracy?.

(15) 14. From Richards’ perspective (2002), the answer to those questions will depend on what the teacher wants to rich with students. For example, if the teacher wants the learners to communicate an idea, no matter the way they say it, it is fluency the goal. On the other hand, if the teacher wants them to speak properly in a certain given situation (an interview), it is accuracy the focus. Following the same perspective, another couple of researchers believe that CLT is based on the premise that successful language learning involves not only a knowledge of the structures and forms of a language, but also the functions and purposes that a language serves in different communicative settings. This approach to teaching emphasizes the communication of meaning in interaction rather than the practice and manipulation of grammatical forms in isolation. (Burns and Joyce, 1997) Moreover, regarding the actual situation of CLT in education, Brinton and CelceMurcia (2014, p. 15) indicate that CLT’ goal should be, as the name itself indicates, communication. However, in many countries from the world, nowadays, there is still a focus on memorization, language analysis, among other things that are not useful aspects at the moment of using the language to communicate an idea. These authors state that (as discussed in the previous paragraphs) the key to learn a new language is to use CLT in real situation settings/contexts in the classroom. The former definitions can be linked as long as the entire class is focused on encouraging students to speak. In other words, the focus of every activity and the methodology that is used in every class –at least thinking about speaking, which is the focus of this Action Research- suits to the idea of communicating meaningfully with other people in the classroom, using the Foreign Language..

(16) 15. The understanding of this idea will make the researcher-and the reader- realize the importance of interaction in learning a language, and how it results in building a community in the class, so they feel comfortable enough to speak in front of their classmates. It is important to highlight the context in which language is being taught. Then, taking into account that students are not closely related to English, is decisive in the issue to be approached by this Action Research. As a consequence of everything which has been previously presented, for this AR all the definitions of CLT will be taken into account at the moment of analysing data, thus there is a similar definition of what CLT amongst most authors from the field.. Motivation As well as every topic in this AR, motivation is one of the most complex ones because of the quantity of authors and the different perspectives the world has of it. Nevertheless, there are some definitions that are more accurate to define motivation in the context of speaking in an English class. Wherefore, in the upcoming paragraph various viewpoints will be presented that will be taken into account to analyse this AR.. To start with, it is important to mention what was discussed by Maddock and Fulton (1998) taking Maslow’s perspective of the biological aspect of life, in order to understand motivation: “According to Maslow, people have to reach a graduated set of needs, moving from the basic to the increasingly sophisticated as those needs are successively gratified.” If we look at Maslow’s pyramid of needs, we can find that in the fourth category, from bottom to top, there is one category called “Self-esteem needs” (See Figure 1). Then, from the educational perspective, it means that students need to feel safe in order to participate in.

(17) 16. the classroom. If they do not feel good about themselves, they will not be able to succeed as expected in any matter of life. The same theme was mentioned by E. Griffin (2006), analysing Mr. McClelland’s perspective on the psychological part of motivation, and where it does come from: “The esteem needs are of two types. There’s self-esteem, which is the result of competence or mastery of tasks. Harvard psychologist David McClelland calls this “need for achievement.” There’s also the attention and recognition that come from others. Wanting this admiration is part of what McClelland labels “need for power.” McClelland assumes that individual differences in needs are tied to personality, and they change slowly if at all.” (E. Griffin, 2006, p. 129). From this point of view, and going along with what Maddock and Fulton’s orientation towards motivation in life, Griffin supports the idea of the importance that recognition from others has at the time of living. In that sense, it can be perceived that every opinion people have from you is important for the normal development of life. At schools it can be easily seen, from the moment students care about what people would say if they dress in a certain way. Furthermore, and focusing on the educational field (even though it is not explicitly mentioned in the text) Ashforth (1995) highlights the importance of emotional attachment to the context in which the learner (in this case) is growing as a student. In this case, the following quote can be a guide on how students might feel with a subject they do not actually enjoy nor they are good at: “The traditional focus on effort (behaviour) and expectations (cognition) addresses the hand and head of the individual, but not he heart”. (Ashforth, 1995, p. 95-127).

(18) 17. Narrowing the issue of motivation into the classroom, focusing on speaking, there is one author that defines motivation to communicate as “Willingness to communicate” : “…an individual’s general personality orientation towards talking” (McCroskey and Baer, 1985). That is to say, in the educational field it will be the student’ enthusiasm to speak in front of others. If the student does not feel comfortable within the context and with his or her classmates/teacher, he/she will not want to speak, regardless the students’ abilities in the language. As a consequence, so as to have students motivated within the learning of a new language, the former aspects need to be taken into account so students feel willing to speak and learn at the same time. If the teacher does not provide this atmosphere, it would be really unexpected this occurs. Speaking The locus of this AR is to make students speak during the English class, using the language as long as they feel comfortable with it. Therefore it is necessary to assemble several definitions that will make us understand the whole spectrum of speaking and the role of it in this AR. According to Burns and Joyce (1997). “Speaking is defined as an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information.” From this perspective, it is utterly important the interaction among people, in order to use the language. If there is no recipient at the moment of speaking, the main goal of speaking; that is to say, communication, will not be achieved. In addition, these authors also state that the meaning and the way in which we speak will depend on the circumstances, the people involved in the conversation and the intention for the conversation, by writing the.

(19) 18. following: “Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, the participants, and the purposes of speaking.” The former definition for speaking is consistent with what Brinton (2014) conveys about the role that speaking has in the learning of a new language, meaning the actual oral use of it. “When queried about competence in other languages, it would certainly sound odd to be asked “How many languages do you write?” A question such as “How many languages can you understand (or read)?” makes more sense, but overwhelmingly the question put to us is “How many languages do you speak?” In fact, speaking is considered by many to be the fundamental skill in second language (L2) learning.” (Brinton, 2014, p. 106). As it was exposed by Brinton in the foregoing paragraph, speaking is considered an elementary part of learning a new language. It might be even more important in a foreign language learning, as it is the case of the Chilean context; considering the minimum use of English in daily life. Besides, the former authors’ theories correspond to what Graham (2006) remarks in his book “Developing Speaking Skills, a Practical Guide to Teaching Modern Foreign Languages in the Secondary School” that there is an ideal way to apply speaking activities so students feel motivated to participate, learn and use the language. “Characteristic of a good speaking activity: a summary • • • •. The activity is motivating: it has a clear purpose, and an end-goal or outcome. Its completion requires language which is within learners’ capability. Speaking opportunities are maximized, that is, the task cannot be completed by learners saying very little. Learners have little scope to revert to the mother tongue..

(20) 19. •. The activity can be extended to allow pupils to speak more independently and to personalize the language used.” (Graham, S., 2006, p. 68) As it can be observed, all the authors used for this AR contribute to build the perfect definition for speaking in an educational context (meaning the 9th Grade) where speaking is the target. There are many features to take into account at the moment of teaching and learning to use a language, orally.. Vocabulary teaching and learning In order to speak fluently and accurately in a certain language, it is necessary to have the right words so you can convey the message you want to convey. Whereas it is essential that you if you are going to learn a new language, the teacher provides you with the tools to learn vocabulary, so you can manage spoken situations whenever the context asks you to. In accordance with Renandya and Richards (2002), “Vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how well learners speak, listen, read and write.” Therefore, if I, as a teacher, want my students to speak English and feel pleased with the language, I need to create circumstances as activities or tasks so students can learn new words and use them. Other researchers who support Renandya and Richards’ perspective are Neuman and Dawyer (2009) who highlight the efficacy of speaking through vocabulary knowledge: “The words we must know to communicate effectively: words in speaking (expressive vocabulary) and words in listening (receptive vocabulary).” (Neuman and Dawyer, 2009,p. 384-392).

(21) 20. The preceding idea can be supported by an experience that a researcher had during a trip to Japan, in which she was trying to buy some flour. Even though she knew some grammar in Japanese, the missing word “Flour” in Japanese was necessary for her to succeed in her experience. The exposure she had in that moment helped her understand that vocabulary could even be more important than knowing grammar structures from a certain language, when it comes to communicating with others. “In this experience, I learned that vocabulary is actually more important than grammar (for communicative purposes [….]This is a real example of where vocabulary knowledge would have gotten me what I wanted/needed more than any grammar knowledge”(Folse, 2004, p. 19-22) Then, it seems necessary to teach vocabulary to students. There are some researchers who advise three different approaches to teach vocabulary: “1) Incidental learning: where the learning of vocabulary is the product of doing other things such as reading or listening; 2) Explicit instruction: where words are exactly explained; and 3) Independent strategy development: where students learn how to learn new words through contextual clues, dictionaries, etc.; maximizing personal learning style” Hunt A. and D. Belgar (2005) in Young-Davy, B. (2014, p.3). Probably, if those strategies or any others which can help students to learn vocabulary, and subsequent use of the language are applied; some issues exposed by Keith S. Folse in “Vocabulary Myths, Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching” can be avoided. “It is important for all teachers to be aware of language problems that arise from lack of vocabulary knowledge. For those of you who have lived abroad for an extended period of.

(22) 21. time, you are well aware of the situations that your students are facing. For many learners , these problems range from not being able to express themselves accurately in writing or speaking because of too many unknown vocabulary words/items.” (Folse K., 2004, p. 30). Research Methodology General Methodology First of all, it is necessary to comprehend that the following project is an Action Research, which can be described by several authors as “The study of a social situation with the view to improving the quality of the action in it.” (Elliott, 1991, p. 69) Also, it can be featured as Anne Burns explains “Doing Action Research in English Language Teaching, A Guide For Practitioners”: “AR involves taking a self-reflective, critical and systematic approach to exploring your own teaching contexts.[…] The central idea of the action part of the AR is to intervene in a deliberate way in the problematic situation in order to bring about changes and, even better, improvements in practice.”(Burns, 2009, p. 2) Moreover, it can be understood as “A self-reflective, systematic and critical approach to enquiry by participants who are at the same time members of the research community.” (Burns, in Cornwell, 1999, p. 5). The foregoing definitions point out to the nature of the investigation itself; in which the researcher not only investigates what happens in a certain field, but also implements his/her proposals to address the issue, hoping to help in the situation in the best possible way..

(23) 22. Withal, the project needs to have a purpose, in which in this case it would be to be aware of what kind of activities can be applied in the classroom for making students speak shameless, using the language, in front of the class. From this point of view, the AR is not only researching, but analysing, implementing and reflecting upon the results. It can be thought as a complete process.. Data collection methods: Instruments The data collection methods that were used are a factual journal, a personal journal, survey to students and open interviews to teachers. In this way, every important fact behind the issue will be captured, since each data collection method serves for a singular purpose. Factual journal On the one hand a factual journal was kept during both semesters’ practicum experience at Colegio Parroquial San Miguel by the teacher trainee, considering that it allows objectivity when describing a situation. In this instrument, every fact that called the teacher trainee/researcher’s attention was included. In this way, it could be helpful for the development of this AR as a result of the note taking of important situations and experiences before, during and after the English class. Personal journal On the other hand, a personal journal was also kept during the AR process in order to be considered, since it requires a reflective skill from the teacher trainee when describing his/her feelings towards the situations that could arise. This kind of perspective could be.

(24) 23. useful to explore the views that the people who participate in the class have (in this case, the teacher trainee’s perspective), and the consequences that this feelings might hold.. Survey Furthermore, a survey to students was held at the beginning of the process (before the interventions) (See appendix H) - and no other way of collecting data- because it was considered it would be easier to capture students’ perspectives with closed-ended items, considering that at that age when talking about school, it could be more difficult for them to express their ideas due to the amount of thoughts they might have. Also, it was designed to have only a set of 4 questions, divided into two categories. In this way they were not supposed to feel overwhelmed (sometimes they had said they did not like surveys because they were too long, in some occasions, (Factual journal, 2016) so they were able to (hopefully) to answer consciously. (See Appendix D). Open interview And finally, the teacher trainee/researcher created and implemented an open interview (See Appendix I) to two teachers from the school (Language and English teachers) in which she is conducting the Action Research project, in order to apprehend if the issue she encountered was not isolated only during the English class (in case it was not), so it could be meaningful to the whole community. Based on these interviews, the researcher expected to find out the different perspectives that other teachers may have of the same group of students; which could enrich the whole investigation..

(25) 24. Analysis of data Regarding the analysis, benchmark and theories made by scholars in the field will be connected to the issue in the Chilean context, in addition to the previously mentioned data collection methods. All of the data collection methods mentioned above will operate while the research goes on. The journals took the whole year to be written, and the interviews and survey could take only one day. Nevertheless, the analysis of the situations and the creation of an action plan were carried out during the whole term. The former methods and data analysis would hopefully help solve the problem and to clarify its findings, so the results may help other teachers to apply -or not to- certain types of activities which are more suitable for the 9th grade, during learning a foreign language classes. Action plan: parts and purposes In the subsequent section, the chronological action plan for the research will be explained, as well as the features of each stage. a) Observation: With this instrument, the main purpose is to have an external point of view about the students, the lessons, the school community and the attitudes of the teacher during and out of the classroom; since the observation is based on a factual journal. b) Collecting information by the open interview to teachers and the survey to students: Regarding this point, it was decided to make an open interview to.

(26) 25. teachers (Language and English’ teachers) due to it can help clarify if the issue is transversal or not (if the problem of speaking in front of others happens also in other subjects or with other teachers), so may be the activities and methodology can help students in different learning areas, in the future. On the other hand, it was necessary for the researcher to have the subjects’ opinions towards their own needs, abilities and weaknesses in the use of the language. It was considered absolutely imperative to take into account their perspective of their own learning process, so a short survey was created to collect all the previously named information. In this way, students will be able to show their perspectives on different topics, such as feelings towards the language, the teachers, the activities and themselves. In order to address this, the answers were narrowed in an agreement scale which were: Excellent (100%); Good enough (70%); So so (40%) and Uncomfortable (10%).. c) Analysing data collection instruments and creating a set of activities in order to improve in the field –depending on what it is needed : This process is necessary because the activities should be created based on the students’ needs and their strengths and weaknesses, in order to improve in what is being studied.(See Appendix J) d) Applying the activities in the classroom: The activities need to be applied in the classroom, in order to clarify if the issue was appropriately approached or not. In this way, the analysis will be enriched by the many possibilities it has. e) Analysing students’ response to the activities previously created: In this way, the analysis will be complete and ready to wait for right decisions (towards the class itself) to be made..

(27) 26. f) If the activities worked, analyse why. If they did not, analyse why not and propose another methodology or issue: The aim of this section is to make a “metacognitive” process, so as to realize the results and what they do mean. From this on, the AR process would have been worth it in any angle that might be seen from, considering that if the results were not the expected ones, or if the researcher realizes that the focus of the research was not the appropriate one, it would still be a contribution for the field and the particular context of the 9th Grade from that school.. The former steps were chosen as a response to the information which wanted to be gathered, in order to approach the issue and possibly. erase it from the school. context. Ideally, students will be the main participants in doing these activities. Additionally, the data collection methods, which were described in the previous categories, respond to both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Planning: Gant Chart The following chart shows how the whole AR process was planned. The time to do each part, so it follows a chronological order. However, the planning was not followed as expected, due to different reasons that will be described in the “Limitations” part of the investigation. Time Activity. April-August W W W W 1 2 3 4. Observat ion. X. X. September W W W 5 6 7. W 8. October W W 9 10. W 11. W 12. November W W W 13 14 15. W 16.

(28) 27. Identifyi ng the issue Action plan Interven tion 1 Interven tion 2 Interven tion 3 Interven tion 4 Inteventi ons’ Analysis Conclusi ons. X X. X. X X X X X X. X. X X. X. Data analysis After implementing the instruments, it is imperative to collect all the information gathered and analyse it. Hence, the instruments’ analysis will be divided into Data Results and Data interpretation, so the reader can fully understand all the amount of data the researcher Data Results Journals In order to make the analysis of the qualitative data as it is the Factual Journal, and afterwards, the Reflective Journal, the procedure which will be followed will be the one.

(29) 28. mentioned by Anne Burns (2010), in which she declares that the proper way of analysing qualitative data is by creating categories (using certain specific words that can label the “situations” or “issues” encountered through the AR process, with these instruments) known as Thematic Coding method. Factual Journal In this section, several passages of the Factual Journal will be categorized, as samples of the most repeated expressions during the researching term. Date. Quote from Factual Journal. Categorization of the issue. May 5th. “Teacher: Miss Fernanda, could you. Self-confidence. continue with the next sentence, please? Fernanda: ¡No profe! Porfa… yo no sé leer en inglés. Soy súper mala en esto.” June 20th. “After they were all sat, the teacher. Self-confidence. explains today´s activity: “You will have. Willingness to communicate. to ask your friends about their daily. using the language. routines. Then, she/he asks you.” A student raises his hand and says: “Profe, ¿y hay que hacerlo en inglés? The teacher replies: Yes, of course.” June 30th. “The task for today’s lesson was to. Willingness to face an. perform a dialogue based on a given. audience. rubric. […] When the teacher asked for. Self-confidence. volunteers to present, only two people.

(30) 29. wanted. The rest, waited to be called […]”. Reflective Journal As well as the factual journal, the Reflective journal also needed from categorizing the reflections written by the researcher. In this case, the categorization is focused on feelings that the researcher got from students from the situations described. Several passages were chosen as samples in order to fulfill the analysis. Date. Quote from the Reflective Journal. Categorization of feelings. May 2nd. “In the school I am working on (because it Fear of speaking is a general issue) students are afraid of speaking during the activities (in English).”. May 9th. “[the host teacher] told me that the. School expectations towards. administration of the school expected the. students. [external. students to be able to use the language in a expectations] “real” setting, communicate and understand what other people say. Also, to get good marks in standardized tests.” Sept. 29th. “[Based on a ppt. created by the teacher. Happiness for knowing the. trainee] I asked them to describe famous. vocabulary. people’s dressing style. The students were all really willing to participate, thus they told me they knew those people[…] At the.

(31) 30. very beginning we wrote vocabulary of fashion as a brainstorming, so at the end they could use those same words for the activity. I felt so happy because it worked!”. Survey to Students In the subsequent section, the results of the questions from the survey will be presented, aiming at clarifying the findings to the reader.. Survey- Question 1 Uncomfortable . 2,5 . So so . 17,5 % students . Good Enough . 47,5 . 32,5 . Excellent 0 . 10 . 20 . 30 . 40 . 50 . Figure1. Survey to students, Question 1: How do you feel within the English class? Figure 1 shows the answers to the question “How do you feel within the English class?” The results indicate that 32.5 % of students felt Excellent in the English class (13 students); 47% of the class felt Good enough in it (19 students); 17.5% of the learners felt.

(32) 31. So so (meaning 7 students); and finally, only 2.5% of them felt Uncomfortable within the English class (1 student).. Survey- Question 2 Uncomfortable . 0 . So so . 30 % students . Good enough . 45 . 25 . Excellent . 0 . 10 . 20 . 30 . 40 . 50 . Figure 2. Survey to students, Question 2: How do you feel about "English" - the language- itself?. In Figure 2, which corresponds to the question “How do you feel about “English” – the language” itself? Students answered that 25% of them felt Excellent (10 students); 45% of them felt Good enough with the language (18 students); and 30% learners felt So so regarding the language. None of them (0%) felt Uncomfortable with the language, according to their answers..

(33) 32. Survey- Question 3 4th place . 37,5 . 3rd place . 20 . 2nd place . 20 . 1st place . % students . 22,5 . 0 . 10 . 20 . 30 . 40 . Figure 3. Survey o students, Question 3: Rank the skills regarding your feelings towards them.. Figure 3, aims at showing the answers of students to the statement: “Rank the skills regarding your feelings towards them. Students were asked to rank the four skills (Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing), in which the first place was the one they felt most comfortable, and the fourth place the least comfortable. Therefore, Figure 3 shows only in which place “Speaking” was put by the students. Only 22.5% of students put Speaking in 1st place (9 students); 20% put the same skill in second and third place (8 students); and most of them, which is 37.5% (15 students) put speaking in fourth place (the least comfortable skill for them)..

(34) 33. Survey- Question 4. 28,5 . Answer 2: methodology/acJviJes . % students Answer 1: Language enthusiasm . 71,4 . 0 . 20 . 40 . 60 . 80 . Figure 4. Survey to students, Question 4: Why do you feel Excellent or Good Enough towards the language?. Figure 4 reveals the results on the question “Why do you feel Excellent or Good enough towards the language?” The requirement for being able to answer this question was to have answered Excellent or Good enough in the second question of the survey (How do you feel towards “English” –the language- itself?). As a consequence, only 28 students could answer this 4th question. Then, the results were counted as if the “100%” of students was 28 students. Thereafter, the results arose that 71.4% of these students (20 people) feel this way towards the language because of the impact the language has on them (taking the classes, the teachers and previous knowledge as background), which was described as Language Enthusiasm. On the other hand, 28.5% of these students feel this way with the language itself because of the methodologies and activities used during the English lessons (8 students)..

(35) 34. Survey- Question 5. % students . 15,4 . Answer 3: Methodology/teacher rejecJon . Answer 2: No vocabulary knowledge . 66,6 . Answer 1: Not liking the language itself . 16,6 . 0 . 20 . 40 . 60 . 80 . Figure 5. Survey to students, Question 5: Why do you feel So so or Uncomfortambe towards the language?. Figure 5 demonstrates the results on the question “Why do you feel So so or Uncomfortable towards the language?” As well as the previous figure, the requirement for being able to answer this question was to have answered So so or Uncomfortable in the second question of the survey (How do you feel towards “English” –the language- itself?). On account of that, only 12 students were able to answer this part of the survey, because they actually achieved the requirement previously described. As a consequence, the “100%” of students for this figure is 12 students. Thus, the results arose that one of the reasons was that 16.6% of the students did not like the language itself (2 students); another 66.6% of these students did not have enough vocabulary (according to their perspective) to use the language (8 students); and the last 16.6% of students felt uncomfortable or so so with the language because they did not like the teacher of English nor the methodologies and activities used by her (2 students)..

(36) 35. Open interviews In this section, both interviews answered by the teachers(See Appendix K) will be categorized, depending on the topic. They will be split into the area and name of the teachers. Both interviews were held in Spanish. Then, they will be kept in that language, but the categories will be written in English. Interview 1: English teacher, Marysol Menares. Statement. Categorization. “[…]¿cuál es el objetivo? El objetivo es que. Fear from students of facing an audience.. tú te expreses en inglés. Claro, ese es el objetivo. Que pierdan el miedo al estar frente al público. Y les costó porque era primera vez que lo hacían.” “Les da temor. Les da temor enfrentarse a. Self-confidence issues. compañeros que se pueden reír de ellos,. Need to be validated by peers. entonces ellos saben que, comúnmente yo les digo a ellos, que todos nos ponemos nerviosos cuando tenemos que enfrentar una situación a la que no estamos acostumbrados.” “[Researcher] Sí, pero usted cree que les daba miedo tan solo porque les daba vergüenza… o sea, ¿por qué les daba vergüenza?. Unknown vocabulary.

(37) 36. [Teacher]Porque ellos sienten que no saben inglés, que no manejan ciertos aspectos gramaticales, que les falta vocabulario, como conversábamos anteriormente…”. From the first interview, four categories emerged: (1) Fear from students of facing an audience; (2) Self-confidence issues; (3) Need to be validated by peers and (4) Unknown vocabulary. Interview 2: Language Teacher, Marcela Calderón Statement. Categorization. “La mayoría de los estudiantes no participa. Willingness to speak during the class. mucho de las clases. Sobre todo en la parte oral. Les cuesta. Tú tienes que llevar o forzar la pregunta a determinado alumno. Pero de forma como “voluntaria” les cuesta muchísimo la participación.” “Sí. Yo creo que también pasa por un tema. Cognitive development of adolescents. de desarrollo, de etapa de ellos… que están como en una edad donde no pescan, se creen grandes, entonces están preocupados absolutamente de otras cosas”.. “Este año yo les hice, por ejemplo, hacer. Fear of facing an audience at the time of.

(38) 37. representación de obras de títeres. Ellos. speaking. hicieron obras de títeres, donde ellos tuvieron que incluso crear el guión dramático, y luego traspasarlo a la representación teatral. […]Pero, sí, se ponen nerviosos. De hecho ellos… muchos interrumpían la representación con risa, porque también lo toman con poca seriedad.” En Lenguaje yo creo que también sucede lo. Vocabulary knowledge. mismo… O sea los chiquillos tienen un vocabulario muy reducido. Entonces, de pronto no saben cómo explicar lo que están diciendo. Se usa mucho el tema de las muletillas, de las repeticiones de conceptos… entonces ellos creen que aprendiendo de memoria, les va a ser más fácil.. From the second interview, four categories emerged, as well: (1) Willingness to speak during the class; (2) Cognitive development of adolescents; (3) Fear of facing an audience at the time of speaking; and (4) Vocabulary knowledge..

(39) 38. Data Interpretation In the following chapter, data will be interpreted, as a way of clarifying the possible reasons behind the results. The situations that were chosen to be analysed in the Factual and Reflective Journals arose that there is an issue regarding students’ willingness to speak English in front of other people (oral presentations), or with other people (interaction among students). One of the factors which could have activated students’ reluctance to speak English during the class is that in this case the school is run under the Chilean reality –external factor. In regards to the background of teaching, in our country English is taught as a Foreign Language, because it is not the primary language in the Chilean context. This means that the purpose of learning English would not be considered a “basic need”. Therefore, it is much more difficult to catch students’ attention because they do not easily realize about the importance of learning the commonly known “Universal Language”. Another one –an external cause- is that there are approximately 45 students per class -and there are two grades per level- which results into students feeling embarrassed – internal effect- when they have to present during the class, because there are 90 eyes “paying” attention to everything that the student might be doing. This fact certainly increases the anxiety level of students involved, and in many cases, it results into negative experiences because according to a study conducted in China, at that age people do not know how to endure those situations still -because of the natural process they are living. (Liu. M, 2006, p. 301-316) The former idea resulted into students not wanting to speak in English in the target language (See appendix: Figures 5 and 6) due to different reasons: because they “do not feel comfortable with the language”- this means it is not their mother tongue-; because.

(40) 39. “they feel embarrassed when talking in front of their classmates”- students fear their classmates make fun of them-; since “they do not know how to pronounce the words properly”- they have not been taught on pronunciation skills/ they just do not know how to pronounce some phonemes because they are different from their mother tongue- or as a consequence of “students not mastering the vocabulary to be used when talking about a specific topic” –teenagers in the 9th grade argue they do not have enough vocabulary to use. The issue on vocabulary knowledge was explained in the interview and resulted from the surveys as well. Students, teachers and authorities in the field as the ones mentioned in the literature review as Renandya and Richards (2002) and Folse (2004) highlight the importance of having a minimum amount of vocabulary knowledge, in order to communicate ideas clearly and be able to use the language accordingly(See appendix, Figure 6). Moreover, it was understood that it is actually a problem which needs to be solved, due to different factors: (1) the importance that the Ministry of Education shows at the moment of presenting one of the purposes of learning English as to be able to produce the language orally, in daily life situations. Then, it is necessary that students produce the language more than they receive it. (2) The need of being able to stand in front of other people and talk. This is actually a skill that relates to every subject at school, and every matter in life; (3) the importance of having students interacting amongst themselves, in order to enhance socio-emotional skills..

(41) 40. Conclusions General Conclusions. •. The class itself for most of the students is comfortable. However, it does not mean that they speak in every “speaking activity” that the teacher leads during the class.. •. Most of the students have a positive feeling towards the Foreign Language.. •. Most of the students from the 9th grade have issues regarding speaking.. •. More than 50% of students have good feelings towards the language itself. Some of them because of the impact the language has on them (Enthusiasm), and others because of the methodologies and activities used in the English class.. •. Most of the students that do not feel comfortable with the language itself, is just because they do not have the necessary vocabulary in order to use the language, in any way.. •. Students feel reluctant to speak in front of the class because of their cognitive developmental stage.. •. Vocabulary is decisive in their willingness to speak English during the class.. Research question’ answer After analysing every single instrument planned to collect data, the interventions and the reactions of students during them; the answer to the AR question: What speaking activities can I implement to encourage students’ willingness to communicate in front of others in the 9th Grade? would be that Vocabulary activities are the most appropriate to.

(42) 41. be held in the 9thGrade class, in order to encourage students to participate orally in front of their classmates and interacting with them. In this way, students may feel comfortable with the language, so they do not feel afraid of using it, thus they would have the necessary tools (input) to do it.. Reflection on the AR process During this period of time I had been researching and analysing issues at school that sometimes would not be thought of by every teacher. I have realized that conducting an AR is not an easy process, because of all the steps it involves. Taking into account the time, the people’s disposition to help you gathering the most reliable and valuable information, among other things; it may seem impossible to finish at times; but at the end, as a researcher (and in this case as an ongoing teacher) you can apprehend the importance of investigating in this field, specifically. Teachers spend many hours a day with children. Sometimes, it is not only the content of your field what you teach, but unconsciously specific things that can lead your students to feel better with themselves (as human beings). Therefore, even though the academic objective of this project was focused on finding the right activities to help students use the langue during the class (for a consequent mastering of the language in real contexts); the hidden target was to increase students’ selfconfidence through speaking activities. In this way, students would be able to handle any spoken situation at any time in life, only by having the thought that they are able to do it. In this case, Vocabulary was the answer for this context. However, it does not mean that this question is THE answer for any similar situations. There are many things to bear in.

(43) 42. mind when applying a certain “strategy” to teach a certain group of students. Since, in my opinion, it is essential to look for what would be the best option for this specific group of learners.. Limitations and Implications At the very beginning of the process, I thought about acknowledging the issue that I found focused on different perspective. I wanted to see how role playing activities helped students in developing self-confidence skills. However, through the observation process, I realized that it could be better to try some activities that could work with that certain group of students. In that way, they could improve their speaking skills in a more suitable way for them. Moreover, even though I planned four interventions to be applied, I could only do three of them (1. 2 and 3) because of different activities and focuses that the school administrators had planned (such as test, “actos cívicos”, sport activities, “alianzas”, among others= and the host teacher’s plans (studying for the tests and working with the workbook). And also, because of holidays (taking into account that the classes with the 9th grade were on Mondays and Thursdays) Therefore, it was very difficult to manage time. And also, that we did not have plenty of time to conduct the action research because teachers at university were as busy as us. As a consequence, the planning was not wully followed as the planning chart that was shown during the research (Gantt Chart).Despite of this fact, I consider it was not absolutely necessary to have implemented the fourth intervention, because the answer to the research was clear before that..

(44) 43. Regarding the methodology that was used, I consider that most of them was appropriate. However, in the survey, I should have used as “possible answers” a likert scale, meaning, for instance, to rank the “feelings” into a scale from 1 to 10; giving the students the chance to choose the number, not limiting them in a 100%- 70%- 40%- 10%. Finally, as an unexpected situation at the end of the process, having vocabulary as an answer to the research, was completely amazing. I mean I had not thought about the importance of vocabulary in a class, due to the background we have as former school’ students reminds us that “grammar” is the focus. Hence, from now on I will consider Vocabulary as a central part of my teaching; since I believe that it could be helpful for any kind of class.. Future questions With this project, I expect to keep conducting research in this field, and now looking for the real impact of a vocabulary in the classroom. Therefore, possible questions to delve into would be: -. How do vocabulary activities impact on students’ speaking skills?. -. What vocabulary activities can I implement to encourage students speaking English during the English class?. -. How does self-confidence affect student speaking skills in the English class?.

(45) 44. References ADN Radio, (2015) 'En el 99% de los colegios se enseña inglés en castellano. No sirve para nada'. [Online] Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://www.adnradio.cl/noticias/nacional/en-el-99-de-los-colegios-se-ensena-ingles-encastellano-no-sirve-para-nada/20151011/nota/2965967.aspx Ashforth B. E., (1995) Emotion in the workplace: a reappraisal. Human relations 48. Brinton, D. M., & Celce-Murcia, M. (2014). Teaching English as a second or foreign language. Heinle and Heinle. (p. 8-106) Broughton, G., Brumfit, C., Pincas, A., & Wilde, R. D. (2002). Teaching English as a foreign language. Routledge. Brown D. (2007). Principles of language learning and teaching (Fifth ed.). New York, USA:Pearson Longman. (p. 43) Burns, A. and Joyce, H. (1997) Focus on Speaking. Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research. Burns, A. (2009). Doing action research in English language teaching: A guide for practitioners. New York: Routledge. (p. 2) Chile, M. (2016). MIME - Ministerio de Educación de Chile. [online] Mime.mineduc.cl. Available at: http://www.mime.mineduc.cl/mime-web/mvc/mime/ ficha [Accessed 4 Nov. 2016]. Cornwell, S. (1999) Interview with Anne Burns and Graham Crookes. The Language teacher 23 (12), 5-10..

(46) 45. Cpsm.cl. (2016). Colegio Parroquial San Miguel. [online] Available at: http://www.cp sm.cl/ [Accessed 6 Nov. 2016]. Elliot, J. (1991). Action research for educational change. McGraw-Hill Education: UK. (p. 69) Folse, K. S. (2004). Vocabulary myths: Applying second language research to classroom teaching. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. (p. 19-30) Graham, S. (2006). Developing speaking skills. A Practical Guide to Teaching Modern Foreign Languages in the Secondary School. (p. 68) Griffin, E. (2006). Communication: A first look at communication theory. Boston: McGrew-Hill Inc.( p. 129) Liu, M. (2006). Anxiety in Chinese EFL students at different proficiency levels. System, 34(3), (p. 301-316) Maddock, R. C., & Fulton, R. L. (1998). Motivation, emotions, and leadership: The silent side of management. Greenwood Publishing Group. McCroskey, J. C., & Baer, J. E. (1985). Willingness to communicate: The construct and its measurement. (p. 95-127) Moshman, D. (2005). Adolescent psychological development: Rationality, morality, and identity. Psychology Press. Neuman, S. B., & Dwyer, J. (2009). Missing in action: Vocabulary instruction in pre-‐ K. The Reading Teache. (p. 384-392) Renandya W. and Richards J. (2002). Methodology in language teaching. New York, Cambridge University Press. (p. 255).

(47) 46. Richards, J. C. (2002). Accuracy and fluency revisited. New perspectives on grammar teaching in second language classrooms. (p. 35-50), Richards, J. (2006) Communicative Language teaching today.United States: Cambridge University Press. (p.2-3). Young-Davy, B. (2014). Explicit Vocabulary Instruction. Teaching Notes, 31, 26. (p.3). Appendices.

(48) 47. Appendix A.

(49) 48. Appendix B. Appendix C.

(50) 49. Appendix D.

(51) 50. Appendix E.

(52) 51. Appendix F. Appendix G.

(53) 52. Appendix H: Survey to students 1) Instruction: Answer the following questions. Match the option that better represents your situation. a) How do you feel within the English class? Excellent (100%) Good enough (70%) So so (40%) Uncomfortable (10%) b) How do you feel about English? (Language itself) Excellent (100%) Good enough (70%) So so (40%).

(54) 53. Uncomfortable (10%) c) Rank the skills about your confidence in each: Speaking, Reading, Listening, Writing. Most confident :D 1°__________________ (100%) 2°__________________ (70%) 3°__________________ (40%) 4°__________________ (10%) Least confident. :(. 2) Optional questions: Answer ONE of the following question, depending on the requirement. Choose only one alternative. d) If in letter B you chose “Excellent” or Good enough”, Why do you think so? 1. Because I like the language. 2. Because I like the teacher. 3. Because I like the methodology/activities. 4. Because I know a lot of vocabulary words in English. 5. Because I am not afraid of talking in front of the class. 6. Because I am not ashamed of making mistakes in front of the class. We are human beings. 7. Because I feel comfortable participating when there are people looking at me. 8. Because I like learning new things. I like challenges..

(55) 54. 9. Another one: ___________________________________________________________. e) If in letter B you chose “So so” or “Uncomfortable”, why do you think so? 10. Because I don’t like the language. 11. Because I don’t like the teacher. 12. Because I don’t like the methodology/activities. 13. Because I don’t know so much vocabulary in English. 14. Because I am afraid of speaking in front of the class. 15. Because I don’t want to feel embarrassed in front of the class. 16. Because I don’t feel comfortable participating when there are people looking at me. 17. Because I don’t like learning new things. I don’t like to be challenged. 18. Another one: ________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------. Appendix I: Open interview to teachers The open interview will not be stated here with specific questions, otherwise it will not be open. Instead, the topics that will be approached will be the following: This topic will determine if the teacher/subject matches the issue concerned by this research. 1. “If students do participate when there is a need of doing it” and “The relationship between the students and their willingness to participate” The.

(56) 55. former ideas are to show and comprehend the context and dynamics of the same class in different subjects, so the results are reliable because the context is similar. 2. “How students feel in the corresponding subject. Students attitudes towards learning content, etc. -depending on the interviewed teacher” The objective of talking about the topics previously mentioned is to clarify students’ behavior in subjects that are different from English, so there is evidence on the nature of the problem identified by this research. That is to say, if students do not have any issue in the other subjects when learning or behaving, as the lack of confidence that they show in the English class, it means that English is the issue. On the contrary, if there are issues in the other teachers’ classes, it means that the issue is behavior, not English itself. 3. “How students do react to speaking in front of the class” and “if they enjoy speaking or presenting in front of others”. The preceding fields of inquiry approach the skill in which this action research proposal has its focus. From this, it will probably be found the perspective teachers have from their students in the field it has been researched. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Appedix J: Action plans Intervention 1 Objective: Students will be able to share their pets’ caring features. Pre: Sharing pets Vocabulary While: Describing animals and their features. Post: What should I do to take care of my pet? Sharing with the class..

(57) 56. Intervention 2 Objective: students will create an ONG about animals. Pre: Brainstorming about animal issues/needs While: Explanation of what an ONG is. Connecting animal issues to possible solutions. Post: Creating an ONG by filling a chart with: Issue, animal focus, solution, time, money. Making a poster to advertise the ONG’s purpose. Sharing the poster with the class. Intervention 3 Objective : Students will be able to introduce a classmate. Pre: Brainstorming vocabulary about myself (Grammar structures such as I have, I am, etc.) While: Introducing new vocabulary to describe things I like, enjoy, do not like, etc. Post: Writing a paragraph: “7 things about me”. Taking it to a classmate, and presenting in front of the class about that person. Intervention 4 Objective: Students will be able to share how this year went for them. (expectations’ fulfilment) Pre: Sharing expectations they had for 2016 While: Introducing vocabulary about general activities in students’ lifes. Answering questions: What went right? What went wrong? Why? Post: Talking to a partner about their expectations, and decide on new ones for next year. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Appendix K: Interviews transcripts.

(58) 57. English teacher: Marysol Menares [Contexto: querer saber cómo los alumnos reaccionan a la clase de inglés.] El aprendizaje del inglés requiere de las 4 habilidades, ¿cierto? Tenemos comprensión lectora, comprensión auditiva, y las dos que son de producción. Una de producción escrita, y la más importante, que justamente es porque así es el idioma, es producción oral. Es decir que el niño, adolescente, sea capaz de expresarse en la lengua que está aprendiendo. Bueno, pero lo que yo le decía era, usted, a principio de año como le tocó trabajar con el 1MA, no sé si el año pasado también tuvo a ese curso. Yo no, es primer año que estoy con este curso. Y partí justamente con eso: que ellos trataran de perder ese temor al ridículo o a enfrentar a sus compañeros, y que hicieran una presentación en Inglés. Y si ellos querían, lo hacían una presentación personal sobre ellos mismos, diciendo dónde vivían, si vivían con los papás, con los hermanos, cuáles eran sus gustos, qué cosas les agradaban y qué no les agradaba. Pero en todo caso, si a ellos les daba plancha hablar de sí mismos, podían hacerlo de un personaje. El que ellos más admiraran. Y casi siempre lo hacen algunos compañeros. ¿Y lo hicieron de acuerdo a otra persona? Sí, ya. Pero justamente cuando se están viviendo quizás situaciones que no quieren enfrentar, como: No, mis papás se separaron, o hablar de otra persona que ellos admiran, futbolistas (muchas veces son futbolistas) o son cantantes… Ningún problema, les dije yo, porque ¿cuál es el objetivo? El objetivo es que tú te expreses en inglés. Claro, ese es el objetivo. Que pierdan el miedo al estar frente al público. Y les costó porque era primera vez que lo hacían..