Building rapport and cooperative learning: Eliciting participation in the Chilean EFL Classroom

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(1)Gajardo 1. Building Rapport and Cooperative Learning: Eliciting Participation in the Chilean EFL Classroom. Víctor Gajardo Aburto Universidad Alberto Hurtado Pedagogía para Profesionales Santiago, Chile December, 2014. ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to prove whether the methodology of Cooperative Learning and the use of some classroom management techniques proposed by Epperson (2012) fulfill the goal of promoting students’ participation in the English class in a specific context. This research is a descriptive and qualitative analysis of a pedagogical intervention made in a Chilean classroom in Maipú, in an eighth grade of elementary school. This grade was chosen for being, according to some of their teachers and also the students themselves, one of the eighth grades of the school that participate the least in class. The intervention is based on the students’ preferences applied to one pedagogical unit, as stated in the Study Programs by the Minister of Education. Key words: participation, Cooperative Learning, classroom management, Chilean classroom..

(2) Gajardo 2. INTRODUCTION There are some aspects inside the classroom that a teacher cannot manage. For example, the number of students in a class or the English Language proficiency they bring from previous years. However, a teacher has to be able to find strategies to handle these difficulties and provide students significant learning. In the school where the didactic proposal took place it is common to find teenagers with a very poor level of English, whose proficiency is lower than the required by the Minister of Education. As the school demands the use of the didactic resources provided by the Ministry of Education, there are few possibilities to level the students’ English proficiency; it is necessary to fill the gap they bring from previous years before continuing with new contents. As students are aware of this issue, there exists a lack of high expectations towards the English class. They feel they study English only to pass the course instead of learning the language as a tool of communication. As a product, their motivation is very low. Considering this, one of the most important problems that affect teen students is the poor participation in class. They do not dare to participate unless they are asked to do so. They feel comfortable being passive agents in their process of learning. In the first place, to teach English it is needed to provide opportunities to practice the language. To participate, students need to feel safe. Nevertheless, self-confidence is an issue among teenagers. That is the reason why before asking for expertise in the language, it is necessary to encourage them to participate in class, to teach them that making mistakes is correct and needed to evaluate their process of learning. Besides, as English is a communicative tool, they have to learn to work with their peers, because in team work they have more opportunities to practice the language and develop social skills (Ministerio de Educación, 2011, p. 30). The main focus of this research is to prove whether the use of cooperative learning, strategies for motivating students, and the consideration of the Key Areas of Adolescent Development (Muray and Christinson, 2001) build rapport to promote the participation in the English class. The didactic proposal will be applied on an eighth grade of elementary school in a Catholic school in Maipú. This paper is complemented by some Eppersons’ (2012) theory from Strategies for Motivating and Managing the Chilean Classroom. Her publication offers practical examples of classroom management from a research made in Chilean classrooms. Also, this paper incorporates What English Language Teachers Need to Know, volumes I and II, by Murray and Christinson (2011). The two volumes are dedicated to understand and facilitate the process of learning, respectively. They state the need for teachers to consider the Key Areas of Adolescent Development in planning and teaching lessons, and the benefits to comprehend the diversity in teenagers, as well as a brief and direct explanation of the concept of Cooperative Learning. Another relevant reference is Effective Classroom Management. It is a recent publication by Mills (2014). In this e-book the author explains concepts such as the importance of making mistakes, the relationship between students and their peers and teacher’s proximity. After the school and class’ diagnosis, this project includes the description of the didactic proposal: the decisions made, the plans and didactic material used, as well as the description of the.

(3) Gajardo 3. evaluation considered to qualitatively register students’ progress. Finally, the description of the learning outcomes achieved by students, an analysis of the intervention made and the conclusions and projections are presented.. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK It is not easy for a teacher to manage a class with numerous students inside a classroom. There is nothing a teacher can do to reduce the number of students since it is dictated by the school in which the professional develops their functions. However, what a teacher can do is to find strategies to deal with forty students and make them all participate and, therefore, learn English. When dealing with adolescent learners, a teacher must consider a number of factors before even planning a lesson. Murray and Christison (2011) believe that teachers who work with this type of students can benefit more from understanding the diversity present in them. This diversity corresponds to areas such as their intellectual, physical, social, emotional, psychological and moral development – called ‘Key areas of adolescent development’–, as well as their varied level of English –even though the students in a class have been together for more than three years, have had the same teachers and have shared similar experiences (p. 91). Adolescents are in one of the most curious ages in their lives. They are very interested in the world around them and engage very easily in numerous intellectual pursuits. Nevertheless, this age is also characterized for being one in which this engagement is not sustained for a long period of time. Because of the development in their brains and bodies, they are more aware of their physical changes. Also, they think about themselves and their relation with their potential interests in how they will benefit their lives, and what others think about them (Murray and Christinson, 2011, p. 91). They tend to engage intellectually with their interests considering questions such as ‘why does this matter to me? What can I do to change this situation? What are others thinking? If I do this, what will they think of me?’ They believe that everyone is looking at them, especially when standing in front of the class; they also feel that they are different from everyone else and, at the same time, have a great need to be part of a group. As these changes are challenging for adolescents, teachers should support the progress of their students’ Key Areas of Adolescent Development in the following ways (Murray & Christinson, 2011, p. 92-96): • Provide opportunities for students to work together collaboratively. Adolescents have an interest in working with their peers, so group work for adolescents is important for intellectual development. • Give learners opportunities to make choices in their learning and to pursue tasks that are interesting to them. • Teachers can serve as powerful role models by modeling academic tasks that will be useful tools for them outside of the classroom, such as reading critically, reading for pleasure, writing, and self-questioning..

(4) Gajardo 4. • • • • • •. Teachers must understand the physical changes that adolescents are experiencing and then respect these changes. Instructional methods that give students opportunities to work together and to move around work best with adolescent learners. Serve as powerful role models by modeling acceptance of others, working collaboratively with others, and talking through difficult problems to reach a solution. Establish clear expectations for social interaction in the classroom (e.g., use soft voices, stay with your group, use respectful behavior). Create opportunities for small group discussions so that students can share their ideas and beliefs with each other. They may find out that they feel exactly the same as their peers. Create learning experiences for students that are complex and involve problems that they might encounter in real life.. In order to encourage students to participate, it is needed to pay attention to elements such as building rapport and classroom management. In the first place, building rapport seeks to inspire students to actively participate in the class through the creation of a sense of self-confidence. Different factors as cooperative learning, avoiding fear to make mistakes, and student-peer relationship are of vital importance. In the second place, classroom management gives teachers tools to create a sense of safety, since adolescents are very sensitive to others’ opinions. These techniques are teacher’s proximity, giving correct feedback, connecting students’ interests to the classroom, provide opportunities for student participation, establishing successful systems in the classroom and creating assessments that motivate.. Cooperative Learning On one hand, of the most common types of classroom is the competitive one, in which students compete for rewards, such as teacher’s attention, grades or even feeling others’ admiration. On the other hand, learners in a cooperative classroom “are committed to helping each other (positive interdependence) while at the same time being accountable for their own learning (positive accountability) (Murray & Christinson, 2011, p. 190). Emmer and Gerwels (2002) define cooperative learning as “the instructional model of students interacting together in small cooperative groups to achieve a common learning goal” (as cited in Nguyen, 2010, p. 4). Its goal is to complete a project with the help of the same group of peers. It has proved to have positive outcomes for learners in comparison with individual student tasks, individual competition or intergroup competition. Cooperative learning also benefits the development of language since students expect to get more language input and thus more opportunities to practice language skills through the participation in cooperative learning activities. Also, it helps to develop academic and content area skills. In fact, Nguyen (2010) states cooperative learning “is essential to develop the language of EFL students” (p. 4). In addition to this, Murray & Christinson (2011) affirm students’ opportunities for practicing language increase enormously, since there will always be another student in.

(5) Gajardo 5. front to practice with, especially conversations. These types of activities can determine how successful students have been in achieving the goals of the class (p. 190). In cooperative learning, students work in groups. Interaction is the key feature that sets cooperative learning apart from other types of learning. In other instances of learning, students receive a lesson as a whole group coming primarily from teachers. This type of instruction is referred to as teacher-centered instruction (Nguyen, 2010, p. 10.). Johnson and Johnson (1999) make the distinction between formal and informal cooperative learning. On one hand, in formal cooperative learning, groups can last for an entire class or even for weeks. The goal of formal cooperative learning is more often to complete an assignment such as an experiment, learn new vocabulary, or to complete an entire unit of study. On the other hand, in informal cooperative groups, students work on a short-term goal. These temporary groups can last anywhere from one minute to an entire class period. Moreover, informal groups can be used to focus students’ attention on a specific point, to check for understanding, or to summarize and close a lesson. According to Kagan (1994), in formal cooperative learning, clear classroom behavior need to be explained to students before engaging in activities. Some of these expectations include equal participation, appropriate noise level and the willingness to assist group members in learning (as cited in Nguyen, 2010, p.11). Another essential part of formal cooperative learning is to assign students roles within the group. These roles have to change to ensure every student had the opportunity to practice each function. Some roles suggested by Kagan (1994) are encourager, reporter, task-master and recorder (as cited in Nguyen, 2010, p. 11). Epperson (2012) also suggest assigning roles. In comparison to Kagan (1994), Epperson (2012) refers to the roles of captain and vice-captain. These two are in charge of fulfilling the four roles proposed by Kagan (1994). According to Epperson (2012), the captain and vice-captain are “especially helpful when teaching large classes” (p. 55). Their functions are to “take attendance in their teams, distribute and return material and handouts, keep the team focused, serve as the liaison between the teacher and the students, make sure their teammates are following the rules, make sure their teams area is clean, and make sure their team is arranged correctly, prepared, and ready to begin” (p. 55). The difference between Kagan’s (1994) and Epperson’s (2012) theory lies on the fact that Epperson’s (2012) research took place in Chile and applies to the Chilean context: few hours of English lessons per week –a minimum of three– and large classrooms in public and subsidized schools –more than forty students–, which is very difficult for one teacher to manage. Besides, Epperson (2012) points out every student has to fulfill these roles at least once a year, what emphasizes the process of learning is a long-term project, formal cooperative learning can be applied in more than one single unit –as proposed by Johnson and Johnson (1999) – and “allows all students the opportunity to assume and share these responsibilities” (p. 55). Kagan (1994) says the ideal number of members in a group: four students. The author affirms that teams larger than four become difficult to monitor and reduce the number of interaction among members (as cited in Nguyen, 2010, p. 11). However, Mills (2014) points out that the maximum number of students can be six. It all depends on factors such as the activity to assess (conversation, preparing a.

(6) Gajardo 6. presentation, jigsaw activity inside a group, etc.), the number of students in the classrooms and teacher’s individual method. According to Johnson and Johnson (1999), the benefits of cooperative learning include students exerting more academic effort, increased use of higher order thinking skills, greater retention of information, and the development of more positive relationships with peers. In addition to this, Murray and Christinson (2011) state there is a social benefit in cooperative learning as well. Most modern societies’ success is based on the individual ability to get along with others. Since humans are not born knowing how to work in group or cooperate with others, cooperative skills must be taught, and the classroom gives unique opportunities to create an optimal environment of cooperation to acquire these social skills (p. 191). Johnson and Johnson (1999) identified five factors that impact the success of cooperative learning: first, positive group interdependence as the perceived connection to others in a way that we cannot succeed unless they do. Second, individual accountability. This means that every individual plays a part in the success or failure of the overall group. Third, face-to-face promotive interaction occurs when individuals foster the success of others by helping, supporting and encouraging them. Fourth, interpersonal social skills of students contribute to a successful cooperative experience. Finally, group processing as the verbal interactions of individuals and the effect they have on achieving group goals. Kagan (1994), on the other hand, points out four key elements in cooperative learning. They are positive interdependence of individual students and groups, individual accountability, equal participation and simultaneous interaction (as cited in Nguyen, 2010, p. 12). All two studies share commonalities in what they consider is important in cooperative learning (Johnson & Johnson, 1999; Kagan, 1994). The major factors identified are simultaneous group interaction, equal participation, individual accountability and positive group interdependence.. Avoiding Fear of Making Mistakes Mills (2014) states that one of the factors that undermine a student’s self-confidence, especially on adolescents, is fear of making mistakes. Students feel forced to depend on others to pass the course of English at school, which affects negatively in their perception of the subject: they lose sense of accomplishment, becoming passive student in the future. The tendency to be a passive learner, who depends on others for task completion and guidance, is called “learned helpnessness” (Mills, 2014, p. 497). It is the teacher’s challenge to help student gain the confidence required to attempt tasks, even when there is a chance for failure. When making mistakes, students believe they do not possess skills or are incapable of achieving success. As a result, they convince themselves that others are more capable and smarter than they are. The teacher must make clear that everyone makes mistakes, and also can provide with their own language learning experience. This makes students feel identified with their teacher, and if the teacher encourages other students to share experiences with the class, the students’ sense of confidence and belonging increases. According to Mills (2014), talking about mistakes is one of the tools teacher can.

(7) Gajardo 7. apply in the classroom to build students’ confidence; other are focus on improvement –“cheerlead small success and encourage students make steps forward” (p. 529) –, build on strengths –identify skills and work on their improvement–, encourage through high expectations –high expectations indicates more confidence in the learner–, focus on past success, and make learning process tangible –“focus on the task process of learning or accomplish a task rather than always focusing on the finished product” (p. 559).. Student-Peer Relationship Mills (2014) points out that peer to peer interaction is a critical aspect of student success in a cohesive classroom community (p. 843). Research has shown that students behave more responsibly in the classroom setting if they feel safe and, most of all, valued (p. 844). Besides, positive peer relationships form a foundation for the development of lifelong social skills, positive self-esteem and enhance the students’ school experiences (p. 845).. Teacher’s proximity Epperson (2012) states that “when large classrooms are broken down into groups, the opportunity for effective classroom management increases dramatically” (p. 33). Variation in classroom arrangement depends on level taught, teacher’s commodity, the furniture available and the size of the room. Independently of the arrangement chosen, it should keep students focus on the learning tasks and minimize any chances of distractions. Therefore, the teacher’s priority is to set up the physical classroom arrangement so that it facilitates classroom routines and procedures while ensuring safety and interaction (Mills, 2014, p. 1027). Among the rewards of maintaining proximity, Mills (2014) establishes that the most effective teachers are not those who sit behind their desks as students are engaged in instructional activities, but those who constantly move about. “Not only does this minimize disruptions because of increased teacher presence, but also students feel more open to ask for assistance and gain and increased sense of rapport with the teacher” (p. 1154). In terms of classroom management, classroom space must provide six fundamental elements to students to promote participation: shelter and security, social contact, symbolic identification – placement of furniture and decorations for a sense of community and identification–, task on instrumentality –efficient flow of instructional tasks–, pleasure –an enjoyable space in which to learn and work–, and growth –an area where students can extend their learning (Mills, 2014, p. 1084-1105). To connect students’ interests to the classroom and promote participation, Epperson (2012) recommends a number of activities: identifying students’ interests, connecting students’ interests to VAK –acronym for visual, auditory and kinesthetic; it addresses to both motivation and the most common learning styles–, and identifying motivating activities (p. 83-85). To do this, Epperson (2012) techniques will be applied. Considering the number of students in the classroom of the 8th grade (forty students), to.

(8) Gajardo 8. assure the participation of all the students the activities should be focused on topics likely to catch their interest–mainly music–, and the methodology to be used to work in small groups (or teams) –ten groups of four students–, to promote interaction. In addition to this, each group will have a captain and a vicecaptain. Each team will have a name, selected by all the students of each group through a democratic decision, which promotes a sense of belonging and commitment with their peers. Besides, and complementing techniques suggested by Epperson (2012), to prevent possible management problem, lessons must be paced and structured. Mills (2014) affirm the success of this goal depend on three major strategies (p. 889): • Selecting tasks or activities at an appropriate level of difficulty for students • Providing a moderate level of structure or clarity to students about what they are supposed to do, especially during transition between activities • Keeping alert to the flow and interplay of behaviors for the class as a whole and for individuals within it.. DIAGNOSIS The School The subsidized school where the intervention took place is known in Maipú and Chile for being one of the biggest schools of the country. Nowadays it has around 3,000 students, although it had 6,000 students ten years ago. The school has all levels of teaching: from Pre-Kinder to fourth grade; the average number of students per grade is forty four, being high school the one with more grades per level (from first grade A to first grade J, for example). It is a catholic school, founded in 1953. The founder left in his will a sum of money to build a catholic men’s school. Despite its original structure changed, as the admittance of women to study in the school or transferring the administration’s school to a catholic congregation in 1984, this institution keeps its teaching tradition. However, as its Educational Project states, it constantly seeks for answering the different educational needs that society demands. From the 4th to the 8th grades, there are around fifty teachers. Half of them have been working, in average, fifteen years. In fact, some of them have been teaching for more than twenty years. A quarter of them have been teaching for five or ten years, and the rest are teachers that do not stay teaching at this school for more than two or three years. The last are mainly young teachers; they are fired or leave the school: they do not like the lack of authority from the general inspectors, the director and the priests to the students. Most teachers complain about the sense of impunity –as teachers themselves say– that reigns among students’ acts. When they commit a fault stated in the RICE (Reglamento Interno de Convivencia Escolar), students do not receive any kind of punishment in most of the cases, apart from a written warning in the class book. When their faults are more serious, the inspectors call their parents, who rarely attend the appointments. As a manner of example, last semester there was a student in sixth grade who used to brake the norms: apart from bullying his classmates and.

(9) Gajardo 9. writing swears on walls and furniture, and he almost hit two teachers –one of them resulting with a wrist sprain and a medical license of one week. The only penalty he received was being changed from 6th grade F to 6th grade E, then D and finally C. He was expulsed from the school in July, but he started his bad behavior in March and did harm to these teachers in April and May.. 8th grade In the grade on which this didactic unit is based there are forty students; five of them are exempted from the English Class, according to a medical diagnosis given by a neurologist –most of them for attention deficit disorder–, which means they cannot be evaluated but have to be in class. Therefore, the marks they obtain in the evaluations are not considered in the final average to be promoted to the next grade. This 8th grade is considered to be one of the 8th grades with most problems of discipline by many of their teachers. Moreover, and according to the teachers, they show a notorious lack of commitment with most of the subjects taught at school. Their grades are not good, as observed in the classbook, and many students have said that they are concerned only about passing tests. However, the anonymous surveys they answered showed a great appreciation for the subject of English, either for the use they see in the subject to understand the music or games they like, for a future professional benefit, or the comfort or sympathy they feel with their English class or their English teacher. Even though they showed commitment with the English class, there is one factor that is repeated in all the subjects: lack of participation. Additionally, the Ministry of Education points the subject of English as a tool for communicative purposes, so participation and interaction is of vital importance. The English Class The level of English of the students is very low, maybe lower than A1, according to the CEFR. Most of them have serious difficulties when understanding the recordings listened in class, which are provided by the Ministry of Education –book Travellers 8. In the case of the readings, it is easier in comparison with the recordings, but still hard; they have to read many times to understand, and sometimes they are forced to translate. They do not speak in English in class and have errors of spelling when writing, even when they copy from the whiteboard. Besides, they only have three hours of English per week. However, thanks to cognates and practice, now they can understand simple instructions in English, such as greetings and simple class instructions: “stand up”, “sit down”, “come forward”, “close the door”, etc. These are very simple instructions for eighth grade and should be known, according to the MINEDUC in fifth grade, but it may have difficult for them because their last years’ English Classes where completely in Spanish and based on a traditional lecture, limited to copying from the whiteboard and translating sentences from English to Spanish. Besides, their tests are mainly multiple selection type, where they have to choose an alternative (a, b, c, d) and black a circle in an answer sheet..

(10) Gajardo 10. DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIT Didactic decisions Because of the lack of participation and the very low level of English of the students, it was concluded that the most important issue to solve in short term was encouraging participation and promoting self-confidence. It was not possible to ask them to speak or write in English, or even to understand a text or a recording if they were not eager to participate in class. Surveys showed that the subject of English was important for them and saw that it would help them to communicate in another Language, or simply understand the songs and games they like. Thus, there were elements that encouraged them to learn English. The task now was to use those elements as a tool to make English something closer and more achievable than they thought. To do this, it was needed to consider some steps to begin with the intervention: in the first place, to select topics from the unit that were similar to their interests; and in the second place, to use tools and methodologies based on the theory of cooperative learning to create a safe environment. As mentioned before, to start with the didactic proposal a survey was made to know the interests and opinions of the students regarding the English class. The survey contained questions related to the exposition of English outside the classroom, how much they felt they comprehended of spoken and written English, what they liked most and least about the class and differences with classes from previous years (see appendix). Since the results showed they face the English culture, specific the American one, in the music the listen to, the TV shows and movies they watch, they preferred the topic of music, which is coincidently the most important topic in unit number four. After knowing the topic, it was needed to apply strategies of classroom management and cooperative learning. Based on Eppersons’ (2012) suggestions, the students’ marks in English and their relationships –those who they got along–, the learners were seated in groups of four students. Then, to give them opportunities to make their own choices in their process of learning (Murray and Christison, 2011), they had to choose a name for their groups and two students to represent them: the captain and the vice-captain. Their labor was to keep constant contact with the teacher about their partners’ behavior and participation, having a register of it. Also, participation was rewarded with a stamp (seal). These stamps worth cero point five marks; so if the lowest grade is a one, it were needed twelve stamps to get a seven. To support the students’ learning considering the Key Areas of Adolescent Development, as proposed by Murray and Christison (2011), it is of vital importance to provide students opportunities to work together, collaboratively. That is the reason why stamps were given to groups, not individually; however, as they had a written register of participation, the contribution to the group must be equal for every member of the group. After two weeks the register was requested by the teacher; if their participation was not the same, one stamp would be erased. On the contrary, if every member had participated at least once a week, they would be rewarded with one stamp each. To gain a stamp they have to, first, participate in class: either saying an answer out loud in their seats, participating in a dialogue or writing answers on the whiteboard. But before participating they had.

(11) Gajardo 11. to consider which member of their group had participated previously, so they always told they had ten seconds to decide who is going to participate (to give the correct answer) in each activity. The purpose is to create opportunities to discuss and share their ideas and discover the progress of their mates and themselves throughout dialogue (Murray and Christison (2011). The idea is to encourage participation rather than being exact in their work, to teach them that errors are an important part of their learning and do not have to be afraid of making them. Besides, through errors both teacher and students are aware of the students’ progress, and through correction learning is easier to achieve.. Plans and didactic material used The plans were based on the topic of music, as it was the result of the survey and perfectly matched with the main topic of the unit four: “Tradiciones, música popular y literatura en otros países”. As the unit not only covers music but also literature and traditions, it was decided to use music, their interests, and link it with elements from the English culture students would not know. Also, the contents of the unit are related to mention and recognize both grammatical and semantic elements about past: mainly past tense. For example, the four learning objectives seek the learners to show comprehension of explicit information and topics in short and simple texts, which imply the communicative function of referring about events in the past. This also includes to recognize vocabulary related to the topic and to identify structures of events that commonly occur in past tense. It was made a selection of pop and rock music that represented five decades: from the sixties to the decade of two thousand; one or two songs of pop and rock each decade. The repertoire would include songs by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Cyndi Lauper, Nirvana and Coldplay, among others. Although most of the songs are simple, having a repetitive chorus and short lyrics, the difficulty of the songs varies in some of them, considering the advantaged learners. For instance, in Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ the listening comprehension of the song is more difficult since the singer tends to mispronounce certain sounds and the lyrics have many metaphorical interpretations. This song is meant to be the song for an advantaged group. Although there were lessons dedicated to work some specific skills, it is impossible to cover only one of the four skills. For example, if a lesson’s main skill is to train reading comprehension, the students need to listen to the teacher’s instructions to work; after reading they have to answer question about the reading either writing or speaking. The didactic intervention lasted twelve hours, three hours per week –four weeks in total. In one week there were two lessons: one of two hours and the other of one hour. Thus, it was tried to divided time equally into weeks for developing language skills–two lessons each: the first week, listening and reading comprehension; the second and third, writing expression and oral practice; finally, during the fourth week, the final evaluation took place. The first two classes consisted of the creation of the groups, the ‘seating chart’. Based on Epperson’s (2012) methodology, the students were reunited in groups according to their marks and their affinity –groups of four students. Besides, their motivation through the English class was also considered..

(12) Gajardo 12. The shier students were grouped with some of their friends, since participation is the issue to assess. They chose a name for the team, and the captain and vice-captain. Also, some students were asked to create a simple poster with the groups and their names to be placed in a visible part of the classroom, which would also help them to feel identified with the activity. During the same week the songs were presented and the context where those songs took place was explained, since the activity seeks to represent a decade of English culture through a song of pop or rock music.. Figure 1. Seating chart. The sitting arrangement of the groups, their names and location inside the classroom. The main skill to develop was listening comprehension. The students had to listen to the teacher’s explanation and to the songs, covering the learning objective number one: to show comprehension of explicit information and topic in brief and simple texts, related to traditions, music and literature from other countries, which contain the communicative function of referring to events in the past. This objective involves the recognition of vocabulary related to the topic, the identification of grammatical structures of past tense, and the discrimination of the sounds /tʃ/, /dʒ/ and /ʃ/. Here it was necessary to explain the difference of the last sounds, because they are pronounced in Chilean Spanish but the sound /ʃ/ should not be used in Spanish. However, the sound does have to be used in English in words such as ‘she’ and ‘shake’. This emphasis was made because explaining pronunciation is one of the topics that students like the most and we must not forget that eliciting participation is our interest. The next class students were asked to write the lyrics of the songs in their copybook. In this way they are being promoted the writing of English, they avoid excuses about not having the lyrics and therefore they could not study them, and now it is possible to work with the material: to underline verbs in past tense, find regular and irregular verbs, identify vocabulary related to the unit and check pronunciation of new words. Most of the last activities were awarded with stamps after students’ participation, considering the register and method explained above..

(13) Gajardo 13. As part of Cooperative Learning, the activities were previously explained, being modeled both by the teacher first and later by students; they were given time to finish the tasks and thus it was clear for them what was expected to do. Besides, students were constantly monitored by the teacher, who also motivated them by making sure everyone understood the instructions and praising pupils for their progress.. When individual students finished their work, they had to either share their answer with their partner next to them when both were finished or help their partner to complete the task. This not only builds a sense of confidence between students, since they know exactly what to do, but it also improves their social skills and shows to them the need of functioning as a group. Once written the lyrics, during the fourth class, which lasts only forty five minutes, they are asked to divide the lyrics into equal parts, since individual participation is required. They are explained that there are needed some parts in which they sing together and individually. This would encourage them to consider and not forget the value of their individual work as contribution to the group. Week 1. Hours 3. Main Objectives To read, listen and show comprehension of a song in English. To organize groups and distribute tasks among members. To recognize verbs in past tense. To read, listen and show comprehension of a song in English. To reproduce a song to become familiar with the sounds of English.. Activities Forming groups. Choosing captains and vicecaptains. Distribution of songs. Students listen to the songs, read and write the lyrics in their copybooks. 2 3 Forming groups. Students finish writing the lyrics of the songs in their copybooks and identify verbs in past tense, making difference between regular and irregular verbs. Students divide the lyrics in equal parts to practice the final performance. 3 3 To reproduce a song to become Forming groups. Students practice singing familiar with the sounds of English. the song, giving emphasis to the pronunciation of the sounds /t∫/, /∫/ and To practice the sounds /t∫/, /∫/ and /d /. To Identify characteristic /d /. Some groups perform their song as elements of the English culture that formative evaluation in front of the class. are present in its music. The teacher corrects common mistakes of pronunciation. Students comment on elements of the English culture present in its music. 4 3 To evaluate contents and skills Forming groups. Students listen to learned throughout the unit. instructions and perform the songs in front of the class. Self-evaluation and comments on the didactic unit. Table 1. Overview of the total number of classes and their main objectives, along with activities.. The following week they are to work in practicing both the songs and their presentation. To encourage them to participate and to represent the decade of the English culture they were requested, they had to do a brief research, which consists of watching videos of live presentations of their song in.

(14) Gajardo 14. the decade they have to represent (in youtube, for instance), so they can see how the artists moved and how they dressed. In short, they had to identify characteristic elements of certain periods in the English culture. Besides, they were asked to hand in a blank CD, so the teacher would burn the lyrics in word format, the official video of the song and the instrumental song –only music, without lyrics. After they analyzed the lyrics, watched videos and had an idea of the context in which those songs were famous, it only rests to practice. The following weeks were dedicated to practice the songs focused on pronunciation, fluency, and also to control the volume of their voices, since they need to be heard to be evaluated. The rehearsals were, firstly, in front of the class and with their copybooks in their hands; secondly, without their copybooks but the rest of the class could not see them, to assure they lost the fear to speak in English, or rather, to encourage participation in the English class. Thus, an environment of confidence was built. After their rehearsal, students from the audience were asked to give comments about their classmates’ participation.. Evaluations Evaluations were both formative and summative. Formative occurred all the time through correction of their pronunciation, monitoring their tasks and encouraging them to participate. Summative evaluations consisted in two parts. The first took place during the entire didactic proposal, because many activities were awarded with stamps, and as it was explained previously, certain amount of stamps worth a mark. The second was the final evaluation. The final evaluation consisted of the presentation of the song. Students were asked to sing the song they had to represent. This evaluation considered two main categories to be evaluated: in the first place, the oral part; in the second place, the representation of the decade through the song. The rubric of evaluation had six categories: fluency, pronunciation, volume, lyrics, presentation, and creativity. Each category worth a score of six points, making a total of thirty six points (see appendix). The first four categories are directly related to the speaking part. Fluency makes reference to avoid pauses; pronunciation was asked according to the level, but giving more emphasis to the consonants /tʃ/, /dʒ/ and /ʃ/. Volume was one of the most important categories, for they needed to sing loud enough to be listened and thus it was possible to evaluate the rest of spoken categories. The category “lyrics” was about how many verses were forgotten, where they were allowed to forget two verses at most to obtain the best grade. The other two categories –creativity and presentation– had to do with the students’ capacity to show comprehension of the English culture, their music and traditions. They had to represent the decade in which the song they sang was famous: from the sixties to the year two thousand. From rock or pop music styles, their song represented one vision of the youth or the teenagers in those years. They had to dress in the way the artist did, create instruments with cardboard, tempera or any other material and, if possible, act a little as the artist they had to represent. That is the reason why it was explained the political or social context in which those songs were famous and they were asked to do a brief research,.

(15) Gajardo 15. watching videos in youtube and asking their relatives about the music they listened to when they were younger. The idea was to understand how people, especially young people, thought and behaved, to use it in their presentations. The presentations were recorded in video to give a more objective feedback and evaluation. LEARNING OUTCOMES ACHIEVED The learning objectives student had to achieve were divided according to the language skill to develop. For reading comprehension, they were expected to show comprehension of explicit information in short and simple texts, related to traditions, music and literature from other countries, which fulfill communicative functions of referring to events in the past, recognizing vocabulary from the unit. In terms of oral expression, the learning objective was to express orally through very short and simple monologues or dialogues, using the functions of referring to events and habits in the past, using vocabulary from the unit. Even though most of the communicative skills work together in the process of learning a foreign language, there are always one or two skills that are predominant. For instance, when focusing on reading comprehension, the students had to listen to the teacher’s instructions and their classmates’ opinions, and also write some notes to help their own comprehension of the text they were reading. However, the lesson has to be centered on one skill, and that is the reason why lessons were planned to give more emphasis to one skill over the others. To be able to express a message in a foreign country, the quality and quantity of input learners receive before giving it is of vital importance. Considering this, the first learning objective was centered on the skill of reading comprehension. The students first had to read and understand the text of the song they were to sing later on. Here they were asked to identify specific information in the text and find the meaning of the words they did not know in a dictionary, to complete the process of understanding and to increase their knowledge of vocabulary. After understanding the texts and lyrics, they were to listen to the songs, to identify pronunciation and, thus, to develop listening comprehension. Once they know what they had to express, they were ready to work on how to express it. Most of the groups were able to give a performance according to an eighth grade, except for one group. Only one out of ten groups never agreed a time to practice –as they affirmed– and, therefore, did not perform the evaluation. The rest of the class completed the task required. As oral expression was the most important skill of the evaluation, most of the performers affirmed they gave more attention to the fact of singing the songs and practicing from what they heard instead of focusing on the text to improve, for example, their pronunciation. Thus, the learning objective referred to oral expression was mostly achieved. The students paid more attention to the sounds instead of the meaning of the words. Since music is one of their preferred elements from the English culture, they tended to stay closer to what made them feel comfortable. As it has been said previously, the main focus of this research was not to help students master the English language but to work on what is firstly necessary to begin working on developing language.

(16) Gajardo 16. skills. This is eliciting participation among students. To achieve this objective, learners were faced to the technique of Cooperative Learning to build rapport. They did not participate in class because of factors related to confidence, personality and, therefore, fear of making mistakes. Once an environment of confidence was created, forming groups with names and individual functions of their members, establishing rules and routines, working in pairs or groups, sharing answers, students felt more comfortable, accompanied. However, since this is one of the first experiences in the students’ lives in which they had to express in English, they would stick to their comfort zone, applying what made them felt more confident and which was not completely new, as it is oral expression. Despite reading comprehension tend to be easier for the students; the evaluation was centered on oral expression, which led them to focus on that skill rather than reading. Thus, the objective related to oral expression was mostly achieved rather than the objective about reading comprehension.. INTERVENTION ANALYSIS The main purpose of this research is to elicit participation of students in the English class. But before beginning any intervention, it was needed to consider the students’ background and diversity – the key areas of adolescent development– (Murray and Christinson, 2011). In the first place, the learners are from an 8th grade in a subsidized school in Maipú; most of them have been together for more than five years; there are forty students in the class and, despite being a numerous class, they tend to not participate, and if they do it is because teachers directly ask them questions. To have a clearer view of the reasons why they do not participate in class, a survey was made. It contained questions about their likes and dislikes about the English class in previous years, the times they are self-exposed to any type of input –listening, reading, speaking or writing– in English, how useful they think English as a subject is and what elements should be included in an English class to make it more attractive and productive –such as visual or auditory media, flashcards, the use of the textbook provided by the Ministry of Education, etc. After analyzing the results from the survey, it was needed to take them into consideration in the plans of the intervention to achieve the objective of this research. It was important to create plans that encouraged students to participate in the class from the information gathered, pointing out the support of the Key Areas of Adolescent Development –provide opportunities to work collaboratively, share ideas, and make choices, all of them related to real life; serve as an academic model to follow; establish great expectations. However, to create the scenario mentioned, it was necessary to find strategies that built rapport and created a sense of safety. If students were to participate, they had to feel confident and safe. Here, classroom management was of vital importance for the teacher since it gives them strategies to create what was expected from the students. As adolescents are aware of others’ opinions, they were asked to work cooperatively to feel safe and be encouraged to participate in class. It was not easy to outline the use of cooperative learning in the classroom. Students were not used to work in groups, help each other or being accountable for their own learning. In fact, they showed.

(17) Gajardo 17. a bit of discomfort to the idea of working with people they might not get along with, finishing activities on the time given or form groups in most of the lessons in only one minute –some affirmed it was impossible. However, when they were told that despite the teacher was going to select the members of the groups, they were to choose the names of each team, their own captains and vice-captains, and that a reward would be given to those who finished tasks given in specific time, they showed more excitement (Epperson, 2012). It was explained that the participants of the same groups had to interact to achieve goals, had more instances of participation (Murray and Christinson, 2011), the teacher would be a guide, modeling and monitoring the activities, and practicing English was the core of the class (Nguyen, 2010). To accomplish all this, there were some clear behavior expectations to fulfill (Nguyen, 2010), based mainly on respect for others’ opinions. Besides, it was said by the teacher that mistakes were completely allowed; actually, making mistakes was fundamental for them to learn (Mills, 2014) and that it would not be tolerated students mocking at others. After all this was exposed, most of the students showed they agreed. After the final evaluation and methodology to be used in the intervention were explained, it all was a matter of time. Lesson by lesson it took less time for students to form groups –their record was 28 seconds–; captains kept their register of students’ participation in class by day and promoted the participation of all the members of the teams; student were aware of the time in which they had to complete the tasks and of the punishment if they interrupted or mock at others. In terms of how effective the implementation of the plans was, students gave more attention to the oral part rather than the written part. Students spend more time singing the songs and used the lyrics mostly for that purpose. It might be a plan mistake that the summative evaluation of the unit was dedicated mainly to the oral part and that the written one (reading and writing) was only a tool to help the development of the oral skill. Even though they read the lyrics of the songs, wrote them in their copybooks and also found unknown words in the dictionary making a list of vocabulary, the dedication to the written part lacked the emphasize that the oral practice of the songs had. It was also important in the learning objective to analyze and understand the meaning of the lyrics, the writer’s intention or the context in which those songs were famous, so that the number of lessons dedicated only to that purpose could have been greater. Besides, the learning objective of the unit was related to the understanding of literature, music and traditions of English culture, and the grammar was focused on past events. Indeed, it might be possible that the learning objective was not achieved in one hundred percent, as it was explained in the previous paragraph. Nevertheless, this research intention was to elicit students’ participation, build rapport and promote cooperative learning. From that point of view, the objective of the intervention was completely fulfilled: they formed groups in the time given; chose name for their teams, captains and vice-captains; completed tasks; followed instructions in English and asked questions were some of them were not understood –mostly in Spanish, but dared to ask and used English, something they never did before–; and were able to speak in English both in dialogues and in front of the class –when rehearsing and in the final evaluation. Thus, cooperative learning to encourage participation (Johnson and Johnson, 1999; Murray and Christinson, 2011; Nguyen, 2010) added to the classroom management techniques (Epperson, 2012; Mills, 2014), worked perfectly..

(18) Gajardo 18. Finally, as proposed by Murray and Christinson (2011), students were aware of the importance of participation for their own benefit (positive accountability). Also, when one student of a team wanted to answer a question and had difficulties, the members of their team help them, not giving the complete answer but giving clues (positive interdependence). To do this, captains played an important role. They led discussions and decided what member had to participate in order to provide every student opportunity to practice the language, as well as informed the teacher when some misbehavior took place or when a student was not willing to participate, what helped to maintain respect and order inside the classroom (Epperson, 2012).. CONCLUSIONS AND PROJECTIONS This research article served the purpose of demonstrating, through a pedagogical intervention, that Cooperative Learning and building rapport elicit participation of students in the EFL classroom. Through the consideration of the students’ background and interests as proposed by Murray and Christinson (2011), and the application of classroom management techniques suggested by Epperson (2012), it is possible to create a safe learning environment for the student which promotes their participation (Mills, 2014). When learning a foreign language, both the quantity and quality of the interaction with other learners are of vital importance, since they provide opportunities for practicing the language and thus significant learning (Johnson and Johnson, 1999). Moreover, if students have clear what is expected from them in class, fear of making mistakes will undermine, increasing self-confidence (Mills, 2014). The classroom management techniques proposed by Epperson (2012) are enough to create a safe environment for learning. Her methodology is clear in description and number to be applied in both plans and any hard decision teachers have to face in the classroom. It has to be stated that promoting participation is only the first step if the final objective is to learn English as a foreign language. Students not only have to reproduce the language, but also they must be able to produce messages with their own thought and feelings. However, it is not possible to learn if students do not even dare to speak. They neither had self-confidence nor possessed a high level of English. As music and movies were their main input outside the classroom, oral expression was the skill which made them feel more comfortable to work with. That is the reason why the summative evaluation taken at the end of the didactic unit was mainly focused on that skill. As the four language skills work together in every lesson and all of them help to master the language, one of the points to be criticized to the summative evaluation is that it only was focused on one skill. Although reading comprehension, writing and finding vocabulary were tasks that took place during the research, they were not part of the final evaluation, which led student to give more emphasis only to oral production. This event serves as example to be aware of in future plans: it is fundamental to evaluate all the skills involved in a unit of learning when all of them were practiced and formatively evaluated. Otherwise, students will put aside the skills that are not considered in the summative evaluation and the.

(19) Gajardo 19. process of learning will not be completed equally, being some skills more developed than others. Also, the value of every skill in the summative evaluation must agree with the time taken to work with that skill. For instance, if the evaluation is based on qualifying oral production, that skills must have more value than other skills such as writing expression. However, the less practiced skills must have certain value when considering the final average. The most important point is to work equally all the language skills throughout the whole year. As a novice teacher, this experience was useful to identify how well plans work when teaching. Perhaps the plans contemplate an interactive lesson full of opportunities for participating and formative evaluations that will help student to find their mistakes and correct them, resulting in a fruitful learning experience. Despite of how well a class is planned, during the process of teaching some events may occur that force the teacher to make choices. Finally, it has to be stated the positive impact Cooperative Learning produced among students. Now they are aware of their ability to adapt to different methods of learning and their attitude through learning English has changed. They no longer see the subject as something complex and distant from their reality. The know they do not speak English but know that if they were able to sing songs in English from a different time and understand their context, they can face any task and do their best to accomplish it. Finally, students are aware of the importance interaction and helping others has in both their own process of learning and their classmates’ learning. They have found a new value in team work and see the importance of everyone’s effort to fulfill objectives..

(20) Gajardo 20. REFERENCES Epperson, M. (2012). Strategies for motivating and managing the Chilean classroom. Ministerio de Educación. Embajada de los Estados Unidos de America. Johnson, D. & Johnson, R. (1999). Making cooperative learning work: Theory into Practice, 38. 67-73. Mills, M. (2014). Effective classroom management. [ebook Version]. Retrieved from Kindle.com Ministerio de Educación. (2011). Programa de Estudio Octavo Año Básico. Murray, Christison. (2011). What English language teachers need to know volume I: understanding learning. New York: Routledge. Murray, Christison. (2011). What English language teachers need to know volume II: facilitating learning. New York: Routledge. Nguyen, A. (2010). Cooperative learning and ESL students’ participation. Retrieved from http://www.hamline.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=21475163 44..

(21) Gajardo 21. APPENDIX This appendix provides the survey made in the eighth grade, one lesson of the plans and the rubric used in the summative evaluation.. ENCUESTA CLASE DE INGLÉS 8° Esta encuesta tiene como finalidad describir tu percepción de la clase de inglés, para así entregarte una enseñanza de calidad que se ajuste a tus necesidades y proyecciones. No te preocupes: esta encuesta es totalmente anónima, no tiene respuestas correctas o incorrectas y no es evaluada con nota. 1. ¿En qué momentos de tu día o de tu semana te enfrentas al inglés (leer, hablar, escuchar, escribir), aparte de la sala de clases? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ 2. ¿Crees que es interesante la clase de inglés? ¿Sí? ¿No? ¿Por qué? a. Si b. No Porque ___________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ 3. Aproximadamente, ¿qué porcentaje de la clase hablada en inglés entiendes? a. Más del 90% b. Entre 60% y 90% c. Entre 40% y 60% d. Entre 20% y 40% e. Menos del 20% 4. ¿Con qué frecuencia entiendes las instrucciones en inglés? a. La mayor parte del tiempo, sin gran necesidad de ayuda visual (gestos, dibujos, etc.). b. Gran parte del tiempo, pero a veces necesito ayuda visual. c. Sólo cuando van acompañadas de algo visual. d. No muy seguido. Generalmente necesito la traducción al español para entender. e. Prefiero esperar a que el profesor traduzca al español para entender. 5. ¿Qué es lo que más te gusta de la clase de inglés? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ 6. ¿Y qué es lo que menos te gusta? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________.

(22) Gajardo 22. 7. ¿Qué diferencias importantes encuentras entre las clases de inglés de este año y las de años anteriores? Nombra dos: a. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ b. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 8. Describe en pocas palabras tu clase de inglés ideal. ¿Qué debería incluir (trabajo en equipo, más listening, más lectura, más flashcards, videos, música, más diálogos, más escritura, etc.)? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________.

(23) Gajardo 23 PLANIFICACIÓN CLASE A CLASE 2014 NIVEL: 8° EDUCACIÓN: Básica ASIGNATURA: Inglés Unidad 4: Tradiciones, música popular y literatura en otros países Clase N°/ FECHA. OBJETIVOS CLASE. HABILIDADES. 10 22/9 (2 horas). Leer y demostrar comprensión de una canción en inglés. Escuchar y demostrar comprensión de una canción. Organizar grupos de trabajo y distribuir funciones entre los integrantes del equipo.. Comprensión lectora y auditiva. Expresión escrita y oral.. OBJETIVOS DE APRENDIZAJE: demostrar comprensión de información explícita y tema en textos breves y simples, relacionados con tradiciones, música y literatura de otros países, que contemplen las funciones comunicativas de referirse a eventos y hábitos en el pasado: reconociendo vocabulario temático de la unidad y palabras clave. ACTIVIDADES. Inicio: Presentación objetivos de la clase. Profesor explica tercera evaluación del semestre: interpretación de una canción rock o pop en inglés, de entre los años 60’s a la actualidad. Profesor nueva modalidad de trabajo de equipos y luego pide que los alumnos se reúnan en grupos de 3 o 4 personas siguiendo modelo propuesto. Desarrollo: Los alumnos escogen un capitán y un vice-capitán en cada grupo, quienes estarán a cargo de funciones específicas (cumplir con el trabajo, respetar las normas de la clase, etc.),a la vez que escogen un nombre para sus equipos. En espacio CRA, profesor muestra pequeño extracto de las canciones mientras explica características históricas más importantes de aquellas décadas. Ya en la sala, se realiza sorteo de las canciones Se explica que alumnos deben realizar una investigación del grupo musical asignado, época de la canción, vestimenta, etc. para interpretar. Cierre: Se informa fecha de evaluaciones (13 y 15 de octubre) Resuelven dudas.. PROFESORES DE NIVEL: Gloria Arriagada Marta Bravo Víctor Gajardo. INDICADORES DE EVALUACIÓN. RECURSOS DE APRENDIZAJE. Identifican información específica. Discriminan sonidos. Hablan sobre actividades pasadas.. Realia, data show, radio, selección de canciones, computador..

(24) Gajardo 24. RÚBRICA DE EVALUACIÓN ORAL Intergrantes: Fecha: /. / 2014. Curso:. Categoría Fluidez. 0-2 Comete cinco o más pausas en su presentación.. Pronunciación. Comete cuatro o más errores en la pronunciación de los sonidos /t∫/, /∫/ o /d / o no pronuncia sonidos cuando corresponde. Muy difícil de escuchar o su voz es imperceptible.. Volumen. Puntaje:. / 36. Criterios 3-4 Comete tres a cinco pausas en su presentación. Comete dos o tres errores en la pronunciación de los sonidos /t∫/, /∫/ o /d /.. El volumen no es tan alto y sólo es escuchado por la mitad o una parte de la audiencia. Olvida una o dos estrofas de la canción.. Letra. Olvida tres o más estrofas.. Presentación. No posee vestimenta apropiada y/o no mantiene una postura adecuada.. Posee vestimenta apropiada y mantiene una postura adecuada a su canción sólo en algunos momentos.. Creatividad y respuesta de la audiencia. Presentación contiene pocos o ningún aspecto creativo. No llama la atención de la audiencia.. Presentación con algunos aspectos creativos. Llama la atención de la audiencia por momentos.. Observaciones del/la docente:. Nota: Puntos 5-6 Comete hasta dos pausas. Su participación es fluida y sin interrupciones. La pronunciación de los sonidos /t∫/, /∫/ o /d / es correcta o sólo comete un error.. El volumen es lo suficientemente alto para ser escuchado por toda la audiencia. Recuerda completamente la canción o sólo se olvida de, a lo más, la mitad de una estrofa. Mantiene una postura y vestimenta adecuada a la presentación durante toda la canción o la mayor parte de ella, considerando la canción que debe representar. Presentación creativa. Llama y mantiene la atención de la audiencia constantemente o durante toda la presentación..

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