This situation can be very disappointing for both the teacher and
the students. On one hand you encounter a teacher that makes an effort
every class to drag their students’ attention and feeling hopeless at the
end while on the other hand you find that students feel they are not
learning and although recognize their attitude is not the best they are
not sure of what are the causes and how to avoid it.
Class Description
Problem Identification
Preliminary Investigation
As I said before I’ve been working with this group of people since
the beginning of the year. This course started exactly in April. But for the
second semester the number of students got reduced and since then
(August) and thinking about this project, I’ve become more aware of
their difficulties and flaws by observing them closer. I will describe a
class that in my opinion was very representative. This lesson took place
on September 06th. According to Allwright, K. M. Bailey (1991) classroom
research does not always have to concern itself to directly with theories
at all, whether to test them or to illuminate them. Instead classroom
UNIVERSIDAD DE TARAPACA
FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN Y HUMANIDADES
DEPARTAMENTO DE IDIOMAS EXTRANJEROS
PROGRAMA MAGISTER EN LA ENSEÑANZA DEL INGLES
Investigación – Acción
PHD Ramón Barrientos MA student: Liliana Lema
Larraguibel
T: Marcela?
Hypothesis
I think the students do understand what I ask them but do not feel
motivated to use English in front of their peers. My hypothesis is that the
main problem here is lack of self confidence. Since they are adults, they
are more self conscious and worried about the mistakes they might
make and how their peers will see them. My idea is that if I get them to
understand that interaction is very important to improve their level of
English and that making mistakes is totally allowed they will break
through this barrier and make an effort to participate more in class.
Plan Intervention
Following the hypothesis, three steps will be taken to put this plan
into action:
First of all, the teacher will give them a handout about classroom
language to remind them what is the most common vocabulary used
inside the EFL classroom. Students will practice and role-play with their
classmates.
Secondly, the teacher will apply a survey in which the students will
say if they agree or not (and in what grade) to the statements described.
UNIVERSIDAD DE TARAPACA
FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN Y HUMANIDADES
DEPARTAMENTO DE IDIOMAS EXTRANJEROS
PROGRAMA MAGISTER EN LA ENSEÑANZA DEL INGLES
Investigación – Acción
PHD Ramón Barrientos MA student: Liliana Lema
Larraguibel
Then a focus group debate will be developed in order to know what are
our hopes and expectations on the course and how we can work
together to achieve them.
Outcome
Reference
Richards, J. C., Platt, J., & Platt, H. (1992) Dictionary of language teaching
& applied linguistics (2nd ed.). Essex: Longman.
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Snell-Interaction.html