Action Research Project Draft

8/8/2019 Action Research Project Draft

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UNIVERSIDAD DE TARAPACAFACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN Y HUMANIDADESDEPARTAMENTO DE IDIOMAS EXTRANJEROSPROGRAMA MAGISTER EN LA ENSEÑANZA DEL INGLESInvestigación – AcciónPHD Ramón Barrientos MA student: Liliana LemaLarraguibel

Getting adult EFL learners to interact

with the teacher in the classroom

All teachers have faced in one moment or another that somestudents in a class and, even sometimes most of them, look as if they

are present but totally disconnected from what is going on inside theclassroom. The teacher tries to change the pace of the lessons, presentnew activities, look for material that might be appealing to the students’interests but nothing seems to improve. “Whatever is done by a teacherhas a motivational, formative, influence on students. In other words, teacherbehaviour is a powerful ‘motivational tool'” (Dornyei, 2001: 120)

This situation can be very disappointing for both the teacher andthe students. On one hand you encounter a teacher that makes an effortevery class to drag their students’ attention and feeling hopeless at the

end while on the other hand you find that students feel they are notlearning and although recognize their attitude is not the best they arenot sure of what are the causes and how to avoid it.

I am used to work mainly with Elementary school students. Theyare always very loud and you always find the way to win them over.Sometimes as easily as to lure them with some candy or stickers but it isa different story with adults. If they do not feel they can make a changethey probably won’t. My idea for this action research project is to detectthe reasons why these students sometimes seem unresponsive in the

classroom. These students are part of the Elementary level in Academiade Inglés in Universidad de Tarapacá, Iquique.




Action Research Definition

Action research is concerned with trying to improving one specificpoint in a teacher's technique in a particular classroom using empiricalmeasurement. Richards, Platt & Platt (1992) have defined it as:

Teacher-initiated classroom research which seeks to increase theteacher's understanding of classroom teaching and learning and to bringabout improvements in classroom practices. Action research typicallyinvolves small-scale investigate projects in the teacher's ownclassrooms.

According to Nunan (1992) action research has three majorcharacteristics: It is carried out by practitioners (i.e., classroomteachers), it is collaborative, and it is aimed at changing things. Burns(1999) expands on these characteristics, maintaining that actionresearch exemplifies the following features.

Class Description

The group of students that is being observed is an Elementarylevel class in the Academia de Inglés in Universidad de Tarapacá,Iquique. This is not a compulsory course to take; therefore at thebeginning of the year there were about 18 students in total. For differentreasons half of the class quitted throughout the year. The class iscomposed by two men and women of different ages, occupations andbackgrounds. Some of them are currently undergoing their last year intheir programmes such as: Psychology and Pre-school teacher. Some of them work at the university as teachers or secretaries and anotherstudent works outside the university, for example; as an airplanemechanic in the air force.

The objective of this course is to prepare students to take the KET(Knowledge English Test) at the end of the year. The programme isintended to develop the four skills in the students through the use of




different resources. A placement test was taken at the beginning of theyear rating most of the students in a level known as beginner, whichdoes not exist in Iquique but only in Arica where the “Academia deInglés” head office has its place. Therefore, the level of the students wasvery low at the beginning of the year. The class meets three times aweek (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) from 19:10 to 20:40.

Problem Identification

First of all, students do not show up to class regularly. For everythree lessons they usually miss one. If they do, they come late andfeeling sleepy and tired, always complaining about their work or studiesand how little time they have to come to class, study for the quizzes andtests or deliver written homework on time.

I would like students to show more interest in improving;understanding that coming to class and respecting the times and pace of

the course is almost compulsory. I want them to participate in class,answering questions, paying attention to the listening activities andworking faster in the writing ones. I’d like them to feel more comfortableusing English and practicing it in front of their classmates.

Preliminary Investigation

As I said before I’ve been working with this group of people sincethe 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 aclass that in my opinion was very representative. This lesson took placeon September 06th. According to Allwright, K. M. Bailey (1991) classroomresearch does not always have to concern itself to directly with theoriesat all, whether to test them or to illuminate them. Instead classroom




research can be directed at trying to understand and deal with theimmediate practical problems facing teachers and learners.

At the beginning of the class (19:10) there were only twostudents present. I started introducing the new unit by explaining what Iwas wearing and asking them to describe their outfits. Ten minuteslater two other students showed up, followed by another student 5minutes later. Finally two other students showed approximately at tento eight. We started developing two pages in the textbook, reading thesentences aloud and asking them to volunteer for this. Once again

nobody volunteered and I had to call out their names to get them toread or give the answers to the exercises. I observed this class frombeginning to end taking notes of the things called my attention themost. I did this without telling them or letting them know so theywouldn’t change the way they usually behave. I walked around theclassroom listening to their conversations and interactions in general.Whenever I came closer to them and ask them to use English since Iknow they are already prepared to use simple sentences as for example“What does _________ mean?” they just preferred not asking for help andremain doubtful. In the last 15 minutes of the class I remarked the

grammar and vocabulary points of the topics studied during the class. Ialso asked them what accessories change according for example toculture and weather.

T: Ok, so what was today’s topic?

Ss: Š(no one responds)

T: Can you tell me what the unit is about?

César: Clothes? (one student responds very quietly)

T: Yes! Excellent! So, Marcela can you make up a sentence aboutclothes?

(Marcela is as often, going through her purse or paying attention tosomething else)




Marcela: Š(no response)

T: Marcela?

M: Sorry, I don’t listen.

I asked some other questions but everybody seemed looking forward toleaving home. So, at that point I just dismissed not before remindingthem to hand in the written homework and study for the comingvocabulary quiz.

Hypothesis

I think the students do understand what I ask them but do not feelmotivated to use English in front of their peers. My hypothesis is that themain problem here is lack of self confidence. Since they are adults, theyare more self conscious and worried about the mistakes they mightmake 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 breakthrough this barrier and make an effort to participate more in class.

Plan Intervention

Following the hypothesis, three steps will be taken to put this planinto action:

First of all, the teacher will give them a handout about classroomlanguage to remind them what is the most common vocabulary usedinside the EFL classroom. Students will practice and role-play with theirclassmates.

Secondly, the teacher will apply a survey in which the students willsay if they agree or not (and in what grade) to the statements described.




Then a focus group debate will be developed in order to know what areour hopes and expectations on the course and how we can worktogether to achieve them.

Finally, the teacher will interview three students in total: onestudent from the group that study in the University, another from theteachers who work there and the third from the ones who work outsidethe University. The idea is to get insight of the three points of view.

Outcome

The outcome, reflection and conclusions will be developedaccording to the application of the three steps described above.

Reference

Allwright, D., Bailey K. (1991) Focus on the language classroom.

Helgesen, M. & Brown, S. (1994) Active listening: Building skills forunderstanding. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.

McKay, S. (2006) Researching Second Language Classrooms.

Nunan, D. (1992) Research methods in language learning. Cambridge,UK: Cambridge University.

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

Documents

Action Research Project Draft