developing basic writing skills through the …
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DEVELOPING BASIC WRITING SKILLS THROUGH
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF VIRTUAL TOOLS IN TEACHING ENGLISH
CLAUDIA PATRICIA GUZMAN MARTINEZ
A Research report submitted to obtain the
Master’s degree in English Didactics
Directed by
GLORIA MILENA CASTELLANOS MENDOZA
Magister in English Language Teaching - Autonomous Learning
Environments
UNIVERSIDAD DELTOLIMA
FACULTY OF SCIENCES AND EDUCATION
MASTER IN DIDACTICS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH
IBAGUE - TOLIMA
2020
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First, I want to thank GOD for giving me the strength and support I needed to achieve my
goals. I also want to thank my mother, María Isabel Martínez, and my son, Stiven
Alejandro Ovalle, for their permanent company and unconditional help. Thanks to my
thesis director, Gloria Milena Castellanos, who was a truly helper and supporter
throughout this work.
Finally, thanks to all of those who supported me in developing this project. Best regards
to all.
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 13
1. RESEARCH PROBLEM ........................................................................................... 14
2 OBJECTIVES .......................................................................................................... 154
2.1 MAIN OBJECTIVE ................................................................................................ 154
2.2 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES. ..................................................................................... 154
3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM .......................................................................... 165
4. RESEARCH DESIGN ............................................................................................. 187
4.1 TYPE OF STUDY .................................................................................................. 187
4.2 RESEARCHER’S ROLE ......................................................................................... 19
4.3 DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTEXT. ..................................................................... 210
4.4 PARTICIPANTS. ................................................................................................... 221
4.5 DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS. ................................................................. 221
4.6 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES. .................................................................. 276
5. LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................... 321
5.1 WRITING PROCESS. ........................................................................................... 321
5.2 SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION. ............................................................................ 354
5.3 VIRTUAL LEARNING TOOLS. .............................................................................. 376
5.4 LANGUAGE ENGAGEMENT THROUGH ONLINE TOOLS. ................................ 398
5.5 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY ......................................................................... 421
6. DATA ANALYSIS ................................................................................................... 465
6.1 DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURE. ......................................................................... 465
6.1.1 Analysis of the Pre-Surveys 1 and 2. ................................................................. 476
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6.2 ANALYSIS OF THE STUDENTS’ WRITING PRODUCTION ............................... 743
7. FINDINGS ............................................................................................................... 865
7.1 ADVANTAGES ...................................................................................................... 887
7.2 DISADVANTAGES .................................................................................................. 88
8. CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................ 89
RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................................... 932
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 943
ANNEXES ................................................................................................................. 1021
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Summary of the instruments to collect the information. ................................ 221
Table 2. Description of the purpose of the survey questions ...................................... 254
Table 3. Stages of characters’ lifestyle. ........................................................................ 29
Table 4. Chart of the stages of the writing approach process, adapted from (Silva, 1990)..
............................................................................................................................. 332
Table 5. Sentences applied third person. .................................................................... 554
Table 6. Student Characters’ lifestyle: writing extension, common used verbs and
mistakes. ..................................................................................................................... 654
Table 7. Writing Production – Checklist. ..................................................................... 710
Table 8. Results about writing characters’ lifestyles.................................................... 743
Table 9. Checklist on grammar about the characters’ lifestyles. ................................. 786
Table 10. Final results of writing characters’ lifestyles. ............................................. 7977
Table 11. Comparison of midterm and final writing characters’ lifestyles. ................... 810
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Action Research Cycle. ................................................................................. 19
Figure 2. ¿ Tienes frecuente acceso a los computadores? ...................................... 476
Figure 3. ¿Tienes frecuente acceso a computadores? .............................................. 487
Figure 4. Internet Access ........................................................................................... 487
Figure 5. Enumerar cual actividad es más o menos frecuente:. ................................ 498
Figure 6. ¿Conoces alguna herramienta virtual para elaborar libros de caricaturas
virtuales? ...................................................................................................................... 49
Figure 7. ¿Estarías interesado en conocer una herramienta para crear tus propios libros
de caricaturas virtuales para mejorar tu inglés? ............................................................ 49
Figure 8. Escoja la respuesta correcta . .................................................................... 510
Figure 9. Complete the sentences with a verb in the correct form. ............................. 521
Figure 10. Complete the sentences with a verb in the correct form. ........................... 521
Figure 11. Complete the sentences with a verb in the correct form. ........................... 532
Figure 12. Pre-Survey ................................................................................................ 565
Figure 13. ¿Qué tanto te motivas cuando elaboras tus diseños de tiras cómicas en
ToonDoo? .................................................................................................................. 587
Figure 14. ¿La herramienta virtual ToonDoo te ha ayudado a mejorar la escritura de las
frases en tercera persona en inglés? ......................................................................... 598
Figure 15. ¿Crees que los libros virtuales son una forma llamativa de expresar tus ideas?
.................................................................................................................................... 598
Figure 16. ¿La herramienta ToonDoo te ha motivado para aprender inglés en forma más
divertida? .................................................................................................................. 6059
Figure 17. ¿Cuándo diseñas y escribes en ToonDoo tienes presente reglas gramaticales
de la tercera persona? ............................................................................................... 610
Figure 18. ¿Consideras apropiado implementar el uso de herramientas virtuales en las
clases para que estas sean más motivadoras? ......................................................... 610
Figure 19. Pienso que mi trabajo con los libros virtuales fue: .................................... 632
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Figure 20. El uso de los libros virtuales para la elaboración de oraciones en tercera
persona fue: ............................................................................................................... 632
Figure 21. Marca con una X cuáles de las siguientes acciones aprendiste a hacer en
ToonDoo: ................................................................................................................... 643
Figure 22. Writing production. .................................................................................... 654
Figure 23. Final Survey .............................................................................................. 687
Figure 24. Sentences ................................................................................................... 69
Figure 25. Researchers’ diary .................................................................................... 843
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LIST OF ANNEXES
Annex A. Pre-survey 1. ............................................................................................ 1032
Annex B. Pre-survey 2 ............................................................................................. 1054
Annex C. Midterm survey. .......................................................................................... 106
Annex D. Final survey. ............................................................................................... 107
Annex E. Writing Rubric. ............................................................................................ 109
Annex F. Stage to elaborate Characters’ lifestyles ..................................................... 112
Annex G. Maluma Character’s lifestyle. ...................................................................... 113
Annex H. Shakira Characters’ lifestyle. ...................................................................... 117
Annex I. Albert Einstein Character’s lifestyle .............................................................. 121
Annex J. Papa Character’s lifestyle. ........................................................................... 124
Annex K. Karol G Character’s lifestyle ....................................................................... 127
Annex L. Martin Garrix Character’s lifestyle ............................................................... 130
Annex M. Romeo Santos Character’s lifestyle. .......................................................... 133
Annex N. James Rodriguez Character’s lifestyle. ....................................................... 136
Annex O. Cristiano Ronaldo Character’s lifestyle ....................................................... 139
Annex P. Fanny Lu Character’s lifestyle. .................................................................... 142
Annex Q. Links Character’s lifestyle. .......................................................................... 145
Annex R. Researchers’ diary ...................................................................................... 146
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RESUMEN
Este proyecto de investigación tiene la intención de estudiar cuál es el efecto de la
implementación de la herramienta ToonDoo Edu para mejorar las habilidades básicas de
escritura mediante el uso de dicha herramienta virtual. El análisis de datos se enfocó en
el uso de la herramienta virtual para mejorar el proceso de escritura de los estudiantes y
fortalecerlos para comunicarse e interactuar con otros estudiantes a través de sus
creaciones escritas. El estudio examina las respuestas objetivas de los alumnos al uso
de la herramienta virtual en el contexto de internet. Los datos se recolectaron utilizando
revistas y encuestas cualitativas que incluyen datos cuantitativos y percepciones de los
estudiantes a través de productos subjetivos y cuantitativos de los estudiantes. Los
análisis consistieron en estadísticas descriptivas sobre los ítems cuantitativos y una
síntesis de etapas múltiples de los datos cualitativos, incluido el análisis de la rúbrica.
Las respuestas de los productos de los estudiantes se clasificaron mediante una lista de
verificación relacionada, además de los desafíos o ventajas de usar la herramienta virtual
(ToonDoo Edu Tool) y la aplicación de reglas como conjugación de verbos en forma
singular (tercera persona).
La población a la que se dirige la investigación es del área rural, de la Institución
Educativa La Aguadita, de carácter mixto, público; cuenta con 254 estudiantes en el área
principal y 2 docentes del área del inglés y 11 de otras áreas del conocimiento. La
investigación acción es el método escogido para el desarrollo de la investigación, el cual,
permite identificar las dificultades que tienen los estudiantes a nivel de la escritura básica,
explorar las posibilidades con el uso de las herramientas virtuales y mejorar el proceso
requerido para la producción textual. Para el desarrollo de la investigación participan 10
estudiantes del grado séptimo, que pertenecen a la clase media baja, zona rural del
municipio de Fresno, Tolima. Su nivel de inglés es bajo A1, de acuerdo con el Marco
Común Europeo.
Palabras claves: Proceso de Escritura, herramienta virtual ToonDoo, personajes y
estilos de vida.
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ABSTRACT
This research project is intended to study what is the effect of the implementation of
ToonDoo Edu tool in order to improve basic writing skills through the use of such virtual
tool. Data analysis was focused in the use of the virtual tool to make better the students’
writing process and encourage learners to communicate and interact with others learners
through their written creations. The study examines participants’ objective responses to
the use of the virtual tool within the context of internet. Data was collected using
qualitative journal and surveys that include students’ quantitative data and perceptions
through learners’ subjective-quantitative artifacts. Analyses consisted of descriptive
statistics on the quantitative items and a multi-stage synthesis of the qualitative data
including rubric analysis. Students’ artifacts responses were categorized using a related
checklist; besides the challenges or advantages of using the virtual tool (ToonDoo Edu
Tool); and application of rules, like singular verbs conjugation (third person).
The population to which the research is directed is from the rural area, from La Aguadita
Educational Institution, of a co-educational and public nature; with 254 learners in the
main area, and 2 teachers in the English area and 11 in other areas of knowledge. The
action research is the chosen method for the development of the investigation, which
allows to identify the difficulties that they have at the level of basic writing, to explore the
possibilities with the use of the virtual tools and to improve the process required for the
textual production. For the development of the research, 10 seventh grade learners
participate, belonging to the lower middle class, rural area of the town Fresno, Tolima.
Their English proficiency level is under A1, in accordance with the European Common
Framework.
Keywords: Writing process, ToonDoo virtual tool, characters, and lifestyle.
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INTRODUCTION
Based on my experience as an English Teacher, it is very common to hear teachers
saying that students have lack of interest in learning English, so, it is vital for us to start
implementing innovative teaching strategies such as the use of virtual learning tools that
promote creativity and innovation in students. Similarly, they are under A1 English
proficiency level according to the European Common Framework of Reference. One of
the skills that can be enhanced is writing; it has to do with the way in which they can
express their wishes, ideas, thoughts and sharing their experiences as learners with
others. With a new generation of learners, they need to implement new components like
technology in their classes. In this moment, they use digital technologies and Internet in
aspects related to school, work, entertainment and leisure time in their lives. Kolikant,
(2010); Levin and Arafeh, (2002) state that “most of these students, who were born
roughly between 1980 and 1994 represent the first generation to grow up with this new
technology and have been characterized by their familiarity and confidence with respect
to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)” (p. 1). Hence, teachers must take
advantage of their skills about technology to teach a foreign language.
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1. RESEARCH PROBLEM
Several English writing exercises determined how the learmers write in English, and the
teacher’s feedback permits to identify some aspects that influence the writing process:
insufficient linguistic proficiency (including command over grammar, syntax and
vocabulary), lack of ideas, reliance on L1 and weak structure organization. Equally, there
are several factors that influence students’ writing performance: untrained teachers,
ineffective teaching methods, lack of reading and writing practice, lack of ideas and
didactic material.
This project is aimed to strengthening the basic writing process in English, specifically in
the use of simple present in third person. they wrote about ten characters’ lifestyles in a
comic book, that they selected based on their preferences by using information from
characters like: personality, strengths and weaknesses, in order to create character’s
lifestyle, which is one of the options that ToonDoo Edu Tool offers, among others. This
tool was the one proposed according to students’ interests and considering their internet
scope at home and at the school where they attend to.
The theoretical framework is based on four constructs: Writing production, sentence
construction, language engagement through online tools, and virtual learning tools. The
first one is related to the importance of developing writing skills. The second, the correct
grammar construction for using third person in a proper way. The third, the way that they
can enjoy and learn through virtual dynamic environments. And the last one consists on
knowing diverse internet tools that can be used by them for free.
Based on the previous analysis, it is important to show the main question proposed for
this research study:
What is the effect of the implementation of ToonDoo Edu tool in order to improve basic
writing skills in 7th graders?
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2. OBJECTIVES
2.1 MAIN OBJECTIVE
Strengthen the development of basic writing skills through the implementation of
ToonDoo Edu tool in 7th graders.
2.2 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
Explore students’ skills regarding their basic writing skills and internet access
possibilities.
Describe the effects of the stage design to improve writing.
Explore students’ perception towards the entire writing process and the use of a virtual
tool to improve it.
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3. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
La Aguadita is a public school located in Fresno, Tolima. The students belong to a lower
middle class, and some of they have difficulties with internet access at home. However,
they can use resources from school to explore virtual tools, use information from
websites, apps, video games, music videos, and illustrated stories. This is a motivating
scenario that helps participants to develop the process of writing production in a dynamic
way, where learners have the chance to choose the best tools, free on-line exercises,
according to their interests, skills, English proficiency level, needs and likes.
The writing process involves a set of steps to follow in producing a finished piece of text:
prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publication to communicate what they want to
say. It implies they to know grammar, vocabulary, syntax, spelling, and punctuation. As
well as the capacity to generate and build ideas for writing a basic text.
Writing, similar to other aspects of language, is a communicative act. In real life, we need
to write e-mails, lists, notes, cover letters, reports, curricula, assignments, or essays.
Some of us write articles on blogs, forums and websites. All of these writing tasks have a
communicative purpose and a target audience. However, there are ways to facilitate the
writing process with our learners by making it more communicative and enjoyable.
As an important contribution to be considered during the writing process in the
development of this skill, there are strategies that can be highlighted, as follows:
Writing well is a major cognitive challenge, because it is at once a test of memory,
language, and thinking ability. It demands rapid retrieval of domain-specific knowledge
about the topic from long-term memory (Kellogg, 2001).
Through the observation of students’ writing production, it was evidenced that they have
difficulties in writing basic sentences. The impediments are explicitly demonstrated in the
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use of the conjugation of the third person when they talk about daily routines, since they
have not had the opportunity to receive proper instruction of language construction. As
far as It was able to evidence, they have innumerable weaknesses in language. Thus, the
interest as a researcher was to strengthen one of the basic writing components through
the implementation of a virtual learning tool, which is also an innovative strategy for
learners to learn. Moreover, they need to be involved in a meaningful context to produce
a text related to people’s lives and their goals, preferences, and social performance.
Therefore, based on this situation, it was useful to implement ToonDoo Edu tool that is a
free web page, where users can share their writing production with other people around
the world.
This project can be an example for those English teachers who want to apply similar tools
in order to motivate their students by improving and developing their writing skills through
the use of online tools. Nowadays, most of they use mobile phones, computers or tablets
that make they to be immersed in the digital era. According to Prensky (2011): “they are
native speakers of technology, fluent in the digital language of computers, video games,
and the Internet” (p. 27). This circumstance facilitates the use of the website tool and
allows learners to be motivated to write in English as foreign language.
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4. RESEARCH DESIGN
This chapter states the design of action research. It will refer to the type of study carried
out, the researcher’s role, and the context in which this study took place, the participants
involved, the data collection instruments and procedures.
4.1 TYPE OF STUDY
The action research method is the appropriate method to be applied to the research
context since participants and teacher researcher can know about students’ performance
immediately.
Today, web users may access a wide variety of media to express themselves and to
communicate with others. These may include conventional blog websites, networking
sites, such as Myspace, Facebook or Bebo, which continue to integrate virtual tools and
which also encourage self-expression on behalf of students. It is useful to mention that
thanks to the use of free internet tools, it has been possible to promote the students’
writing process in different communicative contexts. They can also share information with
many people around the world, and receive comments about their writing production:
character’s lifestyle.
In schools, action research refers to a wide variety of evaluative, investigative, and
analytical research methods designed to diagnose problems or weaknesses—whether
organizational, academic, or instructional—and help educators to develop practical
solutions to address participants quickly and efficiently. The process of Action Research
in this project allows learners and the teacher researcher to manage weaknesses related
to the basic writing and find some strategies to improve writing in English as a foreign
language.
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Kurt, (1951) states that “action Research is a research method in which the researcher
intervenes in and during the research. This handles two purposes: first, it will bring about
positive change and secondly knowledge and theory will be generated” (p. 11). They
presented troubles with basic writing, so the researcher chose this method because it is
more assertive and eases exploring difficulties. Moreover, good process to improve the
basic writing can also be organized in this case. Some stages were developed: the first
initial exploration, writing production; and second, writing intervention, students’
perceptions, writing production; finally, students’ results.
Furthermore, action research aims to build communities committed to enlightening
themselves about the relationship between circumstance, action and the “consequence
of their own situation, and emancipating themselves from the institutional and personal
constraints which limit their power to live their own legitimate values” (Kemmis &
McTaggart, 1988, p. 23). With this, it can be affirmed that investing educators have the
possibility to improve the relationship with different phonemes, actions, situations
according to the context, looking for good results, and academic problems improvement.
Another great definition as Stringer (2013) states: "Action research is a systematic
approach to investigation that enables people to find effective solutions to problems, they
confront in their everyday lives” (p. 2). This concept implies to have a flexible and
systematic conception of the investigation to address English problems that teachers face
in the classroom every day.
Kemmis (2009) defines action research as: “practice-changing practice”. In this way,
research is a new understanding of relationship between researchers and researched.
(Figure1). Each cycle has four steps: plan, act, observe, and reflect. The following is a
diagram of this cycle:
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Figure 1. Action Research Cycle.
Source: Kemmis, (2009)
Planning: It refers to the identification of the problem, the research question and how
to face the problem using an adequate strategy.
Action: It is about addressing the problem by implementing the chosen strategies.
Observation: Through appropriate methods and techniques, the researcher observes
how the strategic plan takes place during the implementation phase.
Critical reflection: According to the results, it is necessary to reflect critically to evaluate
the whole action and to see a new problem that leads to start all over again.
4.2 RESEARCHER’S ROLE
The researcher’s role is considered as an instrument of data collection. “This means that
data are mediated through this human instrument, rather than through inventories,
questionnaires, or machines. To fulfill this role, consumers of the research need to know
about the human instrument”. (Denzin & Lincoln, 2003, p. 1). In this opportunity the
researcher can observe through the journal the advances and setbacks presented during
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the investigation process. Additionally, there is another contribution, Greenbank (2003)
mentions: “Qualitative researcher needs to describe relevant aspects of self, including
any biases and assumptions, any expectations, and experiences to qualify his or her
ability to conduct the research” (p. 6). Due to the above, it is useful for the researcher to
take into account aspects to quantify and qualify in order to decide reactions and
reflections in the course of the research process.
The role of the researcher should be active, ethic and objective during the process.
According to Punch, (1998):
The as existents between variations a researcher starts as an outsider and
then becomes a member of the group. Otherwise, researcher it finds
immerse into the process investigation. For the reason that, interact all the
time with educational population, his experience and his constants work, it
allows to know deeper the problems about context invest aged. Or the
reverse can occur the researcher starts as a member of a group then
becomes a more objective observant. (p. 6)
So, being immerse into the research, a researcher is more observant when is able to
participate in the project process.
4.3 DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTEXT
The Aguadita public school has about 487 students. It has boys and girls whose average
ages are from 10 to 17 years old. There are three people in the administrative staff and
twelve teachers from different disciplines that contribute to improve the educational
quality every day.
The participants come from rural areas and some have to walk 1 or 2 hours to get to
school. They do not have computers, neither the internet service at home. However, the
school has the necessary technological resources to make learning English possible for
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learners. Their parents are farmers with low economical resources. They also
accomplished elementary education, which do not permit them to support their children
in the process of mastering the knowledge related to different subjects at school.
4.4 PARTICIPANTS
The sample population used for this research project is a group of seventh-grade
students: 5 boys and girls aged 11 to 16 years old. Most of them have shown some
difficulties during English classes, as far as I have evidenced. They are ranked under A1
level of English according to the Common European Framework. As far as I have
evidenced though the development of my classes, most of participants have presented
difficulties with conjugation in third person when writing short paragraphs about daily
routines and people’s lifestyle characteristics.
4.5 DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS
For collecting data, two instruments will be applied: four surveys and researcher diary
with the purpose of observing, analyzing and reflecting about students’ performance in
writing basic texts related to character’s lifestyle. According to Labov, (1972) “surveys
play an important role to collect the information, in “which researchers more or less
directly elicit information on linguistic features, patterns and inter relations” (p. 25). These
instruments contribute to have real and reliable information to find out the possible
solutions related to participants’ difficulties in writing a basic text.
Table 1. Summary of the instruments to collect the information
Part 1: Initial exploration
Time of implementation Instrument Objective
One week Pre-survey
1
Explore internet accessibility and students’
technology skills.
Pre-survey
2
Identify students’ prior knowledge about basic
grammar in the use of the third person.
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Part 2: Students’ writing production: Stages 1 and 2
Stage 1: Initial writing production
Time of implementation Instrument Objective
One week
Students’
artifacts
(ToonDoo
Edu tool)
Train students in using the tool to write a basic
text.
Explain students about basic grammar in the
use of the third person with videos and
workshops.
Stage 2: Second writing intervention
Two weeks Students’
artifacts
(ToonDoo
Edu tool)
Identify first reactions towards the initial use of
ToonDoo Edu tool.
Evidence if students understand the use of the
third person through the elaboration of their
favorite characters’ lifestyle in a comic book.
Part 3: Examining students’ perceptions 1
Time of implementation Instrument Objective
Two weeks Midterm
survey
Describe the students’ reactions using
ToonDoo Edu Tools after having created their
comic books.
Recognize the results in relation to the use of
the tool up to this point.
Watch students’ progress in writing production.
Part 4: Students’ writing production: Stage 3
Time of implementation Instrument Objective
Three weeks Students’
artifacts
Identify the progress in the elaboration of the
comic book.
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(ToonDoo
Edu tool)
Find out if students showed an improvement
in basic grammar.
Part 5: Examining students’ results
Time of implementation Instrument Objective
One week Final
survey
(see Annex
D)
Recognize the final English writing results
derived from the web tool to explore students’
perceptions towards the use a of ToonDoo Edu
for enhancing their writing skills when using
third person.
Source: Author
4.5.1 Surveys. According to the table below, for our pre-survey session, two instruments
were designed: the first pre-survey consists of five questions to know how learners use
internet; the second pre-survey is intended to define students’ knowledge about basic
grammar for writing a descriptive text (it included 10 questions: 3 with multiple choice
type, and 3 with sentence correction, and 4 sentences to put in negative form). For the
midterm survey, they were asked six questions related to their perception of ToonDoo
Edu Tool and writing production advance progress. For the final survey they were asked
two questions to determine how useful was the tool to improve their writing production
and what they learned from the tool options to create a character’s lifestyle (For further
information, check annexes (A, B, C, D).
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Table 2. Survey questions purpose description
Source: Author
According to Tourangeau, (2000) “The topics include the comprehension of survey
questions, the recall of relevant facts and beliefs, estimation and inferential processes
people use to answer survey questions” (p. 13). Here, a researcher should take into
account several elements for analyzing data. Based on Fowler, (2013):
The growth of the internet for data collection and the subsequent rapid
expansion of online survey usage, the author puts the profound changes
taking place in the survey research world today into perspective, helping
researchers learn how to best use new and traditional options for collecting
data. (p. 55)
This concept implies to change the traditional way to collect data and how to implement
technology.
4.5.2. Students’ Artifacts. For this project, a web tool called ToonDoo Edu tool was
used. “ToonDoo is a cool, comic-creating tool from Jambav, (2012) a fun site for
kids. Jambav is devoted to creating a unique array of free and customizable online
games of educational value for children of all abilities.” The benefits for students
SURVEYS PURPOSE
PRE-
SURVEYS
Pre-survey 1: Explore internet accessibility and students’ technology skills.
Pre-survey 2: Identify students’ prior knowledge about basic grammar in the
use of the third person.
MIDDLE
SURVEY
Describe students’ reactions using ToonDoo Edu Tools.
To know if they improved the use of third person.
FINAL
SURVEY
Recognize the English writing progress with the use of ToonDoo Edu tools.
Know how the students use ToonDoo Edu tools.
Observe whether the students improved or not the use of the third person.
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to use this tool to interpret a concept from verbal/textual form (provided by the
teacher) to visual form (created in ToonDoo), is to create their own, new, unique
representation of an idea, and appreciate the difficulty scientists encounter when
trying to communicate their ideas.
ToonDoo is a public internet website, it can be useful to be implemented with children
and be used wherever internet service is available. International connection with
ToonDoo started once, it was made by the Indian company, Jambav, (2012). Stemming
from a foreign country, ToonDoo can serve as a communication tool among different
children or youth around the world with messages. On the internet worldwide, this can be
and is used to create magnificent works, school assignments features allows users to add
texts to write their cartoons in a variety of different languages, which is conceived as
international possibilities and use.
4.5.3. Teacher – Researcher’s Diary. Taghilou, (2007) talks about the importance of a
teacher’s diary, considering the diary to be the simplest way of targeted reflection of a
teacher and his/her reflective instruction. The teacher’s diary is used in educational
research more sporadically. It is because teachers disclose their internal experiences
when writing the diary and the processing of statements is often time demanding (p. 22).
Owing to this researcher’s instrument, it can be observed in detail behaviors, attitudes,
and procedures in the process of the investigation. Other authors affirm important aspects
in research environment and how to write about students’ performance during the
investigation. As Zeki stated, (2009) “the work on one’s own teacher diary, though time
demanding is unquestionably important in terms of the teacher’s progress, improvement
and analyses of one’s own processes of self-evaluation. In other words, it is an investment
in one’s own improvement”. (p. 22)
Through the use of the diary, the teacher researcher will take notes of relevant situations
that happen when learners work with the tool: strengths and weaknesses that are linked
27
to the students’ knowledge about the tool, and their obtained progress throughout the
process of elaborating characters’ lifestyles.
Diary writing usually involves the unstructured, chronological recording of
the events of a person’s life as they are perceived. We have to recognize,
however, that the mere fact of continuously writing entries as is done in the
keeping of a diary, is not sufficient in itself to bring about deep changes in
a person’s life. (Progoff, 1975, p. 87)
Additionally, the use of diaries provides positive experiences as a self-regulated strategy
as part of the researchers’ work that has positive aspects of using a diary in the teaching
undertakings. The teacher’s diary is an important self-regulating strategy. So, it impacts
the development of his/her professional competencies, Engin (2011) affirms that the
researcher’s diary also acts as a repository of thoughts and reflections of the research
experience and adds validity to the data. The diary provides an insight into my own
experiences of carrying out the research and the coding, analysis and interpretations. It
is an internal dialogue that provides alternatives to focus the data analysis according to
the objectives of the investigation.
4.6 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES
The process of data collection, it must be taken into account the different stages, actions,
procedures, purposes, descriptions and objectives, the writing production, and students’
perceptions during the research process.
Data collection procedures of this study were developed as follows:
4.6.1 Part 1: Initial Exploration. For an initial exploration two instruments will be applied:
pre-survey 1 and 2, for the first one the purpose is to explore internet accessibility and
students’ technology skills; and for the second one, the intent is to identify participants’
prior knowledge about basic grammar in the use of the third person.
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Instruments: Pre-surveys 1 and 2.
Description of the activity:
The teacher researcher is going to apply the pre survey 1 and 2 by explaining the learners
the importance of using the internet and first pre-survey, which consists of five questions
to know how learners use internet. The second pre-survey is intended to define students’
knowledge about basic grammar for writing a descriptive text (it included 10 questions: 3
with multiple choice type, and 3 with sentence correction, and 4 sentences to put in
negative form). After applying the surveys, information will be collected and analyzed
using some pie charts to see the participants’ performance. See annexes (A-B).
4.6.2. Part 2: Students’ Writing Production: Stages 1 and 2.
Instruments: Students’ artifacts
Description of the activity:
Stage 1
The main purpose of this stage is to train students in using the tool to write a basic text
and to explain them a basic grammar topic: the use of the third person) with videos and
workshops. They will explore some of their favorite characters’ lifestyles and choose one
to write about them. After that, they will collect some information about such character;
likes and dislikes, daily activities, places to go, family, among others. They will write the
first draft about their preferred character.
See annex (F).
Stage 2
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After students have written the first draft, the teacher will give them a basic feedback to
identify strengths and weaknesses; they take notes; clarify grammar questions and try to
write a second draft with their teacher’s support. See annex (E).
4.6.3. Part 3: Examining Students’ Perceptions 1.
Instrument: Midterm survey
Description of the activity:
For the midterm survey, learners will be asked (6) six questions related to their perception
of the ToonDoo Edu Tool and writing production progress. After applying the surveys,
information will be collected, and answers will be illustrated by using some pie charts to
see the students’ performance. See annex (C).
4.6.4. Part 4: Students’ Writing Production: Stage 3
Instrument: Students’ artifacts
Description of the activity:
In this stage they attempt to write the final version, taking into account their teacher’s and
classmate’s suggestions, and the use of basic grammar, ideas and content that they will
have worked out previously. Then, there is a continuous improvement of the second draft
version. See Annexes (G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N O, P).
The process of creating the characters’ lifestyle in a comic book involved three stages:
30
Table 3. Stages of characters’ lifestyle
Stage 1:
Pre-phase
This stage, the students began looking for information about their
favorite characters, such as singers, priest, scientists and actors
etc.; they elaborated their first writing piece with some mistakes,
they worked without teacher’s help. Also, they created appropriate
scenarios using tools and different options. See annexes (G, J, K,
L, M)
Stage 2:
Midterm-
phase
In this stage, students elaborated a comic book with their favorite
characters’ lifestyles with teacher’s help; participants wrote about
qualities and personality of different characters that were chosen
by them; they looked for pictures, places, objects, things that they
need to include in their presentation. They had the opportunity to
innovate with several options, such as copy, cut, add, change size
and change colors of background and other things. In this stage,
they wrote short paragraphs with a few mistakes; learners worked
in small groups as a way to improve their work. See annexes (G,
H, I, J M, N, O).
Stage 3:
Final phase
The final stage, students wrote more about their characters, they
wrote by taking into account the rule of third person in present
tense. In this stage learners wrote in the correct form because they
applied all the instructions based on teacher’s previous feedback.
At this moment there was an improvement in writing, besides the
application of a series of options and creations of scenes with the
intervention of figures, objects, vignettes that contributed to a good
creation of ToonDoo Edu tools. See annexes (G, H ,I, J,K,L,M,N,O
and P).
Source: Author
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4.6.5. Part 5: Examining Students’ Final Writing Production.
Instrument: Final survey
Description of the activity:
The purpose of this final survey is to know participants’ progress in writing production.
The learners will be asked 5 questions related to the use of the ToonDoo tool, the type of
words they learn, and the sentences they write to produce a written text. After applying
the surveys, the information will be collected and the answers will be illustrated, using
some circle charts to see the students’ performance. Also, it will be shown through a rubric
some basic aspects like; capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, content ideas and
length which are related to the items to evaluate how well each character’s lifestyle is
written. See annex (D).
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5. LITERATURE REVIEW
For the implementation of this action research project, it is vital to consider the following
theoretical foundations: firstly, the writing process construct which exposes mainly, should
go through stages in which the students were involved in order to give account for learners
writing improvement. Secondly, sentence construction that refers to the process of writing
a text, the words are important to make possible the construction of a sentence, that is a
complex linguistic unit to express and idea. Third, language engagement through online
tools, it refers to the possibility they have to work out on internet tools; therefore, it involves
their competences to use software freely, which can be found in dynamic virtual
environments. Fourthly, virtual learning tools are related to the new versatile reality whose
contents and tools let learners tackle new scenarios to learn English as a second
language.
5.1 WRITING PROCESS
An aspect regarding writing strategies involves Kalita and Shastri, (1987). It is said that:
“the writing process method is a teaching method which stresses writing both narrative
and expository genres, were examined by several studies” (p. 2). Thus, it is emphasized
in its importance, because effects of genre play an important role in the assessment of
student writing”. Therefore, the expository texts are the transmission of information and
focus on the content, which the recipient must perceive clearly, are known as informative
in the school environment and the narrative genre is a literary genre in which the author
uses a narrator to "tell" a story, can be about real or fictitious events.
In addition, Huddleston and Pullum, (2002) expressed that “a grammar itself is divisible
into two components, syntax and morphology, syntax is concerned with the way words
combine to form phrases, clauses and sentences while morphology deals with the
formation of words” (p. 22). Learners should have basic knowledge of the English
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language grammar to produce sentences in a particular context. Moreover, the use of
vocabulary is relevant to construct sentences. It means that the selection of the words
has to do with the several meanings that words can have, depending on the category they
use (verb, adjective, noun etc). A word can be verb or adjective at the same time, for
instance the word ‘control’, I can control (verb) this situation, It have the control (noun) of
the situation. According to this concept, it is fundamental to know grammar and its
function, so students can apply this strategy to paraphrase and strengthen their writing
basic skills.
According to Barnet, (1989) “A writing process should go through stages in which the
students were involved in order to give account for participants writing improvement” (p.
25). Hence, they need these stages as fundamental part to strengthen the writing
production.
Table 4. Chart of the stages of process writing approach, adapted from (Silva, 1990)
Pre-
writing
This describes the purpose of writing, to order thoughts that are generated
through images, reading, searching for words, free-associating and
engendering ideas.
Drafting This has to do with a provisional part of writing in which ideas are
organized and written up into a closely coherent draft. Topics are
generated through free writing.
Feedback At this stage, the writer receives the most guidance on how to improve
his/her writing skills. Through the questions and comments raised by the
instructor or peers, that are analyzed by the writer.
Revising It means re-writing the paper, building on what has been done, in order to
make it stronger. Revision, adds coherence, variety, transition, emphasis
and details.
Editing It is useful to check for and correct errors in grammar, punctuation,
sentence structure, vocabulary and spelling.
Publishing In this stage, students share their final versions of writing with an audience
which in this case would be the classroom.
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Source: Author
In this chart, it shows step by step that the writing process involves basic moments: these
steps. In each stage, the researcher can observe and describes purposes of writing, and
topics are generated.
Writing in English as a foreign language is an important process that involve some stages:
pre-writing, writing, and post writing. Emig’s, (1983) description of composing as
‘recursive’, rather than as an uninterrupted, left-to right Pre-writing! Writing! Post-writing
activity, this paradigm sees writing as essentially individual problem-solving. According to
this investigation the students follow these stages to make possible the production of a
text in the first stage, they generate thoughts and ideas to write what they want to express,
they look for information in accordance with their preferences, experiences and context,
pre writing, topics and ideas. In second stage, they write ideas to produce the first draft
by writing freely. Then, learners receive the most guidance on how to improve their first
draft. It is made by using some guide questions and classmates’ suggestions, they make
corrections related to grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, vocabulary and spelling.
In the final stage, they share their final versions and publish them on the internet.
The stages mentioned above are crucial for the students to write a text since each one
has to do with specific activities that help they write a text. Nthiga, (2003) affirms that
the input provided by teachers with regard to writing in the ESL classes,
explores the steps in the writing process followed by the learners, uncovers
teacher feedback provision practices and finally surveys learners’ reactions
to the writing lessons and to the feedback. (p. 25)
The teachers’, students’, and partners’ feedback facilitate the process of improving the
first draft since they receive new visions about the written text and the possible changes
to make.
In the same way, there are virtual tools that can motivate students to write, Jones, (2007)
affirms:
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Weblogs have become a potential tool to assist in the delivery of instructions
for writing; the new generation of young people are familiar with technology
and they can explore versatile ways to construct a text using pictures,
available information from the internet. Also, the word processor permits to
carry out activities like loading information, copying, inserting, adding,
saving, editing and publishing, so that, they see the process of writing as
something amusing and reachable. (p. 34)
5.2 SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION
According to the participants need, special attention is required in the use of the third
person, that is why we consider significant grammatical contributions like Krashen, (1982)
“English verbal agreement is commonly described as “easy” and the 3rd person singular
– “s” is considered to be one of the most understandable concepts for learning English
grammar”. However, participants of this project have difficulties in using the third person
appropriately; It was found in the artifacts that they omitted putting -s and do not know the
rules for verbs like study (studies), teach (teaches), play (plays). So, that it is important to
promote the writing characters’ lifestyle, through ToonDoo Edu Tools, where the students
had the opportunity to choose scenario and images they needed to write, for example a
descriptive text of preferred character.
Another great contribution about sentences was proposed by Fronkin, (2000), he argues
that the sentence is included into a part of language. Hence, language is defined as a
linguistic system that let learners to communicate their ideas using sentences that are
produced according to their communicative necessities, interests and expectations. For
example, in a descriptive text, they could mention some details related to what they knew
about a character for example where he/she comes from, age, nationality, strengths and
weaknesses.
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The process of writing in English as foreign language involve some difficulties related to:
lack of enough vocabulary, spelling, basic grammar to write simple sentences,
punctuation, content, ideas, capital letters. Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to have
the knowledge about the steps to write a text, the strategies to motivate learners to write,
the use of the appropriate technology to take advantage of the tools that are free on the
internet. However, learners from elementary school had been taught by teachers who
have not studied the language. It affects student’s English performance in developing the
four skills that are required to communicate ideas efficiently.
The sentence construction elements are the subject and predicate. A subject can be a
noun or pronoun, and the predicate is a verb that expresses the subject actions or state
of being. For example, Philanthropist donated millions to charity Philanthropist is the
subject and donated is the verb that makes part of the predicate. To make students to
write a meaningful sentence require to go beyond isolated words towards a
communicative situation where the words can go together to make sense.
When they write a coherent sentence, they will have advanced to produce more complex
speech units like a paragraph, an article a report or an essay. These types of texts have
to do with cultural and social aspects that demand learners’ broader knowledge. Many
learners approach writing by retrieving any information from memory that is topic
appropriate and writing down, with each preceding phrase or sentence stimulating the
generation of the next idea (McCutchen, 1998, Scardamalia and Bereiter, 1986).
Celce, Murcia and Freeman, (1998) explain that there are three components of language:
sound, structure, and vocabulary, those was should be learned by people in doing
communication. In the process of writing a text, the words are important to make possible
the construction of a sentence, that is a complex linguistic unit to express and idea.
Learners should have a basic notion of the components of a sentence (subject + verb
+complement) to organize the information logically. Applying grammatical concepts,
students can use grammatical strategies in order to elaborate the characters' lifestyle
using the appropriate language. However, it is not enough to have a basic grammar
37
knowledge but also it is important to learners to have real and authentic situations to
write. In this way, there will be stronger incentives to communicate their ideas in a foreign
language.
Quirk and Greembaum, (1990) cited by Picón states: “There are also some base forms
that are considered to be irregular as they change the form when adding the morpheme
–s. E.g. do-does, try- tries, have-has or the –s form of the verb BE: is” (p. 4). In this way,
it is conceived a correct application of conjugated verbs that students use in their
sentences. Thus, learners should be careful at the moment of writing in present simple
tense. Having the habit of writing regularly can let they to add -s/es/ies/ to the third person
without effort that is to incorporate this rule naturally; in this case this rule is the
fundamental basis, which allows improving the deficiency present in the learners of this
research.
About sentences correction, it was relevant to say that peer feedback correction makes
learners to reflect about grammar rules to write well-formed sentences. They helped each
other to see where mistakes are, and to know what the correct forms are. Moreover, this
strategy enhances students’ vision of writing especially, they could increase the ability to
detect mistakes and suggest their own solutions to overcome grammar difficulties. These
strategies were important as a part to improve the writing production.
5.3 VIRTUAL LEARNING TOOLS
The use of internet as a helpful tool, specifically as a virtual tool was an instrument that
the teacher can use in their daily class. Then, it becomes a stimulating form to teach
English language. These are some statements regarding this theory:
Fernandez, (2009) “Virtual refers to everything that not even existing physically, has
similar characteristics to its real reference and it even causes the actual effects this would
produce” (p. 34). From this perspective, simulation and virtual learning environments as
learning tools in teaching, were the new pedagogical methods which enable positive
38
changes in teaching where students could develop their cognitive abilities, seeing
another way to learn in a more playful, recreational and enjoyable way for them.
In Arbeláez, (2010) we can identify that “virtual environments facilitate learning because
they are used to recreate specific situations, allowing the design of humanizing interactive
processes with educational purposes” (p. 115). Johnson and Patterson, (2007) (as cited
in Arbeláez, 2010) “Indicate that students can make mistakes in these environments and
they can practice as much as they need to achieve the desired competencies, without
harming any human being” (p. 22). Thus, these environments encourage they to create,
design organize their information (the main task of this investigation). They can make
changes if they want to organize their ideas, design the best sequence of pictures and
choose the appropriate text to express a content. Even so, they do not give up the activity
when they make a mistake because the digital tool offered options to correct without
thinking that they have failed it irreparably.
Through using virtual tools have some advantages, previous studies indicate that
appropriate use of technology requires more time for teacher planning and skill
development than traditional techniques (Schrum & Fitzgerald, 1994). It involves teachers
training in using virtual tools, they must have a basic knowledge about free software and
didactic procedures to implement a virtual tool. It takes time to plan the activities, to
implement them and to give the feedback promptly. Enhanced technical training programs
combined with extensive technical support assists teachers in incorporating technology
into their classrooms (Bradshaw, 2002). Teachers’ experiences with the use of
technology in the classroom can help them to consolidate their competencies and find out
innovative strategies to teach English as a foreign language. Virtual Tool offers the option
for teachers to change the traditional method of teaching English to a current strategy
that let students to explore new virtual scenarios that motivate them to use English as
modern language in a changeable technological world.
The use of online learning tools must fit instructional goals (Strehle, Whatley, & Kurz,
2002) and fit the needs and learning styles of users (Leopold, 2000). In this way, they
39
argue instructions should be appropriate for some purposes and goals as it is learning
the English language to improve their writing from simple sentences. Additionally, online
tools provides a satisfactory environment for learning.
5.4 LANGUAGE ENGAGEMENT THROUGH ONLINE TOOLS
As a stimulation to write, it is necessary to bear in mind the influence of online tools as an
innovative way to learn another language like English.
Prensky, (2001) confirms that we are in the digital age in which students are connected
all the time with tablets, mobile, social networks, chats, WhatsApp, video games, making
an environment in which most of the time using many applications on any device is
comprised but not all applications are known by participants according to the postulate.
In terms of the process of writing, digital tools facilitate students’ engagement in writing
production because it is multisensory (hear, see, read, touch, feel), striking, and easy to
use. Learners are familiar with multimedia options and they become skillful in learning
how to take advantage of the tool for writing a descriptive text.
The concept of digital natives is related to a new generation of the students that have
been born surrounded by diverse tools that provide new scenarios to interact with images,
sounds and text, beyond the traditional way of communicating ideas. It implies to develop
digital skills to master free software, apps, and blogs. Exploring diverse internet
possibilities is an issue of developing creativity to find the best solution of particular
situation, for example, writing a text, play a game, send pictures, share information.
Conole and Alevizou, (2010) point out “the use of the Internet has evolved from Web 1.0
characterized by 3 R’s (reading, receiving and researching) to Web 2.0 characterized by
3 C’s (creating, contributing and collaborating)” (p. 14). From the writing process
perspective, the students engage with writing skills, for this they apply an online tool
whose benefits were positive at the level of Development of basic writing skills. So, it was
40
important to develop creativity, imagination and cooperative work which could be done
thanks to virtual Tool as facilitator teaching-learning strategy.
According to Stocker, (2011) “the uses of ToonDoo (interactive and digital Web 2.0 tool)
allow students to make use of vocabulary more productively and to make use of the time
spend in class more collaboratively effective”. (p.16)
What competences are necessary for virtual learning?
Kovács, (2014). Affirms: “this course introduces participants to the basic aspects of using
learning technologies in the English language classroom in an efficient engaging and
effective way” (p. 11). With this confirm technology is the best way to teach because the
students like to play, to work and to share information with this tool.
Taking advantage, the purpose of the Ministry of National Education about Information
and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are the set of resources, tools, equipment,
computer programs, applications, networks and media that allow the compilation,
processing, storage and transmission of information such as voice, data, text, video and
images.
Nowadays, the applicability of ICTs is one of the most appropriate teaching strategies, so
the State emphasizes the use of ICT in the classroom as a dynamic and interactive tool
that encourages the acquisition of knowledge involving the skills development and skills
to use the information.
“In education ICT is an assisting tool. ICT is used as a tool for example while making
assignments, collecting data and documentation, communication and conducting
research. ICT is a medium of teaching and learning” (Malik, 2005, p. 3). Thus, the
importance of ICT teaching and more in our school as a sign of progress and educational
change being focused on the positive attitudes that students have to technology
especially in the creation of virtual Tool confirmed.
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Being immersed in the use of tools such as multimedia tools offer many opportunities to
construct knowledge and pursue authentic learning and can be great tools for technology
integration. Therefore, the use of the Internet has evolved from Web 1.0 characterized by
3 R’s (reading, receiving and researching) to Web 2.0 characterized by 3 C’s (creating,
contributing and collaborating) (Eteokleous & Pavlou, 2011). With these statements it is
found that with the advancement of these tools can integrate technology into teaching
and learning at a higher level is increased, thus is strengthened to be an advantage using
the virtual tool as facilitator teaching-learning process in students.
Young participants prefer the application of various multimedia and virtual tools that
provide every opportunity to take advantage of learners attitudes as a means of a
different, innovative, and motivating teaching for students in this new era. Some authors
express the advantage to implement these multimedia tools in the Web 2.0 that grant
easier and improved access to providing m-Previous research in using multimedia 2.0
tools (Vajoczki, Watt, Marquis & Holshausen, 2010; Heo, 2011) “has shown increased
student’s engagement and perceived usefulness when integrated in the curriculum”.
William and Russell, (2013) asserts that “ToonDoo (http: //www.toondoo.com) describes
itself as the fastest way to create a cartoon. The side includes a wide array of flexible
templates to support choice and personalized learning” (p.6). Therefore, participants take
advantages of the text and images in producing their own individual characters. Also,
learners can work together on characters, socializing their written production and make
comments on their classmates’ texts.
Moreover, as established Bustamante, Hurlbut and Moeller, (2012):
ToonDoo proved be a valuable feature of the technology as students who
are not so good at drawing their ideas with paper and pen, because they
feel more comfortable creating their comics using characters from the online
library located in ToonDoo. (p.8)
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Thus, in this research proposal, ToonDoo is related to a web 2.0 tool that permit students
to elaborate comics easily. Having a store of images is useful to facilitate the illustrations
of their comics. This could be used by learners and teachers and also has a store of
images.
5.5 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Those are some studies that have analyzed the implementation of virtual tools in
improving writing:
In Wilson, (2013) It is stated that “The creation of comics allows students to develop visual
literacy, since they must express their thoughts in the form of images and then in the form
of script to associate them with texts” (p. 4). From this conception, it is established more
importance of applying a virtual tool like comic book that stimulates the students’ writing
process and creates favorable environments to intent to communicate their ideas in
written way: text and images to produce short characters’ lifestyles.
Another study which contributes to the improvement of writing with virtual tools: Purcell,
Buchanan and Friedrich, (2013) here it is proposed that
A survey of 2,462 Advanced Placement (AP) and National Writing Project
(NWP) teachers finds that digital technologies are shaping student writing
in myriad ways and have also become helpful tools for teaching writing to
middle and high school students. These teachers see the internet and
digital technologies such as social networking sites, cell phones and texting,
generally facilitating teens’ personal expression and creativity, broadening
the audience for their written material, and encouraging teens to write more
often in more formats than may have been the case in prior generations. (p.
8)
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Thus, in this era, the best way to teach English specially to motivate writing is by using
a digital Tool to elaborate, create an apply different options when writing in English.
Fageeh, (2011) examined the use of a blog in an intermediate level EFL college writing
class and its effect upon students as well as its effect on developing positive attitudes
towards writing compared with oral presentation traditions of writing instruction. The
researcher employed a triangulated research approach, involving an experimental
research method and a descriptive research design to examine these effects of blogging
on writing proficiency and attitudes. Fourth-year participants of the English Department
(n = 25 for the experimental group, and 25 for the control group), College of Languages
and Translation, King Khalid University in Abha, enrolled in the English 217 (Writing IV)
class during the Second Semester 2010 and their instructor comprised subjects for this
investigation. The findings indicated that they perceived Weblog as a tool for the
development of their English, in terms of their writing proficiency and attitudes towards
writing”. It is confirmed that the help of blogs and virtual tools are motivating elements
towards students to reinforce writing and creative designs by the intervention of
technology in their classes.
Coniam, (2008) researched on authentic writing through the use of wikis by Year 7 ESL
learners in a secondary school in Hong Kong. Those wikis were used as a collaborative
writing platform to produce – with minimal input and support from their teachers – wiki
content that describes the different facilities and features of their school. Over a period of
two months, as an integral part of their ESL homework, groups of participants designed
and put together, through a series of successive drafts, a description of their secondary
school which they had joined from primary school a few months previously.
Likewise, teachers have opportunity to use different options to motivate students to write
and create, especially in the elaboration of characters’ lifestyles with virtual tools.
Another research example implemented with ToonDoo Edu tool in a research project is
stated by González, (2017):
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The objective of this paper is to determine how the implementation of visual
literacy tools, such as comics created through ToonDoo Edu tool (digital
tool), evidences in an EFL group of seventh graders at a Cajicá School to
use vocabulary with emphasis in action verbs. This document explains an
action research proposal with implementation; the process involved
diagnostic tests in written and oral forms, a journal, visual literacy activities
involving a comic design, an interview and rubrics for data collection. The
results demonstrated that visual literacy tools such as comic created in
ToonDoo evidence the use of vocabulary (p. 3).
This is a good example when students using ToonDoo Edu tool feel very motivated to
write and create their own styles and improve especially when using simple present (in
third person).
Cordero and Otaíza, (2015) in their study mention that
Most books available in digital format today are very similar in structure to
books that exist in print format because the digital functionality, they offer is
very similar to the features of interactive, multimodal print books that have
existed for over a century. The one digital model that represents a paradigm
shift is that of digital fan fiction, in which readers create spinoffs. (p. 22)
The writing process involves three basic moments: pre-writing, while writing and post
writing. Pre-writing moment consists of the activation of learner’s background knowledge,
the previous ideas, they have about a particular topic, experiences, and expectations.
The second moment has to do with students’ activities to write a text, based on the outline
they defined before starting to write of their favorite books with different media online.
Given the need for improvement in reading and writing skills among elementary scholars,
and the research supporting the objective of strengthening the link between reading and
writing, the aim of this study is to propose and examine how digital tools may build on the
45
concept of literary interactivity”. This is another example how digital tool can improve
writing skills. In this case, elaborating characters’ lifestyles.
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6. DATA ANALYSIS
There is a different tradition in the literature on social science research methods that
advocates the use of multiple methods. This form of research strategy is usually
described as one of convergent methodology, multimethod/ multitrait (Campbell & Fiske,
1959), convergent validation or, what has been called "triangulation" (Webb, et al., 1966,
p. 2). These various notions share the conception that qualitative and quantitative
methods should be viewed as complementary rather than rival camps. In fact, most
textbooks underscore the desirability of mixing methods given the strengths and
weaknesses found in single method designs.
Based on Cohen and Manion, (1986) two methods are complementary and they are
useful at the moment of triangulation in order to have more solid information that can be
carried out to establish, how the students use ToonDoo Edu tools to strength their basic
writing skills.
Smith and Ransbottom, (2000) establishes that “content-analysis as a technique used to
obtain specific information of verbal material usually by systematically and objectively
identifying specified characteristics of the material” (p.12). In this sense the students’
writing production will be analyzed to determine if they were able to use the basic
grammar, word spelling, punctuation, capital letters, and appropriate vocabulary.
6.1 DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURE
Taking into account that the surveys involve questions related to the use of the ToonDoo
tool and the students’ knowledge grammar is necessary to make the analysis by following
some steps which permit to distinguish what they think about the tool, the participants’
writing performance, and what the teacher researcher observed in the process of
students’ writing production.
47
6.1.1 Analysis of the Pre-Surveys 1 and 2. In the pre-stage phase, students were asked
to answer the pre-surveys and it was found that they had difficulties in using third person
to describe characters and explore their favorite character’s lifestyle; they were trained to
use the tool appropriately.
Analysis of the Pre-survey 1.
For a pre-survey session, two instruments were designed and applied; the pre-survey 1
consisted of five questions to know how learners use internet. The pre-survey 2 intended
to define students’ knowledge about basic grammar on the use of the third person in
English (10 questions: 3 with multiple choice type, and 3 with sentence correction, and 4
to make negative sentences). For the midterm survey, they were asked three questions
related to their perception on the use of the ToonDoo Edu tool and the writing production
advancement. For the final survey, they were asked two questions to determine how
useful was tool to strengthen their writing production and what they learned from the tool
options to create a characters’ lifestyle.
The following figures will show the analysis on information gathered from instruments
applied (surveys, interviews and stages of writing process):
Figure 2. ¿Tienes frecuente acceso a los computadores?
Source: Author
100%
Computadores
1. Tienes frecuenteacceso acomputadores
Si 10
No
48
100% of students had access to internet which was important for the use of the digital
tool and they felt very motivated to write.
Figure 3. ¿Tienes frecuente acceso a computadores?
Source: Author
70% of the students had access to internet what was useful to implement ToonDoo tool.
However, they mentioned that they used internet from school. 20% had computer at home
taking into account that they lived in rural zone.10% use computer of their friends.
Figure 4. Internet Access
Source: Author
Donde: Casa20%
Donde: Colegio
70%
En casa de un familiar o un amigo
10%
1. Donde
Donde:
Donde: Casa
90%
10%
2. Acesso a Internet
Si
No
49
90% students had acess to internet in their high school, so it was a good opportunity to
implement the project because they had the option to create their own characters’
lifestyles. 10% didn’t have access to internet.
Figure 5. Enumerar cual actividad es más o menos frecuente
Source: Author
The students used internet for social networks 54%, it implied that they liked interacting
with friends virtually, what was helpful for the implementation of the tool. 15% spend time
for entertainment. So that, they enjoyed having fun. Even so, 23% took advantage of the
internet resources to do their homework. There was an appropriate environment to
motivate they explored ToonDoo Edu Tool to write, and 8% used internet to send and
receive e-mails.
8%
54%
23%
15%
Usos de Internet
3 Enumerar Cuál actividades mas frecuente.Acceso a redes sociales
Para hacer consultas ytareas del colegio.Enviar y recibir correosElectrónicosEntretenimiento.
Leer
50
Figure 6. ¿Conoces alguna herramienta virtual para elaborar libros de caricaturas
virtuales?
Source: Author
60% of the students were not aware of the use of virtual tools in the creation of characters’
lifestyle because they preferred to use social networks. However, 40% had explored other
tools what it’s useful to implement ToonDoo EduTool.
Figure 7. ¿Estarías interesado en conocer una herramienta para crear tus propios libros
de caricaturas virtuales para mejorar tu inglés?
Source: Author
40%
60%
Virtuales.
Si
No
100%
Propios libros de caricaturas virtuales para mejorar tu inglés?
Si
No
51
According to the results, students all agreed that they liked working with computers; they
would like to know a virtual platform to learn how to create comics and character’s
lifestyle, They were interested in issues related to technology.
Figure 8. Escoja la respuesta correcta
Source: Author
The percentage of participants who had difficulties in adding –s in the third person was
the vast majority of students; most of them present troubles in applying grammatical rules
because they did not identify their functions within the sentence. It is therefore essential
to improve writing through characters’ lifestyles.
Three multiple-choice questions were asked the learners to find out how well they
conjugated the verb in the third person. The right answers were 1(b), 2 (a), 3 (c). In the
first question, the graph shows that 60% answer correctly. However, in the second
question only 20% knew the right answer. In third question, 40% was answered
incorrectly. In general, there was a large number of students who did not answer correctly.
0
2
4
6
8
10
Escoja la respuesta correcta
she like to listenmusic.
He works in thefactory.
She swims in thepool.
He play soccer
52
Figure 9. Complete the sentences with a verb in the correct form.
Source: Author
According to the figure, the answer b the 60% answered correctly. And 20%
demonstrated several mistakes to conjugate in third person. 10% chose conjugation with
going and the other 10% presented difficulties with conjugating others verbs.
Figure 10. Complete the sentences with a verb in the correct form.
Source: Author
20%
60%
10%
10%
1. On Saturday Jack___(go) to the cinema with his friends.
a
b
c
d
20%
60%
10%
10%
2. My husband never _______(watch) t.v.
a
b
c
d
53
In this question, the option b 60% students answered incorrectly and only 20% answered
well, and other 20% needed to improve the use of the third person.
Figure 11. Complete the sentences with a verb in the correct form.
Source: Author
The answers in numeral 1, 2 and 3, the 60% of students continue to made mistakes
adding the s in the third person, 10% answered correctly, and other 30% continue making
mistakes. Therefore, it was necessary to implement effective strategies with virtual means
that helped participants to improve their grammatical difficulties.
Journal Analysis. In the implementation of the pre-survey, I explained to them they
were asked to answer some related questions.
Based on the results obtained in the pre-survey, it is important to highlight in this first
moment I started working on those instruments that I needed to apply in order to get
results to help me to see how students strengthen their basic writing skills which is the
ability everybody needs to develop when learning a foreign language.
When applying the pre-survey 1 and pre-survey 2, I followed some steps in the
introduction of the pre-surveys. First, I explained the importance the Internet, second
30%
60%
10%
3. She usually _____(eat) dinner at about seven o´clock in the evening
a
b
c
d
54
basic writing. It also talked to them about pre-surveys and those items they needed to
do in two parts, because the pre-survey 1 has six questions and pre-survey 2 has ten
questions, filling the gaps with a multiple choice answer system. The questions were
given in Spanish.
While students were working on the pre-survey 1, it was observed that some of them
answer well, the evidence of this is observed through learner’s wrong answer of the pre-
survey 2. Thus, it can be said that it was not easy for participants to work in this pre-
survey2 because many of them were not able to understand the questions.
After checking the pre-surveys and observing student’s results, It can say that they
performed better in some parts of this, for example, they worked better on pre-survey 1
questions 1 to 6, they had to choose the correct answer according to the speakers said
in each conversation, the pre-survey 2 participants had problems with the answer
because they didn’t know the grammar, but It could notice that the worst part in the pre-
survey when they had to fill the complete information.at the end of the exam, I started
asking participants for the most difficult part on the pre-survey, so it was confirmed for
them that the most difficult part of working was correct mistakes and make these
sentences negative because they did not understand what the speaker was talking about
and it was the main reason, then it means that they need to work on more writing activities
in which they have to look for specific information.
Pre-survey 2
About the three questions where learners had to correct the mistakes, the following chart
shows the results. The table below shows the students’ answers and their difficulties to
write and apply rules of third person.
55
Table 5. Sentences applied using third person.
Sentences Correct Writing Incorrect Writing
Correct the mistakes. 2 8
Make these sentences
negative
1 9
Source: Author
For this part of the survey one of the variables to check out how students used the third
person, they had to rewrite.
100% of participants showed that they had some problems with the writing and application
of the third person. So, it showed the needs to implement a new strategy as ToonDoo
Edu tools.
English language teaching in rural areas is developed with some difficulties for learners,
given that it did not have the greatest relevance to their learning because they did not
acknowledged the importance in their lives. However, there are innovative ways to
improve the English proficiency level. Therefore the needed analysis allows to observe
existing shortcomings in order to look for solutions that contribute to a continuous
improvement of language strategies that were applied. With the implementation of this
analysis, it may provide assistance to some student’s grammatical level. Collecting
information served as the foundation for the creation of new strategies to be implemented
with surveyed students.
56
Figure 12. Pre-Survey
57
Source: Author
58
6.1.2 Analysis of the Midterm Survey. For the midterm survey, students were asked six
rating questions related to their perception of the ToonDoo Edu Tool and one question
where they had to describe what they thought about the tool. Finally, they were asked to
write four sentences about the Characters lifestyle they have been working out. See
annex (C).
The following graphs let us to know the rates obtained from each question:
Figure 13. ¿Qué tanto te motivas cuando elaboras tus diseños de tiras cómicas en
ToonDoo?
Source: Author
Before knowing about ToonDoo Edu Tool, 90% of the students were pleased with the
design and work that is done with the ToonDoo Edu Tool and more with the design of
characters’ lifestyles, the other 10 is not so motivated in the development of ToonDoo
Edu Tool. Therefore, it had to look for more strategies. In the same way, the totality of
students wanted to work more in the creation of characters’ lifestyles with ToonDoo Edu
Tools.
410%
590%
¿Qué tanto te motivas cuando elaboras tus diseños de tiras comicas en Toondoo?
1
2
3
4
5
59
Figure 14. ¿La herramienta virtual ToonDoo te ha ayudado a mejorar la escritura de las
frases en tercera persona en inglés?
Source: Author
70% of the students said that ToonDoo Edu Tool contributed to improve the writing. 30%
did not consider so. However, it was remarkable to mention that this perception increased
its percentage in comparison with the pre-surving first question answer (4%) where they
were asked about how they use internet. That is to say, that they were more familiar with
the tool. According to perception of the researcher, they showed improving the writing
despite of this tool, because they wrote more about their favorite character.
Figure 15. ¿Crees que los libros virtuales son una forma llamativa de expresar tus ideas?
Source: Author
470%
530%
¿Las herramienta virtual TOONDOO te ha ayudado a mejorar la escritura de las frases
en tercera persona en inglés?
1
2
3
4
5
450%
550%
¿Crees que los libros virtuales son una forma llamativa de expresar tus ideas?
1
2
3
4
5
60
A part of the students (50%) agree that by applying virtual tools they could express their
likes, desires and organize them to their liking. Others 50 believed that it was not a good
way to express their ideas, implying looking for continuous improvement strategies to
develop the ToonDoo Edu tools.
Figure 16. ¿La herramienta ToonDoo te ha motivado para aprender inglés en forma más
divertida?
Source: Author
90% of students were motivated to learn English in the use of Virtual media, interactive
options and interfaces allow participants to motivate themselves in creative work, and
even more the environment had options in English that allow them to reinforce the English
language. The other 10 were not motivated in learning the English language, being
necessary to detect what would be the shortcomings for that motivation.
10%
90%
¿La herramienta TOONDOO te ha motivado para aprender inglés de una forma mas
divertida?
1
2
3
4
5
61
Figure 17. ¿Cuándo diseñas y escribes en ToonDoo tienes presente reglas
gramaticales de la tercera persona?
Source: Author
All students had grammatical rules present in creating small paragraphs and the
consultation and elaboration of characters’ lifestyles on their favorite characters, that is
why the tool had allowed them to improve the application of grammar in simple sentences.
Figure 18. ¿Consideras apropiado implementar el uso de herramientas virtuales en las
clases para que estas sean más motivadoras?
Source: Author
100%
¿Cuándo diseñas y escribes en TOONDOO tienes presente reglas gramaticales de la
tercera persona?
1
2
3
4
5
100%
¿Consideras apropiado implementar el uso de herramientas virtuales en las
clases para que estas sean mas motivadoras?
1
2
3
4
5
62
All students were sure that virtual environments allow them to learn in a motivating
environment. The graphic illustrates the opinions of learners about perceptions about
when using ToonDoo Edu tools in applying the correct conjugation of simple present in
third person way for the elaboration of their characters’ lifestyles. Around 90% got right
answers.
As a strategy for students to experience satisfaction when managing the implementation
of ToonDoo Edu Tools, the survey could prove progress and difficulties present on the
design and development with conjugation of verbs in singular form (third person).
According to the analysis of the first question, they were motivated to design using comics
90%, as chosen according to their likes and for them is great and fun to design, their
mood towards work in elaborating of sentences in third person. 70% of learners answered
that this tool helps them to make better writing, and another 30% said they strongly agree
with the implementation of the ToonDoo Edu tools.
Regarding the stage phase, it was necessary to use the rubric of Levels of writing (see
Annex E) that includes four basic aspects: capitalization and punctuation, grammar and
spelling, content and ideas, and length. To score students’ writing production the
categories are: unsatisfactory, need improvement, good and excellent.
6.1.3 Analysis of the Final Survey. Students were asked two questions to determine how
useful was that tool to make better their writing production and what they learned from
the options provided by the tool aimed to create characters’ lifestyles.
63
Figure 19. Pienso que mi trabajo con los libros virtuales fue:
Source: Author
80% of the students had a positive position in front of the work with virtual tools, being a
preponderant factor that contributes to the good implementation of the Research Project.
the other 20 thought that the work was good for learning the English language and even
more in the creation of characters’ lifestyles.
Figure 20. El uso de los libros virtuales para la elaboración de oraciones en tercera
persona fue
Source: Author
80%
20%
Pienso que mi trabajo con los libros virtuales fue:
E
B
R
M
80%
20%
Mi progreso en el inglés utilizando ToonDoo fue:
E
B
R
M
64
80% of the students considered they got great progress in writing sentences referred to
the creation of characters’ lifestyle according to their favorite ones. The other 20% of the
participants thought that the use of ToonDoo Edu Tools was good.
Figure 21. Marca con una X cuáles de las siguientes acciones aprendiste a hacer en
ToonDoo.
Source: Author
As a result of the progress of learners in the development of virtual tools and the
application of the third person most students noticed a great advance. According to the
analysis of the first question, they were motivated so they thought that the work with
ToonDoo Edu tools.
The table below shows the second step, the advances to elaborate sentences with
characters’ lifestyles.
8,48,68,8
99,29,49,69,810
10,2
Descargar ypegar
imágenes,guardándolasen el ToonDoo
Insertarimágenes
prediseñadasen cada hoja
del libro virtual.
Diseñarimágenes
propias creadasa tu gusto.
Utilizar iconosde acuerdo a sufunción escritos
en inglés.
Elaborarcambios de
tamaño a lasimágenescreadas.
65
6.1.4 Analysis of Students’ Artifacts (Writing Production).
Figure 22. Writing production.
Source: Author
Table 6. Student Characters’ lifestyles: writing extension, common used verbs and
mistakes
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Writing production
Never Seldom Sometimes Often Almost always
Characters’
lifestyles
Numbers
of Bullets
The most use verbs Most common mistakes
1 Shakira 14 Have, sing, walk, love, like,
ride, share, eat, dance,
wear.
Many, through a bridge,
share-wears, at many,
rides a boat.
2 Fanny Lu 11 Like, use, dance, wear,
travel, eat, drink, go, does,
sing, help, choose, visit,
have, use, train.
Many.
66
Characters
lifestyle
Numbers
of Bullets
The most use verbs Most common mistakes
3 Cristiano
Ronaldo
10 Like, relax, wins, receive,
walk, have, stay, go, wear,
travel, listen, do, swim,
share, play, practice, eat,
love, have.
Cristiano travel
4 Maluma 20
Like, travel, design, relax,
has, cook, play, do, live,
eat, sing, drink, wear,
watch, love, go, share, win,
wear, love, have, take.
Maluma like, Maluma sing,
Maluma love, other
singers, he sing, use
Google Translator.
5 Martin
Garrix
10 Love, like, listen, start, buy,
give, work, eat, win,
become, decide, move,
consider, announce.
Martin Garrix studying.
6 James
Rodriguez
11 Drink, practice, have, like,
go, win, belong, play, love,
listen, know, dance, study,
live, eat.
7 Romeo
Santos
13 Become, share, begin, like,
wear, play, have, eat,
record, sing, have, love,
write, dress, win, run.
He begin to sing
He like to wear
Romeo like to play.
8 Albert
Einstein
14 Love, like, play, read,
create, get, die, publish,
investigate, explain,
smoke, proclaim,
67
Source: Author
Regarding the final stage, the teacher researcher applied the rubric again to determine
students’ progress in writing their preferred processes. The information related to what
they wrote in the final version of character’s lifestyle created the tool to score with
parameters to provide and set the level of advance and needs as capitalization and
punctuation, grammar and spelling, content / ideas and length take into account
unsatisfactory, needs improvement, good and excellent.
In the following chart below, it can be seen the number of bullets, the most verbs using
and the most common mistakes made by the students.
With this table, it was possible to observe the mistakes made and the similarities between
the verbs used in the elaboration of the characters’ lifestyles. This same table is applied
to the middle and the final phase.
As a result, students elaborated their own characters’ lifestyles, someone wrote a few
bullets, one learner created more bullets, it showed that they used common verbs. Also,
they had mistaken in the elaboration of their tasks. Just a learner showed good results.
Characters
lifestyle
Numbers
of Bullets
The most use verbs Most common mistakes
9 Papa 12 Speak, pray, live, love,
want, celebrate, help,
belong, consider, accept,
arrive, eat, use.
House the papa, written in
Spanish.
10 Karol G 9 Show, begin, make, like,
sing, write, eat, have, visit,
wear, Paint, share.
68
Figure 23. Final Survey
.
Source: Author
The experience with the creation of student's characters’ lifestyles with the use of the
ToonDoo Edu Tool had positive implications both in the improvement of the writing and
the correct implementation of the third person. A more assertive interpretation is with the
69
application of a rubric whose parameters allow determining the advance values of the
process of application of the project. Fernández, (2009) states: “learning tools in teaching
are the new training scenarios that demand pedagogical and technological challenges”
(p. 34). So, it was demonstrated that with the implementation of a virtual tool like the
ToonDoo Edu tool, the students make better their level of writing.
Relating all characters’ lifestyles elaborated by students, the majority achieved good
results at level of capitalization and punctuation, where effectiveness was demonstrated
at the beginning and end of the sentences; regarding grammar and spelling results were
at a good level inferring that a degree of improvement is lacking. However, grammar is
enriched as the students worked on the elaboration of the characters’ lifestyles from their
first designs to the last ones. With the content and ideas, they consulted the life and habits
of their characters, detail by detail, and these data was used for their didactic creations in
combination of good designs and drawings appropriate to the theme. Fronkin, (2000)
argues that “the sentence is included into a part of language” (p. 32). Celce, Murcia and
Freeman (1998), explain that there are three components of language, they are sound,
structure, and vocabulary, and those are should be learned by people in doing
communication”. With these contributions, the grammar's involvement in writing was
strengthened and how they with this experience strengthen their shortcomings as they
elaborated the characters’ lifestyles.
In the same way it was observed that, as they were elaborating the characters’ lifestyles,
they increased their level of creativity when making sentences, this being a positive and
preponderant factor in the progress of their writing, especially in the improvement of third
person use. (See annexes G-P).
According to Krashen, (1982), “English verbal agreement is commonly described as
“easy” (p. 85) and the 3rd person singular – s is considered to be one of the most
understandable concepts to learn of English grammar.
70
According to the determined objectives, students with the application and creation of
characters’ lifestyle with ToonDoo Edu Tool felt more motivated to learn and to write about
characters’ lifestyles. 100 % of participants showed that they had very serious problems
with writing and application of the third person. So, it showed the need to implement a
new strategy as ToonDoo Edu tools. With the implementation of this analysis, it may
provide assistance to some student’s grammatical level. With the collection of information
served as a basis for the creation of new strategies to be implemented with the surveyed
students.
6.1.5 Analysis of the Students’ Artifacts (Final Writing Production)
Figure 24. Sentences
Source: Author
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Sentences
Never Seldom Sometimes Often Almost always
71
We can see from the graph that 8 students 80% out of 10 were excellent, and 2 students
20% were good. These results showed advance in their writing, there being a very positive
result in the application of virtual tool,
80% of they answered that their progress in English was excellent, 20% was good; this
result showed that the interest in improving English was high. In the elaboration of the
characters’ lifestyles with the use of the options of the ToonDoo Edu tool, they additionally
could take actions like downloading and pasting images, saving them in the ToonDoo
Edu Tools, inserting clipart in each sheet, designing their own images. 90% of the
students used icons according to their function written in English being a great advance
for the elaboration of sentences in simple present in the third person.
In conclusion, the progress of participants was quite satisfactory through the process of
elaboration the character’s lifestyle, they conjugated the verbs in third person correctly,
and managed the virtual tool appropiately
The chart below shows the proficiency level that students had in the final phase to
produce of sentences using rule of third person.
Table 7. Writing Production – Checklist
Item Never Seldom Sometimes Often Almost
always
Uses capital letters 10
Uses full stop at the end of
the sentence
3
7
Applies the third person
correctly
10
Writes sentences with a
subject and a verb
10
Writes sentences with
appropriate verbal tense
10
72
Item Never Seldom Sometimes Often Almost
always
Writes complete sentences 10
Writes sentences with
appropriate vocabulary
10
Writes sentences that make
sense
10
Source: Author
In this phase, the students surpassed all aspects such as using capital letters, full stop at
the end of the sentence, applied the third person correctly, wrote sentences with a subject
and a verb, wrote sentences with appropriate verbs and vocabulary, the progress was
highly evidenced in “often”, showed within the parameters of the listed items. Regarding
the above table 7, they showed improvement in their writing production.
6.1.6 Analysis of the Teacher’s Research Diary 1
Diary 1.
Date: August 8.th/ 2016.
Hour: 9:20 a.m.
This was the first stage in which the implementation of ToonDoo Edu tool started. At the
beginning of the work various instructions were given in order to follow some steps that
helped students to participate actively.
As it can be seen from the sample, there were difficulties in the writing of simple
sentences, since basic grammatical concepts are not clear enough for students, like the
conjugation of the third person, in the first practice of the realization of the character's
lifestyles, there were obstacles with the use of the tool and download information as well
as images. It was observed that for boys were easier to start using the tool than for girls,
73
so much so that during the first designs they helped each other, and they learned how
to use the tool.
The teacher made emphasis on the grammatical basis of the present simple tense and
the conjugation of the verbs. It was evidenced that the implementation of the workshop
permitted them the recognition of third person. Also it was e an enriching activity.
6.1.7 Analysis of the Teacher’s Research Diary 2
Diary 2.
Date: September 7.th/ 2016.
Hour: 10:30 a.m.
In this stage, I observed that the students continued to have problems with the instructions
of the basic sentences. So, I explained grammatical topics to some participants who
received feedback about rules and function of the tools. Students were very attentive and
dynamic in the elaboration of the comic book, because in this occasion they have more
mastery of the procedures of the virtual tool as well as the applicability of the basic rules
for writing in the simple present tense.
In some conversations with the students, it was identified from the doubts presented in
the elaboration of the comic book characters’ lifestyles, that they received support and
collaboration in the design, and in the elaboration of their basic writing considering a
significant progress in the application of grammatical rules.
6.1.8 Analysis of Teacher’s Research Diary 3
Diary 3.
Date: November 9.th/ 2016.
Hour: 10:30 a.m.
74
By finalizing the character´s lifestyle, most of the students demonstrated good results. It
could determine a quite agreeable attitude towards the proper use of virtual tools; some
they mentioned that, it was better to work online with the internet, since traditional classes
do not seem very pleasing. In general, It observed that the practical work, with virtual
environments and consultation with characters chosen by them, it is an effective way that
contributes to their learning and more specifically to the strengthening of basic writing.
When students finish their work, they had a favorable attitude with their presentations for
their designs and the most important thing that these works are in the tool and anyone in
any part of the world can observe their creations because their names appear in their
presentations. They expressed in their conversations that the last doubts were overcome
with the support of their classmates and the counselor of the research.
6.2 ANALYSIS OF THE STUDENTS’ WRITING PRODUCTION
At the end of the work, It could observe learners motivated with elaboration character’s
lifestyles they engage to write at the grammar level as the presentation of the comic book.
Some rubrics were applied to demonstrate some mistakes in the basic writing. Although
in this stage students worked in pairs.
Table 8. Results about writing characters’ lifestyles
Students Characters’
lifestyle
Level Unsatis
factory
Needs
Improvement
Good Excellent
1 Karol G Capitalization
and
punctuation
X
Grammar and
spelling
X
Content/ ideas X
75
Length X
2 Papa
Francisco
Capitalization
and
punctuation
X
Grammar and
spelling
X
Content/ ideas X
Length X
3 Albert
Einstein
Capitalization
and
punctuation
X
Grammar and
spelling
X
Students Characters’
lifestyle
Level Unsatis
factory
Needs
Improvement
Good Excellent
Content/ ideas X
Length X
4 Martin
Garrix
Capitalization
and
punctuation
X
Grammar and
spelling
X
Content/ ideas X
Length X
5 Romeo
Santos
Capitalization
and
X
76
punctuation
Grammar and
spelling
X
Content/ ideas X
Length X
6 James
Rodriguez
Capitalization
and
punctuation
X
Grammar and
spelling
X
Students Characters’
lifestyle
Level Unsatis
factory
Needs
Improvement
Good Excellent
Content/ ideas X
Length X
7 Shakira Capitalization
and
punctuation
X
Grammar and
spelling
X
Content/ ideas X
Length X
8 Maluma Capitalization
and
punctuation
X
Grammar and
spelling
X X
Content/ ideas
X
Length
77
9 Cristiano
Ronaldo
Capitalization
and
punctuation
X
Students Characters’
lifestyle
Level Unsatis
factory
Needs
Improvement
Good Excellent
Grammar and
spelling
X
Content/ ideas X
Length X
10 Fanny Lu Capitalization
and
punctuation
X
Grammar and
spelling
X
Content/ ideas X
Length X
Source: Author
It can be seen in the chart above that ten students need improvement in aspects such as
grammar, spelling, content, ideas, length, capitalization and punctuation. So, with this
analysis, it is necessary to implement better strategies to make better the construction of
simple sentences.
The table below shows the difficulties and advances in the elaboration of sentences with
characters’ lifestyles.
78
Table 9. Checklist on grammar about the characters’ lifestyles
Item Never Seldom Sometimes Often Almost always
Uses capital letters 3 7
Uses full stop at the end of
the sentence
5 5
Applies the third person
correctly
7 3
Writes sentences with a
subject and a verb
1
Writes sentences with
appropriate verbal tense
10
Writes complete sentences 2 8
Writes sentences with
appropriate vocabulary
3 7
Writes sentences that
make sense
10
Source: Author
In this step, the students presented difficulties in applying the third person, the vocabulary,
the full stop at the end of the sentence and appropriate verbs.
Analysis of students’ artifacts (writing production).
In this stage, students finished their character’s lifestyles, in this opportunity, they
demonstrated advance in their writings. The researcher compared midterm and final
writing characters’ lifestyles with rubrics.
79
Table 10. Final results of writing characters’ lifestyles
Students Character
lifestyle
Level Unsatis
factory
Needs
Improvement
Good Excellent
1 Karol G Capitalization
and punctuation
X
Grammar and
spelling
X
Content/ ideas X
Length X
2 Papa
Francisco
Capitalization
and punctuation
X
Grammar and
spelling
X
Content/ ideas X
Length X
3 Albert
Einstein
Capitalization
and punctuation
X
Grammar and
spelling
X
Content/ ideas X
Length X
4 Martin
Garrix
Capitalization
and punctuation
X
Grammar and
spelling
X
Content/ ideas X
Length
X
80
Students Character
lifestyle
Level Unsatis
factory
Needs
Improvement
Good Excellent
5 Romeo
Santos
Capitalization
and punctuation
X
Grammar and
spelling
X
Content/ ideas X
Length X
6 James
Rodriguez
Capitalization
and punctuation
X
Grammar and
spelling
X
Content/ ideas X
Length X
7 Shakira Capitalization
and punctuation
X
Grammar and
spelling
X
Content/ ideas X
Length X
8 Maluma Capitalization
and punctuation
X
Grammar and
spelling
C X
Content/ ideas X
Length X
9 Cristiano
Ronaldo
Capitalization
and punctuation
X
81
Students Character
lifestyle
Level Unsatis
factory
Needs
Improvement
Good Excellent
Grammar and
spelling
X
Content/ ideas X
Length X
10 Fanny Lu Capitalization
and punctuation
X
Grammar and
spelling
X
Content/ ideas X
Length X
Source: Author
According to these results, in this phase students strengthen the elaboration of simple
sentences using better aspects as: capitalization, punctuation, content, ideas and length,
when they created the sentences in characters’ lifestyles.
The table below shows comparisons between table 8 and table 10. It showed in the first
table participants who had difficulty with capitalization, punctuation, grammar/spelling,
content and length. In addition, there was advance in the writing process.
Table 11. Comparison of midterm and final writing characters’ lifestyles
Students Characters’
lifestyle
Analysis
1 Karol G In the two processes, the first table 6 in capitalization
showed difficulty with grammar and content were the
satisfactory level and length needed to improve. The
table 10 showed improvement in the capitalization,
grammar and spelling, content/ideas, and length.
82
Students Characters’
lifestyle
Analysis
Hence, with the application of grammar strategies the
students could strengthen their writing process.
2 Papa
Francisco
The analysis of the results on the table 6 shows
capitalizations, punctuation, grammar, spelling,
content/ideas and length; the results were erroneous
during the elaboration of sentences. They could
strengthen these deficiencies; it was evidenced in the
table 10; these aspects were overcome.
3 Albert Einstein With tables 6 and 10, the first one showed mistakes in
capitalizations, punctuation, grammar and spelling, non-
significant errors in content/ideas and length. The
second table evidenced advance in the foregoing
aspect.
4 Martin
Garrix
Comparing the two tables 6 and 10, the first difficulties
arose in aspects such as capitalization, punctuation,
grammar, spelling, content/ideas and length. The
second presented satisfactory results in the writing
process.
5 Romeo Santos With this artist, the table 6 also showed difficulty in
capitalization, punctuation, grammar/spelling,
content/ideas and length. Comparing the table 10
showed advance and strengthen in the writing process.
6 James
Rodríguez
The analysis of the results on the table 6 were
capitalization, punctuation, grammar, spelling,
content/ideas and length; the results were erroneous in
the elaboration of sentences. They could strengthen
these deficiencies, it was evidenced in table 10, those
aspects were overcome.
83
Students Characters’
lifestyle
Analysis
7 Shakira According to tables 6 and 10, the first one presented
difficulty when writing with elements as capitalization,
punctuation, grammar/spelling, content/ideas and
length. The second table showed advance in the writing
process.
8 Maluma Comparing the two tables 6 and 10, the first one
presented problems with elements such as
capitalizations, punctuation, grammar, spelling,
content/ideas, and length. The second table presented
advance in the writing process.
9 Cristiano
Ronaldo
In both processes, the first chart, table 6 presented
difficulty in capitalization; grammar and content had a
satisfactory level; and length needed to be improved.
Table 10 showed improvement in capitalization,
grammar and spelling, content/ideas and length; hence,
with the application of grammar strategies, the students
could strengthen their writing process.
10 Fanny Lu With this singer, table 6 presented problems in
capitalization, punctuation, grammar/spelling, content
/ideas, and length. Compared to table 10, the last one
showed advance and strengthen the writing process.
Source: Author
With the application of the Researcher’s students started to know the function of ToonDoo
Edu tools. Then, when they began their elaboration of characters' lifestyles, they first
consulted about their favorite character. In the first time, they had difficulties with grammar
use concerning the third person. As time passed with the creation of their characters’
lifestyles, they were advancing in the correct use of third person, carrying out their task
84
with the help of other colleagues, as well as the teacher's suggestions. They could
improve and strengthen grammar application of the third person use with the incidence
of common verbs, related to daily actions and habits of their characters. They were
shocking for them. At first, it was observed that some students used translators for
accomplishing their task, reflecting a very erroneous work, which was improved with the
development and application of the ToonDoo Edu tools. Joy and satisfaction were also
observed by writing with the help of virtual media, which is a different way of learning
English.
Figure 25. Researchers’ diary
85
Source: Author
86
7. FINDINGS
When the students began their task with the development of the characters' lifestyles,
some progress was observed in each stage with the intervention of the researcher and
with the applicability of the ToonDoo Edu Tool to reinforce their basic writing.
It was evidenced with the intervention of a virtual tool, that the learners could explore their
basic writing skills and internet access possibilities. In each stage they advanced
gradually while they were shaping their illustrated text. Moreover peers and researcher’s
support, helped participants to obtain better results in the simple present tense, using
capitalization and punctuation, grammar and spelling, content/ideas and length.
It was a great experience where students could produce their own ideas and they could
use a virtual tool as a useful instrument to strengthen their writing skills in English. This
tool offered learner other options to learn English, because they were used to receiving
the same traditional classes, such as translating, completing exercises etc. It was another
way to learn and innovate according to their creativity, and design. The objectives were
reached. They improved the use of the third person in 7Th graders through the
implementation of ToonDoo Edu tool in La Aguadita public High School. In addition, they
could describe the stages of students’ writing when creating the character’s lifestyle.
Considering the use of technology, specifically with digital tools, students demonstrated
a good attitude towards writing. They felt free to create and use different elements,
images, options written in English; also, they had good perceptions about ToonDoo Edu
for enhancing their writing with their favorite characters.
Compared to other research works, where virtual media and processes are used, both in
terms of writing and reading, ICTs become a fundamental part of this stimulus towards
teaching the English language. As well as researcher and others teachers see the internet
87
and digital technologies as a way of encouraging teens to write more. Also, with the use
of the ToonDoo tool in another research, it is also confirmed that this tool is very
motivating for students to generate writing and design with great creativity works made
by themselves.
About this research project, results were positive according to other experiences as
Learning Tools and Teaching Approaches through ICT advancements and practice digital
tools as:
Purcell, Buchanan and Friedrich, (2013) stated that “A survey of 2,462 Advanced
Placement (AP) and National Writing Project (NWP) teachers finds that digital
technologies are shaping participant writing in myriad ways and have also become helpful
tools for teaching writing to middle and high school students. These teachers see the
internet and digital technologies such as social networking sites, cell phones and texting,
generally facilitating teens’ personal expression and creativity, broadening the audience
for their written material, and encouraging teens to write more often in more formats than
may have been the case in prior generations”. So, in this era the best way to teach
English specially to motivate writing is by using a digital Tool like ToonDoo Edu tools to
elaborate, create an apply different options when writing in English.
There is another example given by D Coniam, (2008): “This paper investigates authentic
writing through the use of wikis by Year 7 ESL learners in a secondary school in Hong
Kong. The wikis were used as a collaborative writing platform to produce – with minimal
input and support from their teachers – wiki content that describes the different facilities
and features of their school. Over a period of two months, as an integral part of their ESL
homework, groups of students designed and put together, through a series of successive
drafts, a description of their secondary school which they had joined from primary school
a few months previously”. When a teacher has the opportunity to use different options is
an excellent way to motivate students to write and create, especially in the elaboration of
characters’ lifestyles with ToonDoo Edu tools.
88
At the same time, González, (2017) confirms us that “The objective of this paper is to
determine how the implementation of visual literacy tools such as comics created through
ToonDoo (digital tool) evidences in an EFL group of seventh graders at a Cajicá School
to use vocabulary with emphasis in action verbs. This document explains an action
research proposal with implementation. The process involved diagnostic tests in written
and oral forms, a journal, visual literacy activities involving a comic design, an interview
and rubrics for data collection. The results demonstrated that visual literacy tools such as
comic created in ToonDoo evidence the use of vocabulary”. This is a good example when
students use ToonDoo Edu tools, they feel very motivated to write and create their own
styles and improve grammar especially using the third person.
7.1 ADVANTAGES
One of the advantages in the elaboration of characters’ lifestyle was that students had
the opportunity to choose their topics of interest allowing them to favor their level of
creation, innovation and all the creativity in the design of their work, especially in the
preparation of their characters’ lifestyle with ToonDoo Edu tools. In this way, they felt
more motivated to design and write in another language such as English.
Another great contribution to improve the learning of English is that ToonDoo Edu tools
had different options and instructions in English which allows learning other words in
English.
This project is a great example of using ICT where students and teachers use
technological resources as aids in teaching English language.
7.2 DISADVANTAGES
To develop a type of research project like this one implied that the Educational Institution
had an excellent Internet service, but unfortunately for most of the schools across the
country this was not the ideal service.
89
Another disadvantage for students is the way to use the tool and its learning linked to
the functionality of the options and operation of the same virtual tool as ToonDoo Edu
tool. They took some time for the comprehension of the virtual tool management.
The virtual tool to be written in the English language implied that students were a bit more
delayed in the application of this tool to create their designs.
90
8. CONCLUSIONS
Students evidenced progress by associating a greater sense of their own responsibility
with the goal setting and self-assessment practices. Also, experiencing and exploring
their abilities to set their own goals and strategies in order to strengthen the third person
use in the writing process.
Through this study, conceptions about teaching English, like traditional teaching habits,
changed. It was an excellent opportunity for students, because they are immerse in a
digital era, so they like using permanently technology elements.
During the process, they demonstrated with the implementation of ToonDoo Edu tool the
improvement in the proficiency level of English writing, especial with the use of third
person. Currently, the use of the internet has contributed to teaching Also this research
project has been motivated towards writing through virtual media as a new and a didactic
strategy in the teaching of the English language. Besides applying ICT in teaching another
language, like English, which motivates students to experience a more assertive learning
of this language.
The use of virtual tools promoted a pleasant work in the class and encouraged
participants to write sentences based on logical sequences of activities and online
service. Throughout the development of the pedagogical proposal we could detect an
increase in students’ motivation and awareness in relation to their own language learning
when they were writing; since they learned how to use the language in contexts and give
a purpose to their writings.
They started to see their characters’ lifestyles as created ways to communicate with the
others students to express habits, life of their preferred character. The results of the study
showed that a virtual tool can help learners to know about new vocabulary. In the first
stage they collected some information about their character; likes and dislikes, daily
91
activities, places to go, family, among others. They wrote the first draft of their preferred
character, they showed a lack of vocabulary to use the third person in present tense. In
the second stage they could teach and learn from the others and their own mistakes in
relation to the language use when writing. Feedback took place when students had to
carry out this stage in which they corrected their classmates to get more coherent and
cohesive sentences and achieve the goals of the given examples.
In the final products that learners submitted their characters’ lifestyles, they used content
and formal aspects such as coherence and cohesion plus they learned how to join ideas
in whole and logical meanings. These aspects made their characters’ lifestyles more
comprehensible and significant to the readers and let learners to go beyond the
reproduction of rules as conjugation of verbs in singular way (third person) and isolated
sentences that they used to write as a way to represent how a specific verbal tense is
made up.
Relating all characters’ lifestyles elaborated by students, the majority achieved good
results at level of capitalization and punctuation, where effectiveness was demonstrated
at the beginning and end of the sentences; regarding grammar and spelling results were
at a good level inferring a degree of improvement. In the same way it was observed that,
as they were elaborating characters’ lifestyles, they increased their level of creation of
sentences, this being a positive and preponderant factor in the advancement of writing
especially in the improvement of third person use.
During the research process and as the students began their research with the
development of the characters' lifestyles, there was progress observed in each stage
applied with the intervention of the researcher and with the applicability of the ToonDoo
Edu Tool to reinforce basic writing. Similarly, the effects of the stage design to make
better writing can be observed on how through the interventions and support of their peers
and researcher, they managed to reach a little higher level than the one students had
when they were previously applying grammar rules related to conjugated verbs in third
person in the simple present tense, and showed an improvement in basic writing. In the
92
same way, it was analyzed to explore students’ perceptions towards the entire writing
process and the use of a virtual tool to improve it. Also Foreign language teachers should
be encouraged to explore and experiment with the Internet to fully exploit the possibilities
for language learning by means of this resource that opens pathways to authentic
materials and dynamic communications with other people around the world.
93
RECOMMENDATIONS
With this research, it is a great example of how teachers should take advantage of
technology applied to the teaching of the English language. With the development of
characters' lifestyle, students have the possibility to write by being motivated with the
application of digital tools such as the ToonDoo Edu tools.
Allowing participants to choose topics of interest is one of the best strategies for students
to write, produce ideas, be more creative and innovative in the preparation of their work,
especially in learning another language.
94
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102
ANNEXES
103
Annex A. Pre-survey 1.
INSTITUCIÓN EDUCATIVA “LA AGUADITA”
Corregimiento La Aguadita - Fresno Tolima
Resolución de Aprobación No. 05174 de octubre 31 de 2013
Registro DANE 273283000245
Pre-Survey
1. Tienes frecuente acceso a computadores.
SI___ NO____
Donde:
En casa
En el colegio
En la casa de un familiar o un amigo.
2. Acceso a internet
SI___ NO____
3. Enumerar cual actividad es más o menos frecuente:
a. Acceso a redes sociales.
b. Para hacer consultas y tareas del colegio.
c. Enviar y recibir información a través de correos electrónicos.
d. Entretenimiento.
e. Para leer.
f. Para mejorar tu inglés.
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4. Conoces alguna herramienta virtual para elaborar libros de caricaturas virtuales
SI ___NO_____
Si contestaste si, ¿cuál?
_______________________________________________
5. ¿Estarías interesado en conocer una herramienta para crear tus propios libros
de caricaturas virtuales para mejorar tu inglés?
SI ___NO____
6. Escoja la respuesta correcta:
a. She like to listen music. b she likes to listen music.
a. He works in the factory b he work in the factory.
a. She swims in the pool. B she swim in the pool.
a. He play soccer. B he plays soccer
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Annex B. Pre-survey 2
INSTITUCIÓN EDUCATIVA “LA AGUADITA”
Corregimiento La Aguadita - Fresno Tolima
Resolución de Aprobación No. 05174 de octubre 31 de 2013
Registro DANE 273283000245
A- Complete the sentences with a verb in the correct form:
1. On Saturday Jack_______(go) to the cinema with his friends.
a. Going b. goes c. gos d. gone
2. My husband never______(watch) TV
a. Watches b. watchs c. watching d. watchings
3. She usually_______(eat) dinner at about seven o`clock in the evening.
a. Eating b. eat c. eats d. eates
B. Correct the mistakes.
4. My brother live in Berlin.
_________________________
5. He don’t speak English
_________________________
6. Do she work for a big company?
___________________________
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C. Make these sentences negative
7. Mario likes studying grammar.
___________________________
8. It rains in summer.
___________________________
9. My brother likes getting up at seven o’clock.
_____________________________
10. Tony buys all his food at the supermarket.
_____________________________
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Annex C. Midterm survey.
INSTITUCIÓN EDUCATIVA “LA AGUADITA”
Corregimiento La Aguadita - Fresno Tolima
Resolución de Aprobación No. 05174 de octubre 31 de 2013
Registro DANE 273283000245
MIDTERM SURVEY
Nombre: __________________________________________________Grado:_______
Califica las siguientes preguntas de 1 a 5, siendo 1 el menor valor y 5 el mayor valor:
1 2 3 4 5
¿Qué tanto te motivas cuando elaboras tus diseños de tiras
cómicas en ToonDoo?
¿La herramienta virtual ToonDoo te ha ayudado a mejorar la
escritura de las frases en tercera persona en inglés?
¿Crees que los libros virtuales son una forma llamativa de
expresar tus ideas?
¿La herramienta ToonDoo te ha motivado para aprender
inglés en forma más divertida?
¿Cuándo diseñas y escribes en ToonDoo tienes presente
reglas gramaticales de la tercera persona?
¿Consideras apropiado implementar el uso de las
herramientas virtuales en las clases para que estas sean más
motivadoras?
Describes lo que más te ha gustado de usar ToonDoo para mejorar el uso de la tercera
persona en inglés.
__________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Escribe 4 de las frases en tercera persona, que has utilizado en tus libros virtuales.
__________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
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Annex D. Final survey.
INSTITUCIÓN EDUCATIVA “LA AGUADITA”
Corregimiento La Aguadita - Fresno Tolima
Resolución de Aprobación No. 05174 de Octubre 31 de 2013
Registro DANE 273283000245
FINAL SURVEY
1. Califica las siguientes afirmaciones con Excelente, bueno, regular, malo.
E B R M
Pienso que mi trabajo con los libros virtuales fue:
El uso de los libros virtuales para la elaboración de oraciones en
tercera persona fue:
Mi progreso en el inglés utilizando ToonDoo fue:
2. Marca con una X cuáles de las siguientes acciones aprendiste a hacer en ToonDoo:
Descargar y pegar imágenes, guardándolas en el ToonDoo. X
Insertar imágenes prediseñadas en cada hoja del libro virtual.
Diseñar imágenes propias creadas a tu gusto.
Utilizar iconos de acuerdo a su función escritos en inglés.
Elaborar cambios de tamaños a imágenes creadas.
3. Escribe palabras que aprendiste durante la elaboración de tu libro virtual:
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
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4. Ponga las palabras en el correcto orden:
a. Writes/newspaper/a/ she.
__________________________________________
b. Plays/every day/He/tennis
__________________________________________
c. Culture/learn/to/she/more/about/likes
_________________________________
d. Drives/a/He/car.
___________________________________________
5. Escriba 3 oraciones:
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
109
Annex E. Writing Rubric.
110
Category Unsatisfactory Need improvement Good Excellent Points
Capitalization
and
punctuation
Student makes more
than 5 errors in
capitalization and
punctuation.
Student makes
3-4 errors in
capitalization and
punctuation
Student
makes
1-2 errors in
capitalization
and
punctuation
Student makes
no
errors
in capitalization
and
punctuation.
Grammar and
spelling
Student makes more
five errors with
subject/verb
agreement and
writers complete sent
ences that make
sense
Student makes 4-
5 errors with subject
/verb agreement an
d writers complete
sentences that
make sense.
Student has
Little problem
with subject/verb
agreement and
writers complete
sentences that
make
sense.
Student uses
subject/verb
agreement and
writers
complete
sentences that
make sense.
Content/
ideas
Student writes less 5
errors on topic and
adds details.
Student writes 5-
6 errors on topic
and adds
details.
Student writes
with little errors
son topic and
adds details.
Student writes on
topic
and adds details.
Category Unsatisfactory Need improvement Good Excellent Points
111
Length
The sentences
are less than 5
The sentences are 5-8. The sentences are 8-
9
The sentences
are 12 or more
sentences
112
Annex F. Stage to elaborate the Character’s lifestyles.
Stage Aim Procedure Time Materials
Presentation of video To know which the
function of conjugate
correctly the verbs in the
third person.
First teacher explains
with a few video in the
animate form to
motivate to learn this
grammar.
10 minutes Video beam
Internet
Computer
video
Explanation of the third
person with the rules of
conjugate verbs.
To learn the grammar and
different ruler to conjugate
irregular and regular verb
with third person.
The teacher explains
with a little paragraph,
some rules to
conjugate the verbs
and its exceptions.
15 minutes Board
Text
Market
Copy
Colors.
Workshop about
exercise to complete
and conjugate verb in
the third person.
To apply the rule of the
third person in different
texts.
The students must
answer a workshop
with several activities
relate to apply the third
person.
30 minutes Copy
Colors
Pens
notebooks
113
Annex G. Maluma Character’s lifestyle.
114
115
116
¨
117
Annex H. Shakira Character’s lifestyle.
|
118
119
120
121
Annex I. Albert Einstein Character’s lifestyle
122
123
124
Annex J. Papa Character’s lifestyle.
125
126
127
Annex K. Karol G Character’s lifestyle
128
129
130
Annex L. Martin Garrix Character’s lifestyle
131
132
133
Annex M. Romeo Santos Character’s lifestyle.
134
135
136
Annex N. James Rodriguez Character’s lifestyle.
137
138
139
Annex O. Cristiano Ronaldo Character’s lifestyle
140
141
142
Annex P. Fanny Lu Character’s lifestyle.
143
144
145
Annex Q. Links Characters’ lifestyles.
Links to find Characters’ lifestyles in Internet. Characters
http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/10508644 Albert Einstein
http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/10537036 Papa Francisco
http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/10508644
Karol G
http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/10506607
Martin Garrix
http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/10512604
Romeo Santos
http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/10529728 James Rodríguez
http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/10753978 Cristiano Ronaldo
http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/10587068
Maluma
http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/10755418 Shakira
http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/10590786 Fanny lu
146
Annex R. Researcher’s diary.
147
148