exploring activities for the development of oral and listening skills in the technical field program...

UNIVERSIDAD MAGISTER

FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓNCARRERA DE LICENCIATURA EN LA ENSEÑANZA DEL INGLÉS

“EXPLORING ACTIVITIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ORAL AND LISTENING SKILLS IN THE

TECHNICAL FIELD PROGRAM FOR 10TH GRADERS AT COLEGIO TÉCNICO PROFESIONAL DE ASERRÍ”

MAUREEN SOLIS RIVERA

General Objective:To determine the main strengths and weaknesses of the strategies developed in the classroom during the English lessons for tenth graders at Colegio Técnico de Aserrí.

Specific Objectives:To identify the possibilities and limitations of the classroom.To determine the basic strategies developed by the teachers during the teaching process.To correlate the expectations for learning English with the real effort made by the students to get that goal.

Justification

Employers are looking for people who can handle calls and other

kind of web based communications accurately. At the end of the

technical program, students must be ready to face these kind of

challenges not only from employers but from clients from

different parts of the world.

Variables Infrastructure and equipment available at the classroom for teaching

English.

Strategies developed by the teacher to facilitate the acquisition of

English listening and speaking skills among the students.

Student’s expectations regarding the level of English knowledge to reach

at the end of the high school.

Type of InvestigationExploration

Qualitative research

Quantitative research

Institutional Framework: C.T.P de AserríIt is located in Salitrillos, Aserrí.

It was created in 2012 and offered three different technical fields to the 52 students registered at that time.

The current population is of 430 students and offers a total of eight

different technical fields.

Population and instrumentsThe sample taken from the population is a group of 09 students chosen from

the 10th grade level.

Questionnaire for the students (oral and written form)

Observations from the teacher

Observation of infrastructure

Data analysis

Amount Percentage (%)

Call center 6 67

Tourism 3 33

Other 0 0

Chart 6. Job interests of students after finishing their high school.

Source: Solís, Mauren: Survey, 2014

Data analysis

Amount Percentage (%)

Excellent (over 80%) 0 0

Acceptable (50%-80%) 8 90

Poor (under 50%) 1 10

Chart 7. Self perception of English level


Data analysis

Amount

Percentage (%)

Advanced (over 90%) 6 67

Upper intermediate (70%-89%) 3 33

Beginner (under 70%) 0 0

Chart 8. Students expectations of their English level at the end of the technical program


Data analysis Poor

%Regular

%Acceptable

%Excellent

%Listening 0 45 45 10

Speaking 0 44 56 0

Writting 0 33 45 22

Reading 0 44 56 0

Chart 9. Students self perception of their current English skills (percentages)


Data analysis

Quantity Percentage (%)

Yes 3 33

No 6 67

Chart 13. Amount of students that use of Skype of any other application for practicing English


Data analysis

Listening comprehension Speaking ability

Student Good Partial Poor Good Partial Poor

Quantity 17 4 6 13 6 8

Percentage (%) 63 15 22 48 22 30

Chart 15. Evaluation of listening and speaking English skills per student


General condition of the infrastructure

ItemAvailable

QuantityYes NoClassroom (laboratory) x 01Tables x 05Chairs x 28Audio x 02Projector x 01Internet connection x 0Computers x 05Software x Headsets x 05Textbooks x 0Other resources x 02

Teaching ApproachTeaching approach: Communicative

Good dominance of the approach

Activities developed: Interviews, pair work, question-answer exercises; printed

worksheets for oral activities.

Time managing and use of audio visual resources: poor

Conclusions1. The material and physical conditions are extremely limited for the development of the program and

the achievement of its objectives.

2. The strategies developed by the teacher are appropriate considering the serious limitations

observed.

3. Although students´ expectations are focused on continuing a university career, if they had the chance

they would like to insert into the job market, mainly in a call center.

4. The basic English skills of listening and speaking must be reinforced either with extracurricular

activities or academic activities at class.

Recommendations 1. To determine what is the current capability of the institution to appropriately prepare the students who

want to complete this English technical program.

2. Train teachers to reinforce creative strategies to develop in order to seize the current physical

possibilities.

3. Encourage students to use technology and perform practices out of the class to enhance the

knowledge obtained so that they can fulfill the requirements asked by the employers.

Proposal of a WorkshopGeneral objective: To propose specific speaking and listening activities to develop in class and aimed to reinforce the listening comprehension and fluency among the students so that they could improve these basic skills.

Specific objectives:To provide the students common vocabulary and standardized phrases used in customer service situations as an approach to customer service activities.To develop listening and speaking skills to facilitate the students being hired by outsourcing companies.To apply job interview scenarios for speaking skills development.To help the students to be prepared for a job interview.

Justification Students must develop the ability of recognizing different accents, technical specifications,

idioms and other requirements made by customers who make contact through the telephone.

There is a need of identifying greetings and expressions to develop an appropriate and polite

communication by email or chat with the customers.

Customer Service Program

Objectives:

To provide a wide vocabulary used in customer service situation in companies

To show the students the different activities developed by customer services representatives and the companies where they can work.

To outline the main skills a customer services representative requires providing a professional service.

To describe the values that holds a good customer service representative

Customer Service ProgramActivities:

To provide a wide vocabulary used in customer service situations in companies

To show the students the different activities developed by customer services representatives and the companies where they can work.

To outline the main skills a customer services representative requires providing a professional service.

To describe the values that holds a good customer service representative

Customer Service Program Performance criteriaTo succeed a writing test focused on customer service vocabulary.

To simulate three different situations of customer support service.

At the end of the workshop the students also will have to film a dialogue in group to share with their classmates.

Call Center Program Objectives: To introduce the students into the call centers environment.

To deal with customers on the phone.

To deal with customers through writing (chats and email) communications.

To solve problems and transfer or escalate issues to upper levels

Call Center Program Activities:

The teacher will show the students examples of call center situations with the help of a projector.The students will share videos with their classmates in order to give their classmates new words found and examples of dialogues.Call center drills with simulations of callings through Skype or Line, where the students will be able to work in pairs and act as customers or representatives alternatively.Call center drills with simulations of chat and email contacts using Facebook, Skype, Outlook or any other free software where the students will be able to handle customer requirements as representatives.The students will also develop in groups dialogues to present to their classmates.

Call Center Program Performance Criteria:To succeed writing tests focused on call center vocabulary, expressions and situations.

To succeed two chat assessments.

To succeed 3 e-mails assessment. To succeed 2 call assessments.

Job Searching Strategy Objectives:

To prepare a Resumé.

To practice job interview situations.

To deal with real life job interviews.

Job Searching Strategy Activities:

Writing their own resume.

Analysis of most common mistakes people use to make while preparing their own resumes.

Correcting their own resumes according to the most acceptable standards found in internet.

Simulate job interviews acting as job seekers or employees.

To arrange, schedule and apply a real life interview in a call center.

Job Searching Strategy Performance criteria:

To print a Resume.

To perform a job interview sketch acting as a job seeker.

To perform a job interview sketch acting as a employer.

To book an appointment with an real life employer and prepare a report about how was the interview (lasting, type of questions, positive points, mistakes made, and others.)

REQUERIMENTS FOR DEVELOPING THE WORKSHOP

Time: The workshop will be executed through three weeks during the laboratory classes.

Infrastructure: To workshop must schedule carefully in order to use the school computer laboratory while they is not being used by other groups.

Equipment

COST OF THE PROPOSAL ITEM DESCRIPTION AMOUN

TCOST PER UNIT (₡)

TOTAL COST

(₡)

TOTAL COST ($)

Headsets

Plantronics A326. Headphones with

micropone incorporated to

simulate the calls

10 15000 150000 280

Total 150000 280

exploring activities for the development of oral and listening skills in the technical field program...

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