Slide 1

Improving oral interaction skills in 7th grade students from two public schools under Escuela Activa Urbana ModelMara del Pilar Rodriguez Lorena Medina Ramirez

The improvement of speaking skills through oral interaction strategies.

Hadfield (2008,p.105) the ability to respond to other people or facilitate communication among them.

PURPOSE

Usuaria (U) - The purpose of this Action Research is to describe the impact of oral interaction strategies in the improvement of the speaking skill in seventh grade students from two public schools in Manizales. At this stage in the research, the oral interaction will be defined as the result of language production to convey ideas and negotiate meaning in spoken language.A public urban school in Manizales located in La Asuncin neighborhood.Preschool to eleven grade with emphasis on tourism.Escuela Activa urbana pedagogical model.Participants mixed group from seventh grade.

A public urban school in Manizales located in Alta Suiza neighborhood.Preschool to eleventh grade with emphasis on health and nutrition.Escuela Activa Urbana pedagogical model.Participants girls from seventh grade.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SETTING

maria del pilar rodriguez buritica (mb) - As you can see both of us work at very similar institutions, both are public schools, they go from preschool to eleven grade, they work under the escuela activa urbana model and both of us are teaching seventh graders.DESCRIPTION OF THE SETTINGCharacteristicsComing from strata 1 and 2 from Ciudadela del Norte and La Estacin communities.

Positive:Interested in learning EnglishCollaborativeSocial

Negative:Misbehavior Dysfunctional families and social problems (microtraffick, child abuse, prostitution)Coming from 1,2,3 strata from different neighbors around the city.

Positive:WillingnessCollaborativeRespectful and kind

Negative:Absent parents, dysfunctional families, psychological problems (depression, bipolar, on learning)

Usuaria (U) - what is different is the participants and the population, although both groups are teenagers from seventh grade, her students are girls and my students iare a combination of boys and girls, more boys than grls, my students come fromstarta 1 and 2with disfunctional families and social problems suchas, child abuse and prosititution, microtafficking, children who live with substitute families, children with learning and behavioral problemsNo.Data collection techniqueData collection instrumentRationale1ObservationObservation scheduleTo collect information about the students performance, behaviors, classroom management, teaching strategies, class procedures and all about class environment.2Informal talksInformal talk protocolsTo collect facts from the teachers and the students about English learning processes and all concerns about it (materials, affective factors, curriculum, activities done in the classroom, use of technology for English learning, etc.)3SurveyingQuestionnaires and surveysTo gather detailed data about students perceptions and opinions about their improvement or difficulties in English learning. To collect data about how teachers implement teaching strategies, deal with classroom management, develop/plan their class development and use technology to teach English.4Language Elicitation techniquesTarget Language Interrogation ElicitationTo gather information about how students interact in a natural environment to get or provide any information.

DIAGNOSIS STAGEData collection instruments and techniques

maria del pilar rodriguez buritica (mb) - to collect the data neeeded we considered important to carry out some class observations to get information about the class environment in general; some informal talks to to ccollect facts about the English learning process and its concerns (materials, affective fators, curriculum, etc);, surveys to gather data about students' prerceptions and opinions about their improvement or difficulties in the English learning process and language ellicitation techniques to analyze how students interact in a natural environment in order to get and provide informationSCHOOL 1

maria del pilar rodriguez buritica (mb) - After gathering all the information I found useful to categorize the information in the following categories, from which some were more relevant than others, for example, collaborative work is a category that shows the influence of the the principles of EAU Students' expecations related to speaking, for them speaking is memorizing dialogues. there are 2 categories that indocate the low students' performance in terms of speaking: Oral initiative to use english, they say "I don't speak English because I don't know it is very difficult, if the pronunciation were easier, I would do it" and the other category is Use of the L2 from students which is the lowest one. They only say hello and bye byeSCHOOL 2

Usuaria (U) - Usuaria (U) - Form this graphic we can interpret that the categories emeged from the data analsis are lack if interaction skills and use of L2 in the classroom (being the loudest category)Usuaria (U) - As strenghts we have good attitude towards English learning and collaborative work. which means that the students like to work in the English class but work with their classamtes to look for aceptation and self- confidence.The students answer in Spanish, some of them say isolated words in English (teacher sobre movies, si tenemos homework) Class observation N6

Usuaria (U) - These are some excerpts taken from the instruments used in the data analysis.Usuaria (U) - In the first excerpt, there is evidence that although, the students are willing to communicate, they are not able to do it correctly snce they mixed L1 and L2Usuaria (U) - The excerpt three, question 6, shows us the perception the students have towards their difficulties related to the language learning. the most ranked categories are speaking and pronunciation.Usuaria (U) - Another factor that we see on question 7 is their perception towards Esceula Activa Urbana. They answered that collaborative works is the main value from EAU, that we work the most in the English class.Usuaria (U) - This student expresses how she feels towards speaking.

To what extent can oral interaction strategies affect the speaking skill of seventh grade students at two public schools under Escuela Activa Urbana (EAU)model in Manizales?RESEARCH QUESTION

Usuaria (U) - From all these categories, the following research question emmerged:RESEARCH OBJECTIVESPEDAGOGICAL OBJECTIVESGeneral:To determine the impact of oral interaction strategies in the speaking skill of seventh grade students in two public schools under EAU model.General:To improve the speaking skill through oral interaction strategies in seventh grade students at two public schools under Escuela Activa Urbana (EAU) .

OBJECTIVES

maria del pilar rodriguez buritica (mb) - We want to know the impact oral interaction strategies can have in the speaking skill in our schools and we also want to improve speaking through oral interaction in our studentsRESEARCH OBJECTIVESPEDAGOGICAL OBJECTIVESSpecific:To measure the impact of oral interaction strategies in the speaking skill of seventh grade students.To determine which oral interaction strategies improve the speaking skill of seventh grade students.To stablish which affective factors can affect the speaking skill during oral interaction in seventh grade students. To compare the impact of implementing oral interaction strategies in two different public institutions.Specific:To include oral interaction strategies for developing the speaking skill in two EFL classrooms under EAU To encourage the use of L2 through oral interaction strategies in the two EFL classrooms under EAU 3. To reduce affective factors on the speaking skill during interaction in seventh grade students taking advantage of EAU principles.

12

Usuaria (U) - As specific objectives, we state that...

maria del pilar rodriguez buritica (mb) - Our study needs support from Larsen-freeman, Morales and tomlinson, who speak about some of the principles of EAU ( autonomy, cooperative learning. We also based it on our schools' PEIs, Standard for English as a foreign language and the basic learning rights and bearing in mind our target aspect speaking, we consider Richards,maria del pilar rodriguez buritica (mb) - Brown, Bailey about communicative approach and competence and Long with the interaction hypothesis.PARTICIPANTS32 students from seventh grade.Boys and girls aged between 12 and 15 years old.All of them are in A1(CEF)SCHOOL 1PARTICIPANTS33 students from seventh grade.All of them girls, aged between 12 and 13.Level of proficiency between A1 and A2 (regular evaluation)SCHOOL 2METHODOLOGY

maria del pilar rodriguez buritica (mb) - 32 students from 7th grade, boys and girls aged between 12 and 15 years old with low English level based on their poor witten and oral performance in classUsuaria (U) - 33 studentsUsuaria (U) - 33 students, willing to learn, aged between 12 to 13 years old.The students are mostly in level A1. most of them had taken courses or practice at home what we learn fro the classINSTRUMENTSSelf- assessment formsClass observations.Rubric for OISJournal.Audio and video recordings, transcripts.METHODOLOGY

Usuaria (U) - The instruments to gather information about their performance in oral interaction are the following:MIXED METHODS

Action Research

Comparative StudyMETHODOLOGY

INTERVENTIONANALYSISFINDINGSRESULTSCOMPARISONDETERMINE

maria del pilar rodriguez buritica (mb) - we are working under mixed methods which is a combination of quantitative research in our case survey research and qualitative research, action research.Usuaria (U) - In order to explain more this method, the following cycle was designed: during results and determine, we will be comparing both results from the two schools. During the other stages, we will be observing the process.Usuaria (U) - The way in we will conduct our research as follows:Escuela Activa Urbana lesson plan stages.

Escuela Activa Urbana principles and values:AutonomyCooperative learningLeadershipParticipationCommunicationMETHODOLOGY

maria del pilar rodriguez buritica (mb) - The workshops are big designed under the EAU principles and stages: Some of the principles we promote are autonomy, cooperative learning, leadership,participation and communication and the stages: Let's review, in this stage students refresh the previousmaria del pilar rodriguez buritica (mb) - topics learnt, the let's learn satge presents the new topic they are going to learn, the let's practice gives them opportunities to apply what they have learnta nd the last stage, the let's reinforce stage will help them to embrace the concepts learntACTION STAGESix workshopsOral interaction strategies: role-plays, guessing, giving instructions, story-telling, conversations, interviews.OIS incorporated to EAU model.

maria del pilar rodriguez buritica (mb) - We are planning to implement 6 different workshops focused on orl interaction strategies such as: role-plays, guessing, giving instructions, story-telling, conversations and interviews, activities that will help them try to use the L2 in class and with their partners and teachers.Usuaria (U) - As well the oral interaction strategies will be included in the pedagogical model during the let's reinforce step. This step allows the students to practice the concepts already learnt and to foster the language through activities that promote EAU values.EVALUATION STAGEEAU evaluation criteria: Cognitive, Practice, Attitude

Rubrics to measure oral interaction performance.

Self- assessment for the oral interaction task.

Findings and comparisons between the two schools.

maria del pilar rodriguez buritica (mb) - To evaluate the workshops we will take into account the EAU criteria ( cognitive, practice and attitude)Usuaria (U) - In the rubric, we will focus the more score on the practice since it will show us the performance and the progress of our students in the speaking skill.Usuaria (U) - the self assessment is a mandatory aspect in EAU model and it has different criteria. However, we adapt these criteria applied to assess oral interaction by themselves. The criteria we propose is based on the rubrics for OIS.Usuaria (U) - In order to compare, after each workshop, data analysis and comparisons between the two schools will be done