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Michelle MillerAction Research Proposal

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Action Research Proposal

Encouraging Unscripted Communication in Spanish through Oral Presentation

Michelle L MillerMAT: Spanish Teacher Candidate

University of Maryland University College2014


Research Question : How can oral presentation, as both a process and a product, be used

to create opportunities for unscripted oral communication in Spanish?

Part I

Introduction

Allowing students to orally communicate only when their dialogues are scripted

gives students the false sense that there will always be a script to rely on when speaking

in Spanish out in the real world. In order to create authentic opportunities for students to

communicate in the classroom, the practice of scripting must be eliminated from the

communication process. This proposal attempts to eliminate the need for the crutch of

scripting that is so prevalent during the oral presentation process in foreign language

classes, in the hopes that this will allow students to build a natural fluency. In this way,

students will participate in an oral experience that is akin to a conversation with an

authentic native speaker and will build the skills needed to converse with all types of

speakers of the Spanish language.

When working together in peer groups, students often think that because they are

not communicating with a native Spanish speaker, that they are not developing their skills

(Ival, 2014). However, “teaching high school students to speak Spanish by requiring

them to use the language in classroom conversation is more authentic than instructing

them to recite stock Spanish sentences from a text” (Cronin, 2014). Through the proposed

method of a question and answer oral presentation experience, students will eliminate the

need for scripting in oral presentations. As typical dialogues in any language follow a

path of question and response, the decision to include questions and answers in class

dialogues was made in order to better prepare students for the types of conversations they

will encounter when conversing with native speakers. Even though students are working

with each other in partners, they too can create authentic experiences by practicing

questions and answers on a variety of topics.

One issue with question-and-answer oral presentations is that both the

speaker/presenter and the person posing questions need to have common background


knowledge from which to draw vocabulary, grammar, and cultural context. Through the

proposed methodology, students will develop texts together in peer groups in a workshop

style so that they will build the same background knowledge for use during their oral

presentations. These texts will be level appropriate and contain vocabulary in context, so

that students can use them to define vocabulary words as they work. By the end of their

reading workshops, students will have similar understandings of the content, and will be

able to answer oral questions regarding the same topics discussed during their workshops.

Part II

Literature Review

This review of previous research into the field of oral presentations and their

importance in development of proficiency in foreign languages reflects the fact that while

there is not an extensive collection of research on oral presentations, there are quite a few

promising studies that lend themselves to supporting the proposed action research project.

The following articles discuss oral presentation in a way that offers support for the

methodology of question-and-answer conversation simulation as a method of increasing

proficiency through oral communication in a Spanish classroom.

The article “Spoken Spanish Development at the High School Level: A Mixed

Methods Study”, by A.J. Moeller and J. Theiler, offers promising research that supports

the choice of topic and highlights the importance of oral presentation in foreign language

study. This article was published in the journal Foreign Language Annals, which is

published by the reputed American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

(ACTFL). The ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) is the premier test rating oral

proficiency of foreign language teacher candidates, and is also notably the test that is

taken by foreign language teacher candidates in UMUC’s MAT program. Moeller and

Theiler’s study focused on “measuring language learning” by “communicative skills” that

are “demonstrated through task-based communicative activities”, emphasizing that the

field has shifted to acknowledge the central role that constant oral communication plays

in developing language skills (Moeller & Theiler, 2014, p. 210).


Moeller and Thelier’s study proposes a “mixed-methods” approach to data

collection regarding oral proficiency, in that collection of quantitative data was as

essential as the collection of qualitative data to understanding student proficiency in

spoken Spanish. The article discusses rubric design in depth, discussing how a team of

six Spanish language experts would sort oral presentation recordings into categories such

as “exceeds expectations, meets expectations, or in progress”, and through this qualitative

sorting, came to an agreement on rubric criteria (Moeller & Theiler, 2014, p. 216). The

extensive discussion of data collection within this article, and the emphasis on the

importance of oral presentations as a means of developing communication skills in

Spanish, could be very useful to the evaluation design of the oral presentations. This

article also supports the proposal in that it affirms the importance of oral presentation and

communication in the acquisition of a foreign language.

Another article, entitled “Oral Fluency: The Neglected Component in the

Communicative Language Classroom”, published in The Canadian Modern Language

Review by Canadian ESL researchers searching for ways to increase oral fluency in ESL

classrooms, described an activity that is very similar to the proposed idea of question-

and-answer oral presentations. In the article, the authors describe rehearsal and repetition

as a general way to promote oral discussion in ESL classrooms. One of the specific ideas

listed is a “Poster Presentation”, where a pair of students researches the same topic,

creates a poster on the topic, and becomes the expert on the topic for a gallery walk in

class. Other students rotate in and ask the presenter questions, and after all students have

been asked questions and have asked questions, the partners switch, and the other student

in each pair is given a turn to present (Rossiter, Derwing, Manimtim & Thomson, 2010).

The authors noted that repetition was the key to fluency in this activity, which indicates

that the workshops should allow for substantial group practice with question and answer

dialogues before the presentations in order to ensure fluency in the oral presentations

themselves (Rossiter et. al., 2010). This poster presentation activity also provides direct

support for the model of question and answer oral presentations because it provides

support for background knowledge building activities, namely for group work based

around texts. The research that the student pairs in this study did in tandem is very similar


to the research that students will be conducting together in groups via the reading

workshop and accompanying textual questions.

In addition, an article entitled, “Digital News Stories: Building Language

Learner’s Content Knowledge and Speaking Skills”, provided additional support for this

action research proposal, and is also published in Foreign Language Annals. In this

article, the author L. Lee discusses how the use of digital news stories “promoted the

development of content knowledge and oral language skills” (Lee, 2014, p. 338). In her

study, second language learners collaborated together in the creation of digital news

stories. According to Lee, this encouraged asynchronous computer-mediated second-

language communication among students via the Web and Web 2.0 applications, and

thereby played a role in decreasing the anxiety that some students grapple with during

face-to-face communication (Lee, 2014). Lee also notes that her version of digital

storytelling, using the software VoiceThread, is firmly “grounded in the paradigm of

social constructivist language learning”, as described by Vygotsky (Lee, 2014, 339-340).

The research presented in Lee’s article gives credence to this action research

proposal not for its use of technology, but for its description of collaborative group work

that develops a digital text in students’ own voices, in the same way that the collaborative

group work in my study will allow students to use their own voices in discussing the

content knowledge they will be reviewing in their groups (Lee, 2014). The reasons that

this proposal does not opt to allow students to collaborate via a less “intimidating”

method such as digital storytelling software that forgoes face-to-face communication are

that (1) the digital resources in the school where I implement my action research are an

unknown, and (2) practice with face-to-face communication, rather than avoidance, gives

way to greater ease in oral communication in general. However, Lee’s study is valuable

because it affirms that “building content knowledge through digital news stories” or

through texts that will include news stories is proven to be effective in engaging students

in oral discussion (Lee, 2014, p. 341).

Part III


Methodology

This research project will take place at a suburban Maryland middle school. The

subjects of the study will be mostly 8th grade Spanish 2 students, with a few 7th grade

students mixed in. This project will be implemented over the course of four units of

study, with one oral examination occurring at the end of each of the four units. The oral

examination is the focus of this action research, which will culminate in pre- and post-

assessments, along with data from student grades, in order to determine which method of

oral presentation is most effective in encouraging unscripted communication in Spanish.

The student participants in this action research project are spread out over four

class periods of Spanish 2. Each class period contains thirty-two students. In order to

evenly divide this group of students into test and control groups, the four class periods

will be divided into subgroups of two class periods each, with one group serving as the

control group participating in scripted or preplanned oral presentations, and one group

serving as the test group participating in unscripted or question and answer oral

presentations.

Group 1: Control group, “scripted” preplanned oral presentations

Definition of terminology used:

Scripted – Word used to convey the prewriting and preplanning of the oral

presentations prepared by students ahead of the presentation time.

Students in the two control group class periods will present scripted, preplanned

oral presentations to an audience consisting of the teacher and student peers. Presenters

will present in pairs of two students and will present a dialogue including questions and

answers. Students will receive a rubric from the teacher a week in advance, and will be

given ten minutes of class time on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of that leading week

to meet with their partners and plan their oral presentations. Any additional student

planning will occur outside of class. During the oral presentations, partners will come to


the front to present their dialogues to the class. Students cannot read from their scripts,

but may use them for reference no more than three times in order to receive a top score.

Group 2: Test group, “unscripted” question and answer oral presentations

Definition of terminology used:

Unscripted – Word used to convey the lack of student preplanning and

more conversational style of this type of oral presentation.

Question and answer – The teacher will ask questions and the student

presenters will answer (graded). The audience of students will ask

questions and the students will answer (participation grade for student

audience members).

Students in the two test class periods will participate in unscripted question-and-

answer oral presentations first with the teacher and then with peers. Presenters will

present in pairs of two students, but will all be expected to answer the same amount of

questions. The teacher will ask questions to the student, and only responses to the

teacher’s questions will be graded for credit. Students will receive a rubric from the

teacher five minutes before they are set to present. Students waiting to present will use

those five preparatory minutes to review the requirements for their oral presentation, and

can use the rubric as a guide for their responses. The teacher will ask six questions total,

three to each partner. After the teacher has asked her questions, she will open up the

Q&A to the student audience. Students will each be expected to pose a minimum of two

(2) questions during the course of the class’s oral presentations. Students will be given

five participation points total for asking both questions.

Teacher Preparation and Procedures: Group 1


The two Group 1 control class periods will need vocabulary worksheets, oral

presentation rubrics, and teacher modeling before presenting in their pairs to the class.

First, each unit will need planned vocabulary worksheets, in-class partnered activities and

homework from the class textbook Realidades, supplementary worksheets and listening

activities from the Realidades website, readings from the textbook, and teacher-created

worksheets. These materials will deliver the content to the students in each unit. In the

last week of each unit, the teacher will hand out the prepared oral presentation rubrics and

guidelines and use teacher modeling to explain how the oral presentations will be

conducted. The teacher will play the students an audio clip of a dialogue, and also use a

student volunteer to read off of a prewritten two-person script to model the oral

presentation. The teacher will highlight the importance of only using oral scripts as

guides, and tell students that they must have their presentation mostly memorized.

Students can refer to their scripts no more than three times during the presentation.

Teacher Preparation and Procedures: Group 2

First, the teacher will create and assemble unit packets, which will contain

grammar worksheets, vocabulary lists, and three to four core texts relating to the topic of

the unit of study. Each student will receive a packet that they will be expected to keep

for the duration of the unit and for the semester exam. These packets will deliver the

content in each unit to be covered during the workshop stage, which will be week two of

the unit. The teacher will then assign students to a group in preparation for the workshop

week. During the workshop stage, students will work together on assigned texts and

questions. Students will be assigned to groups of four (4). Special consideration will be

given to English Language Learners, students with academic disabilities, students with

physical disabilities who may not be able to move around the room, and students

identified as gifted. Each day of the workshop they will be assigned specific pages in the

packet for completion. The teacher will walk around the room and monitor student

progress during this time using a clipboard, where she will record observed on and off

task behavior.

Workshop Phase: Group 2 Only


The difficulties of presenting on an unknown topic on the spot are addressed in

the preparation phase leading up to the oral presentations. Instead of a more traditional

content delivery method, students will be given the opportunity to collaborate with their

peers in order to build the vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and background

knowledge necessary for the end of unit oral exam. The teacher will form groups, taking

into account IEP, 504, or any other special grouping considerations. As each class

contains thirty-two students, each class will have a total of eight groups, and each group

will contain four students. Students will participate in peer workshops in their groups,

where together using their workshop packets they will read background texts, answer

textual questions, discuss vocabulary and grammar, and practice presenting in the

conversational question-and-answer style. They will be given opportunities to practice

posing questions to each other so that they are ready to ask questions during the oral

presentations of their peers.

Materials Needed: Groups 1 and 2

In preparation for this project, I will need the following materials:

Computer projector, smart board, or other projection technology

Packets for student workshops (Group 2 only)

Pre- and post- surveys for students

Textual graphic organizers for students with special needs

Oral presentation rubric

Highlighters, different colored markers/pencils, post-its, and other text markup

tools

Candy as an extrinsic reward for oral presenters

Assessment: How well did this action research project address the research

question?


Groups 1 and 2 will receive the same pre- and post-surveys prior to and after

completion of the action research. Below is an outline of what students will be asked to

evaluate in each of these surveys. These surveys will be voluntary, and will be used as

one of the primary methods of evaluation by the teacher-researcher. The other method of

evaluation will be students’ grades on the oral presentations.

The pre-survey will ask students to evaluate:

Their own skills as oral communicators in Spanish;

Their comfort levels with public speaking in Spanish;

The frequency with which they use Spanish outside of the classroom (and with

whom do they use Spanish?);

Their opinions about how effective they find oral presentations to be in helping

them to communicate in Spanish.

The post-survey will ask students to evaluate:

Their level of mastery over the material in the unit (quantitative and qualitative

rating);

Their opinions concerning what they liked and did not like about the process;

What was unclear to them as they prepared, or what questions remain (Dietrich,

2009);

Their new comfort level with public speaking in Spanish;

What they would change about the process of preparing for oral presentations and

the oral presentation itself (the product).


References

Dietrich, G. (2009). Using Skype to improve student interviews. In T.E. Stone, V. Pilato,

B. Schwartz-Bechet & K. Woodward (Eds.), Models of applied research in

educational technology (pp. 69-89). Adelphi, MD : UMUC Teachers Press.

Ival, M. (2014). Learning a foreign language: Common misconceptions. Retrieved from

http://www.wou.edu/~ivalm/misconceptions.html

Horowitz, E.K. (1988). The beliefs about language learning of beginning university

foreign language students. The Modern Language Journal, 72(3), 283-294.

Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/327506

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Education Place. (n.d.). Recursos: Ayudas gráficas.

Retrieved from http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/spanish/

Moeller, A.J. & Theiler, J. (2014, June). Spoken Spanish development at the high school

level: A mixed methods study. Foreign Language Annals, 47(2), 210-240. doi:

10.1111/flan.12085

Rossiter, M.J., Derwing, T.M., Manimtim, L.G., & Thomson, R.I. (2010). Oral fluency:

The neglected component in the communicative language classroom. The

Canadian Modern Language Review, 66(4), 583-606. Retrieved from

http://muse.jhu.edu.ezproxy.umuc.edu/journals/canadian_modern_language_revie

w/v066/66.4.rossiter.html

Cronin, J.F. (1993). Four misconceptions about authentic learning. Educational

Leadership, 50(7). Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-

leadership/apr93/vol50/num07/Four-Misconceptions-about-Authentic-

Learning.aspx


Alice, A. (n.d.). Data collection in the classroom. Retrieved from

http://www.pinterest.com/amandaalice/data-collection-for-the-classroom/

Haley, M.H., Midgely, A., Ortiz, J., Romano, T., Ashworth, L., & Seewald, A. (2005,

June 23). Teacher action research in foreign language classrooms: Four teachers

tell their stories. Current Issues in Education, 8(12). Available:

http://cie.ed.asu.edu/volume8/number12/


Pre-SurveyOral Presentations in Spanish Class

Please rate each statement to the best of your knowledge, using the following scale: 1 = very unlikely; 2 = unlikely; 3 = neutral/no opinion; 4 = likely; 5 = very likely.

1. I feel comfortable speaking in Spanish with my teacher. ________________________2. I feel comfortable speaking in Spanish with my peers. __________________________3. I enjoy giving oral presentations. ______________________4. I think I can perform at high levels at a moments notice. ________________________5. I have strong skills in Spanish. _________________________6. Spanish is my favorite subject. _________________________7. I enjoy planning out my oral presentations ahead of time. ______________________8. I prefer working with a partner when presenting in front of the class. _________9. I enjoy learning new information through reading. ______________________________10. I have strong conversational skills in my native language. ______________________

Please provide an answer in the blank below each question. Please be as honest as you can be when answering.

11. How often do you use Spanish outside of class? With whom do you speak Spanish outside of class?

12. Do you think that oral presentations help you to learn Spanish? Why?

13. What do you like about preparing or presenting oral presentations in Spanish? What would you change about the process? Why?


Post-SurveyOral Presentations in Spanish Class

Please rate each statement to the best of your knowledge, using the following scale: 1 = very unlikely; 2 = unlikely; 3 = neutral/no opinion; 4 = likely; 5 = very likely.

1. I feel comfortable speaking in Spanish with my teacher. ________________________2. I feel comfortable speaking in Spanish with my peers. __________________________3. I enjoy giving oral presentations. ______________________4. I think I can perform at high levels at a moments notice. ________________________5. I have strong skills in Spanish. _________________________6. Spanish is my favorite subject. _________________________7. I enjoy planning out my oral presentations ahead of time. ______________________8. I prefer working with a partner when presenting in front of the class. _________9. I enjoy learning new information through reading. ______________________________10. I have strong conversational skills in Spanish. ___________________________________

Please provide an answer in the blank below each question. Please be as honest as you can be when answering.

11. What did you enjoy about preparing or presenting oral presentations in class this semester? What would you change? Why?

12. Do you think that these oral presentations helped you to learn Spanish? Do you feel more confident speaking in Spanish? Why or why not?

13. If you could tell your teacher to change anything about giving oral presentations, what would you tell him or her? Why?


Rubric for Oral Communication (Self, Partner, and Teacher Evaluation Use)

Skills are assessed as appropriate to the level of instruction.

10 – 9 Demonstrates excellenceExcellent completion of taskRich variety of vocabulary and/or idioms Strong control of a variety of structures; a few minor errors Communicates with little or no hesitation Pronunciation and errors do not interfere with communication

8 Demonstrates competence Good to very good completion of task Good to very good variety of vocabulary and/or idioms Good control of a variety of structures; some errors Communicates with minimal hesitation Pronunciation and errors rarely interfere with communication

7 Demonstrates some competence Partial to good completion of task Some variety of vocabulary and/or idioms Some control of structures Communicates with some hesitation Pronunciation and errors occasionally interfere with communication

6 Demonstrates minimal competencePartial completion of task Limited vocabulary and/or idioms; reliance on cognates Minimal control of structures Communicates with frequent hesitationPronunciation and errors interfere with communication

5 – 0 Demonstrates lack of competence Little to no completion of task Little to no evidence of use of vocabulary and/or idioms Little or no control of structuresThe response is incomprehensible

No credit will be given for oral communication that is off topic.

Montgomery County Public SchoolsForeign Languages

2009

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