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Contents 1
Foreword
Tom Connelly
Manager, Champion Teachers Project (2013–15)
The origins of this book can be traced back to two Now, three years on, in 2016, we have seen three cohorts of
swelteringly hot days in January 2013, when 80 English Chilean English teachers go through the same process. In
teachers, mainly from secondary schools, gathered in the my view, two further key factors have helped to assure the
basement of a Santiago hotel (with intermittent air relative success and continuity of the Champion Teachers
conditioning). They had come to find out more about action Project: the involvement of the Chilean Ministry of Education
research and were curious to know if it could make a in publicising and administering the project nationally
difference to their lives as teachers. For some, the so- (among the 150+ English teacher networks that have been
called ‘Champion Teachers Project’ which ensued would established), and the participation and guidance of Paula
literally revolutionise how they thought, felt and Rebolledo, whose knowledge, experience, dedication and
experienced teaching forever. above all, passion in her role as Senior Mentor in the project
have been an inspiration to all involved. It was Paula who
Their guide and mentor Richard Smith had expressed insisted that a teacher who participated and shone in the
enormous enthusiasm for the project right from the start. It first cohort should be given the opportunity to mentor
was, in Richard’s view, ‘an unprecedented teacher-research teachers in the second cohort. The wisdom of this
opportunity’ in terms of scale and focus on secondary recommendation soon became clear to me when I realised
teachers, and his excitement and belief in the project’s that this new mentor (whose own story of teacher-research
importance were infectious. My abiding memory of those comes first in this collection) not only clearly understood
two days is of two things that Richard emphasised the context of the teachers she was mentoring, but was able
concerning action research by practising teachers: that to relate the value of the process to her mentees far more
engaging in a process of exploration facilitates discovering effectively because of having first made the EAR journey
how what we do in the classroom works or doesn’t work, herself. There really is no more effective form of bottom-up
and more importantly why; and also (perhaps as a result of teacher CPD than this, I believe.
this first aspect) it enables us to become more reflective
and critically-oriented and become teachers who in I’m sure you will find this book both interesting and
Richard’s words do not just ‘blindly accept whatever practical. For those interested in knowing more about
“experts” try to sell them’ – this, as a result of going Exploratory Action Research, the stories here should prove
through a fundamentally bottom-up process of discovery very illuminating. I believe you will find both the concept and
unique to themselves and their learners. I also remember potential of EAR very appealing, regardless of your context.
the way Richard began to call this process ‘exploratory
action research’ (EAR) as the follow-up plans to the January
2013 workshop unfolded.
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Foreword 3
Introduction
Paula Rebolledo, Richard Smith and Deborah Bullock
Difficult teaching circumstances
The changes in the project from one year to the next reveal
The Champion Teachers project its ‘process-based’ nature – it was adjusted continuously,
based on feedback, teachers’ needs and considerations
The Champion Teachers project began in 2013 as a British relating to sustainability. During the third year (2015–16,
Council / Ministry of Education initiative (originally not represented in this volume), the mentor–teacher
conceived by Tom Connelly) to provide an alternative to the relationship was further strengthened, and additional
top-down tradition in in-service teacher education in Chile. guidance was provided regarding data analysis procedures,
Unlike previous initiatives, the project aimed at the which had proved particularly challenging for teachers. As
promotion of continuing professional development (CPD) by we write this Introduction (in February 2016), the project is
advocating autonomy, reflection and empowerment and about to enter its fourth year, starting with a one-day
allowing English teachers to explore their own contexts and workshop for 100 teachers to be led by Paula Rebolledo
practices in order to better understand their work and and Richard Smith in Santiago on 18th March.
promote their students’ learning.
The innovative nature of the project can be seen also in two
The project began with an initial workshop in January 2013 further areas: firstly in the type of teacher-research
which attracted the voluntary participation of 80 teachers, promoted, which started to be called ‘exploratory action
and this was followed by a year of mentoring support for research’, and in the means for dissemination employed
the 40–50 who expressed willingness to actually embark (among which we count this publication). Further
on a project. Most of these teachers gave final reports on information about these two aspects of the project is
their projects to one another at a final, follow-up workshop provided below.
in January 2014.
The role of mentors during the first year had been to Exploratory action research
provide advice on research procedures within a dialogic
relationship, mainly via email-based communications. An The overall approach was deliberately practical, jargon-free
even more humanistic kind of relationship between new and flexible, thus responding to teachers’ dispositions and
teachers and mentors was achieved via skype and phone working conditions in this context. As part of this, there was
conversations during the second year, which itself began an overall emphasis on initial exploration for understanding,
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Introduction 5
benefit in the form of feedback rather than spending
considerable time crafting a written report nobody may
ever read. Thus, in the case of the first (2013–14) cohort,
teachers were asked to create a poster of their research
journey, then come together at a final project workshop
where they practised in pairs and groups of four before
presenting their posters orally to a larger group.
Innovative sharing At the same time, in anticipation that a written account may
be of use at some point, teachers were asked to record
Another innovative feature of the project has been the way their final oral reports using mobile phones. They were then
pressure to ‘write up’ findings has been bypassed. Although given time to transcribe the recordings and rewrite the
the initial expectation of all concerned had been that an transcripts on the basis of feedback from other participants
academic-style report would need to be an outcome, in fact in the wider group.
a quite different form of reporting evolved towards the end
of the first year. A decision was taken to focus on sharing With the addition of photographs and other materials, these
among a relatively small group of teachers via poster and recordings and writings connected with the final
oral presentation rather than attempting to reach a wider presentations of Champion Teacher cohorts 1 and 2 form
readership via written reports. This was partly in the the basis for the stories included in the present collection.
interests of the teachers concerned gaining immediate
6 | Introduction
This book and its purpose disseminate their work further (although encouragement to
others to engage in teacher-research, not dissemination of
The primary purpose of the present book is to provide findings per se, is our main goal). Third-person writing has
examples to other teachers of what an exploratory action also enabled us to maintain a consistent tone throughout
research project can involve.1 The nine stories included the collection. An alternative would have been for us to
here also serve to show others in Chile and beyond what ‘ghost-write’ first person accounts, that is edit them to
some of the Champion Teachers have managed to sound as if they had been fully authored by teachers
accomplish in spite of their difficult working conditions. themselves. However, we decided from the outset that for
us to write as if in the first person would have been both
inauthentic and patronising.
For this reason we have aimed for a relatively informal style of On, then, to the stories... Rather than telling you everything
writing and a welcoming use of visuals (we know as teachers you’re about to read, we thought we would just give some
that visuals support understanding; they can also break tasters of the kind of people you’re going to meet, based on
written texts into manageable chunks and add colour and a combination of Paula’s memories (as the editor most
individuality). The first of these goals has been partly achieved involved on a day-to-day basis with the teachers in the
by making the transcript of an oral presentation the basis of project) and Deborah’s notes on how she tried to convey
initial writing (see above). This practice, derived from the something of their individuality (as editor most involved
Champion Teachers project, influenced a previous collection with the presentation of the stories):
of teacher-research reports (not itself connected with the
Champion Teachers project), namely Teachers Research! The first story belongs to Andrea Robles López. Andrea has
(Bullock and Smith 2015). However, while that publication played an important role in the sustainability of the project
achieved a relatively colourful and informal impression, we since she was a very committed teacher-researcher in the
have set out to innovate even further in the present book. In first cohort and later became the first peer-mentor, for a
addition to using photographs and colour, in this publication number of teachers, in the second cohort. In her research
we have added other less conventional visual features such as story, Andrea describes how her project started from a
speech and think bubbles, and drawings. puzzled feeling about the closings of her lessons. As
Deborah notes, ‘Andrea sounded happy and surprised with
The use of these visual features arose largely from our the positive results and then disappointed, and at times
decision to present the stories as third-person accounts. uncertain, hence the use of emoticons originally’.
This decision was made to avoid placing an added burden
on teachers while providing them with the opportunity to
1
A Handbook for Exploratory Action Research (Rebolledo and Smith, in process) is being produced to accompany these stories, and will, we hope, provide extensive
practical support for teachers interested in trying out exploratory action research for themselves, and/or for teacher educators interested in introducing teachers to this
approach.
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Introduction 7
Mauro Sáez Mejías (Chapter 2) was a teacher from the Note on permissions
second cohort who also started his exploratory action All the teachers have seen and approved the final versions
research from a puzzle – this time, about classroom layout. of their stories, and are happy for them to be included in
Deborah noted the ‘great little pictures from his poster of this collection. In all but two cases written permission was
pairs and groups’ and felt it was appropriate to zoom in on gained from both students and parents for use of the
them in the visual presentation of his story. photographs of students that teachers supplied. In the two
cases where permission could not be gained (as teachers
Camila Villalobos Meneses (Chapter 3) was unable to attend had moved to a new school), students’ faces have not been
the final cohort 1 presentations (hence there is no picture shown. Teachers’ real names have been used but not the
of a poster to introduce her story) but she did supply a names of the schools they were working in.
written draft. Deborah notes ‘I thought it was interesting
that when she formulated questions she thought about who Acknowledgments
would answer them, hence the little table; and the sense of We would like to acknowledge the contributions of the
warmth for her students that comes through in the text and project mentors to date: Anne Westmacott, Catherine
in the photos inspired me to use the colour purple’. Thomas, Kevin Towl, Andrea Robles López, Lorena Muñoz
Huenchullanca, and Claudia Bustos Moraga. We also thank
For another teacher from cohort 1, Javier Ávalos Varela the British Council Chile (in particular, Andrew Chadwick,
(Chapter 4), motivation and participation were also the Tom Connelly and Deborah Sepulveda) and the English
most important issue, and building a safe environment was Opens Doors Program of the Ministry of Education Chile
key. For Deborah, it was Javier’s humour that stood out, (especially Alicia Páez, Ricardo Contreras and Isabel
‘hence trying to capture that lovely interaction between González) for their support. Finally, a particular word of
Javier and his student through an illustration’. thanks to Ellen Darling (British Council EnglishAgenda
website manager) for enabling these stories to be edited
From Chapter 5 (Daniela Gajardo González, cohort 1) and disseminated in book form, and to D8 for the visual
onwards, projects are mainly based on language skills, with design.
speaking seeming to be a common concern for several
teachers. Both Daniela and a teacher from cohort 2, Teresa Most importantly, we would like to thank the teachers
Ríos Hoyos (Chapter 6), focus on exploring reasons for represented here and all other participants in the Chilean
reluctance to speak in class, while Esteban López Mejías Champion Teachers programme. Their dedication,
(Chapter 7, cohort 1) focuses more on exploring students’ encouragement and passion for teaching have been an
actual abilities and implementing a possible solution he has inspiration!
read about. They all use their own imagery and have their
own ways of tackling issues, however – for Daniela the References
image of ‘a long journey’ is central; Teresa’s notebook is an Bullock, D. and Smith, R. (eds). (2015). Teachers Research!
important starting-point, and Esteban begins with the Faversham: IATEFL.
striking image of ‘building a castle without any stones’.
Rebolledo, P. (2013). ‘Exploring action research on a
Continuing the focus on language skills to the end, the professional development course in Chile’. Unpublished
collection concludes with a colourful story relating to low PhD thesis, University of Leeds, UK.
participation in listening skills (Chapter 8: Lorena Muñoz
Huenchullanca, cohort 2) and an account of upgrading Rebolledo, P. and Smith, R. In process. A Handbook for
writing skills (Chapter 9: Leyla Nuñez Aguilera, also cohort Exploratory Action Research. London: The British Council.
2). The last story ends with Leyla looking forward to
implementing changes based on her enhanced awareness Smith, R. (2015). ‘Exploratory action research: why, what,
of student needs, and with her own words, ‘I heard my and where from?’. In Dikilitas, K., Smith, R. and Trotman, W
students. I saw myself’, which seem to encapsulate the (eds). Teacher-researchers in Action. Faversham: IATEFL,
Champion Teacher project’s core value of exploration as a Chapter 3 (pp. 37–45).
preliminary to action but also as an end in itself.
Smith, R., Connelly, T. and Rebolledo, P. (2014). ‘Teacher-
research as continuing professional development: A project
with Chilean secondary school teachers’. In D. Hayes (ed.),
Innovations in the Continuing Professional Development of
English Language Teachers. London: British Council,
Chapter 5 (pp. 111–129).
8 | Introduction
1
Wrapping up classes
Andrea Robles López
Iquique, Chile
First steps
■■ 8 answered correctly.
10 | Wrapping up classes
She sat down and compared what was happening with what should be happening:
1. I asked general questions and did not nominate 1. All the students need the opportunity to
who should answer. participate – I need to nominate.
2. The wrapping up took five minutes. 2. Students should show what they have learnt.
3. I tended to use the same questions at the end 3. Activities should be engaging and of more than
of every lesson, and this signalled that the class five minutes.
was about to end.
4. Activities need to help them to remember the
4. My questions were: What was the lesson about? content at the start of the following lesson.
What can you tell me about this lesson? What
did you learn?
1. Using mini-
whiteboards
Mini whiteboards can be
easily made out of paper
and plastic. Students can
write answers on these with
a marker, erase the answers
and write on them again.
Andrea asked questions and the students worked in pairs,
Time for action laughed and shouted their answers – they loved it! And, in
the next lesson, most of them remembered what they had
The first thing she did was to think of activities that worked done.
for her when she was a student, and decided to try mind
mapping. 2. Traffic lights
Andrea made a set of traffic
The students worked in pairs for ten minutes to create a lights out of cardboard. She
mind map. Then one pair shared their ideas on the board then asked the students to
while other pairs contributed suggestions. At the start of write what they had learnt
the next class when she asked her students to recount in the previous lesson in the
what they had learnt during the previous class, most of green light; what they had
them could recall! learnt in this lesson in the
yellow light; and what they wanted to learn in the next
So, some weeks later she repeated the activity and invited lesson in the red light. Andrea really liked it because it was
her colleague to come and observe again. What he noticed unusual and it covered all the lesson stages (warm up in the
was a huge change – motivated students and all of them green and closing with the yellow) but to her surprise, the
engaged and collaborating! And, in the following lesson, students did not respond well – only a few participated and
when she asked what they had learnt, she found most of in the following lesson many of them couldn’t remember
them could remember. the content.
Wrapping up classes | 11
3. The magic bag Reflections
Andrea took a simple paper bag and called it ‘the magic
bag’. She asked the students to take some magic powder The research opened Andrea’s eyes to what she needed to
out of the bag, make a ball with their knowledge and then do more effectively but she admits that it was no easy task
throw the ball and say what they had learnt. It was fun and to undertake because it took time, and courage to get
the students clearly enjoyed the activity but the following started. However, once she’d started, it was difficult to stop
lesson only 20 remembered what they had learned, so she because there were always questions to find answers to.
was not convinced it was a useful activity. What she found crucial was the support of her mentor
– there were many things she took for granted but her
4. Learning quiz mentor helped her to stop, reflect, and refocus in order to
This was done in Spanish. learn more about the exploratory process rather than
Andrea asked her students simply trying to find a solution to a problem.
to write what they learned,
what was not clear, and What she learnt is that it is very important to centre on her
suggestions for the students – their learning preferences, their needs, their
following lesson. She interests, their background and not rely on what she, as a
enjoyed reading their teacher, felt comfortable with or had been doing for years:
comments, and some of their suggestions were very useful.
She also found that in the following lesson they could easily ‘If you are an experienced teacher and you think that you
remember previous content. have nothing to learn from your colleagues and from your
students, you are wrong.’
12 | Wrapping up classes
2
Seating arrangements
and groupings
Mauro Sáez Mejías
Valparaíso, Chile
lack of space. Mauro also involves his students in individual
desk-work, but he noticed that even during the simplest
tasks, they communicated their ideas with a classmate. He
began to question whether individual work was effective,
and moreover whether the seating arrangement in the
classroom was conducive to his learners’ apparent need to
communicate with each other. He wondered how his
learners felt about this too – did they like working this way?
He decided to investigate. He would find out how his
students preferred to learn and consider whether the
seating arrangement in the classroom facilitated this.
Exploratory questions
Questionnaires
To collect data from the students Mauro created three
questionnaires – one to be completed after individual work,
one after pair work, and one after group work (see
Appendix). He then analysed the responses and identified
the most frequent.
Perceptions Questionnaire
Cuando trabajo en grupo siento que el profesor … [When I work in a group I feel that the teacher …]
Lo peor de trabajar solo es … [The worst thing about working alone is ...]
Cuando trabajo solo siento que el profesor … [When I work in a group I feel that the teacher …]
¿Qué prefieren? Trabajar en grupo o solo. Justifique su respuesta. [What do you prefer? Working in a group or
alone? Explain your answer.]
Perceptions Questionnaire
Lo peor de trabajar en parejas es… [The worst thing about working in pairs is …]
Cuando trabajo en parejas siento que el profesor… [When I work in pairs I feel that the teacher …]
Considerando que han enfrentado diferentes cambios en los puestos en relación al trabajo individual o en grupos:
¿Qué prefieren? Trabajar en grupo, solo o en parejas. Justifique su respuesta.
[Considering the different ways you have worked: What do you prefer? Working in a group, alone or in pairs? Explain
your answer.]
18 | Introduction
Camila Villalobos Meneses is an English teacher working in a school on
Chiloé Island. She teaches students from grades 5 to 8 (10 to 14 years
of age) and there are an average of 28 students in each class. In each
class five or six of the students attend as a result of PIE (Programa de
Integración Escolar). PIE is an inclusion strategy introduced by the
Ministry of Education, which seeks to improve the participation and
achievement of every student, especially those with special educational
needs. The majority of these students come from rural areas and other
islands close to Chiloé, and when they join Camila’s classes, many have
either never studied English as a subject before or have failed to
achieve the expected standard. While attending the school, most live
with foster families or at the local boarding school, and return home at
weekends to visit their families.
1. How do these students feel about their English classes? PIE students
4. What are my fellow teachers’ perceptions of these students’ motivation in their classes? Fellow teachers
Time for action Camila continued to observe and critically reflect on her
own practice, and was particularly interested to note the
Camila now had answers to four of her exploratory impact of the few changes she had introduced.
questions. It was time to consider her fifth and final
question – What can I do to improve their motivation and
participation in my lessons? – in light of what she had
discovered. She came up with three action points, which
she implemented immediately.
Integrate
The first thing she did was to regroup the students and
rearrange the furniture. She created small groups of four to
five students ensuring that each group included a PIE
student.
Time to re-evaluate
Reflections
I don’t understand
English.
Results
The results confirmed Javier’s suspicions and initial
impressions. The responses gaining more than 50%
agreement are highlighted in bold in the table below.
Javier realised that he could not approach this class of One activity which was particularly successful was ‘making
learners in the same way he did with other classes. He signs’. Javier knew that his students would be familiar with
knew that building their confidence and creating a warm lots of different signs as they all used public transport and
and positive classroom atmosphere was crucial and a first went shopping and there were lots of signs in all these
priority. Unless they could relax and enjoy the lessons, they places in both Spanish and English. He knew that even if
would not be able to learn English. they didn’t understand all the words, they would recognise
the icons or symbols and get the gist. So he gathered
He made a point of starting the lessons with an ice-breaker cardboard, markers, glue, etc. and got his learners to
or telling a joke, or chatting and laughing about funny create signs that they could find in supermarkets, shopping
things that had happened at their places of work or home, centres, and on the metro, etc.
etc. Then, when they felt more comfortable and relaxed he
would give a simple overview of what they were going to do
that day.
Really?
29 | Introduction
Why don’t you try to
answer me in English,
even when you have the
skills and enough key
words to do it?
To find out how the students feel when they speak English,
Why do you speak Spanish? Daniela gave them a questionnaire in Spanish (see Appendix)
and asked them to describe their feelings. Almost 80% of
In her search for answers, Daniela decided to observe her them wrote that most of the time they felt nervous, insecure,
students’ behaviour and make notes. She wanted to know not confident, afraid of making mistakes and even frustrated
how they responded to different techniques and activities, (the Appendix contains more detailed results).
and thought this would help her reflect on her teaching
approach too. Why?
Sadly, it turned out that this was because every time they
An important lesson tried, the rest of the class would laugh, make fun, or just not
The first thing she observed was that they always pay attention. So, they were not able to take advantage of
responded to questions in Spanish, so she set up a the opportunities they had to speak English because they
discussion activity to find out why. were inhibited or worse, intimidated.
The journey
There were two main areas that they should work on:
creating a safe and positive learning environment; and
introducing a variety of classroom activities to encourage
and develop speaking.
Yes, I do: 20 students (53%) More or less: 13 students (34%) No, I don’t: 5 students (13%)
a) Some of the most common positive reasons they b) Some of the most common answers they mention
mentioned about speaking in English were: about not speaking in English were:
■■ Students feel more intelligent. ■■ When a student speaks in class, the others laugh
and make fun at the one who is speaking when he/
■■ They can learn it very fast. she does not pronounce correctly. Apart from that,
a big number of the students don’t pay attention
■■ Students can manage to express the language when somebody else is speaking in front of the
orally in a better way than in writing. class.
■■ They feel comfortable speaking English. ■■ Some students feel uncomfortable, because they
do not speak the language well, do not use
■■ Students develop speaking and body language accurate pronunciation, or do not understand the
skills. unit contents.
Yes, it is: 30 students (79%) Not sure: 3 students (8%) No, it isn’t: 5 students (13%)
Continued overleaf
Yes, I would: 32 students (79%) Not sure: 3 students (8%) No, I wouldn’t: 3 students (8%)
a) Most of the benefits students consider they will b) The reasons of students who are not interested in
acquire when learning English are: learning the language were:
■■ The highest percentage of the students think the ■■ They believe it is a boring language, and they are
language is useful because they can communicate not aware of the importance and the benefits they
with native speakers; learn about their culture and can get from learning the language.
go abroad to English speaking countries.
3 Children who understand more than 50 per cent of the class said that
100%
they could not always understand each word from the class. However,
90% 8 they could understand the main and secondary ideas in order to
80% 6 develop a high level of understanding, and that was enough for them to
comprehend the class.
70% 2
60% 3
50% 5
40% 7
Students who do not understand the whole class argue that the lack
30% 1 of discipline of the class distracts them from paying attention and
20% 1 concentrating properly.
10% 1
0% 1
15 students (40%):
This group of students feels comfortable, relaxed and fine when they speak English in class. They feel that
performing oral activities in classes will help them to develop accurate speaking skills.
23 students (60%):
These students feel nervous, insecure, and not confident because they do not have a proper or accurate
command of the language; its pronunciation and grammar structures. Most of them said they get nervous, lack
confidence and feel embarrassed when speaking because they are afraid of making mistakes, and hearing their
classmates laugh at their errors.
Among the answers, a few students said that when they know the correct answers, they feel great, but when the
answers are wrong they feel frustrated.
Finally, only one of them said he does not like oral quizzes or tests because he is not sure about his pronunciation.
Most of the answers to this question were focused on doing more practical, funnier and group activities in classes.
Some of the proposed activities were (by order of preference):
■■ songs, games, karaoke, movies, oral exercises, acting, puzzles and jigsaws, Pictionary, group contests,
spelling, debates and repeating and learning words pronunciation.
Apart from that, some students proposed more hours of English classes and an English workshop after school.
Yes, there are: 31 students (82%) Sometimes: 3 students (8%) No, there aren’t: 4 students (10%)
■■ They do have lots of opportunities; nevertheless ■■ Sometimes they do not want to participate because
they do not take advantage of them because they more advanced students or the ones who have a
feel that their English level is not as good as they higher level of the language do not let the others
want it to be. participate.
■■ They also feel afraid and embarrassed to participate ■■ Two of the students said they do not have
because their classmates make fun and laugh at opportunities because they do not speak in English
their pronunciation. at all.
■■ Some of them said that when they understand the ■■ Three of the students said that they do not
topic or main idea they participate actively, however participate as much as they would like to, in order to
when they are not sure of the answers or activities the give the opportunities to the rest of their
they prefer not to do it. And they only answer when classmates.
they are asked to do it, but not voluntarily.
36 | Introduction
Initial questions
Who to ask?
Teresa Ríos teaches English to 9th grade students Having formulated her questions, Teresa considered who
(15-year-olds) in a municipal secondary school in the she should ask and how. She decided to consult a couple of
urban area of Calama in the north of Chile. There are colleagues and her students.
44 students from diverse socio-economic
backgrounds in her class, and since students begin Consulting colleagues
learning English in grade 5 or 7 (at 10 or 12 years Her first idea was to ask two colleagues what kind of
old), Teresa’s learners have had at least two years of activities they use to encourage their students to speak
English study. However, because English is not more freely in the lessons.
spoken at home, they have no opportunities to
practise speaking.
What strategies do
you use in class to get
students to speak
Teresa believes that it is very important for learners to use more freely?
the language they are learning, and although her students
can read and write simple texts, they are very reluctant to
speak. The national curriculum in Chile puts a lot of
emphasis on speaking too, and Teresa needs to ensure that Consulting students
her students develop oral skills to the required standard. She then prepared a short questionnaire for her students.
This consisted of three multiple-choice questions to find out:
While Teresa recognises that speaking is probably the most
difficult skill to develop, she needed to know why her ■■ how they feel when they speak English (nervous,
students didn’t speak in English, and what was hindering embarrassed, very good, challenged?)
them. She wondered if this reluctance was due to a lack of
vocabulary, i.e. they simply didn’t have the words they ■■ which speaking activities they prefer (dialogues,
needed to communicate or express what they wanted to presentations, role-plays, other?)
say. But she couldn’t be sure, so she decided to investigate.
■■ when they like to practise speaking (at the start, during,
or at the end of the lesson?).
Colleagues’ response
In response to her question to her two colleagues, both
said they used ‘dialogues’.
Me too!
Action plan
The reason they were not so keen on giving presentations was differe nt classmates.
because they felt nervous speaking in front of the class. In
fact, most students reported feeling either ‘nervous’ or
She has also learned that she can’t just assume that she
knows what her students need to learn or lack. Instead, it’s
necessary to explore classroom issues. This process of
formulating questions and finding answers can be used to
explore anything that’s not working, and also lead to better
teaching and learning.
40 | Introduction
Diagnostic test
To find out, Esteban developed a diagnostic test, since the
Ministry of Education (Mineduc) does not provide one for
English. The same test was conducted twice – once in
writing and once orally – on different days. Students were
asked to give a little information about themselves, e.g.
their name, age, and where they are from. The aim was to
measure their ability to share basic personal information in
writing and speaking, although the oral interview also
aimed to assess listening comprehension and to what
extent the learners were able to respond spontaneously.
Despite having studied English in grades 5 and 6, the level of ‘Hi! What is your name?’
the students was very low. Apart from those learners who
knew a little English from watching TV shows or playing video ‘How old are you?’
games, most only knew basic greetings such as ‘My name
is….’. He felt as if he had been asked to build a castle without ‘Me too! Where are you from?’
any stones – and there was no foundation to build on.
‘I’m from New York! Do you like English?’
Diagnostic test
The average score was 35 out of 70, but more than 80 per
cent of the learners were not able to use simple
grammatical structures, and 20 per cent of the written
texts were incomprehensible. Their language level was
clearly far below the Mineduc standard for this grade.
Initial questions Surprisingly, almost 50 per cent of the students could
express information about themselves orally using basic
He needed to find out just how much language his learners language, but the language used was still below standard.
could understand and produce, and came up with three For example, 11 students were only capable of giving their
exploratory questions: name and age. Although Esteban found the results quite
shocking, he was encouraged by the fact that his students
■■ What is the proficiency level of the students’ listening did have a little language knowledge.
comprehension?
Now that Esteban had the answers to his three exploratory
■■ What is the proficiency level of the students’ writing? questions, he could devise a strategy which would help him
to achieve his goal of raising the level of these grade 7
■■ What is the proficiency level of the students’ speaking? learners nearer to Mineduc’s expected standard.
More questions
What are the
students doing when Esteban continued to focus on developing speaking but a
I’m speaking? new concern arose. He noticed that even though he
provided a lot of examples and modelling of target
structures, learners were reverting to L1 patterns. For
example, they would use the auxiliary verb ‘do’ after the
What are they doing
subject when formulating questions, e.g. You do like
when their classmates
football? He wondered to what extent the learners’ L1 was
are speaking?
affecting their English speaking, and formulated two new
questions:
3 7.0
4 5.0
How does this L1
intrusion affect L2 5 5.0
production? 6 7.0
7 6.4
8 6.6
9 6.8
He felt that after two months of mixed input-based
instruction, students should be better able to differentiate 10 7.0
between L1 and L2. Students had been given a lot of 11 6.5
models of the target language in the belief that this would
give them sufficient support to produce language orally. 12 5.9
However, due to the nature of the approach, he felt it was 13 5.3
necessary to check how much input had actually been
processed by the students. 14 5.5
15 A
24 5.7
25 6.2
Conclusions
Reflections
a) canciones [songs]
b) actividades del libro
[activities from the course book]
c) películas [films]
2. Which activities do 48 1 27
you like best?
In response to the findings, especially the student feedback But Lorena wanted to be sure that the changes really had
from the focus group, Lorena realised that she would need had an impact on the students. To confirm what she was
to break audio recordings down into sections and create observing in class, she conducted another survey.
activities for each section. She introduced a variety of Unfortunately, due to pressures of time, she was only able
activity types such as ordering or sequencing tasks, gap-fill to carry out the survey with one class this time.
tasks, crossing out the incorrect answer or underlining the
correct word. Second questionnaire
Lorena explained to her students that now that she had
After two weeks the difference in student behaviour was made some changes to the way she did listening tasks, she
noticeable. The students were now doing the activities and would like to conduct another survey to find out their
completing the handouts. They were also raising their opinions.
hands, keen to share the answers.
1. Trabajar los audios del texto 4. Puedo inferir información del texto [I can infer
de estudio como canciones information from the text].
permite que pueda a) Totalmente de acuerdo [totally agree]
contestar las actividades de b) De acuerdo [agree]
mejor forma. [Working with audio texts such as c) Medianamente de acuerdo [somewhat agree]
songs means I can do the activities better.] d) No estoy de acuerdo [don’t agree]
During the focus group they explained that the new Reflections
strategies helped them to feel more motivated and
successful because they were able to complete the tasks. Looking back on her first research experience, Lorena feels
Moreover, they felt that they were completing the tasks that it was extremely useful in improving her teaching
well, much better than before. approach, and her students’ listening skills. Because
different strategies were implemented on the basis of their
The pedagogy student also reported that the students needs, they were able to focus and participate more fully.
were more focused on the activities and were not Lorena acknowledges that the changes were implemented
distracted or playing with their phones. He also noted that over a fairly short time, but she saw enough positive
all students took part in the activities, and that on average changes to motivate her to continue working in this way:
between 15 and 20 students put up their hands to answer
questions. ‘From now on the way I teach listening will be different
and according to what the group requires, and I have
realised that with a simple action I can change and
improve what I am doing in the classroom.’
50 | Introduction
Something is
affecting my
students’ writing.
What would it be?
Exploratory questions
What do my students
like / dislike about
writing?
And after the lesson, she led a plenary discussion with her
students to find out whether the lesson had been helpful, in
other words, whether they felt better able to write now.
What her students reported
And finally, she interviewed the students whose grades Leyla also wanted to find out how her students felt about
were lower because she felt they could offer further insights. writing and what they liked and didn’t like about it.
Responses to the questionnaire were very honest and
indicated that the writing topics were either not interesting
Findings or irrelevant. When she reflected on this Leyla realized that
in fact some of the topics were not age-appropriate or
Leyla now had plenty of evidence to analyse and think relevant, e.g. asking them to write a CV when they were
about. She returned to her exploratory questions and only 14 years old and had no immediate plans to look for a
searched for answers. job. They also claimed that they were sometimes asked to
write about things they knew little about, which made them
feel bored and frustrated.
1. Consider her students’ age and interests when Leyla is now keen to implement the changes she has
choosing topics planned and is looking forward to investigating and
reflecting on the impact they have.
Leyla realised she needed to focus on writing tasks which
her students would find interesting, relevant and useful.