Oral Skills in the Spotlight: Efl in Secondary Education in a Spanish Local Context (original) (raw)
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International Journal of English Studies, 2014
Current national curricula, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, and EFL materials highlight the importance of the students’ development of oral skills. This study stems from a cross-sectional survey of the teaching of oral skills in Secondary Education in a Spanish local context (Aragón) carried out in 2012 on both teachers and students of English. The present paper focuses on the answers obtained from the group of teachers in order to provide a snapshot of their attitudes, beliefs and expectations regarding the teaching, learning and assessment of oral skills, as well as the implementation of some measures aimed at increasing the required level of oral competence in the foreign language. Teachers’ answers reveal that in spite of what is indicated in language policies, oral skills are not sufficiently practiced and/or assessed; that students are still reluctant to engage in oral activities and do not, therefore, reach the required level in these skills.
EPISTEME KOINONIA, 2022
One of the major concerns of teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) is to get students to interact in the classroom; in this sense, this study analyzed the perceptions of specific strategies to improve speaking skills used by students at the "Ramona Auxiliadora Marcillo Chica" Educational Unit. A questionnaire was used to collect data, the results showed how students learn English and what strategies they use for this purpose; also, the data analysis indicates levels of commitment, autonomy, and a certain indifference with respect to EFL learning. This leads us to conclude that, students can improve their oral skills as long as English teachers implement effective strategies and methodologies in the classroom, such as reading aloud and the use of songs, which will enable students to improve their oral skills with accuracy and spontaneity.
2018
The application of EFL Communicative Strategies represents a significant approach to overcome problems connected with speaking level. For this reason, the objective of this work was to design and apply a program based on EFL Communicative Strategies in order to improve the level of Speaking of the students of the 6 th cycle of Education-English major at National University of Cajamarca. The initial stage of research used exploratory and bibliographic methods for the construction of a survey concerning perceptions about the use of EFL Communicative strategies in the classroom; it was then administered to 20 EFL students. After that, a pre-test (questionnaire) was conducted in order to examine and ascertain the level of speaking of our students. Then, there was an application of 8 lesson plans with the intention of providing our students with EFL Communicative Strategies to reinforce and improve their English level. The final stage of the research involved a post-test to find out if the use of EFL Communicative Strategies was a good means to meet the intended purpose of this descriptive and quasi-experimental research. It is of paramount importance to point out the following conclusion; that after applying the proposal, 74% of students displayed a satisfactory level of improvement in speaking while 26% are still in process of improvement.
Fluency in oral English: A case study of Colombian EFL teachers' beliefs and self-reported practices
2020
Oral fluency is widely acknowledged by both foreign or second language (L2) learners and language professionals as an indicator of L2 performance and proficiency. However, its definition remains elusive as well as its operationalisation in language pedagogy. The aim of this study was, therefore, to explore the understanding of oral fluency and the self-reported practices to enhance it in the L2 classroom. The participants of this study were a group of nine Colombian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers who worked at a Foreign Language Institute in the adult English program of a large Colombian public university in Bogotá. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews which investigated more specifically (1) the teacher participants’ definitions of oral fluency and the characterisation of L2 fluent speakers, (2) their knowledge and confidence about enhancing oral fluency, (3) their familiarity with research on the topic, (4) their description of fluency-oriented activities and (5) the support EFL textbooks provided to do it so. In order to analyse the data obtained regarding the first three aspects mentioned above, rigorous thematic coding was carried out. The analysis of the teachers’ practices was done by employing Tavakoli’s and Hunter’s framework (2018) to identify fluency activities. The results of this qualitative study revealed that the EFL teachers defined oral fluency broadly as parallel to overall L2 proficiency but, at the same time, as an aspect of speech production narrowly related to the cognitive, utterance (speed and pauses) and perception aspects of fluency. Although the EFL textbooks did not support the development of oral fluency directly and the EFL teachers were barely confident and had poor knowledge of fluency research, they reported a wide range of fluency-activities proven beneficial by research. This suggests that teachers’ definitions are not dichotomous as literature proposes and calls for the need to entwine teachers’ cognitions and theoretical accounts of fluency in the field.
2001
This paper presents the results of the work of nine teacher researchers who took an in-depth look at instructional practices and beliefs about oral language and its assessment. There are three sets of research questions: (1) How do teachers and students believe oral instruction should be handled in the classroom and to what extent do the beliefs that teachers have about students' oral production in the classroom and the students' own beliefs match the reality? (2) How are teachers using the required materials for oral language production? and (3) How do teachers assess students orally? Forty teachers and 63 students at all levels of a Colombian university's adult English program participated in this study. It was found that both teachers and students generally believed successful oral production was based on accuracy. Teachers' believed instruction was more student-centered, which was inconsistent with their actual classroom practice. Consistent with student beliefs, student evaluation was in fact accuracy-based. The pedagogical implications included a need for: (1) guidance both to teachers and students in how to make EFL teaching and learning more truly communicative in nature; and (2) more teacher training in how to conduct language assessment in the classroom.
EFL STUDENTS' DIFFICULTIES IN SPEAKING
English is considered one of the major languages in the world, and the productive skill of speaking is the most challenging and demanding for EFL learners. This descriptive study addresses the significant difficulties students from eighth, ninth, and tenth graders from an Ecuadorian private Institution face when speaking English. The study collected qualitative and quantitative data through a survey of 76 participants aged 12 to 15. The results demonstrated that students are in trouble with self-expressing due to the deficiency of vocabulary, incorrect pronunciation, anxiety, the translation of everything, and limited exposure to the language. Most importantly, students described that fear emerged due to incorrect pronunciation. During English classes, students do mechanical activities about grammar, fill in the blanks, and practice specific vocabulary in the book. Withal, learners work in pairs to practice speaking by using dialogues created by them as suggestions given by the book. They feel comfortable working in groups because this strategy decreases their anxiety. Unfortunately, peers overuse the mother language during pair work, contribute a little, and the one who knows more does not allow equal participation. This study contributes to future research as a reference for learning speaking improvement.
Pronunciation Instruction and Students’ Practice to Develop Their Confidence in EFL Oral Skills
The aim of this article is to inform on research intended to find out how pronunciation instruction of English as a foreign language was handled in the language classroom with elementary students and also understand if pronunciation instruction had an impact on students’ confidence when using it. In order to do this, a qualitative case study was carried out with learners of elementary English as a foreign language at the Language School of Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico. Class observation, a written text, and semi-structured interviews comprised the data collection instruments. The findings showed that not only teacher pronunciation instruction is necessary when learning English as a foreign language but that a lot of student practice is key to developing and enhancing learners’ pronunciation as well. Key words: English as a foreign language, EFL pronunciation instruction, students’ confidence. ________________________________________ El objetivo de este artículo es informar acerca de una investigación que pretendió explorar cómo se impartía la enseñanza de la pronunciación a estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera de nivel elemental en la Facultad de Idiomas de la Universidad Veracruzana, México. También se buscó entender si la enseñanza de la pronunciación tuvo un impacto en la confianza de los estudiantes al aplicarla. En este estudio de caso de corte cualitativo, las observaciones de clases, un texto escrito y las entrevistas semiestructuradas fueron los instrumentos utilizados para recabar los datos. Los resultados mostraron que no solo se necesita la instrucción del maestro, sino que es necesario que los estudiantes practiquen autónomamente para desarrollar y mejorar la pronunciación de la lengua meta. Palabras clave: confianza de los estudiantes, inglés como lengua extranjera, pronunciación.
Onomázein, 2018
The Foreign Language (FL) section of Spanish University Entrance Examination (EFL-PAU) has had few revisions over the last twenty years. The Spanish government has substituted the old EFL-PAU University Entrance Examination by a high stakes Baccalaureate Final Evaluation. However, further changes are expected in the coming years. Among the most important ones for the Foreign Language Section is a deep and necessary revision with the inclusion of new types of tasks. To try and inform the decisions made for the new Baccalaureate Final Evaluation, this article reports on the quantitative and qualitative analyses conducted thanks to a pilot oral test carried out with 772 recorded candidate performances. Three main goals were established for this research: 1) to find out the most important variables which characterize foreign language learning in secondary school in Spain; 2) to find out if there is any correlation between the oral competence of students at the end of their non-compulsory secondary education (as obtained from the pilot study) and the marks students obtain in the University Entrance Examination (which does not include the oral skill); and 3) to find out any aspects related to EFL teaching and learning which may potentially enhance oral performance. The results of this paper provide rich information on the students’ foreign language learning context, the strong correlation between the written and oral competences and the need to pay attention to three variables which foster the development of oral foreign language in secondary school classrooms.