Communicative skills developed by eleventh grade students

UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE EL SALVADOR SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

TITLE: COMMUNICATIVE

SKILLS

DEVELOPED

BY

ELEVENTH

GRADE

STUDENTS;

SECTION “A”, INSTITUTO NACIONAL GENERAL FRANCISCO MORAZAN, SAN SALVADOR, 2010-2011.

TITULO: HABILIDADES COMUNICATIVAS DESARROLLADAS POR LOS ESTUDIANTES DE SEGUNDO AÑO DE BACHILLERATO;

SECCION “A”, INSTITUTO NACIONAL

GENERAL FRANCISCO MORAZAN, SAN SALVADOR. 2010-2011.

GRADUATION WORK TO OBTAIN THE B.A. IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

AUTHORS: ANGEL HERRERA, ROSA EVELYN BARAHONA DIAZ, HERMINIA ELIZABETH

DATE: MARCH 2012 1

UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE EL SALVADOR

Facultad de Educación

AUTORIDADES UNIVERSITARIAS

ING. LUIS MARIO APARICIO GUZMÁN RECTOR

LICDA. CATALINA RODRÍGUEZ MACHUCA DE MERINO VICERRECTORA ACADÉMICA

LIC. JORGE ALBERTO ESCOBAR DECANO FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN

2

3

4

Acknowledgment This research is devoted who helped me during the process: Ø The almighty God for who supplied me everything todo this possible.

Ø My Parents: Luis Alonso and Albania for all their efforts.

Ø My brothers: Alex and Cristian for all their love. Ø My dear husband: Juan Carlos for his support, patience and love. Ø My little angel : Elizabeth who gave me strength to continue until the end. Ø My partner: Evelyn and her family for their support and prays. Ø My co-workers: Deyci, Esperanza and Frescy for their advices and support. Ø My Pastors: Luis Nuñez and Edith de Nuñez for their prays. Ø Our advisor: Lic. Jorge Soriano for his guidance. Ø Our judges for their advices. Ø All the people who cares about me and my major whom always wish me succesful and good things.

Thanks for everything and God bless them.

Herminia Elizabeth Barahona Dìaz 5

This research is devoted who helped me during the process:

Ø The almighty God for gave me the strength, the wisdom and the intelligence to carry out this project. Ø My mother: Evelia Herrera, for supporting me every moment and showed me her unconditional love. Ø My sister: Martha Elena, Josefina and Juana for their love and unconditional support. Ø My friends: Herminia Barahona and Hugo García for encouraged me to continue and helped me to finish this project. Ø Our advisor: Lic. Jorge Soriano for his guidance. Ø Our judges for their advices. Ø The authorities and professor of Universidadd Pedagógica de El Salvador.

Thanks for everything and God bless them.

Rosa Evelyn Angel Herrera.

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TABLE OF CONTENT CHAPTER I CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK……….………………………………………………………I I. INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................I 1.1 OBJECTIVES .......................................................................................................................... 9 1.1.1 GENERAL OBJECTIVE...................................................................................................... 13 1.1.2 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES .................................................................................................... 13 1.2 BACKGROUND. .................................................................................................................... 14 1.3 JUSTIFICATION .................................................................................................................... 21 1.4 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM. ........................................................................................ 23 1.5 FINDINGS AND LIMITATIONS. ............................................................................................. 25 1.6 SUM UP OF CONCEPTS AND CATEGORIES. ..................................................................... 31 CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK............................................................................ 34

2.1 METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL FUNDAMENTATION. ........................................ 34 2.1.1 RECEPTIVE SKILLS .......................................................................................................... 34 2.1.1.1. LISTENING SKILL ..................................................................................................... 34 2.1.1.2 EXTENSIVE LISTENING .......................................................................................... 36 2.1.1.3 INTENSIVE LISTENING ........................................................................................... 36 2.1.1.2. READING SKILL ........................................................................................................ 40 2.1.1.2.1 TEXT AND DISCOURSE ....................................................................................... 41 2.1.1.2.2 RHETORICAL STRUCTURE OF A TEXT .............................................................. 43 2.1.1.2.3 READING THEORY............................................................................................... 44 2.1.1.2.3.1 READING AS INTERACTION ............................................................................. 45 2.1.1.2.4 TOP- DOWN AND BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING ................................................... 46 2.1.1.2.5 SCHEMA THEORY................................................................................................ 48 2.1.1.2.5.1 ACTIVATING SCHEMATA THEORY .................................................................. 49 2.1.1.2.6 DIFFERENT READING SKILLS AND WAYS OF DEVELOPING ............................ 50 2.1.1.2.6.1 WORD ATTACK SKILLS..................................................................................... 50 2.1.1.2.6.2 TEXT ATTACK SKILLS....................................................................................... 53 2.1.1.2.6.2.1 READING FOR PLAIN SENSE ........................................................................ 54 2.1.1.2.6.2.2 UNDERSTANDING DISCOURSE .................................................................... 57 2.1.1.2.7 INTENSIVE AND EXTENSIVE READING .............................................................. 60 2.1.1.2.8 READING STAGES ............................................................................................... 61 2.1.2 PRODUCTIVE SKILLS .................................................................................................... 61 2.1.2.1. SPEAKING SKILL...................................................................................................... 61 2.1.2.1.1 FUNCTIONS OF SPOKEN LANGUAGE ................................................................ 65 2.1.2.1.2 COMMUNICATIVE STRATEGIES ......................................................................... 66 2.1.2.2. WRITING SKILL ........................................................................................................ 68

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2.1.2.3. PROFICIENCIY GUIDELINES OF LANGUAGE SKILLS ............................................ 72 2.1.2.4. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCES .......................................................................... 83 2.2. EMPIRICAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................................................. 86 2.2.1 MONOGRAPH .................................................................................................................... 86 2.2.2 DESCRIPTION OF THE HIGH SCHOOL ............................................................................ 91 2.2.3 DESCRIPTION OF INSTRUMENTS ................................................................................ 94 2.3 METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL RESEARCH FORMULATION............................98 2.3.1 LISTENING SKILL ..................................................................................................... 109 2.3.2 READING SKILL ....................................................................................................... 110 2.3.3 SPEAKING SKILL...................................................................................................... 118 2.3.4 WRITING SKILL ........................................................................................................ 123 2.4 THEORETICAL DEFINITON AND DEVELOPMENT ............................................................ 126 CHAPTER III OPERATIVE FRAMEWORK. ............................................................................... 132 3.1 DESCRIPTION OF THE SUBJECT FOR THE RESEARCH ................................................ 132 3.2 PROCEDURES FOR GATHERING DATA .......................................................................... 133 3.3. SPECIFICATION OF THE TECHNIQUE TO THE DATA ANALYSIS................................... 134 3.3.1 DATA ANALYSIS ...................................................................................................... 136 3.4.CHRONOGRAM .................................................................................................................. 147 3.5 RESOURCES ...................................................................................................................... 150 3.5.1 HUMAN RESOURCES .............................................................................................. 150 3.5.2 LOGISTICAL RESOURCES ...................................................................................... 150 3.6 PRELIMINARY TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE FINAL REPORT ...................................... 151

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CHAPTER I CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK I. INTRODUCTION This project deals with the communicative skills: oral comprehension (listening), oral production (speaking), reading comprehension (reading) and writing production (writing), that students in 2nd year of high school need to acquire and enhance in order to succeed in English learning. Due to the demand, that English language has gotten in El Salvador, it is important not only to speak the English language, but also to know how to communicate effectively by using the such communicative skills, That is why the Ministry or Education (MINED) decided to implement the new English Syllabus (2010) so that the students who graduate from secondary school (Bachillerato) show at least a high intermediate level of proficiency when they perform in English.

This research presents the objectives that are going to be reach thorough the development of it, which take into account the communicative skills, the process of acquiring them, and the outcome level of communicative skills that the students have at the end of the scholar year. Those communicative skills are classified in to two main groups: the receptive and the productive skills. The receptive group consists of the listening and reading skills and the productive group involves the speaking and the writing skills. In order to be competent performing in such skills, it is necessary to have developed some micro skills, for instance: Identify contracted words, discriminate among the distinctive sounds of English, infer context that is not explicit by using background knowledge, etc., which are the elements that help to reach the task for communication for different communicative purposes. Besides that, these micro skills help measure the competence in the development of the macro skills.

There is one very important point to be taken into in account for the development of this research, and that is the corresponding English syllabus provided by de Ministry of Education (MINED) to all English teachers working in this level. A brief history of the Educative Salvadoran System is also introduced in order to grasp the 9

backgrounds leading to the present reality of the English teaching learning process, and to understand the recent changes made to overcome some past deficiencies. The most significant recent change was the implementation of a new syllabus with the intention of remarking the importance of a closer attention to the development and enhance of the communicative competences based of course in a communicative approach. For that reason, both, the previous and the new syllabi are described and analyzed in this research.

Another important part in this research is the justification; it states the importance on the communicative skills due to the growing of the globalization phenomenon.

That is why; the MINED was pushed to make changes on the syllabus, according to the needs’ school. Besides, the students need to develop and acquire the communicative skills for communicative goals.

In the statement of the problem there are established some questions, which are going to be answered through the searching, and also some possible causes about why the communicative skills are not being really developed as expected by the MINED. As for the communicative competences, it mentions the importance that those communicative competences have for students, which are established in the syllabus, with the purpose that they develop them throughout the scholar year.

Concerning to the theory presented in this research, the findings and limitations emphasize among the authors their different point of views; about the development of communicative skills, the communicative competences, and the syllabus. But also these take into in account, the evaluation and the communicative approach; which are related with this research, because both are part of the new English syllabus proposed by the MINED. Within this research, there are varieties of concepts and categories, which help to grasp the different parts that are set up in it. Those concepts and categories are established

according

to

the

way

that

those

are

going

to

be

used.

10

In order to support this research it is necessary to have a methological and theoretical foundation in which the theory of some authors considered the best ones because of their contributions to this topic, in this case they are: Jeremy Harmer, with his book The Practice of English Language Teaching, Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno, with TEFL in Secondary Education, Douglas Brown by Teaching by Principals, Christine Nutall with teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language. In which the different points of view of them about the development of communicative skills are presented.

Besides the contributions of the authors, something very important is to know about the place of research for that reason; the monograph of the city where the school in which this research was developed is located has been included. In this monograph the most important facts about the city are presented, and they are: Geographic facts, Historical Data, Demography, Hydrography, Economics and social structure, according to access to services and indicators of Education services, divided into Main Private Schools and Main Public Schools.

After the general facts about the place or location of the school where this research was done, the specific facts about school are described as they are: its name ,the number of teachers working there, the number of students and the number of classrooms; besides that, the schedule, its vision and mision and the distribution of the grades and its sections are described too. Then, after the general information about school, a description about English subject comes, how many teachers are teaching English and specifically about the English classes in 2nd year of high school are developed and how the teacher tries to develop the four communicative skills.

Moreover, it is necessary to mention about the instruments used in this research in order to collect the necessary information to give to this research more truthfulness and in order to reach the objectives previously presented. Those instruments are: a journal, check list observation, and final achievement test. Each instrument is described about what it is about, what

its goal is, how it contributes to this 11

research and how it was applied, after their description there is a model of every instrument applied. But all those instruments were not the only aspects used in order to collect the information, a description of the usage of the English book and the role that the English syllabus play in the English classes is included too.

Afterwards the application of those instruments there are a basis which is used in order to compare the theory and the reality founded through this research, and precisely this part of the research presents that. There is a description of how the teacher developed in classes the aspects mentioned by the authors quoted, if they are developed by the teacher.

After that, when theory and reality are compared researchers are able to give their contribution about this topic and give general opinions about the development of the communicative skills.

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1.1 OBJECTIVES 1.1.1 General Objective To analyze through a descriptive and theoretical research the communicative skills developed by eleventh grade students; section A, at Institute Nacional General Francisco Morazรกn, based in the new English syllabus

1.1.2 Specific Objectives 1.1.2.1 To find out the process of acquiring and enhancing of both the macro and the micro skills for communicating in English among eleventh grade students, section A, at Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazรกn.

1.1.2.2. To identify the outcome level of the macro and micro skills for communicating in English among eleventh grade students, at Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazรกn, at the end of the school year, 2010.

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1.2 BACKGROUND. Brief History of the Instituto Nacional "General Francisco Morazán" The Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán was set up on February 18th, 1950 by Mister Rubén H. Dimas, while Mr. Dimas was the Minister of Education in El Salvador. He had the initiative of creating a secondary school exclusively for girls, such idea sprang in his mind due to the internal conflicts in other secondary schools attended by boys and girls; conflicts such as lack of moral values, discipline and others. One of the biggest concerns of Mr. Ruben H, Dimas and his wife was the amount of girls who got pregnant before even having finished secondary school (bachillerato).

At the beginning, the very original name of the school was Instituto Central de Señoritas, and later was changed to Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán.

The school was first located in an old building were the garden Decrolli pre- school (kinder garden) is now. Later, the school was moved to a new and modern building. In 1945, the school was moved again to 3ra calle oriente # 415 right, behind the San Jose catholic church. Later, in 1952 the school was moved again this time the main reason for moving was the growth of the students’ population and the new address was 9na calle oriente # 415.

In 1954, the current Minister of Education at that time, Dr. Reinaldo Galindo Pohl, and the principal of the school, Clementina Valdes Piche, decided to build a new building for the school on 1ra C. Pte., 23 Av. Nte. # 1250. There, the school has been located from that time until the present days.

Concerning to the English Classes in the School In an interview with the authorities of the Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán, they stated that they introduced the English Language subject in 1996 as 14

suggested by the Minister of Education syllabi. Since then until nowadays, they have tried to increase the quality of the English classes in different ways, for instance: 端 Finding and training English specialists. 端 Acquiring new technology to teach English such as television, computers and different supporting materials. 端 Supplying the library with updated bibliographic resources (English books), but the English teachers asks their students to purchase their own English textbooks for the English classes.

Always looking for a better development of English language in their students, the authority of the Instituto Nacional General Francisco Moraz叩n decided to increase the number of English classes up to six (that meant three additional classes) because in the year 2007, the MINED gave instructions to all public secondary schools in El Salvador for adding a new subject to the curricula, that subject was named Life Guidance (Orientacion para la Vida) which it was used to English classes. That decision was a great advantage for the students at that time as an English teacher said during the interview, but suddenly the extra classes were suspended.

The Implementation of the English Syllabi in the Salvadoran Educative System

The gradual implementation of the new curricular reform in Salvadoran educative system began in the year 1996, and it was recommended by the Commission of Development, Science and Education of the MINED. The Ministry of Education introduced new curriculums for all subjects in all different levels of the Salvadoran educative system, and obviously the English subject for the eleventh grade was not the exception.

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The first versions of English syllabi for 7th and 10th grades were made up in 1995 and they were revised in 1996. The syllabi for 8th, 9th and 11th grades were made up and approved in 1996 too. During that year the MINED appraised the implementation of the curricular reform in a representative sample consisted of several private and public schools nationwide, all this was done with the intention to find out the teachers and the school principals` opinion concerning the new syllabi.

Taking into account the data collected during the observation made by the MINED in the implementation of the curricular reform, a new revision of all English syllabi was carried out, so that, in 1998 students and English teachers were provided with the first update versions of the new syllabi, that meant that English teachers could and had to do the adequacy they considered necessary to achieve the set up learning

objectives.1These

new

updated

syllabi

introduced

a

functional

constructivist approach that meant the English learning process as a foreign language was proposed as based on a series of activities gradually carried out to encourage the learners to constant language learning.2 These syllabi were used in public as well in many private schools since 1998 up to the year 2009. But even this English syllabi was used until that time, the MINED, through the 2021 plan, turned its attention to a new orientation of the teaching of English, due to the demands of the globalized world concerning the proficiency of the English command and for that purpose COMPITE was born in 2004.COMPITE was a program created with the intention to incentivize the learning of the English language. During the coming years, the main goal of COMPITE was to set up the basis for the Salvadoran students could have the chance to master a second language, English, in order to relate with other people around the world.3

1

MINED- Programa de estudio de ingles, Primero y segundo a帽o de bachillerato de Educaci贸n Media. San Salvador, El Salvador, 1998.

2 Ibidem.

3 ra MINED- Plan Nacional de Educaci贸n 2021, Programa Compite. 1 Ed. San Salvador, El Salvador, C.A. Marzo 2005.p.8.

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COMPITE had as its main objective to develop the necessary linguistic competences in the students of elementary school (7th, 8th, and 9th grades specifically) as well as secondary school (10th and 11th grades) concerning the command of the English language, such competencies are: reading, listening, writing and speaking in English. But, besides its main goals COMPITE had other ones which of course were not less important, and one of them was to improve or get over the English teachers’ linguistic competencies as well as to update the techniques and methods these teachers devise in their classes to teach English.

The COMPITE program also readequated the English syllabi for both; elementary and secondary levels, with the intention of integrating new updated methodologies, and the contents to be thought with an approach oriented to competencies. It was since 2004 up to 2008 that all the necessary changes according with the new orientation of COMPITE program were made up. Consequently, at the beginning of the current scholar year (2010) the new syllabi were devised.4 Despite the new orientation and the changes made up in this new syllabi (2008), the old English syllabi (designed and implemented in 1998) was definitely one of the sources for the designing and implementation of the current version; although, it is worth standing that this is a functional/notional syllabus embracing the communicative approach for its development in order to achieve objectives and language proficiency levels.5

Development of Skills through Different Methods The communicative skills had been developed through different methods, which even they had have success in the English learning teaching process, they had not reached an integral development in the four skills, this means that every method emphasizes in one or two communicative skills only. As an evidence of this, a brief

4

MINED- Plan Nacional de EducaciĂłn 2021, Programa Compite. 1ra Ed. San Salvador, El Salvador, C.A. Marzo 2005.p.8.

5 MINED- English Syllabus, Tenth and Eleventh grades, High School, San Salvador, El Salvador,2008.p 5

17

description of the main purpose of the most popular methods is going to be given below.

Concerning to the audio lingual method it can be said that the “skills are learned more effectively if oral precedes written, analogy, not analysis”6. It means that this is oriented only to speaking and listening skills. On the other hand, the Total Physical Response (TPR) is based in grammar as well as in meaning, through the development of “imperative drills to elicit physical actions”7 It can be inferred that this method develop the writing skill only. Another well known method is the Community Language Learning and it is considered “more than a system of communication. It involves whole person, culture, educational, developmental communicative process.”8 It means that the four skills are developed during the application of this method, according to the student`s needs. In the same way, the Natural Approach integrates the four skills, even when its main purpose is to increase vocabulary. This approach was “designed with the objective to give beginners and intermediate learners basic communicative skills”.9 All of these methods and approaches are not the only ones, but they are the most applied for teachers in the teaching learning process with the purpose to get very fast results in their students in the acquisition of a new language, and as it was mentioned before these methods and approaches did not have the goal of developing the four communicative skills, but nowadays, the new orientation of the teaching learning process is to enable students with the development of the four communicative skills. For this reason, after years developing each skill in a separated way, the necessity of the integration of the four communicative skills emerged. Even some argue that the integration of the four skills diminishes the importance of the rules of listening, speaking, reading, and writing that are unique to teach separate, the benefit of this integration is more important than whatever comment. Which is that benefit? When communicative skills are integrated “many 6

nd

Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2 Ed. p. 34 Ibidem, p. 34 8 nd Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2 Ed. p. 34.

9 Ibidem p. 34.

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aspects of one skill is thought”10 in other words students perceive the relationship among several skills and they are provided with a great deal of flexibility to performance in class. Besides that, students have a chance to diversify their efforts in more meaningful tasks because they do not have limits in their class’ performance and they are model for the real life integration of language skills.

It is evident that in order to do real this integration of the four communicative skills, it is necessary to look for the suitable method or approach, in this case, the Communicative Approach (or Communicative Language Teaching) is the way to do possible this new orientation of the English teaching learning process. This approach considers the language “as a system for the expression of meaning; primary function interaction and communication”. It emphasizes the function of the language in real situations taking into account the learners’ needs. From this point, it can be inferred that both, the integration of Communicative Skills and the Communicative Approach have the same goal: Engage learners in communication performing in a variety of forms.

In order to develop the integration of communicative skills through this method, it is necessary to create a curriculum, in which one skill is related with the others. It means that every lesson has the activities that help to develop not only the skill presented in the class, but also those which are not mention, but they are taken in the English learning process. An example is presented here: “A lesson in a so called reading class. Under this new paradigm, might include: 1. A pre- reading discussion of the topic to activate schemata.

2. Listening to a lecture or a series of informative statements about the topic of a passage to be read.

3. A focus on a certain reading strategy, say, scanning.

10

Ibidem p. 232

19

4. Writing a paraphrase o a section of the reading passage.”11 In this case, through the four points mention before, there are being developed not only reading skill, but also speaking, listening and writing. With a pre- reading discussion of the topic, the speaking skill is being developed; in the same way, with listening to a lecture, students develop the listening skill. On the other hand, paraphrasing a section of the reading passage in a written form, writing skill is developed.

According to the MINED, this curriculum has to be notional / functional, because this kind of curriculum “is one in which the content of the language teaching is a collection of the functions that are performed when language is used, or of the notions that the language is used to express.”12 In other words, the notional cares about the concepts that can be expressed through language, for instance; time, distance, place, and so on. And the functional cares about the way that students perform, in real situations the acquired knowledge, for instance; describing, narrating, greeting.

In sum, those elements mentioned before (the integration of skills, the communicative approach, and the notional/ functional syllabus) are very important in order to reach the development of the communicative skills, for that reason, the MINED take them into account for designing the new English syllabi.

11 12

nd

Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2 Ed. p. 232 MINED- English Syllabus, Tenth and Eleventh grades,High School, San Salvador, El Salvador,2008p.40

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1.3 JUSTIFICATION The communicative skills are language skills needed to interact in social situations; and they are essential tools in order to have good and effective communication with others.

The necessity of learning the English language has been growing in the last decades due the globalization phenomenon. This situation has taken El Salvador to accelerate and

invest

in the

English

learning

process

for

communicative goals with the objective of taking advantage of such globalization.

Because of this, nowadays to learn English as a foreign language is almost a must in order to have more and better job opportunities and consequently better living conditions.

Therefore, the MINED set up the English Language teaching from seventh to eleventh grades as compulsory. This means that students have the opportunity to learn the language in five years by being taught three classes a week all through the above mentioned grades.

The Salvadoran Educative history also shows throughout the COMPITE program that some communicative skills have been improved, modifying the English syllabi according to the present demands, making some important changes for the teaching-learning process. The MINED provided these changes in 2004, and this curriculum was implemented since 2010: The purpose of this curriculum has been to reinforce the students with the communicative skills in order to give them an important tool to help them during the learning process.

The historical backgrounds of the communicative skills justify this research beginning from the reality on the public schools, and the necessity that students have had during the English learning process in order to use the language for communicative goals. Besides, this study could confirm if the implementation of this new program is giving the expected results by the MINED. 21

This research is also important because no other previous research regarding this issue has been carried out so far. Therefore, it will show a study of the communicative skills based in the communicative competences acquired by eleventh grade students at Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazรกn, through the application or devise of the latest corresponding syllabus provided by the MINED.

And if they achieved the English educative standards as well as the

expected level of English command by the MINED, at the end the current scholar year, 2010.

The information presented in this project will be for university students of educational major in English who can find theoretical information about the development of communicative skills based on competences. Moreover, this research can also help the Salvadoran educative system in order to improve in a dynamic way the English teaching-learning process, and it is expected that the final results of it become of a good contribution for it.

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1.4 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM.

It is well known that in the mother tongue it is necessary to have an optimums development of communicative skills in order to be successful in the process of communication, so in the same way, to develop good communicative skills it is very important and necessary when somebody is acquiring a new language, in this case English. For that reason is important to give the answer to some questions: ü Which are the communicative skills set up in the syllabus of eleventh grade by the MINED to be reached? ü Are the communicative skills being developed by the eleventh grade students in section “A”

at Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán

based on the corresponding syllabus? ü Which communicative skills are being really developed and to what extent by the eleventh grade students in section “A” of Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán?

Why is it important to give answers to those questions? First of all, because the MINED through the syllabus intends to enable students to insert themselves in the society provided with the important and necessary tool as it is English nowadays.

Second of all, because the communicative skills mentioned before are not being appropriately developed in schools, at least not to the extend set up or demanded by the MINED. The reasons why these skills are not being achieved could be: A) That the students are not conscious of the great importance of English in the labor market nowadays; consequently, they do not care so much about the English classes.

B) The students` negative attitude toward the English subject in schools, probably due to bad past experiences fear or embarrassment to express themselves using the English language.

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C) Lack of teacher`s training about the way of working with the syllabus.

D) Teachers are only focused in one skill and do not care about the other ones or give them less importance.

E) Teachers do not apply the necessary method that helps students to develop the four skills.

Finally, it is considered that due the practice, time, and the way that students have been receiving English classes, they develop at least one of the four skills required by the MINED. Taking into account the syllabus proposed by the MINED, the way to learn English has changed; and instead to learn grammar, the students practice it in different conversations. Besides that, the syllabus is designed according to the students’ needs and topics related with their environment, in which they can develop the communicative competences proposed by the MINED. The communicative competences are very important when students are acquiring a new language. Those competences are considered as the knowledge to know what to say and how to say something properly, in the correct situation and not only to know the linguistic code. This searching of communicative competences are required to be reached in Salvadoran’s schools day after day, during the teaching learning process of English subject; through a syllabus in which is stated what will be able to do for students at the end of the scholar year.

Now, the task in this search is to give answers to the questions stated at the beginning, taking into account the theory about the communicative skills, the syllabus proposed by the MINED, and the facts presented during the observation in the school (Instituto Nacional General Francisco MorazĂĄn).

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1.5

FINDINGS AND LIMITATIONS.

With the purpose that Salvadoran schools prepare students able to manage a second language as it is English, it is necessary to know the different ways in order to develop the Communicative Skills that allow them to perform in a high level according to the global requests.

The Communicative Skills are very important, because they help students to have good communication, and also because they are part of the new syllabus proposed by the MINED. For those reasons, it has been necessary to consult different specialized authors referred to the theory that supports this research.

The authors taken for this research are: Douglas Brown, “Teaching by Principles”, New York, 2001; Jeremy Harmer, “The Practice of English Language Teaching”, 2001; ICFES Magisterio, “Evaluacion por Competencias”, Bogota, 2004; Harold Madsen, “Techniques in Testing”, New York, 1983; Neil McLaren, Daniel Madrid, Antonio Bueno, “ TEFL in Secondary Education”, España, 2005. Their theories increase the knowledge related with the communicative skills, which present the following findings and limitations.

Development of Skills It is through the development of skills process that it is possible a real acquisition of language. Jeremy Harmer (2001) has classified the skills into to categories: Receptive and Productive skills. Receptive skills is about listening and reading; productive is about writing and speaking. Douglas Brown (2001) thinks “the human race has fashioned two forms of productive performance” which concerns about speaking and writing. And also “two forms or receptive performance”13, listening and reading.

13

nd

Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2 Ed. p. 232

25

Receptive Skills Listening Jeremy Harmer believes that students can improve their listening skills through a combination of extensive and intensive listening material and procedures.

“Extensive listening usually takes place outside the classroom”14 and in a listening activity chosen by students. Intensive Listening occurs in the classroom and it can be developed in different ways: “Reading aloud, story telling, interviews and conversations.”15

Douglas Brown proposes five different kinds of classroom listening performance: “receptive, intensive, responsive, selective and extensive”.16 Intensive listening performance, focus on components because students pay attention in identifying “grammatical structure, memorize words, contraction and intonation”.17 On the other hand, extensive listening performance is related to understand the message.

Students are exposed to listening activities in order to take notes and understand as much as possible what the conversation or talk is about.

Reading In order to develop this skill, Jeremy Harmer states that it is necessary to get “involved in both extensive and intensive reading”18. Extensive reading is applied when teacher encourages students to choose themselves what they read, and its main goal is to make in student grow up the feeling of pleasure

when they read.

Intensive reading is designed to develop specific receptive skills, and often the teacher chooses directly what the students are going to read.

About this skill, Douglas Brown proposes two ways of classroom reading performance; oral and silent. Oral is focused in reading aloud for the students to

14

Jeremy Harmer- The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p. 228 Ibidem, p. 230 16 Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2nd Ed. p. 235 17 Ibidem, p 235 18 Jeremy Harmer- The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p. 210 15

26

develop pronunciation and participation into the classroom. On the contrary, silent is classified into intensive and extensive reading, where intensive reading is similar to intensive listening, because it is focused on “the linguistic or semantic details of passage”.19 But extensive reading “is performed outside the classroom”; this looks for a general understanding from long texts, for example “books, long articles or essays, etc.”20 Productive Skills Writing For Jeremy Harmer “there are issues of letter, word, and text formation manifested in this skill through spelling, layout and punctuation”21. If teacher and students care about it, a competent writing can be developed.

Spelling is important for the understanding of a written message and for the reader`s judgment. Layout and punctuation is even a matter of personal styles. It is necessary to follow the well- established customs in order to make a piece or writing look awkward to many readers.

In the writing skill, Douglas Brown mentions some classroom writing performance: “imitative or writing down, intensive or controlled, and self writing.”22Imitative or writing down is when students listen more than twice a word or phrase and then they write what they hear. Intensive or controlled writing refer to grammar; it helps to improve grammar problems in students, to control tense verbs, etc. Self writing refers to take notes about a class or a lecture and after, they write down like a summary about the class.

Speaking Jeremy Harmer considers that “the ability to speak fluently assumes not only the knowledge of language features, but also the ability to process information and

19

nd

Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2 Ed. p. 312 Ibidem, p. 313 21 Jeremy Harmer- The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p.255 22 nd Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 2 Ed. p.344 20

27

language”,23 in the exact moment. Those language features are necessary elements for spoken production, and those elements can be mastered in the English learning process, if the activities developed in the classroom involve to students in the mastering of these features.

The six classroom speaking performances that Douglas Brown mentions are: “imitative, intensive, responsive, transactional, interpersonal and extensive”.

Imitative, “learners practice an intonation contour”24 . This is practicing with the purpose that students “focus on some particular elements of language form”.

Intensive is related with the “practice of phonological or grammatical aspect of language.”25 Responsive, students answer to the teacher or to students with short replies. Transactional refers to “exchange specific information”26 in a conversation.

In this, the point is to have a long conversation. Interpersonal is related with social relationship among students, the purpose is to enjoy the conversation.

Even the object of this research is the Communicative Skills; it is important take into account the proficiency guidelines besides that, mention about syllabus, communicative competences and evaluation, because in Salvadoran educative system those elements are considered important tools that

allow to the

Communicative Skills to be developed in the English teaching learning process.

Syllabus Jeremy Harmer in his book “English Language Teaching” says, “The syllabus concerns with the selection of items to be learnt and the grading of those items into an appropriate sequence”,27 helping and ordering the steps to follow in order to do the learning process easy.

23

Jeremy Harmer- The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p.269 Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2nd Ed. p. 271 25 Ibidem, p.273 26 Ibidem, p. 273 27 Jeremy Harmer- The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p. 295 24

28

According to Neil McLaren, Daniel Madrid y Antonio Bueno (2005), in their book, “TEFL in Secondary Education”, defined “syllabus as the selection and organization of language content”,28 which refers to the group of topics that the syllabus is going to have. In other words, the syllabus is concerned with what is going to be taught.

Competences In the book “Evaluacion por Competencias” coming from ICFES Magisterio (2004), competence is considered as “the art of knowing what to do in a context,”29 where students show their abilities to understand the reality in which they interact using their knowledge acquired previously and their ability to solve problems.

According to Neil McLaren Daniel Madrid y Antonio Bueno in their book “TEFL in secondary Education” making a relation with the language the definition of competence was changed by communicative competence, in which the person knows “when and when not speak, what to talk about with whom, when, where and in what manner.”30

Communicative Competences In the ICFES Magisterio, state that the “communicative competence is dynamic and not static”31 and it applies to the oral and written language and it is relatively not absolute, and depends on the cooperation of the participants.

Neil McLaren, Daniel Madrid y Antonio Bueno, states that the communicative competence “embraces the knowledge of the formal system of a language and the use or the systems in communication together”.32 28

Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. P.248 29 Icfes Magisterio- Evaluación por competencias- Lenguaje Idioma Extranjero Inglés. Evolución de las Pruebas de estado, Colombia, Bogotá, 2004.20th Ed. p. 133.

30 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. P.472 31 Icfes Magisterio- Evaluación por competencias- Lenguaje Idioma Extranjero Inglés. Evolución de las Pruebas de estado ,Colombia, Bogotá, 2004.20th Ed. p. 134 32 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. P.472

29

According to Douglas Brown, The communicative competence must be developed inside the classroom, those competences are: “grammatical, discourse, functional, sociolinguistic, and strategic components”33 of the class.

Those components concern about language their productive and receptive skills.

The reception and production of the English language help students to develop skills in order to improve their learning process with the communicative approach in which the teacher only guides the students and they are encourage to construct their own meaning through linguistic interaction with others.

Evaluation Harold Madsen (1983) in his book “Techniques in Testing” says that “good evaluation helps measure students’ skills more accurately”34. It means that evaluation is not oriented to find out students mistakes, but it is oriented to help students to improve in their development of skills.

Neil McLaren, Daniel Madrid y Antonio Bueno in his book “TEFL in Secondary Education” say, “the specific method of evaluation will relate to what exactly a teacher or an examiner would like to assess”35 and it depends on the age and level of the students. It means that the evaluation has to take into account only the most important aspects for students and teachers.

33

nd

Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2 Ed. p. 68.

Harold S. Madsen- Techniques in Testing- Oxford University Press, New York, 1983. P. 178 35 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. P.225 34

30

1.6 SUM UP OF CONCEPTS AND CATEGORIES. The goal of learning English language is the ability of communication.

Communication is “a process of reaching mutual understanding in which participants not only exchange information, but also create and share meaning”36.

To do this possible it is necessary that the students develop skills. Skill is “something that requires training and experience to do well”37. In the English Language there are four skills, which are classified in receptive and productive.

Receptive skills are “the ways in which people extract meaning from the discourse they see or hear”38 and they concern about listening and reading.

Listening is “to interpret oral messages effectively in diverse communicative contexts”39. Reading is “to understand general and specific information from written texts”40. Productive skills are “the ways in which people produce spoken and written messages”41 in the target language. They are about speaking and writing. Speaking is “the capacity of communicating orally making use of grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competencies”42. Writing is “to write general and specific texts to express ideas, emotions and thoughts with diverse communicative purposes”43. The four skills mentioned, have been taken into account in order to be developed by students during the English learning process through the English syllabus. Syllabus is “a summary or list of the main topics of a course of study”44. The new Salvadoran English syllabus is notional/functional syllabus which “the content of the language teaching is a collection of the functions that are performed when language is used, or of the notions that the language is used to express”45. During the development of the English syllabus it is necessary to take some evaluations from the students.

36

Microsoft Encarta, Premium dictionary, 2007.

Ibidem.

38 Jeremy Harmer- The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p. 199 39 MINED- English Syllabus, Tenth and Eleventh grades, High School, San Salvador, El Salvador,2008p.13 40 Ibidem, p.13.

41 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p. 246 42 MINED- English Syllabus, Tenth and Eleventh grades, High School, San Salvador, El Salvador,2008p.13 43 Microsoft Encarta, Premium dictionary, 2007.

44 Jeremy Harmer- The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p. 295.

45 MINED- English Syllabus, Tenth and Eleventh grades, High School, San Salvador, El Salvador,2008p.40 37

31

Evaluation is “a systematic determination of merit, worth, and significance of something or someone, using criteria against a set of standards”46.

A Competence is “the knowledge of a language that enables somebody to speak and understand”47. The communicative approach considers different areas of competences. Grammatical Competence refers to “the degree up to which the language user has mastered the linguistic code”48 This competence gives the opportunity

to

communicate

using

coherent

structure.

Sociolinguistic

Competence addresses “the extent to which grammatical forms can be used or understood appropriately in various contexts to convey specific communicative functions”49. When students develop this competence they take into account the context

in

which

communication

is

being

developed.

Communicative

competence refers to “the learner’s ability to use vocabulary and grammatical rules as well as the ability to form correct utterances and use them appropriately according to the context”50. Sociocultural Competence refers to “social aspects of the people speaking a particular language as shown in cultural manifestations related with the country and their own lives”51. Discourse competence “involves the ability to combine ideas to achieve cohesion in form and coherence in thought”52. Each competence achieved becomes in an outcome. Outcome is “an expected or likely final state, achievement or result”53. Achievement

is

54

“something that somebody has succeeded in doing, usually with effort” , which is measured thorough the assessment .Assessment is “a method of evaluating student performance and attainment”55, well known as a test. Test is “a series of questions, problems or practical task to gauge somebody`s knowledge, ability, or 46

Microsoft Encarta, Premium dictionary, 2007.

Ibidem, p.40 48 Ibidem, p. 13 49 Ibidem, p. 13 50 Ibidem, p.40 51 Neil McLaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p.474.

52 MINED, English Syllabus, Tenth and Eleventh grades, High School, San Salvador, El Salvador,2008p.40 53 Microsoft Encarta, Premium dictionary, 2007.

54 Ibedem.

55 Microsoft Encarta, Premium dictionary, 2007.

47

32

experience”56. Those tests are classified into three: Diagnostic Test is a “test administer to students to identify student`s strengths or weaknesses”57. Progress Achievement Test refers “to the measure of the progress that students are making”58. Final Achievement Tests are “tests administrated at the end of a course of study”59.

There are other concepts and categories that are necessary to present in this research, such as related with reading skill that helps to develop it effectively: Word attack skill; which is focused in recognize the exact meaning of words, and the

Text attack skill; which is focused in understand the text in a general way,

using the context of the sentence.

56

Ibedem.

MINED- English Syllabus, Tenth and Eleventh grades, High School, San Salvador, El Salvador,2008p.13 58 Ibidem, p. 13 59 Ibidem. P. 13.

57

33

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1 METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL FUNDAMENTATION. It can be said the choice of language may depend upon the channel of communication, if it examines this concept more fully it can identify certain language skills that native speakers and competent language users posses, literate people who use language have a number of different abilities, they are able to speak on the telephone, write letters, listen to the radio or read books, in other words, they possess the four basic language skills of speaking, writing, listening and reading. But, those skills are divided in two groups; the receptive skills, listening and reading, and the productive skills, speaking and writing.

2.1.1 RECEPTIVE SKILLS 2.1.1.1. Listening Skill The importance of listening in Language learning can hardly be overestimated and it has not always drawn the attention of educators to extend that. People have the tendency to think that the managing of speaking skill is the major index of language proficiency but they do not realize that if they do not understand when somebody interacts with others, to speak it is not enough “listening clearly plays a key role in all human relationships�.60 Through a variety of research studies that showed evidence of input in second language acquisition, the significance of comprehensible input has been stressed.

Subsequent pedagogical research on listening comprehension made significant refinements in the process of listening, and teachers should consider some specific questions about listening comprehension:

60

nd

Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2

Ed. p. 247

34

1. “What are listeners doing when they listen?

2. What factors affect good listening?

3. What are the characteristics of “real-life” listening?

4. What are the many things listeners listen for?

5. What are some principles for designing listening techniques?

6. How can listening techniques be interactive?

7. What are some common techniques for teaching listening?”61 All these questions are necessaries in order to create in the student significant learning of listening. Answering these questions could help to the teacher for creating of a good atmosphere of listening.

Listening is consider as an “interactive process”62 that starts with the receiving of sound waves through the ear and transmit nerve impulses to the brain, then, the brain acts on the impulses, bringing to bear a number of different cognitive and effective mechanism. Through this interactive process there are considered the following points that are done in microseconds in the brain when listening comprehension is being activated:

1. “The hearer processes “raw speech” and holds an “image” of it in short-term memory 2. The hearer determines the type of speech event being processed and then appropriately “colors” the interpretation of perceived message 3. The learner infers the objectives of the speaker through consideration of the type of speech event, the context, and the content 4. The hearer recalls background or schemata relevant to the particular context and subject matter 5. The hearer assigns a literal meaning to the utterance.

61 62

Ibidem p. 248 Ibidem p. 249

35

6. The hearer determines whether information should be retained in short-term or long-term memory”63 After activating this interactive process in students it is important to use a main component of listening activities as it is the combination of extensive an intensive listening. “Listening of both kinds is especially important since it provides the perfect opportunity to hear voices other than the teacher’s, enables students to acquire good speaking habits as a result of the spoken English they absorb and helps to improve their pronunciation”64

2.1.1.2 Extensive Listening This kind of listening helps student to improve in their listening performance and also can have a dramatic effect on student’s language learning. In extensive listening “teacher encourages students to choose for themselves what they listen to and to do so for pleasure and general language improvement”65. It is important that teacher advises students not to worry if they do not understand everything when they start practicing extensive listening, because the principle objective of this is “to adopt a relaxed posture and ‘lie down and doodle”66 while they listen. The more they practice with extensive listening the more they will be comfortable when they listen.

2.1.1.3 Intensive Listening This kind of listening is performed inside the classroom and it has specific purposes for the teacher. Teacher manages this kind of listening and there are many forms to develop it:

2.1.1.3.1 Intensive listening using audio This kind of intensive listening enables students to recognize a variety of situations and voices through the characters of the audio material, but the teacher has to consider some aspects when he/she is going to use audio material: 63

nd

Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2 Ed. p. 249 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p. 303 65 Ibidem 66 ibidem 64

36

1. The size of the classroom 2. The audibility of audio material 3. The level performed in the audio material.

Those aspects are very important because it depend on them if intensive listening using audio material has successful or failed results.

2.1.1.3.2

Intensive listening live listening

This listening is a way of encouraging students to put in practice the listening skill in real situations. “It allows students to practice listening in face to face interactions”. Besides that, students can adequate the level of speed and vocabulary they use and in this way they feel more comfortable. Live listening offers a variety of activities in which listening skill is developed: a. Reading aloud This activity has to be performed specially for teacher or an invited colleague because it has to be “an enjoyable activity, when done with conviction a style”67 in order to catch the attention of students. b. Story telling When story telling is performed the listening comprehension of students can be measured by asking them to retell the story, “retelling stories is a powerful way of increasing language competence”68 c. Interviews In this activity students are motivated to create their own questions, asking about what they want or what they are interested about.

67 68

Jere.my Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p. 307 Ibidem p. 307

37

d. Conversations Students have the chance to watch the interaction as well as to listen to it. For all activities of live listening it is important to take into account that sometimes it is necessary to invite somebody else to do the activity more interesting for students.

Other important components found in the interactive process of listening are: The bottom up process and the top down process, those processes are important tools in order to be successful in listening student performance. e. Bottom up process “It is essentially a linguistic process in which we try to make sense of acoustic signals by using our knowledge of language”69 In this case students have to: · Attribute the correct sense to the word · Recognize a phonetic variation of a word · Know the words in spoken vocabulary · Be able to segment the word out of a piece of connected speech.

Students have to put in practice their knowledge about the language “Processing acoustic signals at a lower linguistic level”70 f. Top down process This is generally referred to as “schematic knowledge”71, that is a collection of each individual’s life experiences and these experiences are themselves organized into

69

Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. P.285 70 Ibidem p. 286 71 Ibidem p..287

38

different categories: “general world knowledge, sociocultural knowledge, topic knowledge, and genre knowledge”72.

Why the schematic knowledge can influence in the process of listening comprehension?

Because

it

provides

the

basis

for

understanding

or

misunderstanding in listening encounters, that phenomenon is possible because of the different concepts and definitions derived from the schematic knowledge.

Even the schematic knowledge will not always supply the listener with the information which will allow a successful interpretation on top down listening strategies may well aid comprehension in certain situations. “Top down processing may be used as a strategy at lower proficiency levels, but one which is gradually removed and calibrated according to the requirements of the situation.”73It is the interaction between these two knowledge sources (bottom up and top down) which makes listening, even at a cognitive level, an active process, “comprehension is, thus, arrived at by matching information from both bottom up ant top down processing sources until reasonable interpretation is found”74 Listening can be divided in three stages: pre listening, listening and post listening.

Pre listening “prepare students for what they are going to hear, just as we are usually prepared in real life”75 it means that in classroom all important vocabulary is thought in order to facilitate comprehension.

Listening, in this stage extensive and intensive listening are contemplated, working with those listening activities listeners are allowed to develop their comprehension and are able to give specific information about what they hear while they are listening recorded material besides that they put in practice the vocabulary learned in pre listening stage. If listeners really understand what they hear, they could do the following actions: 72

Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. P.287 73 Ibidem p.288 74 Ibidem p.285 75 Ibidem p.293

39

1. Listener responds physically.

2. Listener selects from alternatives such as pictures objects, texts or actions.

3. Listener transforms the message.

4. Listener answers questions about the listening.

5. Listener takes notes or makes an outline.

6. Listener goes beyond the listening by continuing the story o solving a problem.

7. Listener simply repeats the message.

8. Listener performs a similar task.

9. Listener is an active participant in a face to face conversation.

Finally, the listeners should be exposed to spontaneous speech as well as textbooks recordings and they are able to achieve some micro skills, which help them to improve their listening comprehension, those micro skills are: ·

“Discriminate among the distinctive sounds of English.

·

Retain chunks of languages of different lengths in short- term memory.

·

Recognize reduced forms of words.

·

Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in different grammatical forms.

·

Process speech containing pauses, errors, corrections, and other performance variables.

·

Recognize cohesive devices in spoken discourse.

·

Distinguish between literal and implied meaning.76

2.1.1.2. Reading Skill This receptive skill is one of the four communicative skills that students need to develop and enhance in order to interact with others. Perhaps, because they need

76

nd

Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2

Ed. p. 256

40

to inform, share or communicate something to someone. “Reading is an active skill considered to be essential in the development of literacy”77, in which the reader, the writer, and the text contribute to this process.

When someone is reading a text, he/she does it with different purposes in different ways, because there is a variety of reasons for reading; for instance, read a telephone directory, a poem, a map, a diagram or a book. In which everything has to be read in different ways that influences the students for the purpose for reading.

That is why it is necessary to explain two very important aspects as are text and discourse.

2.1.1.2.1 Text and Discourse Due to the relation between writer and reader in order to make a text, there is a process in which the writer needs to be sure about what he is writing and also how the text is organized. The writer has to be clear if the text is going to begin from general to specific or the other way around. Besides, the writer has to take into account the level of the reader related with the selection of words that he /she uses. The purpose of a writer must be to make easy the reading of the text, to transmit the message as clearly as possible and present an elegant and accurate text. Those elements are known by discourse that is “the way the meanings in the text are organized to convey the message.”78 It is well known that a single sentence has different kinds of meanings, which sometimes must be distinguished and they could be: “conceptual, propositional, contextual, and pragmatic”79. The conceptual meaning refers to the very meaning of a word that can be found in any level as a whole book or a simple morpheme.

Some of them can be simple, some complex, but this conceptual meaning is the base for other kinds of linguistic meanings, because the meaning of a word is the most important part of the reading. The propositional meaning is about the 77

Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. P. 349 78 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 20 79 Ibidem.

41

meaning of a sentence “also know as signification or plain sense”80, in which the meaning of a word is not so important, because there are other words that help to make another meaning as sentence, where it is necessary to understand the context. The contextual meaning also known as “force or functional value”81, refers to the connection between sentences that help to organize the writer`s thoughts with the purpose to get an effective reading. The pragmatic meaning refers to the interaction between writer and reader through the writing, where the feelings, attitudes are set down on the text, in order to be understood by the reader with the same intentions or feelings.

In order to understand better the four kind of meaning it is presented the next example: You should not expel my son just because he has failed. Examination results can be misleading.

Conceptual meaning: simple (son), complex (should) and plurality (results).

Propositional meaning: In this sentence we can deny, question or doubt the sentence: Examination result are misleading.

Contextual meaning: The preposition, examination results can be misleading has the force or an explanation or justification of the claim that expulsion would be wrong.

Pragmatic meaning: Suppose a mother utters this to the teacher who is proposing to expel her son and if the teacher responded only to the propositional meaning of the second sentence” examination result can be misleading”, he might reply how true! But the mother clearly intends to protest.

80 81

Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 14 Ibidem,

42

When the students had understood the kind of sentences that they have in their reading and also they are done the connection with the writer`s thoughts, it become easy to understand the coherence and cohesion on the text. It can be said, that a number of sentences make up a text. But this is not completely true, until those sentences have been organized and structured coherently in order to transmit a message. “Coherence depends on the value”82, this means that depends from the context in which the sentences are placed and also the arrangement of the sentences. Cohesion refers to the linguistic connections between sentences, known as cohesive devices that help to make a clear meaning to the sentences using discourse markers like: however, and, thus, although, and so on.

2.1.1.2.2 Rhetorical Structure of a Text “The complex network of relationship and the way the underlying ideas are organized within a text is known as Rhetorical structure.”83There are three important things that make up the rhetorical structure: First of all, the topic of a text, coherence is necessary on a sentence, because the topic depends on the sequence and coherence on these sentences. Second of all, the writer`s purpose in writing; the writer has to have in mind what the purpose of his/her text is for the reader, maybe to inform, persuade or convince, taking into account the level of the reader. Finally, there is the audience, regarding this it was mentioned before that the level of the reader has to be taken into account as well as the previous knowledge that they have about the topic.

It can be said that the rhetorical structure of a text helps to a good organization with in the sentences in which is important that the writer always selects and arranges his ideas and the words used to express them. Generally, sentences begin with the topic or theme and after the information needed about it, this is called “comment or rheme”84. When the writer and the reader are in agreement 82

Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 25 Ibidem p 26 84 ibidem, p. 27 83

43

about any ideas, the reader has to pay more attention to the new information that the writer is giving to help the progression of the reader`s thoughts. A good writer should always make every sentence have the connection with the previous and the next sentence with the purpose to transmit clear ideas about the topic.

A good connection between the previous and the next sentence let a good organization sequence on sentences, that let to the writer forms a paragraph in which one sentence “sum up the main idea of a paragraph�85 and this is known as a topic sentence. When the reader recognizes the organization of a paragraph, he can also identify supporting details, main topics and main ideas of a paragraph.

Besides that, the reader can identify how the paragraph is organized, for instance, a sequence of event, from general to specific, of from specific to general, cause and effects and so on.

2.1.1.2.3 Reading Theory Readers have to adapt to new implementations when they want to learn another language, because they are accustomed to read in their native language. Many aspects change during the learning of a second language, and among them we can mention orthography, vocabulary, syntax and so on. Therefore, to make a change it is difficult for the most readers, and it is necessary to accept several factors that differentiate foreign language readers (L2 readers) from native language readers (L1 readers).

1. L2 readers are already literate in the L1 that they use daily simultaneously with the target language.

2. Different L1 orthographies and literacy practices affect L2 reading abilities and strategies. These L2 differences constrain the ability to generalize theoretical issues and research findings in either the L1 or L2 across learners.

3. The role that L1 literacy plays, affect in different ways according to whether the L2 reader is an immigrant engaged in filling out forms, a foreign students 85

Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 28

44

in a L2 class reading an assigned text, or a secondary, or tertiary-level student in a foreign language contexts.86 “The purpose of reading is to get meaning from a text”87, either for learning the language or for getting an important message. During this process there are terms that are important to explain. Firstly there is a writer, who has in mind the message (idea, fact, feeling, etc.)That he/ she wants to share thorough a group of words, where the idea is encoded. Secondly, there is a reader who needs to read the message and understand it, where this message is decoded and the communication is achieved. But this achievement depends of the guarantee that the message had been understood, now that, the text can be easy for one readers but difficult for other ones.

Due to the difficulties that reader has during the process of reading. He “is actively involved and often has to work to get the meaning out”88. Before this process, the reader seems to be a passive reader, because, he is reading the test looking for a message only. But when this process is activated, the reader is an active reader.

Although “in traditional approach to reading, the reader has considered to be passive, now that listening and reading were described a passive skills”89. But more than active or passive, reading is defined as interactive.

2.1.1.2.3.1 Reading as Interaction It is necessary that the readers perform a number of simultaneous tasks during the process to understand written texts which are stated in the “following: 1. Decode (Reader and writer are using the same code of language).

2. Interpret ( that the writer has a message) 3. Understand ( the writer wants the reader to understand the message )”90

86

Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 352 87 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 4 88 Ibidem p. 10 89 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 353 90 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 11

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That is why reading is considered as interaction because in the first task (decode) the message is recognized by written signs whether the writer and reader have to be interested in order to use the same language according to their levels, the second task (interpret) works only for the reader because he/she has to make the effort in order to interpret the message. But not only to interpret, also to understand what the writer wants to share.

2.1.1.2.4 Top- Down and Bottom-up Processing In the process of reading, the reader has to be careful about what he/she is reading and the way that he/she reads the text. This way of reading depends on the knowledge that he/she has about the vocabulary, phrases and sentences that are used in the text and also the knowledge about the topic. In order to understand better this, the bottom-up and the top-down processing are explained like this: “These are complementary ways of processing a text. Both of them are used when someone is reading and sometimes one predominates, sometimes the other, but both are needed and also this can be adopted as conscious strategies by a reader approaching a difficult text”91.

“In bottom-up processing (data driven) the reader builds up a meaning from the black marks on the page, recognizing letters and words, working out sentences structure”92. This can be oriented to beginner readers in order to increase their vocabulary, to know grammatical structure, and so on. This can happen when the writer`s point of view is very different from the reader`s, and also when some readers have an inadequate knowledge about the reading.

It is important to put in practice the bottom-up processing, because the reader has a clear idea about the reading, but it is considered necessary to take into account the top-down processing now that both, the bottom-up and the top down

are

complementary during the process of reading.

91 92

Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 16 Ibidem p. 17

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“In top-down processing (concept driven) the text is sampled and predictions are made on the basis of the reader´s prior syntactic and semantic knowledge”93. It means that here the readers use their background knowledge about the topic, and they see the overall purpose of the text. The readers try to interpret the message in a general form.

While bottom-up processing refers to word recognitions, sound, and spelling; topdown processing refers to predictions, inferences of a text, therefore, both are important during the process of reading, it means that the process “occurs simultaneously while reading”94.Reading is the result of the interaction between the reader and the text, and that comprehension is achieved through the simultaneous interface of bottom up and top down processing. In practice it can say that during the reading process, a reader continually changes from one process to another, taking into account a top down in order to predict the probable meaning, then, to the bottom –up in order to check whether that is really what the writer says. “The following features describe both processes briefly: Bottom-up: Ÿ These approaches view reading as a series of stages that proceed in a fixed order from sensory input to comprehension. Ÿ Processing is linear and data-driven. Ÿ Linguistic information is processed beginning with the smallest units of meaning and ending with larger units.

Top-down: Ÿ These approaches view reading as a continuous process of interpretation with changing hypotheses about the incoming information.

93

Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 353 94 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 354

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Ÿ Processing is non-linear and comprehension involves the reader`s contribution of background knowledge. Ÿ The incoming information is processed on the basis of the reader`s expectations, previous knowledge and what has already been processed.”95 Summing up this is an interactive process, because here it puts in practice the previous knowledge of the reader either about the language or world, which contribute to the reading comprehension. “This has become known as Interactive reading”96.

2.1.1.2.5 Schema Theory The previous knowledge about whatever topic is a very important tool that can be used during the process of learning. “The knowledge organized and stored in the reader`s mind is called schema or mental mode”97. This knowledge helps the reader have a successful reading. It is considered as a mental structure because the knowledge is inside the mind. Also it “is a structure because it is organized”98 during the process of reading, and this helps the readers interpret texts.

Schemata can be classified in three different types: Ÿ Linguistic schemata: Background knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, spoken and written form of language, etc. Ÿ Content schemata: Background knowledge of the world and the subject matter of the text. Ÿ Formal schemata: Background knowledge or rhetorical organizational structures of texts.”99

95

Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 354 96 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p.17 97 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 356 98 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 7 99 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 356

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Regarding the linguistic schemata, it is important that readers take into account the level that they have in order to read something; and if they know that their linguistic schema is lacking, they must increase as soon as possible in order to be able with whatever reading that they want. The content schemata helps students who want to increase their knowledge in a specific discipline. But also this “schemata may not be culturally accessible if that schema is culturally specific”100. The content schema includes what the readers know about people, the world, culture and the universe. The formal schemata refers to the “knowledge about discourse structure”101 it means the way the reading is organized.

2.1.1.2.5.1 Activating Schemata Theory As it was mentioned before, the schema is a previous knowledge about a topic; there are some points that help active this schema. First of all, the presupposition, which refers to the previous knowledge that a person has about the topic, where the own experience has been taken into account and those experiences are shared with the writer. The vocabulary used in those texts can be technical cultural or common and the meaning of a word depends on it, and also on the context where the word is used. Second of all, the prediction also activates schemata, because during the process of reading the readers associate the previous knowledge of the topic and he/she can interpret the text easily or make sense of sentences.

In conclusion, the schema is a very important part during the process of reading, because it depends of the background knowledge either vocabulary, world or discourse structure, that helps the understanding of the text. But also it is important to increase the schema in whatever area even though this is not related with the area in interest.

100 101

Ibidem. p. 356 nd Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2 Ed. p. 300

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2.1.1.2.6 Different Reading Skills and ways of Developing It is important to mention that whatever thing that someone wants to improve is through the practice in the area in which they need it. In this case in order to improve reading skill, the reader has to practice as much as possible to reach a good comprehension of the text. “It is convenient to assume that readers use different skills to make sense of different features of a text”102. Therefore individual skills have to work together with the other skills.

One of the problems that students face when they are reading is the vocabulary for which they ask what the word means either in a dictionary or an informant. That is why students need a range of strategies to deal with the text, which are named skills. Those skills are divided into two groups, the first one is word attack skills and the second one is text attack skills.

2.1.1.2.6.1 Word Attack Skills Many students are accustomed to use the dictionary when they are reading, in order to understand the text better, but this situation provokes the interruption of thoughts. Therefore it is so necessary to teach students how to ignore difficult words that do not let them comprehend the whole text, although this sounds something wrong it can help them to: “recognize that they do not understand, locate the sources of difficulty, and develop strategies for coping with the difficulty.”103 “One of the most useful word attack skills is the ability to see structural information to assign meaning to a word. Two kinds of information are relevant: The grammatical function of the word and the morphology of the word.”104 These kinds of information help the readers recognize the grammatical function of a word in order to understand the meaning of a sentence, and also comprehend how a word can work using other letters that change the meaning and the grammatical form.

102

Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 41 Ibidem p. 64 104 Ibidem p. 69 103

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“Most readers beyond the elementary level can identify grammatical categories even though they cannot explain how they do it.”105 This situation almost always occurs when the readers start asking questions about the word that they are working in. In this case is so important to know the grammatical categories (noun, adjective, articles, conjunction, etc.) with the objectives that they can identify whole sentences with its parts of the speech.

A useful exercise that helps develop this skill is through the change of the word in the grammatical categories, considering the context of the sentence, with the same function. “It ensures that inappropriate meaning can be refused, and when an appropriate meaning is established it can be slotted straight into its place”106 Morphology is “the study of how words are formed in a language.”107 The English language is not the exception, and in this language it concerns about affixes and compound words that help to get the real meaning of a sentence. But these words always have a root, and it helps to know the kind of affix that it can have for a different meaning. One way that helps to attack skills is through exercises that let to the reader put in practice the use of affixes: 1. “Supply an affix (e.g. UN-) and a number of bases (e.g. happy, slow, and tidy). Task: Indicate or find out in a dictionary which of the bases can take the affix.

2. Supply a base (e.g. sharp) and several affixes (e.g. UN- ,-LY,-EN, - MENT, NESS). Task: Indicate or find out which of the affixes the base can take.

3. Supply a list of affixes of similar function (e.g. the adjective-forming suffixes – FUL, - OUS,-Y, -ISH) and a list of bases. Task: indicate/find out which base words take which affixes, and if more than one I possible, what variations in meaning are involved (e.g. manful, mannish, and manly).

105

Ibidem p. 69 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 70 107 Macmillan English Dictionary p. 910 106

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4. Supply an incomplete table of forms consisting of base words with various affixes.

5. Supply sentences containing words of a particular form, e.g. verbs. Task: rewrite sentences in a specified way entailing the use of a different form on the given word( e.g. nouns instead of verbs)”108 In addition, readers need to know the roots depending on their field of study, and some of them cannot stand alone. When they are aware about that, it will be easy to understand the sentence without a dictionary or an informant.

The other thing that readers need to understand is “compound words, those words formed by combining two normally independent words, such as software, gunsmith, painstaking, secondhand, spooned-feed, dry-clean.”109 Sometimes those compound words tend to confuse the readers and they cannot understand the sentence, but it is important to mention that in one language it can be permissible and maybe impossible in another, depending on the patterns of the language.

Most of the words used by a person while he/she is reading, writing, speaking, or listening, were not looked up in a dictionary, on the contrary, they can be learned using of the language with other persons. It means that words are learned context.

They infer the meaning of a word; depending of the situation that is happening in that moment. Although the process of inferring meaning from context is gradual, it helps the reader understand some words as well as he/he is using the word. “In real life reading inference may not be so straightforward, and not all readers are good at it, but it can certainly be developed by training.”110 Learning how to infer can be enjoyable, because readers can use their intelligence.

It let them have a good comprehension of a text. Depending on the level of the students, they can do the following exercises:

108

Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 71.

Ibidem p. 71 110 Ibidem p. 72 109

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1. “Using sentences with nonsense words.”111 It helps the reader look the correct word, using the words that are in the context.

2. “Complete a sentence with a range of words.”112 Using the context they can give an answer although they know that there are more ranges of words that can be used, but they choose the best one. This activity requires making use of schemata.

Also recipes for exercises help to attack word skill, because it refers to certain nonsense word that has to be changed by real words and it is possible to do the following: 1. “Supply one or more short texts in which a repeated key word is replaced by a nonsense word.

2. Supply texts including on unfamiliar key word”113 For all this process of inferring from context it is important to take into account the vocabulary that the reading has, it has to be at the level of the reader, with the purpose that there are no troubles during the reading.

2.1.1.2.6.2 Text Attack Skills As it was mentioned before, there are two processes that a reader can use while he/she is reading, and they are known as: Top-down and bottom-up processing.

With the objective to read for a plain sense the bottom-up strategies are needed, and for understating discourse the top-down strategies are. That means that skills are divided into two groups, some for plain sense and some for understanding discourse. Both have the intention to attack text in order to understand the reading.

The first group is reading for plain sense in which bottom-up strategies are included which are: understanding syntax, recognizing and interpreting cohesive devices, and interpreting discourse markers. The second group is understanding 111

Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 73 Ibidem p. 73 113 Ibidem p. 75 112

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discourse in which top- down strategies are included which are: Recognizing functional value, recognizing text organization, recognizing the presuppositions underlying the text, recognizing implications and making inferences, and prediction.

2.1.1.2.6.2.1 Reading for Plain Sense This section refers to understanding the text through the comprehension of syntax; it means that the reading requires grammatical skills.

Text Attack skill 1: Understanding syntax Most of readings almost always tend to have long sentences and difficult syntax that block comprehension even when vocabulary is familiar. But this situation depends on the reader´s attitude, the previous knowledge of the topic and also the level of English that readers have.

The purpose in this skill is that readers understand syntax through different activities in which the bottom-up strategies are used. Maybe the text will be difficult, but following the instructions can make comprehension easy. Some of those activities are: Predict how the paragraph fits into the wider text using the previous knowledge, try to summarize the reading, check whether there are any lexical barriers to comprehension; underlying new words, but taking into account the context in order to make easy the interpretation of words, identifying gaps in the message received after one reading, trying to organize the ideas of the message.

This stage is necessary to ask some questions about the text.

Therefore, it is possible to simplify sentences, which consist in removing all the optional parts of the sentences systematically in order to have clear sentences.

First, the readers can “identify the cohesive elements and find out what each refers to.”114 The readers can ask questions like who/ what? what sort?. “Rewrite the sentences as two or more sentences by removing coordinating conjunctions,”115 this is a good exercise, now that helps the readers use coordinating conjunctions.

114 115

Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 82 Ibidem p. 82

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“Find the nouns and remove any items following them which are part of the same noun group.”116Readers have to be able to identify nouns that help them determine the beginning of a sentence. “Search the text for nominalizations and if necessary establish what proposition each implies.”117 The readers have to supply some constituents in order to find nominalization, and also to know preposition in order to reach it. “Identify the verbs and use of the who/what does what? Techniques to find the subject, object, etc. of each.”118 It is very important to learn to identify the verbs and the object, but this helps them a lot for developing this skill.

Text Attack Skill 2: Recognizing and Interpreting Cohesive Devices.

Cohesion is “the part of grammar that reflects the coherence of the writer`s thought and helps readers make the right connections between ideas.”119 These cohesive devices help to attack text. Because it affects the signification of a sentence, which includes pro-form, ellipsis or lexical cohesion, some of them are explained as subskills of cohesion.

The first sub-skill is interpreting pro- forms, which consists of those words that the writers use in order to avoid needless repetition on the sentences, for example: it, our, this, those, then, one. Also this refers to comparative words as smaller, same, additional, such, and other. The goal is to understand what it is referring to, asking questions that help to this process, besides that, students can supply a text containing varied pro- forms and also “supply a text with some references items omitted and replace by gasp.”120 The second sub-skill refers to interpreting elliptical expressions, which consist of “omitting rather than repeating information that the reader’s common sense can readily supply.”121 The ellipsis helps the readers to supply information from elsewhere, and it seems little difficult, but it becomes difficult when readers do not 116

Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 82 Ibidem p. 83 118 Ibidem p. 84 119 Ibidem p. 86 120 Ibidem p. 88 121 ibidem p. 89 117

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recognize that the information is incomplete and when they search the text and retrieve the required information. The goal is to identify the absence of something, and the first stage is presenting examples in which students can answer questions like: how many things? Who? Tell me something about…? The second stage is to omit words that represent the same part of speech; for instance verbs, adjectives, nouns etc., including more complex expressions. “The next stage is to supply texts in which elliptical sentences occur.”122 The purpose is to make or expand the sentences by including the elements that are missing but at the same time those elements can be understood.

The third sub-skill is interpreting lexical cohesion. This refers to synonymies hyponymy, metaphors that writers use in order to avoid “repetition by using a different expression with similar meaning.”123 The goal here is to understand that two or more different expressions refer to the same thing. That is why readers have to supply a suitable text where they have to indicate terms with the same referent using maker in their pages, besides that readers have “to collect term and show their relationship diagrammatically.”124 It means that readers have to look for words that are related with the text that they are reading.

Text Attack Skill 3: Interpreting Discourse Markers.

Discourse markers help to recognize the ideas of writers. The discourse markers “often show the relationship the writers intend between two parts of the text”125.

There are different markers that help to readers to understand better the message, some of them signal the sequence of events, others the discourse organization, and the last one signal the writer`s point of view.

With this in mind it is important to create awareness of those markers, so that readers understand how each marker operates, however those markers belong to different groups, consequently it is going to present the way of training them: First, 122

Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 91 Ibidem p. 91 124 Ibidem p. 93 125 Ibidem p. 94 123

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“supply a text with markers omitted and replaced by gaps”126 give the students a list of markers presented and studied before this task and present them an exercise with multiple choice. Second “supply a text with the gasp left empty”127 where students can think about the markers that belong to the text. Also is good to supply text in which the sentences are given in full but also presented in a multiple choice format, in which students adequate according to the context, with the purpose that students can reconstruct the text with markers that they considers necessary for them.

2.1.1.2.6.2.2 Understanding Discourse This section concerns to contextual meaning and pragmatic meaning of individual sentence in a text and the way to combine with other sentences in order to produce a coherent message. The skills presented in this section are: recognizing functional value, recognizing text organization, recognizing the presuppositions underlying the text, recognizing implications and making inferences and prediction.

Text Attack Skill 4: Recognizing functional value In this skill readers try to understand the rhetorical organization of a text that are associated with propositional, contextual, and pragmatic meaning where a sentence can be multifunctional, depending on the context where the sentences is writing.

Taking into account the importance to develop this skill there are some activities that help to this process. The first thing is that this corresponds to a whole text or a paragraph where students have to interpret according to the context and they have to say what kind of text is this, for instance , an assertion , a hypothesis, a classification and so on. The second thing is related with diagrams where students are going to explain the texts through a diagram according to their understanding.

The third one is to provide the students with “a skeletal functional description of a

126 127

Ibidem p. 97 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 97

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short text a few sentences long”128 with the goal that students arrange sentences and do a good paragraph in order to do a coherent text in which sentences has the intended value.

Text Attack skill 5: Recognizing text organization This skill refers on “how the texts are organized and see how ideas hang together”129Through different activities which allow to skim the context that closed the text. It demands critical thinking and most or the activities are working in group work, because these stimulate a good discussion.

There are three ways in order to work with this skill. First, through organization of a paragraph into text where students can work on a sequence of paragraph, identifying an opening or concluding paragraph putting in order those paragraphs, looking for sentences that fit into paragraph, and so on.

Second, the organization of sentences into paragraph, where students have to identify the key sentence of a paragraph, besides that, they have to know the correct place of this sentence, and also they have to “choose sentences where the sequence is clear.”130 Students have to develop that ability to create a coherent paragraph from scrambled texts.

Third, Text diagrams, which allow to “display the structure of a text.131 It means the way and ideas that information is understood by the readers. Those texts diagrams can be different, because depend on the schema´s students how the text has been understood. The goal is to present the important ideas in a diagram, taking into account that a text diagram can be changed by another even though those belong to the same text.

128

Ibidem p. 105 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 106 130 Ibidem p. 108 131 Ibidem p. 109 129

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Text attack skill 6 and 7: Recognizing presuppositions, implication and making inferences.

To recognize presupposition, implications and to make inference are the skills that readers or students have to reach in order to understand the text. “The presuppositions are divided into two groups: 1. The knowledge and experience that the writer expects the reader to have.”132As it was mentioned before it is related with the previous knowledge that readers have about the topic, which is known as schema. It allows that students or readers understand the text.

2. “The opinions, attitudes, emotions that the writer expect the reader to share, or at least to understand”133 which allows to share experience about the text.

The goal is that students come to grasp with the text and the importance that their opinions have during the reading Refers to implications and making inference this hopes that readers have their own conclusions from facts, and point in an argument. In order to make a good job as readers it is necessary to “make use of common sense, powers or reasoning, knowledge of the world and schemata.”134 The developments of other skills, which are related with the recognition of functional value, depend from those aspects as presuppositions and inferences.

Although this skill seems difficult, it can be improved through practice, working with inferences on some texts. Here, it shows some ways in order to improve it: 1. “Supply sentences involving presuppositions”135 throughout the reading students have to identify what statements are closely related with the text, always following the directions given by the teachers.

132

Ibidem p. 112 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 112 134 Ibidem p. 115 135 Ibidem p. 117 133

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2. Read a text and identify what facts are implicit in the text.

3. Supply a longer text with a set of statements and identify which facts can be inferred from a text. The goal is to identify is statements can be assume or implied from the reading.

Most of these activities are developed in groups because they create a lot of discussions and also help students understand texts better.

Text attack skill 8: Prediction.

This skill “relates to the text as a sequence development of thought.”136Prediction is possible because writers organize their ideas; people tend to predict what is going to happen. It involves schemata and it begins from the moment that people read the title and from the expectation of what the book concerns.

In order to improve or develop this skill students have to face to text which they can discuss after they have read, maybe identifying some clues, making questions and predictions about the next paragraph. The goal is that students think about what is summing next with a single sentence, clause or paragraph

2.1.1.2.7 Intensive and Extensive Reading Depending on the interest of reading, students or readers can read in two ways: Intensively and extensively. The intensive reading tends to increase the vocabulary because the lesson consists of a series of language points. This is characterized because: 1. “It is useful for study purposes because it slows speed allow to students to stop and look new words up in the dictionary.

2. Intensive reading is really more a language study method that a form of reading”137

136

Ibidem p. 118 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 359 137

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Intensive reading tends to be boring because students pay more attention in vocabulary and grammar than in reading comprehension. The speed is slow, and it is considered often difficult. On the other hand, extensive reading tends that students understand the meaning of text, usually as quickly as possible. This implies “reading of large quantities of material or long text, reading for global or general understanding, obtain pleasure from the text.”138Although this seems more general than the first one, this allows students to read fast and fluently and for general understanding and enjoyment. But students can become good readers if they are involved in the development of both, intensive and extensive reading.

2.1.1.2.8 Reading Stages Reading stages allow the integration of communicative skills because at the end of the reading, students are able to summarize, evaluate, reflect, analyze, predict, and guess and so on. This is achieved through three stages: First, pre- reading, where students identified the ideas, opinions, which they have about the topic and also the purpose of reading the text. Second, while-reading, here students identify the organization of a text, extract the information of a text and what they infer from the text. Third, post- reading, students evaluate if they can use the information for further purposes, and also if the text demand completion.

2.1.2 PRODUCTIVE SKILLS “Speaking and writing involve language production and are therefore often referred to as Productive Skills.”139 When learners want to produce language obviously they have to use the speaking or the writing skill, those skills let them transmit their ideas, thoughts, messages to others.

2.1.2.1. SPEAKING SKILL The speaking skill is part of the productive skills, because it is throughout this skill that people show their knowledge of English language and how much have the

138 139

Ibidem p. 360 Jeremy Harper, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman , p. 16

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ability to speak fluently and process information. Even though for many of students this is considered “one of the most difficult skills language learners have to face.”140 The main purpose of this skill is conversation, in which different elements of language features and mental social processing are presented. Among the language features necessary for spoken production are: · Connected speech: this refers with the ability that the speaker has in order to use fluent connected speech that consists in the modification and emission of sounds and not only to produce individual phonemes of English. For instance; pronounce the verb to be in a contracted form. · Expressive Devices: This is used in face to face interaction because it refers to the speed, volume, expression of emotions and the intensity students show in front of their classmates. · Lexis and grammar: In this language feature students are involved in specific speaking context, like telephone conversations, job interviews, etc., for their teacher can supply a variety of sentences for different functions such as agreeing or disagreeing, expressing surprises ,etc. · Negotiation Language: In this language feature teacher and students negotiate phrases, statements or questions that students can say during the activity in order to understand what they are saying. They use negotiation language to show the structure of their thoughts, or reformulate what they are saying. They use negotiation language to show the structure of their thoughts, or reformulate what they are saying in order to be clearly.

Another element is mental processing or social processing which involves the knowledge of language skills, and the rapid processing skills that speakers have to produce while they are talking.

140

Neil McLaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 321

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The first one is language processing : In this students process language in their own needs using words and phrases that they have already known trying to put in order their ideas with the purpose of sharing a comprehensible idea for their partners. The second one is interacting with others: once their ideas are ordered in their minds, students can share them with others. This means that effective speaking also involves a good deal of listening. The third one is (on the spot) information processing: the way how the information is processed in a slowly way, the response will be in the same way and this situation is not confortable for speakers and listeners. On the contrary if the information is processed in the moment they get it, it will have an effective communication between speakers and listeners.

Generally, when students are not able to express themselves in English language they feel stressed. Some of the difficulties come from the areas of syntax, vocabulary and morphology because they find difficult to construct sentences using the correct expression or the exact word. In order to solve this situation, here are presented different activities that can be developed in the classroom: ·

Acting from a script: Most of the teachers ask to students to perform this activity based on dialogues presented in the book that they use. So students often act out dialogues that are in their books, and also they write similar dialogues and they act out their own dialogues in front of the class. It is important to give the necessary time in order to write and perform the dialogues.

·

Communication Games: these are presented with the purpose to provoke communication among students, frequently; those games depend on an information gap where students have to solve a puzzle, draw pictures, put things in the right order, etc.

One of the games that provide fluency is called “twenty questions” in which the chairperson thinks of an object and teams start making yes no 63

questions. They get points if they guess the answers for twenty questions or less. Another game is called “Just a minute”, here the students have to speak for sixty seconds about a special topic given by the teacher, the person who is speaking at the end of sixty seconds get points. · Questionnaires: In this activity both questioner and respondent have something to say to each other. Students can design questionnaires using the grammar and vocabulary that they learned in previous classes, teachers can act as a resource helping them to design questionnaires. Besides these questionnaires can be the basis of others activities like discussions or prepared talks. · Prepared talks: In this activity students have to make a presentation on a topic of their own choice or they can use the questionnaire as a basis in order to prepared talks. This activity also gives the opportunity to develop another skill that is writing which helps students to organize their ideas and then share them with their partners. · Discussion: This can be generated from the questionnaires and talks, depending how interesting the topic became. The same questions give the chance to open a discussion in small groups, although some students do not like to be exposed to this activity because of the lack of vocabulary and fluency that they have, but if this activity has been studied with other activities like questionnaires and talks, they would feel confortable during the discussion, besides if the teacher acts as a monitor during the discussion, this will be successful · Simulation and role play: can be used to encourage general oral fluency, or to train students for specific situations of real life. Some characteristics that help to develop this activity in a good way are: o Reality of function: Students have to act as a real participant of the situation that they are representing in that moment.

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o A simulated environment: teacher and students have to think or create the right environment inside the classroom, as if the place is real in that moment. o Structure: They have to see how the activity is constructed and to simulate in the best form in order to do the simulation effectively.

2.1.2.1.1 Functions of Spoken Language Spoken language has two main functions: “Transactional and interactional, the main goal of the first one is to convey information and ideas, whereas the second one is devoted to communication”141 As we know in order to communicate is essential to interact with others, it means that people have to transfer information and ideas in a clearly way , that is why is reasonable to teach students

control primarily transactional language which is

used to transfer information, this function is known as Productive Dimension.

It is important to aware students about the factors that affect the productive dimension when they deal with the target language, some of those factors are: “A) Linguistic: it refers to all kind of linguistic problems the speaker has to face as well as the variety of new situations. b) Psychological problems are mainly: inhibition when speaking in the presence of others and lack of interest in the topic.

C) Cognitive problems are solved when students are given the stimulus to talk: pictorial aids, theme, and so on”142.

On the other hands, the Interactive Dimension refers to communication, it means to exchange information among people in which speakers tend to repeat the pattern of their messages to overcome cognitive problems. These patterns are divided 141

Neil McLaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 323 142 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 234

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into two , the first one is known as information routines, in which the speaker convey information, and the second one is intention routines in which are include whatever situations as “ familiar encounters, job interviews, conversation occurring when checking in a hotel, lesson, telephone conversations.143 Summing up the functions of the interactional language is the maintenance of social relationships which is oriented to the listener, for intake greeting, making small talk, telling jokes, etc. On the contrary the function of transactional language is the transfer of information, for instance; new broadcast, lectures, description, instructions, and this is oriented to convey a message.

2.1.2.1.2 Communicative Strategies It is important to know that the way to learn a second language is from meaningful interaction with others , that is why

it is necessary

that teacher deals

with

interactive language use, so the question is what do learners need to know in order to interact in the second language at their level of proficiency ?. The answer is communicative strategies.

According to Bigate, there are some communicative strategies that learners deal when they have communicative problems: ¡ Achievement Strategies. Most of the students face situations where they do not find the correct word that they need to say in that moment, so learners try to compensate by using a substitute, which are mentioned bellow: o Guessing strategies: When learners invent a word, or borrowing a word from the native language or also trying to literal translation o Paraphrase strategies: When learners paraphrase to find the expression that they need in that moment. o Co- operative strategies: learners use their realia; such as object or mimic to transmit the message.

143

Ibidem. p. 325

66

· Reduction Strategies. These kind of strategies are frequently use during the practice of this skill. Why? Because learners fail in the attempt to convey a message, so they reduce the message or abandon it. Two of them are mentioned bellow: o Avoidance strategies: the most simple is to avoid the message; it can be for a phonetic cluster, a lexical word or the syntactic order of a sentence. o Compensatory strategies: It happens when the learners have difficulties of expression and they repeat and repeat a part of a message in order to have time to think and organize their ideas.

Also, when someone wants to speak in English has to take into account that is not a matter of pronounce words or say sentences without sense, it is a matter of carry a conversation reasonably competent. What does it mean? It is mean that the speaker has to be able to transmit their thoughts or ideas in a comprehensible way for the listener. It is important to identify when speaking is going to be perform, which is the communicative task that

is wanted to be reached, because in that

way it can be selected which of the following speaking micro skills are going to be used: ·

“Produce reduced forms of words and phrases.

·

Produce fluent speech at different rates of delivery.

·

Produce chunks of language of different lengths.

·

Monitor their own oral production and various strategic devices, pauses, fillers, self-corrections, backtracking to enhance the clarity of the message.

67

·

Use facial features, kinesics, body language and other nonverbal cues along with verbal language to convey meaning.”144

2.1.2.2. WRITING SKILL The writing skill is not something that can be learned easily or naturally as it can be learned to speak even when some time ago people believed writing was ”simply the graphic representation of spoken language”145, it was a big mistake because in order to write it is necessary to acquire some special knowledge to be a competent writer.

To write is not an imitative skill as it is to speak, writing is “indeed a thinking process”146 and it requires an entirely different set of competencies. That set of competencies allows the writer generate ideas, organize them coherently, use discourse markers and rhetorical conventions to put them cohesively into written text, revise text for clearer meaning, edit text for appropriate grammar, and produce a final product. All of these important competencies are not developed naturally, that is why this skill is considered for some people as the most difficult of the four.

But there are some important things that can be taken into account when the writing skill is being developed, the effect of “one`s native culture”147. Writing is strongly influenced by previous knowledge on native language writing, both, native language and foreign language are in some instances similar but not identical.

Native language patterns of thinking and writing simply cannot be ignored, that is why the importance of teacher`s carefully attending to the native language interference and consider it as one possible source of difficulty on students writing.

When writing in a second language is so influenced by native language, sometimes mental blocks are provoked because the writer get anxious trying to do a perfect writing using their knowledge about writing in their native language. To adopt 144

Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 2nd Ed.p. 272 Ibidem. p. 335 146 Ibidem p. 336 147 Ibidem p. 338 145

68

practices from native language in foreign language writing do not help the perfection of the composition. How could native language writing practices affect writing composition? When it is written with the patterns of native language it can be found: less fluency, less accuracy, less effective, less using of appropriate grammar, among other features. To avoid this it is necessary to determine from the beginning of this process the fundamental differences between native and foreign languages.

As it was mentioned before writing is not something that we develop naturally, it is a learned behavior. In order to write, somebody has to teach us and it has to be practiced constantly, for that reason the importance of incorporating practices of good writers in students. They have to be encouraged to bring their own ideas, offer their own critical analysis, and find their own voice, all of this in a written form.

Students have to be guided step by step through this process in order to produce excellent writers.

A long way has to be run before trying to write a composition, it is not just a matter of writing sentences. As good writers there are some very important aspects that have to be taken into account: first of all, good writers have read; “by reading and studying a variety of relevant types of texts, students can gain the important insights both about how they should write and about subject matters that may become the topic of their writing�148, the basis of writing is reading. Through reading, other aspects are being developed as they are orthography, complexity and vocabulary.

Why those aspects are developed by reading? Through it, they can realize the best ways of putting the aspects mentioned before correctly. Apart from those aspects writers have to be conscious that their writing is not for themselves, their written product is oriented to somebody else, lot of different opinions, different knowledge about the topic, and different cultures, so they have to put in practice the “cognitive

148

nd

Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 2 Ed. p. 347

69

empathy”149, that means that good writers can read their own writing from the perspective of the mind of the targeted audience.

Writers need to be able to predict their audience`s general knowledge and how their choice of language will be interpreted, besides that they have to choose the best way to address to them through the different kinds of writing compositions: descriptive, comparative, contrastive, illustrative, defending, criticize or argue.

Because good writing requires an extensive process, a teacher has to make sure that students are carefully led through appropriate stages in the process of composing with the intention that an effective written product is created.

After students are conscious about the aspects presented before is time to start writing. Now the three stages of writing are presented: pre writing, drafting, and revising. In the pre writing stage, students are encouraged to the generation of ideas. To do this possible, it is necessary that students have all the knowledge about the topic and it can be by reading extensively, discussing the topic, or conductive some outside research. After that, writers have enough material in order to start, from the knowledge they got, a brainstorming is a good choice to begin writing. Brainstorming permits students to approach the topic with an open mind, they free themselves to come up with the ideas that they might not even know they had. When brainstorming is developed, students have to “take between five and ten minutes to list every idea that comes to their mind”150, after that “go over the list to evaluate what they have written and cross the ideas that do not fit”151.

Another way to generate ideas is to begin with free writing, with this technique writers are free to write everything that comes to their minds about the topic without worries about grammar, spelling and punctuation. It is an initial exploration of the ideas that they have about the topic, and then take out just the ideas that they consider better for their composition. Now, they have the topic and the ideas about 149

Ibidem p. 342 nd Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001.2 Ed. p. 349 151 Ibidem.

150

70

it, it is time to put them into formal paragraphs. That is called drafting. The drafting can be done the times the writers consider necessary before presenting the final product. In this stage, writing is exposed to changes, after writing the first draft writers can ask for the opinion of others to discover the impact of their words on the thoughts of their readers, so that they can then use the information to improve what they have written. All good writers go through several steps of revisions on their drafting because they want o make their writing the best it can be and this stage give advantages to writers to keep improving what they have already done.

These stages help to the writing process to produce good compositions. It is clearly known that nobody is born being an excellent writer and in some cases students get in shock when the time to produce writing begins, but trough the three stages the torturing process of writing becomes in an easy process, and they can develop the following micro skills: ·

Produce writing at an efficient rate of speaking to suit the purpose.

·

Use acceptable grammatical systems (e.g. Tense, agreement, and pluralization), patterns and rules.

·

Produce graphemes and orthographic patterns of English.

·

Convey links and connections between events and communication such relations as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given information, generalization, and exemplification.

·

Develop and use

a battery of writing strategies, such as accurately

assessing the audience`s interpretation , using prewriting devices, writing with fluency in the first drafts, using paraphrases and synonyms, soliciting and instructor`s feedback, and using feedback for revising and editing.”152

152

nd

Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001.2 Ed. P.343

71

2.1.2.3 PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES OF LANGUAGE SKILLS. During the process of acquiring a new language is important place students in a level according to the abilities that they show in the development of every activity, that is why, in this research some proficiency guidelines are described. Those stated some “descriptions of what individuals can do with language in terms of speaking, writing, listening, and reading in real-world situations in a spontaneous and non-rehearsed context.”153 This proficiency guidelines level

of

proficency:

Novice,

Intermediate,

describe five major

Advanced,

Superior

and

Distinguished.The major levels Novice, Intermediate and Advanced are divided into Low, Mid and High. But because the kind of students that researchers observed, only two of the five major levels of profeciency are describe: Novice and Intermediate.

These Guidelines present the levels of proficiency as ranges, and describe what an individual can and cannot do with language at each level, regardless of where, when, or how the language was acquired. Together these levels form a hierarchy in which each level subsumes all lower levels. And this facilitate the placement of students in the level that they are.

2.1.2.3.1 Speaking In this skill , two main levels of proficiency are described: Novice and Intermediate.

The description of each major level is representative of a specific range of abilities, and those are divided into Low, Mid , and High sublevels. Here are described the tasks that speakers can handle at each level, as well as the content, context, accuracy, and discourse types associated with tasks at each level.

2.1.2.3.1.1 Novice The first level is novice in which

speakers

are able to

communicate short

messages on highly predictable, everyday topics that affect them directly. “They use isolated words and phrases that have been encountered, memorized, and 153

www.actfl.org

72

recalled”154. It is difficult to understand to novice speakers

even by the most

sympathetic interlocutors accustomed to non-native speech.

2.1.2.3.1.1.1 Novice Low In this sublevel, speakers have no real functional ability and their pronunciation is not so good.They are able to “exchange greetings, give their identity, and name a number of familiar objects from their immediate environment”155 as long as they have the adequate time and familiar cues. They are unable to perform functions or handle topics pertaining to the Intermediate level, and cannot therefore participate in a true conversational exchange

2.1.2.3.1.1.2 Novice Mid In novice mid sublevel, speakers “communicate minimally by using a number of isolated words and memorized phrases limited by the particular context in which the language has been learned”156. They answer some direct questions with two or three words at a time or give an occasional stock answer, using puases frequently as they search for simple vocabulary. Novice Mid speakers may be understood with difficulty even by sympathetic interlocutors accustomed to dealing with non-natives.

2.1.2.3.1.1.3 Novice High These speakers

are able to manage successfully a number of uncomplicated

communicative tasks in straightforward social situations. Conversations are based in personal information, basic

objects, and

a limited number of activities,

preferences and immediate needs, whcih are neccesary for survival in the target language. They respond to simple, direct questions or requests for information.

154

www.actfl.org.

Ibidem 156 Ibidem 155

73

Novice high speakers express personal meaning by relying heavily on learned phrases or recombinations of these and what they hear from their interlocutor even though their language consists primarily of short and sometimes incomplete sentences in the present, and may be hesitant or inaccurate. Their “pronunciation, vocabulary, and syntax may be strongly influenced by the first language”157. When called on to handle a variety of topics and perform functions pertaining to the Intermediate level, a Novice High speaker can sometimes respond in intelligible sentences, but will not be able to sustain sentence-level discourse.

2.1.2.3.1.2 Intermediate In this level speakers express personal meaning combining using the information that they learned before.This information help them to ask simple questions and handle a straightforward survival situation. Most of the speakers placed in this level are understood by interlocutors who are accustomed to dealing with non-native learners of the language.

2.1.2.3.1.2.1 Intermediate Low In this sub level

speakers

able to handle successfully a limited number of

uncomplicated communicative tasks by creating with the language in social situations. “Conversation is restricted to some of the concrete exchanges and predictable topics related to basic personal information; for example, self and family, some daily activities and personal preferences, and some immediate needs, such as ordering food and making simple purchases”158. They make their major effort in order to answer direct questions or requests for information. They are also able to ask a few appropriate questions.

Intermediate Low speakers combine what they know and what they hear from their interlocutors in order to express personal meaning eventhogh

those are short

statements and discrete sentences. They show hesitancy and accuracies while 157 158

www.actfl.org Ibidem

74

attempting to give forms to the message, looking for appropiate linguistic forms and vocabulary in order to give a good answer..

2.1.2.3.1.2.2 Intermediate Mid In this level the conversation is generally limited to those predictable and concrete exchanges necessary for survival in the target culture. These include personal information related to self, family, home, daily activities, interests and personal preferences, as well as physical and social needs, such as food, shopping, travel, and lodging.

Intermediate Mid speakers tend to function reactively, for example, they ask and answer questions in order to obtain information to satisfy basic needs, such as directions, prices, and services. During their speech, they make pauses, reformulation, and self-corrections as they search for adequate vocabulary and appropiate language forms to express themselves. They are generaly understood, eventhogh thier limitations in vocabulary ,pronunciation,grammar,and syntax.

2.1.2.3.1.2.3 Intermediate High This kind of speakers are able to converse with ease and confidence when dealing with the routine tasks and social situations of the Intermediate level. They are able to handle successfully uncomplicated tasks and social situations requiring an exchange of basic information related to their work, school, recreation, particular interests, and areas of competence.

Sometimes speakers can narrate and describe in all major time frames using connected discourse of paragraph length, but not all the time. Typically, when they attempt to perform Advanced-level tasks, their speech exhibits one or more features of breakdown, such as the failure to carry out fully the narration or description in the appropriate major time frame, an inability to maintain paragraphlength discourse, or a reduction in breadth and appropriateness of vocabulary.

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2.1.2.3.2

Writing

In this skill , two main levels of proficiency are described: Novice and Intermediate.

The description of each major level is representative of a specific range of abilities, and those are divided into Low, Mid , and High sublevels. Here are described the tasks that writers can handle at each level, as well as the content, context, accuracy, and discourse types associated with the writing tasks at each level.

2.1.2.3.2.1 Novice Writers in this level are characterized by the ability to produce lists and notes, primarily by writing short words and phrases. These writers can reproduce practiced material to convey the most simple messages. In addition, they can transcribe familiar words or phrases, copy letters of the alphabet or syllables of a syllabary, or reproduce basic characters with some accuracy.

2.1.2.3.2.1.1 Novice Low In this sublevel writers are able to transcribe familiar words or phrases, form letters in an alphabetic system, copy and produce isolated, basic strokes in languages that use syllabaries or characters. Given adequate time and familiar cues, they can reproduce from memory a very limited number of isolated words or familiar phrases, but errors are to be expected.

2.1.2.3.2.1.2 Novice Mid In this sublevel writers can supply limited information on simple forms and documents, and other basic biographical information, such as names, numbers, and nationality. They can reproduce a modest number of words and phrases in context and also show a high degree of accuracy when writing on well-practiced, familiar topics using limited formulaic language. Errors in spelling or in the representation of symbols may be frequent. There is little evidence of functional writing skills.

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2.1.2.3.2.1.3 Novice High Writers in this sublevel can meet limited basic practical writing needs using lists, short messages, postcards, and simple notes. They are able to express themselves within the context in which the language was learned, relying mainly on practiced material. Their writing is focused on common elements of daily life. They use the knowledge that they have in order to create simple sentences on very familiar topics, but are not able to sustain sentence-level writing all the time. They have lack of vocabulary and grammar, that is why that their writing at this level may only partially communicate the intentions of the writer.

2.1.2.3.2.2 Intermediate Writers at the Intermediate level are able to meet practical writing needs, such as simple messages and letters, requests for information, and notes. In addition, they can ask and respond to simple questions in writing. These writers can create with the language and communicate simple facts and ideas in a series of loosely connected sentences on topics of personal interest and social needs. They write primarily in present time using basic vocabulary and structures to espress meaning.

2.1.2.3.2.2.1 Intermediate low Intermediate low writers can create statements and formulate questions based on familiar material. Most sentences are recombinations of learned vocabulary and structures. These are short and simple conversational-style sentences with basic word order, which are written almost exclusively in present time. Writing tends to consist of a few simple sentences, often with repetitive structure. Topics are tied to highly predictable content areas and personal information. Vocabulary is adequate to express elementary needs with

basic errors in grammar, word choice,

punctuation, spelling, and in the formation and use of non-alphabetic symbols.

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2.1.2.3.2.2.2 Intermediate Mid Writers in this sublevel are able to meet a number of practical writing needs. They can write simple communications, compositions, and requests for information in loosely connected texts about personal preferences, daily routines, common events, and other personal topics. They show evidence of control of basic sentence structure and verb forms. This writing is best defined as a collection of discrete sentences and questions loosely strung together. There is little evidence of deliberate organization.

2.1.2.3.2.2.3 Intermediate High Writers in this sublevel are able to meet all practical writing needs of the Intermediate level. Besides, they can write compositions and simple summaries related to work and school experiences. They can narrate and describe in different time frames when writing about everyday events and situations. The vocabulary, grammar, and style of writers essentially correspond to those of the spoken language. Their wrintings have numerous and perhaps significant errors but is generally comprensible.

2.1.2.3.4

Listening

Listening describe two major levels of proficiency: Novice and Intermediate. The description of each major level is representative of a specific range of abilities.

Together these levels form a hierarchy in which each level subsumes all lower levels. Those are divided into Low , Mid, and High sublevels. This makes the Listening descriptions parallel to the other skill-level descriptions.

Listening comprehension is based largely on the amount of information listeners can retrieve from what they hear and the inferences and connections that they can make. By describing the tasks that listeners can perform with different types of oral texts and under different types of circumstances.

78

2.1.2.3.4.1 Novice Listeners in this level can understand key words, true aural cognates, and formulaic expressions that are highly contextualized and highly predictable, such as those found in introductions and basic courtesies. They understand words and phrases from simple questions, statements, and also require repetition, rephrasing, and a slowed rate of speech for comprehension listeners tend to recognize rather than truly comprehend

2.1.2.3.4.1.1 Novice Low In this sublevel, listeners are able occasionally to recognize isolated words or very high-frequency phrases when those are strongly supported by context. These listeners show virtually no comprehension of any kind of spoken message, not even within the most basic personal and social contexts.

2.1.2.3.4.1. 2 Novice Mid Listeners in this sublevel can recognize and begin to understand a number of high-frequency, highly contextualized words and phrases including aural cognates and borrowed words. They understand little more than one phrase at a time, and repetition may be required.

2.1.2.3.4.1.3 Novice High Listeners at the novice high sublevel are often but not always able to understand information from sentence-length speech, one expression

at a time, in basic

personal and social contexts where there is contextual or extralinguistic support, though comprehension may often be very inconsistent.If they have learned the vocabualry, they are able to understand speech dealing with areas of practical need such as highly standardized messages, phrases, or instructions.

79

2.1.2.3.4.2 Intermediate At the Intermediate level, listeners can understand information conveyed in simple, sentence-length speech on familiar or everyday topics and basic information wtih hig –frequency vocabulary. They are generally able to comprehend one expression at a time Listeners rely heavily on redundancy, restatement, paraphrasing, and contextual clues. Intermediate listeners require a controlled listening environment where they hear what they may expect to hear.

2.1.2.3.4.2 .1 Intermediate Low In this sublevel, listeners are able to understand some information from sentencelength speech, one expression at a time, in basic personal and social contexts, though comprehension is often uneven.

2.1.2.3.4.2 .2 Intermediate Mid Listeners in this level are able to understand simple, sentence-length speech, one utterance at a time, in a variety of basic personal and social contexts.

Comprehension is most often accurate with highly familiar and predictable topics although a few misunderstandings may occur.

2.1.2.3.4.2 .3 Intermediate High At the Intermediate High sublevel, listeners are able to understand, with ease and confidence, simple sentence-length speech in basic personal and social contexts.

They can derive substantial meaning from some connected texts typically understood by Advanced-level listeners.

2.1.2.3.5 Reading Reading describe two major levels of proficiency:Novice, and Intermediate. The description of each major level is representative of a specific range of abilities.

Together these levels form a hierarchy in which each level subsumes all lower 80

levels. Reading is an interpretive skill. Reading comprehension is based largely on the amount of information readers can retrieve from a text, and the inferences and connections that they can make within and across texts.

2.1.2.3.5.1 Novice At the Novice level, readers can understand key words and cognates, as well as formulaic phrases that are highly contextualized. They are able to get a limited amount of information from highly predictable texts in which the topic or context is very familiar, such as a hotel bill, a credit card receipt, or a weather map. Readers in this level may rely heavily on their own background knowledge and extralinguistic support to derive meaning.

Readers at the Novice level are best able to understand a text when they are able to anticipate the information in the text. At the Novice level, recognition of key words, cognates, and formulaic phrases makes comprehension possible.

2.1.2.3.5.1.1 Novice Low In this sublevel, readers are able to recognize a limited number of letters, symbols or characters. They are occasionally able to identify high-frequency words and phrases when strongly supported by context.

2.1.2.3.5.1.2 Novice Mid Readers in this sublevel are able to recognize the letters or symbols of an alphabetic or syllabic writing system or a limited number of characters in a character-based language. They can identify a number of highly contextualized words and phrases including cognates and borrowed words but rarely understand material that exceeds a single phrase. Rereading is often required.

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2.1.2.3.5.1.3 Novice High Readers in the Novice High sublevel can understand, fully and with relative ease, key words and cognates, as well as formulaic phrases across a range of highly contextualized texts. They can understand predictable language and messages such as those found on train schedules, roadmaps, and street signs if the vocabulary has been learned. They are typically able to derive meaning from short, non-complex texts that convey basic information for which there is contextual or extralinguistic support.

2.1.2.3.5.2 Intermediate At the Intermediate level, readers can understand information conveyed in simple, predictable, loosely connected texts. Readers rely heavily on contextual clues. If the format of the text is familiar, such as in a weather report or a social announcement, they can most easily understand information. Intermediate-level readers are able to understand texts that convey basic information such as that found in announcements, notices, and online bulletin boards and forums.

They are able to understand messages found in highly familiar, everyday contexts.

At this level, readers may not fully understand texts that are detailed or those texts in which knowledge of language structures is essential in order to understand sequencing, time frame, and chronology.

2.1.2.3.5.2.1Intermediate Low In this sublevel, readers are able to understand some information from the simplest connected texts dealing with a limited number of personal and social needs, although there may be frequent misunderstandings. Readers at this level will be challenged to derive meaning from connected texts of any length.

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2.1.2.3.5.2.2 Intermediate Mid At the Intermediate Mid sublevel, readers are able to understand short, noncomplex texts that convey basic information and deal with basic personal and social topics to which the reader brings personal interest or knowledge, although some misunderstandings may occur. Readers at this level may get some meaning from short connected texts featuring description and narration, dealing with familiar topics.

2.1.2.3.5.2.3 Intermediate High Readers in this sublevel are able to understand fully and with ease short, noncomplex texts that convey basic information and deal with personal and social topics to which the reader brings personal interest or knowledge. They also are able to understand some connected texts featuring description and narration although there will be occasional gaps in understanding due to a limited knowledge of the vocabulary, structures, and writing conventions of the language.

2.1.2.4. Communicative Competences The

communicative

competences

are

other

important

elements

in

the

communicative approach. Communicative competences are those that help to the acquisition of a foreign language because the native speaker knows not only the abstract system but also what is socially appropriate or inappropriate, “communicative competence embraces both the knowledge of the formal system of a language and the use of that system in communication�159 in other words when and when not to speak, what to talk about with whom, when, where and in what manner.

The competences needed to be developed for the acquisition of English Language (According to the Ministry of Education of El Salvador) are: Grammatical competence,

159

Sociolinguistic

competence,

and

Strategic

competence

and

Neil Mc Laren P. 472

83

Discourse competence. Each of them is related when a target language is performed, these competences deal with different elements necessaries for an effective communication, such as: a. Grammatical Competence This competence masters the language code; it deals with morphology, syntax, lexis, phonology, and orthography. b. Sociolinguistic Competence The language is a social vehicle and it allows social exchanges in which the participants achieve communicative goals by making use of their linguistic knowledge

(grammatical

“Sociolinguistic

competence

competence) is

as

concerned

a with

communication the

channel.

“appropriateness

of

communication depending on the context including the participants and the rules for interaction”160 This competence prepares the speaker for linguistic understanding dealing with cultural aspects too; linguistic and cultural understanding together lead to mutual understanding between countries and people in a multilingual and increasingly multicultural world. c. Strategic Competence This competence allows the language user incorporate linguistic and non-linguistic codes in the performance of target language. “A set of strategies devised for effective communication breaks down”161. The goal of this competence is to produce oral discourse in a conversation to exchange general and specific information on various topics. The more proficient or communicative competent the language user becomes the less he or she needs to draw on strategic competence.

160

Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 234.p. 517 161 ibidem

84

d. Discourse Competence This

competence

is

highly

related

with

grammatical

and

sociolinguistic

competences, because these competencies are put into practice with it. “Discourse competence can be seen as the ability to understand, create and develop forms of the language that is longer than sentence�162.

This competence can be performed effectively until the learning process of the target language is advanced, because first of all grammatical and sociolinguistic competences have to be developed. Discourse competence is concerned with the cohesion and coherence of utterances or sentences.

162

Ibidem, P.519

85

2.2. EMPIRICAL FRAMEWORK

2.2.1 Monograph I- Geographic Facts: A- Department: San Salvador b- Municipality: San Salvador c- Ruling Party: ARENA d- Number of cities: 19 e- Population

Total: 540,898

II-Historical Data:

The city of San Salvador is the capital of El Salvador. As the nation's capital, the city hosts the headquarters of the Government and the Council of Ministers of El Salvador, the Legislative Assembly, the Supreme Court and other State institutions and agencies, as well as the official residence of the President of the Republic. The origins of the city can be traced to before the Spanish Conquest. It is near the present location of San Salvador that Pipil groups established their capital, Cuscatlรกn. Not much is known about this city, since it was abandoned by its inhabitants in an effort to avoid the Spanish rule.

Under the orders of Pedro de Alvarado, Gonzalo de Alvarado and Diego de Holguin were ordered to take the settlement they found and develop it. Diego de Holguin became the first mayor of San Salvador after the town was founded on April 1, 1525. However, later in the sixteenth century, it was rebuilt and changed locations twice in 1528 and 1545. Originally founded in what is now the archaeological site Ciudad Vieja, north of the present-day city, it was moved to the Valle de Las Hamacas or the Acelhuate Valley, named so due to the intense seismic activity that characterizes it. The new site was chosen as it had more space and more fertile land, thanks to the pristine Acelhuate River. As the 86

population of the country remained relatively small up until the early twentieth century, the city grew very slowly.

III- Demography: San Salvador is the country's most populous city and the second largest in Central America with 1,566,629 inhabitants themselves, and 316,090 inhabitants in the great San Salvador or AMSS (Metropolitan Area of San Salvador).

San Salvador is a department located in central El Salvador. Its area is 886.15 square kilometers and its population is 1,567,156 inhabitants. It is divided into three districts (Santo Tomas, San Salvador and Tonacatepeque), which are divided into 19 municipalities.

IV-Hydrography: The hydrography of the department of San Salvador, includes the following rivers: Lempa, Las Cañas, Sucio, Amayo, Matizate or Viejo, Acelhuate, Guaycume, Guazapa, San Antonio, Tomayate, Mariona, Ilohuapa, Tihuapa, Huiscoyolate, Papaleguayo, Chichicalapa, Huizen, Quezalate, hutias, Jutillón, El Coco, chichiguiste, El Muerto, Guacuchillo, Cuitapán, shuti, Cuaya, Cuapa, Cusmajapa and Lake Ilopango.

V- Economic and social structure, according to access to services:

1- Basic Services: A) Electricity B) Water C) Drains D) Paving E) Garbage collectors F) Telephone

2- Local Resources: 87

A) Market B) Parks and squares C) Government Offices D) Post Offices E) Public and private Telephones F) Sport Fields G) Telephone Companies H) Banks I) Political Parties

3- Health Services Indicators: A) Public Hospitals: 1- Hospital Nacional Rosales 2- Hospital Nacional de Maternidad “Dr. Raúl Arguello E.” 3- Hospital Nacional Zacamil “Dr. Juan José Fernández” 4- Hospital Nacional General y de Psiquiatría “Dr. José Molina Martínez” 5- Hospital Nacional de Niños “Benjamín Bloom” B) Private Hospitals: 1- Hospital de Diagnostico Colonia Medica 2- Hospital Centro de Cirugía Farela 3- Hospital Instituto de Ojos 4- Hospital Centro Ginecológico 5- Hospital de Ojos, Otorrino y Especialidades 6- Hospital Merliot 7- Hospital Paravida 8- Hospital Pro-familia 9- Hospital Centro de Emergencias.

C) Clinics: 88

1- Clínicas Medicas 2- Clínica Comunal Zacamil 3- Clínica Medica la Esperanza 4- Clínica Pro-Familia 5- Clínica Parroquial Inmaculada Concepción 6- Clínica de Salud Mental y Sexual 7- Clínica Medica Hermanos de Asís

D) Laboratories: 1- Laboratorios López 2- Laboratorios Paill 3- Laboratorios Arsal 4- Laboratorios Lainez 5- Laboratorios Phermedic 6- Laboratorios Vijosa 7- Laboratorio Pro-Familia

4- Indicators of Education Services: 1- Main Public Schools: A) Centro Escolar “Barrio Belén” B) Centro Escolar “Cantón Veracruz” C) Centro Escolar “Católico Corazón de Maria” D) Centro Escolar “Católico Santa Ana” E) Centro Escolar “Fabio Castillo” F) Centro Escolar “Francisco Gamboa” G) Centro Escolar “General Ramón Belloso” H) Centro Escolar “José Matías Delgado” 89

I) Centro Escolar “Republica de Corea” J) Complejo Educativo “Nuestra Señora del Rosario” K) Complejo Educativo “Tomas Cabrera” L) Instituto Nacional “Albert Camus” M) Instituto Nacional de San Marcos N) Instituto Nacional de San Martín O) Instituto Nacional de Soyapango P) Instituto Nacional “Simón Bolívar” Q) Instituto Nacional de Ciudad Delgado R) Instituto Nacional Gral. Francisco Morazán

2- Main Private Schools: A) Colegio Angloamericano B) Colegio Don Bosco C) Colegio García Flamenco D) Colegio Internacional E) Colegio Laura Lehtinen F) Colegio Montessoriano G) Colegio Temach H) Escuela Americana I) Escuela Bilingüe Maquilishuat 90

J) Externado San José K) Instituto Emiliani L) Instituto Hermanas Somascas M) Instituto Técnico EXSAL N) Instituto Técnico Ricaldone O) Liceo San Benito “House of Learning”

2.2.2 Description of the High School This research has been done in the Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán, also known as “Central de Señoritas” located in San Salvador. This Secondary has 49 teachers; 22 in the morning shift and 27 in the afternoon one, and there is a total of 1,190 students attending classes every day. The school has fourteen classrooms, which are big, and confortable enough for students.

Now, this research was done using the information gathered during the observation of different classes in which teacher and students were immersed. Besides, in this process of gathering the information, it also used some instruments, such as: journal, student`s questionnaires’, diagnostic test, check list observation and final achievement test. In this Secondary, students attend in different schedules, depending on the distribution of classes of every section. This high school has a vision and a mission to achieve and excellent teaching learning process.

Vision: to be a leader institution to the formation of successful professionals through learning processes that involves science, technology and humanism’s being , such professionals

capable to contributing to the development of our

country, El Salvador.

Mission: Graduate Secondary school students with a high degree of academic level al sell as highly socially conscious people prepared to cope with a

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changeable and demanding world with a critical and constructive attitude, and able to contribute to the family, social, and labor development.

The Secondary High School has 1190 students, who are distributed in two big groups; General High School and Technical High School. The first group is divided in eight sections; four sections for 10th grade; which are named as: 1-A G, 1-B G, 1C G, 1-D G. And four sections for 11th grade; which are named as: 2-A G, 2-B G, 2-C G, 2-D G. The second group Technical High School is divided in eighteen sections, six sections for 10th grade; which are named as : 1-A , 1-B , 1-C , 1-D, 1-E, 1-F. And six sections for 11th grade; which are named as: 2-A, 2-B, 2-C, 2-D, 2-E, and 2-F. And six sections for 12th grade; which are named as: 3-A, 3-B, 3-C, 3-D, 3-E, and 3-F. There are four English teachers taking care of the different sections, two for Technical High School and two for General High School. One of the afternoon teacher teaches to 11th grade students and he is also the advisor for the 11th grade students section A (2-A G), which was the group observed for about three months.

This group had English classes in the following schedule: Wednesdays from 2:45 pm to 3:30 pm, and Fridays from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm.

The English teacher starts the class greeting students, and asks for some homework, but in some classes he starts by asking the students for the new vocabulary that they learned in previous classes. He always encourages the students to participate although some of them do not show interest when he is asking them. During the development of classes, the English teacher speaks in both languages, English and Spanish; each activity is explained in English language and after that, the teacher translates into Spanish, even though some students already understood the English explanation.

The English teacher states that he tries to develop the four skills based on the communicative approach, but he also says that the topics he teaches are not sequenced as the English syllabus proposes. He uses to teach his classes the textbook named “Side by Side� Third Edition Book 3 by Steven J. Molinsky and Bill 92

Bliss. This book has ten units, each unit is divided into: vocabulary preview, grammar explanation with examples, speaking practice, and reading, reading check-up, listening practice and exercises.

At the end of every unit there is a chapter summary, some of them have other activities beside the ones mentioned before, activities such as role play, writing practice, etc. apart from the book exercises as a student’s journal. Side by Side offers learners of English a dynamic, communicative approach to learn the language. Its goal is to engage students in active, meaningful communicative practice with the language. Side by Side Gazette appears periodically through the texts. It contains different activities with magazine-style like facts files, interviews, vocabulary expansion, cross cultural topics, authentic listening activities, questions and answers about English grammar, email exchanges, and cartoon springboards for interactive role-playing activities and features articles. In order to do this possible, students have to develop the following with the goal to improve the four skills: For Listening, students listen from the teacher the correct pronunciation of the vocabulary and from the recorded that they have to identify the words that they hear and also to identify who is speaking.

For Reading, students read by themselves, after that one student reads aloud the paragraph for the whole class, at the end of the reading; the teacher makes corrections and asks questions about the reading to the rest of students. Besides, students identify the vocabulary that they do not know or the tense used in the paragraph it. The reading comprehension is developed through the reading checkup exercises.

For speaking they repeat the vocabulary, in some cases teacher acts as a tape recorder in order to teach the correct pronunciation of the vocabulary. Besides students practice dialogues in pairs and after that, they perform the dialogues in front of the class, in some exercises they share with their partners their experiences related with the topic.

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For writing, students make dialogue with the information or clues provided in the book, using the vocabulary, the tense that they learned, and also they write about themselves related with the topic.

Some of those activities are evaluated and at the end of the lesson they have a quiz in which vocabulary and tense used during the lesson are evaluated. This quiz includes different evaluation techniques as: multiple choices, true or false, complementing or matching. Besides that quiz, students make a written test every three months, this test covers more than one lesson and it is divided into written and reading sections.

2.2.3 Description of Instruments This research is focused on the development of communicative skills. Some authors thought

that for an effective performance of communicative skills the

development of micro skills and competences and the applications of proficiency guidelines are mandatory. All of them are right, but when all those elements are joined. That is why; this research takes as important elements for the development of communicative skills:, Competences, skills and micro skills and the proficiency guidelines.

It is considered that taking into account those elements in the instruments; the objectives of this research are going to be reached effectively. The instrument that involved all those elements was filled out through observation of classes during three months. To provide more facts to this research other instruments were applied during the process in a population of 40 students of 2-A of Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazรกn, those instruments are: journal, check list observation and final achivement test.

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FIRST INSTRUMENT: JOURNAL The first instrument is a journal; this instrument was designed to gather important information of each class observed. The collected here concerns with the information about the teacher and the student`s performance, which is considered important for this research.

UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE EL SALVADOR EDUCATION FACULTY THE COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS DEVELOPED BY ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS, SECTION “A”, FROM INSTITUTO NACIONAL GENERAL FRANCISCO MORAZAN, SAN SALVADOR 2010-2011.

MONTH

DATE AND TOPICS

DESCRIPTION OF THE OBSERVATION OF THE CLASS

SECOND INSTRUMENT: OBSERVATION CHECK LISTS The second instrument submmited were the observation checklists, these instrument are allow to the researcher to gather the necessary information in order to know in which level the students can be classified in each communicative skill according to the theory.

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UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE EL SALVADOR EDUCATION FACULTY THE COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS DEVELOPED BY ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS, SECTION “A”, FROM INSTITUTO NACIONAL GENERAL FRANCISCO MORAZAN, SAN SALVADOR 2010-2011.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the outcome level of the macro and micro skills for communicating in English among eleventh grade students, at Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán, at the end of the school year, 2010.

PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES OF LANGUAGE SKILLS

NOVICE LEVEL

LEVEL

LISTENING

Novice Low

Limited understanding of isolated words

Able to produce isolated words.

Able to identify isolated words and major phrases

Able to copy and produce the basic strokes.

Able to understand some short utterances.

vocabulary sufficiente to handing simple elementary needs and expresing basic courtesies.

Can identify and incresing number of highly contextualized words and phrases.

Able to copy and transcribe familiar words or phrases and reproduce some from memory.

Speaker is understood with great difficulty.

Able to recognize the symbols of and alphabetic and syllabic writing system

Able to partially exchange by relying heavily on learned utterances.

Can read for instructional and directional purposes standarize messages phrases or expressions.

Able to write simple fixed expressions and limited memorized material

Able to derive meaning from material

Can write names, numers, own nationality, and other simple autobiographical information.

Novice Mid

Novice High

Comprehend words and phrases from simple question statement high frequency commands and courtesy.

Able to understand short learned utterances and some sentences lenght utterances.

CHECK

READING

Can ask questions or make statements involving learned material.

CHECK

SPEAKING

CHECK

WRITING

CHECK

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UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE EL SALVADOR EDUCATION FACULTY THE COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS DEVELOPED BY ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS, SECTION “A”, FROM INSTITUTO NACIONAL GENERAL FRANCISCO MORAZAN, SAN SALVADOR 2010-2011.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the outcome level of the macro and micro skills for communicating in English among eleventh grade students, at Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán, at the end of the school year, 2010.

PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES OF LANGUAGE SKILLS. INTERMEDIATE LEVEL LEVEL

LISTENIG

INTERMEDIATE LOW

ABLE TO UNDERSTAND SENTENCES IN A LIMITED NUMBER OF CONTENT AREAS

INTERMEDIATE MID

ABLE TO UNDERSTAND SENTENCES ON A VARIETY OF TOPICS RELATED TO PERSONAL BACKROUND INTERESTS AND ACTIVITIES, SOCIAL CONVENTIONS AND TASKS

CHECK

READING

CAN ASK AND ANSWER QUESTIONS INITIATE AND RESPOND TO SIMPLE STATEMENTS AND MAINTING FACE TO FACE CONVERSATION

ABLE TO TALK SIMPLY ABOUT SELF AND FAMILY MEMBERS

CAN PARTICIPATE IN SIMPLE CONVERSATIONS ON TOPICS SUCH AS PERSONAL HISTORY AND LEISURE TIME ACTIVITIES.

CHECK

SPEAKING

ABLE TO UNDERSTAND MAIN IDEAS AND SOME FACTS FROM SIMPLE TEXTS DEALING WITH BASIC PERSONAL AND SOCIAL NEEDS

ABLE TO READ SIMPLE TEXTS ABOUT WHICH THE READER HAS TO MAKE MINIMAL SUPPOSITIONS

CHECK

WRITING

CHECK

CAN WRITE SHORT MESSAGES, POSTCARDS AND TAKE DOWN SIMPLE NOTES

ABLE TO WRITE SHORT, SIMPLE TEXTS ABOUT PERSONAL PREFERENCES, DAILY ROUTINES, EVERYDAY EVENTS AND OTHER TOPICS OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

CAN EXPRESS PRESENT TIME OR AT LEAST ONE OTHER TIME FRAME OR ASPECT CONSISTENTLY

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PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES OF LANGUAGE SKILLS. INTERMEDIATE LEVEL LEVEL

LISTENIG

INTERMEDIATE HIGH

ABLE TO UNDERSTAND SIMPLE LENGHT SPEECH IN BASIC PERSONAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT WITH EASE AND CONFIDENCE

CHECK

READING

CHECK

SPEAKING

CHECK

WRITING

ABLE TO CONVERSE EASE AND CONFIDENCE

ABLE TO UNDERSTAND FULLY AND EASE SHORT, NON COMPLEX TEXTS THAT CONVEY BASIC INFORMATION

ABLE TO WRITE COMPOSITIONS AND SIMPLE SUMMARIES RELATED TO WORK AND SCHOOL EXPERIENCES

ABLE TO HANDLE SUCCESFULLY UNCOMPLICATED TASKS ANS SOCIAL SITUATIONS REQUIRING AN EXCHANGE OF BASIC INFORMATION

ABLE TO UNDERSTAND SOME CONNECTED TEXTS FEATURING DESCRIPTION AND NARRATION

WRITERS CAN NARRATE AND DESCRIBE IN DIFFERENT TIME FRAMES

CHECK

THIRD INSTRUMENT: FINAL ACHIVEMENT TEST And the last instrument was the final achievement test .The goal of this instrument is to reach the second specific objective of this research; through this test researchers find out the outcome level of the macro and micro skills. The test was divided into the four communicative skills.

This test was applied during two days due the extension of it, now that the hour class was not enough in order to finish it.

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SCHOOL OF EDUCATION “COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS DEVELOPED BY ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS; SECTION “A”, INSTITUTO NACIONAL GENERAL FRANCISCO MORAZÁN” OBJECTIVE: To identify the outcome of the four skills(reading, istening, writing and speaking ) at the end of eleventh year of secondary school.

STUDENT`S NAME: ______________________ DATE: ________________ Indications: Choose the right answer for each item o question.

Listening I.

Listen to and identify who is speaking 1. a) a landlord b) a boss c) a principal d) a driver

4. a) a secretary b) a gardener c) a window cashier d) a baby sister

2. a) a doctor b) a mom c) a student d) a teacher

5. a) a doctor b) a bookkeeper c) a scientist d) a chef

3. a) a singer b) a dentist c) a prayer d) a mechanic

6. a) a nurse b) a lawyer c) a movie theater cashier d) a police officer

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II.

Listen and choose the correct answer.

1. a) I practice football. b) I´m practicing football. c) I practiced football. d) I was practicing football.

6. a) No, they aren´t. b) No, they don´t. c) No, they weren´t. d) No, they didn´t.

2. a) Yes, I was. b) Yes, I did. c) Yes, I am. d) Yes, I do.

7. a) Yes, she does. b) Yes, she is. c) Yes, she want. d) Yes, she did.

3. a)Yes, I am.. b) Yes, I do. c) Yes, you are. d) Yes, I was.

8. a) b) c) d)

4. a) She read the newspaper. b) She´s reading the newspaper. c) She reads the newspaper. d) She was reading the newspaper.

9. a) Yes, they are. b) Yes, we are. c) Yes, you are. d) Yes, they were.

5. a) My husband cooked. b) My husband cook. c) My husband is cooking. d) My husband cooks.

Yes, they do.

Yes, I do.

Yes, we do.

Yes, you do.

10. a) He want to be a soccer player. b) He wanted to be a soccer player. c) He´s playing soccer. d) He wants to be a soccer player.

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III.

Listen to the messages on Dave’s Machine and choose the activity that they are going to do.

1. Sara a) She will be glad to be in the party. b) She is in the Hospital. c) She will be taking her uncle to the hospital. d) She doesn´t want to go.

2. Bob a) b) c) d)

He and his girlfriend will be getting married.

He and his wife will be attending a wedding.

He a will be attending a wedding His wife will be attending a wedding.

3. Paula a) b) c) d)

She will be at the University.

She will be meeting with her friends.

She will be studying all weekend.

She will be cleaning all weekend.

4. Joe a) b) c) d) 5. Carla a) b) c) d)

He will be visiting his mother.

He will be visiting his brother.

He will be visiting his girlfriend.

He will be visiting his parents.

She’s very busy.

She will not be there.

She will be in another party.

She will definitely be there.

Grammar and Vocabulary I.

Underline the correct answers.

1. My sister _______ very tired today.

A. be

B. am

C. is

D. are

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2. His _______ is a famous actress.

A. aunt

B. uncle

C.grandfather

D. son

3. I’d like to be a _______ and work in a hospital.

A. lawyer B.nurse 4. We _______ like rap music.

A.doesn’t

B.isn’t

C.writer

D.pilot

C. aren’t

D.don’t

5.There _______ a lot of water on the floor. What happened?

A. are

B. is

C.be

D.am

6. He _______ TV at the moment.

A. watches

B. is watching

C. watched

D. has watching

7. Helen is very _______. She doesn’t go out a lot.

A. bored

B.confident

C. angry

D. shy

8. Did you _______ to the beach yesterday?

A. went

B. were

C. go

D. goed

9. Have you got _______ orange juice? I’m thirsty.

A. some

B. a

C. no

D. the

10.Let’s go into _______ garden. It’s sunny outside.

A. a

B. any

C at

D. the

C. listening

D. paying

11. He’s _______ for the next train.

A. looking

B. waiting

12. Mark _______ his car last week.

A. cleaned

B. clean

C .has cleaned

D. is cleaning

13. I bought some lovely red _______ today.

A. cabbages B. cucumbers C. bananas

D. apples

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14. Which bus _______ for when I saw you this morning?

A. did you wait

B. had you waited

C. were you waiting D. have you waited

15. Where _______ you like to go tonight?

A. do

B. would

C. are

D. can

C. baddest

D. most bad

16. That’s the _______ film I’ve ever seen!

A. worse

B. worst

17. My dad _______ his car yet.

A. hasn’t sold B. didn’t sell

C. doesn’t sell D. wasn’t sold

18. I’ve been a doctor _______ fifteen years.

A. since

B. for

C. until

D. by

19. Look at the sky. It _______ rain.

A. will

B. can

C. is going to

D. does

20. If I _______ this homework, the teacher will be angry!

A. am not finishing

B. won’t finish C. don’t finish D. didn’t finished

21. This book is even _______ than the last one I read!

A. most boring

B. boringer

C. more boring

D. far boring

22. I’ll meet you _______ I finish work.

A. if

B. when

C. as

D. so

C. at

D. by

23. We’re getting married _______ March.

A. in

B. on

24. If you _______ steak for a long time, it goes hard.

A. cook

B. are cooking

C. have cooked

D. cooked

25. I _______ you outside the cinema, OK? A. ’ll see

B. am going to see

C. am seeing

D. see

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26. I _______ not be home this evening. Phone me on my mobile.

A. can

B. could

C. may

D. should

27. The criminal _______ outside the hotel last night.

A. was caught

B. has been caught

C. is caught

D. caught

28. He asked me if I _______ a lift home.

A. wanted

B. want

C. was wanting

D. had wanted

29. If I _______ older, I’d be able to vote in elections.

A. had

B. am

C. were

D. have

30. You _______ go to the supermarket this afternoon. I’ve already been.

A. mustn’t

B. can’t

C. don’t need

D. won’t

31. Kathy drives _______ than her sister.

A. more carefully

B. more careful

C. carefully

D. most carefully

C. view

D. countryside

C. regret

D. sad

32. The _______ near our village is beautiful.

A. country

B. woods

33. I’m _______ I can’t help you with that.

A. apologize

B. afraid

34. It was really _______ this morning. I couldn’t see anything on the roads.

A. cloudy

B. sunny

C. icy

D. foggy

35. Can you look _______ my dog while I’m away?

A. for

B. at

C. to

D. after

36. If I’d started the work earlier I _______ it by now.

A. would finish

B. had finished

C. will finish

D. would have finished

37. This time next year I _______ in Madrid.

A. am working

B. will work

C. will be working

D. work

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38 .I wish he _______ in front of our gate. It’s very annoying.

A. won’t park B. wouldn’t park

C. doesn’t park

D. can’t park

39. He said he’d seen her the _______ night.

A. last

B. before

C. previous

D. earlier

40. I _______ agreed to go out. I haven’t got any money!

A. mustn’t have

B. shouldn’t have

C. couldn’t have

D. wouldn’t have

41. It was good _______ about her recovery, wasn’t it?

A. information

B. words

C. news

D. reports

42. I _______ the report by 5.00 p.m. You can have it then.

A. have finished

B. will have finished

C. finish

D. am finishing

43. Because of the snow the teachers _______ all the students to go home early.

A. said

B. made

C. told

D. demanded

44. Thanks for the meal! It was _______.

A. delighted

B. delicious

C. disgusting

D. distasteful

45. Look! Our head teacher _______ on TV right now!

A. is being interviewed B. is been interviewed C. is interviewing

D. is interviewed

46. It’s _______ to drive a car over 115 km/h in the UK. A. unlegal

B. illegal

C. dislegal

D. legaless

47. There’s a lot of rubbish in the garden I need to get _______ of.

A. lost

B. rid

C. cleared

D. taken

C. are leaving

D. left

48. I’m afraid it’s time we _______.

A. leave B. must leave 49. He wondered what _______.

A .is the time? B. the time was¨

C. was the time

D. is the time?

C. raised

D. lifted

50 They _______ our salaries by 5%.

A. rose

B. made up

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k/ Reading I. Read the text.

Levi Roots, a reggae singer from Jamaica, has a big smile on his face these days. In case you missed it, Levi recently appeared on the famous reality show for people with business ideas, Dragon’s Den. The participants have to persuade the team of business experts that their ideas are excellent and hope that two or more of the team will decide to invest money in their business idea. Levi did just that!

The singer, who has been a successful music artist for several years, also sells something he calls ‘Reggae, reggae sauce’. It is made using special secret ingredients from his grandmother and is a hot Jamaican sauce that is eaten with meat. Until now it has only been possible to buy the sauce from Levi’s website or once a year at the famous Notting Hill carnival. But now, thanks to the TV program, that is all going to change! Levi presented his business idea to the team and started with a catchy reggae song about the sauce to make them sit up and listen. He certainly got their attention! He then described his plans for the sauce. This part of his presentation didn’t go so well. He made mistakes with his figures, saying that he already had an order for the sauce of 2 and a half million when in fact he meant 2 and a half thousand! But, the team were still interested and amazingly, two of the team offered to give £50,000 to the plan in exchange for 40% of the company. Mr Roots was ecstatic!

Levi is even happier today. It seems that two of the biggest supermarket chains in the UK are interested in having the sauce on their shelves. In addition to this, Levi is recording the ‘Reggae, reggae sauce’ song and we will soon be able to buy or download this. ‘It’s all about putting music into food,’ says Levi with a big, big smile on his face! And music and food will probably make him a very rich man indeed!

Based on the reading, answer the following: I.

Are the sentences true or false?

1. At the moment Levi isn’t very happy.

___

2. Levi sells something we can eat.

___

3. His song is a big success.

___

4. He sang his song on TV.

___

5. Some supermarkets want to sell his product.

___

II.

Choose the best answers.

1. Dragon’s Den is a show about A. Cooking.

B. New business ideas.

C. Famous people.

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2. To make the sauce A. You have to go to Notting Hill.

B. You have to ask a member of Levi’s family.

C. You need a good recipe book.

3. When Levi presented his idea A. He finished with a song.

B. Two and a half million people were watching.

C. He talked about the wrong figures.

4. Some people on the team A. Own supermarkets.

B. Didn’t like the taste.

C. Bought part of Levi’s company.

5. Today Levi A. is a millionaire.

B. has two things he can profit from.

C. prefers music to food.

Writing Imagine you have just returned from a two-week holiday. Write an e-mail to your friend telling him/her about the holiday. Include information about the journey, where you stayed, what you did and the people you met.

__________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________.

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2.3

METHODOLOGICAL

AND

THEORETICAL

RESEARCH

FORMULATION. For this research has been considered very important refers to the different authors that contribute to the development of communicative skills. Among these authors are: Jeremy Harmer, Douglas Brown, Neil McLaren, Christine Nuttall from whom researchers take their contributions for this work ,because they are considered meaningful and very important for the development of the four skills. But after analyze all the theory

presented by the authors , it is necessary to make a

comparison between the theory and facts found in the high school , were this research has been developed , because in that way researchers will be able to give their own opinion and contribute to this research.To add more important information to this research it is necessary to take into account other aspects such as: The English syllabus used by the teacher, and the book that students use for English class (Side by Side). Those aspects are important because they are considered as the basis for the development of the communicative skills.

The English syllabus has been developed in order to achieve language proficiency through the Communicative Approach, its objectives set for the preparation for life competencies,

besides,

and

it

promotes

the

development

of

the

four

communicative skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In order to reach the development of communicative skills, it takes into account the following competences: grammatical, sociolinguistic, strategic, and discourse; which are closed related with the different contents that this syllabus proposes such as: conceptual, procedural, and attitudinal.

The “Side by Side� book is based on the Communicative Approach, it takes some aspects in order to develop the communicative skills in students, also, it promotes the student`s participation, most of its activities lead to students to speak and create new dialogues in which students put in practice the new vocabulary and the grammar through the units, encourage them a good pronunciation throughout the listening activities which also are practiced by students.

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In fact, the English teacher takes into account the topics, strategies and activities proposed in the book, even when they are not the proposed on the English Syllabus. Students have three English classes a week. Generally these classes starts with a feedback of the last class, but after that the teacher focuses in the acquisition of vocabulary, the performance of dialogues, and reading activities, in which students are encouraged to learn grammar and they are the center of the class.

Even when the class is not based on the parameters of the English syllabus, the four communicative skills are developed through the English learning process of each unit of the book. The activities developed in order to improve communicative skills are based on the book with the help of the English teacher`s creativity. Each class develops at least two communicative skills, in the following way:

2.3.1 Listening Skill According to Jeremy Harmer and Neil McLaren, there are some activities that help to develop listening comprehension, and for them the main purpose is to improve this skill in English students. These activities are part from the two kinds of listening; Extensive and Intensive. For extensive listening, students can choose what they can hear, for intensive listening which is developed inside the classroom; some of the following activities can be carried out: Reading aloud, storytelling, interviews, and conversations.

Comparing the activities developed by eleventh grade students with the activities proposed by authors, researchers found that from four ones mentioned before, the second one is missing; it means that storytelling is not applied in the English classes. On the contrary, reading aloud, conversations, and interviews are applied.

Concerning with the stages that listening is divided, which are pre listening, listening, and post listening; in eleventh grade are applied as follows:The pre listening is developed by the teacher before he plays the cd- player; he stars to repeat the vocabulary with students two or three times. The listening is when 109

students listen the vocabulary and then repeat them, and also they listen some readings two or three times , then, some students can answer questions that teacher asks them. The post listening is showed by the physical response of students; sometimes teacher ask to student s to do something referring to the vocabulary, the performance of similar tasks; sometimes students perform activities that are in the book, the active participation in a face to face conversation; students perform conversation repeating after the CD player.

2.3.2 Reading Skill According to the theory Christine Nuttall, reading is an active skill considered to be essential in the development of literacy, that is why some aspects are going to be taken into account to analyze what the reading skill in students is like, some of those aspects are: Text and discourse which allows the students to be conscious about what for they are reading. Organizing sequence of sentences, in which students have to identify the topic sentence of the reading.

Due to the kind of reading that students have in their books they do not care about what they are reading, they only read the paragraph in order to look for the information required by the book or by the teacher. Text and discourse pretends a little connection through the reading between the writer and the reader, where the message that writer wants to transmit will be transmitted as long as reader understands what the writer wants to express, for that reason all the readings have to be at the level of students, but in this case this aspect is not reached by the group in that way, maybe because students do not have the ability to comprehend the reading now that they are focused in answering questions only . Besides, text and discourse takes into account that a sentence has different kinds of meanings, which help students understand or reach the level that the writer has in readings and they are mentioned as following: conceptual, propositional, contextual and pragmatic.

During the readings, the conceptual meaning that is about the very meaning of a word, is applied most of the time , because students always look in the dictionary 110

the meaning of a word in order to understand the reading, even though some of them can be simple or complex, they try to find the closest meaning of a word.

About the propositional meaning, that refers to the meaning of a sentence in their context, also known as signification or plain sense, students have to be able to understand the context of the whole sentence more than the conceptual meaning of a word. In this case students reach this when they have already translated into Spanish the paragraph or the sentences, but even though students translate the paragraph or the sentence into their native language , it is difficult for them to comprehend the propositional meaning

because they do not understand the

sentence or paragraph in their context now that they are led by the meaning of every word. The contextual meaning, refers to the connection between sentences that help to recognize the writer ´s thought, this is often achieved in the readings, because they emphasize in translating sentences and in this way they reach the connection between sentences and after that they answer questions that teacher gives them and this let them to recognize some writer´s thought. And the last one is the pragmatic meaning, which refers to the interaction between writer and reader through the writing , here the feelings and attitudes are set down on the text, for most of the students it is difficult to understand the pragmatic meaning of a paragraph because the way that they use to understand the paragraph is not the correct, but when they have read the paragraph many times , some of them reach the connection with the writers and is in this stage that they start to answer in a good way some question made by the teacher.

Concerning to organizing sequence of sentences, it can be say that , most of the main ideas of a paragraph are placed at the beginning or at the end of a paragraph , but most of the students cannot identify them until they have already read the paragraph several times. Besides, they always need to see the translation into Spanish that they do in order to understand and find the logical sequence of sentences.

Now, based on the reading theory, which states that learners have to adapt to new implementations during the learning process, because they are accustomed to 111

read in their native language, some aspects like orthography, vocabulary , and syntax change during this process, it can be said that most of the students face this problem because they do not

have

enough knowledge about how

orthography, syntax and vocabulary work in the target language, for that reason they always look up words in their dictionaries to get the meaning of a text.It means that they reach the understanding of a text throughout the looking of words in their dictionaries, and when they know the meaning of the words little by little they understand how these elements work in the English language.

According to Christine Nuttall, reading is interactive because readers have to perform a number of tasks during the process to understand written texts which are: Decode, interpret, and understand. The first one, decode, where the message is recognized by written signs depends on the level of the readers and the level of the reading, since both have to be equal, in this task they have to recognize at least some English words in the reading, which in some cases they know in a general way what is the reading about, because when teacher asks them about it they answer coherently, even though the answers are based in their translations that always they do. But it is important to mention that students do not reach at all this task, because even the level of readings are according to the level requested by the Mined , students show that their level is lower as the requested for them, therefore, they do not decode every reading in a successful way.

The second one, Interpret, here the task is for readers, because they have to interpret the message, and without any doubt, they do it, but always based on their translations, because they do not try to understand the text, although is a little difficult for them because they get it in Spanish not in English, as an example we can say the following: When the teacher asks for the text they have in their desks the notebooks where they have their translations, and also the book in order to follow what the teacher is doing or saying.

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The last one is understand, this task is achieved by students, always following the same way, and they show that they understand when they answer question about the reading in their books using their translations.

Other elements taken into account by Christine Nuttall are the top-down and bottom-up processing which are used when someone is reading. The bottom-up processing refers to the recognition of words with the goal to increase their vocabulary, and also to know the grammatical structure, but always taking into account the reader´s knowledge about the topic. The top- down processing refers to put in practice their background knowledge about the topic and also that students try to understand the message in a general way.

Now, during the observation of classes, students put in practice the bottom-up processing, because they look for increasing their vocabulary in each unit, and there are some words that they have to learn and put in practice during the development of the lesson, besides, they use in every unit a different grammatical structure that also they have to study in readings. Concerning with the top-down processing that needs the student´s background knowledge, is not developed inside the classes because they always try to understand details, it means word by word, and never try to get a general idea of a paragraph.

The top-down processing is related with the schema theory that according to Neil McLaren is the knowledge organized or stored in the reader´s mind, now that those help to readers have a successful reading, and also this schemata classified

can be

as following: Linguistic schemata, content schemata and formal

schemata. The first one, Linguistic schemata, refers to the previous knowledge about vocabulary and grammar which students have, this part of the top down processing is tried to be activated by the teacher through the development of each class because it is supposed that they have a basis of the language but sometimes students reach the activation of their linguistic schemata and sometimes they do not reach it, maybe because they do not have linguistic schemata. The second one, content schemata, refers to the student´s previous knowledge about the 113

world, cultures and so on, which let students to participate in the reading , some of the students have a lot of knowledge about some topic, and this helps to do the class

active when they are reading , but the problems are that they are

accustomed to translate everything and they waste time doing that, but also some of them show lack of interest during the reading because they have little or no backgrounds about the topic or even they know they cannot express what they know, that is why this classification is not developed in a good way in classes. And the last one

is

the formal schemata, which refers to how to readings are

organized, taking into account main ideas , supporting details, which are getting using the top 窶電own processing , but as the content schemata is not developed and it can be said that this is due to the background knowledge that they did not base in a good way during the last few years that they have been learning the English language.

Now it is important to mention how the teacher activates the schemata theory in their students. According to Douglas Brown there are two ways to activate schemata in students: presupposition and prediction. The presupposition refers to the previous knowledge, the own experience and the way to relate that knowledge with the reading. Some of the students have a great deal of knowledge about some topics, and this situation allows that those students participate more than others.

The teacher starts asking about the topic presented in the reading and some of them share their experiences but in Spanish and then the teacher translates into English. Most of them activate their schemata but do not share their experiences because of the lack of interest that they show to the class. Concerning with the prediction that refers to the association of reading with the previous knowledge but this in an individual way, the students think about how they can interpret the text easily or make sense of sentences. In this students focus on vocabulary and grammar in order to understand the text, after that they share ideas among their partners.

According to Christine Nuttall it is convenient to assume that readers use different skills to make sense of different features of a text and skills have to work together 114

with other skills, that is why they are divided into two groups , the first one is word attack skill and the second one is text attack skills.

In word attack skills the

interpretation of structural clues that is composed by the grammatical function and morphology are included. Concerning to the grammatical function the author states that readers have to identify the grammatical categories even though they cannot explain how they do it. This word attack skill is developed in an acceptable way in class, because teacher explains the grammar in front of the class and they identify some of the grammatical categories presented in the reading. They usually change the word in the grammatical categories and this helps in order to increase their vocabulary and also know the category of words. This activity is considered a useful exercise in order to develop this skill.

About morphology, Christine Nuttall states that it helps to attack skills when readers put in practice the use of affixes and compound words that help to get the real meaning of a sentence. But this skill is not developed in class because the students do not care about how words are formed they always look in the dictionary and do not invest time in studying this kind of structural clues.

Another word attack skill described by Nuttall is inference from context, here the students have to learn words in the context without the help of the dictionary and the words can be learned in the same way that students apply in their conversation with other persons. But during the development of classes, students use some words in their conversations about the class but always taking into account the exact Spanish meaning of words.

There are other word attack skills that Nutall describes, which are not developed in classes but can be favorable so that the students can improve their reading, they are: Learning to use inference, in which students can use sentence with nonsense words and then look for the correct one, using the words that are in the context; also students can complete a sentence with a range of words for this they have to choose the best option in order to complete the sentence. The other word attack skill is recipes for exercise which nonsense words has to be changed by real 115

words, here, students have to supply short texts with a nonsense word, always taking into account the vocabulary studied in the lesson.

The second group is text attack skill which is divided into two groups. The first one is plain sense and the second one is understanding discourse. In the plain sense, the bottom-up strategies included are: understanding syntax, recognizing and interpreting

cohesive

devices

and

interpreting

discourse

markers.

The

understanding syntax, according to Nutall, can be practiced by predicting how the paragraph fits into wider text using previous knowledge, trying to summarize the reading, underlying new words, identifying gaps in the message. This skill is applied inside the classroom in the following way: students study a lot grammar, during the class they re-read sentences, in which the grammar studied is applied, they underline new words and quickly they look them up in the dictionary, they never try to summarize what reading is about, therefore it can be said that the skill is developed but not in the way the author recommends.

The second text attack skill is recognizing and interpreting cohesive devices, which includes pro – form, ellipsis or lexical cohesion. The first one is interpreting pro forms, which consists of those words that the writers use in order to avoid needless repetition on the sentences, such as it, our, those then, one. During the class students read the paragraph and sometimes the teacher asks about these proforms during the reading, then students try to answer but they show some problems during their explanation of that. The second one refers to interpreting elliptical expressions, which has two stages; the first stage is presenting examples in which students can answer questions like: how many things? Who?, Tell me something about.?; and the second stage is to omit words that represent the same part of speech, for instance verbs, adjectives, nouns .In fact, there are some activities that students and teacher do in order to develop this skill, for the first stage, students answer the activities presented after the reading, there are always questions referring to the reading that help to know if the students had understood it, sometimes they work in group, sometimes alone, and then they answer those questions to the teacher. The second stage is practiced in a different way as it is 116

mentioned by Nuttall, because they do not omit words , they do exercises in which they change the part of the speech in sentences, using the vocabulary that they have studied before.

Interpreting discourse markers is another text attack skills, that according to Nuttall, the way to develop this skills is supplying a text with markers omitted and replaced by gaps, in which teacher gives to students a list of markers presented and studied before this task and present them an exercise with multiple choice. Also teacher can supply a text with the gap left empty where students can think about the markers that belong into the text .Now teacher applies these kinds of activities during quizzes or exams, most of the exams are presented in that way but during reading none of these activities are developed.

Concerning understanding discourse, that is part of the text attack skills, and refers to the contextual meaning and the pragmatic meaning of individual sentence of a text and the way to combine with other sentences, Nuttall states that in this section students have to develop the following skills: Recognizing functional value, recognizing text organization, recognizing the presupposition underlying the text, recognizing implications and making inferences and predictions. Among these skills presented in understanding discourse students identify what reading is about, interpreting the reading contextual and pragmatic meaning of individual sentences and its combination among sentences in order to produce a coherent message.

Concerning the recognizing functional value, Nutall makes a relation between contextual and pragmatic meaning in which a sentence can be multifunctional depending on the context the sentences is. This skill is not developed by students because it is difficult for them to grasp different meanings to a sentence because they only follow the meaning that they get from the translation.

About the other skill, recognizing text organization, which refers to how the texts are organized and see how ideas hang together, according to Nutall this, can be developed as follows: Through organization of a paragraph into text where students can work on a sequence of paragraphs, identifying an opening or 117

concluding paragraph. These kinds of activities are not developed inside the classroom, teacher and students never look for identifying what kind of paragraph they have read, they only look for understanding the vocabulary and the grammar used in it.

About Recognizing presuppositions, implication and making inferences, Nutall states that these skills help to understand the text. Presuppositions are divided into two groups, the first one, the knowledge and experience that the writer expects the reader to have and the opinions, attitudes and emotions that the writer expect the reader share or at least understand. Sometimes after students read many times the paragraph they start to share some opinions and experiences about the readings, even though they have difficulties when they try to develop this skill.

The other skill that students have to develop according to Nuttall is implications and making inference, where students have their own conclusions from facts and point an argument, inside the classroom this kind of skill is not developed as it is hoped but some of students try to have their own argument about the readings but this is achieved after many times that students have read the text.

Summing up all the skills described and developed in classes are included either, in intensive or extensive reading. The intensive reading is developed in classes so that the students increase their vocabulary throughout the reading and also grammar is applied in all the readings that they practice, the students and the teacher pay more attention in these areas, this means that they master a lot of grammar and vocabulary but it is not the same about the comprehension of texts, because they have some problems about understanding ideas in a paragraph, and this happens when they have extensive reading.

2.3.3 Speaking Skill The other communicative skill that students have to develop is speaking.

According to McLaren such skill is one of the most difficult ones language learners have to cope with. Jeremy Harmer states that the main purpose of this skill is 118

conversation. It means that the process of acquisition of this skill is larger than the other skills. Jeremy Harmer presents some language features which are necessary for the speaking production: the first one is connected speech, this refers to the ability that a speaker has in order to articulate the sounds of speach fluently, for instance the sound of some words in contracted forms. It was observed during classes, that the teacher paid attention to the pronunciation of students, most of the students try to use the contracted form when they speak not only with verb to be but also with other auxiliary verbs that it is possible to use the contracted form.

Another language feature is expressive devices which is used in face to face interaction and this refers to the speed, volume , expression of emotions and the intensity that students during dialogue roleplaying face many problems with that because they do not show fluency when they are speaking in front of the class, but one important thing here is that they try to do it very well and they

use a good

volume, expression of emotions and good intensity, sometimes they

have

meetings outside the classroom in order to practice what they are going to say and it is in that way that they reach some of those aspects were achieved.

Lexis and grammar is another language feature, here the students are involved in specific speaking context, like telephone conversation, job interviews, in which the teacher supplies a variety of sentences for different functions such agreeing, expressing surprises, etc. These activities are developed inside the classroom because most of the conversations that are in the book refer to this kind of topics in which the students have to change some parts of speech, they work on it as a whole class because teacher says what the word that they are going to change is and then they start to answering with the words selected by them, it can be said that this becomes oral repetition of dialogues but changing the words they want.

The negotiation of language is closely related with this, the only difference is that in it they negotiate what statement or questions they want to say during the activity in order to understand what they are saying. The teacher applies this kind of language feature and the way that they use it is interesting because he asks the students for a sentence in Spanish and then he translates it into English then, they 119

use it in a dialogue, and in that way students know perfectly what they are saying in the dialogue.

The other element of speaking is mental or social processing which includes the language processing, interactive with others, and information processing. The language processing, refers to the use of words or sentences that they need in order to say something with the purpose of sharing a comprehensible idea. Inside the classroom students try to do this looking for words that they need to say something, most of the time the teacher is a translator for them because they ask for phrases or words that they need for their own dialogues which most of the time are developed by students in front of the class and it is in this part that interacting with others is achieved and that is the second element of metal processing. The third element is information processing and it refers to the way the information is processed, it can be quickly or slowly, depending on the students. In this part most of the students perform the dialogues in an acceptable way because they practiced many times, but some of them seemed uncomfortable when they were performing those dialogues, maybe because they did not give them enough time for practicing.

Jeremy Harmer presents different activities to face situations in which students feel stressed because they do not construct sentences using the correct expression or the exact words, maybe because they have difficulties in areas like syntax, vocabulary and morphology; some of these activities are presented below and can be developed in the classroom: 路

Acting from a script: This refers to the performing of dialogues in front of the class based on the course books or dialogues written by them. During the observation , most of the students practice this activity, the book presents exercises in which they have to change some vocabulary and also the grammar that they have studied, so they write all the dialogues in their notebooks and after that they choose one dialogue and then they present it in front of the class, everybody passes in front of the class, but few of them do not show interest in order to learn the dialogues, the teacher 120

evaluates this activity like a quiz , so this activity is developed in a good way, and they practice syntax and vocabulary.

Communication Games: this refers to the performance of games inside the classroom where students have to practice the language in order to get fluency; Jeremy Harmer presents some games like: twenty questions and just a minute. But inside the classroom there are no games in order to encourage students to practice the language, simply teacher and students practice the dialogue without worries of improving their fluency. 路 Questionnaires: Jeremy Harmer presents this activity with the goal of improving grammar and vocabulary, making questionnaires about a specific topic, but this activity is not developed inside the classroom, they do not do this kind of activities even though it can help to improving their speaking skill. 路 Prepared talks: In this activity students have to make a presentation on a topic of their own choice or they can use the questionnaire as a basis in order to prepare talks. This activity is not developed inside the classroom because they focus only in practicing the dialogues presented in their course books and the ones made by them. 路 Discussion: About this one, Jeremy Harmer states that it can be generated from the questionnaires and talks, but neither questionnaires nor talks are developed inside the classroom, consequently this activity is not developed either 路 Simulation and role play: Jeremy Harmer states that it can be used to encourage general oral fluency, or to train students for specific situations of real life. Inside the classroom the teacher and the students do this kind of activities for training on situations of real life, sometimes the dialogues that they write in their notebooks are presented in front of the class but they

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take into account some characteristic that Jeremy Harmer proposes in order to develop in a good way, they are : o Reality of function: Students have to act as a real participant of the situation that they are representing in that moment.

They bring

different kinds of customs and act as the people involved in the dialogue; some of them perform naturally, but for others it seemed to be difficult. o A simulated environment: teacher and students have to think or create the right environment inside the classroom, as if the place is real in that moment. This is closed related with the first one because students prepare material that they need for the drama that they are going to perform in front of the class.

According to Neil McLaren and other authors, the spoken language is divided into two groups, depending on their purpose: Productive dimension, in which students have the opportunity to study before, studying the context, with the following factor that affect them , for instance; linguistic, all kind of linguistic problems that speaker has to face in every situation, as well as whatever psychological and cognitive problems that affect them during the process of speaking due to the correction that teacher could make to them. The other one is interactive dimension, it refers to communication, in which speakers tend to repeat the pattern of their messages, and it can be as information routine or interaction routines. In the information routine can be news, broadcast, lectures, and so on. And in the interaction routines can be interviews, conversations, telephone conversations, and so on.

But as it is well known this research looks for the development of the skill for communicative purposes, without taking into account the way that they can reach it. It is considered that they make a combination of all the elements mentioned before. It means that they use the productive dimension because they have been studying what they were going to speak, for example, vocabulary, therefore they have the linguistics problems when they try to use the grammar studied, and also 122

the psychological and cognitive problems when they are performing the pronunciation of the vocabulary or the grammar and teacher corrects them.

For the interactive dimension, the interaction routine is more applied than information routine, but taking into account that the information they share is according to the exercises developed in their books, in which interviews, conversations are developed using the grammar and the vocabulary that they have studied.

2.3.4 Writing Skill In this communicative skill it is supposed that students are able to generate ideas, organize them coherently, use discourse markers and rhetorical conventions to put them cohesively into written text, revise text for clear meaning, edit text for appropriate grammar, and produce a final product. Through the process of learning a new language all those competencies have been developed step by step, because it is impossible that they can be developed in a short time.

In this case, the students have had four previous years in order to develop the competencies mentioned before, but in the observation made, all of those competencies were not developed as it is supposed or they were not applied correctly. For example, if students work in the writing skill they do not generate ideas from their minds, they only rewrite sentences from the book using different vocabulary, they are not able to identify if a text is well organized of it is used discourse markers and rhetorical conventions.

Concerning with edition of a text for appropriate grammar the students can just edit spelling, because through constant practice of writing of vocabulary used in lessons they have excellent spelling and they can identify the tense of the verbs used in the sentences, but they cannot organize them coherently in the same tense to write a paragraph. Summing up, this skill is based only in the rewriting of vocabulary and the substitution of words in texts; therefore students are not able to

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produce texts by themselves, using their own ideas or for expressing their feelings with communicative goals.

2.3.5 Communicative competences Concerning competences, the Ministry of Education requires the development of them because they are additional tools that teacher can use in order to develop the skills in students, these competences are: a. Grammatical competence: For this competence there are five important elements that have to be developed. 路

Morphology: that refers to the study of the structure of words in a language that means that in this case students have to be able to analyze the composition of a word including its inflections and derivations. But in the observation carried out in the English class the development of this element of this competence was not observed.

路

Syntax: it deals with the ordering and relationship between words and other structural elements in phrases and sentences, in this case the teacher explained to the students through examples in the board the correct way of syntax in each tense.

路

Lexis: it concerns about the vocabulary that students acquire through the learning process, this element of the grammatical competence is developed in the students observed because when every unit of the book start there is a list of vocabulary that students have to use during the whole unit for instance, they acquire new lexis in every unit and they continuing put it in practice in next lessons.

路

Phonology: deals with the system or pattern of speech sounds used in a particular language, in other words it is about the correct pronunciation of words, knowing the symbols that represent the sounds of the words in the English language, in this case phonology is thought just when the 124

teacher pronounces the words trying to teach students the correct pronunciation of words but there is not an special time in class where teacher explains about how to know the correct pronunciation just looking it in the dictionary. ·

Orthography: is about the study of established correct spelling, the teacher cares about this part, he always corrects students in spelling but he does not pay attention about the diacritic symbols in students writing.

b. Sociolinguistic competence According

with

Neil

McLaren

this

competence

is

concerned

with

the

“appropriateness of communication depending on the context including the participants and the rules for interaction”, besides that it has to be related with cultural aspects too. In this sense, classes’ observation showed that the teacher focused parts of the lessons in order to talk about cultural aspects, in the book Side

by Side there are special reports about culture of many countries around the world.

The teacher in this part explains to students about it and they participate talking about what they know about the cultural topic that they are studying. Besides, teacher explains to students the language differences among our culture and others and how they have to be careful about what they want to say and in which way when they talk to people from other country. c. Strategic competence The goal for this competence is to produce oral discourse in a conversation to exchange general and specific information on various topics, for this, teacher has clear two points necessaries to be developed and they are:Oral discourse: teacher encourages students to speak with confidence about any topic in discussion.

Exchange of general and specific information: the production of the oral discourse has to have a purpose for that reason the teacher prepares some questions about the topic in discussion in order to give the students something to talk about with sense and without lose control of the class.

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2.4 THEORETICAL DEFINITON AND DEVELOPMENT The researchers believe that most of the English teachers use different methods in order to achieve the development of skills in order to learn any language; it means that they do not only have to use the communicative approach even though this is the suggested method by the MINED. Teachers should use the method that is most appropriate for their students’ needs and characteristics in order to efficiently and effectively develop the four skills. That is why; the different ways students can develop those skills are presented here.

Based on what it was found regarding the acquisition and enhance of the speaking, listening, reading and writing skills of English by the students in section 2-A at the Instituto Nacional General Francisco MorazĂĄn

and the theoretical

backgrounds concerning the same issue , the researches consider that the four skills have to be developed in every lesson, and it is the teacher who decides which skill to develop first, second, third or fourth, taking into account the activities presented previously.

For listening skill, researchers consider that it is necessary to put into practice more extensive listening through different activities; for example, to invite a native speaker to the class or somebody else that speaks English fluently, to play a song or to watch a movie, and not only restrict students to listen to the teacher’s speaking; for intensive listening the variety of activities is a good option too. Even though students do not show so many problems in this skill it is important to expose them to constant listening practice. Also it is important to encourage students to develop the micro skills of the listening skill, for example, help students to recognize reduce forms of words, and identify pauses, errors, and corrections.

Regarding the second skill, reading, the researchers consider that this skill demands a lot of practice from both; teacher and students, because in this skill they show lack of interest and also they do not practice it enough; and it is through reading that students can reinforce other skills and competences; for example grammar, lexis, cultural elements, etc. When reading is applied in class the first 126

important thing is that students need to have clear the purpose of the reading, besides in order to engage students in the practice of reading, the teacher has to provide them with extra reading selections and not only the short paragraphs in the book that they use. Those readings have to be easy at first, so that students understand and get excited because they understand what they are reading, then, gradually the difficulty of the reading has to be increased.

The second thing that is very important is the way the teacher and students process reading exercises, as it is well known, there are two processes ; bottomup and top-down, which help the readers to look for

general and specific

information, through the bottom-up processing, students can recognize letters and words in English

and also

grammatical structures. This processing could be

developed before the reading with the teacher’s help, giving students vocabulary referred only to the reading in order to look for the meaning of words; this processing help the students to understand the text without translating of the paragraph. the top-down processing is recommended to be used when students have managed the vocabulary of the text, hence in that way they are going to feel comfortable with the reading, because in that point students can understand what the reading is about, use their background knowledge and give their contribution about what they have read.

The reading skill is divided in two groups, word attack skills and text attack skills; researchers consider that

for the students it is important to develop the word

attack skills first, because is through this group that they start to get along with the language,

interpreting structural clues using the grammatical function and

morphology. A good way to identify the grammatical function is underlying it in a text; change the grammatical category that is in an exercise that they already use when they are reading. About morphology the teacher has to give the students exercises with compound words to get the meaning without a dictionary, using their knowledge about it.

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Other word attack skill is inference from context, in which students have to learn words by the context without the dictionary, for that, the teacher can provide the students with sentences that have the same word in common but in different context, which are comprehensible for them, after that he provides them with exercises using other words in different contexts, and in that way they have the chance to understand words in English that have different meanings according to the context.Learning to use inference is another word attack skill , for this the teacher can provide the students with scrambled sentences in which they have the chance to practice using words, they are familiar with, because the book used in classes does not contain this kind of exercises that help to improve this skill.

Now, concerning with text attack skills, researches consider that the students and the teacher in section 2-A at the Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazรกn have to work very hard in this area, because, though they master them than extend, they have to work harder to develop them as expected. About the understanding syntax that is the first text attack skill, it is very important that students underline new words, identify the message, and summarize the reading; activities that are necessary for understanding syntax. At this step the teacher can fuse the reading and the speaking skills practice, asking students to verify what they understand about the text, and the students can use the words that they underline before, avoiding the use of the dictionary, now that they are accustomed to use it for everything that they need to know.

Recognizing and interpreting cohesive devices is the other text attack skill which include pro- forms, and ellipsis. It is important that students know about the proforms, which let them understand those words that sometimes do not make sense in the sentence for them, but those words are very important because they avoid needless repetition in the sentences. The teacher can explain how to use these kinds of words and provide reading with this kind of exercises; he can ask the students what word refers to the pro form that is in the text and through the practice they can improve this skill.

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Researches recommend to

the English teacher at section 2-A at the Instituto

Nacional General Francisco Morazรกn practice intensive and extensive reading with students, in which they can develop most of the skills mentioned before, the practice of this kind of reading let students understand the text clearly, because through this they can look for specific information without the necessity of looking up every word that they do not understand in the dictionary and also they can learn how to identify

the topic, the main idea and supporting details in the reading

selection, which are reached through the practice and with the help of the teacher.

Researches recommend avoiding the use of bilingual dictionary in order to translate into Spanish during the readings, because this do not let to students understand in English the message of the reading.

Concerning with the speaking skill, researchers recommend to the teacher look for chances where students can practice the language because most of them have good pronunciation, the problem here is that they do not practice with communicative goals; they only repeat what the teacher asks them to. In order to solve this situation, researchers consider that teacher can apply some language features like: expressive devices in which students can get rid of shyness in order to express the emotions or ideas that the dialogues need and also to give the intensity of it. Another language feature that is important to apply is negotiation of language where they can use whatever word or sentences they need in order to say something, but students have to be sure about the words that they use in the conversation, it means that they have to present the conversation written by them to the teacher for checking out the new words.

There are some activities that help the students to improve the speaking skill with communicative goals which researchers considered necessary to put in practice inside the classroom, even though the acting from a script is putting in practice most of the time in the classroom, researchers recommend that the students memorize the dialogues and do not use notes for performing them very well, in this way they can apply words that they memorize in other conversations.

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Throughout the memorization of some dialogues, they can extract some words that they can use for some games; like twenty questions and just a minute, that help to student to get fluency. Teacher can organize a game once in a while in order to change the dynamic of classes, these kinds of activities encourage the student to participate more in classes, the teacher can ask for the questions to the students and they can practice before developing the game. About the game named just a minute, students can prepare a very short talk that takes a minute, that concerns with personal information or experiences that are related with the lesson that they have practiced, but it is important that students practice many times the exercises in order to have successful results.

From the two games developed before, teacher can have advantages, because they are based on the other activities that help to develop the skill like questionnaires, prepared talks, and discussions, which can be developed by students at least once a month, grouping two or three lessons in order to make a good discussion among groups of students, using the information that they already have about the topic. The teacher can help to the students to design questionnaires, talks and discussion using the grammar and vocabulary that they already master, and also to look for other words that they think are necessary for some of the activities. The most important is to encourage students to participate and memorize conversations, because it helps them to improve the speaking skill, and also that the students as well as the teacher avoid using Spanish during classes. The teacher needs to help the students develop the required selfconfidence at speaking since self-confidence is a very important factor to develop the speaking skill.

The last skill that researches consider that is so necessary to develop is writing, due to the lack of practice in this skill, students are not able to write a paragraph where they can express something about an specific topic. Consequently researches think that it is better that the teacher implement some activities in order to develop this skill. One way is through the reading, it means that some of the activities that they develop in reading can be completed with writing, for this skill it 130

is necessary that students have a lot of vocabulary that is why students need to know by heart the words that they have studied. Researchers think that the course book that they use have enough exercises for writing in order to be practiced by students , therefore, researches consider that this is another instrument in order to develop this skill. Even though this skill is difficult to develop if teacher monitors very well their performance they can get successful result.

Most of the exercises presented in the book are related with the vocabulary and the grammatical rules that they have studied during the lessons, so writing can be less difficult if the teacher presents three stages in order to do it. The three stages presented here are: pre- writing, drafting and revising. mention that during this process it is recommended

Now it is important to

that the teacher accompany

students and try do not leave them alone in order to reach good results.

Beginning with pre- writing it is necessary that students have information about what they are going to write and with this information they can do a brainstorming in which students can write whatever thing related with the topic that comes to their mind, making a list of these ideas, after that students go over the list to evaluate what they have written and cross the ideas that do not fit for them. Also the teacher can teach the students to write whatever thing that comes to their minds related with the topic without worrying about grammar, spelling and punctuation, which is called free writing.

The last stage is drafting in which students start to write with the ideas that they wrote in the brainstorming or in the free writing, take into account in the stage the spelling, punctuation and grammar, and this can be done as many as the students or the teacher consider necessary and the teacher has to check the students`drafts as many times as needed in order to have a good final work. Even this activity is so hard for the teacher; the results can be successful at the end of it that is why researchers recommend starting with a short paragraph of about ten lines.

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CHAPTER III OPERATIVE FRAMEWORK. 3.1 DESCRIPTION OF THE SUBJECT FOR THE RESEARCH

This research intended to study the development of the communicative skills in eleventh grade students of section “A” of the Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán, during the year 2010, In this section there were 40 students between fifteen and eighteen years old. Most of the students come from low class families and studied in public schools where, for some of them, the English teaching classes were not significative. At the Institute they received E nglish classes two days per week; on Wednesdays from 2:45 to 3:30 p.m. and on Fridays from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. In order to have an idea about how much students manage the English language, researchers applied a diagnostic test in which the four skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing) were evaluated. According with the results of this instrument, students showed a better management of the listening skill than the others, during the observation of the classes it was realized that they devoted more time to practicing the speaking and listening skills. On the contrary, reading and writing practices were not well oriented in order to improve them.

During the process of the observation, students practiced different activities that helped them to improve speaking and listening skills. Even though reading and writing were not well oriented for communicative goals, they practiced them in order to develop some grammatical skills that help students for the speaking and listening skills.

Through class observation it was realized that there were students that showed interest to learn and others that did not show any interest in the activities being developed by the teacher that is why in some cases the objectives of the class were not achieved.

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Also during the observation of the development of the skills, there were some micro skills that there were developed like: Recognize reduced forms of words and recognize that particular meaning maybe expressed in different grammatical forms, those were for listening skill. About the reading skill, the micro skills developed were: Understanding syntax, recognizing and interpreting, interpreting discourse markers and recognizing text organization. For speaking skills, some micro skills that researchers observed during the classes were: Produce reduced forms of words phrases, produce chunk of language on different lengths, and monitor their oral production. And for writing skills were: Use an acceptable grammatical system and produce graphemes and orthographic patters of English

3.2 PROCEDURES FOR GATHERING DATA In order to collect the most objective information, researchers considered to apply two diferent kinds of procedures for gathering data: observation and application of a final achivement test, for those procedures the three instruments made were used.

The first thing that was done at the beginning of the research was to ask permission to the principal at the School to do the investigation there. Secondly we asked the teacher in charge of the English classes for second year, section A, in order to observe the development of the classes. Having his permission the class observation was done from june to october 2010, Wednesdays and Fridays afternoons.

After that researchers started observing classes since june three times per week until october, this observation allows researchers to write a journal in which a description of the English class observed is registered.

Besides the journal, during the observation of classes two check lists of proficiency levels taken from www.actfl.org, were filled. Those check lists were checked

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according to the activities developed by students. These procedured was applied from august to october in each class observed during those months.

On october the second procedure was done, the application of the final achivement test, it was applied in two days. In the first day students answered two parts of the exam: grammar and reading part, for this activity the time used was two hours in the afternoon.

The second day the other two parts of the exam were done, listening and speaking, this part last the whole schedule of the afternoon, because of the personal interviews made to 40 studednts .

For the application of the instruments and the observation of classes the difficulty found by researchers was the suspension of classes sometimes because of celebrations of the school or extracurricular activities and sometimes because situations that can not be cotrolled as weather and transportation strike.

Even the observed classes gave to researchers the necessary information to reach the objectives of this research, it is considered as a limitant the suspension of classes.

3.3. SPECIFICATION ANALYSIS

OF THE

TECHNIQUE TO THE

DATA

Due to the kind of information presented in this reearch , there were used two techniques; descriptive and analytic, because the first and the second instruments were designed with the purpose to describe how students manage the language and also describe the level of students according to the characteristics observed in students. And the last instrument was analized in order to know the most communicative skill developed in students.

The first instrument was implemented during the whole observation, and that was a journal, in the journal there is a description of the classes observed. Here it is 134

mentioned how the teacher developed the communicative skills in each class and how students behaved or responded. Through this instrument researchers had a detailed view of activities developed in classes and made a better comparison with the theory to have a objective analysis.

The second instruments applied in observation of classes were the observation check lists, in these instruments, researchers place students in the level that they are at the end of the schoolar year, but taking in account the characeristics for every skill.With these instruments researches reach the objective proposed that is to identify the outcome level of the macro and micro skills or communicating in English among students. This observation were analized one by one, taking into account

which of the characteristics mentioned in them were achieved by

students, and in that way were presented the analisys of the results.

The third instrument is the final achievement test, through this instrument researchers intended to get an answer to the question about which is the macro and the micro skill most developed by students at the end of the scholar year, 2010. It is important to mention that the level of difficulty of this test is according with the level suggested by the MINED, which means that is harder than the diagnostic test applied at the beginning of this research. This test was divided according with the four communicative skills, the first part was for listening which had three parts, the first part had six items, the second part had ten items and the third one had five items, after listening part there was a part for grammar and vocabulary considered as an important part of writing skill, this part of grammar contained fifty items about different vocabulary and grammar according with the level that students at this grade were supposed to achieve, then the reading part came, for this part there was a reading of three paragraphs, followed by a part of true or false with five items, and a part of choosing the best answer, both parts were based on the previous reading presented; finally there was a writing part, here students had to imagine that they have returned from a two week holiday and they were going to write an email to a friend telling her/him about the holiday, including information about the journey, where they stayed, what they did and 135

people they met, this paragraph had to contain at least ten lines and it had to mention all the information requested in the instructions. For speaking, students had an interview with the researchers; the interview had ten questions about personal information, likes and dislikes and future plans they have, this interview took about 10 to 15 minutes for students.

The final achivement test was checked by researchers folloing a rubric presented in the test. And it was analized skill by skill. Taking into account all the items of every skill as a 100% in order to analized how much students manage the skill.

3.3.1 DATA ANALYSIS JOURNAL MONTH JULY

DATE AND TOPICS

DESCRIPTION OF THE OBSERVATION OF THE CLASS

Present Perfect Continuos Tense(21st)

Teacher encourages students to pronounce the vocabulary.

Teacher plays the cd, then students repeat; they do this for about five minutes.

Teacher explains the use of preposition “ for and since”

Present Perfect Continuous Tense (11th)

Students work in pairs completing the dialogue with their own information and perform the dialogue in front of the class.

AUGUST

AUGUST

Teacher starts the review with the role play technique, using the vocabulary that they have already studied.

How did you learn to swim so well(27th)

Teacher encourage to students to practice the dialogue.

Teacher explains the grammar with some examples.

Students perform the dialogues using the vocabulary that they have learned.

AUGUST

There´s nothing to be nervous about! (31ST)

Teacher practices the dialogue with students.

Teacher asks to students to write the dialogues, changing the vocabulary of the lesson.Teacher write question on the board in order to do an interview among them.

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ANALYSIS Through the information gotten in the journal it can be realized that not all the communicative skills are developed in a good way. Most of the classes are emphazise in speaking and listening and students show more confidence in those skills. Now that students are always encouraged to pass in front of the class in order to role play dialogues that are in the book. On the other hand , writing and reading skills are practiced just sometimes and those are not deal for communicative purposes, because students only look for answers in reading part, and they write in order to change the vocabulary, and it helps them to increase lexis and develop the spelling sub-skill.

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OBSERVATION CHECK LISTS UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE EL SALVADOR EDUCATION FACULTY THE COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS DEVELOPED BY ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS, SECTION “A”, FROM INSTITUTO NACIONAL GENERAL FRANCISCO MORAZAN, SAN SALVADOR 20102011.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the outcome level of the macro and micro skills for communicating in English among eleventh grade students, at Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán, at the end of the school year, 2010.

PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES OF LANGUAGE SKILLS NOVICE LEVEL

LEVEL

LISTENING

Novice Low

Limited understanding of isolated words

Able to identify isolated words and major phrases

Able to produce isolated words.

Able to copy and produce the basic strokes.

5

Able to understand some short utterances.

Can identify and incresing number of highly contextualized words and phrases.

vocabulary sufficiente to handing simple elementary needs and expresing basic courtesies.

Able to copy and transcribe familiar words or phrases and reproduce some from memory.

27

Comprehend words and phrases from simple question statement high frequency commands and courtesy.

Able to recognize the symbols of and alphabetic and syllabic writing system

Speaker is understood with great difficulty.

Able to understand short learned utterances and some sentences lenght utterances.

Can read for instructional and directional purposes standarize messages phrases or expressions.

Able to partially exchange by relying heavily on learned utterances.

2

Able to write simple fixed expressions and limited memorized material

6

2

Can write names, numers, own nationality, and other simple autobiographical information.

6

Novice Mid

CHECK READING

7

CHECK SPEAKING

22

CHECK WRITING

CHECK

Novice High

Able to derive meaning from material

22

Can ask questions or make statements involving learned material.

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UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE EL SALVADOR EDUCATION FACULTY THE COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS DEVELOPED BY ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS, SECTION “A”, FROM INSTITUTO NACIONAL GENERAL FRANCISCO MORAZAN, SAN SALVADOR 2010-2011.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the outcome level of the macro and micro skills for communicating in English among eleventh grade students, at Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán, at the end of the school year, 2010.

PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES OF LANGUAGE SKILLS. INTERMEDIATE LEVEL LEVEL

LISTENIG

INTERMEDIATE LOW

ABLE TO UNDERSTAND SENTENCES IN A LIMITED NUMBER OF CONTENT AREAS

INTERMEDIATE MID

ABLE TO UNDERSTAND SENTENCES ON A VARIETY OF TOPICS RELATED TO PERSONAL BACKROUND INTERESTS AND ACTIVITIES, SOCIAL CONVENTIONS AND TASKS

CHECK

READING

CAN ASK AND ANSWER QUESTIONS INITIATE AND RESPOND TO SIMPLE STATEMENTS AND MAINTING FACE TO FACE CONVERSATION

ABLE TO TALK SIMPLY ABOUT SELF AND FAMILY MEMBERS

CAN PARTICIPATE IN SIMPLE CONVERSATIONS ON TOPICS SUCH AS PERSONAL HISTORY AND LEISURE TIME ACTIVITIES.

CHECK

SPEAKING

ABLE TO UNDERSTAND MAIN IDEAS AND SOME FACTS FROM SIMPLE TEXTS DEALING WITH BASIC PERSONAL AND SOCIAL NEEDS

ABLE TO READ SIMPLE TEXTS ABOUT WHICH THE READER HAS TO MAKE MINIMAL SUPPOSITIONS

CHECK

WRITING

CHECK

CAN WRITE SHORT MESSAGES, POSTCARDS AND TAKE DOWN SIMPLE NOTES

ABLE TO WRITE SHORT, SIMPLE TEXTS ABOUT PERSONAL PREFERENCES, DAILY ROUTINES, EVERYDAY EVENTS AND OTHER TOPICS OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

CAN EXPRESS PRESENT TIME OR AT LEAST ONE OTHER TIME FRAME OR ASPECT CONSISTENTLY

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PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES OF LANGUAGE SKILLS. INTERMEDIATE LEVEL LEVEL

LISTENIG

INTERMEDIATE HIGH

ABLE TO UNDERSTAND SIMPLE LENGHT SPEECH IN BASIC PERSONAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT WITH EASE AND CONFIDENCE

CHECK

READING

CHECK

SPEAKING

CHECK

WRITING

CHECK

ABLE TO CONVERSE EASE AND CONFIDENCE

ABLE TO UNDERSTAND FULLY AND EASE SHORT, NON COMPLEX TEXTS THAT CONVEY BASIC INFORMATION

ABLE TO WRITE COMPOSITIONS AND SIMPLE SUMMARIES RELATED TO WORK AND SCHOOL EXPERIENCES

ABLE TO HANDLE SUCCESFULLY UNCOMPLICATED TASKS ANS SOCIAL SITUATIONS REQUIRING AN EXCHANGE OF BASIC INFORMATION

ABLE TO UNDERSTAND SOME CONNECTED TEXTS FEATURING DESCRIPTION AND NARRATION

WRITERS CAN NARRATE AND DESCRIBE IN DIFFERENT TIME FRAMES

ANALISYS According to the information gathered in these instruments researchers can state that in each skill the outcome level is the following: For listening skill: Students can be classified in the Intermediate Low Level, that means that their ability to perform this skill is limited,they are able to understand just the vocabulary that they frequently use in classes based on the book.

For reading: Students can be classified in Novice High Level, this means that when they develop this skill it is possible for them to get the idea that it is wanted to be transmited in the reading but not with an extensive range of analisys, they understand directions and get the commands in a general context.

140

For speaking: Students can be classified in Intermediate Mid Level, with this level of performance students are able to have simply talks about themselves and family issues, to give personal information and give their opinions about likes and dislikes with sense and confidence.

For writing: In this skill students are classified in Novice Mid Level, this is the skill that showed the less managment compared with the other skills, at the moment that they develop this skill in classes students just are able to transcribe and replace words or phrases using the different vocabulary that they have already study or practice with the vocabulary previously learned.

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FINAL ACHIVEMENT TEST PART I Listening skill

Skill managed

Skill do not managed

439

401

LISTENING SKILL

48%

52%

ANALYSIS According to the survey the listening skill is managed in a 52% and the 48%of this skill has not been developed as it is required. That means that listening activities are developed with frequency in classes, having as a result an acceptable level of development on this skill in most of the students. However it is not the same with the 48% of the students. The situation is worrying because these students do not have the level required and some of the reasons are the following:Students do not pay attention when teacher plays the CD. The classrooms are not adecuated for listening activities, and they do not participate in questions about the listening exercises

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Reading skill

Skill managed

Skill do not managed

142

258

READING SKILL

36%

64%

ANALYSIS According to the survey, only a 36% of this skill is managed and the 64% has not been developed as it is required, it means that the activities performed in classes are not enough neither effective in order to reach the necessary level to comprehend the kind of reading presented on the test.

Researchers consider that the 36% of this skill is managed, becuase this is the percentage of students who attend extra English classes and they are a little immerse with the language. The situation is different with the other percentage of students, who even though they have the books, they do not practice the reading part correctly, because they do not try to comprehend the reading. They look for meaning of words and waste time doing the same in exercises related to reading comprehension.

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Speaking skill

Skill managed

Skill do not managed

288

112

SPEAKING SKILL

28%

72%

ANALYSIS According to the survey, a 72% of this skill is managed and the 28% has not been developed as it is required, in this case, it is showed that the speaking activities applied in classes are effective in order to reach the necessary level to have a basic conversation in order to give personal information.

However, researchers consider that studetns are not in the level required by the Mined. This is because they are only able to answer basic questions about their personal information, but can not keep up with a more complex conversation. They do have a good pronunciation of known words, but have problems with the new words. It is important to mention that they are not able to hold a conversation with in high intermediate level students.

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Writing skill

Skill managed

Skill do not managed

634

1726

WRITING SKILL

27%

73%

ANALYSIS According to the results in this survey a 73% of this skill is not developed as it is required in the different parts of the test, even though a 27% of this skill just has been developed in order to manage spelling and grammar, but it is not enough to determine that this skill has been developed integrally for communicative goals.

It means that students are not able to write short paragraphs using the vocabulary known by them. They do not know how to arrange words , because they never develop the writing excercises from the book. They only copy sentences from the book and that is why researchers consider that teacher has to implement a good method that can improve the development of this skill.

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FINAL ACHIVEMENT TEST PART II Skills Total

LISTENING READING SPEAKING WRITING 52.26% 35.50% 72.00% 27.75%

ANALYSIS Through the final achivemente test researchers find out that the communicative skill most developed was speaking with 72% percent. This skill was most developed because students practice vocabulary and dialogues frequently, besides students have to perform them in front of the class. The second skill that students manage is listening with 52.26% percent. This skill was practiced in an integrated way with the speaking skill, this showed that students managed only the vocabulary that they practiced in classes. In the third place it is reading with 35.50% percent. The low percentage of managing of this skill is due to they do not practice this skill as it is demanded in the book and in the program. The writing skill is the last one with 27.75% percent because those two skills, reading and writing, are closed related and the lack of practice of reading skill affects the development of writing skill, that is why they only manage basic vocabulary as they were in novice high level.Researchers consider that all the skills have to be practiced, because even students are good in one of them, they are not in the level demanded by the Mined. Therefore; both students and teacher have to work in order to improve the others skills which are netiher in the level demanded.

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3.4.CHRONOGRAM Aug /10

Activitites: Documental Research/Field Research 1

2

3

Sep-10 4

1

2

3

Oct-10 4

1

2

3

Nov-10 4

1

2

3

Dic-10 4

1

2

3

June/11 4

1

2

3

Feb-11 4

1

2

3

Mar/11 4

1

2

3

April/11 4

1

2

3

May-11 4

1

2

3

June/11 4

1

2

3

Documental Research Selection of bibliography Reading bibliographic citations Development and reading of bibliographic and summary index cards Index cards of concept and cathegories 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13

Conceptual Framework Introduction Background Justification Meeting with the advisor Statement of the problema Meeting with the advisor Findings and Limitations Concepts and Categories Meeting with the advisor First advance edition First advance presentation Meeting with the advisor First advance correction

147

4

Activitites: Documental Research/Field Research

Aug/10 1

2

2

3

Sep-10 4

1

2

3

Oct-10 4

1

2

3

Nov-10 4

1

2

3

Dic-10 4

1

2

June/11 3

4

1

2

3

Feb-11 4

1

2

March/11 3

4

1

2

3

April/11 4

1

2

May-11 3

4

1

2

June/11 3

4

1

2

July/11 3

4

1

2

Aug/11 3

Theoretical Framework

Theoretical and 2.1 methodological basis 2.2

Empirical framework

2.3

Meeting with the advisor

2.4

Design of instruments

2.5

Meeting with the advisor

Field attendance: 2.6 Observation Field attendance: 2.7 Application of instruments Organization of the 2.8 information 2.9

Meeting with the advisor

Theoretical and 2.10 methodological formulation of the research

148

4

1

2

3

June/11

Activitites: Documental Research/Field Research 1 2.11

Development and theoretical definition

2.12

Meeting with the advisor

2.13

Second advance edition

2.14

Second advance presentation

2.15

Meeting with the advisor

2.16

Second advance correction

3

2

3

July/11 4

1

2

3

August/11 4

1

2

3

Sep-11 4

1

2

3

Oct-11 4

1

2

3

Nov-11 4

1

2

3

4

Operative Framework

3.1

Describing the subjects of the research

3.2

Data gathering procedure

3.3

Meeting with the advisor

3.4

Specification of the technique to the data analysis

3.5

Chronogram

3.6

Resources

3.7

Meeting with the advisor

3.8

Preliminary table of contents of the final report

3.9

Meeting with the advisor

3.1

Third advance edition

3.11

Third advance presentation

3.12

Meeting with the advisor

3.13

Third advance correction

3.14

Delivery of the work to DICTT

149

3.5 RESOURCES 3.5.1 HUMAN RESOURCES To carry out this research it was necessary the cooperation of the 40 students in Instituto Nacional General Francisco Moraz谩n and their English teacher as well as the principal of this school. The English Teacher: He was the advisor of the students during the year and he helped to the researchers to perform this project.

The researchers were working in this research observing, and evaluating to students and editing the information for several months. The advisor; who lead to the researchers with grammar structure, coherence of ideas during the edition of this research and finally the members of the jury who contributed with their comments and advice to the development of the project.

3.5.2 LOGISTICAL RESOURCES In order to achieve this research it was necessary to contact the Principal of the school to ask permission to do the study in that school. Visiting to the English Teacher to ask permission to attend and observe his English classes .Attending to the Library allowed researchers to get information about the topic. Visiting Universidad Pedag贸gica periodically to meet our advisor and the presentation of every chapter to make sure the researchers were following the guidelines established by the university. All the resources described above have allowed as carrying out our research.

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3.6 PRELIMINARY TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE FINAL REPORT

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK In this part the general and specific objectives that the researches want to achieve during the research are presented. It also contains a backgrounds about the development of communicative skills and the school; the place where the information has been gathered. A justification, which states different reasons why this research was important to carry out. Also , a statement of the problem which details the object of the study and some causes about the situation of development of the communicative skills, it can also be found the goal and limitation concerning the communicative skills, the communicative approach and the way how it can be evaluated, all of them based on different theories. At the end this chapter

presents some concepts and categories that are used along the

document, which describe the essential components to study the communicative skills in the high school.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK It is the second part of the research. In this part there is a methodological and theoretical fundamentation. It consists of a description about the communicative skills; how they can be developed; it presents skill by skill; which are divided and explained in two groups. Also there is a relation between the four skills and how these can be taught through the communicative approach in order to reach the communicative competences. Besides, this part contains an empirical framework.

It refers to the monograph of the place where the school is located, besides a description of the school where it has been developed the research. So there is a description about how the English classes are developed. Here the different kind of instruments that were administrated to students at the beginning, during and at the end of the research are presented, these instruments were applied during the 151

classes observed. After that, it can be found a methodological and theoretical research formulation, It means the data gathering. Researchers used different instruments like: observation check lists to evaluate the skills that have been developed in class. Here researchers explain how the teacher and students develop the communicative skills, comparing with the theory presented before and also which principles of the communicative approach are applied in classes as well as which communicative competence they develop. At the end of this part there is a theoretical definition and development in which researchers had stated they own theory basing on facts and theory about the way to develop the communicative skills.

OPERATIVE FRAMEWORK This is the last part of the research. It contains a description of the investigation subject: first of all, a description of the group of investigation, the schedule for their English classes and then the way in which researchers collect the information needed for this investigation. Based on the observation made in classes researchers are able to make an analysis about the way the teacher develop the communicative competences and describe how students react to the class. The second part of this chapter is the procedure for gathering data, in this part researchers describe all the instruments used in this research, the following part is specification of the technique to the data analysis, in this part researchers make a specific description of the items of the each instrument used for this research, this means that researchers give the specific objectives for each item of the fifth instruments, finally the data analysis is presented, in this part the analysis of the instruments used is described, through this part researchers are able to show which is the communicative skill most developed by eleventh grade students of Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazรกn, 2010.

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BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

1. BROWN, H. Douglas. “Teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy”. Second Edition, Longman, Inc. New York, 2001.

2. HARMER, Jeremy. “The Practice of English Language Teaching”. Third Edition, Longman, England, 2001.

3. ICFES, Magisterio. “Evaluación por Competencias: lenguaje, idioma extranjero Inglés”. First Edition, Cooperativa Editorial Magisterio, Bogotà, 2004.

4. MADSEN, Harold S. “Techniques in Testing”. First Edition, Oxford University Press, Inc. New York, 1983.

5. MCLAREN, Neil, Madrid, Daniel, Bueno, Antonio. “TEFL in secondary Education. First Edition. Universidad de Granada.2005 6. MINED, “Programas de Estudio de Inglés. Primero y Segundo año de bachillerato de educación media”, Centroamérica, El Salvador,1998.

7. MINED, “English Syllabus, Tenth and eleventh grades, High School”, El Salvador, 2008.

8. Microsoft Encarta, Premium Dictionary, 2007.

9. Nuttall, Christine. “Teaching reading skills in a foreign language”. New Edition, Macmillan Publishers Limited, Thailand, 2000.

10. http://www.mined.gob.sv 11. http//www.auprides.org.sv 12. http//www.wikipedia.com 13. www.actflproficiencyguidelines.org

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