Competence evaluation on the listening and speaking skills of the english language fron nineteen gra

UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGÓGICA DE EL SALVADOR SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

COMPETENCE EVALUATION ON THE LISTENING AND SPEAKING SP SKILLS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FROM 9TH GRADE “B”, CENTRO ESCOLAR JUANA LÓPEZ, SAN SALVADOR, 2009 - 2010.

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

SUMMITED BY: MARÍA ELENA MUÑOZ MUÑ DE HERNÁNDEZ MARÍA HERNES ANGEL MÉNDEZ ZOILA ISABEL VIGIL VIGIL

ADVISOR B.A CLAUDIA YESENIA SOSA MESTIZO

SAN SALVADOR, A AUGUST, 2010

INDEX CHAPTER I CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Introduction………………………………………………………………….i

1. Objectives 1.1 General Objective………………………………………………1 1.2 Specific objectives……………………………………………..1 2. Background………………………………………………………….2-5 3. Justification………………………………………………………….6 4. Statement of the Problem………………………………………….7 5. Findings and Limitations………………………………………….8-10 6. Definitions of the Concepts and Categories…………….........11-12

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 7. Theoretical Methodological Base……………………………….13-26 8. Empirical Framework……………………………………………….26-39 9. Theoretical Methodological Formulation………………………40-43 10. Development and Theoretical Definition……………………….44

CHAPTER III

OPERATIVE FRAMEWORK

11. Description of the subject of the investigation…………….…...…45-46 12. Procedures for gathering data ……………………………………….47-48 13. Specification of the techniques of the data analysis…………….49-61 14. Chronogram…………………………………………………………….62-64 15. Description of the resources……………………………………….…65-66 16. Preliminary index about finally report……………………………….67 16.1 Conceptual framework………………….……………………...67 16.2 Theoretical framework………………………………….………68-69 16.3 Operative framework………………………………….………..69-70

Bibliography…………………………………….………………..71

INTRODUCTION

In El Salvador nowadays, it is common to listen to people saying that among several requisites the labor field is demanding, there is one very important: to know English. It is due to this demand that the government has been doing different changes in the curriculum of public Schools since 1968.These changes have been done to provide students with the appropriate tools while learning English to face the real life when inserting in the labor market. That is why this research aims to focus its attention in TEFL (Teaching English as a foreign language), basically on listening as well as on speaking skills.

In addition, this paper seeks to provide relevant information about listening and speaking outcome competences in English of ninth graders, at Juana López School. This way, this study will help to identify some of the factors that influence in pupil’s learning process.

The research is organized in three sections: The Conceptual, Theoretical, and Operative Frameworks. The first draft presents six segments: 1) The General and Specific Objectives; 2) The Background 3) The Justification, 4) The Statement of the Problem 5) Findings and Limitations 6) Definitions of the Concepts and Categories. The general and specific objectives give the main guidelines to our research ; the background reports different points of view from some authors that are related with the topic of competences, some authors are

Jack C. Richards

and Willy A. Reynandya, who talk about the development of competences; Jeremy Harmer reveals how to teach listening and speaking skills in the second language. Pauline Rea- Dickens and Kevin Germaine in their book Language Teaching say that when the learners are experienced, there are some numbers of decisions that teachers need to take like, when testing, which type of test

to

administer, and how the tests are going to be marked. as well, Sari Luoma in her book Assessing Speaking explains the distinction and how to classify the levels of speaking, taking account the fluency, affectively and vocabulary.

The justification shows the importance of the paper. The statement of the problem presents the questions that will be answered throughout the research; findings and limitations show the authors points of view; concepts and categories the study will be explain the meaning of them. A brief historical background about some other studies linked to this investigation.

In the second draft is presented The Theoretical Framework, which is organized in the following sections: 1) Theoretical Methodological Base, 2) Empirical Framework, 3) Theoretical Methodological Formulation 4) Development and Theoretical Definition. In the theoretical methodological base, there is information about the authors researchers who give some contributions with the listening and speaking skills in English is expanded. The Empirical Framework includes the history about the place where the research was developed, the Juana López School. Also, the instruments that helped us to gather the essential information for the research are presented. These instruments are: an observation checklist, which revealed just great information about the teacher methodology and strategies used in the school. Besides, an interview to the teacher that was carried out with the objective to know goals that the teacher obtained during her work experience. Besides, a survey that was applied to the students with the idea to realize what factors are interfering in the students’ learning in the second language acquisition. Furthermore, the theoretical methodological formulation of the research describes the data and the characteristics about the population of the phenomenon being studied. Finally, the development and theoretical definitions shows the contraposition of the authors that have contributed to the study with the factors found during the research.

In the third draft it is presented the operative framework which contains the following sections: 1) Description of the Subject of the Research, 2) Procedures for Gathering Data, 3) Specification of the Techniques of the Data Analysis, 4) Descriptions of the Resources, 5) Preliminary Index about Finally Report; 6) Description of the Subject of the Investigation. This part contains the description of where the school is placed; students’ population, student’s environment, and time

observation. The other part is procedures for gathering data which contains the methodology applied by the teacher in her classes, also it is included the student’s behavior; some instruments used in the investigation like checklist, student’s survey, oral interview to the teacher and achievement test applied to the students.

Another part is the specifications of techniques of the data analysis. This part shows the descriptive technique used to give the results for each instrument applied during the research, and also it is presented the chronogram that contains the different activities developed during the research. In addition, it is the description of the resources that contains the human resources which mention the people who contribute with the investigation and the material resources which describe different places to get the right book, all instruments to know the result of the competence listening and speaking skills and at the end it is mention the preliminary index that explain in a brief summary about the conceptual framework, theoretical framework, and operative framework.

1. OBJECTIVES

General Objective •

To analyze the listening and speaking outcome competences of students from 9th grade, section “B” at Juana López School.

Specific Objectives

•

To determine the listening and speaking level of the outcome competences from pupils of 9th grade, section “B” at Juana López School.

•

To identify the factors which interfere with students´ development of listening and speaking competence skills.

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CHAPTER I CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

2.

BACKGROUND

European people, undoubtedly, are making great efforts on the English language, in their educative curriculum with Maastricht Trade, 1992. Every member of the European Community designs and systematizes a flexible, but demanding curriculum, in which it is stated that children are taught with the first foreign language from 6 to 11 years old and the second one from 121.

El Salvador, has also been trying to change the curriculum design; by adding English as a foreign language; with the purpose of helping youth to face globalization. The dictionary defines this concept as the following: “the idea that the world is developing a single economy and culture as a result of improved technology and communications, and the influence of very large multinational corporations”.2 Learning English as a foreign language needs a common effort from different sectors: The government, the Ministry of Education, teachers, parents, students and anyone contributing indirectly to this purpose.

There have been several reforms in the educational environment; for instance, during the 60´s, the Minister of Education implemented important changes, as the creation of T.V. programs for students from Junior High in Public Schools. In the 80´s and during the subsequent decade, the educative evaluation began to take form and to be consolidated like Fundamental National Educative System. After that, the Educational plan 2021 was implemented; where the Minister of Education presents the COMPITE program (National Committee for Productivity and Technological Innovation). It was created at the end of 2004. Its purpose was 1

Izabella Hearn and Antonio Garcés Rodríguez , Didáctica del Inglés para Primaria, Pearson Educación S.A,2003, pp. 33 2 MacMillan Dictionary, Macmillan Publishers Limited 2002.

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to develop the four competences in students from Junior High and High School, listening, speaking, reading and writing. It was done with the idea of increasing the bases in students to become master in the second language.

In addition, COMPITE program created the following basic components, in order to improve the way of teaching and learning English.

Curricular Reform and Assistance to teachers, which consists in a diagnosis to describe the real teaching in English language, in which a balance between goals and deficiencies in the Educative National System, will be made and a system of formation for teachers in order to improve the linguistic competences will be created for English teachers and to fortify the methodologies applied in classroom.

Intensive English for students of Junior High and High school. It is the second competence that consists in providing Intensive English courses in students of Junior High, by applying high motivation and encouraging them to learn the second language in order to generate employment for bilinguals, who will be selected focusing in agreement with high criteria of Academic knowledge.

Certification of competences in master English language. This pretends the creation of certification centers to master the English skill language. The people who want to be credited must approve the evaluation in order to verify what the actual level in the competences of English acquired is. This system also will evaluate and certificate teachers specialized in English language with the purpose of improving the levels of quality in the competences in teachers of Junior High School.

Effective use of Educational Media. It will establish a strategy to support the English teaching with technological media like computer laboratories; that the Educative National Center has, providing suitable programs and a dynamic of work that permits students to put into practice their abilities in the

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use of computers and reinforce the skills acquired in English language.

Besides, another technological media there will be used, to reinforce the learning; such as: TV, radio, movies and Internet. In the year 2005, two pilot programs were opened, one of them was a radio program and the other one is about TV. The last one will be especially designed for primary education, to develop classes on Saturdays; through Intensive English courses.

They are some of the most important reforms, considered with high levels of quality, to improve the Teaching-Learning process in the English Language.

COMPITE became a tool of reasonable social development in El Salvador, which has concrete purposes for the period of 2005 – 2009; in order to improve deficiencies in the teaching System of the English Language, and to know how students have developed the linguistic competences in English.

The updated programs were spread until 2008: They seek to provide students with the tools they need to face reality. The Communicative Approach and the AudioLingual method are mainly considered in this last change. Many points of view of some authors that have relationship with the topic of the competences have been known, such as: Jack Richards and Willy Reynandya, in their book Methodology in Teaching Language state that the listening skill is vital in the language classroom, because it provides input for the learner, without understanding input at the right level, any learning simply cannot beginning.

Jeremy

Harmer, in his book How to teach English3, says that Listening is thus

fundamental to speaking. “Learning to speak a foreign language requires more than knowing its grammatical and semantic rules�4. The functions of spoken language are interactional and transactional5l; that a distinction can be drawing between intensive and extensive listening. Students must practice target language; they can only complete some information of a picture by sharing with her/his

4 5

Richards Jack. and Reynandya Willy Methodogy in language teaching Cambridge University press 2002.

Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach English, Pearson Education Limited 2007.

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partner. The experiences are authentic because the students play with the language in real situation6.

Pauline Rea- Dickens and Kevin Germaine in his book Language Teaching declares that when the learners are tested, there some numbers of decisions that teachers need to take like, when to test, which type if test do you use, and how the tests are going to be marked. Therefore, evaluating at the different stages in the testing process can help to make appropriate decisions about classroom testing7.

Sari Louma in her book Assessing Speaking considers the speaking scale and explains the different levels of speaking, which contains ten levels, that are focus on the beginning and intermediate stage of the language learning to measure the knowledge of the students.

There are four levels in the scale which are: superior, advanced, Intermediate, and novice, each one is subdivided in three levels which help to the teachers to evaluate the levels that students have in the second language in order to know the results in the learning process.8 All the authors mentioned before and their correspondent theories and points of view will contribute to create a solid theoretical base to develop the present research work.

7

Pauline Rea-Dickins and Kevin Germaine. What is evaluation? Editors: CN Candlin and HG

Wilddowson, country, New York , Toronto Madrid .

8

Sari Luoma. Assessing speaking, series editors: J. Charles Alderson & Lyle F. Bachean printed in the United Kingdom at the university press, Cambridge.

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3.

JUSTIFICATION

The Salvadoran Educative Curriculum has had different changes during the last decades: All of them have been addressed to fortify the competences in the four basic skills trying to support better the teaching-learning process. This research is focused mainly in the analysis of the Listening and Speaking skills in a public school in the metropolitan area.

Even though the Minister of education established the first proficiency test called PAES (Prueba de Aprendizaje y Aptitudes para Egresados de Educación end of the year 2005, all ninth graders were evaluated to know the level of students in four basic subjects: Social Science, Languages, Mathematics, and Natural Science.

Nevertheless, for one reason or another one, the English Language has not been included in this test, yet.

According to MINED (Ministry of Education) it is necessary to develop the English language in the students of public schools. As a result, the authorities shaped the plan 2021, to increase the level of proficiency of the students. English teachers have been trained, in different programs, with the purpose of improving the outcome competences of the students.

This study will reveal important information about the outcome competences the students have at the end of Junior High School at Centro Escolar Juana Lòpez, particularly about listening and speaking. Furthermore, it is of great importance to classify the different levels students have achieved with all the efforts that have been addressed to improve their proficiency in the new language. The research also considers that it is important to identify the factors that interfere with students’ learning process. So that, it is necessary to increase the competences of speaking and listening in the students of ninth graders, so that they can communicate themselves in the right way. Besides it is vital for teachers because it can provide wealthy information to use in future teachers’ courses.

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4.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Are the students of ninth grade from Centro Escolar Juana Lopez competent in Listening and Speaking skills?

When learning English as a second language, students face several difficulties to become competent in the four basic skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing; being the most difficult ones the first two.9 Listening and speaking skills are the core of the communicative approach and the Audio-lingual Method. Therefore, the updated programs are mainly focus in the Communicative Approach, which pursues the development of communicative competence. The English Curriculum for High School focuses on the development of language competences, essential for communicating and properly interacting with the environment.10 Even though the Salvadoran Educative authorities have been working hard to improve students’ proficiency in English, there might be some factors that have influenced in students’ production. Apparently students are not motivated in their studies; this motivation implies several aspects, the ones this research is trying to get throughout the study. The latest contribution the Ministry of Education has done is, training the English teachers who were evaluated in 2005. The results from these evaluations emphasized the need English teachers had to be well trained.

This preparation started until 2007 when the teachers were classified from low to intermediate level, and just four teachers were placed in advanced level.11 Consequently, it is necessary to analyze the outcome listening and speaking competences of students from ninth grade, to realize if the trained teachers are getting the expected results, for their students to become competent in the listening and speaking skills.

9

Jack C. Richards, Willy A. Reynandya, Methodology in Language Teaching, first edition, New York Cambridge University, press 2002.

10

Ministry of Education, English Syllabus, Tenth and Eleventh grades High School, 2008

11

www.Mined.gobsv/2021/compite/descarga/compite.pdf.

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5. FINDINGS AND LIMITATIONS During many years several authors have been given different points of view about the language, some of them are Jack Richards and Willy Reynandya, in their book Methodology in Teaching Language, state that the listening skill is vital in the language classroom, because it provides input for the learner. Without understand input at the right level, any learning simply cannot begin.

Listening is thus

fundamental to speaking.12 Learning to speak a foreign language requires more than knowing its grammatical and semantic rules. The functions of the spoken language are interactional and transactional.

In Addition, Jeremy

Harmer, in his book How to Teach English, says that a

distinction can be drawing between intensive and extensive listening. The audio material that students consume should consist of texts that they can enjoy without the intervention of a teacher or course material that can help them. Besides, the speaking skill can be practiced with the real life in the classroom. There are some helpful activities that students can practice, some of them can be: Students must practice target language, they can only complete some information of a picture by sharing with her/his partner. Students have the chance to become a community of learners in which they exchange ideas they really are interested in. Students help each other and become better speakers of the target language. The experiences are authentic because the students play with the language in real situations. The author is named “The Father of Modern Linguistic� who says that all the languages are linked13.

Moreover, Pauline Rea- Dickens and Kevin Germaine in their book Language Teaching say that when the learners are tested, there some numbers of decisions that teachers need to take like, when testing, which type if test to administer, and how the tests are going to be marked. Therefore, evaluating at the different stages

12

Richards Jack. And Reynandya Willy Methodology in language teaching Cambridge University press 2002.

13

Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach English, Pearson Education Limited 2007.

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in the testing process can help to make appropriate decisions about classroom testing14.

Additionally, Sari Luoma in her book Assessing Speaking explains the differences and how to classify the levels of speaking, taking account the fluency, affectively and vocabulary. The levels mentions are: superior, advanced high, advanced mid, advanced low, intermediate high, intermediate mid, intermediate low, novice high, novice mid and novice low15. As follows, it is presented a definition per each level in Speaking skill.

Superior : Students can extend discourse in natural way.

Advanced High: in this level appear advanced level task with the linguistic easy confidence and competence.

Advanced Mid: the speakers with this level are active but show most informality and some formal topics whit personal interest for them.

Advanced Low: In these level speakers demonstrate the skill to narrate and describe topics in informal way and in all major times using past, present and future time in the paragraph, but they can control the discourse.

Intermediate High: The speakers in this levels share basic information related to work, school, recreation and particular interest in some areas of competence.

Intermediate Mid: the speakers in this level can gave conversations in general and limited, because they can not express a lot of vocabulary and use the exact word to survival in the target.

14

Pauline Rea-Dickins and Kevin Germaine. What is evaluation? Editors: CN Candlin and HG Wilddowson, country, New York, Toronto Madrid.

15

Sari Luoma. Assessing speaking, series editors: J. Charles Alderson & Lyle F. Bahean, printed in the United Kingdom at the university press, Cambridge.

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Intermediate Low: The conversation are restricted, learners express only the necessary for survive whit basic personal information: family, some daily activities, and personal preferences.

Novice High: speakers in this level only respond to simple direct questions or request for information they are able to express.

Novice Mid: speakers in this level can memorize phrases and respond to direct questions.

Novice Low: speakers in this level don’t have any fluency and they can’t express their ideas.

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6. CONCEPTS AND CATEGORIES The LISTENING is an interactive English skill considered like an essential ability to identify and understand what other people are saying in the second language, another important skill in English is SPEAKING, which is used to communicate with other people and to be practiced with students, in order to increase fluency. The MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, demands that EDUCATION may consist in obtaining knowledge in basics skills, the quality of teaching to learn the second language in public school must change, in order achieve or get the acquired major talent, but the results can be known through an EVALUATION that is a systematic determination of merit or standard identifying a key of pillar needed for a quality. TEST may refer to an evaluation of people ASSESSMENT intends to measure the students' knowledge Therefore, the METHODOLOGY refers to more than a simple set of methods and the aim of this work is focused on the development of testing and improvement of a methodology to be applied in the classroom with students. TEACHINGLEARNING permits students to become COMPETENT, which is characterized by doing something in a satisfactory or in an effective way. Additionally, DIDACTICS RESOURCES include issues and another kind of materials that teachers use to develop a class, which are essential in the classroom to get good results in students, because it is the way to teach the four skills. On the other hand, GLOBALIZATION that has given a rise not only to new forms of exchange and understanding but also to the emergence of disturbing forms of ignorance, or their re-emergence in a new context that push everybody to be competent in English area through the program called COMPITE (National Committee for Productivity and Innovation Technology) that is elaborated especially to train English teachers in order to support the students in the process of teaching as a second language.

PSYCHOLINGUISTICS is a branch of study which combines the disciplines of psychology and linguistics; it is concerned with the relationship between the human mind and the language as it examines the processes that occur in brain while producing and perceiving both written and spoken discourse. The SOCIOLINGUISTIC, is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms expectations, and context, on the way language is used. STRATEGY is the conduct of drafting, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that will enable an organization. SOCIOCULTURAL, is an umbrella term for theories of CULTURAL EVOLUTION and social evolution describing how cultures have developed over time such theories typically provide models for understanding the relationship between technologies, and social structure. In linguistics,

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ELLIPSIS or ELLIPTICAL construction refers to the omission from a clause of one or more words that would. ACCURACY is the condition or quality of being true, correct, or exact; freedom from error or defect; precision or exactness; value is proportional to the size of the system it describes. Such a property can be expressed as the sum of the quantities for the separate subsystems that compose the entire system. PITCH represents perceived fundamental frequency of a sound

and speech that is a short basic guide to

writing techniques and a skill to speaking. In the INTONATION we can connect phrases in a simple way in order to describe experiences and events and the SPEECH that is the vocalized form of human communication during the INTERACTION, that is a kind of action that occurs as two or more objects have an effect upon one another. The STRESS is a relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or certain words in a phrase or sentence and PROSODY, in linguistics is the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech, the other one is the PROFICIENCY that is the ability of an individual to speak or perform in an acquired language in which is important apply the COHERENCE, that in linguistic is what makes a text semantically meaningful and the COHESION, which have grammatical and lexical relationship within a text or sentence, therefore is necessary apply the MULTI-SKILLS, which give the people a sound grounding in physical literacy, besides is important to use the PARAPHRASING, which is the restatement of a text or passage, using other word, and others such as the LINGUISTIC, that is the scientific study of natural language , the SEMANTIC, which consist in the study of meaning, usually in language, PARALINGUISTIC, is the study of voice and how words are said, besides refers to non verbal elements that is observed in speech. By the other hand there are certain FACTORS which consist in a number that can evenly be divided into another number

like

the

CONSTRAINTS,

that

refers

to

restriction

and

limitations,

MATURATIONAL, that is the process of becoming mature or the emergence of personal and behavioral characteristics through growth processes, the FOSSILIZATION, that is a stage during second language acquisition, AGING, that consist in losing the ability to remember, and the AFFECTIVE, that represent one of the three divisions described in modern psychology, COGNITIVE,

refers to the branch of linguistics that interprets

language in terms of the concepts, sometimes universal, sometimes specific to a particular tongue, speaker AFFECT is attitude or emotion that a speaker brings to an utterance.

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CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

1. THEORETICAL METHODOLOGICAL BASE This research is been focused on two skills that are considered the most important to learn the second language.

Jeremy Harmer mentions, in his book “How to Teach English “, that pupils are interested in learning how to comprehend what people say in English; it does not matter if it is face-to-face, on television, on the radio, theaters, movies, etc.

Moreover, Harmer assures that the more the students hear and understand English being spoken, the more they absorb appropriate pitch and intonation, stress and the sounds of both individuals words and those which blend together in connected speech1.

7.1

ASPECTS CONSIDERED WHEN LEARNING THE SECOND LANGUAGE, EMPHASIZING IN LISTENING SKILL. THE INTENSIVE AND EXTENSIVE LISTENING. The first one refers to all those activities students develop because they really want to work on listening skill; they want to improve their level of proficiency; so that they study to get the goal. It is usually practiced in classroom or language laboratories, it only occurs when teachers are there to guide students through any listening difficulties. On the other hand, Extensive listening is the one pupil do outside from the classroom.

When they are driving they are listening to their favorite singer, even though the lyrics are not completely understood, they enjoy the music and singing the song is just for fun; although, the listening skill is internalizing in their minds. Another clear example is when pupils go to

1

Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach English, Pearson Education Limited 2007

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the movies, they can be watching an interesting movie and understand the context without getting every single word that is said throughout the film.

LISTENING SOURCES

They represent another issue that is of great importance. A course book or supplementary material is always produced and accompanied with CDs, tapes or MP3 players. Nevertheless, teachers can record their own listening material, using themselves or their friends with modern recording technology available, they can download a huge amount of useful material from internet, with real- life face to face in the classroom.

Teachers can have visitors into the class or, if this is not possible, role play different characters for students to talk and listen to each other. The main advantage of real life listening is that students can extract and interact with the speaker on the basis of what they are saying, making the entire listening experience dynamic and stimulating.

LISTENING LEVELS Teachers want the students to listen to materials in a number of different genres of styles or types of texts such as: analysis of little poems, lectures, phone conversations, dramatic dialogues, etc. However, the teacher will also have to decide whether what they listen to must be authentic speeches or not. It is too difficult for lower level students, to hear and understand radio or news through internet. Students read things to hear that aim them to listen to real language to understand better English as soon as they can.

LISTENING SKILLS In these components students need to be able to recognize paralinguistic clues such as information in order to understand atmosphere and meaning. They need to listen for specific information, the understanding depends on the particular genre they are working with. It is necessary to

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help students to become full of meaning to listen to several kinds of multi-skills when listening to English.

LISTENING PRINCIPLES: Persuade students to listen real speeches as often and as much as possible; the more they listen, the better they get at listening, then they understand pronunciation and use the language appropriately.

Help students prepare to listen. Ready to listen they need to look

pictures to discuss the topic, or read the questions. For instance: to be in a position to predict what is coming.

They have to be thinking about to the topic they are engaged and

the task they really want to listen.

Once may not be enough. Some teachers play an audio track just once and students want to listen to it again, to pick up the information they missed. The first time teachers may give students chance to study some of the language features on the tape. The first listening is an example to give student an idea of what sound like and know what the general topic is. Then, the next listening is going to be easier for them, and work with different audio topics. Encourage students to respond at the content of a listening not just to the listening. Listening sequence is a very important part, for teachers to draw out the meaning of what is being said, make some questions, such as: Do you agree with? What did they say? Did you find the listening interesting? Why?

Good teachers develop listening text to the full. Teachers that spent time choosing and preparing the listening sequence then make sense to use with the audio track or live listening experiences as many as possible. Teacher can play a track again and again, and then the

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listening becomes an important occasion in a teaching sequence rather than just an exercise.

LISTENING SEQUENCES Listening sequences are tending at different levels, based sequence often lead in to work on other skills or present opportunities for language study.

Live interview, the next sequence works when teachers can bring visitors to the classroom, the teacher asks a visitor to attend a class by giving them an idea of the students´ level and what they may or may not understand. The visitor should be conscious that the student may modify the way they normally speak, speaking can be slowly and shouting (as people often confronted with people whose English is not high level).

The student are previous informed that a visitor is coming to the

lesson, they should think of a number of questions to ask at the visitor and the questions are checked by the teacher to make sure that the student are really asked what they want to ask. In the interview students do the questions and take notes of the answers , this means that students pay attention carefully because for live listening interview to work well students must have a list of phrases to help them for example “I’m sorry, I don’t understand”,” what’s the meaning of .. “, “could you repeat”. The question depends on their level; however it is not easy to find visitors but the technology improved and the teacher can find a visitor in the web cam. With the younger students teacher can use a puppet or wear mask to show that they are someone different in the real life.

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1.2

FACTORS THAT ARE CONSIDERED IMPORTANT TO DEVELOP

ADULT

STUDENTS´ SPEAKING ABILITIES

In the last years, some linguistics have given information about how speakers use a second language appropriately in different situations as well as how to speak fluently in the foreign language. According to Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Reynandya, to speak a second language requires a lot of effort, because it is used for many different purposes that involve different skills. The purpose of speaking a foreign language is to establish conversations with other people to discuss topics, express opinions and other kind of conversations which implies to get knowledge of the rules that account the context in which speech occurs. On the other hand, there are several factors that are considered important to develop adult students´ speaking abilities which consist in knowing grammatical and semantic rules.

Therefore learners must also get knowledge in how native speakers use the language, in which many factors interact, which can be factors affecting adult learners´ oral communication, components speaking proficiency, and specific skills or strategies used in communication. For learners that study a second language it is difficult because the oral communication requires the use of language appropriately in social interactions, which include not only verbal communication, but also paralinguistic elements of speech as pitch, stress, intonation and others.

AGE OR MATURATIONAL CONSTRAINTS Krashen, Long, and Scarcella, argue that “learners who begin a second language in early childhood achieve higher competences that those people that begin on adult age”.2 Oyama´s study shows that many adults face a phenomenon which is usually called “fossilization” which shows that aging process may affect or limit adult learners´ ability to pronounce the second language fluently; moreover, other factors that affect the learning can be prosody features like intonation, stress and others.

2

Richards Jack. And Reynandya Willy Methodology in language teaching Cambridge University press 2002.

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AURAL MEDIUM Speaking and listening have a relationship because when a person speaks the other person responds through what he or she listens; therefore, during the interaction every speaker plays a double role, like as listener and as a speaker.

It is important that while someone listens be able to comprehend the text and retain information in the memory, because if the listener do not understand what is said for the other person it is impossible to respond what the other one is saying.

SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS There are several cultural aspects of a language that also interfere the second language or the foreign language learning. Common values and beliefs, traditions and social structures play an important role to learn the second language. To speak a second language it is necessary to know how the language is used in context, because each language has its own rules and usages. If the learners not obtain a good knowledge about it, they are going to commit mistakes very often.

AFFECTIVE FACTORS The affective factors influence in success or failure learning, which are related to emotions, self-esteem, empathy, anxiety, attitude, and motivation. Because to learn a foreign language produce anxiety. This is associated with feeling or nervousness, frustration, self-doubt, and anxiety. The most difficult is when someone speaks in public where there are native speakers; sometimes it causes extreme nervousness because they speak the original language. On the other hand when you are in front of them you think they are going to realize easily your mistakes and it is one of the reasons that do not permit to develop the second language effectively. Sometimes pupils prefer not to speak instead of committing some mistakes.

18

7.3 COMPONENTS FOR SPEAKING EFFICIENTLY Language competence is a complex modality because it has several levels of abilities and domains. Hymens (1971) assumes that “learners need to know not only the linguistic knowledge, but also the cultural acceptable ways of interaction with others in different situations and relationships�.3 His theory of communicative competence

consist

in

the

interaction

of

grammatical,

psycholinguistic,

sociolinguistic, and probalinguistic language components, however, Canale and Swain (1980) propose that the communicative competence includes grammatical competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence, that reflects the use of the linguistic system and functional aspects of communication which are detailed below: GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE It includes ability in grammar, vocabulary and mechanics that consist in basic sounds of letters and syllables, pronunciation of words, intonation and stress.

In order to get the meaning the learners must have the knowledge of words and sentences, because they must understand how words are segmented in various sounds, and stressed in different ways. It is necessary speakers use and understands English-language structures accurately for the reason that it contributes to their fluency.

DISCOURSE COMPETENCE Learners must develop discourse competences; it means to know how to hold a formal or informal conversation, taking into account the rules of cohesion and coherence. In communication the production and comprehension of a language involve the ability to distinguish and process parts of discourse and formulate representations of meanings from referents in both previous sentences and following sentences.

SOCIOLINGUISTIC COMPETENCE 3

Richards Jack. And Reynandya Willy Methodology in language teaching Cambridge University press 2002.

19

Learners must get competence socially and culturally with those who talk a second language, in order to acquire the rules and norms appropriately to develop the speech. The socio linguistic competence helps to know the comments appropriately, how to ask questions in the interaction, and how to respond nonverbally.

STRATEGIC COMPETENCE It is perhaps the most important of all communicative elements because it refers to the ability students get to manipulate the language in order to meet communicative goals. It is how to develop a conversation, how to started and close a conversation and comprehension of the problems.

7.4

INTERACTION AS A KEY OF IMPROVING EFL LEARNERS´

SPEAKING ABILITIES. The functions of spoken language are interactional and transactional. The first one is to keep relationships; meanwhile, the second is to convey information and ideas.

Most of our communication is interactional because it derives from communication in which the teachers must support students and teach them how to listen to others, how to talk with others, and how to negotiate wearing in a shared context.

To take exchanges of messages give them the opportunity to create discourse in real-life communication.

INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES A second language practice is available in the classroom, a way to stimulate the learners to talk can be provided with extensive exposure and language through audiovisual and with activities that apply the language. The strategies in the interactive activities give them information about communicative strategies in order to increase their own learning styles. In designing the 20

activities, teachers must consider all the skills that they use to interact so that students can use the English for a variety of communicative purposes; they should do the following:

To be based on authentic or naturalist source materials.

Enable learners to manipulate and practice specific features of language.

Allow pupils to practice in class, the communicative skills they need in the real world.

Activate psycholinguistic process of learning.

There are some activities that can help students to speak the second language which give them opportunities to learn from auditory and visual experiences, which demonstrate different strategies and different tasks, for example:

AURAL: Oral Activities. The aural materials such as news reports can be used in some productive activities as background or as input of interaction.

On example used is jigsaw listening, which consists in recording several segments on an audiocassette tape. Teachers either have each student listen to a different segment or divide the class into small groups and make each group responsible for one segment. After that each student or group has listened to a segment, students are provided with a worksheet or comprehension questions based on the story. Then, students work together in groups on an information-gap activity. They negotiate the meaning of the story and answer questions, which is a form that motivates them to speak.

VISUAL: Oral Activities. It I s necessary to use audiovisual materials such as appropriate films, videotapes, and soap operas. They can provide: a) motivation with attractive informative content material; b) exposure to a variety authentic speech with different registers, accents, intonation, rhythms, and stresses; and with language used in real situations. Meanwhile watching, students can see if the levels are appropriate or inappropriate on 21

different occasions. Besides, the learners are going to want to know how people initiate and sustain a conversation and how finish an interactive episode.

Visual stimulus can be used in different ways as material for interaction; also nonverbal videos can be used in order that students describe what they have seen..

MATERIAL-AIDED: Oral Activities The appropriate reading materials that teacher provides and it is structured with logical questions can produce creative results in speech which can be helped with cartoon strips and sequence of pictures.

CULTURE AWARENESS: Oral Activities It is essential to recognize different sets of culturally determined rules in communication. According to Brown and Yule (1983,P.40) say that “ a great number of cultural assumptions which would be normally presupposed, and not made explicit by native speakers, may need to be drawn explicitly to the attention of speakers from other cultures” .4 Cultural learning illustrated by activities motivates the students. The speaking is essential to communicate and need special attention and instruction; therefore, it is important that teachers examine the factors, conditions, and components that provide affectivity in the foreign language.

The author Sari Louma, in her book assessing to speaking, talks about the ACTFL speaking scale. “Using the Holistic scale, which contain ten levels, this is focused on the beginning and intermediate stage of the language learning”.5 There are four levels in the scale which are:

4

Richards Jack. And Reynandya Willy Methodology in language teaching Cambridge University press 2002.

5 Sari Luoma. Assessing speaking, series editors: J. Charles Alderson & Lyle F. Bahean, printed in the United Kingdom at the university press, Cambridge.

22

SUPERIOR LEVEL: The speakers with superior level can communicate fluently and effectively in conversations in formal and informal way. Beside they may elaborate to support their opinion. Finally they can extend discourse in natural way.

ADVANCED HIGH LEVEL: in this level appear advanced level task with the linguistic easy confidence and competence. Some tasks pertaining to the superior level because the speakers can communicate fluency but the differences are that the confident use some strategies for example.

Paraphrasing, circumlocution and illustration. They use precise vocabulary and intonation to express meaning, and often show great fluency and ease of speech.

ADVANCED MID: The speakers with those levels are active, but show relaxed attitude and some formal topics with personal interest for them.

Their vocabulary is fair extensive and natural and they can dominant the language in this course and contribute in conversation on a variety of familiar topics, besides they use accuracy clarity and precision.

ADVANCED LOW LEVEL: In this level speaker demonstrate the skill to narrate and describe topics on informal way and in all major times using past, present and future time in the paragraph, but they can control the discourse. The vocabulary of advanced low speakers is primarily generic in nature way and they express with accuracy, clarity and precision in the different topics.

INTERMEDIATE HIGH LEVEL: The speakers in this levels share basic information related to work, school, recreation and particular interest in some areas of competence. Speakers in the intermediate high to achieve the advanced level, because when they express show some errors or some

23

time don’t have the appropriateness of vocabulary. They can dominate the language but lack some link words.

INTERMEDIATE MID LEVEL: the speakers in this level can gave conversations in general and limited, because they can’t express a lot of vocabulary and use the exact word to survive in the target language. These include personal information; family home, school, and daily activities.

Speakers with this level are capable of asking a variety of questions but only using the necessary information because they have difficulty to link ideas and they can’t manipulate the time and other aspects.

INTERMEDIATE LOW LEVEL: The conversation are restricted they express only the necessary for survive whit basic personal information: family, some daily activities, and personal preferences. In this level speakers need ordering the different ideas and after they express, they are characterized by frequent pause maybe they need the new ideas they express.

NOVICE HIGH LEVEL: speakers in this level only respond to simple direct questions or request for information they are able to express personal meaning by relying heavily on learned phrases or recombination that their heard, their pronunciation as well but frequently use the repetition in their conversations.

NOVICE MID LEVEL: Speakers in this level can memorize phrases and respond to direct questions, they pause frequently because they use a simple vocabulary. Novice mid speakers may be understood with difficulty the lack of new words.

NOVICE LOW: speakers in this level don’t have any fluency and they may able to express greetings, names, numbers, family names, only words for

24

their immediate objects environment and don’t have participation in conversations whit other people , because they can’t express their ideas.

7.5 ORAL ENGLISH PROFICIENCY TEST Teachers used to feel very confident when administering written tests; nevertheless it does not happen when they have to assess the listening and speaking skills ; even though these skills are considered the main components of a diagnostic test that measure every linguistic proficiency. The second language English pupils often come from an oral rather than a written culture, and so they are more proficient in communication, at least in their mother tongue; consequently, identifying the correct level of English of the students is a great challenge.

An international expert on testing, Harold Madsen6 says that testing speaking is widely regarded as the most challenging of all language tests to prepare, administer and score. Theorists suggest three reasons why this type of test is so different from more conventional types of tests. First, it is not easy to establish the criteria to evaluate speaking skill. It is difficult to prioritize whether fluency or accuracy. Second, several problems emerge when testing beginning level speakers not only because the tester evaluates a number of things about the production but also because he needs to act as a partner in the production process. Finally, in oral evaluations the tastes become the main character of the movie, instead of the test by itself.

Isabel Hingle, an experienced woman in designing test and other writers, planned the test Open Learning System Education Trust (OLSET); it measures the success of their English in actions program with pupils. OLSET is a program designed to teach English, to pupils in the earliest grades of primary school, 6

Richards Jack. And Reynandya Willy Methodology in language teaching Cambridge University press 2002.

25

using CD player resource and radio. In this test it is decided to use fluency as basic criteria, and then it was decided to record the total numbers of words used by each student.

To address the second and third problem they decided to use elicitation procedures on which children were familiar. It required the teacher to find an image full of usages of students could relate to such as children playing.

Students could participate in the following activities: •

An informal interview to put children to talk about their families and their home or school lives.

•

A set of guided answers to question about a poster to test their knowledge of the real life objects and actions and activities projected in the poster.

•

Narratives, based on card stories to generate full expanded language of English topic provoke fluent speaking.

The testers were asked to treat the situation as a “game” not as a “test”, both partners would be seated informally on the ground to make pupils feel comfortable in a warm and friendly environment. In reaction to this test’s results some institutions have begun to introduce two components in their diagnostic test. The first one is a multiple-choice comprehension test and the second an oral test based on a set of story cards.

26

8. EMPIRICAL FRAMEWORK 8.1 MONOGRAPH 8.1.1 HISTORICAL ASPECTS ABOUT SAN ANTONIO ABAD TOWN San Antonio Abad is located in San Salvador, El Salvador. Its original name comes from a Christian Egypt monk that represented a sacred model. He abandoned his house to live in the mountain; this town was established in 1996.

Some years later, it was called “La Ceiba”, it belonged to Cuscatancingo town; thus now it belongs to San Salvador. Dr. Norman Quijano is the mayor of the municipality, he belongs to ARENA party. The population in San Antonio Abad town is about 316,090 residents, with a metropolitan area of 1,566,629.

There are six neighborhoods around the school, two communities, one residential park and two narrow passes, There is also a Catholic church and seven Christian ones, two main streets, one parochial clinic, three private clinics; and one health center. The houses are traditional; there are also modern buildings, though. There are all basic services including utilities services, drains; paving; phone service; clean garbage. There is a small bank agency and small market and few public phones near the school; there are two private schools named Santa Maria and Maria Pedrosa. The research takes place in Centro Escolar Juana Lopez at 9

the

grade, in San Antonio Abad town,

department of San Salvador. It was funded in 1915 by a lady called Juana Lopez who donated the place where the school is now.

8.1.2 SCHOOL INFORMATION The place where the investigation was developed was in Centro Escolar Juana López. The population of students in the school is about of 100%, the 66.6% are girls, 33.3% are boys, the research takes place in 9th section “B” the quantity of students

are 31; girls are 21 and 10 boys among the age of about

14 and 16 years old. The teacher´s name was Ilsy Maria Quintanilla, she 27

studied as an English teacher in The National University and was graduated in 1999 and she was teaching for 11 years in different Schools, besides she received the last trained that was provided by The Minister of Education.

It is important to mention that almost at the end of the investigation the teacher got an illness that caused her death, it happened in April 20, 2010.

And the observation in this grade was twice a week for three months. When was started this research the students did a diagnostic test and the teacher answers a little interview at the end of the year they did a Placement test. With this parameters was based this research, the first step was observation the outcome competences in the students. In the investigation appear some aspect in positive way and other on negative way and it showed very interesting because the relationship between students and teachers was very friendly.

The teacher tried to gave the class in better way and used different

materials

like (markers, book, posters, chart) The name of the book the teacher works is Megatrends Macmillan however every day she was responsible, even though there were some problems with students because they do not have too much interest to learn English in the class; the reason for them are different, for example some students expressed that they are not going to use the language because they think do not need it. Thus the majority said don’t want to continue studying.

However, the teacher followed to aim students doing real activities, because some students are not motivated and prefer leave the exams in blank. In the survey was observed that students never watched movies in the classroom, besides they rarely practice reading aloud and they practicing few conversations with their classmates. The good thing that the teacher does is to correct student’s pronunciation when they commit mistakes.

The school levels are kindergarten, primary school, basic level and junior high school. Around the school there are three drugstores. In this town they practice

28

informal business and the agriculture exploitation ground is only on the skirt of San Salvador volcano.

In this town the familiar structure is nuclear and extensive, their customs are traditional parties, in January they celebrate Saint Anthony and in August Augu they make honor to The Transits Virgin and did cofradias. A geographical map where the School is located is presented in the picture below.

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8.1.3 INSTRUMENTS APPLIED DURING THE RESEARCH. During the weeks of observation in the school, it was necessary to apply different instruments to gather the most important information about the studied phenomenon. First, it was necessary to keep an observation period of time in which the researchers could gather relevant aspects like behavior of students in the class; for doing this an observation checklist was applied. The second instrument was a survey. It was administered to the students in order to know how much they exercise the language to improve the listening and speaking skills. Another instrument was an interview to the English teacher to identify the different factors that might interfere in the class. Finally, an achievement listening and speaking test was administered to the students with the aim to measure students´ skills. These instruments are presented below.

8.1.3.1

OBSERVATION CHECKLIST

This instrument will help the investigation to know the methodology the teacher applies to develop an English class in which students should feel confident to participate in the exercises. At the same time it will be important to know if the students enjoy the language at the moment to practice it with the support of the teacher. The researchers are interested in gathering the information about how well the teacher manages the didactical resources she uses to develop her classes. Besides, the analysis of the gathered information will help the study to identify the interest that the students have in their learning process, they will show if they practice extensive or intensive English.

30

UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGÓGICA DE EL SALVADOR

OBSERVATION CHECKLIST

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Section: __________________

Teacher’s name: ________________________________

Date:___________________

Objective: To observe the methodology used in the English class. Also to know some factors that might affect the student´s learning process.

Nº

CRITERIA

1

How often is the English class dynamic and interesting?

2

How often does the teacher use different didactics resources?

3

How often does the teacher give opportunity to clarify any doubt?

4 5

N

S

F

A

How often does the teacher permit the participation of the students?

How often does the teacher give a feedback to the students?

Factors that might interfere in the learning listening and speaking English skills.

6

How often do they practice listening and speaking activities?

7

How often do they interact with native speakers?

8

How often are they afraid of speaking in front of the class?

9

How often the students do are motivated to learn English?

10

How often do the students have an adequate environment?

N= Never, S=Sometimes, F=Frequently, A=Always Comments:____________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 31

ANALYSIS OF THE CHECKLIST These are all the aspects observed throughout the three months the researchers were attending the school. The analysis of the data is presented after the table.

Nยบ 1 2 3 4 5

CRITERIA

N

S

How often is the English class dynamic and

F X

interesting?

How often does the teacher use different didactics

X

resources?

How often does the teacher give opportunity to

X

clarify any doubt?

How

often

does

the

teacher

permit

A

the

X

participation of the students?

How often does the teacher give a feedback to

X

the students?

Factors that might interfere in the learning listening and speaking English skills.

6

How often do they practice listening and

How

7

X

speaking activities? often

do

they

interact

with

native

speakers?

X

How often are they afraid of speaking in front of

8

X

the class?

How often the students are motivated to learn

9

10

English?

How often do the students have an adequate environment?

X

X

N= Never, S=Sometimes, F=Frequently, A=Always

32

In order to know the results in the Observation Checklist Instrument, it was necessary to analyze it; it consisted in the study of characteristics and possible solutions of a problem. So that, the purpose to apply this instrument was to observe the methodology used by the teacher in the English class, and the factors that might affect the student’s learning process.

Some of the criteria and factors that were observed in the research were focused on different aspects. The results found in the research where that students enjoy the English class because the teacher makes it dynamic and enjoyable; even though the teacher didn’t use enough resources. According to the teacher, this happens because the school does not provide her with all the materials that the subject demands. In spite of it, she has tried to make a lot of effort to develop her classes in the best way. This means that it does not matter if the resources in the class are limited; to make the class fun and successful depends on the teacher that leads the class.

In addition, the teacher did not always make a deep feedback for every class, but she used to spend some time to clarify the doubts that students had. This aspect makes the students feel like the tutor was interested in their learning, since she was trying to make them understand the topics. Here the researchers were very astonished because despite the students considered methodology the teacher is good, they do not practice the listening and speaking skills interactively either in the classroom or any other place. Furthermore, the students do not have the opportunity to practice the language with native speakers, because the teacher expressed that it is difficult to have a native in the class due to the neighborhood is not considered as a tourist place so that foreigners can not take it into account to spend their leisure time.

Summing up, the students learning process in this school is very ambiguous, due to some factors that interfere in the process, such as a lack of interest of the students in the new language. Apparently the students are motivated in the class, since they participate in the activities, they clarity their doubts, they feel good in the environment the teacher creates in the class; however, it does not matter the 33

methodology the teacher applies in her classes, the students motivation is volatile.

It lasts just in the period of the class, and it is not for learning the language, they enjoy being in the class because they develop different activities in this subject.

Taking into account the other subjects, the students feel bored and when they make a comparison with the English class they feel it is different, and that is the reason they enjoy the class. It would be a mistake if the researchers conclude that the students are eager to know the new language. So the tutor in this institution has done her effort to provide students with a good methodology to learn English but it is a misfortune they do not take advantage of the teacher interest.

34

8.1.3.2

STUDENT’S SURVEY

One of the instruments that is necessary to be applied during the Investigation is a survey. The students will help the research by providing the information required in the survey. This will reflect the reality that students face when they are learning the second language; besides, it will show the factors that students consider interfere in their learning process. In the previous instrument the researchers are the ones in charge of observing the factor from a different perspective.

UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGÓGICA DE EL SALVADOR FACULTY OF EDUCATION STUDENT’S SURVEY

Date: __________

Student’s name: _____________________________

Section: ________

Objective: to get a general perception from students towards English.

CRITERIA 1

How often do you watch programs in English at home?

2

How often do you like to listen English Music at home?

3

How often are your English classes funny for you always?

4

How often do you watch English movies at school?

5

How often do you practice singing English songs at School?

6

How often do you practice English with your classmate?

7

How often does your teacher help you to correct your pronunciation?

Daily

Regularly

Almost never

Never

Comments:

35

ANALYSIS OF THE STUDENTS SURVEY These are all the aspects observed throughout the three months the researchers were attending the school. The analysis of the data is presented after the table and the graphic.

DAILY

REGULAR

1. How often do you watch programs in English at home?

2

6

2. How often do you like to listen to English music at home?

14

3. Are always your English classes funny for you?

ALMOST

NEVER

TOTAL

7

6

21

4

0

2

21

4

9

4

4

21

4. How often do you watch English movies at school?

0

4

8

9

21

5. How often do you practice singing English songs at school?

6

5

2

8

21

6. How often do you practice English with your classmates?

2

5

6

8

21

7. How often does the teacher help you to correct your pronunciation?

8

8

4

1

21

QUESTION

NEVER

36

THE DATA PRESENTED GRAPHICALLY

Another instrument used in the investigation was the student´s survey.

The results are represented in a graphic through numerical data order, which permits to analyze nalyze the process and the inter interpretation pretation of one phenomenon, phenomenon in which was identified the importance or not interest that students have to learn the English subject.

According to the investigation, students took a listening and speaking test to know the general perception of them towards English, there were identified some aspects that interfere in the learning process, that are detailed below: The students neither watch English movies in their Home ome nor in the school, but they prefer to listen to English music at home. On the other hand, the majority of the students think that the class is funny, they enjoy it a lot; however this interest is not reflected in their practice outside the classroom. The problem is that they don’t interact with classmates because they aren’t interested to learn the second language. language

37

Although, the teacher is available to help them in every difficulty they have, when they speak.

These are some factors that were found in the student’s survey, like the fact of students not having enough interaction in the classroom, lack of knowledge in Grammar rules, they feel shy when speaking in front of the class, and they do not practice with native speakers, because it is something that is not available.

Students reflect problems when facing the second language and they don´t practice it in the school because the teacher does not have the necessary resources in every class.

8.1.3.3

ORAL INTERVIEW TO THE TEACHER

This interview will be applied to know general information about teacher’s competence on listening and speaking skills. In order to support the investigation it will be necessary to apply an oral interview to the English teacher, because she has the responsibility of the students’ education. It is a relevant role because the teacher becomes the model for the pupils and what she does or does not will mark the students in a positive or negative way. The teacher knows the achievements and weaknesses that students have when they are learning the second language. All the questions in this oral interview are addressed to know the experience the teacher has with the subject in order to know how well trained the teacher is to make their students acquire the new language. Moreover, the researchers are eager to know not only the methodology that is used but also the available tools or resources to teach in the classroom. Below the questions are detailed.

38

UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE EL SALVADOR FACULTY OF EDUCATION Teacher’s name: _________________________________

Section: _____________ Date:___________________

Objective: This interview was applied in order to know general information about teacher’s competences in listening and speaking skills.

1.

How long have you been teaching English

2.

Have you work just in public institutions?

3.

Did you take the last training from Minister of Education?

4.

Did the training help you to improve your methodology?

5.

Do you think that training helped you to apply new methodology?

6.

Which is the main trouble you have had when teaching English?

7.

Does the school provide you essential tools to develop your classes?

8.

Does the student have a good attitude toward the English class?

9.

Which skills do you consider important when learning a new language speaking listening reading or writing? Why?

10. Which skills do you consider important when learning a new language.

11. Speaking, listening, reading or writing? Why?

39

8.1.3.4 ANALISIS OF THE ORAL INTERVIEW TO THE TEACHER Objective: The purpose in this interview is to know the experience that the teacher has in the subject, the methodology used, and the available tools or resources to teach in the classroom.

QUESTIONS

ANSWERS

1- When did you graduate from English major?

In 1999

2- How long have you been teaching English?

11 years

3- Have you worked just in public institutions?

No

4- Did you take the last training from Minister of Education?

Yes

5- Did the training help you?

6- Do you think that trainings helped you to apply new methodologies?

7- Which is the main trouble you have had when teaching English?

8- Does the school provide you essential tools to develop your classes?

9- Do the students have a good attitude toward the English class?

10- Which skills do you consider important when learning a new language. Speaking, listening, reading or writing? Why?

To practice speaking Not really Students think English is not important for them.

Yes Some of them All of them

The oral interview to the English teacher was another instrument used during the investigation. This helped the researchers to know both, the experience that the English teacher has in the subject and the methodology she uses in her classes. In addition, to know the available tools or resources used to teach in the classroom.

To know the results of the oral interview to the teacher, it was necessary to analyze the information the researchers got. In this instrument, it was known the following: The teacher was graduated from English major in 1999, she expressed to have 11 years of experience in teaching English, the teacher has a lot of experience because she has worked in public and private institutions and she was updated with the recent training that MINED offered to the English teachers. Besides, she 40

mentions that the training helped her to practice speaking, although she thinks the training did not help her completely to apply new methodology, and one of the main troubles that she has had when teaching English is that students do not want to learn English.

On the other hand, she says the school does not provide her with the essential tools to develop the classes, and she says that not all the students have plenty interest in the English class. Also she mentioned that to learn the new language, it is really important to apply techniques addressed to improve the for macro skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. However teachers should emphasize in Listening and Speaking just if they want to spread the communicative approach.

All the questions provided information that was essential for the researchers in order to highlight the experience the teacher has in the English subject. For this reason it was of vital importance to know more about how the second language is taught in the school and some of the factors that interfere when students are learning it.

41

8.1.3.5 LISTENING ACHIEVEMENT TEST Objective: this instrument is going to help to identify the levels that students have in the listening skills.

In section 1, the listening section, you will hear nine conversations and answer one or more questions about each one. Before you listen to a conversation, read the questions after the conversation ends. Choose the correct answer in the conversation only once The first conversation is an example. You have 15 minutes to complete this section.

Mark your answers clearly on your answer sheet. If you want to change an answer completely. and if you want to take notes during the test, write on the paper you were given.

In this section of the test, you will hear conversations and answers some questions about them. For each conversation, first read the situation in the question or questions; then listen the conversation, answer the questions after your hear the conversation.

Respond to the questions by making the correct answers (a, b, c, or d) on your answers sheet. Read the example situations and questions. Example: Situation: Bill Sanchez, calls Dr. Stockton’s office to make an appointment,.

Bill is going to see the doctor on______________, a. Tuesday at 10:00 b. Tuesday at 4:00 c. Wednesday al 10:00 d. Wednesday at 4:00 Now answer the example question.

The answer for the example is d, Wednesday at 4:00. The letter d is filled in on the answer sheet.

Now go to the next page.

42

Situation 1. David talking with Tomomi when Monica comes.

1._______ are meeting for the first time. a. David and Monica b. David and Tomomi c. Tomomi and Monica d. David Monica and Tomomi

Situation 2: Ken and Nancy are at a restaurant.

2. Ken________________ a. is having steak tonight b. stopped eating steak c. eats steak a lot d. prefers chicken to steak.

Situation 3: Karen calls Jason’s home. Jason’s father answers the telephone.

3. Karen is going to ______________ a. speak with Jason at work b. call back in an hour c. Wait for Jason to call d. send a written message.

Situation 4: A reporter is giving today’s weather forecast.

4. It will be clear in__________. a. the Northeast. b. Seattle. c. Boston. d. Miami

5. In Seattle, the weather is___________. a. hot b. snowy c. cool d. rainy Situation 5: Bill invites Jennifer to go to dinner and a movie.

43

6. Jennifer doesn’t accept right away because she can’t______________. a. eat late lunch b. leave work early c. go to dinner d. see the movie 7. They’re going to______________. a. leave work a little early b. go to the movie before dinner c. see the movie tomorrow

d. have dinner at 7:00

Situation 6: Linda is asking Jim about his plans for the summer.

8. In the summer, Jim usually ___________. a. stay in the mountains b. takes trips with his family c. visits his parents d. goes to the beach

9. This summer he’s planning to _____________ a. stay at home b. go to the beach c. fish with his dad d. hike in the mountains

Situation 7: Phil is talking with Susie about money.

10. Phil is upset because____________. a. Susie can’t lend him any money b. his parents won’t give him money c. Albert hasn’t returned his money d. his friends never lend his money

11. Albert___________. a. didn’t borrow $100b. isn’t working now c. doesn’t need the money

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d. can’t return the money yet

12. Susie doesn’t lend money to friends because______________. a. she has just enough for herself b. lending money can change a friendship c. people won’t lend her money d. her friends don’t need it

Situation 8: Natalie and Chuck are talking about their experiences abroad.

13 Chuck went backpacking_____________. a. In Brazil. b. by himself c. after high school. d. with his father

14. Chuck says the “would have liked to have seen Portugal.”

He means that he_____________. a. Went there, and liked it b. didn’t go there, but he wanted to c. went there, but he didn’t like it d. didn’t go there, and he didn’t want to

15. While Natalie was in Japan, she__________________.

a. traveled all over the country b. lived with a Japanese family c. learned Japanese quickly d. got very homesick

16. Chuck doesn’t want to_____________.

a. travel anymore b. learn a foreign language c. stay at home d. live abroad Situation 9 Diane and Conrad are talking about their careers.

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17. Conrad got advertising because he___________.

a. studied advertising in college. b. heard about a job opening c. liked to help people d. was tired of his old job

18. When he was young, Conrad wanted to_______________.

a. work in advertising b. become a doctor c. stay in school d. go in to business

19. Diane’s parents didn’t want her to_______________. a. start her own business b. finish college c. be to successful d. change her career

20. Conrad_____________.

a. owns his own company b. enjoys working in advertising c. thinks his job is boring d. wants to leave his job

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8.1.3.6 GRAPHIC AND ANALISIS OF THE LISTENING ACHIVEMENT TEST

LISTENING TEST. Objective: ve: this instrument helped to identify the levels that students have in the listening skills.

LISTENING LEVELS

STUDENT´S TUDENT´S NUMBER

BASIC LOW

14

BASIC MID

01

BASIC HIGH

0

14 12 10 8

BASIC LOW BASIC MID

6 BASIC HIGH

4 2 0

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LISTENING TEST ANALYSIS During the research, it was necessary to apply an achievement test in order to know the levels students have in the listening skill. Here there are some of the results obtained with this instrument: During the visits to the school, it was known that the methodology applied by the teacher was good, the class was dynamic, and the teacher always helped the students to express the English words in the correct way; although the results gotten in the test were not completely good. It was very notorious the students were very nervous at the moment of taking the test; they expressed that they had a lot of difficulties to understand the conversations in English through the CD player, because they do not improve the listening skill, to lack of different resources in the school. Unfortunately, it was confirmed in the results; at the moment they were answering the test they looked unsure about their answers, as a result all the contexts were not clear for them it is because they did not practice in the classroom and out the classroom. This aspect could be observed for the ones who applied the instrument.

At the end, the results of the tests were classified in basic low, basic mid and basic high; the majority of them were classified in basic low because they can manage just simple conversations. Since the test is designed from the simple to the complex conversations, the students seemed to have not too many troubles to answer the first questions; however when they were moving on they became really more difficult for them. This reflects that in spite the teacher helped them to be better in this ability was not enough because she can not used different sources that the subject need to increase this ability; for this reason they do not had better results for the lack of vocabulary, lack of knowledge in grammar rules and lack of practice in the classroom with their classmates in out the class, because they do not practice with any people, and finally they do no make effort to practice with different resources and technology.

Another evidence is that a small group was placed in basic mid level for the same reason, and nobody was classified in basic high level. It means clearly that students have a lot of difficulties to learn the listening skill, because they face different factors that do not permit them to learn efficiently and according to what it was observed: they do not like to study English. So, these are some of the results found in the listening test during this research.

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PLACEMENT CONVERSATION RATING FORM UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE EL SALVADOR FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Teacher’s name: _________________________________

Section: __________________ Date:___________________

Objective: this instrument is going to help to measure and identify the levels that student have in the speaking skills.

Student’s Name____________________ Date__________________ Placement Conversation Rating:

____________________________

TASK RATING (Circle) COMMENTS Interchange Third Edition Intro (1-2 points)

Tasks 1. Greetings, introductions •

Hello. How are you?

•

What´s your name?

•

Where are you from?

2. Talk about yourself •

Tell me a little about yourself.

•

Why are you studying English?

•

What´s your schedule like?

•

Do you have a job

3. Talk about your free time •

What do you do in your free time?

•

Do you like sports?

•

Can you play tennis (volleyball/soccer, etc)?

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Interchange Third Edition Level 1 (3-4) points 4. Talk about likes and dislikes •

Do you like movies (TV/music, etc.)?

•

What kinds of movies (TV programs/music, etc.) do you like?

•

What’s your favorite movie (TV program/ type of music, etc.)?

5. Talk about the past •

Where did you grow up?

•

Did you study English in elementary school (junior, high school/high school)?

•

What other languages did you study?

•

What was your favorite class?

6. Talk about plans •

What are you doing later today?

•

Are you doing anything special tonight?

•

What are you going to do this weekend?

Interchange Third Edition Level 2 (5-6 points) 7. Talk about foods •

Have you ever eaten Thai (Vietnamese/ Mexican, etc.) food?

•

Where did you eat it?

•

How did you like it ?

•

What kinds of unusual foods have you eaten?

8. Talk about your home •

Do you live in a house or an apartment?

•

What is it like?

•

Compare your home with someone else´s home.

9. Give advice •

What advice would you give to tourists visiting your country/city

•

What do they need to do to be prepared?

•

What places should they visit?

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GRAPHIC AND ANALISIS OF THE SPEAKING ACHIVEMENT TEST Objective: this instrument is i going to help to measure and identify the levels that students nts have in the speaking skills.

BASIC LEVEL IN SPEAKING SPEAKIN

STUDENT´S NUMBER

BASIC LOW

12

BASIC MID

03

BASIC HIGH

02

12 10 8 BASIC LOW

6

BASIC MID

4

BASIC HIGH

2 0

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SPEAKING TEST ANALYSIS Another instrument applied in this research was the speaking test, in which it was known how the students developed the speaking skills. In it all of them were classified in the basic level; nevertheless, this level is subdivided into three more levels: basic low, mid and high level.

Here are reflected the results gotten in the speaking test. At the moment that students were taking the speaking test, they showed a lot of insecurity to answer the questions. They expressed to be very nervous with the evaluation because they knew they had lack of vocabulary which was knew during the observation on the school even though, they could understand some questions, they could not understand them all. It happened the same as in the Listening test, the students found more difficulties when the structures of the questions were increasing. It is because they have only basic knowledge in English and is the reason that they may only understand simply conversations.

One remarkable aspect that affected students’ answers was that they did feel very ashamed for having a conversation. They expressed that in classes it is something different; although they are ashamed they feel less pressure, because they know the teacher and also they know, it is just a class. This attitude can be because they didn´t practice with nobody else out the classroom and is the reason they had problem at the moment they were taking the speaking test. This time, it was an evaluation. In addition, in class they used to practice conversations that were already practiced with their classmates.

As a result, the levels of the students were classified in low basic, mid basic and a very small group in high basic. These classifications show that the students’ English proficiency in this institution is really low. The teacher assures that she has done the best she can, but her students do not really care about the importance the English language can be in their future. Students considered that the new language is just another subject to pass; it is not something that they should be

52

worried about. The pupils think that “With English or without English they will survive in the coming days.

9. THEORETICAL METHODOLOGICAL FORMULATION Jeremy Harmer presents the reasons the students have to practice the extensive and intensive listening skill; he provides some principles of listening to advice student to work hard and deep in the extensive and intensive. In addition, he advises that every time the pupils need to improve their listening skill, students have to apply audio video or any other film such as DVD or other digital delivered film, and different technology in order to increase the knowledge and give them an easy way to learn better the language. He also says that it is difficult to identify the correct level of English because there isn`t a established criteria to evaluate those skills like there are in writing, also they need to be able to develop listening skills and types of genre students have to practice with listening stories, and interacting in a social conversation. So many students are rightly capable of listening different things in diverse ways in their own language.

Teacher’s job is to help them become adept at this kind of multi skilling when listening to English, but sometimes students find this too difficult to understand, however the author said, there are some alternatives to make the learning interesting for them

and have students listen all the time, simultaneously doing

the same activity in different levels.

On the other hand, the study shows that the teacher in the public school ,where the research took place, think that those technologies are not necessary or useful for teaching listening, there are some things that the teacher cannot applied in the real classroom environment just because teaching English in not being focused in the communicative approach. Additionally, teacher´s comments in the interview are that the students from nine grade are not interested too much in learning the language deeply, another dilemma is resources, the institution has are not enough. For instance, it is difficult for the teacher to have a CD player just for her class. She has the opportunity to use it maybe twice in a moth. For this reason the researchers 53

considerer this can be one of the factors that interfere with the development of the listening skill. As a result, at the end of the year, the competence of the students in English is not the expected one.

In addition, Jack Richard and Willy Reynandya state that there are diverse factors to consider developing the speaking ability. It consists in knowing grammatical and semantic rules in which the learners must get some knowledge.

Besides, they mention the difficulties that students face to learn a second language due to the oral communication, this requires to use the language appropriately in social interaction, which not only require verbal communication, but also paralinguistic elements of speech as: pitch, stress, intonation and others.

The statement of the authors with the result of the research has certain relationship because during the research was observed that if the students have not a good knowledge in grammatical and semantic rules they face major difficulties to learn the second language.

The sociocultural factor is another which generates

traditions and social structures and it is important to know how the second language is used correctly because each language has its own rules and usages.

Although in our environment is difficult to learn how the native speakers use the language because in this country English is not an official language.

Another factor the authors mention is the age which interfere in learn the second language which is something true, when someone begins to learn the foreign language in early childhood they have more possibility to achieve a higher competence than people that begin in middle age. The aural medium is another factor mentioned for the authors, where they say that speaking and listening are related because during the interaction the students play a double role-both as listeners and as speakers.

According to the research, in the class, there is just a little affection among the students because they not always interacts each other in the English class; so that it is one of the problems that does not allow them to increase the speaking and listen skills. The authors say that the affective factor interferes in learning a second 54

language because it produces emotion, self-esteem, empathy, anxiety, attitude and emotions, frustration, self-doubt and apprehension, which occur more when the students speak in front the public where there are native speaker which cause extreme nervousness. It happens because the students think they are going to realize easily when they commit a mistake. This could be checked during the research, because some students preferred not to speak instead of committing mistakes.

Moreover, the authors recommend that in the communication must be include the grammatical, discourse, sociolinguistic and strategic competences that reflect the use of the linguistic system and functional aspects of communication.

This contribution is veridical because the students must get basic knowledge in grammar to acquire vocabulary, basic sounds of letters, syllables, pronunciation of words, intonation, stress, words and sentences. They must understand how words are segmented in various sounds, and the discourse that is another important competence to express ideas, time, cause, contrast, etc, and the sociolinguistic aspects. These consist when students develop the competence with other people and ethnically with those who talk the second language to acquire the rules and norms appropriately. The development of the speech helps in how the students can ask questions during the interaction and how to develop a conversation. In the investigation the interaction was not enough since the major problem is that in the English class there are few interactive activities to learn the second language successfully.

So That, during the research, it was notorious that students face several factors that not permit them to learn the second language appropriately, such as, they have not enough knowledge in grammar and semantic rules, they not always interact each other in the English class which is one of the problems that not allow them to increase the speaking and listen skills. The other problem they showed is the affective factor in which they demonstrate nervous to speak and prefer not to do it because they think that they are going to commit mistakes, which was proved during the observation in the classroom.

55

Sari Louma in her

book talks about the speaking skill; she divided it in

different levels, which are: superior, advanced high, advanced mid, advanced low, intermediate high, and intermediate mid, intermediate low, novice high, novice mid, novice low. Each level expresses what the functions of the speakers are.

In the superior, the speakers can communicate very fluently; in advanced high, speakers use precise vocabulary and intonation , they are fluent too; in advanced mid, they express more casual information and use adequate vocabulary; the advanced low, the speakers describe different topics with accuracy, clearness and precision; the intermediate high, the speaker share basic information and express some errors; the intermediate mid,

the speakers

generally have limited

vocabulary and they can’t express enough vocabulary in their conversations; the intermediate low , the speakers express only the necessary for the information; in the novice high, speakers respond to simple direct questions; in novice mid, the speakers memorize phrases and respond just direct question; novice low,

the

speakers express only vocabulary but they can’t communicate.

However, during the investigation, the students from the school Juana Lopez were evaluated and classified, in each level. The students can’t develop the listening and speaking skill very well, some students memorize phrases and respond direct questions. These are the parameters that are classified in the basic low. Also there was another group that was classified in basic mid, few of them basic high here students know vocabulary and can’t express long sentences. This information was gathered from the results of a test that student’s did.

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10. DEVELOPMENT AND THEORETICAL DEFINITION Since the main aim to pursue in this study is to analyze the listening and speaking outcome competences of students from 9th grade, section “A” at Juana López School it was necessary to apply different instruments to identify not only several aspects that interfere in the development of the both skills but also the level of proficiency students have in these skills. There were found some difficulties that students face when they are learning the second language. For instance, : they don’t have the adequate resources that facilitate the process of learning the new language; this happen because the essential materials the teacher needs in the class are not provided in the school.

Additionally, there are some other factors that obstruct students learning process, some of them are: sociocultural factor because the students do not want learn the second language since they express that they do not need because they do not want to continue studying. Then, the affective factor is another problem in which student feel shy to speak English, They do not want to overcome the frustration of making mistakes when they interact with the rest of classmates in the classroom.

The other one is the lack of knowledge in grammar rules because it is evident that they don’t apply it at the moment of having a conversation in the real life or during the exercises the teacher assigns in the classroom; and finally, the sociolinguistic is another factor that students face because they do not have the opportunity to practice with native speakers. This activity becomes real difficult to them due to the place where the pupils live is not a touristic place; therefore, practicing English with native speakers is almost impossible.

Furthermore, the investigation in the school also helped the assessor to classify the levels of the students in both skills. Unfortunately the results were not that gratifying for the researchers because most of the students were classified in novice level. This means that the majority of the pupils can manage just simple grammatical structure in both skills, listening and speaking.

57

•

Socio cultural factor: Students in the school reflected to have poor values in their families because their parents do not motivated them to continue studying; they consider that their children can work in different places like factories, where speaking English is not a mandatory requisite. It means that parents, consciously or unconsciously, do not believe in their children competence, they want them to continue living the same way they have done it.

•

Affective factor: This aspect has influenced in the students, it could be seen when they have to practice the language in their classes, there were some activities in which students were demanded to practice the language it in front of the other classmates and they could not overcome the extreme nervousness to develop the language effectively.

•

Aural Medium: This is another factor that students faced in the learning process, the research shows that they did not have the opportunity to practice the listening out of the school. This phenomenon decreases the production of the speaking skill, for this reason they do not understand what the speaker is saying.

The age factor, this is not a problem, because the students of the school are in the level that is appropriate for them. This relevant information was gotten with the help of different instruments that were applied throughout the days the researchers were attending the school.

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CHAPTER III OPERATIVE FRAMEWORK

11. RESEARCH SUBJECTS´ DESCRIPTION The school is located in the rural area, the population here can be considered as a low class; because it is very noticeable, they have no supplies. Also, most families can be classified as single parent and just few can be considered as nuclear families.

In Juana López School, there are eighteen wide classrooms with a lot of lighting and good environment, a small computer center with 20 computers, where students receive theory and practice computer subject, there is a library with different kind of books to be used by students to do the homework, a small kitchen with two stoves where students’ mothers prepare light refreshments for them, a director office and a sub director office. The building has two small floors. There are 20 teachers including the principal. The school assists groups from Parvularia to ninth grade; in the latter one, there were 31 students, the ones that helped to fulfill the information needed to the research.

During the first weeks of observation the students seemed to be interested with the presence of the researchers, indeed, they were eager to know the reason for them to be observed in the English class. Little by little the students and the teacher in charge knew the reason of the visitors. The teacher offered her help to know if her methodology was the most appropriate to teach. However to analyze the students outcome listening and speaking skills, it was necessary to apply different instruments such as: an observation checklist that was fulfilled by the researcher during the days they were attending the school, to observe and gather the most relevant aspects that were going to help the study; to find some answers about the teacher methodology and the factors that might interfere in students` learning; moreover, the pupils provided the research with great information about the way they perceive their teacher methodology. In addition, the pupils did not present any 59

rejection when they were asked to be evaluated in the two macro skills, listening and speaking. Finally, the teacher did not refuse to have an interview with the visitors. She provided essential information about the way she considers is the best way of teaching.

The results of student’s survey show a positive perception about their teacher methodology; even though, the results in the evaluation are relatively low. The acceptance of the methodology does not match with students production; they are not interested to learn the second language, since in a little interview they expressed that learning English as a second language is not necessary for them.

They study the language, just because it is included in the curricula; however it is not of their acceptance. Their answer was easy, they expressed that their parents didn’t need the language either, so what was going to be the difference? Some pupils said that they can work in different places as their parents have done it, up to now; and have no troubles in life. It seems that they have no interest in their self improvement; their future is uncertain.

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1.

PROCEDURES FOR GATHERING DATA

During the study, the researchers visited the School twice a week for three months, from August to October 2009. To gather all the essential information to fulfill the objectives of the research it was necessary to organize all the activities that were going to be done. To start with, it was of vital importance the methodology that teacher applied in her classes; here the researchers were going to observe the behavior of students. Applying the first instrument, an observation checklist, it provided the study with relevant information.

Another instrument applied was a two page survey that was addressed to the students; there were built seven questions and a sample of 15 students, out of 30, was taken to provide their opinion related with the teacher’s methodology during a class. It was a surprise to see that students enjoy the English class; they feel confident with the teacher, in one word they like the class. Even though the results in the evaluations are low they enjoy the class.

The next instrument used in the investigation was an oral personal interview to the teacher in which she answered ten questions; this interview took place in the subprincipal office. The team shared the process that was going to be used when having the interview; the teacher did not refuse to follow it. The mentioned process was that one researcher was going to have the conversation and another one was going to be typing it, to have at the end her signature. The interview lasted around one hour. The tutor realizes that

the students’ results are not in agreement with

their participation in class; she is very conscious that they like her class; nevertheless, they are not interested in learning the language because they considered it not important for their lives.

Finally, the last instrument to be applied was a test for student. It was divided in listening and speaking skills, both of them were going to be done in different schedules. The listening test was going to be taken during the class in the afternoon. This test was designed in two pages containing twenty questions, these were going to be answered during the nine listening conversations; the 61

conversations were going to be listened using a CD player. Students used an answer sheet to choose the correct answer, this test took 45 minutes. After that, the speaking test was taken, it contained 20 questions. The 15 students were interviewed, they were asked to keep a simple conversation using the grammatical structures that were signed in the interview paper.

To have a better view of the results, it was done the graphic of each instrument; later the analysis was something mandatory to do in order to have the answers for the research. The information in general gave the study the answers the researchers were looking for; it’s important to mention that to know some details about the School, the sub-principal Hector Enrique Hernåndez; helped the investigation too much, he was very gentle to attend the researchers, in spite of being very busy all the time.

It was a hard time to be gathering all the information required in this investigation; however, it can be said that the relationship with all the ones that help the researchers to fulfill the data was the most wonderful rewarding. Since with the information gathered, the investigators could talk and know better the students in this institution as well as the teacher and others. Nevertheless, it is a forgiveness to realize that students are not motivated enough to learn English as a tool to face better opportunities in their future.

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2.

SPECIFICATION OF THE TECHNIQUES OF DATA ANALYSIS

In order to give the specification of the technique used in this research, it can be said that the descriptive technique was the one that was used in this study. The descriptive technique consists of the ability to illustrate what the data shows.

Particularly challenging, is putting words behind a large amount of data, and it offers a solution for a researcher to overcome such a challenge to know the situations, custom and predominant attitudes through the exact description of the activities, objects, process and people. Besides it permits to establish which are the events and the magnitude in which the studied subjects are; it tries to describe the reality and the scientific work that permits to order the results of the observations like behavior, characteristics, factors, procedures and other variables of the phenomenon.

Having classified the technique applied in the study, the researchers present the data that was collected and at the same time the graphics that show vividly what the instruments gathered. The last but not less important aspect is the analysis of the data. Here it can be appreciated the results the investigation brought up. It helped the study to identify, to measure and classify the listening and speaking outcome competence as well as to the level of students’ knowledge.

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CHRONOGRAM especialidad: Inglés

Ciclo: 02-09

Año: 2009 Asesor: Licda. Claudia Yesenia Sosa Mestizo

Tema: COMPETENCE EVALUATION ON THE LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FROM 9th GRADE "B", CENTRO ESCOLAR JUANA LÓPEZ, SAN SALVADOR, 20092010.

Actividades: Investigación Documental/ Investigación de campo

Meses Septiembre 1

2

3

Octubre 4

1

2

Noviembre 3

4

1

2

3

Diciembre 4

1

2

3

Enero 4

1

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Febrero 3

4

1

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Marzo 3

4

1

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Abril 3

4 1 2 3

Mayo 4

Junio

Julio

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3

1.0 - Investigación documental 1.1 - Selección de bibliografía a utilizar

X

1.2 - Lectura y selección de citas bibliográficas

X

1.3 - Fichas bibliográficas y de resumen (fichas elaboradas en SI y actualizadas) 1.4 - Fichas de conceptos y categorías

X X

X

2.0 - Marco conceptual 2.1- Introducción

X

2.2- Antecedentes del problema

X

2.3- Justificación

X

2.4- Planteamiento del problema

X

2.5- Alcances y limitaciones

X

2.6- Recuento de conceptos y categorías a utilizar

X

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2.7 –Reuniones con asesor

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

2.8- Entrega Primer Avance

X

2.9- Corrección primer avance

X

2.10- Entrega primer avance corregido

X

X X X

3.0 Marco Teórico 3.1- Fundamentación teórico-metodológica

X

3.2- Construcción marco empírico

X

3.2.1- Diseño de instrumentos de investigación

X

3.2.2- Levantamiento de información

X

3.2.3- Procesamiento de la información

X

3.2.4- Análisis de la información

X

3.2.5- Elaboración de informe

X

3.2.6- Formulación teórico-metodológica de lo investigado

X

3.3- Desarrollo y definición teórica (posterior a contraposición de autores) 3.4- Reuniones con asesores 3.5- Entrega 2° avance 3.6- Corrección 2° avance 3.7-Entrega 2° avance corregido

X

X

X

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X

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X

X

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X

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X

X

X X X

X

X

X X

X X

3.8

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3.9 Marco Operativo 4.0- Descripción de los sujetos de la investigación

X

4.1- Procedimientos para recopilación de datos

X

4.2- Desarrollo de prueba piloto

X

4.3- Especificación de la técnica para análisis de los datos

X X X

4.4- Cronograma

X

4.5- Recursos

X X

4.6- Índice preliminar sobre informe final

X X

4.7- Reuniones con asesor

X

X

X

X

X

X

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X X X X

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X X X X

4.8- Entrega de tercer avance

X

4.9- Defensa Trabajo de Graduación

X

Entrega Trabajo de Graduación a DICTT Alumnas: María Elena Muñoz de Hernández, María Hernes Angel Méndez y Zoila Isabel Vigil Vigil

Firma de Acuerdo: Asesor_______________________

Estudiantes: __________________

__________________

__________________

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3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RESOURCES

During the investigation there were used different resources such as: human and material, to obtain some information that help in the research to know about the evaluation listening and speaking competence.

THE HUMAN RESOURCES: one of the main characters that helped in this research was the B. A. Hector Hernandez. He is the school’s sub-principal at Juana Lopez School, and he provided an important information about the school, the population, and information of the teacher. Furthermore, more information of the students was obtained with the English teacher Ilsy Maria Quintanilla who shared some personal information about her experience in private and public schools where she was teaching English. However, regrettably in the last visit to the school, the researchers were informed that the English teacher had gotten sick for eight days. Before that last visit, she was in the hospital, but unfortunately she died. It happened on April 20th, 2010. The researchers felt really bad about this event. They could not believe that the English teacher had passed away. Even though the researchers thanked the tutor at any moment she helped them with the project, there is a feeling of helplessness since she had been one of the main characters of this study. This is the reason why the researchers have written an acknowledgment at the beginning of the study.

At the end of the school year 2009, the students helped the study providing relevant information about their proficiency in the language; they were evaluated in the two skills, listening and speaking in which there were obtained different results.

MATERIAL RESOURCES: Other tools that were used in the investigation are the material resources such as: bibliography, at the beginning it was too difficult to find the necessary books that were according to the topic about the listening and speaking competence; so that it was a need to visit different libraries; therefore it was needed to get an ID. From Centro Cultural SalvadoreĂąo in order to have the opportunity to request books from it, but the first place that was visited to obtain some information was the University of El Salvador; then Technological University, 67

and later the National library. Some books that supported the investigation were: Methodology in language teaching by Jack Richard and Willy Reynandya, How to teach by Jeremy Harmer, Assessing Speaking by Sari Louma, and other important sources were the instruments applied during the process of this research like the checklist, the student’s survey, oral interview to the teacher, the listening and speaking test to help to

classified the student in the adequate level. In the

test, it was necessary to use a CD player in the listening test and a computer to type the work paper.

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4.

PRELIMINARY INDEX ABOUT FINALLY REPORT

This project was divided into three parts which are: conceptual framework, which mentions objectives thesis, background, justification, statement of the problem, finding and limitation, and definition of the concept. The Theoretical Framework where it is mentioned the theoretical methodological base, empirical framework, theoretical methodological formulation, development and theoretical definition, and resources. Operative Framework, which shows the description of the subject of the research, procedures, specification of data analysis, chronograms, description of the resources, and preliminary index about finally repot. Each one contains important information that supports the study in the listening and speaking competence.

16. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK The Conceptual Framework consists of the formulation of concepts and categories like the first object of study. This part contains a background, justification, statement of the problem, finding and limitations and concept and categories, besides mention some authors who gave important information, such as: Jack Richard and Willy Reynandya in their

book Methodology in Teaching

Language, it states that the listening skill is vital in the English language, because it provides input for the learner. Without understand input at the right level, any learning simply cannot begin, because listening is fundamental as speaking, thus learning to speak a foreign language requires to know grammatical and semantic rules. Besides, the functions of the spoken language are interactional and transactional.

Another author who gave a great contribution was Jeremy Harmer; in his book How to teach, he mentions the importance between intensive and extensive listening. Another important author is Sari Louma in her book Assessing Speaking , she divides the second language in different levels: Superior level, Advanced high level, Advanced Mid, Advanced low level, Intermediate High level, Intermediate mid level, intermediate low, novice high level, novice mid and novice low. These 69

are the important aspects that build the conceptual framework in which are included the first steps to follow the work.

16.1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The Theoretical Framework consists of the relation of concepts that have a association with the problem of the research. In it, the theoretical methodological base,

empirical

framework,

theoretical

methodological

formulation

and

development and theoretical definition, are included. There is referring information for the work which was developed in Centro Escolar Juana LĂłpez. This School is located in San Antonio Abad, in San Salvador; it was the most important factor in the research, because in this institution were found the essential people who gave the necessary information that helped to identify the level of competence in listening and speaking skill.

According to the theory, the students who practice the listening and speaking skill need to improve listening with extensive learning like watching movies in the second language inside and out the school, besides; it is important that they use different resources that help them in the learning process in the classroom, for example CD, Radio, television, DVD, different technology, and an adequate environment in order that students can enjoy the class.

On the other hand, some authors show different factors that interfere in the developing of listening and speaking such us: the lack of knowledge in grammatical and semantic rules, because some of them said that this is one of the major difficulties that the students face to learn the second language, another is the sociocultural factor; because if the students do not interact with someone, they are not able to speak in the second language, the other factor is the environment out the School, because in their home they can’t practice English; the other one is the affective factor, since in the School the students felt shy when they talk in front their teacher and classmates , and finally the theory which were classified the students

shows different level in

such as: superior level, advanced,

intermediate, and novice.

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In the real life, there are some aspects or different points of view that the author supports in the investigation. During the observation, it was identified that the teacher worked with a good methodology, but despite of it , students do not learn with effectiveness, the reasons were that, students neither practice nor have the adequate resources to be used while they are learning the second language, never practice interaction by themselves neither watch movies in English. The class frequently was dynamic, although the students never were motivated by their families to learn a foreign language; other factor that interfered in the learning process is that students do not have enough knowledge of vocabulary.

It is the most important information that contains the theoretical framework, in which there were used different concepts, in order to establish a relationship with the reality of the problem. Besides, the research was supported by some authors who gave different theories that helped to the research.

16.2 OPERATIVE FRAMEWORK The Operative Framework, here the subjects of the research are described, also the contrast with the one proposed in the first part, the observation during the study and which was found at the end of the research. This part includes description of the subjects of work, procedures for gathering data, specification of the techniques of data analysis, description of the resources and preliminary index about finally report. Different tools are mentioned to be used in the project, such as: The school named Juana LĂłpez which is the place where the investigation was done during several months. Another subject is the teacher who provides important information, and shared her experience trough an interview, the next were students they gave an important information about their learning process and they mentioned the methodology that the teacher used in the class.

Finally in this research there were found different results about the learning process, the first was that students enjoy the class, but they don’t like to practice 71

and then they don’t learn enough, they can´t express some ideas or interact with their classmates, another result is that student can’t speak the second language because they can’t watch English movies in their home and they do not practice out the classroom, for this reason when did a listening and speaking test, the majority of the students were classified in basic level.

Through this final information, it was possible to know some results of the research of the problem. In it, there were identified the major problems that students face to learn the second language.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jack C. Richards, Willy A. Reynandya Methodology in Language Teaching.

First Edition, New York Cambridge University, press 2002.

Jeremy Harmer. How to Teach, first Edition Pearson Education Limited 2007, Edinburgh Gate, England Edition.

M. Kathleen Mahnke, & Carolyn B. Duffy, TOEFL preparation course, listening compression. ELS at St. Michael’s collage, limited 1998 Vermont consultant p.600

Pauline Rea-Dickins and Kevin Germaine. What is evaluation? Editors: CN Candlin and HG Wilddowson, country, New York, Toronto Madrid.

Sari Luoma. Assessing speaking, series editors: J. Charles Alderson & Lyle F. Bachean printed in the United Kingdom at the university press, Cambridge.

http://academicwritingsuite101comarticlecfmdescriptivestatistics in – quantitative research#ixzzOpAw5p2m. internet , descriptive statistics in quantitative.

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