Communicative Competence Through Cultural Awareness and Integrative Motivation: Action Research at a...

Running head: COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE THROUGH CULTURAL AWARENESS 1

Communicative Competence Trough Cultural Awareness and Integrative Motivation: Action

Research at a Public School in Cucuta, Colombia

University of Pamplona

Faculty of Education

Foreign Languages Program

Integral Practice Project

David Alberto Rivera Corredor

Cúcuta, Colombia

2012

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE THROUGH CULTURAL AWARENESS 2

Communicative Competence Trough Cultural Awareness and Integrative Motivation: Action

Research at a Public School in Cucuta, Colombia

University of Pamplona

Faculty of Education

Foreign Languages Program

Integral Practice project

Student

David Alberto Rivera Corredor

Teaching Practices Coordinator

José Octavio López Ramírez

Cúcuta, Colombia

2012


“Life is but a dream” Proverb.


Table of contents

GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE INTEGRAL PRACTICE PROJECT 15

GENERAL JUSTIFICATION OF THE INTEGRAL PRACTICE PROJECT 17

GENERAL OBJECTIVES OF THE INTEGRAL PRACTICE PROJECT 19

General objective 19

Specific objectives 19

CHAPTER 1: PEDAGOGIC COMPONENT 20

1.1 Introduction to the pedagogic component 20

1.2 Justification of the pedagogic component 22

1.3 Objectives of the pedagogic component 24

1.3.1 General objective 24

1.3.2 Specific objectives 24

1.4 Theoretical framework 25

1.4.1 Definition of culture 27

1.4.2 Cultural awareness 28

1.4.3 Culture in language teaching 29

1.4.4 Definition of motivation 31


1.4.5 Integrative motivation 33

1.5 Methodology 36

1.5.1 Communicative approach 36

1.5.2 Intercultural approach 39

1.5.3 Developed activities 41

1.5.3.1 General introduction to the English language 41

1.5.3.2 Greetings and Personal information 42

1.5.3.3 People and lifestyles 45

1.5.3.4 Culture shock 47

1.5.3.5 Colloquial expressions and exclamations 49

1.5.3.6 Seasons and leisure activities 51

1.5.3.7 Non-verbal communication 53

1.5.3.8 In the restaurant 54

1.5.4 Schedule 56

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH COMPONENT 58

2.1 Introduction to the research component 58

2.2 Justification of the research component 59

2.3 Research questions 61

2.3.1 General question 61

2.3.2 Specific questions 61


72.4 Type of research 62

2.5 Literature review 65

2.5.1 History of action research 65

2.5.2 Type of action research 66

2.5.3 Steps in action research 67

2.6 Method 70

2.7 Participants of the study 73

2.7.1 Sample 73

2.7.2 Selection of the sample 73

2.8 Data collection 75

2.8.1 Observation 76

2.8.2 Teacher research journal 76

2.8.3 Questionnaire 77

2.8.4 Likert Scale 78

2.9 Data analysis 80

2.10 Results 82

2.10.1 Results of the observations and teacher research journal 82

2.10.2 Results of the questionnaire 85

2.10.2.1 Demographic results 85

2.10.2.2 Results of every question 85

2.10.3 Results of the Likert scale 96

2.11 Conclusions and suggestions for further studies 99


CHAPTER 3: OUT-REACH COMPONENT 103

3.1 Introduction to the out-reach component 103

3.2 Justification of the out-reach component 104

3.3 Objectives of the out-reach component 105

3.1 General Objective 105

3.2 Specific Objectives 105

3.4 Methodology 106

3.4.1 Context 106

3.4.2 List of students 107

3.4.3 Reasons why the French course was taken 108

3.4.4 List of topics taught during the course 109

3.4.5 Attendance record 110

3.5 Students’ thoughts on the course and conclusions 111

CHAPTER 4: ADMINISTRATIVE COMPONENT 113

4.1 Introduction to the administrative component 113

4.2 Justification of the administrative component 114

4.3 Objectives of the administrative component 115

4.3.1 General objective 115


4.3.2 Specific objectives 115

4.4 Institutional observation 116

4.4.1 Topographic location and general observation of the institution 116

4.4.2 School director, teachers and coordinators 117

4.4.2.1 Coordinators 117

4.4.2.2 Teachers 117

4.4.3 Governing body 119

4.4.3.1 Principal 119

4.4.3.2 Governing board 119

4.4.3.3 Academic council 120

4.4.4 Manual of conviviality 121

4.4.4.1 Presentation 121

4.4.4.2 Objectives of the manual of conviviality 121

4.4.4.3 Mission 122

4.4.4.4 Vision 122

4.4.4.5 Student’s profile 122

4.4.4.6 Sanctions 123

4.5 Academic Schedule of the Institution 124


4.6 Schedules and Lists of Students 126

4.6.1 Schedules 126

4.6.1.1 9b grade 126

4.6.1.29a grade 127

4.6.2 Lists of students 127

4.6.2.1. 9a grade students 127

4.6.2.2. 9b grade students 129

4.7 Class observations 132

4.7.1 Class observation of the 9a course 132

4.7.2 Class observation of the 9b course 134

REFERENCES 136

APPENDICES


List of tables

Table 1.Comparison between the CERF and NBP proficiency ranks 25

Table 2.Common speaking Reference A2 and A1 Levels: self-assessment grid 26

Table 3.Summary of developed activities. First topic 42

Table 4.Summary of developed activities. Second topic 45

Table 5.Summary of developed activities. Third topic 47

Table 6.Summary of developed activities. Fourth topic 49

Table 7.Summary of developed activities. Fifth topic 51

Table 8.Summary of developed activities. Sixth topic 52

Table 9.Summary of developed activities. Seventh topic 54

Table 10.Summary of developed activities. Eighth topic 56

Table 11.Ordinary schedule 57

Table 12.Schedule of project application 57

Table 13.Applied Research versus Action Research 63

Table 14.Results of the Likert scale 96

Table 15. List of the French course participants 108

Table 16.List of Topics taught during the course and class dates 109

Table 17. Attendance record of the French course 110

Table 18.List of coordinators 117

Table 19 .List of teachers who belong to the institution 117

Table 20.Academic Schedule of the Institution 124


Table 21. 9b general schedule 126

Table 22.9a general schedule 127

Table 23.List of 9a students 127

Table 24.List of 9b students 129


List of figures

Figure 1.Favorite Topics 86

Figure 2.Students’ English improvement 87

Figure 3.Importance of the English language 90

Figure 4.The course would be useful in case of travel 91

Figure 5.Reasons why the course would be useful 92

Figure 6.The most useful pedagogic aid 95

Figure 7. Why students chose videos 96

Figure 8.Likert scale 97


List of appendices

Appendix A. Photos

Appendix B. Letter of presentation

Appendix C. Lesson plan

Appendix D. Teacher research journal

Appendix E. Likert Scale

Appendix F. Questionnaire

Appendix G. Printed guide for the French class

Appendix H. Printed material for the English class


General introduction to the integral practice project

This integral practice project, which is called Communicative Competence through

Cultural Awareness and Integrative Motivation, is presented to the foreign languages program of

the University of Pamplona. Through this present report, it is showed and described in detail the

whole process experienced by the researcher, from the first (1st) institutional observation to the

application of the different pedagogic activities and data-collection instruments in order to obtain

results.. This study was applied at the Escuela Normal Superior Maria Auxiliadora, which is a

public high school in Cucuta-Colombia. Its population is composed by eighty (80) students.

According to the University of Pamplona’s established presentation Standards, this paper is

divided into four (4) chapters, which are the Pedagogic component, the Research component, the

Out-reach component and the Administrative component.

The first chapter, called pedagogic component, mainly concentrates on three (3)

aspects. Firstly, the communicative and the intercultural approaches which are based on the

promotion of cultural awareness and integrative motivation are explained. Secondly, through this

component, a theoretical framework in which terms and fields such as culture, cultural

awareness, culture in education, motivation and integrative motivation are included. Finally, it

can be seen that every single cultural topic worked on during the development of this study is

described as well as the developed activities and the required materials.

The second chapter, called research component, starts by mentioning the general and

the specific research questions that were proposed to be solved from the beginning of this project

itself. Besides, the action research is presented as the unique research approach, thus its distinct

characteristics are described. For instance, its history, steps and differences from applied

research. After that, the methodology followed in this project is demonstrated. Therefore,


relevant aspects such as participants and data-collection instruments are explained. Lastly, this

component focuses on a strict analysis of the results obtained from the different instruments.

The third chapter, called out-reach component, attempts to describe the different

extra activities that the teacher trainee did in the educational institution. The objective of this

component is to involve the teacher trainee in the educational environment. For this project, it

was decided to create a French course, later called “Club Français” All in all, the themes worked

on, the attendance record and the participants’ names are showed through this third (3rd

) chapter.

The last chapter, called Administrative component, seeks to demonstrate two (2)

main aspects. On the one hand, it attempts to show the people who direct the educational

institution and how they do so. As a result, the names of the principal Sister, coordinators and

teachers as well as their obligations are showed. Besides, a general institutional observation and

the two (2) first English class observations are included. On the other hand, this chapter is also

composed by the main points of the manual of conviviality, participants’ lists, schedule and

names as well as the academic schedule of the institution.

To better understand the results and some other significant features, tables, figures

and a series of appendix that can be seen through this paper were decided to be incorporated.


General justification of the integral practice project

The decision of developing this present project at the Escuela Normal Superior Maria

Auxiliadora was made by the teacher trainee. This was because of the good reputation t the

institution does have in the Cucutan society. Mainly, the school, which is guided by the Salesian

sisters, relies on a strong pedagogic and religious philosophy that simply makes it different from

the rest of the educational institutions in the city. The fact that all the students are women did not

affect neither positively nor negatively the development of this project.

When the communicative needs were realized about, it was decided to work on

cultural awareness and integrative motivation instead of any other pedagogic strategy in order to

improve it. Principally, it was because the school had not included before any project based on

these elements. Therefore, including the cultural aspect was synonymous with innovation.

As it can be read in the pedagogic component, not only was the communicative

approach employed but also the intercultural one. Including the intercultural approach was

appropriate for the project because of the constant incorporation of cultural awareness strategy in

the English classes. When interacting with students inside and outside the classroom, it was

demanded to have two (2) roles, as teacher and researcher. Because of this fact, it was decided to

employ the Action research approach. This type of research is suitable for teachers because it

does not follow a strict methodology and gives the opportunity to solve real problems in actual

educational settings.

The idea of the creation a French course instead of other activities based on the

English language was just because of teacher trainee’s personal interest in French language. It is

important to mention that the University of Pamplona did allow the teacher trainee to choose


freely the activities to work on in the out-reach component. In this specific case, the teacher

trainee’s capability to speak English and French was considered as a relevant advantage.

Therefore, it was planned to do something different from the rest of features of this project.

Besides, through the development of that French course, some experience in that field was

gained.


General objectives of the integral practice project

This integral practice project presents one (1) general and seven (7) specific objectives to

accomplish.

General objective

To analyze the incorporation of cultural awareness and integrative motivation strategies

to strengthen the English communicative competence among nine (9) grade students of the

Escuela Normal Superior Maria Auxiliadora.

Specific objectives

To observe the general educational context and the specific setting where students have

classes in order to determine the problems to solve.

To seek information about cultural awareness, integrative motivation as well as the

communicative and intercultural approaches.

To design a pedagogic and research proposal that can solve the detected problems.

To create a schedule of activities through which the proposal can be applied.

To follow the steps proposed in Action research.

To collect data by means of the instruments chosen in this project.

To analyze the data and give results.


CHAPTER 1: PEDAGOGIC COMPONENT

This chapter presents a pedagogical proposal, which is based on the cultural awareness

and integrative motivation features as well as the communicative and intercultural approaches.

1.1 Introduction to the pedagogic component

Studying English as a foreign language has become a relevant goal to attain in the

Colombian educational environment. There are some reasons that can explain it. Nowadays,

people live in an interconnected world. That is to say, one can easily keep in touch with what

happens in other countries due to the existence of the mass media, such as television, internet,

international radio stations and so on. Furthermore, being able to speak English allows people to

have access to some particular opportunities that often take place in foreign countries. For

instance: the possibility to apply for foreign jobs or scholarships. According to Canagarajah

(2006), humanity nowadays lives in a postmodern globalization. This type of globalization has

led countries, cultures and languages to interconnect each other. As a result, boundaries among

countries barely exist since people, goods and ideas can now easily flow. Therefore, learning a

foreign language is related to personal enrichment, which leads students to discover new ways of

thinking, meet new people and grow intellectually and culturally alike.

In Colombia, the Ministerio de Educación Nacional (2006), (MEN) through The National

Bilingual Program (NBP) is the institution in charge of proposing and controlling the objectives

that students have to achieve in at all the public and private Educational institutions throughout

the country. According to the NBP, it was decided to follow the Common European Framework

of reference for foreign languages (CEFR) in order to establish the standards that students of

primary and high school must succeed. Consequently, it is stated, by the NPB, that Students from


first (1st) to third (3th) grades have to have an A1 level, Students from fourth (4

th) to seventh (7

th)

grades have to have an A2 level and finally students from eighth (8th

) to eleventh (11th

) grades

have to have a B1 level.

This pedagogic component seeks to explain the meaning and demonstrate the importance

of two factors that strongly affect the learning and teaching foreign language process in the

classroom. Those factors can be the key in order to make students feel engaged in learning a

foreign language, which in this case is English. They are: Motivation and culture. After

observing two English classes, it was noticed that motivation and culture are not taken into

account by the educator while teaching and developing classroom activities.

This project concentrates on improving communicative competence. It is relevant to say

that was considered to follow the oral production goals proposed by the CEFR. Therefore, this

pedagogic chapter also proposes a methodology, which takes elements from the communicative

approach and the intercultural approach. Furthermore, a series of developed activities are

described in detail. These activities were created by the teacher trainee himself by using different

strategies and materials recommended by the teaching culture field. They were intended to enrich

student’s oral competence level, interaction in the classroom and the idea of biculturalism by

means of the incorporation and implementation of cultural awareness and integrative motivation

issues in the L2 class.

Besides, it is found the general schedule, which was granted by the teacher, the teacher

trainee and the principal Sister. Because of it, it can be seen how many times these activities

were applied, the exact dates as well as the manner the teacher trainee worked with the main

educator when going to ordinary classes in the mornings.


1.2 Justification of the pedagogic component

The idea of working on communicative competence arose after observing two English

classes and having a reunion with the principal Sister and the English teachers. On the one hand,

during the teacher’s assistant presentation and observation of the classes, it was noticed that

students did appear to like spoken language and they themselves admitted that they would like to

learn how to speak and pronounce the same manner the teacher assistant did. On the other hand,

the principal Sister and the English teachers told the teacher trainee that the school is concerned

about students’ English level because they have an A1 level according to an exam taken by some

scholars. The teacher assistant, the English teacher and the principal agreed on the idea of

concentrating on developing speaking abilities. It was also discussed how essential English can

be in students’ professional life in their near future. Actually, the school has planned to increase

the number of English classes that students will take.

Basically, it was granted to work with ninth (9th) grade students because of two (2)

circumstances. On the one hand, their schedule since it was free in the afternoon. Consequently,

they could attend extra English classes on Wednesdays and on Thursdays. On the other hand,

ninth (9th

) grade students would take advantage of this study because they just have a 2 hour-

English class per week, thus, it is necessary that they start to improve the different English

proficiencies.

This project can be very useful for students because little have they had a real opportunity

to speak in English during their classes. Indeed, students can put into practice all the grammatical

background they have learned by expressing their tastes, feelings, opinions, own ideas. After all,

it has been estimated that most of their English classes would be based on oral communication.


In addition, it is expected that this project proposes themes during its development, such as using

colloquial expressions, greeting people in different ways, expressing ideas by means of gestures,

cultural shocks and so on. Since these topics have never been discussed in the English class, this

project is also planned to innovate and change students’ perception towards the English language

itself.

Furthermore, it is designed not only to employ culture awareness themes but also the

constant incorporation of integrative motivation in the class. That is to say, students are usually

encouraged to have a positive attitude towards the speakers and the culture of the foreign

language. The teacher is in charge of making students realize that they can also speak English in

spite of the possible differences in accent and pronunciation. After all, English is spoken in more

than Fifty three (53) countries.

In conclusion, not only is this proposal expected to bring academic benefits but also self-

growth, because, trough the study of foreign languages, students can realize there are millions of

people around the world they can interact with, there are several exotic and unknown places they

can visit, there are other societies, values, cultures, food they can explore and taste. And, those

all are linked by one single element, which is the English Language.


1.3 Objectives of the pedagogic component

Before starting the application of this pedagogic component, it was necessary to elaborate

a series of objectives to accomplish.

1.3.1 General Objective

To strengthen communicative English competence through the incorporation of cultural

awareness and integrative motivation in the L2 class.

1.3.2 Specific Objectives

To plan a schedule of activities and include some cultural issues into the English class,

such as humor, gestures, ways of greeting, food around the world, cultural shocks and so on, by

creating some activities based on them.

To challenge students’ abilities to make sense of the cultural diversity and encourage

them to speak fluently in the English class.

To bring some educational aids to the class, such as short videos, readings, listening

exercises, documentaries, printed images and so on, in order to make the class more didactic and

better improve the students’ listening, reading abilities at the same time.

To promote the importance of respect, tolerance, biculturalism and refusal towards

ethnocentrism in the English class.

To encourage students not to cease studying English when the course has finished

because it is an opportunity to meet new people, grow intellectually and culturally and have

better study opportunities.


1.4 Theoretical Framework

In the Colombian context, English is considered to have the status of foreign language.

Due to the importance of this language nowadays, the MEN has designed a plan, in which the

government strongly concentrates on the improvement of English at all the Colombian

educational institutions. According to the NBP, it is supposed that after finishing their high

school studies, scholars are able to manage writing, grammar and speaking abilities at B1 level

English proficiency. That is to say, it is planned that they have a pre-intermediate English level

(Ministerio de Educación Nacional, 2006).

Here, there is a chart that clearly shows how the CERF and the NBP ranks have been

related to each other by the MEN. Moreover, it is also seen the proficiency levels that have to be

obtain by every course at the end of it.

Table 1Comparison between the CERF and NBP proficiency ranks

GRADES

CERF Levels

NBP Levels

From first to third A1 Beginner

From fourthto fifth A1 Basic 1

From sixth to seventh A2 Basic 2

From eighth to ninth B1 Pre -intermediate 1

From tenth to eleventh B1 Pre-intermediate 2

According to a placement test, which was taken by some students of the Escuela Superior

Maria Auxiliadora in this current year, the institution did not obtain good results because it was

reported that students had an A1 English level. In fact, this tendency was completely proved


when the teacher trainee observed two ninth (9th

) grade English classes and started working with

the main teacher. It was noticed that ninth (9th

) grade students’ communicative competence was

not higher than an A1 level. Consequently, if it is supposed that they must have an A2 level, at

least, this situation suggests that the NBP objectives are not being achieved. Because of this, it

was decided to work on the improvement of speaking skills, thus the incorporation of Culture in

language teaching strategies and Integrative motivation.

Using these two factors, which are closely linked to each other, leads the teacher trainee

to have in mind concrete communicative goals to work on. Therefore, it was planned to focus on

the A2 and A1 speaking goals proposed by the CEFR. It is important to mention that it was not

decided to just start working on B1 speaking levels since students are placed at A1 level.

As stated by the CEFR, this chart just demonstrates the A2 and A1 speaking features, on

which this project is focused.

Table 2Common speaking Reference A2 and A1 Levels: self-assessment grid

SPEAKING

A2

A1

Spoken interaction

I can communicate in simple and

routines tasks requiring a simple

and direct exchange of

information on familiar topics and

activities. I can handle very short

social exchanges, even though I

can’t usually understand enough to

keep the conversation going

myself.

I can interact in a simple way

provided the other person is

prepared to repeat or rephrase

things at a slower rate of speech

and help me formulate what I am

trying to say. I can ask and answer

simple questions in areas of

immediate need or on very

familiar topics.

Spoken production

I use a series of phrases and

sentences to describe in simple

terms my family and other people,

living conditions, my educational

background and my present or

most recent job.

I can use simple phrases and

sentences to describe where I live

and people I know.


1.4.1 Definition of Culture

Before creating any pedagogical activity based on cultural awareness, it is essential that

the term itself, culture, be defined and understood. It can be said that, it is such a “mere

beginning”, the basis. However, finding a concrete definition of culture can be such a difficult

labor since there are plenty. Basically, it is because culture is related to some fields such as

sociology, ethnology, anthropology, foreign languages, education and so on.

UNESCO definesculture as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and

emotional features of society or a social group, that encompasses, not only art and literature, but

lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs (UNESCO, 2001). The

Anthropologist Edward B. Tylor (1889) claims that culture is “that complex whole which

includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits

acquired by man as a member of society.” When comparing Tylor’s and the UNESCO

definitions of culture, it can be noticed that both are similar. Consequently, it can be stated that

culture is directly related to specific social and personal features that can vary from one country

to another.

Brown (2000:117) claims that “a language is part of a culture and a culture is part of a

language; the two are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing

the significance of either language or culture”. Additionally, Tan (1999) says that “Language is

culture. Language is the soul of the country and people who speak it.”

Taking into account these statements, it can be noticed how closely language and culture

are related to each other. Through words, spoken or written, people can express who they are, in

what they believe, their routines, local activities and celebrations that identify their countries,


their way of thinking, their history, colloquial expressions and idioms and values. Therefore, it

can be stated that one of the main ways to discover and understand the social, intellectual and

cultural differences between two different countries is by means of studying its language.

1.4.2 Cultural Awareness

As written before,it is planned that speaking activities must be based on culture issues.

However, it is not enough. Including culture in the English classes is not such a simple task. In

the L2 classroom, when proposing cultural topics, not only must the teacher give information and

present the topic but also one must make sure that students can notice the difference between the

cultural subject of the foreign country or countries that are being exposed and propose them to

compare it to their own cultural baggage and values . Consequently, they can be asked to

participate orally. This is cultural awareness. Tomalin and Stempleski (1993:5) claim that

cultural awareness is “sensitivity to the impact of culturally induced behavior on language and

used communication” All in all, the activities proposed on this project are also intended to awake

students’ cultural awareness.

To develop activities based on cultural awareness can lead students to be aware of

cultural misunderstandings that they can find when traveling abroad. Therefore, it would be

easier for them to survive in another country in which Spanish is not spoken because some

specific contents are designed to be worked on. For example, different ways of greetings,

communication through gestures, climate differences et cetera. To achieve in, students and

teacher are expected to have a continuous interaction in the L2 class because it is through the

communication of personal experiences and points of view that cultural awareness is gained. As

Norton (1997) proposes, these activities must be based on the examination of lifestyles, culture


shock and patterns of communication in order to create cultural identity at the same time.

However, incorporating culture awareness in the classroom can also help students to better

appreciate their own culture and respect the others.

1.4.3 Culture in Language Teaching

As it was previously stated, culture and language are strongly linked. Therefore, it is vital

that students start realizing that studying a foreign language means that they have to keep in

touch with people and outdoor situations, so learning a foreign language is a process that goes

beyond the memorization and application of mere grammatical rules and exercises in the

classroom. When studying a foreign language, learners must be aware of knowing correctly how

to make a request or a comment, express emotions and gratitude, greet people, and they have

always to take into account the cultural differences. After all, to study another language suggests

the study of foreign characteristics. That is the reason why McDevitt (2004) states that teacher

and students need to to study the cultural interface and discover its possibilities.

In the same way, Chastian (1971) alleges that having access to cultural aspects of the

language allows students to associate sounds, rules and forms of a language with real people and

places, which enriches the learning process. According to Politzer (1959), foreign languages

teachers must be interested in studying and teaching culture, indeed, they have to do it. “If we

teach language without teaching at the same time the culture in which it operates, we are

teaching meaningless symbols or symbols to which the student attaches the wrong meaning”

(Politzer, 1959:100-101). That is to say, it is necessary that culture must be taught because unless

teachers start doing that, students cannot appreciate and realize the real meaning and importance


of learning a new language since they do not know the elements and applications that are behind

those symbols and rules that are being learned.

Besides, Fairclough (1989) claims that language is not a mere system of series but a

discourse, which is constructed in the dynamic formation of social relationships. He also says

that “language is not an autonomous construct”. When considering the importance of the

language in our current societies, Fairclough states that language has dramatically increased its

functions and uses in peoples’ everyday life, such as job, home, relationships. The importance of

language has grown so much that language itself is related to power, and people should not

ignore it. Fairclough also alleges that this tendency is because of the teaching language process

in schools because social and personal functions connected to the usage of language are ignored.

It can be said that due to the significance and the impact of foreign languages in our connected

world, teaching culture can be considered as an element that can lead people to change their

perception towards what the study of a foreign language really means. After all, it is through

teaching culture that teachers can show the reality of foreign societies, behaviors, people,

customs and so on.

When teaching culture in the L2 classroom, the teacher is expected and demanded to

bring some extra pedagogical material in order to make students feel familiar with the target

culture. Therefore, the simple marker and text book are not enough since these pedagogical aids

are thought to catch student’s attention. It is important to say that materials, activities and

cultural topics employed in the classroom can be freely selected by the teacher depending on the

students’ English level and age.

The cultural activities and the materials must be carefully planned before starting any

class. Although, there can be plenty of materials and activities that can be employed in the L2


class, the implementation of authentic material is essential. For example: menus, films, video

clips, magazines, newspaper, photos, listening exercises, cultural experiences, maps and other

printed materials (Peterson and Coltrane, 2003).

When trying to identify what type of topics can be discussed while implementing culture

in language teaching, there are also several possibilities, and once again it is the teacher who

chooses what topics among them could be the most suitable to the students. Distinctly, students’

characteristics must be considered when doing so. For example, a little of history and

background of the foreign language that is studied, its importance and usages in the real life as

well as in how many countries it is spoken throughout the world. Furthermore, when learning

about other countries and cultures, topics such as leisure time and activities, family, some

popular celebrations, climate, clothing, idioms and colloquial expressions, non-verbal

communication, ways of greeting, food, accent and possible pronunciation dissimilarities,

humor, sports, television can be employed (Cakir, 2006).

These themes are thought to develop students’ cultural awareness since they have the

opportunity to make comparisons among cultures. When comparing two cultures, it is essential

that the teacher be a positive influence on the students’ way of thinking because one must

explain that the purpose of these themes is not to underestimate any cultures that ate being

studied. On the contrary, the teacher is expected to promote tolerance and the idea of diversity.

1.4.4 Definition of Motivation

During the development of this current project, the teacher did not only concentrate on

the implementation and creation of cultural topics and activities in the L2 class, but also on

another factor that is designed to be the complement of teaching culture. That element is

motivation. However, this study only focuses on one type of motivation, which is called


integrative motivation. Both, cultural awareness and integrative motivation must be developed at

the same time. It can be said that one depends on the other in order to obtain useful results and

accomplish the objectives proposed in this pedagogic component.

A simple definition of motivation can be “Internal and external factors that stimulate

desire and energy in people to be continually interested in and committed to a job, role, or

subject, and to exert persistent effort in attaining a goal” (Business dictionary).

Motivation in education has such a relevant role because its main goal consists of

incentivizing, changing or even stopping behavior. Therefore, the teacher is estimated to show

students the benefits that they will receive when performing the best of their abilities in academic

settings (Asiaeuniversity). That is to say, motivation cannot be absent in the class because

unmotivated students could passively behave towards the activities proposed by the teacher. This

is why Aldermar (1999) claims that teachers have the responsibility to aid students to cultivate

personal qualities of motivation that lead them to study independently, achieve goals and

participate.

Rost (2006) states that “without student motivation, there is no pulse; there is no life in

the class”. Besides, when writing about the importance of motivation in the second foreign

language context, Rost also alleges that motivation is the essence of language teaching because

in most of EFL contexts there are not enough opportunities to interact with foreign people, strong

models who promote the English learning process, not even a proper approval of the idea of

becoming a fluent English speaker in the society. According to the author, there are three (3)

layers in order to become a motivating foreign language teacher. These are: A) finding your

passion, in which the learner connects English to his/her real passion in the real life. B) Changing

your reality, in which students have chances to maintain strong connection to the target language

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/external-factors.html

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/energy.html

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/job.html

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/role.html

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/goal.html


outside the classroom. C) Connecting to learning activities, in which it is planned to engage in

intention, attention, and memory in the activity itself. Finally, Rost considers that the first layer

is the most important because it is the one that allows the other two to arise.

Under these circumstances, it is necessary that foreign language teachers learn how to

properly motivate their students. After all, there are several types of motivation and definitions.

However, teachers must always have in mind that they have to make students feel passionate

about foreign languages, especially when students are novice at the area since they could be

afraid of participating or taking some risks when having to express an idea in English. That is to

say, students also do need to be congratulated in order to make them feel sure about their abilities

and keen on continue working.

1.4.5 Integrative Motivation

Researchers such as Schumann (1986) have stated that basically there are two types of

motivation in the second language learning process. These are: Integrative and Instrumental

motivation and both do differ from the each other. On the one hand, integrative motivation wants

students to learn a second language in order to meet new people, talk with them, discover a new

culture and become like speakers of the target language. On the other hand, instrumental

motivation is little interested in either people who speak the target language nor in their culture,

so it is intended that students learn a target language for more utilitarian reasons. For example:

To gain recognition or a pay rise. As Schumann suggests, integrative motivation is more

powerful than instrumental one because it seeks that learners can interact, admire and learn new

features that are strongly linked to the target culture.

In the same way, taking into account that culture is closely connected to language, Tang

(1999) states that “the person who has "integrative" motivation simply acknowledges that he or


she is actively seeking to know about the culture” That person would probably really interested

in knowing about the night-life of those foreign countries, visiting places that are no related to

work, reading more about history and national festivals and other celebrations and so on. That is

to say, integrative motivation and culture help students to discover a new world that is connected

to the target language and they ignored before. Consequently, students can find out that learning

foreign languages is actually a motivating labor since they can realize it has so many usages in

real life.

Schumann (1986) states that the success of the integrative motivation depends on the

context. If learners can interact with the native speakers, such as in the United States, it is

supposed that they will achieve in improving their English proficiencies. On the contrary, it is no

recommended to use integrative orientation. However, other researchers such as Benson (1991)

who affirms that in the EFL context, the integrative motivation can be developed as well. This is

because integrative orientation does represent the idea and desire of becoming bilingual and

bicultural at the same time. Therefore, it can be done by means of the addition of another

language and culture so that it can be compared to the own students’ cultural identity, which is

also called cultural awareness.

Gardner (2001) alleges that when students learn a subject, such as Geography or

Arithmetic, this process does not involve any personal conflict since those areas are part of the

student’s culture. Nonetheless, learning a second language is such a distinct process because it

suggests that students must be willing to understand and incorporate other grammatical

structures, speech sounds, and behavior patterns. Consequently, learning a second language is an

integrative development. All in all, teachers not only must show and include cultural issues in the

L2 class but also they must encourage students to accept and learn how to use all of those new


concepts in real life. Furthermore, Gardner also assures the integrative motivation features will

remain despite the number of new motivational tendencies that can arise.

According to these researchers, the relation between culture and motivation in the L2

class is marked. Both, cultural awareness and integrative motivation depend on each other in

order to assure students’ achievement in the second language learning process.


1.5 Methodology

As it was proposed in the objectives of this project, it is planned to improve students’

communicative English competence. Taking into account the characteristics of the population

and the context, it was necessary to increase the number of hours that students took to study

English as a subject in order to have proper time to apply this scheme and its pedagogic proposal.

Communication is the exchange of thoughts, information, and messages by means of words,

signals or behavior. Communication is related to sharing and its process is complete when the

listener understands the message of the speaker (Wikipedia 2012). This study does take the

communicative approach and the intercultural one as teaching guidance that must be followed in

order to correctly apply the thematic content and attain the estimated purposes. Both approaches

have as objective to promote the communicative competence in the L2 class.

1.5.1 Communicative approach

According to Canale and Swain (1980), communicative approach is based on functions

more than the application of grammatical rules. As a result, students learn how to describe,

invite, apologize, express surprise and sadness et cetera. That is to say, language is used in order

to satisfy the learner’s large number of socio-cultural needs.

It is important to state that when applying this project, students only worked on the

development of speaking abilities and communicative competence during all the class. However,

they continued attending their normal English classes, which were mainly emphasized on

grammatical competence. According to Canale and Swain (1980) communicative competence is

the mixture of both grammatical competence or knowledge of the use of grammar and socio-

linguistic component or knowledge of the rules of language. Therefore, it can be alleged that

during the development of this study both, normal and extra classes complemented each other


since students had the opportunity to put into practice and learn more about how to use in real

life what they had previously studied.

Based on the works of Doughty and Long (2003) Brandl (2007) created a list of eight (8)

communicative language teaching principles. Only are the principles employed during the

development of this project mentioned next.

Promote learning by doing; when developing activities in the L2 classroom, those

activities must be tied to real world events and situations. Besides, learning by doing proposes

that learners must actively use the target language from the mere beginning because they should

be encouraged to improve their skills little by little. Consequently, students can learn how to

express freely their emotions, comments, ideas and so on. The more scholars can practice, the

more they can actively use the target language and cease feeling insecure about speaking and

participating.

Input needs to be rich ;it is demanded that the teacher uses several resources that can

show multiple contexts, situations and usages of the target language in the classroom so that

students can better understand how the target language is used in real life and is employed in

order to satisfy personal needs. Because of this, it is essential that authentic material be used in

the classroom. For instance: multimedia resources, menus, listening exercises, readings, photos

and so on. By means of authentic resources, students can even feel more motivated and the

learning process can be considered as a fruitful experience.

Input needs to be meaningful, comprehensible and elaborated; this principle suggests that

the resources and material used in the L2 classroom should be meaningful to the students.

Therefore, the teacher is demanded to take into account the student’s English level so that

developed activities could be understood by the scholars. Elaborated input also means having the


opportunity to make it potentially useful to the learners. In the same way, all the pedagogic aids

must be strongly linked to the class objectives. Consequently, it should be easier for students to

correlate all the new information and structures being studied. However, Doughty and Long

(2003) also state that elaborated input also refers to some strategies that the teacher can apply in

order to make non-native speakers understand what it is being talked about. For example: the

teacher’s accessibility to students’ questions, body language, repetition, slower speech rate,

usage of simple language and comprehension checks, such as what does it mean? Is this correct?

Promote Cooperative and Collaborative Learning; students are demanded to learn how

to work in small groups or in pairs in order to complete activities or solve problems. Whenever a

collaborative activity is proposed, students have to share ideas among them and are encouraged

to use the L2 in order to communicate with each other. Besides, by means of interaction, students

can also negotiate meaning and the role each will take during the development of the activity.

Another advantage that can be noticed when working in small groups is the enrichment of the

relationships and comradeship among scholars. On the other hand, this principle also gives the

teacher the responsibility to move from group to group, offer advice and answer questions,

mainly if students are novice.

Focus on form; although, it has openly debated the use of grammar teaching in the L2

classroom, the communicative approach also leads with this matter. However, the focus on form

principle concentrates on teaching grammar structures that are strongly related to communicative

goals. That is to say, before students can express ideas, opinions or social needs, it is vital that

they learn firstly some key grammar points that will help them to achieve in it.

Provide error correcting feedback; as students are often asked to participate orally and

have the opportunity to express their opinions and perceptions, individually or in groups, in the


L2 classroom, the idea of feedback is necessary. All in all, there are two types of feedback. The

first one is called positive feedback, in which correctness of a student’s answer or opinion is

showed. For instance, when the teacher expresses agreeing or shows understanding. The second

one is called negative feedback, in which an error correction is applied. For example, if the

teacher or the students themselves correct a pronunciation or grammar mistake made by a

partner.

Recognize and Respect Affective Factors of Learning; this principle suggests that

motivation, nervousness, and fear of participation must be important elements to work on while

developing a class. On the one hand, through motivation, teachers can lead students to do their

best so that they will obtain remarkable results and personal achievement. On the other hand, not

feeling nervous or afraid to participate must be a teacher’s labor as well because students need to

feel comfortable and realize that the L2 classroom is a space where they go to learn.

1.5.2 Intercultural approach

According to Saluveer (2004), the intercultural approach is chiefly based on discussing

and finding comparisons and relations between the learners’ own culture and the country or

countries where the target language is spoken. Due to this design, Saluveer also states that this

approach does help students to develop their intercultural and communicative competences. As it

can be seen, applying the intercultural approach is a significant way to promote cultural

awareness in the L2 classroom since the latter suggest that foreign language learners can notice

the differences in values, linguistic and speech aspects, social norms and other elements between

their own and the foreign culture.

Corbett (2003) alleges that through intercultural approach, students are expected to

develop “discovery” skills and critical stance and liberal morality because it is planned to


compare and reflect on foreign activities, routines, behaviors when learning a foreign language,

so it is expected that learners show tolerance and admiration towards the L2 culture. According

to this author, whenever a cultural topic is presented and applied in the L2 classroom, it must be

openly discussed, thus students are expected to give their opinions and thoughts on it as well.

Besides, some aids and strategies can be used in order to promote communication and

intercultural issues in the class. For example, reading and listening activities, images, videos,

verbal descriptions, personal opinions and experiences. Listening, reading exercises and videos

should be employed to show different people and differences in speech and common activities.

These strategies and activities not only do promote fluency but also cultural awareness.

However, it can also be stated that the intercultural approach is a useful way to support the

integrative motivation because it guides students to learn how to behave and reside in a foreign

society taking into account the possible culture shocks, social and linguistic differences they can

find abroad.

When writing about the importance of the intercultural approach in the L2 classroom

Corbett (2003) claims that an intercultural student could be more skilled than a monolingual

native speaker. Although, the target language has not totally been mastered by learners,

communication among several communities can be made. This is because students have

somehow been trained to interact with and respect other people who live in foreign countries. In

the same way, Chlopek (2008) states that EFL learners are thought to become successful

intercultural communicators. Nonetheless, there are still people who feel intolerance, prejudice

and have negative stereotypes about other cultures and countries. Consequently, the intercultural

approach can be synonymous with understanding, tolerance, acceptance, intercultural

communication and respect.


1.5.3 Developed activities

During the development of this project, eight (8) cultural topics were developed in the

class. The different activities were designed to accomplish the objectives that this pedagogic

component formulates. Consequently, the student’s English level and the communicative skills

in order to be achieved, according to the CERF A1 and A2 levels, the inclusion of cultural

awareness and integrative motivation features in education were taken into account before the

application of every one of these activities. In addition, it can be noticed that some materials

were employed as it is suggested by Peterson and Coltrane (2003). Finally, all the next cultural

topics chosen were recommended by Cakir (2006).

1.5.3.1 General introduction to the English language

This was the first topic to be discussed during the course. This activity was done in

Spanish since students were supposed to have an A1 level; it was not intended to make students

feel confused. Moreover, the teacher had intended to catch everyone’s attention. Before saying

anything, the teacher wrote on the board “ENGLISH LANGUAGE” and asked students if they

had any idea about it. Basically, this introduction consisted of telling students about the English

language and some issues related to it. For instance: in how many countries it is spoken and

some examples of countries and cities, a little of its history, the existence of different accents and

pronunciations around the world, the importance of knowing English in the nowadays society

and why the study of foreign languages is related to culture.

Moreover, students were also motivated to ask questions about the topic. Finally, the teacher

explained to the students that the purpose of the discussion on English language is to know or

have a general idea about what is being studied.


Although, it was not done in the target language, this very first introduction is considered

to be significant and motivating because students could not have had in mind all of these aspects

that do define the study of a foreign language. Therefore, it can be said that through this first (1st)

explanation and interaction between teacher and students, it was intended to start promoting the

two (2) factors proposed by this proposal, cultural awareness and integrative motivation, from

the very beginning of its development.

The purposes of this activity were:

To give a general introduction to the English language by telling some of its most

important features.

To start promoting the idea of culture, foreign languages and cultural awareness.

To arise students’ motivation towards the English language.

To create a comfortable environment in the classroom by listening to and answering

different student’s questions and opinions on the topic.

Table 3Summary of developed activities. First topic

TOPIC ACTIVITIES APPROACH

General introduction to the

English language.

Short presentation and

explanation.

Oral interaction among students

and student-teacher.

Intercultural approach

1.5.3.2 Greetings and Personal information

As students were expected to have their first conversation in English or express their first

ideas in this language based on this greetings and personal information, some activities by using

distinct aids and strategies were created. To do so, it was necessary to employ authentic material


during the development of this activity, as suggested by the culture in language teaching features

and the first (1st) communicative approach principle, called “Input needs to be rich”.

Students were asked to keep silence and listen up, so the teacher introduced himself in

English twice and told some personal information. After that, students were motivated to tell

some pieces of information in the target language they were able to understand. To have better

results, the common questions and answers used in order to greet and introduce oneself were

quickly reviewed and practiced orally. During this process both, proper pronunciation and a

constant participation were asked.

Two (2) short videos were watched. The first one showed three different people from

different countries speaking about themselves. The second video showed a man and a

receptionist exchanging personal information. As a relevant feature, people who appear in the

videos are of different races and have diverse accents. The videos were played twice.

Afterwards, the teacher asked some questions about the characters’ information. Students were

also demanded to pay attention to the possible differences in accent and speed they spoke. The

diversity of local dialects was reminded about, so what is really important is to speak clearly and

students were encouraged to speak in English because this can be done by anyone. Therefore, it

was proposed that students spoke about them but they had to invent all their personal information

as if they actually lived in a foreign country. That is to say, they invented a phone number, a

name and last name according to the country, and so on. Then, every student invented a short

monologue. This activity supported the idea of “learning by doing” because students were asked

to use the target language in order to express ideas and personal features.

The teacher explained the possessive adjectives as a grammatical topic to work on, so

some questions were written on the board and each student had to answer them all by taking into


account their personal tastes and hobbies. For example: What’s your/her/his favorite book, band,

country, and movie?

A listening exercise was done. Students listened twice to a tape script about personal

information and had to fill in some blanks. Once again, the two (2)people ,who spoke in the tape

scrip, came from different countries. Having done that, students were freely asked to read aloud

the information they had just heard. After that, two (2) videos were played. The first video

showed some people greeting in their native languages, such as French and Russian and the

translating their messages in English. The second video showed two people greeting each other

in different ways, one bows and the other person wants to shake hands. Therefore, students can

see a clear and common culture shock in real life. Students are demanded to express what other

ways of greeting people they knew and the teacher explains some others and the countries where

they are commonly done. Having understood that, students were asked to create a short

conversation with a partner. They had to suppose one student visited a foreign country, so the

guest had to respect the local way of greeting. This activity included cultural awareness and

integrative motivation as well since students were encouraged to take part in other societies by

respecting their local values. Furthermore, working in groups is one of the main ways to

encourage students to participate in the L2 class. After all, this principle is called “promote

collective and collaborative learning”.

The objectives of these activities were:

To learn how to introduce oneself and greet people taking into account the local features.

To show students the diversity of the English language and practice the listening

proficiency at the same time.

To promote cultural awareness, respect and acceptation towards other societies.


To motivate students to participate actively in all the speaking activities without feeling

afraid of speaking in English.

Table 4Summary of developed activities. Second topic

TOPIC ACTIVITIES APROACH

Greetings and personal

information

Exchange of information, oral

comparison and answering

questions.

Personal monologue.

Listening exercise and videos

comprehension.

Short role play.

Communicative approach


1.5.3.3 People and lifestyles

It is important that students use the structures that they have already learned in order to

express and satisfy real needs (Canale and Swain 1980) consequently, this activity was planned

to learn how to describe people and places. In this activity, it was designed to make students

understand that there are several practices and lifestyles that are common in some countries.

Before starting the activity, the teacher explained that students must describe and look

carefully a series of photos. They had to describe everything, the environment, people’s clothes,

the places, the activity they are doing, and so on. If they found it difficult to describe what

people in the pictures are doing, they just had to guess and later the teacher would tell them if

they were wrong or right. It was proposed to use the present continuous and simple as

grammatical structures to describe what they can see. That is to say, the “focus on form”

principle was applied in this activity.

Six (6) photos were showed one by one to the students. The pictures are considered to be

authentic material because they are real pictures taken in real places; they were downloaded from


the National Geographic website. Consequently, whenever the teacher showed a picture, the title

of it was written on the board, and then students had to describe what they could see. Because of

it, they had the opportunity to freely choose their preferred vocabulary in order to participate and

give opinions. Whenever, any student did decide to take part in the activity, the teacher did

listen carefully and congratulated her on the effort made, which is also called “Recognize and

Respect Affective Factors of Learning” Besides, the teacher asked some questions about them

such as do you think they are friends? How old is this girl? This is because students are wanted

to speak in English as much as possible. As soon as all the pictures were showed and described,

the teacher asked each student to answer what’s your favorite picture? And which of those

countries you would like to go.

To include cultural awareness in the class through the intercultural approach, the teacher

asked what activities done by those people are also common in Colombia. This is because most

of the photos did show people doing or celebrating typical labors. For example: The picture

number two (2) is called “Good Friday procession, Italy” and it shows a very old woman looking

out a catholic procession from her bedroom. The objectives of this activity were:

To learn how to orally describe people, places and activities by means of authentic

photos.

To learn about some habits and lifestyle that are practiced in different foreign countries

and which ones are also related to the Colombian culture and show real environments in

order to give students the opportunity to know how people from other counties look like.

To make students realize that they can also travel to those places and interact with the

local people.


Table 5 Summary of developed activities. Third topic


People and lifestyles

Oral exchange of information and

comparison between teacher and

students.

Oral description using concrete

grammatical structures.

To answer orally questions

proposed by the teacher.



.

1.5.3.4 Culture shock

Because of the content presented in this activity, it was necessary to include both

approaches the intercultural and the communicative ones. Before starting, the title of this topic

was written on the board and students were asked to guess what a culture shock could mean.

Moreover, the present simple and continuous were quickly reviewed because those topics would

be useful for the development of the oral activity. This topic gave students a significant

opportunity to speak in English and learn about other cultures and some social values. As in the

activity that was mentioned before, students had to use different vocabulary and structures in

order to describe a situation. Nonetheless, three (3) video clips instead of pictures were decided

to be used. This topic presented the incorporation of both cultural awareness and integrative

motivation components because students noticed that meeting people and being part of a foreign

society demands them to be aware of local values and practices that can be really different form

the ones done here. Because of the content of the videos, which was funny, this activity was

planned to learn and have some fun at the same time. For instance, the second video was about

an English man who goes to China for business and has some trouble in the restaurant where he


and the entrepreneurs are having a meeting because of the food and the way he gets the plate up

when finishing eating that, which in that country, it means I am not satisfied.

Having made the concept of culture shock clear, students were told about the activity.

The first video was watched twice and then students had to describe everything about the video.

For example: what was going on, the people, the places, and their clothes. Also, they had to pay

attention to what people were talking about or doing in order to understand what the cultural

shock was about. Later, the video was played one more time, so the second and third videos were

worked on the same way. Due to the large number of opinions and ideas given by the

participants, it was vital to follow principally two (2) of the communicative approach principles,

which are “provide error correcting feedback” and “recognize and respect affective factors of

learning. This is because, during the interaction with students and participation, the teacher had

to afford positive feedback in order to better motivate students to continue participating and not

feeling afraid of communicating ideas and thoughts on the topic.

Besides, students were asked to speak about some culture shock that foreigners could have

when they visit Colombia. The teacher was also concerned about motivating students to speak

and participate using their experience or own ideas. To make the class be more comfortable and

motivating, the teacher told students about another culture shock that they know. Thus students

had to say what they could understand and finally all of them were able to completely

comprehend it. For this type of exercises the goals were:

To continue working on learning how to describe and express opinions orally.

To learn and understand the meaning of culture shock by means of funny videos and real

situations that people who ignore the local values can face in real life.


To promote the concepts of culture awareness, integrative motivation, tolerance and

refusal against ethnocentrism.

Table 6Summary of developed activities. Fourth topic


Culture shock


comparisons between teacher and

students.

Oral and detailed description using

concrete grammatical structures.

Giving other culture shock

examples.



1.5.3.5 Colloquial expressions and exclamations

Colloquial expressions are part of every language around the world. It can be said that a

colloquial expression or idiom is a series of words or a single one that replaces a standard verb.

By means of this activity, students managed to realize that there are other ways to express ideas

in other languages as they do in their native one, Spanish. This topic was intended to exercise the

oral production and allowed students to express ideas informally. After all, the teacher also had

to explain when and with whom the colloquial expressions should be used. This is because, it is

also necessary to learn how to use them correctly in real life. As colloquial expressions also have

social and cultural meaning, students had the opportunity to grow intellectually and culturally at

the same time. Furthermore, taking into account the role of speech in foreign societies, this

theme supports integrative motivation in the L2 classroom. Through the use of role play, students

can act as if they were having an everyday situation, in which they employ both colloquial

expressions and exclamations.

After explaining the meaning of colloquial expressions and asking them to give some

others in their native language in order to better understand the topic, four (4) colloquial


expressions were taught. Whenever the teacher wrote one on the board, students were asked to

guess what it meant. One of the colloquial expressions was “hit the roof”, which means get

angry. The teacher wrote on the board the question what makes you angry? And then every

single student had to answer it.

After that, the teacher gave four (4) short conversations to the students in which

colloquial expression and exclamations were included. It was recommended by the supervisor

that the teacher should read them first and then they can be written on the board in order to

exercise students’ listening proficiency. So, students had to work in pairs and played the roles of

one of the characters. However, they were strongly encouraged to pronounce by changing the

intonation that every conversation demanded depending on the mood of the characters. All of the

students participated. In this case, it was decided to give students what they had to say because

the activity focused on learning how to express emotions and changes of intonation when

speaking and using idioms and particular language features such as the exclamations “Phew” or

“C’mon”. It was considered that it is little difficult for beginners to incorporate informal

language into their speech, but it is essential that they can start to since informal language and

idioms are basically used in all the foreign societies. Besides, seeing the conversations, students

learned how to write them. All in all, the next communicative approach principles were worked

on: “learning by doing”, “input needs to be meaningful and comprehensible” and “promote

cooperative and collaborative learning”. The next aims were worked on:

To incorporate colloquial expressions and exclamations in the everyday speech.

To make students actively participate in the two (2) speaking activities by showing them

colloquial English features that are not often taught in their ordinary English classes.


To compare how those idioms are said in Spanish and learn what standards verbs they

replace.

To practice how to interact, react and express emotions in the target language as well as

the proper usage of the colloquial expressions and exclamations in a foreign society.

Table 7Summary of developed activities. Fifth topic


Colloquial expressions and

exclamations

Explanation and oral interaction

with students.

Role play, worked in pairs.


1.5.3.6 Seasons and leisure activities

To properly develop the topic, it was necessary to bring some extra material, which

consisted by a listening exercise and a printed guide. In the same way, it was designed to work

on some speaking exercises, in which students expressed their own preferences and specific

information about the reading. The listening and the printed guide were created and chosen

taking into account the students’ English level. Consequently, it can be said that the materials of

this activity did followed the first two communicative approach principles, “input needs to be

rich and meaningful”

During the development of the activities, it was planned that students could realize not

only how the climate and the existence of seasons do affect the leisure activities practiced by the

locals but also different accents and variations in the English pronunciation. This is the reason

why three (3) different people, two (2) women and one (1) man, from distinct countries were

exposed. Listening to those three (3) people who spoke about different activities and had

language variations, although they had the English language in common, encouraged students


integratively because it led them to discover that having different accents does not matter, the

most important point in oral communication is to speak clearly no matter where you come from.

Moreover, comparing and thinking about foreign and Colombian leisure activities that can be

influenced by the weather permitted students to understand the importance of climate in

everyday life. This is cultural awareness as well because linguistic issues and social ones are

being studied and spoken about in the L2 classroom.

Listening carefully to the tape script, allowed students notice the oral dissimilarities and

make some pronunciations of unknown words clear. Additionally, they had a general idea about

the reading. Then, students were motivated to read. It was stated that they had to focus on having

a good pronunciation, not on the speed. Afterwards, the teacher asked some questions about the

three (3) people and they had to be answered orally.

Having done that, a chart was drawn on the board, thus students have to say the common

activities that are done in each country mentioned in the tape script. Finally, students were asked

to answer orally, some questions such as which of those activities written in the chart can be

done in Colombia and which ones cannot? Which accent do you like most? Which activity

would you like to practice? The goals of this activity were:

To describe people’s activities depending on the weather conditions.

To be conscious of the role of the climate in every country.

To promoting the idea of biculturalism, English oral differences and cultural awareness.

Table 8Summary of developed activities. Sixth topic


Reading and listening exercise.

Spoken Interaction and discussion

of the topic among students and

with the teacher.


Seasons and leisure activities

Oral comparison between the

countries being studied and

Colombia.

Oral answers to the questions

proposed by the teacher.


1.5.3.7 Non-verbal communication

The non-verbal communication is another way to express ideas since any person can

communicate a specific message or attitude by means of his/her hands or body gestures. It was

necessary to explain that every country has particular gestures, so it is understandable that the

meaning or a certain gesture can differ. Although, most of the time communication is done

through words, gestures also belong to the language. According to Bull (2001), Nonverbal

communication mainly relies on body movements. It includes hand movements, gestures, facial

expressions, gaze, posture and some other elements that people can use in conjunction with their

speech. Therefore, it is essential that students learn some gestures and their meanings in order to

avoid misunderstandings in a foreign country. Gestures can be a source of culture shocks.

Explaining the importance of the gestures in real life at the beginning of the class catches the

students’ attention because they are to learn about an unknown topic.

Students learned how express some ideas by means of gestures. For instance, how to

express the idea of that is perfect, money, I love you, loser and some others. However, it was not

enough. Whenever a gesture was explained, the teacher also said in which countries the meaning

of that gesture could change and gave that alternative meaning. For example: In U.S.A the

gesture that expresses “rock and roll”, in Australia it means “To cheat somebody”. After

practicing orally and demanding several students to go in front of the class and made some

gestures in order to be explained, the teacher demanded students to make some gestures that do

belong to the Colombian environment and are not well known abroad.


Finally, students were quite motivated to put all those learned gestures into practice and

use them when speaking English and want to use their hands and body instead of words.

Consequently, the importance of this topic is considerable since it has a real application in real

life. After having done the exercises, students are supposed to have a more complete idea about

culture shock, language functions and social treatment. The purposes of this activity were:

To incorporate the use of non-verbal communication in student’s English speaking and

learning process.

To avoid misunderstandings and culture shock caused by the wrong use of gestures.

To integrate students into an environment in which they can understand the importance of

the non-verbal communication and can use the target language in order to describe them.

Table 9Summary of developed activities. Seventh topic


Non-verbal communication


comparison between teacher and

students as well as among learners

themselves.

Oral exercise, speech with non-

verbal communication.


1.5.3.8 In the restaurant

It was necessary to use some pedagogic aids in order to correctly develop this activity.

Therefore, it was decided to take two (2) videos clips and a printed piece of paper, which was

actually a menu created by the teacher. By means of the first video, it was taught how people

should make a request and offer food and drinks at a restaurant because it was about a native

English speaker who explained the most common grammar structures to do so. While watching


the video, it was decided to make some pauses because it was necessary to explain and write on

the board the key points. Besides, students were encouraged to concentrate on what the person

was talking about; the teacher also repeated some important statements that the speaker said but

were not well understood by the learners. Having repeated and explained the ways to make

request and offer at a restaurant, the second video clip was watched. That video showed areal

couple that went to a restaurant and ordered different meals. Because of the content of the video,

students were highly motivated to identify the previous grammar sentences explained and the

way the three (3) people behaved, the couple and the waitress. Moreover, it was watched twice.

After that, students were asked about the context, the expressions they understood, the manner

people spoke and about the way Colombian people behave and speak at a restaurant in order to

compare both cultures.

This activity also included integrative motivation features because it was advised to speak

clearly and what kind of vocabulary it should be used when going to a restaurant. Furthermore,

students were encouraged not to feel nervous about meeting other people or visiting other places

such as restaurants, in this particular case.

A role play was proposed as a communicative activity. It was decided that students would

work in groups of three people and they had to create the dialogues. Students received the

teacher’s help because they were suggested to act as if they really were at a restaurant in a

foreign country. To develop the activity, students used some chairs and desks as well as the

menu created by the teacher (see Appendix H). Consequently, it was seen what they can ask for

when ordering. The objectives of this activity were:

To learn how to use the target language in order to make a request or offer meals

at a restaurant.


To practice the listening proficiency while the videos were showed.

To study some key grammar structures used when offering and serving.

To promote the work in groups and the communication among students.

Table 10Summary of developed activities. Eighth topic


In the restaurant

Short explanation by means of

videos and key points.

Role play, in groups of three (3)

people.


1.5.4 Schedule

To develop the activities corresponding to the pedagogical component as well as the

research one a special schedule was granted by the main teacher, the principal sister and the

teacher trainee. It was decided to work with two groups 9a and 9b. Both courses have English

class on Fridays. After having observed two classes and having identified the problem to solve,

the teacher trainee considered applying a proposal that would include culture and motivation in

order to improve the students’ speaking English level.

As the application of this project needed enough time to work on the different cultural

activities, it was necessary to find extra time to do so. After all, the time students study English

consists of only two hours per week. Besides, it was seen that main teacher would not give much

time to the teacher trainee because she was concerned about the development of grammatical

competence and the use of textbooks. Therefore, it was decided that students had to attend extra


English classes in the afternoons. It was such a proper solution because it let the teacher trainee

to work freely the communicative activities based on cultural awareness and integrative

motivation.

Table 11 Ordinary schedule

ORDINARY SCHEDULE

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

6:45 to 8:25am 9A

9:15 to 10:05 am

10:35 to 11:25 am

9B

9a students would attend extra classes on Wednesdays and 9b students on Thursdays. The

extra classes would take place at the Escuela Normal Maria Auxiliadora in the classroom 9d.

Besides, students of both groups would attend extra English classes every other fifteen (15) days.

Despite going to the school in the afternoons, it was also agreed that the teacher trainee would

attend ordinary classes on Fridays in order to work with the teacher and accompany the group

during the process.

Table 12Schedule of project application

SCHEDULE OF PROJECT APPLICATION

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

3:00 to 5:00 pm 9A

3:00 to 5:00 pm 9B


CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH COMPONENT

This chapter explains all the research process developed by the teacher trainee, from the

selection of the research design to the exposition of results and conclusions.

2.1 Introduction to the research component

As explained and showed in detail in the pedagogic component, the communicative

competence is considered as the main objective to accomplish. Therefore, a number of eight (8)

cultural topics were worked in the L2 classroom through the application of two (2) approaches,

the communicative and the intercultural one.

However, this chapter does concentrate on the research method that was used during the

development of this project. The type of research applied in this study is called action research.

Through the action research method, it was possible to observe the students’ evolution during the

course, to decide what data collecting instruments were applied and to gather information so that

the incorporation of both, cultural awareness and integrative motivation can be useful for the

learning process.

This component also presents the background and general definition of action research,

the steps to follow and the type of action research employed by the researcher. When referring to

the methodology, elements, such as context, sample, data-collection instruments, results, data

analysis, and graphics, are showed. By means of all these features, the steps and all the research

process followed, before the results could have been stated, can be understood.


2.2 Justification of the research component

From the beginning, it was designed that the person who led this current project would

have more than one task, to teach and to develop a research process. It is the reason why that

person is called teacher trainee in the pedagogic component but in this chapter he is called

researcher instead. Under these circumstances, it can be alleged that action research method is

quite suitable to this project because the researcher was also in charge of the development of the

English pedagogic proposal of two (2) ninth (9th

) grade courses.

This project can be considered as a teaching and research guidance. On the one hand, this

study seeks to promote future research processes in the Colombian educational environment

since this scheme shows a developed research at a real Colombian high-school. In this case,

action research can openly be used by teachers of all institutions because it does aim atthe

learning and teaching process as well as the relationship between teachers and learners. For

example, it was seen that no type of research is developed by the main teachers in the

educational institution. This current study presents the most significant steps and action research

features to take into account when planning to develop future research. On the other hand, this

project seeks to prove that the inclusion of culture awareness and integrative motivation can

guide students not only to improve their communicative competences but also helps them to feel

engaged in foreign language since both, culture and motivation, deal with the promotion of real-

life usage of the language and discovery of human behavior and foreign features.

In the same way, this project is planned to demonstrate that communicative competence

can be improved in the L2 classes. To do so, this project shows different students’ point of


views, thoughts, personal opinions, behavior and attitudes towards the several activities that were

applied during the development of this project.

In general, the final results obtained in this scheme can be the basis of future and deeper

studies of fields, culture and motivation, and their influence on the foreign language teaching

field. Although, it is not a new topic, it seems that, in Colombia, culture and motivation have not

seriously been included in the L2 class.


2.3 Research questions

This study presents one (1) general research question and three (3) specific ones to

answer through its application.

2.3.1 General question

How do cultural awareness and integrative motivation influence the communicative

competence proficiency among 9a and 9b grade students?

2.3.2 Specific questions

How do students react towards cultural and communicative teaching strategies?

What type of cultural topics and strategies do seem to be more suitable for students?

How do cultural awareness and integrative motivation influence the students’ perception

of foreign languages?


2.4 Type of research

As expressed before, in the introduction and justification, the type of research employed

in this project is named action research. According to Ferrance (2000) “action research

specifically refers to a disciplined inquiry done by a teacher” Therefore, action research is

developed in real contexts. That is to say, at schools, universities and other educational

institutions where teachers and students do interact. That is why action research is strongly

applicable in the educational field. Ferrance also states that action research is often collaborative

because it attempts to solve real and everyday problems experienced in schools. Because of this

idea, it is expected to make changes in students’ behavior and increase their achievement. This

type of research is generally conducted by practitioners so that it can be said that they have

control over the study and is in charge of gathering data, making proper decisions that help

him/her to obtain the expected outcomes, assessing and son on. Besides, the precise features or

problems to solve and improve are detected by the practitioner himself.

Rust and Clark (2006) claim that action research must widely be practiced by teachers

because it permits them to reflect on what they do and consider new challenges that can appear

in the teaching field. Moreover, teaching suggests that educators must always continue learning

and growing, thus they can develop action research studies because it gives the opportunity to

detect local problems. Action research starts in a mere classroom but later it can go beyond that,

so it depends on a teacher how far s/he would like to go. Action research can appear due to a

problem that concerns them or affects negatively the teaching process, so it is decided to do

something about it. Applying action research leads them to gather data that can allow them to

make changes in students’ actions or in the teaching strategy (Harmer, 2007).


Considering these elements, it can be stated that action research differs from applied

research. The next table shows the main differences between applied research and action

research. The content of this table was taken from Ellis (1997).

Table 13Applied Research versus Action Research

APPLIED RESEARCH ACTION RESEARCH

It is mainly concerned with establishing relationships

and testing theories.

Its method is more rigorous, studying a large number

of cases, precise variables and sampling techniques

and so on.

It tends to generalize findings and compare

situations.

It usually involves both, qualitative and quantitative

methods.

It usually works on social or educational aims.

Its scientific method is less strict, not much control

over the variables. This is because it just concentrates

on a specific context.

Findings can neither be compared nor generalized.

It does not study any particular case related to

isolation from the rest of the sample.

Basically, it is based on observation behavioral data.

In addition, Ferrance (2000) mentions other unique characteristics of action research that

remarkably make it be different from other types of research. For instance, action research is not

intended to discover what is wrong or correct. In contrast, it is about improving and changing

skills, techniques and strategies.

Taking into account a list of other reasons, provided by Ellis(1997), it can be

demonstrated that action research can be used at any educational establishment, which explains

again why action research was chosen instead of any other research method for the proper

development of this study.


1. Teaching method; it attempts to expose and discover other teaching method. It is

related to innovation.

2. Learning strategies; an integrated approach is used.

3. Attitudes and values; it promotes positive attitudes towards academic activities

or the area. It is about motivation,

4. In-service of development; it helps to improve teacher’s skills, self-growth, improving

professional functioning and so on.

5. Management control; the incorporation of techniques that can promote behavior

modification. For example: job efficiency or relationships.

6. Administration; it is concerned with planning policy-making and the modification of a

school-life aspect.


2.5 Literature review

This literature review focuses on action research and its main features. Taking into

account these aspects, the researcher can understand the required steps to follow and how to

solve the detected problems inside the classroom.

2.5.1 History of Action Research

Through the history of action research Kurt Lewin is often rated its originator. However,

he is also well known as one of the pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology

(Wikipedia, 2012). Adelman (1993) explains that in the 1930s Lewin and his students conducted

quasi-experimental tests in factories and neighborhoods, it was noticed how cooperation,

communication and relationships among people were improved by means of his action research.

Some years later, in the 1940s, Lewin did finally state the very first ideas of Action Research. At

that time, while developing practical experiences, the researcher stated “No action without

research; no research without action”

Adelman (1993) writes about how Lewin tended to understand by action research.

According to the author, action research must start with a discussion of problems so that it

initiates a series of decisions about what to do next. Moreover, action research demands

researchers to have an active participation and to monitor the progress of the process so that

researchers can notice when a particular strategy has been exhausted or new difficulties appear.

Lewin and his companions classified four (4) types of action research: Diagnostic action

research, Participant action research, Empirical action research and Experimental action

research.

After Lewin, a large number of researchers have given different definitions of action

research and a series of steps to follow when doing action research have been formulated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_psychology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_and_organizational_psychology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_psychology


according to (Reason &Bradbury, 2001) it can be defined as “a participatory, democratic process

concerned with developing practical knowing in the pursuit of worthwhile human purposes,

grounded in a participatory worldview… It seeks to bring together action and reflection theory

and practice, in participation with others, in the pursuit of practical solutions to issues of pressing

concern to people, and more generally the flourishing of individual persons and their

communities.”

2.5.2 Type of Action Research

Action research can be collaborative or individual depending on the number of

researchers that can get involved in the process. In this concrete case, the type of action research

chosen in order to develop this project was individual. Although, some people did help during

the development, the main teacher, coordinators, assessor of the university and the principal

Sister herself, they did actually neither make any decision that could have modified the process

nor receive much information about the research details. Moreover, the problems to be improved

were detected by the researcher itself after having observed the institution and two (2) English

classes. To put in other words, this present research was only conducted by one (1) person.

Ferrance (2000) supports the idea of individual Action research and claims that when

using this sort of research the researcher looks for solutions to teaching strategies, student

learning and use of material. The support from parents, directors, coordinators can equally be

received. In the same way, Shiksha (n.d) suggests that individual action research does attempt to

solve specific problems found in the classroom. The data qualitative, quantitative or even both

are gathered by the teacher and, after analyzing and interpreting the results, the teacher can

implement changes in the classroom that can lead him/her to solve the previous problems.

However, Shiksha also states two (2) main drawbacks that the individual action can present. On


the one hand, results are not often shared with others unless the different research projects are

published. On the other hand, it can happen that more than one (1) teacher is working on the

same project at the same time without being aware of the work of others.

2.5.3 Steps in action research

Action research proposes a five (5)-step series that must be followed by researchers when

working with Action research. It does not matter the type of action research selected, individual

or collaborative, the steps remain the same. Even though, the name of the steps can be changed

depending on the author, what is said and proposed continue being basically identical.

After comparing the works of Shiksha (n.d), Rust and Clark (2006) and Ferrance (2000),

the next five (5)-step series was created.

1. Identification of a problem area or Making the commitment; this first step suggests

that the researcher must identify the problem that needs to be solved in the educational setting.

Nonetheless, it is not such an easy task because there are some points to be taken into account in

order to make a remarkable start in action research process. First of all, time and effort intended

to be invested in the project must be clear while deciding what and how to work on the problem.

The problem to be solved must be meaningful to students and teacher alike. Secondly, a general

observation must be made. As a result, several relevant features can be detected. For instance:

who is learning? Who is teaching? What has been worked in the classroom? As well as some

others. Finally, the research question or questions must be written. This is because; having the

research questions formulated helps researchers to know on what it has to be focused. Moreover,

it can avoid wasting time.

2. Organization and collection of data or Designing a study; this second step

recommends, on the one hand, researchers to propose a timeline. A timeline can be considered as


a research schedule. By means of it, it can be planned what to do in every month. It is important

that this timeline match the school calendar since action research is supposed to be developed

during academic periods. On the other hand, it is necessary that the researcher applies

instruments that can lead the inquiry to answer and solve the research question. Although there

are several vehicles for collection of data, it is the researcher itself who decides which ones will

be used. After all, the method process in action research is more flexible, as deeper explained

before. The collecting data instruments that can be employed in action research can be: surveys,

field notes, questionnaires, audio tapes, photos, teacher research journals, samples of student

work, portfolios, videotapes, liker scales, diaries, tests, attendance and so on.

3. Interpretation of data or Making sense of experience; even though, action research

mostly deals with qualitative and behavioral data, quantitative data is also allowed. The former

gathers records of students, opinions, checklists, attitudes, answers to questionnaires and so on.

Besides, those results can be summarized in simple table formats. The latter can be analyzed by

means of simple statistics tables. Probably, this step in action research can be considered as the

most important since the analysis and interpretation of data can guide the researcher to answer

the research questions. That is to say, the data is turned into information. Moreover, this step

demands to take maximum time before going through the other two (2) final stages.

4. Action based on data or improving your practice; having analyzed the obtained data, it

is recommended to rethink the need, the change and the results. For example; it can be wondered

if the results do support the claims, or if colleagues can consider the study as a useful and

confident source. If so, the inquiry can be the base of further studies, done by other researchers

and teachers. Ferrance (2000) also states that based on the data collected, a plan of action, which

allows the researcher to make a change and to study it, can be designed before the inquiry has


finished. Shiksha (n.d) claims that it is not recommended to make several changes at once; it

does not matter if more than one (1) factors did seem to work. On the contrary, focusing on one

(1) single action at a time is a reliable strategy that can demonstrate which action provides better

outcomes.

5. Reflection beginning again; after the research has been completed, the researcher must

assess the effects of the practice so that it can be noticed if improvement has occurred. Besides,

possible future changes or suggestions to obtain better results can be stated in order to help other

researchers interested in the area. All in all, this reflection can provide researchers with deeper

and new questions on the topic. Finally, teachers are expected to start again. That is to say, it is

necessary that they keep doing research in order not to cease discovering new teaching changes

and strategies that could positively affect the learning process.


2.6 Method

The methodology employed in the development of this research project is based on

Ferrance (2000) works since the type of action research and the phases of the inquiry are

provided, which are also known as action research cycle. Besides, the general approach used in

order to develop this action research study is the mixed method. According to Spratt, Walker and

Robinson (2004), “mixed methods studies attempt to bring together methods from different

paradigms” Those paradigms are qualitative and quantitative approaches. This approach is often

employed in order to answer complex research questions that demand both types of data.

Because of the mixture of qualitative and quantitative features, mixed method is sometimes

called “multi-strategy research”. In this study, the qualitative and quantitative methods are

integrated during the data analysis phase taking into account the characteristics of action research

(see subchapter 2.9).

From the beginning of this study, it was decided that the only person who would apply

and develop this scheme was the teacher trainee so that the Individual action research was

chosen. Besides, the five (5) - step series in action research was strictly taken into account by the

researcher because it was necessary to exactly know what to do next and plan how to properly

develop each phase that composes the action research methodology. After all, it can be stated

that it is the first time the action research has been used by the researcher.

As it has been said before, the problem to solve in this project was not detected until the

researcher itself did observe and have contact with not only the English classes and the ninth

(9th

) grade students but also all the educational context. That is to say, director, coordinators,

main teacher, classrooms and all the educational institution in general. Basically, some troubles

were identified; they are: lack of oral production and participation, a teaching methodology


mainly based on grammar structures, poor interest in the area. Under these circumstances, it was

agreed to work on the improvement of communicative competence so that it was necessary to

innovate and apply teaching strategies that could be new to students. Therefore, Cultural

awareness and Integrative motivation were chosen to be the basis of those strategies. As

explained in the Pedagogic component, a number of eight (8) activities were applied. Having

decided the topic and identified the problem to improve, the main and the other three (3) specific

research questions were formulated. It was an important step because it did help the researcher to

know how far the inquiry would go.

To collect data, it was required to firstly choose the sample and the instruments. On the

one hand, due to the large number of the population, a specific number of students were selected

to be the sample. In the subchapter 2.7, participants of the study, it can be seen the number of the

sample, which the data-collection instruments were applied to, its characteristics and the criteria

of selection. This is because the research employs the random sample. On the other hand, in the

subchapter 2.8, it is explained in detail not only the instruments used during the collecting data

process, observation, field journal, Likert scale and questionnaire but also how that process was

developed.

The next step to be followed is data analysis. This part of the project is explained in the

subchapter 2.9, called data analysis. It is important to say that, although, all the collected data

was considered qualitative, this research also deals with quantitative analysis because the

tendencies showed in the likert scales and the questionnaires were showed through simple

graphics and charts.

The presentation of the results could be rated the most significant part of this project

because it shows if the incorporation of Cultural awareness and Integrative motivation in the L2


classroom did lead students to improve their communicative competence. Besides, the three (3)

specific research questions can be answered. Finally, the results can also show weaknesses and

strengths that can be taken into account when developing future research.


2.7 Participants of the study

The number of the participants of this study was composed by eighty (80) students who

belonged to ninth (9th

) grade of the Escuela Normal Maria Auxiliadora.

2.7.1 Sample

Even though, the number of the participants of this study was composed by eighty (80)

students, its sample just consists of twenty (20) students. That is to say, the pedagogic proposal

and the research were developed in both, 9a and 9b courses, the subchapter 4.6 shows in detail

the lists of participants and their schedules. Nonetheless, only twenty (20) students were selected

to be part of the sample. Those selected people were the ones who answered the data-collection

instruments, the likert scale and the questionnaire. Taking into account the characteristics of the

population, ten (10) students of 9a and ten (10) students of 9b were chosen to establish a unique

sample. It is relevant to mention that the sample was chosen randomly.

In research, sample is a group of people that is taken from a bigger population and

represents it for measurement. When having a sample, the results can be generalized among the

members of that population (Education Centre, The Hillingdon Hospital 2006). All the

participants are women since the Escuela Normal Maria Auxiliadora is a feminine school. They

are between fourteen (14) and fifteen (15) years old. All in all, it can be stated that the features of

the participants are similar since they share the same ages and belong to the same grade. Besides,

all of them are supposed to have a B1 level, according to the National Bilingual Program (NBP)

and the Common European Framework of reference for foreign languages (CEFR), (see table 1).

2.7.2 Selection of the sample

According to Frerichs (2008), when random sampling is applied, every member of the

large population has the same chance to be selected.


In addition, the main objective of random sample is to generalize the data to a larger

population. This method of sampling allows researchers to apply inferential statistics to the data.

It is essential that the random sample be drawn from a defined population because every single

member of it can be chosen (Infoskripsi, 2012).

In this project, the simple random sampling as only used when students were demanded

to answer two (2) of the four (4) data-collection instruments applied in this research, Likert Scale

and Questionnaire. It was done this way because of the large number of participants, eighty (80)

students in total. Therefore, it would have been so hard to analyze the data. As said before, all the

members participated in the pedagogic component. Besides, when observing and writing field

notes, not only did the researcher include the sample but also all the participants that belong to

the two (2) courses.


2.8 Data collection

Collecting data is one of the most important steps in a research project. In general, data

collection consists of gathering data that will be useful for solving the research questions and

obtaining the objectives that have previously been proposed. Therefore, it is vital that the

researcher know the type of data being gathering, qualitative or quantitative, as well as the

selection of suitable data-collection instruments depending on the type of research (Ori 2012).

As this is an action research project, it is suggested that the scientific method is more

relaxed if it is compared to applied research (Ellis, 1997). As a result, the researcher can freely

choose some of the several data-collection instruments that are allowed in action research. When

doing that, the characteristics of the population must not be forgotten because it can negatively

affect the inquiry. For example: working with adults can be different form working with kids

since children could not fully understand the questions proposed on a questionnaire.

According to Ferrance (2000) and Rust and Clark (2006), researchers have the

opportunity to choose among a large number of instruments in action research, such as

observation, surveys, samples of students’ works, questionnaires, classrooms maps, teacher

research journals, memos, photos, videos, memos, field notes, checklists, journals, Likert scales.

Considering that this is an individual action research project, the researcher was the only

one who was in charge of applying the new pedagogic strategy and the five (5) steps in action

research itself. Consequently, just four (4) data-collection instruments were chosen because they

did appear to be more efficient to the researcher and taking into account the participants’

features.


2.8.1 Observation

Observation has become one of the most relevant research instruments to collect data.

Currently, this method can be used in distinct fields, such as scientists, engineers, educational

researchers, computer scientists and some others. When developing research, not only can people

be observed but also nearly any subject matter. For instance, clouds, animals, a parking lot and

so on, (Lynn, 2011).

In this project the observation, as well as the other three (3) instruments, was conducted

by the researcher. It was done because it is a fruitful method that leads the investigator to

understand what participants do and how they behave, interact, work and helps to identify their

attitudes towards the proposed activities since it is done in their natural setting.

Taylor (2002) alleges that through observation, the researcher can construct a general

picture of the classroom because it seeks to identify some issues such as who talks more, who

often interrupts, and so on. Besides, observation allows the researcher to know about personal

stories, feelings, and experiences since there is contact with the population in their natural

setting.

During the application of this project, a large number of observations were conducted. In

fact, it was by means of the first institutional and classroom observations that the problem to

solve was identified. Not all the observations were conducted during the classes in the afternoon

but also during the normal classes in the morning. Furthermore, the researcher did usually try to

interact with the students outside the classroom in order to obtain deeper results.

2.8.2 Teacher research journal

Rust and Clark (2006) proposes that the every researcher must have a teacher research

journal because it is a critical tool in the inquiry. Basically, the journal field is a personal diary in


which the researcher can write about everything that can be considered relevant to the

development of the project.

For example, it is suggested to write about how the activities being developed help to

accomplish the estimated objectives and the research questions, personal notes and anecdotes,

personal thoughts about the students’ conduct inside and even outside the classroom and so on.

To put it in other words, everything that can be considered important to the researcher must be

written.

It is also recommended that the field journal be written after a short time after the class

instead of a long lapse of time after it because key points or exact details can be forgotten. For

instance, whenever the field journal of this project was written, it had not passed more than three

(3) hours after the English class. Moreover, teacher research journal demands to write the precise

date when the class was done. This strategy can avoid misunderstandings (see appendix D).

2.8.3 Questionnaire

In accordance with Kiklees.gov (n.d) questionnaire is a simple “tool” that is mainly used

for collecting and recording information about a specific issue of interest. A questionnaire must

include a series of questions and some instructions to be correctly answered if possible.

Taylor (2002) says that there are two types of questionnaires, open and close ones. The

former asks for opinions and information based on participants’ own words. The latter is about

multiple-choice and short-answer responses. Taylor also claims that there are questions that are

more appropriate to the collecting data process when using open questions since they facilitate

the thought. For example: questions that do begin with why, what, how, which.

As written before, the open questionnaire proposed in this project (see appendix F) was

only filled by the twenty (20) students who are part of the sample. Besides, it can also be noticed


that, though, this study is conducted in English, it was decided to write the questions of the

questionnaire in the mother tongue, which is Spanish. All in all, it was done in order to avoid

misunderstandings so the researcher just concentrated on the content. The unique questionnaire

applied during the development of this research was composed of nine (9) questions; they were

formulated in order to strongly help the researcher to solve the three (3) specific research

questions. All of the questions were based on student’s experiences and perceptions of the

course. Besides, four (4) demographical questions were asked before the open ones. Those

questions ask for personal basic information and they are useful for the research because it

permits to set the population into a specific context. In this project, students were demanded to

give personal information about genre, age, grade and origin. No more demographical questions

were formulated since it was considered unnecessary. To finish, the questionnaire was applied

during the last class so that learners could think of all the process and it was overall answered in

fifteen (15) minutes.

2.8.4 Likert Scale

According to Bertram (n.d), this technique was named after its creator Rensis Likert, who

was a sociologist at University of Michigan, in 1932 through his report “A Technique for the

Measurement of Attitudes” This technique seeks to indicate the level of agreement with a

statement or a series of statements. Likert scales only measures a single trait.

Typically, Likert scale presents five (5) options or point scales, which are strongly agree,

agree, neither, disagree and strongly disagree. However, there can be Likert scales in which

seven (7) or even nine (9) point scales are found.

Taking into account Bertram’s work, the employment of Likert scale can have some

advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, when concentrating on its strengths, the author


claims that this data-collection instrument supports simple construction of questions results as

well as easy reading comprehension for participants. On the other hand, Likert scale presents

some weaknesses, such as; lack of reproducibility, social desirability bias and acquiescence bias.

That is to say, participants could choose favorable responses in order to please the researcher.

In this project, just one (1) Likert scale was applied. It was done in the middle of the

study because the participants were already expected to have concrete opinions and thoughts on

the way the course was being developed, the researcher and other features. In this case, the

Likert scale created by the researcher consisted of ten (10) statements and five (5) point scales

and it was written in Spanish in order to be easily understood (see Appendix E).


2.9 Data analysis

Data analysis takes a decisive part in any research project. According to Schoenbach

(2004), analyzing data can be the most enjoyable step in research process because the researcher

has the opportunity to discover if the expected results were obtained or not. In this way, data

analysis should be focused on the objectives and the research questions proposed in the study.

Schoenbach also says that analyzing data can be considered as a “reward” after the data

collection process.

In addition, Carpi and Egger (2008) gave a general idea of what data analysis and

interpretation mean “data analysis involves working to uncover patterns and trends in data sets;

data interpretation involves explaining those patterns and trends”. However, if this process is not

correctly developed, it can be said that the research is manipulated by the researcher. Carpi and

Egger also claimed “Data processing and analysis are sometimes misinterpreted as manipulating

data to achieve the desired results, but in reality, the goal of these methods is to make the data

clearer, not to change it fundamentally” Therefore, to avoid misunderstanding and manipulation

of data, it is essential that suitable method of analyzing data be chosen depending on the type of

research.

Taking into account that this is an action research project, it is allowed to deal with both,

qualitative and quantitative data analysis. Rust and Clark (2006) when analyzing data, charts,

graphs and tables can be elaborated so that patterns, time sequences and missing pieces can be

showed. After all, when using instruments to collect data such as questionnaire, results must be

scrutinized.

As previously mentioned, the data analysis of this project is based on qualitative and

quantitative features. On the one hand, the qualitative analysis of data was used in order to

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express all the collected data that cannot be expressed in numerical form. This study mainly

relies on qualitative data gathered from the different data –collection instruments used during the

development of this project, observations, questionnaire and field journal. According to Eysenck

(2004), qualitative analysis of data seeks to discover and understand the participants’ norms,

beliefs, values, behavior, motivations, personal points of view, attitudes, experiences, direct

quotations and so on.

On the other hand, this study also presents quantitative data analysis features. Despite of

this, the quantitative method is only used to show the tendencies and patterns that participants

did show towards the questions proposed in the Likert scale and the questionnaire. To do so, the

Bar chart technique was employed. Eysenck (2004) alleges that this procedure is used when

scores are in form of categories. As a result, this type of graph shows tendencies or represents

frequencies. Although, not only was the Bar chart used to analyze the data but also the Pie chart,

both have basically the main purpose. They just differ from each other the way results are drawn

in the figure.

It is important to mention that, though, the participants of this project belonged to two (2)

courses, 9a and 9b, it is not planned to make any comparison between the two (2) courses. To put

it in other words, this study considered all the participants as a whole unit.


2.10 Results

To interpret the results in a clearer way, this study presents the obtained results of each

data-collection instrument.

2.10.1 Results of the observations and teacher research journal

After the first observations, some tendencies were detected. The ordinary English classes

were mainly based on teaching grammar structures and written repetition in students’ notebooks.

As a result, while the main teacher explained a topic, some students did appear to be bored and

basically did nothing. Despite of this fact, it can be discussed the number of students who belong

to each group, forty one (41) and thirty nine (39), since it affects negatively both the teaching

and learning process. The main teacher herself actually expressed twice “it is an impossible

labor”

As soon as the communicative English classes started in the afternoons, the teacher

research journal started being the complement to write all the relevant issues that did happen

inside the classroom. Therefore, the next results are the product of having worked with both,

observation and field journal. Some of the next data was noticed in the two courses, 9a and 9b,

some even several times while developing this project.

The very first English class was remarkably relevant because the lack of English oral

production was proved. This is because, some students themselves stated that “rarely do they

have the opportunity to say some words in the target language in the English classes” and when

the researcher observed the English class for first time, they declared “it has been the best

English class the teacher has ever done” since the teacher had never spoken in English and

brought different activities. Consequently, it was estimated that the main teacher wanted to

impress the teacher trainee. Besides, the poor English oral production was easily noticed when


students were asked to introduce themselves so most of them were just able to say very simple

phrases such as “My name is” or “I am living in Colombia”. Taking into account this tendency, it

confirmed that students had an A1 level. In spite of it all, most of them did state that they would

like to learn how to speak and pronounce in English.

The introduction to the English language was noticeably well appreciated by the learners

because they usually interrupted the researcher in order to ask deeper questions about what it was

being explained. For example, only one of them knew that the English language is spoken in

more than fifty three (53) countries so it led students to ask several questions about it. It did

appear that students started to realize about the importance of foreign languages and the

opportunities that can appear when doing so. Therefore, when having to introduce themselves

after the explanation and oral repetition, and their first conversations with partners, it was noticed

the effort that the learners made in order to do a good job.

Certain tiny difficulties were found as consequence of the permanent grammar focus

during the normal classes. For instance, it was confessed that never before had they had a

listening exercise or had video clips in English, thus the repetition and the integrative motivation

were used as the principal solutions. Moreover, it was noted that several students did show afraid

of speaking or participating. However, the research focused on motivating students and showing

them cultural topics in order to encourage them to stop feeling that way. In addition, other

strategies proposed by the communicative approach were employed: repetition, slower speech

rate and usage of simple vocabulary. As a result, students tended to better understand and they

demonstrate it by means of facial gestures and onomatopoeias. Another tendency detected was

the constant chatting among some students. However, it was also noticed that learners did stop

doing so whenever activities based on videos, images, reading and listening exercises as well as


works in groups were proposed. For example, working in groups was always a valuable

experience because students did tend to do their best. It was noticed because of the large number

of questions they asked about the activity, the good communication among the students of each

group and the careful preparation for the activity. Besides, whenever a group did a remarkable

job, the rest of the class did never hesitate to applaud and congratulate their partners.

Other features were identified in the class that can lead the researcher to estimate that

students were improving their English communicative competence and feeling more interested in

the area. On the one hand, from the third (3th) class on, students did seem to have understood the

main goal of the classes, which was oral production. Whenever a class started and finished, the

researcher did focus on encouraging and congratulating students on their effort. Moreover, it was

motivating when students massively participated in activities such as culture shock, people and

lifestyles, seasons and leisure activities because not only did students tend to participate in the

proposed exercises but also they tended to ask plenty of questions about the topic. Therefore, the

intercultural approach was deeply used since those situations promoted the cultural awareness. It

is important to say that several communicative exercises were proposed based on comparisons

between two (2) countries or societies that were being studied. Furthermore, the videos, listening

exercises and images also helped to promote the integrative motivation since students did appear

to accept and desire to be part of foreign societies. For instance, when watching a video in which

some foreign people greet and say some words in their native language, learners laugh and

admire profusely the way a Korean girl said hello, thus, they wanted to travel to that country and

learn the language as well.

Although most of the observations were conducted inside the classroom, there were other

students’ positive attitudes outside the classroom that are worth being mentioned. It is possible


that the most important was the usage of the target language outside the classroom. For instance,

students usually greet and farewell the teacher in English and even asked some questions in the

target language. In the same way, some tended to ask the teacher to speak in French or translate

some ideas in English into French. Moreover, it was noticed that students put into practice other

aspects that were learned in the English class. For instance: gestures and colloquial expressions.

Finally, as it was mention in the pedagogic component, this project was applied in the

afternoons. Consequently, the researcher was told about some students who often asked the main

teacher when the next class would be.

2.10.2 Results of the questionnaire

As it can be seen in the appendix F the questionnaire given to the students was composed

of nine (9) questions. This questionnaire as well as the Likert scale was only answered by the

sample of this research. It was planned to analyze question by question in order to have clearer

results, but it is firstly showed the demographic results.

2.10.2.1 Demographic results

According to the demographic results, fourteen (14) students are fourteen (14) years old;

three (3) students are fifteen (15) years old; two (2) students are sixteen (16) years old and one

(1) student is thirteen (13) years old. All of the participants are female and belong to 9a and 9b.

Finally, nineteen (19) of them were born in Cucuta and the other one in Ocaña, Norte de

Santander.

2.10.2.2 Results of every question

Question number one (1): Which of the activities proposed by the teacher during the English

course I have felt the most motivated by? Why?


In this question, students tended to mention more than one (1) topic they liked. This

graphic shows how many votes each activity got. Below the graphic, there are the most

important reasons why students chose them.

Figure 1.Favorite Topics.

As it can be noticed, all of the activities, apart from the general introduction to the

English language, were mentioned in the answers. The figure clearly shows that the students’

favorite cultural topic was colloquial expressions since it obtained seven (7) votes. However,

non-verbal communication, culture shock and greetings and personal information were well

appreciated by learners since each one obtained five (5) votes.

Here, there are the main reasons why students vote for them.

It allowed them to practice conversations and improve the English pronunciation.

It gave them the opportunity to discover new cultures and people.

It promoted the work in pairs and in groups.

It taught them how to communicate in different ways.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8


It helped to realize the importance of studying foreign languages.

It allowed them to use informal expressions and use the L2 in different environments

and with different people.

It was funny and interesting.

Question number two (2): Do you think you have improved your English level and the capacity

to express yourself orally? Why?

Figure 2.Students’ English improvement.

When answering if students were able to improve their English level and oral

communication, nineteen (19) students said “Yes”. Although, none of them respond “No”, one

(1) student stated that “Just a little”, “I have just improved my pronunciation”.

The following statements express the reasons why students estimate they have improved

their English communicative competence during the development of the course. It is important to

mention that these statements have been ordered from the most claimed to the least one.

19

1

Yes

No

Just a little


I can now express myself and other ideas in English.

I can now participate in dialogues and in the English classes.

I have improved my pronunciation and I can speak more fluently.

I have learned about new expressions and new vocabulary.

I can speak English without feeling afraid of mistakes.

I can apply the grammar rules in my speech.

Question number three (3): Do you think you have discovered new issues or topics that you

have found interesting thanks to the English course? If so, mention which ones.

In this question, all of the students answered that they discovered unknown issues. Due to

the way the question was formulated, it made students write a large number of different answers.

However, some students just repeated what they had written in the question number one (1).

Then, it was decided just to write all the interesting issues cited by the students. The next list was

not written in any particular order. The reason why all of these ideas were included in this

analysis of the results was because they were considered important to understand how the

incorporation of culture awareness and integrative motivation influenced the students’ perception

of the English language.

The answer to the third question students wrote: new cultures, distinct pronunciations,

new words and expressions, new greetings, culture shocks, gestures, places, interesting videos,

different people, tongue twister, climates, ways to present oneself, ways to analyze the society,

comparisons, dates, conversations, readings, colloquial expressions, history, work in groups,

dialogues, concepts, different accents, leisure activities and foreign routines.


Question number four (4): Why is studying a foreign language important? Has this topic been

talked about in the English class?

On the one hand, to answer to the second question, all the twenty (20) students agreed

with the idea of having talked about the importance of the English language during the course.

Nonetheless, two (2) students did emphasis on their answers and said “sometimes “and “always”.

On the other hand, when writing about the importance of the English language, although,

several students gave more than one reason, most of the explanations were similar to each other.

The manner students expressed their ideas can differ a little but the next key words were usually

found in their statements: to discover cultures, to travel, to interact with people and to obtain

more opportunities in their professional future career. Nonetheless, other reasons were found as

well.

In the following graphic, it can be seen how many times students mentioned each

specific reason. It is relevant to mention that all of reasons given by the students were taken into

account to elaborate the graphic. That is to say, none of the explanations was omitted.


Figure 3.Importance of the English language.

The Figure three (3) shows that the most popular reason why students consider studying a

foreign language is important is because it brings better professional future opportunities since

ten (10) students agreed with this idea. On the contrary, the answers: discovering new cultures

and traveling abroad were each one mentioned seven (7) times.

When referring to other reasons, students expressed the next motives:

One (1) student said “not to be an ignorant”.

One (1) student claimed “To learn new things”.

Three (3) students stated “because English is the international language”.

One (1) student alleged “To understand this global world”.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Discovering new cultures

Traveling abroad

Interacting with and meeting

people

Better professional opportinities

Other reasons

7 7

4

10

6


Question number five (5): Do you think that understanding the cultural diversity and

respecting other cultures is important when you want to communicate with foreign people? Have

these topics been discussed more than once in the English class?

In this question all of the twenty (20) participants answered “Yes”. This question was the

only closed one on the questionnaire. Therefore, no additional comments were made.

Question number six (6): If you had the opportunity to travel to a foreign country which mother

tongue was English, do you think that what you learned from this course would help you to get

involved in the society and interact with the people?

Figure 4.The course would be useful in case of travel.

Just one (1) student answered “more or less”, the rest of the participants said “Yes”. As it

can be seen in the figure four (4), students strongly reckoned that what they learned from the

course would be useful for real life needs in case of traveling abroad. According to these results,

students would not feel afraid to have a first contact with foreign people in their native countries.

19

0 1

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

Yes No More or less

Yes

No

More or less


However, this question was not just about yes or not. It was also gathered the reasons why the

course would be useful for them or not in case of traveling abroad.

According to the results, four (4) students did not give any extra reason, including the one

who stated “More or less”. On the contrary, the other sixteen (16) ones gave the next reasons.

Figure 5.Reasons why the course would be useful.

As it can be seen in the last figure, eight (8) students stated that they could get involved in

a foreign society thanks to what was learned during the course. Some of those eight (8) students

gave even deeper reasons and said how they could interact in a foreign country.

I can at least know how to correctly present myself and greet people.

I know how to behave in some places such as restaurants or a pub.

I can express and understand emotions and some ideas.

These are the other reasons that were given by students:

One (1) student said “because the teacher taught us to learn formally and informally”.

8

3

5 I could get involved in the society

We studied beyond mere topics

Other reasons


One (1) student said “because I would feel secure when speaking English”.

One (1) student answered “because I can now pronounce better”.

Two (2) students stated “because I learned the essential part of the language”.

Question number seven (7): What is your final personal opinion on these English classes based

on the improvement of the communicative competence?

Since it is a question practically based on students’ thoughts and personal points of view,

several responses were obtained. Nonetheless, all of the students did claim to feel satisfied with

the course. Four (4) students agreed that it is not necessary to be an expert if one wants to speak

and learn a foreign language; the other ones did seem to have dissimilar ideas so that the

following list of opinion is not organized in any particular way. It just shows what students

expressed about the question.

The teacher was really dedicated and showed a great responsibility for the course.

Speaking in English was a new and very educative experience.

I have learned plenty from the classes, especially about pronunciation.

I learned to speak in English, not perfectly but it is a good start.

I feel motivated to continue learning English.

The classes guided us how to talk with people and understand their manners and

expressions.

It was interesting to discover cultural and everyday topics.

The way one was corrected when making mistakes was proper.

I learned that the oral communication is essential in any language.


Question number eight (8): What is culture? Is this area related to foreign languages? If so,

explain why.

When writing about the meaning of culture, students gave similar definitions. In their

answers, words such as customs, language, country, behavior, community, beliefs were usually

found. Therefore, taking into account the participants’ definitions, two (2) general concepts of

culture were summarized.

In this first (1st) definition, culture is viewed from a perspective of diversity: “Culture is

related to discovering new customs, languages, beliefs, lifestyles and everything that can be

considered relevant to other countries and societies. Therefore, one can understand differences

among them”.

The second (2nd

) definition is different from the first one because it is related to identity:

“Culture is the behavior and manners we practice, ways to live, think and interact in our society,

it all identifies us”.

Question number nine (9): Among the different materials used to make the class be more

interactive, which one do you think was the most useful? Why?

According to the results, the next graphic was made.


Figure 6.The most useful pedagogic aid.

Eleven (11) students did prefer videos to the other pedagogic aids. Nine (9) of those

eleven (11) students explained why the incorporation of videos in the English class was so

significant to them. Therefore, the next figure demonstrates that four (4) students said videos

made the class be more dynamic and motivating, three (3) students considered videos helped to

better understand the topic and the other two (2) stated that videos invited them to participate

more in the English classes. (See figure 7).

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Videos Images Printed material Listening exercises

11

4

3

2


Figure 7. Why students chose videos.

2.10.3 Results of the Likert scale

The likert scale applied during this project is composed by ten (10) statements and five

(5) choices for the answers, strongly agree, agree, rather agree, disagree and strongly agree (see

appendix?). The following chart and graphic clearly show the student’s answers on each

statement.

Table 14Results of the Likert scale

QUESTION

STRONGLY

AGREE

AGREE

RATHER

AGREE

DISAGREE

STRONGLY

DISAGREE

1 18 2

2 16 3 1

3 17 3

4 14 6

5 14 5 1

6 17 3

7 16 4

8 19 1

9 16 4

10 16 4

4

3

2

It made the class be more dynamic

It helped to better understand the topic

It invited us to participate more


Figure 8.Likert scale.

After having organized, classified and analyzed the data, some tendencies have been

found.

It was not necessary to eliminate any of the questions since all of them were well

understood.

It can be stated that the obtain results from the Likert scale were quite positive. On the one

hand, none of the students chose the option “strongly disagree” in any of the statements. On

the other hand, it can be seen that the option “strongly agree” did obtain more responses

than the others in all the statements. In fact, the difference of number of responses between

strongly agree and agree is quite considerable.

In the statement number eight (8), it can be seen how the students’ perception of foreign

languages has changed. This is because nineteen (19) of twenty (20) students strongly

consider that studying a foreign language is related to the study of a new culture. In the

same way, the statement seven (7) students did admit that they feel interested in learning

English because they have the opportunity to grow intellectually and culturally.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Strongly agree

Agree

Rather agree

Disagree

Strongly disagree


The implementation of integrative motivation has been fruitful to students’ communicative

improvement because they consider they can use the target language to communicate with

other people. Moreover, they strongly agree with the idea of constant teacher’s motivation

inside the classroom. Therefore, it influences on the participation and speaking production.

According to the results, it is important to mention that students did notice that the extra

English classes have been different from the ordinary ones. Firstly, the statement number

four (4) shows how students have discovered new cultures and people around the world

through the pedagogic activities and strategies previously planned. Secondly, it did seem

that the usage of didactic and authentic material, such as videos, guides, images, was well

appreciated by learners and it did help to make the class be more interesting.

In the statements six (6) and ten (10), it can be noticed how students agree with the idea of

the teacher’s effort towards the class and preparation. Taking into account the results,

students affirmed that the teacher made an effort to demonstrate how to use the target

language in real life. Besides, it is showed that it is essential that the foreign language

teacher have a good English level when teaching. Seventeen (17) students strongly agreed

that the teacher really dominated the topics that are taught.

The only statement in which it was found one (1) negative answer was in the number five

(5). This statement says “I can freely speak and participate in the English classes since I am

not afraid of making mistakes or being laughed at in case of committing an error”. Despite

this fact, fourteen (14) students strongly agreed with this idea and other five (5) ones agreed

with the statement, which leads the researcher to consider that students did take advantage

of the communicative activities developed during the application of this project.


2.11 Conclusions and suggestions for further studies

After having applying all the data- collection instruments and having analyzed the

obtained results, some conclusions can be stated. According to the results, it can be alleged that

all the research questions were satisfactorily answered.

It was showed that some cultural topics and strategies did appear to be more efficient than

others to students. When referring to the cultural topics worked on during this project, colloquial

expressions, culture shock, greetings and non-verbal communication were the preferred ones by

students. Although, several authentic material and pedagogic aids were used, students

appreciated the usage of videos and pictures more than the others. Moreover, when getting ready

for oral production, working in groups did seen to be more efficient since students could share

ideas and opinions among them before the development of the activity started.

The inclusion of cultural awareness and integrative motivation in the L2 class has

influenced on the student’s perception of foreign languages. Firstly, it is admirable how students

themselves were able to construct different points of view about what culture means. Those

concepts given by them were the result of gathering pieces of information from each class they

attended. Secondly, students considered that learning any foreign language can bring better

professional opportunities in the future. Besides, students feel interested in learning a foreign

language because they desire to travel and discover new cultures. Lastly, this research proved

how the usage of integrative motivation make students reckon that they can use what it is learned

in the L2 class in order to interact with different people and get involved in foreign societies.

Through this project, some reactions towards the cultural teaching strategy were

observed. For example, the permanent students’ effort to do their best when participating in

every single pedagogic activity proposed by the teacher trainee, the constant participation and


students’ questions about the topic being discussed, the usage of the target language not only

inside but also outside the classroom. Besides, it was found that another factor that motivated

students to do their best was their partners’ support and encouragement. For instance, it was

observed that students applause whenever someone or a group did a remarkable job.

Although, Colombia is not an English speaking country and this language is not widely

spoken by inhabitants, this project demonstrated that integrative motivation could take place in

the L2 class as long as students became bicultural at the same time.

The selection of the action research method instead of any other one did demonstrate to be right.

This is because, not only did this type of inquiry provide the researcher with a complete series of

steps to develop but also it showed the efficiency of its advantages when action research is

applied at educational establishments (Ellis, 1997). For example, it did expose new teaching

methods, which in this study were the communicative and the intercultural approaches. It also

integrated new learning strategies, which was proved by means of the incorporation of Cultural

awareness and Integrative Motivation features. Developing this project demonstrated to promote

positive values and attitudes towards the English area in general. Moreover, because of the

different materials, research and teaching techniques used, this project did help the researcher to

improve its pedagogic and research skills as well as the relationship with students. Finally, it was

showed to the teachers and directors of the Educational institution where this study was applied

that students do enjoy and need to learn how to communicate orally in another language in order

to face all the everyday challenges that this globalized world presents.

Despite the fact that action research does not focus on generalizing results, some

suggestions and recommendations for future studies can also be stated after the development of

this project. These next suggestions should be taken into account in order to obtain better results


or additional improvements at this area since they were written based on the experience of the

researcher. After all, this project can be considered as a teaching and research guidance by other

researchers interested in innovating and improving the L2 class students’ experience.

As it can be read about, four (4) data-collection instruments were applied in this research.

It is recommended to continue using the observation and the teacher research journal. This is

because it allows the researcher to closely identify the students’ tendencies and behavior inside

and outside the classroom. Moreover, the field journal is an adequate tool to write in detail what

has just happened in the classroom. Nevertheless, other instruments can be also used instead of

the Likert scale or the questionnaire. For instance: interviews.

It is highly suggested that the teacher can speak in the target language most of the time. If

students do appear not to understand, it is recommended to repeat slowly or use simple

vocabulary.

If it is decided to continue working on these areas, cultural awareness and integrative

motivation, it must never be forgotten to continue discovering and studying more about them.

There will be always issues to find out. On the one hand, there are more cultural topics, such as

humor or food, which were not taught during the application of this study because there was not

more time to. On the other hand, there are more cultural approaches that could well work as well.

For example, the transcultural approach. The selection of the specific cultural approach must

depend on the population, the identified problems and the objectives to accomplish.

Working with cultural awareness highly demands the usage of authentic material. Apart

from the authentic material used in this project, some other ones can be employed. For example:


newspapers, literature readings, songs and so on. It is essential that participants’ English level be

noticed before choosing them.

It is relevant not to cease integratively motivating students by showing them how to use

language in real life, different people and accents, places and by telling them about the capability

of being part of foreign societies. Besides, when developing cultural awareness or making

comparisons between two (2) countries, it is recommended that the teacher listen and pay

attention to all students’ ideas and opinions as well as their doubts about the topic. It made them

feel their participation is worthy and actually it is.


CHAPTER 3: OUT-REACH COMPONENT

In which the creation and the development of a French course, called “Club Français”, are

explained in detail.

3.1 Introduction to the out-reach component

The Out-reach component is also called the Community Extension because it seeks that

the teacher trainee can participate not only in the academic activities but also in the extra-

curricular ones. For example: the institutional celebration of the Language day or a song festival.

Besides, the teacher trainee is expected to use his/her expertise in order to create and develop

special activities that allow students to grow intellectually or culturally. That is to say, the

educational institution receives benefits from the teacher trainee in any case.

The out-reach component of this project is focused on creating a French course, called

“Club Français”. This course is directed to the thirteen (13th

) grade students of the Escuela

Normal Superior Maria Auxiliadora.


3.2 Justification of the out-reach component

“Club Français” is a French course created and conducted by the teacher trainee in order

to give high-level students of the Escuela Normal Superior Maria Auxiliadora the opportunity to

discover another foreign language, other than English.

The reason why the teacher trainee chose French and not English as the target language

to teach was because one wants to gain experience. Furthermore, it is relevant to put into practice

what was learned at the University, so creating and developing this French course is a challenge

and a serious commitment among the teacher trainee, students and the Principal Sister, who

agreed and permitted the teacher trainee to apply this proposal.

The idea of working with the thirteenth (13th

) grade students was proposed by the teacher

trainee because they are supposed to be mature and better appreciate this course. After all,

French is not studied at the school, thus learning this language is considered to be a new area. It

is important to say that when the course was proposed by the teacher trainee, it was clearly stated

that only those girls who really desired to learn it and agreed to go to all the classes can take it.

That is to say, nobody was forced to belong to “Club Français”. At last, sixteen (16) students

decided to do the course, which is suitable number since every single it allows every single

student to freely participate in the class.

By means of the development of “”Club Français”, not only are students expected to

improve and grow intellectually but also the teacher trainee. This is because students are invited

to begin discovering not only another language but also an unknown culture and the teacher

trainee is invited to create and plan pedagogical activities to achieve in.


3.3 Objectives of the out-reach component

Four (4) objectives were designed for this third (3rd

) chapter. The three (3) specific

objectives can be considered as the methodological strategies employed by the teacher trainee

during the development of the course.

3.1 General Objective

To create and carry out a French course, called “Club Français”, whose participants

belong to the thirteenth (13th

) grade students of The Escuela Normal Superior Maria Auxiliadora.

3.2 Specific Objectives

To Explain and propose themes that allow students to participate and improve little by

little the different communicative French competences.

To use some educational tools such as books, printed guides, images, videos and listening

exercises that permit the teacher to create classroom activities.

To encourage students not only to study French and practice it inside the classroom but

also outside it.


3.4 Methodology

The Methodology of this out-research consists of mentioning all the activities and topics

that were proposed by the teacher during the development of the French Course “Club Français”.

All in all, these themes were freely chosen by the teacher trainee. It was also the teacher trainee

himself who used his own experience as student in order to decide the order of themes, the

methodology and the materials employed in the class.

The French course schedule was decided by the Principal Sister and the students. It was

because they are busy in the afternoons. At the end, students agreed to attend the course on

Fridays from half past five (5:30) pm to half past seven (7:30) pm. From the beginning, students

seemed to feel interested in learning French, thus the idea of finishing at that hour was not a

problem for them.

3.4.1 Context

The classroom where thirteenth (13th

) grade students of The Escuela Normal Superior

Maria Auxiliadora took the French Course “Club Français” was their ordinary classroom. That is

to say, it was the same classroom where they go to attend all their classes when they are at the

institution, since they also go to another places to attend extra classes. For example, the public

library.

The classroom is located on the second floor and it is really easy to be identified because

there is marked. There is little noticed on the door that says “13th grade”. The classroom is big

enough; there are some posters and colorful banners, which were made by the students

themselves, on the wall. Students do not have individual desks, so there are six (7) tables where

students sit together. There are usually six or five students per table. Due to this fact, students


tend to chat with each other and see easily what their partners are doing in their notebooks.

However, it appears that it is a positive point as well, because students tend to make their posters

and other activities on the tables instead of the floor. Therefore, they seem no to feel

uncomfortable with them.

There is not any air conditioner unit in the classroom but there are two ventilators, which

work correctly. Whenever, a video or a song need to be played or a picture needs to be showed,

there is a computer in the classroom. This computer is connected to a big television.

Consequently, it allows all the students to watch clearly, no matter the position where they can

be inside the classroom. The classroom is well lit. At half past five (5.30) pm, when the course

starts, the school is basically empty, most of students have gone home. As a result, there is not

outer noise that can negatively affect the development of the classes.

The classroom is always cleaned up by the students as soon as the last class of the day

finishes. Besides, there is one monitor. That monitor is in charge of the classroom key, the usage

of the computer and other academic duties. Despite their schedule, which is really busy, students

did seem to feel interested in the course. In the classroom, students’ good attitude towards the

French language was notorious.

3.4.2 List of students

This is the list of students who attended the French course “Club Français”. All of them

belong to the thirteenth (13th

) grade. These students decided themselves to be part of the course.

Finally, the course was composed by sixteen (16) students.


Table 15List of the French course participants

3.4.3 Reasons why the French course was taken

During the very first class, the teacher decided to ask the students to take a piece of paper

and write the reason or reasons why they decided to take the French course. It was done because

it would give the teacher a general idea about what they wanted to focus on, so the elaboration of

the class plan would be easier.

Here, there are the main reasons that were given by the students. These reasons go from the

most important to the least one.

Monica Alvarado

Elda Peña

YurianiLanzziano

Victoria Rumierk

Erika Correa

Roxana Varela

Maria Fernanda Maldonado

Wendy Andrade

Deisy Diaz

MariaFrenandaLandazabal

Camila Parada

Margy Buitrago

MariaDiaz

Chely Carvajal

Angie Mojica

Johana Quiñonez


a) To speak a new language, which is very interesting.

b) To know a new culture.

c) To have better job opportunities in the future.

d) To travel abroad.

3.4.4 List of Topics taught during the course

Table 16List of Topics taught during the course and class dates

DATE TOPIC MATERIALS

April the 20th

Introduction à la langue Française.

Se présenter 1.

Markers

Notebooks

April the 27th

Se présenter 2.

Demander et nommer les objets de la salle de

classe.

Les sons en français et les voyelles nasales.

Printed guide

Markers

videos

Computer

Notebooks

May the 4th Identifier les membres de la famille et des objets

dans la salle de classe.

Dire et demander le numéro de téléphone des

différentes personnes.

Printed guide

Markers

Notebooks

May the 11th

Se décrire et décrire une amie.

Les verbes être et avoir.

Printed guide

Markers

Notebooks

videos

May the 25th

Le présent des verbes en –er et les verbes

pronominaux.

Exprimer les activités préférées.

Markers

Notebooks

June the 1st Raconter ce qu’on aime et ce qu’on déteste.

Rapporter les préférences d’autres personnes.

Listening exercise

Computer

CD


June the 8th

Écrire un courrier.

Exposé sur la vie d’une personne étrangère.

Printed guide.

Computer

Internet

(See Appendix G).

3.4.5 Attendance record

Table 17Attendance record of the French course

STUDENT

April

the

20th

April

the

27th

May

the

4th

May the

11th

May the

18th

May

the

25th

June

the

1st

June

the

8th

Monica Alvarado

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No class

Yes

Yes

No

Elda Peña Yes Yes Yes No No class No Yes Yes

YurianiLanzziano Yes No Yes Yes No class Yes Yes Yes

Victoria Rumierk Yes Yes Yes No No class Yes Yes No

Erika Correa Yes Yes No No No class Yes No Yes

Roxana Varela Yes Yes Yes No No class Yes No Yes

Maria Fernanda Maldonado Yes Yes Yes Yes No class No No Yes

Wendy Andrade Yes No Yes Yes No class No Yes Yes

Deisy Diaz Yes Yes No No No class Yes Yes Yes

MariaFrenandaLandazabal Yes Yes No Yes No class No No Yes

Camila Parada Yes Yes Yes Yes No class Yes Yes Yes

Margy Buitrago Yes Yes Yes Yes No class Yes Yes Yes

MariaDiaz Yes Yes No Yes No class No Yes Yes

Chely Carvajal Yes Yes Yes No No class Yes Yes Yes

Angie Mojica Yes Yes No Yes No class No No No

Johana Quiñonez Yes Yes Yes No No class Yes No Yes


3.5 Students’ thoughts on the course and conclusions

During the last class, students were asked to write about the negative and positive points

they found during the development of the French course “Club Français” as well as the elements

that they consider the teacher could improve for his future career.

Negative points: It was clearly noticed that most of the students stated that the course

lasted little time, although, they knew that it would be finishing in June. Besides, it was realized

that a two (2) –hour class per week is not enough to study a foreign language, so it would have

been better if students had had more time to study and practice more. Some students claimed that

little did some partners learn from the French course because they did not attend all the classes.

Finally, one student alleged that the themes were proposed in a disorderly manner.

Positive points: The most positive element about the course claimed by the students was

the teacher’s English level, which means the educator really dominates the area. Besides, it

seemed that students did like the way the teacher treated them and the different activities as well

as the materials employed during the course. For example, printed guides, videos, speaking

activities, answering student’s doubts, repetition exercises and some others. In addition, students

also noted that the teacher always prepared what to do in the class before it started. In general, it

can be said that the teacher’s commitment and dedication to the foreign languages field was

noticed by the learners. Finally, some students said that they admired the teacher’s good attitude

towards the course and it was undoubtedly a significant influence on them.

Points to improve: It was stated by most of the students that the way the teacher writes on

the board must be more ordered and clearer. Though, it was understood that the attendance at the

course was free, the teacher should have left more homework.


Conclusions After having finished the course and read the students’ thoughts on the

development of the course, some personal conclusions can be written about this experience.

As done in the very English class with the ninth (9th

) grade students, it is vital that any

French course start with a general introduction of the language itself, countries where it is spoken

and some usages and advantages of studying that foreign language. Basically, it is because this

activity can be considered as an “ice-breaker” for the first class and it also motivates students to

appreciate and admire what it is being studied.

Although, it is necessary that the teacher starts speaking in the target language from the

very first class on, it is recommended that one use vocabulary and grammar structures that can be

according to the students’ language proficiency level. Doing so can avoid the constant repetition

or even the need of using the native language.

There are some points that never must be forgotten by a teacher. For example, the

previous class preparation, the good attitude in the classroom, the constant communication with

students, the punctuality, responsibility and respect. Those elements are highly noted by students

and can potentially affect the participation and the students’ improvement.

The course was really fruitful to the teacher, because, never before had one had a real

responsibility to teach French. Because of “Club Français”, it can be said that the teacher has

gained a great deal of experience that would be useful in the near future. Moreover, all the

objectives proposed for this out-reach component were accomplished. Therefore, teacher and

students did learn from each other and did grow intellectually, professionally and culturally.


CHAPTER 4: ADMINISTRATIVE COMPONENT

In which the process done by the teacher trainee before the beginning of this study is

described in detail.

4.1 Introduction to the administrative component

As it has previously been mentioned, this project was applied at a public school called

Escuela Normal Superior Maria Auxiliadora, which is directed by the Salesian Sisters. The

administrative component, as its name suggests, consists of a study in detail of all not only the

school ideology, disciplinary and academic rules that have been created in order to properly

direct the institution but also all the people who belong to the educational community as well as

their functions.

Therefore, elements such as the mission, vision list of teachers, coordinators and

directors, student profile and so on, can be found in this final chapter.

Nonetheless, this administrative component also shows some information concerning the

two (2) groups and the students with who this project worked on. For instance, the two (2)

observations, which were already mentioned in the pedagogic component, developed by the

teacher trainee, list of students and their school schedules.


4.2 Justification of the administrative component

Before starting this project, it was asked to observe the establishment and identify the

context and the most important aspects of the educational institution. This is because; it was

necessary to understand how the school works and meet the people who direct it. On the one

hand, Knowing the academic and disciplinary school norms and traits allows the teacher trainee

to know how students have been educated, the common values, philosophy, what to do in case of

finding a problem, teachers’ role and responsibilities, students’ rights and obligations.

On the other hand, the observations, the students’ schedules and the list of

students were included in this administrative component because it was necessary to have all of

those elements into account before the teacher trainee could create the plan of activities to

develop and the topic itself to work on. Besides, it let the teacher trainee to have the first contact

with the main teacher, students and the directors.

The importance of this component is relevant since the directors gave the teacher trainee

the opportunity to apply and work at the institution. Nevertheless, it is essential that the internal

rules and other characteristics of the school be respected and followed.


4.3 Objectives of the administrative component

To develop this component, four (4) specific objectives were proposed. As it can be seen

in the general objective, the PEI is included in it because it provides the teacher trainee with

detailed information about the school in order to know some relevant aspects, such as its

philosophy, norms, and sanctions.

4.3.1 General Objective

To analyze the most significant aspects that can be identified in the PEI “Proyecto

Educativo Institucional”.

4.3.2 Specific Objectives

To know the academic calendar of the institution.

To identify the functions that every member of the educational institution has.

To establish the project schedule and the students who participated in it.

To observe the whole of the institution and have the first (1st) contact with teachers,

directors and students.


4.4 Institutional observation

Through the institutional observation, the first two (2) specific objectives can be

answered. Due to its importance, it is divided into four (4) subchapters.

4.4.1 Topographic Location and general observation of the institution

The Escuela Normal Superior Maria Auxiliadora is a public and catholic institution that is

located on street thirteenth (13th) between forth (4th) and third (3th) avenues centre of town,

Cucuta. The school is directed by the Salesian Sisters. The school operates from six (6) am to

one (1) pm, but most of the students have extra classes in the afternoon. Only the high school

students go to study to this seat because even though the school also has primary school courses,

there is another Normal Maria Auxiliadora seat for those students.

The establishment has twenty four (24) classrooms. Every classroom belongs to one

specific course. Therefore, students do not move whenever any class finishes. The institution

possesses one thousand and twenty one (1021) students in total. There are two (2) main basket

fields, in which students practice all their sports. The school has three (3) computer rooms, one

(1) library, one (1) physics laboratory and one (1) Chemistry laboratory. There is not any

language laboratory. However, every classroom has one (1) television and one (1) D.V.D system.

Due to its religious heritage, there is a small church. Despite the large number of students,

there is just one (1) cafeteria, but it is well organized because each grade has its own row in order

to buy the products. Although there are some domestic staff, there are the students themselves

who have to clean their classroom as soon as the school day finishes. Finally, the staffroom is

located on the second floor. Students cannot access it unless a teacher allows anyone to.


4.4.2 School director, teachers and coordinators

The institution has 32 teachers, 5 sisters, 4 coordinators and its principal is the sister Alba

Lucia Giraldo Quintero.

4.4.2.1 Coordinators

Table 18List of coordinators

COORDINATORS

Ramírez Becerra Ross Mary (Sister), General coordinator.

Diolina Rosa Pallares Prado, Academiccoordinator

Claudia Patricia Sarmiento Vivas, Practice coordinator

Ana BelsyLaguado Pabón, Rural área coordinator

4.4.2.2 Teachers

Table 19 List of teachers who belong to the institution

TEACHERS

Álvarez Díaz Marleny

Ángeles Leal Carolina

Bautista Monsalve Astrid Maritza

Buitrago Cárdenas César Augusto

Buitrago Galvis José Eduardo

Duarte Sandoval Luz Marleny


García Carrillo Adriana Del Carmen

García Durán Silvana

González Domínguez Flor Celina

Gómez Sanguino Piedad Rocío

Gómez Irene (Sister)

Laguado Pabón Ana Belsy

Mogollón Myriam Consuelo

Montañez Lizcano Julia Marina

Monsalve Rangel Jenny

Ochoa Pabón Luis Hernando

Pallares Prado Diolina Rosa

Gómez Irene (Sister)

Porras Quintana Fabio Andrés

Pérez Rosado Leonor

Ramírez Becerra Ross Mary (Sister)

Rincón Adarme Rosa Matilde

Rodríguez de Tangarife Gloria Inés

Román Hernández Juan Fernando

Rubio Jaimes M. Margarita (Sister)

Rubio Albarracín Cruzdelina

Sarmiento Vivas Claudia Patricia

Salamanca supelano Sonia

Sepúlveda Riveros Noema

Suárez Martínez Nubia Estela

Suárez Rojas Angélica María

Toscazo Villán Jaime

Valencia Martínez Juan A

Vergel Quintero Luz Marina


Vega Mendoza Javier Raúl

Villamizar Parra Carmen Elena

4.4.3 Governing body

Under Article68 of the National Constitution, Law 115/94, Article 142, Decree1860

Article20, the school governing body is in charge of decisions made in the institution In the

Escuela Normal Superior Maria Auxiliadora the governing body is composed by:

Principal

Governing board

Academic council

4.4.3.1 Principal

It is the legal representative of the institution, also executes and evaluates the PEI.

Some functions

* To promote the continuous improvement of the educational establishment.

* To guide the teaching and pedagogic process with the support of the academic council.

* To make sure that both teachers and other coordinators accomplish their functions and report

the news and irregularities of staff to the national government.

4.4.3.2 Governing board

It is composed by


* The principal.

* The coordinator.

* Two (2) teachers.

* Two (2) parents.

* One (1) ex-student.

*One (1) student.

Some Functions

* To make decisions that affect the institution functionality apart from those that belong to

another authority.

* To solve all the problems that can appear among teachers, students and coordinators.

* To adopt The Manual of Conviviality and the school rules.

4.4.3.3 Academic council

It is composed by:

* School administrators.

* One teacher of each area.

* The coordinators of the different levels of education.

Some functions

* Study the current curriculum in order to promote its continuous improvement.


* To organize the syllabus

* To review the PEI.

4.4.4 Manual of conviviality

4.4.4.1 Presentation

The educational community of the Escuela Normal Superior Maria Auxiliadora has as a

main objective to improve the quality of education and training hat provides to the students.

Besides, the educational institution also concerns with high human commitment and strong sense

of leadership so that students can be capable of facing the challenges of an increasingly

competent and globalized world. Therefore, the manual of conviviality presents a specific

guidance to follow, which is yearly adjusted according to the needs and contributions that the

school presents.

Through the manual of conviviality, it is meant the mission, vision and philosophy, which

seeks to clearly density the education system and meets the proposed goals from Christian

spirituality in compliance with the rules and policies. In addition, the manual presents the duties,

rights, responsibilities and roles that each member of the institution must accomplish.

When the school manual of conviviality is properly followed, one appropriates a

responsible and serious Salesian commitment with the institution.

4.4.4.2 Objectives of the manual of conviviality

* To strengthen the educational community participation, processes generating, self-management

and construction of personal identity.


* To promote educational community growth (managers, staff and services, educators, students,

fathers and mothers).

* To know the rights, duties and penalties that have to followed in order to in an environment of

justice, solidarity and respect as potential agents of integral growth.

4.4.4.3 Mission

The Escuela Normal Superior Maria Auxiliadora intends to establish a new educational

system based on intellectual education, community leadership, self-management, scientific,

pedagogical and technological innovation. As a result, the institution can be relevant to the

milieu, in which it interacts, being an agent of social transformation based on the Salesian style

at the same time.

4.4.4.4 Vision

The Escuela Normal Superior Maria Auxiliadora is projected by 2016as an educational

institution committed to the training of teachers with high human and educational, scientific

quality. Besides, students must be able to face the challenges of contemporary society since they

can count on a solid series of Salesian and personal values. Therefore, the school has always

been engaged in the regional and national social and human growth.

4.4.4.5 Student’s profile

Students, teachers and teacher trainee are committed to the educational profile that is

formed in the institution. The Escuela Normal Superior Maria Auxiliadora has into account its

mission "formadora de formadoras", which purpose is to take advantage of the human potential

in order to educate competitive men and women. In this way, they can be recognized by higher


levels of intelligence, capability of innovation and promising development. It is indeed what the

country needs. That is to say, people who can have a deep human and critical sense and ready to

face regional, national and international problems.

Both, the high Normal School student, who starts since primary school, and the teacher,

do construct a personality that goes in a positive, peaceful and hopeful way according to the new

demands of conviviality and those distinctive attitudes of Salesian spirituality.

4.4.4.6 Sanctions

* Temporary withdrawal of the establishment for one, two and up to eight days.

* Act of misbehavior or academic fault, during the period in which it is made.

* Change educational institutions recommendation for not having taken the Salesian Philosophy.

* Cancellation of the registration at any time of the year.

* Any of the previous corrective sanctions can be directly or simultaneously applied without

strictly following the procedure, depending on the severity of the fault.

* The quota of the institution: Although education is a fundamental right and every student

should be able to stay connected with the institution until the completion of her studies, it does

not mean that the institution has to maintain her. If the student consistently and repeatedly

ignores the agreed disciplinary guidelines in the manual of conviviality since it brings some

negative consequences such as dereliction of duty and abuse of the students’ rights. As a result, it

represents detrimental points to the educational community and does not allow the school to

achieve in its own purposes.


4.5 Academic Schedule of the Institution

Table 20Academic Schedule of the Institution.

MONTH

DAYS

ACTIVITY

MARCH

1 Encuentro de los padres de

familia con la orientadora y

elección de representantes al

consejo de padres.

2 Encuentro de educadores y

viacrucis 10 grado.

5-6 Campaña gobierno escolar

Convivencia grados 10 y 11

7 Escuela abierta encuentro de

padres de familia con los

educadores del área 6.30 – 8.00

a.m

8 Información como votar

Día de la mujer ( estudiantes de

13 hacen su orientación de la

pedagogía

9 Viacrucis 8º

Día de la mujer

12 Convivencia 7º

Campaña gobierno escolar

Recreo animado

13 Convivencia 6º

Recreo animado

15 Connivencia 10º

F oro de las personeras

16 Día de la democracia

21 Izada de bandera posesión del

gobierno escolar

22 Reunión Consejo académico

23 Eucaristía 6º

27 Encuentro de educadores.

28 Buenos días recordar lo de la

semana Santa.

30 Viacrucis 7º

Recordatorio de la semana Santa

APRIL

2-6 Semana Santa

10-17 Evaluaciones de periodo

18-20 Tiempo de análisis, las

estudiantes conocen los


resultados.

23-30 Comisión de evaluaciones.

29 Día del buen pastor.

MAY

JUNE

1 Alborada

2 Proceso de calificaciones

Izada de bandera res área de

ingles 10º

3 Proceso de calificaciones

4 Cierre del Proceso de

calificaciones

Cierre de plataforma 12:00 de la

noche.

6 Domingo Savio

8 Inician práctica estudiantes de

formación complementaria

9 Entrega de informes a padres de

familia

14 Madre Mazza

15-24 Novena MA

17

Día del reciclaje

27 Día de la Madre y

Pentecostés

7 Escuela abierta.

9-30 Receso de estudiantes.

12 Termina Primer semestre ciclo

complementario

Semana institucional

13 Proceso de calificaciones ciclo

complementario



complementario

Semana Institucional

Día internacional del medio

ambiente (5)

Día de la descontaminación (12)


complementario


Sagrado Corazón


4.6 Schedules and Lists of Students

4.6.1 Schedules

The next tables show the general schedules of both 9a and 9b courses. As stated before, it

was arranged that the teacher trainee would attend the English classes in the morning. In each the

chart, it can be seen that students just have 2-hour English class during the week. It is on Friday.

Besides, it can be noticed that Friday is such a different day because every class just lasts forty-

five (45) minutes so that students can leave the school at 12:15 instead of at 13:00.

4.6.1.1 9b grade

Table 219b general schedule

Horas Lunes Pedago 10

Miércoles Jueves Horas Viernes

6:55 Educadoras en el Salón. 6:45 Educadoras en

el salón.

1 7:00

7:55

ACOM

ERE EDU MATEMATI

CAS 1

6:45

7:35

EDU

2 7:55

8:50

MATEM

ATICAS

ERE

EV MATEMATI

CAS 2

7:35

8:25

ESPAÑOL

3 8:50

9:45

MATEM

ATICAS

SOCIALE

S

SOCIALES ESPAÑOL

3

8:25

9:15

ESPAÑOL

9:45

10:15 D E S C A N S O 4

9:15

10:05 INGLES

4 10:15

11:10

INVEST SOCIALE

S

SOCIALES ESPAÑOL

10:05

10:35 D E S C A N S O

5

11:10

12:05

TECNO NATURA

LES

NATURALE

S

HNA

MARGA 5

10:35

11:25

INGLES

6 12:05

1:00

TECNO NATURA

LES

NATURALE

S

ETICA 6

11:25

12:15

MUSICA


4.6.1.29a grade

Table 22 9a general schedule

4.6.2 Lists of students

It was necessary to include in this project the number and names of the students who

belong to 9a and 9b. As it is showed in the next tables, both, 9a and 9b courses can be considered

such big ones because of the number of students that each one has. The former has 39 students

and the latter is composed by 41 students.

4.6.2.1. 9a grade students

Table 23List of 9a students

CODE STUDENT

1 ACEBEDO BALTRAN DANA MARCELA

2 ARBOLEDA MEDINA DANIELA

Horas Lunes Martes Miércoles Jueves Horas Viernes

6:55 Educadores/as en el Salón. 6:45 Educadores/as en

el salón.

1 7:00

7:55

ACOM SOCIALE

S

EV HMA.

MARGA 1

6:45

7:35

INGLES

2 7:55

8:50

ESPAÑO

L

SOCIALE

S

ESPAÑOL ETICA 2

7:35

8:25

INGLES

3 8:50

9:45

ESPAÑO

L

MUSICA ERE MATEMATI

CAS

3

8:25

9:15

MATEMATICAS

9:45

10:15

D E S C A N S O 4

9:15

10:05 MATEMATICAS

4 10:15

11:10

NATURA

LES

ESPAÑOL

ERE MATEMATI

CAS

10:05

10:35 D E S C A N S O

5 11:10

12:05

NATURA

LES

TECNO SOCIALES NATURALE

S 5

10:35

11:25

EDU

6 12:05

1:00

INVESTI

GA

TECNO SOCIALES NATURALE

S 6

11:25

12:15

EDU


3 AREBALO GARCIA ALEJANDRA MICHELLE

4 BALBIN CHITAVA LEIDY DANIELA

5 BAUTISTA RANGEL NATHALIA ESTEFANIA

6 BOTELLO BUENDIA OLGA TATIANA

7 BUITRAGO PRADA ANDRYS YARELLYS

8 CAÑIZARES SANCHEZ MARIA JOSE

9 CASTAÑEDA MORENO MARGIE SUGEY

10 CHACIN MORA MARTHA ALEJANDRA

11 CONTRARAS GARCIA LAURA DAYANA

12 CUADROS ARENAS JESSICA PAOLA

13 ESPINOSA MARTINEZ MARLY DANIELA

14 GALVIS CAMPEROS OLGA MICHELLE

15 HERNANDEZ PINO PAOLA ANDREA

16 MACHECA VASQUEZ LUDY VALENTINA

17 MEDINA AVELLANDA WENDY YANETH

18 MURILLO LEAL ANGELICA MARIA

19 OCHOA VERNAL JUANA VALENTINA

20 OROZCO MARQUEZ YENIFFER DANYELLA

21 OSORIO LOZASA ANDREA CAROLINA

22 PABON DELGADO MARIA CAMILA

23 PEÑA CONTRERAS DIANA CAROLINA

24 PEREZ TORREZ YASMIN ANDREINA

25 PINTO LUNA MONICA DANIELA

26 PITA RIVEROS ANGELICA BEATRIZ

27 PADRO CASTRO MARIA GUADALUPE

28 RESTREPO GALVIS MAFFER JULEISSE

29 RIVERA GALVAN JESSICA ANDREINA


30 ROSAS DIAZ ANGELA DANIELA

31 SANCHEZ BUITRAGO LEIDI YOANA

32 SANDOVAL MEDINA ANDREA FERNANDA BELEN

33 SANTOS MALDONADO PAOLA ANDREA

34 SANTOYA CRISTANCHO MARIA CAMILA

35 TARAZONA SANABRIA KAREN ANDREA

36 VACA PABON MARIA DANIELA

37 VARGAS DONADO ADRIANA JULIETH

38 VASQUEZ PUERTO MARLYN JOHHANA

39 VILLAMIZAR JAIMES DAYANNA PATRICIA

4.6.2.2. 9b grade students

Table 24List of 9b students

CODE STUDENT

1 ANAYA CARDENAS ANGIE MILDRED

2 ANGARITA PEREZ LISBETH DAYANA

3 AREBALO MANTILLA ANGIE GABRIELA

4 ARIAS SALAZAR MARLLYN LIZETH

5 BARRETO CORREA MYRIAM JULIETH

6 BECERRA FOSSI EILEEN DIANE

7 CARDONA MORENO DANNA LORIETH

8 CONTRERAS RANGEL DIANA MARCELA

9 DURAN RINCON HILLARY MICHELLE

10 ESTUPIÑAN CONTRERAS KARLA MICHELLE

11 FIGEROA LEON LAURA ESTEFANIA

12 GARCIA GARCIA ANGIE MARIEL


13 GUZMAN PACHECO MARIA ALEJANDRA

14 HERNANDEZ SALAMANCA DARLYNE DAJANA

15 MALPICA CONTRERAS LIZETH STEFFANY

16 MARQUEZ RAMIREZ BRENDA ESTEFANIA

17 MENDEZ BERMIDEZ KARLA GIODRANNA

18 MENESES PEÑA LUZ DANNY

19 MOGOLLON PRADA KAREN ANDREA

20 MORALES NIÑO ANDREA YULIETH

21 NIÑO PEREZ LIYEI CAMILA

22 OMAÑA NIÑO MONICA MARIA

23 ORTEGA VEGA MARLLY ALEJANDRA

24 ORTIZ DELGADO LICETH NATHALIA

25 PALLARES JAIMES LIBETH JHOANNA

26 PATIÑO CONTRETAS ANA KARINA

27 PEINADO CARDENAS MARIA FERNANDA

28 PINEDA HERNANDEZ ANGIE DAYANNA

29 PRADO ORTIZ KAREN DINALUZ

30 RENGIFO ORTIZ DANIELA ALEXANDRA

31 RIVERA VERA LINA MARCELA

32 RODRIGUEZ GARCIA SHEYLA SALOMÉ

33 RODRIGUEZ GONZALEZ MONICA LSBETH

34 SAAB MEZA ANA MARIA

35 SANOVAL ARDILA ANGIE ALEXANDRA

36 SEPULVEDA CAOBOS MAYRA ALEJANDRA

37 SOLANO VARGAS LISEET ADRIANA

38 VACA PABON MARIA FERNANDA

39 VELASQUEZ GALVIS PAOLA ANDREA


40 VELOZA MALDONADO MARIA GABRIELA

41 YAÑEZ VILLAMIZAR MARIA CAMILA


4.7 Class observations

Some points that were taken into account when observing each group were: Teacher’s

pedagogic activities and attitudes, students’ English level and behavior, context and way the

English class was organized. In both observations, the date when it was released made can be

seen.

It is relevant to state that these are non-participant observations. Although, the teacher

trainee had the opportunity to exchange some words with the students as soon as the class had

finished.

4.7.1 Class observation of the 9a course

This course is composed by thirty nine (39) students. They all are women since it is a

female school. The observation took place in their ordinary classroom on March 30th. The

English class lasts two hours from 6:45 to 8:25 am.

Basically, the class was divided into two (2) phases:

The first one was Explanation of the topic. The theme taught was “Time prepositions”,

such as from, for, until, to and since. During this first part, the teacher did not write more than

four words on the board because she handed one (1) photocopied piece of paper, on which

students found several examples and usages of those terms in English. The teacher concentrated

on reading all the examples and gave some others in English. It lasted twenty (20) minutes.

The second one was Participation. During this lapse of time, students had to speak. As all

the information was written in English, students had to translate it all into Spanish. Therefore,

whenever any student was able to do that, she just put her hand up and said it aloud. When not


knowing the meaning of a word, students tended to ask the teacher or even the observers about it.

Afterwards, students were demanded to explain the usage of the time prepositions that were

being studied in the class. Moreover, if possible, they had the opportunity to give some other

examples created by them. It is important to say that there was no written exercise; all they did

was related to oral participation.

Teacher’s observation: Due to the material the teacher brought, it can be stated that the

development of the class was prepared. Since the very beginning, the teacher tried to make an

effort to always speak in the target language. Although, she made some mistakes, students did

not appear to have noticed that. During the explanation, she read quickly the printed guide and

did not employ so much time to focus on any particular preposition time. Therefore, she was

asked about some doubts the students found. Nevertheless, she answered them all. It was also

noticed that the educator did help students to pronounce correctly several words that were not

familiar to them.

Students’ observation: At the beginning of the class, they seemed not to understand the

topic. In the same way, some of them just wanted to chat with their classmates. When hearing the

explanation, they tended to look some terms up. That is to say, translation of some specific

words was necessary to understand the topic. As soon as they understood their meanings, they

felt interested in participating in the class. Firstly, they said translations into Spanish aloud and

later they gave some examples. Not only did they participate but also it appeared that most of

them managed to understand the subject matter. At the end of the class, students were demanded

to keep and stick the guide in their notebooks by the teacher. Finally, two (2) students told the

observers that never before had they spoken the way they did in the English class, which leads

them to consider that they were a positive influence on the manner the English class is taught.


4.7.2 Class observation of the 9b course

The 9b course is composed by forty one (41) students, which makes it be the largest one

among the Four (4) ninth (9th

) grade courses. This observation took place in their normal

classroom on March 30th. This class is planned to last two (2) hours, from 9:15to 11:25 am.

Because of the break, this class is divided into two separate hours. That is to say, one hour before

the school break and another one after it.

Despite the large number of students, they seem to understand well where each student

has to sit down, thus the desks location in the classroom is proper. Furthermore, it allows the

teacher to walk freely and see everyone.

During this English class, the educator took advantage of the division of the hours.

Therefore, during the first hour, the educator decided to explain a new topic and allow students

to participate. However, during the second one, time was not used the same way because it had

been arranged that they, students and teacher, would spend some time practicing singing a

Shakira’s song called “je l’aime à mourir”. It is relevant to mention that since the teacher

assistant is supposed to have a better French pronunciation, he was asked to help them to.

Before the break time, the teacher explained the topic “present perfect progressive”. The

educator brought three long pieces of paper, on which some key words and examples were

written, that were stuck on the board. The teacher used as a tool in order not to write so much.

Besides, several small pieces of paper were handed to each student. All in all, the class consisted

of explaining the topic by giving some examples the teacher created herself. Afterwards, students

had to create new sentences by getting together the isolated words each student had, then they

had to read it aloud and performance the main action the whole sentence was about.


Teacher’s observation: At no time did she seem to be insecure about what she was

explaining. After all, the teacher brought some material she did it herself. At the beginning of the

class, the educator started to give instructions in English. It was noticed that the teacher did not

mind correcting mistakes or repeating the information more than twice in case it had not been

understood. In the same way, the teacher usually demanded students to participate actively. As

reward, it was proposed by the teacher that an extra score would be given to those scholars who

took part in the class.

Students’ observation: Although, most of the class was taught in the target language, it

did appear that scholars quite understood the topic. It was not difficult to realize that due to their

emotive participation in the class. Whenever any student had a doubt, she asked the teacher or a

close partner about that. It also seemed that students did not get distracted so they succeed in

focusing on the class. When performing the action, all the students did appear to enjoy it, not

only the ones who were acting but also the rest of the class because they were smiling and

wanted to do it as well.

As soon as the class finished, some students said to the observer “This has been the best

English class the teacher has ever done”.


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Appendices

Appendix A. Photos

The teacher trainee and the Principal Sister of the institution


Normal English class

Two (2) students of the French course


9a Students


9b Students


Appendix B. Letter of presentation


Appendix C. Lesson plan

INSTITUTION Normal Superior Maria

Auxiliadora

DATE 30th

April- 3rd

May

SUBJECT English TIME 2 Hours

GRADE 9a, 9b PRINCIPAL

TEACHER

GOAL Learn how to describe people

and lifestyles.

TRAINER

TEACHER

David Rivera

METHODOLOG

Y

TIME

EXPECTE

D

ACTIVITIES

OPENING

20 Minutes

Short explanation of The present simple and present continuous. The

teacher focuses on the use of these tenses in real life. The teacher also

explains the difference between both present tenses. Students are

asked to create examples in negative, affirmative and interrogative

forms.

WARM UP

30 Minutes

Speaking activity: Do you have a healthy lifestyle? The students have

to check if they are healthy or not according to a health test proposed

by the teacher. Students ask each other a series of questions such as,

do you smoke? Students work in pairs. There are 10 questions. After

doing it, students are demanded to transform the questions from preset

simple tense to present continuous tense.

DEVELOPING

30 Minutes

Speaking activity: Students watch three videos, on which some

cultural shocks are showed. Students have to describe what they see

by using the present continuous and previous vocabulary that they

have learned. Moreover, After watching each video, the teacher

explains what each cultural shock is about and why.

ASSESSMENT

40 Minutes

Speaking activity. The teacher shows 7 images. These images are real

pictures that show real people doing real activities or labors practiced

in their native lands. Students describe what they see by using the

present continuous. Besides, the teacher also asks students some

questions about the images. For example: Where are they? What is

this girl doing? Finally, after analyzing every picture, the teacher says

its name.

Finally, the teacher asks students what’s your favorite picture? And

why?

MATERIALS

Markers

Notebook

Computer

Speakers

Videos

Pictures

Printed guide


Appendix D. Teacher research journal

Course: 9A

Date: March 14th

, 2012

From the beginning, the students did show to feel interested in the class. For example, while the

teacher was explaining some reasons why the English language is spoken in more than 52

countries, several students asked some questions about it. In fact, one of them said aloud “what

an interesting topic, I didn’t know it all”. They also stated that little can they speak in English

but they would like to learn to. Due to the number of questions asked by the students, some

issues that were not planned were discussed, such as “la langue Créole”.

During the explanation of the most common questions and answers in order to introduce oneself

and have the very first English conversation, students actively participated and pronounced them

until they felt satisfied with their pronunciation. Most of them did not feel embarrassed or afraid

of speaking and pronouncing again and again. When doing the oral exercise, they often

demanded the teacher if they were doing it well, thus it can be seen as a positive attitude since

they did not want to make any mistake.

After watching all the videos, some students seemed to be a little confused because they had not

done such an activity. However, it was noticed that several students were capable of

understanding some pieces information given by the foreigners. Some students also claimed that

they could not completely watch the videos since they were showed on a personal computer.

Nevertheless, the sound system worked correctly.


Appendix E. Likert Scale

Likert scale

Muy en

desacuerdo

En

desacuerdo

Indecisa

De

acuerdo

Muy de

acuerdo

El profesor habitualmente

motiva a los estudiantes a

hablar y participar en la clase

de inglés.

Me gusta hablar en Ingles

durante la clase porque me

siento motivada a expresarme

en una lengua diferente y

comunicarme con diferentes

personas.

El profesor utiliza distintos

materiales y ayudas, tales como

imágenes, videos, guías, para

hacer que la clase de Ingles sea

más didáctica.

El profesor propone temas y

actividades con los cuales me

ayuda a descubrir nuevas

culturas y nuevas personas

alrededor del mundo.

Puedo hablar y participar en la

clase de ingles con libertad ya

que no tengo miedo a

equivocarme ni a ser burlada en

caso de cometer algún error.

El profesor muestra un buen

dominio de la lengua inglesa y

de los temas que enseña.

Me siento interesada en

aprender ingles porque puedo

crecer tanto intelectualmente

como culturalmente.

Pienso que aprender una lengua

extranjera es aprender una

nueva cultura.

La gran mayoría de actividades

propuesta en la clase de ingles

son basadas en el desarrollo de

la competencia comunicativa.

El profesor se esfuerza por

explicar como utilizar los temas

vistos en la vida real.


Appendix F. Questionnaire

QUESTIONNAIRE

Responda a las siguientes preguntas. Si tiene alguna duda, pregúntele al profesor.

Origen:

Genero:

Edad:

Grado:

1. ¿En cual(es) de las actividades que el Profesor ha propuesto durante el curso de Ingles me he

sentido más motivada? ¿Por qué?

______________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

2. ¿Crees que has mejorado tu nivel y tu capacidad para expresarte oralmente en Ingles? ¿Por

qué?

______________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

3. ¿Crees que gracias a las clases de ingles has descubierto temas y/o cosas nuevas que te han

parecido interesantes? Si la respuesta es SÍ, mencione cuales.

______________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

4. ¿Por qué es importante estudiar una lengua extranjera? ¿Se ha hablado este tema en la clase de

Ingles?

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________

5. ¿Piensas que entender la diversidad cultural y el respeto hacia otras culturas es importante

cuando se desea comunicarse con personas extranjeras? ¿Han sido estos temas tocados más de

una vez en la clase de inglés?

SI ( ) NO ( )


6. Si tuvieras la oportunidad de viajar a un país extranjero cuyo idioma oficial es el Inglés ¿Crees

que lo aprendido en el curso te ayudaría a desenvolverte en la sociedad y con las demás

personas? __________________________________________________________

7. ¿Qué opinión personal te dejan las clases de ingles dedicadas al desarrollo de la habilidad

oral?

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

8. ¿Qué es cultura para ti? ¿Esta esta área relacionada con las lenguas extranjeras? Sí la

Explique por favor porque lo cree

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

9. De los distintos materiales usados para hacer mas interactiva la clase, cual te parece que fue el

mas útil, ¿Porque?

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________


Appendix G. Printed guide for the French class

Bienvenues à « Club Français »

Avant tout, on doit apprendre de vocabulaire en Français si on veut commencer à parler. Dessous, vous

trouverez certains mots liés aux membres de la famille et aux objets de la salle de classe.

Membres de la famille Personnes et Objets dans la salle de classe

L’ami/l’amie

Madame/mesdames

Le père

La mère

Le frère

La sœur

Le grand-père

La grand-mère

L’oncle

Le garçon

Le cousin/la cousine

L’enfant

Monsieur/messieurs

Mademoiselle/mesdemoiselles

Le fils

La fille

La maman

Le papa

Le petit-fils

La petite-fille

La tante

Le bébé

Le neveu/la nièce

Le/la professeur

L’étudiant(e)

La table

La salle de classe

L’école

Le tableau(x)

Le pupitre/le bureau(x)

Le crayon

Le stylo

Le livre

Le cahier

Le marqueur

La fenêtre

Le dossier

Le sac à dos

Le sac à main

La règle

Le taille-crayon

Le crayon de

couleur

Le téléviseur

L’ordinateur

portable

Bonjour, je m’appelle Elisabetta Grisdo. Je suis Italienne mais j’habite à

Pékin. J’ai 26 ans. J’ai une fille, elle s’appelle Claudia. Elle a 3 ans et elle

habite à Rome avec son père. Je ne suis pas mariée je suis divorcée. Je suis

Journaliste et étudiante. Ici, à Pékin, j’habite avec mon frère, Paul. Il a 45

ans, il est divorcé aussi mais il n’a pas d’enfants. J’étudie la langue

chinoise. Je parle 4 langues, Italien, Français, Anglais et Japonais. J’aime

regarder la télévision et J’écoute la musique rock. Je ne fume pas.

Salut, je m’appelle Jacques. J’ai 22 ans. Je suis étudiant à l’université de

Montréal. J’étudie Anthropologie, mais je travaille aussi les week-ends. Je suis

Canadien, j’habite à Montréal mais je visite souvent la ville de Québec parce

j’ai beaucoup d’amis là bas. J’habite dans une maison avec ma petite-amie, elle

s’appelle Andrea. Elle n’est pas Canadienne, elle est Mexicaine. Elle a 25 ans.

Nous avons trois chiens. Je parle Français et Anglais mais j’appends

l’Espagnol mais je ne le parle pas bien. Mon numéro de téléphone est 596-

45101 et mon adresse est 458 rue La belle ville. J’aime aller au cinéma avec ma petite-amie. Je déteste les

personnes racistes et les programmes de télévision violents.


Appendix H. Printed material for the English class

PIER

CAFÉ Main course

Chicken salad

Tuna and egg salad

Fish and chips

Hamburger and chips

Pizza

Desserts Chocolate cake

Apple pie

Ice-cream

Fruit salad

Drinks Coffee

Tea

Mineral water

Orange juice

Lemonade

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