OUTDOOR WORKSHOPS TO ENHANCE ORAL SKILLS

IVN FORERO
LILIA MEDINA
DIANA SUESCN
CAROLINA VSQUEZ
Facultad de ciencias de la Educacin
UPTC
Abstract
This article describes advances in a study about the effect the didactic proposal Lets practice
English outside the classroom (LPEOC), centered in outside workshops based on students
interests had in oral skills development of sixth graders students with beginner level of
language proficiency at INEM School. In order to achieve this objective, an action research
was developed, and the data was gathered though observations, a survey and video recordings.
The analysis of partial results evidenced that the implementation of LPEOC had the
following effects: in terms of listening, students could understand instructions and messages
transmitted by the teacher as well as audiovisual aids. In terms of speaking, students could
express themselves in a free way because they were exposed to an environment without the
pressure that they felt inside the classroom related to grades and fears at time of speaking in
English, but they still made mistakes regarding accuracy, pronunciation and fluency.

Key words: Workshops, outdoor workshops, speaking skill, listening skills.

Resumen

Este estudio describe el efecto que la propuesta didctica Lets practice English outside the
classroom (LPEOC) tuvo en el desarrollo de las habilidades orales en estudiantes de sexto
grado con nivel bsico de ingls en el Colegio INEM Carlos Arturo Torres. La cual se bas en
talleres realizados fuera del aula de clase, teniendo en cuenta los intereses de los estudiantes.
Con el fin de alcanzar este objetivo, fue aplicada una investigacin accin. Los datos fueron
recogidos a travs de observaciones, una encuesta y grabaciones de video. El anlisis de los
resultados revel que la aplicacin de la propuesta didctica tuvo los siguientes efectos:

Carolina Vsquez, estudiante de Idiomas Modernos Espaol-Ingls. UPTC Caro9524@gmail.com.

respecto a la habilidad de escucha, los estudiantes pudieron entender las instrucciones y
mensajes expresados por los profesores as como tambin en las ayudas audiovisuales. En
relacin con la habilidad de habla, los estudiantes pudieron expresarse libremente ya que
estaban expuestos a un ambiente fuera del aula en la que no sentan la presin de notas ni el
miedo de hablar en ingls; sin embargo, ellos an cometan errores en trminos de
pronunciacin, fluidez y precisin en cuanto a la estructura de las oraciones.

Palabras clave: Talleres, talleres fuera del aula, habilidad de habla, habilidad de escucha.

INTRODUCTION

This research project was carried out at INEM Carlos Arturo Torres school in Tunja, Boyac
with sixth graders with a beginner level of proficiency. Its main objective was to describe the
effect a didactic proposal centered in outside classroom experiences has in oral skills
development of students with beginner level at INEM school. This project was framed under
the parameters of an action research. The idea was to create a meaningful and communicative
space during the recess where students could strength or reinforce their oral abilities while
talking about topics of their interest such as: music, culture, sports, movies, art, and literature.
The interest and decisions about this project were supported by an initial survey applied at the
beginning of this research proposal, which showed that students did not understand the
English instructions of the teacher and they had serious difficulties to express themselves in
English for asking and giving information.

Under the previous views this project can be useful for teachers, students and the
community. For teachers because they can use a different alternatives for teaching English
outside the classroom; for students due to they have an opportunity to reinforce their speaking
and listening skills and probably other abilities while having fun. For the community because
they can continue implementing and modifying the workshops in different scenarios and for
different , as stated in Standards, the use of English language offers the invaluable opportunity
for the social, cultural and cognitive students development (MEN, p. 8).
DIDACTIC PROPOSAL

Participants

The sample selected for this study was ten (10) sixth graders; five of them were men and five
women from INEM Carlos Arturo Torres school in Tunja. The average age was from eleven to
twelve years old. The students were selected according to the diagnosis we applied; they were
the most interested people in practicing the listening and speaking skill outside the classroom.
They had a beginner level of English language proficiency.

Procedure

The didactic proposal Lets practice English outside the classroom LPEOC which slogan is
Empower your soul to break down the wall! lasted four weeks. It was divided into six
workshops: music for our souls, step into fun, my favorite character: from the head to the feet,
feeling the wind, the sounds and the ground, a journey through my senses and puppets can
talk; but we only applied three of them because of the Colombian teachers strike. There were
two pre-established categories: speaking and listening skill, for each one we proposed certain
units of analysis for listening: conversational strategies and general understanding; and for
speaking skill: accuracy, pronunciation, vocabulary, fluency and content. The workshops of
this proposal were based on students interests and students level. Each one, was organized in
three main steps: Engaging step, exposing the topic and activating my knowledge: the former
encompasses a meaningful environment to get students interest and motivation in the topic;
exposing the topic which presents what the outdoor activity will be about, and most the times
this step is supported by images, videos, posters, objects and teachers modeling; activating my
knowledge, stimulate students to demonstrate what they learnt through the workshop already
practiced.

Along the implementation we noticed some achievements and limitations, regarding the
achievements we found that it is possible to practice English outside the classroom during the
recess because students were interested in developing the activities and it was evidenced
through the students active participation and attendance. Another accomplishment was that
not only the sample selected attended to the workshops but also some other students started
attending too. Also, it was an improvement in students oral production. In terms of
limitations, the time that we workshops required was not enough because of the students
punctuality and the length of the activities. Even the Colombian teachers strike affected the
development of the whole process.

Bearing in mind that this didactic proposal aimed to develop English listening and speaking
skills through outside oral experiences based on students interests such as music, sports,
movies and literature. The results evidenced that students took risks at the time of speaking
because the activities proposed involved their interests. Also, they felt curious for learning so
they asked questions related to the English language for solving doubts. Furthermore, students
were active participants not only outside but also inside the English classes because they were
willing to talk instead of developing grammar exercises. Even though students showed an
improvement in oral production, they had certain limitations in terms of accuracy,
pronunciation and fluency in their speech.

Along the process, as researchers and teachers we could explore different methodologies, such
as taking advantages of the outdoor and natural spaces provided by the school. Besides, the
proposal had an impact on how students perceive English language because they know the use
of English in a real context beyond what it is taught inside the classroom. In the same way,
this kind of activities made visible a different perspective of teaching and learning English
because the outdoor activities were not developed before in that school, so that students could
enjoy the fun side of a foreign language without feeling the pressure of the monotony that
exists inside the usual classroom environment.

Conclusions

We found three main effects along the implementation of the didactic proposal LPEOC in
sixth grader students at the INEM School. The first one was that the students were more
motivated and interested in the development of the English classes inside the classroom; they
were active participants at the time of speaking rather than grammar exercises. The second
effect of applying different workshops in outdoor scenarios was that students could interact
and cooperate among themselves; it means that they could make mistakes and correct them
without feeling neither pressure of grades or homework nor fears of disappointing themselves.
They could express their feelings in a free and spontaneous way and they were constantly
putting into practice their previous knowledge by developing activities based on their interests.
The third one was that students developed a better understanding of listening activities so most
of the times they could understand the message transmitted by teachers help and the
audiovisual aids.

Additionally, the time proposed for each one of the workshops was not enough; it means, that
some steps in the activities were too long for the quantity of the students, so most of the times
students could not finish the whole process. Moreover, not only the sample selected of the
project attended to the outdoor workshops during students recess, but also some others started
attending too. Another aspect that this didactic proposal achieved, was that students spent their
recess time for going to learn English while having fun instead of doing other activities.

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