Documents analysis

Students´ oral presentations and written analysis

The students’ documents comprised the final drafts they wrote about their own

life (auto- biographies) as well as their short oral presentation which allotted time was

only from two to three minutes long; as mentioned before it involved the recount genre,

biography, through the use of GB pedagogy seeking to know how this pedagogy

contributed to the development of the students oral production ability.

For that mentioned reason, it was decided to elaborate two basic rubrics based

on Allen (2009) in order to analyze the accomplishment of basic structure features from

a biography such as the name, date, place, family member’s information, academic

information, likes, and some special moment or event mentioned as criteria in the

students’ oral presentation.

Likewise, the analysis was made based on the writings of the four students’ focus

of this case study. Some linguistic features as categories for this purpose were taken

from the same students documents into a rubric in this manner, structure based on the

biography model; complete written sentences; use of verbs in past tense such as went,

was; family members´ vocabulary; use of I remember, when I was/ went, I like. Thereby,

the order followed in such analysis was made student by student, and it is showed in

this section in the same sequence, first the oral presentation and second students´

writings (Please, see annexes 13c. for complete transcripts and annexes 13f. for

rubrics).

Mn. S1.
 It was observed that in her oral presentation, this participant made use of her

name forgetting the birth date and place. However, she was making use of basic and

complete sentences such as “My dad lives in…” or “I live with my grandma, my mom

and my sisters” talking about the family members. Moreover, she mentioned her actual

occupation as well as some likes, and a complete and structured sentence as it was

“My second best moment was when my sister …was born in 2012” (annexes transcripts

13c.).

Consequently, into the classroom not always the activities or proposed tasks

must be perfect, it is also important to consider some situations such as the students

anxiety when facing specific activities, their mind state, their knowledge level, among

others during the class (Herrera, 2010).

Ja. S2.

In this oral presentation the lack of enough linguistic resources was evidenced,

the structure taken from the samples followed during the de- construction and joint

construction of the recount genre seemed need a higher assistance. However, the

construction of really basic sentences to express ideas were present, for instance “This

is the birthday of my dad” and “These are my brothers and my friends, and my sister”

showed the use of family members vocabulary as well as the practice of “this” and

“these” as starting point for building a sentence. In the same way, the possessive

pronoun “my” was higher utilized as oral linguistic resource for communicating avoiding

silence or not expression in the participant at that moment.

 As argued by Hyland (2007) “There are a wide variety of practices relevant to

and appropriate for particular times, places, participants, and purposes” (p. 150).

Concerning to this, the participant in this study was making use of those resources that

He was able to express, those that also had been explained during the whole process,

and perhaps had been already internalized by the student.

Le. S3.

Through this oral presentation the appropriate use of the recount genre

biography, based on its structure, was taken into account. There is a noticeable attempt

for using the past tense which is an important feature in this type of genres, for instance

“I was when I graduated. It was a very special…” and “I was swimming” or “I was in

Playa…” (See annexes 13 for full transcripts); although the construction of the

sentences requires more practice, undeniable it may be contemplated as a valuable

starting point in beginner levels of the language knowledge.

As beforehand indicated learning involves a complex process in which the

learner stores information that results relevant for him or her in long term memory

(Burns, 2012). Therefore, it demands to focus the attention in the students´ language

development of strategies and different skills for achieving fluency in speaking.

Ke. S4.

The lexical use given in this presentation showed grammatical structures that

might be perceived through the whole speech of the participant. The basic elements

considered as fundamentals for this particular case were accomplished in the measure
that the oral biographical recount respected the order, the name, birth date, place,

family members vocabulary and pertinent information about them, academic information

as well as one interesting moment and participant´ likes, in a organize way that made it

easy to understand for the rest of the class.

Hence, it might be reflecting the effectiveness of the scaffold provided and

achieved during the de-construction and joint construction through which the students

gradually become independent, having the necessary skills to manage their learning

into a particular situation (Bruner, 1983). In addition, “exposure to realistic

communication situations is crucial if communicative competence is to lead to

communicative confidence” (Canale & Swain, 1980, p.28) considering this quotation,

perhaps the learners felt the enough confidence which lowed their anxiety levels and

organize their ideas having control on their communicative competences because they

were working on a topic related to their own life experiences.

Students´ writings auto-biographies

Mn. S1.

the genre analysis used in this study, might be conceptualized as the response

that served the students with the linguistic resources they needed in order to express

their ideas and to structure the recount genre appropriately; thus, the instruction given

from the GB pedagogy involves content and context with implicit and explicit

explanations that help to understand how texts work to communicate (Christie & Martin,

1997). From the Systemic Functional Linguistics the genre is represented as a staged

goal oriented to social process (Martin & Rothery, 2003).

 Concerning to the writing process the structured based on the de-constructed

model was followed while the use of complete sentences presented some weaknesses,

for instance, in the sentence “my time in the school was been successful” the student

was considering the use of vocabulary shared and explained during the de-construction

of their own texts; in this other utterance “the person that I admire most is my aunt”

revealed how the students from ten grade being participants of this study showed a lack

of enough linguistic resources in order to build sentences following an accurate

grammar structure (Please, see complete transcripts in annexes 13).

Nonetheless, some basic utterances were appropriately constructed such as

“When I was a kid I went to the park with my family”. In general, the use of basic verbs

in past tense was practiced as well as the family members’ vocabulary. Additionally, the

use of I remember, when I was or when I went, in order to make reference to a given

situation on the past were practiced in the participants´ drafts.

Ja. S2.

According to the writing process in this auto-biography, there is a visible lack of

linguistic resources because it did not follow a structured based on the de-constructed

model. Taking into account the beginner knowledge level of the target language, it may

be said that it was evidenced an advance in the construction of basic sentences such as

“I was born in Barranquilla” and “When I finish my average academic studing” (as it was

written by the student) where the participant was making important attempts for building

meaning (annexes 13). In fact, through this draft it was observable the use of family
members´ vocabulary as well as the important effort for using the past tense as

linguistic resources for building meaning.

Le. S3.

Through this auto- biography, the participant showed the structured followed in

accordance with the modelled texts during the cycle of de-construction and joint

construction revealing an important insight of independence for follow it along with the

use of I like, I enjoy, and I prefer, to express preferences. For instance “I like to read…I

like music […] I enjoy the Christmas […] I prefer, one my favorite…” If well these

sentences need grammar emphasis and practice, it would be a good point to argue that

there is a good advance in her attempts for writing complete sentences building

meaning, even taking into account the notorious weakness in the use of past tense.

As beforehand stated the students can write at the time they are increasing their

cultural values and verbal expression; thereby, the grammar control in their written texts

might be improved and evidenced through the process (Christie & Derewianka, 2008).

Evidently, the participant was practicing her writing for expressing her ideas while she

was gaining learning engagement and self-confidence.

Ke. S4.

Positive outcomes were reflected in this written were the biography structure

followed an appropriate order, sentences were clearly making use of past tense and

expressions that allowed understand a reference to past situations or events as well as

likes. In this written draft, the weakness was reflected in the use of family members’
vocabulary, may be because of the real familiar context of the participant, she did not

use any other vocabulary.

In agreement with Hyland (2007) to provide the writer with the suitable language

forms contributes to make a conscious use of the language choices for writing

instruction. Consequently, each one of the actions from the learner, who notoriously

obtained a positive influence from the GB pedagogy making use of the de-construction,

joint construction and independent construction during the class, required the teacher

assistance and peers collaboration.

Undeniable, other grammar aspects must be studied and practiced little by little

and stage by stage according to the language level, the context and background of the

students. However students learning do not need to be forced because each one of

them learn following their interest and own peace of learning. in fact, what it might be

considered relevant is the encouragement into their learning process because as it was

evidenced through this study, when the student felt and saw that the teacher was the

first person interested for their learning, assisting them, then they almost automatically

responded in a positive class development contributing for building knowledge.

To sum up, general results found from students´ documents were:

The use of some basic utterances as well as expressions showing likes,

possessive pronouns; use of I remember to express a situation in the past, when I was/

went, were practiced by the participants along their oral presentations and writing drafts.

Hence, those students´ practices were observed and analyzed as important efforts

made for using those linguistic resources whereby they were engaged and gaining self-
confidence through the use of the de-construction, joint construction and independent

construction taken as a pedagogical resource from the GB pedagogy.

The genre analysis made to the learners’ texts showed that the SFL played an

important role in the writing process into the classroom because it served as a resource

for developing communicative competences while the students felt appropriated of the

basic structure of the recount genre which permitted them to make connections with real

situations and own life experiences, in this particular case the auto- biography.