UNIVERSIDAD DE TARAPACA

FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN Y HUMANIDADES

DEPARTAMENTO DE IDIOMAS EXTRANJEROS
PROGRAMA MAGISTER EN LA ENSEÑANZA DEL INGLES
Investigación – Acción
PHD Ramón Barrientos MA student: Liliana Lema
Larraguibel

Getting adult EFL learners to interact

with the teacher in the classroom

All teachers have faced in one moment or another that some

students in a class and, even sometimes most of them, look as if they
are present but totally disconnected from what is going on inside the
classroom. The teacher tries to change the pace of the lessons, present
new activities, look for material that might be appealing to the students’
interests but nothing seems to improve. “Whatever is done by a teacher
has a motivational, formative, influence on students. In other words, teacher
behaviour is a powerful ‘motivational tool'” (Dornyei, 2001: 120)

This situation can be very disappointing for both the teacher and
the students. On one hand you encounter a teacher that makes an effort
every class to drag their students’ attention and feeling hopeless at the
end while on the other hand you find that students feel they are not
learning and although recognize their attitude is not the best they are
not sure of what are the causes and how to avoid it.

I am used to work mainly with Elementary school students. They

are always very loud and you always find the way to win them over.
Sometimes as easily as to lure them with some candy or stickers but it is
a different story with adults. If they do not feel they can make a change
they probably won’t. My idea for this action research project is to detect
the reasons why these students sometimes seem unresponsive in the
classroom. These students are part of the Elementary level in Academia
de Inglés in Universidad de Tarapacá, Iquique.
UNIVERSIDAD DE TARAPACA
FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN Y HUMANIDADES
DEPARTAMENTO DE IDIOMAS EXTRANJEROS
PROGRAMA MAGISTER EN LA ENSEÑANZA DEL INGLES
Investigación – Acción
PHD Ramón Barrientos MA student: Liliana Lema
Larraguibel

Action Research Definition

Action research is concerned with trying to improving one specific

point in a teacher's technique in a particular classroom using empirical
measurement. Richards, Platt & Platt (1992) have defined it as:

Teacher-initiated classroom research which seeks to increase the

teacher's understanding of classroom teaching and learning and to bring
about improvements in classroom practices. Action research typically
involves small-scale investigate projects in the teacher's own
classrooms.

According to Nunan (1992) action research has three major

characteristics: It is carried out by practitioners (i.e., classroom
teachers), it is collaborative, and it is aimed at changing things. Burns
(1999) expands on these characteristics, maintaining that action
research exemplifies the following features.

Class Description

The group of students that is being observed is an Elementary

level class in the Academia de Inglés in Universidad de Tarapacá,
Iquique. This is not a compulsory course to take; therefore at the
beginning of the year there were about 18 students in total. For different
reasons half of the class quitted throughout the year. The class is
composed by two men and women of different ages, occupations and
backgrounds. Some of them are currently undergoing their last year in
their programmes such as: Psychology and Pre-school teacher. Some of
them work at the university as teachers or secretaries and another
student works outside the university, for example; as an airplane
mechanic in the air force.

The objective of this course is to prepare students to take the KET

(Knowledge English Test) at the end of the year. The programme is
intended to develop the four skills in the students through the use of
UNIVERSIDAD DE TARAPACA
FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN Y HUMANIDADES
DEPARTAMENTO DE IDIOMAS EXTRANJEROS
PROGRAMA MAGISTER EN LA ENSEÑANZA DEL INGLES
Investigación – Acción
PHD Ramón Barrientos MA student: Liliana Lema
Larraguibel

different resources. A placement test was taken at the beginning of the

year rating most of the students in a level known as beginner, which
does not exist in Iquique but only in Arica where the “Academia de
Inglés” head office has its place. Therefore, the level of the students was
very low at the beginning of the year. The class meets three times a
week (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) from 19:10 to 20:40.

Problem Identification

First of all, students do not show up to class regularly. For every

three lessons they usually miss one. If they do, they come late and
feeling sleepy and tired, always complaining about their work or studies
and how little time they have to come to class, study for the quizzes and
tests or deliver written homework on time.

I would like students to show more interest in improving;

understanding that coming to class and respecting the times and pace of
the course is almost compulsory. I want them to participate in class,
answering questions, paying attention to the listening activities and
working faster in the writing ones. I’d like them to feel more comfortable
using English and practicing it in front of their classmates.

Preliminary Investigation

As I said before I’ve been working with this group of people since
the beginning of the year. This course started exactly in April. But for the
second semester the number of students got reduced and since then
(August) and thinking about this project, I’ve become more aware of
their difficulties and flaws by observing them closer. I will describe a
class that in my opinion was very representative. This lesson took place
on September 06th. According to Allwright, K. M. Bailey (1991) classroom
research does not always have to concern itself to directly with theories
at all, whether to test them or to illuminate them. Instead classroom
UNIVERSIDAD DE TARAPACA
FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN Y HUMANIDADES
DEPARTAMENTO DE IDIOMAS EXTRANJEROS
PROGRAMA MAGISTER EN LA ENSEÑANZA DEL INGLES
Investigación – Acción
PHD Ramón Barrientos MA student: Liliana Lema
Larraguibel

research can be directed at trying to understand and deal with the

immediate practical problems facing teachers and learners.

At the beginning of the class (19:10) there were only two

students present. I started introducing the new unit by explaining what I
was wearing and asking them to describe their outfits. Ten minutes
later two other students showed up, followed by another student 5
minutes later. Finally two other students showed approximately at ten
to eight. We started developing two pages in the textbook, reading the
sentences aloud and asking them to volunteer for this. Once again
nobody volunteered and I had to call out their names to get them to
read or give the answers to the exercises. I observed this class from
beginning to end taking notes of the things called my attention the
most. I did this without telling them or letting them know so they
wouldn’t change the way they usually behave. I walked around the
classroom listening to their conversations and interactions in general.
Whenever I came closer to them and ask them to use English since I
know they are already prepared to use simple sentences as for example
“What does _________ mean?” they just preferred not asking for help and
remain doubtful. In the last 15 minutes of the class I remarked the
grammar and vocabulary points of the topics studied during the class. I
also asked them what accessories change according for example to
culture and weather.

T: Ok, so what was today’s topic?

Ss: Š(no one responds)

T: Can you tell me what the unit is about?

César: Clothes? (one student responds very quietly)

T: Yes! Excellent! So, Marcela can you make up a sentence about

clothes?

(Marcela is as often, going through her purse or paying attention to

something else)
UNIVERSIDAD DE TARAPACA
FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN Y HUMANIDADES
DEPARTAMENTO DE IDIOMAS EXTRANJEROS
PROGRAMA MAGISTER EN LA ENSEÑANZA DEL INGLES
Investigación – Acción
PHD Ramón Barrientos MA student: Liliana Lema
Larraguibel

Marcela: Š(no response)

T: Marcela?

M: Sorry, I don’t listen.

I asked some other questions but everybody seemed looking forward to

leaving home. So, at that point I just dismissed not before reminding
them to hand in the written homework and study for the coming
vocabulary quiz.

Hypothesis

I think the students do understand what I ask them but do not feel
motivated to use English in front of their peers. My hypothesis is that the
main problem here is lack of self confidence. Since they are adults, they
are more self conscious and worried about the mistakes they might
make and how their peers will see them. My idea is that if I get them to
understand that interaction is very important to improve their level of
English and that making mistakes is totally allowed they will break
through this barrier and make an effort to participate more in class.

Plan Intervention

Following the hypothesis, three steps will be taken to put this plan
into action:

First of all, the teacher will give them a handout about classroom
language to remind them what is the most common vocabulary used
inside the EFL classroom. Students will practice and role-play with their
classmates.

Secondly, the teacher will apply a survey in which the students will
say if they agree or not (and in what grade) to the statements described.
UNIVERSIDAD DE TARAPACA
FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN Y HUMANIDADES
DEPARTAMENTO DE IDIOMAS EXTRANJEROS
PROGRAMA MAGISTER EN LA ENSEÑANZA DEL INGLES
Investigación – Acción
PHD Ramón Barrientos MA student: Liliana Lema
Larraguibel

Then a focus group debate will be developed in order to know what are
our hopes and expectations on the course and how we can work
together to achieve them.

Finally, the teacher will interview three students in total: one

student from the group that study in the University, another from the
teachers who work there and the third from the ones who work outside
the University. The idea is to get insight of the three points of view.

Outcome

The outcome, reflection and conclusions will be developed

according to the application of the three steps described above.

Reference

Allwright, D., Bailey K. (1991) Focus on the language classroom.

Helgesen, M. & Brown, S. (1994) Active listening: Building skills for

understanding. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.

McKay, S. (2006) Researching Second Language Classrooms.

Nunan, D. (1992) Research methods in language learning. Cambridge,

UK: Cambridge University.

Richards, J. C., Platt, J., & Platt, H. (1992) Dictionary of language teaching
& applied linguistics (2nd ed.). Essex: Longman.

http://iteslj.org/Articles/Snell-Interaction.html