Tutoring Sessions to Foster

Literacy and Communication

through Historical Articles
ANDRÉS MOSQUERA
TESOL COLOMBIA III
GOING BEYOND THEORY: REJUVENATING
LITERACIES, CULTURE AND LANGUAGE PEDAGOGY
May 18, 2019
 BEFORE THE TALK

• DO YOU LIKE HISTORY?

• HAVE YOU EVER TAUGHT HISTORY IN ENGLISH? HOW?

SHARE SOME OF YOU EXPERIENCES WITH THE ATTENDEES

NEXT TO YOU.
 OUTLINE
• CONTEXT • DATA ANALYSIS METHOD
• GOAL OF THE STUDY • PROJECT INSTANCES
• MOTIVATION FOR THE • FINDINGS
STUDY • CONCLUSIONS
• THEORETICAL • CONTRIBUTIONS OF THIS
FRAMEWORK STUDY
• PEDAGOGICAL TOOLS • REFERENCES
• DATA COLLECTION
METHOD
 WHO AM I?
Andrés Mosquera is a teacher-researcher who
holds a B.A. in Philology and Languages: English
from Universidad Nacional de Colombia. He is a
member of PROFILE research group and
ASOCOPI. His research interests are sociocultural
studies, ICT tools and didactics. Currently he is
working at Smart Language Academy in Bogotá.
 CONTEXT
• PEAMA (Special Admission and Academic
Transferring Program at Universidad
Nacional de Colombia)
Criteria:
• To live in one the PEAMA regions
(ORINOQUÍA, CARIBE, TUMACO)
• To take the UNAL admission exam
• One to three semesters
Math, English, literacy, language
programming, drawing
• Students have to come back to his
PEAMA region to work on his graduation
project, as a contribution to the region.
Andean Regions: Bogotá, Medellín, Manizales or
Palmira.
• San José del Guaviaré Sub Branch – PEAMA
ORINOQUÍA
• English Level II (A1+ and A2 CEFR level course)
• First and second semester students (10 students)
 GOAL OF THE STUDY

• Its main goal was to improve literacy, reading,

writing and speaking skills by reading,
comprehending, summarizing and presenting
authentic history magazines’ articles summaries in
English through tutoring.
 MOTIVATION FOR THE STUDY

• The motivation for this study was to identify how

CLIL methodology could be adapted in
individualized tutoring to improve communicative
skills as there is a lack of relevant literature.
 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
CLIL
“CLIL is an acronym for Content and Language Integrated Learning. It is an
approach to teaching the content of curricular subjects through the medium of a
non-native language. In a CLIL course, learners gain knowledge and
understanding of the curricular subject while simultaneously learning and
using the target language”.
“History teachers in CLIL programmes therefore have to know the academic
language that learners need in order to communicate their knowledge of
historical events, their ideas about chronology, and their descriptions of the
features of a particular period of time. Learners also need to be able to discuss
historical arguments and justify their opinions. In order to achieve competence in
communicating ideas about history, teachers should help learners notice key
grammatical patterns as well as key content vocabulary.”
(University of Cambridge (n.d.)
 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
TUTORING SESSIONS

Tutoring fosters proficiency in foreign language as it

generates closer companionship between the student and
her tutor. Thus, the tutor creates the appropriate conditions
to mentor and guide her student to obtain the essential
knowledge about the topic in question.
(Nieto, Cortés, & Cárdenas, 2013)
PEDAGOGICAL TOOLS
HISTORY MAGAZINES

BBC HISTORY – JULY 2017

PEDAGOGICAL TOOLS
HISTORY MAGAZINES

BBC HISTORY – JANUARY 2018

PEDAGOGICAL TOOLS
HISTORY MAGAZINES

BBC HISTORY - SEPTEMBER 2013

PEDAGOGICAL TOOLS
HISTORY MAGAZINES

BBC HISTORY – SEPTERMBER 2017

PEDAGOGICAL TOOLS
HISTORY MAGAZINES

HISTORY REVEALED – SEPTEMBER 2017

PEDAGOGICAL TOOLS
HISTORY MAGAZINES

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY –

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
PEDAGOGICAL TOOLS
HISTORY MAGAZINES

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY –

JANUARY/FEBRUARY - 2018
PEDAGOGICAL TOOLS
HISTORY MAGAZINES

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY – MAY/JUNE

2018
 PEDAGOGICAL TOOLS
GOOGE DRIVE

TO SHARE HISTORY MAGAZINES PDF FILES

 PEDAGOGICAL TOOLS
GOOGE DRIVE

TO CONTROL THE TUTTORING SESSIONS ATTENDANCE

 PEDAGOGICAL TOOLS
GOOGLE DRIVE

TO KEEP A RECORD OF THE ARTICLES CHOSEN BY THE STUDENTS

 DATA COLLECTION TOOLS
TEACHER´S LOG (CREATED IN SITU AND A
POSTERIORI)
 DATA COLLECTION TOOLS
CHECKLISTS

TO CONTROL TUTORING ATTENDANCE, ARTICLES DISTRIBUTION AND TASKS COMPLETION)

 DATA COLLECTION TOOLS
ARTICLES’ ORAL PRESENTATIONS

LAST NAME NAME PRESENTATION /50

Arias Montenegro Sebastian 35
Cadena Rodriguez Kevy Esneider 35
Diaz Triana Esteban 35
Masmela Alonso Juan Pablo 45
Moreno Londoño Sirley Nathalia 50
Perilla Perdomo Neila Sirley 40
Posada Garcia Luis Alberto 50
Rivas Lopez Sara Ximena 40
Suarez Rodriguez Randall David 30
Torres Villalobos Adrian Esneider 45
DATA COLLECTION TOOLS
ARTICLES’ SUMMARIES
DATA COLLECTION TOOLS
ARTICLES’ SUMMARIES
 DATA ANALYSIS METHOD
“Triangulation means using more than one method to collect
data on the same topic. This is a way of assuring the validity
of research through the use of a variety of methods to collect
data on the same topic, which involves different types of
samples as well as methods of data collection. However, the
purpose of triangulation is not necessarily to cross-validate
data but rather to capture different dimensions of the same
phenomenon.”
Kulkarni, P. (n.d.)
 PROJECT INSTANCES
• PROJECT LENGHT: 5 weeks (MAY 2018)
INSTANCE DESCRIPTION
MOMENT ONE (WEEK 1) FAMILIARIZATION WITH THE PROJECT, ARTICLES PRESENTATION AND
SELECTION OF THE ARTICLES

MOMENT TWO (WEEK 2,3,4) TUTORING SESSIONS – ARTICLE´S HISTORICAL CONTEXTUALIZATION,

LANGUAGE OBSTACLES (NAMELY GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY AND
PRONUNCIATION), READING COMPREHENION EXERCISES, READING
ALOUD EXERCISES, SUMMARIZING AND SINTETIZATION EXERCISES,
WRTTING EXERCISES

MOMENT THREE (WEEK 5) ARTICLES SUMMARIES HANDING IN AND ORAL PRESENTATIONS

(EVALUATION OF THE QUALITY OF THE SUMMARIES, EVALUATION OF
THE QUALITY OF THE PRESENTATIONS), CRITICAL THINKING ATTEMPT
(CRITICAL-THINKING-LED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ARTICLES
INFORMATION AND STUDENTS REALITIES)
 FINDINGS
At the very beginning some students struggled with the selection of he
articles.
A couple of examples…

Neila expressed that she was not sure which article to choose. So I
recommended her to choose one that appealed to her deep interests. As I had
noticed she was interested in the role of women in society, I suggested her to
choose the article A New Age for Roman Women, More Than Matrons by María
Isabel Ñúñez.
(Teacher´s log, May 4, 2018)
 FINDINGS

Some students felt frustrated as they simply did not find any
appealing topic to make a choice. This was the case of Sara. Thus,
in the tutoring session of today we skimmed the tables of content
of all the magazines. This was really successful because after some
skimming we found the article Call the Medieval Sex Doctor.

(Teacher´s log, May 4, 2018)

 FINDINGS

Esteban even did not know when an article started and

finished. So I had to indicate him the lenght of an article.

(Teacher´s log, May 4, 2018)

 FINDINGS

Sirley's article is simply perfect for her because she is quite

interested in physics and Einstein fascinates her.

(Teacher´s log, May 4)

 FINDINGS
One of the most challenging aspects of this two weeks is both the
contextualization and the amount of unknown vocabulary. Even for
me this is challenging because I have gaps in knowledge to
understand all the ideas in the text. In this sense, I have read all the
chosen articles twice and searched for background information of
the articles on internet. In this process I have learned plenty, and
eventually, the tutoring sessions have been shorter and more
effective.

(Teacher’s Log, May 18)

 FINDINGS
I have seen the students from stumbling at the very beginning to
manage their articles much better. I am concerned about their poor
capacity of synthesis even in Spanish. I am helping them finding
the key ideas and getting rid of the details in their writing. We have
been doing some reading aloud exercises to work on
pronunciation; they have been searching for unknown vocabulary
and contextual information in further detail.

(Teacher´s log, May 22)

 FINDINGS
ARTICLES’ SUMMARIES
 FINDINGS
ARTICLES’ SUMMARIES
 FINDINGS
ARTICLES’ SUMMARIES
 FINDINGS
ARTICLES’ SUMMARIES
 FINDINGS
ARTICLES’ SUMMARIES
 FINDINGS
ARTICLES’ ORAL PRESENTATIONS
LAST NAME NAME PRESENTATION /50
Arias Montenegro Sebastian 35
Cadena Rodriguez Kevy Esneider 35
Diaz Triana Esteban 35
Masmela Alonso Juan Pablo 45
Moreno Londoño Sirley Nathalia 50
Perilla Perdomo Neila Sirley 40
Posada Garcia Luis Alberto 50
Rivas Lopez Sara Ximena 40
Suarez Rodriguez Randall David 30
Torres Villalobos Adrian Esneider 45
 CONCLUSIONS
FINAL HISTORICAL TUTORING SPEAKING READING WRITING
COMMENTS KNOWLEDGE SESSIONS
What they They learned about history The students Some pronunciation Identification In some cases,
improved/learned content about worked on what improvements. of key and typing and formal
miscellaneous topics: they found Namely -ed suffix and peripheral presentation of
Roman society, Middle interesting. This some fluency when ideas. papers. Paragraph
ages´ sex, 20th century art, was a source of they manage the writing. (Limited)
recent history, British compromise. topic.
history, Ancient Egypt, Tutoring session
French Revolution. helped them to feel
more tranquil at
presentation.
What they need to Their Incipient and partial They need more Many students were Poor capacity They need to work
work on managing of the topic commitment in the not able to follow a of synthesis more on
information and long chain of and low paraphrasing;
vocabulary search consecutive thoughts critical besides, they still
assignments. reading and lack of basic
thinking level concepts at clause
and sentence level.
 CONCLUSIONS

(…) On the other hand, I am really glad with Sirley's performance. What
expected in this Project was reached by her. Her summary shows clarity,
concision, precision and synthetization that surpassed my expectations. In her
oral presentation, she was sensible of the topic, it was outstanding. She was
able to respond my questions almost with no hesitation; clearly taking into
consideration her language level.

(Teacher’s log, May 29)

 CONTRIBUTIONS OF THIS STUDY

The contribution of this study to the literacy

research is that the results derived from this
study may enhance research in the potential of
CLIL in individualized language instruction.
 REFERENCES
• Capp, B. (2018, January). Religious radicals launch an uprising. BBC History UK, 9.
• Clegg, B. (2017, September). Einstein the scandals and struggles on science’s greatest icons. History Revealed, 46, 59-64.
• Harvey, K. (2018, January). Call the medieval doctor…. BBC History UK, 57-60.
• Hughes, A. (2018, January). Master of War. BBC History UK, 74-75.
• Kulkarni, P. (n,d.). Triangulation. Retrieved on May 2, 2019 from
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_triangulation_of_data_in_qualitative_research_Is_it_a_method_of_validating_the_information_collec
ted_through_various_methods.
• Linton, M. (2013, September). Man of terror. BBC History UK, 44-48.
• National Geographic History. (2017, September-October). Luxor´s multiple mummy mystery. National Geographic History, 4-5.
• Nieto, M. C., Cortés, L., & Cárdenas, M. L. (2013). La tutoría académica en lenguas extranjeras: expectativas y realidades [Academic tutoring in
foreign languages: Expectations and facts]. Educación y Educadores, 16(3), 472-500.
• Núñez, M. (2018, May-June). A new age for Roman women: more than matrons. National Geographic History. 38-49.
• Sandbrook, D. (2017, September). The death of Diane. BBC History UK, 50-55.
• Saul, T. (2018, May-June). The genius of “Guernica”. National Geographic History, 10-13.
• Tyldesley, J. (2018, January). The mystery of Nefertiti. BBC History UK, 62-66.
• University of Cambridge. (n,d.). Teaching English through history – a CLIL approach.
IF YOU WANT TO CONTACT ME

• andresovic77@gmail.com
• oamosqueran@unal.edu.co
• o.mosquera@smart.edu.co
THANK YOU